February 25, 2024 • 34 mins
Ever wondered what it's like to trade the familiar comforts of home for a life rich with new culture and simpler pleasures? That's exactly what we, Bob and Sherrie Bosse, alongside Chris and Erica Kovalsky, unpack in a heart-to-heart about our expat adventures in Mexico. From the joy of navigating online shopping to the reality of property taxes, we've got an array of personal stories. Our game of "Que Padre, Que Malo" will have you chuckling and nodding along as we categorize our experiences—some surprisingly delightful and others a tad challenging—as we tried on our new Mexican lifestyles for size.
You will hear about our take on the available technology in Mexico and the unexpected simplicity of staying connected in our adopted homeland. We'll share the quirky triumphs of language learning, the affordability of cell phone plans, and the unbeatable warmth of the local and expat communities that have welcomed us with open arms. Our friends Chris and Erica chip in with firsthand insights into healthcare and road etiquette—because who doesn't love a good story about navigating the "retornos"? So, grab your favorite beverage and join us for a candid conversation that's as much about embracing change as it is about celebrating the rich tapestry of expat life in Mexico.
We are incredibly thankful for engagement and stories from our listeners, who have found their own sense of 'home' across the globe. Stay tuned as we continue to share the wisdom and wanderlust of those who've charted their unique international courses. We'd love to hear your comments and questions. Email them to expatslikeus@gmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's amazing to me.
You know, you said you get totalk to the orthopedist and you
get to talk to the doctor.
In the States you get like 15minutes.
They come in, they look at youyou don't see them again here.
They give you their WhatsAppnumber yes, they do, and you
text them back and forth andthey will text you back day or
night.
They won't.
(00:20):
I mean, that's to me, that'samazing.
That's something that you wouldnever, ever, ever see in the
United States.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
No.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Welcome to ExPATs Like Us, a co-production with me
, vita Margarita, exploring theworld of US expat life in Mexico
.
In each episode, we'll meet newpeople and hear their stories.
We'll also learn more aboutexpat life and get a few tips on
everything from making yourmove to settling in, to living
your dreams and, most of all,having fun.
(00:53):
Let's dive in.
Today's episode of ExPATs LikeUs actually has four hosts,
please welcome Chris Kowalski,erika Kowalski, sherry Bussey
(01:13):
and, of course, I'm Bob Bussey.
We're all friends in ExPATs who, in the summer of 2021, sold
our possessions, retired fromour jobs and made the move to
Mexico.
Today we're talking about someof our personal experiences of
becoming expats.
We've all noticed that whenliving in an expat community, we
tend to have a lot ofconversations about how things
are different than they werewhere we came from.
(01:35):
Today, we're playing a gamecalled K-Padre K-Malo.
As you might remember fromepisode 4, padre means father in
Spanish, but it also means cool.
When we pair it with K, k-padremeans how cool.
On the flip side, k-malo meanshow awful.
It turns out that lots ofchanges we've experienced in our
ExPAT lives we think are greatK-Padre, while some experiences
(01:59):
take us a while to get used toK-Malo.
Don't worry, you'll catch on.
Let's start with a topic fromSherry.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
Okay, Well, my K-Padre would be online shopping
.
I didn't do hardly any onlineshopping in the States, but I
found out that in Mexico there'sthings I couldn't find Between
Mercado Libre and Amazon Mexico.
They have been lifesavers, soanything from getting medication
to household cleaning productslike Tide Pods, which I cannot
(02:27):
live without.
But I can't find in the storeshere I can find online and it's
at my doorstep between probablythree and seven days from when I
order, so that's definitely aK-Padre for me.
Maybe the K-Malo would be someof the stores that were
face-to-face stores or in-personstores for me back home are not
here, so I really miss Target.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Nobody knows this, I miss Target.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
I miss the Michaels craft store and although I can
get some of the things deliveredto my doorstep, sometimes
there's a price difference.
So maybe a little two ouncepaint that I would buy for
crafting back in the States$1.29 at the most.
If you look online it's animport cost, so it's about $12
(03:13):
for that two ounce paint.
So I bring my paint back fromthe States.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
You know one of the things I think with online
shopping.
The other thing I've noticedhere we get deliveries at like
nine o'clock on a Sunday night.
We never had that where welived in the States.
It's deliveries are seven daysa week and well into the evening
, anytime of the day.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yeah, so that's pretty sure this is very
familiar with shopping online.
The Amazon man knows him.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I'm friends with him.
We see him almost weekly.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
You invited him for Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
He says weekly, almost daily, almost, and then
he'll forget what he ordered.
He gets excited because itchanges on Amazon every day.
Every day things will change.
Sometimes you can't getsomething crystal research and
he'll look to see what he wants.
And then he looks again, youknow, in a couple of days and
(04:09):
now it's able for delivery herewithout the import fee, and so
he'll place the orders and thensometimes he'll forget that he
ordered it.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
One thing I didn't realize when I moved down here.
There's amazoncommx, which isMexico.
I didn't know they had that,but you can still order things
off of Amazoncom and get a largemajority, it seems like, of
those items delivered as well.
You can't get everything fromeither one, but sometimes you
can get things on one.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
You can't get from the other Right and I noticed
some of the things you pay alittle bit of an import tax on
it, but that's included in theprice, so you don't notice it.
But the bottom line is yeah,you can find pretty much
anything on Amazon.
Mexico yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
And if you have Amazon Prime, it's almost always
free delivery.
So I feel like we're savingmoney.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
It's almost like throwing away money not to order
a bunch of stuff on Amazon.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
And if you can't find it on Amazon, you go out and
explore the Pueblos or Playa delCarmen and find substitutes
that are just as good.
Yeah, right.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
Yeah, we especially see that with you know, maybe
food items.
Yes.
If you can't find it well,maybe you could make it or
substitute something else that'snearly as good or maybe even
better.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yes exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
That's true, right?
So let's go to Erica.
What's a K Padre and a K Mavofor you?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
My K Padre is friends .
I thought I would miss more,like I missed my friends back in
the States, but I thought hereit was going to be lonely, but
it's completely opposite.
The K Padre is everybody's,friendly.
You get to know people andthere's really everybody just
(05:50):
likes each other.
So I love that part of it thefriends.
The K Malo part is that meetingfriends were literally here all
the time.
So if you are on a walk, whatare you doing for dinner tonight
?
I don't know.
Let's go out to dinner and thenyou find yourself with no
downtime.
And it gets busier than weactually realized, where we
(06:13):
don't have a lot of downtime, wehave to schedule downtime.
We actually have a sharedcalendar now, so when we do
something or I commit tosomething, he sees it, because
before it's like I scheduledthis, why I said that we were
going to do this where it gotkind of chaotic and so we
actually have to schedule ourdowntime.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Right and eventually it's like, oh my God, it's
February already.
I thought it was November.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Or we're coming up on our three year mark in the
summer, both of us.
So where did the three years go?
