Home Sweet Home

Forgive the delay in sending another update... the day after we wrote our first post, we moved into our new place and have been busy unpacking and setting up what will be our home for the next eight months.  You know we've been on the road for too long, when Damien is overjoyed at the idea that we get to stay in one place for eight months!!  In true Guatemalan fashion, here is how we found this place:

On a Friday afternoon (three weeks ago) we wandered into a property management office that we had heard of, and thought might have a place or two we could look at.  It was 4:30.  On a Friday afternoon.  The owner of the company thought he had a place that would meet our needs, so we all piled into his car and came to take a look.  By 6pm we had seen the place, decided it was great, and barring final negotiations with the owner the plan was to sign a lease over the weekend and move in on Monday!!

As I said, we've still been unpacking and navigating where to find things like potholders in a town where apparently they burn their hands getting food out of the oven.  So we unfortunately don't have many pictures to show yet... stay tuned for those in a subsequent post.  The gist is it's a really nice two-bedroom "townhome" (in quotes, because they wouldn't call it that here, but you can imagine a two-floor unit in between two other units in the complex), in a really nice area just outside the city called Jardines de Antigua.  The biggest selling point for us is that we are walking distance to the kids' school.   We have opted not to have a car for the year (despite many expats encouragement otherwise), so walk-ability and bus-ability are important considerations for us. It's not cheap... Antigua has gotten a lot more expensive in the twelve years since we lived here, but in my mind it's worth paying for a nice place in a secure complex.  Anyhow, pics of the house to be posted soon.  In the meantime, here's the other part of being "home" that has my mind occupied right now...

Part of why we took this year away is to figure out the concentric circles of our lives:  what we want to do professionally, where we want to live, and how/where we want to school the kids.  I know, big life questions and understandably something that we knew deserved more attention than the 15-minutes a day that we seemed to have in our previous existence.  So, we still have a lot more figuring in relation to this question (we're only 1/9 of the way into our time here! ;)) but the idea of "home" has certainly been on my mind.

Partially because we just moved into our home for the year.

Partially because we spend a fair amount of time pointing out things to the kids that are different in our home this year, and that they'll come to miss once we're back in the states -- the most recent being that we're going to be walking down the street in some U.S. city saying "buenos dias" to the passerbys!

Partially because, although we have a lot more figuring out to do, we have begun the conversations around where we will call home next.  For those of you in Colorado who are anxiously awaiting our return, don't despair -- Boulder is still on the list.  We have a wonderful community of friends there and it's probably the most sensible place for us to be professionally, since we both have good reputations there.  That said, we're also considering things like: holy moly, we have to both work a lot (certainly more than we want to) in order to afford the lifestyle we want in Boulder; it might be really nice to live near my family's beach cabin so we can utilize it more than once a year; being closer to family certainly  has its benefits; and wow is it nice living in a temperate climate and the thought of returning to snow isn't so exciting.  So vamos a ver... lots to still figure out.

And last but certainly not least, the idea of "home" has been on my mind because we found out that two of our dearest friends are divorcing and we were both heartbroken at the news.  What has made it even harder is how very far away we are, when all I want to do is hug my friend as she navigates this intense journey.  And it has begged the question -- if we were stateside, anywhere in the country and I weren't a nursing mom (OK, two big "ifs" but still) would I be on the next plane to see her/them?  I'd like to think so.  And that to me is the definition of "home".  Not geographic.  But where you sink in, where you land.

We don't have that sort of grounding yet in Antigua, and I honestly don't know if we will.  Because we know its temporary.  But we have pockets of that in the states -- CO, WA, CA, and AZ -- and the question will ultimately become where is "home sweet home"?

I digress.  Enough philosophy for one post.  Scroll down for some of the visual highlights of our past few weeks here. 

Know that we love you and miss you, especially right now as we experience how very far away we feel.  But also know that you all are close in our hearts, and are welcome to come visit us in our new home anytime...

