Don’t leave home without it.

You know how sometimes you can have a busy morning where everyone wakes up late and you just have to get the kids somewhere and you say to yourself - I’m not going to see anybody - I’ll shower and brush my teeth in 15 minutes when I get home? You can’t do that here.

At home, when you do it occasionally, it’s okay because if you do happen to run into a friend, they’ll understand and if you see an aquaintance, well, they are an aquaintance, so you wave from a distance and they’ll never know. Not here.

When you first meet another woman here - they give you a peck on the cheek, and then always after.  Birthday parties - hello & goodbye.  Running into someone at school, at the grocery store, at the pharmacy - a quick friendly peck for hello & goodbye.

I was never a much of a mint person before, I am now - you never know.

 

Esquites: Mi Nueva Comida Favorita

Esquites: my new favorite food! I can’t believe I didn’t try them before now, but they just seemed so strange.  All over Merida, especially at outdoor events, are stands where you can get Elotes  (el-owe-tays) or Esquites (ess-keet-tays).  They are essentially the same, but with Elotes, the corn is on the cob and with Esquites, the corn is removed from the cob and eaten from a cup with a spoon.  Afterwards, it is seasoned as you like it - with mayonnaise or cream, chili powder, cheese and lime.  It is spicy, creamy, tangy yumminess!

The pictures I took aren’t so good, so here are some others off the web…

 Esquites

 Elotes

 

High School Musical: El Desafio

I just took the girls to see “High School Musical: El Desafio” or “The Challenge”.  It’s a Disney movie filmed en espanol with Mexican actors about a Battle of the Bands at at Mexican High School, part High School Musical, part Camp Rock.  Instead of Gabriela & Troy, there was Mariana & Cristobal.  Instead of Sharpay & Ryan, there was Luli & Fernando.  Instead of an obsession with basketball, it was futbol (soccer). The girls liked it and we were able to understand quite a bit. Here’s the trailer:

 

Table for Who?

Sometimes when you arrive at a restaurant here, even if there are plenty of tables, they will ask your name - first AND last.  Hubby has gotten go frustrated with trying to pronounce and spell his name for people who understandably have trouble with it. It finally dawned us the other day, that there is really no reason they need OUR name, they just need A name - so why not make it easy for everybody?  Hubby talked about using Jose Martinez as his alias, but we realized the danger of that is that we might not pay attention when the name Jose Martinez is called.  We came up with a solution that would make it easy for the hostesses and be attention getting for my Yankee-loving husband.

So, if you hear that Jorge Posada, Alex Rodriguez, Jose Molina or Mariano Rivera were dining in Merida with their family - don’t believe the hype - it’s probably us.

 

Mucho Divertido = Much Fun

After-school birthday parties are common here. Usually you get an invitation for a party 3 or 4 days later. 

H & J want to tell you about the GREAT party they went to yesterday for their friends -sisters Jania & Lena. It had:

One of those slide moon-bounces where you climb up a rope then slide down a slide that was conveniently positioned so that you slide into the POOL!

A magic/ventriloquist show!

A group of 4 dancers dressed up as the characters from Madagascar!

A trampoline!

A basketball hoop!

2 cakes! Chocolate and Tres Leches!

2 pinatas! 

Face-Painting!

Homemade Delicious Tamales!

The girls were most impressed by the banana tree growing in the yard.  Thanks so much to Jania & Lena and their family for including us in such a fun party (that sounds like it could have been pandemonium, but wasn’t at all - it was just good fun).

 

Capturing Moments in Time

I need to spend some time uploading our pictures from our amazing vacation last week.  I’ll post them soon.

Remember when I posted the awesome Jenn Mason painting that my mother-in-law Susan Berke gave me?  I also want to share these photos of some other art she unveiled while we were in Boston.  When H was 16 months old, I dressed her as Pippi Longstocking for Halloween.  I took a photo of her sitting on the couch, tuckered out, in her costume. Susan gave that photo to Joel Edwards and commissioned an amazing painting.  Well, along came J and of course in all fairness, a painting of J must be commissioned too.  Susan provided Joel with some photos of J including one in her favorite dress.  She unveiled Joel’s latest piece for us while we were home in July.

Take a look at both - they are pretty amazing.  You can get in touch with Joel Edwards via www.SusanBerkeFineArt.com.

 

Otorrinolaringologista

Otorrinolaringologista - just in case you need the Spanish word for an ear, nose & throat specialist!  Tropical warm water + tropical warm air = a nasty ear infeccion for H.  She was in a huge amount of pain, but is okay now after a lovely man named Dr. Pedro R. Becerril Perez worked on her.

We have to do meds for the next 3 weeks, and she can’t swim for at least the next 2 weeks which is a bummer because we are headed to Playa del Carmen.  School starts Monday, so we’re getting in a little family time before then!

 

Gully’s Mexican Food Adventure

Somehow a little iguana got into our livingroom this morning.  The iguana was about the size of a chipmunk or parakeet.  Gully managed to pounce on it and remove it’s tail, leaving that trophy in the middle of the livingroom.  We thought that the little guy got away, but then Maria called from outside “Senora! Gully!  Comer!  Iguanito!”

The girls and I ran out and witnessed Gully enjoying the iguanas extremities.  Yuck.

Hubby is now extremely jealous that Gully got to taste iguana before he did.

For those of you keeping score at home, our family is now responsible for the deaths of 1 hamster and 1 iguana.  Three turtles have diasppeared under mysterious circumstances but no cadavers have been found.

 

A perfect Progreso evening

Our friends Luis and Maria invited us over to their beach house in Progreso last night so that Luis could take us out on his boat.  It was absolutely a perfect evening - 90+degrees, 70-something water, and a nice wind.  I didn’t take any pictures out on the boat, as there was quite a spray out there (Luis even let H drive!), but here are some pictures of the rest of our evening.  It was a nice night that included some swimming, marshmallows over an open fire and some ATV riding.  Some of you (especially our doctor and lawyer friends) will wince at some of these - the boys along the beach love to drag along the back of the ATV, bodies in the sand - seeing who can hang on the longest!

 

 

Muchas gracias Luis y Maria!

 

Most improved player awards

We are definitely making some progress in the language department.  This week I noticed a milestone for both of the girls where they were not fearful of using their spanish in public with strangers. 

H left a toy - a little white dog - in a restaurant.  She said “Hold on - I forgot my toy - perro blanco, right?” and ran back in to claim it! 

When we were at the zoo yesterday, we needed more napkins while devouring some very drippy ice cream.  I started to get them, when J emphatically blocked me and said “I’ll do it! I want to say ‘ Necesito mas servietas por favor’!”

I hope this is a really good sign for how adventurous they may be once school starts on Sept 1st.