Guanajuato, Mexico - 2010 Rainy Season

It seems the 2010 rainy season is here initiated by Hurricane Alex. last year's rainy season was strange. For all practical purposes it was not a rainy season at all. It rained here and there but certainly not in the tradition of Guanajuato's normal rainy season.

In January of 2010 is when the rains, in earnest, hit the town. It was screwy.

It is anyone's guess, I suppose, what this season will bring. I just hope it is a normal rainy season so water rationing can be avoided.

In our old neighborhood we had rationing for months because the 2009 rains didn't come.

I hope this year normalcy will reign.

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ROCKET SPANISH

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Guanajuato, Mex -- Your Tax Dollars

This blog is cheerfully and merrily dedicated to all those Gringos who are on their way to live in Mexico. It is written with the motive that those who are coming here would really evaluate if this is what they want to do.

Let me share a story with you all. It is true. The names, dates, and other personal info has all be changed to protect the innocent.

If you are retiring here know that the American government does not trust direct deposit into Mexican banks. If you get Social Security and want it deposited into a Mexican bank, this can be done. But, here is how it works.

What SSA does is transfer it to the bank of the American Embassy in Mexico City. From there it is sent to your Mexican bank account. For example, your $1,200.00 US dollars is sent to the Embassy's bank where it is converted to Mexican pesos then transferred to your Mexican bank account.

Well, I can hear you pontificate, I have my Social Security deposited to my bank account in the States.

Well...I respond...the US Feds will eventually figure out that you do not really live in the States and will snatch your account right out from underneath you.

For real, I am not joking. Unless you live in the States, and they will verify this, you have to have a Mexican Bank account and will have your American bank account seized. You have to live FULL TIME in the States to maintain your American Bank account. If you put your daughter's address, or whoever, down as your place of residence, and someone's American phone number, they will check this out.

LET ME REITERATE: Unless you have a American address and phone number where you reside full time, they will close your account and seize your money.

So, if you cannot find a nefarious way around this, you will have to have a Mexican Bank account--you will have no choice.

Now, let's say you get your SSDI or SSI payment on the third of the month. According to the SSA Rules, when your payment date falls on a Saturday or Sunday, that is the third of the month falls on a weekend day, then you should be paid on the Friday before your payment date. Get that? If you get your check on the third and the third falls on a Sunday, then you'll be paid on the first which would be a Friday.

Got that?

Well...in Mexico this doesn't work that way.

If your payment date falls on the third of the month and the third is on a Saturday or Sunday, you will not get paid on the first which would be a Friday. You will get paid sometime that following week and when exactly is anyone's guess.

I mean this most sincerely. The Mexican nationals who work at the Social Security Office in the American Embassy do not get that the SSA office sends your payment on the first if your normal payment date falls on a weekend.

Now that I think of it, this applies to whatever dates: If you normally get your check on a certain date that falls on a weekend you should get your payment on the Friday before.

THESE ARE THE RULES ONLY THE MEXICANS RUNNING THE SHOW IN MEXICO CITY AT THE EMBASSY DO NOT KNOW OR UNDERSTAND THIS.

Did you hear my screeching alright?

Right now, even as I speak, there is couple who have no money for rent, no money for life sustaining medications, no money for food, no money for anything because the SSA Office in Mexico City is illegally holding this couple's money.

Here's what Mexican truly do not get by a true democracy. A government within a real democracy is that the government is WE THE PEOPLE. The Mexican nationals employed by the Embassy do not work for the Embassy or a group of politicians, or a governmental entity.

They work for WE THE PEOPLE and when on Embassy grounds, they are on American soil and therefore work for WE THE PEOPLE!

The man on SSDI, Social Security Disability, called the SSA Office. The Mexican national male laughed at him repeatedly and especially so when told of this man's illnesses and that without at least four of his medications he could die.

THE MEXICAN NATIONAL LAUGHED AT HIM!

So, that, among many things, is what you are up against if you plan on moving to Mexico.

Now...if you are asking yourself just how this applies to you if you never move to Mexico, let me elaborate.

If you are an American citizen and are reading this, know that a portion of your taxes, your hard earned income taken from your pay each week, goes to support not only the American Embassy, but the Social Security Office within the American Embassy that has Mexican nationals as their incompetent and unwilling-to-help your fellow Americans as employees. They are allowed to neglect their jobs for Religious Holidays causing your fellow Americans to suffer from lack of money to pay their bills and access health care.

If you want to express how you feel about how your taxes are being wasted with these SSA Mexican nationals click here to send an email:

Send SSA an Email -- Juarez
Send SSA an Email -- Guadalajara
Send SSA an Email -- MEXICO CITY (Hit this one if choosing just one)

Why not send your feelings to all three addresses to see if you get a response?

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Guanajuato, Mex -- It's Impossible

In a not-to-long-ago blog I mentioned the joys (not) of trying to watch Mexican television in Guanajuato. Unless you have cable or satellite, it is virtually impossible to watch TV without consistent problems.

The current problem is channel 12. This channel has been a problem for years and not just for us (I make inquiries). This channel, and none of the others, does pretty much what it wants when it wants. Actually I should be fairer in my judgment of the channel. It has to be the Mexicans who run the thing that do pretty much what they want when they want.

Remember, "preventative maintenance" is generally NOT a Mexican forte. I can easily imagine how the workers, those responsible for maintaining the channel's broadcasting integrity, may not show up for work, sleep on the job, wonders what job they are suppose to do (their uncle hired them), and/or are too busy engaging in any number of nefarious activities while on the job they are suppose to be performing. I mean this most sincerely, this is seems to be a way of life here.

Anyway...

Two years ago, channel 12 went off the air. It took the better part of the year to come back on. I made inquires. No one knew anything.

A year ago, for several months, the channel just "rolled." I made inquiries. No one knew anything.

(No one ever knows anything.)

A week to ten days ago, channel 12 began sending secret coded messages. What I mean is that the picture is visible but the sound, audio, cuts out with a predictable sequence each time. It sounds like Morse Code is being sent. It is as though every other syllable of a line of dialogue is blanked out. Then it runs normally for about a quarter of a minute and starts again.

