Pan Americna games 2011, Zach's Birthday, New Office, Halloween and Dia del Los Muertos

Finally got a new camera and I am feeling ready to start adding to our Blog once again.  So much has happened over the past 5 weeks, so here I go…

We have celebrated the 2011 Pan American Games here in Guadalajara.  The kid’s school had a wonderful celebration that consisted of the Flag March for all countries competing, lighting of the torch and a number of cool sports competitions between the kids in each class.  We were so blown away when we saw our Andrew carrying the Mexican flag and lighting the torch.  Just so happens that we were totally unaware that these two honors go to the best athlete in the grade.  What a fun time we all had and the kids really got into the whole thing.  It is so incredible to see an entire huge city really show pride in what they accomplished by putting on the games.  Below are lots of photos and the remainder of my update.  I hope you enjoy and thanks for reading.

Andrew Carrying the Flag

Andrew and Zach's Futbol Team

Andrew lighting the torch

Cool Store front in the village

Before

Shoppingggggg

Meow

What should I buy?

The Beatles

After

Pan AM Flag Parade

Our favorite Taco place.  1 Visit a week at least

Birthday Parties in Mexico.  Bouncy houses included!

Nuevo Posada Restaurant

Drumming Circle

Pan American Games 2011

Super Cool Hat

Tracy and Carrie

Our friend Berno in the white T-Shirt did the English Announcements at Field Hockey

and the crowd goes wild

USA, USA, USA Women's Field Hockey Team takes the Gold

Oh say can you see by the dawns early light...

USA Women's Team.  They are so cool!

Ben and Carrie hung out with us, so fun!

Archery Stadium

The fancy new RIU Hotel in Guadalajara

Awesome bridge downtown Guad.

Driving home from Guad

Add caption

Cheeeeeeeese

Happy Halloween

Zach's Birthday Pinata

Z's Birthday Party at school

Scarrrrry!

One of many alters for "Dia De Los Muertos"

New Futbol stadium in Guadalajara, built for the Pan American Games

Chilling with Ben at the Pan American Games

Good friend Mark won the Gold in Men's Road Race this day

USA beats Mexico and advances to qualifiers for the Olympics

Cranky and hungry boy!

Zack throwing the Shot-Put at the schools Pan AM Games

We were fortunate enough that our good friend Ben Maruquin from Ventura/Santa Barbara just so happens to be on the coaching staff for the USA Men’s Field Hockey Team.  He was also an Olympic Team member on the USA Men’s Field Hockey team when the Olympics were in Sydney, Australia.  Ben was was able to hook us up with tickets to the Women’s Bronze medal game and the Gold/Silver Medal Game along with the USA Men’s game vs. Mexico.  We were so spoiled and given the VIP treatment.  It all started with the most wonderful women's team member Carrie Lingo.  She found us at the front gate and escorted us in and then proceeded to hang out with us and fill us in on all the rules and details of our now favorite team sport.  We all had the greatest time ever and just fell in love with all the players.  What a high…

Then came Zach’s Birthday celebration.  Most of you are aware that his big day is actually on Halloween back in the USA.  Well, Mexico does celebrate Halloween a bit, but there are some obvious differences.  The first is that the kids say “queremos Halloween” in a chant instead of Trick or Treat.  They also tend to have to walk really far in order to garner any candy as only one in about 20 houses participates.  For “Z’s” big day we had a Day of the Dead / Dia de Los Muertos bread with candles on top, he opened his gifts from the family and he was thrilled.  While trick or  treating, he asked me why there were so few houses that had candy to pass out, I explained that in Mexico they are just in the past few years beginning to embrace this north of the border celebration.  He looked at me and said, “so why don’t they want to all celebrate my birthday”?  That’s my boy!  Tracy decorated the front of our house along with 9 other homes in our little neighborhood and it was such a fun night.  There had to be over 200 kids wandering around the neighborhood.  The kids actually rode in the back of the car with Tracy and we had the hatch up so that they could get out when we got to a home that was passing out candy.  They had such great luck and got so much candy, it was awesome. 

