The not so lovely side of Mexico..

I try to stay positive on here, mainly because i think when you focus on the negative things can seem worse than they are. I also belove in honesty though so this post is dedicated to some things i hate about Mexico....

DIRT


It is dirty here. No matter how often you dust of clean there is always a new layer of dust. We live in an area with all paved roads, and it is still dirty. People actually wet the sidewalks and roads in front of their house several times a day to keep the dust down. On top of that there is a huge sugar cane plantation in town. When they burn the cane it snows black ash. Huge fluffly flakes of burnt sugar cane. Everywhere.

NOISE


It is noisy here. Twenty four hours a day. First, there are animals, there is no laws as to who can have animals so they are everywhere. Our neighbors have chickens, goats and the most annoying sounding animals...donkeys. Then there is the neighbor kid who blasts his stereo. And the people who park outside and just honk and honk until the person they are looking for comes out of the house. The church bells start at like 5am and they are loud and every few minutes. On top of that we live close to the town center, we have no reason to buy tickets to music events since we can hear them just fine from our bed...till around 3am.

CRAZY DRIVERS


If there are traffic laws here, they are not enforced. People don't use seatbelt, drive while drinking and just about anything is a go when it comes to driving. Person in front of you too slow? Pass on a blind corner, or heck if there is traffic coming, use the shoulder. Speed limits and stop signs are optional. One way streets are a nice idea, but if you want to go the wrong way, just do it. What better place for your baby than your lap while you drive, heck i saw one driver breastfeeding.  You don't multi-task like that in the USA. And one thing i really don't understnad is in the bigger cities you actually make left hand turns from the far right lane....

Coke Commercial

I actuallly like this commercial so much i am putting it in my blog. I see it a few times a day here in Mexico and i tear up every time.

Any regrets?

I get this question a lot from people, do i regret quitting my job and leaving the life i knew to move to a country that is portrayed as less than desirable. I answer honestly that my only regret was the year and a half i spent in the US apart from my husband. The fear of the unknown that kept our family apart and strained our relationship. I can't sit around though wishing i had done things different as it doesn't change anything.

I know a lot of the people who read this blog  our making that same hard decision, should i move or should i stay? I think everyone situation is different. While i regret not moving sooner, maybe if i had moved right away i would have felt different. Maybe all the trips and taking the time to make the decision is what made the transition so easy. I guess i will never know. I suppose though if i were handing out advice, i would say don't wait. Be together as a family. That is what you committed to when you got married. I know sometimes obligations, safety and finances make it hard, but do what you can. You deserve it, your spouse deserves it and if you have kids, they defiantly deserve it. I think i struggled way more the time we were apart than i do now.

Going Home...

So I am still at the point where i consider Seattle to be home, not sure if that will ever change. Anyways i booked my trip back! Really since i am on a tourist visa i have to return to the states by May 22. I found a decent price on tickets for April 6th. Originally i was planning on only a 2 or 3 week visit, but because of airfare returning and hotel deals (we are spending some time in Vallarta) I am staying five weeks. I will come back on May 12 with my mom and we are spending 5 days in Puerto Vallarta (for those who read previous post we decided on the all-inclusive) because my mom is staying extra and returning thorough Guadalajara, we can always add on extra nights at the time if we think we need it 8)

Anyways i am super excited to see my friends and family, eat at my favorite restaurants and most of all shopping shopping shopping!! I also will get my documentation together so we can apply for residency here in Mexico and not travel back and forth every 6months, which gets costly.

A dirty little secret....

Ok, it is not really a secret, just not something i talk much about. Our son, who will be four in May is not potty trained. Really this seems to bother other people alot more than it bothers me. I want to start out saying i am not really posting this looking for suggestions or advice, because here in Mexico everyone has an opinion and they arn't afraid to share it.

Before we moved here, i just didn't have the patience or the interest in potty training. We were traveling back and forth to Mexico so often and with Cesar being gone i kinda shut down in the responsibility department. A week or so after moving here we decided to tackle the issue. We tried different methods. We even went 4 whole weeks with out letting him use a diaper (except at night) and not once did he go in the bathroom. Needless to say at some point he got diarrhea and i went back to the diapers. Well yesterday i decided to try again, it is time to enroll him in school for next year and while he has to be potty trained. Well all day we had no luck, but this morning it seemed something may have clicked. He has gone to the potty twice, and on his own thinking, not with me asking every 5 min or making him sit on the potty. He just said..."peepee coming" and ran to the potty. I am really hoping this is finally it. Honestly not because i care about buying diapers, or changing them. but more so because i am sick of all the busybody Mexican woman (some who don't even have kids) gasping in horror and telling me what i need to do.