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.

Mexico Musings

I was thinking the other day that my mom and I should go out for lunch.  And in my head was all the places we used to eat at in the USA.  Then I snapped out of it, and remembered I'm in Mexico now.

No more Red Lobster.  Er...actually, we already said we'd never eat there again after the menu turned to shit and got stupidly expensive.  

No more Texas Roadhouse.  Um...there was always a line to get in there.  They were always crowded.  And yeah the steaks were good, but $150 for two people?

I tried to think of a place we actually liked to eat at in Tucson and came up empty.  The Chinese food there was terrible.  My mom can't eat much of the American version of Mexican food because she can't handle anything spicey.  (In actual Mexico, it's really not like this that often.)

Oh wait, there was one go-to mainstay:

No more Churches Chicken.  Okay, well, I like fried chicken of this sort and they don't really have that here.  It more the El Pollo Loco style baked chicken everywhere.  If I want to get American style fried chicken there is one single solitary KFC in the gringo area of La Paz.  We've eaten there twice.  

When I say eaten there, I mean went through the drivethru.  

Ahhh...ordering through drive-thru's.  Such an American convenience.  I pulled right into that drive thru the first time with all the confidence of a stupid American and ordered.

"Doce piezas familia bucket por favor." 😀

There!  I did it!  Amazing.

*Rapid Spanish questions that sound like gibberish to me.* 

😨AHHHH!  What did he say?!  Mom what did he say?!😨  

Mom:  I don't know.  I couldn't hear him.  Ask him to repeat.

HOW THE FUCK DO I DO THAT?

Me:  Um...extra crispy?

NO!  *Rapid Spanish Gibberish Sounding Words*

Mom:  I have no idea what he's saying.

Me meekly:  No intiendo.

A manager gets on:  😡Pull up to de weendow.

I pay and am handed a bag of food.

FUCK!  WE GOT COLESLAW!  He was asking what sides you want you idiot!

Yeah.  So.  Drivethrus are a no until my Spanish gets 10x better.

But I don't need Drive thrus!  I got Didi Food!  

Didi Food is the UberEats of my area (and maybe all of Mexico?)  It's also the Uber of my area.  It has another app called Didi Drive.

Any time we're out and about there are motorcycles with boxes attached zipping through traffic at mach speed with the Didi Food logo on the back.  I got in on that shit quick let me tell you.

And let me tell you something else:  Ordering food delivery in Mexico is FUCKING AWESOME!

USA:  We only had UberEats in my area.  I have *NEVER* had an order of literally *ANYTHING* be less than $100.  Korean food?  $150.  $70 for the food.  $80 for the fees and tip.  And it was a race against time for them to deliver before the gate to my building closed for the night.  So I always did the $3 'straight to me' fee too.

Mexico:  Literally no way for any food order to cost more than $50.  That's with EVERYTHING.  Fees.  Tip. Letting the delivery person keep the change.  Everything.

And I say there's literally no way for it to cost more than $50usd because you can only order up to $1000 pesos worth of food ($50) and pay cash for it.  Otherwise you have to pay with a credit card.  

And guess what?  They don't accept any of my credit cards.  I try.  They fail.  I'm routed to a page to get a ClaroPay account.  Which I would love, but I don't have a tax ID number for Mexico (the local Mexico one).  They didn't give me one because I'm not allowed to work here, and that's how they make sure of it.  If I can't pay taxes, I can't work.

Hence, I have to make sure every order is under $50 enough for there to be room for the fees and tip.  You'd think that's a problem, right?

I just ordered lunch for my mom and I for $250 pesos.  $13.  And that was, again, EVERYTHING.  A pizza.  A tip. The App fees.  It was actually only like $220, but the delivery people always give change in a massive pile of coins so I told him to keep it.

BUT WAIT!  It gets even better.  La Paz is a reasonably big city.  250,000 people here.  It's a decent size.  Big enough for us to have everything we need.  However, the whole city is on a very small footprint.  There is no such thing as a 'long drive' here.  Everything is within 6 kilometers of us.  

In Tucson we had to give ourselves an hour to drive anywhere.  It's a 30 minute drive to get anywhere because there was so much sprawl.  But add to that constant annoying construction and bad traffic in winter when all the snowbirds were there.

But here? THE FOOD COMES FAST.  Especially since there's a million places within 3 kilometers to order from.  

It comes faster than the Apps estimate.  The app said 30 minutes.  Yeah right, it was 17 minutes.  Basically when you get the notification that the courier is picking up your food you better start walking downstairs, Yamila, because if you think you have another 5 minutes you're crazy.  

There are some things I miss from the USA, but if I was to go back I would miss SOOOO many things about Mexico.  

Life in Mexico is good.

Just Mexico

• You hear a vehicle blasting something on a speaker. 
  
  
• You run outside, pesos in hand, thinking they're selling ice cream or strawberries
  
  
• They stop and think you're donating to their political cause--because the car was driving around blasting a political message.

And Now Back to Normal

The last few months have been utter chaos in my life. 

• January:  Deciding to move to Mexico after the Election
• February: Getting our residency visas so we could move to Mexico
• March:  Literally getting rid of anything that couldn't fit in our car and DRIVING to Mexico
• April So Far:  Trying to furnish this home, get my bidet toilet seat, get settled.

And now we're settled.  We have all we need.  The washing machine isn't dancing anymore.  We over-furnished the tiny living room because 'Merica.  

I'm sitting at my computer catching up on work and I realize it happened.  I said before I left that 90% of my life is sitting at the computer working.  And I can do that anywhere.  And that's what I'm doing.

