Escuela

Oh my goodness.  My brain is FRIED.  FRIED.  FRIED.

We started the day with pan de banana from Dona Luisa y fruta from last night's dinner.  Tim and I both worked for an hour and a half before we woke the kids up.  It was nice to get some of it done before they were up and moving.

The kids and I headed out about 7:30 to find the school!  They packed water, a snack and they each had their phones.  The area we are staying is a gated community.  When we leave, we turn right to hit the main street.  Today?  We went straight...and then took a left to hit the main road...which, of course, is the opposite direction of where we should have gone.  We did see a ferris wheel in the distance that the kids want to check out in the future...and we passed a cemetary.  It was an interesting walk.  We kept taking left turns until we ended up where we started....11 minutes later.  After 20 minutes of complaining that the walk was too far, we ended up at PLFM.
 We stopped to take a photo under the arch, and peaked in at the andas that are used in the parades.

 I pointed out where we were standing during La Semana Santa when Tim had his wallet stolen.   Everyone started speaking Spanish when we arrived at the school....and to be honest, I was wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. They shuffle s through the grounds into a room in back.  We were sitting talking to a priest from Boston who is also in the area for 4 weeks to study.  Leslie (the student coordinator) showed up to give an intro and thankfully it was in English. :)  It's good to step out of your comfort zone, but sometimes it's also good to be back in it!

I left the kids around 8:30 with their teachers and walked back to the house where I was able to work until it was time to hike back to pick them up!  Ethan called at 10:30 during break to tell us it was so incredibly boring.  Jake got on the phone and said 'I love it'.  Lily got on and reiterated what Ethan had said and Grace said she liked it.  All things considered a 50% approval rating is maybe better than what I expected.  When I got to the school at noon, I talked to Leslie about options for field trips.  7 hours of school a day is A LOT and I told the kids they could do 2 field trips a week.  I signed them up to visit a cocoa farm on Friday where they can make some chocolate and to walk to Cerro de la Cruz this afternoon.    On the walk home I got an earful.  Ethan said he couldn't handle it. There was no way he could do it for 7 hours a day.  He was only doing half days. Etc. etc.  I tried to tell him that he could do field trips and he said he'd rather do field trips without his teacher.  I offered to switch teachers.  he said it wouldn't matter.  The teacher wasn't the problem.  Being in school all day was.  Jake said it was awesome.  He said 'Mom...I already speak Spanglish!  I answered a question that Ethan asked and used both Spanish and English.  I love it mom'.  Grace said 'I liked it  I even finished almost a whole page in my book.  I like my teacher.  I am going to keep her for next week. '  Jake said "I'm not!".  I asked why because Jake had just told me how much he liked his teacher.   He said "they told us that you learn more if you have a different teacher every week so I am going to have a different teacher every week."  Lily said she loved her teacher and it wasn't great...but it was good.  Things were improving!  We stopped at McDonalds for sundaes on the way home.  Jake didn't want one, Ethan was too crabby to admit to wanting one, and the girls each had one.  I loved watching them skip and chatter nonstop about how their day was.

I made Quesadillas with Oaxaca cheese for lunch.  It's almost like string cheese.  The kids love it.  Everyone but Ethan went in la piscina (the pool) while it cooked.  He finally came down after an hour and decided to join the family.  I was hopeful it was just a lack of food that made him irritable.

When we headed out at 1:30, Ethan hadn't rallied.  He said he wasn't going, but he did.  The kids went back into their little rooms to find their teachers but then headed out for a hike for Cerro de la Cruz.  I met my instructor and good lord....I see where Ethan was coming from.  It is HARD.  For an hour and a half it was just me and the teacher.  And all we did was try and have a conversation...where he corrected my verb tenses and helped me with words I didn't know.  It's intense.  I felt guilty for signing my kids up for 4 weeks of this.  You know how when you are in class  you can pay attention some of the time but not all the time?  NO ES POSIBLE when you are the only student.  We did spend a lot of time talking about how my ninos were probably enojados y mojados.  (mad and wet!)  They were walking to Cerro de la cruz and it started POURING out.  POURING.    All I could think was Ethan is going to be EVEN angrier.  Not only is he hating it but now he's probably cold and wet.   Mi maestro and I did talk about the half marathon in Antigua that's coming up.  He has run it 6 times.  I asked 'Hay colinas?'  He told me no and told me the worst part is the cobblestone roads but at one point in Jocotonego the roads are asphalt.  He assured me that we went down a hill...and that it was mostly flat.  Seeing as it starts and ends in el parque central, I have a sneaking hunch that somewhere there is an uphill.  We worked a little with verb tenses.  He said 'Tim debe estudiar espanol'.  Which means Tim should study Spanish.  It was a fun afternoon but mentally exhausting.

