MEXICO'S MAYAN CULTURE WILL BE STUDIED ON TRIP

"Mexico: Mayan and Modern A Study in Contrasts" is the theme of a trip to Mexico this summer coordinated through Southeast Missouri State University's foreign languages department.

Twenty-four people are scheduled to make the trip, which also doubles as a two-week undergraduate and graduate summer course titled "Field Experience in Foreign Language and Culture."

Pamela Brakhage, assistant professor of foreign languages, is spearheading the fifth annual summer excursion scheduled for July 25 to Aug. 8.

"I'm delighted that we have so many people traveling with us again," Brakhage said. "I am really excited about making the trip. We will stay in provincial state capitals as well as large resorts and will see big-city life as well as small Mexican towns and the Mayan sites."

Focus of this year's trip will be on the Mayan culture with field experience centered in the Yucatan. The Mayas a tribe of Indians found in Yucatan, British Honduras and North Guatemala were a highly developed civilization when first visited by European explorers in the early part of the 16th century.

The trip will begin in Mexico City and also will include overnight stops in Cancun, Campeche, Mexico City, Merida, Tlaxcala, Vera Cruz, Catemaco and Palenque. A Mexican guide and native driver will lead the tour aboard a chartered bus.

Those scheduled to make the trip may earn two or three hours of course credit in anthropology, secondary education or Spanish by completing a journal and research project as a result of the trip, Brakhage said. Students planning to earn credit have been assigned required reading.

About 10 students are enrolled for the field experience, along with seven faculty members, their spouses and interested area residents, she said.

Cost of the trip is $414 for air fare and $865 for the ground tour. Interested persons can still register for the trip by calling Brakhage before Saturday at 335-4467.