On November 2^nd the Mexican’s celebrate “Dia de Los Muertos” or day of the dead and is is simply awesome.  The cemeteries get decorated; the burial plots all get cleaned up, flowers, food, drink, and memorabilia from the buried ones life surround the altar.  Every gravesite is like a small shrine to the deceased and the beautiful thing is that the family members set up a small party at the site to celebrate the life of the loved one lost.  In the evening after dark, we headed to Chapala down the road and hit 5 de Mayo street, where they actually block off 2/3 of the street and build these amazing altars to the lost loved ones.  Everyone from family members to Bob Marley is remembered.  Entire yards, carports and corner sidewalk/street areas are set up.  It was one of the most touching and beautiful things I have ever witnessed.  The really cool thing is that this celebration has been around in Mexico for over 2,500 years and still going strong.

One last thing, is that we just got Andrew's first term grades from his school and he has score an average of 9.9 out of a best of 10.  It’s a good sign indicating that he is finally feeling settled and happy with where and what he is doing.   We are all feeling really good, everyone is healthy and we have made some of the best friends you could ask for.  There is absolutely nothing scary down here for us, other than Spanish class because it is so challenging.  This place is so wonderfully beautiful, fun and the people are just plain ole awesome!  The beauty, culture and climate make for a perfect vacation or even better a perfect life.  If you think this place is unsafe, just watch your local news or pick up a paper in the USA.  It is far more violent there than it is here.   Please, come and visit us or at least take a trip to a beach town down here in Mexico.  You will not be disappointed.

Adios for now

Regatta de Globos 2011: This was the coolest thing ever.

So, yesterday we attended the Regatta de Globos in Ajijic, Mexico and it was AWESOME!  Different groups get together over the year and begin to make and assemble these amazing balloons.  They are constructed entirely from tissue paper, glue and tape.   

Then layered for thickness , but only 2 layers at most (Did I mention it’s only tissue paper).  Then they assemble the pieces into all different types of shapes, sizes and characters.  Once they have the balloon finished, every year at this time they set out to launch the “Globos” from the village futbol field.  It is so much fun to be in the middle of it all.  We set up our blankets and chairs, brought food, drink and snacks.  We met up with about a dozen friends and all of our kids.  The first launch was around 3:00pm and the Globos were really cool, but soon to find out rather small.  As the day progressed on, the Globos got bigger and bigger with a few small and medium ones set off in-between the big ones.  Now the way they launch these things is by starting with a chimenea.

Once they have it 90% filled, they take a towel and roll it tight in a circle, then soak it in petroleum.  Then they light the ring of fire which is wrapped around the bottom of the Globo on a metal ring.  The hot air forces the Globos up up and away into the sky.  If the wind is calm, they just keep going up and up, but if the wind causes them to tip side to side, the paper catches on fire and you have an inferno of paper falling along with the blazing hot metal ring and towel.  I gotta tell you that there is NO way you would ever see anything like this in the US or Canada.  OSHA would have a heart attack if they were here.  It is so freaking cool though, the Globos went up and burning ash and metal fall from the sky.  

 Not a single person got hurt, burned or singed, except for their pride when the Globos would just go up in flames before the even launched.  Here is a short video from the day.  Once again, living here feels so free and easy at times.  Everyone out enjoying the incredible weather, family, friends and a really cool spectacle of balloons, ahhh a true slice of heaven.

School has started, Futbol, Nana and PopPop Johnson visit and More

I will begin this latest blog with 4 words, “THE ADVENTURE HAS BEGUN.”  So, school is now in full swing for the boys and they seem to be settling in much better then we had anticipated.  The boys both get to school early in the morning around 8:00am and stay until 2:00pm.  The day is divided into ½ English and ½ Spanish.  Zach has no English speaking kids in his class and is picking up the language thing really quick.  Andrew is in class with all Spanish-speaking kids, but all have been studying English for 3-5 years.  They are both making friends and seem to be enjoying the school day.  Homework is a bit tough for them, because his parents don’t know enough Spanish to really be of much help, but with Google Translator, were getting by nicely.  The boys do wear uniforms for school which makes our lives really easy when it comes to buying school clothes and they look super cute.

Zach and Andrew have both taken up futbol (soccer) and are playing 2 days a week with mostly Spanish speakers and loving it.  They do drills and play for 2 hours each night.  The couple that puts on the practices is from Canada couple that worked with the Canadian National Team for years and it shows.  They are getting all these kids to really focus and work hard and still play hard.  In 2 weeks we have already seen a huge improvement in Andrew and Zach, who have really never had any formal coaching in the game (no offense coach Frank).  The best part is they LOVE going and getting in the middle of it all.  I am amazed at how well they both just jump in and start making friends and participating. 

