Puerto Rico, Belize, El Salvador & Guatemala (Sept 2010 - May 2011)

The past year has been filled with some great memories, as well as a lot of looking toward the future and checking off a few things from the To Do Before You Leave Guatemala list. At the beginning of this school year, I didn't know what the future would bring, but I knew we'd be leaving Guatemala. When we received our 2011-2012 School Year - Yes, No, Maybe slips at the end of November, I immediately checked No.

After much research and creating what has become a famous spreadsheet of international schools, I began aggressively going after schools in Vietnam, a country quickly becoming THE destination for expats. On February 10 (my mom's birthday), I was offered a job at the American International School in Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City) and, without any hesitation, accepted.

When I told Sienna we were moving to Vietnam, she said, "My favorite!" and threw her arms into the air. I like her style.

Here's a brief synopsis of the past 8 months:

September 2010

No more diapers! Sienna has been out of diapers during the day since she was a year and a half and after turning 2, she began sleeping through the night accident free. Way to go!

October 2010

A couple that I work with is due in March and bought Sienna's crib, changing table and other assorted baby items. Kelly was excited to start setting up the baby's room and I was excited to disassemble it. Sienna slept on the crib mattress on the floor for a couple of months before graduating to a tent that I had bought for play, but decided it'd be the perfect substitute for a bed!

This month, we also headed to Quinta de las Flores in Antigua to stay in a two-story house with Kammie, Andrea, Michael and David. The Turners rented their own house and joined us. We headed out one evening in tuk-tuks for dinner and were going to take in some sport on television, but bars in Antigua don't allow kids after 8pm.

At the very end of the month, Nana arrived, bringing Sienna the cutest cowgirl Halloween costumer ever! Sienna had a fun-filled week, actually falling asleep in her high chair while eating, at one point.

We headed to Lake Atitlan and stayed in the village of Santiago at the Posada Santiago for a few days. One day we hopped in a lancha to visit Panajachel, a neighboring village and after hearing the man call, "Pana, Pana," several times, Sienna chimed in with her own, "Pana, Pana!" All the locals turned their heads and started laughing! When we left Pana at the end of the day, a passenger on the returning lancha recognized her as the Pana Pana girl.

We headed next to Antigua and stayed at Quinta where Sienna got into my mom's mascara during "nap" time and painted the entire room black. Ugh! The next morning, we headed to the Kite Festival for the third year in a row on the Day of the Dead, quite possibly my favorite Guatemala celebration.

November 2010

November was filled with small weekend adventures. During the first, Sienna had a blast releasing turtles in Monterrico with Kammie and Krista. Next was the Earth Lodge yoga retreat with Michelle and Ash. The following weekend, the Turners brought home and decorated their Christmas tree and the last weekend was a four-day Thanksgiving vacation spent in Lake Izabal with Andrea.

In Lago Izabal, we spent one day taking a bumpy boat ride across the lake to walk a couple of miles to a nothing-to-write-home-about waterfall. Sienna spent her afternoons napping in a hammock on the dock, eating all of Andrea's snack food that her mom sent her from home and eventually got freaked out (understandably) by a pack of wild barking dogs that had her surrounded. I thought she'd be scarred for life, but thankfully wasn't.

December 2010

Sienna and I took off for Puerto Rico from the 11th through the 16th with Kammie and Andrea. We rented an apartment in Isla Verde, which ended up being perfect! There was a full kitchen and a small grocery store across the street. It had a pool and was right on the beach, so we spent our days switching between the two. Sienna entertained Kammie and Andrea with her movie Santa Paws. I don't know what they would have done without it!

Sienna and I headed to Old San Juan on the public bus. I had the best coffee of my life at Caficultura, as well as a great breakfast. We put on a lot of miles that day exploring Fort San Cristobal and hopping on the tram that took us off our feet and out of the sun, allowing Sienna to crash on my lap while I took in the sites.

We were waiting for the bus back when Sienna decided she had to go potty. We walked around looking for a bathroom and ended up back in Caficultura where I enjoyed a Kofresi Stout microbrew while Sienna had some juice. By the time we got back to the bus station, Sienna had to go again, but this time I partially hid her and she took care of business squatting. Much easier. We hopped on the bus at the beginning of the route, thank goodness because our return trip was during rush hour and the bus ended up being packed!

 

Our next stop on our three week Christmas adventure was Minnesota. We were so excited to see the fam! We spent the next couple of weeks making a gingerbread house, putting dishes away with Papa, making Christmas cookies with Nana and we even woke up on Christmas morning to "rein"deer tracks up to the glass sliding door. Sienna put on her Christmas dress and we headed to the mall for Santa pictures with Papa and later opened gifts at home and headed to Aunt Rita's house to spend the evening with the Storelee fam.

After Christmas, we spent a day at the Mall of America where Sienna was in all her glory with Dora the Explorer, Sponge Bob and friends. We flew back to Guatemala, stopping in Dallas where Sienna was walking several paces in front of me with her Dora suitcase and a guy looked up at me and said, "Now, that's an independent kid!"

