0:28

It's amazing to me . You know , you said you

0:30

get to talk to the orthopedist and you get to talk to

0:32

the doctor . In the States you get

0:34

like 15 minutes . They come in , they look at

0:36

you you don't see them again here

0:39

. They give you their WhatsApp

0:41

number yes , they do , and

0:43

you text them back and forth and they

0:45

will text you back day or night . They

0:48

won't . I mean , that's to me , that's amazing . That's

0:50

something that you would never , ever , ever

0:52

see in the United States .

0:54

No .

1:00

Welcome to ExPATs Like Us , a

1:02

co-production with me , vita Margarita

1:04

, exploring the world of US expat

1:07

life in Mexico . In each episode

1:09

, we'll meet new people and hear their stories

1:11

. We'll also learn more about expat

1:14

life and get a few tips on everything

1:16

from making your move to settling in

1:18

, to living your dreams and , most

1:20

of all , having fun . Let's

1:23

dive

1:34

in . Today's episode of ExPATs Like Us actually

1:36

has four hosts , please welcome

1:38

Chris Kowalski , erika Kowalski

1:40

, sherry Bussey and , of course , I'm Bob Bussey

1:43

. We're all friends in ExPATs who , in the summer

1:45

of 2021 , sold our possessions

1:47

, retired from our jobs and made the

1:49

move to Mexico . Today we're talking

1:52

about some of our personal experiences of

1:54

becoming expats . We've all noticed

1:56

that when living in an expat community

1:58

, we tend to have a lot of conversations about

2:00

how things are different than they were where

2:02

we came from . Today , we're playing

2:04

a game called K-Padre K-Malo

2:07

. As you might remember from episode

2:09

4 , padre means father in Spanish

2:12

, but it also means cool . When

2:14

we pair it with K , k-padre means how

2:16

cool . On the flip side , k-malo

2:18

means how awful . It turns

2:20

out that lots of changes we've experienced

2:22

in our ExPAT lives we think are great K-Padre

2:26

, while some experiences take us a

2:28

while to get used to K-Malo

2:30

. Don't worry , you'll catch on . Let's start

2:32

with a topic from Sherry .

2:34

Okay , Well , my K-Padre would

2:36

be online shopping . I

2:38

didn't do hardly any online shopping

2:40

in the States , but I found out that in

2:42

Mexico there's things I couldn't find Between

2:45

Mercado Libre and Amazon

2:47

Mexico . They have been lifesavers , so anything

2:50

from getting medication to household

2:52

cleaning products like Tide Pods

2:55

, which I cannot live without . But I can't find

2:57

in the stores here I can find online

2:59

and it's at my doorstep between

3:01

probably three and seven days from when I

3:03

order , so that's definitely a K-Padre

3:05

for me . Maybe

3:07

the K-Malo would be some of the stores

3:10

that were face-to-face stores or in-person

3:13

stores for me back home are not here , so

3:15

I really miss Target .

3:17

Nobody knows this , I miss Target .

3:19

I miss the Michaels craft store and

3:22

although I can get some of the things delivered

3:24

to my doorstep , sometimes there's a price

3:27

difference . So maybe a little two

3:29

ounce paint that I would buy for crafting

3:31

back in the States $1.29

3:33

at the most . If you look

3:35

online it's an import

3:38

cost , so it's

3:40

about $12 for that two ounce paint

3:42

. So I bring my paint back from the

3:44

States .

3:45

You know one of the things I think with online

3:47

shopping . The other thing I've noticed here we

3:49

get deliveries at like nine o'clock on a Sunday

3:52

night . We never had that

3:54

where we lived in the States . It's

3:56

deliveries are seven days a week and well

3:59

into the evening , anytime of the day .

4:01

Yeah , so that's pretty sure this

4:03

is very familiar with shopping online . The

4:05

Amazon man knows him .

4:08

I'm friends with him . We see him almost weekly

4:10

.

4:11

You invited him for Thanksgiving .

