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Cynthia7

Jul 16, 2004, 7:04 PM

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What we can get in Mexico

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Now let's talk about what we can get in Mexico that we can't get in our native lands!! How about wonderful people performing willingly and eagerly services and errands. Where I live the climate is about as fine as is available in the world-year round.. no screens, no heat and no airconditioning. Beautiful fruits and vegetables at reasonable prices. Cajeta, vanilla, chocolate and coffee. And ***** Lea and Perrin Garlic Sauce- you can"t get that in the US. Broncolin all natural cough syrup and that wonderful powder for burns!! We have strawberries, asparagus, citrus andcalla lillies year round. What a life!!

Lavanda

Jul 16, 2004, 7:33 PM

Post #2 of 11 (3009 views)

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Re: [Cynthia7] What we can get in Mexico

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Amen, sistah ... and then some!

There are more than I could ever think to list at once.

But...

being able to walk alone at night with no fears

sleeping with the windows open and listening to the wonderful night sounds, including the mariachis playing in the cantina down the callejon

serenatas

being able to walk or take taxis anywhere I wish to go

living in a nice dryish climate where the natives scream "its too hot" when the temp hits 80 F, and scream it is too cold when the temps go down to 35 F.

being able to eat street food in the streets, plaza, etc

the abundance of fresh fruits and veggies "in season" all year round as opposed to being flown in from Chile in the wintertime.

the beautiful incredibly CLEAR white sunshine, althoug sometimes I think it is a product of being up in the mountains or of the latitude.

after sunday morning mass, being able to walk a block
or to and have atole and tamales and converse with the ladies there, whom I first met whie I would accompany my
madrina to church, and now, the custom lives on in me.

los altares in the homes for Day of the Dead

staying up all night on Christmas Eve eating, drinking, singing, dancing, the pinata, rocking the Baby Jesus, exchanging gifts ..... and Christmas day, everyone sleeps in for most of the day & then get up to polish off whatever leftover tamales are still around.

The incredible variety of plants gowing as they should, in the ground, such as 20+ feet tall poinsettias, instead of
in little teeny weenie 6" pots

ahhhhh, let me count the ways....

!! Viva Mexico, warts and all !!!

Carol Schmidt

Jul 16, 2004, 9:25 PM

Post #3 of 11 (2988 views)

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Re: [Lavanda] What we can get in Mexico

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Being able to afford to live well on Social Security.

Having no restrictive rules on what colors to paint my house or what kinds of flowers to plant as I did back at the Homeowners Association in Phoenix.

Being able to walk down to the Jardin at night and just people-watch and eavesdrop on mariachi bands performing live music upon request and feel totally safe.

Being able to take taxis for 15 pesos (around $1.30) and buses for 4 pesos and first-class buses to anywhere in Mexico for a pittance.

Driving only 1200 miles a ear here instead of 40,000 miles a year in Phoenix.

Crossing paths with a wide range of people, classes, races, ages, sexes, sexual orientation, and interests, rather than a highly stratified and narrow group of friends in the states.

Having art classes and galleries and art openings all over the place so I am constantly being nurtured artistically.

Being able to buy each week at Tuesday Market so much fresh produce and fruit that I can eat much more healthfully here than in the States, for maybe $15 US total, for what would cost at leat $50 US in the states, and it wouldn't be as fresh and tasty and varied.

Renting a huge flat for a quarter what it would cost in most US cities, and a tenth of what it would cost in SF or other walking towns with as much going on.

Being able to help local people directly, in ways that I can see, rather than donating to charities in the States where I had no idea what was happening with my money and who was benefiting and how.

Walking down the street and coming across three or four burros on the sidewalk.

Being so close to children, seeing them at play with so little, kids having a grand time with a cheap rubber ball, rather than the age-segregation of the States and the expensive, organized activities of U.S. kids who no longer know how to entertain themselves with something simple.

Having the opportunity to see another culture up close and personal, so I am not stuck thinking my way is the only way.

Enjoying all the parades and fiestas and fireworks and chimes and puppets and costumes and dances which go on all the time, never knowing when I will hear the sound of drums and know that there is a parade just a few blocks away.

Sampling ice cream in such crazy flavors, like shrimp and tamarind, never knowing quite what my mouth is about to taste when I try a new food.

Walking with a purpose, so that I find I often do four miles a day just by going from store to store to gallery opening to class, rather than having to force myself to walk around a track back in the States and see nothing and have it feel like mindless work.

That's for starters....

Carol Schmidt

juan david

Jul 17, 2004, 12:57 PM

Post #4 of 11 (2917 views)

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Re: [Cynthia7] What we can get in Mexico

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Being able to afford a maid and gardner 3 mornings a week

Dining al fresco 90% of the time

Learning a new language

Good medical care on demand at very affordable prices

Cordial friendly people everywhere you turn

Time that is measured by calendar, not by stopwatch

Gardens that look good 365 days a year
" let sleeping dogs lie"

Adrian

Jul 18, 2004, 11:10 AM

Post #5 of 11 (2846 views)

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Re: [Cynthia7] What we can get in Mexico

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What else?

Good, private bilingual education for my kids in a 'traditional' way - no faddish, left-liberal 'feelgood' nonsense such as 'New Math'.

