Sal's Corner

Sun, Beaches and a Great Time

Let me start by saying that the Netherlands has alot of great things, but sun in the winter is not one of them.  As an example, right now is just 3:40 om and the sun is almost gone.  Besides that it rains a lot and it is cold.  Now, let me be clear that I'm not complaining, I'm juest staing a fact.  So to overcome this, or get a little bit of a break, we decided to take a trip to the Canary Islands off the coast of North Africa.  The canary Islands belong to Spain and there are are 7 of them.  The most famous ones are Palmas, Gran Canary, La Gomera, and Tenerfie.  Tenerife houses 43% of the whole population in the Islands.  Tenerife has 2 main airports and is famous for its volacno "El Teide," which it last erupted in 1907.  We spent 10 days in the south tip of Tenereife in a very tourtitc area called "Playa de las Americas."

We did not do a lot of sightseeing, but did a lot of relaxing, we read, played, and got tanned.  Here are some pictures, enjoy.

Here's the kids playing in the tide pools

This is a picture of our hotel "Parque Santiago III", really nice place

Annelise with her favorite character 

Who are those cuties??

Annelise and Gianna playing in the beach

We had tons of fun playing in the tide pools, we even saw an octopus

This is just outside our room

Just before sun set, I like Annelise's face :-)

Mom and the girls

Dad and Andrew

Another beautiful sunset

Who scared Gianna?

Annelise made an octopus in the sand, very artistic!

Daddy cut his finger and had to had 3 stitches ouch!!

One last look at the sunset, just before we left

Nice picture, hours before we left Tenerife

And that is the end of our trip!

Trip to Iceland... Priceless

Disclaimer: All the pictures for this trip look really weird in the blog, if you want to see a picture double click on it to display fully, apologies

This weekend i took a trip with my son to iceland.  We were hoping to see the northern lights, but due to the rainy weather we had to settle for other tourist attractions.  As we arrived we realized how short the days are when one goes that far north.  We learned that Reykjavik is the far northest capital city in the world. 

On thursday we arrived to the airport, picked up our car and drove to our hotel, on the way we discovered how confusing it can be to deal with currency exchanges.  Iceland uses the Krona, and the exchange rate is about 160 kronas to an euro, so everything seems really really expensive.  Once we had checked into our room we had to find a place to park since no hotels have free parking.  After that we took a walk in the main shopping street and found a tourist information place.  We signed on the spot for a tour of a glacier for saturday and asked about other attractions, unfortunately no northern lights tours for that day, it was very cloudy.  We ended up the day eating at an italian restaurant that was quite good.

 

On friday morning we woke up and went to the blue lagoon.  The blue lagoon is a natural pool with thermal water.  As soon as you get out of the car you notice an intense smell to sulphur.  We stayed there for about 2 hours, time enough to enjoy the water.  We also noticed that the sun comes out until 10:00 or so.  After the blue lagoon, we drove 2 hours into the mountains to go se a geyser, it was interesting to drive in the countryside and saw a number of farms, the farms have predominantly horses, we saw just a few cows and also plenty of sheep.   By the time we got to the geyser, it was already raining and also cold, so there goes again the northern lights.  We spent about 1 hour at the geyser, took a couple pictures, ate a couple of overpriced hamburgers and headed back to Reykjavik.  It was already dark by the time we got there.  Andrew had leftovers in the hotel from the night before and we wanted to watch a movie.  After making sure that there would be no northern lights tours that night we went to park the car about 1 mile from the hotel (the closest free parking place) and then went to the room and watched a movie with Andrew.

 

One of the landmarks of the city is an interestingly looking Lutheran church, called Hallgrimskirkja.  It is located on top of a hill and provides a postcard-type view.  Due to the short days we were never able to see it during daylight, but it looks pretty at night too.  If you are ever in Iceland, one of the few free parking places is across the street front this church, there are quite a few free places after 6:00pm, but not during the day.  This where we ended up parking our car when we took the glacier tour for the whole day.

