10 Things I've Learned About Mexico in 3 months

Today marks three months since we packed up all our bags and moved to Mexico. Seems like a lifetime ago. Ben and I were debriefing last night about our time here so far in Monterrey, and the overarching feeling we have is absolute wonder at the amount of growth a person can be propelled into making in a short period of time. These three months have forced us into a crash course of character building like nothing else could have. In honor of our three month mark, I want to write down observations, quirks and stories that reflect Mexico much better than simple descriptions ever could:

In Mexico, “manana,” means neither tomorrow nor in the morning. Manana is actually some ethereal term that means at an unknown moment in the future. “Ahorita,” is another Mexican term that means “now…ish”. That "now" could be in a few minutes, later today, or again, at some unknown time in the future. Last week my washing machine broke; the new part was supposed to arrive “manana.” That was four days ago. My washing machine is still broken.

Grocery shopping is different. The onions here come pre-peeled. The eggs at the store are un-refrigerated, stored on your counter, and are farm fresh and amazing; I even got a double yoke one morning (there’s no way America would let that nonconformity of egg size fly)! Avocados are cheap and wonderful. Limes and limeade are everywhere and lemonade is nonexistent. Fruit is plentiful, especially melons, mangoes and papayas. We tried napoli, which is actually cactus, and it tastes like acidic green beans.

Mexican mosquitoes are a different breed than what we are used to. Poor Josh, the mosquitoes here love him and his body does not love the bites. The bites swell up four times normal size on his body, itch him like crazy and literally last for a month. One time (bad mom moment) I let him take off his shirt at a park and forgot to put on bug spray. Fourteen bites later the poor kid was miserable.

We have no complaints about the health care system. In fact, if we could speak Spanish, we would probably think that it’s even more amazing. Ben was miserable with a sinus infection and all he had to do was visit a farmacia (which happens to be just across the street). All the farmacia’s here have urgent care doctors 9-9, Monday through Saturday. The price is $3 to see the doctor, who was a young gentlemen who spoke decent English. Within 10 minutes, Ben was prescribed antibiotics that cost another $10. In America, we all know what the price would have been of that appointment & antibiotics.

Defensive driving has a different definition here. Ben’s work offered an all-day defensive driving course for him last week. The driving here is pretty intense (fast paced, no blinkers, not a ton of rule following), so we thought that it would be a good idea for him to take the class. One can never learn too much about driving carefully, right? Little did we know, it was actually a course in how to protect one’s vehicle in case someone is chasing you, trying to run you off the road and steal your vehicle. Don’t laugh; I’m telling the truth. Ben was taught how to quickly maneuver through a cone course, drive fast in reverse and slam on the breaks to make a 180 degree turn, all with a car driving next to him and being shot at with paintball guns. Not. Even. Kidding.

Car flashers are your friend. Mexicans use their car flashers like Americans use their blinkers (ironically, Mexicans don't use their blinkers, though). Whenever someone here puts their flashers on, it gives them super powers to do whatever they would like in their vehicle. Stop in the middle of the road to pick up a friend? Sure! Park next to a store in a “no-parking zone” while your wife runs in…no problem! Are you a semi truck with two trailers that missed your exit on the freeway? Just throw on the flashers and back your way down the freeway to your off-ramp. Flashers are especially prolific in parking garages. It’s the Mexican drivers way of saying, “That’s my spot…don’t touch it!”

There are some strange laws. For example: no buying alcohol after 6 pm on Sundays. I still giggle every time I think of this one, because it’s so random. It’s random that I even discovered it, because while we're not big drinkers, I happened to (try) to buy a couple hard ciders while grocery shopping on a Sunday night. Instead, the cashier took them and added them to a growing pile of discarded alcohol next to her register. So random. 

