So The kids & I are heading back home tomorrow... Which gets confusing when I tell people that now, because we have lived here, in Mexico, long enough to call this home.. Because most of our household furnishings are are here... Because we are all here together & because finally, we all have friends here.. 
So 'home' remains to be where we came from, where we left our wonderful support network of family and friends and all that has been familiar to the kids all their lives, and gives them the feeling of home..

The kids don't know it yet, but home is where you are, it is where you are living with your heart, where you invest yourself.. In a community or a friendship, in a city!  As I look back at these 10 months that we have been here, I can see that we have made a new home for ourselves, here in Santa Fe, Mexico City
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We, the kids and I are "invested" at school.  Me, not as much as I was in Michigan, not as much as I would like, but as much as I can be for now, and a lot more than most parents.   The staff knows me by sight & name, the principal makes time for me without an appointment. Yesterday, as we were leaving school, friends were crying, saying goodbye to Kirsti, even though she is just leaving for summer.. But she has invested herself, her heart, she has made great friends, she has made a new home here, and I am so proud of her for stepping out into the scary unknown of high school, and emerging stronger & more confident!  This experience, has been difficult, leaving a great network of friends & cousins, but she is proving to herself that she is resilient.

When taking this assignment, we thought long and hard about the impact on Zach, the boy who does not like changes.  We finally decided, that he had to learn to adapt, as life IS change, and the sooner the better, and if we were together as a family we could help see him through.  My motto for Zach has been, "if Zach can do this, he can do ANYTHING!"  Well a change is exactly what Zach got when we came.. A change to middle school, 3 different apartments in 3 months, different class schedules every week the first month at school because his grade had a  major influx of new students & extra staff was suddenly needed.  Of course there were the known changes, like language, food, culture.. And I have to say, Zach has amazed me.  As the year has progressed, he seems to have gotten calmer, less anxious about, well, everything!  Zach has made a really good friend, and that has been such a good experience for him!  Zach actually cared enough to want a friend, to care what that friend liked, even though its very different from his own likes.  Zach's Boy Scout troop has shown him parts of Mexico City he may not have otherwise seen, like the beautiful hikes or the poverty of the girl's home he helped to paint & repair.  So Zach is invested in Mexico City, he is certainly a convert to traditional Mexican tacos, if nothing else!

Danielle has surprised us, having the most difficulty with the adjustment to her new "home."  In retrospect, I see now that she has never really been faced with the challenge of change before. She is our child that has had the benefit of staying at the same school from grade K until NOW!  So she has had the same kids and those same parents always in her life. So this has proven to be more difficult, moving away & accepting change & then making the situation a positive rewarding experience.  Danielle has always been our most head-strong child, she will do things on her terms, so until she decided to make the best of her circumstances, life was a bit rough.  To her defense, she was thrown head first into classes taught solely en español, half day, every day- which was overwhelming, and depressing really.  Despite that, she did make friends, and one in particular, who lives so close to us, became a source of comfort and made everyday life tolerable for the girl who wants to know: what are we doing today? Who are we seeing?  What's for dinner?  She always wants a plan!  So, finally, Danielle is invested in a life here too!

Patrick had a good friend here, before we moved here, and this year would not have been managed as well without the friendship of this family!  Bhavani & Aravinda & the kids are our family in our home in Mexico City!  We are sad to be leaving them for 2 months.. But that is nothing compared to the sadness we will feel when they leave us at the beginning of next year when they move back to Michigan.  With their help, we have made friends with others, seen places, done things and gotten to the hospital as needed, LOL!  We are invested in this wonderful friendship & grateful to know that when our time is done here,the Thota family will be in MI waiting for us!
 
So we are heading back to our Michigan home - leaving behind for the summer some things that have been our "norm"... Like crazy drivers that make horrible sweeping turns that cut you off or run red lights (confession, I have run a red light too!), all the bill boards that line the streets, even the plasma screens that are like watching TV while waiting at a red light (sometimes we do this in the mornings, lol). Don't think I will miss the daily rain shower of late.. The rainy season & the cold that comes with it will be in full force when we return in August.  Parking underground has its advantages, you never have to worry about needing an umbrella, and jackets are less necessary.. But I will certainly not miss paying to park everywhere I go!! Or tipping the grocery bagger or the parking garage attendant!  And bringing groceries into my house thru the service elevator in a grocery cart is both great, and a slight annoyance... So a change of scenery is good, I am sure it will make me see all the things I have come to love here.  One thing I do know... I will miss Paty for sure & I know my house in Mich will not be as clean as my house here!! Paty is just amazing!