Today our new housekeeper gets started.  We met her at a tamale shop.  Not really a tamale shop...I guess you'd call it an Elote shop.  The 'tamale' was just masa covered in some white corn bread loose stuff covered in sauces.  My mom got something that was slicing open a bag of the Tostitos here (more like doritos, but they don't have doritos because the word dorito means a different kind of chip in Mexican Spanish).  There was kernal corn and other things added to the tostitos to make it some wild street food snack.  

The store was just a wooden open shed thing on a corner of bare earth among the winding streets of the area where our Air BnB had been.  We only moved two barrios over.  The same area.  The 'local' area.  We're the only gringos.  But still, we liked the area.  The Air BnB area was a bit more dirty and poor, but it was nice.  We made friends there.  We felt safe.  

This area has the same tiny footprint as the houses in the Air BnB, and the houses are connected together, so you share a wall with the house next to you.  However, it's a nicer area because the houses are two floors.  Two floors make that postage stamp sized floor plan livable.  

The streets are clean here.  The sidewalks are more stable, but you still have to watch where you're going.  My mom can walk with her walker to the Oxxo by us.

That's what I wanted to post about.  The new housekeeper is starting today.  She said, 'I need money.  I have kids.'  She was sweet and we hired her on the spot.  First job:  Clean the Air BnB for us.  Do we have to clean Air BnBs before we leave them?  I don't know.  That's the first time I ever stayed in one and we had a 'cleaning fee' added.  But I think we did, and for $30 American, I was happy to pass that job off to her.

She did a good job.  Sent us photos.  But she showed up with nothing to clean with.  We asked her how she was going to clean.  She said she'd just use our stuff.  But we'd moved out of there.  We had no stuff.  This is different from a USA housekeeper.  They bring a whole kit with them.  Here?  They just show up.

We managed to scrape together some cleaning supplies, find a broom, find a mop, find some cleaning stuff in the bathroom and kitchen that the owner had supplied.  She got it done.

For our new house we knew we had to be ready for her.  We bought cleaning supplies, but the house had random stuff here already.  

In the USA we use a Swiffer.  Hey, guess what?  Mexico doesn't do shit like Swiffers.  The floors are tile on concrete and they are made for big sloppy old-timey mops.  My mom said, 'We need to buy her a mop.'  

There were already two of these mops in various places outside.  One was threadbare.  The other looked pretty good.  My mom refused to allow the outdoor mops inside because roaches.  I'm like...put it in a bucket of fucking water.  That will get rid of them.  But we don't have a bucket.

So...I walked out my door, down a few houses, to a 'cleaning supplies store'.  Like literally right around the corner to me.  The had mops and buckets on display outside.  Like seriously.  

No getting the car out of the gate to drive to a big box store.  Just walk down a few houses, and boom.  Everything you fricking need.  Mexico.  They don't do zoning here.

I bought a mop, a bucket, and a rake because my mom said to get one for the leaves in the garden.  How much?  258 pesos.  $13.  And I went by myself.  I did this without my translator.  ;_; I did it!  (I should have taken a fricking picture.  I will next time I go out.)

So we have a bunch of cleaning supplies ready to go for her.  Everything she'll need.  She said $30 to clean our 4 bedroom (but really 5 because of a bonus room upstairs) house.  I'm going to pay her $50 because this is a shitload of work for her, and we want our windows done.  How much did I pay the USA housekeeper?  $125 per clean.  So my $250 a month housekeeper is now $100 here.

And we sold our house.  ;_;  For $15k less than asking, but with the chaos in the USA, I would have taken even less.  

There's no going back now.  We're here forever.  

Oh my God.

Taking Matters into my Own Hands

It's April 8th as I write this.  Furniture has trickled in slowly.  I still need my #$%&ing bidet toilet seat, but it looks like it escaped the USA before the tariff BS.  Tracking says it's sitting in a shipment center in La Paz.  Since yesterday.  So...?

Meanwhile, my mother's bed base was supposed to come on April 4th.  It still says 'coming April 4th' on Walmart.com.mx.  Well...WHERE TF IS IT?  Because my mother is sleeping on a mattress on the floor and she struggles horribly to try to get up from there.

Yesterday I got in the online support chat to ask where it was.  'It should arrive today.'  That was yesterday, right?  It didn't come.  We got a big box that I thought was it, but it was something else.

Digression:  The delivery men have gotten to know us since they're here like 3 times a day delivering all the millions of things we need.  Two in particular have figured out that I'll tip them if they bring in something heavy or take something upstairs for me.  

The box that I thought was the bed base arrived, and the two of them carried it in together, one on each end, huffing and puffing to put it in my mother's room.  So I tipped them.  Then I open the box and it's a super light bench seat thing I needed.  Like a 5 pound thing.  😑  They faked me out for a tip.  (Whatever.)

Anyway, still no bed base and my poor mother is having accidents in the night because she can't get up fast enough to get to the bathroom.  I'm fricking done.  I get on with support again and say to cancel it.  ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.  It's four days late and it's literally the one thing we need urgently.

"It will take 3 days to cancel and 8 days to refund you." IDGAF.  I'm taking matters into my own hands.  I decided I was going to get my mother a bed base today no matter what it took.

In Mexico there's Walmart and several other stores owned by Walmart.  Near our house is the 'discount' Mexican Walmart called Aurrera.  They sell mattresses.  So I figured they would sell cheap metal bases or box springs too.  I went there.  No.  The don't sell anything like that.

