You are invited to Dinner at Dusk, be at my house before dusk. When: November 30,2011
Dress nice :)
Guest list:
Secunda Bibey
Claudia Wildman
Rufina Mason
Marcus Harris
Cornilus
Decima Strawder
Albina Truman
Quintia Ware
Appia Elmore

Seven Courses

                                              Starters

Course 1: Greek Salad, rough Country salad of juicy tomatoes, crisp cucumbers,green peppers,crumbly feta cheese and plump kalamata olives.
Course 2: Caesaer Salad with any side that you please, romaine lettuce,croutons, garlic cloves, lemon juice, pepper,egg yolks  and worecestershire sauce.

            Main Dish
Course 3:Shrimp with tomato and feta, marrying the flavors of sauteed shrimp with tomatos and feta cheese.
Course 4: Greek style baked Fish, a great Greek fish dinner.
Course 5: Beef Vegtible Soup, unmistakable flavor of sweet Trahana, a fine grain pasta made from semolina and milk.

                          Deserts
Course 6: Backlava and Ice Cream, and amazing combination. Backlava are sweet honey bread with nuts.
Course 7:Watermelon and Feta, if you like sweet and salty then this is perfect for you. Sweet watermelon with salty feta.

Education week.

   I will be doing Mexico on my International Education Week. Their education is just about the same as ours. They have a High School, Junior High and a Primary school. Primary Schools go from first grade to sixth grade. The ages are usually six to twelve. Half a day is spent in Spanish and the other half of a day in either English or French. Junior High School "middle school". Junior High is grades seventh through nineth. Ages twelve through fifteen and they are taught Physics, Chemistery and World History. High School is grades tenth through twelveth ages fifteen through eighteen. It consists three years of education, divided into six semesters. In those six semesters they do Physical Sciences ( electricty, chemistery, biology) or Social Sciences ( commerce, philosophy, law). The term preparatonoa is most commonly used for institutions that offer a three year education program that "prepares" the student with a general knowledge to contiue studying at a university. Higher Education usually follows the United States education model. So their collages or univerites are just like ours. They have to have a four year bacholor degree, two year masters degree and a three year doctoral degree. Undergraduate studies normally last four years. They do creidts like they do here. You have to have four creidts of English, three math creidts,three social studies, one physical education,one communication creidt and eight elective units.Their grading scale is about the same depending in how the teacher likes to grade is how the use it. 10 is excellent, 9 very good, 8 good, 7 average, 6 sufficient and 0-5.9 is pretty much a fail. But other teachers may like the grading scale that we have. There is noing differnt about the way they are taught there than they are here.

Christmas in Mexico

                                                Capirotada

This dessert is full of texture and flavor. Topped with whipped cream, it is absolutley decadent and rich with flavors of pecans and brown sugar.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups stale Mexican bread cut into large chunks
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 1/4 cup water
• 3 cones of piloncillo (or 2 cups brown sugar)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoon anise seeds
• 2/3 cup pecans, chopped
• 1 cup raisins soaked in warm water to soften
• 2 large, or 3 small apples, peeled, cored and chopped
• 1/2 cup queso fresco crumbled
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon cloves
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 4 egg yolks
• 4 cups milk
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/4 cup sherry

Preparation:

Melt the butter over medium heat in a large saute pan. Fry the bread pieces until golden. In a small saucepan, combine water, anise seeds, piloncillo and cinnamon stick. Boil gently until the liquid becomes syrupy, about 6 minutes.
In a large bowl, combine apples, pecans, raisins, zest and cheese. Sprinkle cloves and cinnamon over the top of the fruit mixture and toss to incorporate. Add in bread and carefully fold all ingredients together.
Pour half of the bread mixture into a large, buttered baking dish and pour half of the syrup over it. Add the remaining bread mixture and the remaining syrup.
Bake for 35 minutes in an oven pre-heated to 350 degrees.
Beat egg yoks until foamy and smooth. Add in milk, salt and 1/4 cup sherry. Combine until smooth. Pour over partially cooked bread and bake for another 35 minutes or until top is golden.

  5 facts
- It's a celebration of he Natvity, birthday of the Lord Jesus
-La Posada, which is a religious procession that reenacts the search for shelter by Joseph and Mary before the birth of Jesus. People go hose to house with pictures of Joseph and Mary.
- Santa Claus is predominant, but the red suit is represented in the tradional flower.
-Mexican childrean recive gifts by busting open a clay pinata.
- mexicans attend a midnight mass service which is called la Misa Del Gallo ot  "the rooter's mass," and at the mass  the sing lullabis to Jesus.

Map

Budget

Airfare roundtrip from Pittsburgh to Mexico City  $515.00
Car Rental for the week $143.00

Day 1 Mexico City
Hotel-$114.39
Palace of Fine Arts-$10.00

Day 2-Cabo
Cabo Villas-$275.00
Underwater Adventure $100.00
Lunch-$15.00

Day 3-Cancun
Hotel-$274.00
Swam with Dolphins-$135.00
Tour-$13.00

Day 4 -Cozumel
Hotel-$109.00
Scuba Diving-$29.00
ATV Tour-$65.00

Day 5-Acapulco
Hotel-$158.00
Lunch-$14.59
La Quebrada-Free
El Fuerte de San Diego-$2.19
Isla La Roqueta-$7.00

Day 6-Puerto Vallerta
Hotel-$110.00
Kayak rentals-$50.00
Restaurant- $24.59

Day 7-Playa del Carmen
Hotel-$109.00
Rancho El Charro-$61.50
Parasailing-$50.00

Total Expenses: $2384.26
Total Budget: $3000.00

9-3-11 last day :(

 Today is my last day in Mexico. This was a really fun experince and I can tell other people to travel there and maybe they will have as much fun. Puerto Vallarta is my last destination on my wonderful Mexico trip. Im going to Rancho El Charco to take a horse back ride threw threw the forest. Beautiful peaceful place to take a horse back ride. Then I'm going to Meramesphosis Day Spa. That felt amazing to my back. I got the Swedish Massage. Then I spent the rest of my day packing to go home wich was really depressing. I hate saying good-byes to anything. Now im going to travel back to Mexcio City to catch my flight. I learned ver many things about Mexcio traveling there there cultures are very differnt from ours. But there food is great.