Mexican Cuisine 101

Yesterday, Kimberly and I were assigned to provide hospitality for the visiting speaker. How serendipitous that the speaker was from Mexico. Of course we told him that in a week's time we'd be in his homeland. This information made for a very lively conversation about Mexican cuisine and what we should probar (try).

The consensus among him, his wife and sister is that we should try Iguana (suggested before making a gesture of mock finger licking at the sheer delicousness of it all), squirrel (the Mexican squirrel is smaller, all agreed) and mapache (found in the market places, we were told).

So, the meal was wonderful, the laughter incessant, the education timely and to top it all off the speaker paid for our meal at end, because, "we shouldn't be spending money before our trip." Isn't our brotherhood is wonderful!

Regalitos! (Gifts)

So I've been learning International Convention customs and must-knows from veteran and recently returned convention delegates. They all echo each other on three major points:

• Exchanging of Lapel Badges with other delegates is an essential experience.
• Candy distribution is a non-verbal Esperanto, especially with kids.
• You cannot bring too many gifts!

The last custom has been emphasized more than all others. So we've had 'regalito" assembling nights and consultations with many of you. Thanks for your ideas.

After much pondering, trips to various stores and countless minutes searching eBay and amazon.com we fell on the following ideas:

• Post Cards featuring Kimberly and I with our contact information and a scripture
• Flower pens (because how can one be sad when writing with a flower pen?)
• Gift baggies with notepads, mechanical pencils and candy in the shape of "typical" American food (yes, hamburgers and hot dogs).
• A power presentation featuring snapshots of our hometown, congregation etc. (that I've yet to finish)

I so looking forward to passing them out!

An American in the United States?

This may seem like a redundancy. Allow me to explain. During my tenure in the Spanish congregation I've learned that some of the U.S.' southerly neighbors take exception to residents of the fifty states' self-designation: "Americans." Residents of Central and South Americans also call themselves "Americanos" and don't see why it should be an exclusive term.



In fact, technically speaking the Spanish word to describe someone from the United States is "estadounidense" or "Unitedstatesmen." Jokingly, I like to mention to a certain one of my friends from South of the Border that "Americano" is not the only adjective that can cause terminological confusion. He too is an "Estadounidense" I remind him; since the official name of the country we call "Mexico" is "Estados Unidos de Mexico." Touché?


I say all of this to say that, beginning December 8th of this quickly waning year I will be an American (yes, an American) in the United States...of Mexico.


My lifelong dream of attending an international convention summons me there as well as the allure of street food (I know, I know, be careful blah, blah, blah), the only castle in North America to be actually inhabited by a monarch and a capital which boasts the world's second largest plaza (the red square in Moscow being the largest) and more museums than London.


How exciting it will be to see more of our international brotherhood, "la tierra" of many I've met in the last few years and wander as an American in the United States.