 

Saturday morning we woke up early since our tour guide for the glacier would pick us up between 8:30 and 9:00.  We ate breakfast, and like a clockwork, our tour guide named "Gummi" as in gummi bears he quickly told us, picked us up.  We were joined in our tour by 5 more people from the US.  The trip to the glacier took 2.5 hours, we saw a few waterfalls, and were told by Gummi a few facts about volcanoes in Iceland.  By the time we arrived  to the glacier there was not a single cloud in the sky so we thought that may be that night was the night we would finally have a shot at seeing the northern lights.  I must mention that even in clear nights, it is not a guarantee that you will se the lights, as this also depends on the solar activity.  There is a forecast that one can check for northern light activity.  Anyway, back to the glacier.  We got out of the van and put our glacier climbing gear on, which consisted of helmer, harness, and spiky things on our feet called "grampons" i believe.  We walked about 3 kilometers in the glacier and it was a fantastic experience.  We learned all about glaciers, how the formed, how they move and how fast the one we visited is retriveing (fancy word for melting), we spent the whole day there, and we even climbed an ice wall.  We got done around 2:00 pm.  On the way back we were all tired, Gummi gave us a sanwich that tasted really good as hungry as we were. On the way back we stopped briefly by a water fall and took a bathrom break. 

Remember i mentioned how the day started amazingly clear? Well, forget it, by 3:00 pm it was very cloudy and raining :-( That meant no chance of northern lights on saturday either and a dad/son somewhat disappointed.  One place we had intentions of going but did not get to was the National Museum of Iceland.  They close at 6:00 and we never made it back earlier than that.  Gummi dropped us off at our hotel, and we quickly got ready and headed to mass at the cathedral called Landakotskirkja.  We listened mass in icelandic, not sure we understood much, but we were in spirit with God and got to thank God for all the blessings in our lives and for the wonderful weekend with my son, despite no northern lights.  After mass we went to the Italian restaurant we ate at the first day.  We toasted with water and ate a couple of delicious wood oven fired pizzas.  During dinner we told ourselves we would try again for the northern lights sometime next year, but this time we would probably visit Tromso in Norway, maybe there was a reason for us not seeing the northern lights.

 

After dinner we walked around the main street, picked up a couple of cheesy souvenirs and headed back to the hotel.  At the hotel we stayed up checking on my ipad the college football scores and planning our next trip to Tromso.  We started researching about the best time of the year to go and have the highest chance of seeing the northern lights.  After packing, talking and playing for a bit it was time to go to bed as our plane would leave the next day at 7:50 in the morning.  We woke up early and headed for the airport, on our way we still saw a few rowdy teenagers ending the parties they started the nit before.  It was still very dark, but i'm afraid to tell you it was still raining and not even a star on the sky.  My son joked with me telling me there were stars and pointing to some christmas decorations on the street.  As it happens, I'm finishing this write up on the plane with 50 mins left to get back to Amsterdam.  Great weekend indeed, it is not very often that I get to go to a scandinavian country and spend one on one time with my son surrounded by nature.  And wait for next week as we head to Paris for the Thanksgiving weekend, and thanksgiving indeed will be for us.

 

Andrew at the Mainstreet in Reykjavik

Eating dinner at an Italian restaurant in Rykjavik

Not a very good picture but this is the Lutheran cathedral in the capital city

This is the entrance of the Blue Lagoon

How about this for a noon sun?  The sun never really rises

Another picture of the Blue Lagoon

Andrew at the Blue Lagoon, we had already been there and on our way out

This is a volcano we photographed on our way to the geyser

This is the famour geyser seconds before it went off

And here it is in action, it only lasts 5 or 6 seconds and they say it used to be higher than it is today

Here's Andrew eating an overpriced hamburguer, how about 1200 kronas for this baby?

Andrew and dad getting ready to go glacier climbing

Can you see that big glacier behind Andrew?

The day started out beautiful, if only it would have stayed like this :-(

Our tour guide "Gummi", gettingAndrew outfitted

Here we go, climbing on the glacier

The glacier used to reach as far as you can see in this picture as late as 1998

This is what is called a glacier moulin, which is a hole that develops over time and gets to be up to 50 meters deep

Doesn't Andrew look like a real climber?

How about Andrew ice wall climbing?  It is a lot harder than it looks

This is our tour guide "Gummi"  Also notice the day is not as sunny as it was before

Andrew and Dad at the end of the adventure, it was fun

We stopped at this waterfall on the way back to Reykjavik, what a trip! if only the northern lights would have shown up 

 

October Break: Munich, Salzburg and Fusen

We started our trip in munich, we arrived late at night and we walked a long distance from central station to the hotel.  The kids were tired and we were happy to get to the hotel

The second day (sunday), we went to church in german, and afterwards the kids played in a freezing cold fountain.  From there we walked to marianplatz and we watched the giant cukoo clock.  We looked for a restaurant, but found none.  We ended up eating at a pizza place.  From there we went to the haufbrau haus, we ate yummy food and drank even better beer.  After, we bought the kids ice cream at a near ice cream shop.  We saw a 6 wheeler bike while mommy went into st peter's church,we really wanted to rent it but they were closed, most stores are closed on sunday in munich.

