A few more things about living in Mexico:
#1-Conversions. I am constantly "googling" different conversions. Here they measure in kilometers instead of miles, kilograms instead of pounds, celsius instead of fahrenheit, etc. This means that I have to convert the temperature when using my oven, convert from grams or kilograms when measuring or weighing food, convert from km per hour to miles per hour when driving (luckily it says it right on the dashboard :) ) and of course convert from pesos to dollars when trying to figure out how much something costs. It's not a big deal, but it's something that has taken some getting used to.
#2-Stores/Products. The stores that we shop at actually aren't very different, since we do the majority of our shopping at Walmart & Costco. The products and prices at the stores are definitely different though. To buy American products or anything similar to American products, you usually have to pay quite a bit more for them. There are a few Mexican brands of things that we've found that we like, but most of the stuff we've tried has fallen apart or not tasted anything like what we thought we were buying. (I hate saying that, but it is true.) Because of this, we try to eat more produce and fresh food, or food that we can buy homemade. We've also been surprised that they don't have thrift stores or stores that sell used products here. I was counting on buying old pieces of furniture that I could fix up to decorate our house with, but I've had no luck finding any.
#3-Weather. The weather here has been absolutely perfect until last month. It is getting really warm and we don't have air conditioning here. We've heard that May is the hottest month (I think we might be pretty miserable since it can get to over 100 degrees) but then the rainy season hits. It supposedly rains every day for 2 or 3 months and cools everything off, then we will have perfect weather again for the rest of the year. I think it gets cold enough for a sweatshirt in December & January, but that's about it. I love that the weather doesn't ever affect what we plan to do each day!
#4-Traffic. I don't even know how to describe the traffic here. It is CRAZY. There are certain stop signs that people stop at, and others that nobody stops at, and apparently you are supposed to remember which are which. Cars turn left from multiple lanes when they aren't supposed to, so you don't want to be in the left lane if you are going straight, because people will turn left in front of you. Little motorcycles zoom in between cars. Traffic is horrible at night...it's the worst from about 7-9pm. You have to drive very aggressively here. Lincoln & I are worried that people are going to hate us when we drive in the U.S.! Our friend even got hit by a car on his bike. He doesn't remember anything that happened...but apparently a car turned right in front of him & hit him, then drove away, just leaving him there. (Our friend got really banged up, but is ok.) Seeing people walking around with neck braces on is not abnormal, because so many people get in car accidents. And now you can better understand why I don't love driving here!
#5-Food. I like a lot of the food here better than the food in the U.S. I think the milk products taste a lot better. The produce here is MUCH better...our favorites are the pineapple & mango. Everything tastes much fresher to me. A lot of the bread & tortillas are homemade. Meat is usually cooked right in front of you when you order it. I feel like I'm eating REAL FOOD more often, and feel like I know what is in what I'm eating. I LOVE IT!
P.S. I have no idea what is interesting or not about living here...so I'll just keep posting random differences that I notice. :)
#1-Conversions. I am constantly "googling" different conversions. Here they measure in kilometers instead of miles, kilograms instead of pounds, celsius instead of fahrenheit, etc. This means that I have to convert the temperature when using my oven, convert from grams or kilograms when measuring or weighing food, convert from km per hour to miles per hour when driving (luckily it says it right on the dashboard :) ) and of course convert from pesos to dollars when trying to figure out how much something costs. It's not a big deal, but it's something that has taken some getting used to.
#2-Stores/Products. The stores that we shop at actually aren't very different, since we do the majority of our shopping at Walmart & Costco. The products and prices at the stores are definitely different though. To buy American products or anything similar to American products, you usually have to pay quite a bit more for them. There are a few Mexican brands of things that we've found that we like, but most of the stuff we've tried has fallen apart or not tasted anything like what we thought we were buying. (I hate saying that, but it is true.) Because of this, we try to eat more produce and fresh food, or food that we can buy homemade. We've also been surprised that they don't have thrift stores or stores that sell used products here. I was counting on buying old pieces of furniture that I could fix up to decorate our house with, but I've had no luck finding any.
#3-Weather. The weather here has been absolutely perfect until last month. It is getting really warm and we don't have air conditioning here. We've heard that May is the hottest month (I think we might be pretty miserable since it can get to over 100 degrees) but then the rainy season hits. It supposedly rains every day for 2 or 3 months and cools everything off, then we will have perfect weather again for the rest of the year. I think it gets cold enough for a sweatshirt in December & January, but that's about it. I love that the weather doesn't ever affect what we plan to do each day!
#4-Traffic. I don't even know how to describe the traffic here. It is CRAZY. There are certain stop signs that people stop at, and others that nobody stops at, and apparently you are supposed to remember which are which. Cars turn left from multiple lanes when they aren't supposed to, so you don't want to be in the left lane if you are going straight, because people will turn left in front of you. Little motorcycles zoom in between cars. Traffic is horrible at night...it's the worst from about 7-9pm. You have to drive very aggressively here. Lincoln & I are worried that people are going to hate us when we drive in the U.S.! Our friend even got hit by a car on his bike. He doesn't remember anything that happened...but apparently a car turned right in front of him & hit him, then drove away, just leaving him there. (Our friend got really banged up, but is ok.) Seeing people walking around with neck braces on is not abnormal, because so many people get in car accidents. And now you can better understand why I don't love driving here!
#5-Food. I like a lot of the food here better than the food in the U.S. I think the milk products taste a lot better. The produce here is MUCH better...our favorites are the pineapple & mango. Everything tastes much fresher to me. A lot of the bread & tortillas are homemade. Meat is usually cooked right in front of you when you order it. I feel like I'm eating REAL FOOD more often, and feel like I know what is in what I'm eating. I LOVE IT!
P.S. I have no idea what is interesting or not about living here...so I'll just keep posting random differences that I notice. :)
