Hermanos 2

Two sets of brothers were absent due to a basketball game when I took these photos.More to come.

Los Hermanos 1

Friday

It's starting to set in. We are leaving soon. Today is the last day in school. Our kids are presenting in Senior High English classes today. Lots of pictures are getting taken and a ton of new facebook friends are soon to be added :)

Friday,

Friday,

Thursday más

Even more and Ricardo smiling! Also, Our incredible Imelda!

more downtown

More photos from downtown and then to a local "Ice Cream" shop. It's shaved ice with flavors. You can choose combinations from over 50 flavors. This one is Pineapple. None of the flavors have any artificial ingredients

Historic Downtown Thursday

After Tonalá, we stopped by the school to pick up our brothers/sisters and headed downtown. The cathedral and other building date back to the origins of Guadalajara. We ate dinner at a local restaurant and went in to Mexico's largest open air market-4 stories of everything from food to tools, clothes to dvds.

Tonalá

Henry and more photos from Tonalá

Thursday 2

The awesome vases $4500 and up!

Thursday

Thursday was a long and mostly happy day. It started with having to say goodbye to Valeria who had to go back to MN due to her standby flight status. The rest of us then took a bus ride to the neighboring town of Tonalá. The town specializes in crafts of ceramic, glass, paper maché and more. The craftsman there are well known and the products get sent all over Mexico and the world. Imelda got us a tour guide who was very knowledgeable and awesome. We went into a glass blowing factory and saw up close the men at work. Then we went to a ceramics factory and got to see the various different ways to make the multitude of ceramic products. Henry was even able to give a try on the "potter's wheel". We found out the the masters on the wheels earn 200 pesos per 10 hour day ($20). From there we went to a famous family's factory (clay pottery). The plates alone cost $400. The picture I have here of a fairly large vase? (I'm not sure what they are called in English) takes 15 days to make. It sell for around $4500.

Wednesday

Today, the kids did their powerpoint presentations in the middle school. They were in the classes all day. I had the opportunity to once again play soccer with the Chivas Campeonísimos at Club Chivas, the professional team's practice facility. Chivas has 11 championships in their team history, more than any other team. The group that I am able to play with are responsible for 8 of the 11. I am the only Gringo ever to have this opportunity so I am very honored. The kids after school did various things and I will post more photos later. One of the photos here is a city shot from the top of a building I was in.

Tuesday

Today, we spent the first part of the day in school. The GDL students were in the middle of Semester tests so we just relaxed. In the afternoon we went to Tlaquepaque. We first ate at a very nice restaurant where we ate very authentic Mexican food. As you can see, a mariachi was also there and they played two songs for us. We then walked around the town a little and the kids did some shopping. We got home pretty early and we finally got a good night sleep :)