Car Insurance

The rule is everything bureaucratic takes half a day. Today, we had to buy car insurance, which, by the way, is $400 dollars per year!!!!! That is A LOT less that what we pay in Brooklyn. Anyway the lady from the insurance company had big boops and fake white flower is her hair, but was super nice. She made all kinds of phone calls, she sent faxes, she gave candies to the kids… all this took almost 3 hours.

Finally we went to pick up our gray Pointer Volkswagen. So I met the famous Amir, Israeli, part owner of the Internet Café, part owner of the car, part real estate agent. A tall, bold, muscular guy, that plays domino all day with his Mexican associate. He told me he was born in a kibbutz, which in itself does not tell me much, but he continued saying that he was playing professional basketball in Italy and then he also lived in NY and Atlanta. So I told him about my Israeli athletic connection to Vlad and his brother, and he said he knew them. Go figure… I have to double check!

I also had a long conversation with the Italian guy who owns the cleaning store next to our house. It is interesting to know every life story, because every story is a bit different. He moved to Playa not long ago and before that he was living in Belize for four years and before that in Texas. He gave me few tips about life in Playa and the Italians he knows here.

The kids finally realize that “Mexico” is not only a beach, and that we are “in Mexico” even if we are not actually at the beach. Sometimes when they get reprimanded, they say they want to go “home” (which they also refer to as “the trampoline house”). I feel a little self-conscious but I know it is just a way for them to refer to a place where they feel cozy. Friendship is something that already means something to them, so I also say that I will not move them around from 12 to 18 years old and I will try to hold to that promise.