My Biggest Fear... Missing Children in Mexico

So much drama!! There always seems to be high drama around me.. My friend Kellie used to joke about it in Canton, all the crazy things that happen to me, our family, whatever.. Well it has been no different here in Mex City!  My friend Aravinda can attest to that!  3 hospitalizations in 4 months here, I am far too familiar with the local hospital.. And a family that is leaving after being here 2 years has never been to the hospital!  Last weekend I did EVERYTHING in my power to Not Go To The Hospital AGAIN!  I took 1 single -low dose - antibiotic, and within 3 hrs I was having chest & back pains, vomiting, fever & chills & body pain everywhere!  I avoiding the hospital by forcing fluids & taking anti-neausea & pain meds...WHEW!

Well all the dramas of hospital trips, broken knee caps, earthquakes & long, long waiting in traffic, sometimes lost, sometimes not... IS NOTHING compared to the stress & anguish I went through Thursday when I came home to an empty house.

I had to go to the store & knew the kids, Zach & Danielle, would get home before me so I left them a note & left the door unlocked, even though they had a key.  So when I came home to an empty house, knowing they should have been home 30 mins before me, my heart skipped a beat.   I had Pati call to the lobby guard who said the school bus was very late, and the kids just arrived 5 minutes ago & the service elevator (the one they need to use) was out of service, they were climbing the stairs.  Whew! 
So I went to the stairs to greet them, but they were not there.  I went downstairs to look for them, Pati our maid was staying put incase they came home on their own... I looked in the lobby, the playground, the pool, gym.. Nothing!  I enlisted the help of security & now 7 guards were combing the complex & 3 were ordered to climb the 17 flights of stairs in the 3 towers to look for them.  I was about hyper-ventilating now..  I had a guard call the school because I could not manage to speak Spanish anymore, I was frantic!  The school did not answer.   I called a friend of Danielle's, no answer, so next I called her Dad.. He was out of the country but would call his daughter.. When he called back, he told me not to worry, my kids were at his house, down the street in a different complex... The kids are not allowed to leave the complex un-escorted, but at least they are safe!  The friend calls me, and I ask her to send Danielle home, she tells me she is not there, was not there, has never been there - her dad had misunderstood, because I think I woke him in the night...  Now I start crying hysterically!

I cannot reach Patrick, so I do the next best thing, I call our friends Aravinda & Bhavani at work & tell them!  They, all 3, leave work, Patrick to come home, our friends to drive to school to confirm they were in fact on the bus!  It has been more than an hour that they have been missing.  My mind races... There were several workers in the garage -rewiring something, they were new/not usual people in the tower... There were several people working on the service elevator, again, not the usual people in the tower... If the kids had gone to the garage, to check for my car, could someone grab them unseen??  If the kids went to the stairs, they had to pass all the workers by the elevators, could someone grab them unseen??  I cannot keep my self together, each time I try to regain composure, a new scenario plays in my head...

I concoct a new idea, maybe the kids walked .5 mile down the street to the OXXO (like 7/eleven), and then were hanging at the dog park??  So I am going to drive there & decide to stop to tell the lobby guard first... He says that Danielle is in the stairwell right now...
So I race there, and find her, and she is fine!  She is with a security guard who found her.  She had been playing in the private garden of a resident, with her son who is 3 yrs old!! (Zach was still there).  In the 1.5 hrs the kids were gone they did not worry about coming home to check if I had returned, because the mom of the lil boy had sent me an email, so they were waiting for me to get them!  I was looking everywhere for them, except in my INBOX!

