Archive for Jillian

Wednesday at the Mercado with Chickens

caption this if you can.

10Feb2010 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued

“I don’t need anything except this…and that’s the only thing I need, is this”

In order to arrive in Mexico unencumbered and unbearably light we sold, stored and defenestrated* the majority of our material possessions. (Our spiritual possessions we thought might come in handy) While living in the Suites del Sol, browsing the Sunday markets we aquired Cervantes, you may recall – we plan to go nowhere without his [...]

9Feb2010 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued

The Reckoning: Verbal Skills and Communication

Language Lab Most of the Spanish that I speak, I learned my first six weeks in Mexico. I bounded into the English library like a puppy, and in the eyes of the cranky ancients, smoking and mouldering amid the stacks, must have seemed like one about to piddle on the carpet. I signed up for [...]

8Feb2010 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued

Tacos y Amigos

Yesterday we jumped out of bed, had coffee, and were on the road before 10 am. We like to slip out before the arrival of Mari and Marcelo, so that when we come home it seems the house and yard have been magically washed and tidied, as if by Fabuloso-bearing elves. Our Saturday mornings have [...]

4Feb2010 | Jillian | 2 comments | Continued

… And We’re Back (But Not For Long)

As it turns out, as we have proven, you can abandon your pressboard life, board a plane to a place you’ve never been and carve out an existence – and a pretty sweet one at that – in an uncanny valley far, but not too far, from home. We didn’t drop off the edge of [...]

2Feb2010 | Jillian | 5 comments | Continued

Everybody Seems to Wonder What It’s Like Down Here

it’s not as difficult or as easy to live in Mexico as I imagined I have seen exactly three scorpions in three years don’t bother eating the Chinese food you will not immediately lose 30 pounds I still don’t have a good doctor insurance is cheap labor is cheap quality furniture is not cheap and [...]

18Mar2009 | Jillian | 7 comments | Continued

Bad Expat: Changing My Marketing Strategy

I knew there was a mercado in Chelem but I never went inside until today. Waiting for the combi in the heat of early afternoon in centro you can smell sun-drenched entrails, past-peak produce and the overwhelming scent of ripening flowers. I would watch repelled, the lazy dogs that lay in wait for discarded scraps [...]

17Mar2009 | Jillian | 2 comments | Continued

Enamigos

America loves a monolithic enemy. What united a disparate and fledgling colony better than big bad daddy Britain? When were we more American than when we were facing off against Russia? Since the Cold War ended (it’s been sooo boring, right?) the focus on The Middle East and Islam has been a fairly successful stand-in. [...]

16Mar2009 | Jillian | 3 comments | Continued

In Defense of The Tourist

Perhaps I am feeling too charitable, too unironic, too patriotic today but I am going to come out and opine that American citizens, if they are able to take a hard-earned vacation, should absolutely wear ugly shorts, get horribly sunburnt, and enjoy fruity cocktails by the pool. Maybe I am playing the devil’s advocate or [...]

13Mar2009 | Jillian | 11 comments | Continued

Time Passes

The expat is self-involved, due to the nature of his adventure. Life back home is mundane, the same, but here we are out exploring, peering over the edge, rounding the cape to seek new horizons. We are consumed with what we are encountering for the first time, navigating, processing and becoming engaged in unfamiliar surroundings. [...]

11Mar2009 | Jillian | 2 comments | Continued

Now We’re Cooking Without Gas

Gas on demand is a luxury of the first world. Here in Chelem when the cylinder is empty we employ our wicked expat ingenuity. It’s rough out here, people; we live by our wits. Forced to subsist on brie, bread and chili since Sunday, I am taking back lunch. Today I blend vegetables and recover [...]

10Mar2009 | Jillian | 2 comments | Continued