This week, Mexican kids get to take advantage of American Halloween today and Mexican Day of the Dead on Thursday. (more on that later in the week) Ain't globalization great?!

K. is unbearably cute doling out los dulces to the trick-or-treaters. You can hear the rowdy ones coming because they chant, "We want Halloween! We want Halloween!" (!Queremos Halloween!) Before he set out on his first trip to the gate, we reviewed some key Spanish vocab for the holiday:

"Only one." -- Solo uno.
"There are no more Reese's." -- No hay mas Reese's.
"Hey, don't wreck my lawn!" -- !Oye, p^@a de @(%$e!
"Go away!!" -- !Andale! !Rapido!

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

Saw our first tarantula yesterday. No, not at home; next to the aerial tramway in El Paso. It was waiting in line, as if to buy a ticket.

The park ranger said that it was a Mexican brown tarantula, and was in a more public place than usual as this is their mating season. It wasn't as big as the ones they scare us with on TV, but it looked plenty serious. Luckily, their bite is just like a bee sting, according to the ranger.

A friend of K's was driving once near Socorro, New Mexico, as dark fell. He started to hear crunching sounds coming from his tires. He turned on his headlights, and saw that tarantulas were swarming all over the road.

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

The "El Paso Times" newspaper yesterday reported that the following items were among things found this week at the international ports of entry -- also known as bridges -- around town:

2,219 pounds of marijuana in 15 separate seizures;
87 illegals (people);
3 live chickens;
1 handgun and 1 rifle.

Meanwhile, we had our first "secondary inspection" while crossing back into Mexico yesterday evening. At first I thought, "Oh, great! There goes the new Skype phone from Best Buy, Kent's new boots from Tony Lama, and all our groceries." But all the officer did was to look in the windows of our car a little bit. Most importantly, he didn't take our leftover ribs from the Rib Hut with the extra container of their oh-so-fabulous barbeque sauce.

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

Beggars: I'll say this for Mexico, their beggars work for your money. Except for women of Indian descent, I've so far seen few beggars just standing next to the road, waiting for a handout. In El Paso, however, the gringos don't juggle or "eat" fire or walk on their hands. In all 3 or 4 cases I've seen, El Pasans who beg just stand there. The Juarezians try to entertain you.

Guns: This is the first place where I've seen the universal "no guns" symbol -- the white circle with a black gun in the center and a red line across it -- where it isn't meant as a joke. You see at least one such sign when you drive across the border. Apparently the Mexican government has a zero tolerance for gringos bringing in guns, because you go to jail for several years if you're caught with one. There is another sign in a well-known tourist restaurant, one where there are a lot more Spanish-speaking tourists than gringos.

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

Favorite Store: Rapiditos Bip Bip, a local chain of convenience stores. Runner-up: Bif, which may sell pork and chicken, but definitely sells steak.

Favorite brand of cheese: Fud.

Our new house, luckily, has much better toilets. They’re mini-sized, but are an improvement over the splash-o-matics that we had in the hotel. Other Mexican features of our rental include: lots of floor tile, no dishwasher, a tiled carport, and an 18-wheel truck graveyard (AKA a yonque) out back. Our gated community is one square block with, as most have, a little park in the middle for kids and/or dogs. A Yorkshire terrier and a lhaso apso patrol the park during daylight hours.

To get to our colonia, you either drive past maquilas on both sides or skirt the border. You can clearly see buildings in El Paso as you turn down our street. It is very strange to be living less than a quarter-mile from the U.S…

While still in the hotel, the dog got a walk in Juarez’s Central Park once a day. Home to a large lake, about 200 ducks and geese, and many trees, it’s a nice place to escape the dust and heat. It even has a giraffe, whose paddock-mate is a stag. There is an another enclosure which housed some sort of predator, but he/she is long dead.

The park is often full of people, particularly after the hottest part of the day is over: students, joggers, duck lovers. There is a school for gifted children in the middle, a library and classrooms for kid karate and ladies' dance and yoga. You can also tour a cactus garden.

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

It's a good thing we're finally getting into a house, with a garage, because last night someone stole the hubcaps off of K's car here at the hotel...

www.jac-ccc.org/webcams.html

The above website has photos showing how large Juarez is, as well as how good/bad its air quality is. The pictures are taken from a south-facing mountain in downtown El Paso.

I suspect that the longer you live here, the shorter your life gets. The environment contains a lot of noxious fumes from deliberate tire-burning and gas escaping as it's pumped from tankers into holding tanks. Emissions from cars and trucks driving around town are already bad, and the vehicles idling in line at the U.S. border for an hour or more, just waiting to cross, don't help. I wonder if the maquilas pollute, too. Apparently they do in Tijuana, at least.

But it's always sunny here, so that's nice.

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

We finally got a house, and move in 2 days hence.

It looked great from the front, but the second story in the back overlooks a .... serious ... junkyard. How serious? Try razorwire on top of the wall type of yonque. It's beyond unattractive. (photo to follow)

Also, strangely, it's at most a quarter-mile from the U.S. It's a 15-minute drive from the nearest Dedicated Commuter Lane border crossing, but you can see El Paso, Texas, easily from the neighborhood. How weird to move to Mexico and then live right next to the U.S.

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/

Little vignettes from Ciudad Juárez, México:

Seen: Two guys on matching white mopeds, casually dressed and riding side by side. Strapped to the back of their bikes were the official plastic bins used to pick up and deliver mail in America. Each guy had a bin marked, "U.S. Postal Service." I don't think they were USG employees.

Heard: Friends had just crossed the border a few weeks back and were driving through downtown El Paso, Texas. They saw a family running along the side of the road who were wearing only underwear and were carrying their clothes. They were all wet, presumably from having just swam the Rio Grande. They didn't look norteamericano. This was in broad daylight.

Fact: The twelfth car in one year has run into the fence at K's place of employment. (see Sept. 17th post below for explanation of why this is hilarious)

Impression: Most of the lower-level employees at this American chain hotel seem to work 6 days a week, perhaps more than 8 hours day. One maid said she only gets 8 days of vacation per year.

© 2006 http://cjmex.blogspot.com/