So, my crying is still hysterical, but now for joy!  Danielle was totally confused as to my reaction of course, she never considered what I might worry about!  They had climbed the stairs, but the door from the stairwell to our service hallway was locked.  For security reasons, I find out now, it opens one way, so we can escape in case of fire or earthquake.. Otherwise it is locked so no one else can enter our service hall unauthorized.  So the kids could not get to our service hall, to get to our apt door, ugg!  So they decided to kill some time by visiting the little boy 2 towers over, that they had seen at a pic nic the week before.  That mom tried to call my house but the house phone does not accept cell calls (dumb LL set it up, we need to change that now that we know that). 
So all is well - Thank you God!
We need to do a few things.  Get new keys for the front elevator for the kids..  Get the phone plan changed...  Show the kids where the Administration offices are, so if they need, the head of security can unlock the door in the stairwell that leads to our service hallway...  And finally, I think it will be quite a while before I let the kids come home to an empty house again!!

BTW- where was Kirsti during all this?? She was at a friend's house, helping him with homework.  That girl is fortunate to have many friends!!

Friday I spent making LOTS of muffins for all the security guards, who very kindly checked in on me, to make sure I had recovered from my traumatic event the night before...or maybe they smelled all my baking, LOL??  Either way, I am happy to know we have great security guards that do their jobs well, and if I wasn't sure that every one of them knew us, well I am sure they do now!  And that's a good thing!!

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Sometimes you just need HELP

It's just crazy here, I thought moving here my life would be easy & slower... Life is never slower!  The easy is debatable! Easy in that we have Pati, our muchacha (the term for a maid, who does not live in) 2 days a wk.. She is AMAZING!!   But the part of life that is not easy is the fact that I am not a native Spanish speaker, nor is it my 2nd language, LOL, heck, I am barely able to get my ideas across at times.  I am trying to manage more with my limited but growing vocabulary.  If I start the conversation, then all is bueno, but god help me when someone starts talking to me first, it's anyone's guess what the conversation is about!!   All my confidence flies out the window & I find myself stumbling & stuttering...& "lo siento, hablo un poco español" (sorry, I speak only a little Spanish) comes out of my mouth as a form of self-defense, uggg!

I have felt such pride at being able to successfully order lunch meat at the deli counter.. And the guys working the counter got to know me, they knew my limited language & worked with me.  Mexico is still a somewhat sexist culture, so it didn't surprise me that the Deli guys remembered me, the very pale, poor Spanish speaker with green eyes (everyone, and I mean everyone, around here has brown eyes.. ). But then the deli got new workers, all females, who asked rapid-fire questions after my carefully practiced order.. Huh?? What are they asking me? I was not prepared for this.. And repeating my order didn't clear things up!  Next thing I know the deli lady is slicing meat & serving it to me to taste.. So then I get it, she is trying to sell me something else... Now my questioning begins.. In its limited fashion... After struggling with trying to express myself, I have to fall back on my self-defense... Which is code for:. "Take pity on me deli lady, Why are you trying to sell me something else??"
The deli guys would never have tried a switch-a-roo like that on me!

Sometimes you just need HELP...
That's when I save lil jobs for Pati... It's things like calling a doctor's office to make an appointment.. I just didn't know the words -YET- to ask for an appointment, and how to answer all the Q's that would follow... I am glad to say that now I can schedule an appointment for the doctor (must be all the practice I have been getting between hospitalizations and illnesses..LOL).    I needed Pati's help with paying the gas bill, especially since I didn't realize the occupant letter in my mailbox was even a bill.  And it was further confusing because the bill said November & December... But after paying them, I was given receipts stating October & November..  Those are just a few of the little ways Pati has been invaluable!! Everybody living abroad should get a maid so they have someone to help them just function in society!

This country is all about hired help!  In fact, the apartment next to me, has 2 maids.  One that lives in and 1 that comes a few days a week.  Really wealthy houses have a nanny, a driver, a cook and a maid for everything else.  I have not met such a family yet, but I hear they exist.... (I am pretty sure I won't be rubbing elbows with those families, but still, I bet the family that owns Jose Cuervo, for example, has several staff).  

