Yesssss, We're still here. We have been inconsistent bloggers lately (our apologies to the people that commented and their comments were not published for a couple of months. We appreciate you.)
We have been busy enjoying our home, this great country, and most of all our family and friends.
I'm sure Sara will write more in detail about what's been going on the last several months but, in a nutshell we have:
1.Finished the reconstruction on the inside of our home.
2. Sara went to the States for a couple weeks and got our ''stuff'' shipped to Mérida (with great help from her sister, thanks Jerr.)
3. With a lot of help from friends, We got everything unpacked and Sara got it looking like a home.
4. My parents came to visit for a week, they're first time to Mérida.
5. Of course, we had to have a party while they were here, complete w/ a great mariachi band.
6. Spent a week of enjoying some of the local attractions.
It has been a year today since Ty and I pulled away from the curb of our daughter’s house in Midland, headed for Mérida. This morning we talked about time and the fact that in Texas time raced by and here in Mérida the pace is slower and much more relaxed.
I have taken some ALL IN FUN ribbin' here for the way we talk and to tell you the truth it makes me proud. In light of all the good-hearted FUN, I decided to help my new friends out and fill y’all in on a few “Texasisms”
It’s not bad grammar; it’s just how we talk in Texas.
Up – a state of being “she’s all gussied up” (she is dressed up) “he’s all bowed up” (he’s mad)
Nuther – another
Warsh – wash
Off - The doctor says, “He’s pretty bad off.”
In Texas it is perfectly ok to shed syllables such as: Flor’da (Florida)
You can also forget about g’s at the end of any word: goin’, comin’, fixin’, takin’.
L’s are optional, as in light bub.
You can also stretch out a word by adding several more syllables Sheeeeeeit (s#@t)
Coke is any carbonated drink.
Conniption is a fit “When she didn’t get her way she threw a conniption fit.”
Dinner is any meal other than breakfast
Supper - the evening meal
Dumber ‘n’ durt – really stupid
Prolly - probably - Prolly gonna rain today.
Id’n’it (isn’t it) - Id''n' it a purty day?
Every Texan either knows a Bubba or has one in their family that also goes for girls called Sissy.
We have both in our family (I know, but it’s the truth)
From the list, you might be safe in concluding speaking Spanish with a Texas accent is like a whole ‘nuther language. ‘Cause we talk a little slow in Texas. Por Favor sounds more like Poooour Faaaaavooooour!
If ya haven’t had enough……. here is some Texas trivia:
If you ask “How far is it to Dallas from Midland” the answer would be five hours (mileage is irrelevant we count mileage in hours)
It is a sixteen-hour drive from North to South and sixteen hours East to West.
Texas is not just oil, cotton and cowboys (or cowgirls). Today’s Texas produces award winning wine’s, olive oil and Dell Computers. Lavender and sunflower fields rival the Tuscan countryside. You can eat a Gourmet meal at The Riata in Alpine or have a perfect steak at Tom Perini’s Ranch in Buffalo Gap. You can dine on Tex-Mex in small Mom and Pop Café’s in any town or Chuy’s in Austin. You can walk the beach and dine on fresh shrimp, oysters, crab and flounder. You can row your canoe down a bayou and have a Cajun style crawfish boil or fried catfish. For Couture’ fashion visit Dallas Market Center. If your hankerin’ to scoot a boot head over to Billie Bob’s a huge honkytonk at the Fort Worth Stockyards. You can enjoy East Texas’ piney woods and Caddo Lake with Spanish moss draped cypress trees.
You can climb a granite monolith or lazily inner tube on the Guadalupe River then dine on authentic German Cuisine. Eat the sweetest peaches from Fredericksburg in a pint of Blue Bell Ice Cream and of course the world famous Pecos Cantaloupe. You can trek around the “Caprock” in the Panhandle dropping down into Turkey, Texas, the home of Bob Will’s. You can hike the Chihuahuan Desert and visit Langtry, home of colorful Judge Roy Bean. You can visit small farming towns and cosmopolitan cities. You can visit Austin, Music Capital of the world for Texas Country, Blues and Rock and Roll or check out The Nutcracker at Bass Hall in Fort Worth. You can visit my hometown of Uvalde, home to Matthew McConaughey!You can visit citrus groves and two international lakes. You can explore Spanish missions and see Aggie’s in action.
