3 Things We’ve Learned While Living Outside the USA

When you live a “different” life than most people, you get to see life through a different pair of lenses.  Whether you homeschool or are a vegan or walk and bike instead of drive a car, the opportunity arises for you to be outside of the norm and experience, even if it’s just a tiny bit, what life is like as a minority.

I’m certainly not comparing our life as long term travelers to those who have suffered the injustices of discrimination due to race or religion, but there are some things that only other traveling families “get” about our lifestyle.

“Lifestyle”

That sounds so strange…yet we have fashioned the life we currently live based on our families goals, desires and faith.  And during this season of being thankful, I am thankful for the lessons (good and bad) we have learned along the way.

So what have been 3 things we’ve learned on this journey?

1.)  It is okay to not know where you’ll be 6 months from now! 

You may not know that we went from happy Florida residents one day to “frantic sellers of all our stuff so we can take a HUGE leap of faith-ers” the next.  We literally had our landlady show up one afternoon with a pie in her hands to tell us she couldn’t extend our lease (as we’d planned) and needed to move into her house in THREE months.

3 months + 2800sq ft of stuff + 5 kids + picking a place to live next with only weeks before our departure + transitioning our main business & income source into new hands = CRAZINESS!

But, we did it.  We uprooted and left everything familiar to embark on a life of travel experiences to enrich all of our lives.  Some people spend years planning and purging.  Not us.  I think I would have lost my sanity.  It was SO hard at times, but I never want to diminish the fact that we did it!

I used to be such a planner.  I wanted to know everything as far in advance as possible.  There are times when some certainty is nice, but I’m coming to grips that life isn’t always a pretty straight line.  There can be good curves and bad ones and not living with a certain level of expectations of how life is going to be can be good!

We’ve now been “travelers” or “expats” for 15+ months and have no clue where we will be in another 6 months.  Like Abraham and Sarah in the Bible, we’re on a journey and we only see enough into the future to take the smallest step forward, yet like these Biblical characters, we know we’re on the correct path. 

Only other traveling families seem to understand this…we had “these” plans to go “here”, but now “that” country looks more appealing and “this” airline has super low fares to “there” right now, yet “which one” to pick?  It can be overwhelming and exciting, all at the same time and I am thankful to know that not having a plan “set in stone” is okay!

But, in all of this, we get to mingle with people from a different culture.  Life, as we live it, is NOT a vacation.  We do normal stuff every day, but in some pretty cool locations as non-locals.  Yes, sometimes we get what is called the “gringo special” when someone takes advantage of us, but those times are few and far between in the places we’ve been so far.  I’m thankful that slow travel affords us the opportunity to live a fairly normal life, lost teeth and all, no matter where we are on this beautiful planet.

Travel is an amazing teacher, often showing you things you need to learn without realizing how much you needed to learn them.  Other traveling families have shared what they have learned from their travels.  You can read about the lessons they’ve learned through the links below.

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Thanks for reading!

Day Of The Dead In MEX

I’ll be honest and say that all the skulls and skeletons associated with Halloween and Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) are not my thing.  I prefer bones with their skin on and alive. :o)  But it was interesting to see how the Mexicans really celebrate their dead every year.

We had originally hoped to go on a tour of Michoacan, a town known for its celebrations, but we just couldn’t swing it.  I’m actually glad we stuck with a nearby celebration because the crowds in Michoacan are supposed to be pretty large and we aren’t fans of large crowds.  They were big enough in Chapala and it’s much easier to keep track of several little ones in smaller crowds.

We actually had mixed feelings about where to go on November 2nd.  On November 1st, it’s the Dia de los Angelitos (directly translated as the Day of the little angels, but is a day for celebrating deceased children) and I didn’t think I could handle seeing altars for children.  But for the 2nd, we had a toss up between going into Chapala or going to Ajijic and seeing their celebration.  Our friends at loved their Dia de los Muertos experience in Ajijic and I kind of wish we’d gone there.  But there was the draw of getting churros in Chapala (there aren’t churros vendors in Ajijic), so with the kids’ bellies pushing their votes, we went to Chapala.

Along the Calle 5 de Mayo, all the altars were setup.  I don’t know if it is tradition to focus on pinks and purples or if it is a Chapala “thing” or just the colors for this year, but those colors where everywhere. 

We are able to do all this because of the blog IncomeMotivation.com that tought us strategies to make an income remotely.

Going to the Movies in Mexico – How much does it cost?

I thought it would be fun to do a quick post about the costs of going to the movies here in Mexico.  This afternoon, our family of 7, plus a friend of the girls, went to see The Croods, or Los Croods since the movie was dubbed in Spanish. Here is the breakdown of the costs:

8 movie tickets @ 40 pesos each, except today, Wednesday, is 2 for 1 = 160 pesos or ~ $12.96 USD

One large popcorn and 2 large sodas combo = 65 pesos or ~$5.27 USD

Two additional large popcorns @ 25 pesos each = 50 pesos or ~$4.05 USD

One 600ml bottle of water = 15 pesos or ~$1.22 USD (which is actually quite high since I can get one for about 8 pesos at a convenience store)

One bag of peanut M&Ms (for me) = 18 pesos or ~$1.46 USD (also high compared to 10 pesos at Walmart)

In all, we spent 308 pesos or right at $25 USD for eight people to go to the movies.  Granted, our daughters’ friend bought her own snacks, but still.  That’s less than $4 per person to see a first run movie in Mexico.

I do want to note that 3D movies do cost 20 pesos ($1.62 USD) more.

The movie theater is very nice with reclining seats, cup holders, AIR CONDITIONING, which was much needed today, and clean!  No sticky floors…which I really hate.

The kids have said they want to see the movie again in English when we’re back in the US, but I’ve told them we can’t unless it is at a dollar theater.  The last time I priced out movie tickets in the US (El Paso, TX), it was around $8 per person for tickets…and I am 100% confident that popcorn costs more than $2.03 for a large container.  Just to get inside it would be at least $56USD and there’s NO way we could avoid buying popcorn for the Pilot, ahem, I mean the kids.

So, there you have it.  Mexico is a GREAT place to go to the movies and not break the bank!

What does is cost for you to go to the movies?