Nana and PopPop Johnson just came for 2 weeks and we had such a fantastic time.  We took them to Guadalajara, showed them all over town and decided that they really need to move here for at least a few months a year.  Not sure if they agree, but they were looking at places to rent for a few months next year. Yippee!!

I got my first round of food poisoning from a dish that I knew better then to actually eat.  It was fantastic tasting going in, but coming out was horrible, two days later it was all over and I was back to 100%.  Hey I did say this was going to be an adventure didn’t I.  Then the crazy part of all of this has been with Andrew.  He has been complaining of a stomachache for 2 weeks now and we kept thinking it was all due to nerves.  He was in a new school, new kids, …  well this week, we decided to call his bluff and go get him tested.  We did a blood panel and a fecal test ad then waited two days.  Well the results come back and everything looks really good, except for Big Capital Letters that say he has an Amoeba in his gut and we need to treat with antibiotics.  Once we found out he did have something in his gut, we were actually relieved.  This is something that we can help with, if it would have been depression, anxiety and nervousness, which was a bit more daunting for us to consider.  He is feeling much better now just with the information that he really is feeling and experiencing a stomach issue.  I think he thought we were crazy by not believing him.  He has always been incredibly intuitive about his body.  Guess the lesson here is to really listen to your kids, they know!

All in all things are fantastic for us.  Tracy is in a Lip Sync Fund Raiser for the local theatre.  We just finished our Level I Spanish class after 7 weeks and begin Level II on Monday.  Finding our way around is super easy now, I got invited out for the first time to go listen to some live music, we have all our paperwork now and submitting things to the INM (Immigration) to get our legal working papers.  Tracy loves her Yoga class.  I have a great gym that I am back at, with the exception of the week off from the food/stomach issue.  In the past 3 weeks, we have met 3 more families with young kids that have moved here for a better quality of life. 

This place is truly magical and we are loving being here.  I wish I had photos to share but the camera got dropped on the floor and the view-screen is now shattered.  I will get around to buying one soon, juts need to find out where the best deals are.   Miss you all a ton and hope you will come see our slice of paradise someday soon.

Light and love,

Brian

School supplies, tooth update and a day at the Guadalajara Zoo

Hola!   

Last day of summer camp 2011

Well, another few weeks has flown by and here I am trying to retrace our footsteps here in Mexico.  So, summer camp is over and we are now in full gear for school to stat a week from today.  Actually went and dropped off all of the kids school supplies and books today.   