Not having my daily affairs micro-managed by an intrusive government or financially crippled by sky-high taxes.

Being able to afford and run a new car.

Having a close family support network, friendly neighbours etc.

Good, fresh, cheap meat and fish - we can actually afford to eat well here.

Lots more, I'm sure - otherwise we wouldn't be here!

Adrian

moonfam5

Jul 19, 2004, 6:43 PM

Post #6 of 11 (2741 views)

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Re: [Cynthia7] What we can get in Mexico

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While I have not yet moved to Mexico, I do have a home there already. My wife and I
(she is a mexican citizen) have spent the last year and a half building our vacation/retirement home in her home town in Michocan. I can tell you this, for what we spent to build in Mexico, we could have built a home about 1/2 the size in the US, but it would not be furnished. We have a fully furnished home and it will be passed on to the children when we are gone.
What I love about Mexico more than anything are its people. I have never, I repeat NEVER, have been mistreated anywhere in Mexico. I have been all over, from Tijuana to Cancun, and even getting pulled over by the local policia in Guadalajara and D.F., but have never been mistreated.
My parents learned this lesson in October 1995, when we went to Cancun and walked right into Hurricane Roxanne. My Mom had slipped her first night at the resort, and spent the rest of the week in a blue temporary cast and crutches. When we were evacuated, the resort management sent my parents to stay with a retired nurse and her husband. My folks don't speak Spanish, and the nurse and her husband didn't speak English, but they got along fabulously. My folks definitely came away with a more complete understanding of the "real" Mexico, of course their only exposure to "mexicans" were the T-shirted "vatos" of East L.A.
Anyway, I can't wait to move to my house in "La Tierra Santa" of Michocan.
Wink

The more I learn, I less I know.

julietl

Jul 20, 2004, 12:55 PM

Post #7 of 11 (2673 views)

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Re: [Cynthia7] What we can get in Mexico

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Hmm - where to begin??

Being able to buy freshly dried beans from a vendor in the market rather than in a bag at the grocery store.

Constantly discovering new neighborhoods and new hangouts

...and as an opposite of that: actually running in to someone I know on the street. In a city of 22 mil, it still amazes me when it happens.

The art

The parties/music

friends who gather around you for fun, but also when bad things happen, they are very supportive and helpful

Cheap, fast and clean Metro system

A chance to learn a new language, and hence a different perspective. I love the unique sense of humor my friends have here.

I also enjoy the lack of division between the ages. Teenagers here don't roll their eyes if they have a family function to go to. The older people are more involved in the younger people lives, and are more relaxed about certain things too. There is true interaction and genuine desire to connect during the parties and family events that I have attended.

And lastly - the weather!
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Bubba

Jul 20, 2004, 2:06 PM

Post #8 of 11 (2656 views)

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Re: [julietm] What we can get in Mexico

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Wow!

No question about the superiority of Mexico over any place I have ever seen.

Carrying 200 pounds of wood up vertical landscapes Gringos find enthralling so you can obtain a modicum of heat or fire up a bowl that can become a Gringo conceit or cook some simple tortillas or basic beans and semi-rotten meat to feed your starving family and making them happy on bootleg rotgut you call mescal that destroys their livers while making them simultaneously complacent so they don't rise up and say to the corrupt and disgusting middle and upper middle class in this country that you are feeding their children filthy water and rotting food while their children live in excess and become mindless, arrogant and slothful consumers of the limited resources available to the few while so many subsist on inadequate beans and corn.

It's a good thing the climate here is amenable as the cold wind here flows incessantly through the tarpaper shacks that pass for homes for the average citizen while expats complain of the cost of Roquefort. This place presents paradoxes that tempt the intellect.

If you cannot see how mean this place can be then you can kiss my butt!

(This post was edited by Bubba on Jul 20, 2004, 2:16 PM)

Adrian

Jul 20, 2004, 2:39 PM

Post #9 of 11 (2641 views)

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Re: [Bubba] What we can get in Mexico

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<sarcasm>

Aaaah! Bubba, Bubba, Bubba!!

This forum would be a whole lot less amusing without your first-world, liberal-conscience, guilt-inducing extirpations!

</sarcasm>

Adrian

esperanza

Jul 20, 2004, 3:04 PM

Post #10 of 11 (2633 views)

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Re: [Adrian] What we can get in Mexico

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One entry found for extirpate.
Main Entry: ex·tir·pate

Pronunciation: 'ek-st&r-"pAt
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): -pat·ed; -pat·ing
Etymology: Latin exstirpatus, past participle of exstirpare, from ex- + stirp-, stirps trunk, root -- more at TORPID
1 a : to destroy completely : WIPE OUT b : to pull up by the root
2 : to cut out by surgery
synonym see EXTERMINATE
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Yup, that's our Bubba, the extirpatator. We missed you, Bubba. Welcome home.

http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com

wendy devlin

Jul 21, 2004, 9:21 AM

Post #11 of 11 (2542 views)

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Re: [Bubba] What we can get in Mexico

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Sounds like you've just come from Chiapas...
or Guerrero, or Oaxaca...or... other points in the 'deep' south Wendy