I am sure this country has more cleaning jobs than anything else!! It's amazing, in my complex, they rake the lawn every morning to get any leaves off the grass that fell over night... And the rake is hilarious, it is made from tree branches - it literally looks like the broom the Wicked Witch from the West rode in the Wizard of Oz!
The cleaning people mop floors and wash glass doors & windows of course, but they also wash -by hand-the concrete half wall that separates the walkway from the grass play area!!  And they have the power floor scrubbers that we see used in large stores  or in malls, that clean tile floors.. They use that machine to clean the concrete floor of the garage & the drive through road in front of our building!! They are power-scrubbing the street!!  Yet, amazingly enough, I still need to wash the bottoms of our shoes periodically because they are so black!! Must be because the rest of Mexico City is not scrubbing their streets!

Aside from cleaning, Pati is teaching me wonderful things - like how to make homemade salsas... I will never buy salsa from a jar at the store again!  We have also made a number of traditional Mexican dishes, and we have liked them all.  I have tried to reciprocate and teach her a few things too.  I made my kettle corn for the kids one day, she had never had it before, and so I made a batch for her too - and she watched me so she could learn.  Of course there are no Whirly-Pop pans here in Mexico, I culd not make my fabulous popcorn without it, but I bet she can, she can do anything.  One day I needed to make cookies in a rush, so I made cake-mix cookies, She was really surprised!  First off, she had never used a cake mix before, but to see it used for a cookies, and they were done in just a few minutes, she was in awe.  She is now a fan of my meatballs (thank you Joanne!).  She has helped me make them a few times and now she has made them at her home too.  I am glad that I can share a thing or two with her.  When Pati is here, I practice my Espanol with her and she practices her English with me.  It is working out well for both of us, because we all need a lil help sometimes.   

It's just a car...

'Ya know, driving in Mexico is one of the things that I dislike about living here.  It is absolutely crazy, it's dangerous, it's actually unbelievable at time, to see the things that happen, right before your eyes...in front of your car.  But it had been a badge of honor - to me at least - that I had been able to avoid a car accident so far.  The other expat wives have warned me, to be prepared, that when it comes time to turn in my vehicle, my husband will have to fill out an accident claim form to go along with it.  "It's just inevitable," they have said, but I was soooo hoping to be the exception.

Really?  What was I thinking?  What would make me so special and exceptional that I could avoid doing - or having happen to me - what others could not?? This is after all, as I just said, the craziest place I have ever seen drivers, well... umm... drive.  They are driving cars, trucks, motorcycles & scooters... They just don't do it the same way we do back in the USA, and they don't even do it the way that the Mexican government intents them to.  Depending on where you are in Mexico, traffic laws are somewhat obeyed, like here in Santa Fe, where we live.  But in other places, there really are no traffic laws, other than WATCH OUT!

For example, There are very few traffic lights here in our city.  And a traffic light is almost always at a very large TOPE (toe -pay).  A 'tope' is a speed bump.  These speed bumps are used to control traffic in the city, instead of stop signs, or traffic lights.  These speed bumps are pretty serious, you will really hurt your car if you do not slow down for these.  Really, you are supposed to STOP, before going over these.  This allows cars in opposing lanes of traffic to make a left hand turn in front of you for example, because you will take a moment to brake before the speed bump and then have to go over it slowly.  It also allows cars to merge into your lane because these speed bumps are strategically placed in certain lanes at certain places in the road... Really, there are just a ton of these things!  For me to get off of my residential street, to join other traffic, I have to go over 6 speed bumps!  It used to be 7 speed bumps, but since 2 bumps were only 5 feet apart, they decided to remove one, whew, that's really going to help save my shocks!  Driving 3 miles to school, there are 14 speed bumps, the kids counted one day...think maybe it was a lil reminder to me to take it easy on them, because they tell me the bumps feel VERY DIFFERENT in the 2nd and 3rd rows of the car, LOL.

