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.

¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨

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.

Tacos Arabes--because they deserve their own post

When most people think of authentic, Mexican tacos, tacos de pastor most often come to mind.  With reason, as they´re fabulous and easy to find just about anywhere.  At least, anywhere I´ve visited,

However, my first Mexican taco experience was with tacos arabes.  As much as I like tacos al pastor (and I LOVE them), tacos arabes are still my favorites.

Maybe it´s because I´m fron the US and I prefer wheat tortillas to corn tortillas.  But, to be honest, the tortillas used in tacos arabes are more of a pita bread than a wheat tortilla

Maybe it´s the chipotle-laden sauce that should be generously poured over the meat.  I´m a sucker for chipotles.  But who isn´t?

Whatever the reason, whenever I´m in Puebla, I just can´t get enough of these beauties.

Yet another reason that I thank the Lebanese-Mexican community´s contributions to this country.

Mmmm . . . just look at that porky goodness!

Where can one find tacos arabes?

Lots of taco places in the city of Puebla will sell them.  A big chain for tacos arabes is the Antigua Taquería Oriental.  They´ve got locations all over Puebla, but I´m guessing that the original is on the zócalo in Puebla, on the same side as the entrance to the cathedral.  It´s small and easy to miss (the other franchises are a great deal larger . . . if, indeed, they are the same franchise).  Whatever, they are, they´re all good!

New Year, New Blog

New Year, New Blog?

Not really.  

However, instead of making New Year´s Resolutions for myself, I´ve been spending more and more time lately thinking about this blog.  Therefore, I have New Year´s Resolutions for this blog.  

They seem easier achieve than losing the excess baby weight. 

What are my Blog Resolutions?  

In a nutshell, focus.  After writing this blog for a few years, I realize that there are some categories that interest me more than others.  For example: 

• Travel in Mexico     I have photos stockpiled from vacations over the last few years.  I took a lot of those pictures with the intention of highlighting a specific city on this blog, or an aspect of that city.  Then real life steamrolled right over me, and those pictures never saw the light of day.  

          Therefore, if a flurry of new destinations pop up on this blog,             don´t be surprised.  We haven´t just taken an epic tour of the             country.  I´ve simply been hoarding pictures and memories for              the last ten years, and it´s time to do something with them.  

• Parenting      Having a baby recently, I´ve had time on my hands to reflect and be awed by the huge responsibility that parenting is.  That, and I have multiple opportunities a day to reflect on the weirdness that is inherent in parenting.  Parenting is silly and messy and beautiful and lonely and hard and awe-inspiring.  Sometimes I need a place to write about those things--to remember them for the future, to share them with friends.  So many of us have been there.  Even thought we know we´re not alone, sometimes it´s helpful to put it out there, to have someone else comment that yes, they´ve been there, too.  

• Mexican Wines and Microbrews     On these vacations that I will be highlighting, one of my favorite parts is to find wineries and microbrews.  For far too long, Mexico´s beer selections have been dominated by two huge companies.  Sure, they often make good beer.  But in the last few years I´ve noticed the Mexican microbrew scene explode.  It seems everywhere I look, there´s a new beer from a city that I never realized made beer.  They can be hard to find, but the joy is in the search.

         And Mexican wine--where do I begin?  Look beyond Padre Kino--there is some AMAZING                wine out there, and not all of it is grown in Baja California.  I´m making it part of the mission of          my life to enjoy as much of it as I can.  And then to share the joy.  

What might no longer appear on this blog?  

       If I have information about Saltillo, I´ll generally share that on SaltilloExpats.  

      And sometimes I´ll be inspired and have an epiphany and spew over with evangelical fervor.  That´s all well and good, but I´ve decided to stow those musings at an entirely different site.  Click here to check it out, or on the "spirituality" subheading at the top of this blog.  

After not doing much with this page for the last year, I´m getting warmed up and ready to dig into this again!  

Multitasking While Breastfeeding

As the mother of a newborn, I  spend roughly sixteen hours a day on the couch.  Just sitting there.  Hands held hostage, because I´m holding someone whose life depends on my ability to hold him to my chest for those sixteen hours a day.

In some ways, this is the toughest part of having a baby.  While the boob and the baby may be working, the rest of me is idle.

Sure, there are ways to work around this.  For instance, I am starting to be an expert at one-handed internet surfing.  For the second and third week of Little Boy´s life, I locked myself in my room, reading my way through the War of the Roses (thank you, Philippa Gregory).

But once I polished off The White Princess for the second time, I was all read out.  And while I love the kid, there´s only so long I can stare at him in wonder.  Mostly, I just found myself thinking about all the other things I could have been doing, things I could have been doing if my hands were free.

As I kept ruminating on all those things that needed to be done, I was reminded of Philippians 4:6.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." 

Instead of worrying about those things that I couldn´t do anything about, I could pray about those things.

That, in turn, reminded me to pray for my baby, for my older children, and for the rest of my family.

With so much time almost literally on my hands, I have been reminded to pray for all kinds of people and situations I would have otherwise overlooked during my regularly-scheduled busy life.

Maybe that is the hardest thing about having a new baby--that abrupt halt of all the activities and routines that dominated our days up to the moment of the baby´s birth.  Then--BAM--life comes to a halt.  We´re forced to slow down dramatically.  We´re stuck on the couch for sixteen hours a day, feeding this new little person.

Stepping back and reflecting, it´s a huge job.  It´s an awesome responsibility--both the small person whose survival is dependant on my holding him steady, keeping me hostage on the couch, and the fact that I can simultaneously lift up numerous people, situations, needs, joys, and hurts and interceed on behalf of those directly to the God who has control over it all.

Up until recently, I haven´t been much of a "pray-er".  I like doing better.

But maybe prayer is just another form of doing.  Even though it doesn´t feel like I´m doing anything, I have faith that it is doing someone, somewhere, some good.  After all, that´s what faith is all about--the belief that prayers do work, even when there is no physical evidence to support that belief.

The Worst Word

Yesterday, Clara came up to me and declared, "my doll says a bad word."

Confident that we never acquired a doll with a potty mouth, I assured her that she must have misunderstood.  But Clara was convinced that the doll was providing a bad example.

"Want to know what she says?"

Curious what terrible word this piece of plastic was teaching my child, I agreed.  Clara drew close, whispering in my ear, in an attempt to expose as few people as possible to this doll´s poor manners.

"Stupid face."

Initially, I couldn´t believe that any toy company would sell a doll that would say "stupid face".  However, on listening to the culprit, I had to admit that Clara was right.

Oh, that made-in-China quality control!

However, the doll´s potty mouth was more offensive to Clara´s ears than mine on at least two levels:

1)  Within the four-to-eight-year-old age range, isn´t "stupid face" just about the biggest slam there is?  One might as well go all out and call someone "poopy face".

2)  Not only is my daughter six, but she´s a Mexican six-year-old.  Among Mexicans--of any age--"stupid" is the ultimate forbidden word.  There are swear words, and then there is stupid.

Now, even in English, it is pretty harsh to call another person stupid.  However, in other contexts, we throw the word around all the time.

The airplane is late?  Stupid plane.

The refrigerator doesn´t work?  Stupid refrigerator.

Any of those phrases are absolutely unacceptable in Spanish (at least, Mexican Spanish).  Therefore, under no circumstances should the S-word be applied to a person.

Or else Clara´s doll might call one a "stupid face", too.