Yorch Place

Instead of april's fool we have today, december 28th is the Innocents day, a day in which there is fake news in the papers, and if you loan money, the person has a year to pay you that money, or any other thing you loan, is a theirs for a year.

So I survived the day of the Innocent, which can be also as the day of the Naive, that is why we do fool stuff in the day.

First of all, ¡¡Happy mother's day!! to all of the mothers in the world, even if is not the mother's day in your country.



In Mexico mothers day is bigger than christmas in terms of spending, really it is true!, in Mexico the mother figure has more respect than the father, she is the one everybody, even the most macho guy, respects (of course there are exceptions)

The cost of a mother's day is variable but you as son or husband of a mother are expected to deliver:

- Mariachi ($300.00 usd the cheapest per hour in Queretaro)
- Flowers ($150.00 usd an Ok set of flowers)
- Comida (is the main food time in Mexico, like from 1:00pm to 4:00pm, so it is not dinner at $100.00 usd)
- Gift (at least, and I mean at least a $100.00 usd gift)
- Family reunion (after all your sisters can be moms too, and the mother in law is a mother $70.00 usd)
- with the family reunion there are gifts to the grandmothers (mothers too), mothers in law, aunts, and sisters. ($10.00 usd per mom and $30.00 per grand mom)
- food for the family reunion (this you can get some canapes or something more elaborated $40.00)

So in the end there is like $870.00 usd spend in the day.

But you can have the "what matters is love not money" package.

- Mariachi (your friends $10.00 usd for food and beer)
- Flowers ($3.00 usd from the around the corner vendor)
- Comida (you cooked $30.00 usd)
- Gift ($50.00 something made by you, or $70.00 parfum)
- Family reunion (you take the sodas! $20.0o usd)
- Gifts to all the mothers ($1.00 per mom and grand mom, a flower from the street vendor or some nice card made in your computer)
- food for the reunion (you bring the chips "sabritas" or "barcel")

In the end spending like $110.00 usd

When I was younger and poorer (no job student) I save money from my monthly (the money your parents give you) and buy something that costed a lot, based in my income, like $7.00 usd, and the first time I got a job I bought a leather handbag that costed like $20.00 usd, always next to a self made card, and breakfast in the bed.

In case of my family Mothers day is a two day celebration, the 10th and the 11th of may, today is the formal one and tomorrow the bbq in the pool (we don't have a pool so we go to some waterpark).

Today April 30th is Children Day, so Happy day to every child in the world!



On this day when I was a younger child my parents gave me cake, and in my school there was a carnival, with candy, and also more cake, I receive two gifts in my life because of the day, a cassette of "Topo Gigio" and another from "Cri-cri" it was children music.

Then I enter junior high, the moment in life in which you think you are mature and old for that stuff... In high school the guys from the university prepared a carnival for the highschoolers, it was like mocking and celebrating us, because we where still kids to them, but at that age we are over the "pretending" to be mature, and enjoy it.

In college we made a carnival and many things, gifts to friends, party dressed like babies (rugrats style) clowns, balloons and cake!

Today in work since I'm the younger some coworkers gave me candy and a hug because is my day!, amazing how many people can see you as a kid, which I love.

In Mexico the fool's day is today, December 28th, and the idea is not to joke arround, but to ask for something borrowed, for money or any other thing you like from others, and if this others gave it to you, then they lost it and it now belogns to you.

"Inocente palomita que te haz dejando engañar"

Also is the day we remember the murder of the inocent children in Bethelem by king Herodes, in his search to kill Jesus he sent the army to kill every single boy and girl younger than a year.

The local newspapers have special fun with this day, according to today news:

"Queretaro will be home of the Olympic Games"
"The Governor expeled from the state the former city mayor"

Among other stuff, all jokes of course.

Mexico City this three days, December 11 to 13, will be 8,000,000 people more populated, so the 22,000,000 people (est) living there will reach the amazing number of 30,000,000... why, well the second most visited catholic church in the world is located there, is the Church for the Virgin of Guadalupe, Queen of Mexico, mother of all mexicans and lately (by John Paul II) Empress of the Americas. As Octavio Paz once said - Mexicans are Guadalupans not catholics - (something like that).

The estimate is that at least 12,000,000 people is going to visit the church, because it is the anniversary of the miracle, her birthday of the brown skinned virgin.

I find it really amazing, the amount of people there waiting for hours just to see her for merely seconds.

This date is like the official start for christmas for mexicans (as myself) we like to call it "GUADALUPE-REYES" which means from the day of the virgin to the day of the holy saint kings.