Sunday, July 25th

Today we got pulled over for the first time since being back in Mexico. My mom, dad and I were on our way back from the theater (where we had seen Shrek 3) and my dad made an "illegal" U-turn. There was no sign saying that you couldn't U-turn, but there was no sign saying that you could. There was another place to U-turn up ahead and that was where you were supposed to turn. I'm going to explain something before going any farther. The police in Mexico City don't get paid very much, so when they pull people over they ask for a "mordita", in other words, a bribe. They give you two choices, you pay them now and go on your way, or they keep your driver's license, give you a ticket, and you have to come back the next day to fill out paperwork and then pay. As my dad said, you either pay in money, or you pay in time and money. With either option you can be sure that the money you pay isn't going to go to the government, the officers will split it up between them and keep it. So when the police pulled us over, my dad played new-to-Mexico gringo, he pretended to only know a little Spanish. While the police were trying to explain something that we understood perfectly (but pretended not to), I was sitting in the back trying as hard as I could not to burst out laughing! It was very funny watching my dad work to get the perfect balence, knowing enough so that eventually they would make themselves understood, but little enough so that they had to work pretty hard and repeat themselves a lot. My dad was aiming to make them frustrated so that they would let him off easy, it didn't really work. So after quite a while of listening to the officers try to explain, we paid them and they let us leave.

Tuesday, July 18th

We went to the zoo today with the Michaels! It was really fun and we took lots of funny pictures (you can see them on Picasa!). We took the public bus to get there, my family rode it by ourselves because we were going to meet the Michaels there. My mom was a bit nervous because it was only our second time and she was doing it herself, but thankfully we got there okay. We had a great time and we only lost Nate once! When we were done with the animals we had to walk down a long street to leave the zoo, and there were stands selling things down both sides of it. It took us a while to leave, we bought a few things on the way out. When we left that street we headed toward the bus stop, but on the way we stopped to take some pictures of a few statues....Do these look familiar to anyone? If they do it's because they're in our house! The bull is in the yard and the mermaid (yes that's what it is) is in the entrance! The guy who made them is very well known and some of his work is in famous museums. We have famous artwork in our house! :)

Saturday, July 17th

We had an adventure today! :) We left the house at around 8:30 to go to some caves near Taxco (the silver town), the drive took about 2 hours. The caves were called Cacahuamilpa and they were HUGE! We had to go with a tour (I guess they didn't want anyone wandering around by themselves), I didn't like being with the tour because we stopped in every cavern for about 10 minutes so that the guide could point out all of the shapes that the rocks made. But his voice echoed and we couldn't understand anything he was saying. For the first about 30 minutes it was really cool to look at all of the rock formations made by the dripping water, then my foot started to hurt, Abby's stomache hurt, and we were all tired and bored so we turned around and went back. On our way back we passed an open auditorium with a free concert so we sat down and listened to a few songs. It was two people preforming, one with a guitar and one with an accordian. They were really good, but it wasn't exactly my style of music. When we had rested for a few minutes we walked the rest of the way out. It was amazing coming out, after staring at rocks in the darkness of a cave, the plants outside seemed much greener and more brilliantly colored! Then we drove into Taxco, which is a town that is famous for its silver. Abby and I each got a ring and then we headed to lunch. It's funny how much I remember that I thought I had forgotten, we had eaten at this same restaurant a couple of years ago and my mom had eaten something that made her sick, thankfully none of us got sick this time! I also remembered that we have a picture of us next to an Aztec calendar and another next to an old tree, we took another picture next to the same calendar and tree, it's amazing how different we are!!

Then:Now:

(Oh, and we are sticking our tounges out for a reason, it looks like the face on the calendar is doing it, so we didn't do it to be weird or anything. Just clearing that up! :))

Then:

Now:

(I'll post the rest of the pictures on Picasa soon!)

After our brief shopping trip we got in the car again to go see some ruins, but we were to be disappointed, and a bit frustrated. We got there 5 minutes too late to go in! So we got back in the car and went home. I slept most of the way back, which was good because I need to catch up on my sleep after staying up late with Noelle a couple days in a row. When we got back and as soon as the little ones were in bed, my mom, dad and I watched Part 2 of the first Lord of the Rings.

Friday, July 16th

Sorry for not writing, our Internet went out a week ago.

