EAC Concert and Paquime

This is Jane and I at a concert at the Academia. Eastern Arizona College’s Orchestra and Jazz band came and preformed foe us on 1-20-2006. They were pretty good. There are a good number of the academy’s students go there after graduation.

The next day we went with the EAC students to visit Paquime some Indian ruins in Casa Grandes and near by city…Paquime actually means Casas Grandes…Big Houses…Because the ruins used to be about five stories high…you would be able to tell that now but they are still pretty cool.
We took this after we had been to Paquime while the EAC students set up for their concert this sign is on the road to Paquime sort of in the middle of Casas Grandes.

The ruins were cool I wish we could have gone in more but I understand that they need to be protected from tourist like us. Check out this plant below. It had all kinds of names carved in it…we didn’t add our name to it.

Horseback Riding

We went horse back riding the second Saturday (1-14-2006) we were here with Lee Robinson for any of you who are adventurous he takes people on tours of the Indian ruins around here it is about a week round trip on horse back and sleeping under the stars…I might have to come back some time to do it…right now I don’t think the school will give us 6 days off. I am not an expert rider luckily for me the horse was although when he really was trotting well and fast I could hardly stay on…needless to say I slowed the horse down quite a bit…I could tell he hated being last most of the trip.

Here is Brother Robinson with a Machete chopping of a branch in our way…he is pretty skilled with that thing, it didn’t take him long at all.

Update on Mexico

It has been awhile since I posted anything, I thought I would try and catch everyone up…Well I have been here for almost a month and my camera is now out of batteries so I will be getting some more soon, but for now between the three of our cameras we have gotten great photos of some of the fun things we have done here. I will put dates and captions to the photos.

This is a picture of the house We are staying at it actually is pretty big inside it has six bedrooms three bathrooms, a living room, dining room and kitchen. The “hermana” (“sister”-our host) is an amazing woman she feeds us breakfast, lunch and dinner and feeds lunch to about 30 students lunch every school day. She takes good care of us. Way to good…I think I am growing but not in the direction I would like.


















This is hermana Viscaino preparing just about the only vegetable we eat during the week…Yes..........Chiles.















Our first Saturday (1-7-2006) we took a walk around the mountains around Colonial Juarez.
Here is Jane and I, Colonial Juarez is behind us.


These beautiful bright colored fruit on the cactus look smooth and harmless and just beg to be picked and touch but trust me they aren’t so harmless…after picking one each Jane and I found little hair like needles in our fingers we never did find the hairs on the fruit. (1-7-2006)















This bull was laying down, quietly resting, until we started to walk by it…all I could think of was Patrick’s story about getting chased down by a bull…But I wasn’t trying to tip it and the three of us kept our distance and we got by just fine.
(1-7-2006)














On we also found the Colonial Juarez airport for small planes of course…but it looked pretty quiet when we were there, I am not sure how often it is used the only thing we found on the runway was the picture below…(1-7-2006)





…Gross!!!!!



















Here is Jane and I coming close to the end of our two hour hike.

I will try and get another post up soon...it is already after 8:00pm and we kind of have a 7:00 curfew by our Hosts...I just might be in trouble...but I am always in trouble...;).

And Here We Have Idaho...!

I drove to Idaho over the three day weekend to visit my parents. I had a great time. It also helped to fill what promised to be an otherwise uneventful weekend spent pining for Julie! During the three and a half hour drive I was struck by the scenic beauty of Malad Summit...I decided that a picture was in order. I proceeded to grab my camera and take the picture, all the while attempting to maintain some sort of control over my truck, which was speeding along at approximately eighty-five miles per hour. It probably wasn't the brightest thing I've ever done, but I managed to get a cool picture out of the deal, and I did eventually make it to my parent's house safely!

The second picture requires some explanation. My father is a rabid Notre Dame football fan (we love him anyway), while I am loyal to the Lord's football team. We have an ongoing wager regarding BYU and Notre Dame football games. If BYU wins, we both have to wear BYU neckties to church on fast Sundays. If Notre Dame wins, however, we both have to wear Notre Dame neckties. Last season BYU won, and my father faithfully wore his BYU necktie. During the most recent season, however, BYU was ignominiously defeated, neccessitating my monthly embarrassment as I am forced to wear a necktie honoring my arch nemesis! My mom took this picture of my dad and I wearing our neckties. I was trying to get rid of mine by eating it before the picture was taken; it was a fruitless endeavor, however. I just hope that BYU will get its act together and start winning some games. If they don't, the next few years promise to be torture!

