What I Miss About Mexico
I think I was at my skinniest and healthiest, and maybe even happiest when I was there. Probably the only downer was the lack of job opportunities for myself and thus the lack of some extra income we would have liked. Not that we are fairing to well state side, but that is a different matter.
I just want to take a moment to reminence. I gained 20 pounds in the year I have been back from Mexico. I can''t say that my diet has been very different from in Mexico. I think I eat about the same amount, and eat about the same amount of sweets. The quality of food is different though. For lunch in Mexico, if I didn't eat at home I would go to one of the numerous day cafe kitchens and eat their daily special... which is always home cooked from fresh produce. Here in the U.S. I was going down to the school's cafeteria and eating shit like breadsticks or spicy chicken patties.. everything no doubt frozen or canned prior. Just sad. So while food filled with perservatives might be a culprit.. there is only one really big huge change that I think is the culprit in my weight gain. Exercise.
In Mexico, it was built into my day. I didn't have to really go out of my way. Here is what a day in Mexico looked like for me:
I would wake up early, maybe 7 or 8 am with the DH. We'd eat breakfast together and I would see him off to work. Noori would usually stay sleeping so I'd shower or just check my email. He'd wake up, I'd make the bed. I would put clothes in the wash. I would hang wet clothes up to dry since we didn't have a dryer. I would sit on the balcony and watch the kindergarteners arrive to school across the street. I would watch the lady selling fresh squeezed juice on the corner. Sometimes I would go down fetch myself some fresh squeezed orange juice, grapefruit juice or betabel (beet juice). And sometimes I would get the fresh cut fruit which would include banana, mango and pineapple as well... and the fruit, it goes without saying, is sweeter than anything ever sold here in the U.S.
Then maybe I am in the mood to make cupcakes, but I will need to by the cupcake wrappers and there is only one place in the whole city where I know I can find them, thankfully, it is only two metro stations down from me, so I swaddle little Noori up in the Moby wrap and take off with my cloth grocery bag.
It is about three blocks to the subway and when I get there I pay a ticket which is 50 cents and then I climb some stairs and go rushing off to try to catch the next one. I'd like to say that I stand, but most people are so nice that they see me with Noori and give up their seat. I sometimes will say no, and tell them I get off soon. Then I climb more stairs to get out of the station and walk a couple of blocks and shop around for the cutest wrappers at the best price. Then I decide to go to the market a few blocks away because they have such a great variety and the best and freshest seafood. So I walk around there for awhile and to my surprise find some fresh figs! I had never seen a fresh fig until Mexico!
As I leave there, I am feeling a bit hungry so I buy some atole, a thick milk drink. I can get it in chocolate, vanille, rice, or caramel flavor. This vendor has strawberry. So I try that. She also sells tomales, but the lard used is pork, so I don't get one of those. Then I head back, usually by the subway, the same way I came, but I have walked back before.
And the thing about the walking is that I am usually hauling ass. Just like I would in my car. Just like I do in my car in the U.S. Fancy driving I call it. I think the hauling ass walking is really good for me, and I just do it innately though... if I go for a walk in the U.S., it is more like a slow stroll because I don't walk to get to and from a place, I walk to walk, so why walk fast? And I dont even do that, because walking for walking's sake is like, a waste of time!!! In fact, that is why I don't bother with my car in Mexico... if not at a standstill in traffic, than I am circling circling circling for a decent parking spot.. and once I get one I never want to let it go! So I just leave the car where it is. The funny thing is, we would use the car a lot on weekends, and it always felt like such a luxury to just SIT there. Now I know just sitting there isn't gonna do me any favors. And unfortunately, Kansas City is a spread out city and you can't get anywhere without a car. And taking the bus would take hours to get to a place that would only take 15 minutes otherwise.
Taking the bus in Mexico is different. Talk about fancy driving... the bus drivers got some moves. So I spend my time on the bus holding onto a pole for dear life. And it is bouncing up and down so that has to count for some involuntary exercise. Not to mention you have to get to the door before the bus comes to a complete stop and then you only have a split second to get off before it goes flying again.