So drivers must "obey" speed bumps, but that is basically it.  The few traffic lights, some people stop, some do not, some stop briefly, check for walkers, and then proceed through the red light - but at least they let walkers cross the road!  Turn signals, to change lanes; I am, for a fact, the ONLY person in Santa Fe that does that!  Turn signals, to indicate a turn... There are a few of us out there, but I can tell you who is NOT USING THEM... the terrible drivers who decide to make a left hand turn from the far right hand lane, thus crossing over, in front of 3-5 lanes of traffic!  These drivers, mostly Taxis and Buses, just completely disregard everyone else and put others and themselves in danger.  They usually do this at a red light, where walkers were crossing so cars had to stop, and while the light is still red, they cut out into oncoming traffic.  The other day, I was stopped at a light, behind a car.  There were 2 cars next to me, but since the lanes for traffic are hardly marked on the road, they were not too close to me.  A small taxi came from behind all of us, squeezed between all of us and on the red light went zooming through and make a huge left-hand turn against on-coming traffic - causing 5 lanes of traffic to come to a screeching halt so as to not hit the taxi!  And to think, not a single honk, AND that someone was in that taxi, paying for the fare and to have their life jeopardized like that!

But on any other day, there will be crazy honking, usually to let you know that you should go, and stop waiting for 'your turn'.... Here, you need to 'make your turn,' 'create your turn,' just 'TAKE your turn,' or you will get run over by others!

So, I have had a couple of scrapes on my car, that were not my fault:   No esta mi falta!  I was driving next to one of the big, green, public transportation, city buses.  I really don't like those buses.  They usually stop on a dime without warning, so it is bad to be in a lane behind them,  they spew black smoke from the exhaust (choke, gasp - hello pollution), and in general, they feel they own the road, because they are huge and practically indestructible - by a car, anyway.  So while driving next to the big green monster, it started to merge into my lane - without a blinker, or a honk to warn me!  It scratched my side mirror as I was bringing my car to a stop before it took off my whole front quarter panel.  So the passenger side mirror is damaged, but it still works, whew!  Very minor, and NOT MY FAULT!

 

Then while driving to school one day, a lane of the road was blocked off.  Seriously, they do as much road work here as in Michigan, but there is no nasty winter to ruin the roads in the first place.  They seem to make up work, for the sake of having work to do.  So a huge Suburban was in the lane that was blocked off and it needed to merge behind me.  Traffic was creeping along and she jumped the gun and crept a bit too far and hit me.  And then she had the nerve to honk her horn at me and wave her hands all around, as if it were somehow my fault!!  I was in shock, really, this just happened?!?  But since it was rush hour, and we were jammed in 1 lane, there was no getting out to look... Later, all that I saw was her paint on my bumper, thank you 5mph impact bumpers!  Again, Not my fault!

But today, today is totally different.  And while technically I was driving the car, and I was the one who hit something, I must start off by saying, NONE of this would have happened, if the parking lot payment and exit procedure were not so flawed!  Danielle was supposed to go back to the Allergist to have her skin re-tested today - 6wks after the initial testing, to check the validity of a few suspected allergies (I do not, repeat DO NOT want to have an egg & Gluten allergy in my house!).  Well, there was an error in scheduling, and the doctor was in fact at the other hospital today, so Danielle's appointment had not been properly recorded, so we had to reschedule.  So we left and we had to get our parking ticket validated and pay it, in the hospital, at a parking vending machine.  I inserted the ticket, it said no charge, because we were there such a short time.  We got in our car and drove to the exit gate, put the ticket in, it said, no exit because no pay. GRR!!!  I called for assistance about 10 times, no answer and now another car was behind me.  This meant I needed to back up and go back to the hospital and re-validate the dang ticket!  So I motioned to the car behind me to back up and he did.  I started to back up and then the assistance button started to say: HOLA?? HOLA?? and 2 parking attendants were walking up and I was trying to back up and all the distraction and BAM !!!!! I hit the stupid wall and I heard the CRUNCH!

So I jerked my car forward to disengage myself from the wall, and the attendant was asking what was my trouble?  Really, smoke was coming out my ears ,and I could not formulate full Spanish sentences - I was speaking Spanglish.  "Machine said SIN CARGO, gate says NO PAGAR, now I hit the wall!!"  The attendant looks at my ticket and tells me, ever so calmly, that it took me 1 minute too long to get to the gate, so now I have to pay.  I asked if he would just let me go, I already damaged my car, I am not backing up again!  He told me to pay him the parking fee and he would raise the gate... About 5 cars were honking now as I searched my car for exact change to pay the parking fare.  In the meantime, Danielle had gotten out to look at the car.  She said it was "NOT GOOD".