4:15

He says weekly , almost daily , almost , and

4:20

then he'll forget what he ordered . He gets excited

4:22

because it changes on Amazon every

4:25

day . Every day things

4:27

will change . Sometimes you can't get something

4:29

crystal research and he'll

4:32

look to see what he wants . And

4:34

then he looks again , you know , in a couple

4:36

of days and now it's able

4:38

for delivery here without the import fee , and

4:40

so he'll place the orders and then

4:43

sometimes he'll forget that he ordered it .

4:45

One thing I didn't realize when I moved down here . There's amazoncommx

4:49

, which is Mexico . I didn't know they had

4:51

that , but you can still order things off of Amazoncom

4:54

and get a large majority

4:56

, it seems like , of those items delivered as

4:58

well . You can't get everything from either one

5:00

, but sometimes you can get

5:03

things on one .

5:03

You can't get from the other Right and

5:05

I noticed some of the things you pay a little bit of an

5:07

import tax on it , but that's included

5:10

in the price , so you don't notice it

5:12

. But the bottom line is

5:14

yeah , you can find pretty much anything

5:16

on Amazon . Mexico yeah .

5:18

And if you have Amazon Prime , it's almost always free

5:20

delivery . So I feel like we're

5:22

saving money .

5:25

It's almost like throwing away money not

5:27

to order a bunch of stuff on Amazon .

5:30

And if you can't find it on Amazon , you

5:33

go out and explore the Pueblos

5:35

or Playa del Carmen and find

5:38

substitutes that are just as good . Yeah

5:40

, right .

5:42

Yeah , we especially see that with you know , maybe food items

5:44

. Yes . If you can't find it well , maybe

5:46

you could make it or substitute something else that's nearly

5:49

as good or maybe even better .

5:50

Yes exactly .

5:52

That's true , right ? So let's go to Erica

5:54

. What's a K Padre and a K Mavo for

5:56

you ?

5:56

My K Padre is friends

5:59

. I thought I would miss more

6:02

, like I missed my friends back in the States , but

6:04

I thought here it was going to be

6:06

lonely , but it's

6:08

completely opposite . The

6:10

K Padre is everybody's , friendly . You

6:13

get to know people and there's

6:15

really everybody

6:18

just likes each other . So I

6:20

love that part of it the friends . The

6:23

K Malo part is that

6:25

meeting friends were literally here

6:27

all the time . So if you are

6:29

on a walk , what are you doing for dinner tonight

6:31

? I don't know . Let's go out to dinner and

6:34

then you find yourself with no downtime . And

6:37

it gets busier than we actually

6:39

realized , where we don't have a

6:41

lot of downtime , we have to schedule downtime

6:43

. We actually have a shared calendar

6:46

now , so when we do something

6:48

or I commit to something , he

6:50

sees it , because before it's like

6:52

I scheduled this , why I said that we were going

6:54

to do this where it got kind of chaotic and

6:57

so we actually have to schedule our downtime

7:00

.

7:00

Right and eventually it's

7:03

like , oh my God , it's February already

7:05

. I thought it was

7:07

November .

7:09

Or we're coming up on our three year mark in

7:12

the summer , both of us . So where

7:14

did the three years go ? Right , that's

7:17

true , it was quick . Yeah

7:19

, when you're having fun , it does .

7:21

But yeah , with friends it's easy to make

7:23

friends . Part of the reason I think that is is

7:25

because we all have this shared experience of getting

7:27

rid of all of our stuff . And you

7:29

know , like I said in the intro

7:32

, we all talk about . We have a lot of the same

7:34

conversations , you know , stuff we

7:36

like and stuff we don't like , but that is bonding

7:38

with people just doing that , you know

7:40

yes .

7:41

Or meeting people too . Like if you go to the

7:43

pool , there's people that visit

7:45

and they we

7:48

didn't realize before . They're here year like

7:50

every year . They come for a couple of weeks

7:52

and then when they visit , you

7:55

know they want to hang out with you , they want to talk

7:57

to you , they want to see you . So it's like

7:59

you meet new friends every time . You

8:01

have your main group of friends , but then you have

8:03

those friends that visit little secret

8:05

pockets of friends that are temporary , yeah

8:08

.

