What a 9-year-old has learned from 3 weeks as an expat
We’ve been living in Cozumel for 3 weeks now, so I figured I’d post just some of the things I’ve seen Tigger learn as well as sharing some things straight from the source. The value of money. When wanting to rent a scooter again, he thought nothing of the 25 USD cost. Until I explained that was almost half a week’s groceries. He has learned about exchanging one type of money to another. Right now the USD to...
Two Parties, Two Different Worlds
In the last week we’ve attended 3 birthday parties, 2 of which were for kids. One was a local friend and the other some visitors from America. I’ve always loved that in Spanish, particularly the Mexican form, there are 2 words for “party.” One, fiesta, is your average, run-of-the-mill celebration that will only last probably 2-3 hours and won’t get too crazy or too exciting. The other is pachanga....
When Plans Go Awry
Our trip into town to look for longer-term housing started out well. The hostel owner was going to help me search for a place, and she had scored a deal on a rental car (for less than a scooter, so really nice deal!). When we got to the rental place, however, things turned a bit sour. Let’s just say you don’t mess with a Swiss woman. So we were without a car in a town without cheap transit options. And it was one of the...
Our 1st Week!
We have put out 1st week behind us now. Hard to believe it went so fast, even though the last 6 months went about as quickly. Don’t know why I bother continuing to be surprised when time flies. So what have we done with our 1st week? Well, I have managed to earn my advanced open water diver certification (underwater orienteering, deep water, night, shipwreck, and drift diving). In between those dives we’ve managed to go...
My night dive craziness
While here in Cozumel, I had decided to get my advanced open water diver certification. There are many specialty dives you can do, and out of all the selections, night dive was the only one I absolutely had zero desire. None whatsoever. Of all the dives I could possibly do, that is really the only one that absolutely freaks me out. I’d say terrifies me, but that’s probably too strong a word. Scares the crap out of me?...
Planning to Not Plan
With today being my last day at work, and Tigger’s last day at school, and our journey being just under 5 days away, I’m getting a LOT of questions about planning. It’s so funny how many times I’ve said this trip is indefinite, and I still get “So you’ll be gone about a year?” Perhaps they’re just having too hard of a time wrapping their brain around an indefinite trip. After all,...
