Going native in Mexico

"Going native" is how I describe the process of adapting to the culture.

Naturally you start by translating words into your language and when you experience something for the first time you look for equivalents in your culture and make comparisons.

Eventually it becomes too exhausting a waste of time to keep referring back, and at that point you start to "go native". I am not going to attempt to delve into psychology, linguistics and anthropology, or whateva, to try to explain the whys and hows, but this is how it appears to happen to me. Here are a few varied examples.

You go a journey of 400 km and think to yourself, that's 250 miles, and I'm thinking: is that roughly London to Leeds? Then I give up trying to imagine the differences in road surfaces, speed and time. It all gets a bit taxing. In the end I conclude 400 km is a pretty decent 6 hours drive on good roads in Mexico and that's that. This is a bigger country and drives of 8 hours are not uncommon. You soon get used to calibrating time and distance here. The main variable is whether the road is a cuota (toll road) or a libre (free road), a difference which doesn't yet exist in the UK.

When someone says something a bit absurd, my first thought is in Spanish: "como crees" (whatever next). Other signs are: my conversation with Sofia is now getting a bit Spanglish; I can find myself counting in Spanish on occasion and last year, while on my three month sabbatical in Mexico, I had a dream in Spanish.

Another road related one. When I first came over here I was pretty shocked at the number of dead dogs by the side of the road. I really don't know for certain, but I think I'm getting used to seeing the carcasses. If I see one that is very big or obviously like a home dog, such as a golden labrador (or very similar at 100 kmh), then I am still shocked. But the others, I think, are gradually becoming part of the scenery.

There were a couple of English things I didn't want to leave behind: tea and marmalade. However you can't get the same stuff here, so I've given them up rather than attempt to live with poor replacements. That doesn't mean to say I'm happy now eating all Mexican food. Tortillas of maize, which are THE staple Mexican food, I like with cheese as quesadillas, but I'm not quite ready to gobble them up at breakfast time with eggs and beans. I think this is because I have quite a deeply ingrained idea that breakfast is for fruit, cereal, toast and maybe eggs and beans, but tortillas? Como crees?

I've been thinking about writing this page for a few weeks, and it started by focusing on the new and the Mexican, and how I am adapting to it. Latterly a strange thought has occurred to me, what about documenting the English part of me? Are there any parts of my English identity that I am forgetting? I really can't be sure till I go back to the UK. I will report after my trip to London in September. In the meantime I am really quite happy with the prospect of being some sort of cultural and linguistic hybrid, neither fully Mexican nor entirely British either.