Christmas shopping

Ulises eating a gordita de nata on the street.

I went Christmas shopping today with Ulises.  This morning I actually had to go get gas first, but then we went downtown.  We went shopping for a couple presents that I hadn't purchased yet.  We looked around, but nothing was really calling out to me.  I wanted something that screamed Mexico to me.  As we were walking down the street, I saw a man walking around with a blanket showing it to people in cars.  I saw it and thought, that is perfect!  Ulises called the guy over and we looked at it.  It had the Mayan calendar on it.  We asked how much it cost, and it sounded like a reasonable price to me, but I didn't have enough pesos to buy it and Ulises didn't have any.  So we had to go get some money.  We told the guy we would be back in 15 min and that we wanted to see any others that he had.

Eating food.  Why do I always want pictures of me
eating?

We walked quite a long distance to a grocery store to use an ATM.  After getting money, we headed back.  It had been a while by the time we made it back and I figured the guy thought we weren't coming back.  He told us as much when we saw him.  He had one other blanket with Moctezuma on it in a different color.  I liked them both and Ulises bargained to get a good deal for the two.  I'm giving one away and keeping the other for myself.  I'm giving away the one that reminds me most of Mexico.
I also managed to get the other present I was looking for and in the process I learned a word from the Tarahumaran people.  It means thank you.  I think it is something like matetaraVA (or something like that).
After looking around downtown, we decided we were hungry so we went to get something to eat.  Then we went to do some more shopping before heading back to my house to rest before my Holiday Open House.  We said we would go out when I got back, but that didn't happen.  That's ok, I'm really tired anyway.  I should probably get to sleep rather than going out.

The blanket I'm NOT giving away.  I like this
color, but the other design better.

Posada

Making dinner, Ulises is actually in the
kitchen cutting onion :)

This is a week of Posadas, meaning Christmas parties.  I had one on Tuesday, which was fun.  They had good food as well.  There was another Posada tonight, and I have one tomorrow as well.  I guess you can count Saturday as an upcoming Posada, though the hosts call it a Holiday Open House instead.
Anyway, so tonight Ulises and I went over to a friend's house.  There we made a food that I can't remember what it is called.  It involves lost of different meats (mainly different varieties of pork, including bacon and hotdogs) with other things for flavoring put in a tortilla and served with pico de gallo.  It was pretty good, despite being made of pork.  After eating, we had karaoke.  It was outside, so I was a little cold, but at least they had some English songs this time, so I didn't just have to pretend to sing a long.

Daniella and Vivi cutting meat

We also had a gift exchange.  I was given some chocolate.  I gave earrings to my friend.  We drew the names on Sunday for the gift giving.  It was a fun little activity.  Afterward, we had more karaoke.  Ulises particularly liked the karaoke.  I had no idea he enjoyed singing so much.  We were probably out late then we should have been, or rather I was probably out later than I should have been considering I have to work tomorrow.  But it was fun.  And since tomorrow was Friday, that means I don't have to worry about waking up early on Saturday.

The finished product (before the pico de gallo)

Karaoke!

For dessert we had marshmallows dipped
in chocolate, tasty, but a little too rich
for my tastes.

The Gala

Today was a crazy day. I woke up this morning with the feeling that something was going to go wrong. I can't put my finger on what, but it was a horrible feeling.

I saw a few horse carts on my way to UACJ.  The first
one was carrying a washer in the back.  It was quite
the site to see, a modern machine in the back of
an antiquated vehicle.

I went to my guitar class this morning, but didn't realize that the semester had ended. They didn't even have the next semester's class schedule ready, so it was basically a wasted trip. Oh well. Then I spent the rest of the morning and into the afternoon just relaxing and slowly getting ready for the night. Around 3:30, Ulises asked me to call him 30 minutes later. That made me feel like my premonition from the morning was going to come true. But I called him around 4:00. Luckily, there was nothing wrong, he just wanted me to pick him up so we could go pick up his suit.

Cupcake stacks

Unfortunately, there were tons of people in the center of town, so we didn't get back to my place until 6:00, which is when we were supposed to be at a friend's house for her birthday party. Tonight was also the Gala (our formal event for the Consulate) which started at 8:00, so we knew we needed to get ready for the Gala before going to the birthday party. As a result, we were an hour late and were only able to stay for about 45 minutes. The party hadn't really started by the time we arrived, or by the time we left, but it was nice to see everyone and I did get a cupcake out of it.
We arrived at the Gala a little late. I picked up one of my work friends because she wanted to be able to drink at the Gala. It was really fun. We had a nice three course meal, then door prizes were drawn (Ulises won a bottle of wine), and then the dance began. It was a little awkward because I hadn't really told many people at the Consulate about Ulises, but at the same time, it is nice to have people know. And hopefully it won't cause any rumors or anything like that. I'm also hoping it will stop this one guy (not an officer, but a local staff member) from hitting on me . . .

Ulises and I

Ulises kept trying to take a picture of me
eating, so I returned the favor.

Main Course

Dessert!

Ulises won this bottle of wine

Flautas

Today has been an exhausting day.  Work is crazy right now because everyone wants a visa for the holidays.  That means everyday is a full day.  After work, Ulises came over, but we ended up having to go out because of some keys and a friend of his that couldn't get into his house.  After we delivered the keys, we stopped at a place to get food for dinner.  We came back to my house to eat them, though.  We got flautas.  I've had fautas before, but these were pretty good.  I don't remember what one of the kinds was called, but those were my favorite.  Despite the running around, it was a pretty nice and relaxing evening.


Gizmo playing with a toy mouse Ulises bought him a while ago.

Regular flautas

Can't remember what these are called . . . very good though

First Snow

It snowed last night.  It wasn't the same as a snow fall in North Dakota.  And the whole time it was snowing, I was convinced there would be nothing left by the time I woke up the next morning.  To my surprise, there was still a thin layer of snow outside this morning.  I had to get a picture.  Maybe I can pretend that I had a white Christmas.

My Christmas Tree, presents wrapped under
tree, and none for me!

Snow fall

I remember when this size used to be large.
I really need to remember that small is the
size I think of when I think "medium" . . .