Random Photos

Posted on August 23, 2015
by Lori

I can’t think of everything we did this week (along with a regular work-week for me), but here are some random photos…

The 14th was Adlani’s birthday, and we had breakfast for dinner with the Taggarts. Finding the cupcake store, ordering the cupcakes, and carrying them home on a tray without a box or cover was an adventure in itself.

One of Adlani’s favorite gifts, from the Taggarts:

We found a cat in front of the cupcake shop:

Norah had a wiggly tooth, but suddenly the tooth next to that one (which was not wiggly) fell out, and then it took about an hour of drama to finally get the wiggly one out. El Ratoncito Perez brought her 200 pesos, which she promptly spent (plus another 50) on a new bathing suit.

We’ve had several BIG rainstorms (usually at night) plus a storm with some hail. When it rains, the street at the end of our block becomes a river which leads down to the storm drain that Andrew’s phone fell into.

We found some cool shops, including this one where Aliya fell in love with an elephant which she is desperate to have as her “only birthday present.” She is my kid.

I have not bought anything in this pottery store yet, but it will happen before we leave Mexico. I love it.

We met a new friend in Parque Juarez and the kids tried out the Mexican elliptical machines.

I took a day off and we spent the day at Xote, a hot spring / water park outside of town.

More fun with the Taggarts before they headed home…

The only time they get along…

Unidad Deportiva

Posted on August 23, 2015
by Lori

Back in the ‘Ham, all of our kids played soccer, and Ben coached Norah’s team. He also played in an “Over The Hill” league. We hoped to find teams in San Miguel, at least for the girls – Adlani wants to take a break, but it was difficult to get any information online. That has been typical here…so much information is only available by word-of-mouth, and you have to find the people “in the know.”

We heard from Katie O’Grady of Los O’Gradys in Mexico that her daughter played on a team at Unidad Deportiva, and our other new friends (the ones we met at Geek & Coffee) told us that most of the classes there are FREE. It’s outside of town so it will likely involve a taxi or bus ride each time we go, but we can combine it with a trip to the big supermarket nearby if we need anything.

We visited la Deportiva with Los O’Gradys and another family that just arrived in SMA, and Katie (a former Spanish teacher) helped me get some information about a team for Norah. Aliya decided she’d rather take boxing classes, and Adlani may do that as well. All of the current classes were posted outside the office, and you can jump in any time – there doesn’t seem to be a start or end to the season, although new classes will be posted in October.

Soccer for girls was posted as Monday-Wednesday-Friday from 4-7, so we went on Friday to check it out. Aliya and I basically told the coach Norah’s name, that it was her first time there, and gave her a push. She was a little shy for the first few minutes but the girls were nice and the drills and practice-games seemed familiar so she really enjoyed it. The group at practice was divided into smaller girls and bigger girls, and it turned out that the younger kids (7ish to 12ish) practice from 4-5:30, and the older girls (13ish-17ish) practice from 5:30-7. All of the times are “ish” too…someone told me yesterday that “time is not worth as much in Mexico”…I’ve never thought of it that way but it explains why nothing here seems to happen at the time it’s scheduled.

While Norah practiced, Aliya, Adlani, and I checked out the facility. It’s REALLY nice, and it’s true – most classes are free or have a very minimal cost. Aliya needs a card to take the boxing class, but it is 40 pesos ($2.36) for the year. I’m not sure why she needs a card and Norah doesn’t, but I am just going with the flow – I’ve realized that I don’t actually need to know the answer to every single question. I’m trying to model that behavior for Norah because she makes me insane wanting to know every detail of what’s going to happen waaaaaaaay before it happens. The other day she asked how she will know which 5^th-grade teacher she has and which classroom to go to. She hasn’t even started 4^th grade yet! Anyway…I still don’t know the situation with games or uniforms for her team, but I’m sure we’ll find out when the time comes.

Here are some photos of la Deportiva…

Norah’s practice:

There are multiple turf fields plus the grass fields:

Basketball Courts:

Covered court for basketball or soccer:

Tennis Courts (I think there are 5 or 6 + a volleyball court):

Very exciting for Aliya…they are putting the finishing touches on a new track!

Cool weight machines where you are lifting/pushing/pulling your own body weight:

Bench Press (sibling spotters seem like a bad idea):

And a playground that has the same equipment that I spent my childhood on (and survived just fine):

They even have Zumba (with an added level of difficulty if you grapevine across the decorative corner medallions)!

We’re psyched to have found this facility and so many options for activities!

Procesión de San Miguel Arcángel

Posted on August 16, 2015
by Lori

This weekend was the vigil to honor San Miguel Arcángel, which lasted from 9 p.m. Saturday night until 6 a.m. Sunday morning. There were supposed to be fireworks at 6 a.m. (this is VERY common) so I went out on the roof terrace to see them, but I finally went back to bed after waiting around for 10 minutes and then I heard them go off at 6:45. I’m still adapting to Mexican Time.

Here’s what the newspaper said about today’s procession: A procession headed by a bull – that will be fattened for feeding the dancers 15 days later – leaves from Las Cuevitas; along with pre-Hispanic dancers, mojigangas (giant puppets) and offerings. The procession goes throughout Canal and arrives to the Parish of Saint Michael the Archangel [this is the parroquia – the big pink church in el Jardin] where the offerings are placed at the Holy Cross. The procession continues through Portal Allende, San Francisco, Nuñez, Puente de Umarán and arrives to Ignacio Ramírez Market [this is where our vegetable lady – Rubina – has her stall], where the vendors place fruit, flowers, and vegetables on the bull’s neck. The procession continues its way through Mesones, Pepe Llanos, Insurgentes [the street parallel from ours – one block over], and ends at the pantheon of San Juan de Dios, where some praises are offered to the dead traditionalists.

