Damn, it's beautiful here!

This is a link to some photos taken on one of the tours we offer in the area. We go to an iguana/turtle(land)/croc sanctuary run by "Galo" at sunrise/sunset where they breed and release the animals around Oaxaca and Chiapas. Then we go down to the beach and walk to a small lagoon where we see a bunch of birds and more crocs. The guide "Cleto" pushes us around with a pole as to keep quiet (and not pollute) to check out all the birds. Sometimes the 10+ ft. crocs will leap into the air a few feet and nab a bird, but thankfully we haven't witnessed that.


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=36891&l=4d8fe&id
=593345978 (Link won't fit across)

Also, check out the surfcam that Mike set up at the school:

http://www.puertoschool.com/surfcam.html

Other than that, we've been busy running the school and trying to put together other tours that we offer. Karlie's teaching yoga 3 times a week and Mike's looking for some musicians to jam with again. A bar owner the other day from Italy said he wants to have a weekly jam session there on the beach, we'll see if its a drum circle or plugged up band style. Mike might be the house drummer! The weather has been pretty much perfect, too bad no one can make it down here to visit, we're pretty much going to be here until November so y'all make some plans. Lovin' y'all.

Spendin' Pesos(by Karlie)

It's been a long time since I've frivolously spent money on fun clothes. Sure, I bought an $8pair or used Banana Republic pants to keep me warm in northern Cali. and my mom bought me a great new bathing suit that doesn't even budge when a 6 foot wave knocks me on my arse. But not even for Christie's lovely wedding did a buy a new dress. Although I must say I looked smashing n the one I dusted off from inside the storage unit! So it's for all these reasons along with the fact that I've made some extra money teaching yoga(since when there's no studio to cut into your profit even though you're hardly charging anything-it adds up quick!)that I decided to splurge on these FAB new board shorts!! What student loans? IRS who? I've got some great new shorts to surf and chill in! See the photo? They're the Mexican flag so they're like a fashion statement(trust me they are, this is the beach...not the city)and a souvenir all in one!

Puedes decir OCUPADO?(Can you say BUSY?)

Hey kids, check out the skydiver in this photo. So first off I know you want to hear about the latest trials and tribulations of our living in a very different country right? Our latest adventures include having to pay the customary policia bribe for a parking ticket and seriously, you can haggle everything in Mexico. It ended up being 50%less than it "should have" been. Today we opted not to take showers and go out to eat in lieu of washing dishes so that the "tinacos"(big water reservoirs on the roof)don't run dry before the water from the city comes in tomorrow--uh, we hope. When we say NOTHING is consistent in Mexico, I guess it even carries over to the inner workings of technology as we spent HOURS today trying to fix a paper jam in our ever important printer. It works for now, fingers crossed, thanks to Michael oh and did I mention that our 2nd car(piece of crap suburban that belongs to Brian)that already wasn't running now won't even accept a jump start and is totally dead? woohoo!
We knew that Jan. was the "high season" in Mexico but man is it EVER! We've been juggling students and teachers for days now, squeezing people into groups and even turning people away. We may even have 2 tours to do this weekend-one on Sat. and one on Sun. Fielding phone calls, emails, walk ups, having intermittent meetings with teachers and trying our best to hold it all together and keep everyone happy...that's what we've been up to as of late. That's about all the energy I have to contribute right now, we're hungry!

What is that asst. directors of an international language school do anyway?

Lots of people have asked by now "So, what is it that you're doing?" Yeah, what the heck are we doing to earn our little keep? This question inspired the following list.

**these are in no particular order**

Communicate with the director via e-mail and Skype (so cool)

Make sure apts. are clean and ready for people moving in

Meet w/accountant 1X every 2months and pay taxes at the bank (fun lines)

Complete all accounting documentation 1x/month

Set up and provide transportation for all tours(lagoon/iguana sanctuary, waterfall hike, for rock climbing Mike is the belay guy so he actually facilitates everything as well, unexcavated archaeological site, etc.)

Occasional e-mail correspondence with incoming students

Create spreadsheets for all student billing and collect/document all student payments

Document all surf board rentals and facilitate repairs

Setup students who choose to take surf lessons with their surf instructor

Mike is giving 2 hr land lessons on surf theory compiled by the director

Do payroll and scheduling weekly

Pay Homestay families weekly

Setup those students who are participating in a homestay with their families

Create student schedule weekly and then monitor it daily especially when new students appear mid week or make changes

Check email to maintain sufficient correspondence and get new student reservations(we call them "ressies")from our boss in Vail,CO

Water plants,trees and maintain greenery and drip line systems

Feed Dogs 2X Day and bathe once a week

Pick Up Dog Poop every morning and treat dogs little tumors, injuries from escaping and fighting, etc.

Shop for the school and do repairs for the school's chevy suburban beast

Deal with all the little problems that arise, handyman type stuff

Set up and maintain live surf cam

Lower and raise the school flag according to the wind

Propagate and plant fruit trees on the grounds as needed

Sweep the grounds or use the blower after windy days

Monitor and delegate chores for the neighbor kids

Keep all teaching materials organized and updated

Meet and greet new students, while making sure that all students and teachers know there schedules and balances



Details, details, details........ya know, work!

...Felicidades y Prospero Ano

Karlie writes: Our NYE, mellow and pretty uneventful though it kept us up until 4:00 which is SO unheard of for us these days but I guess NYE is the day, if any. We ate a lovely Italian dinner with a couple from Seattle who had been staying in one of Brian's apt. for the month of Dec. and then walked to a restaurant on Playa Zicatela where we waited a good 15 minutes for 1 round of drinks so that when 12:00 rolled around we toasted with imaginary drinks in hand. My favorite part of the conversation that night was when Suzanne(see Seattle couple)said that I saved the entire state of TX by my sparkling personality! I think this is really funny because Suzanne is originally from Germany and had had only 1 extended encounter with a Texan which ended in being pulled over by the cops. She said that since she had not been acquainted with any other Texans she was left to judge an entire state by the unruly crazy guy who got pulled over and none other than everybody's fave ol' Dubya so at least now she doesn't think that the rest of you are equally idiotic. After drinks at 12:15 Leo and Suzanna were ready to go home and we had an invite to go to a party where all the cool kids would be only obviously we're really not all that cool because we couldn't find the party. So we opted NOT to go to a "rave" that the local Italians threw at the local all night club and instead encountered a DJ playing some decent music at an overpriced bar and took our own cheap beers onto the beach outside of the bar where we could enjoy the music for free. Then all of a sudden it was 3:30 and that was that. We're still working a lot sometimes and I've been teaching quite a few private yoga classes and my group classes which most of you already heard about(www.temazcalli.com)start in a week. Things look to be very busy this month. We already have 20 students committed to study, not including who ever else will pop up at any given time. And besides learning about our job we've been learning to deal with all of the details of TRULY living in Mexico(like negotiating loans with neighbors, battling insects and rodents,inconsistencies, and battling a constant influx of dust). We kind of have to start getting used to critters and pests. Today Mike took a student to a nearby archaeological site and came back with a tick-yuck! He said "It's like the wild west around here!" Gotta love it.