Posted May 21, 2006 Goodbye to Zacatecas. We packed our bags and were on the sidewalk waiting for the bus that was scheduled for 8:30 departure. The bus was a bit late, but these diligent students were not. Our first stop of the day is Aguascalientes, where we visited the campus of Tec de Monterrey. We were greeted to the campus by Dr. Sergio Alonzo another of our PhD's who is on the faculty at the Aguascalientes campus. He arranged our tour and was very glad to see his old friend, Luis. We got a talk from a professor from Canada who talked about the issue of culture shock when it comes to going to work in a foreign country. Seems like he didn't really understand the job offer. Sergio and family meet with Luis and family on the stairs. Today's group shot is in the plaza behind the main classroom building of the Tec campus. As usual, Tec has very modern buildings. This is the technology building where the computer labs are located. Another view from the front. Some of the group in the foyer of the computer center, which has a commanding view of the city of Aguascalientes through that wall of glass. Lots of computers for the students to use. Not all of the 1,500 or so students here have a laptop, like they do at the Monterrey campus. They do have wireless, since Jose Villa managed to connect his. DrTee and Dr. Alonzo chat about his days at UTPA and the program at ITESM-Aguascalientes. They have about 1,500 students, of whom 500 are in the "prepa" or high school. They offer programs in Engineering and Business Administration. We went into town, if 1,000,000 qualifies as a town, and went to the newly developed train museum. Aguascalientes used to have the largest train maintenace yard in Latin America. The workshop in the picture is the site of the museum interior displays. We toured the site for about 40 minutes. The group wanderng through the workshop. A train that used to work freight in this area. Model of the old roundhouse, which no longer exists. They had a large pocket watch and there was a model with a locomotive that comes up out of the ground and puts on a demonstration of how the roundhouse worked. We sat and watched it for about 7 minutes…according to that watch. A nice covered viewing stand was provided. It was built on an old flatcar. This is where we sat to view the model train show. They had a computer driven water show that played several songs and did a choreographed display using a bunch of mariachi songs. Quite impressive. Saw one like it in Barcelona, which is where they bought the system. We had lunch downtown and then jumped on the bus for Guadalajara, which is supposed to be four hour trip, but roadwork delayed us about 30 minutes. You know you're in Guadalajara when you see mariachis trying to pick up bookings along the main road into town. Sorry for the blur, but was on the bus when Dr. Ortiz took this one. We checked into our hotel and wandered around the Plaza de armes and watched a drum show. A night view of the Teatro DeGollado. Viridiana, Violeta, and Jessica joined Dr. Ortiz's family and DrTee for dinner at Sanborn's. Students featured today are Andrew Jiron and Priscilla Torres, students from NMHU.   <<<Return to Index   To next page>>>