Mexico can handle a new H1N1 outbreak

This is also an article from THE NEWS, the English-language paper in Mexico City. for the entire article, go to http://www.thenews.com.mx/home/tnhome.asp?cve_home=2071
Mexico can handle a new H1N1 outbreak

The World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday that it believes Mexico will be capable of controlling a second wave of the H1N1 human influenza virus. They also commended the Mexican authorities and the population's ability to handle the surge of the pandemic.

To date, the national Secretariat of Health (SSA) has confirmed 50,234 cases of the H1N1 virus in Mexico, 328 of which have been fatal.

The H1N1 human influenza virus has caused the deaths of at least 5,000 people and has infected over 414,945 people worldwide.


Unfortunately, this likely means no surprise swine-flu vacation. Shucks.

Yummy Mexican Food!

This is an excerpt from an article on NPR about some delicious mexican food. for some amazing recipes, and the full article, check out http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120062592



Day of the Dead is one of Mexico's most meaningful celebrations, and Michoacan is a spectacular place to experience it, partly because of its beauty and cuisine, but also because of the richness and depth of its centuries-old traditions.

The Purepechas, also called Tarascos, who remain the predominant indigenous group of the region, believed since pre-Hispanic times that the dead return once a year to visit those they miss. Centuries of intermarriage between Purepecha, Spanish and Catholic Church traditions and ingredients resulted in an eclectic mix of rituals and exquisite foods.

Former political analyst Patricia Jinich left her job in a research policy institute to pursue her passion: Mexican food. She is the official chef of the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C., where she heads Mexican Table, a culinary program with workshops, cooking demonstrations and tasting dinners. She lives in Maryland with her husband and three young sons. Read more at her blog, Pati's Mexican Table. http://www.patismexicantable.com/

Christian Character Day

The Christian school where I currently teach is very very conservative. It is an interdenominational international school, so the administration has decided to take the most conservative route possible. So, we don't have halloween in case any of our families are opposed to it. But, to placate the kids need for costume parade, we have 'Christian Character Day' and the kids can dress up as any Bible character or historical Christian figure. We have an assembly where the kids stand in front of the school and we guess who they're supposed to be; the kids get prizes for their creativity.

Last year, I chose my costume to keep my boss guessing about my political persuasion!


This year, I almost didn't go to the assembly. I didn't have a very good costume, and I had lots of things to do. But thankfully I stopped by, bc two of our students had really great costumes!

Sara, in 8th grade, wore a scarf much like to my co-teacher's favorite accessory. Her hints: "I am the youngest sibling, I like texas, I drink a lot of coffee, and I pray every 50 minutes!" We all knew she was Ms. Claire!!!

Then, Soo, one of our very talented 11th graders, stood in the front of the assembly, saying nothing, but twirling her hair. I started laughing, but most of the students were still confused. So Soo helped them out: "I yell. A LOT! and I fight with my husband sometimes, but I always lose." And then she let out a HUGE laugh! By then, everyone was rolling with laughter.



I don't know if i'm a 'Christian Character' but if Soo's impression is acurate, I guess I am a bit of a character!

This is the "callejon de besos" or the "alley of kisses". This picture was actually taken the last time we were in Guanajuato; the alley was too crowded for a picture this last weekend.
I think I wrote the story before, but just in case, here it is again:

Guanajuato was an old mining town. Spanish men owned silver mines and local natives worked the mines like slaves. One of the Spanish owners had a daughter, who was very beautiful. She fell in love with a miner (or a miner's son, depending on the version of the legend). When her dad found out, he was furious - it would be like a southern debutante falling for a cotton-picking illiterate black slave. He moved her from their beautiful house near the mine to a small apartment in the city of Guanajuato nearby. When the poor miner discovered this, he was crestfallen. But, he quickly discovered where she was staying and managed to rent the apartment directly across the alley from her place. Their balconies practically touched, the alley was so narrow.


The rich spanish daughter had chaperones and she was not allowed to leave the apartment unescorted. But, she could be alone on the second-story balcony. So, the rich girl and the poor boy secretly met on their balconies and exchanged kisses there.
Well, her dad finally heard a rumor that they were meeting, and went to confront his daughter. But she refused to leave the apartment and refused to stop seeing her lover. In a fit of rage, he murdered his daughter in her room. Her poor miner boyfriend saw the entire thing from his balcony and was so distraught that he killed himself.
So today, the city of Guanajuato has a lot of visitors who come to kiss in the alley, which is supposed to be romantic or good luck, depending on your point of view.

Mummy Museum

One of the popular tourist attractions in Guanajuato is the Mummy Museum. One of the churches in that town buried people in catacombs rather than in graves, mainly due to the hilly-ness of the area. After about a century, they were running out of catacomb space. So, they started removing people from older catacombs, mainly people who had no family in the area to complain. They quickly noticed that the bodies were not as decomposed as they had thought they would be after so much time. Basically, the unique method of burial had mummified the bodies. The church started a back-door tourism industry charging visitors to see the creepy mummies. Over time, the town just embraced the unique mummies and created an official museum to preserve the mummified bodies and allow people to see them.

These are 3 examples of mummies. The woman on the left has her hands in a weird position, which leads us to believe that she was thought to be dead when she was buried but not really dead. She fought to escape once she woke up buried in a catacomb, but eventually died from lack of oxygen.


This woman was 8 months pregnant when she died, and at that time there was no way to safely remove the baby, so the baby died too.

Mexican Money

It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but we are standing in front of the University of Guanajuato holding the Mexican $1,000 peso bill, which has a picture of the University of Guanajuato on it.



This is from last spring when we went to Puebla. We're holding the Mexican $500 peso bill, which has a picture of the Catedral in Pueba on it.

Shopping in Leon

We visited Guanajuato and Zacatecas in March, but spent most of our time in Zacatecas and only a few hours in Guanajuato. Guanajuato has a very colonial ambiance, and we wanted to go back and spend some more time there.
Also, we had heard that the small town of Leon had great leather shopping.
So, this last weekend, we took 3 teachers from my school - all North Americans - and drove up to Guanajuato and Leon.
We had a wonderful time.

After a little bit of teasing, we decided that Dave must be either a very patient or very lucky man to spend hours shopping with 4 women.