8:09

And luckily we don't have jobs , because there's

8:11

no way we can fit it all in with the

8:15

job .

8:16

I don't even know how we work

8:18

. There's no time for work .

8:21

For sure . So do you have a K-Molo

8:23

?

8:24

The K-Molo is no downtime . Oh no

8:26

, no downtime , Right no downtime

8:28

that's .

8:29

That is kind of Molo .

8:30

It's fun time , it's not necessarily

8:32

a bad thing , but it can't get

8:34

in the way of . We have

8:36

to get our car registered , but

8:38

we don't have time to go get our car registered

8:40

because we make things like

8:42

happen with friends . So now we just push

8:45

it and push it . Or , taking

8:47

care of the outside , we push that . It's like

8:49

, oh , we don't , we can do that tomorrow

8:51

.

8:51

It's good , we'll go hang out with friends

8:54

and there are some people that I know their

8:56

spouse has a set role , like no

8:58

more than three social events

9:00

or even maybe one or two social

9:02

events , that they're not a very social person per

9:05

week , so they have to really pick and choose what

9:07

they want to do . Their spouse to go to , and then

9:09

they just do the other stuff with their girlfriend

9:11

.

9:12

Yes , yes , I've seen that . I guess I've seen that

9:14

as well .

9:15

Their spouse is going to get angry about that .

9:21

All right , chris , do you have a K

9:23

Padre K Molo ?

9:25

I guess it'd be two different things . One

9:28

of the K Padres would be the Caribbean

9:30

Sea here Beautiful . It's

9:33

warm all year long . It's amazing

9:35

. There are so many things you can do snorkeling

9:37

, scuba , windsurfing , boating trips

9:40

, fishing , paddleboarding , etc . It's you

9:42

know . I mean you could spend every day at

9:44

the beach here . The K Molo would

9:46

probably be the retornals , that

9:49

is , the roads here . It's

9:51

a straight shot and they don't have a lane

9:55

to get over .

9:56

They don't have like an overpass like we would

9:58

have in the States .

9:59

So about every mile or mile and a half , it seems

10:01

, there's a return Right

10:03

and you have to do that . And with gas

10:05

right now I figured out it's about

10:09

$5.64 a gallon . That's a lot of extra

10:11

gas every time you want to go north

10:13

. You got to go south for a while

10:15

and then turn around .

10:17

It's the distance and also sometimes you got

10:19

to sit at that return and wait for traffic

10:21

to clear for and it feels like forever

10:23

.

10:24

And then you get these big buses and you can't see anything

10:26

.

10:27

They're kind of dangerous

10:29

.

10:29

Two taxi drivers that'll just line up

10:31

next to each other and it's like one at

10:33

a time . But they don't have patience , so

10:35

they think they're going to get there sooner .

10:38

Yeah , we could do an entire episode

10:40

just on how people drive . We've

10:45

learned a lot . We were down with it , we

10:47

manage it just fine .

10:48

But definitely got to be defensive driver

10:50

.

10:50

Yes , I don't think I've ever heard him

10:52

honk the horn as much as he has

10:54

in Cancun . Cancun is crazier

10:57

, crazy driving more

10:59

in Cancun than it is here . And

11:01

they will merge right in front of you and

11:03

they don't care . Two or three inches away .

11:05

Right , yes

11:08

, we all know that feeling . Sherry

11:10

gets a little nervous .

11:11

just in the passenger seat alone . I

11:14

can't look Well , and then you see the

11:17

number of cars . If you park anywhere you can

11:19

like , next to whoever you get out and like , well

11:21

, they have a little fender bender . I mean , there's a scrape

11:23

on the side of almost every car .

11:27

Just have that fatal accident here . Six

11:29

people passed , yeah , yeah .

11:30

Well , and the next day there was one farther up the road

11:33

and I think two or three people

11:35

died .