 

The kids at Marianplatz in downtown Munich

Another picture of the main plaza in Munich.  It was cold!

In the early evening we went to the residenz, this is a big palace, that the german ruling family built.  They had tons of jewls and things.  The treasures, crowns mainly, were the kids favorites.  After we went to a plaza where hitler made a speech, and andrew started a "pea" war while mommy went into another church.  By this time we were all tired so we headed back to the hotel, where the kids ended the night by turning our room into a movie theater and watched furry vengance.

 

Gianna and Daddy in Munich

Andrew was very cheerful eating German bratwurst!

Cheers! from the Hofbrauhaus.  As an aside, Hitler held one of his first rallies in this place.

This is the Residenz, where the Bavarian ruling family lived for many years

This is a picture taken from our hotel balcone, look at the church in front.

On monday we started our day at the "deutche museum" the kids had great fun at the kids section playing with legos, and water, and big guitars.  We spent there almost 2 hrs playing.  Then we toured a mining exhibit, but marielle was not very thrilled.  From there we went to a pastry shop where we ate very good snacks.Then we went to marionplatz where andrew hurt his leg on the elevator.then we went to the market and andrew bought exspensive tomatoes. Mom wanted to see the assam church. Then we went to our hotel. The tram was not running so we walked from central station to our hotel.Before we went to the hotel we had a very good dinner at a beer hall.We ended the day whith a movie.

The girls playing at the Deutsche Museum.  This is like their Smithsonian.

Monny having a lego fight with the kids

We took a pic of the apple store in Munich, Steve Jobs had died a few weeks ago, the image in the glass was made with post it notes, cool huh?

Leaving our Hostel in Munich, boundfor Salzburg

On Tuesday we went to pick up the rental car.  From there we went to the dachau concentration camp. It was a sad place to visit. From there we went to Salzburg. We got there in the afternoon.We stayed in a nice hotel. Once we were settled we went into town,were we explored.We bought cheese, wine and good old mc donalds and ate in the hotel room.  The girls liked playing in the hotel garden. We watched Snow Buddies when we got back.  Daddy liked driving in the auto bahn "german highway" were speed limits do not exist.

"Work will set you free"  Picture taken at the gates of Dachau concentration camp.  A sad remembrance of the past

Another picture of Dachau, a very somber place...

Passing by the Allianz stadium, home of the Bayern Munich FC

We arrive to Salzburg

Mozart's birthplace

 

Next morning we had a delicious breakfast and we headed in town.  We went to mirabell park and visited the "sound of music" places.  Even daddy started singing " doe a deer, a female deer...". We played in an awesome park with a huge slide.  We found a stage where the girls were caught performing the sound of music songs by a tour guide, and he was quite amazed at the performance.

 

Here we are at the Mirabelle Palace, where the sound of music was filmed

The girls performing "Doe a deer, a female deer..."

Marielle in one of the bridges in Salzburg

This is one of the alleys in Salzburg

Andrew in front of a pretzel stand in downtown Salzburg

Downtown Salzburg, after a while you become desensitized to all these magnificent veiws

Picture taken inside the fortress, really really cool

How about those cute puppets!

Our Bed andBreakfast in Salzburg, really nice place

A picture of the Austrian alps, notice the snow

We ate lunch in a german place and drank german beer and it was quite good. We saw mozart's birth place and toured the small and very quaint town.  In the afternoon we visited the fortress in salzburg, and because marielle did not want to ride the car taking people up, she walked with daddy and we lost the rest of our party for about 1 hour.  The fortres is very cool and we stayed there for about 2 hrs.  After that we walked around the plazas where we got to see some beautiful churches.

That night the temperature dropped and the the next morning we saw some sleet/snow.  That morning we drove to fusen in south germany, along the road we stopped by a salt mine and also lake koningsee.  Marielle overcame her fear of mine shafts while touring the mine.  It was cool because one of the tunnels in the mine passed between the border line between germany and austria.  That day was cloudy and overcast and we did not spend much time outdoors.

