My New Project

Since this summer, I´ve been working on a new project which may or may not affect the life of this blog.  It´s been a long time in coming, and this blog has been instrumental in this new project.  Let me explain:

1. Earlier this year, we were throwing around possibilities of moving abroad.  First to Russia, then to Italy.  Mercifully, both opportunities are off the table for the time being.  However, when faced with the idea of moving to Russia, I was a bit terrified.  So I put my amazing internet skills to the test, and expat blog came through with a few Russian expats for me to glean some experience off of.  All of a sudden, Russia was a lot less scary.  If these people can do it, so can I.  
2. Over the past few years, and particularly this year, I´ve had people find my blog as they were in the process of moving to Saltillo.  I investigated a bit, and apart from wikipedia, there isn´t much information about Saltillo on the internet--less in English.  So this blog is the only source of information on Saltillo in English?  Yikes.  As most of you know from some of the randomness I post on here, that´s not leaving much for people to go on!
3. Furthermore, on my search for expats in Italy, I came across the International Women´s Club of Torino.  I investigated further and found out that there are organized groups of expat women all over the world!  For more information, click here for an example.  I thought to myself, "well, shoot--why don´t we do that here?"  

So I did.  

Having a core group of expat friends in Saltillo, and all this blogging experience from the last 5 years, I started a new site, SaltilloExpats.  The point is to present some more solid information on Saltillo (not just my take on things), and in the future I´m hoping to have a variety of people post on the site, not just myself.  After all, being married to a Mexican, I don´t have the typical expat experience.  

Then again, who does?  

But if we pool all our experiences together, that could paint a much more accurate picture of expat life in Saltillo--for all of us:  those here on business, accompanying spouses, English teachers, missionaries, those of us married to Mexicans, retirees, vagabonds . . . do we have any more expat subsets?

So if you notice that my solid posts about Saltillo seem to be disappearing, you might be right.  They´re just going to the other site.  I´ll leave my randomness and personal stories and tongue-in-cheek humor for this site.  

Thanks, Gobernator!

Every year, in October or so, we get this box of school supplies, thanks to the state government.  

I´m always left a little bewildered. 

This year´s box included blank paper, a box of crayons, an abacus, a notebook, a book, and a bilingual memory game.  Last year´s box was better assorted, including a pencil, scissors, glue, and a jar of paint.  But I do like the addition of the book this year. 

In the two years that I´ve experienced this, the teachers send the box home with us.  

They don´t ask for us to bring any of these supplies back to school.  

In the meantime, I´m spending every morning and lots of evenings of every other week making, buying ingredients for, and serving lunch for the kids at school, as a fundraiser for the PTA.  We´re hoping to build a little fence for the entrance to the school and repair some of the walls that surround the school.  

However, it seems that every other week, the principal is hit up with telephone bills.  Or the cleaning lady needs a new mop.  Or the printer needs ink.  Or someone broke into the school and we have to replace a window.  As far as I understand, the principal has very few funds to pay for these expenses, apart from the Parents´ Association.  It seems that the federal government pays for the building of the building and the teachers´ salaries.  The rest (including maintenance) is up to the parents.  And it doesn´t appear that the parents are very well informed of this, as those of us relying on the public school rally to that item in the constitution that declares that every Mexican child is entitled to a FREE, secular education.  

But who cares if the toilets flush?

So, instead of sending home thousands of boxes of vaguely useful school supplies, wouldn´t that money be better spent on giving every school a few mops and bottles of bleach every year?  Or simply let the teachers keep the school supplies, to suppliment for those students who never did bring in their list of school supplies at the beginning of the school year?  

Leaves me baffled. 

But, as my husband says, at least we´re getting something for our taxes.  After all, many of Mexico´s more famous politicians (decades ago, of course) just took our taxes and funneled them to private bank accounts in Switzerland.  

So we´re enjoying our abacus. 

But the school still needs a new mop. 

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Note to any immigration authorities who may read this:  this post is in no way a critique on any branch of the Mexican government, merely passing observations.  

  

Day of the Dead 2014

Both Halloween and Day of the Dead are popular around here and, understandably, the holidays all run together, more or less.  Being part gringo, we trick-or-treat with all the pagans in town (despite being chastized by my husband, the catechism teacher, the little-old-lady Catholic neighbors, younger protestant friends across town . . . sheesh!  It seems that anti-Halloween fervor is one of the few things that both Catholics and Protestants can agree on in Mexico).  But I´ve got new friends who also celebrate Halloween, so we had a great time!

However, in order to preserve traditional Mexican culture, the teachers at school asked that the kids dressed up as catrinas on the last day of October.  They´re the traditional, well-dressed skeletons created by José Guadalupe Posada and popularized by Diego Rivera. I support that honoring of culture. So we dressed as catrinas.  But the kids were joined by plenty of witches, Draculas, zombies, and even a boy wizard.  

