MEXICO IS NOT HOT. IT'S COLD!!
November and December were cold. RIDICULOUSLY cold. Maybe it was a cold up in L.A. at the same time, I don't know. But there are differences. In Glendale my high-rise condo never got cold. Sometimes I would open windows on a cold winter night just for fun. I could always close them when I got out of bed, and the place would warm up, and I could work at home easily. Whereas, down here, you can never get warm. The cold blows into your house. The door doesnt fit the doorframe snugly. The house is not insulated. SO it's like living in an adirondack shelter that happens to have electricity and cable TV. Invigorating, hell. Sure cold is OK if you're bundled up and bustling around doing chores outdoors. But try sitting still and working! Try getting up in the morning! Well, you get up in the cold when it's camping, what's wrong with you. But here's the revelation: it's WORSE than camping. It's like camping on a giant frozen lake. The floor here is cold and stays cold. There is no carpet, no wood. Just tile on cement. Probably the same thing they have in a frozen meat locker.
I stayed in a cheap motel when I first came down here. I actually got fed up and rented a place because the floor in the motel was so cold. like ice, when I got up at 5 or 6am. Went back up to the USSA, got my stuff, moved in to the little rental casita. Guess what? Same frozen floor.
Oh hell! What about the guys who go mountaineering in the Alps or the Himalayas? They are camping on ice! THEY can take it! SORRY. NOPE. They are not standing in place. They are not sitting at a computer. Trying to set up and run a home office while perched on a GIANT BLOCK OF ICE, is something those adventurers DON'T DO.
"Oh, you're not very tough. ****I**** LIKE a cold dip.
Yeah well SO DO I. On New year's Day I organized Polar Bear Dips in the cold Southern California surf. But you know what? AFTER I came OUT of the surf, I dried off, bundled up, and GOT WARM. I didn't STAY there. Whereas, in Mexico, there is NO RESPITE. Mexicans LIKE VENTILATION. So anywhere you go to get warm, they HAVE THE DOOR OPEN. And if you go to buy affordable Mexican restaurant, it's OPEN-AIR. They grill without a hood, so they CAN'T EVEN ROLL DOWN PLASTIC WALLS, the way an open-air place in los angeles would. You just sit there, or stand there, shivering while waiting for your tacos. And then you sit there shivering while you eat them. What is that?
I use to have a warm ski jacket and long underwear when I lived in NEBRASKA, and made early morning sales calls from Minnesota to Iowa to Nebraska. I SHOULD HAVE BROUGHT THAT STUFF TO MEXICO.
FREEDOM
It's not that I love everything about Mexico. I clearly don't. But messed up as it is, the government here is not trying to enslave or exterminate or dumb-down its people. The government here is not lying every single time.
There are lots of police, and also some military, but they are after actual bad guys, and they leave me alone. There are no security measures aimed at imaginary terrorists. Seatbelt use is mandated for drivers, not passengers. But even drivers don't use them. And so on.
There are fewer rules here. There is no zoning. You can start a business wherever you want. Outside the city, you can build whatever you want. No rules whatsoever.
Once you've tasted increased freedom, the old slavery becomes repugnant. Not just me, but many other gringos are disgusted at the police-state interrogation they face to return to the USSA.
I may or may not stay in Mexico. But I will not be going back to the USSA.
ASSIMILATION
Noone speaks English except people with money, and the deportados, who are many. People who get deported from the U.S. linger here in Baja California Norte, like moths around a flame.
I really AM one of THOSE gringos. It really DOES bother me that things are different here.
-- I whine about the bumps, ditches and potholes in the roads.
--I complain that the there isnt enough variety in street food.
--The barking dogs otside my home office are starting to annoy me.
There is no race hostility toward me (White-looking).
The most frosty-looking people are the lighter-skinned men who dress like hipsters. They seem to go around with a chip on the shoulder.
After I grew a mustache and goatee, some men would talk to me in Spanish, asking directions. Grooming makes a difference!
I would clearly be welcome to assimilate here if I learned Spanish well.