Okay, fine.  Then I'm going full American on this bitch.  I saw that Home Depot had a lot of bed bases online.  I went to the one Home Depot in La Paz.  "Tienes un bases de camas?" (Have you bed bases?)  No.  Solo en linea.  (No.  Only online.)  😑 

So I went to Walmart.  Same thing.  Finally I went to Sams Club, a place we bought a membership to for whatever reason.  They said no at first, but then said they did have one box spring.  SOLD.  It's a tiny box spring, but it has legs so it will be tall enough.

Except it doesn't fit in my car.  The worker at Sams Club not only carried it out for me, but him and another guy tied it to the top of my car for free (except for two $100 peso tips, $5 for each of them in USD).  

So, I'm driving home with a fricking box spring tied to the top of my car.  IDGAF.  My mom's not sleeping on the floor another fricking night.  Of course, now is the time when my GPS is telling me to take U-Turn after U-Turn and I'm having to slam on the breaks twice, not a good thing to do with a mattress that's only tied on the sides and can literally go flying off the front of the car.

I got it home.  I got it in the house.  (It weighs a ton).  I got it set up.  I'm covered in dirt and bruises, but I did it.  My mom's bed is off the fricking floor.

One thing that I will never find locally is my bidet toilet seat.  I'm desperate.  My medical condition is making using the bathroom without one a painful messy nightmare.  

Today, Amazon.com.mx refunded me the shipping costs due to the delay.  Not a good sign.  But I ain't canceling this.  It's in La Paz.  I know it's here.  It's mine and I fucking want it.  😡

Our dining room chairs and table arrived.  Now, I noticed that when I buy stuff in stores here they always open the boxes and show me that all the parts are there.  Nice but I felt it unnecessary.

IT'S FRICKING NECESSARY.  I got four dining room chairs and only 3 had the hardware.  So I have one chair that I can't attach the fricking legs to.  I had to order a set of hex screws in multiple sizes to try to get enough of the right screws I need.  

Yes, I could bitch to the manufacturer but I know how it goes.  I contact support.  They have me contact the vendor.  The vendor takes three days to contact me back.  Then they offer a partial refund.  Sending what I'm missing will never be an option.  It's easier just to fix my own problems.

Now let me tell you about the outrageously expensive washer/dryer combo machine I bought.  It had to be imported from the USA.  It was the only thing that would work for us because we didn't have the room or the electricity for a dryer (see my other post).

Well, we got the machine.  Great.  The father of some woman we met at a tamale shop installed it for us.  (I'm not joking, that's how we found someone to install it.)  Great.  We have tons of laundry piled up.  Problem solved.  We enjoy our perfect machine with no issues and fade happily into the sunset.

😡  I'm sure you've guessed that nothing could possibly be that easy.  This gigantic heavy machine that I can barely nudge has decided the unlevel concrete upon which it sits is a fucking dance hall.  It jumps around so much that it blocked the back door and we couldn't go outside to deal with it.  We had to back the car out of the super-tight carport so we could walk around from the front door.

This stupid thing will not stay put.  The spin cycle turns it into something out of a Stephen King movie called El Lavadora.  The thing is literally bouncing so violently it could crush someone.  And it ripped the fucking spigot out of the fucking wall.  

I tried to deal with it.  It came with these rubber stoppers to put around the feet.  I struggled to lift this stupid thing enough to put them on the feet.  It promptly kicked them off and started dancing again.  

If this was a Mexican $300 washing machine I would have tossed it in the truck of the guy who drives around the neighborhoods blasting on speakers that he's collecting broken washing machines and other large metal things you may want to get rid of.  I would have cut my losses.  The machine is possessed and we need a different option.  Right?

But as I said, this was an elite bullshit washer and dryer in one imported and shipped from the USA and it was insanely fucking expensive!  We have to make this stupid thing work.  

Well, I talked to a plumber on Whatsapp to fix the spigot and try to help us level this stupid thing.  Before I could confirm the neighbors came by and the husband is going to fix the spigot and level it for us.  So...Mexico.  The plumber I tried to get couldn't come until Thursday anyway.

Since I'm already ranting, can I tell you some had truths I've learned?  Bad products end up in Mexico.  The TV that you can't screw the legs on properly.  The bed base (mine) that they never drilled holes for the legs on.  Things are wonky, missing pieces, bruised, bashed.  It's like someone said, 'We have to sell it cheaper in Mexico so let's send our worse stuff there.'  

Maybe I'm just paranoid, but it seems to happen a lot.  Things are not right in some way.  Somethings missing.  Screws don't go in right.  The last step of the production cycle was never finished.  

And I know how most Mexicans deal with this.  Primo culture they call it here.  Everyone knows someone (or has a cousin, that's what primo means) who can fix whatever the issue is.  Usually that same day.  And for a super low price.  

So they can find the missing screws, drill the holes themselves, fix the drill holes to make them work, whatever.  And I get to thinking that maybe people start to thing it's normal that everything they buy is just a little off.  That that's just the way it is.  

But if a bed base showed up without drill holes for you to attach the legs in the USA you would scream holy heck and the company would have to bend over backwards to make it right.  

It's a different world here.

Adapting to Life in Mexico

 We came down here with only the things we could fit in our car, and in the little carrier we stuck on top.  So all our furniture was sold and I knew I had to buy new furniture in Mexico.  

It's demoralizing to have to buy the exact same thing you already had like a week before.  I thought, maybe it will be cheaper in Mexico.  But no.  This is a peninsula, and it's hard to get merchandise here.  It's been annoying trying to get everything we need.  

Right now my mom is struggling to get up from a mattress on a floor because we couldn't get her bed base in time.  It's a few more days of hell for her.  I figured she'd sleep up in my room until she got the bed and I'd sleep down there, but the stairs are too much for her.

