Greg barbecued chicken for us the other day. It was mightily good. Really good. There were grilled veggies to go with it, lots of mushrooms.
He made a lot of the chicken, as you can see below (we are three people). There were LOTS of leftovers. We put it in Tupperware in the refrigerator.
The next day, when Greg went to get a piece, it was all gone. The joven had struck! He had already finished it all for cena the night before.
This happens quite frequently. Danny’s a growing boy; he needs sustenance. Thankfully he’s healthy.
But, surely, a bit of self-defense or auto-protectivo was in order. So Greg got to thinking…. I had just cut up a PERFECT, sweet and juicy pineapple for us, and put that into Tupperware. Last week, I had done the same, and Danny “snacked” on it after school, finishing it all before we’d even tasted any (slight exaggeration). So, Greg hit upon an idea!
He printed a color photo of some asparagus—something that Danny says he hates. Greg taped the color photo to the top of the Tupperware, to disguise (and protect) the sweet juicy pineapple within.
While I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of his evil plan, and we both got a good laugh, it didn’t fool the joven for even one second. 😉
Many of you follow this blog because of the school information we have posted over the years. Posts on how to choose a school, how to know how schools rank, or how to navigate the day-to-day challenges of schools here in Mazatlán have tended to be our most popular.
Our son is a junior this year, and thus he’s thinking about and planning for university. Here in Mexico college planning seems to start a lot later than it does in the USA where we’re originally from. Next year, as a senior, Danny will accompany one of his teachers to five or so universities in Guadalajara. Some friends in his “generation,” as they call it here, have toured a few universities already this year, but that seems pretty rare. Mostly such tours occur senior year (if ever).
Danny may go to university here, or anywhere else on the planet—he’s considering lots of options—and he’s looking at universities in the US as well. Most US-bound foreign and domestic students need to take the SAT, a standardized college entrance exam, as part of the entrance application process. Most of those students based in the USA are also fortunate enough to be able to participate in study sessions to prepare for the test. Here we have a double whammy: Mexican schools of course do not teach for the SAT, and live prep courses are few and far between, especially here on the coast.
We were disappointingly told by several high school directors here in town that Danny would need to travel to Tucson or Phoenix, Guadalajara or Mexico City, to take the SAT. We found this incredibly hard to believe, when there are so many international students here in Mazatlán, as well as so many talented local students with international ambitions.
I am very happy to report that, after much searching and legwork, we found that Instituto Anglo Moderno right here in Mazatlán is a certified SAT testing center! Claudia Ortuso there helped us out. She speaks wonderful English and was very kind. She tells us that normally there are two SAT test dates per year at Anglo: one in the fall and another in the spring (it was today, Saturday May 4th).
Normally they also hold a prep course in the spring, though this year they did not. I suppose that is because no Anglo students were taking the test. They were four exam takers today: two from ICO, one who came from Los Mochis, and a fourth who flew with her mother from Los Cabos. There is most obviously a demand for testing sites here in Northwestern Mexico!
So, how to register, if you have a child who wants to keep his or her options open for university in the USA? First, go to the College Board site. There you can check test sites and schedules, and register for tests. Instituto Anglo Moderno is test center #69213. While on the College Board site, you can also create an account and set up an Organizer that your student will use to study and practice for the test, sign up for daily emails to help them gain familiarity with test question types, and monthly emails reminding parents how we can best support and guide our kids through college planning. To me it was a godsend, and it was all (minus the test itself) free.
I would highly recommend that your son or daughter spend a few months actively preparing for the SAT. Engaging the online curriculum, and getting a practice SAT booklet from Claudia, will help. Danny also signed up for a few mock tests online via Kaplan. He didn’t pay for any of their courses, but he did find the mock tests with the scoring very helpful to guide his studying. There seem to be loads of online study courses accessible to those of us here.
The other thing I really recommend is getting a couple of good college prep books while you are in a major city with English language bookstores; Kindle versions just don’t work like dog-earring pages of a paper book. Danny’s currently enjoying one called The Best Colleges by the Princeton Review, and there was another one called the College Board Book of Majors which helped him immensely. The majors and options up north are just so much more extensive than most of the kids here are exposed to.
We aren’t there yet. The college selection and application process is only just beginning for us. We thank Anglo Moderno for helping us with this first hurdle!!!
I think the above is pretty self-explanatory about my morning.
I was teaching a class online, and the earpiece of my phone kept falling out. I was focused, so I kept pushing it back in, each time a little more assertively. When the class was over, I looked at my earpiece. It was broken! When did it break? THAT’s why it kept falling out of my ear! After playing with it a bit, I realized the rubber cap that covers the hard plastic earbud was missing. Where had it gone?
After looking around my desk and on the floor, I realized that it was in my ear. I could feel something, very faintly, in there. It didn’t hurt, but I could feel it. I asked Greg to take a look. He didn’t see anything. Had to get a small flashlight. When he was finally able to see it, he said it was jammed pretty far into my ear canal. Oops! Klutz strikes again! I definitely felt like a toddler who’d shoved something up her nose, though in this case it was my ear.
Greg lovingly got out the tweezers and agreed to try to pull it out. Each time he’d get hold of it, the little rubber thingamajig would push against my ear drum or something inside there, and it hurt like the dickens. It began to feel like I had an ELEPHANT stuck in my ear! After a few more tries at getting the rubber piece out, I was near tears it hurt so bad. What to do?