The final picture is a good Idaho snowstorm, although you can't really tell. When I took the picture, the snow was coming down pretty hard. It's a bit annoying actually...we didn't have any snow on Christmas, the one day when I actually prefer snowfall. It was pretty, however. - PAT

Colonial Juarez Temple

Here is a picture of the Coloinal Juarez temple is was one of the first small temples built and is where president Hinckley received the revelation for the small temples, I was going to go tonight but it looks like I will have to go Friday or Saturday instead. I got distracted posting pictures and still haven't written a pre-test for the junior biology class to take tomorrow. I also have to get some pictures from Ann from our walk last Saturday, where I realized that I am really in the middle of no where. I will post those another day.

Connecting at the Bell Tower or Not

The house that we are living at doesn't have internet and the school locks up pretty early about a half an hour after school is out all of the buildings are locked. So we head to the bell tower and try to link to a wireless connection in the area. There are a few families with wireless here. The only problem is that it gets cold and dark about a hour and a half after school and it is not a guaranteed connection and even if you get a connection you never know how long it will last.
I finally complained a bit to the principle so now he lets us in his office to work, which is nice because it is warmer and we can stay past dark. I will have to take a picture of us at the table in his office one of these days, this is about the most exciting thing we do right now, I have never spent so much time at the computer. Here are some pictures of the girls I am working with.

This is Ann she is my room roommate. I really don't know what I would do with out her and her computer expertise. She also was very prepared for our time here and has just about anything we need and forgot, except resources books for lesson planning which we all forgot. Ann is doing her Student teaching at the elementary School here, she is working with a fourth-fifth rate class and with the second graders learning Spanish.






This is Jane, she is also doing her student teaching at the High School, but in history. They have even put her in a beginning piano class since she has taught piano in the past. We always have tons to talk about after school as we try to figure out how to do everything they ask us to do. Maybe that will slow down next week when we have a more finalized schedule. We are suppose to meet with the academic director on Friday to finalize what classes we will want to take over and what classes they absolutely need us to do.

Academia Juarez

On the left is the Bell Tower which I am sitting now, we can catch wireless internet here. Below is the school which I am at. It has both Jr. High and High school students, I won't meet the students until monday.

My First Sunset in Mexico

I took this while in the van on my way to colonial Juarez. I will have to write later because it is getting dark and I am out side catching someones wireless contection, but I thought I would add something to the blog so that it will be pat and julie's blog not just Pat's blog:). I will write more later.

Congratulations, It's A Fish!

Today I spent eight hours in my professor's research lab, photographing 142 small fish. I thought that I would post this picture to illustrate the type of work that I perform...it's very exciting, let me tell you! I take great personal and professional satisfaction in knowing that literally thousands of this species of fish are dead because a professor had a question. I also relish the thought that I have the privilege of photographing all of them ;) It does give me something to do while Julie is in Mexico, however. For those that might be interested, the ruler is in centimeters (the fish is about 2.5 inches long, for those that are not familiar with the metric system)...this fish is a female (the males are much smaller) and is one of the larger fish that I have had the pleasure of working with. - PAT

"Little" Sister!

Here is a picture of Julie and her sister Laura. It shows how little Julie really is (actually, Laura cheated...she's standing on her tippy toes) ;) - PAT

"Geocache"ing

Julie and I were able to visit Phil, Erin, and Olivia in Brentwood, CA, on December 30, before they returned to New York. Phil received a GPS gadget for Christmas and was eager to try it out. Since I'm a geek as well, Phil, Erin, Olivia, Julie and I piled into the car and went out on a "Geocache" expedition (this is where individuals with a GPS hide small items and a logbook for other individuals to find...sort of like a high tech version of a treasure hunt). I took the picture of Olivia, capturing her sheer excitement at watching her father and uncle wander around aimlessly, kicking over trash along the side of the road! Julie took the picture of Phil and I after we had climbed to the top of a hill, searching for the ever elusive...golf course (Phil had accidentally entered the incorrect coordinates and we were a bit off course, although we were not aware of this at the time)! We never did find the Geocache that we were looking for, but it passed the time and we had a lot of fun (Olivia did too...she managed to get ahold of my camera and took approximately twenty pictures of her knee). - PAT

TGI Friday's

Here are some pictures from Julie and my time together in Sacramento. I arrived at the airport after suffering an injury prior to my departure (I twisted my ankle when my bag decided to follow me down some stairs without my permission...I also had a cold which I immediately attempted to give to Julie by kissing her when I first saw her)! Julie got lost at the airport (my love for my fiance prevents me from expounding any further upon this story. It suffices me to say that the next gift I purchase for my love will be a GPS system). After picking me up at the airport, Julie and I went to lunch with Julie's friend Arieta at TGI Friday's. Our waitress was kind enough to take this picture of us (I think she wanted a big tip). We had a great time chatting and catching up. - PAT

Hmmmmm....

Here is a photo of Pat wondering how in the world he managed to get someone as amazing as Julie to fall in love with him! - PAT