The famous Antigua arch!!

Don't forget the beautiful view through the arch!

Gemma spent the first week in our new house only wanting to eat lunch out on our porch/sunroom...
nothing like some tipico PB & J! ;)

View of Volcan Agua from right outside our house!
On a clear (i.e. not cloudy) day you can see the very top!

Damien has decided he wants to be a volcanologist when he grows up.
He's certainly in the right city and has the right outfit! ;)

Our walk to school or the bus into town.  We're averaging 13K steps a day!!

View of Volcan Fuego on our walk.

Damien's last day of Spanish School (before starting Montessori).

Caoba Farms is an amazing organic farm / store / farmer's market right near our house,
frequented by expats and locals alike!

Just one of their amazing gardens! (Steve, check this out!!)
The expats like to buy lettuce here, just to be safe!

You know our kid is from Boulder (and we've raised him right) when he gets super excited that the farm separates their garbage, recycling, and compost!  That's one thing about living here that is really hard for us... pretty much nonexistent recycling and composting. :(  We did find a place in the mercado that will take used containers to resell to other people, so at least there's that...

Because of course, why not have yoga classes at the organic farm!
(Stephanie, I totally thought of you!! :))

Look again... this is Guatemalan Scouts and it's mixed gender!!
If Damien wasn't already in school five days/week and Gemma were a little older, we'd seriously consider
 putting them in Scouts here... maybe all the fun without all the politics of Boy Scouts.  Maybe.

Resident volcanologist! <3

Gemma was fascinated by the bunnies at our friends' house in Reno too.
Here she is admiring the bunnies at Caoba Farm.

I guess you can see why... how cute are they??

New baby bunnies.

And a mama coming back to protect her young when she senses we're getting a little too close. <3

What's that noise??  It sounds like a chicken, but where is it coming from?  The kids went searching, only to find...

A hen laying an egg!!!

First week at Montessori... apprehensive but excited!  (That goes for mama too! :))

I couldn't resist but put this picture in... it captures Gemma perfectly.  Moving, moving, all the time! :)

This girl is growing leaps and bounds... whether that's just the reality of being an adventurous, want to be self-sufficient two-year-old or whether that's the result of living abroad (or both) she's determined to get her own filtered water.

Victory!!!

No joke, Damien is explaining chess to Gemma.  She's of course not getting it,
 but listening to him describe the movements/roles of each piece is beyond sweet!

Our first party hosted by a Guatemalan!  One of the kids in Damien's class invited us to their Halloween Party...
we were the only gringos who came, so it was an awesome and pretty overwhelming (all in Spanish) experience!!

When it's three days before a Halloween Party and you say to your very literal child "let's just look around the house, and find something here to use as a costume", he comes up with the amazing idea of being a clothesline!!! :)

Cutest clothesline posts ever!

Playing at the party!

In case the pinata wasn't enough, there was jello and decorative cookies  Holy sugar high! :)

And who could forget a professional clown hosting the fun!

You know you're immersing when your goal is to understand most of what the clown says to the group of preschoolers! ;)

Pinata time.  Mesmerized Gemma!

Y comida tipica!  Super yummy tostadas for 5Q (about 75 cents).

I don't know who this kid is, but he was too cute not to photograph!

And of course so is this cutie!

The view of Volcan Agua from the party.

One of the best things about leaving the party at dusk was walking home as Volcan Fuego started to erupt!  It's an active volcano about 15 minutes (as the crow flies) from our house, but this night in particular it was really active!!

!!!!!

!!!!!!

This photo was taken by somebody else here in Antigua, but it is SO amazing that we
 wanted to make sure you saw how crazy Fuego can get!

Halloween Trick-or-Treating at Parque Central.  Same costume, different day!
Got lots of smiles from the locals at our creativity!

Requisite candy sorting.

First year that I think she really gets the whole idea of this Halloween thing! :)

You know you're a play therapist when you end up strapped down in your own living room!

