Location, Location... (you know how it ends)

Continuing with the CA/WI differences, another little topic I thought of was cities. Apparently, I am not the only one to notice there are a lot of cities in Wisconsin named after Native American words that you can only pronounce properly if you were raised in Wisconsin. (Or, I guess, if you are Native American yourself.) In California, there are a lot of cities with names in Spanish (easy example: Los Angeles). So while I'm stuck here trying to pronounce things like Oconomowoc (exactly how many o's is one word allowed to have?), when we go out to California for Christmas, my husband has to attempt to say things like Aliso Viejo (which is not pronounced vie-joe, in case my non-Spanish speaking readers were wondering). There are also a bunch of other things here named after Native American tribes - Blackhawk being a prime example. There's a Blackhawk credit union and bank, a technical college, a golf course, and a curling club, and that's just in the Janesville area! Whereas in Southern California, we have little mom-and-pop Mexican food restaurants in every strip mall and the missions founded by the Spanish (most of with start with "San," which means "Saint.") Interesting to note the cultural influences in each state...

And on the Mexican food note, the other day my boss got lunch for us at the Mexican restaurant across the street. Having grown up with said Mexican culture all around in California, I tend to know more about Mexican food than my friends and family in Wisconsin. So, as the "Mexican food resource" at work, I made a recommendation to one of my coworkers to try the flautas (basically taquitos). She decided she would give them a try. Then another coworker decided to get them. Then another... and all of a sudden I was getting nervous, thinking, "What if everyone hates what I recommended? I'd feel so responsible!" But, thankfully, everyone loved it! One coworker said she wanted to give me a hug because it was so good, and she's going to ask me for more recommendations, and another said that the flautas are now her new favorite Mexican entree. So, I ended up pretty pleased that everyone liked their food.

That about does it for today. Go eat a tostada or enchilada for me :)