I can’t believe I’ve been living here a full month now! With my lease having started in October, that means only 22 months to go!

My first month here has been wonderful. 🙂 I know, I know, I’m in the honeymoon period and the glow is going to wear off, yaddi yadda, but, really, it’s been great.

The house is very comfortable, even with it not being fully set up yet, and it doesn’t seem immense at all. It really doesn’t feel like I’m rattling about in a half-empty mansion, although some spaces are echoey. I am pleased that I am making use of most spaces and enjoying all the perks the house has to offer. I was a bit afraid that having lived in small spaces or a few rooms for so long that I would end up spending all my time here in one room (namely my office), but nope!

My landlord is stopping by on Saturday to give me a primer on the water system that I should have asked for before moving in. I’m pretty sure I figured it out on my own after running out the other day, but it will be good to get confirmation that I know everything. I love having potable water in that I can rinse my veggies and my toothbrush in it. I still prefer to use the water from the jugs for actual cooking and drinking, but I’ve gone so far as to rinse my rice with the tap water and not had any issues.

I am disappointed with the hot water system in that there is no hot water to the kitchen and it takes ages and ages to get hot water to my shower. It might make more sense to pay to have a “regadera electrica” (hot water on the demand thingy) installed in my bathroom, but I’m waiting to see my next water bill before I make any decisions. My host in Chelem suspects that the water here is not metered and if that’s the case, then running the shower to get hot water won’t be as much of an issue. Yes, I need hot water at this time of year! It’s really brr in the shower in the evenings. 🙂

The electrical system has been working fine and my surge and brownout protector appears to be doing its thing. I’m expecting my first real power bill any day now and that should be revelatory.

As for the internet, oh my goodness. 🙂 I had one outage, early on a Sunday morning, and Izzi dealt with it in minutes! I’m getting the promised speeds and I have good coverage on the ground floor. Needless to say, I’m super happy. I will be getting a WiFi extender so I can get service upstairs as it is non-existent to poor (not a surprise). I thought I’d be able to live without WiFi upstairs, but I’m setting up my hobby and craft area in the landing and I like to be able to check my emails first thing to see if I need to rush or can take it easy.

I also really appreciate my landline and being able to call Canada and the US as well. The landline is so much more comfortable than talking on my iPhone, plus I don’t have to worry about signal strength.

As expected, air flow in the house is fantastic and between the doors, windows, and ceiling fans, the ambient temperature has been very comfortable and not super humid. It will be interesting to see the difference next summer since we’re definitely going into winter, with the nights sometimes actually being cold!

Now that the rooster situation has been dealt with, I’m finally sleeping well. I’m still using the little twin bed and it is very comfy and definitely easing the pressure of getting a new mattress.

I’m learning my neighbours’ routines and adapting my own to theirs. For example, the mechanic next door tends to work late and can be very noisy between about f0ur to as late as ten, depending on the day. My street, being a rare two-way thoroughfare, gets a surprising amount of traffic. Deliveries tend to start around ten and are quiet through the Mexican lunch hour. So I do my work that needs the most quiet first thing in the morning and in the middle of the afternoon.

The location is just as good as I expected. I have nearly all the convenience of being in centro and none of the headaches, like infrastructure problems, parking, noise, and being surrounded by expats. Just about everywhere in Mérida is near to me and I’m slowly expanding my use of buses.

I am getting a true immersion experience since there are so few expats in this neighbourhood and the few that are here are like me, here to actually live in Mexico and are therefore proving to be a good resource. One gave me a bunch of links to community Facebook pages so I can know what is going on and learn about various nearby services. I’m slow to get on the Facebook pages bandwagon, but starting to realise that many, many businesses use those in lieu of a website and it’s worth looking for a business page if only to get their hours of operation.

I haven’t done nearly as much exploratory walking as I expected to have done, but I do go out for short strolls at different times of day right in my immediate neighbourhood to see what is open when and to slowly figure out a logic to everyone’s schedules and to find out what food is available at what time of day. Tonight’s walk took me a few blocks south of home where I found a torta/hamburger/hot dog place that I’d like to try and, improbably, an authorised Apple repair store! I just checked out their website and it’s not clear if they do work on the actual computers or just software stuff, so I’ll give them a ring to ask if they do simple things like repair keyboards. It sure would be more convenient to walk a few blocks than to go to Gran Plaza or Altabrisa!

I appreciate living somewhere that I can get things easily delivered. I could have set a clock by the water delivery guy today — he told me last week that he’d be by at the same time today and he was! I’m enjoying getting food delivered some nights, especially from places that are open when I want to eat and that locals aren’t eating since service is super fast and the food arrives hotter and fresher. I ordered a pizza the other day and it was out their door in under five minutes and to me in under twenty! I have no idea how they pulled that off, but, yes, it was absolutely fresh and piping hot. I am going to want to try other places just to get a comparison, but with their current deal of a huge one with three toppings for just $100 (plus a $10 tip) and their really good crust, I’m in no rush. 🙂 I also like getting tacos delivered as I get enough for two full meals and a snack for $70 + $10. I haven’t ordered sushi yet for delivery since I’m two blocks outside of their delivery zone and I have to order $125 worth of food. Their prices are low enough that that would mean leftovers and I don’t have a fridge I’d trust with sushi. So I’ve walked over there for a few lunches. 🙂

My goal for the end of December is to have my fridge and a pantry built up. That will leave a stove and island for me to call the kitchen done. The stove I want is on mega sale all month at Home Depot so if I have any surprise influx of cash, I may figure out a way to get it, but I’m not holding my breath since the holiday season could be very slow. Frankly, I’m more eager to get my washing machine! The expat lady who sent me the Facebook links gave me some really good fridge buying advice and I’ve decided where I’m going to go look next week once my PayPal payments for this week land in my bank accounts. One thing that I figured out on my own is to not get a fridge with the built-in water dispenser. As it turns out, the pump to make it work with the 5-gallon jugs costs over $3,000! I can get a separate cold water dispenser for less than $1,000!

Once the big stuff is sorted, I’ll be able to start getting the little bits that turn a house into a home, like wall art, rugs, and plants. It will be lovely to be able to go stroll through a market and to buy something that catches my eye rather than saving that money to put towards a more expensive purchase. Speaking of markets — the city of Mérida got good news recently. The market in centro is getting cleaned up! Hopefully, it will become a place that I enjoy shopping as it would be a great place to look for cool things for my house.

I’m still a little breathless at being here a full year earlier than planned, but I’m glad that I didn’t have that year in limbo after all as I have one happy month down and many more to go. I cannot wait to see what other secrets my colonia gives up and to start taking advantage of all that Mérida has to offer.