Arriving in Guadalajara

Three thoughts ran through my mind as I landed in Mexico City Airport at 2 o'clock in the morning on Sunday. Holy fuck. What have I done. Shit, I'm in Mexico. Granted, I was very sleep deprived and probably not completely lucid. However, 6 hours later and reaching my final destination in Guadalajara the same three thoughts were running through my head. Ditto when I got my luggage and in the taxi on the way to my Airbnb. It is safe to say the whole of Sunday was me realising that I had dived head first into the unknown. Of course there was excitement as well. I have always loved traveling, but the furthest I have ventured alone was Barcelona which is only 1500km away. Mexico is 10, 000km (not the 3000km I originally thought).

In the far distance you can make out the mountains, and a KFC sign

Guadalajara is different, not in a bad way, just in a very culture shock nothing is the same kind of way different. The first thing that hit me was I had no reference point to compare it too. Since moving out of my very rural childhood home I have lived in Paris and London. Two very European, metropolitan, built up cities. I did my research before I came and Guadalajara is the second biggest city in Mexico, so I was semi-expecting skyscrapers, an equivalent of Oxford Circus and something that vaguely resembled a version of a city that I had already encountered in the forms of London or Paris. What I found was a sprawling city of residential areas, very busy intersections and mountains. There are no mountains in London or Paris. This all may sound very naive and in part this is why I wanted to go so far away (10, 000km away if you will). I have been in my comfort zone up until now. Moving to Paris was of course a slight culture shock but it was still something I recognised and could equate and compare to London. Guadalajara not so much. The first thing I noticed was that even though the city is big, it is not built up towards the sky like London. Here you can see across the tops of the buildings pretty much uninterrupted. The buildings are also very colourful. I'm talking vibrant pinks, blues, yellows and oranges. London does not have this optimistic colouring. Crossing the road is perplexing. On my first day I stood on the street corner for about 5 minutes because there was no green man and I couldn't figure out how to cross without being run over (only on selected streets are there green men, I'm not sure the how they choose which streets deserve a green man. Also, it's not a green man, it's a semi-white translucent man running. It is not a static green man which is quite exciting.) I am also not sure what side of the road they drive on. Another thing about crossing the roads that I find quite confusing is on the big boulevards there are traffic warden people with whistles who guide the traffic when to go and when to stop. Even though there are traffic lights. I cannot figure out why the cars need people with whistles as well as traffic lights. There are also very different smells because on a lot of the street corners there is food, as well as restaurants dotted along the streets which are very open to the street. Every so often you get a whiff of taco or green picante sauce. Even sitting in my bedroom writing this I can detect a faint aroma of taco. It's really quite nice actually. I was also confused because after a couple of days I hadn't seen any bin men or post men. However, I had seen men with kettle bells which were very loud and annoying, especially when they rung them at eight in the morning. It turns out these are the bin men and they ring the bell to... well I'm not exactly sure. To pick up furniture ? Still no sightings of a post man though (or post boxes, or letter boxes on doors). There are also no pigeons which I'm not complaining about. Speaking of animals I have seen many dogs but I'm too scared to touch them after my mum freaked me out with rabies talk. I had my jabs before I came but the nurse told me to not let a dog even lick my hand, which seems very cotton woolly. However, I'm taking no chances.

Weirdly though, one of the first things I saw in the taxi from the airport and walking around were Subway, Starbucks, McDonalds, KFC, Dominoes Pizza and Burger King. It always amazes me that even halfway across the world fast-food has become so universal. Also, in the supermarkets you have all the big name brands like Sure (Rexona), Galaxy (Dove), KitKat, Kinder Bueno, Pedigree Dog Food and Nutella. They even have Hellman's mayonnaise. It's very sad but seeing these brands does make me feel slightly more at home.

There is also the fact that my Spanish is quite rudimentary. I have been learning for 2 years but being catapulted here as made me realise I probably could have done slightly more to prepare myself. I went for brunch on my second day and on entering the restaurant was greeted by a lovely host. The customary 'hola, buenos dias' were exchanged and then he said something else, but it could have been Japanese for all I understood. My way of dealing with this kind of situation is to kind of smile, nod and say 'si' in a hesitant manner. Obviously, this is not the best way to deal with the situation, especially when you don't know what is being said or asked of you. Unfortunately this is my default when I do not understand. He looked at me with a bemused look on his face realising I understood nothing and promptly switched to fluent English. Fast-forward two days and I am in a bar trying to order a 'Margherita con limon'. I spoke to the waiter in what I thought was a pretty comprehensible accent. However, upon ordering said Margherita all I got was another bemused stare. So I opted for pointing at the menu instead. Learning a language is a weird thing because we always take for granted that we can express ourselves and be understood. When this is taken away it feels very isolating and uncomfortable. So not only does the place feel very foreign and different, so does the language. Spanish feels very weird in my mouth; what I mean is I don't have the best accent, I don't have a super wide vocabulary and conjugating verbs quickly in the midst of conversation is not something I do very well at the moment. So trying to speak it is very frustrating as you can't be yourself and finding how to be comfortable in a new language doesn't happen overnight. I had the same feeling when I first arrived in France. My aim is to relax into it and not stress to much about making mistakes. The most annoying thing is that I understand 70% of what people say to me if they're speaking at a semi-slow speed (I find Spanish speakers speak very, very quickly. But apparently so do the English). For example, my host at my Airbnb invited me to have dinner with her family. When they were addressing me directly I could understand what they were saying and semi-respond in decent Spanish. When they were speaking to each other I can pick out words like 'Estados Unidos' and 'tres años' and get the general jist of a conversation. I sometimes also miss the point completely. Everyone I've met seems to be very patient and willing to correct in a very helpful way. No-one laughs at you for trying, even if it is quite amusing. I also feel quite out of place because I am very distinctly un-mexican looking. A man started singing 'American girl' to me on the street which was oddly the second time in my life I've been sung at in the street. I am quite clearly a foreigner but I think that as soon as I'm more confident with the language and the culture this won't be so noticeable.

Overall, my first five days in Mexico have been exciting, tiring and a little bit of a shock to the system. However, I have to keep reminding myself that I'm only here for 5 months, which in the grand scheme of things is nothing. I have thought 'I want to go home' on a multiple occasions but this passes pretty quickly as I realise this is an amazing opportunity that is going to go pretty quickly.

Also n.b: If you like cookies, 'Chokios' are way better than 'Chips Ahoy'. They have more chocolate chips per biscuit and don't leave a weird after taste in your mouth. They also crumble better.