This is, I am sure, meant to torture me but I have not been able to confirm this.

Also, I've yet to make inquires but will and will blog my investigation when I am able.

###

ROCKET SPANISH

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Guanajuato, Mex -- The Gringos!

Gringos really do ask question like what I am about to share. Here is how I would have answered the question the wife found on a forum:



QUESTION:

Thank you so much for all your help, do you go to Punta Mita often?
In regards to Walmart, would I be able to get food like home in regards
to meats, chicken, I am planing to cook most nights. I just don't know
what I should bring from home, or can I get most everything there.


ANSWER:

Food like home? Are you kidding? You have to take fishing boats out each morning to catch your day's supply of protein. Then you have to forage in the woods for grubs, herbs, and roots. And to fry the fish you have to find wild corn and process it for the oil.

###






ROCKET SPANISH

Click On This to Reach The ROCKET SPANISH Website!

Learn Spanish Like A ROCKET With Rocket Spanish!...
Who Else Wants to Learn to Speak Spanish Confidently and Naturally In Less Than 8 Weeks??...AND take all the frustration, difficulty and headache out of YOUR practice time with this EXPLOSIVE interactive 'learn Spanish' package!

###

Resources

1. THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO
2. A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL - A Guanajuato Travelogue
3. ROCKET SPANISH
4. LEARNING SPANISH LIKE CRAZY

###





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Guanajuato, Mex -- Dirty Hands and Disease

When the swine flu hit Mexico, the authorities were a bit on the embarrassed side having to explain why so many infections and subsequent deaths were in Mexico. The disease eventually spread to the rest of the planet but Mexico seemed to be the epicenter.

Political correctness forbid publicizing why the infection spread so fast, far, and wide here: poor hygiene habits!

I have American friends who not only own eating and drinking establishments but who have to train their Mexican staff to wash their hands after using the toilet. This is almost too unreal to believe. But, more than one employee has had to be let go, fired, for failing to heed verbal warnings, read warning signs, and being yelled at for not washing up and then handling customer's food and drink. It is barbaric.

Their personal hygiene habits are never more plainly seen as when helping themselves to samples at the supermarket. With little plastic spoons and forks, toothpicks, napkins, and small plates sitting beside the deli samples or bakery cakes, in plain sight, they will elect to use their hands. They will pick up food with their filthy fingers just after wiping, picking, gouging, or generally touching almost every orifice of their bodies (Especially their noses...OMG...the nose!!)

I thought I would have to lean over and empty my stomach when I saw this little woman use her hands to grab a GLOB of cake from the bakery and begin stuffing it into her cake hole. I felt my stomach cramping, tightening up, that pre-vomit hot flushing feeling coming over my face....I was able to just close my eyes a pray for God's calming mercy.

These are the folks that after grazing on the Supermarket's plenty will trip off to their food kiosks in merriment and mirth and prepare your tortas (sandwiches) or tacos with the same hands that infected the Supermarket food samples. They will wash the fine dining ware after each cutomer in a vat of BLACK water that they keep adding clorox to making it smell like a toxic waste dump.

This...this...this is why the flu spread so fast in this country.

It is sickening. It certainly causes one to pause to see grown men and women, most notably the women, stick their hands into meat sample trays instead of using the toothpicks on the side of the tray.

It is barbaric!!

###

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Learn to Speak, Read & Write a New Language!

Synergy Spanish - How To Turn 138 Spanish Words Into Effective Spanish Communication.

Learn How To Speak Spanish - A 31-Day Course That Shows You How To Communicate In Spanish Using Thousands Of Spanish Words You Already Know.

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Guanajauato, Mexico -- Gringolandians Consequences

So entrenched is the delusion, so ingrained is the fantasy, so cemented is the idea that moving to Mexico is like moving to heaven itself that Gringos will actually sign away their lives to Mexicans who tell them anything because the Gringo will believe it.

Would you, in buying a house in the States, actually sign a piece of paper leaving the house to your attorney in the event of your death and give the attorney the power of attorney over you in the event of a terminal illness?

And, on top of that would you do this entirely on the word of the suspect lawyer whose language you could not speak, read, or write?

Well....read this:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/comadresdemexico/message/24773


Hi, I bought a house six years ago, it was in a bank trust but I was
told I could get it into private ownership at the closing. The closing
came and I was told it was still in the trust and I could buy it that
way or forget it. I bought it in the trust. My lawyer told me we
could get it out of the trust no problem. I believed him. Three years
later it was still in the trust although I had paid the lawyer and he
and his staff assured me they had done the work. I had to sell the
house for a personal reason. I had a different lawyer handle it and he
did get it out of the trust for the new buyer at my expense. He
explained to me that the old lawyer had had me sign a paper saying I
was leaving the house to him at my death. I had also given him the
power to handle my living will needs, namely, no
extreme measures! Duh, do not do it this way! I assume that the house
is privately owned now and that the trust is really gone, but I do not
actually know.

Julie Mignard

If this does not have you shaking your head, maybe this will: This has been going on for years. One of the very doable things that seems to escape the Anglo-Saxon mind is to learn Spanish at home, in the States, long before moving to Mexico and ending up signing your life away to some schmuck you don't know and whose language you cannot comprehend.

In all seriousness, it just kills me to read these accounts when these Gringolandians could learn Spanish the way Mexicans learn English. They are so highly motivated to learn English that they use simple television programs, the internet, comic books, children's stories to learn English. They don't have money to take private tutoring or classes and yet they become fluent in English. Americans and Canadians have the money (and it is not THAT expensive) to learn Spanish.

It is a shame, no, an indictment that Gringos will step one foot over the border into Mexico and can't tell a barber how to cut their hair, a doctor what's wrong with them, or talk to a Mexican neighbor (God forbid they should ever like next to a Mexican) about her martial problems.

It is so doable.

###

ROCKET SPANISH

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Who Else Wants to Learn to Speak Spanish Confidently and Naturally In Less Than 8 Weeks??
... AND take all the frustration, difficulty and headache out of YOUR practice time with this EXPLOSIVE interactive 'learn Spanish' package!