Right, that's true, it wasquick.
Yeah, when you're having fun,it does.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
But yeah, with friends it's easy to make
friends.
Part of the reason I think thatis is because we all have this
shared experience of getting ridof all of our stuff.
And you know, like I said inthe intro, we all talk about.
We have a lot of the sameconversations, you know, stuff
we like and stuff we don't like,but that is bonding with people
just doing that, you know yes.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Or meeting people too .
Like if you go to the pool,there's people that visit and
they we didn't realize before.
They're here year like everyyear.
They come for a couple of weeksand then when they visit, you
know they want to hang out withyou, they want to talk to you,
they want to see you.
So it's like you meet newfriends every time.
You have your main group offriends, but then you have those
(07:35):
friends that visit littlesecret pockets of friends that
are temporary, yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
And luckily we don't have jobs, because there's no
way we can fit it all in withthe job.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
I don't even know how we work.
There's no time for work.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
For sure.
So do you have a K-Molo?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
The K-Molo is no downtime.
Oh no, no downtime, Right nodowntime that's.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
That is kind of Molo.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
It's fun time, it's not necessarily a bad thing, but
it can't get in the way of.
We have to get our carregistered, but we don't have
time to go get our carregistered because we make
things like happen with friends.
So now we just push it and pushit.
Or, taking care of the outside,we push that.
It's like, oh, we don't, we cando that tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
It's good, we'll go hang out with friends and there
are some people that I knowtheir spouse has a set role,
like no more than three socialevents or even maybe one or two
social events, that they're nota very social person per week,
so they have to really pick andchoose what they want to do.
Their spouse to go to, and thenthey just do the other stuff
with their girlfriend.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yes, yes, I've seen that.
I guess I've seen that as well.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Their spouse is going to get angry about that.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
All right, chris, do you have a K Padre K Molo?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
I guess it'd be two different things.
One of the K Padres would bethe Caribbean Sea here Beautiful
.
It's warm all year long.
It's amazing.
There are so many things youcan do snorkeling, scuba,
windsurfing, boating trips,fishing, paddleboarding, etc.
It's you know.
I mean you could spend everyday at the beach here.
The K Molo would probably bethe retornals, that is, the
(09:22):
roads here.
It's a straight shot and theydon't have a lane to get over.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
They don't have like an overpass like we would have
in the States.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
So about every mile or mile and a half, it seems,
there's a return Right and youhave to do that.
And with gas right now Ifigured out it's about $5.64 a
gallon.
That's a lot of extra gas everytime you want to go north.
You got to go south for a whileand then turn around.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
It's the distance and also sometimes you got to sit
at that return and wait fortraffic to clear for and it
feels like forever.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
And then you get these big buses and you can't
see anything.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
They're kind of dangerous.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Two taxi drivers that'll just line up next to
each other and it's like one ata time.
But they don't have patience,so they think they're going to
get there sooner.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah, we could do an entire episode just on how
people drive.
We've learned a lot.
We were down with it, we manageit just fine.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
But definitely got to be defensive driver.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Yes, I don't think I've ever heard him honk the
horn as much as he has in Cancun.
Cancun is crazier, crazydriving more in Cancun than it
is here.
And they will merge right infront of you and they don't care
.
Two or three inches away.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Right, yes, we all know that feeling.
Sherry gets a little nervous.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
just in the passenger seat alone.
I can't look Well, and then yousee the number of cars.
If you park anywhere you canlike, next to whoever you get
out and like, well, they have alittle fender bender.
I mean, there's a scrape on theside of almost every car.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Just have that fatal accident here.
Six people passed, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Well, and the next day there was one farther up the
road and I think two or threepeople died.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yeah, going the opposite direction, and that's
not uncommon here and it's astraight road.
So you always wonder how canthat right?
You know part of the thing, Iguess.
One of my things well, I'lljust do my K Padre is our
property taxes are really low.
Yeah, they're great.
It's a small, tiny fraction ofwhat we paid in the States for
property tax.
(11:27):
The K-Malo that goes along withthat is our roads are not that
great.
We don't have the overpasses,we don't have the infrastructure
that we can pay for in theStates with our property tax.
Yeah, that's true, you know.
So it makes it affordable.
Yeah, so that's my K Padre andK-Malo, and we'll be back,
(12:09):
welcome back.
Today we have all the producersof expats like us and we're
talking K Padre, k-malo, aboutwhat we love, about expat life
in Mexico and those things wejust maybe don't like so much.
Erica, what's your next topic?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Mine is the medical part.
I have severe asthma and in theStates my co-payments would
typically consist of about $30and my albuterol inhalers were
$60.
We carried medical insurancefor the family and that was $500
, $600 a month for that.
(12:44):
Moving here, I can get myinhalers for 40 pesos each,
which is about maybe closer to$3.
With no prescription, noco-payment.
I can go into the pharmacies,show them the albuterol and
they'll sell me as many as Iwant.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
And they're the same quality.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
They're the same Right.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
She's been using them for three years.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
The breathing treatments.
I've had to use breathingtreatments.
I have to have a nebulizer.
The nebulizer was about $20 USdollars when in the States the
insurance would basically sellyou one and it was way more
expensive.
The treatments in itself areabout $6 each one.
(13:29):
I had to stay in the hospital.
The personal experience was Ihad to stay in the hospital
overnight because I had a severeasthma attack and the medical
was still reasonable.
It cost us $2,500 US dollarsand they would not admit me
until we made full payment of$3,000 and then they reimbursed
(13:52):
us.
So, considering it no insurance, it was pretty inexpensive.
It's still a lot.
They did give me oxygen, theytreated me well, everything was
amazing.
The Malo part they do tendsometimes the hospitals do tend
(14:13):
to kind of question you and theywill charge you more if you're
not a local.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Right, or I've heard when they find out you have
Mexican insurance.
I've had people say if you'regoing in for something, that's
not a big deal, do not tell themthat you have insurance,
because then you're gonna getthe jack-back rate on everything
Right.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Yeah, and then also the get by that it was for Chris
.
He rolled his ankle playingpickleball and he also had an
accident with his finger.
We were playing football, andso I base when he got home after
his rolled ankle.
It's like we're going to thehospital.
You need to get x-rays.
We'll do a two-for-one.
(14:55):
I mean, you're already hurtwith your finger, let's get your
ankle checked.
We walked into the emergencyroom.
It was about 45 minutes.
The nurse came in, checked hisvitals and then he spoke to both
doctors the Emergency roomdoctor and the orthopedic doctor
.
We didn't had no middleman andthat cost us at that time about
(15:19):
$172 and I came with x-rays.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
I came with the Wrap that they put on my foot and my
finger and the pain medicinethat they gave me.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
It's.
It's also.
It's amazing to me.
You know you said you get totalk to the orthopedist and you
get to talk to the doctor.
In the States you get like 15minutes.
They come in, they look at you,yeah, you don't see them again
here.
They give you your, theirWhatsApp number.