I thought that I would be able to get everything I needed and wanted in Mexico.  They have Amazon here, right?  But it's not true.  The stories I heard about things being hard to get in Baja California Sur are true.  That's what I wanted to cover here.

We wanted to buy cheap stuff to replace all we sold.  I couldn't find any used furniture stores.  Okay, so we went to new furniture stores.  All of them had dicey delivery dates that were usually wrong.  It has to come from Juarez.  It has to come from Guadalajara.  Who knows when you'll get it?

The most reliable was Walmart.com.mx, but even that has changed dates.  Some stuff came too early, before we were here, meaning we had to run over from the Air BnB.  Other stuff was supposed to be here by now, but isn't.  Delivery dates were changed and no notifications sent.

Okay, fine.  It's inconvenient, but we'll get it all eventually right?  That's for the things we could find.  What about the stuff we couldn't find?

My mom needs an arm chair that lifts her up.  We had one in the States.  I found one on Mercado Libre.  I ordered it.  They canceled the order and refunded me.  I don't know why.

The Mexico Walmart lets me pay in Paypal which is a form of payment that never gets canceled.  So great.  I've gotten the bulk of our furniture from there.  But they don't have this chair she needs.

They have it on Amazon.com.mx.  They accept my credit card there and don't cancel on me later.  I just had to give my immigration number so stuff could be imported in my name. Great.  However, I'm literally having to have the chair shipped from the USA.  They don't have any in Mexico.  So my $650 chair is now $1100.  

Further more, they don't know when it will ship.  They said to order it and they'll get back to me.

That's one example, another two are fly swatters and back scrubbers.  I guess these aren't things used in this area.  No store has them.  Not even the expensive gringo mall.  I had to have those imported too, and I still don't have them as of right now.  The flies are driving me crazy.  

You think some things are universal and basic.  Like a scale to weigh yourself.  I try searching for 'escala' online.  I get tiny food scales.  Apparently there's a different word for them here.  Balanza.  It's been hard to find one.

I can't find body wash.  I've had to go back to bar soap.  

I use wrist weights when I exercise.  I've had to have those imported from the USA again.

Speaking of exercise, I have a new treadmill and finally used it today.  It's short.  Like it's made for a shorter person than me.  I have to lean down to reach the handrails.  It's also narrow.  I worried I'd hit the sides with my feet, but it was okay.

What's not okay is that the timer resets when I have to stop to get off and take a drink of water.  Which I have to do because the only Topo Chico I can get is giant 1.5L bottles that won't fit in the cup holders.  I couldn't keep track of how long I was on.

The light switches are never where you expect them.  My bedroom light:  it should be right by the door.  No.  It's in some random place on the wall.  Same with the bathroom light.  Why there?  Also they are sideways instead of up and down.

The toilet is stupidly placed too close to the sink so it's difficult to use.  Again, probably because I'm tall?  But I'm not really seeing that many people shorter than me, honestly.  They have great diets here and aren't suffering malnutrition.  But I guess the house was built back when Mexicans were shorter.  

I've had to get my mom's travel toilet grab-bars and use them for my toilet because there's not enough space in front of me to stand up easily.  

I love that Mexico only has showers and not difficult to step into bathtubs (I realize that's because no one wants to sit in a tub of contaminated Mexican water).  However, I don't have a shower curtain.  There's no feasible way to shower without the water spraying all over the bathroom floor.  

I do have 'hot' water now.  Not as hot as I'd like, but warm enough that I can actually stay under the flow and enjoy a shower instead of just reaching in for enough ice cold water to clean my vital areas.  We didn't have hot water when we moved in because we were out of gas.  Now we have reasonably warm water, and I'm grateful.

Getting the gas delivered was a pain in the ass.  I'm still learning Spanish so I don't like calling places.  Even if I could understand them, they talk too fast and ask questions I'm not expecting.  So I tried to order gas online.  I ordered 3 times and finally got a call from someone.  I was in the store and my mom was home.  

They asked where my house was.  I gave the address.  No.  They want the coordinates.  I'm sorry, I don't have my sextant and it's day time so I can't align it with the stars.  WTF do you mean you want the fucking coordinates?!  

Okay, I got the coordinates from Google Maps and send it through Whatsapp.  They reply with 'Call the vendor. Here's the number'.  ASSHOLE!  JUST DELIVER THE FUCKING GAS!  

I had to have my mom call and we finally got our gas tank filled in a horrifying way.  They put a ladder against a beam.  They climbed up and balanced on the beam with a giant hose to walk 10 feet to the entry to the roof.  My eyeballs nearly dropped from my head.  He's 30 feet up balancing like a trapeze artist with a fucking gas hose.  Then he filled the tank that's apparently up there.

I was wondering:  What if he fell.  Would I be liable?  Would the landlords be liable?  Would the gas company be liable?  Is liability a thing in Mexico or do they just send the family flowers?

But gas meant I finally got a warm shower and could truly get clean.  Praise God for that.

Meanwhile, I need my bidet toilet seat.  I thought:  I'll just import one from the USA if they don't have any here (which they don't).  But guess what?  Toilets are different sizes and shapes in Mexico.  

Again, like an idiot, I figured toilet sizes were a universal thing.  No.  The toilets here are weird, short, and designed to get as dirty as possible as fast as possible (at least for me).  

But I did find a Mexican bidet toilet seat on Amazon.com.mx.  (Before you give me shit over this, I have a medical condition that makes me use the bathroom 9-12 times a day. A bidet saves me from a lot of problems.  I don't want to live without one).  It was supposed to come April 1.  Then April 4.  Then April 7.  And now April 11.  :sigh:  

We're also waiting for a washing machine.  Dryers aren't widely used in Mexico and my mom is too old to be hanging laundry.  We have division of labor and laundry is her job.  I cook and keep the house clean (by paying a maid).  

