Welcome to 3 Bags Full. My name is Annick. I want to say that I am having a great time 🙂
I am missing my friends from school so much.
Life in the Cayman Islands is hot.
I love it here.
How are you going, my friends? I was really sad when I was leaving so I had a sleepover at Cami and Amalia’s house and I felt better. 🙂
The Experiences
I had lots of fun towards the end of the time at Mexico and some sad experiences as well. I enjoyed the farewell party I had at school with my friends. The cake of Mewtwo and Rayquaza was sick as well, and the sleepover I had with my friend Luigi really helped me to feel a bit better leaving Mexico
This first week of February is so far super awesome. We are in the Grand Cayman Islands, and I have nearly gotten my SCUBA certification for diving. I have found my experiences very fun, and quite funny. My instructor is quite hilarious too, and diving is so fun! My second dive was in open water, and I saw a barracuda the size of Fede! I also saw a moray eel! SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The training involves what to do in an emergency, what to do if your mask gets flooded, and what to if you lose your Regulator. (The mouthpiece you breath from).
For anybody who plays Pokemon: I found M Gyarados EX Full Art – ON THE STREET.
ASHER
Today was our last day in Mexico … for now. I’ve had a bit of a lump in my throat for a few weeks now caused by concern about the journey we are about to head out on and upheaval to our very settled life here, and for leaving Mexico.
I will miss this place terribly. I said to Princess a week or so back that I have felt more at home here than pretty much anywhere else. It’s an incredibly misunderstood country. Most folks, and particularly Australians, find it hard to jump over the security reputation. Whilst there is obviously a serious national problem with the drug cartels, Mexico City itself – all 25m residents thereof – is considerably safer than many US cities. It’s a complicated place and I can’t hope to describe it in a first post but what I will miss is the absolute priority of family first always, the community second and doing things properly a very long way down the list. Oh – food might be up there with family. Happy, welcoming, colourful, noisy, generous people. The culture, history, travel places, food and so on. You don’t need to think of things to do here – there is always something going on. I was thrilled to see the WSJ put Mexico City, or DF to the locals, at the top of their 52 Must See places for 2016.
I did my final Sunday morning run down to the Zocalo and back this morning. A nice 16km round trip. Below is one of my favourite photos from here – sun rising over the Golden Angel whilst running down the main drag (Paseo De La Reforma) on my way to the main square in the centre of town. The second photo is about 7am this morning arriving onto the square with its magnificent cathedral and the Palacio Nacional.
Sparx
Life in Boxes
Sparx once said to me an ideal present for him would come in a box – an inference to a toolbox or tech gadget rather than silly little watchamacalits that have irregular or soft edges. This is day four of watching over the packers put all our belongings into boxes. As I sit on one of these boxes ticking off the numbers leaving our apartment to go into a long term storage, I’m having a giggle to myself that he can jolly well unpack all his perfectly wrapped presents in boxes that so far number 325.
It was somewhere in the middle of Wrangell St. Elias, Alaska, on our 10th anniversary treat, that we realised we both wanted the same thing and that it was time we did it. Perhaps it was being away for the first time from three constantly chattering monkeys, endless conference calls, the humdrum of daily life. Perhaps it was sitting on the beach with thousands of seals at Icy Bay and watching glaciers the size of cars crash into the waters beside us over lunch. Or flying over the most incredible landscapes in a tiny Super Cub single propeller plane. We saw beauty in new ways and experienced nature truly untouched. We were sold. Now what?
We have three kids and a wonderful life in Mexico City. Between Sparx and I, we have been away from our families in Sydney and Singapore for over 20 and four years respectively. Our youngest imp was born in Chile and we love living in Mexico. We decided that our next chapter will be to take a year’s sabbatical from work, and educate our kids while we travel around the world. At the end of the year, we will end up in either Sparx or my hometown. We will take the long way home. We are no strangers to change, but what we were proposing to do seemed almost absurd. Still, carpe diem, right? So on with it.
It is this attitude that got me stuck with 3 Bags Full. Sparx, being the strongest, gets saddled with the lion’s share of luggage handling. You will not believe the whinging that accompanies this task. One of the first arguments we had over our Big Trip (and there are plenty and counting) was the number of bags we would take. I started with the number six. I thought it was a great number – a bag for each and a spare. We are taking a year off after all. These bags will contain everything we need! What of the kids’ toys, and books and endless knickknacks that the girls seem to accumulate? Ash never goes anywhere without his backpack filled to the brim with his current obsession. Educating these kids will have to fit in somewhere along the way and that will surely take up half a bag?
I lost that fight and just got on with it. We seized the day and decided we will do it with 3 bags full.
Lesson learned: We can’t. We need 4. But the name stuck.