The kids rolled in at about 4:50...and were happy!  And not wet!  When the bell rang at 5 they all couldn't stop talking about their trip to see the cross.  They said they rode in the back of a pickup truck to the top of the hill (um...yeah...I had no idea).  When it was raining, they sat under a tent and counted.  I asked if they did much Spanish while under the tent...they said 'eh'.  Part of me was a little concerned...and the rest of me remembered how friend my brain was from 3 hours of Spanish.  It was probably good for them to have a break, talk about perros (there were 3 dogs there) and work on their counting.  Besides that, they got to hang out in the backup of pickup truck and spend time with their teachers.  Part of the immersion is being in Guatemala without mom and dad directing every move.

Ethan enjoyed this afternoon.  It was raining out and I was sure they would all be demanding we took a tuk tuk home.  We walked one block in the rain before we saw one and Lily said we should grab one.  Ethan said...we are fine...we are practically home. This afternoons trip was exactly what they needed.  Lily told Jake she speaks 3 languages now...Spanish, English and Spanglish.  Jake said he didn't always understand his teacher so sometimes he just says 'si'.  He said one time she looked at him and said....''no..no"  Grace still insists she likes her teacher and is sticking with her all week.  That doesn't surprise me at all because of her personality.  They have until Wednesday to make a choice regarding next weeks teacher so we have another day to decide.

We all hopped in the hot tub when we got back from school.  Mayda was making dinner.  My feet were white from Raynaud's.  It felt good to get in a hot tub in the rain.  Dinner was amazing again.  Fish, corn on the cob, a tomato salad and mashed potatoes.  The fruit was watermelon tonight and the juice was tamarindo.  I can not tell you how spoiled we have been.  Jake says we should hire her every night.  The kids are all doing better than I expected with trying different things...and have been very good about saying Gracias y Delicioso!

It could be an early night tonight...we are trying to finish the second half of the $1.25 McFarland movie we bought last night...but it was a long day.  The kids walked 4 miles AND went on the field trip...AND probably spent 2 hours in the pool.  They should sleep well tonight.  We are all supposed to have homework tonight...I"m already being a bad student.

La primera dia

So far...loving it. :)

We slept in a bit this morning and then headed out to Dona Luisa bakery.  It's right off the square in Antigua and has amazing bread.  12 cinnamon rolls, 3 crescents, 1 loaf of banana bread....less than $6.  Can't complain.  On the way we passed a little old woman who was no taller than Grace.  She stuck her hand out and at the time we had nothing to give her.  On the way back we opened the cinnamon rolls to give her one.  She smiled with all of the 3 teeth she had. :)  We saw her two more times today and both times she gave us a big wave.  Really trying to make an effort for random acts of kindness.

We left the bakery and stop at the Bodegona on the way home.  We grabbed an eclectic mix of  food.  Thankfully I threw 2 31 bags in before we left home for hauling groceries.  In retrospect I should have grabbed more.  We picked up some milk, ham, pasta, rice, cookies....Tim got a 12 pack of Brahva.  It was as much as we could carry.   When we came home, the kids jumped in the pool for awhile.

We weren't home very long before we had a knock on our window.  It was Mayda!  Last year when I came down to build houses for a week, Mayda prepared all of our meals.  She's coming 3 nights a week this month to make cena (dinner) for us.  She gave me a big hug....and then proceeded to ask me a lot of questions in Spanish.  I think I got the gist of most of what she said.  The kids told her they wanted pollo, arroz, carne, no vegetales!  Jake asked for a hamburguesa.  She said no hamburguesa y no pizza.  Then she told me she'd just chop up the vegetables very small so the kids didn't even know they were eating them.   Cracks me up.  She left and came back about 30 minutes later with the food for tonight, mangos, lichees, paper towel and toilet paper.  She figured we would need it.  It's nice to be taken care of.

We ventured out again to get phones for the kids.  I waanted them each to have a phone that they carry on them.  For Christmas this year we did the 'Something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to see'.  Their something  you need was a spi belt.  It's a belt they can carry around their waist to hold a little phone.  The phones were $12 each and include 80 minutes.  They are ecstatic and want to know if they can use them in the United States.  I also picked up a SIM card for my phone so I can use it in Guatemala.  I have google voice so that my US number works for   calls/text when I'm on wi-fi, but the SIM card will let the kids call a Gauat number to reach me if I'm not at home.

On the way to the market there was a kid selling videos on the street.  10Q for each video.  Since we can't understand anything on TV, we thought it might be nice to have a movie or two.  he assured me they were in English as well as Spanish.  he was right for half of them.  That still means I only paid $3 a movie.  The kids got pitch perfect 2, Cinderella, McFarland and Kingsman the Secret Service.

Jake found a yankee hat for $5 at the market and then 10 manzanas( apples) for $2.50.  he also picked up a passion fruit because he had a friend tell him they were good.  He is ALL in on this trip.  I love that he is so ready to experience it.  It's fun to watch.  Lily picked up a bag of fresas for 75 cents.  It needs to be disinfected but it was crazy cheap for the amount we got.  Pineapples are only $1.  I might not leave.  Ethan found some beats headphones in the market for the low low price of $20.  I'd say they are knock offs but who cares?  He said the sound quality was good...but is waiting before deciding to spend his money.  The last thing we got was journals for all 4 kids.  Then we came back to hang out in the pool.

