Month 2 - San Miguel de Allende, Mexico - August 2017

We spent all of August in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.  Planning the trip, we felt it would be nice to get settled into one area for a longer time instead of moving around a lot.  We couldn't have chosen a better place to spend our first two months!  We have loved living in San Miguel and it's been a great place to transition to as we've started our travel life.

We've had more fun adventures this month, including a trip to the nearby city of Guanajuato.  It's bigger than SMA, but has a similar feel with brightly colored houses set among steep hills.  We took a funicular up to the top of one hill for some amazing views!

We also enjoyed delicious street food and entertainment - we love Mexican street food!  And we're getting better at ordering in Spanish! :)

My boys especially love "elote" - Mexico corn with mayonaise, cheese, and chili powder, usually found for around $1. So yummy! Not really "Mexican" food, but we were happy to have crepes with Nutella for dinner! 

Some fun street performers

The University of Guanajuato has impressive stairs, which my boys ran right up.

Teatro Juarez - an old theater built in a European style.  They only have performances here a few times a year, but we were able to take a small tour inside.

Rain started pouring down as we were leaving the town, but it cleared for a little bit and we saw this double rainbow.

A typical Saturday in SMA could include seeing a wedding party at the Parroquia, playing with pigeons, walking through the markets, watching native performances while eating lunch, and eating ice cream from our favorite store.

San Miguel has some amazing street art!  Instead of ugly graffiti, real artists are hired to paint and decorate walls with interesting and sometimes amusing works of art.  We've loved discovering new graffiti around every corner.

We loved seeing this reminder of home!

We walked by this art several times a week - one of the kids' favorites! "No al muro" = no to the wall!

The colorful doors in the city are also fun to discover!  Our door was the middle, black door, with beautiful pink flowers hanging over it.

Speaking of our home, I loved the beautiful backyard, and spent many meals outside enjoying the view and the perfect weather.  It was also a great place to keep the little bunny we found a few weeks ago on the side of the road.  The kids named her/him "Connie" - short for conejo (rabbit in Spanish). We had a fun time playing with Connie until we gave her to a friend to take care of.

                

Jodee and I started taking early morning walks around the city.  We saw hot air balloons getting ready for take-off, beautiful sunrises, and a city waking up.

We've also made several friends here with other worldschooling families.  Not only have they been wonderful people who have welcomed us into their lives, but they've also shared their insights and experiences with traveling as a family.  We're so glad to have met so many amazing people from several parts of the world!  Our kids have enjoyed getting together with other kids, playing games, going to the park and dinner, and spending a day together at a water park.  We also met kind members of the local church here who invited us to some fun activities and helped us feel welcome.

Goodbye San Miguel de Allende!  We'll miss you and hope to be back soon!

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!