Viva Mexico! Viva!

Viva Mexico! Viva! Viva America! (the whole continent of it) Viva!

Are you ready to see a glimpse into how much fun we are having!? 

Someone asked me the other day what my favorite things are about Colima and I said some of my favorites are the bonitos jardines.

Of course Paul is another one of my favorite things in Colima!

30 days after we arrived here in México, we went to Manzanillo, the port city that is 1 hour from here, to jump through the next hoop of our visa process. Honestly, we did just about everything wrong that day, but God took very good care of us, thereby making the process smoother than it might have been. Check out the shipment arriving from China! Actually, I am pleasantly surprised at how many things are "hecho en México" here!

Yes, the carrot soup really was THAT good. All 5 of us ate every last drop.

We got to have our first visit to the black sand beaches of the state of Colima. It is black because of our volcanoes, but it is also nice and fine.

This is Playa Paraiso, and yes it is a tiny glimpse of paradise.  

As you can see, Playa Paraiso is not over-developed, but our engineer (Samuel) and his truck are working on it. 

Here are the boogie-boarding champions!

Here is a glimpse into birthday parties. This was the party for Isis, who has been such a kind, patient friend to Paul, even when he doesn't have much of a clue of what she is saying. She had yummy marshmallows on a stick, hot dogs, and posole (I'll need to tell you more about that delicious Colima stew another time.)

Isis had a pool party and we learned about social timing. We really tried to be late for the party, so we arrived 20 minutes late. However, we were the first ones there and people continued to arrive even 2 hours after the invitation start time. We left after five hours and the party wasn't over yet.

Isis really did enjoy herself, even though she may not look like it in this picture. Can you imagine how intimidated I am about throwing a birthday party for Paul next week when this level of decorating is the norm?

Here is a glimpse into construction here. This site is a block from our house. Carlos is guessing that it will be a convenience store (OXXO, probably.) Our younger two sons were concerned about the flag on the back of the excavator, worrying that it would fall off while it digs. Only two weeks have passed since I took this photo, but this site already looks totally different! "Mike Mulligan has dug four corners, neat and square, four walls, straight down." (Virginia Lee Burton)

We had a hummingbird visit our house.

Weekends give us a chance to play basketball, soccer, and American football at the park 5 minutes away.

Here is another pastime for weekends when the boys are done with their homework: They play in our yard! Can you get a good sense of it's dimensions?

One Saturday, we visited Hogar Amor, the orphanage. We have been impressed by it's ministry. Can you see Miqueas and Pablo (their easier-for-people-to-pronounce names) helping the children sweep their lovely home?

A glimpse of our car -- we are so thankful to have been able to buy this car! Sam can't seem to learn the thumbs up motion.

Do you see that car? It is only minimally decorated for Mexican Independence Day. (It is our car, and no we don't have license plates yet, but we haven't gotten pulled over yet.)

As promised, here are some photos of the boys before school on Friday, the 14th of September. No, they weren't being tourists. They were supposed to dress that way and thankfully they liked it, even though Micah was busy playing with his latest missing tooth.

Tres muy guapo Mexicanos.

Here is a glimpse of our front porch.

Samuel's school had a party at 8:30am.

The party included a role-play of the history of Mexican independence. Plus, we participated in the Grito, which sounds something like this: Vivan los heroes que nos dieron patria! Viva! Viva Hidalgo! Viva! Viva Morelos! Viva! Viva Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez! Viva! . . . Viva Mexico! Viva! Viva Mexico! Viva! Viva Mexico! Viva!

What precious preschoolers! These are the children of the 4 year old class.

One of Samuel's teacher's favorite Samuel stories is about when Quetzalli (sitting next to Sam here) said, "¡Maestra! ¡Samuel puede hablar Espanol! El dijo 'No, Quetzalli, No.' El dijo '¡No!'" Do you think she realizes that "no" means "no" in either language? Do you think she realizes that the amazing part is that Sam says her name correctly?

Pablo and Miqueas' primary school had their fiesta later that morning. I will hopefully be able to scan the adorable class photos we received of them with their classmates in their traditional clothing.

I asked multiple people about how to celebrate the Grito and they said to watch it on TV at 11 pm, so I did.

We also watched an incredible parade that must have been 2 hours worth of school children marching! I'm afraid that this glimpse just can't give you the perspective of how many kids were marching in step.

Many of the children did a double-take when they caught a glimpse of 3 blonde boys watching them march past. We did see our first blonde boy (other than our three) in Colima today!

On September 16, Independence Day, we enjoyed watching teams of men try to climb a greased pole to get to prizes at the top.

It poured, though, so we were thankful to duck into the beautiful Villa de Alvarez municipal building. Do you catch a glimpse of blonde hair? It is dyed.

Thankfully, some of  performers who were getting rained out were willing to play in the hallway.

The roads typically turn into rivers after downpours like that, but our car can handle it.

Weekdays

I drive past this cool tree every weekday on my route into town for school, work, tutoring, etc.

Paul has a lot of homework every weekday. He can read and write in Spanish already, and his pronunciation sounds outstanding to my untrained ear.

Maestra Carmen tutors us in Spanish 4 weekdays at Grupo Amor (our church.) It was her birthday, so Sam and I bought her an adorable Snow White piñata (because I knew the phrase "Blanca Nieve") for 30 pesos. (It was hard for me to only pay $2.30 for something that I usually spend weeks attempting to create before the boys' birthdays.) FYI: not everything is inexpensive here, but that was one particularly shocking price.

Some weekdays we get to see a beautiful sunset from our home. If you notice the "Se Vende" sign diagonal from us, many houses are for sale in our neighborhood, we think because they are "SO two years ago." We are very thankful to be able to be renting this modern home from really kind people.

