Erick's Birthday by Karina

       First we got to school, did P.E., English class, then math. Thirty minutes until break time and our class was already excused. Except we were not out for recess. We were excused because there was a cake to be eaten.

        It was Erick's birthday! When we got downstairs everyone was talking very loudly again and then someone suggested a picture. That's when the other class came down, and got in the picture too. After the pictures, the teacher got one picture of Erick pretending to take a bite of the cake. 

        The fun started when a random kid pushed his head in to the cake. Then his face covered with cake and some of the students took the cake off of his face and wiped it off on other kids' faces. I did not participate in this cakey act.  

         After everyone had their "cake fight" we lined up for breakfast. Breakfast was tacos with beans and pork. And cake, if we wanted to have any, after all that.

My Mexican Classmates By: Karina Bauhaus

        Here at this Mexican school there are not very many kids in each class, but they sure do make a lot more noise than all of my classmates back home make all together. 

        Anyways, that's not what matters. What matters is that I know all of my classmates. So I will name and partly describe them.

        Starting with the boys: Marco-highly annoying and loud, Fabian-annoying, weird, and painful, Enrique-helpful and smart, Vladimir-quiet at times and smart, Jose-also quiet at times and seems smart. As you can tell most of the boys are obnoxious.

        Now for the girls: Patty-loud yet quiet in class, Ambar-helpful and nice, Maria-nice and tall, Pamela-friendly and quiet, Gabby-smart, helpful, and loud, Sinai-helpful and friendly, Alejandra-friendly, loud, nice, funny, pretty, and smart.

        Lots of them are loud or annoying, in fact they are screaming and playing around right now. Okay now they're walking out the door. Now they are downstairs doing who knows what. Anyway I'm glad I know my twelve classmates now, at least I'm not in a school where there are only five kids in each class. Including Annika we are fourteen in the seventh grade.

Back to school....Mexican style

What that means is waking at 5:45, leaving the boat on a dinghy to school by 6:30, and even wearing a uniform!  And we thought getting to school on time at 8:20 was hard. Hah!  The kids are seemingly getting much more interested in speaking Spanish, asking every evening about what this or that means. It's fun to hear their stories about how strict or funny their teachers are.  It's also good to hear the complaints...about how hard the chairs are, how loud the fan is or how there is not a real lunch hour.  Makes me hopeful that they will be more respectful and grateful for school in back home in California.

We are still loving Isla Mujeres.  It is a peaceful, safe, beautiful island with whale sharks, octopus, gelato, clear shallow water, great restaurants, insanely interesting expats, other boat families, perfect sand beaches, internet, fresh guava, hibiscus and coconut juice and the kids can ride bikes anywhere or walk to a friend's place in 10 minutes.  We are so close (20 minute ferry) to Cancun where if we must we can see movies in the nicest (by far) movie theater, at the nicest malls I've seen or even shop at Costco.  Speaking of Costco, I'm off mass consumption and Costco shopping.   Now-a-days I would rather go without than stuff my cabinets with jumbo sized cardboard packaging of everything we never needed.  Crackers, chips, cookies, juice, and peanut butter for the year, or enough grapes to feed 5 families for a week.  I never would've noticed whether we really needed or used all that if I didn't have to live in, on, under and with it...literally packed into every nook of our little house (boat).  Nope, no more Costco, just fish from the fishermen next door, mangos from the market and daily tortillas, and just at the very moment, or on the very day we feel like it........mmmm I think we'll have fish tacos tonight now that I think of it..................!

Decided

We plan to stay and wait out the hurricane season for 2 more months until October 30 in Isla Mujeras.  Not an easy decision because our habit is to take the risk and move along.  However our professional boat captain neighbors here at the marina have recommended we stay put here where we have the best chance for serious protection.  It's still hard though because Hurricane Ernesto passed just 80 miles south of us last week and was "a breeze" so to speak.  There are no hurricane "holes" in Belize and it's a slow trip up wind and current, so looks like we're locked-in.  Not a bad place to be mind you.......just not what we we're planning.

Mikai is ALWAYS ready to be First Mate 

     So with this shift comes new possibilities.  The kids will start school here in Mexico on Monday for a bit of language and culture-- if all the paperwork comes through.  That's neat.  However school starts here at 7:00am.  That's not so neat.  It's all good.  Change is good.....and sometimes it takes a breakdown or a hurricane to make us try something new.

Chicken Pizza- by Nikolas

     I've been in Isla Mujeres for about a month now and  it's pretty dang boring. Obviously and especially it had to boring with my fun but pushy moms friend visiting. Anyway about four days ago me and my family went to a place called Chicken Pizza (Chichen Itza) and it was hot and miserable because it was all looking not touching. There was a Mayan pyramid that you used to be able to climb up but now can't.             

A big day of stories at Chichen Itza about sacrificing the most beautiful 15 year old virgins in March, the winning ball game captains in June, and the discovery of chocolate by the Mayans.   It was a hard, hot and interesting day.

     As a souvenir I bought an onyx and quarts chess set. This was my happy and miserable meter, 1% happy, 99% miserable. When we got back it was 10 o'clock at night and when we left it was 6:30am. It was maybe 40% fun 60% not fun.