Anyway, we have space outside in our nice open garden area for a washing machine.  It's by the kitchen, right outside the back door, so not too inconvenient.  Washers are usually outside because that's where you have to hang the clothes anyway.  It has a sink by it that has groves for you to scrub the clothes against...like those old washing boards.

There's no room for a dryer in that spot.  We thought we'd get a stacked washer dryer, but there's shit above the washer, so we can't do that.  Okay, around the corner in the garden is another outlet and a spot where we could put a dryer.  

Landlords:  The electricity for that outlet isn't strong enough for a dryer.  You'd keep getting shorts.

We have to use the same outlet as the washer.  Where there's no room for a dryer.  And putting an extension cord outdoors is asking for trouble.

Okay, so I bought a washer/dryer combo.  A lavasecadora it's called.  It should be here April 1.  No, April 4.  No April 7.  Meanwhile my mom got fed up and hand-washed some underwear so she could shower.  We didn't have much clothes left from what we got rid of before we moved.

I'm making do with my tiny Mexican kitchen.  I got it all set up just how I liked it.  So the landlord came to tell me to get everything out of the main cabinet since he's putting in a new one.  I said not to do that because I'd just gotten everything perfect.  He said my mom requested it.  FFS.

So I took every out of the cabinet.  And a new cabinet arrived.  Because he ordered it online.  They dropped it off and left.  So my shit is all over the place because no one got rid of the old one and installed the new one.  I don't even want to go downstairs. I'd just gotten to where I could cook and serve food easily.  I had a designated coffee area, microwave area, cutting area, and it's all fucked up for who knows how long.

So yeah.  We're still trying to get settled.

Meanwhile I still have to do my work.  And it's piled up.  I had to get three games out yesterday.  The main one, I don't know.  It's not as good as it should be.  I just didn't have time to deal with it.  We'll see what the reviewers say.

Furniture Trickling In

 I had an acquaintance ask for a video call for me to tell her all about Mexico and everything that happened on our journey.  I gave her the link to this blog instead.  

I guess when you do something crazy you have a lot of people who want to hear all about it.  They want to know if it's something they could do one day too.  Knowing someone who's done it is a link that some people need before taking a leap themselves.

But, between family, therapist, and friends, I'm all talked out.  So I'm glad I started up the blog again to give people the link.  I should take more pictures but...lazy.  So here's some video from my dashcam.

Speaking of the dashcam, I got one because it was supposed to help with police asking for bribes when they pull you over.  But I've never been pulled over.  I'll keep it anyway just to be sure.

Two days ago we got a call that they were delivering packages.  😡 Not good.  We're at the air bnb and they're delivering to the house.  I scheduled everything to be on the 28th.  WTF!

But yeah, I had to run over and we got a mattress and table.  The next afternoon we went there anyway because I had a sense that this was going to happen again, and sure enough, more furniture was delivered.  We'll be there again this afternoon to receive anything else.

Basically:  Don't trust delivery dates.  They ship stuff whenever here.

Other news:  as you know there is a great mystery on how to eat fruit and vegetables here.  You need to wash vegetables before you eat them, right?  Well, the water is contaminated so it doesn't clean anything.  Especially not something you need to eat.  I thought I'd wash and dry fruit and that would be okay.

Apparently I'm wrong.  In the fruit aisle they sell disinfectant you're supposed to use with tap water.  You're supposed to soak fruit and veg in disinfectant for 10 minutes and then eat.  Don't rinse them off after.

I learned this after eating several mangos.  I hope I'm okay.  I may have to take an antiparasitic just to be sure.  Someone said you need to get antiparasitics in Mexico once a year anyway.

We'll see.  I don't know if I recounted this story here, but here's something I texted to friends below:

I've been in Mexico 2 weeks and I know all my neighbors and the family of the person who owns the Air Bnb.  And we aren't going out to get to know people.  It just happens organically.

It started with this beautiful tortie cat.  She came over and flirted with us.  I asked the vet on the way out if she was a stray because we'd love to adopt her as an outdoor cat.  He said probaby not, because she looked too good.

A neighbor overheard the conversation and put a collar on the cat.  We laughed.  Oops.  They know we want to steal their cat.  So we put a note on the collar apologizing and giving them $200 pesos to buy her nice cat food.

That broke the ice.  Neighbors have been hitting us up for eggs, butter, and buckets of water since the water goes off randomly here.  The two little girls next door are always talkign to us when we come out.  Yesterday I bought them ice cream from the vendor who comes around.  The mother is nice to us.  Everyone likes us.

It's not like this in the USA.  I lived 3 years in one place and never spoke to my neighbors.  The sense of community is so much stronger here.

The workers in the stores bend over backwards to help you.  Like a cashier literally leaving her register and going halfway across the huge Walmart sized store to get me reusable bags because I didn't know I needed to bring my own.  People care.  They have empathy.  They want to help.  It's the village mentality that everyone helps each other.

Things are unorganized here and a little more difficult.  Stores don't have web sites.  It's all WhatsApp where you have to ask them stuff directly, or maybe a Facebook page.  Getting furniture was difficult.  You have to buy one thing here, another thing here, another thing here, and you never know when it's all going to be delivered.  America is more organized because of all the corporate influences.  But I don't mind how disorganized Mexico is.  In the end, having money solves any problem.  And I'm wealthy here, even with my measly $2k/month after expenses.  We'll get all we need.  Even if it's a little difficult.  It's worth a little hassle to live here.

