On being a Foreigner.

Several years back, I took my daughter to the park in a Mexican city. Some guy bought a dozen little plastic electric cars. For the equivalent of US$1 or so, you could rent a little car for you kid. He set up a few cones. The kids were driving around in happy chaos, the parents running after them. Fun for everyone.

We can't have this in the US. The cars wouldn't be considered safe. The guy wouldn't be able to get a license or insurance. In the US, if a kid fell off of his car, their would be a lawsuit. In Mexico the parent would pick up the kids and put him back on the car.

In Mexico I can rent a horse, or a trampoline (yes, at a local city park they rent out trampoloines) or lots of things. Sometimes I look at what is being offered and say "that doesn't look safe, let's not do that". But that's my option... in the US their is no option.

This is what I mean by freedom... it is quite an contrast from the overprotective and overregulated US.

Over Christmas, I participated in Posada. It was wonderful, I was the only foreigner there and as welcomed as part of the family.

Posada feels to me like a combination of Christmas caroling and Halloween. It is a recreation of the traditional Christmas story; Mary and Joseph knocking on the door of the inn to seek shelter. It is song with two roles. The people outside the house are begging for shelter, and people inside the house are telling them to go away.

I was given a sheet of paper with the words (and was inside the house). The song gets pretty stern at one point the song has us tell the Holy Family that if they don't go way we are going to beat them with sticks. As I am reading along and trying to sing correctly this struck me as a little mean, but the story goes on and we end up letting in Mary the mother of God and her companions to a joyous feast.

We open the door and they enter singing with lighted candles. There are bags of candy for everyone (with a focus on the children) and rubber balls (which I think are now a traditional part of the holiday) and way too much food.

Driving down the street in the week before Christmas this scene will be played out in house after house. This is also a time of giving, people make sure that no one in their neighborhood is left out.

This was actually my second year celebrating this tradition. It is like being a kid again, learning tradition and family and culture all over again.

I am not familiar with Posada

I am glad that you had a wonderful time participating in the celebrations and traditions.

Thanks for sharing.



Those are the kind of moments I cherish.

I hate Coppell, and I expect anyone here would too.

Coppell looks like a department store. They make their money by selling everything from bras to TVs to small motorcycles on credit for exorbitant interest. You can buy your kid a scooter for about 15% more than Walmart. Or you can pay it over 3 year with low monthly payments and an 86% interest rate.

Coppell builds stores at the center of any large town and targets the working class who focus on the convience and low monthly payments rather than the fact they are being screwed in interest.

As a left leaning American, this offended me. My friends shrugged, they understand the point about interest... but it doesn't have the same emotional response for them as it does for me.