WATER
I drink (high-end) Bonafonte purified water from a water-cooler type dispenser. This is the best they have here. There is no natural spring water available in quantity. California's Arrowhead (natural spring) water seems to be available in convenience stores, in 1.5 liter bottles and below.
Most people don't drink the tap water here, not because it's dirty, but because it's salty. It's just used for bathing and washing.
SAFETY AND DRIVING
There is no sense of danger here except from carloads of drunks in the worst part of town on Saturday night. Only got lost over there once. Most poor areas are very quiet and safe.
Speaking of getting lost, there are almost no street signs. Plus the same street can have two names. Plus people make up names for the streets, since they don't know the real one. Plus, there are almost no maps.
White-looking people give better directions.
But directions are generally terrible, maybe the worst I've ever had. Like turn right at the Oxxo". Well, there is an Oxxo convenience store on every corner. Or, "it's after the Pemex". Well, every gas station is a Pemex.
There are pedestrians everywhere, and effectively no street lights in some areas. You have to look for pedestrians and bike riders coming out of the dark. There are many stop signs, they are badly positioned and hard to see, and they don't reflect your headlights. Plus one is missing occasionally. So you have to think where a stop sign COULD be, or maybe USED to be, and stop there anyway.
BUSINESS
Mexicans correct my math errors and give me more change than I expected. They are very honest people, especially the women.
It's a poor country. but everyone works. Even a meth-addict deportado involved with part-time drug distribution will still hustle a buck as a handyman.
They are scrappers, many working hard and long for a buck. They don't mind hard work at all. A proprietor looks at gross profit for the day, not his net hourly wage. They are not jealous of their time.
People don't always finish what they start. But they can pick up where they left off, if you give them a chance to get back on track.
Workmanship is sloppy to ok, but always functional. At the same time they are very careful and diligent within the confines of what they are used to doing.
What they don't do is to think up things they could do to improve things. Things tend to stay like they are. Anyone who does imagine and build something new, geared to the local market, succeeds. It doesn't take much. A wifi cafe in a shack. A hot dog stand at the gate. A zumba studio in a cheap storefront location. The place is literally underdeveloped. There is a lot of room for improvement, for new businesses, and for new construction. Big American(and Mexican) corporations are arriving to fill the gap, but there is lots of room for small-scale American-small-town-style retail businesses.
Unlike the U.S., an old man can get a job here, as a bag-boy in a market.
There are times when you tip, and times when you don't. You do tip the bag-boy.
There is a general sense that life is hard, but good. They are fundamentally happy with their meager lives in a way that Americans aren't.
They do not look ahead. What happens today is what happens today. (Obviously this would be different for corporate types, but I am not running into them.) Except they will plan ahead for a major, agreed-upon objective, like a birthday, quincinera, etc. Then they come together and work together like ants. They are better at teamwork than American suburbanites, or Western Armenians. They are aided by the fact that they are not competitive with each other the way we are.
MEETING PEOPLE
They are very careful, they don't take people's honesty for granted. Strangers are greeted at arms length, unless it's a tourist-oriented establishment. They do not assume you are a good person, till they have spoken with you.
I thought the people might be loud and outgoing, like Armenians or Argentineans or Italians, but they are quiet and observant. I can see why a guy like Falcon likes them.
At the same time, they can be hospitable, warm and charming, and if there is beer or food, and the "ice" has been broken, they will share it.
They clearly wonder what I am doing here.
SHOPPING
Big box stores offer great service. There is someone to ask questions of, and they will walk with you to the spot. If something is not on the shelves they will go search the warehouse. Noone seems stressed. Doctors take all the time a patient needs. Utility companies have desks where people can come in, sit down, and talk over problems like unpaid bills. You can pay bills online, but it's even harder to do than in the USSA.
In the big box stores, if you ask up front if they speak English, the answer is usually no. If you launch into very bad Spanish and do your best, they will often then pull out a little English. I don't know if they:
--were embarrassed to speak a language badly, till they heard you doing the same, or
--grew tired of the torture of listening to you, or
--just wanted to make sure you didn't think you were in the U.S.
