Mexico Field Trips, February and March 1980
On January 3rd, 1980, I boarded a plane in Toronto en route to Mexico to study Spanish. After the plane change in Chicago, I found myself sitting next to Janey, a young American student who was also on her way to Mexico to study Spanish, as part of her study curriculum. An amazing coincidence! At the Mexican Consulate in Toronto, I had picked up a few brochures for language schools, some in San Miguel de Allende, some in Cuernavaca. Janey had only one brochure: it was about the school where she was already registered [in Cuernavaca]. The school was called “Cemanahuac”, and it sounded really interesting, so I asked her if it was okay if I tagged along and she agreed. I liked the school so much that I signed up for their 10-week program on the spot. I remained in Mexico for 20 years after that, and the irony is that I ended up living most of those years in the other place... San Miguel de Allende. What follows is an (unedited) transcript of the only journal I kept during t