Yes, they do, and you text themback and forth and they will
text you back day or night, andthey will.
(15:52):
That's to me that's amazing.
That's something that you wouldnever, ever, ever see in the
United States.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
No, and you walk out, like Chris was saying, with
your x-rays, your whole medicalreport that they diagnosed you
with.
You Walk out the door witheverything.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
I think part of the reason Erica's was so expensive
is it was Kind of during COVIDand that's what their first
thought was that she had COVID.
They gave her two or threetests and she was negative.
But they were.
It was an automatic threethousand dollars down Because
they thought that's what it wasand that's was the cost to treat
it.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
I guess and you guys do.
You didn't have any problemgetting Reimbursed no, we went
up to the cashiers.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
You go up and they review everything and they say,
okay, this is how much it was,and it was 2,500.
And they said this is whatwe're charging your credit card,
because you had to have acredit card on hand.
It's not like pay when youleave, you have to have it up
front.
Okay, so they just charged itand everything was fine, all
right very, very cool.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
And we do have Mexican health assurance, but
we've never used it.
So most things are soReasonable you just pay out of
pocket.
So you know, for example amammogram 40 bucks you know,
Just unbelievably cheap comparedto what we would have paid up
in the States.
And Bob had an MRI and it wasmaybe 300 275 bucks for an MRI.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
I remember getting one on my shoulder in the States
and it was over three thousanddollars to my insurance company.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Well, Tess we had to.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
It was five or five, fifty.
Yeah, we're our part after ourpart, yeah right.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
And then also your medication, your blood pressure
medication.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Well, that's 19 pesos for two months, but a dollar.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yes, k-padre, the prescription medication and the
I guess the lower level healthcare in Mexico.
Yeah, it's fabulous, chris.
What do you got?
Speaker 2 (17:44):
I would say the people here, almost everyone you
meet that's a local.
They're friendly, they'reaccommodating, they're
hard-working, just some of thenicest you know.
There's the gardeners here, thepeople you meet out the
restaurants, they're great.
That would be the, the k-padre.
You know that?
I looked it up today.
It's actually.
They usually work about sixdays a week and the minimum wage
(18:06):
as of January 1st 2023 is207.44 pesos a day, so 12 bucks
a day that they're making andthey, they're always smiling.
Now we see you so happy, soaccommodating.
On the other side of that, theK-Malo would be any time you
deal with somebody in a positionof authority, such as Getting
(18:27):
your car registered, any of thatstuff they make it as difficult
.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
It seems as possible, inter interacting with the
government can be veryfrustrating, very frustrating,
or even the Home Depot workers.
But yes, that's one of thestories that everybody goes
through when they first becomean expat is you got to buy a car
, okay, then you got to getlicense plates for it, and a lot
(18:53):
of people will hire someone togo do that for them because
they're intimidated by it.
But eventually you're not doingthat anymore because you
realize you're throwing awaymoney, right, and you go there.
But yeah, it's, you need youknow five different forms.
You need.
You need duplicate copies ofyour stuff.
I went in just recently, in thelast month, last couple of
(19:13):
weeks actually and I wanted toget license plate for our car
and for my motorcycle and it wasno problem.
The car it took like two and ahalf minutes you know they type,
type, type the thing out andgave it to me.
The motorcycle I didn't have acopy of my passport.
Well, I had a copy of mypassport for my car.
The lady had a had a copymachine two feet behind her, but
(19:36):
she was not going to make me acopy, so I had to come home, get
another copy and go back onanother day.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
And the next time you go might be fine with only one
copy.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
It changes every time the next time you might go.
They don't even need a copyRight.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
I dread going to the, to that place.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
I just know it's like a day I have to wake up and
mentally I prepare myself,because you can have everything.
They ask the first time, thesecond time and they still want
something else.
Right, I've learned to haveextra copies, but sometimes it
doesn't work, depending on who'sworking.
Then you can.
You can kind of get away withit Right.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
We have a file folder at home that's just full of
copies from our marriagecertificate, to our passports,
to our residency cards.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
Well, almost everything here.
Your proof of address is yourelectric bill.
And if your name is not on theelectric bill, you might have
problems.
So if I know I need that, Itake a marriage certificate to
show that I'm married to theperson whose name is on the
electric bill, because I don'twant to make a second trip,
exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
So, yeah, it's.
People are so nice, they'rehelpful, they're patient.
They're patient with us Gringosthat you know.
Three out of the four of usdon't know that much Spanish,
right, and people are extremelypatient with that.
But yes, dealing with thegovernment's a pain.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
But do you find yourself like with the language
barrier?
A lot of them speak English orunderstand it here.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Yes, I do, I do like that yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
And there's some that you'll get, that they
understand it, but they won'tspeak it.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Right.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
But for the most part , like with you, Sherry, your
Spanish is getting amazing, likeamazing.
I am impressed with it.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Oh, she came up with k podre and k molo.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
Yeah Well, and it helps.
Once in a while I'll use mySpanish and I get complimented
like oh, your accent's very goodand I'm like whoa, I'm gonna
stick with this.
So I use it.
Even though my maybe the waiterspeaks English and I have an
English man view, I still likethat word in Spanish.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Just practicing.
Practicing, I think, helps alot too, me too.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
I saw a Facebook meme today and it was a shot of
Anthony Bourdain in one of hisshows, and the caption was this
is what I feel like when Ipronounce jalapeno correctly.
That was pretty good.
So, sherry, what do you got?
Speaker 5 (22:11):
Well, one of my deals the things I like a lot is the
cell phone plants here.
So when we came down to Mexicoand decided we were going to get
rid of our US phones and USnumbers, we went in and we knew
from one of our neighbors herethat had a blog that you could
prepay for a cell phone plan andget a heck of a deal.
(22:31):
And I think our first year thatwe are, the first two years we
prepaid and it averaged out tobe about $12 per phone.
It went up per month per phoneand it went up a little bit this
last time, but it's still $20per phone per month, which is
about $180 less than we werespending in the States, and it
(22:53):
covers all the the data that weneed and it's pretty much our
lifeline here.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
So that's through AT&T.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
right yeah, so right right, it's a big corporation.
If you happen to go back to theStates, your phone works just
fine.
Yes, that's true.
It would probably pay off forAmericans to fly down here, buy
a phone, get to sign up for atwo year contract, fly back to
the States and use their AT&T.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
Yes, and the phones are separate.
So you just pay for the phonethat you want and we started out
with kind of cheap ones.
I think mine was $150 for aphone and it works just fine.
I think I might upgrade alittle bit and get one with a
good camera, yeah, but you know.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
And we had bought ours, outright, our iPhone, back
in the States before we camedown here, because we had also
saw the same blog and thought,hey, that's a good deal, we just
have to put a SIM card in andgood to go, right.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
And I think you know maybe one of the key mottos with
that is that you know, maybepeople over a lot rely a bit on
technology.
