24 Hours in San Antonio

We had a long weekend in mid-December.  We like to get out of town for long weekends.  However, if I haven´t mentioned it before, my only real complaint with Saltillo is the lack of accessible destinations for a weekend away.  Of all people, Mario came up with that weekend´s plan of going to San Antonio, TX.  We had never been and I´ve wanted to go ever since we moved here.

However, Mario didn´t realize that San Antonio is three hours north of the border.  We are three hours south of the border.  And one can never tell exactly how many hours one might have to wait in line at the border on a given weekend in mid-December.  One three-day-weekend, 6 hours each way, no driving in the dark in Mexico--it made for a quick trip!

But it was well worth it.

What does a family with small children do for 24 hours in San Antonio?

Get a hotel very close to the Riverwalk.  I asked people who had been there, what exactly we should see.  Every answer?  The Riverwalk.  Mario also wanted to see the Alamo.  Fortunately, the Alamo was right between our hotel and the Riverwalk.  Perfect.


We arrived in the evening on Friday.  We knew we wanted to take a Riverwalk boat tour.  The hotel had all kinds of helpful magazines and pamphlets, so within a half hour, we bought our tickets and were standing in a short line to board the Miss Laura (Bush), piloted by Captain AJ.  Oh, yeah . . .

I have a feeling that the Riverwalk is pretty at any time of year, but they light luminarias along all the sidewalks and bridges during December.  Those lights, combined with the Christmas trees and other Chrismas lights glittering on the river, made for a particularly lovely ride.


Furthermore, the weekend we were there (December 12, 13, 14), the Riverwalk was hosting an arts fair.  Hundreds of artists and crafters--spanning the gamut from oh-la-la to string bracelets--set up booths along the Riverwalk.  It made walking tricky in parts, but I love me a good art fair, anywhere.

Living in Mexico, we had no need for Tex-Mex food (which seems to be a must in San Antonio).  We came ready for real Texas barbecue.  It did not disappoint.  Word to the wise--there are oodles of excellent restaurants lining the Riverwalk.  I´m sure they´re all lovely.  But if you dine just off the Riverwalk, both your wallet and your belly will stay full.

On Saturday morning, we wandered through the Alamo.  In the 1930s, the Alamo was entrusted to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.  Thanks to these lovely ladies, this piece of history is preserved and is open to the public, free of charge.  It is a simple little museum, but well put-together.  I was glad I had read up on my Texas history last year.  (I highly recommend True Women by Janice Woods Windle, although the Yellow Rose of Texas series by Gilbert Morris is also entertaining.  Yes, I still learn history through historical fiction.  I´m not ashamed.  And I bet I can beat most people in historical Jeopardy.  So there.)

The kids were not as excited about the Alamo as Mario and I were.  There were carriage rides parked off the sidewalk by one of the exits and Joey happily spent nearly an hour watching the horses.  Then he discovered the the koi swimming in the canal.  Clara was just not amused.  Can´t win ´em all.

So we finished off our tour of San Antonio by heading to LaVillita.  It´s a tiny neighborhood which is now composed of art galleries.  Having somewhat grumpy children by that time, we didn´t venture into any of the galleries.  But the neighborhood was charming, reminding me of my time in New Mexico.  Plus, they had a Coffee Expo in La Villita´s square.  Coffee shops from all over San Antonio were boasting their wares.  It smelled amazing.  But I was not willing to stand in the long lines, so we just smelled the loveliness.



Cutting through the Riverwalk once more, we ended our 24 hours in San Antonio with lunch at Shilo´s deli, celebrating central Texas´s German heritage.  You thought the German immigrants mainly congregated in the midwest?  No, my friends--Texas was a big draw for Germans in the nineteenth century.   Shilo´s deli has a fantastic sausage selection to prove it.  They even offered imported German beer.  No small feat in the land of Shiner.  And don´t get me started on their interior decorating--they opened shop in their present location in about 1920, and I don´t think they´ve changed a thing.  Floor tiles, ceiling moulding, high-backed booths--I could have just sat and stared.  But their food was excellent.  And so were their prices.  If you need a meal in San Antonio, please go to Shilo´s.

Unless you´re a vegetarian.

San Antonio, we will be back!  24 hours were just not enough.

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Where is Shilo´s?

424 East Commerce St.  Not far from the Rivercenter Mall and Menger Hotel.

Making Christmas

 " . . . In every winter of the world, Arizona school children fold and snip paper snowflakes to tape around the blackboard.  In October, they cut orange paper leaves, and tulips in spring, just as colonial American and Australian schoolchildren once memorized poems about British skylarks while the blue jays or cockatoos (according to continent) squawked outside, utterly ignored.  The dominant culture has a way of becoming more real than the stuff at hand."

                                        -Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (pg. 296)


      Ms. Kingsolver said it better than I did.  But my question, given my perspective in Mexico, is how the vision of a snowy Christmas got to  be the "dominant culture".  There are very few places in this country that experience real snow.  So why do we see flocked trees, refrigerated ice skating rinks, and snowmen in every park and plaza?  Yes, I agree that the idea of a snowy Christmas is a charming one.  But why are we getting bombarded by these images when they have nothing to do with an authentic, Mexican, Christmas experience?

       Call me crazy, but I´m willing to bet that the Christmas decorations in this country 100 years ago did not celebrate snow.

      I don´t either.