Trying to Cook in Mexico

 Here's the Status Report!

• We're in the Air BnB in Mexico
• My mom and I got our residency cards
• We got a nice rental to move into April 1 with a 1 year lease
• We have furniture coming Mar 28 from Walmart.com.mx
• We've bought a lot of the things we gave up to drive down here and have boxes stacked in the new rental.

Buying stuff online to be delivered via our American credit cards is a mixed bag.  Sometimes they reject it out of the blue and we need to pay cash instead (not a scam, the truth).  But Walmart in Mexico takes Paypal.

Paypal is the secure payment for Mexico.  It never fails.  You can order expensive furniture to multiple addresses and it all goes through.

So today I scheduled a grocery delivery from Walmart.com.  Pro: they have a lot of food I recognize.  Con: more expensive than a local Mexican grocery.  But we needed food and we've been running around so much my mom is in pain.  

Last time we ordered from Ley Express and my credit card was rejected right before they came to deliver.  So I had to use the last of my cash.  And...stuff was missing.  I didn't get the shrimp I ordered and a few other things.  Did they keep that stuff?  Did they deduct it from the bill?  I don't know.  They showed me a receipt briefly, but I didn't think to ask to keep it.  I should have.

Meanwhile, Chedraui is a really nice mega-grocery store here.  Owned by Walmart, and like a Walmart with groceries, furniture, electronics.  We've bought a lot of stuff from there.  And I need to buy more.  Like all the regular pantry items I had on hand in the USA:  flour, sugar, oats, beans, rice, etc.  

So I have a cart already full of stuff I plan to order when we move into the new place.  I didn't want to empty it to get the stuff we need for the rest of the month at the Air BnB.  So I did a Walmart order.

I got $3,500 pesos worth of stuff which is $173 usd.  I don't have the pan set I bought here or any of my utensils or dishes.  Just the weird odds and ends the Air Bnb had.  I can't really bake stuff here.  So...what do I cook?

In the USA a staple of my food budget was the $2/lb ground turkey.  Healthy, cheap, versatile.  I can make cheeseburger mac and cheese, spaghetti, shepherds pie, salisbury steak, all sorts of things.  I can't find an equivalent in Mexico.  

I've had to settle for 400 gram ground beef tubes that are $3 each.  So what can I make with that at the Air Bnb?  It's been spaghetti twice already.  

I wanted to just get convenience food for the time being since cooking in the tiny kitchen with weird implements is not easy, but convenience food isn't a big thing in Mexico.  They eat healthy by default.  It's the cultural cuisine.  

I looked at other shopping carts when I went to the store for ideas.  The mainstay is: a tomato, onion, and bell pepper.  That makes pico de gallo which they eat with tortillas and some kind of meat.  Often just a few cheap hot dogs.  A lot of carts in the store only have these items.  1 Tomato, 1 onion, 1 pepper, some tortillas, a cheap meat. The tomatos, onions, and peppers are always together in the store for easy access.

It's not what we're used to, and I don't like having to chop these white onions that make you cry.  (I haven't found the milder yellow onions anywhere here).  My mom doesn't eat raw onions.

I want to order meat that I can serve with potatoes and the Italian squash that's so popular here.  Ordering meat is something I'm going to have to learn as I live here.

1. They don't have the same cuts that we have in the USA.  I don't know what this stuff is.
2. Everything's in metric which I need to learn.  I try to do the:  1 kilo is 2 pounds rule, but you often order in 200gram increments which means you get either 600 grams or 400.  600 is too much for one meal.  400 seems a bit short.
3. It's expensive.  As expensive as the USA, and sometimes worse.

Mexico has different cuisines in different regions like the USA.  Some things are popular everywhere, like tamales, but in this area a tamale is meat wrapped in a corn tortilla with tamale sauce, not masa tamales wrapped in corn leaves like we're used to.  We don't like corn tortillas.

I cooked some 'beef'.  I thought it was strips, but it was one whole long skinny piece folded over on itself with lots of round sections separated by gristle.  I don't know what that was.  It was tough.  

I'm guessing the cheap cuts are the thing in Mexico.  I did order some ribs but they're not like USA ribs.  They're weird.  Some sections have bone, some don't.  I in the USA a rib looked like a rib with flat bone on one side, meat and fat on the other.  Or the Korean cut ribs.  That's not what they have here.  

Chicken is chicken, no matter where you go.  They don't have the cornish cross mega-breast meat chickens here, but it's still chicken.  I can bake a whole chicken, eat the dark meat one day with my mom and have the white meat in fajitas or whatever the next day.  That's fine.  But a whole chicken is still pricey.  

Chicken quarters, thighs, and legs are reasonably cheap, so I'm thinking I'll do 1 piece of meat, salad or squash, refried beans and yellow rice.  We can eat that every day just swapping the meat.  That's probably how I'll manage once I can bake chicken in the new place.

I did figure out how to light the oven!  In Mexico they don't keep the pilot light on all the time.  It's less toxic and less wasteful.  Lighting the pilot isn't the scary hand into a dark area hoping you won't get burnt affair either.  There's a clear hole on the bottom of the oven that you need to light.  So, I'm fine with that.

We have enough food until the end of our stay now.  Then I can really get organized and set up for long term living in the rental.

I do plan to buy a house in Mexico at some point.  There's no mortgages here (they wouldn't give me one anyway with my zero credit history) but I can buy a place with the proceeds of the house in the USA once it sells.  For now, we're happy with the rental and our landlord is really nice.

