Our first month in Mexico - San Miguel de Allende - July 2017

We've now been in Mexico for a month!  The first week here was quite an adjustment.  I think all of us felt overwhelmed and nervous, and the kids were already homesick.  After the three oldest were in tears the first few nights, I wondered if we had done the right thing! But we settled in, found our way around the city, and started having some fun adventures! 

We love living in San Miguel de Allende!  It's a great city with lots to see and do.  And yummy food!  We live about a mile from the center of town.  Our neighborhood is quiet (for Mexico), and mostly has Mexican families living here.  We really stand out! 😄  At the end of our block is a taco stand, where we often buy a cheap lunch.  It's literally a hole in the wall place - no roof, broken down walls, and it's empty when they pack up every afternoon.  But it's run by a mom and her older daughters and the tacos are delicious! It's so nice to just give my boys some money and have them run down and buy us lunch.  We also have several small "tiendas" (stores) in the neighborhood, so it's easy to get basic supplies without having to run to the big grocery store all the time.

We enjoy walking up an easy, mostly flat path to the "jardin" (the main square in town) a few times each week. The kids found an ice cream place along the way that sells cheap ice cream, so we often stop there.  I think we've had more ice cream than ever on our trip, but we walk a lot so it's ok!  We also like to walk to a nearby soccer field to play kickball or soccer.

Some of the quirks we've had to adjust to include the noise at night (dogs barking, crickets, music), hanging clothes up to dry (washer but no dryer), doing the dishes (no dishwasher), listening for the garbage truck bell and taking our trash out directly to the truck, driving on cobblestone roads with several big speedbumps, driving up and down incredibly steep roads, drinking water from water bottles exclusively (including to brush teeth), washing/soaking all produce before eating it, and not always understanding the Spanish we hear.

Some of the best parts of living here include the kindness of the people we've met, the weather (love it!!), not having to drive very often, exploring the local markets, meeting people from all over, practicing our Spanish skills, eating delicious food, finding cheap deals on everything, and the slower pace of life in general.  We have so much time to just hang out, go outside, and relax! Alec loves watering all of our plants and turning on the waterfall.

We've met a few other homeschool/worldschool families and it's been great to have those connections to learn from and to have fun together.  My boys especially have enjoyed playing at the parks and hanging out with other kids their ages.






The favorite activity of all the kids is volunteering at the local animal shelter.  We usually go 2-3 times a week and play with the kittens, cats, and puppies. The kids love it so much that I continue to take them there, despite the fact that I'm highly allergic to cats and dogs.😆








 





I think my kids get more excited than I do when we find out the cheap price of many things here!  We've taken the kids to the movies twice (in English with Spanish subtitles) and paid around $20 for all of our tickets, popcorn, 2 drinks, and candy!  Ice cream is also cheap, which is why we don't mind getting it so often.






Our adventures this month included the following:

Going to the botancial gardens (El Charco) - we liked hiking the trails and seeing all of the native plants and different varieties of cacti.  Alec's favorite part was playing on the rocks at the bottom of a waterfall.  He keeps asking to go back.



Carter and Ian were really mad that we wouldn't let them cross this dam. Safety standards here are a little relaxed and we just couldn't risk it.  They understood a little better when we walked by here on our way back and water was gushing over the fence from the rain that had started.

Touring the ruins of La Canada de la virgen - they are over a thousand years old!  Our tour was in Spanish with only one other family, so we mostly had the place to ourselves. The kids loved climbing to the top!

Visiting the local "Tuesday market" (giant flea market) - boys were constantly stopped to check out all of the fidget spinners for sale. The food here is much cheaper than the grocery store.

Exploring the nearby town of Dolores Hildago - we saw a reenactment of the battle cry for freedom, complete with a band, donkey and costumed actors. We also sampled some of the strange ice cream flavors that the town is famous for.  Octopus with shrimp ice cream is as gross as it sounds!

 

Dyeing Macie's hair red!

Watching several street performances in the jardin, meeting new friends, and wandering around this colorful city!

 

...and finally eating delicious food! Corn on the cob with mayonnaise, cheese and chili powder is a specialty here - and it was surprisingly delicious!  And after weeks of tacos, Ian was excited to finally get a yummy hamburger!

 
 

But I'm not tired of tacos yet - these fish tacos were especially delicious!  The view from our seats was also amazing!

 





 We're excited to see what awaits us during our next (and last) month here!

How to prepare for a year long trip

Once we decided that we were really (yes, really!!) going to leave our lives and travel for a year, we had to make a plan for it happen.  After countless hours of research, we came up with a list and went to work!

One of the first things on the list was downsizing.  After living in our house for almost 12 years at that point, we had a lot of stuff!  So we started selling things at yard sales and giving away a ton.  I took numberless trips to goodwill and constantly had items listed for sale online.  The job of downsizing was literally a year long project!  We felt a burden lifted after getting rid of so many things - it's a great feeling to not be tied down to so many material possessions!  Prioritizing what is most important and not keeping anything else is something I would recommend to everyone!