Mexicans are hardworking and so clean. I've been so impressed by the work ethic of the people here. Our apartment building has a full-time cleaner, Lucaro. She mops the hallways of the apartment building six days a week. She does a wonderful job and always has a smile on her face. When I was desperate this weekend to get some clothes washed (remember: my machine won't be fixed until manana), I asked the maid next door if I may borrow their washing machine. Bodi, the maid, brought back the clothes to me only after she had hand-scrubbed the boys' socks to try to get the stains out. She also neatly laid out every article of clothing for me and told me that if I ever needed anything, just to ask. Example three: we hired a senora, Nachi, to clean for me once a week. We pay her a "high" wage of 400 pesos, which is around $20 American dollars (not per hour, per day of work). Nachi cleans my house amazingly in 2-3 hours. She mops every inch of the floor, cleans the bathrooms, dusts everything, cleans the mirrors and the windows, does any dishes left in the kitchen, and sometime even does some ironing for me. It's like magic. The working class in Mexico could give some Americans a lesson in hard work with a great attitude!

Watch out for bathroom bugs. One morning, a cockroach stood between the toilet and I. I decided I'd rather brave killing a cockroach, then going potty with one at my feet. I conquered. Yesterday, Ben stumbled barefoot into the bathroom first thing in the morning only to step on and squish a young lizard-thing. So. Gross. Spiders no more: watch out for cockroaches and lizards.

Monterrey's mountains are amazing. While I still don't quite understand why God brought us to Mexico, I'll never cease to be grateful that he brought us to this part of Mexico. The mountains that surround us are truly spectacular. Each evening we anticipate a beautiful sunset over the Cerro de la Silla. Frequently there are thunderheads over the mountains that create the most beautiful sunsets. Often, there are lightning storms. The view of the mountains as well as hiking in them have mentally saved us many times as we miss our country home in Scappoose. 

This particular evening the clouds started by looking like this

 Then, the color in the sky increased. 

 And we had the most heavenly sunset. Afterwards, there was a lightning storm up inside that huge thunderhead. It was amazing.

 This is a sunrise over the city 

 The view from our balcony in the living room

The black circle is our apartment building. I often go for hikes up the roads behind our building in the evening. I love this picture because it actually shows a range of mountains I never get pictures of. These mountains are in the front of our building, and our apartment looks the opposite direction. Wherever we go in Monterrey, the mountains are all around us, and they are beautiful. 

Fourth of July and Friends

The thought of spending the Fourth of July in Mexico wasn't too appealing to me. I don't exactly know why: it's not like we have ever been big Independence Day celebrators. Perhaps it just pinpointed our isolation of being some of the few Americans in a foreign country. Anyways, one of our original ideas was to take a road trip to San Antonio for the holiday, but with it landing on a Tuesday, it would have required Ben to take a full three days off work. We decided to save that for a 4th of July that falls closer to the weekend. So, that left us here in Monterrey.

Thankfully, we didn't spend the 4th of July alone, as the Lord has blessed us with a friendship with an American family here in Monterrey. The Leonards arrived in Mexico in January for a three year stint working with a missions organization called Back to Back. We met them one Sunday at church and have gotten to hang out with them several times since. They are a delightful family, with four kids that play wonderfully with our kids, and with whom we have a lot in common. Would you believe that the second time that we saw each other was because I ran into Katie, the wife, at the gluten free bakery here in town. Go figure: they have food allergies too. Dustin, the husband, hunts, builds, and loves maps, which means him and Ben never have a shortage of things to talk about. We all love to read and have started to exchange books (no public libraries here in Mexico). I cannot say enough of the Lord's provision of this friendship and we're thankful to have a family with whom to adjust to this foreign-country-living thing. 

So, 4th of July in Mexico was not celebrated with a big firework show, but it did include a good ol' American barbecue of hamburgers, sweet corn on the cob, and an American flag cake. And most importantly, it included fellowship with friends. For that, we're so thankful. 

 Josh helped me make the cake during Seth and Sam's Spanish lesson.

 Then Sam and Seth helped me decorate it 

  These were the boys' red, white and blue outfits...Josh did not want to be pictured.

