Yorch Place

There are several bad stuff due to the economic situation, but one good is the savings, every store, little or big, in any mall or shopping centre in town has sales, plus credit, plus other stuff, like free stuff.

I have seen discounts from 10% (which is common but not in christmas time) up to 80% in many different products, promotions from 3 months without interest up to 18 months without interests, even a department store has 48 months in credit plus 20% in electronic cash, in the supermarkets they are giving you back the tax, which means, if you paid with credit card, they give you the tax in cash. In Sears I saw a PMP (portable multimedia player) with 80% discount, from $6,500 pesos to $1,300 pesos. Also Blackberries with 30% in the bold and 50% in the pearl model.

The bad thing... I'm not rich, so I'm keeping my poor saving for me, because in January is tax time in Mexico, a lot of taxes have to be paid, plus the cable TV (which we pay annualy) and other expenses.

So bad, I could take advantage of all this discounts... well I did, with the christmas presents, 80% in my brothers present, 50% in my father and only my mom's I paid full.

The traditional day of the death in Mexico, a day in which we remember the death relatives and friends, and laugh of our own death, we eat candy skulls, and prepare an "altar" to receive the death that come to visit us.

The state government creat an altar dedicated to the independence conspirators of Queretaro, the heroes that planned and impulse the independence war, which ended well for us, the independence started here in Queretaro, and every year in the day of the death there is an altar to a hero, this time was several of them.



I could't see the altar finished, due to work I had to travel.

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 is the day before Christmas, or as we call it "Noche Buena" that is also the real name of the poinsettias, since this flowers are mexicans, and a US ambassador in Mexico decided to export it and named it after him (egomaniac).

The city's main christmas tree, every year it is different and in a different plaza of the city, this year is located in the "Plaza de la constitución" next to the conservatory and the luxurious "Gran Hotel"



On the first day of the month (december) hte governor and the city mayor turn on the tree, while also crowning the queen of christmas (we have a beauty queen of christmas)

The goverment plaza (governor mansion, congress, justice palace and ministers) with poinsettias.



In all the streets you can see some messages of "Feliz Navidad" and other figures, hanging.


(That is the conservatory)

In the other plaza "Jardín Zenea" there is a nativity scene, a spanish-mexican tradition, notice that baby Jesus is not in the craddle, because he is not born yet. And in the scene there are images of the creation, the hell, a posada, and other stuff not only the nativity.



And here it is my Christmas tree, well my family's christmas tree, with all the gifts, we give the gifts tonight to each other, since Santa isn't real but the magic kings (three wise kings) are real, in Mexico each family memeber gives a gift to other, and in my family (nuclear family) we give each other a gift, so I received at least three gifts and give other three.



I'm on vacation, which is great, the bad thing is, I'm going to celebrate in the city of Celaya, which is like 50km from Santiago de Queretaro, but is not a nice city and the traffic jam there is incredible (there are tons of work in the street, they are installing sewer system) and the toll booth has really long lines (the season, lots of people traveling)

Last saturday it took me one and half hours to arrive there!

Halloween is over, day of the dead is over... so sad such great holidays.

It is well known that people in the US celebrate Halloween on October 31st, and Mexicans day of the dead on November 2nd, and because of our closeness to the US and the media involved (TV and movies) we decided to take Halloween as well, and we celebrate October 31st, November 1st and November 2nd so we have three days of trick or treats, customes parties, sugar skulls, dead bread (or bread of the dead) which is delicious.

We love to see halloween specials on TV, we love to walk on the streets and see all the skulls, the altars and the candles, hundreds of flowers of zempasuchitl, copan (incience) and food offered to the death.

It is a lovely image to see thousands of people walking on the graveyards giving gift to the deaths.