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ROCKET FRENCH
ROCKET JAPANESE
ROCKET ITALIAN
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---

ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS

Learn to Speak, Read & Write a New Language!

Synergy Spanish - How To Turn 138 Spanish Words Into Effective Spanish Communication.

Learn How To Speak Spanish - A 31-Day Course That Shows You How To Communicate In Spanish Using Thousands Of Spanish Words You Already Know.

Fsi Spanish Level 1, 2, 3, And 4 - Quickly And Easily Master Begginer To Advanced Spanish. Instant Download Just $97.

Spanish Language Speed Learning Course - Speak Spanish Confidently In 12 Days Or Less Is The Best Training Material For You, As You Will Be Held By The Hand Each Step.

Guanajuato, Mex -- It's What I've Been Saying

I am going to post a forum quote. This person says in this quote what I've been saying for years. Actually, what I've been writing for years and have been called a racist for it and a Mexophobe. (That's like the equally ridiculous appellation, 'homophobe' only with reference to Mexicans, obviously.)

In talks with Mexicans here I am often told that the Gringolandian is not just clueless but doesn't get what it is they need to get in order not to be clueless about the culture. I believe this to be true. For them to call one a racist for saying what I am about to post below is a devolution into absurdity. They truly know nothing about the culture. Truly!

And, Gringolandians will immediately accuse someone pointing these less than admirably things about culture as "Mexican Knocking." They will never deal with the hypothesis of your arguments, the contentions, they will simply dismiss you as "Mexican bashing."

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This post had no punctuation so is a bit hard to read...


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/comadresdemexico
/message/24791


i've heard from others living in Mexico that the locals do not want to
disappoint you or make you unhappy, so for example if u ask for
directions, they will give you directions, even if they are wrong. go
figure! what it does is postpone your unhappiness to a time when that
person is no longer there

i had a friend born and raised in Guadalajara who was living and
working in Houston, TX by choice. one time she promised to take me to
the doctor when i had a great deal of pain from an auto accident, there
was no bus service to the dr's office, my car had been totalled, i had
no new car, and i needed to get a prescription for pain meds; the
doctor in the ER had failed to prescribe anything. the night before
she was to drive me to the doctor, she was giving me a ride home from
work at 2 a.m. and another friend of hers was riding in the front with
her; she turned and promised her that she would pick her up and take
her somewhere the next day at 2 p.m., exactly the same time she was
supposed to take me to the doctor. sure enuf, i did not see her again
for about a week

she also talked about fun things we would do together the following week, and they never came to pass either

when
i confronted her about this pattern, she told me that everyone does
that in Mexico, and no one thinks anything about it. it's just a part
of the culture. she was actually angry that i took her seriously. she
said it's just a way of being with another person -- u keep it light,
fun, warm, pleasant, enjoyable. she said no one takes it seriously

about 5 years ago i was a member of an e-group for ESL teachers
living in Mexico, to get a feel for that to see if i wanted to do that
to make a living in Mexico. a number of the teachers [mostly US] who
had lived there for at least 5 years said the same thing: it is common
to promise almost anything to someone in their presence in order to
make them happy, and often the person promising has no intent of
actually doing it. it's like them saying they will be there at 3:00
p.m. for something, and they show up at 6 p.m. or the next day.
everyone does it, it's part of the culture. one of the teachers said
that the Mexicans have a face they put on for the public, and then they
have a face [their real selves] that their family knows

i think Sandy is right; find out what you need to know from a
gringo, a non-Mexican, who has lived in the area you are interested in
for a while and knows the ropes. i'm not being racist; this is my
experience with my friend of 2 years from Guadalajara

it's just part of the culture. enjoy the people but don't expect more than they want to give. that was my experience with her.

Jean Marie Greene

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Crimes and misdemeanors: Staying safe in San Miguel
Is SMA still safe, or falling prey to drug dealers and thugs?

By Anne Nicolai
August 11, 2009



Knowledge is power: Spanish-speaking residents are safer

Across the board, every official interviewed for this article agreed that one of the best ways for foreigners to provide for our personal safety is to learn the language of the country that we’re living in. They point out that Spanish speakers have an easier time getting to know their neighbors and the local police. Knowing the language also helps when calling for help or reporting a crime.

In fact, the author’s calls to the various emergency telephone numbers prove this point: on two different days, at two different times of day,...there were no English-speaking operators.


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Learn Spanish Like A ROCKET With Rocket Spanish!...

Guanajuato, Mexico - TV Mexican Style

Plan on getting cable or satellite if you are moving to Guanajuato or any where in the country. I do not have cable or satellite. I have the regular "rabbit ears" TV that draws in the one local channel and all the national channels signals.

Mexican TV programming is strange to say the least. In reality, if I were to try to use one word to describe it, Mexican TV programs are its commercials. It is not comprised of the telenovelas and/or the dubbed American programs like Criminal Minds, The Big-Bang Theory, Smallville, etc... What it is are commercials that takes breaks for two to three minutes of shows.

Confusing? You bet and you cannot begin to grasp this, trust me.

For example, I will try and watch The Big-Bang Theory to see what Sheldon is up to in this week's episode. The program is in Spanish so I have to listen extra carefully since the Sheldon character can talk fast. Two minutes into the opening of the show, they go to a commercial. When I say, "to a commercial" what I mean is 35-50 commercials.

This is what it is like with any and all so-called TV programming in Mexico. They break away in the most inopportune times, sometimes in the middle of a fight scene and dialog, and show so many commercials that no human being on this planet can possibly remember what was happening in the show before they broke away. You would have to be an android to keep up.

There have been times when I forgot what show I was watching because there were so many commercials.

The only exceptions I have seen are when they are showing a soccer game. They break away to commercials during time outs and come back before play resumes.

It so figures.

In American TV they usually break way to commercials at the end of a scene in the program. In Mexican TV they have no sense whatsoever what constitutes a scene. They will break away when the actor takes her next breathe reciting her dialog. I mean this. You should see it. They will do this as a punch is being thrown in a tremendous fight scene before the actor's fist hits the bad guy's jaw, show ten minutes of commercials, then when they return you can even find an entirely different TV show on when the show you were watching still had 15-30 minutes to go.

