The beautiful, rustic, old, colonial city of Morelia is situated about halfway in between Guadalajara and Mexico City and has a thriving population of around 1,000,000 people. It has everything from historical buildings and monuments to modern-day conveniences, shopping centers, restaurants, movie houses, universities and colleges, etc. What makes Morelia special, though, is its people. Their backgrounds vary from native Indian to French to Spanish and other nationalities. Their greatest asset, however, is their warmth and friendliness.

What Brought Me To Morelia

Most of my life I have studied foreign languages and other cultures. I spoke Spanish as a child and then went on to other languages. In 1996, I was attending Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington for a degree to validate my business experience. Then, one day, a visiting international programs speaker came to one of my history classes and shared her experiences about living in the country of Sri Lanka (an island country just south of India). As I was in a transition period of my life and needing a change, I checked on nearby countries where I could go on an exchange program to re-establish my Spanish language skills. My school had such a program with Centro Mexicano Internacional (CMI) in Mexico that really appealed to my sense of adventure and interest in other cultures. So, I signed up for Spring Quarter 1997 and headed off to Morelia, Michoac