Well I didn't see the car damage until we got to school, she was right, it is not good... I had my pity party and now I am moving on.  I cannot allow myself to be angry anymore.  There are far worse things that could happen today, so a giant scratch/dent in the car is not cool, but the car still runs just the same.  I am really lucky, actually, speaking of cars.  Lots of expats wives around here have husbands that work for the American Embassy.  They only get 1 car for the family, so many wives do not have a car everyday at their disposal like me.  Another expat wife here has a driver, WOW, am I jealous!  I am afraid to go places sometimes because the driving is crazy here, did I mention that??  Well, come to find out, drivers have certain days and certain hours, and if those don't fit your need, you have a problem.     

So the lesson, as always, continues to be, ACCEPTANCE.

Accept where I am, accept all that "where I am" means... the good, the bad and the crazy!

Sometimes, You Just Gotta Laugh

It has just been one of those weeks!  A whole bunch of things went wrong, stuff that was out of my control but that made me crazy none-the-less.  Insurance problems - regarding prescriptions, Insurance problems - regarding the damages to our furniture from the move, Landlord problems - those are becoming too frequent!  And the regular everyday run-of-the-mill stuff that keeps my days busy, shuttling kids to / from school, Spanish lessons, got my first Yoga class in this week; I really need to learn that meditation portion of Yoga, if I could learn to let my mind "go blank" during that chanting and stuff, I would have some significant reduction of stress. Back to the crazy week... of course these things all happen while Patrick is out of the country.
So, it really is no wonder that my mind was not quite right the other day... I picked up Danielle & Zachary after school, returned to our apt. building, and immediately had to return to school to pick up Kirsti - D & Z had to be home earlier for a Spanish lesson - that was subsequently cancelled that day.  Danielle asked for the apartment keys to let themselves in while I went back.  I reminded her she would have to let us into the apartment later, so she had to listen for our call.  I get Kirsti, we get back.  We have to take the service elevator because we do not have the keys to ride the regular elevator (you can only access your apartment directly by inserting keys into the elevator keypad).  We wait for that elevator, and wait, and about now I am wishing I had not been drinking quite so much water!  So we decide to take the stairs, it is only 6 flights.  Up we go, interestingly, the floors are not marked, and on each floor there is a door from the stairs to tkkhe service hallway.  Kirsti tells me that last time she took the stairs, the door on the 6th floor was locked...I tell her it was a fluke.  She checks the doors on floors 1, 2, 3,... up we go to the 6th floor, and.... THE DOOR WAS LOCKED!  uggg!!  So I remembered that there is an emergency access door to our apartment on the other side of the stairwell.  We go to that door and we were pleased to see it had a doorbell.  So we rang it. 1tx, 2txs, 3txs, 4txs...now we start banging on the door!  I decided to call the kids in the apartment.  Zachary answers.  I tell him we are locked in the stairwell outside our apartment and he needs to open the emergency exit door.  He is totally confused of course, he had no idea there was another door, and where was it anyway??  I give him step by step instructions, walk past this, you will see that.. listen to me bang on the door, OPEN IT!  Nothing.  He asks if we are in the service hallway, NO! then he starts to fade away... and I lose the call.  At this point I realized he had walked out of the apartment with the phone and had gotten on the service elevator, UGGGG!  Kirsti decides she has had enough, she will go down a floor to a non-locked service hallway, catch the elevator, go to our apartment, and then let me in, maybe along the way she will find Zach... I am at my boiling point!  We have been trying to get in the apartment for 10 minutes or longer.  And just where is Danielle?? She is supposed to be listening for us!!  I bet she had her earphones on...So I decide I am going to press the doorbell - NONSTOP - until Danielle hears me! And when my finger got a little tired I kicked the door a time or two.. then I was tapping out a tune on the doorbell, when I suddenly hear Kirsti's voice.  And she said, "Mom, where are you?"  I tell her I am at our door of course, where is she???  She answered, that she was at our door, and I was not!  I ran to the stairwejll, and there she was, 1 floor above me.... oppps  (Thank God, our 5th floor neighbors were not home to  see me acting like a lunatic at their door.)
