Wearing Her Heart On Her Sleeve

I have a seven-year-old daughter.  She is old enough to express herself well, and young enough that she doesn´t censor herself.

For example, early in the school year, she was supposed to write down a goal for the school year and share it with the entire class.

Clara´s goal:  I am going to be better than everyone else.

My response:  Ummm . . . wanting to be your best is, indeed, a great goal.  However, you don´t think that maybe your friends might get offended about you wanting to be better than them?

Nah.  This thought never occured to her.  After I explained it, it still didn´t seem to make much sense.  But I did get her to tone down her goal.  (At least she´s socially saavy enough to try to appease me.)

Then, about two months ago, I found this scrawled across our message board:

Quiero que todos me quieren.
I want everyone to like me. 

How heart-wrenchingly honest.  

Do we all go through this phase when we wear our heart on our sleeve?  How long does it last before reality intervenes?  (Usually in the form of mean kids.)  How many heartbreaks does it take for us to bury our desire to express our need to be loved?  

For Clara, I sure hope it isn´t any time soon.  

Would that this innocence could last forever.

I was afraid that Valentine´s Day might shatter some of her heart-strewn reality.  Unlike in the US, where all the kids in the class buy a pack of Valentines to give to every single child in the class, Clara´s assignment on Thursday was to write one card, to a specific friend, to give to that child on Friday.  

Oh, this assignment was fraught with danger.  What if Clara gave her Valentine to her friend, and her friend didn´t give her a card in return?  What if everybody wanted to give a card to one girl and then all the other girls were left without cards?  Furthermore, Clara went another step, and after she wrote "Happy Valentine´s Day" on the card, she added, "Zoe--you´re my best friend."  

Oh, dear.  Best friend declarations.  This might be more dangerous territory than boyfriends could be in a few years.  Because what happens if Zoe isn´t actually all that attached to Clara?    

Fortunately, none of these thoughts ever crossed Clara´s mind.  And, apparently it won´t occur to her for awhile longer.  Friday´s Valentine exchange must have gone off without a hitch.   

As further confirmation that the world is still a nice place, Zoe came over to spend the afternoon with Clara.  

Whew.  They may just be best friends after all.

May these two, sweet, little girls get to live a few more months in perfect oblivion to the meanness that surrounds them.  

Mexican Microbrews: Saga--white ale

On New Year´s Eve, we were perusing the shelves at PRISSA, a fabulously huge liquor store in Puebla, and we stumbled upon a few samples from the Cervecería 5 de Mayo.  Since we are always game for trying a new microbrew, we bought two different types.

Is it just me, or is the Mexican microbrew scene exploding?  Our eyes were opened last year in Aguascalientes, then we were reminded how good Monterrey has it when we visited during Semana Santa, and now we´re finding microbrews in Puebla, of all places!

Let me tell you--Mario lived in Puebla for eleven years.  Mario loves beer.  Had this brewery been around ten to twenty years ago when Mario lived here, I´m confident that he would have known about it.

In the interest of full honesty though, this brewery isn´t from Puebla.  It´s from the little town of Atlixco, just outside of Puebla.  All the more to shock my socks.

So, first up:  Saga--white ale.

            Jill´s thoughts--"I really, really like it."

           Mario´s thoughts--"They say ale--this tastes more like a weiss."

           Jill´s thoughts--"It´s flowery."    [probably because it was a mislabeled weiss]

          Mario´s thoughts--"The hops were possibly over-roasted."

         
He said it was bitter at the end, I thought it was simply stronger at the end.  I was reminded of pumpkin, Mario disagreed.

Whatever it was--white ale or weiss, pumpkiny or not--I will happily buy myself more the next time I´m in Puebla!


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Where is that kick-ass awesome PRISSA liquor store?

In Puebla, right next to the Gandhi bookstore that´s across the street from
Angelopolis.  

Destination: Cuauntinchan, Puebla

Never heard of Cuantinchan?

No surprise.  It´s not written up in Lonely Planet.  Trip Advisor won´t be able to tell you much about it, either.

But we go there once every year or two.  It´s a place I look forward to visiting.

There isn´t much to the town.  Like most towns, they have a lovely plaza, and, with their larger-than-usual fountain and normally-empty benches, Cuauntinchan´s plaza is more inviting than most.

But the real draw to Cuauntinchan is the former convent.  There are traces of some seventeenth-century murals, next to the main church.  The convent, its walls and patios, are clearly centuries old,  I love the feeling of being immersed in history when I´m there.

But it´s also well-maintained.  On weekends, the church is sometimes opened for weddings.  (We crashed one there, once.)  And it´s the type of town that wedding parties parade through town on foot.
Apparently the town throws a huge party for New Year´s.  We haven´t been to that, but they were full-swing into setting up massive tents around the zocalo and in front of the convent.  But they did advertise tours to the convent´s bell tower.

All in all, it´s a lovely, quiet place to wander through history, thanks to that convent.

Doors to history

Pieces of a mural 

Monks on a mural

Arches guarding the murals

Side entrance to the church on the plaza.

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Where is Cuauntinchan?

      From the city of Puebla, follow the road to Tecali.  It´s pretty close to Tecali, but there will be signs announcing Cuauntinchan.