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Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

We're off-topic so I thought this works here...

What do you bring home with you from Mexico besides what's in the carry-on from duty free?

When I go back, I bring back a bit of formality that I didn't know before coming here. I hand out more 'good morning/afternoon/evenings' than I did before.

I'm more patient with people. Everything is much more ordered at home anyway but I'm much less in a rush to get things done at the post office, the corner store, the government office line.

I'm more chivalrous (or chauvinistic if you prefer). It's become automatic to stop and hold a door open for a woman or to let her pass before me somewhere on the street.

I will pester more...if I ask someone I don't know a question, I'll dig for more info even if I got the answer I needed from the outset.

I make personal inquiries I probably shouldn't...how's the family, your wife, your dog, for example, of people I just meet.

BadBeagleBad · Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 4:53 am Post subject: Re: What You Bring Home

Since my home in the US is in a Mexican neighborhood, I don�t make much of a change in some of the things you mentioned, but I usually take food items that cost way more - various chiles, green mole powder, dried shrimp, ground shrimp, piloncillo - so I can attempt to make more or less the same kind of food I make here. It doesn�t taste the same exactly.

And I definitely ask people about their family more than most people, and am more formal than most people, but as a result don�t care for informality from people I don�t know, or in business situations.

Tretyakovskii · Joined: 14 Aug 2009 Posts: 462 Location: Cancun, Mexico

Brilliant, Guy. It�s fun to reflect on how living here is changing us, in ways we may not even recognize, except by contrast!

My wife and I were watching a made in USA movie the other day and when a scene appeared from a boxing match in Mexico, with the sights and sounds of Mexico, we both felt a thrill of recognition of �home�.

More recently, we travelled in three cities in the US, and felt it necessary to go to Mexican restaurants in each one.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

When outside of Mexico, I can't resist going to Mexican restaurants. Harder to find in Canada than in the US though.

I think I get a smug satisfaction out of being disappointed at the lack of authenticity of the food, safe in the assurance than when I get home to Mexico I'll get the real stuff. It's not a healthy thing to do, I know, but a secret joy nonetheless.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

the peanut gallery · Joined: 26 May 2006 Posts: 264

Great thread! On the positive side I bring home the cheek kiss and the opening of car doors for women. I also make a point of mocking people who purchase Olde El Paso brand tortillas. A far more sinister custom i bring back is the laying on the car horn if someone doesn't immediately launch off from the intersection when the light turns green.

BadBeagleBad · Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:54 am Post subject:

MotherF · Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 1:53 pm Post subject:

I can't quiet wrap my head around this thread because Mexico has become home for me. So what I bring home, well, from where?