So you could also use Googletranslate with your phone if you
wanted to talk to someone faceto face and translate what you
were saying or what they weresaying, or you know reading
directions up the back of apackage or whatever.
(24:03):
I use that quite a bit withcooking, but I think sometimes
people get overconfident, like Ireally don't need to use
Spanish, I don't need to learnit, and then they don't, and I
think that's kind of sad thatpeople moved to Mexico and they
don't even try to learn any ofthe language.
So that's my key part, right.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
I guess I would go with that, as technology in
general is is great here.
Think of how much we all usesocial media.
Social media is great.
It's everything that'savailable in the States is
available here.
But what it does.
Think of what it would be liketo move to Mexico and leave your
(25:10):
family and your friends beforethere was internet or social
media.
I mean, you would there,because mail is almost non
existent here.
You would never rely on themail, yeah, and but now it's
like you know, I look at mysocial media list of friends and
it's like I never left thestate Right.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Yeah, you see what they're doing every day.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Every day.
I mean we're big, we're livingvirtually through our friends in
the states like we never left.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
That's to me.
That's.
That's one of the big benefitsof just technology in general
that we have done For sure.
Now the downside of Facebookand stuff is there's a lot of
Facebook addiction and stuffthat happens, you know.
I mean, we all know people thatspend the entire day on their
phone and they develop, you know, drama in their head.
(25:59):
You know things that they seethere and oh my God, and the sky
is falling all the time andit's, you know, that's so.
That's kind of the downside.
The other technology is I haveexpat TV.
Okay, it's $30 a month and Iget, I don't know there's
thousands and thousands ofchannels, like basically almost
(26:19):
every channel on earth, and ifthere's a channel that's not
there, you email them and theyput it on there.
So, and it's like 30 bucks amonth.
And when we were in the stateswe had, you know, dish network
and we had local cable and wewent through every iteration of
television services and we neverpay less than like $80 or $90 a
(26:40):
month.
And that was at the low endpackage for those things, yeah.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
So yeah, we never had movie channels back in the
States, we got them all down.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, I was.
I was always too cheap to get a.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
T.
You know what, though?
That's the same thing with us.
It was just money wasted everymonth.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah, the only.
Thing.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
I think you really splurged on was the internet,
because you were a gamer, heliked the fast internet, and so
Chris and our son Daniel.
Both Daniel Xbox, ChrisPlayStation.
So he wanted the fast internet.
That was the only thing hesplurged on, but everything else
it was down here and we didn'thave time to watch TV.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Right, right, right and yeah, and we don't have time
to watch TV here either, but atleast we're not paying an arm
or a leg Right.
If you do get a rainy day andyou want to sit inside, it's
available Right, or you want to,you know, see what's going on
in the news, or whatever.
You can sit down and do it.
But yeah, you know, and it isall internet based.
So you know, depending on whatservice you have, it can get.
(27:43):
So it's buffers, or what do Iwant to say?
Buffers, you know?
Yeah, we have fast internet,but yeah our internet, the
internet options here.
You would think going to adeveloping country like this,
you'd have problems with that.
But you really don't know, youknow it's fast, I mean, and so
many of the things that you buyare are connected to you know,
(28:05):
like our, our oven can beconnected to our Alexa, yeah our
fridge and our air conditioners.
All can be run off the phoneand so the technology in Mexico
is just as good as it isanywhere in the world?
Speaker 3 (28:19):
I think so.
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
I was going to say also along technology solar, we
have solar, you guys have solar.
That's one of the bestinvestments we've made here.
I know several people you knowinstall around this area.
We ended up getting ours for aheck of a deal.
Our last bill on our solar billwas 62 pesos.
That's like what, four bucks.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
I should say our electric bill on our solar, but
yeah, yeah, like three or fourbucks.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
For two months.
For two months, yeah, we got.
We had eight panels put onbefore we moved here.
We had them put on our condoand we figured they paid for
themselves, probably about ayear ago.
Yeah and we've been here notquite three years.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Our bill a month, or the two months before we got it,
was 7400 pesos as opposed to 62pesos, so big difference.
Speaker 5 (29:13):
But 350 us, even a little bit more on the exchange
difference yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
And before he was always watching to make sure
that there was one air on and Itold him he was cheap because I
wanted a little bit moreespecially in the hot months.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
You want that air.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
But now he's more.
He's okay with having two onthree on whatever you need?
Yeah, because it's paying foritself.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Especially in these cooler months.
You're racking it up, stores itgoes right back on the grid
here and you don't have to haveany right, any batteries or
anything.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
It's like buying stuff on Amazon.
It's almost throwing away moneyto use your solar to run your
air conditioner.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
So the only, you know , the only drawback is I know
people that moved here and youknow they see how cheap people
have with their solar panels orwhatever.
I want solar panels and ifyou're buying in a condo, just
make sure that your unit isallowed to have solar panels,
because we've had friends thathave a garden level or middle
(30:21):
level unit and they're limitedto maybe two or three solar
panels, which doesn't quite doit.
So then they have to reallylimit how much they use so that
they don't go into the nonsubsidized electric rate, which
is much higher.
And you know I feel bad for him.
It's summertime.
You'd like to have your atleast air conditioner on in the
bedroom at night.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
And.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
I know people that limit themselves because of that
, so that's a good question tothink about or check out before
you, before you buy.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yes, One of the reasons we chose this townhome
because we have our own rooftopand we knew we could and you
guys your whole building hassolar for the entire building,
so put up solar panels till thecows come home.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Exactly, you could power the whole neighborhood
with this place.
Yeah, yes, but yeah, amazingtechnology that we have down
here, and that's just one aspectof it.
Well, I think that's it for ourpodcast today.
I think so, thanks to ChrisKowalski and Erica Kowalski and
my wife Sherry, and we'll seeyou next time on Xpats Like Us.
(31:21):
Hasta luego.
In each episode of Xpats LikeUs, we're going to teach you a
new Mexican slang word.
This is something you may notfind in your phrasebook or your
online Spanish class or yourSpanish app, or wherever you're
learning your Spanish.
Instead, this is a term usedprimarily by Mexican Spanish
(31:44):
speakers.
Today's word is no manches, nomanches.
I've heard that or I've readthat before.
How do you spell that?
Speaker 3 (31:57):
No, no manches.
M-a-n-c-h-e-s.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
No, manches.
What does it mean?
Speaker 3 (32:04):
It literally translates to don't stain, but
it usually is used when you'retalking to friends like no shit,
no way.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Okay, no way, no manches, no manches.
That's a good one.
Thank you, Erica Kowalski.
From Me, Vita Margarita.
We'd love to hear your thoughtson today's topic.
Just look up Xpats Like Us onFacebook or send us an email at
xpatslikeus at gmailcom.
(32:35):
You can also see the videoversion of today's discussion
and all of our discussions onour YouTube page.
Follow, like, subscribe andleave us a review.
