Thursday, July 29th

First of all, the students in last week's accident are fine, nothing was more serious than a dislocated shoulder.

With only a week & ½ left in  Mérida, I plan to spend the last couple weekends getting to the places in town that I haven't made time for yet. A few more souvenirs to pick up yet as well (most will come from the markets, too bad about fresh fruit, though). A few more pics in this slideshow than normal, a little bit of most of the things I've gotten into since coming to Venezuela. I definitely want to give Ysaac a big pat on the back! He took care of almost all of my travel arrangements while I was here, & got us into a lot of things that would not be a part of any normal tourist program. Possibly the best parts of the trip, thanks! 

The teachers and staff at Venusa have been great. I've had very few snags while here, but they've always been friendly & quick to help with whatever has come up. A huge thanks to Joan and Yiya - the cooks here at Venusa. Great food & variety, I'll be bringing a few ideas home with me! It was nice meeting my homestay family, too. More time together would have been nice, but schedules here are just as hectic as they are in the states & finding time is never easy.

Anyway, with all that, I really miss my wife & kids and am very much looking forward to seeing them (a week from Tuesday!). I don't know if I'll be posting next week or not, it'll be busy. A couple papers to write, a presentation to prepare, a couple more tests and I'll be done with my study-abroad term in Venezuela. I realized last night that this is the first time in twenty years that I've been out of Minnesota for more than a couple months at a time. It's been great, but I'm ready to go home.

Take it easy!