Fitting In

Now that we're in Mexico there are a lot of people coming by the house, such as neighbors, vendors, landlords, repair people, delivery people.  Normally I just had delivery people who were gone before the end of the doorbell ring.  So I slummed it most days, confident that no one would ever see my patchy gray hair and dirty shorts.

In Mexico, yeah.  Lots of people get a chance to see and judge me, and I really don't like putting on a wig unless I'm going out.  So, for the first time in a year, I dyed my hair and tried to make a no-wig effort.

I bought dark brown hair dye and let it sit for a long time because I had A LOT of white and gray to cover.  It came out black.

Oh well.  No big deal right?  WRONG.

Now people are talking to me expecting me to speak Spanish.  In the past, they just talked to my mom.  They looked at me and thought, "I bet that gringa doesn't speak a word of Spanish."

With black hair I am now a Mexi-American.  "When did your daughter live in the USA?  She speaks English."

My mom told me that the guys who cleaned our car assumed I'm just a Mexican who lived in the states for a while.  And that's only because they listened to my pathetic attempt at Spanish.  

Today we have repairmen in the house fixing a drippy AC unit.  Again.  He talked to me.  @_@  I said okay.  Something about going to and small.  That's all I got.  Voy a blah blah pequena blah blah.  

This didn't happen to me in my light brown wigs or undyed hair.  So...I guess I fit in more?

And I'm desperate to get my Spanish up to par.  Yes, I'm able to say most of the things I want, though many STILL don't understand me, but also I'm having a hard time understanding when people speak.  :sigh:  I'll get there. 

Today's Adventure

Today was payday for me and everyone in Mexico apparently.  I was warned not to go out on the 1st or 15th because that's when everyone gets paid.  The ATM at Chedraui ran out of cash.  But I don't use the same one all the locals do, so I still got my cash.  Of which...$60 is left for the rest of the month's food.  😓 Kind of went crazy today.  But I will stay on budget.  YOU MARK ME!

While we were in the store men came and cleaned our car for $100pesos or $5.  It was filthy.  Everything gets caked with dust in La Paz, and our car was a disgrace.  So I gave them $200 since they did a good job, and also because I didn't have a 100 peso bill.

We couldn't go shopping while they were cleaning, because the check out lines were wrapping around the store.  Seriously.  A half hour wait to pay at least.  And people here seem to put up with it fine.  Not me.  I'm still in gringo mode, so I am not standing in a line that long for nothing.  It wasn't just a lot of people, but full grocery carts with everyone.  This was their monthly 'big shop.'

Instead I walked to the nearest Oxxo to get me and my mom drinks.  As I was walking I noticed the air tasted like salt.  Beach town, y'know?

Then we went out for lunch at a restaurant we like called Don Quijote's.  Except we liked their lunch/dinner menu.  Not the breakfast menu.  At 11am it was still breakfast.  At 12pm...still breakfast.  So we came today at 1pm.  Still breakfast?!

In the USA lunch starts promptly at 11am.  Not so in Mexico.  I don't know when this place's menu flips.  x_x  But I got a waffle with sliced apples on it, all the same.  Waffle in Spanish is the same word as English except pronounced waff-ley.  

We then went to a private hospital to find out what insurance we should get.  They gave a list of phone numbers to contact to decide which one we want.  On the other side of the list was PRICES.  Yeah.  Imagine being an American and walking into a hospital with a LIST OF PRICES.  What a dream!

Unfortunately, what I wanted was to get my uterus ripped out, and that wasn't on the list.  They said to wait and they'd call all doctor to talk to me.  @_@  en serio?  But in the end there was no one, because today is Mexico's labor day holiday.  He was golfing.  But the hospital looks nice, and the prices reasonable.  So I know where to take mom next time she's sick.

After that we went to the gringo mall.  I call it the gringo mall because there's American stores.  A Dairy Queen (yes we totally got some ice cream) a KFC, Petco, assorted American clothes stores, and a Carls Jr.  Right in my own little city.  We went through the KFC drive-thru yet again, and it was slightly less of a disaster than usual.

In the Dairy Queen the person told me the price and I blanked and tried to pretend I heard, but then just gave up and asked again.  And she had already written it down and held it up for me.  Yeah.  Gringos.  Our brains don't hear numbers.  Looking at the check out screens is the only way I get by.  Or by throwing too many bills and getting the overage handed back to me.

We got our finicky kitty's $60USD fucking cat food, and while there I grabbed a cat bed.  In the Waldo's we also visited, we got a large cushy blanket. 

