Back in the USSA - August 2018

NOB (North of Border), United States of America

Our youngest son, James (aka Sunny Jim) got married on August 10 to a lovely young lady he has known for 10 years. Her name was Mattie Cardenaz, and is now Mattie Magers (a surprise to us). So Mark will no longer be the only M-Squared in the family!

They had a civil ceremony at the San Luis Obispo County Courthouse, officiated by a nice lady who works for the County. The service was lovely, short and to the point, with a concise and helpful messages, rather than platitudes. The kids also read their own statements to each other, and they were awesome. Many Kleenex were passed about. They were full of sound reasons why they were friends, why they love each other and wanted to get married. And only $149! Wisely, they want to spend money not on flowers, site rentals, and rubber chicken, but instead on travel to broaden their perspectives, and their relationship. We all know that traveling with another person teaches you a lot, and builds memories and bonds that can be lasting. Well played, kids! 





We’ll be writing a separate post on the “doings” during the trip, as we wanted to concentrate on the topic of “compare and contrast.” 

We have now been in Mexico for 10 months, mas o menos, and as we were counting down to the trip, a number of our friends in Mexico were asking us to keep track of our reactions to being back in the USSA (aka NOB or North of Border) after almost a year away. So this is a recounting of those reactions and observations. Our brief peregrination included Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Mountain View, Oakland (all CA) then to Seattle and Othello, WA. 

An easy and obvious observation is that everything was in, duh… English. For the first few days we caught ourselves saying por favor and gracias to almost everyone! We both found that being able to exchange banter in English that was not two steps from the Berlitz “Travel Spanish” booklet was kind of refreshing. It’s not that we don’t speak a lot of English in Mexico, but a goal here is to learn Spanish. So, Mark says "At least speaking for myself...I have no good gift of gab to use there, and since bullsh*tting and bad puns are a key part of my personality, I notice it. Small thing, but there it is."

Now THAT'S a pastrami sandwich!

A bigger deal was food (and drink). We had a list for LA that included pastrami ruebens (is that redundant?), garlic noodles in San Gabriel at Jonathan Gold’s favorite spot (RIP, Jonathan), and visits to the Tiki-Ti and a refurbished tiki bar inside Clifton’s Seven Seas in downtown LA. We had 24 hours to do this, so the reubens (and Tiki-Ti of course) won out, and thank Yahweh for that. We went to the venerable Canter’s, and shared a reuben and a bowl of matzo ball soup. The matzo ball was slightly larger than a baseball, the broth appropriately schmaltzy. Then there was the pastrami. Mark called it a Shark Week experience, as at the first bite his eyes rolled back in his head. Later, on our trip north, we stopped in Ventura and had some excellent wine, clam chowder and sand dabs. Same thing, not much talking, just a lot of “OMG-this-is-awesome” muttering between bites. 

Tiki Ti on Sunset, LA

What else was a surprise? Homeless people were very conspicuous in the US, almost everywhere. Encampments under the highways, street and cardboard sign people at many, not just some, stoplight intersections. Mexico is in general much poorer than the US, of course, but we see much less overall of such situations here. There may be many reasons for this difference, but it was quite a contrast for us.

Morning commute, Highway 24

What else did we notice? Well, driving in 6 lanes each direction at 80 mph came back to Mark pretty easily, but he has “slowed his roll” a lot since moving south. We were just not (generally) in such a hurry. Roads NOB are universally in better condition, though learning to see and avoid potholes in Oakland for 20 years is still a skill rewarded daily in Mexico! The US streets were also cleaner, and little things like curbs, noticeable. Curbs put a crimp in the “Drive Like a Mexican” (sung to the tune of “Walk Like an Egyptian”),  since you can’t easily just pull over, reverse direction, pass on the right, change your mind, etc. People NOB are much more likely to obey signs and lights, stick with rules about when it is safe to pass, while in Mexico these things are considered suggestions. 

Oh, Boy! Oberto!

How about the selection of consumer goods in the retail environment? Geez. We walked into a Target store and were reminded of something daughter Susannah said at age 3, when Aunt Glenda came to visit for a few days and was unpacking – “whoa, look at all this stuff!” We are accustomed to an aisle where the mayo is stocked, even in a large Walmart, with 3 choices, all same brand, 2 plain mayo in 2 sizes plus one more “con limon,” as an example. There may be a couple of 8-foot shelves for it but there is still a limited selection. Not a problem, just different. And that said, we definitely filled our suitcases with stuff we can’t easily get down south, like: chocolate from Divine, Dilettante and Boehms, wine from Turley and New Zealand, meat products from Oberto..... 

The ubiquity of traffic snarls in both California & Washington was not a surprise, but quickly had us wondering how so many people can fit in one town. In Mexico, traffic problems are sometimes caused by too many cars, but as likely it’s a dead animal in the road (from dogs to horses,) or a road repair that will likely be repeated in the same area in another 6-9 months, in part due to budget and in part due to la ley de chamba. [Chamba is a slang term for paying work, and the phrase basically means if something is permanently fixed, there will be no paying work from it in the future. This link provides a great example,  one involving woodpeckers and telephone poles.  (Not intended to be cynical, it's Mexican slang, not ours!)]

Worth the price?

Not so much a surprise, more a reminder that one of our reasons to explore “geo-arbitrage”, was how much things cost in the USSA. Granted, we were generally in some of the most expensive places in the US, but prices felt astronomical after 10 months in Mexico. A martini NOB costs somewhere between $10-14 (we have several data points from this trip). At $12, that is roughly 220 pesos. At Lake Chapala, a martini is somewhere between 45-65 pesos. Granted, Plymouth Gin is superior to Oso Negro, but not 4X better. Exceptions, a McDonald’s cheeseburger (which we did miss, admittedly). At about 30 pesos, you can’t touch that in Mexico, but the alternative here is a couple of good al pastor tacos for under 20 pesos, a fair offset. And yes, when we bought almost anything in the US we converted the price to pesos and asked “is it really worth that many pesos?” 

Warm spirit of Mexico

Another contrast we noticed is the insularity of many Americans, which Mexicans read as being cold and/or unfriendly. This may be a generality or regional thing, but we are accustomed now to saying “hola, buenos dias” to almost everyone we encounter, known to us or not. In restaurants in Mexico when passing a table still eating we often say, and have said to us (though less likely as we are clearly gringos,) buen provecho! (aka bon appetit) Why can’t Americans be as friendly to everyone? 

Seeing family and friends made us both happy and sad, reminding us that it is more infrequent. Being away also reminded us why we chose Mexico, which felt like home when we got back. Viva Mexico!

(25 de agosto de 2018) (Sorry for the delay, tech and work conspired)