Now I am not typically one to vent on my Blog, but I thought a nice change of pace was in order.  The school requests of all the parents to go out and get the entire years supply of school stuff.  Everything from erasers, pencils, paper, ruler, you name it we had to buy it.  Now to top things off, we had to write each boys name on every piece of school gear, yes on the pencils too.  Now the way the purchasing of supplies goes for our school, is you take “The” list to the local papalaria (paper good and school supply store and ours even has an internet café).  Now, the list is given to the person in charge of the store and then you are asked to come back the next day.  Well, we did this and to my surprise it was hugely successful.  Everything down to the stick on eyeballs for art was in the bags.  We took the stuff home and waited for today.  The textbooks were also bought about 4 weeks ago at the school and had to cove every single book in a plastic stick on film to protect them from the hard use by each kid.  Okay, now we are at today, the day that all needs to be turned in.  We show up to the school at our designated time and I proceed to Zach’s classroom and Tracy to Andrew’s.  Once in the rooms, we are asked to start unloading the supplies while the teacher sits or stands and checks off each and every item and book.  All the while making sure that the name is on everything and books are covered with the plastic.  So, my first thought is what an enormous waste of a teacher’s time and then I start to think what a waste of the parent’s time.  How hard would this be for the school to just bulk order all the supplies in one fell swoop and be done with this crap.  Being the person I tend to be, I ask the teacher why such a waste of human time and resource.  How come the school doesn’t just take care of it?  Now one thing I forgot to mention is that they are VERY particular about everything, from the type of pencils, crayons, and these freaking little colored workbooks, which I will get to in a minute.   I mean detail has to be matched up on EVERYTHING.  The teacher is fantastic and she is kind enough to entertain my obviously annoying question and proceeds to tell me that the school did in fact do the shopping in the past, but some of the parents complained and felt that the school was profiting from the supplies.  The parents, and I am sure it was probably fewer then a dozen, wanted to buy there own supplies because they could save money.  Holy crap people, between the time it took to go to the store, write on everything, cover them and still be told that we had still screwed up and gotten a few of the wrong items, I would pay an extra $100 US dollars for the lack of this freaking headache.   For the love of god, we are talking private school here!  You, the school are in charge and it is your prerogative to tell the parents; here is your child’s curriculum, our fees, uniforms cost, rules and regulations and our freaking supply list that we will buy in bulk and you the parent will pay for.  That way, we are certain to get everything that we want, need and require for your child’s school year.   Now, I was involved pretty deep with the Boulder Valley School Board while in Boulder and I have seen the good that parents can do for a school and the district, but come on schools, you have got to draw the line somewhere with these parents.  I am a good Chiropractor, but I know I suck as a schoolteacher and especially as an administrator, so next year, just buy the stuff and make us pay for it.  Save yourself the money and time and make the parents suck it up and pay for what it is you want exactly!  Then there is the plastic coating from hell.  Every book and I mean every book is wrapped in this plastic wrap that absolutely makes these things 100% no recyclable.  Now I know many of you are thinking; recycling in Mexico?  Yes, they do recycle here.  Nowhere near the level of Boulder, but they attempt to do some.  I have even heard the school staff mentions sustainable and recycling.  This just shoots that whole thing to shit.  I can’t be sure how many kids are in the school, but lets say 200.  Now take that and multiply it by say, 20 books and you get 4,000 books with enough plastic to wrap a Boeing 777 Superliner.  That landfill will take millennia to break down all that plastic.  Needless to say, this is a sore spot in my day.  Oh, I almost forgot about the freaking little colored workbooks.  So, I finish in Zach’s class and head over to find Tracy at Andrews school next door.  She is finishing up, when the teacher tells us both that we bought 8 of the wrong notebooks (Oh, one more detail.  We took the list to the store that was recommended by the school, because that particular store had the master list of all supplies that each child at the school would need.  Do you recall the part above about leaving the list at the store and them filling it out?  I do!)  Well, the teacher then tells us that the ones we have will work, but we will need take them home and draw a red line in ink towards the top of each page (100 front and back=200, multiplied by 8 books).  Once again, me being me, I tell the teacher that we just can’t do that.  I have finally cracked.  I then said that if it is that important, then Andrew will be able to help out during class and do the lines himself as needed.    So, that is my little rant and I am so thankful to any of you that just wasted the time necessary to read this.  Now on with the show…

Ajijic

Spanish Class

Our Master Suite with walk in closet :-)

Living room

Guadalajara Zoo

Safari Ride

Andrew feeding our new friend

 School is right around the corner, my folks actually arrive this a week from right about now and I am so excited to have them coming to hang out and visit.  I am really looking forward to showing our new life off a bit.  The last of my “tooth” episode came to an end last week when I finally had my permanent crown put on.  All in all it cost me a bit less then $600 dollar US.  My good friend and dentist back in Colorado (Frank Harmon, DDS) had offered to do the work for me if I could get up there, but I just wasn’t going to be able to get up there soon enough.  Thank you so much Dr. Frank, you are still the best dentist I have ever been to as an adult (my uncle was my dentist when I was a kid).  We went to the zoo in Guadalajara last week and it was super cool and absolutely huge.  Everything from a traditional zoo with hundreds of exotic animals, aquarium, safari adventure, circus (better then the one Blogged about in the beginning of our adventure.  Very much like a Cirque du Sole) and a train that went around the entire park.  My favorite part of the park is that was built on the northern part of the city.  You can actually walk to the edge of the zoo and see the city in the distance to the west, but out in front of you is a sheer drop off and jungle below into a valley and then up the mountains on the other side where nothing has been built there.  It was just breathtaking that the 2^nd largest city in all of Mexico, just abruptly ends and nature takes over again.   Well another trip into Guadalajara and the zoo along with a stop at Costco on the way home made for a great day.   