Pati our helper is so awesome, she is helping me with my Spanish, she is a cleaning machine, she is a great cook.  I have really learned a lot from her in the few short weeks she has been helping us.  And this week was no exception.  I was having a Spanish lesson, when the Condo Administration personnel came to the service door.  I am sure they were relieved to see her and not me, since they could deliver their message to her, not to me, and there would be no awkward confusions over our lack of understanding each other.  After my lesson, Pati (who speaks enough English to get a main point across, she understands more than she speaks..) tells me we need to talk about my garbage... I almost laughed, umm, OK!  Then she takes me to the service hallway.  In this hall is a tiny closet, in the closet is a trash chute.  She points to the chute, she says Organico SOLO!  and I ask her again.. Que?  She said, NO TRASH, solo food, and pointed to the chute.  I gasped!!!!! I wanted to confirm, only organic trash in the chute? No other garbage?  she said yes, and I of course turned red, and she asked what I had been putting down there?  I could hardly keep a straight face, as I told her I put my recycling of plastic and metal and cardboard down the chute...and all my garbage since we moved in... The stupid little closet did not have a sign that says ORGANIC only, I can read that much in Spanish, had it been posted there!  Plus my stupid Landlady told me the garbage goes in the hallway chute.  But considering her language, she probably thought she was telling me, garbage in the hallway, rest in the chute...  Man, telling that to the kids later, they were cracking up, because the chute really is kinda small.  We have had to really cram our garbage bag into that chute in order for it to close!
And Finally, I had to go to the new underground mall, to make arrangements for Zachary's bowling birthday party this weekend.  The ENTIRE mall is underground.  The entrance to the parking is at street level, but at street level it looks like a little garden.  Everything is underground!  So parking is really down deep because that is under the mall, which is 3 levels itself!.  So I park somewhere near the center of the earth and make my way to the mall entrance.  At the bowling alley, they will validate your parking pass - because you have to pay to park absolutely everywhere you go in Mexico, period, the end, no exceptions!  After the long tedious process of arranging bowling for 10 kids - it took 1.5hrs - I get my parking pass validated and I start my journey to the center of the earth to find my car.  Now I am sure you have not given it any thought, but just so you know, the most space efficient way to drive to the center of the earth is in tight corkscrew circles.  That is how I got down there, that is how I would get out.  It is rather dizzying... I think I counted 5 full revolutions as I ascended to the surface.  And as soon as I did surface, a small panic attack set in... The parking structure had given me a ticket.  I had it validated.  I had not seen an obvious place to pay, so I did not pay, and now here I was, at the top of the corkscrew, with an unpaid ticket and a little metal ticket box...and a small button... that I pressed.  A guy answered, I spoke my few words of Spanish, asking for help, but I could not tell him what help I needed.  I just stumbled one Spanish word after and English word trying explaining my stupidity as simply as possible.  After a few minutes cars were starting to back up from behind me, realizing something was wrong... Fortunately there were 2 exit gates.  But there was NO WAY I could reverse back down to the center of the earth, 5 full revolutions to pay my ticket!  A man finally showed up and he figured out my problem.  He said I needed to pay 15pesos. So then I thought he would raise the gate right away after I paid him, WRONG, he had to traipse back down the black hole with my money.  So then I thought he would raise the gate from down there, so I planned that I would think him by using the call button one more time.. And I waited... with my hazard lights on now, because I had been there quite some time. And then, they guy showed up next to my car again!  Then he swiped my ticket and the gate was raised.  I could not believe that poor man had to travel up and down that journey to the center of the earth 4 times for me!  I cannot believe I am the first to make this mistake, nor will I be the last!  I surely hope they get a better plan in place to access the gate from the control center in the black hole...  I just about wanted to die, AGAIN, for the 3rd time this week!
It is Thursday, I have managed to be completely normal and un-obnoxious today... hooray!

Helping Hand

Everybody needs a helping hand... maybe some domestic help..??

