The End.

This week is our final week in Cabo and it's surreal to think that we only have 5 days left and we have been here for almost 80 days! This last weekend was just spent at the beach because we thought we better use the free time that we have left at the place that makes us the most happy! :)

Last week wasn't too eventful except for Friday. All week we were busy preparing for our Spring Festival on Friday. We were preparing a dance to a song about spring that my teacher found online. All the kinder classes had something prepared to perform for all the parents and grandparents. Britta and I came to school half an hour early that morning to help decorate because we hadn't put anything up since it was in the basketball court and that is used quite often. We had been making decorations all week to put up everywhere and it looked awesome!

It started off with all the students doing their own dance. Each song that they danced to was about spring. Nursery and K2 did English songs and K1 and K3 did Spanish songs. They did such a great job and was so cute to watch them all dance. I thought that the K1 had the most fun with their song and dance. They just have so many lively personalities that love to put on a show. 

When they were done dancing each person went through as sort of a fashion show. They all got to dress up in whatever costume they wanted, however, they were suggested to dress in something Spring-like. There were a lot of fairies and dinosaurs, but my favorite was the boy that dressed up as a Dalmatian. He was so funny and stayed in his whole costume all day! 

When everyone had gone through and put on a show then they got introduced to ride their bikes that were decorated around the basketball court. Every person had brought a bike or scooter and they were all decorated with recycled materials that they found at home. A lot of them got VERY creative and had some really awesome decorations! Then the students were just allowed to free ride around the basketball court. There were a lot of bikes and scooters going around and around the court, but we didn't have too many injuries. 

The parents stayed for a little while after and took pictures with their students in the cute spring frames that we had made or in front of the backdrop mural that was painted and used for the dances. By the time we got back to the classroom it was time for lunch and recess, but the teachers had to quick tear it all down because the elementary would be at the basketball court for recess. 

It's one of those things that we work so hard at for so long and then it's over in an hour and a half. I think that the parents really get into everything and help their students and come to any type of program they may have. 

Saturday was just a lazy day down at Pedregal Beach with Britta and then back to the house to hang out by the pool. Sunday we went to our FAVORITE place for lunch. Well it's only our favorite because they have the best burrito I've ever had. Seriously, if you are in Cabo, you need to go to Cabo Wabo and get the waborrito. It will not disappoint you at all. Everyone thinks Cabo Wabo is just a nightclub, which it is, but also has some of the best food in Cabo for lunch. After we were done eating was when we did some of our first shopping. We just took our time and walked around a few shops on the street and on the marina and finally ended at the mall. We mostly shopped just for other people but we also got a couple things for ourselves. I'm not bringing too much home for people, but I also don't have a lot of space to bring a lot of things home.  We also went to a brewery that we found a couple weeks ago. It has some really good craft beer and we just went for one on our walk to the beach. We finally ended up at Madano Beach because that will probably be the last time that we will get there before we leave, unless we go there on Friday when we don't have school. We will probably just end up going to Pedregal to relax one last time before we leave. 

Just when I thought we were done with all the craziness on Friday at school, we start all over again on Monday. We had a science/recycling/craft fair at school for the kinder grades as a part of Culture Week here at the school. We came early again to help set up the basketball court and each grade got their own area where they did their own projects. The parents came again and were able to do the crafts with their children. Those that didn't have parents there paired up with other parents or I was able to help them make a few different things. We made a top using a CD, marble, and bottle cap. We also made a game out of an old bottle and some bottle caps. All the classes got to present their projects to everyone and all the parents that were there as well. The K3 class made whatever they wanted out of recycled materials, the K1 students made a city out of old cardboard and cardboard boxes, and the Nursery class made different animals out of toilet paper tubes. 

When we got back to the classroom after lunch and recess, the K2 class got to paint Easter Eggs. Miss Bere was showing them how to paint them, when she dropped hers and it shattered. The students all made it through without a casualty. A couple of them dropped their eggs on the floor, but they only cracked or broke a little bit off. I told Bere that the students all made it longer than she did! But if I would have shown them, I wouldn't have lasted any longer. 

