Piñatas and New Family!

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Our real host brother, Manuel, came to visit this weekend. He is a flight attendent in Mexico City and gets about 5 days off each month. So for the weekend, he and his boyfriend Sergio came to stay with us. It was fun to get to know our long lost brother. He introduced me to sushi for the first time. (Ironic that my first sushi experience was in Mexico...) He insisted that I use chopsticks, but offered me a fork after I completely dropped a piece of sushi in the soy sauce and mutilated it while trying to get it back out. I hung in there with the chopsticks though.

Sunday morning we had gorditas for breakfast! Meghan and I have learned to roll with whatever comes our way, especially with food. Our saying when something seemingly odd occurs is "¿Porqué no?" or "why not?" So gorditas for breakfast it was.

Last night he and Sergio cooked salmon and rice. They set the table with plates I had never seen before and we had white wine! What class! He also helped Meghan and I out with our search for souveniers and the best place to buy them, which has been a huge help. My only complainent is that he lugged home a ton of dirty laundry for his mother to wash for him! I know, I know, I do it too...and it's hard to get angry at this guy, so I'm rolling with it. I may not have anything clean to wear, but the sun also rises...

(This would be a nice place to pause for a bathroom break or to pop some popcorn)

Today during our second class we were split into teams to make Piñatas! It was such a blast! Each team was given a clay pot, tissue paper, and glue. OK, the glue wasn't really glue but a warm mixture of flour and water. We had planned out the design for our piñata earlier last week. My team was an interesting combo because it included one guy who is from Germany. It is actually a blessing in disguise because his first language is German, second Spanish, and third English. So, it is easier for all of us to talk in Spanish than to whisper in English on the side.

We made our piñata into a taco. However, it is not just any taco, but a "taquito de pastor. " A typical meat in Mexico is called carne de pastor and is found on huge metal spickets. As you order, the meat is sort of shaved off the spicket onto a small grill where it is mixed with onion and cilantro, and salsa for those who can stomach it. The mixture is served on corn tortillas. Other teams did soccer balls, chiles, cactuses, even the Virgin of Guadalupe!

After using the hot flour and water mixture to paste newspaper strips on to the pot, we used a poster board for a taco shell. The meat is actually balls of newspaper covered in brown tissue paper. Then I busted out a technique I think from elementary art of using squares of tissue paper and a pencil to stick them on for the vegetables. What texture!! We should find out soon who won...

The tops of the clay pots are left open to be filled with candy. We are actually donating all of the piñatas to an orphanage for the children there to use. Although I'm not sure that the piñata in the shape of the tequila bottle is going to find its way there. Anyhow, it was a good excuse to not have class and get all goopey instead.

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Photos

New Family
Martá, Manuel, y Sergio

Piñata Team
Here we are with our finished taquito de pastor!

Peanut Butter!
One thing that Mexicans don´t get about Americans is their fetish for peanut butter. One girl was given a huge jar by her host mother. While we were waiting for our piñatas to dry, we spread the peanut butter on everything in sight: apples, sandwiches, crackers. What bliss!