In the middle of a fist being thrown, give me a break!

And, as if that isn't mind numbing, you can never, in a million years, count on a show coming on when it is advertise to come on.

I was waiting for TERMINATOR 3 to come one on Sunday night. It was advertised to begin at 7:00 P.M. and this ad telling the start time appeared at each "commercial break."

Bah!

As seven o'clock rolled around they kept showing "Law and Order" which they began at a quarter to seven. Terminator 3 began at 8:15 P.M.

Then...then...then all through the Terminator 3 program, at each "commercial break" they would show the ad for the Terminator 3 movie saying that it will begin at 7:00 P.M. when the show had already started.

At the end of the movie, well into the next movie, they kept showing the seven o'clock start time for Terminator 3.

This is how it is here. I've been told that cable is sometimes worse and the shows never start on time and often are not the show advertised at all.

Solution: Get satellite dish and draw in American TV shows from America.

###

ROCKET SPANISH

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Guanajuato, Mexico - Interface

Almost all the Gringolandians I know in Guanajuato will profess with the most grandiose pontification that "all my friends are Mexicans." What they mean by this is that all the Mexicans they know are bilingual and speak English with the Gringolandian because the Gringolandian refuses to learn Spanish.

(Unless the Gringolandian is brain dead, it is NOT an issue of CAN but WILL in learning Spanish.)

The Gringolandians actually have to use bilingual Mexicans to interface with the language and culture never, ever living in the culture they profess to love and know.

That's why it is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me when I hear Gringolandians refer to Mexicans by their first names. You know they did not have any sense at all of the language to be able to use the formal Usted form until given permission to use the informal Tu form. It is an assumption of familiarity that is tolerated by the Mexicans they claim are their friends.

Their so-called Mexicans friends are too polite to correct them.

We have a close elderly Mexican friend in town. She is influential and rich. She gave us permission a very long time ago to call her by her first name. However, we don't. We continue to show her respect with regard to her age and status by using "Doña" in front of her first name.

And of all of this most certainly begs the question whether the Gringolandian's perception of these bilingual Mexicans are their friends is true or not.

It also begs the question as to how much the Gringolandian understands the Mexican culture at all.

If all the Gringolandian can do is use a bilingual to interface with the culture they claim to love, then how do they know, how will they ever know, the complete picture? You have to be able to interact (interface) with Mexicans from all walks of life, all educational levels, all the socio-economical levels that exist in Mexico to learn "what it is really like."

Just how can you do otherwise?

Resources

1. THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO
2. A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL - A Guanajuato Travelogue
3. ROCKET SPANISH
4. LEARNING SPANISH LIKE CRAZY

Guanajuato, Mexico -- Oh Boy!

hThis blog is dedicated to all those Gringos who write in their blogs and books that "Mexicans are a kind and patient people who know how to treat their fellow man better..."

Today we went back to the mall to buy shoes. With my all-but-deformed feet it is indeed a chore, if not a nightmare, to find shoes to fit me. Usually, when in the States, I would get a pair of New Balance in the size 10.5 quadruple E. Here, I am lucky if I can get the width "D" and that's it!

So, with my new pair of New Balance we shopped a little before returning home. Never am I left without something to blog about at either of the city's Supers.

When young men, between the ages 20-25, come into the store they get followed by the security. What I am talking about is a group of let's say six to eight college-aged looking guys coming into the store gets followed. It isn't subtle. It isn't clandestinely, it is in your face surveillance. It looks as though the red-shirted security guards are part of the group.

One has got to ask, why is this? Why does a clean-cut bunch of college guys get followed in the grocery store? I will tell you.

This bunch eats food without paying for it.

Though I've seen Mexicans of all ilk doing this, the college-aged males seem to be those who do it most often and, watch carefully, WHY DO YOU THINK THEY GET FOLLOWED WHEN THEY COME IN MASS TO THE STORE?

Two of the guards followed then the entire time they were in the store. One of them bought one item and that was it.

The Ride Home

This is really the theme of this blog: THE RIDE HOME!

Whoever thinks Mexicans are a "kind and patient people who know how to treat their fellow man better..." has never ridden in a car with a Mexican or in the backseat of a taxi.

I am convinced my wife and I will die in Mexico but not of natural causes. We will die in the backseat of a Mexican taxi. Never do I feel closer to God than when I get into a Mexican cab. I mean, really!

Today on the way home from the mall, and granted it is a far distance, our driver tried to change lanes and was cut off and honked at by one of his fellow Mexicans. Trouble ensued.

There was horn honking, obscene gestures, screaming of curse words (ones I could not begin to understand) out their windows, and the general feeling that not all was well with the Mexicans knowing how to treat their fellow man better.

We made it home, eventually. There was some sort of street blockade that contributed greatly to our driver's consternation.

###

Resources

1. THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO
2. A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL - A Guanajuato Travelogue
3. ROCKET SPANISH
4. LEARNING SPANISH LIKE CRAZY

###

Guanajuato, Mex - TMO Report

TMO is an acronym for Typical Mexican Operation

Going to the Mega Superstore is an object lesson in TMO. You can see all manner of stuff that will give you a grand idea of what it is going to be like living in Guanajuato. It is a classroom in Mexican culture.

Today I walked through the store looking for t he "grazers." These are Mexican who believe that the supermarket is one huge buffet, a free buffet. I do not believe they ever buy anything. They walk through the place helping themselves to anything they want to try out before buying. Whether it is food in a box, food , sitting in a serving pan in a deli, or in a package, they help themselves to whatever very liberally, I might add. They will even drink pop and drinkable yogurt. (Did I say they never pay for it?)

In other parts of the civilized world, that is called SHOPLIFTING. But, I digress.

We were too early to catch the "grazers" testing out the food. Damn!

We did see that Kraft Mac and Cheese, Velveeta Mac and Cheese, and Jiff Peanut Butter was gone. This is normal.

The way "stocking the shelves" works in a Mexican Supermarket is a salient example of the TMO principle.

The manager will always order the same amount of replacement items that he was told to do when he was hired. If a procedure manual exists, and that is highly unlikely, the re-order amount will always, with never an exception, be the same simply because that is how it has always been done.