This week we have a lot of different things planned, like going out to eat with some of the teachers, volleyball, packing, and just getting everything situated before we leave on Saturday. Britta leaves very early, like has to leave the house at 4:30 am, but I won't be leaving for the airport until like 9 or 10 so that is something I can handle. My flight leaves at 1:40, but I still won't be home to my house until 11pm, so that is still a very long day of traveling. 

I can't wait to get home and see Tyler and my family and my puppy! I'm sure I will miss it here, but I wouldn't trade this experience for anything else. I'm so glad I decided to do it and I'm sure we just got such a different experience than anyone else. 

See you in 5 days Minnesota!

Wait, Where Did the Last 2.5 Months Go?

We have how long left?? Only 8 more teaching days before we leave for home! This week of school there are only 4 days and then next we also only have 4 days. Tomorrow is a Mexican holiday so we don't have school. Next week it is the last Friday of the month and in Mexico the last Friday of every month is a teacher in service day. The director of the school was so gracious and gave us that day to go to the beach or do whatever we would like since it is going to be our last day here in Cabo. He told us it was his gift to us! It's just crazy and the time is just going to FLY by. Britta and I have just been reflecting so much on our time here since it's almost up. Any vacation is just going to seem so short in comparison to this. Even though it wasn't a vacation really, we still have got to spend our time in such a beautiful place! We both are just going to have such mixed emotions about leaving. I'm way to excited to get home and see Tyler and my puppy and my family and friends, but will also miss this beautiful place.

This past week has just been absolutely CRAZY! Alli and Jordan joined us down here on Tuesday through Friday and I think they had an awesome time! While they were here they were able to go parasailing, whale watching, and snorkeling. They came up to the house on Thursday night and we had supper up here. Before supper we went down to Pedregal Beach to watch the sunset since they hadn't been there yet. And just before sunset Jordan proposed to Alli on the beach! I was their photographer for the whole thing and didn't even know it was happening. It was great to see them and I'm glad they chose to share that moment with me! I know they will be happy forever together and I couldn't be happier to be gaining another brother-in-law.

Just after that happened a lady on the beach who was here with her husband and another couple started talking to us. Not only did we find out that they were also from Minnesota, but they were from Marshall from all places AND they are the people that used to do my parents taxes in Marshall. Talk about a small world. When we told them that we were Boerboom's they knew exactly who we were. Neither of us could believe it!

We took them out on Friday to see the town and the nightlife, but they had to leave pretty early on Saturday so it was a pretty early night for all of us. I'm glad they got to experience that a little bit before they had to go home. They told me they had a good time and would come back again so hopefully we can make it a family trip sometime. Jordan said he missed Duke a lot and couldn't wait to get back to him.

Saturday, Britta and I went snorkeling on the Cabo Escape boat again. We had done it 2 years ago and had already done the whale watching about a month ago. It was sunny in Cabo, but as we went up the coast we hit a cold front and clouds. It even sprinkled a little bit! So that wasn't too fun, but the snorkeling was so cool and we saw so many fish! Britta screamed through just about the whole thing. I didn't realize her fear of fish until yesterday! ;) Not only does she not like them invading her personal space, but she also doesn't like to eat them. We went out for supper on Saturday night with one of Keith's friends who is a fisherman and we had fresh fish at a place in town. It was so good and fresh and makes me excited for summer and catching fish and having fish fry's!

Today we went for a walk and then the plan for today and tomorrow is just to soak up as much vitamin D as possible and enjoy the last few days that we have left here! We only have one more weekend and then it's goodbye Cabo and hello Minnesota!

The sunsets are still amazing and my puppy is still cute and I can't wait to get home! :)

Week 9 in the Books

Another week down! Hard to believe that this is our last full week of teaching. Next week we don't have school on Monday and the following week we don't have school on Friday, which would have been our last day here. We only have 13 days of actual teaching before we go home and 19 total days until we leave for home (me) and Cancun (Britta). I'm really starting to look forward to getting home, but not looking forward to all the work that we have to do in a very short amount of time. I'm sure we will get it done and graduation will be here in no time. Mark your calendars for May 9 if you want to sit through commencement, you are more than welcome to!