Our doctor wasn’t in yet; this happened prior to his office hours. A trip to the emergency room would be costly, and rather silly. I felt like a three year old, with a toy stuck in my ear. It was embarrassing. And I kept giggling; this all felt so silly.
What about Dr. Simi, the doctor in the pharmacy? Yes! We took a drive down the street and, through the beauty of medicine here in Mexico, we waited ten minutes while the doctor helped two people ahead of us in line.
I embarrassedly told the doctor what had happened. She took a look with her little lighted scope. She closed her eyes to think. She had me lie on my side and filled my ear with oxegenated water, hoping the rubber would float to the top, closer to the exit of my ear canal. No such luck; the darned thing was wedged in there. The water did soothe the pain a bit though. And we sure did have fun laughing about it all.
Finally, she took a long hook-like tool, and turned the rubber thingy around in my ear canal to get a better grasp. She was very, very gentle, but MAN did that hurt! Darned elephant! She grabbed the ear bud cap with a long tweezer-like tool, I winced audibly, and then she stopped. She didn’t want to hurt me. She wasn’t sure what to do. I begged her to yank it out, she obliged, and oilá. I was free! The elephant was out of my ear canal!
The whole operation cost 40 pesos. It took all of 25 minutes round trip from home to the doctor and back.
God bless Mexico. One more reason I love it here. No paperwork. Not even a signature. The doctor gave me a prescription for some ear drops, as she said it was a bit swollen in there.
You bet I’ll be more careful with those ear buds from now on! Please do the same. 😉
We had a terrific time driving up to La Noria for a day trip. The adrenaline highlight was zip lining at Huana Coa. We are fortunate here in Mazatlán to have a couple of great options for zip lining, and this is one of them.
Have you ever zip lined? Remember what it feels like? If you haven’t, do you wonder what it’s like? Here’s video that I took while riding the line they call “Shotgun.” Surrounded by trees, it almost felt like I was carving my own tunnel. So very much fun!
La Noria is about a 45 minute drive up into the Sierras. It is gorgeous up there: trees and mountains as far as the eye can see.
Huana Coa was built six years ago. They have nine lines and twelve platforms, plus rappelling in addition to the zip lining. There is also four-wheeling and horseback riding up here, plus of course the gorgeous town of La Noria and the tequila distillery, Vinata Los Osuna, which I’ll write about separately later.
The video below is what Greg took on an earlier line, a wide open one. It’ll give you an idea of the contrast among the nine lines here at Huana Coa.
Their equipment is state of the art, mostly German-made Petzl. All equipment was very well maintained. Huana Coa uses two lines one above the other and double pulleys, so even should one fail or turn sideways, which is highly unlikely, you still have backup. There was not a second that I wondered about safety. The staff had us tied to a line every moment we were there, tying us off to a stationary line before unhooking our harness from the zip line.
Below are two videos of our son, one of him leaving a platform, and one of him coming in. This is a terrific family activity. He had a blast. Though of course, he’s 17, so he’s too cool to show too much enthusiasm when he’s with his parents.
Just in case you start thinking this is a young person activity, or one for thin people only, I’ll show some video of me coming in, whooping and hollering the whole way because it was just so much fun. They told us they’ve had 80+ year olds on the zip lines who fully enjoyed themselves. The lines themselves are fairly easy. Getting to the lines, however, requires an uphill climb, and there are stairs to several of the platforms. It does, therefore, require mobility.
Johnathan, one of the staff, gave us safety instructions before we headed out, and again once we arrived at the first platform. All the staff were bilingual and amazingly helpful and fun loving.
Staff members took time to help all of us suit up and get comfortable with our harnesses. They were so kind that they even taped on a woman’s flip flops so she wouldn’t lose them while she was zip lining!
All of the platforms were very well made, and while we were on them we were always securely tethered. Staff hook you up for each line, ask if you are ready to go, and then push you off when you are ready. It was soooooo, oh so much fun!
I was quite taken with how the crew transported water for us from one station to another. Fairly effective, wouldn’t you say?
If you have family, family visits, or you just need some fun, adrenaline-raising activity, I definitely recommend zip lining!
As we went through the course today, the staff kept telling us they had a surprise for us at the end. Danny knew, because he has learned how to rappel. He saw the little gizmo on our belts, and guessed that at the end we would be rappelling. What they did was have us jump out, off the final platform, and then free fall (with a gentle pre-ground slowing) to the ground. It was very, very cool. Here’s video of Greg doing his dismount.
We have the terrific skateboard park on the malecón in Playa Norte. We all love watching the kids enjoy themselves. Maybe some of you even enjoy it, too.
We’ve heard that the work being done right now in front of the Bosque de la Ciudad, city park, in the median there of the avenue, is another skate park. I can’t find where we read that now in my searches online, but we did take a few photos today.
Hopefully this will be one more terrific thing for kids to do in our gorgeous city. If that’s what you’re here wondering about, you can check out an earlier post, Visiting Mazatlán with Kids.
If you know more about this project, would you please let us know in the Comments below? We know quite a few teenagers eager and hopeful!
¡VidaMaz! 