The parents were invited to a Day of the Dead Open House at school.  We showed up early, during recess, and Joey was a bit frightened of all the other catrinas running around the school patio.  He clearly didn´t get a good look at his own face!  

Each class displayed Day of the Dead artifacts:  Clara´s decorated skeleton masks, Joey´s class collaborated to make a full-size altar, the students in another class brought in mini-altars, and the last class clothed little catrina paper dolls.

Halloween night, Joey was much happier to be Zorro from Dora, instead of his scary-catrin self from the day before.

Kermesse at the Seminary

Earlier this month, the seminary held their annual kermesse to raise money fund the wonderful education that goes on within its walls.

At a kermesse, one simply buys food tickets, and then spends the afternoon eating burritos, tamales, tacos, fruit salad, etc.  A few rides and games for the kiddos and . . . well, that´s about it!  That, and because this is the seminary, they did have mass every hour on the hour.  And I like mass at the seminary, as it reminds me of my own college experience.  Maybe it´s the modern architecture, maybe the homily is a bit more academic, maybe it´s all those sweet, we´re-going-to-change-the-world vibes that just flow through such places.  Whatever, it is, I was pretty psyched to experience another mass at the seminary.  And I was not disappointed.

But, there isn´t much to say about the day in general.

However, there are a number of pictures to share!

The marble-rolling game that Clara chose.

Given her drive to "do it right" she got about 20 tries from her 6 marbles.

Guaranteed prizes(

Joey decided to spend his $20 on a car ride.  Of course.
And he wouldn´t look at me once.

Being northern Mexico, the ranchero band was, of course, present.

Captain America, Patrick, and Pluto donated their time for celebrity lucha libre.

Lucha libre commentators

I think Pluto got the worst of it.

The kids had free reign on the ring after the celebrities we chartered off to their swanky hotels in Monterrey.

However, there are a number of pictures to share!

Independence Day Changeroo

The kids´ school celebrated Independence Day on a Friday, with the kids all dressed up in costumes.  Joey was told to come as an Indian.  Having seen other kids, I knew that all we had to do was dress him in khaki pants, sandals, and cut a hole in a jerga (mop rag) to make him a cheap serape.  And lots of parents paint mustaches on their little boys´ faces.

That´s pretty much the whole reason I wanted to have a little boy--to paint a mustache on his face for Independence Day.

Joey liked the mustache, and he was surprisingly open to wearing his sandals.  But he hated the serape and refused to wear it.  I packed it along with him, and send him to school in his khakis, sandals, mustache and red "Made in Mexico" T-shirt.

Just imagine him with a mustache--that´s exactly how I sent him to school.

Imagine my surprise when I show up at the program for the parents and he´s dressed like this!

It turns out, he´s a good deal less adamant about having his own way when he´s at school.  Or Maestra Mary´s Indian costume was a good deal cooler than mine.  Either way, he wasn´t the only kid in his class wearing everyday clothes.    

Winery Tour--Queretaro

For years, Mario has been telling me that I needed to see Queretaro.  That it´s one of the most wonderful cities in all of Mexico.  So colonial, so full of trees and flowers, so full of culture.  And we were almost there this last weekend.

But we went a half hour out of our way and went to Bernal, instead.

Queretaro may indeed be charming.  I sure don´t know.  But I´m pretty smitten with Bernal and the area surrounding it.  And at under 7 hours from Saltillo, we´ll be back for another long weekend.  (That´s Mario-drive-time, of course.  Normal people will not make it from Saltillo to Queretaro that quickly.)

Did you know that . . . Querétaro is one of the most important states in wine production?
(I´m guessing that it´s second--behind Baja California, of course.)

Our point in stationing ourselves in Bernal was to take advantage of the Wine and Cheese Trail.  Places in Bernal do offer guided tours to wineries and cheese makers, but we made our own tour.  On our list, Freixenet Vineyards, Azteca Vineyards, and Redonda Vineyards.  For cheese, we were hoping to find a variety of cheese makers, but El Hostal de los Quesos was well stocked and we couldn´t ask for anything more.

Patio at Freixenet

First on our stop was Viñedos Freixenet.  I´ve had their wine before, and it´s good, but not exceptional.  And stopping by the vineyard, it became clear that while they may be in the wine business (and doing a pretty good job at it) they are also very much in the tourism business, and take full advantage of their proximity to the hordes from Mexico City, looking to get out on the weekends. They offer a variety of tours--basic tours cost $60 a person, tour depth, length, and price expand from there.  Every other weekend, they offer wine pairing classes, which include full meals.

Their buildings and grounds are beautiful, making me almost feel like I was in Napa instead of Queretaro.  Like I said, these guys have wine tourism down pat.   I would have been happy to stay and get to know the place better, but we were on a mission, and had to stock up on more wine.

Azteca Vineyards is just on the other side of the street from Freixenet.  The gate was open, but as we entered, I noticed a sign that said that they only did tours by appointment.  No problem--we were just there to buy wine.  However, it was a sign that things at Azteca were a great deal different from Big Ol´ Freixenet.