11:36

Yeah , going the opposite direction , and that's

11:38

not uncommon here and it's a

11:40

straight road . So you always wonder how can that right

11:42

? You know part of the thing , I guess

11:44

. One of my things well , I'll just

11:47

do my K Padre is our property

11:49

taxes are really low . Yeah , they're great . It's

11:51

a small , tiny fraction

11:53

of what we paid in the States for property tax

11:56

. The K-Malo that goes along with that

11:58

is our roads are not that great . We don't

12:00

have the overpasses , we don't have the infrastructure

12:02

that we can pay for in the States

12:04

with our property tax . Yeah , that's true , you know

12:06

. So it makes it affordable . Yeah

12:08

, so that's my K Padre

12:11

and K-Malo , and

12:35

we'll be back

12:37

, welcome back . Today we have all the producers

12:39

of expats like us and we're talking

12:41

K Padre , k-malo , about

12:43

what we love , about expat life in Mexico

12:46

and those things we just maybe don't like

12:48

so much . Erica , what's your next topic ?

12:50

Mine is the medical part . I have severe

12:53

asthma and in the

12:55

States my co-payments

12:57

would typically consist of about $30

12:59

and my albuterol inhalers

13:02

were $60 . We

13:04

carried medical insurance for

13:06

the family and that was

13:08

$500 , $600

13:10

a month for that . Moving

13:13

here , I can get my inhalers

13:16

for 40 pesos each

13:18

, which is about

13:20

maybe closer to $3 . With

13:22

no prescription , no co-payment . I

13:24

can go into the pharmacies , show

13:26

them the albuterol and they'll sell me

13:28

as many as I want

13:30

.

13:31

And they're the same quality .

13:32

They're the same Right .

13:34

She's been using them for three years .

13:36

The breathing treatments . I've had to use

13:38

breathing treatments . I have to have a nebulizer

13:41

. The nebulizer was about

13:43

$20 US dollars when

13:45

in the States the insurance

13:47

would basically sell

13:50

you one and it was way more

13:52

expensive . The treatments in

13:54

itself are about $6

13:56

each one . I had

13:58

to stay in the hospital . The personal experience

14:00

was I had to stay in the hospital

14:02

overnight because I had a severe asthma

14:05

attack and the medical

14:07

was still reasonable . It

14:10

cost us $2,500

14:12

US dollars and

14:14

they would not admit me until

14:16

we made full payment of $3,000

14:18

and then they reimbursed us . So

14:21

, considering it no insurance

14:23

, it was pretty inexpensive

14:26

. It's still a lot . They

14:28

did give me oxygen , they

14:30

treated me well , everything was amazing

14:33

. The

14:35

Malo part they

14:38

do tend sometimes the hospitals do

14:40

tend to kind of question

14:43

you and they will charge

14:45

you more if you're not a local

14:47

.

14:48

Right , or I've heard when they find

14:50

out you have Mexican insurance . I've

14:54

had people say if you're going in for

14:56

something , that's not a big deal , do

14:58

not tell them that you have insurance , because then

15:00

you're gonna get the jack-back rate on

15:02

everything Right .

15:03

Yeah , and then also the get by that it was

15:06

for Chris . He rolled

15:08

his ankle playing pickleball and

15:10

he also had an accident with his

15:12

finger . We were

15:14

playing football , and so I

15:17

base when he got home after his rolled

15:19

ankle . It's like we're going to the hospital

15:21

. You need to get x-rays . We'll do a two-for-one

15:23

. I mean , you're already hurt with your finger

15:25

, let's get your ankle checked . We

15:28

walked into the emergency room . It

15:30

was about 45 minutes . The

15:33

nurse came in , checked his vitals

15:35

and then he spoke to

15:37

both doctors the Emergency

15:40

room doctor and the orthopedic doctor

15:42

. We didn't had no middleman

15:45

and that cost us at that time

15:47

about $172 and

15:49

I came with x-rays .

15:51

I came with the Wrap

15:54

that they put on my foot and my finger and

15:56

the pain medicine that they gave me .

15:58

It's . It's also . It's amazing to me . You

16:01

know you said you get to talk to the orthopedist and

16:03

you get to talk to the doctor . In the States

16:05

you get like 15 minutes . They come in

16:07

, they look at you , yeah , you don't see them

16:09

again here . They give you your

16:11

, their WhatsApp number . Yes , they

16:14

do , and you text them

16:16

back and forth and they will text you back

16:18

day or night , and they will . That's

16:20

to me that's amazing . That's something that

16:22

you would never , ever , ever see in

16:24

the United States .