 

Here we are, getting ready to go into the Salt mine

Marielle does not look afraid of the mine anymore, she's ready for the "Fear Factor"

Andrew playing in the snow, if you ask him, this was the highlight of the trip

Five hours and some really bautiful landscapes later, we arrived in fusen.  On our way to fussen we saw snow by the side of the road and we stopped so the kids could play, and according to them, those were the best 15 mins of the trip.  Fusen is a small town with a medieval wall, the attraction in fussen is to go visit two castles that were built by king ludwig and his dad.  The castles are amazing, and as a matter of fact one of them served as the inspiration for the disneyland princess castles.  In the evening we walked around fusen where mommy got to buy her cukoo clock.  Mommy packed a picknick meal but due to the cold, we ended up having our picknick inside the car.

Say cheese Mr Snowman!!

The snowman is in the process of being built

The next day (our last day), we rode a gondola to the top of the mountains.  It was really amazing.  While there, we saw a few guys gliding down the mountain in parachuttes.  Unfortunately the good times came to an end and we headed straight to munich's airport where we flew back to amsterdam.

One of the castles in Fusen

Another picture from the castle taken from a bridge

The kids really enjoyed the snow

 

 

Not so happy labor day weekend

Highlights of the week

Although is a beautiful day here in Holland, and we are blessed to have all the things we do, the jobs picture in the US does not look to be improving and thus, the title of my blog.

Another week in Wassenaar, this week was special for a few reasons.  First and foremost, it was my daughter's 6th birthday, she had a very special day yesterday.  She invited 10 friends over and had cake and fun after school.  Here's a few pictures

Here's Annelise with her classroom at school at the "Harvest Festival" where they learned all about how vegetables and fruits are planted and harvested.  By the way, there is a small farm at the school where they grow tomatoes and other vegetables, anyone can go there and help themselves to the vegetables.

Anither picture of Annelise at school, as you can see the weather can get already cool here in Holland, although today we are having a beautiful warm day, perfect to sit by the patio and drink a very cold beer or a chilled glass of white wine, cheers!

Here's Annelise and some of her friends at the start of the birthday party, gelukkige verjaardag!! (happy birthday in dutch)

Here's Annelise surrounded by all the terats that mommy made for her, yummy!!,  and notice that she's actually wearing her glasses, she's turning into a big girl!

Andrew our Soccer (or should I say football) Star!

Andrew worked very hard all week in soccer tryouts to see if he would make the school's team.  After a week of tryouts, he found out on friday that he is one of the members of the "American School of the Hague" or ASH Trojans.  He is quite excited as he will be playing teams from the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, he will get to go alone to Hamburg, and Waterloo among other places.  Congratulations Andrew, and GO Trojans!!

Our Car Finally Made it

Our car finally arrived from the US, I went to pick it up on friday, it is quite nice to have the freedom to move a little bit farther than with our bikes, do not get me wrong, riding our bikes is great, but on the weekends it is nice to be able to make short trips to different places.

Here's Marielle and Gianna with her friend Sarah in front of our car yey!  Notice the Texas license plates, we are getting our dutch plates until next week.  As you can imagine we stick out like a sore thumb.

This is life in the Netherlands, a good friend of Marci riding her bike after picking up her kids from school, I guess you could consider this the SUV of the bike world!

Happy Labor day Weekend in the US

This weekend is labor day weekend in the United States, and yesterday the new jobs numbers were announced, the numbers do not look encouraging, and if I was to bet, I would say the US is going into a double dip recession.  Even though I'm here in Europe, I keep very much up to date with what's going on in the US.  I read a number of publications and keep reading books as much as my time and budget allows me to.  If you are interested in getting a more sober long term perspective about the US, I would recommend you to read "End Game" or "Aftershock".  Both boks are well written and provide a lot of food for thought.  For many years the US and other countries in the developed world lived above their means and now is time to pay all we owe.  I hope I'm wrong, I really do, but my prediction is that a recession will be announced by the end of this year or beginning of next, and rememebr that on every recession the stock market falls an average of 43%.  With that I leave you as the day is beautiful outside and I have a glass of white wine waiting for me!

 

Cheers!!

 

The weather outside is frightful...

