Only in Mexico do you get directions in terms of green houses, cuadros (blocks), and Oxxo's. [Green because there seems to be some green paint factory nearby and so it's cheap, cuadros because the street signs are often non-existent, and Oxxo's, because, well, Oxxo's are to Mexico what Tim Horton's are to Canada.]
Only in Mexico do you spend two hours finding a car place that doesn't exist. ["Yes, yes, I know where that is... it's that way! Only a short walk!" We eventually did find another car dealership, but not the one we were looking for. We could repeat this story many times over, and have since learned the advantage of doing a "Google Street View" trip ahead of time. :-) ]
Only in Mexico do you need to make a provisional gravity water drainage system due to driving rain and a leaky sliding door. [I have since fixed the door.]
Only in Mexico do you need to open up the front door to warm up the house. [Try that in Canada! It's starting to get a bit hot now, but during the first two months Guadalajara couldn't have had more beautiful nor comfortable weather.]
Only in Mexico do you get popsicles of frozen Pepto-Bismol. [I thought I'd try a new flavour, but that was exactly what it tasted like.]
Only in Mexico do you show up for your own baptism an hour after the service start time. [We came to church for a baptismal service on a week-day, but thought we got the day wrong because no-one was there. But we're starting to learn about Mexico time!]
Only in Mexico do you need to keep one eye peeled out for traffic, one eye looking up at street signs / Oxxo's, and your third eye looking down for those ever-treacherous topes (speed-bumps) just waiting to jump out and slam into your car wheels. [Since we've come here, we've learned to always warn passengers to put their seatbelts on. Passengers wearing seatbelts is not so common in Mexico, but more importantly, I have a bad habit of seeing the speed-bump at the last minute and slamming on the brakes which has had some surprising effects sometimes. :-) ]
Only in Mexico do you go into the right lane to turn left and into the left lane to turn right. [The first is completely legal and makes a lot of sense due to the ingenious Mexican system of lateral lanes. The second, however, is completely illegal but often happens at a red traffic light when people want to get past a line of stopped cars.]
| Sometimes driving in Mexico seems to be like this. |
I was going to write that only in Mexico does a wife repair her husband's hair with kitchen scissors after a failed attempt at communication at the local salon, but unfortunately that's not quite true. The hair miscommunication saga has roots in Chicago, Honduras, but now it seems that Mexico should be included too!
And finally, only in Mexico can you find oranges sweeter than sugar, bananas that taste best fried, and people who love to spend hours chatting with you! [People always have time for you. What a blessing!]
Our baby, meanwhile, seems to be adjusting just fine to Mexican culture. He/She (we still don't know) is packing on the pounds and making his/her presence known more all the time. Here's our most recent family picture.