I went outside, swept under the built in concrete table, and put down trashbags.  On that I put the cushy blanket, and then a pillow because my mom stole the cat bed for Scrappy once she realized what I was doing.  Oh well, I grabbed Scrappy's pillow instead.

What was I doing?  Making a cat alcove because there are two pregnant gray tabbies desperately trying to run into our house every time we open the door.  These are strays we feed.  One loves to be petted, the other flinches, but doesn't run.  She doesn't like it, but she likes us, and won't run from us.  Both have swollen kitten bellies.  Both are looking for a safe nesting place.

I'm sorry, I can't let these trojan horses into my house.  Our resident cat Scrappy is called Scrappy because she's violent to any other animal that's foolish enough to come into the house.  Except now she's 22 years old and while she'll still try to kill the other cats, she'll get killed herself probably in the process.  We can't give her this stress in her final years.  She's already singing the cat chorus of death whenever she sees them through the window.

Except for one cat.  A white cat showed up today meowing to her through the window.  Scappy just watched him calmly.  I think he's okay with her because he reminds her of her deceased big brother Sultan.  Anyway, this tom cat is here for one reason only.  His nuts are walnuts.  She's female.  The guy is meowing to her all fricking day.

My mom wants to let this paroumar (I don't know how to spell it) in and adopt him after promptly nuetering the perv since Scrappy seems to like him.  I don't know.  He is a little dirty and scarred, but he's so friendly someone must have owned him at one point?  He's not skinny either.

So we'll see.  For now the preggos have to stay out for their own salvation, and it's not ideal for them, but the best we can do.

Ripped Off by Walmart Crooks

 I'm an idiot, and I'll tell you why.  Because I needed groceries and just like in the USA I just ordered them from Walmart.  They said everything was in stock.  A delivery man came early the next day.  I was half asleep.  I asked if this was everything.  He said yes.  I tipped him $100 pesos and went back to bed.

More than half the order was missing.  I naively thought it was a mistake.  I contacted support and said to get all the missing items to me.  They said they'd contact me in 90 minutes with a resolution.

They never contacted me.  I tried to reach them again.  Someone asks me what the problem is in chat then never replies.  I try Whatsapp.  Same thing.  I tried to call them.  I get a message in Spanish saying the number has changed call this new number.  I can't understand what they said. I get my Spanish friend to try to listen to the number.  She can't understand what they said.

So, I figure maybe someone will contact me tomorrow.  They don't.  My neighbor is downstairs talking to my mother.

"Don't order from Walmart.  They steal items from delivery orders and put them all together to share every week.  They especially like stealing from gringos."

Oh.  Great.  So I basically set myself up for being ripped off by being half asleep and not checking shit like an idiot.  

I used AI to find the fucking new phone number to call.  And my mom helps me.  For some reason, my chat request starts lighting up as soon as I get through to someone on the call.  This happened twice during my struggle to get my money back (which I still haven't).  It's like the chat people know when I've called or something.

Both of them said the store would call me to arrange a refund.  They have until tomorrow and then I'm doing a force chargeback.  I don't care if I can never shop at Walmart for the rest of my life.  Fuck these crooks.  I'm fighting this.

And, let me say, I've had stuff stolen before.  My shrimp never arrived last time and I suspected that the delivery man had helped himself to my expensive shrimp.  But I wasn't sure.  

Now I'm sure.

People are so nice in Mexico you forget to watch your shit.  And in my defense, this only happened once in the USA when the delivery person distracted me to steal soda he had already taken a photo of as delivered.  

I'm busy.  I'm new here.  I didn't know I had to be on my fucking guard.  But yeah, obviously I know not to order groceries again, unless it's one of the Didi food bikes for a few odd things. 

Real Neighbors

We got a package delivery today, which was odd, because we weren't expecting anything.  The delivery man said it's for our neighbor and when he called them they said to leave it with us.

1. Yes, delivery men, like FedEx, will call you if you're not home.

2.  No number 2.  Just wanted to make a list here.

We were happy to accept the package.  We thought it was for our right side neighbor who is our close friend now.  That's the one we went to Sams Club with in the last post.  She brought us her pozole and brings strawberries and oranges for us a lot.  In turn, I gave her 20 bottles of sugary soda I accidentally bought because I thought it was seltzer.  @-@

But no.  It's the neighbor on our other side, which is the last house on the street, so we're their closest neighbor.

