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Things I am not sure I will ever get used to

It's hard to believe, but we have been in Mexico for over a month now. In that short amount of time we have celebrated 2 birthdays, eaten countless tacos and nachos, and had 3 visits from the tooth fairy. We are adjusting to our new culture well, but just for fun, I wanted to list some of the differences we have noticed between life here and back in the states.

1) Eggs from the grocery store have not been washed. We had plenty of chickens back in Washington, so I'm not really put off by eggs with chicken poo still on them. I just don't expect to buy them from the store that way!

2) The sewer pipes are approximately half the diameter of pipes in the US. Which means...toilet paper is not flushed down the potty, but thrown into the trash instead. To cover up any offending odors due to this, we have found that most of the toilet paper in the stores is scented. Nothing like the smell of flowers wafting up to your nostrils as you tear off a piece of TP to use!

3) Shortly before school starts, the kids get into two single file lines outside the locked gates (one for girls and one for boys). When the gates are unlocked, the students are greeted one by one with a handshake by one of the teachers as they are welcomed into the school. The girls’ line goes first, followed by the boys’ line. After they shake hands with the teacher, then they are free to go to their classrooms.

4) You cannot drink water from the tap. We have a 5 gallon water jug in our house which holds our drinking water. When it runs empty, we have to walk with it across campus to the refilling station and then carry it back home once it is full. The water jug is a lot easier to carry when it is empty than when it is full!

5) Refried beans for breakfast. Refried beans for lunch. Refried beans for dinner. Apparently there is never a bad time for refried beans.

6) Driving. People pass vehicles however they feel like it. Some will drive on the shoulder of the road to pass other cars and nobody bats an eyelash. Also construction is not always advertised and they don’t put up detour signs. If the road is closed, it is up to you to find your way around it.

7) Stores out here carry all sorts of sugary cereal. You can find Fruit Loops, Lucky Charms, Frosted Flakes, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, etc with ease. However, we cannot find a single store that carries regular Cheerios or Rice Krispies. Maybe all the spicy salsa down here has forever impacted people’s taste buds and they can’t tolerate “plain” cereals?

8) Mexicans can ( and do!) wear long sleeved shirts even in summer. I can’t tell you how many people we have seen RUNNING for exercise in 80+ degree weather wearing long pants and sweatshirts! I would be dying from heat exhaustion, but their bodies seem to tolerate it without too much issue.

Well, that is all for now. I hope you enjoyed these little snippets into our lives. I am sure I am forgetting several things, but I will just have to write them down when I think of them and do another post like this next month. Until then, thanks for thinking of us and reading about our adventures!

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