Ai, Dios Mio

It is late on a wednesday night. The three staff leading the trip are in the office scrambling our brains on account of news from the US state department. Yesterday, a warning was issued for american travelers in Mexico, with a list of potentially dangerous cities. Three of them were ones we were planning to pass through on our way to Cuatro Cienegas. Apparently drug cartels have been having shootouts with the Mexican police on highways in the areas we were wanting to visit.

Executive decision: we're not going to mexico.

So here we are, red-eyed and mildly frantic, having hashed our brains and tickety tapped all over the internet exploring now options for the six days we have to rewrite. We leave in five days.

We all stepped up to the plate, though. After a couple of hours of mildly manic brainstorming, we have a new schedule and even some good contacts for a completely revised field trip. We'll break the bad news to the kids in the morning. They will be bummed.

I am too. I was really looking forward to spending time in Cuatro Cienegas. My first field trip at AMS went there, and i have been looking forward to continuing to build on the relationship we have with that community. And the ecology of the region is fascinating. On the upside, we don't have to worry about immigration one way or the other.

Our new plan: Refugio, Padre Island, Austin, then New Orleans and back on schedule.

Jason S.

#1 Tex-mex blogger

I have always wanted to go to Mexico, among many other places, because why not just see what there is to see while you can, when you can. I am probably the most exited about meeting the people in Mexico, and testing my Spanish to the max!
I have never learned this much of a language in such little time,while simultaneously learning about culture,planning the trip, and keeping the group out of trouble.
For me homesickness is going to be a big problem,but I am hoping that I will have so much fun that I will be “distracted” or just forget ,for 18 days. Paula and both of the Jasons (stail and fresh) are going to be great trip leaders,and I cant wait to get on the road ....again.

Sincerely, Indigo

noah's blog entry #1

So far I am really excited about the trip. We are learning Spanish I have a hard time learning it becuse I can not pronounce most Spanish words. i have never bean To a forin land so going to Mexico will be a first for me. I cant wait! I am also looking forward to going to Cuatrocienegas and doing service work there.

Noah Davis

Tex-Mex trip

This Tex-Mex trip should be a blast. We have a great grope of staff and students. I am really exited to go to Mexico because I have never been. The thing am most exited about is the border patrol. I really want to see how people are treated on the border. So far we have studied immigration, border issues and we've looked at biological phenomenons in cuatrocienegas. I am really looking forward to the trip and I expect it to be quite enjoyable.
Sam O'Donnell

TEX-MEX BLOGGER 65

In the Tex-Mex class this year we have studied issues related to the Mexican North American Border,the U.S.A.'s involvement in these matters, the unique ecosystems in Mexico that are found nowhere else on planet Earth, and of course learning to speak spanish. Among other creatures that have presented themselves in our path there is one that sticks out in all the rest. Stromatilites. Stromatilites are colonies of bacteria that have been present since the beginning of time. These colonies produce waste in the form of grains of sand, Over millions of years this sand accumulates into rocks. The rocks are now quite sizable boulders which present themselves in many of the pools scattered around Cuatro Cienegas.

The class so far has been a fun learning experience that will countinue to exbound our minds in the art of learning. Jason S. Jason M. and Paula are all very good professor's. Overall this will be an exciting trip and I can't wait to start.

Walter Doyle

I don't care: something

I am really looking forward to our eighteen day field trip. I have been learning a lot more Spanish than I already knew. We have also learned a lot more about the border issues between Mexico and the United States. In the class we have been watching a movie called “El Norte” it was a very good movie. I am personally excited to go to Cuatro Cienagas for four days. Our group is going to do a lot of service work there. We are going to make more posts on are trip later. Thank you for reading our blog entries.

John

Tessa's Blogger Thang

Wow, I've learned more about Mexico and Spanish than i thought i would. Aside from the planning of the trip, calling and arranging places to stay and things to do, we've been seriously concentrating on our spanish. I guess we figure that if we were going to be in and around Mexico for almost a week, that we wont want to be seen as "los gringos" who don't speak any spanish.

So far, once we really got into the language, we have had a spanish quiz every day of class. Recently we took a spanish test including : how to say things at a restaurant, how to give directions, different verbs, and how to tell time, etc.

When spanish is not going on, the schedule is. We like to talk about what we will be doing and when and where we will be when. We have already arranged almost everywhere that we will be staying. Also, we've worked out all of the details on what service work we will be doing.

A fairly large part of most of the eighteen-day field trips is recruitment. We have planned to stop by at least two schools to present all about our trip, our class and our school. Hopefully this will get some kids interested in coming to AMS.

All in all, this trip is pretty obviously going to be amazing, and definitely an experience of a lifetime.

Tessa

Planning the field trip.

We are currently in the planning stages of our trip to Mexico, assimilating the spanish language into our daily lives and trying to fill our brains with as much useful information as possible. Three staff and seven students are planning to be on the road for eighteen days. Our final desination is Cuatro Cienegas, Mexico, an ecological rarity and national biological reserve. We will be helping the research station there, and hopefully exposing ourselves to some of the many unique species and geological elements in the region.

It is particularly interesting to think about traveling into sunny Mexico as I look out the window and see blasting winds and swirls of snow. At school, we have been layered in record snowfalls over the past two months, and all of campus is in what seems a perpetual white. Even some of the winter-lovers are wearying of ice precipitation right now. Personally, I still love it.

Our adventure crawls closer at a less than crawling pace. The class in preparations for the trip has been moving well, although two snow days in as many weeks have put us off schedule. So far, we have studied the history of the war between the United States and Mexico, begun learning about the ecology of Cuatro Cienegas, practiced our spanish almost daily, and read the book Highwire Moon. We have been trying to watch El Norte in conjunction with the book, as they share themes, but those snow days have thrown us off. So far, we still have at least one sitting left. The good news, though, is that the students seem excited to finish the film. They want to know what happens next.

It is time for morning sing.

Jason

We are going to Mexico!