The house just gets better and better, our neighbors are some of the nicest people that Tracy and I have ever met.  Most everyone here is over the top kind and friendly.  My philosophy is that we are in an incredibly small town with a large population of ex pats and we all just kind of hang together and help however we can and when we can.  You really feel connected to the folks you meet here, because you have something in common, a sense of adventure and a wanting for some kind of significant change in the way things were in your life before moving here.  Whether it be language, culture, art, weather (my favorite), food or something different from what you had, this place has something for everyone and it is truly magical.  Well, thanks again for humoring me by reading my Blog.  I hope you enjoy the photos and videos.  More to come soon…

 VIDEO: A day at the Guad Zoo

Beach Time and New House

July 18, 2011

Oh my Blog, now I have neglected you.  Time just seems to be flying by these past few weeks.  Well, we finally took a trip to the beach and it was awesome.  We went to a beach town a bit north of Manzanillo, called Melaque.   Our friends Joe and Brandi rented a house on the beach and invited us to come down and join them for the weekend.  We decided to see about a hotel close by with A/C and inexpensive.  Joe and Brandi spent some time looking at places and found us a great little hotel about 3 blocks from the beach ($500 pesos per night = $45 dollars).  The road actually dead ends into the sand and their house was there on the right.  We had such a blast, just hanging out, walking on the beach swimming in the 80+ degree water, restaurants on the beach and such beautiful scenery.  One of the really cool things we did was buy marlin from one of the local fish shops and cooked it up at the house.  We paid about $120 pesos for 2 kilos (that is 2.2 lbs per kilo) of wonderful tasting fish.  I have never had Marlin before, so I can’t say how much it might have been in the USA, but I am pretty sure it would have been more then $3 per pound.  We walked the little local towns (Barra Navidad and Melaque) and poked our heads in the shops.  I am pretty sure that we will wait to do the beach thing once the hot and humid verano (summer) is over.  It was wonderful while you’re in the ocean, pool or air-conditioned rooms, pero hace mucho calor (but it is very warm) walking around.  The kind of warm that makes your shirt stick to your skin.

Colima Volcano

Our Hotel in Melaque

Marlin for lunch

Our new pool

The beach in Melaque looking north

Dinner on the beach

Road from our hotel to la playa

Fruit stands along the roads from Manzanillo to Melaque

Melaque play looking south

The view from our dinner table.  The umbrella shadow is ours.

July 25, 2011

Yeah!!!  We are moving into our new house.  Well, we got the email that it would be okay to move into our new house a week early.  Tracy is so excited, but since it’s been about 5 weeks since we saw it, were having a tough time remembering what it looks like.  The boys are still in camp for another 2 weeks, Andrew is tutoring through this week and Tracy and I start Spanish classes.  We are so looking forward to the move and our classes.  The one really frustrating thing about living here so far is that we aren’t fluent yet and that get’s frustrating at times.  We so want to be able to carry on a conversation with anyone here, especially the Mexican’s, but we are on our way to being able to do that very well and soon.  Give us 6 months and I think things will be much easier in that realm.

July 27, 2011

We are in and so the one-year begins!  We love our new house soooooo much!  It is better then we remembered it.  It has a copala in the kitchen and Boveda ceilings.  There are 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths; one has a nice Jacuzzi tub.  The master has a walk in closet; the kitchen and bathrooms have granite counter tops, lots of color, fully furnished, well-stocked kitchen appliances and utensils.  It has everything we could want and more.  Along with all of that great stuff, there is a community pool and we have a small yard that is perfect for the dog and cat.   For Tracy this is a huge step, as most of you know how important it is for her to have her place to nest.  We have already moved furniture and getting ready to go and buy the boys some twin beds.  The boys love that we have about 700 cable channels on the television, not that they get to watch much. 

So, we have spent the past few weeks, moving, beaching it, site seeing, eating, sleeping, playing tennis, hiking the falls again, shopping, tutoring, Spanish classes, summer camp and more.  It feels like life is finally starting to settle in and routine is taking hold, which we all seem to thrive in.  Every day it feels more and more like home and the potential to stay for a longer period of time becomes a greater possibility.  We will just have to wait and see…

Rainy day drive in the Lake Chapala area.  Keep and eye out for the guy on a bike at around minute 1:00.  I have never seen so much water fall from the sky in such a short time.