An Immersion Adventure in Mexico | The Nitty Gritty of Normal Life

Simpler Days {Photo courtesy of Amy Conroy}

Editor’s note: This is Part 5 in a continuing series by Amy Conroy. To read the other parts, go here.

What is ‘normal’? ~ the question of my life ~ To be honest, life in Mexico is really not so different than life in the U.S.  The details vary and one might say there is more ‘flavor’, but the basics are the same: Jack has soccer practice, Calvin does art class, Cecilia is starting gymnastics.  I grocery shop, we go to the hospital for stitches, and I still manage to jack-up cars even when they’re not mine!  Socially we’re not missing any milestones: Jack’s interest in girls has just begun to bud (which is made a wee bit more complicated/funny by the language component), Calvin’s first tooth is loose, and Cecilia is (still! ugh) potty training.  Just about boring, but normal.

The differences are the spice of life: Jack’s soccer coach is an Italian former pro player for A.C. Milan, an emergency hospital visit in the middle of the night is WAY easier, cheaper, and quicker than in the States, and Cecilia actually took a sweet nap the other day… on the front of my bouncing ATV. I don’t know how her head didn’t bobble off. Last Sunday, Jack was stuck in the middle of a zip line over a muddy pond, while Cecilia was cordoned off due to stalking geese. Normal.

Zip line over muddy pond {Photo courtesy of Amy Conroy}

Some of what I love in San Miguel de Allende has nothing to do with the fact that we’re in Mexico; it’s just a nice change of pace and scenery from urban living. Landscaped oasis’ surrounding natural hot springs that flow into paved pools, set on a knoll with a view of the plains and a slight breeze… it’s not a dream, but an alternate reality that somehow seems sweeter and simpler than my LA life. It’s also a life, for us, that has fewer rules and regulations, definitely harkening back to ‘simpler days’ of my mother’s childhood.

The truth is, however, that the ‘craziness’ of urban living is possible here, too, though it seems more of an ‘option’ than an inescapable aspect of life. You could sign your child up for an extra curricular activity every day of the week, and join carpools, camps, and hire specialized tutors. Initially, the options were dizzying.  We needed to settle, not busy ourselves.  Three months later, we’ve slowly joined what works for us.

However, it’s kind of nutty that such different ‘sides’ of Mexico co-exist simultaneously, and I don’t think that’s the picture of Mexico that many North Americans know.  There are shades of gray that thrive in this landscape, but the extremes are really interesting: alongside the extreme poverty of Mexico that is known worldwide with chiclé-selling tots, there exists a thriving affluent community that participates in every aspect of modern life that ‘First Worlds’ enjoy: gyms, yoga classes, behavioral therapists, Yakuit (otherwise sold in Whole Foods), fine dining, home & garden tours, art openings, country clubs and philanthropic groups galore.  And all of this exists alongside what is left of the ‘old world’… and THERE I go to buy our vegetables and fruit when I can, to pick up fresh tortillas, or better, maza, to make our own. There, we visit caballos and bring them carrots; we watch burros tote heavy packages through cobble-stoned streets.

Carrots for horses {Photo courtesy of Amy Conroy}

There is great charm and simple beauty to the undeveloped world – I crave it and the kids eat it up.  Perhaps it’s because we’ve previously only lived in a packaged world of ready-made products, I don’t know.  It’s not that we don’t appreciate our First World amenities – we miss our flushable toilets (see Part Three), like our organic milk cold, and bicycles have become our favorite comfort activity aside from Leggos. But we are really captivated by the campo and prefer to spend all of our free time there.

So maybe we’ve done it backwards? Traveled from a complicated world to a simpler one in some aspects, and I can’t help but wonder which is wiser? Or truly more sophisticated? There seems to be a depth of understanding of humanity here that is not so transparent in other places. It dawned on me that wisdom is not correlated to sophistication, complicated infrastructure, or simplicity, but exists in its own space – and the wisdom I’ve found in the life here is what truly captivates me.

Napping on horseback {Photo courtesy Amy Conroy}

How do the kids respond? Cecilia has suddenly declared she’s not going back to her school in “L.A.”, because you can’t pack a lunch there. Very complicated, that one. Calvin, to my complete chagrin, answered a Mexican-American friend’s innocent question of how he was with “No me gusta Mexico.”

Stop the press. Really? Did he really say it out loud?! Crap.

I could have died! How do you deny it? Back peddle? And he said it fairly emphatically. I was horrified by his retort and embarrassed by his blind stubbornness. I could give you a million excuses as to why that flew out of his mouth, but really I think that’s part of the ‘normality’ in living here, there, anywhere. It was just him. This child does not perform on cue, or seek to please others (great quality DOWN the road). So after berating him about how rude and offensive it is to say something like that, I quickly realized he was just a normal tired 5 year old. He’d had a 5 hour day at school, followed by a 2 hour art class (that he begs to attend), and he was tired. But for the first time, I actually did not worry that there was something terribly wrong with our time in Mexico; I didn’t worry that it was somehow harming his psyche or scarring his emotional growth process. For the first time, I felt confident that it was the right move for our family.  Afterall, he was acting as he would have in Los Angeles! Keep in mind, we’re talking about a child who has plenty of playdates and amigos. It is Calvin who wants to be a vaquero after his first horseback ride, and Calvin who declared that he will smash his face into the cake for his birthday a la Mexican tradition. This kid was not having a hard time in Mexico; he was just having a hard time! But it was normal = hooray!

Here’s my large caveat that I should have disclosed earlier: Despite my desire to wax prophetic about our romantic adventure, I am a completely normal mom to 100% normal kids. Oh yeah, and they/we are not always perfect.

Citizens of the World {Photo courtesy of Amy Conroy}

So I guess you could say that we’re all adjusting ‘normally’. We all have our different way that we are navigating this experience, and we will each bring back something unique. I can only imagine how it will come pouring out when they’re in their 20’s (lounging horizontal on a psychotherapist’s sofa)… but I also dream that it will all be normalized by then. That they will, in fact, be citizens of the world and better equipped to love, and help, and create, and be in spaces regardless of borders or ethnic differences. And, mind you, he told Daddy via skype that his day at school today was “great!” and then played “zapatito blanco, zapatito azul” with his brother and sister for the next half hour.

Happily normal.