Thank you to the producers ofXpats Like Us for getting
together and playing a round ofK-Padre K-Malo.
It's been fun.
Thanks, Chris and Erica.
From Me, Vita Margarita, andthanks to my wife, Sherry.
(32:57):
Most of all, thank you fortuning in to Xpats Like Us and
thank you for interacting withus on social media.
Next time, we'll bring you morefirsthand information about
your international mood.
Until then, remember our homesare not defined by geography or
one particular location, but bymemories, events, people and
places that span the globe.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
Hey Jose, please pass the Pico.
Don Julio, kick chopping thatcilantro.
Speaker 6 (33:51):
Add some avocado and little avocado because we're
about to pay his discounts.
Our next door shout out to you,carnitas.
It's amazing to me.
You know, you said you get totalk to the orthopedist and you
get to talk to the doctor.
In the States you get like 15minutes.
They come in, they look at youyou don't see them again here.
They give you their WhatsAppnumber yes, they do, and you
text them back and forth andthey will text you back day or
night.
They won't.
(00:20):
I mean, that's to me, that'samazing.
That's something that you wouldnever, ever, ever see in the
United States.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
No.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Welcome to ExPATs Like Us, a co-production with me
, vita Margarita, exploring theworld of US expat life in Mexico
.
In each episode, we'll meet newpeople and hear their stories.
We'll also learn more aboutexpat life and get a few tips on
everything from making yourmove to settling in, to living
your dreams and, most of all,having fun.
(00:53):
Let's dive in.
Today's episode of ExPATs LikeUs actually has four hosts,
please welcome Chris Kowalski,erika Kowalski, sherry Bussey
(01:13):
and, of course, I'm Bob Bussey.
We're all friends in ExPATs who, in the summer of 2021, sold
our possessions, retired fromour jobs and made the move to
Mexico.
Today we're talking about someof our personal experiences of
becoming expats.
We've all noticed that whenliving in an expat community, we
tend to have a lot ofconversations about how things
are different than they werewhere we came from.
(01:35):
Today, we're playing a gamecalled K-Padre K-Malo.
As you might remember fromepisode 4, padre means father in
Spanish, but it also means cool.
When we pair it with K, k-padremeans how cool.
On the flip side, k-malo meanshow awful.
It turns out that lots ofchanges we've experienced in our
ExPAT lives we think are greatK-Padre, while some experiences
(01:59):
take us a while to get used toK-Malo.
Don't worry, you'll catch on.
Let's start with a topic fromSherry.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
Okay, Well, my K-Padre would be online shopping
.
I didn't do hardly any onlineshopping in the States, but I
found out that in Mexico there'sthings I couldn't find Between
Mercado Libre and Amazon Mexico.
They have been lifesavers, soanything from getting medication
to household cleaning productslike Tide Pods, which I cannot
(02:27):
live without.
But I can't find in the storeshere I can find online and it's
at my doorstep between probablythree and seven days from when I
order, so that's definitely aK-Padre for me.
Maybe the K-Malo would be someof the stores that were
face-to-face stores or in-personstores for me back home are not
here, so I really miss Target.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Nobody knows this, I miss Target.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
I miss the Michaels craft store and although I can
get some of the things deliveredto my doorstep, sometimes
there's a price difference.
So maybe a little two ouncepaint that I would buy for
crafting back in the States$1.29 at the most.
If you look online it's animport cost, so it's about $12
(03:13):
for that two ounce paint.
So I bring my paint back fromthe States.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
You know one of the things I think with online
shopping.
The other thing I've noticedhere we get deliveries at like
nine o'clock on a Sunday night.
We never had that where welived in the States.
It's deliveries are seven daysa week and well into the evening
, anytime of the day.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yeah, so that's pretty sure this is very
familiar with shopping online.
The Amazon man knows him.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I'm friends with him.
We see him almost weekly.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
You invited him for Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
He says weekly, almost daily, almost, and then
he'll forget what he ordered.
He gets excited because itchanges on Amazon every day.
Every day things will change.
Sometimes you can't getsomething crystal research and
he'll look to see what he wants.
And then he looks again, youknow, in a couple of days and
(04:09):
now it's able for delivery herewithout the import fee, and so
he'll place the orders and thensometimes he'll forget that he
ordered it.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
One thing I didn't realize when I moved down here.
There's amazoncommx, which isMexico.
I didn't know they had that,but you can still order things
off of Amazoncom and get a largemajority, it seems like, of
those items delivered as well.
You can't get everything fromeither one, but sometimes you
can get things on one.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
You can't get from the other Right and I noticed
some of the things you pay alittle bit of an import tax on
it, but that's included in theprice, so you don't notice it.
But the bottom line is yeah,you can find pretty much
anything on Amazon.
Mexico yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
And if you have Amazon Prime, it's almost always
free delivery.
So I feel like we're savingmoney.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
It's almost like throwing away money not to order
a bunch of stuff on Amazon.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
And if you can't find it on Amazon, you go out and
explore the Pueblos or Playa delCarmen and find substitutes
that are just as good.
Yeah, right.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
Yeah, we especially see that with you know, maybe
food items.
Yes.
If you can't find it well,maybe you could make it or
substitute something else that'snearly as good or maybe even
better.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yes exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
That's true, right?
So let's go to Erica.
What's a K Padre and a K Mavofor you?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
My K Padre is friends .
I thought I would miss more,like I missed my friends back in
the States, but I thought hereit was going to be lonely, but
it's completely opposite.
The K Padre is everybody's,friendly.
You get to know people andthere's really everybody just
(05:50):
likes each other.
So I love that part of it thefriends.
The K Malo part is that meetingfriends were literally here all
the time.
So if you are on a walk, whatare you doing for dinner tonight
?
I don't know.
Let's go out to dinner and thenyou find yourself with no
downtime.
And it gets busier than weactually realized, where we
(06:13):
don't have a lot of downtime, wehave to schedule downtime.
We actually have a sharedcalendar now, so when we do
something or I commit tosomething, he sees it, because
before it's like I scheduledthis, why I said that we were
going to do this where it gotkind of chaotic and so we
actually have to schedule ourdowntime.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Right and eventually it's like, oh my God, it's
February already.
I thought it was November.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Or we're coming up on our three year mark in the
summer, both of us.
So where did the three years go?
Right, that's true, it wasquick.
Yeah, when you're having fun,it does.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
But yeah, with friends it's easy to make
friends.
Part of the reason I think thatis is because we all have this
shared experience of getting ridof all of our stuff.
And you know, like I said inthe intro, we all talk about.
We have a lot of the sameconversations, you know, stuff
we like and stuff we don't like,but that is bonding with people
just doing that, you know yes.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Or meeting people too .
Like if you go to the pool,there's people that visit and
they we didn't realize before.
They're here year like everyyear.
They come for a couple of weeksand then when they visit, you
know they want to hang out withyou, they want to talk to you,
they want to see you.
So it's like you meet newfriends every time.