Last Friday I left for a Spanish camp, I stayed there until Sunday afternoon. I really liked it! I went to this same camp last time I lived here, but I didn't like it last time. While I was there it rained almost constantly the whole time, by the end I was tired of being wet! The camp was mostly a lot of phisical, outdoor games. My favorite part was a midnight walk that we took, but we weren't allowed to use flashlights! I arrived home on Sunday and went almost straight to bed.

On Tuesday Noelle came over with her family, we played Wii and then attempted to make fudge. The result looked like mud, tasted like chocolate syrup, and smelled like buttered toast! When she left I went with her to spend the night at her house, then the next day she went back with me to spend the night at my house. We made cookies, built a fort, and watched a part of Lord of the Rings. We slept in our fort that night and it was incredibly comfortable! Then yesterday Noelle's family came over again and we all took a bus to the Museum of Anthropology. The museum was pretty interesting, but we got tired quickly. When we were all ready to leave we went to a restaurant for lunch and then went to Ciudadela. I have no doubt that we would have bought a lot more than we did, but the problem was we didn't bring much money. We used most of it on bus fares, getting into the museum, and eatting, we spent almost all of the rest (which wasn't very much). When we got back to the house, Abby went with David to their house while Tomas and Noelle stayed at ours to spend the night (again!). We played Wii, made pudding, and watched Harry Potter before we went to bed. This morning they left at 11:00 to go back to their house and bring Abby back.

Earlier this afternoon a guy came to fix the Internet, finally! Then Abby started to feel bad, so far she's watched The Garfield Movie and two of the Harry Potter movies.

Tuesday, July 6th

Today Rachel came over and stayed almost all day, we played Wii most of the time. In the time Rachel was here I managed to get hurt quite a bit! When we were preparing lunch I slammed my thumb in a drawer and it started to swell up, while we were playing Wii my toe started to hurt, (I have no idea why) and then right before she had to go she tried out the exercise machines and I jumped over one to get out and managed to bang my knee on it! Ugh. Rachel had to go around 5:00 because after that our driver had to take the car to pick up my dad. She was going to stay longer and then once our driver got back he'd take her home, but it would be pretty late and her parents didn't want her to. It turns out it's a good thing she had to go, because on his way to pick up my dad, Gilberto had a car accident! He's fine thankfully, and the car only has a few dents and scratches, but Rachel would probably be stuck at our house for a LONG time! My dad had to get a ride home from work because the paperwork for the crash took hours to finish. When my dad got home my mom said jokingly, "So much for our brand-new car that we were trying to keep nice. We don't keep new cars new for long!"

Monday, July 5th

I've got my first "only in Mexico" story! Yesterday my mom and I were at Superama, the Mexican grocery store. We were at the checkout line when my mom realized that she forgot to get something that she needed. She told me to wait with the cart while she went to get it. While I was waiting there a lady with her cart came to get in our line, but instead of waiting behind me she pushed her cart up right next to me, trying to get in front of me. Here is proof that I'm already used to being a Mexican again. Instead of letting her get in front and then being upset that she cut, (like I think a lot of Americans would do) I pushed my cart up until it was about an inch away from the next cart and kept it that close until she gave up a few minutes later and went to a different line! When I told my mom happened she thought it was a great Mexico story and told me I should blog about it. You don't see people in the U.S. grocery stores trying to maneuver their carts to get in front of people!

Thursday, July 1st

Oh my gosh I am so upset right now! We just realized that the people that packed our stuff didn't empty out the dressers. That wouldn't be a problem except that my dresser went into storage, with some of my stuff in it! Another problem is I'm not sure what all was in it so we won't be able to replace all of it if we can't get it out of storage. I REALLY hope that we can get it out!

Wednesday, June 30th

The basic sum of these last three days is we've been unpacking, putting things away, and organizing. Nate and Abby have Club this week at school, they pick a couple of "classes" to take and then come home at 12:00. Some of these "classes" are: Film (watching movies), Computer Games, Art and Weaving. Of course there are more but those are all I've heard about. Today Abby, Nate and I made obstacle courses in the yard, we used to do that when we lived here before. It would have been fun but Abby threw a fit when she didn't do well. Later in the evening Mrs. Ranee and Mr. Marcus came over to play cards. The kids didn't come because they are staying in Atlanta with their relatives all summer. I played with them for the first half when they played Hearts and I did okay. But my dad sent me to bed when they started playing Spades because it was late and I didn't know how to play.