Pátzcuaro, Discos, and motos

This was an eventful weekend for me. On Saturday my host family took me to Quiroga a town where a lot of artesanias come to sell their goods lots of wood working things like guitars, games, frames and lots more. It was so interesting and there was so much to see wandering through all of the shops. Then we went on to Pátzcuaro, a city about an hour or so from Morelia. It has a huge lake which I got to see a view of and then we headed to el centro (downtown) for lunch. Lunch was nothing spectacular most of it I had eaten before but it was good. El postre (desert) was fabulous. In Pátzcuaro and Quiroga they have nieve (snow, literally translated) instead of helado (ice cream). Nieve de pasta or de hielo, pasta gives it a different texture I´m not quite sure how to explain it but it´s awesome, so good. Muy rico. Nieve de hielo is like a really rich snow cone/sherbert. You can get a pretty good sized cup for only a 1.50 with three flavors. I had coco, limon and chocolate. (you guys can guess those flavors I´m not going to translate everything! :) ).
After lunch my host brother and I wandered around to see the churches near by and the artesanias who had booths set up in a near by park. I bought some fun goodies to bring home with me. Then we headed back to meet my host mom and dad and we watched the viejitos. They are young men who dress up in traditional clothes and masks of old men and dance on wooden slabs with wooden shoes making a clacking sound as they dance. It was very cool. I forgot my camera cord so I will have to put the pictures on next time. Then we headed home so we could rest and I could get ready to go out. One of the teachers at school had a party at a local bar/discotec for her birthday and they invited me. It was a good time a mix of a dj and live music. The soccer coach, Jose Manuel tried to teach me some traditional dance steps and I failed miserably but it was fun :). And I learned that the bars here close at 4am not 2 like at home so needless to say I was a little tired yesterday. But my host family told me I could sleep in and we went to a later mass 1pm, and then came home for a big lunch with the family to celebrate my host dad´s birthday. The food was pretty good and I love being together with the whole family they are so much fun. They all get along great and they have such a good time together. My host sister´s husband bought a moto (a four wheeler) and he was letting us take rides on it. Frida, the granddaughter would ride with her dad and everytime they circled the block she´d come back and say "falta dos" or "otra" meaning she wanted to keep going. Then I got my turn I rode with my host brother and he took me to see where my salsa dancing lessons are going to be starting Wednesday which I´m really excited for. The moto was really fun, you can ride four wheelers in the street here so we were right next to the traffic and we went all over the place. The only downfall was the speed bumps :). Today was a pretty good day of teaching, but I have lots to do with the students this week we have to finish the book by next week Friday because the students start their exams the 4th of March and they have to have the books finished to study from. Hopefully I can get them to stay focused long enough to finish what we need to. I can´t wait to see their history projects finished next week. It sounds like they are getting really creative with them.
Any way I think I´ve rambled on long enough with this post. Here´s wishing some of the Mexico sun in your direction! ¡Hasta luego!