Thirteen students along with Professor Linda Craft are spending winter quad perfecting their language skills at Baden-Powell Institute in this lovely capital city of the state of Michoacan.  Students include Kim Gorsuch, Chris Hoskins, Jessica Kejr, Karen McAuley, Dorothy Ann Solie, Conor Johnson, Kersta Johnson, Jenny Swanson, Sena Swindle, Lindsey VanWyk, Carly Thomforde, Laura Rodriguez, and Erica Palmer.  Students spend three hours every day in classes and attend conversation club and salsa dance classes in the evening.  They are volunteering in the afternoons at an orphanage nearby where they help the children with their homework and play games.  North Park students raised funds in the fall that will be used to purchase a new blackboard and more books for the orphanage.  Weekends are spent on excursion; so far, we have visited Mexico City, Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende and the nearby towns on Patzcuaro and Santa Clara del Cobre.  Future trips are planned to the beach at Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo and to the Monarch butterfly refuge in eastern Michoacan.

     Several comments from participants:  Conor Johnson:  "This is the perfect place to study Spanish!"   Karen McAuley:  "Snow or sun?  Which do you prefer?...Morelia has everything--small cafes, art, sports, music, dancing and discos, tacos, friends and alternative families!"  Jenny Swanson:  "If you like museums and ex-convents, this is the place for you!  ¡Qué padre!"

 The group in front of the "Casa Azul"--Frida Kahlo`s house in Coyoacan, DF.