More Thoughts/Experiences in Oaxaca

So one thing I was worried about living abroad: passport renewal! As it turns out, it was easier than I dared hope. I just had to do the typical passport pics and application, send all that to the U.S. Consulate in Guadalajara via DHL with my current passport and a return waybill and they turned it all around in about 3 weeks and sent it safely back to the DHL office where I picked it up! Yay!  Oh, and the cost for DHL there and back was about $25.

And we finally had some good Chinese food!  Ni Hao is a charming little place in old town/Centro with good dumplings, good fried rice, and even decent kung pao chicken - altho not really as spicy as it should be - but I find that typical with Chinese (or Thai) food outside of Asia: dialing it back for delicate foregn devil palates. lol

Some fun/interesting/different things here:

• They still have a goodly number of pay phones. Actually more of those on the street than trash cans, unfortunately.
• And we still see a Shit. Ton. of old VW bugs.  We actually, finally, saw one of the newer models the other day. When I mentioned it to my mom (a bug afficianado who has a convertible bug from the last year they made them - 2019), she mentioned it's odd to not see more of the newer models here since it was Mexico that had the last VW bug factory! (The plant in Puebla started making Bugs in 1967, and made the last "old school" one in the world in 2003, and then made the last newer/retro one in the world in 2019!)
• When you get take out, in addition to ketchup packets, you get packets of jalapeno sauce! Score!
• Mexican stoves are apparently incapable of simmering. Both here and in Chapala, no matter how low I turned the fire, no matter how small a burner I used, I can NOT get anything to just "simmer." Really have to pay attention when cooking rice.
• I can get Fresca everywhere - including "sin azucar" (sugar free).  
• While the days can still get pretty hot, it almost always cools down by early evening. And while MOST of the rain comes at night, Oaxaca has more during the day and afternoon than we had in Chapala.
• There's also more "celebrating" here with the INSANELY loud firecracker rockets. It's hard not to be judgmental of people setting those fuckers off at 6:30 in the morning to celebrate some random saint day.  Or just beacuse. NOT a fan - and neither is DJ who is sensitive to loud sounds. We also both REALLY hate the ridiculously loud posturing from all these tiny dicked yahoos revving their SUPER loud (clearly tweaked) motorcycles.  Wah, get off my lawn!  lol
• On the plus side, I've totally bought into "siesta culture" and get a good read and nap in pretty much every afternoon in one of the hammocks on the patio. Many businesses close for an hour or two each afternoon around 2-3.

We also accessed medical care for the first time!  Actually, it was the dentist. DJ needed a cleaning, and it turns out there are multiple in our neighborhood, so we just went around saying "Hablas ingles?" until we found one who did. lol  Literally a block away from us - maybe a block and a half.  Went in on a Friday to make an appointment and was able to get in the following Wednesday. He used ultrasound instead of those awful/sharp picky things - and DJ was in and out, completely finished, within an hour of his scheduled appt. - which included time the dentist spent explaining DJ's issues (luckily, relatively minor). And the cost was about $17.  I will need a cleaning soon, but am holding off til we're in Ecuador next month so I can compare.

Finally, one of the interesting things I've noticed here is the distinction between exterior and interior. Often, most of the buildings you'll walk by here are NOT visually appealing, often run down lookng, graffiti smeared, etc.  But then the garage or entrance doors will be left open, and as you pass by and get a peek at the interior, it's like Dorothy stepping out of her dirt brown dilapidated house into the technicolor wonderland of Oz.  I mean, amazingly like that. It's hard not to be nosy and barge in and look around the courtyard!