Ok, I could go on and on and on. Guess you can say we are proud to be Texas transplants to Mexico.
After living in Mexico for a year, Ty and I have changed our minds. Life here in Mérida is well…. Not exactly as we thought it would be.
In this last year, we have of course been thoroughly engrossed in restyling this wonderful old house. I have commented several times I will be glad to be finished with construction and START my life in Mérida! While selecting photos for a “Year in Review” video to email to family and friends I realized we did a lot more this last year than live “under construction”.
Our year started with scrambling to tidy up the details of moving south of the border, visiting family and friends and saying goodbye to everything familiar and comfortable. In the “Honeymoon” stage of our move, we were enthralled with the little things that make Mexico different from the United States. Women riding side saddle on the back of a motorcycle in a dress and flip flops, women in white embroidered dresses with tubs of flowers perched on their heads, music spilling over the stacked stone walls and street vendors at your door with fresh tortillas, breads, pastries, fruit and dirt!
When your mind changes it is often painful, the stretching, the tossing out of what you had thought for your entire life, the grasping of new concepts and then REALITY! I have said, “I spent an entire lifetime learning how to live only to move here and find those skills absolutely useless”.
The seasons have changed in the year we have been here and so have we. We have changed our minds; we no longer feel we must have the latest gadget, the most stylish clothes or a microwave. We have changed our minds and sometimes our minds are thinking in Spanish first! We have stood in awe at the foot of a Mayan pyramid and stood in awe at the beauty of a colonial building. We have heard the melody of a folk song and the bark of a roof dog. We have watched men in flip-flops build our house. We are not living the life we dreamed ……. We are living the reality of a much richer life than we had dreamed possible. When you meet people who are writers, artists, chefs, photographers, small town attorneys and history teachers, you cannot help but be enriched by the experience of knowing these people. When you meet people who have little income and few material possessions but live a simple and fulfilled life you cannot help but see the richness of their lives and re-evaluate your own priorities.
We have lived through the heat, the dust and the mosquitos, a language barrier, and missing our family so much we ache. We have worked through the challenges little by little and shed a lifetime of preconceived ideas. This brings us to the realization WE HAVE CHANGED OUR MINDS!
Ty, Gringa Dog and I wish you all a wonderful year ahead and we hope for each of you a life where you too will have the opportunity to CHANGE YOUR MIND!
Stay with us this year as we continue our adventure of living in Merida!
I have been thinking about our blog. Thinking about the name we chose. Thinking of us, Our life, past, present and future. I am not sure if it has occurred to you, our readers, however one day it hit me. “My Merida Life”, a blog about one couples odyssey in a foreign land sounds singular to me! When Ty first presented the name, I jumped on it, I thought it was perfect, not realizing maybe it should be “Our” instead of “My”. We delegated the various jobs of writing, posting, etcetera according to our personality. Guess who does most of the writing and who does the detail work?
We met in July of 1974, married in July of 1976; our entire adult history has been a shared experience. We have had our difficulties, had our share of triumph and tragedy. We raised two sons and a daughter, lived in seventeen different houses and we are Grandparents to eight Grandchildren.
With most of our family in Playa del Carmen
In my mind’s eye when I think of Ty, I see the young handsome man I married. I see the proud Dad around our dinner table. I hear his dry sense of humor in observing everyday occurrences. I see my “Hunk a burnin’ love” with gray in his hair and life’s expression around his eyes.
That's right, eight grandkids.....OK, it's an older picture
This leads me to the conclusion “My Merida Life” is the perfect name for “Our” blog. If you knew us, you would totally understand. We are the epitome of opposites attract. Ty is more reserved, quiet, thoughtful, dry witted, introverted and solid. I am a never met a stranger, free spirited, impulsive, permanently distracted good-hearted women. I have always said, “Together we make one really nice whole person”.
I am not meaning to sound all sappy or paint a picture of a perfect relationship, we have our issues. It just took seeing it in print to really analyze what I always knew to be true. We are “My” not “Our”.
If “our” blog ever seems a little schizophrenic you now know why!