I do laundry every weekday so that the boys' uniforms are ready for the next day. Fortunately, we have a washer and dryer. Unfortunately, it takes more than 2 hours to wash a small load (NOT including drying!) This is the view from the laundry room into the kitchen and dining room of our house. Paul just finished his homework and is headed to bed.

I have an hour to play with Samuel every weekday, during which time we often explore new places.

Most weekdays I have a list of things to find at various stores. This particular day, some of the items I was looking for were potholders, a power-strip, toilet bowl cleaner, and Mexican decorations (for the boys' classrooms.) It is September, which is the month to celebrate Mexican Independence (you can look forward to pictures of last weekend's celebration) so the whole town is beautifully decorated in green, white and red.

Since the rainy season has not finished yet, the volcanoes usually only make an appearance on weekdays while the boys are in school, before the clouds and rain come in the afternoon. This is the view I can enjoy while sweeping the road in front of my house. Did you just do a double-take!? Yes, the girl who only sweeps her front porch a couple of times per year has been sweeping her sidewalk and the road once a week. Why? Because folks here do it twice per day. Now that I figured out I can hang our garbage from a tree for garbage collection (a blissful 3 times per week, plus recycling and compost each once per week) the dogs don't tear into it anymore, so our street corner is clean. Colima rightfully prides itself on being a clean town.

We have always said that we live in Colima, which is true. However, we actually live in the town of Villa de Alvarez, which is smooshed together with (how do you like my English on these weekdays after I have been thinking in simplified Spanish?) the City of Colima. Both are in the state of Colima.  

On a rare weekday when the boys finished their homework early and we didn't have Spanish tutoring, we celebrated Anthony (we are starting to catch-on to the idea of celebrating everything -- please join us in having more fiestas!) He and Micah tried out the go-kart race track.

 We also went to the piedra park on that special weekday.

 Can you tell that these boys are enjoying themselves here even on weekdays?

After the fact, (a common trend in our weekday experiences) we found out that if you slide down this volcanic rock, you will return to Colima. So, two out of the five of us will be returning for now. Then again, we all need to drive into Colima for school and work tomorrow morning. We like weekdays here, but praise God it's Friday! 

Sin Megan

Before everyone gets too excited about hearing about Megan's sin, the title is en Español and sadly means without Megan.  While Megan was on her trip to Oaxaca, it was just the Tongen boys.  Also sadly, this means that I (Anthony) am writing this blog and so your expectations should be VERY low!!

The good news is we (the Tongen boys) had a great time while Megan was away, but we missed her greatly.  We celebrated the fourth of July at my sister's house.

We did our best Megan impersonation by taking a hike at McConnells Mill State Park.

Micah helped out Grandpa Doug with some mowing - his first time driving a lawn mower!

We went on a short hike at Cooks Forest State Park . . .

to get to this wonderful view . . .

from the top of this old fire tower!

We also got to hang out with the Burens' family in da 'Burgh (Pittsburgh).  Vince (who was my roommate in college before he went and became famous) and his wife Lori often let me be their third wheel in college.  This time, Vince, Lori, Mia, and Tessa let us be their 5th-8th wheels!  We all had a great time at the Carnegie Museum of Art and Natural History (two places Vince and I never got close to in our time at Pitt.)  Below are five little paleontologists.

If it is possible to look past the 5 adorable kids, in the background of this picture is the Heinz Chapel where Vince and Lori were married a few years ago.  The Tongen boys had a great time walking around the Pitt campus and ended their time at the Petersen Events Center playing a little imaginary basketball.  Micah has now started saying he wants to go to Pitt, so does anyone want to call Jamie Dixon or Paul Chryst now?(Please don't get me started about Pitt football this year.)

Unfortunately, I also had to be sin (without) Megan soon after arriving in Colima to attend an orientation in Mexico City for my Fulbright award.  It was really hard to leave my family in a new place in a different country for 4 full days, but we survived.  The picture below is during the reception at the United States Ambassador to Mexico's house.  I got to talk with Anthony Wayne for a good 30 seconds and I even managed to look him in the eyes (see http://www.aswinvanwoudenberg.com/index.php/2009/02/20/whats-the-difference-between-an-introvert-and-an-extrovert-mathematician/ for the math joke behind the previous comment).

I also really enjoyed seeing Teotihuacan.  The picture below is taken from the Pyramid of the Moon towards the Pyramid of the Sun.

The picture below shows the climb to get up the Pyramid of the Moon.

That was nothing compared to the climb to get on top of the Pyramid of the Sun.

But the view towards the Pyramid of the Moon was well worth the climb.

We then went to eat a late lunch at La Gruta (http://www.lagruta.com.mx/), which is a Mexican restaurant in a cave.  It was probably the coolest restaurant I have ever been to. (Most of you will take that comment with a grain of salt considering I am far from a restaurant connoisseur.)  I highly recommend it if you happen to be in Mexico City.

The next day we went to Palacio Nacional and below is my favorite mural by Diego Rivera, because it is a picture of Colima.  I guess I shouldn't say it is my favorite, but I took so many pictures and I thought I should post just one of them.

We then went to the Templo Mayor, which is an excavation site right in the middle of Mexico City.  Below is a depiction of what Mexico City looked like many years ago.  Let me tell you that there are a few more houses and a lot less water laying around these days. It is the second or third most populous city in the world, after all.

Below is my best attempt to capture the archaeological dig right in the middle of an urban environment.

I feel like I need to tie this back to sin Megan, but the good news is that I am now con (with) Megan and the boys and we are having a great time in Mexico!  Don't worry, Megan is back on the job for the next blog post.  Thanks for reading!!