You Know You've Been In Mexico a While When....

1. the money looks normal and no longer reminds you of Monopoly money.
2. you know where all the potholes are located in your city that are big enough to swallow donkey carts and you can drive creatively to avoid them.
3. seeing a donkey cart no longer makes you stop and stare.
4. you automatically say "gracias" instead of "thank you" even to your English speaking friends.
5. you've developed a taste for salsas with super hot chile peppers.
6. you understand the difference between the 30 taco choices on the menu.
7. you start speaking Spanglish. For example, "Let's go to cama. I'm feeling cansada. La perrita needs to go a fuera so she doesn't hacer pipi en casa."
8. you can read #7 and it makes perfect sense.

Por favor, add your comments. Me gustaría leer todos!

Translated Signs and the Online Translator

These translations made me chuckle. The first two were taken at a tourist site called Mikos in San Luis Potosi.  It is a beautiful place with waterfalls, hiking, kayaking and swimming. But they really need to stop using the online translator.  If I followed the command not to enter the water within an hour or more, I should never enter the water.... ever!  At least that's what the sign said. 








This sign really made me laugh.  How does one lock their car half-assed?  I guess I could just lock the driver's door and leave the rest unlocked.  And please tell me what "forgotten malfunction" means. 













The last photo was taken a few months ago in the bathroom on a bus in Mexico. As I sat on the toilet, this sign stared at me and for the life of me I couldn't understand what it meant. In English.  Oh, duh, flush the toilet!

I Almost Fried Last Night

I am going to start off by saying I have many positive things to say about Mexico.  I've met two amazing American women living here in Reynosa with their Mexican husbands.  They are blog writers so you all can probably figure out who they are.  One of them was my lifesaver by inviting me to San Luis Potosi over the holidays when I was going through a rough time.  I like teaching and I like my students.  I LUVVVVV the food.

I don't like my apartment.  Or maybe I should say it doesn't like me.  I've had a multitude of problems since the day I moved in last August.  I bitched and moaned about the air conditioning or lack thereof until Mr. Luis from the school showed up with a mini-split.  I have to say it is wonderful.  It cools the entire apartment and it also is a heater that will almost sufficiently warm up 2 of the 4 rooms.  Cockroaches that could live through a nuclear bomb occasionally take up residence inside.  The pilot light keeps going out on the water heater, hence, cold showers. The water heater is outside so you would think the pilot light would be more likely to go out on a windy day.  Nope. It usually goes out on the calmest of days.  Again, Mr. Luis came to the rescue and built the handy dandy shield as seen by the uploaded photo.  And there are days when there is no water.  Nada. Not a drop.  Yes, I am American and used to "luxuries" such as hot, running water inside the casa and not being afraid to go to sleep and worry about insects crawling around my bed.  I realize that many here in Mexico do not have these luxuries, but if I wanted to do without hot water or live with bugs I would have joined the Peace Corps.

I have tried to keep my bitching about these inconveniences to a minimum because, well, they are inconveniences but not life threatening..... until last night. I was drifting off into dream world when something startled me awake around 11:30 PM.  It was a peculiar smell.  As I got up, POOF, out went the lights.  Using touchy-feely, I found my flashlight and made my way into the living room.  It was full of smoke.  Checking the control panel, I looked to see if a breaker had switched.  The breakers were all intact, but I could see the charred remains of wiring.  Damn!  This is serious!  Geez, who do you call in this sort of an emergency?  The fire department?  9-1-1?  I didn't have a frickin' clue and I still don't a frickin' clue.  I tried to call the director of English from the school but he was unreachable so I called the former director who is now a teacher at the school and got a hold of her sister.  Ruth was able to contact poor Mr. Luis who came out at midnight, switched off the breakers, and duly deemed nothing could be done until mañana.  Mr. Luis is truly a wonderful person but I've had enough of the mañana crap especially since the weather has taken a sour turn and we are expecting below freezing temperatures for the next several days.  So this morning instead of dressing in uniform, I put on my dirty jeans from the day before without bathing and showed up at school with an attitude.   The boss was all apologetic and everything until we went to the apartment and he declared it's not that bad.  Not that BAD?  Did the apartment need to burn to the ground to be declared bad?  Maybe my death needed to occur to be declared "bad". I had complained several weeks ago about getting a buzz when I plugged things into the outlets.  I could have gone ballistic, but I didn't.  I just calmly stated that I would return to work when I had a livable place because I was going to Texas until such time.  By 5:30 this evening, all the wiring from the street to the house and the entire control panel was replaced.  I guess I'll have to show up to work tomorrow even though with the cold weather I am willing to bet all my jalapeños that I will have less than 6 students out of 34.  And while I am on a roll can anyone please tell me why I have never seen a smoke detector in Mexico?  Is there a ban from using such a device? Good grief, we had smoke detectors in Iowa way back in the 1970's.  And now that I am thinking of it, I don't think I've ever seen a fire truck in Reynosa.  What happens if there is ever a fire?  Do people use garden hoses?  Maybe so, unless they are dead because they didn't have a smoke detector.