16:25

No , and you walk out , like Chris

16:27

was saying , with your x-rays , your

16:29

whole medical report that they diagnosed

16:32

you with . You Walk out the door with everything .

16:34

I think part of the reason Erica's was so expensive

16:37

is it was Kind of during COVID

16:39

and that's what their first thought was that

16:41

she had COVID . They gave her two or three tests

16:43

and she was negative . But they were

16:45

. It was an automatic three thousand dollars down

16:47

Because they thought that's what it was and

16:49

that's was the cost to treat it .

16:51

I guess and you guys do . You

16:53

didn't have any problem getting Reimbursed no

16:55

, we went up to the cashiers

16:58

.

16:58

You go up and they review everything

17:00

and they say , okay , this is how much it was , and

17:03

it was 2,500 . And they said this

17:05

is what we're charging your credit card , because you had

17:07

to have a credit card on hand . It's

17:09

not like pay when you leave , you have

17:12

to have it up front . Okay , so they just charged

17:14

it and everything was fine , all right very

17:16

, very cool .

17:17

And we do have Mexican health assurance

17:19

, but we've never used it . So most things are

17:21

so Reasonable you just pay

17:23

out of pocket . So you know , for example

17:26

a mammogram 40 bucks

17:28

you know , Just unbelievably

17:30

cheap compared to what we would have paid up in

17:32

the States . And Bob had an MRI

17:34

and it was maybe 300 275

17:37

bucks for an MRI .

17:38

I remember getting one on my shoulder in the States and it

17:40

was over three thousand dollars to my insurance company

17:43

.

17:43

Well , Tess we had to .

17:44

It was five or five , fifty . Yeah , we're

17:46

our part after our part , yeah

17:48

right .

17:49

And then also your medication , your

17:51

blood pressure medication .

17:53

Well , that's 19 pesos for two months

17:55

, but a dollar .

17:58

Yes , k-padre , the

18:01

prescription medication and

18:03

the I guess the lower level

18:06

health care in Mexico . Yeah , it's

18:08

fabulous , chris

18:10

. What do you got ?

18:12

I would say the people here , almost

18:15

everyone you meet that's a local . They're

18:17

friendly , they're accommodating , they're hard-working

18:20

, just some of the nicest you know . There's

18:22

the gardeners here , the people you meet out the

18:24

restaurants , they're great

18:26

. That would be the , the k-padre . You

18:29

know that ? I looked it up today . It's actually

18:31

. They usually work about six days a week and

18:33

the minimum wage as of January 1st

18:35

2023

18:37

is 207.44 pesos

18:40

a day , so 12

18:42

bucks a day that they're making and

18:44

they , they're always smiling . Now we see

18:46

you so happy , so accommodating . On

18:49

the other side of that , the K-Malo would be any

18:52

time you deal with somebody in a position of authority

18:54

, such as Getting your car registered

18:56

, any of that stuff they make it as

18:59

difficult .

18:59

It seems as possible , inter interacting

19:01

with the government can be very

19:04

frustrating , very frustrating

19:06

, or even the Home Depot workers . But

19:11

yes , that's one of the stories

19:13

that everybody goes through when they first become

19:16

an expat is you got to buy a car

19:18

, okay , then you got to get license plates for

19:20

it , and a lot of people will hire someone

19:22

to go do that for them because they're intimidated by

19:24

it . But eventually you're not doing that

19:26

anymore because you realize you're throwing away money

19:28

, right , and you go there . But yeah

19:31

, it's , you need you know five

19:33

different forms . You need . You

19:35

need duplicate copies of your stuff

19:38

. I went in just recently , in the last

19:40

month , last couple of weeks actually and

19:42

I wanted to get license plate for our car and

19:45

for my motorcycle and it was

19:47

no problem . The car it took like two and

19:49

a half minutes you know they type , type , type

19:51

the thing out and gave it to me . The

19:53

motorcycle I didn't have

19:56

a copy of my passport . Well , I had a copy

19:58

of my passport for my car . The

20:00

lady had a had a copy machine two

20:03

feet behind her , but she was not

20:05

going to make me a copy , so I

20:07

had to come home , get another copy and go

20:09

back on another day .

