Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Mexico. It is not a day out of school. It is not a day off of work. The day after Thanksgiving is nothing special for Mexicans.
So, we decided it would be a gret day to go to Six Flags, which is located about 15 miles from our house. So, the Torbert family, Sori (a secretary at the mission office), and Janell, Nathan, and I piled into the Torbert’s van and went to Six Flags. We had a great time there. It was Nathan’s first trip to an amusement park, and he was really good (as usual).
We finally got into the van to go home around 5:30 pm. It was Friday evening rush hour, and almost 4 hours later, we arrived at home. It was the worst traffic I have ever seen or been in. There was no accelerating for hours. We were stuck. We tried our best to make the most of it, but we were wiped out by the time we got home. Unbelievable! That’s life in one of the largest cities in the world.
Halloween is becoming increasingly popular in this part of Mexico. Many things that are popular in the US are immitated here. It seems that halloween has been imported into Mexico City, and in our neighborhood, we have noted more decorations for halloween than for the more traditional “Day of the Dead.” Here are some observations on hallween in Mexico City:
- They don’t say “Trick or Treat”, they say, “Queremos halloween” (We want halloween). There is also a song that is sung that has something to do with our “little skull” being hungry and asking if there is candy around here.
- The kids do not really go to individual houses to trick or treat, they just walk up the street saying “We want halloween.” If a house shows interest, they go to that house and usually sing the song.
- Costumes are optional
- Most costumes are witches or evil related. There aren’t many Power Rangers or other kid related costumes
- Houses get decorated a lot with pumpkins and ghosts.
- Trick or Treating really picks up after 9 pm.
- Mostly, the kids are really pretty polite and say thank you.
- After halloween, Christmas begins (probably because they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving)
- The Christian church and Christians in general are adamantly opposed to Halloween here in Mexico.
So this is probably one of many posts about the football game that I went to last night. I’ve already mentioned that it was the first regular season NFL game outside of the United States. I had so much fun. We got there really early, so we had time to check out the stadium, which was easy to find (surprising here). The parking was good, and we had decent seats (general admission upper deck). You could see pretty well from where we were.
The stadium holds around 110,000 people for a soccer game, and the official attendance at last night’s football game was 103,467. It was the largest crowd for an NFL game in history. The Mexican people are really great spectators, and we did the wave about a million times.
The halftime show was really cool, with regional dancing and a “celebrate Mexico” theme. Hundreds of people participated in the halftime show, and it was really good.
Some things that are different here than in the US: 1. They sold ramen noodles as concessions (also…donuts, Domino’s pizza, tacos, and bags of chips); 2. The food was relatively cheap (30 pesos, or $3 USD for a personal pizza); 3. EVERYBODY went crazy when they announced that Mexico’s soccer team had won their game (the US football players had no clue); 4. We left in the middle of the 3rd quarter, and there was nobody in the parking lot; 5. Stadium parking only cost $4 USD; I am sure there will be more as I have more time to think about it.
If you want to see my pictures from the game, click here.
Well, this is it. I’ve got my ticket, church is over, and we are getting ready to go to the game. I’m excited, and I hope that the game is exciting. If you want, you can watch it on ESPN tonight at 8:30 Eastern Time. If you’re hoping to get a glimpse of me, good luck. My tickets are in the upper deck. But, they tell me you can see well from anywhere in the stadium. We’ll see.
By the way, this weekend is the first ever NFL regular season game outside of the US, and I have tickets, because it will be played in Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca. I am going with my friend Rob and his son. It’s going to be a blast. There is a lot of hype about it on the web, so if you want to check out some of the information, here are some links for you.
Related Links: “NFL Regular Season in Mexico“; “First Ever International Regular Season Game“; Estadio Azteca; Ticketmaster Mexico; ESPN
In Spanish: NFL in Mexico; NFL in Spanish
It’s not officially Holy Week, but today the volcanos showed us that a lot of the smog is going away for the week. Everyone pretty much has next week off here, so most people leave the city for vacation. This means that their cars and the smog they make leave with them, making it a beautiful week of no traffic. Tonight, we could see the 2 volcanos behind the city, so we stopped and took a few pictures. We’re sure we’ll get some better ones this week.
