Adios, Mexico. It was a blast!

The cats give zero shits about our goals

We have only 7 days left in Mexico. We’re making sure we do all the things we love one more time before we go. We’re scheduling time with friends and have a prioritized list of restaurants to visit. Plus there’s work to do. We came to this country with two suitcases, two carry-ons and two cats. We’re determined to leave with no more.

We’re going to spend a month or so in the US, then by Feb we’ll be off to Spain.

But before that, it’s time to reflect on how we did against our goals for the trip/year.

Goal #1: Learn the language. Score: C-

I don’t know if you know this about Spanish, but you can say literally anything in that language. Some things you can even say in multiple ways. All this to say, it was a bigger job than we scoped it out to be. But clear progress has been made, another couple or three years and we’ll probably feel a little more comfortable.

This is definitely something that will carry over into next year.  In reality, it’s been so much fun to be in language class that we hope to keep doing it forever. Meeting all the weirdo expats has been the best part.

Goal #2: Immerse ourselves in the culture. Score: C-

Like everyone else, my phone had to be 2 feet above my head to get this shot

I had been looking forward to day of the dead all year. This was the weekend that formula 1 came to town, and there was going to be all this great food and art and celebrations. I was like a kid! But the reality of it was that everybody seemed to show up for both events. Major crowds made both hard to enjoy.

This has been our story with going out to the big events. We’d rather just stay home, and so we have.

the word for buzzard is “zopilote”

 

But we’ve excelled in the cultural activities of eating street food and sitting by pools reading books.

Giving this a grade of C- may be a little bit harsh, but I stand by it. When the grading auditors come, I stand in integrity.

Goal #3: Reduce our consumption grade: B+

nada mas

We’re pretty proud of how much we’ve reduced our lifestyle down to the essentials. Allison and I are constantly holding back incredible tips on stuff like “why not make our own toothpaste?” and “socks are terrible inventions, do we really need them?”.

Just give us any hint that anybody cares and these tips will totally take over this blog.

The work has totally paid off. We’re spending less than we thought we would, and we see how we could have done even better without suffering. It’s really cool.

goal 4: Figure out what is next Grade: C

This goal was about figuring out our lives as semi-retired or perpetual sabbatical kind of people. At some point, we were supposed to have a revelation about this. We’re still waiting. In the meantime, we’ll try not to screw anything up and continue to put hours into online volunteering.
That’s it for now. We’ll probably post again in March or so. Once we’re set up in our new place. Adios Mexico! Gracias por todo!

And come see us. Visitors are fun.