Furniture Woes Part 2

 When we last left this blog, I had bought $3,600 worth of furniture from a store called Dicos that they advertised as being available to be shipped to me in 12 days.  Then they sent emails saying, 'Ha ha, no.  It will be multiple shipments over the next month and a half.'

I thought this was just how things are in Mexico and tried to work it out with my rep so we'd have the minimum pieces we needed to move out of the Air BnB in time.  She made me pay another 500 pesos 'to expedite' and would let me know.  

Monday was a holiday.  I thought I'd hear from her Tuesday.  Wednesday I asked for an update.  Today she finally got back to me saying my card had 'irregularities' and I needed to pay for everything by Paypal instead.

Except I'd not only paid with credit card already, I'd already paid for those charges.  And I wasn't going to just pull another $3,600 out of my ass when there was nothing wrong with my payment.  We had an annoying phone call where she wouldn't take a breath to let anyone else talk while my mom desperately tried to translate for me with her not stopping talking.  I literally had to yell, 'Perdon!' to get her to take a damn breath.

I told her that I could do an alternate payment *after* they gave me back the $3600 and extra $500 I'd already paid.  She said if I do that then I won't get my stuff until the end of April.  Send money to this Paypal address immediately or I won't have furniture for weeks.

I was smelling scam, but I can't really say that.  I just said I didn't have the money because I'd already paid my credit card.  She ended the call.

Well, they have my credit card money, they haven't refunded me, and I'm not getting my furniture.  I messaged that she needed to refund me or I was going to dispute the charges.  She sent screen caps of refunds.  

I'm now buying everything all over again from Walmart.com.mx.  I should have just gotten stuff with them in the first place after this company lied about how soon they could deliver things on their web site.  (Something she berated us for saying other people were ahead of us, stuff is in Mexico City and Guadalajara and you can't jump the line.  Bitch, YOUR company said 12 days to trick us to buy this shit.  Figure it the fuck out.  Or don't.  I'll just do Walmart.)  

Conclusion:  Don't buy from Dicos.  Go to Walmart.com.mx.  Same prices, same stuff, honest delivery estimates.

Seven Years of Spanish and I Suck At It

Y'know, I don't get how all the foreigners I've met in the USA are able to become fluent.  Learning a new language is DAMNED HARD.

During the pandemic I started taking Spanish lessons while I worked out on my treadmill.  Just for communicating in the USA with Spanish speakers.  I had no plans to move.  I took the 4 year high school class, then the 3 levels of Metodo classes that forces you to really speak the language.  

Right now I'm going through the highest level they have out, intermediate, and redoing the class a 3rd time.  It moves so fast and becomes so complicated.  But I didn't really start to 'learn' Spanish until that class.  

I have a pile of Udemy classes I plan to keep taking as I work out.  Right now, I'm still going blank when I hear Spanish.  My brain turns off.  I can struggle through transactions sounding horrible.

Like I went into a Mexican Petco and I wanted to ask if they had any cat laxatives because my cat was constipated.  For some reason I assumed it was laxativo because I'm a gringo idiot.  Finally I just said, 'Mi gata no puede caca.'  (My cat can't poopoo).  😖  And yes, he laughed right in my face.  

But I won't give up.  I have dreams of volunteering here and being able to communicate at least as well as I've seen ESL people communicate in the USA.  

My mom is my go-to translator when it comes right down to it.  I drag her out of the car and make her do the things that are too difficult for me.  It's going to be that way for years, I'm sure.  

Furniture Woes

 So, getting furniture is not going well.  I bought a whole house full of stuff (see last post) and went out of my way to get everything that said 'arrives in 12 days'.  I ended up not getting the exact things I wanted in favor of getting it all the same day.

Watch your step

The next morning I get three emails for my 3 orders.  Two will arrive between April 15-21 and one April 4.  😑

Um, yeah, we only have the Air BnB until April 4.  WTF.  

While I was ordering stuff a chat bubble popped up and an actual worker from Dico started talking to me.  First to give me a coupon code.  But I already had a default coupon code there for 5% off.  She said to use hers.

So my 5% off coupon was replaced with her 5% off coupon.  😑  Her insistence that I use her code for each of my orders tells me that this was her commission code.  But that's fine because she gave me her WhatsApp (all business is done through WhatsApp here) so I can bitch about the shipping dates to her.

I complained that it said 12 days and even the April 4th shipment is longer than that.  Note:  I accidentally broke up the order into 3 orders because I was too stupid to update the shopping cart when I tried to get multiples of the same thing, and I forgot a lot of shit the first and second time around.  So I got a 500 peso shipping fee three times instead of the one time I should have gotten it if I'd ordered everything at once.

She said 'Mexico' for the date issue.  Then she gave me a link to pay another 500 pesos for expedited shipping to get stuff sooner than the dates they emailed.  😑

So we'll get everything sooner apparently, but we won't know when until Martes (Tuesday) because Monday is a holiday and it's Sunday right now.  

The worst case:  We'll get one bed and the sofabed we bought for the 'guest room' so we'll still be able to get out of the Air Bnb as scheduled and sleep at the new house.  Without anywhere to sit beside that bed and couch.  😤

Meantime I'm trying to order other things for the new house so we don't have to wait weeks for stuff once we move but all my credit cards decided to stop working.  

It's a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme (as long as we don't have to get a hotel due to no beds after the Air Bnb kicks us out).  

Someone warned me it would hard to furnish a whole house but I thought I found a cheat code.  Oh well.

Getting Our New Life In Mexico

We're still at the Air BnB but life is happening hard and fast.  

First of all, we heard that it's best to get a facilitator to help you get your temporary residency cards.  We already had our temporary residency visas, and we have 30 days to report to immigration and get our cards.

