Summer Daze

Is it August already? Facebook friends are posting back-to-school photos so it must be so. I frankly don't know where the summer went. The cool rainy season in Mexico City probably had a lot to do with it. The hot sunny days along with the accompanying tan lines around my kids' waistlines were largely absent. Before heading back to Colorado two weeks ago for vacation, they were actually looking pretty pale, evidence of being cooped up too much in our apartment. I can't complain too much about the mild weather but I must admit that I did miss a little of the summer vibe.

Another big reason why the summer seems to have passed me by is because a series of life events overtook it. For the past two months, I've neglected to announce that we have had a new member of the family--by which I mean a Shi Tzu puppy named Sushi. I literally grew up next to a dog kennel and haven't had the desire to revisit the sights and smells of dog ownership until recently.

What changed? Part was the observation that Mexico City is extremely dog-friendly and realization that we wouldn't need to go through the stress and hassle of importing a dog if we got one here. More likely was DiploBoy's June birthday and the feeling he and his older brother needed some constant in the nomadic lifestyle we have subjected them to.

Whatever you want to call it, prudence or guilt, we have been dog owners since June 6. Ironically, that date happens to be D-Day, which in the case of Sushi's new parents, stands for Deprivation of Sleep Day. Puppies are devastatingly cute in the pet store but some fawning customers (like us) fail to fully grasp how much hell they can put new owners through during the nighttime hours.

Sushi's sleeping habits have improved markedly over the past month. But June was a haze, a foggy recollection of multiple wake-ups and early morning movie watching. The DiploBoys, on the other hand, somehow managed to sleep blissfully through all the whining and barking. Now that we are getting some decent sleep again, we're more forgiving when Sushi pees on the floor and nips at our heels. The pictures below show how much the boys adore her. How could such a little bundle of cuteness be such pure evil during the early morning hours?

 

The addition of Sushi wasn't the only news. On a more somber note, this summer was also overtaken by the loss of a family member. My father-in-law passed away in the beginning of July after a steady decline in health. It's tough to think that he is gone but I'm thankful that the boys and I were able to spend some quality time with him last August on home leave. I'm also glad that my wife was able to travel home to be with him in his final days.

As you can see, a lot has gone on this summer and I haven't even mentioned work (or the visit of a high school friend that coincided with a perfect storm of heavy rain, sleep deprivation and emergency travel). DiploMom and I have logged over five months at the mammoth headquarters of Mission Mexico. Consular work has been interesting to say the least. We are both doing our rotations outside the visa section and get to see what happens when people get themselves in all kinds of predicaments.  The never ending stream of cases keeps us busy and always provides fodder for conversation on the car ride home.

Outside of the office, Mexico City has so much to offer and we've only just scratched the surface. Just this past weekend, I joined a food tour and sampled some of the best regional varieties of tacos in the city. I've developing a serious taco addiction. On the following day, I unexpectedly joined a 57-kilometer urban expedition with a few thousand of my closest friends on bicycles. I saw parts of the city I would never have gone on foot or in car. As a family, we've taken a few day and weekend trips to areas outside the City and I'm looking forward to more in the near future.

The next few months should be less chaotic but one never knows. My current preoccupation is bidding on my next assignment and hopes of being posted to the same location as DiploMom.  That uncertainty will undoubtedly produce a few more sleepless nights, apart from the soft cries of Sushi at 4am.

Please don't burst my bubble

I remember before high school soccer games my coach would make the team pick up some trash around the stadium because it was "good karma." As one of the pubescent self-centered boys who participated, I couldn't quite grasp the significance beyond the fact that girls didn't notice and we never won a state championship. The memory came back to me many years later when my wife and I traveled around the world together for a full year and no great harm (besides a few gastrointestinal bouts) ever befell us. Now more than a month into our second tour of the Foreign Service, DiploMom and I periodically remind ourselves how good we've got it. All thanks to Coach Fifer and some garbage bags. Things have a funny way of working out for us.

Fast forward to the present. After about a year of hand wringing about being separated for an extended period of time at post, we managed to pass Spanish language tests and landed together in Mexico City on March 10, a rare feat in Foreign Service tandem hood. Since we arrived in the middle of the week and school year, we had to hit the ground running. Within 24 hours, we hired a nanny, whisked the boys off to their new school and begun our own check-in process at the U.S. Embassy. As to be expected, there have been a few bumps in the road along the way, but we have begun to settle in nicely to our new lives-- for the next year and a half or so at least.

For starters, we have a spacious apartment in the heart of the city. We live around the corner from a nice grocery store and a few blocks away is a well-to-do health club we've joined that definitely lives up to its billing as an urban oasis. The one downside to our housing is that it is tucked away in the farthest corner of the expat enclave and we aren't particularly close to other embassy families, especially ones with English-speaking boys that could be playmates for our kids. My oldest son is slowly morphing into a xenophobic homebody not seen since the likes of Archie Bunker.

All in all though, we feel lucky to live in such a trendy, happening place of the city and urban living has been treating us well so far. One of our favorite things about Mexico so far has been the food, which blends the best of spicy, salty and, oh yes, pork galore! In fact, Mexico City has a serious foodie subculture and we have found no shortage of options around work and home. This ain't your faux Tex-Mex from Chili's (though I confess we have eaten at one close to our place). We're talking some serious cosmopolitan haute cuisine in addition to cheap but tasty street fare. Tacos with marinated meat and fresh guacamole have more than replaced our staple diet of falafel and hummus from Israel.  

Another great thing about living in a big, bustling city is that there is tons to do and we've only just scratched the surface. During our four day Easter holiday, we visited the city's world-renowned Anthropology Museum, which contained jaw dropping Aztec artifacts and an impressive array of other cultural displays. Last weekend, we enjoyed an outdoor jazz concert in a nearby neighborhood that hands down rivals Georgetown's leafy streets. We also feel lucky to work in the heart of the downtown area, which is actually quite green and well laid out despite the city's unchecked sprawl.

Simply put, Mexico City gets serious props for livability and really is a hidden gem for tourists. It certainly should be a top choice for Foreign Service bidders, as pointed out by a fellow blogger who was recently posted here on a temporary assignment. Mexico City, at least where we live and work, is NOT what you may think of Mexico. This place is seriously happening. Come visit and we'll prove it to you.

All this makes me thankful we live here but also a bit nervous that our good fortune has to eventually run out. We (at least DiploMom for now) already have a great follow-on assignment in Oman to look forward to but I feel like the other shoe has to drop sometime. The recent earthquake in Nepal made me think how susceptible we could be to a similar natural disaster here, god forbid.

But for now we're content living in our blissful bubble, just like the dipsy denizens of The Lego Movie. Taco Tuesday or something not quite like the end of the world may be in our future but until then I'll just keep eating the yummy tacos and telling myself: "EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!"