-or- How to Move Away From Your Home Country and Not Want to Move Back in Six Months.

People go on vacation every day and comment “Oh, I would so love to live here!  Maybe someday!”

That’s fine, but would you really?  How would you do if you actually made the move to México?  Here are my thoughts on what makes a successful expat.

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Know Yourself You know what you love and hate, what will irritate you and what you can let slide.  Make honest lists about what you need in a community.  (I talked about our lists recently in a blog post, here.)  We know several expat couples that have lived for years at a time in several different places as they work out what is best for them. Moving around can be a great way to see the country and find your perfect place, but it can also be frustrating and expensive.

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How flexible are you? Or in other words, how rigid are you? The more flexible you are, the better, in my opinion.  You might be faced with a laundry day with no water, or the city digging up the street in front of your house without notice, or a marching band blasting away outside your window… how will you react? Want to make something for dinner and can’t find an ingredient?  Are you going to substitute something else with a smile or get worked up about it?

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How much research have you done? Do you read expat blogs, books written by expats, and participate in forums? How much traveling have you done around the country?

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Have problems you want to get away from? Don’t move away from home thinking your problems will be miraculously cured.  They won’t.  It might even make things worse!

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How much of a self-starter are you? You are going to have to decide how involved in your community you want to be.  If your neighbors are sitting outside in the evening catching a breeze, will you stop and visit a while?

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How sensitive are you? Do you notice little things?  The Mexican people are very sensitive to nuance.  They are very polite and you’ll be more successful if you are aware of the “should do’s” as you move through your day.  Greeting the whole group on arrival and departure is one of those social rules that I have a hard time getting used to.  But “buen provecho“(enjoy your meal), “con permiso” (with your permission), “muy amable” (how nice of you),  ”el gusto es mio” (the pleasure is mine), are all social niceties that I thoroughly use and love.

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How many different things do you love about your proposed new home? The more the better.  The least successful expats seem to be those that move for just one reason – finances or the weather, for example. If one little thing changes, it can ruin the whole environment for you.

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Will you be able to continue your hobbies in your new home? If it is very important to continue your hobby in your new home, check it out ahead of time.  I wrote a post recently on my knitting hobby and what I had to do to keep it up here in Mazatlán.

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How important are the foods from home to you? Friends recently brought us a gift of sharp cheddar cheese and Adams peanut butter.  It was a fantastic treat, but just that, a treat.  It isn’t something we have to have.  Lemons were elusive here until recently – I never really missed them, just substituted lime.  And some things taste different – butter, chicken, etc.  Are you cool with that? What about your comfort foods? Can you afford to buy the things you really miss if they are more expensive here?

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Is your family supportive of your move? If your family isn’t supportive they may criticize and complain and make things hard for you.  It would be good if you could get any issues dealt with before you leave… hopefully they will see that you are serious and come around!

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Have you thought about holidays? People who are big on celebrating holidays the way they always have may be in for a disappointment.  You’ll need to create new traditions for yourselves in your new home.  This is a very Catholic country, too.  Is there a synagogue or church for you?  Do you need one?

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Will your family and friends visit you? It would be great if they will, but not all families do.  Would you be comfortable being the one that always visits them? Would missing their participation in your life make you want to move back?

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How tech-savvy are you? You will probably do banking online.  You’ll probably use the internet for your calling to the US or Canada – Skype, Vonage, or Magic Jack.  Of course email will keep you in touch.

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Do you want to learn the language? Your world will expand dramatically the more Spanish you have.

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Are you open to new experiences and viewpoints? I think that being open is a mindset that will serve you well in México.  There are so many surprises every day here – and if we had our heads down instead of up and open we’d miss a lot.

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Are you committed to success in your new home? I think this might be the most important. Are you saying to yourself that you will succeed or are you saying that you’ll “try” it for a while?

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Those are my thoughts.  What have I missed?  Please share your thoughts with a comment!

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Disclosure:  The above blog post will also be shared with Mexico Today. I am being compensated for my work in creating content as a Contributor for the México Today Program.  I was also invited to an all-expenses paid trip to Oaxaca as part of my role and for the launch of the program.  All stories, opinions and passion for all things México shared in my blog are completely my own.

Paul and I started a tradition not long after we got married. Instead of buying each other gifts for our birthdays, anniversaries or Christmas, we shop together for artworks for the house. We have bought some wonderful things over the years.  I think it’s a great tradition – instead of a closet full of unworn items  we can enjoy our gifts every day of the year. I’ve been thinking about anniversaries since it is the anniversary today of two of our very favorite friends here… saludos, amigos!

I thought I’d show you a few of our choices – and you’ll notice there are many Mazatlán artists represented among them. After all, we have lived here four years!

Please check out the photo gallery below. I’ll be doing a post on Art in Mazatlán as soon as the town livens up again in the fall. Enjoy!

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There are web addresses for most artists, you’ll need to copy and paste, sorry.

When we moved away from the US we were ready for an adventure.  We knew practically everything would be new and different and that we’d have to be flexible and open minded.

I realized today as I was working on my newest knitting project that in order to continue knitting in Mazatlán I had to make use of these traits. I had brought my needles with me, and also some yarn, but not much.  That’s it.

The first challenge I had was obtaining patterns.  Here in Mazatlán few people knit with regular needles, they use a knitting board.  It is a loom type thing, not at all my style.  There are a few fabric stores with yarn and needles (Parisina at Melchor Ocampo and Serdan and Mary’s near the Juarez Market) and bits of yarn scattered about here and there including at Soriana!  But if you need a specific size needle you will have to make the rounds and hope they have what you need.  But patterns?  No.  No knitting magazines are available anywhere.  I subscribe to Interweave Knits and it is delivered just fine to my home, but I didn’t have that at first.  Of course I made use of online pattern sources.  Here are my favorites:

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Knitters always share their patterns, books, and supplies, but it’s even more important when supplies are limited.  I know a few people around town who are almost as excited about the books I received this week from Amazon as I am!  (A Knitting Wrapsody and knit, Swirl!)

Since I usually only travel to the US for one week a year, I started wanting to buy yarn when I travelled around Mexico.  I would ask bloggers I knew when I would be planning to visit their area, and I’ve bought yarn in Mexico City and Oaxaca.  But out of that idea came the idea for an English Speaking Knitters in Mexico group on Ravelry.  I started up the group in 2009 and now we have 154 members!  Everyone has contributed information on where yarn stores are located in México, and there are 12 pages of location specific information.  Through the group a Mexico City knitting group has formed – they’ve met for social knitting many times and have attended an Expo together, too.  The link to the group is below.  If you aren’t already a member of Ravelry you’ll need to sign up, but it is free.

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If you’d like to know more about Ravelry, there was a great article on Slate recently, titled “A Tight-Knit Community – Why Facebook can’t match Ravelry, the social network for knitters.” It’s a good read.

I’m a member of a small knitting group (sorry, not open to more members right now) but back in June I posted a link on Facebook to an article about Worldwide Knit In Public day.  Chatter ensued and a group of us got together to Knit in Public at Copa de Leche on the malecón.  It was fun to meet new friends who enjoy knitting and live in Mazatlán!  I think we’ll do it again in the fall.

So in summary I’d say that if you move somewhere that appears to be a dead zone for your favorite hobby, look a little deeper and be a bit flexible and you’ll come up with a solution that will probably surprise you.

At the top of this post is a photo of my partially completed table mat.  It’s a blanket pattern that I plan on felting for the center of our huge dining room table.  The yarn is the wool I bought in Oaxaca recently.