jerezano
Aug 2, 2011, 11:27 AM
Post #10 of 11
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Re: [TedZar] Guide for Absolute Beginners? Does it Exist?
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Hello Blank Slate:
All the advice you have been getting here on mexconnect.com is good.
Here is my own take, which may be good or bad in the views of other people, but two cents worth is two cents worth.....
First of all, wherever you might be right now, see if you can find a Spanish tutor or classes or internet classes and try to become sufficiently efficient in Spanish that you can read local newspapers in Spanish.
Local newspapers means that you have to decide where you want to pass your time in Mexico either temporarily or permanently. So you begin by listing your druthers. I want to live on the ocean, I want to live in the mountains, I want to live near other English speaking people, I want to live completely immersed in Spanish speaking neighbors, I want to live where I can buy things I am accustomed to buy, I want to live where there is a change of seasons, I want to live in a climate like Hawaii's, I want.... etc. etc., and etc. And don't forget ease of return to the US or Canada or France or wherever you now are, nor the presence or absence of health care.
You need to start filling that blank tablet. And after starting to fill that you can start making decisions, not before!
Here is my own case. I made a trip to Mexico as a free stopover of a week on a San Francisco to Washington DC (American airlines) way back in the early 1950's.I decided then I would like to retire to Mexico some 30 or more years in the future. I subscribed to all the Mexican travel magazines (in English) that I could find. I took two years of Spanish in a local University. I joined the American Society in Guadalajara and the VFW post in the same city. I made as many exploratory trips to Mexico as my work permitted. Later as my children were growing up I always scheduled my work vacations with the family to Mexico. Usually entering via train (easy in those days) or later by car and always spending at least one week in Guadalajara, my target city. The other week, or later two weeks exploratory trips.
When I finally retired we moved to the Texas border, Harlingen, and using that as a base I really intensified my study of Spanish until it was easy toi follow Telenovelas on the TV. We spent 8 years there until my family grew up, left and my wife of 25 years decided to divorce me. That left me free to move to Mexico but Guadalajara was no longer an option since Medical reasons forced me to return to Harlingen every three months to pick up medications not available in Mexico. So ease of return to Texas dictated where I could live. In 1988 I found Jerez and have been here ever since.
Does this give you some idea as to how to fill that blank slate? I hope so.Good luck.
As ever, jerezano
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