You have your main group offriends, but then you have those
(07:35):
friends that visit littlesecret pockets of friends that
are temporary, yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
And luckily we don't have jobs, because there's no
way we can fit it all in withthe job.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
I don't even know how we work.
There's no time for work.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
For sure.
So do you have a K-Molo?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
The K-Molo is no downtime.
Oh no, no downtime, Right nodowntime that's.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
That is kind of Molo.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
It's fun time, it's not necessarily a bad thing, but
it can't get in the way of.
We have to get our carregistered, but we don't have
time to go get our carregistered because we make
things like happen with friends.
So now we just push it and pushit.
Or, taking care of the outside,we push that.
It's like, oh, we don't, we cando that tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
It's good, we'll go hang out with friends and there
are some people that I knowtheir spouse has a set role,
like no more than three socialevents or even maybe one or two
social events, that they're nota very social person per week,
so they have to really pick andchoose what they want to do.
Their spouse to go to, and thenthey just do the other stuff
with their girlfriend.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yes, yes, I've seen that.
I guess I've seen that as well.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Their spouse is going to get angry about that.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
All right, chris, do you have a K Padre K Molo?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
I guess it'd be two different things.
One of the K Padres would bethe Caribbean Sea here Beautiful
.
It's warm all year long.
It's amazing.
There are so many things youcan do snorkeling, scuba,
windsurfing, boating trips,fishing, paddleboarding, etc.
It's you know.
I mean you could spend everyday at the beach here.
The K Molo would probably bethe retornals, that is, the
(09:22):
roads here.
It's a straight shot and theydon't have a lane to get over.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
They don't have like an overpass like we would have
in the States.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
So about every mile or mile and a half, it seems,
there's a return Right and youhave to do that.
And with gas right now Ifigured out it's about $5.64 a
gallon.
That's a lot of extra gas everytime you want to go north.
You got to go south for a whileand then turn around.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
It's the distance and also sometimes you got to sit
at that return and wait fortraffic to clear for and it
feels like forever.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
And then you get these big buses and you can't
see anything.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
They're kind of dangerous.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Two taxi drivers that'll just line up next to
each other and it's like one ata time.
But they don't have patience,so they think they're going to
get there sooner.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah, we could do an entire episode just on how
people drive.
We've learned a lot.
We were down with it, we manageit just fine.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
But definitely got to be defensive driver.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Yes, I don't think I've ever heard him honk the
horn as much as he has in Cancun.
Cancun is crazier, crazydriving more in Cancun than it
is here.
And they will merge right infront of you and they don't care
.
Two or three inches away.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Right, yes, we all know that feeling.
Sherry gets a little nervous.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
just in the passenger seat alone.
I can't look Well, and then yousee the number of cars.
If you park anywhere you canlike, next to whoever you get
out and like, well, they have alittle fender bender.
I mean, there's a scrape on theside of almost every car.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Just have that fatal accident here.
Six people passed, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Well, and the next day there was one farther up the
road and I think two or threepeople died.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yeah, going the opposite direction, and that's
not uncommon here and it's astraight road.
So you always wonder how canthat right?
You know part of the thing, Iguess.
One of my things well, I'lljust do my K Padre is our
property taxes are really low.
Yeah, they're great.
It's a small, tiny fraction ofwhat we paid in the States for
property tax.
(11:27):
The K-Malo that goes along withthat is our roads are not that
great.
We don't have the overpasses,we don't have the infrastructure
that we can pay for in theStates with our property tax.
Yeah, that's true, you know.
So it makes it affordable.
Yeah, so that's my K Padre andK-Malo, and we'll be back,
(12:09):
welcome back.
Today we have all the producersof expats like us and we're
talking K Padre, k-malo, aboutwhat we love, about expat life
in Mexico and those things wejust maybe don't like so much.
Erica, what's your next topic?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Mine is the medical part.
I have severe asthma and in theStates my co-payments would
typically consist of about $30and my albuterol inhalers were
$60.
We carried medical insurancefor the family and that was $500
, $600 a month for that.
(12:44):
Moving here, I can get myinhalers for 40 pesos each,
which is about maybe closer to$3.
With no prescription, noco-payment.
I can go into the pharmacies,show them the albuterol and
they'll sell me as many as Iwant.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
And they're the same quality.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
They're the same Right.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
She's been using them for three years.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
The breathing treatments.
I've had to use breathingtreatments.
I have to have a nebulizer.
The nebulizer was about $20 USdollars when in the States the
insurance would basically sellyou one and it was way more
expensive.
The treatments in itself areabout $6 each one.
(13:29):
I had to stay in the hospital.
The personal experience was Ihad to stay in the hospital
overnight because I had a severeasthma attack and the medical
was still reasonable.
It cost us $2,500 US dollarsand they would not admit me
until we made full payment of$3,000 and then they reimbursed
(13:52):
us.
So, considering it no insurance, it was pretty inexpensive.
It's still a lot.
They did give me oxygen, theytreated me well, everything was
amazing.
The Malo part they do tendsometimes the hospitals do tend
(14:13):
to kind of question you and theywill charge you more if you're
not a local.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Right, or I've heard when they find out you have
Mexican insurance.
I've had people say if you'regoing in for something, that's
not a big deal, do not tell themthat you have insurance,
because then you're gonna getthe jack-back rate on everything
Right.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Yeah, and then also the get by that it was for Chris
.
He rolled his ankle playingpickleball and he also had an
accident with his finger.
We were playing football, andso I base when he got home after
his rolled ankle.
It's like we're going to thehospital.
You need to get x-rays.
We'll do a two-for-one.
(14:55):
I mean, you're already hurtwith your finger, let's get your
ankle checked.
We walked into the emergencyroom.
It was about 45 minutes.
The nurse came in, checked hisvitals and then he spoke to both
doctors the Emergency roomdoctor and the orthopedic doctor
.
We didn't had no middleman andthat cost us at that time about
(15:19):
$172 and I came with x-rays.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
I came with the Wrap that they put on my foot and my
finger and the pain medicinethat they gave me.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
It's.
It's also.
It's amazing to me.
You know you said you get totalk to the orthopedist and you
get to talk to the doctor.
In the States you get like 15minutes.
They come in, they look at you,yeah, you don't see them again
here.
They give you your, theirWhatsApp number.
Yes, they do, and you text themback and forth and they will
text you back day or night, andthey will.
(15:52):
That's to me that's amazing.
That's something that you wouldnever, ever, ever see in the
United States.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
No, and you walk out, like Chris was saying, with
your x-rays, your whole medicalreport that they diagnosed you
with.
You Walk out the door witheverything.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
I think part of the reason Erica's was so expensive
is it was Kind of during COVIDand that's what their first
thought was that she had COVID.
They gave her two or threetests and she was negative.
But they were.
It was an automatic threethousand dollars down Because
they thought that's what it wasand that's was the cost to treat
it.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
I guess and you guys do.
