Mexican Wedding!

No, it’s not what you might have guessed at first. Barb & I are not doing anything like that. For one thing, the paper work for foreigners to get married in Mexico is too formidable and daunting, even if we were contemplating such a drastic move. Rosendo, our gardener, has invited us to his daughter’s wedding in December, just before we go back to Halifax for 3 weeks over Christmas and New Year’s. Yesterday, at the end of the eco group lecture (it was a very informal talk by Maria because the scheduled speaker at the last minute couldn’t come), Barb asked about what to expect, what to do etc. at a Mexican wedding. They gave us lots of information and advice. First, they said to expect to be treated as honoured guests. That usually means that they put a bottle of tequilla at your table. Often, they do as eastern Europeans (Poles, Ukranians, etc.); one has a short dance with the bride or groom and pins some money to their clothing--20 or 50 pesos. They assured us that Mexican weddings are both interesting and enjoyable.

This afternoon we went to the Canadian Club’s first meeting of the season at Nueva Posada Hotel. There was a light drizzle for part of the time and the crowd was much smaller than they expected. However, we enjoyed ourselves. The Canadian consul in Guadalajara (a woman of Asian background) was there although we didn’t speak to her. However, the Canadian vice-consul and trade commissioner was also there and we had a long chat with him. He is a young fellow, in late 20s, and I think that this might be his first full time posting. He and his wife just arrived in Guadalajara 2 weeks ago. The international director for the governor of Jalisco was also there and we had a long chat with her. She is in her mid-30s, very attractive and ambitious. She said that her present job has a great deal of international travel. She just got back from Alberta helping to smooth things for a group of Mexican workers going to do construction work there. She had recently been to Chile and Europe. She has been to China and Asia in the last year and will soon be going to New Zealand. She hopes that this is a stepping stone to a career in politics. We didn’t talk to any of the Canadian members, but we have memberships and will be going to others of their functions.

The Club organizes trips to various spots in Mexico and internationally; they seem to have these several times a year. I don’t know if we will be interested in doing any of those, certainly not in the next year or two. There are so many places within a day’s drive that we will want to explore first; there are Zacatecas, Saltillo and Monterey and those are just to the north. There are other places in the other directions. We haven’t even gone to the south side of Lake Chapala. So much to do so little time!