Hasta luego...

Love,
Selena (and Michael)

We're Here!!

I know, I  know, we're already behind on sharing our adventure with you.  I'm going to cut myself some slack (which is something I'm working on during our sabbatical anyhow) and remember that in the past 12 days we have traveled with two small children to a foreign country, started language classes, acclimated to a million new things, and made some huge decisions about our year.  So, at the end of the day I've been pretty tired and blogging hasn't won out over sleep.

But we do have a lot of stories to tell, so here goes (in some sense of chronology)...

Our travels here were long but pretty smooth.  Staying with Michael's Nana for 10 days and then his parents for three weeks before we left was the best decision we could have made, for everyone's sake.  It gave us a chance to get regrounded/regrouped after a really intense summer and to be loved on by some of our favorite people in the world.  At some point when I don't have a ton of stories and pictures about our first week in Guatemala to share with you, maybe I'll go back and share some more about our summer, but for now let me catch you up to the present.

Landing in Guatemala City (for a family that isn't too keen on big cities to begin with) was no bueno -- picture us at 8 o'clock at night, with a cart full of luggage and two kids who have never left the United States, standing in the airport "meeting area", surrounded by Guatemalans -- many of whom were simply there to pick up their loved ones, some of whom were there to try and sell us things, and presumably some of whom were there to see if we were naive foreign tourists who were going to let our bags out of our site -- was quite a way to start our time here.  Oh and did I mention our hotel shuttle wasn't there as planned and we didn't have their contact info handy (this is where we do win the award for naive foreign tourist :( ).  Our hotel "shuttle" (aka an old Volvo station wagon with no seatbelts) arrived after about 15 minutes and off we went...

Relatively uneventful first night in Guatemala, which was good.  And then we were off to Antigua to spend our first week here and then head out to Lake Atitlan to see where we ultimately wanted to settle.  We never ended up going to the Lake; after a week of time here and a very fortuitous encounter with an expat who had a lot of great perspective on living in Antigua and the expat community here, we decided to make Antigua our home for the year.  In all honesty, that first week was rough because I don't do well with uncertainty/having too many choices, so not knowing where we were going to be living was causing me a lot of internal struggle.  Ultimately, it mostly came down to two questions:

1. Where were we going to have the best balance of immersing in the Guatemalan culture that we love, while still connecting with other English-speaking expat families?
2. Where were we going to feel the safest? This was a concern of ours that I remember expressing to the director of the school out in San Marcos de la Laguna (the little hippie town on Lake Atitlan that we were considering moving to) last spring, since I've never traveled abroad with kids and was worried about access to medical care in case of emergency.  Add in Gemma's fall from this summer, which still has my nervous system on pretty high alert, and that an expat baby died in San Marcos due to (what it sounds like) was lack of access to medical care last week :( and our decision was made.

So, Antigua it is.  We toured an amazing Montessori school here and the kids are stoked about attending.  We are about to sign a lease on a really sweet townhome near the school.  Every expat we meet here suggests that we get a car, but part of why we love Guatemala is walking everywhere and having the opportunity to even briefly interact with the locals...

"Buenos dias" and "Buenas tardes" being two of the kids' best phrases already!! <3

So, no car for us and instead a house near the school, even though it's on the very outskirts of Antigua.  More on the new school and house in a subsequent blog... I don't want to overwhelm you all with too much in one post.

For now, the gist is that we're adjusting relatively well.  Gemma's been a little more agitated than normal, which we think is part of a very normal adjustment to "what the heck is going on here" but both kids have been loving Spanish school and are really excited about starting preschool.  Damien has already mastered counting to 100 in Spanish and with his incredible photographic memory is remembering a ton of Spanish words already.  Gemma, so sweet, is often asking or telling us about the colors in Spanish.  And for Michael and I, our conversational skills have come back pretty well and we're mostly working on the (ever so frustrating) things like verb conjugation.  So the language immersion is going well and as we get more settled hopefully the cultural immersion will continue to grow.

