Mexican New Year

So this year I rang in New Year's the Mexican way. Traditionally, New Year's has consisted of me and a gaggle of friends getting very smashed. This year looked to be different. Having been totally lazy all week and deciding at the last minute not to go to Acapulco, Jesus and I had no food and no plans. Considering this, things worked out pretty well. We ended up eating at a friend's house. They really are big on family here, and both on Christmas and New Year's I attended big family dinner dos. We had turkey and salad and some weird congealed milk thing with honey for dessert. It was actually very tasty. At midnight you eat twelve grapes(I'm used to twelve apple pieces with honey) and they have a tradition where you have to walk in and out of the front door with a suitcase so that you will do a lot of travelling in the new year. I stuck my head out a bit past midnight and all up and down the block people were running in and out of their front doors. Very amusing. I declined to participate, seeing as I'm actually hoping to stay in one place for more than a few months, for a change. Seeing my confusement/amusement, a very old Mexican man asked me, "You don't have traditions in the USA, do you?" It wasn't worth contradicting him. Why? Because people over 95, no matter the race or nationality, are generally just very cranky and confused. After the family do we collected people and ended up at a bar with a really good band and rocked out til 6am. Needless to say, Sunday I did nothing except drink copious amounts of water. I don't drink very much anymore, and my body has lost the ability it had in college to spring back from such alcholic sprees. It was still very fun, though, and today I have been Mexico-ing it up for exactly 3 months.