20:11

And the next time you go might be fine with only one

20:13

copy .

20:13

It changes every time the next time you might

20:15

go . They don't even need a copy Right

20:18

.

20:18

I dread going to the , to

20:21

that place .

20:22

Yeah .

20:22

I just know it's like a day I have to wake up

20:24

and mentally I prepare myself

20:27

, because you can have everything . They ask

20:29

the first time , the second time and they

20:31

still want something else . Right , I've learned

20:34

to have extra copies , but

20:36

sometimes it doesn't work , depending on who's working

20:38

. Then you can . You

20:40

can kind of get away with it Right .

20:42

We have a file folder at home that's just full

20:44

of copies from

20:46

our marriage certificate , to our passports

20:49

, to our residency cards

20:51

.

20:52

Well , almost everything here . Your proof of

20:54

address is your electric

20:56

bill . And if your name is not on the electric

20:59

bill , you might have problems

21:01

. So if I know I need that

21:03

, I take a marriage certificate

21:05

to show that I'm married to the person whose

21:07

name is on the electric bill , because I don't

21:10

want to make a second trip , exactly

21:13

.

21:13

So , yeah , it's . People

21:16

are so nice , they're helpful , they're patient

21:18

. They're patient with us Gringos

21:20

that you know . Three out of the four

21:22

of us don't know that much Spanish , right , and

21:24

people are extremely patient with that

21:26

. But

21:28

yes , dealing with the government's a pain

21:31

.

21:31

But do you find yourself like with the language

21:33

barrier ? A lot

21:35

of them speak English or understand it

21:38

here .

21:38

Yes .

21:39

Yes , I do , I do like that yeah

21:41

.

21:41

And there's some that you'll get , that they

21:43

understand it , but they won't speak it .

21:45

Right .

21:46

But for the most part , like with you , Sherry , your

21:48

Spanish is getting amazing , like

21:51

amazing . I am impressed with it

21:53

.

21:54

Oh , she came up with k

21:56

podre and k molo .

21:59

Yeah Well , and it helps . Once in

22:01

a while I'll use my Spanish and I

22:03

get complimented like oh , your accent's

22:05

very good and I'm like whoa , I'm

22:08

gonna stick with this . So

22:10

I use it . Even though my

22:12

maybe the waiter speaks English and I have an English

22:14

man view , I still like that word in Spanish

22:18

.

22:18

Just practicing . Practicing

22:20

, I think , helps a lot too , me too

22:22

.

22:23

I saw a Facebook meme today and it was a shot

22:25

of Anthony Bourdain in one of his shows

22:27

, and the caption was this is

22:29

what I feel like when I pronounce jalapeno

22:32

correctly . That

22:35

was pretty good . So

22:37

, sherry , what do you got ?

22:39

Well , one of my deals

22:41

the things I like a lot is the

22:43

cell phone plants here . So when

22:46

we came down to Mexico and decided

22:49

we were going to get rid of our US phones and US

22:51

numbers , we went in and we

22:53

knew from one of

22:55

our neighbors here that had a blog that you could prepay

22:57

for a cell phone plan and get a heck of a deal . And

23:00

I think our first year that we are , the first two

23:02

years we prepaid and it averaged out

23:04

to be about $12

23:07

per phone . It went

23:09

up per month per phone and

23:11

it went up a little bit this last time , but it's still

23:13

$20 per phone per month

23:16

, which is about $180 less

23:18

than we were spending in the States , and

23:20

it covers all the the data

23:23

that we need and it's pretty

23:25

much our lifeline here .

23:26

So that's through AT&T .

23:27

right yeah , so right right

23:29

, it's a big corporation . If

23:31

you happen to go back to the States , your phone

23:33

works just fine . Yes , that's true

23:35

. It would probably pay off for Americans

23:37

to fly down here , buy a phone , get

23:40

to sign up for a two year contract , fly

23:42

back to the States and use their AT&T .