      Now, I´m not one of those bah-humbugs who hates the wetness, coldness, and messiness of snow.  Au contraire, I love it!  When I lived in Indiana in the winter and my coworkers would whine and moan at seeing the snow fall, someone would routinely add, "at least Jill will be happy."  And I was.

     But I believe in being present in my present surroundings.  So Christmas in Saltillo isn´t snowy?  What then, are the things that speak "Christmas" to me here?

• Pointsettias--native to Mexico, the poinsettia is called nochebuena in Spanish.  That literally means that it´s the Christmas Eve plant, as we all know it blooms this time of year.  And if you haven´t been to Mexico before, let me warn you that they can grow to be a good 6 or 7 feet tall!  There isn´t anything like a good nochebuena to help celebrate Christmas, so we´ve got them everywhere.  





Yes, ours is a bit pathetic by Mexican standards.
My idea is to buy a new piece every year.
So, when we´re celebrating our 50th year as a family, we´ll have
a set that will be the envy of any abuelita.  

• Nativity scenes--I´m convinced that there is an unofficial, national competition on who can make the grandest, most elaborate nativity scene.  Mexican nativity scenes not only incorporate the Holy Family, Wise Men, shepherds, and an angel.  No, no--they often include herds of cattle, Satan, washerwomen, nopales, goat roasting on a spit, fish swimming merrily in rivers . . . a tiny town of clay figurines descend on most Mexican homes for two months out of the year, causing significant rearranging of furniture.  I never get tired of checking out others´ nativity scenes.  

• Rosemary--earlier in the month, I wanted to make a wreath for the front door.  But, as we don´t have many pines here, I wanted it made out of something I could easily get.  I have a large rosemary bush in my patio.  A traditional, Mexican Christmas dish is romeritos, which is rosemary covered in a mole sauce.  Thanks to this, I´ve noticed in the last few years that just smelling rosemary reminds me of Christmas.  Furthermore, in a Mexican Christmas carol, Los Peces en el Rio, one of the verses speaks of Mary washing out clothes in a river and hanging them to dry on a rosemary bush.  Furthermore, having cut a branch off a few weeks before this contemplation, the cut branch stayed green for a few weeks.  

         Alas, right before I harvested the rosemary for the wreath, we had a cold spell and the bag I                covered the rosemary with had condensation inside.  Given the freezing temperatures, it just                about killed my rosemary bush.

         *sigh*  Next year, we´ll have a rosemary wreath.

• Advent wreaths.  I had to search long and hard to find an advent wreath that did not incorporate fake pine branches and pine cones.  Granted, that wouldn´t be so bad--there are mountains full of pine forests very close to here, so the pine-theme would be somewhat authentic.  However, during our first year of marriage, we lived in Metepec, just outside of Toluca.  Metepec is famous for clay pottery, and arboles de la vida.  

          While walking around one of the pottery markets one day, I found this.  Not at all Christmas-y,           in the "let´s celebrate snow" sense.  Very Christmas-y in a traditional, Mexican sense.  Makes             for one pleased expat.                

If you also live in a region of the world not blessed with snow, what decorations appeal to you?

More Preschool Dress-Up Days

Mexico celebrated the 104th anniversary of its glorious revolution a few weeks ago.  It´s one of the more important civic holidays on the calendar, so any school in the country would be remiss not to mark the occasion, right?

Right.  However, as the Revolution was a multi-faceted struggle, one that succeeded in some respects and failed in others (and, of course, it depends on one´s point of view exactly where the Revolution succeeded or failed), it´s a complicated story to tell.  Particularly to preschoolers.

So, what should we do?  Gloss over it?  Simply have an extra-long flag ceremony on the 20th?

Nah--let´s reenact it!


Is it just me, or is it true that whenever there´s something to celebrate at the preschool, the teachers ask us to dress up our kids for the occasion.  Independence Day?  Pick a traditional dress from any region in Mexico and sport those colors!  Columbus Day--guess what?  Your little güero gets to be King Ferdinand!  United Nations Day--dress your child up in traditional dress from another country!  Revolution Day--well, let´s all be revolutionaries!

As a mom, part of me is irritated to spend so much time sewing.  (Without a sewing machine, because I did not realize that a sewing machine should be included in a list of school supplies at the beginning of the year.  Those of you with younger kids in Mexico--be warned.)  However, at the preschool stage, history and social studies are tricky concepts to teach.  Given preschoolers´ natural gravitation towards dressing up and pretending, this just might be the perfect way to have them begin to learn about these tricky concepts.

Still, how much solid information are they really pulling out of merely dressing up as a revolutionary?

I have no idea.  But time will tell.

When I was wracking my brain, trying to figure out what clothes we had on hand to turn Joey into a revolutionary, it dawned on me that we had a perfect outfit for him to dress up as Venustiano Carranza, one of the revolutionary leaders.  So I told him he was going to be Carranza.  Fortunately, he jumped on that idea, bouncing around the living room, shouting, "Carranza!  Carranza! Carranza!"
Did he have any real idea who Venustiano Carranza was?

No.

Already being the proper politician and mingling with his constituents.

However, he now can associate the guy with the big white beard (who is NOT Santa Claus) with the 20th of November.  He remembers that he dressed up as that guy.  In the future, when he hears that name mentioned, he might just be a little more prepped to pay a little more attention to find out what that guy did.

Well, it´s worth a shot.

Worst case scenario?  They´re still awfully cute.

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!