January 2011

In January, my friend and former co-worker (in Chiapas, Mexico) came for a visit and to complete a course for her Framingham Masters. She arrived in time to catch my very first attempt to bake an out-of-the-box cake. Well, apparently I had bought only frosting, marketed with the brand name Frosty here in Guatemala. It looked like a cake mix, so I baked it like a cake and it came out as sludge which turned into hard candy. My students loved it and Sienna cried when it came out of the oven.

While Danna was here, we took a trip to the beach where Sienna spent much of her time playing in the pool while singing The Itsy-Bitsy Spider. I switched a class with a co-worker and took a few hours to head to Safe Passage with Danna and tour the facility, as well as the garbage dump. Each time I go to Safe Passage, I'm further impressed with what they do.

Danna's last weekend in Guatemala was spent in Antigua where we enjoyed delicious food at a middle eastern restaurant and good company.

February 2011

I was giving Sienna a hug and she said, "You're my best friend, mama." 

Other February highlights: Sienna and I successfully made a chocolate cake. Reyna brought her son, Dani, to the house for a couple of weeks of wearing Reyna out! Sienna started putting in my yoga video and actually following along. She does an impressive plank pose! She's also started singing the ABC's quite well.

We headed to Lake Atitlan in a shuttle with Ash, staying in  Panajanchel at Hotel Dos Mundos, a great place in an excellent location and a very child-friendly pool. Ash spent the afternoon with us, sipping margaritas at the pool and then headed to her cottage in Pasajcop (San Marcos) across the lake. We hopped on a lancha one day and visited her. She took us to her friend's cottage, an amazing site, and gave us a tour. He is from Colombia and makes a living making and selling jewelry, among other talents - he's also building her cottage! It was fascinating to see how he lives off the land and has a very basic, simple existence. I was quite impressed.

March 2011

We spent a weekend in March at my favorite Monterrico hideout Cayman Suites with Kammie, first stopping at the Auto-Safari Chapin to check out a few animales. We spent our days sipping blended drinks at the swim up bar while Sienna lounged on Kammie's inflatable raft. We taught Sienna how to say, "Que onda, vos!" and she met a little friend who had super cool pool toys. Sienna, on the other hand, brought along a dented Elmo pail with a scoop that we picked up somewhere and a few other junky figures that can be submerged in water.

Another highlight was the opening of Starbucks Guatemala. Kammie and I actually got up on the morning of Saturday the 19th to drive there and wait in line at 6am. Worth every minute of it.

April 2011

Sienna thoroughly enjoyed her first VIP movie experience, Rio in 3D! We ordered way too much food and Sienna chatted with the little girl sitting in the seat next to her. She lasted the whole movie and it helped that she could stand on her seat and with stadium seating, she wasn't blocking anyone's view.

We started out our Semana Santa break by driving to Antigua to stay for two nights at the Earth Lodge. We met up with one of my co-workers and her friend visiting from the States and walked around Antigua to check out the religious festivities. There were beautiful alfombras, or carpets, made out of flowers, sawdust and pine needles and processions of boys and men in purple robes. Michelle and the kids drove up the second night and Sienna had a ball playing with Diego and Becca.

We woke up early Monday morning to make a quick stop at home and drive to Puerto Barrios, Guatemala. Sienna got sick in the car and threw up four times, once making it in my coffee mug - great shot! After just over four hours, we pulled into Puerto Barrios and found a place to leave our car for about $5/day then jumped on a boat to Punta Gorda, Belize with a Swedish girl. Sienna slept during the entire one hour bumpy boat ride. Upon arrival, we went through "customs" and hopped on a school bus for a relaxing 1.5 hour drive to Mango Creek where we just missed the last 15 minute boat to Placencia. We were easily able to rent our own boat, along with the Swedish girl, and were happy to finally arrive at our destination around 6pm. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and settled into our cute little $50/night apartment rental at One World.

Our week consisted of going to the beach, grabbing a gelato at Tutti Frutti, playing with the gatos and the local kids at the park, cleaning up and enjoying a nice dinner. We left after five nights for our long journey home on two boats, a bus and a car. We spent the entire journey with three backpacker girls from the States and gave them a lift from Puerto Barrios to Guatemala City so they didn't have to spend the night and take a morning bus. Glad to be back home safely!

May 2011

Our last full month in Guate - we're counting the days now! Sienna spent her time getting her makeup done by our neighbor, Olivia, and playing all day with Dani, Reyna's four year old son. We went to the new Chili's in zone 10 and it happened to be the Barca v Manchester United soccer game - crazy! We made a few Skillets visits, had a garage sale to get ride of a few small items and packed up our lives for Vietnam.


For Mom's Day weekend, we headed with Kammie, Andrea and Krista to the Decameron, an all-inclusive resort in El Salvador and relaxed for a nice four day weekend. Life is good!

Sayings from the past year:

I don't tell it = I don't know

Nookalo = made up word
Earrrrings = said by rolling the r's

Mano, carro, porque, popo, un = Spanish words used instead of their English equivalents