For example, when the store first opened there could be 24 jars of Jiff Peanut Butter on the shelf. That is what was ordered when the store made its premier opening. From that point until today, no more than 24 jars of Jiff have ever been ordered when it was replacement time. They will wait until the very last jar is sold, then they will order just 24 jars of Jiff.

It will never matter that those 24 jars of Jiff are sold out almost immediately. The collective lot of store employees will never in a million years think to order more than just 24 jars of Jiff at a time. And they will always wait until the shelf is completely wiped out of the product.

The Kraft Mac and Cheese takes months to arrive. I mean that. It took seven months for a restocking of our favorite mac and cheese product to occur. When it finally arrived, it sold out in a week and there is no more to be had. We will have to wait more than a half of a year to get more.

Now....sales and sales fliers...

The wife saw a particular bran of butter in the store's flier that was on sale. It was two for the price of one. When she was in the checkout the girlie rang it up and it came up on the computer screen as the normal price. When the wife confronted the chick she merely shrugged her shoulders.

Shrugging of the shoulders is also a Typical Mexican Operation.

###

Resources

1. THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO
2. A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL - A Guanajuato Travelogue
3. ROCKET SPANISH
4. LEARNING SPANISH LIKE CRAZY

###

Guanajuato, Mexico - House Hunting

If you are really considering moving to the city of Guanajuato, you will need to engage in the #1 Survival Factor and that is finding a place to live.

Because American Gringolandians coming to start their expatriation experiment tend to think of Mexico as just another American state (I am not kidding either.), they think in terms of how an American would find a place to live. They want to know which rental-finding service to use.

You are not going to find that in Guanajuato. No matter how hard you look you are not going to find it and you might as well get it our of your mind long before you step a foot over the border that Mexico is not like America. Mexico is not set up like America and no amount of foot stomping is going to change how it is.

Some real estate agencies, both Mexican and American run, have rentals. But the #2 Survival Factor will come into play when you walk into any of these offices: The Rip Off Factor.

Here is the problem: No matter how much you take offense at this Inconvenient Truth, if you are not Spanish and Culturally fluent, the chances of you getting "taken," "ripped off," "scammed," or "gouged" rises to the power of infinity and beyond.

You need a representative. You need someone who is linguistically and culturally fluent and who is objective. You need someone who can spot a scam from a mile away.

Martha Roberts is such a person.

We've known this woman for years and though she charges for her excellent services (as she should), she can spot a flimflam and make sure you do not get ripped off.

Check out her web site. Her contact info is on this site.

###

ROCKET SPANISH

Click On This Link Reach The ROCKET SPANISH Website!

Learn Spanish Like A ROCKET With Rocket Spanish!...
Who Else Wants to Learn to Speak Spanish Confidently and Naturally In Less Than 8 Weeks??...AND take all the frustration, difficulty and headache out of YOUR practice time with this EXPLOSIVE interactive 'learn Spanish' package!

Guanajuato, Mexico - CHAIR and TOWEL WARS UPDATE

In case you have not tuned in lately, I just learned of a Gringolandian phenomenon that takes place all over Mexico's beach resorts: CHAIR WARS.

This is the long kept secret about what beach resorts is all about. I've thought all these years that Gringos go to beaches to have fun. You know, swimming in the ocean (dodging the sharks), playing volleyball on the sandy beaches, laying in the sun to work on a tan you could not possible get in Minnesota, eying the scantly clad men or women, maybe seeing wild dolphins leaping out of the water.

Oh no. This is not what it is about at all. They go to the resorts, spend a small (or large) fortune to get there, get a room at a hotel for even a larger fortune, and they do this to engage in CHAIR WARS.

Chair Wars is an intense life and death struggle to see who can get the most choice spot on the beach each morning. This war is replete with rules of engagement, what you can and cannot do, and has consequences for violating the engagement rules. It gets ugly.

These people, who need a bicycle pump sized syringe of psychotropic medications administered in an IV drip, actually will do things like spend the night on the chairs under their chosen palapas. They might get up at three in the morning to go and sit out in the chair so to reserve it with their Gringo flesh. Or, they could leave their towels on the chair overnight only to have the towels moved and their seats absconded. This leads to a bloody confrontation.

These people are quite insane. They not only do what I have just written but spend months and months in the States fretting over the Chair Wars before ever getting to a Mexican resort. They worry to the degree where they cannot sleep and even take to calling the hotel to complain and they aren't even at the resort yet.

NO WONDER AMERICANS ARE THOUGHT AS CRAZY PEOPLE IN MEXICO!

Here is a little exchange:

Re: idiotic towel games at the Valentin Imperial Maya

Feb 21, 2010, 6:30 AM

We won't have a problem finding a spot because we will not play the game. Get up at 6am and put a towel on a seat if you want, but when we get there, we will take the towel off if you have not been there for an hour. The only way this game will stop is if most of us stop playing and ignore the towels. In time people will stop doing it if it doesn't work.

RESPONSE:

Re: idiotic towel games at the Valentin Imperial Maya

Feb 21, 2010, 8:14 AM

Yea, it easier said than done. Are going to start a fight? If the hotel does not enforce you think you will? Good Luck.

Are you beginning to see what I mean about Gringos?




ROCKET SPANISH

Click On This to Reach The ROCKET SPANISH Website!

Learn Spanish Like A ROCKET With Rocket Spanish!...
Who Else Wants to Learn to Speak Spanish Confidently and Naturally In Less Than 8 Weeks??...AND take all the frustration, difficulty and headache out of YOUR practice time with this EXPLOSIVE interactive 'learn Spanish' package!

###

Guanajuato, Mexico - The New GTOLIST

If you don't have a lot to do and are interested in touching basis with Guanajuato Expats check out this site: www.gtolist.com which is, I must admit, pretty slick. If the site's cool splash page is any indication of how successful the site will be, it will do very well.

What it is, is a forum. The setup is smart and snappy. It has a broad range of categories to which you can post. Or, if you are the lurker type, you can just read.

Forums can be informative, fun, and relaxing. They can also be a battle ground of disagreement, verbal donnybrooks, and sometimes participants resorting to even threatening you. Of course, that's why most have moderators.