Now, on September 15th (the day we were there) Freixenet was opening up an additional parking lot to accomodate all their visitors.  At Azteca, there was one other car besides ours.  They didn´t look open.  We drove around a bit.  Then a car came driving up like he owned the place.  (I think he did.)  We asked if they were open, and he told us to follow him.  We got to the store, where we were told they were not open.  But then boss-man said that we, and the guests he had with him in his car, were welcome to buy what we wanted.  Excellent.

Azteca´s tourism niche is that they also boast stables and a charro (Mexican cowboy) program.  Their grounds were filled with grapevines (of course) and ponds and horses and stables and old-style Mexican buildings--very appropriate to visit on September 15th.  I was in love with the place and wished they were open, so we could have spent more time there.  However, they had a big harvest festival that weekend, so their staff was understandably having a very deserved day off that Monday.  Now we know for next year--Independence Day weekend at Viñedos Azteca!

In short, Azteca seemed a little more serious about their wine and less serious about tourism.

Third and last on our list was Redonda Vineyards.  We had to wind our way through the town of Ezekiel Montes again (not fun), as they are on the other side of it.  They were also closed for tours, but their store was buzzing.  Redonda had plenty of picnic tables on their patio and a variety of play equipment for kids (thank you, thank you, thank you!).  For those hungry, they also sold cheese and cold cut trays, and plenty of families were enjoying a wine-laden picnic right there.

We spent a very relaxing half-hour there.  We would have stayed longer, but rain was falling as we were leaving.  And had we come on a day besides Monday, we probably could have had a tour.

But I´m looking forward to enjoying their wine at my leisure this week!

As for tasting rooms?  Freixenet offers tastings for a price, of course.  The other two did not offer tastings (nor does Casa Madero, here in Parras, so I was not surprised).  Just a word to the wise, if you´re used to California tasting rooms!  Even though I´m used to it, I still get disappointed.

Once "The Gringa", Always "The Gringa"

I´ve got this stigma that I just can´t shake.

No matter how long I´ve lived here, no matter how awesome my Spanish is, no matter how many times I walk my dog around the block (or maybe because I walk my dog around the block so often), it´s becoming clear to me that I will always be "The Gringa".  Even when I´m 75 and will have lived here for 50 years, I bet I´ll still be "The Gringa".

Now, that´s not necessarily a bad thing.  And, depending on the situation, I know that my "Gringa" label puts me in a privileged position, so I´m not complaining.  The label just keeps slapping me in the face with perspective.

Is there a story to go along with this insight?  You bet´cha!  

As stated before, I´m a stay-at-home mom.  The job has many perks, but loneliness is a common complaint.  In a effort to get out of my house and be more active in my community, I ran up to my church´s office one August day a few years ago, answering their yearly plea for catechists.  Work with children who weren´t my own?  It sounded great to me.  They asked me for my number, and I gladly gave it.

And they never called.

Now, maybe they actually had plenty of catechism volunteers that year.  It´s entirely possible.  Perhaps the office staff doesn´t communicate effectively with the catechism coordinator.  Also possible.  But seriously--who gets denied the opportunity to teach Sunday school?  Maybe this is one of those instances where Mexico is wildly different from the US, because in my experience, there are NEVER enough Sunday school teachers (or catechists, if we continue to speak Catholic).

So there was a dream deferred.

Last year when Clara started preschool, all the parents were summoned to a meeting to pull straws to decide who would serve on the PTA board.  Volunteers were not forthcoming, so as the principal´s eyes were scanning the crowd, I made some kind of tentative, affirmative, "I-can-do-this" motion.  If only to get the meeting moving along so we could leave.  However, the open post was for secretary, and we kind of all agreed (myself included) that maybe The Gringa should not have to be responsible for writing everything down.  In Spanish.  Whew--danger averted!

Fast forward to this year:

 I took Clara to the church office to sign her up for catechism.  I repeated my desire to help with the catechism program.  They told both Clara and I to just show up on Saturday, sign up then, and let the coordinator know I wanted to help.  I could have knocked him over with a feather, with my request to help, but I´m now in like Flynn.

And at the PTA draw-straws event this year, the volunteers were flying off the shelves.  I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking I would be free from responsibility and could simply pay my dues and be done.

Then the principal realized that the PTA board consisted entirely of parents from one class.  We can´t have that!

"Hey, Clara´s mom--why don´t you join us?"

There was no delicate way of declining.  Plus, I was a wee bit curious to know what exactly goes on with the PTA board.  So now I have a few responsibilities outside of my home.  Whew!  After getting my driver´s liscense, this feels like Step #2 of being a real adult again.

Yikes.

So do I wonder if being "The Gringa" stood in my way in the past in my efforts to be more involved.  Sure.  Did being "The Gringa" put me forward unintentionally?  Quite likely.  Like I said, at least it´s a neutral/positive label to bear.

My sympathies for those who have to fight their labels.  May I not be one of those who impede you.