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Category Archives: Just for fun

Hand made tortillas (video)

There’s nothing like hand made tortillas, fresh and hot!  Well, that and something in them - a little meat, chilli, onion, lime…. but I digress.

Our friends the McManus family took a video of some ladies making tortillas at a wedding.  It’s a very familiar sight, so I thought I’d share the video with you here.

The McManus family lives waaaaay up north in San Juan del Rio, Mexico.  Their blog is called Knowing Your ABCDs.



And here’s a follow-up - machine made tortillas (also a very common sight):

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Nathanael had a cooking class (video)

Here he is - Nathanael reporting on his cooking class.

 
icon for podpress  Nathanael had a cooking class: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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What the World Eats

A peek inside our fridge

What kinds of foods do people eat around the world?  How much does it typically cost?  These are questions that TIME Magazine tackles in an online feature entitled What the World Eats

In a slideshow, you can see various families from around the world posing with presumably a week’s worth of groceries.  You can find out what their favourite foods are, and how much it all typically costs.  Fascinating!  Apparently this is from the new book Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel.

I mention this because not only is Mexico included, our home city is in there - Cuernavaca!  Watch for it.  Not the different types of food (amount of vegetables, breads, milk, etc), and the cost compared to other countries.

via: Our Mission

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Shari on Canada

A slice of Calgary from the air (December 16 2007)

Now that you have the basic story about Shari’s visit to Canada in December, I told you I’d share some of her impressions.  Here are a few things that Shari particularly noticed during her visit:

  • There are a lot of open spaces in Calgary compared to the Cuernavaca/Mexico City area.  The streets are wide, the parking spots are wide, the yards are big.  Of course, she was visiting one of the largest (geographically) cities in North America, and it only has a million people - Calgary is unusually "spread out".
  • As compared to our house, the hot water lasts forever - no rushing to get your shower done!  And you can even take baths (bath tubs are rare in Mexico).
  • Things were very organized at the Calgary airport.  In Mexico City, you were supposed to "just know" that you had to fill out such-and-such a form.  And her departure gate was changed three times!  At the last change she had to cross the entire airport (a 20 minute walk/sprint) and got to the gate 15 minutes before departure - fortunately, the plane left late…
  • You can put TP in the toilet in Canada (in Mexico there are issues with personal and city sewage systems - hence the little garbage cans beside each toilet).
  • The feeling of cold weather was weird (it was around 0C/32F in Calgary), and so was the feeling of actually being able to warm up inside!
  • You can speak English in Canada, which is handy because we speak it pretty well.  However, Shari noticed that Spanish kept coming out of her boca unintentionally - especially the "polite" words (Gracias, mande?, disculpe…).
  • There is so much selection - so many different brands in the stores!  Of course, this needs to be qualified - we probably have a greater selection of many things in Cuernavaca (yogourt drinks, sweet breads, chili peppers), while they have a greater selection of certain things in Canada (maple syrup, mittens, Corner Gas DVDs).  But still, walking into a grocery store was overwhelming.  And going into Toys "R" Us — unbelievable.  Why do kids need all this STUFF??
  • When you ask for water in Canada, sometimes people give you water right from the tap!

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