I learned of ASLI Spanish Institute when I was a doctoral student at the University of California,…read moreLos Angeles. At the time, I was seeking lessons in Nahuatl as well as Spanish instruction in preparation for fieldwork in Morelos. Paco and Maru arranged for private tutoring in Náhuatl and as well as advanced instruction in Spanish. While I have a unique case, in that I have been engaged in fieldwork while taking classes, I have been deeply impressed by the care that the institute takes to ensure that all visiting students have a cultural immersion in Mexico and in the local history of Morelos, the historic epicenter of the Mexican Revolution. In addition to instruction, students are taken to cultural and historic sites throughout Morelos and Mexico City: teachers have the option to visit local schools in Morelos to learn of the conditions of public and private education in Mexico. The institute boasts a range of high quality teachers with the ability to teach across ages and levels-- instruction that far exceeded my experience of language education in primary school in the U.S. Students are offered the option to stay among local families. From my experience, the majority of students leave with a heightened knowledge of the socio-cultural history in Mexico as well as a working knowledge of Spanish in conversation. This level of care, as well as the cultural experiences that Maru and Paco work to provide, is truly exceptional. I highly recommend the institute for all looking to learn or improve their Spanish, and especially for teachers in the U.S seeking Spanish instruction and intercultural exchange.

Studying Spanish at ASLI has been a wonderful experience. The classes are fun, interesting and…read moreengaging. My communication skills improved from day 1 because the school provided many opportunities during the day for me to use my Spanish. I absolutely loved the campus. The classes were small and personalized to my needs, the grounds are green with colorful flowers and the people were great. The teachers were fun and enthusiastic while the administration was always happy to help and make me feel at home. Great homestay experience. Cuernavaca is a safe and beautiful place to learn the language and experience the culture. All in all just wonderful.

Pamela R Bishop -- 2 star I feel compelled to tell the good,…read morethe bad and the ugly about any gym I go to. I came here to Mexico City and I was looking for a gym. Some were very expensive. I found this gym that I really like. So here is the break down. Lets start with the good: It is a high energy gym. Is one of those gym where you just work out hard. Some gyms have that high energy level and some just don't. It offers a good size pool to do laps. It maybe 25-30 meters long. It offers a lot of other classes, like cycling, pole twirling, yoga, zumba, capoeira, ect. It has high standard MMA classes and lots of punching bags and even a ring! With good instructors. Now the semi-bad: If you like state of the art and the newest weight lifting equipment. You will not find it here. But it has everything you need to get a really good work out. Personally I like the kind of late 90s type weight equipment. The bad: The they have a lot of cardio equipment but A LOT OF THE TREADMILLLS DO NOT WORK. Only 10% of them do. So if you go at peak hours good luck getting one that does! they do not maintain the equipment working up to par. Now lets move on to the ugly. Remember I said they have good MMA instructors? well they are not bad. I know because I took classes in Honolulu Hawaii at the best MMA school there and with instructors that have trained world champions. The instructors at this gym are pretty good. However geez their attitude stinks big time. If you ask them if they do private training you'll probably just get a blank stare and a nod saying something like no? I mean they are very stuck up and we are talking ZERO people skills. They are not polite, they do not communicate in an articulate manner at all. They are unfriendly and plain rude. I am a veteran of gyms from NYC, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Florida, Houston, and now Mexico. I always like to tell it like it is. And let people know what to expect. I take my training seriously and I know a cool gym when I see it. I really like this gym. I wanted to keep learning MMA and hire someone that is good to train me like I did in Hawaii....But i'll be darn if I give my hard earn money to someone with such a negative attitude. In Hawaii instructors that train world champions hold their high enthusiasm and train from children to champions to older people. Anyone who has a desire to learn with the same professionalism. But now on to the ugliest part. This gym is way more expensive than 24 Hour Fitness or LA Fitness in the US. Which both have working and new equipment. Specially LA Fitness. They see no problem in chargeing big $$$ for CARDIO MACHINES THAT DO NOT WORK. again of all their treadmills less the 50% of them work. They also have no passes for friends. Not even one visit. They give zero incentive of any kind. We all know the expression "You get more bees with honey than vinegar."