So then I get back home. I take the dried clothes down and hang up some more clothes. I have to dry the clothes in the morning because I have an east facing balcony. I like that in Mexico you can hang dry your clothes on the balcony.... maybe in the US it is looked down on as trashy.. but in Mexico imho it makes the city feel alive, more human and more happy. Some upper class Mexicans will think the same way as Americans... but I hope Mexico never loses its true freedom.
About once a week I would have lunch with Iajia downtown where he works. I would have to make a subway change and it was a lot of walking and standing. And then we would walk around the plaza there and find one of those kitchens I mentioned earlier. There was a two story one, it was my favorite because they offered a lot and I always had my go to house special.. there enchiladas suizas served piping hot! And for a meal that included rice/spagetti, soup, the main deal, beans, drinks and tortillas, it would be three to five dollars a person. Oh, and the drinks are always water with a hint of fruit added to it and a little water.. so much better fare than a soft drink. Then I would go back home.
On Weds. there was an open street market below my balcony. At the end of the day, I would sometimes have to go and retrieve clothes pins and lost socks that the chicken stall directly below my balcony. I would always go, and the vendors saw me pregnant to having my newborn and watching him grow. They would give him fruits and vegetables once he was old enough. I would always always always have lunch there... I would eat something called a "pambazo" and drink it down with a horchata. So YUM.
I would try to go out at least once a day to do something. I would try to go to JEMMA prayer on Fridays at the sufi mosque or the regular one. Both woould take a considerable amount of walking and changing stations. I would visit a friend that had twins. Sometimes I would see my in-laws. In the end there, I was trying to get my visa straightened out. That was a lot more walking than I would have liked.
On the weekends Iajia would play paintball with his friends. Or we would go to a place called the Marqueza that is like the countryside where you can picnic. On Sundays we'd go to the in-laws and have cook outs and it seemed like it was almost always someone's birthday.
I can't wait to go back for Christmas. I cant wait to go back. I can;t wait to go back. And unless I land the best job ever... Iajia is going to have a very hard time getting me to come back to the U.S. after Christmas. We can have a good life in Mexico.. so why come back to all of this?
I just want to take a moment to reminence. I gained 20 pounds in the year I have been back from Mexico. I can''t say that my diet has been very different from in Mexico. I think I eat about the same amount, and eat about the same amount of sweets. The quality of food is different though. For lunch in Mexico, if I didn't eat at home I would go to one of the numerous day cafe kitchens and eat their daily special... which is always home cooked from fresh produce. Here in the U.S. I was going down to the school's cafeteria and eating shit like breadsticks or spicy chicken patties.. everything no doubt frozen or canned prior. Just sad. So while food filled with perservatives might be a culprit.. there is only one really big huge change that I think is the culprit in my weight gain. Exercise.
In Mexico, it was built into my day. I didn't have to really go out of my way. Here is what a day in Mexico looked like for me:
I would wake up early, maybe 7 or 8 am with the DH. We'd eat breakfast together and I would see him off to work. Noori would usually stay sleeping so I'd shower or just check my email. He'd wake up, I'd make the bed. I would put clothes in the wash. I would hang wet clothes up to dry since we didn't have a dryer. I would sit on the balcony and watch the kindergarteners arrive to school across the street. I would watch the lady selling fresh squeezed juice on the corner. Sometimes I would go down fetch myself some fresh squeezed orange juice, grapefruit juice or betabel (beet juice). And sometimes I would get the fresh cut fruit which would include banana, mango and pineapple as well... and the fruit, it goes without saying, is sweeter than anything ever sold here in the U.S.
Then maybe I am in the mood to make cupcakes, but I will need to by the cupcake wrappers and there is only one place in the whole city where I know I can find them, thankfully, it is only two metro stations down from me, so I swaddle little Noori up in the Moby wrap and take off with my cloth grocery bag.