This week wasn't too exciting and this weekend was very cloudy so we weren't able to have much fun in the sun. Luckily this week will be nice for Alli and Jordan who will arrive here tomorrow morning for a week of fun! Hopefully they will enjoy themselves and we can show them around a little bit to some of our favorite spots while we have been here.

Friday we had one of the parents come in and read a story to the kids. The school had it so that parents could come in and read a book to the class. This mom came in with a story and a craft and a worksheet for the students to do. They read the book, The Grumpy Bear, and the mom brought in foam bear masks that the students got to put ears and a nose and wear during the story. They looked very cute in their little bear masks. The K2 students also brought in their favorite fruit and veggies to share with the class and everyone got to create art with their food. We gave them a bunch of different fruit and veggies and they got to create whatever they wanted. Some of them came up with quite the creation!

Friday night we went out for supper with the family and Britta and I shared the Nachos again. They are huge and it always feels like we eat so much, but then barely end up putting a dent in things. They were just as good as the last time we had them.

Saturday it was pretty cloudy, but Britta and I decided that we should just wander around town. We started with our new favorite lunch place, Cabo Wabo. The waborito is probably one of the best things that I have ever eaten. I wish we would have discovered it sooner so that we could have ate more of them while we were here! Guess we will just have to make the best of the time we have left by eating at least one every weekend until we leave. They are pretty big so we decided to share it and get the chips and guac also.

After we were done with lunch we kept wandering down the marina. We had seen that there was a brewery at/near the mall last week and decided we should probably check it out, so we did. It was a great decision. Craft beer reminds me of home and it was so delicious. I had the Raspberry Beer and it made me want summer at the lake. Baja Brewing was the name of the place and we just hung around there for a while and people watched. The sun came out a couple times, but when we finally decided to head to the beach, the sun was no more. We still went to the beach and hung out. Met some people, like we normally do and had a great time just meeting and talking to new people from all over the country. I love meeting new people and it's fun being tourists on the weekends! They are always really surprised and jealous when we tell them that we have already been here for over 2 months.

Sunday was a very cloudy day. We shamelessly spent the day laying around our rooms watching Netflix and Mary Kate and Ashley movies. Brings be back to my elementary days! It wasn't the most productive day, but with the weather the way it was, we needed some time like that to just be lazy.

The sunsets are still unreal and my pup is still cute :)

I have been going a little crazy not being able to do projects or change my house in any way. I have been going a little crazy with the pinning a lot of ideas and I'm excited to get home and do a bunch of stuff! With all my time I have... oh wait. They might have to wait until summer, but it will be nice to just be at home again and having the option to do whatever I want.

I'm super excited to see my sister and Jordan tomorrow because I've always known that when they come and go, then it means that I'm going soon too. I think they will have a great week and I can't wait to show them around!

Hopefully I will be able to post some week and weekend adventures soon with them. Britta and I also plan to go snorkeling on Saturday too. Hopefully that all works out and the weekend is nice.

Another Side of Baja

This weekend, Britta and I got to experience a completely different side of Baja than a lot of people that live down here. Thanks to our host family, we were able to ride around in the RZR in the mountains of the Baja. It was one of the coolest things I think I've done in a long time! I certainly beats riding the 4-wheeler around the farm, even if it is in the mud. We took the vehicle up through the mountains over to San Jose and actually ate at the same place we ate at 2 years ago with the group we were with. We didn't have a clue until we walked in and everything was so familiar!

It is the desert and it was very dusty. I'm used to dirt and mud so I thought it was great, but it was hard to breathe at times, especially when following another vehicle for even a short distance. We wore bandanas that helped with that part, but when we were out in the open by ourselves, it was nice to smell all the different smells of nature! So fresh and some things reminded me a lot of home.

So again, a lot of pictures, but pictures are worth a thousand words, right? So that means more than me just sitting her writing all about it! :)

It's already March which means we leave in 27 days! That is so crazy to think about, but I'm starting to get super excited to get home and see everyone again. My sister will be here in 9 days, which is just as exciting! 

I hope everyone had a great weekend and look for another midweek update on school and life in Cabo!

[ONE] Month Left!