We just finished dinner.  Mayda made an amazing pollo con salsa y arroz.  The kids all ate every last bit of it.  They couldn't stop talking about how good it was.  We got to sit and eat as a family as well...which never happens.  Maybe that's why I like it so much down here.  We get to live the way we are meant to....not the way we overschedule ourselves to.

Kids are in the pool again and tomorrow they start Spanish school.  It's been amazing.

We made it!

I've been meaning to start a blog about our trip this summer for the last 6 months.  I thought I'd talk about what we were planning, how things were going, etc.  Obviously, it didn't happen.  Now that we are finally here, I plan on keeping a journal (online because I can type much faster than I can write) and hopefully having the kids update it too.

One of the things I regret most about college was never spending a semester abroad.  It never occurred to me and quite honeslty I was so ready to get out that I didn't waant to do anything that would slow that down.    As an adult I can see the value in language immersion.  Tim and I have talked for awhile on how it would be nice to put the kids in immersion school.  We finally bit the bullet.  As Ethan gets older (13), his desire to spend time in a developing country with his family is diminishing.  We figured it was now or never.  I still can't believe we actually did it.  We rented a house for 4 weeks in Antigua.  The kids will be in immersion school from 8-12 and 2-5 every day.  Jake is probably the most excited about it.  I loved watching him talking to the stewardess on the plane last night.  He's so excited to learn the language and use it.

We left yesterday morning at 4:30 in the morning.  Tina and Kristy offered to drive us.  We had 3 suitcases full of our belongings for the next 3 weeks....and 9 full of donations!  We packed the back of both the Sienna and Explorer up and they drove us to Chicago.  We need to do curbside service more often.  They dropped us at the international terminal...and there was no wait to check in and no wait in security.  The first flight was 5 hours to Panama.  Jake and Lily were ecstatic when they found out we actually got fed on the plane. :)  I told them it's nice to fly international once in awhile!  Lily did want to know when we were at the airport why swiss air has a health care symbol.  I tried to explain Switzerland, it's neutrality, etc.  I'm not sure she cared. :)

We had a 5 hour layover in Panama which was miserable.  It was supposed to be 1 1/2 hours but Copa cancelled that flight completely several months ago.  Not only that, they didn't let us know and had us rebooked on a flight the next morning.  I'm glad I checked our reservations because we were able to get booked on a later flight.  The Panama airport is strange.  There is a huge area that is almost brand new and air conditioned.  The gate we flew out of was in a satellite area that was 90 degrees with huge fans.  We hung out in the air conditioned area.  We also grabbed food here.  $11 for a personal pizza hut pizza.  Ridiculous.  I'll remember to pack snacks for the way home.



The second flight was a little over 2 hours and thankfully on time.  Lily slept the whole way.  We got fed again.  Cheeseburgers.  The best one I've ever eaten.  I think being hungry will do that to you. :)  We got through immigration with no line...and customs waved us right through as well.  Good timing on this trip.  We landed at 8:30 Guat time (or 9:30 our time) so the kids (and parents) were starting to get a *little* tired.  When you leave the Guatemala airport, you step into this gated area.  There are people lining the gates waiting for the arriving passengers.  Several are holding signs with names...and we are standing there with 12 suitcases and 4 kids looking around for Guillermo.  We met Guillermo on our trip 2 years ago.  He speaks fluent English and lived in the US for awhile.  The kids loved him.  I messaged him on facebook and asked if he could pick us up. He saw us first and came running over.  It's amazing how good it feels to see someone you know when you are landing in a foreign country.  He drove us to our house in Antigua.  It's about a 45 minute drive.

The house is amazing.

This is the upstairs landing.  You can see we came in and dumped our suitcases. :)

This is the room Jake and Lily chose.

This is the porch off of Jake and Lily's room.

This is the view from the porch.  The complex has 4 houses that surround a community pool/hot tub.

When you walk upstairs to the landing area, there are the two beds in the first picture...or if you go right, there is the room Jake and Lily are in and if you go left, it's the room Grace and Ethan chose.

If you look out the window in Grace/Ethan's room, you can see the courtyard.  The doors on the left go into the master bedroom.

Here's another view of the landing.

To the left of this picture are the doors to go into the courtyard that is off of the master bedroom.

It's hard to get too many pictures right now because everyone is sleeping still!!!

Today we are going to go to the Bodegona to get some food.  I did have them deliver some food for when we arrived last night.  A loaf of bread, jam, bananas, a pineapple, cheese, tortillas, eggs, butter, juice and one beer for Tim.   At least this way we can make breakfast today before heading out.  We are also planning on getting little phones for the kids so that they can call us.  Guillermo told us we can find some in front of the Bodegona for around $100Q or $12.

Until later!  We have arrived!