 Oddly enough, we couldn't find any 4th of July decorations at the store, so we handmade some

 The finished cake...yum!

 Kids table

 The kids swam for hours, until well after dark

 You'd be surprised how difficult it is to get seven kids to gather together in a pool for a picture

 It truly was like herding cats 

This was the best we could do

A couple days after the 4th, we offered to watch all the kids so that Dustin and Katie could go on a date. It was verified that the Leonards were a good fit for our family when they showed up with their own weapons for an epic nerf war. We seriously had the funnest evening with all the kids playing. They again swam until well after dark as us parents visited. It was so good for the soul.

Pretty intense crew (not pictured, Micky, the Leonard's 9 year old daughter...she's pretty out numbered with all these boys!)

 Kyler (the 2nd oldest son, pictured in blue) has a Where's Waldo book, and couldn't find Waldo on one of the pages. Ben finally found Waldo, and we were all so excited. (Also pictured, the oldest son, Derrick) 

On another occasion with the Leonards, we ate PF Changs for Kyler's birthday and then went to "Jumpster." These pictures are of Josh and Jeremiah, their youngest son. Josh and Jeremiah are two peas in a pod and love being rambunctious with one another. 

 "Bomb's away!" 

 I love this one of them laughing together

 Unlike the jump places in America that we've been to, Mexico lets more than one kid into the foam pit at a time. Josh and Jeremiah just had a blast together, building foam block towers, burying each other, and throwing blocks at one another.

So sweet! They both have such smiling eyes!

  The "jumping together" picture of Sam and Seth didn't work out too good

 But this one sure is cute. My boys are growing up! (Sam, Seth)

Daddy's playing dodge ball with the big boys

Chipinque Hike

Last Saturday we had our first big family hike at Chipinque, an enormous park in the mountains, full of miles and miles of different trails. It was an awesome way to spend a Saturday morning. We probably hiked for close to 3 hours and around 4 miles and the kids all did awesome. Josh walked almost the whole way by himself. We all enjoyed being out in nature and away from the noise of the city. We're looking forward to doing it again and frequently!

 Seth getting his workout on before the hike. Monterrey has a lot of these random workout machines in their parks. 

 Some of our trail was like this, other parts were wide and flat

 Cool rock steps

 The wild life was super curious, unafraid and friendly; you could tell that they were used to humans feeding them. 

 Sam found this pine cone early on and it now sits on their bookshelf. All the boys like smelling it.

 I lot of the hike I felt like we were on the Road to Hana in Hawaii...it was so similar. Check on the enormous plant on the right! 

 Seth found the coolest hiking stick

 Monterrey has some seriously beautiful butterflies.

I wish I would have gotten a picture of it, but a butterfly landed on Josh's head! 

Two butterflies on one flower

Let's all touch the cactus and see if it pokes me too...(boys!!!)

 Speaking of friendly animals, this guy sauntered right up to the kids feet 

 It's the equivalent of a Mexican raccoon called a Coati

 Well that was fun

 New butterfly species

 Snacks break! A blue bird sat on the branch above the boys' head the whole time hoping to scavenge some food. 

 Much of the hike had this gorgeous slate mountain walls on one side

We hiked up to an old general's summer home; it was really neat! 

 It was fun to picture living up at the top of the mountain like that! I bet the place was gorgeous. 

 Beautiful mountain tops all around us (Seth and Sam)

 He's so darn cute

 If you notice, Seth looks a little teary in this picture. Well, about two hours into our hike, Ben and I decided we'd like a little peace and quiet from the twins' incessant talking and questioning, so we decided to do 5 minutes of pure silence. We just wanted to hear the quiet of the mountains! Well, Seth and Sam didn't take kindly to that...in fact, they were down right upset! This is Ben trying to explain to Seth our reasoning. 

I love this picture so much. The last part of the hike the boys pretended to hunt the whole time. It was pretty cute.