2017 has truly been an eventful year for our family! In December of 2016 Gary applied for a job in Mexico City and was offered the job to our surprise AND we had our baby girl in April of 2017! Here's a little background to how we ended up living in Mexico City. I honestly didn't think Gary had a chance of getting this job so I said go ahead and apply for it. Shortly afterwards he got word that he passed the first couple of hurdles which usually happens, but nothing ever comes of it normally so I wasn't that concerned. When he came home and told me he was offered the job I was shocked! We both were shocked! They literally gave us 48 hours to make a decision on if we wanted to take the job and move to Mexico City. It was stressful and crazy all at the same time. Gary's dream has always been to live in Mexico ever since he came back on his mission about 15 years ago. This was once in a lifetime chance for us to live "oversees" and we didn't want to pass this opportunity up. Our housing would be paid for and everything! After praying about it we made our decision to do it. I was of course worried about doing it since I would have a newborn and I didn't speak a lick of Spanish. We still had concerns, but we felt confident that we made the right decision. We didn't have a specific time we would be leaving, but we knew it would be somewhere in the summer. We decided to rent out our home for the time-being. I quit my job on March 10th and had our baby girl on April 3rd! It was a magical time with very little sleep and energy, but completely worth it! I can't imagine my life without her! We didn't end up leaving for Mexico City until August 9th. We had professional movers pack us out in 2 days which was crazy, but I'm glad we didn't have to do it ourselves. We lived in three different temporary housing waiting for our apartment to be ready which was crazy, but it was well worth the wait! Our first place was a little apartment on the ground floor which was nice, but nothing fancy. A cleaning lady would come everyday which was a bit of an adjustment, but it was nice to have a clean apartment! The next place we ended up staying at was unfortunately a hotel. A high-end hotel, but still a hotel.... The room was SO tiny especially when you factor in two dogs and a baby. The hotel provided a crib and even two doggy beds which was awesome! What wasn't so hot was every time I would just put the baby down for a nap the cleaning lady would come and wake her up! We stayed there for two weeks, but it felt like forever. The final place we stayed at for two months was just down the road from the hotel. It was a nice apartment that was so open and spacious! It was wonderful! In this apartment we received our air shipment so we got to have more of our stuff instead of just living out of our 12 bags/suitcases. The reason we had to wait so long to get into our permanent residence was because our place was undergoing a major renovation. They could of given us another place to live, but no one was moving out till October so we would of been moving in the following month anyway so we just decided to stick it out and get a new home. I'm so glad we did, because we literally have new flooring, tiling, kitchen appliances, bathrooms, etc. It was worth the wait! Our place is SO BEAUTIFUL! We would never be able to afforded this place on our own. We live in a super safe area where there is a guard on duty 24/7. We even have an L shaped patio where I can do a little gardening which is amazing! Here is a picture of it.
We have now been in our new place for about a month now. We have been on several trips since we've been here including Tepoztlan, Oaxaca, Teotihuacan, Cholula, Tehuacan, Mixquic, Puebla,. I will post separate posts for each of these since we have lots of photos to share from each of these trips.
Reasons why I love Mexico
1) It is warm ALL year round! I can't tell you how lovely it is to go outside in the middle of January and it's 70-75 degrees outside! It feels like springtime all the time! We did get a couple of cold snaps, but for the most part it's been lovely here.
2) Flora and Fauna- There are so many different species of plants and flowers here that I am enjoying very much. It's interesting, because there are both deciduous and coniferous trees, but then have palm trees as well!
They also have the cutest little doves and cool looking squirrels. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.
Bird of Paradise
Cactus Farm!
Squirrel!
They look like baby doves that never get any bigger
3) Artisan Markets - They are all over the place! You can usually find them near the Zocalo (City Square) They are always so colorful and fun to explore. Each town has at least one.
4) The people are super friendly especially for someone like me who doesn't speak much Spanish.
5) There are tons of ruins and archeology sites everywhere! A lot of sites are fairly close so we can make trips on the weekends so we can get out of the city pretty easily.
6) Our church family has been a great support for me as we have settled into life here. We have already made friends and it's nice to talk to people in English although we haven't lived as many places as everyone else we feel loved.
Things that are not so great living here...
1) Drivers here are CRAZY and it's downright scary driving here, but I have ventured out on my own and it has gotten better. I still don't like it, but Gary has adjusted quite well and as they say drives like a "Mexican"..heh. You know that line from "Pirates of the Caribbean" where Captain Barbossa says "The code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules" pretty much sums up the driving here.
2) The language is hard to grasp. I'm still struggling a lot, but Gary and I are reading in Spanish to help me understand it better.
The last one is kind of funny/sad. Mother's here really bundle up their babies with sweaters and jackets and blankets. It's ridiculous. If we don't dress Aurora up to a certain standard like wearing socks we tend to get a lot of judgemental looks. We normally joke about it when we are out and about, but I do really feel bad for the babies. They must be SO hot! It does get a little cool in the morning, but they just go overboard with everything.
After living here for 6 months now I don't feel like a tourist anymore and it feels more like home.
