The Land of the Free and the Home of the….Mall

Well, we made it safely across the border with no problems, this time a 20 minute queue to cross and barely even a blink at our passports. They did scrutinise the kids though, making sure we weren’t kidnapping them or something, I guess. Normally I find these situations frustrating and annoying the way the officials like to take a little power trip, but I have no problem with them taking extra care to make sure kids are with who they are supposed to be with. Anyone who’s followed the Madeleine McCann case in the news (which must be everyone, its gotten so much coverage) probably realises how scary the thought of your child being abducted and then taken to another country must be. I wonder whether we’ll ever find out what happened to her but just thinking about it is sickening. I’m sure everyone with kids is particularly affected by the news reports; I can’t help comparing her to Guerita who is almost exactly the same age - she disappeared a few days before her 4th birthday and it was around the time of Guerita’s 4th birthday.

Anyway, I digress, as I have a tendency to do. We are now in the US and embracing American consumerism in all its glory. Some things are not that easy to buy in Mexico, or the range is poor, or the prices are expensive, so a lot of what we’re doing here is shopping. So far I’ve had fun in Babies R Us, Ikea and Kohl’s. Some of the stores here I am familiar with (Ikea is everywhere, except Mexico) but there’s loads of American chains that I’d never seen. And there are so many shops! I find it interesting that the US city we are in has a similar population to our home in Mexico, but there are about 10 times as many shops. I do like to be able to go to a mall again (or a shopping centre, as I would call it), where I can park the car, put Chiq in the pram and walk around inside in air-conditioned comfort, finding pretty much everything I need including somewhere to stop for a coffee or lunch. In Mexico, the “mall” is a relatively new concept. There are a few new ones opening up, but mostly you need to get in and out of the car to visit each place. This is not the easiest thing to do with a baby; maybe that’s a good thing for the bank balance! So, when we visit the States a lot of our time is spent picking up all the things we’ve been searching for or missing since the last time. I’m even going to do most of my Christmas shopping while I’m here!

The other thing we’ve been enjoying in the States is the chance to have a bit of variety of food. In Mexico, the Mexican food is fantastic (obviously!) but there’s not that many good restaurants of other cuisines. There are Italian, French and Chinese restaurants and a surprising number of sushi places, but they’re not that great, and we’ve been told not to eat the Chinese unless you want food poisoning…. Last night we had a real pizza for the first time in ages, I mean something that wasn’t Domino’s or Pizza Hut. Thin crispy crust with fresh ingredients and beautiful flavours. So yummy! I always used to think “American” food was all chain restaurants and fast food, but there’s some great little places out there. And the service is really amazing, with kids so well catered for and very attentive wait-staff. Tonight I had lamb rack, which was delicious. Lamb isn’t that easy to find in Mexico, and its something I really miss. We used to eat lamb a lot at home, so its become a bit of a craving now that we can’t have it regularly. There are also loads of Mexican restaurants here but I don’t think we’ll be bothering with those when we can have the real thing next week.

Enough of my shopping and eating exploits! We will do some sightseeing and activities in the next few days and maybe visit a cheesy “Wild West” type attraction. Then its back to hot, dusty Mexico and some real tacos…