Another item on our list was healthcare.  I found an international heathcare plan that covers us anywhere in the world - except the United States.  And it is much cheaper than what we were currently paying with our US plan!  We also had to get the proper vaccinations.  Jodee is already covered from his multiple world travels, and the kids had some of the vaccinations recommended (Hep A and B).  But I had to get the Hep A/B shots (3 total, spread out over 6 months), which was not a big deal.  And then there were the typhoid fever pills.  Definitely needed in the countries we're visiting, the typhoid pills are more effective and last longer than the shot.  Only problem was that none my kids could swallow a pill!  But after a few weeks of practicing with tic tacs, I'm happy to say that they were all able to do it!  Whew! Now we are set and hopefully won't get sick!

We also had to get all of the kids passports.  I'd recommend getting them as soon as you know you need them.  We waited until the end of April, which was two months before our trip.  They normally take 4-6 weeks to get to you, which is fine if there are no problems.  The boys' passports came in two weeks!  But Macie's was delayed because of a missing letter on her birth certificate.  I had to scramble and get another birth certificate (with that pesky missing letter which noted that she had indeed been born in a hospital) to send off.  Luckily, we got her passport a few weeks later and we didn't have to leave her behind.  :)

What to do with our house???  We decided to keep it, so we would have a home to come back to.  The kids are also comforted by knowing that we'll be back in the same house at the end of our trip.  But we needed to find someone to rent it for just a year, which is much harder than it sounds.  An amazing path of talking to the right people at the right time led us to friends of our family who needed a home to rent for just a year.  We were able to leave much of our furniture for them to use, and store the rest of our belongings in one of the bedrooms.  Truly a blessing!  They are a wonderful family and we're so grateful to have them in our home while we're gone.

With the house taken care of, we turned to our cars.  We are keeping our van for the first six months, to drive through Mexico and Central America.  Then we're probably selling it.  But our other car is a four year old Hyundai Elantra.  At first we tried to sell it, but after considering taxes and the cost to replace it we decided to store it for a year.  We have a friend watching over it and Jodee got it ready to sit for a year (fingers crossed it still runs when we get back!).  Jodee also got our van in shape so it can survive our trip - new tires, oil change, etc.

Along with the house and cars, we had to consider insurance.  House insurance for a rental property is a little different (more $$) than if you are living in your home.  But we found a good agent and got it covered.  Driving in Mexico requires Mexican car insurance - US plans don't cover you down there.  But it's much cheaper to insure your car in Mexico!  

We also had to consider what to do with our mail.  Aren't we all so lucky to live in a society that is mostly paperless?  Most of our mail is junk mail!  For the few important mail items, we set up an account with a forwarding service that will scan our mail and email it to us.

Next came figuring out how to handle our money.  Much of the world uses cash and not credit cards, so we needed easy (and free) access to ATMs.  We were able to change our account with our bank to get debit cards with no foreign transactions fees and no ATM fees on either side.  The bank also gave us a private banker to assist us if we need help with anything while we're gone.  We've been really happy with Chase bank!  Another good option we considered was getting a Charles Schwab debit card, which also has no ATM fees and no foreign transactions fees.  But for us it was easier to just stay with Chase.

Along with handling our money, how will we afford this trip?  It's a question we've sometimes been asked, and I'm sure many people secretly wonder. :)  Before I started researching the logistics of year long travel, I wondered how families could possibly afford to do it.  Without sharing all of our financial information, I will mention a few factors which have allowed us to afford this trip around the world.  

1. We are tightwads! Seriously, we save a ton by not going out to eat often, mowing our lawn and cleaning the house ourselves, only buying things on sale, and constantly looking for deals.   I'm not judging anyone who spends their money differently - we're pretty low maintenance and that works for us.  Do what works for you and makes you happy!  :)

2.  We own our house.  We bought our home at a good time when prices were relatively low, and we've worked hard to pay off our mortgage.  The monthly rental payment is definitely a nice source of income to have while we're on the trip.

3.  We've lived in Houston for almost 16 years!  This city - and our neighborhood particularly - is probably one of the cheapest places to live in the country.  Housing, food, gas, activities = cheap living in an awesome state!

4. Jodee's job is a huge blessing!  Not many people work for the same company for 16 years, have great hours (7-4, never weekends), and get to travel occasionally to all parts of the world!  We're truly grateful for his job and it's definitely a big factor in how we can afford to travel.  I won't share all the details of what's happening with his job while we're away, but I will say that we're happy with how the company is working with us to make our plans a reality.  They've been really great and very supportive.

5. We're going to affordable countries and staying for a long time.  Slow travel, or staying in one place for multiple weeks, allows us to truly experience the culture and people of each city and get better rates on accommodation.  Our first city is San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and we're staying here for two months.  Many places on airbnb give you a monthly discount for longer stays, so we plan to spend about a month in most places.  Affordable countries/places that we plan to visit include Mexico, Guatemala, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Eastern Europe. 

6. Flexibility in our plans helps us save money!  We can look for the best deals and go when the prices are low.  Not being tied down to school and work schedules is a big benefit and will help us take advantage of those amazing deals!

We also had to decide what to do about school for our kids.  But I'll save that discussion for another post!

Planning to leave our home for a year was overwhelming! I spent more than one night laying awake feeling anxious and nervous and wondering what in the world we were doing?!  And worried that I was forgetting to do something important to get ready!  We had several stressful events occur in the weeks before we left, but they all got worked out and we pulled out of our driveway on time.  We were nervous, excited, anxious, happy and ready to see the world!