I can't believe it, but we only have 1 month left. When you put it into terms of weekends left, we only have 3 weekends left after this one! Britta and I both leave the day after we are finished teaching here. I feel like we have so much left to do before we leave! Both in school and out of school. We have only gone out at night once since we have got here and we have only gone out on the water once! We still want to go snorkeling and go with our "family" in the RZR to San Jose. And with all the people that are going to be here in these final weeks, they will just fly by!

This last week we got to meet up with a great friend of mine from work. He was here with his wife and their neighbors from home. It was so great seeing someone from home and it made me miss it a little more. We were able to go out to eat with them on Sunday this week and we just spent the night eating and catching up. We showed them around the town a little bit and made suggestions about where to go and what to do while they were here. The couple that they were with was actually the aunt and uncle of one of Britta and mine really good friends from school who came down to Cabo the last time that we were here. It was nice that we had so much in common and so much to talk about even though no one else had really met besides Doug and myself. They left today to go back to cold Minnesota, but I hope they enjoyed their time here.

Britta's aunt and uncle are also here and we will be meeting up with them soon sometime this week. Britta just had to get her new shoes that she ordered online so they were sent down with her aunt and uncle. She will be one happy camper when she gets those :)

I can't wait for the week after next when my sister and Jordan come. I've already been making a list of things for them to do and try while they are here and the cheapest places that they can go to try and find everything they want. Hopefully they have a lot of fun and have a relaxing vacation! It will be so good to see the two of them and hopefully I will get to see them a lot after school since they aren't really here on the weekend at all.

My puppy is still cute as ever and getting bigger every day.

The sunsets are also still gorgeous! It has been feeling a bit like spring/fall in the morning with the cooler temps, but I enjoy them since most the time I am so hot when everyone else is so cold. I think we have grown to used to the weather here and will have quite a shock when I get home!

Thursday my students had sports day/track and field day. It was only for kindergarten and the older students (the rest of the school) have theirs next Friday. It was so cute to see the students all dressed in their red and blue and compete in all the activities. I think what was even better was how excited the parents got for their children. They just take so much pride in their children and they show how much love they have for them. All the students did such a great job and had such a fun day! Our day finished at 12:45, but since Britta was still at the school I went back and spent the afternoon with her. After just 45 minutes of being with her kids I wanted to go running back to kinder. It was just a different kind of crazy than what I deal with, but it was fun to see what another classroom in this school looked like.

Speaking of loving one another, that is one thing that I like about Mexico. People are so nice and friendly, at least what I have experienced. In the morning they greet each other with a kiss on the cheek and it's not just one person, it is every person you see on the way to where you are going. Minnesota nice is one thing, but Mexico nice is another. It's just a different kind of nice, kind of a hard concept to explain until you are immersed in their culture for as long and longer than we are. I like it in some aspects, but don't in others. It's just so different than anything that we are used it in the states.

Our grass heads are growing like crazy!

This week on Wednesday the government informed the schools of Mexico that they were not allowed to use their teacher in service days to use for make up days from the hurricane. The schools of Mexico use the last Friday of every month as an inservice day so we found out Wednesday night that we were not having school on Friday for the students. Britta and I both attended the inservice, but spent most our day doing other things since the entire day was in Spanish. We were able to partake in some of the activities, but most of them we did not understand and a lot of the day was discussion and the IB coordinator talking to them able to program.

Hopefully this weekend we think of something fun to do and it looks like it is supposed to be nice on Saturday and cloudy on Sunday, but we normally make the best of all our days here, especially our weekends that we have off from school.

Sending warm thoughts everyone's way back in MN! See you in a month cold weather!

Whales!

Today Britta and I took a whale watching cruise with Cabo Escape today and it was awesome! We got on the boat and were offered drinks and shortly after breakfast. The food was amazing and the whales were awesome! For the most part we followed the same two whales the whole time. It was a mother and her baby whale. We got to see them interact as the mother taught the baby how to communicate, dive, and eat before the mother leaves the baby six months after birth. 

We got some pretty cool shots from today and were able to take some more bursts to make into a video. 

