Mexico: week 2

I promise all my posts won't be this long, but stick with me....

Monday, February 8th
The roads and sidewalks dried up over the weekend, so we were able to walk to school! I'm not exactly sure how far it is, but I walk there and back 3 times a day, so I have to be getting a decent amount of exercise. I put Lydia in the stroller (and Nolan too the first couple of days), grab the boys and their backpacks and we're off. It's been in the high forties/ low fifties in the morning, so a lot of the locals think it's too cold, but, I think it's comfortable (I wonder what I'll think a year from now!!). I drop each of the boys off at their gate around 7:50 and then Lydia and I walk back to the house. At 12:15, I leave to get Nolan, and then 2:15 I go back and get Ethan. It's a little less than a ten minute walk each way unless the boys are slowpokin it. It actually is probably less time to walk than if I drove them. It's been really nice being outside and having that time to talk with the kids about their days.

So, I was completely ready for the maid this week. She had done better before she left on Saturday, so I made her a few lists and translated them into Spanish to kind of help her along this week. Well, she didn't show up. Apparently, that's pretty common here, but I was without a maid all week.

I know I sound ridiculous, how many people have a live-in maid in their lifetime, right? The thing is, I completely get why so many people do have maids down here. It's very, very dusty and dirty here. The floors literally do have to be cleaned at least every other day. I don't really understand how it happens, but I know when I come in from outside, I always wash my hands because I feel grimy. Also, setting up and running a household in another country is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Everything takes a lot more time because I'm trying to translate all the words, convert pesos into dollars, kilograms into pounds, kilometers/hour into miles/hour, and celcius into farenheit. Not to mention, that I have someone coming to my house everyday to fix something or give me something and I have to try to figure out what they're telling me. And, I'm trying to learn the language (I really wish I would have paid more attention in high school!). This week was very hard for me to keep up with everything. I did it in Michigan, but it's a lot harder for me here! Anyway, I have a maid coming next week and hopefully she's THE one!

In the afternoon on Monday, we went to look at a van. There aren't many for sale in the area, so we were excited when there was a Sienna available. The roads are very confusing around here and James has absolutely no sense of direction, so it took him over an hour to get to the car dealership (it probably should have taken him about 10 minutes), but we still were able to test driving the van. We loved it, but it was making a weird noise over bumps and when we turned left. Hopefully it'll get fixed and we'll be able to buy it next week!

The kids were starving by the time we were done with the van, so we headed to our favorite restaurant, Tacos El Pata (it's easy right now because we know where it is!). We ran into a family that we had met at church, so we sat and chatted with them for a while. The kids, of course, had a great time, but I'm not sure they ate anything!

Tuesday, February 9th

Nothing too exciting today. I tried the traditional Mexican eating schedule. As I mentioned before, the Mexicans eat their big meal around 3 (comida) and then have a lighter meal later in the evening. I wanted to try it because there were a few things I really liked about it...1. I'm done cooking by 3:00, 2. my kids are starving when they get home from school and want snack after snack (this way we could just eat a meal when they're most hungry), and 3. I'm not rushing around shoving dinner down their throats, getting baths done, and getting them into bed.

I loved it! It was so nice to have so much time after our big meal! The kids then had cereal around dinner time and we had lots of time in the evening. Some of you may be thinking, "what about James?" Well, they have a huge meal at the office (for free with waiters and waitresses in the cafeteria) for an hour and a half later in the afternoon, so he's really not that hungry when he gets home. Also, he's been getting home after 7, so the kids are in or almost in bed by the time he gets home anyway, so we wouldn't be eating together anyway. On a side note, I really feel like I eat less on this food schedule! That can't be a bad thing, right?

Wednesday, February 10th
First of all, I was pretty proud of myself today because I found 2 stores in the city. Yay me! I went to a bookstore to get a book for Nolan's Valentine's book exchange and a dermatology store to get sunscreen for the kids' faces (they have a specialty shop for pretty much everything).

The boys' school is wonderful and has a lot of after school activities that the kids can get involved in. At Nolan's age, the only thing he can really do is Tae Kwon Do. It worked out because it was what I wanted him to do anyway. So, today, he tried it and really liked it. That means on Monday and Wednesday he stays at school until 1:30 to do Tae Kwon Do. Ethan was in Tae Kwon Do at Nolan's age, so I'm really excited about Nolan doing it!

Ethan joined the soccer "team" today. He seemed to really like it, but I forgot to send him with a water bottle and it was pretty hot, so he came off the field very upset with me. So, on Mondays and Wednesdays we meet Ethan at school at 2:30, I bring food for "comida" and we eat at the school and then he has soccer practice from 3:15 to 4:45.

Lydia doing a puzzle in her necklace-turned-headband hippie look.

