Hola familia and amigos, I sent my friends shopping and I am going to try once again to load some photos from Cuernavaca. Yesterday we traveled 70 miles south of Cuernavaca to Buena Vista de Cuella, a pueblo of about 15,000 people. (much smaller than Cuernavaca) They are know for their leather goods and dairy products. We visited a leather shop where the hermano showed us how he prepared and worked the leather. He gave us a chance to try our hand at his craft. The ride through the country was beautiful, green rolling hills, farmland and small communities. Today we visited an elementary school. The one word that would describe it was chaos. In fairness, they are preparing for their end of the year program on Friday but in the classes we visited very few ... read more

Hello Friends - I am about to leave on another adventure - this time to Cuernavaca, about 1 1/2 hours south of Mexico City. I will be gone from June 21st - July 5th. I will be living with a family and participating in a Spanish immersion program. I also will be visiting many of the historic sites around Mexico City. I went to edit the list of people that received this last year from China and realized that I have no idea who many of the e-mails attached to this blog belong to. :) Soooo - if you do NOT want to receive any more blogs from me please just unsubscribe. Hope you all have a great summer and plan at least one adventure for yourselves. Adios & hasta luego - Ms. E. ... read more

Dear FriendsandFamily, The blog site has had some problems but Ithink that we are up and running again. I have lost my previous blogs and have no idea where I left off, so will try to update you the best I can. I am writing this from Dazu which is part of the largest city in China, Chongqing, with a population of 30 million!!! Tomorrow we are going to see the famous Buddah statue that is in a prone position. Yesterday we saw the Giant Buddah that is outside of Chengdu. It was truly incredible to see this statue that was carved out of a mountain in 713 AD to protect the boats that had to navigate where 3 large rivers converge. On August 7th I left Shanghai by myself and flew to Chengdu where I ... read more

This is our last morning in Beijing. I am taking a little down time and I am going to attempt to load some photos. So far this has mostly been an exercise in frustration as there is only one computer in the entire hotel and it is very slow!!! I have a lunch date with Dr. Major in a little dumpling shop close to the hotel and then we are to catch a train to Datong where we will visit some ancient Buddhist caves predating the Tang Dynasty. I am looking forward to the train ride through the countryside. I have a pretty good feeling what it means to be in a city along with 14 million other human beings and I am definitely ready for some breathing space. Yesterday the air quality was so ... read more

Greetings from the Great City of Beijing - Site of the 2008 World Olympics, We have been in Beijing for 3 days now. It is extremely hard to find time to post blogs but will try to get this out before I have to meet the group for dinner. Beijing is a city of 14 million people. Being in the dry northern part of China, Beijing shares many of the same challenges of Southern NEvada such as a major water shortage (tap water is not potable), traffic congestion (40,000 people were killed in auto accidents the first 4 months of the year in Beijing), air pollution ( a bad day in LA is a good day in Beijing), and illegal immigration (estimated to have 2-3 million in the city today). The problems might be similar ... read more