Living in Mexico - Archives: December 2006
Monday, December 11, 2006
This blog ain't dead! This is a cry from the heart as well as a reality since I'll remain in Mexico City for a couple of months more before sailing to the North Pacific ocean. Our entire development team will also remain in the capital and I expect to pay them frequent visits. Yet it won't be the same, I know. I'll post even more infrequently after February 2007 (if that's at all humanly possible, snigger) but I do intend to keep Living in Mexico alive.
For those who are interested in following my acid trail to the USA, you are cordially invited to visit my brand new blog Living in California. I hope to see you there!
Posted by Serge @ 06:34 PM MEX [Link] [Karma: 0 (+/-)] [No Comments]
Saturday, December 9, 2006
Five and a half years after landing in Mexico City Benito Juarez airport and only a few months before taking my destiny to the USA the time has come to reminisce about some incredible years of smiles, tears and hard work!
Living in Mexico turned out to be a completely different experience than what I expected from the 37th floor of the Nikko hotel when I was over here on a fat expenses account in British Pounds. No more spontaneous, tequila inundated, weekend breaks in Acapulco. Just a normal, busy, life of an entrepreneur doing his best so that his company survives and grows in a difficult market.
Was it all worth it? Today my bank account is only a pale reflection of what it was in 2001. Love has come and gone, victim of the tremendous stress associated with the struggle to build a new life in a foreign country.
What would I have lost if I had followed a quiet and rewarding corporate career in Britain instead of taking the plunge in Mexico? This is my personal “best of” Mexico in the last couple of years, in no particular order:
- Climbing in the middle of the night, in total eerie silence, under a scintillating veil of stars on the icy slope of the Pico de Orizaba volcano.
- Dancing reggaeton the whole night with a sweet friend of mine in the VIP lounge of the Bandasha disco in Bosques, filled to the brim with frantic teenagers trying to sweat off their excess of alcohol.
- Jogging at sunset on the white sand beaches of Cancun, feeling the warm waves against my ankles and glancing at the horizon seemingly ablaze.
- Working for the third night in a row at 2:00AM and seeing all the team online busting their guts to be ready on time for the release deadline. Thank you guys, we’ll make it big in Silicon Valley!
- Swimming in a frozen river at the bottom of Copper Canyon, chasing toads and smelling the marvelous scent of the pine trees all around me.
- Trying out a vast array of new drinks ranging from Licor de 43 to warm Sake and letting my soul melt away in the bright eyes of an all too brief love.
- Receiving the prize of most competitive high-tech company in Mexico from the hands of Intel’s CEO, feeling that after all we did quite a good job creating software.
- Lacerating my legs on the gorgeous private beach of the Camino Real hotel in Acapulco on a Saturday afternoon and leaving a trail of fresh blood until the Palladium disco, helping the pain subside with ample amounts of Cuba Libres!
- Reaching the very end of my resistance and finally arriving in the enormous expanse of Mexico City’s Olympic stadium during the TV Azteca 10K race, finding a new lease of life to cross the finish line like a champion of Chariots of Fire!
These and many more events are what make life worth living! Commuting from Woking to Reading and working for a leading consulting firm might be the most logical thing to do in order to live a pleasantly comfortable and constructive life. But is it what will make you smile nostalgically when you turn 90 y/o and contemplate the meandering path of your existence?
Nada de esto fue un error, as the song goes, I stand by my choices and look forward to the new chapter full of promises that stands unwritten in the book of my life.
Posted by Serge @ 01:18 PM MEX [Link] [Karma: 1 (+/-)] [2 comments]
