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Since I have been back I have been trying to articulate the experience and have not been able too very well. Los Mochis is beautiful, it's agricultural, has a beach, four colleges and my Abuelita's home. It is very easy to become accustomed to waking up in Mexico every morning and I experienced a bit of culture shock upon returning.



Yeah, culture shock. For two days it felt as though people here were being rude to me and each other when they spoke and it's because over there so many are so warm. It's colder here and after the experience in Mexico it comes off as rude when it's not(?). Customer service in Mexico is a dream but strangers on the street and in the stores and all around you say hello and give you nice smiles. Mexicans start talking to you no matter where or who you are and it's friendly and engaging. Like a co-worker of mine says, "In Mexico you feel alive and know you are living." There is a sense of more social freedom.

I kept hearing, "La vida es calmada y tranquilo no hay para preocupar."


Being able to have fresh food everyday from markets just around the corner was a luxury. I wish there were real markets just around the corner in our hoods in addition to grocery stores. My uncle prepared a dinner with fresh octopus and marlin and it was divine. He just went down to the markets along the beach. I made chicken with ajo and cominos with a chicken that had been dead less than three hours and the flavors were divine (though difficult to work with and stomache while preparing because there is more blood in a fresh, fresh chicken). The eggs tasted eggier, the milk richer and so the flans and cakes were divine. I don't use divine very often.

Los Mochis is dense, especially downtown and there is no zoning so you have residential home, tire shop, house,dentist, house, restaurant, grocery store. My cousin lives right in the middle of downtown next to a bank.



There are mountains in the distance and so much space around you. In no time you are in the countryside and there is lots of it.

My Abuelita was her same, sweet self and remarkable for 90. She is going strong and enjoying life with great-grandchildren. I got to see what she does everyday and hang with her on the couch in the living room and listen to music, learn new knitting stitches, talk and talk. I took a ton of photos and video and miss her terribly. Seeing the rest of my family after 18 years was surreal. When I left my cousins were only 10 years old and now they have children of their own. Despite a few brightly painted rooms, so much had not changed, the way the house smelled sans the scent of limes since my grandmother no longer cooks. I did miss my grandfather and it was hard shaking that feeling that he'd come into a room and suggest an opera or a book.



To experience everything as an adult was interesting and I feel I am still digesting it all. I haven't felt much like talking, having a hard time adjusting to the time change (I was two hours behind)and getting up for work. What is it when you fall right into a place and it's like you never left but returning to where you have been living all this time is where the culture shock is? I have always had a hard time adjusting to the US despite being born here, so much of my childhood was spent in Mexico. I never felt 100% Mexican or 100% American. What's funny is Bush was there and had an entirely different experience.