Another day in our Netherlands life.  It just seems that it never stops raining, today it rained, and rained, and rained, luckily it cleared in the evening jsu tto have some friends over for grilled burgers.  I wen to the nice and expensive butcher shop and still the meat tasetd funny.  Oh well... In the afternoon I wen with my son Andrew to a dairy farm about 5 mins awa that makes cheese, this place sells cheese, fresh milk, and eggs, we bought only cheese, one that was 2 yrs old, it had a strong flavor, but it was nice, anyway, anther day in our netherland life...

Andrew outside the dairy place, it was raining, and therefore you can see Andrew wearing his gull rain gear, a sight that probably many Texans dream off.

Andrew trying to pet the cows, which actually he has done before

Here I am in my rain gear getting ready to go outside to run some errands

Sustainability

Here I am writing again.  I have been blogging for about 3-4 years and most of my blogs are about economy, finance, and related themes.  Now that we are in Europe I will keep writing about these topics, but i will do so within the contextof our trips and adventures.  So I'll start by saying that being able to experience life from the trenches inEurope is a great opportunity, for one it has given me an appreciation for the conveniences that we have in the US and even when I lived in Mexico.  Here in Holland I bike to work for 10-15 mins to the train station (and I get really upset when the train does not wait for me).  But anyway, after biking for 15 mins, I get on the train and ride for another 35-40 mins, my commute does not end here.  Then I walk for another 10-15 mins to the office.  My point is that cars are expensive to own (gas is approximately $10USD/gallon right now), taxes are expensive, and places to park are scarce.  

Everybody talks about China and India becoming wealthier and increasing their standard of living, and while this is true, I do believe that we in the USA will have to curb our appetite for energy and other resources (i.e. water).  It is simply not sustainable, and our thinking is sometimes limited to what we can see, but we do not see the ramifications, so while India and China and other countries will start buying more cars, air conditioners and many other things that we now take for granted, this will have implications that we cannot see right now.

While visiting Brugge we stayed at a small bed andbreakfast that was close to this park.  On our way back from downtown Brugge, we stopped by so the kids could play, they enjoyed rolling down the side hill of the mill that you see in the back.

 Here we are having breakfast at Mrs. Paule Marie's B&B.  The kids loved the food, and staying at B&B's is an excellent and very affordable way to travel in Europe.

Hey, What are you looking at??

This picture was taken inside the "Holly Blood Chuch."  This church keeps a relic of what is belived to be the blod of Jesus, the relic is displayed alomst every day, and visitors are allowed to see it and touch it.  The church is located in downtown Brugge.

From Brugge we moved to Brussels, where we spent 1/2 day and we did some quick sightseeing including this structure (kind of ugly).  This is called the Atomium, and was built in 1958 for the Brussel's world fair, close by is a small park called "Mini Europe" that containes replicas of all the major ldnmarks throughout Europe.

 

Are we really in the end game?

A couple of months ago I read a book by John Mauldin, titled "End Game," if you care about your future and your kid's future I recommend that you get a copy and read it as soon as you can.  The book describes how the US and other developed countries are coming to the end of the game, we can no longer borrow money and soon, those who we owe money to will start asking for it.  The US has a debt of approximately 14 trillion dollars, it collects about 2 trillion in taxes and we have a deficit in our budget, wo how are we exactly going to pay for what we owe??  Inflation is the answer, the dollar and other fiat currencies are doomed.  Being in Europe is not salvation either, I foresee the Euro stopping to exist in less than 2 or 3 years.  I hope I;m wrong but unfortunately I do not think so.  But enough of my ranting, since I also want to use my blog to keep record of our trips to Europe, let me share a few pictures of Brugge.

 

Here's Gianna helping a craftsman blowing glass.  This man works as a nurse at night, but this is his true passion, blowing glass, unfortunately, his job has been outsourced to... you guessed it, China, he told us how after 9/11, his glass shop was empty and from then on it went downhill.

This is the main plaza in brugge, we spent about an hour here resting and buying "belgium fries" from a grumpy person that yelled at me, customer service in Europe is almost non existent.

Here I am with the love of my life in the Brugge Market tower.

Walking back to our lovely "Bread and Breakfast" and the kids getting tired by the minute, luckily we made it wihtout having to carry anyone in our shoulders

Visiting the "Half Moon" brewery, I don't need to say more, cheers!
 This is Ghent, a really cute city, very gothic, unfortunately the weather was not very nice

Our New Life in the Netherlands!