This is a pretty long route – it took almost 3 hours from start to finish, but luckily a guy led the procession lighting firecrackers with his cigarette to signal where they were every few minutes. He was followed by la policia…

Next up was the poor sacrificial bull… 🙁

And then a donkey who looked pretty happy that he just had to dress up in paper flowers and would not be fed to the dancers. After the donkey came the offerings and statues of Saint Michael…

Looking back through my photos I’d say there were about 200 dancers. Some of the costumes were AMAZING!!! Each group had one or more drummers…like marching bands in US parades.

Last came the mojigangas, or mojis. If you look closely at some of the photos you can see the face of the person inside (in the general vicinity of the puppet’s “front bum” as Aliya used to say)…

Here’s a video Aliya took of the mojis passing by…

In what seemed like a very bad omen, the bull collapsed near the end of the procession route. The procession had taken about 2 1/2 hours at that point, with many of the dancers continuing to dance the entire way – some in heavy costumes. The bull was given a little water and then hoisted up and led to the shade, so hopefully he’ll be fine…at least until his time is up.

It was a gift to witness this procession, and I know there will be many more to come.

La Comida

Posted on August 13, 2015
by Lori

When we came to San Miguel, one of my goals was to cook at home more – to stop eating out and ordering take-out. Take-out is not healthy and it’s expensive. Since we’re on one income now, the added expense of eating out is a luxury.

Well, I’ve fallen off the wagon. Yes – already. While I’m sure there are plenty of expensive restaurants here, we’ve found several that make it not worth the effort to cook. Tonight we went to Vivoli Café, just up the street from our house. It is a nice Italian restaurant – we all liked our food and the service was great. They have a combo deal which includes an appetizer, an entrée, a dessert, and a glass of wine for 229 pesos – $14. My half of the bill, with 2 glasses of wine, 6 drinks for the kids, 4 entrees, an appetizer, and a dessert was $50 + tip. Last night we went to a less expensive café called Dana at the Market, also within walking distance, and a quarter of a chicken with coleslaw and fries was 60 pesos – $3.75. We went to Via Organica on a whim and it was delicious but we were also surprised to find that they have a big organic store that sells all kinds of great stuff. I bought a jar of really delicious granola and I think we’ll be frequent customers. The pizza place we like, La Grota, charges about $25 for 2 large pizzas including delivery and a tip. And of course, Geek & Coffee, where a great salad runs less than $4.

We won’t be eating out EVERY day, but with the reasonable prices and the healthy food, it’s hard to resist! Plus I don’t have to worry about cooking one of the 6 foods Adlani will eat, along with something the rest of us like. That alone is worth the extra cost!

My salad from Via Organica…

The store at Via Organica…

Aliya’s burrito at Via Organica…

Dinner at Vivoli Cafe…

$3.75 chicken dinner at Dana at the Market…

Geek & Coffee salad…

Down the Drain

Posted on August 11, 2015
by Lori

I finished writing an article today and was feeling pretty accomplished so we headed to Geek & Coffee with most of the Taggart family. I had Annie, and Aliya and I were leading the pack about a block from our house. Norah and Andrew were each carrying beach balls, because I figured those were safe for them to kick around in the yard at Geek & Coffee. The sidewalks are narrow here, so we were walking more or less single file.

Suddenly, I heard Don yell, “ANDREW!” which is not an uncommon occurrence but I still turned around to make sure he wasn’t doing something that would get us kicked out of town. I saw him running after a beach ball, in the street, with cars approaching. Then he was in the middle of the big storm drain grate yelling, “MY FOOT IS STUCK!” as the ball carried on down the street. While trying to extract himself from the grate before getting run over, I saw his iPhone fly out of the pocket of his sweatshirt and into the storm drain.

We attract our share of attention under normal circumstances…5 kids, a dog, beach balls, Don, and me, but now we had a kid stuck in the middle of the road, and Don holding his head and yelling, “OH MY GOD! THIS IS TERRIBLE!!” multiple times. Andrew freed himself but by then the neighbors were starting to peek out of their doors to see what was so terrible.

The kids attempted to open the giant grate and Adlani had the brilliant idea of opening the smaller grate and crawling through the pipe that led to the area under the large grate, but the grates wouldn’t budge. We thought about going home to get a broom and a roll of duct tape, but before we had a chance, a workman came off of a nearby roof where he must have been watching the whole scene unfold.

He had a piece of wire about the thickness of a light-weight wire hanger, and he bent it into a long handle with a rectangular section at 90 degrees, and fished the phone out of the storm drain within minutes, while cars drove past him lying on the road. 200 pesos later (he tried to refuse but Don insisted), we were on our way again.

Andrew’s take-away was that if this had happened in the ‘Ham, nobody would have rushed to help. Is that true? I’m not sure, but I do know there’s a lot more foot traffic here and more people with time to stop and lend a hand.

~~~

As an aside, I think the kids have become a little too comfortable with Don over the last couple of weeks, but occasionally Don wins…