They don't know us except for us saying hi/bye.  But that's enough.  And we gave them their package later that night.  

I mean...that's how things are here.  And I think it's great.  I think it's great that the delivery men call and really care about getting your stuff to you.  I think it's great that the default is just to trust your neighbor.  

People talk about 'the good old days' in the USA.  I'm living those 'good old days' here in Mexico.  You know, 'the good old days' where people put their hearts into their jobs, and neighbors trusted each other.

Anyway, I went to Sams Club because I needed protein powder and didn't want to wait to order some.  I figured Sams Club was a gringo enough store to have it in stock.  It did.  And it was 2x the price in the USA.  Fricking $75 for a tub of Musclemilk.  Like seriously?  It's like $45 in the USA.  I guess it was all the cost to import it.

Protein powder is definitely an American thing.  The friends with me didn't know what it was.  They asked my mom why I needed it.  My mother told them I'm missing half my guts and poop myself and need to drinks special powder.  Or I assume that's what she said.  My Spanish isn't that good yet.

The truth is I was dieting and doing really good.  So I added wrist weights.  The only weights I could get were 2.5 kilos per wrist.  This is compared to the 2.5 pound weights I used to have.  I figured it's fine because it only takes a few weeks for the weights to feel to light anyway.  So I started with these and my body said:  You apparently want muscles!  Give me protein!

I found myself scarfing 2 porkchops before bed and my diet was ruined.  I gained back several kilos.  I can't do this.  I figured If I drank protein powder before my workout I'd have it covered.

After eating 2 hamburger patties tonight I can say it didn't work.  So, no weights for a while.  It's too soon for them anyway.  

In other Mexico news, I don't think there's mail here.  I really don't.  I don't think the Mexico government sponsors a national mail service.  We have a mailbox, but there's never been anything put in it.  And we've never seen mail carriers, vehicles, or postal workers.  

Documents get delivered, but by private courier services.  There's lots of them.  

I've always said my little brother could never adapt to live in Mexico because there are some hassles I don't think he'd deal well with.

1. You can't flush toilet paper. He'd die.
2. You have to go to a gas station to pay your cell bill. And you never know when it's due because the app is not only in Spanish, but it's screwy.  
3. You can't get a monthly phone plan.  All the phones are pay as you go.
4. You have to buy the screen protector at a different store than you bought the cell phone.
5. Most stores don't have iPhones, but they do have nice Huawei phones?
6. You have to go to a gas station to pay your internet bill.  Actually I managed to do this online.  I don't know why I can't just pay my phone online.  It's the same fricking company.
7. If they say a package will be coming tomorrow it may be tomorrow, or it may be in 4 days.  So you better not absolutely positively need to get something that day.
8. Nothing is universal.  
1. Toilet sizes are different here, they have their own standards. 
2. Addresses are written differently. They have postal codes here but you put it before the name of the city, and the street number is put AFTER the name of the street, and you have to specify which 'Colony' you live in. The state abbreviations are 3 letters.
3. You need the equivalent of two social security numbers as a citizen here.  An RFC for taxes, and a CURP for banking and invoicing?  I don't know what this whole invoicing thing is about here but they're constantly asking me for my CURP to give me an invoice.  And I say I don't need one, which they think is weird.  But what do I need the invoice for?  Maybe Mexican taxes.
4. What was I listing again?  Oh well, nevermind.

When we're driving around La Paz we notice a lot of cars that don't have license plates.  I thought it odd.  They definitely have license plates here.  I see them on most cars.  But many are without them.  I saw my neighbor didn't have one and she said the car wasn't registered.  ??  'I know someone who works for the police so it's fine.'  Okay then.

I Have Friends

 Even with bad Spanish I have friends in Mexico.  Friends who don't speak English, but we make it work.  I just went to Sams Club with my neighbor and her daughters.  It was fun.  

My mom asked when the last time was we had friends where we lived?  In the mobile home park we lived in in Las Vegas.  And that's because everyone was a transplant like us.  We knew everyone who lived around us and even went to a two funerals.

But that was 15 years ago.  I knew one neighbor in Arizona and she died.  The other who gave me her grapefruit from her tree moved.  And the new owner put a Trump sign in their yard.  (But there was a lot of Kamala signs).

I did try to make friends in Tucson.  I went to bingo.  I went to poker.  I couldn't connect to anyone.

The USA is lonely.  In Mexico the people are so kind.  They just seem to proceed with the idea, 'Oh, you live here now?  Let's be friends.'  

It's a beautiful thing.