I suppose some think that name calling at the very least and threats of physical harm at the very worst can be disguised under the umbrella of "Freedom of Speech." I could be wrong, though.

I used to be a network moderator for the Internet Relay Chat. There were times when on this live chat format that I had to ban users from the network. They would become so abusive that the chat room owner(s) would ask me to ban them.

I can't wait to see how this new www.gtolist.com works out. I wish it the best. It looks like it is far more interesting than the other gto_list.

###

Resources

1. THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO
2. A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL - A Guanajuato Travelogue
3. ROCKET SPANISH
4. LEARNING SPANISH LIKE CRAZY

###

Guanajuato, Mexico - Arrogant Americans Need Not Apply

I can hear the screaming coming from the other side of the world. I have readers there, you know. Thailand comes to mind, if you must know.

I didn't say that, "Arrogant Americans." Someone else did and when they did it raised all sorts of hell.

An information technology staffing firm based in Rolling Meadows, Ill., posted an advertisement for a technical writer that warned that an "arrogant American" would not flourish in the position. "Exelon is looking to provide these proposals to Chinese businesses, so someone who is respectful and understands Chinese culture is preferred. An arrogant American will not work well in this role," the listing read. - SOURCE

Of course, the ad firm took it down as soon as the threats of lawsuits began flying faster than geese during hunting season. Such hues and cries of, "offensive and inappropriate" and "Exelon is deeply committed to diversity and inclusion" were heard. Viva USA, an information technology consulting firm took the ad down. They shouldn't have.

Americans are now the "we can do no wrong" crowd and don't you dare saying otherwise. If you do, we will sue your buttock based on the profound legal precedent of "hurt feelings."

Actually they will quote the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as the basis of suing you, but let's face it, they will come after you based on how tight that knot in their panties got twisted.

There is a reason why the ad originally read as it did. Americans come across to the rest of the world as an arrogant lot. It just has to be the "I am American hear me roar" attitude that it perceived as sour grapes by the rest of the world. It is "The American way or it's the highway" also tastes a little bitter to the rest of humanity.

In Mexico, you have to take a really long time developing relationships with Mexicans before you can discuss American arrogance with them. They don't want to offend and when they are assured they won't offend you, the info flows like water.

The Mexican also hates American arrogance.

Learn Spanish, take a few years to develop a trusting relationship, and they will most certainly tell you so.

##

Resources

1. THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO
2. A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL - A Guanajuato Travelogue
3. ROCKET SPANISH
4. LEARNING SPANISH LIKE CRAZY

###

Guanajuato, Mexico - The Most Hated Gringo in the World #36

If you want to know the quintessential member of Gringolandia read this forum quote:

I must confess how surprised I am to learn that the absence of expats in a town can be seen as a positive feature. my understanding is that Mexico is attractive to gringos not because but also because it isn t all that different from their homecountry (Wallmarts and anglospeakers to be found). Surely it´s positive to integrate into one s local community and have Mexican friends.But also having people who share one s first culture and language is important for one´s long term integration in sociocultural terms. If the presence of expats was of no importance I´d be living on a sailboat, in Nha Trang, St Pierre de Miquelon. Of course I am as fluent in Spanish as in English, but I know from personal experience that I could not resettle in a place without expats. Voila! - Quote as is from Yahoo Forum

1. This person is "surprised" to learn that the fewer the amount of Gringos in a Mexican town the better. Well, Voila, it is not a positive trait to have any sort of organized Gringo community, enclave, or Gringolandia. The fact that you postulate such a thing tells me that you are not an expatriate, are not expatriate material, and never will be an expat apart from a complete stripping away of your Gringolandian presuppositions.

a. If what you want is to live in an American or Gringo enclave with an exotic flare, why did you bother to leave American in the first place? Why not move to Scottsdale or Miami?

b. You obviously do not understand the cultural impact Gringolandians have on Mexican communities. It is cultural destruction. Americans move into a Mexican community with their vast riches and take on the attitude, "This does not appeal to my American tastes..., then go about changing everything into a little America. They conform the rich, centuries old cultural into something more suitable to their Imperialistic tastes. The local color is gone, the tie that bound the locals, cultural, is destroyed, and what you have left is a hybrid: Not America, Not Mexican, but something entirely different.

c. "...my understanding is that Mexico is attractive to gringos not because but also because it isn't all that different from their homecountry (sic) (Wallmarts (sic) and anglospeakers (sic) to be found)..."

This, to be perfectly honest with the reader, is one of the most disgusting, if not the most, aspects of the Gringo infection in Mexico. This only confirms my 7-year long developed hypothesis that Americans are so incredibly culturally and internationally STUPID.

Rather than come to a foreign country and assimilate into the cultural, with all its good points and bad, they come here (mostly Americans) and proceed changing it into something entirely different.

Note how Voila defines her own culture: It has Walmarts and anglo-speakers. She is out of touch with her own culture much less what Mexico is. She thinks it is "not all that different from American's home country."

I find the abject ignorance almost beyond my ability to comprehend and disgusting beyond the pale.

2. "...But also having people who share one s first culture and language is important for one´s long term integration in sociocultural terms...." Once again, Voila, you betray your ignorance. No study, credible or not, I have read has mentioned this as important for developing a bi-cultural fluency.

3. "...Of course I am as fluent in Spanish as in English,..." -- I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have heard this claim and when the Gringo opens their mouth they can barely pronounce Spanish much less communicate fluently. Native speakers are fluent. Children who come from a bi-cultural household and grow up in bilingual homes develop fluency. We Gringos work at developing the highest possible degree of proficiency. There is a huge difference.

Voila, we don't need another Gringo like you in Mexico. Try living in the sailboat.


###

ROCKET SPANISH

Click On This to Reach The ROCKET SPANISH Website!

Learn Spanish Like A ROCKET With Rocket Spanish!...
Who Else Wants to Learn to Speak Spanish Confidently and Naturally In Less Than 8 Weeks??...AND take all the frustration, difficulty and headache out of YOUR practice time with this EXPLOSIVE interactive 'learn Spanish' package!