I think this gym offers a lot more for your money than other offerings in the area. When I…read morepurchased my monthly membership for this month, it was 450 pesos. That's a fraction of the gyms in nearby Condesa. Now if you're only looking for weights and machines, honestly I'd recommend SmartFit down the street. But if you're also looking for fitness classes, then this place really offers the best deal. Their class schedule is really extensive. Daily classes of power dance, body bar, yoga, pilates. I think boxing and salsa cost around 50 additional pesos per class, but that's still much cheaper than many fitness classes you'll find in the area. As another reviewer noted, the machines and such are a bit "well-loved," haha. But I've found everything to be in working order.

My experience at Livit was incredible. The classes are customized to your individual level. The…read moreclass sizes are small, but large enough to encourage learning and conversation amongst students. The teachers are incredible and so helpful. The exercises and examples used in the classes are easy to comprehend and facilitate rapid learning of the Spanish language. The lunches provided by Livit were fantastic. I enjoyed talking with all of the other students and the teachers during lunchtime. This helped to increase my conversational Spanish. Puebla is a great city. On the weekends, there was always plenty to do in the plazas and throughout the town. I enjoyed afternoons with our guides touring museums, walking around the plazas and streets, shopping, sitting in cafes and playing board games. Puebla is a safe city and easy to navigate getting around. We lived with a family arranged through the school and really enjoyed our time with them. They were super kind, helpful, and live very close to the school. It was great to eat with them daily and converse with them in Spanish about their family, customs, life, and interests. It definitely helped our Spanish skills. I would highly recommend attending the Livit school in Puebla to increase your fluency with the Spanish language. I hope to attend again. Katy K.

Livit is dedicated and very professional about an immersive Spanish experience. Prior to booking,…read morethey give you useful information, no "pie-in-the-sky" hot air. After you book, and before you get there, they follow through with helpful tips for getting around Puebla, including things to do. They also give you a written and oral pre-arrival Spanish assessment, which turned out to be pretty spot-on for me (and, from what I saw, for the vast majority of students). From day one, you notice their professionalism in business administration and customer service. They set you up with small-group classes (mornings, 5x/week) and with one-on-one city guides (afternoons, 3x/week); they serve you lunch (usually outside, in their delightful garden) with attention to your dietary needs (5x/week, with 3x/week being home-cooked); and they have excursions to intriguing places lined up every Thursday afternoon. The teachers are qualified and personable, the topics covered in class are interesting and engaging overall, and the instruction is solid. In combination with the one-on-one guidance in the afternoons and the weekly excursions with guided tours in easy-enough Spanish, not to mention a ton of things to do, see, and explore in Puebla, you do get a rich and varied immersion. Two thirds of my small-group experience were bogged down by that one student who would often monopolize the conversation and keep going down some rabbit hole, taking away from everyone else's speaking time. That could have used some classroom management from the teacher. Also, there were a couple of occasions when the teacher spent a lot of time writing up charts on the board that could have been handouts. That halted the conversation, and made it feel a little like just the kind of "school" that Livit says it avoids. That experience almost cost Livit one star in this review, but the last third saved it (if barely). Maru was a great teacher; she was animated and engaging, kept the class moving along, and did a good job keeping "that" student in check. Therefore, I'll say four stars for the small-group instruction, and still five stars total, because everything else went as well as it could possibly have! Livit really knows business management and customer service. They choose good "adjunct" people to be one-on-one afternoon guides. You get a different guide every week. Mine were all very friendly, and willing to engage with whatever tourist attraction or activity I felt like. And the Puebla area has so much of that to offer! I was able to make the most of my time, thanks in no small part to the effective afternoon guides Livit works with. I had turned to Livit for the kind of guided immersive experience that would work for me as a Spanish learner who had never been to Mexico before. And in the end, it came out a success!