We’re still here en otro lado—on the fun side of the wall—skipping the light fandango as we begin our fifth month in our adopted country. I hit a wall literally and figuratively on 8/18 (nice bump on mi cabeza!) and, as if knocking some sense into me, finally felt that I could make Mexico my home. We’re learning that “homecoming” takes a while to fully adapt to a new culture, language, monetary system, terrain, climate and cerebral rewiring, but we feel that we’re here for the duration. There is so much heart, life and color here on Lake Chapala!
Here’s a pithy FB posting that speaks to making a new life:
We began the process of disengaging from our old life after the 2016 election where we felt that the U.S. was no longer a compatible or affordable place for us to thrive. And here we are at last recreating a new life in Central Mexico in our twilight years. Who knew? Thankfully, there are many of us adventurous (or crazy) gringo elders down here, but it still blows our minds that we’re living in Mexico! We could not have imagined this in our youth or even five years ago! It makes us laugh when we hear or read about the unfounded fears that so many Norteamericanos still have about traveling or living in Mexico. We feel very safe and welcome here.
My father was a “foreigner” to America as he came through Ellis Island from Sweden nearly a century ago. Now his daughter gets to experience being La Gringa foreigner with her esposo, Alex. We are challenged by but enjoy learning the beautiful, romantic Spanish language. It will take us awhile to really be able to converse fluently, but we’re learning poco a poco at our biweekly Ole Spanish language school. Memorizing verb conjugations and nouns isn’t as easy as it might have been 50+ years ago in high school!
Being “retired” and on a perpetual “vacation,” you may wonder what we do all day. We’re still trying to figure that out ourselves and are amazed how busy socially we are! Being that we rarely use our car and only selectively, we average about 2 miles a day walking along the lake, to Spanish class, marketing, restaurants, etc., and more if we hike into the nearby hills. Thankfully, we are building a rich community of like-minded individuals in which to explore and savor the flavors and magic of Lake Chapala.
In our new easy-going lifestyle, we have been graced with time to reflect upon our lives. We think about the many wonderful friends and family we have in “the old country” and are awestruck by the impermanence of it all. This is a very rich time for us to reevaluate all that has led us to this point in our lives and to this little colorful village of Ajijic.