You didn't have any problemgetting Reimbursed no, we went
up to the cashiers.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
You go up and they review everything and they say,
okay, this is how much it was,and it was 2,500.
And they said this is whatwe're charging your credit card,
because you had to have acredit card on hand.
It's not like pay when youleave, you have to have it up
front.
Okay, so they just charged itand everything was fine, all
right very, very cool.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
And we do have Mexican health assurance, but
we've never used it.
So most things are soReasonable you just pay out of
pocket.
So you know, for example amammogram 40 bucks you know,
Just unbelievably cheap comparedto what we would have paid up
in the States.
And Bob had an MRI and it wasmaybe 300 275 bucks for an MRI.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
I remember getting one on my shoulder in the States
and it was over three thousanddollars to my insurance company.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Well, Tess we had to.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
It was five or five, fifty.
Yeah, we're our part after ourpart, yeah right.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
And then also your medication, your blood pressure
medication.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Well, that's 19 pesos for two months, but a dollar.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yes, k-padre, the prescription medication and the
I guess the lower level healthcare in Mexico.
Yeah, it's fabulous, chris.
What do you got?
Speaker 2 (17:44):
I would say the people here, almost everyone you
meet that's a local.
They're friendly, they'reaccommodating, they're
hard-working, just some of thenicest you know.
There's the gardeners here, thepeople you meet out the
restaurants, they're great.
That would be the, the k-padre.
You know that?
I looked it up today.
It's actually.
They usually work about sixdays a week and the minimum wage
(18:06):
as of January 1st 2023 is207.44 pesos a day, so 12 bucks
a day that they're making andthey, they're always smiling.
Now we see you so happy, soaccommodating.
On the other side of that, theK-Malo would be any time you
deal with somebody in a positionof authority, such as Getting
(18:27):
your car registered, any of thatstuff they make it as difficult
.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
It seems as possible, inter interacting with the
government can be veryfrustrating, very frustrating,
or even the Home Depot workers.
But yes, that's one of thestories that everybody goes
through when they first becomean expat is you got to buy a car
, okay, then you got to getlicense plates for it, and a lot
(18:53):
of people will hire someone togo do that for them because
they're intimidated by it.
But eventually you're not doingthat anymore because you
realize you're throwing awaymoney, right, and you go there.
But yeah, it's, you need youknow five different forms.
You need.
You need duplicate copies ofyour stuff.
I went in just recently, in thelast month, last couple of
(19:13):
weeks actually and I wanted toget license plate for our car
and for my motorcycle and it wasno problem.
The car it took like two and ahalf minutes you know they type,
type, type the thing out andgave it to me.
The motorcycle I didn't have acopy of my passport.
Well, I had a copy of mypassport for my car.
The lady had a had a copymachine two feet behind her, but
(19:36):
she was not going to make me acopy, so I had to come home, get
another copy and go back onanother day.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
And the next time you go might be fine with only one
copy.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
It changes every time the next time you might go.
They don't even need a copyRight.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
I dread going to the, to that place.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
I just know it's like a day I have to wake up and
mentally I prepare myself,because you can have everything.
They ask the first time, thesecond time and they still want
something else.
Right, I've learned to haveextra copies, but sometimes it
doesn't work, depending on who'sworking.
Then you can.
You can kind of get away withit Right.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
We have a file folder at home that's just full of
copies from our marriagecertificate, to our passports,
to our residency cards.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
Well, almost everything here.
Your proof of address is yourelectric bill.
And if your name is not on theelectric bill, you might have
problems.
So if I know I need that, Itake a marriage certificate to
show that I'm married to theperson whose name is on the
electric bill, because I don'twant to make a second trip,
exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
So, yeah, it's.
People are so nice, they'rehelpful, they're patient.
They're patient with us Gringosthat you know.
Three out of the four of usdon't know that much Spanish,
right, and people are extremelypatient with that.
But yes, dealing with thegovernment's a pain.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
But do you find yourself like with the language
barrier?
A lot of them speak English orunderstand it here.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Yes, I do, I do like that yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
And there's some that you'll get, that they
understand it, but they won'tspeak it.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Right.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
But for the most part , like with you, Sherry, your
Spanish is getting amazing, likeamazing.
I am impressed with it.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Oh, she came up with k podre and k molo.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
Yeah Well, and it helps.
Once in a while I'll use mySpanish and I get complimented
like oh, your accent's very goodand I'm like whoa, I'm gonna
stick with this.
So I use it.
Even though my maybe the waiterspeaks English and I have an
English man view, I still likethat word in Spanish.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Just practicing.
Practicing, I think, helps alot too, me too.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
I saw a Facebook meme today and it was a shot of
Anthony Bourdain in one of hisshows, and the caption was this
is what I feel like when Ipronounce jalapeno correctly.
That was pretty good.
So, sherry, what do you got?
Speaker 5 (22:11):
Well, one of my deals the things I like a lot is the
cell phone plants here.
So when we came down to Mexicoand decided we were going to get
rid of our US phones and USnumbers, we went in and we knew
from one of our neighbors herethat had a blog that you could
prepay for a cell phone plan andget a heck of a deal.
(22:31):
And I think our first year thatwe are, the first two years we
prepaid and it averaged out tobe about $12 per phone.
It went up per month per phoneand it went up a little bit this
last time, but it's still $20per phone per month, which is
about $180 less than we werespending in the States, and it
(22:53):
covers all the the data that weneed and it's pretty much our
lifeline here.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
So that's through AT&T.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
right yeah, so right right, it's a big corporation.
If you happen to go back to theStates, your phone works just
fine.
Yes, that's true.
It would probably pay off forAmericans to fly down here, buy
a phone, get to sign up for atwo year contract, fly back to
the States and use their AT&T.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
Yes, and the phones are separate.
So you just pay for the phonethat you want and we started out
with kind of cheap ones.
I think mine was $150 for aphone and it works just fine.
I think I might upgrade alittle bit and get one with a
good camera, yeah, but you know.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
And we had bought ours, outright, our iPhone, back
in the States before we camedown here, because we had also
saw the same blog and thought,hey, that's a good deal, we just
have to put a SIM card in andgood to go, right.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
And I think you know maybe one of the key mottos with
that is that you know, maybepeople over a lot rely a bit on
technology.
So you could also use Googletranslate with your phone if you
wanted to talk to someone faceto face and translate what you
were saying or what they weresaying, or you know reading
directions up the back of apackage or whatever.
(24:03):
I use that quite a bit withcooking, but I think sometimes
people get overconfident, like Ireally don't need to use
Spanish, I don't need to learnit, and then they don't, and I
think that's kind of sad thatpeople moved to Mexico and they
don't even try to learn any ofthe language.
So that's my key part, right.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
I guess I would go with that, as technology in
general is is great here.
Think of how much we all usesocial media.
Social media is great.
It's everything that'savailable in the States is
available here.
But what it does.
Think of what it would be liketo move to Mexico and leave your
(25:10):
family and your friends beforethere was internet or social
media.
