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We
had started to think that our life wasn’t too different
from yours, until we got back to the States this last Christmas
and began taking note of all the little ways in which our Mexican
life was changing our perception. I hope you enjoy reading the
following list as much as we did coming up it.
YOU KNOW YOU'VE BEEN IN MEXICO TOO LONG WHEN:
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At
a party, you find yourself going around kissing every single
person “good-bye” before leaving. (Tim,
of course, only kisses the women good-bye. The men get a handshake.)
-
 During
a walk around the neighborhood a dog barks and you automatically
look up at the roofs of the surrounding houses for the dog.
(Many Mexicans keep dogs living on their
roofs as a sort of alarm system.)
-
At
church, you are amazed by how wonderfully punctual people
are and how short the Sunday morning worship services are.
(At our Mexican church people generally
arrive 20 to 60 minutes late and the service is about 1 hour
and 40 minutes)
-
You
find yourself thinking longingly of the great food in America
that you can’t get in Mexico, like Thai, Vietnamese,
Indian, and Tex-Mex. But once you get there you are amazed
by how BIG the servings are and how much weight you can gain
in such a short time. And tipping over 10 percent seems exorbitant.
(Tipping is not at all universal and
10 percent is considered generous.)
-
As
you walk out of a restaurant you find yourself trying to catch
people’s eye so you can tell them “Provecho”
(The polite thing to say on your way
out of-or into-a restaurant… roughly translated, “Enjoy
your meal.”)
-
Driving,
you find yourself marveling at how cheap the gas is and how
wide and smooth the streets are. (We
pay about 3 dollars a gallon.) Also, you realize that
staying in your lane, coming to a full and complete stop,
and generally obeying traffic laws takes a concentrated effort
that used to come naturally.
God
Bless...
Tim and Annette
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