After a year of hibernation I decided to get back to writing.  There are plenty of thoughts in my mind and now I also have new adventures and pictures to share with you.  I have moved with my family to the Netherlands, we arrived here on July the 18th and we have almost settled into our new home.  The first week we spent in a hotel in Amsterdam while we were getting out house ready to be occupied.  That week Marci did a lot of sightseeing with the kids and the got to visit Ann Frank's house, the van Gogh museum, the Rijk museum, and other pounts of interest.

"Here's Andrew and Annelise on the plane getting ready to take off"

Here's my 4 kids in front of "Amsterdam Centraal" on the day we landed in Amsterdam.  I must also say that it took the kids about 5 days to get adjusted to the new time zone.  Someone told me that the rule of thumb is that it takes you about 1day per time zone to adjust when you travel to a different place, and since Amsterdam is 7 hrs ahead of Houston, I guess that would be about right.

After 3 weeks of being in the Netherlands we ventured into Belgium.  We took a couple of days and visited Bruge.  Bruge is a small town, with a medieval flavor, it is surrounded by a canal that make it seem like a castle and a moat.  We had a great time visitng the Chocolate museum, the half moon brewery, the main plaza, and a few other site.  Marielle wanted to visit the french fries museum, but it was not worth it, although we did get to eat "belgium fries".  I will post more pictures as soon as I find our camera.

 

Facebook

So what is the purpose of facebook? As you may guess I don't have an acct in facebook, and still deciding if I ever will get one. I am not sure that facebook helps you build more effective relationships but I am positive you can spend a lot of time surfing through it. Quick comment on a book I just finished it is titled Tribal Leadership, I must say the book left something to be desired. I would not recommend it.

Social Media a Fad?

I used to think that social media was a fad, up to date I still do not have a facebook account, do I intend to get one? Not sure.  My cell phone is old and clunky for today's standards, it works fine but I do not text, much less download apps in my phone, and if I happen to receive text messages from friends, I have to pay dearly because my plan does not cover texting.  Despite this, I do realize that social media exists and is very alive, it is amazing the power of social media, in a sense I'm not completely isolated, this blog is a proof of that.  If you want to get an idea about the power of social media just watch this video from youtube.  Social media is no joking matter, but I'm still not convinced that I will get a facebook account any time soon, Mark Zuckerberg will have to live without me. 

Talking about Mark Zuckerberg (founder of facebook),there is an interesting article in this week's The Economist, it mentions that when David Cameron (Prime Minister of Britain) got into power, he asked Mark Zuckerberg for advice on how to deal with millions of followers, after all, if Facebook was consider a country, it would be the 3rd largest country in the world as per its number of subscribers.

Last week I attended a course, The 7 habits of Highly Effective People, I had read the book but never attended any courses or seminars related, it was well worth the money and time, it was a reminder to focus on the important things in life, a reminder to work on the important things more than the urgent things, our lives are filled of urgent activities that do not contribute to our happiness.  Over the next few blogs I will try to talk about each one of the principles and try to summarize its essence.  Today i will just list the 7 habits:

1.- Be Proactive

2.- Begin with the end in mind

3.-  Put first things first

4.-  Think Win-Win

5.-  Seek first to understand, then to be understood

6.-  Synergize

7.-  Sharpen the saw

A Word on Sportsmanship

This week the US and Mexico played a qualifying soccer match for the world cup in South Africa in 2010.  I did not get to watch the game personally as I was at work, however, my son did watch the match.  Around 4:30 I called home to inquire about the game.  As soon as my son answered the phone, and by the tone of his voice I knew that Mexico had beat the US.  He was a little sad, but no big deal.  What caught his attention the most and some thing he asked me and still asks me repeatedly is: Why do Mexican fans throw bottles and trash at the players?  I grew up in Mexico and although I do not condone the behavior I grew used to it.  Do not get me wrong, there are plenty class act citizens in Mexico, but unfortunately Mexico makes itself a reputation based on the few that misbehave.  As a kid my father would have never tolerated that behavior from me, as a matter of fact, he would have punish me severely if I would have ever done that.  It is sad to see that even tough Mexico won, the fans still show such disrespect for the other team.  And it does not matter whether it is the us,Canada, or any other country, the behavior would have been the same.  It is really sad to see such poor attitude.  As I told my soon, at the end it is not whether you won or lost, but how you played the game.