I'll stop there for now.  The pictures do the best service to our time here.  And just the general notion (and if you noticed, the name of the blog) that we're living at a slower pace and trying to remember what our most important values are as a family...

Hope this finds you all thriving in your lives and we look forward to more frequent posts on our end, and more communication with you in the weeks and months to come...

With love and a deep breath,
Selena (and the rest of the LeFevre Shelley Family)

Family selfie!!

Ready for some travel!!

Each with their own carry on....

First you go up...

... Then you go down!!

And sometimes you just make a bridge (that's what happens during a four-hour layover!)

<3 <3 <3

In my twenties, when I would travel abroad, I'd always love taking pictures of my last steps in the U.S. and my first steps in the country I was going to.  With little ones in tow, you can't really do that on the fly, so let's call this our close-to-last steps in the U.S. (and not even pretend that with the craziness of landing in Guatemala we stopped to take a picture of those steps! :))

I think the captain said this was somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico

Desayuno tipico... huevos, frijoles, platanos, y pan.
(Our first meal in Guatemala!!)

My loves!!

This is probably half disbelief and half curiosity... a turtle in our hotel breakfast area!

Hola tortuga!!

Our beautiful apartment complex for our first week in Antigua!

The kids are totally enamored with these beautiful flowers (I can see why)!

Girl on a mission

Be still my heart!!

Again and again!!

The way her curls glow in the sunlight is just incredible!

We bought these snazzy new rainjackets for our trip, but other than one day where it almost rained haven't needed them.  Part of me loves that, and part of me knows that it's a sign of global warming since we landed at the end of the rainy season.

 Oh the walking... did I mention how much we love the walking!?  We've been averaging about 13,000 steps per day since we got here, partially due to the fact that we walk 45 minute to Spanish school each morning!!

I wish  would've taken a "before" picture because these nachos are immense!!  It's one of our favorite restaurants from when we lived in Antigua 12 years ago -- the prices here (and everywhere in Antigua are higher now) but some things never change!  And yes, to answer the question of the day -- we're eating and letting the kids eat whatever we want here, since following all of our food sensitivity limitations while living abroad would be a nightmare... so far, so good!!

Michael went in a little travel agency to ask directions to our Guatemalan friend's salon...  10 minutes and three other Guatemalan people's help later (reference super helpful/friendly people here :)) we still didn't know where the salon was, but at least I got some cute pictures of the kids!

Did I mention the architecture and history here? <3

For a dude who loves volcanoes (and anything in the category of natural disasters) having this as our view every day is pretty incredible!  

'Nuff said!!

And then this... <3

The moments where living at a slower pace means this... <3

And this!!

And not to be outdone, this!! :)

First time having ice cream.  

And if you can believe it, first time having (real, dairy) ice cream! No surprise, they're both hooked!

The (chicken) bus station!  Oh and did I mention the view??

When you're at a park in a foreign country,  you only have your diaper bag with you, and your kid's semi-loose tooth gets bonked by the swing, you use... a sock to see if it needs to come out! ;)   Wasn't quite ready, so no Guatemalan tooth fairy visits yet!!  (Apparently the tooth fairy here pays 5 quetzales, which is about 75 cents.)

Modeling himself after the locals, carrying their goods on their heads/backs.

The kids playing "family" like Damien used to do with his BFF at Wild Sage.
Gemma usually decides she's going to be the daddy and Damien gets to be the mommy!

In Parque Central, watching the cannonball explosions... not sure what they're celebrating, but every few minutes a loud bang happens and smoke and then confetti appear in the sky!

Marimba band concert in Parque Central

With some really great dancing, and the backdrop of the ruins and the volcan.

Joining in the fun!!

Yoga meets marimba dancing!!

That's it for this installment.  Hasta luego...