Me and the Guapo Vaquero

I was invited to Ciudad Valles in San Luis Potosi for the holidays.  It's been 3 parties in 3 days and tomorrow it will be 4 parties in 4 days.  So we were at this party last night when my friend Amanda said, "Oh, look at what is coming down the road!"

This man showed up at the fiesta in his finest party clothes complete with spurs.  Needless to say, the photo tells the story more than words.  Ride 'em cowboy!

Fried and Refried

When I took this picture, I didn't know if was a no-no to take photos inside the store so I snapped it surreptitiously.  And don't you just love how I used a baby word "no-no" in the same sentence as "surreptitiously"?

It seems like my 2 favorite topics is about food in Mexico and driving or other modes of transportation in Mexico. I need to find more interesting topics. Anyhoo, I went to a small local grocery story in a small town nearby Reynosa.  I had met some friends for lunch and was heading back when I saw the store. I only needed to pick up a few items.  It looked like a fairly new store and everything was so neat and the milk cost about 50 pesos.  Not cheap.  It looked like a miniature HEB (that would be HY VEE to you Iowa folks) and fairly normal.  Then I got to the oil aisle.  Notice I did not say oil section.  This little country store had an entire side of an aisle devoted to cooking oil.  Next time I head to HEB, SMart or Soriana in Reynosa, I am going to check out the store size vs. oil aisle ratio.  Dang!  Is that why I can't lose the weight I've put on this past year?  Am I consuming so much you can put a rig on me and drill for oil?

I've got to stop eating out and hitting the gym more often.

Brrrrrr, It's Cold

I've lived in Iowa most of my life where traffic doesn't stop when we get a little snowfall (6 inches or less = no cancellations).  I lived in Minneapolis for a few years and I can remember driving from Fargo, ND in a snowstorm that dumped 18 inches.  Minneapolis never cancels any events for any amount of snow. Ever. 


Last Friday when the temperature high was somewhere in the 40's and it rained all day, I had 7 students out of 34 show up for classes. Most northerners would call us out with shouts of "Pansies!"  


I can just hear my northern friends and family wondering what kind of pansy I've turned into.  The horror!  Highs only in the 40's?  That would be considered a heat wave in Iowa. Well, dear northerners, let me tell you the difference between Iowa and Mexico. You all have heat inside.  Most Mexican homes do not.  I was freezing most of last week. It was cold and rainy and I've been suffering from a nasty gripa with chills to the bone and a hacking cough. I swear I almost coughed up a lung. Then I discovered the air conditioning unit that was installed in my apartment is also a heating unit.  Totally cool!   I mean totally hot!  I am feeling soooo much better. 

Thanksgiving in Mexico

20 lb bird from Walmart at .40 per pound = $8.00
2 boxes of stove top stuffing = $1.82
1 can of candied cranberries = .78
1 bag of potatoes = $3.00

Thanksgiving dinner outside on the terrace with good friends and family = pricele$$