Culture Stymie

A funny thing happened on the way to the dictionary...

It didn't tell me that here in Monterrey when the school invites you to an open house; it means the kids stay at home.

Maybe it's just our school? Maybe it's Monterrey? Maybe it's Mexico? The point is, I have no idea. I only know that I double-checked the invitation to see if it said anything remotely related to this issue. Maybe I just didn't understand the Spanish. But no, just everyone knew that is was adults only. And it was fancy. All the teachers were dressed up, and the parents too. And there were tables with table-clothes and a full buffet of real Mexican food, not just snack type stuff.

I figured I should dress nice and luckily, thanks to Enid, I realized before we went that there wouldn't be any other children there. We were talking about the open house while walking home from school and she started talking about who was going to be looking after the other kids in her class. She said in a disappointed voice, "but grandma and grandpa aren't coming to Mexico". At first I reassured her that grandma and grandpa would visit but then I realized that she meant specifically that they wouldn't be here tonight! It became clear to me that the kids were not meant to come to this event. Which in some ways made perfect sense because it started at 8pm. I just figured it was the culture of staying up late that would make people take their kids out to something that started at 8pm. And maybe they would; but not to this particular event.

So we went anyway, with Enid, and pleaded dumb Americans without any relatives and no one had any problem with it at all. Enid loved it. She didn't want to go home.

Here's another thing:
Here in Monterrey (or perhaps all of Mexico?) they use the term piñata interchangeably with birthday party.

When Enid came home with a little note saying (in Spanish) "The kids are selling candies to raise money to buy a class pet. Please bring candies. You don't have to buy them just bring the kind from home that you get in piñatas", I thought, "well, shoot what kind of candy do I make that goes in a piñata?" "Now I'm supposed to make candy?" "The kind that goes in piñatas?" "What the heck is that?" Of course, my first approach was to go online and search "piñata candies".

Finally I asked one of the teachers. She explained that a) nobody makes candy for a piñata. b) most kids / families have a bag of candy sitting around the house - leftovers from all the piñatas (birthday parties) that they have attended. c) it's just the regular old kind of pre-packaged, prewrapped, buy it at the store kind of candy.

HA! I went back to read the little note. It says bring "dulces de casa". I took this to mean homemade. Buuuuuzz. Correct answer is "candies that are sitting around at your house already". The note says "de los que le dan en las piñatas" I took this to mean the kind that they give you in a piñata. Buuuuzz. Correct answer is the kind that you get at a birthday party. Admittedly, I would have assumed that I don't know what kind of candy you get at a birthday party either. But then it said "No es necesario comprarlos". You don't have to buy them. So if it tells me to bring dulces de casa that I'm not supposed to buy - what else am I supposed to think?! : )

So, I went out and bought all the things I needed so that Enid and I could make caramels. We went ahead and made them anyway, even after the teacher explained. They turned out really good. Not too difficult either. (Accept for when I forgot to grease the tin foil and then ended up having to pick bits of it out of a 9"x13" block of gooey caramel.) I cut them into little squares and individually wrapped each one in wax paper. I was so proud. Who's the good Mexican Mama now?!!

Robin & Enid’s Piñata Caramels:
2C light corn syrup
2 1/4 C sugar (the recipe says brown sugar but for the life of me I cannot find it here)
14oz sweetened condensed milk
1 C butter

Put it all in a pot, get a good whisk and bring it to a boil, stirring constantly. Keep stirring while its boiling until it gets to the “soft ball” stage (this means that if you put a spoonful of the stuff into cold water it’ll form a ball but if you take it out of the water again, it’ll flatten out). Then stir in 1 C salty peanuts (or whatever nut you want, if you want). Pour into 13”x9”x2” pan lined with lightly buttered wax paper or tin foil (my opinion is go for the wax paper). Let cool. Invert. Peel off paper. Cut into squares. I found it was easier to cut it into pieces if it was refrigerated first. But, it’s also about 90 degrees inside of our apartment – literally. Enjoy!