It is about three blocks to the subway and when I get there I pay a ticket which is 50 cents and then I climb some stairs and go rushing off to try to catch the next one. I'd like to say that I stand, but most people are so nice that they see me with Noori and give up their seat. I sometimes will say no, and tell them I get off soon. Then I climb more stairs to get out of the station and walk a couple of blocks and shop around for the cutest wrappers at the best price. Then I decide to go to the market a few blocks away because they have such a great variety and the best and freshest seafood. So I walk around there for awhile and to my surprise find some fresh figs! I had never seen a fresh fig until Mexico!
As I leave there, I am feeling a bit hungry so I buy some atole, a thick milk drink. I can get it in chocolate, vanille, rice, or caramel flavor. This vendor has strawberry. So I try that. She also sells tomales, but the lard used is pork, so I don't get one of those. Then I head back, usually by the subway, the same way I came, but I have walked back before.
And the thing about the walking is that I am usually hauling ass. Just like I would in my car. Just like I do in my car in the U.S. Fancy driving I call it. I think the hauling ass walking is really good for me, and I just do it innately though... if I go for a walk in the U.S., it is more like a slow stroll because I don't walk to get to and from a place, I walk to walk, so why walk fast? And I dont even do that, because walking for walking's sake is like, a waste of time!!! In fact, that is why I don't bother with my car in Mexico... if not at a standstill in traffic, than I am circling circling circling for a decent parking spot.. and once I get one I never want to let it go! So I just leave the car where it is. The funny thing is, we would use the car a lot on weekends, and it always felt like such a luxury to just SIT there. Now I know just sitting there isn't gonna do me any favors. And unfortunately, Kansas City is a spread out city and you can't get anywhere without a car. And taking the bus would take hours to get to a place that would only take 15 minutes otherwise.
Taking the bus in Mexico is different. Talk about fancy driving... the bus drivers got some moves. So I spend my time on the bus holding onto a pole for dear life. And it is bouncing up and down so that has to count for some involuntary exercise. Not to mention you have to get to the door before the bus comes to a complete stop and then you only have a split second to get off before it goes flying again.
So then I get back home. I take the dried clothes down and hang up some more clothes. I have to dry the clothes in the morning because I have an east facing balcony. I like that in Mexico you can hang dry your clothes on the balcony.... maybe in the US it is looked down on as trashy.. but in Mexico imho it makes the city feel alive, more human and more happy. Some upper class Mexicans will think the same way as Americans... but I hope Mexico never loses its true freedom.
About once a week I would have lunch with Iajia downtown where he works. I would have to make a subway change and it was a lot of walking and standing. And then we would walk around the plaza there and find one of those kitchens I mentioned earlier. There was a two story one, it was my favorite because they offered a lot and I always had my go to house special.. there enchiladas suizas served piping hot! And for a meal that included rice/spagetti, soup, the main deal, beans, drinks and tortillas, it would be three to five dollars a person. Oh, and the drinks are always water with a hint of fruit added to it and a little water.. so much better fare than a soft drink. Then I would go back home.
On Weds. there was an open street market below my balcony. At the end of the day, I would sometimes have to go and retrieve clothes pins and lost socks that the chicken stall directly below my balcony. I would always go, and the vendors saw me pregnant to having my newborn and watching him grow. They would give him fruits and vegetables once he was old enough. I would always always always have lunch there... I would eat something called a "pambazo" and drink it down with a horchata. So YUM.
I would try to go out at least once a day to do something. I would try to go to JEMMA prayer on Fridays at the sufi mosque or the regular one. Both woould take a considerable amount of walking and changing stations. I would visit a friend that had twins. Sometimes I would see my in-laws. In the end there, I was trying to get my visa straightened out. That was a lot more walking than I would have liked.
On the weekends Iajia would play paintball with his friends. Or we would go to a place called the Marqueza that is like the countryside where you can picnic. On Sundays we'd go to the in-laws and have cook outs and it seemed like it was almost always someone's birthday.
I can't wait to go back for Christmas. I cant wait to go back. I can;t wait to go back. And unless I land the best job ever... Iajia is going to have a very hard time getting me to come back to the U.S. after Christmas. We can have a good life in Mexico.. so why come back to all of this?