Did we need a facilitator?  Yes and no.  The Consulate in La Paz BCS was not busy at all.  I'd heard that only the facilitators could get appointments and they stay in line all night to be first or something.  But that doesn't apply to hear. 

Other gringos didn't have a facilitator and got seen, but they didn't get it done.  They couldn't figure out the bad government web site and thought they could show up and figure it out there.  They couldn't.  They were told to leave and figure out the web site to get their proper form.  

While we were traveling to La Paz we met another gringo who asked if we needed anything.  We said we needed a facilitator.  They gave us the number to an older woman who'd helped them.  She's retired, but her two sons continue her work.  So we used them.

It's $150/each for them to take us to immigration and get our cards in 2 weeks.  Or an additional $250 each to get it the same day.  Plus the fee which is like $125 each to the government.  

We opted for the faster service.  I was fine waiting 2 weeks, but my mom wanted it over with.  

I got my card the same day (yay!) but there was a problem with hers and we must go back next Tuesday to get it.  They've sorted it out, just waiting for Mexico City to sort it out.  Doesn't seem like a big problem yet.  So next Tuesday we'll get her card and then we'll both go to the BBVA right by the immigration office and open bank accounts.

Yesterday we paid 2 months rent up front to get the keys to our new apartment that we will be moving into on April 1.  For now we have access to get our furniture delivered, appliances, toilet upgrades, etc.  

I was warned it would be hard to find all the furniture, so I did the nuclear option today and bought everything online at a big box furniture store Dicos.  They'll deliver to the new apartment in 12 days and set it all up.  It was $3,600 American and I still need a washer/dryer, treadmill, pots/pans, and my mom's special chair that lifts her up that's $750 in Mexico because they don't have it anywhere in the country.  

Anyway, trying to get everything piecemeal from 15 different stores which all have a 12 day lead time when we don't live in the house yet was just a nightmare.  I pulled the trigger on furniture.

I remember four years ago when we were broke and had to furnish that apartment we moved into after living in our RV for years.  I had $1,200 total and we made it work.  Got a big TV too.  Now?  $3,600 in Mexico and I don't have everything yet.

Here's what we got:

Articles	Shipment	Amount	Price
Santy Nepal Sofa Bed Product code: TAP36113S1	Dico Furniture	1	$4,499.00
Amsterdam Pink Double Headboard Product code: RAD39127S1	Dico Furniture	2	$5,548.50
Landmark Red 2-Seater Sofa Product code: SAL41897S1	Dico Furniture	1	$8,024.25
Merida Cafe Pantry Product code: COC18655S1	Dico Furniture	1	$4,499.00
Sealy Muga Double Mattress Product code: COL19418S1	Dico Furniture	1	$16,999.00

Sealy Muga Double Mattress Product code: COL19418S1	Dico Furniture	1	$16,999.00
Morrison Gray Desk Product code: OFC33630K1	Dico Furniture	2	$5,998.00
Scott New Gray Office Chair Product code: OFC32896S1	Dico Furniture	1	$999.00
Naro Life Rosa Bureau Product code: RAD36216S1	Dico Furniture	1	$999.00
Warma Café Dresser Product code: RAD43760S1 Dico Furniture 1 $2,699.25 Naro Life Rosa Bureau Product code: RAD36216S1 Dico Furniture 1 $999.00 Warma Café Dresser Product code: RAD43760S1 Dico Furniture 1 $2,699.25 Tammy Café Rectangular Side Table Product code: MOC42988S1 Dico Furniture 1 $3,599.25 Kenza Tempered Glass Coffee Table Product code: MOC28129K1 Dico Furniture 1 $2,249.25 Yes I got duplicates of some stuff.  I kept having to do more orders because I didn't update after changing quantities. To get the USD price, drop the last digit (ignore what's after the decimal point) and divide by half.  So $2,249 becomes $225 and $225/2= $112.50  That's because $1usd is 20 pesos.  That's the easiest way to calculate things. I also bought from Mexico's Amazon.com which is Mercado Libre.  Yes, they also have Amazon, but so far I've only gone there to get American products imported, like a bidet toilet seat that I can't live without. At Mercado Libre I got a doorbell, anti-slip tape for the stairs in the new place, the floor elliptical my mom uses to exercise that we couldn't fit in the car, new showerheads with handhelds, a shower seat and raised toilet grab-bar seat for my mom. I need to buy a lot more, but I also need to be here when it's delivered and give a code word.  So I'm holding off. I had my first remote therapy session two days ago.  I walked around with my phone and showed him the Air BnB.  When outside and a neighbor girl ran to the gate and said Hola!  Also had the local dog and cat greet us.  And told him my adventure coming down and all we were doing. I feel like he was impressed with me.  That I took the leap and did this.  Staying home and doing nothing was the easiest option, but I'd have to keep dealing with poor medical care and poor elder care options for me and my mom.   I'd have to keep saving like crazy for retirement and things get more and more expensive, yet here I'm already good.  Social security will be enough.  Especially after I buy a house.  (I can't get a mortgage, but the proceeds from the house we're selling in the USA should be enough.) He said he saw me smiling for the first time.  I'm lighter here.  I'm less burdened with future fear.  And I'm getting used to the rhythms of life here and feel I can solidly get by.  I don't have to give up anything, and I'm getting more than I got in the USA. Yes, we're going crazy right now trying to get settled, but that's temporary and we'll be relaxed soon.  Less stressed.  More free.  I don't think anyone actually reads this blog anymore, so I won't bother with pictures.  Unless I remember.  I'll try my best.