###
###

Guanajuato, Mexico - To Bribe or Not To Bribe

Check out NBC's Dateline Report on San Miguel de Allende Kidnappings--CLICK HERE

***


I found a cool website. It is a travel column with the LATimes and I found a great quote:

On a recent crossing from Mexico back to the U.S., I was stopped for an alleged traffic infraction in Tijuana. The police ended up taking me to an ATM, where I withdrew $500 in cash. Then they then let me go. What could I have done?

--Rob Gonzalez, Claremont

This issue is a hot topic in forums. You will find everything from those Gringos who will pay their way out of a horrid situation to those who are on their almighty, Gringo high horse and profess with chest beatings and a screech to be heard to the border and back, that they would not dare be caught paying off a Mexican cop out of a sticky situation.

What these self-inflated, morally superior Gringos do not possibly get is that they can very easily get their principled Gringo butts thrown into a jail cell (especially in smaller towns) and made to languish awaiting a trial date for refusing to contribute to the "Mexican Policeman's Fund" when a cop rousts them.

I know someone to whom this has happened.

The Gringolandian screed goes something like:

"I refuse to contribute to the moral decay of a horrible problem in this country."

Well...excuse me!

I just wonder what one of these goodie-two-shoe moralists would do when the cops would have them in an isolated situation and draws one of their guns on them actually say:

"Shoot me! I have principles."

"I would rather you kill me than pay you a bribe?"

I found a story on the Mexican Vacation Awareness website where this happened to a Gringo. In an isolated area of Baja they took out their guns and asked if the Gringo had a problem with paying them off.

This is what I am saying. Americans come down here for a vacation and get targeted by the corrupt police for money. They can make your life a living hell when and if you get all high and mighty and try the "I am an American, hear me roar..."

These gringos who say they would refuse to pay a bribe just crack me up. Have they really been in a situation where they've faced off with a crooked Mexican cop holding a gun in their faces? I mean, really!

Alas, this is one of the dirty little secrets of travel. Extortion of tourists happens more often than is reported. It's not confined to Mexico, of course, but because so many of us cross the border so often, whether to enjoy Baja's beaches or to shop, we may get our turn on the horns of this dilemma. -- Source

This problem is so prevalent that Mexico shows public service announcement on the Tele and the State Department of the U.S. issues warnings.

So, what do one do?

You could choose the Gringolandian demigod's way and stand up for your principles by facing down a cop with a gun in your face. Or, you could ask to accompany the cop down to the "station" and speak with a judge or supervisor.

If you choose the second option and you are in some small village I can almost guarantee you will be slapped into a jail cell until you come to your senses. Who are you going to call when they won't let you use the phone? Who would you even know to call if they let you use the phone? Maybe they will just shoot you when you start pontificating your principles.

The third option is to pay up and be on your high and mighty American way.

What do you think?

###

ROCKET SPANISH

Click On This Link to Reach The ROCKET SPANISH Website!

Learn Spanish Like A ROCKET With Rocket Spanish!...
Who Else Wants to Learn to Speak Spanish Confidently and Naturally In Less Than 8 Weeks??...AND take all the frustration, difficulty and headache out of YOUR practice time with this EXPLOSIVE interactive 'learn Spanish' package!

###

Guanajuato, Mexico - Mexico Is Not America

In my first book, THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO, I mentioned in almost every chapter that MEXICO IS NOT AMERICA. I actually got mostly verbal threats (alcohol fueled no doubt) and one physical threat as a result of my effort.

Yet, it would seem that the message that Mexico is not America has fallen on deaf ears. I found this quote in a Yahoo Mexico Forum:

I must confess how surprised I am to learn that the absence of expats in a town can be seen as a positive feature. my understanding is that Mexico is attractive to gringos not because but also because it isn t all that different from their homecountry (Wallmarts and anglospeakers to be found).

Do not miss what this person is saying: The basis for which this person is saying, "...but also because it isn't all that different from their homecountry (sic)..." is the existence of Wal-Marts in Mexico.

Just imagine, Mexico is just another state of America by virtue of the existence of Wal-Marts.

Well, it must be America itself since you will find Sam's, Home Depot, almost every America fast food hamburger joint, Pizza Hut, Domino's, and much, much more.

It is amazing, stunning, incredible, but I am afraid true. American Gringos who move here or think of moving here (even tourists according to my Mexican tour guide pals) really do think in their heart of hearts that Mexico is not all that different from America, and it is those Gringos who end up moving to Mexico.

I ran across a statistic the other day but now cannot find it. It was a study of American Gringos who move to Mexico and how quickly the make a retreat back to the States. I cannot recall the percentage but it seemed that it was either in the sixty-percentile or in the seventies of Gringos who leave after their first year of "expatriation". (I will look for the study and report back to you.)

How these Internationally Challenged Gringos make it here as a tourist, not to mention expatriatism, escapes me. But, they do. And when they come they are expecting it to be just like America and great is the fall thereof.

The disappointment the Gringo experiences is almost unbearable.

I have to confess I was in a perpetual honeymoon with Guanajuato until the day my wife was attacked on the streets, in broad daylight, and it was sexual in nature.

It was when I realized Mexico was just a place.

The country is not intrinsically evil. It is just a country in which both good things and bad things can happen. There is lot Mexico does right and there is a lot Mexico could afford to fix or reject as not working and dump it.

But, be assured of this, MEXICO IS NOT AMERICA. in any sense of the word.

###

ROCKET SPANISH

Click On This to Reach The ROCKET SPANISH Website!

Learn Spanish Like A ROCKET With Rocket Spanish!...
Who Else Wants to Learn to Speak Spanish Confidently and Naturally In Less Than 8 Weeks??...AND take all the frustration, difficulty and headache out of YOUR practice time with this EXPLOSIVE interactive 'learn Spanish' package!

###

Guanajuato, Mexico - Working the Culture #7

One of the reasons Gringolandians brand me The Most Hated Gringo in the World is that they never live in the culture they profess to love and adore. When they read what I've written, and continue to write, they cannot judge whether or not what I write is true or not. They NEVER live in the Mexican culture. They live in a delusional bubble, a dream-state, a cushion, an enclave, or Gringolandia. From within their faked existences they say they've never experienced that which I write therefore what I write is a lie.