In this country, there are jobs that are simply 'created' for the sake of a person having a job, so that they can earn money & be of service and use to the community, because not everyone has the good fortune of an education that helps them get a good paying job.  So there are jobs that Americans would NEVER consider doing... like the Parking lot Attendants - this is what I call them now.  I use to call them the useless guys who try to help you park your car.  Really, they walk around whistling at cars, telling people where to park, and then when you want to leave, they make a huge production about standing behind your vehicle so everyone knows you are about to back out.  Then they whistle and and wave their arms to alert you its OK to back out, and how far you can back out.. Its a big production.  Really...I have a vehicle that is equipped with a rear camera, so I have a really nice screen shot of what is happening behind me - and even if I did not, I have been driving for a long time now, I know how to back out of a parking spot.  So I used to think these guys were rather useless and just looking for a handout, and I was not usually too inclined to TIP this guy, because I had usually just tipped a few others before him. 

So if you go to the grocery store, they ALWAYS have grocery baggers... You never have to bag your own stuff because there is NO SELF CHECK OUT! And the Cashier does not have to bag groceries either.  This is because of the need to create extra jobs whenever possible - this goes back to everyone deserves a chance to earn an income, some how, some way..  So the grocery store baggers take care of bagging up your stuff, and you MUST TIP them, because I found out fortunately in the first week here, that these people DO NOT GET ANY SALARY..they survive only on TIPS!  And quite often, these people, are very old, or very young.  I don't mind the very young, they have life ahead of them, they have a chance to make choices to make a better life for themselves, but it kills me to see people the age of my parents, doing this job, living off TIPS.  So I tend to TIP these people generously. 

Then you have your groceries in your cart and off you go....Until you reach the exit of the store and you encounter the next level of assistance.  I calls these guys the Pushers/Unloaders (and they are often quite pushy) ... The guys who want to push your cart from the store to your car and unload your bags.  Some guys just offer assistance, you can answer Si or No, and others just grab your cart from you.. I suspect the grabbers/the pushy ones tend to make more money, but I like these people less.  So these guys are usually polite and quite efficient at unloading the bags in an orderly fashion in the vehicle, but now you have to TIP these guys too!  Seriously, this gets a bit stressful if I am going to the store, I have to look at the change in my purse in advance to know just whose services I can allow/afford that trip!  

So, on Thursday, Pati, our maid started (gasp, I succumbed!).  She is coming to the house 2 days a week to help with cleaning and to help me with my Spanish, because she only speaks a little English, and I want her to help me with things like shopping and learning to cook Mexican food.  Pati is a cleaning machine!  She is very nice, it was great to have some companionship in the house for the day and we did shop and she was helpful in several ways.

So it was Pati that explained to me about the 'Parking Attendant' guy that helps you park and backout.. I usually just wave and smile at the guy, because as I said, seriously, I did not even need his help!  But She told me that his job is to monitor the parking lot, to watch out for theft and vandalism and his very presence there makes people more careful getting in and out of cars so they do not 'ding' or scratch other people's cars.  So he has an actual real purpose, besides the big production of waving people in and out of spots!  So she told me I really do need to TIP this guy!  Fortunately for the guy, I had to turn around and circle past him, so we could stop and give him a Tip.  Thinking back to my previous 'smile and wave, smile and wave' technique, I now realize the Parking Attendant probably had his own ideas about waving a 'lil something back at me....ha ha ha, but that would never happen here in Santa Fe...(in Mexico City, totally!!).

So after we tipped him, it had me thinking a little, since I was shopping with Pati, I was not approached even once by a Pusher/Unloader... because they realized I already had a helping hand... That was a really nice added perk of that trip to the store.  Of course, it takes a little getting used to having help in the first place, Pati and I both kept reaching for the grocery cart and practically fighting over who was going to push it.. She won.

I am sure Pati is going to help me in so many ways besides the cleaning... In just the one day, she has already taught me about cleaning products (there about a million to choose from), helped me pick a much better mop (I figure if she was willing to use it, she could pick out a new one to go with the correct cleaning products, right?), she helped me with my new washer/dryer with about 15 different cycles, all in Spanish of course, and the Parking Attendant tip (nice pun, huh?) ..and I had the extreme satisfaction that mmy house was cleaned in one day between the two of us working together.  Not to mention I practiced Spanish and Charades (which goes hand-in-hand with my Spanish, lol).
I was able to work on her English with her a little too, and I introduced her to Pretzels, and Edamame.

I look forward to the new adventures with Pati....