After our tour we spent the rest of the day on Madono beach since the entrance to the beach was right where we got off out boat. Soaked up some more sun and swam around in the ocean since it was on the Sea of Cortez side and the waves are not nearly as big. 

Tomorrow we have another day to relax and hopefully I will meet up with a friend from work that is down here on vacation. It will be nice to see a familiar face! 

To bed early tonight!

 

The Best Beach Day EVER and Week 7 in the Books

Last week on Sunday, Britta and I headed down to our favorite spot on the Pedregal Beach. We were all by ourselves and only a few people walking and around on the beach. It was amazing and to top it all off, the waves were absolutely spectacular! We decided that we would just have a little fun and take some super cool pictures and videos. With my new iPhone I am in love with the slo-mo video and the burst feature on the camera.

For those that don't know how to use burst, I suggest you learn! It's awesome! When you are on your photo setting on your iPhone, instead of just hitting the circle once to take one picture, hold it down and you will be able to take many many pictures in a short period of time. Just point and hold that circle down! Then you can go through and pick your favorite picture of the bunch or you can do what I did and downloaded the flipgram app for iPhone and you can put as many pictures as you want and it will flip through them very fast. You can determine your length of video to fit Instagram or other social media sites. You can even add music to it! It was the perfect app for this situation and then amount of pictures I have.

Just be prepared that this post will be a lot of pictures, but mostly videos. I will eventually get to what we've been doing in school, but for now I had to share these hilarious and awesome moments!

Let's start with this gem of a video. Britta was clearly not prepared for that wave and apparently I didn't see it fit to warn her. So of course, she fell. It was great and provided us with a good laugh! At least she was ok and fell in the right direction instead of into the ocean! :) 

And then there is this beautiful video of me filming Britta, or so I thought. Apparently I didn't hit the screen in the right place to turn the camera back around and all I got was a bunch of picture of me getting really excited for whatever was happening to Britta. We will never know how cool that wave looked behind her, but clearly, by me face, it was great! If I can get a good laugh from it, I'm sure you all will too! :)

Now I'm just going to start adding a bunch because they were super cool and we had a lot of fun running around in the waves and on the rocks trying to get these pictures and videos that we will have to enjoy for the rest of our lives! Hope you enjoy! :)

Myself on top of the rocks.

Britta on top of the rocks.

Running from some waves. The look on my face says it all. We were just so happy to be here and playing in the waves! 

Slo-Mo waves crashing on the rocks. They were just so big that day!

Britta's cartwheel on the beach to finish off the afternoon.

Now time for some photos!

I did warn you that a lot of it would be pictures! That day I almost took 500 pictures and videos with all the different bursts that I did taking up to 50 photos in just a few seconds. It came in very handy that day and will come in handy again in the near future. Like tomorrow when Britta and I go whale watching in the morning!

So time to talk a little about school. Lately a lot of students have been in and out with different sicknesses. One is particular that is going around the kinder classes is chicken pox. There were 3 students that were out for 2 weeks because of those buggers. Others have had just colds and fevers, but get sent to school anyways. 

The students are learning about the earth and living things and how they grow. So this week the K2 students got to make grass heads, which turned out so cute and on Monday when we go back, they are just going to be crazy full of grass! The K3 students planted tomato plants in eggshells and a few of those are starting to sprout as well. The garden that we planted a few weeks ago is still growing! Hopefully I will be here to see it produce, but I'm afraid I will be gone by then. 

All this planting is getting me excited to get back home and be able to plan and plant my own garden since I will finally have one of my own!

I can't believe that we only have 5 more weeks here. I'm very excited for Allison and Jordan to get here for Spring Break! I'm sure they will have so much fun and it will be nice to see some familiar faces! :)

We headed down to the beach tonight to watch the sunset and the view was pretty amazing! Pictures are just better to look at than me just explaining how awesome the sunset looked!

Tomorrow Britta and I are getting up and going out on a Whale Watching cruise from 9-11. They are serving us breakfast and supposedly the best mimosas and bloody's in Cabo. I think we will be the judge of that! After that we plan to just spend the day at the beach or Marina relaxing and hanging out, enjoying our weekend in the sun!

Hope you enjoyed all the pictures and the updates! Everyone enjoy your weekend! :)