One of the reasons to travel back to Haven this week is to bring back some things that I left behind. The plan was to travel there with just carry on, acquire two cheap full-size suitcases within regulation dimensions, stuff them with every ounce of the allowed 50KG of weight each, and then travel back with checked luggage.

This plan felt a little nebulous in my mind as I’m flying on two different airlines (Air Canada to Toronto to CDMX, then Aeromexico to Mérida) and I booked my trip as three separate legs. I started having nightmares of reaching one of my connection points and being told that even if I was ready to pay for the extra bags, I couldn’t bring them with me or of having to pay separately at each connection point, to reach an astronomical cost that would make my plan foolish.

So that was enough of that overthinking. I went to Air Canada’s website this morning, got their number to call them within Mexico, and reached a very helpful agent who spoke good English. Yes, of course I could have dealt with this in Spanish if I had to, and planned to if I had to follow up with a call to Aeromexico, but when I’m calling my national airline, I expect service in one of my mother tongues. 🙂

After explaining the situation, I got some bad news and I got some great news.

The bad news is, yep, I have to manually transfer my bags at each destination. So land in Toronto and have to get them through customs and on their way to CDMX, but I can do that at the start of the very long layover so at least I’m not having to deal with them all that time. Get to CDMX and I have to go from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 with them, which sounds like it will be “fun.”

That was all the confirmation I needed to not overdo the carry-on luggage. I thought of traveling with my nearly empty small carry-on suitcase so I could fill that too, but that’s going to be way too much for me to handle on mostly just long enough connections. So I bought myself a backpack this weekend that will be bigger than the one I took to Europe and will use that plus my pink tote as my carry-on items. I’ll still have lots of room in the backpack for the return trip, but at least both bags will leave me with free hands.

Now, the great news is that the way I booked my tickets, even though I did each leg separately, it shows as one itinerary from Regina to Mérida, not individual trips. So that means just one fee for checking baggage, paid in Regina and good for Aeromexico too! So only 80CAD plus tax!!! I had explored the option of buying non-economy tickets to get included checked luggage, but then those return flights went from just over $300CAD to over $1,000CAD. This is a bargain!

Another bit of good news is my first leg en route to Canada is considered domestic. So since I’m flying out at 8:42AM with no checked luggage, I can get to the airport around 6:45AM instead of around 5:30, meaning I can leave at about 6:20 instead of 5:10. That’s going to make quite a difference! Yes, I’m that close to the airport — it’s within city limits and there’s no traffic at that hour. I booked a car (through Cabify) already to take me there and feel oh-so-fancy. 🙂 It’s going to be only about $100 to get the airport, but the return trip will be around $400 as I will have to use the taxis at the airport. Highway robbery, but it is what it is.

I can’t believe I’ll be have having lunch at Mexico City airport this time in four days! This will be my first time flying out of it on an international flight. It was super easy to transit through for a national flight and attendants were so helpful so I’m not toooooo nervous. I will have some immigration related info to share about all that as there’s some paperwork ahead!

A year ago today, I got the keys to my house. So it’s been a full year of having keys to the house and I’ve made a full year of payments. My rent goes down next month. How cool is that?!

The location hasn’t been as perfect as I hoped. As I suspected from the start, the location of my office facing two busy streets and right next to a successful mechanic is less than ideal. I’m still struggling with a rooster who is damaging my calm and ruining my nights. I still haven’t found a non-chain café close enough to pop into when I need to get out of the house (but I do have coffee Tuesdays most weeks at a convenient location). I also have yet to find a cantina anywhere around my house to pop into and have a cold beer at the end of a long day. North-south public transportation is as fantastic as I’d expected, but east-west is too inconvenient and I’ve used Uber and my truck more than expected when it’s been too hot to walk. All told, I thought my location would be a 9/10 and it’s proven to be an 8/10. It’s still more than good enough that I’m not feeling anxious to move, but there are enough annoyances and deficiencies that I casually evaluate other neighbourhoods I visit.

The house was and remains a 9/10. Except for the office noise issues (and that’s not even anywhere near the majority of the time), this house has been an absolute dream and I’m so in love with it. There isn’t a day that goes by that I am not grateful that this is my home. No, I haven’t done anywhere near with it what I’d planned, but I still have a whole other year here to continue to cosify it. And from the last discussion with my landlady, I think the odds are very good that I’ll be able to renew my lease, hopefully for another two years.

Yup, the house and the location are that good. I know I could improve both by moving, but the improvements I’m seeking are not worth the hassle of spending all that time hunting for another house that will work so well for both myself and Bonita. I also cower at how hard I’ll have to work to make four months’ of rent to pay in advance. And then, I’d have to possibly learn a new neighbourhood and say goodbye to favourite haunts. So as long as I’m renting, where I am is just fine and I’m very happy making a stand right here. I have promised myself that if I can renew for a further two years, I will paint a couple of rooms and seriously investigate sound-proofing options for the bedroom.

As for the office, when I got Bonita six months ago, I started working with my office door open all day so she could run in and out. That has greatly increased the noise level in the office as I’ve lost the barrier with the street. I think I am going to see how she does now with the door closed, especially as we get into the cooler season and I won’t need that extra breeze.

I had a chat with my landlady the other day about maintenance. She’s happy with reports she’s getting from my maintenance guy about the upkeep I’m doing on the house, but there’s bigger projects that need to be done than she and I feel I should be paying for as a tenant. So there’s going to be some work done in the yard when I get back from Canada that I won’t be responsible for, yay. She’s been an awesome landlady, another reason I really don’t want to move!

There have been a lot of things in my life that I’ve hopped into with such enthusiasm and optimism, only to fall flat on my face. It’s gratifying that so far, this whole move to another country thing hasn’t been like that at all and that I face each day with a bone-deep gratitude about my new-found lot in life where there isn’t just tortillas, but also calla lilies.

I will leave you with these words of wisdom to go enjoy some tacos (yes, I really do eat tacos many times a week!) and then play with my dog:

“If you want to change your life you have to raise your standards.”

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