First Impressions

So, what were our first impressions?  Well, as we rode the bus from Mexico City to Puebla, I tried to stay awake and get a feel for Mexico.  We drove through some beautiful countryside -- green rolling hills.  Now we are in Puebla which is a city of 4 to 5 million people.  I think what surprised me the most was how familiar things seemed.  They have Costco, Wallmart, Office Max, Radio Shack, Applebees, Dominoes Pizza, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King, ets.  And when you go into Wallmart, you see the same brands -- Oral B toothbrushes, Gillette razors, Oreo cookies, Kraft Mac and Cheese, Huggies, etc. Everyhing in Costco's food court is exactly the same except that they have pina colada smoothies instead of berry-berry (which are delicious), and they have hawaiian pizza in addition to the other three kinds.  Oh, and the sodas are different.  It's not like everything is the same, but after visiting other foreign countries, I think I expected things to be a lot more different than they are.

Another thing that struck me was the thrown together feel of Puebla.  For example this is a run-down house on a dirt road near where we live . . .

If you walk up the road about 20 feet from that house, you can see this really nice house (next to a kind of typical video store).  It's on a street made of paving stones.  If you turn the corner, it's asphalt.

This OXXO is like a 7-11.  It is located right outside the housing development where we have rented a house.  (The kids love being able to walk over and buy treats).
Yet if you walk just a couple of blocks away (towards Jose's house) you can find a street with three tiny traditional style convenient stores all on the same street.  (They look more like the video store in the previous picture -- no parking or store sign).

We live about five to ten minutes away from two different Wallmarts (different directions from our house) and from Costco.  There is also a Sorianna and a Mega within 10 to 15 minutes of our house. Both are a lot like Wallmart.  You can walk to all these stores in about 20 to 35 minutes.  We didn't have a car for our first week and walked to both Wallmarts and Costco.  I still sometimes walk to them since Karl takes the car to work.  And yet, even with all the big supermarkets, there are still people setting their wares up in an empty field along the street, or setting up a booth on the sidewalk, and you still find trucks like this fruit and vegetable truck driving around with their mega-phone, calling out what they are selling.

Jose's wife, Trini, ran a summer school in their courtyard.  One day when they stopped for a break, this old man came by wheeling his little cooler full of treats that resembled otter pops.  (All you can see is his yellow hat and striped shirt in this picture).  He really scored that day.  All the kids lined up to buy them, including ours.

Chiara loves the mango pop she got!

When the summer school kids got a break (recess), they would take a ball out in the street in front of Jose's house and play soccer.  Our boys joined in a couple of times.  When a car came by everyone would just stop playing and move out of the street, and then the game would resume after the car passed.

Jose's son, also named Jose Angel, was always especially nice to us.  Here he is with Karl and some of the kids.