I mean, you would there,because mail is almost non
existent here.
You would never rely on themail, yeah, and but now it's
like you know, I look at mysocial media list of friends and
it's like I never left thestate Right.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Yeah, you see what they're doing every day.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Every day.
I mean we're big, we're livingvirtually through our friends in
the states like we never left.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
That's to me.
That's.
That's one of the big benefitsof just technology in general
that we have done For sure.
Now the downside of Facebookand stuff is there's a lot of
Facebook addiction and stuffthat happens, you know.
I mean, we all know people thatspend the entire day on their
phone and they develop, you know, drama in their head.
(25:59):
You know things that they seethere and oh my God, and the sky
is falling all the time andit's, you know, that's so.
That's kind of the downside.
The other technology is I haveexpat TV.
Okay, it's $30 a month and Iget, I don't know there's
thousands and thousands ofchannels, like basically almost
(26:19):
every channel on earth, and ifthere's a channel that's not
there, you email them and theyput it on there.
So, and it's like 30 bucks amonth.
And when we were in the stateswe had, you know, dish network
and we had local cable and wewent through every iteration of
television services and we neverpay less than like $80 or $90 a
(26:40):
month.
And that was at the low endpackage for those things, yeah.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
So yeah, we never had movie channels back in the
States, we got them all down.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, I was.
I was always too cheap to get a.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
T.
You know what, though?
That's the same thing with us.
It was just money wasted everymonth.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah, the only.
Thing.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
I think you really splurged on was the internet,
because you were a gamer, heliked the fast internet, and so
Chris and our son Daniel.
Both Daniel Xbox, ChrisPlayStation.
So he wanted the fast internet.
That was the only thing hesplurged on, but everything else
it was down here and we didn'thave time to watch TV.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Right, right, right and yeah, and we don't have time
to watch TV here either, but atleast we're not paying an arm
or a leg Right.
If you do get a rainy day andyou want to sit inside, it's
available Right, or you want to,you know, see what's going on
in the news, or whatever.
You can sit down and do it.
But yeah, you know, and it isall internet based.
So you know, depending on whatservice you have, it can get.
(27:43):
So it's buffers, or what do Iwant to say?
Buffers, you know?
Yeah, we have fast internet,but yeah our internet, the
internet options here.
You would think going to adeveloping country like this,
you'd have problems with that.
But you really don't know, youknow it's fast, I mean, and so
many of the things that you buyare are connected to you know,
(28:05):
like our, our oven can beconnected to our Alexa, yeah our
fridge and our air conditioners.
All can be run off the phoneand so the technology in Mexico
is just as good as it isanywhere in the world?
Speaker 3 (28:19):
I think so.
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
I was going to say also along technology solar, we
have solar, you guys have solar.
That's one of the bestinvestments we've made here.
I know several people you knowinstall around this area.
We ended up getting ours for aheck of a deal.
Our last bill on our solar billwas 62 pesos.
That's like what, four bucks.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
I should say our electric bill on our solar, but
yeah, yeah, like three or fourbucks.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
For two months.
For two months, yeah, we got.
We had eight panels put onbefore we moved here.
We had them put on our condoand we figured they paid for
themselves, probably about ayear ago.
Yeah and we've been here notquite three years.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Our bill a month, or the two months before we got it,
was 7400 pesos as opposed to 62pesos, so big difference.
Speaker 5 (29:13):
But 350 us, even a little bit more on the exchange
difference yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
And before he was always watching to make sure
that there was one air on and Itold him he was cheap because I
wanted a little bit moreespecially in the hot months.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
You want that air.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
But now he's more.
He's okay with having two onthree on whatever you need?
Yeah, because it's paying foritself.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Especially in these cooler months.
You're racking it up, stores itgoes right back on the grid
here and you don't have to haveany right, any batteries or
anything.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
It's like buying stuff on Amazon.
It's almost throwing away moneyto use your solar to run your
air conditioner.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
So the only, you know , the only drawback is I know
people that moved here and youknow they see how cheap people
have with their solar panels orwhatever.
I want solar panels and ifyou're buying in a condo, just
make sure that your unit isallowed to have solar panels,
because we've had friends thathave a garden level or middle
(30:21):
level unit and they're limitedto maybe two or three solar
panels, which doesn't quite doit.
So then they have to reallylimit how much they use so that
they don't go into the nonsubsidized electric rate, which
is much higher.
And you know I feel bad for him.
It's summertime.
You'd like to have your atleast air conditioner on in the
bedroom at night.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
And.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
I know people that limit themselves because of that
, so that's a good question tothink about or check out before
you, before you buy.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yes, One of the reasons we chose this townhome
because we have our own rooftopand we knew we could and you
guys your whole building hassolar for the entire building,
so put up solar panels till thecows come home.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Exactly, you could power the whole neighborhood
with this place.
Yeah, yes, but yeah, amazingtechnology that we have down
here, and that's just one aspectof it.
Well, I think that's it for ourpodcast today.
I think so, thanks to ChrisKowalski and Erica Kowalski and
my wife Sherry, and we'll seeyou next time on Xpats Like Us.
(31:21):
Hasta luego.
In each episode of Xpats LikeUs, we're going to teach you a
new Mexican slang word.
This is something you may notfind in your phrasebook or your
online Spanish class or yourSpanish app, or wherever you're
learning your Spanish.
Instead, this is a term usedprimarily by Mexican Spanish
(31:44):
speakers.
Today's word is no manches, nomanches.
I've heard that or I've readthat before.
How do you spell that?
Speaker 3 (31:57):
No, no manches.
M-a-n-c-h-e-s.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
No, manches.
What does it mean?
Speaker 3 (32:04):
It literally translates to don't stain, but
it usually is used when you'retalking to friends like no shit,
no way.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Okay, no way, no manches, no manches.
That's a good one.
Thank you, Erica Kowalski.
From Me, Vita Margarita.
We'd love to hear your thoughtson today's topic.
Just look up Xpats Like Us onFacebook or send us an email at
xpatslikeus at gmailcom.
(32:35):
You can also see the videoversion of today's discussion
and all of our discussions onour YouTube page.
Follow, like, subscribe andleave us a review.
Thank you to the producers ofXpats Like Us for getting
together and playing a round ofK-Padre K-Malo.
It's been fun.
Thanks, Chris and Erica.
From Me, Vita Margarita, andthanks to my wife, Sherry.
(32:57):
Most of all, thank you fortuning in to Xpats Like Us and
thank you for interacting withus on social media.
Next time, we'll bring you morefirsthand information about
your international mood.
Until then, remember our homesare not defined by geography or
one particular location, but bymemories, events, people and
places that span the globe.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
Hey Jose, please pass the Pico.
Don Julio, kick chopping thatcilantro.
Speaker 6 (33:51):
Add some avocado and little avocado because we're
about to pay his discounts.
Our next door shout out to you,carnitas.
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