Our Mexican adventure begins

We arrived here about a month and some change ago, and we're settling into life in Guadalajara pretty well. Lots has been going on- not enough fingers to count everything on. Here are the highlights:

-We are living in a furnished 2-bedroom apartment in a very nice part of Guadalajara, near the Minerva circle, for anyone familiar with this area. It's very green around here, and close by there are amenities like coffee shops, restaurants, grocery stores, etc. Our apartment is owned by a woman originally from Barcelona who owns several upscale tile stores in town. It's just been completely "redone" (lots of fancy tile!) and we're not roughing it by any stretch of the imagination. As I said, this apartment is fully furnished and we're not really lacking for anything, if you don't count my espresso machine. Or kitchen equipment. Or Andy's tools. Or the kids' toys. Or our clothes, art, books, etc. etc. OK, so we miss our stuff, but that will get here soon enough- maybe another 6 weeks or 8 weeks, depending.

-The girls are in school and loving it. They are in a kindergarten program in an English immersion school but all their classmates are Mexican, so they are learning playground Spanish (what better kind is there?) One of the first words they learned was "cochinita" which means literally "little pig" or semiliterally "little dirty thing". Although the kiddos usually resemble little dirty things when they get home from school, this specifically is in reference to the roly poly bugs they and their classmates love to collect and play with during recess. Much happy bonding has happened during cochinita collection time between our gringa daughters and their new compatriots. Anyway, it's a favorite word around here and my car has been christened "Cochenita"- a play on the word for car ("coche") and dirty. With a 2 year old, a 4 year old and a fixer upper house, it will be dirty fast enough. Lucy, clever gal she is, came up with the name.

- On the note of the car- I got a new 2007 Honda CR-V. It's great, and it features all the airbags we could ever need while navigating the insane traffic circles which grace our new city. It has Jalisco (that's the state Guadalajara is in) license plates so until I get out of the car I'm not immediately identified as a gringa. Andy is waiting to get a new car in California, as the one he wants (a Honda Element) isn't sold in Mexico. He's going to get it after we get our FM-3's- our long-term visas. That's another story.

-We closed on the purchase of our new house Tuesday. The purchase process was not complicated and we did not work with a real estate agent. We found the house through word of mouth (through our friends George and Gabriel, the owners of Casa Venezuela- the amazing B&B we stayed in in August, which is a few blocks away.) All real estate transactions here in Mexico need to be managed and recorded by a "notario"- roughly the combined equivalent of a lawyer and a title company in the US. We found our notario through our friend Matt who had some interaction with him while Matt was in law school at USC. Our notario speaks perfect English and also has a US law degree from Duke. The notario helped us with the necessary paperwork and his crew also performed the title search. Incidently, we were able to purchase this house only with tourist visas. We own the house outright, too; as we are not within 50 km of the coast, the "putting the property in a bank trust" requirement does not apply.

-Our FM-3 visas are in process. An FM-3 visa is for people like us who will not be working. It is good for 1 year and FM-3 holders may have a car in Mexico. It is renewable every year. If we want to- and this is really a long way out and far from our thinking- we could apply for Mexican citizenship after 5 years of living here on an FM-3, not that there's really any reason to do so. It's very hard to get a working visa in Mexico, unless one is clearly going to do a job a Mexican cannot do, like teaching English as a native speaker. Anyway, we had to give up our tourist visa entry cards a couple of weeks ago when we started the process, and until we get the FM-3's we will not be able to leave Mexico. We expect that we should have them in a few weeks.

-Spanish. Well, Andy is doing pretty well, and the kids seem to be holding their own at school. I am struggling, although my comprehension is getting better all the time. All those years of French are decidedly NOT helping- when I speak most of my prepositions and many verb tenses come out in French, which is often confusing to my interlocutors. When we get a little more settled, and find more childcare (the kids are only in school for a half day, which isn't much time considering all the running around we're doing getting house, car, insurance, etc etc.) I will be taking some classes. So for now I'm learning on the fly. It's frustrating but I guess it's making me a better person or something. I have only made one bad faux pas, when I asked a gas station attendent to fill it up. I think I said something like fill me up, which means something pornographic here, and the guy was about 80 years old.... he handled it better than Andy did when I told him what I said later on. Anyway, I try to say the least needed when I don't know the person I'm talking to.

Generally speaking we are very happy, and Guadalajara is a good place to be. Overall it seems that Lucy has had the toughest time with the transition. She's old enough to have real relationships with people, but not quite able to grasp why we're doing this, or even how far away we are from San Francisco- for example, she still wants to invite her former classmates to her birthday party next week. Lily is taking it all utterly like a champ, as long as she gets her afternoon siesta. Andy and I have not yet been hit by homesickness, but we know it's only a matter of time before it will come. What has helped has been the few friendships we've made. Primary is George- the owner of the B&B we stayed in in August. He is a really sweet, generous guy- funny and easy to hang out with. Also a treasure trove of info. George has lived in Guadalajara for just over a year- originally he's from Orlando, where he was the VP of food & beverage for Hyatt for 20 years. His Mexican partner, Gabriel, is in medical school and is busy with that- so George has lots of time on his hands, when the B&B isn't full. He loves to shop and has amazing taste. His place is 2 blocks from the kids school (4 blocks from our new house), so after we drop them off in the morning, we swing by George's for coffee and frequently some sort of outing. George and Gabriel just got a new puppy so the kids like going to his place even more. Our other main new friends here are Liesl, and her 5 year old son Cristian. They have been a godsend- Lucy and Cristian are new best friends, and Andy and I love hanging out with Liesl, a smart and interesting single mom. They moved here in August from Denver. Cristian's dad was Mexican and Liesl wants Cristian to learn Spanish and understand his Mexican heritage. We do many kid-friendly things together, especially on the weekends.

The weather has been hot, although the rainy season is tapering off and it's getting much less humid than it was. The daytime temps are probably in the low to mid 80's in the sun, cooler in the shade. The fall is coming on though- it's definitely getting cooler in the mornings and sometimes I even need a jacket.

Guadalajara is a pretty place, although it's scruffy around the edges most everywhere. That said, if you look a little closer there are architectural gems all over the place. I don't know much about the Mexican economy or history yet, but it seems that there is a fast growing middle class with more disposable income now. There are lots of home improvement stores here, but not many boutique-y places like you'd find in San Francisco or Boston or New York or Paris. Lots of fancy cars. But still many buildings are in disrepair and the sidewalks are all crazy and you have to always watch out when you're walking for huge random potholes. It will be interesting to see what this place is like in 10 years