Tucson and beyond

On my way home from school today, Mabel called me saying she and her dad were on their way to our house, could I be there to make sure the door was open?  She had left me all her keys when she left me her car.  I asked her if she needed me to pick her up at Walmart and she said she had gotten in at 10 and her dad had picked her up!  

I went inside and thought about walking and lunch.  A few seconds later, she called again.

"Plans changed," she said in her accented English (we're all like that, and destined to remain that way unless we gained a "native" accent before adolescence, so research says), "like always in Mexico."  Her dad had a patient (they just stop by without appointments-also very Mexican), and could I come pick her up there?

Why of course.

She had left me with an empty tank, and I was approaching empty, but I figured the least I could do was give her some gas.  I stopped for gas and then picked her up.  She was starving and I hadn't eaten, so we stopped at this little to-go buffet where we'd stopped one of my first days here (before I even had pesos).  I got some Chinese grub and a tamal de elote (the corn tamal that is YUMMY, like a dessert).  We journeyed home.

She gave me the minute by minute details of her trip and it was so fun listening to her.  She loved the US.  The mall was so clean and so big and there were so many shops and so many of each item.  You want a purse?  There's a thousand right there!  You want pants?  Too many to even look through!

Everyone there spoke Spanish.  All Mexicans everywhere, shopping and working!

The streets were so clean!  I just wanted to throw one piece of trash onto the ground.  I saw one bus and one taxi the whole weekend.

I kept looking for houses and never saw any.  Where are the people?  Don't people live here?

Everything was so cheap!  And all the sales!  And the lines!  There were a hundred people shopping in the store and a hundred more in line!

She had an amazing time and was startled to be eating eggs from a box.

:)

I didn't even go into the quality of food thing.  It's hopeless.

It was great listening to her stories.  

Then when we got home, I made her show me everything.  She got some great stuff!  She's ready to start saving (unheard of for a Mexican) for next year.  She loved it.  I would love to find a way to bring her with me at Christmas or in July just to show her around and say thank you.  We'll see how serious she is about saving...