New Years

Yesterday was a fun day. Chrissy and I went down town to do some shopping. We parked in a parking lot where we payed a buy to wash her car. It was pretty dirty from the trip to the coast. Chrissy said they can was a car with one bucket of water; in the states we definitely use a whole lot more!

We stopped in little shops looking for yarn so I could make a scarf for the pastors wife. She also took me to the market, which is where I purchased a blanket. Saltillo is the blanket capital of Mexico, so what better place to purchase a blanket. Each section of the market is owned by different people or families. They all invite you into their section and show you all of their merchandise. What to see them unfolded, no problem, before you know it they are parading all different kinds of blankets for you to see, hoping that one or more would catch your eye. We stopped at three vendors, I found a blanket style that I liked, on that said Saltillo and Mexico on it. The only problem was deciding a color, which took a while.

Next we went to the plaza next to the Presidential palace, it is where they Mayor lives. It was really pretty and all decorated for Christmas. They had put white garland on the trees to give it a snow covered look. On our way to the plaza we stopped and got some corn. They take a bag of chips and put corn, cheese, and creme on it (and jalapenos if you choose which I did not) and it's a tasty little treat.

Driving through Saltillo is very interesting, it seems like there are many people that do not know how to drive. Yesterday was especially crazy because it was the last of the month. Here they get paid twice a month, on the 15th and the last day of the month. That was yesterday. The lines to the bank were all really long.

We also stopped at Home Depot to get some Redimix to fill in the holes to the room that we will be painting. Chrissy was debating purchasing a new mail box because her neighbors put firecrackers in the last one, she decided against it for fear that they would repeat their handy work. We also stopped at the HEB, which is a grocery store, it was actually pretty big.

Last night we spent the new year with Chrissy's friend Cecia and her family. Her mother made us some delicious food. We also spent time with the pastor and his family. We were there until about two in the morning. The roads were covered with reminents of firecrackers, some of them still going off. It was kind of like a war zone driving down the street with firecrackers flying in from the side of the streets and Roman candles going off in the center of the street. All this made for a pretty loud night.

Today the plan is to spackle and get the room ready to paint. Also, hoping to see a movie at the theatre. Chrissy wants to she Sherlock Holmes, which is good because I've already seen it and I'll be able to understand what's going on since the movie will be in Spanish.

Things I knew:

• Imported products are more expensive here than they are in the states.

Things I knew but experienced for the first time:

• They eat much later than I am used to. Breakfast at 9 or 10, lunch around 2, and dinner around 8. Last night we ate a full meal at midnight! I was so stuffed, but it was really good.

Things I learned

• The stop lights work in a circle. By that I mean they only give the green light to one side at a time. So when you have the green light you can turn left, because there are not cars coming from the other direction.
• The traffic lights are green, then the green flashes to warn you that yellow is coming, its yellow for a second and then it turns read. The flashing green means you should slow down because they yellow does not last long.