Great logic, don't you think Mr. Bill?

Consequently, they live in a perpetual Honeymoon with Mexico which is, by the way, the first stage of cultural shock.

When the Gringo relocates to Mexico the normal or natural progression of emotions should be a spectrum such as profound admiration to rejection, isolation to assimilation. Taken as a normal and natural progression, this forms the stages of Culture Shock.


HONEYMOON

I believe the Gringolandians never leave this stage. Since they live and breathe in a Gringo Bubble, exposed to only Gringolandians on any level or depth, they never have sufficient enough exposure to the host country's inhabitants to leave the Honeymoon stage.

Their false perception of the differences in Mexico will be embraced with excitement and fascination.

Have you ever wondered why so much of the screed on Life in Mexico is so Ivory Tower that you can't read it for the blinding brilliance? And why are Americans here so gullible they fail to see the culture’s defects. Everything, no matter how objectionable, is "a beautiful native custom" and all Mexicans "are a beautiful people"..

This false or bubbled perception should last mere weeks but since they live in a Gringolandia where they continue to live in what is essentially a miniature America--Gringolandia--they never leave, as they should, the Honeymoon stage.

A true expat experience is one in which the individual eventually leaves the Honeymoon or Fakepat stage and begins to encounter the difficulties of language, housing, finding new friends, from living in another country.


REJECTION

This very normal next step or stage in Culture Shock is marked by what could be described as excessive, over-the-top criticism, complaining, resentment, and even anger: "What have I done by moving to this @&$^% country?"

The Expat, as opposed to the Fakepat, will eventually encounter difficulties in understanding and coping with the vast differences that exist between Mexico and America. When you encounter a so-called expat who claims to have never encountered any difficulties in the new culture then you can know with a 100% certainty that you are talking to a Fakepat who lives in a Gringolandia.

The Rejection period can be triggered by the realization that, as an outsider in a new culture, language or misunderstandings of cultural cues can often make the simplest task seem like a daunting challenge. Furthermore, because the high expectations set during the Honeymoon Period appear much farther out of reach, the individual feels disillusioned. (Mary Ann Santoro Bellini, Ph.D.; September 30th, 2005)

ISOLATION

This is the "bubble pops" stage. A profound letdown is experienced. Your Honeymoon gets a healthy dose of reality. You become hyper-critical of almost everything in the new culture and you make continue references to home. You begin to forget why you left America in the first place and begin to hyper-inflate the things about America. The things you hated and wanted to leave behind suddenly don't seem as bad or are forgotten.

Symptoms exhibited during this period include anxiety, sadness, homesickness, and anger. These feelings manifest themselves in changes in behavior: inappropriate anger over slight delays and minor frustrations, changes in sleep patterns, compulsive eating and/or drinking, irritability, poor concentration, and unexplainable crying. The stage of Rejection and Regression is variable in length but can last up to 6-8 weeks. (Mary Ann Santoro Bellini, Ph.D.; September 30th, 2005)

ASSIMILATION

Eventually the true expat begins to employ language skills to find the resources to cope with the vast differences in culture. When the expat has put in the necessary work to learn Spanish, then he or she can begin to ask the question that seems to cure all culture ills: "Why?"

When the expat begins to be able to ask Mexicans about the what formerly felt as impossible obstacles within the culture, then coping becomes automatic.

Gringolandians will tell me that "all my friends are Mexicans." This is Fakepat speak that means all their friends are bilingual Mexicans. Most Gringolandians cannot speak enough Spanish to go to the doctor. Therefore they are dependent upon bilingual Mexicans to give them a limited perspective. If they want to live in the culture then they need to be able to interface with Mexicans from all the socio-economic spectrum and not just a minority of bilingual Mexicans.

One is true expatriatism and the other is not.

One results in cultural assimilation while the other results in perpetuating the Gringolandia induced Honeymoon Stage.

###

Resources

1. THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO
2. A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL - A Guanajuato Travelogue
3. ROCKET SPANISH
4. LEARNING SPANISH LIKE CRAZY

###

Guanajuato, Mexico - Do You Really Want to Know?

Check out NBC's Dateline Report on San Miguel de Allende Kidnappings--CLICK HERE

***


I decided I am going to survey mental health professionals regarding the issue of why Gringos move to Mexico, become Gringolandians, and then live according to this idea that they've arrived in Heaven on Earth, Shangri-La, and Nirvana where nothing bad can possibly dwell. If I can get responses I will let you know the results.

There has got to be some psychiatric thing going on when such masses of Gringos move here and do not want to hear that Guanajuatenses walk down a sidewalk like someone is chasing them. They will push past you and if necessary, to get by you, will push you out of their way.

One woman, years ago, came barreling out of a store on Sangre de Cristo and pushed my wife into the street. I hear my wife scream,. When I whipped around, she was in the street trying to get to her feet. The green-sweatered woman stopped a nano second, then took off on her way.

We were so shaken we stopped into a store where our friend from Chihuahua City worked and told her what happened to my wife. After a slew of Spanish expletives, she told us she had encountered the same behavior from the city citizens. She went on to explain how she had no friends other than transplant Mexicans from other parts of the country.

You see, she explained to us that her accent, and others with different regional accents, are immediately recognizable as NOT from Guanajuato. And, to repeat the words of another Mexicana, "Unless you are at least from three generations of Guanajuatenses, you are not accepted here."

Why don't Gringolandians want to hear this stuff?

Because, "It is negative," I can hear the chorus roar of the collective.

Negative or positive is relative. It is relative and can be as varied as there are persons to perceive it as so. Mental filters are everything.

One person wants to know the truth I write while another (Right, Mr. Bill?) will call it all made up. A lie.

I want to know why they do this. Why am I reviewed as a good write by writers and editors who are credible journalists while others tell me I am a "Fourth rate talentless hack...". Why?

###

Resources

1. THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO
2. A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL - A Guanajuato Travelogue
3. ROCKET SPANISH
4. LEARNING SPANISH LIKE CRAZY

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