Another thing about Mexico...they "air kiss" everytime they see each other. For those of you who know me, you know that I am not a very affectionate person, so it's kind of uncomfortable for me, but I am getting used to it and I'm not flinching everytime someone gets close to my face.

Thursday, February 11th

I was supposed to have a maid show up today. I was so excited because my house was so dirty. Well, she showed up just to tell me that her old "Senora" wanted her back, so she was going back to work for her. It was nice of her to come tell me, but I kind of wish she didn't show up at all because now I have a reputation for running off maids!

The security at JFK (the school) is very good. For preschool you need an i.d. card to get in and then you need to show them your child's i.d. card to get out. For elementary through High school there are three levels. Red, you need to pick them up at the classroom; yellow they can meet you at the elementary gate and when the teacher sees you, she lets them out; or green, they can go out the front gates and they're free to go wherever.

Ethan has a yellow card, so I usually walk and meet him at the elementary gate. On Thursday I was there on time, waiting and waiting and waiting. He never showed up at the gate, so the teachers went looking for him at his classroom. They still couldn't find him. So, they broke the rules and let me in to look for him. They kept telling me that he's there somewhere, they wouldn't have let him out of the gates. By this time it had been a good half hour that I couldn't find him, and I broke down in tears (and I was doing so well...). The whole time I was thinking that Ethan must be so scared, he doesn't know where I am, I hope he's okay. A few minutes later, Ethan came walking over with one of the teachers...he had gone to the "green gate" and they didn't let him out. He gave me a funny look and asked why I had been crying. I told him that he needed to go to the back gate because he had a yellow card. His response..."everyone else goes to the other gate." Great, we're starting that already, AND I was worried about him for no reason...he was totally fine (ugh!).

In my last post I mentioned the fact that we have no baths in our house. This does not go over well with the two little ones, so I found a way to make it a shower-bath. One of our showers has about a 6 inch lip, so I cover the drain, fill up the shower, and they have their "bath:"

Friday, February 12th

The boys had their Valentine's Day celebrations at school. Nolan brought a book to exchange and came home with a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse book in Spanish and Ethan brought lollipops for everyone (they really don't do the card thing here) and both of the boys got a lot of candy from their classmates!

On the way home from school, we met another family that lives in the Privada. They are from Japan and there are 2 boys that are the same ages as Ethan and Nolan. The mom is very nice and we went to their house and the kids played for a little while. It's fun to have so many international friends!

That night we tried to try a different restaurant, but got lost and the traffic was bad, so we went to, you guessed it, Tacos El Pata. The kids were so excited (you would think they'd be sick of it by now). They actually ate this time...all of them tried pastor and liked it.

Speaking of driving in Mexico...that was one thing I was VERY nervous about before we moved here. I noticed when we were visitng that you had to be very aggressive and that people are crazy drivers. Once I realized that there are really no rules, I was good. Stop signs are optional and you just have to cut people off and pull out in front of people...they expect it. And parking is the same...no rules, park at your own risk where ever your car will fit!

Saturday, February 13th

Today I started my language classes. Boy do I have a lot to learn. We worked on the difference between "ser" and "estar"...still not sure I get it, but I'm hoping the language classes at least help me understand people!

Another night out with the ex-pats (for those of you who don't know, it stands for "expatriate" which is a person living in a country other than their own). This time we went to a restaurant called Crash Robinson's. It was a very nice restaurant with good meat and a playground for the kids with "babysitters" (for FREE). Two things I love, love, love about Mexico...most restaurants have play areas AND people meet for dinner at 3, so there's no rush to get out of there to get the kids to bed and you still have a good part of the night when you get home! So anyway, my friend told one of the babysitters to keep an eye on Lydia and we would tip her. She followed Lydia around that playground for over 3 hours while the boys played and we enjoyed dinner and adult conversation! When we left, James tipped her 50 pesos (about 4 US dollars) which is a lot to her (we felt a little guilty, but most people don't give them anything!).

Sunday, February 14th

For some reason, we didn't get the exact furniture that we ordered from the rental company. For the family room we ended up with a love seat and a chair (3 seats total), so our whole family can't even sit down together. Luckily, the kids don't sit very often, but here's a picture of James and the kids piled on the loveseat. The kids are watching Super Hero Squad on one computer and James is watching a movie on the other computer.

For Valentine's Day, I went to the grocery store in the morning and brought home dounuts for the kids (and us) and cookies for later. They were very excited about the treat and Lydia got a little messy with the chocolate...
The kids spent some of the afternoon playing on our patio outside and throwing their superheroes up into the tree.

For our special Valentine's Day family dinner we went to McDonald's. I know, so romantic, but James was wanting something "not Mexican" and we were by the McDonald's, so that's where we ended up. Of course the McDonald's has a huge play area, so the kids were happy to get familiar food and play.

Overall, not a bad week. I know every week that goes by, we'll get more comfortable and experience more of what the area has to offer. We're looking forward to what's in store...