What it was like to Live in Mexico

On my trip to Mexico, I was blown away at how different the lifestyle was. It's not uncommon to hear in the news stories of border control issues. I lived in Mexico for almost 3 months. I experienced everything from the food to everyday home life. It was an experience I'll never forget.

Living in a Mexican household wasn't too bad. Everyone was really nice. I stayed with a 4 person family. The mother, son, sister and son in law. I quickly learned that living together after marriage is quite common. Children don't necessarily leave the nest as they do in America. Many times having more then a few boyfriends/girlfriends is frown upon here. As opposite to America where often times it is encouraged to date many to see what you want in a person. If you live with your boyfriend or girlfriend in Mexico, you are considered to others as married. Many couples here don't feel the need to have an official marriage license/certificate.

Homes in Mexico are mostly constructed out of cement. Some floors may only have cement while others have a nice tile texture. It's not uncommon for cleaning and dusting to be done everyday. Usually this responsibility is put under the women of the house. The man goes out and works 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and sometimes half a day on Saturdays depending on where he works. The women usually during the day will stay at home , clean and prepare dinner for the household. I had a hard time dealing with this, I wouldn't want my life to mainly be cleaning and cooking and asking my husband for money.

In America it's a women's decision if she wants to stay home, but in Mexico it's not necessarily an option. For those who live in smaller towns, there isn't much work. I met two women who owned their own businesses separate from their husbands. In the bigger cities it's usually both the man and women working. They hire help to clean and maintain their home.

Living in a cement home was a shock to my health. There was no heaters or boilers in the home. If I wanted hot water, I'd have to wait around 20-25 minutes by putting cardboard and wood into an outside boiler. Here you need to pay for cardboard eggshell cartons and scraps of wood. I became sick with throat infections two times. It's common here to not take a shower everyday. Some days this past year were so cold you couldn't take a shower because there was a good chance of getting sick.

In the home the mother would cook a meal that would be eaten again as leftovers for many days. My taste buds soon learned to get used to the same foods on a daily basis. Instead of doing a week's shopping in one day, often times I would go to a corner store to pick up items needed for that night. Some stores did contain American products such as M&M's and Snickers. Bigger stores such as commercial Mexicana also known as Mega in Pachuca Mexico had many American brand products. Examples are Kraft Easy Mac, Velvetta's shells and cheese and white fudge covered Oreos. Food cost more here then in America. For example, in Wal*Mart you can purchase Velvetta shells and cheese for around $1.66 but in Mexico it cost me $2.20. Florida's Natural orange juice costs $5.00 instead of the normal price range of $2.50-$3.00.

When it came to doing laundry, it became more of an event rather then a chore. I would try to start laundry at around 8am but couldn't due to the fact there wasn't enough water to fill the washer. When there was enough water, I washed my clothes in a washer that didn't drain the soap or water. I would manually drain the water out of a hose each time the water became dirty. The washer itself didn't hold too many clothes, sometimes I could only manage to wash one pair of jeans and a shirt each time. As you can imagine this took a while to finish my laundry. Afterwards I would put my clothes into a big bucket that was full of fabric softener. After the clothes sat in the softener, I would hang them up on a clothes hanger and wait for the clothes to dry.

Keeping in touch with family in America can be very costly. For $3.00 you have 6 minutes and for $5.00 for have 10 minutes. You must buy a phone card to call anywhere. You can't call using a collect call service such as 1-800-collect. A better option is to pay around $0.80-$1.20 for an hour of internet service. I suggest using an instant messaging service such as Yahoo, Windows Live or AOL to keep in touch. Many internet cafés offer webcams at no additional charge. Or have someone outside of Mexico call you. My family found phone cards costing only $5.00 for an hour of call time.

Healthcare in Mexico was surprisingly cheap. For one visit it cost me only $1.60 to be checked out when I had one of my throat infections. Prices usually rang around $1.60 to $5.00 per visit. Some places give you the medicine you need as apart of your bill while others write a prescription. Surprisingly the cost for a pregnancy related visit was around $20.00 and that was without insurance. Many of the places seemed okay as far as cleanness goes.

Overall Mexico was definitely a culture shock for me but I'm glad that I went and lived there. There are many exchange programs that you can join to see what life is like for yourself. If you do decide to visit Mexico, make sure you are aware of your surroundings at all times.