23:44

Yes , and the phones are

23:46

separate . So you just pay for the

23:48

phone that you want and we started out with kind of cheap

23:50

ones . I think mine was $150 for a phone

23:52

and it works just fine . I

23:54

think I might upgrade a little bit and get one

23:56

with a good camera , yeah , but

23:59

you know .

23:59

And we had bought ours , outright , our iPhone

24:02

, back in the States before we came down here , because

24:04

we had also saw the same blog and thought

24:06

, hey , that's a good deal , we just have to put a SIM card

24:09

in and good to go , right .

24:11

And I think you know maybe one of the key

24:13

mottos with that is that you know

24:15

, maybe people over a lot

24:17

rely a bit on technology . So

24:19

you could also use Google translate with

24:22

your phone if you wanted to talk

24:24

to someone face to face and translate

24:26

what you were saying or what they were saying , or you

24:29

know reading directions up the back of a package

24:31

or whatever . I use that quite a bit with cooking

24:33

, but I think sometimes people get overconfident

24:36

, like I really don't need to use Spanish , I don't need

24:38

to learn it , and then they don't , and I think that's

24:40

kind of sad that people moved to Mexico and they

24:42

don't even try to learn any of the

24:44

language . So that's my key part , right .

25:18

I guess I would go with

25:20

that , as technology in

25:22

general is is great here

25:25

. Think of how much we all use

25:27

social media . Social media is great

25:29

. It's everything that's available in

25:31

the States is available here . But

25:34

what it does . Think of what it would be

25:36

like to move to Mexico and leave

25:38

your family and your friends before

25:42

there was internet or social media . I

25:44

mean , you would there , because mail

25:47

is almost non existent here . You would

25:49

never rely on the mail , yeah , and

25:51

but now it's like you know

25:53

, I look at my social media list of friends and

25:55

it's like I never left the state Right .

25:57

Yeah , you see what they're doing every day .

25:59

Every day . I mean we're big , we're living

26:01

virtually through our

26:03

friends in the states like we never left . Yeah

26:06

.

26:06

Yeah .

26:06

That's to me . That's . That's

26:09

one of the big benefits of just technology

26:11

in general that we have done For sure . Now the downside

26:14

of Facebook and stuff is

26:16

there's a lot of Facebook addiction and stuff

26:18

that happens , you know . I mean , we all know people

26:20

that spend the entire day on

26:23

their phone and they develop , you know , drama

26:26

in their head . You know things

26:28

that they see there and oh my God

26:30

, and the sky is falling all the

26:32

time and it's , you know , that's

26:34

so . That's kind of the downside . The other

26:37

technology is I

26:39

have expat TV . Okay

26:41

, it's $30 a month and I get

26:43

, I don't know there's thousands and

26:45

thousands of channels , like basically almost

26:47

every channel on earth , and if there's a

26:49

channel that's not there , you email them

26:52

and they put it on there . So

26:55

, and it's like 30 bucks a month . And when we

26:57

were in the states we had , you know

26:59

, dish network and we had local

27:01

cable and we went through every iteration

27:03

of television services and we

27:05

never pay less than like $80 or $90

27:08

a month . And that was at the low end package

27:11

for those things , yeah .

27:13

So yeah , we never had movie channels back

27:15

in the States , we got them all down .

27:16

Yeah , I was . I was always too

27:18

cheap to get a .

27:21

T . You know what , though ? That's the same thing with us

27:23

. It was just money wasted every month

27:25

.

27:26

Yeah , the only . Thing .

27:27

I think you really splurged on was

27:29

the internet , because you were

27:31

a gamer , he liked the fast internet , and

27:33

so Chris and our son

27:36

Daniel . Both Daniel

27:38

Xbox , Chris PlayStation . So he

27:40

wanted the fast internet . That was the

27:42

only thing he splurged on , but everything else

27:44

it was down here and we

27:46

didn't have time to watch TV .

27:48

Right , right , right and yeah , and

27:50

we don't have time to watch TV here either

27:52

, but at least we're not paying an arm or

27:54

a leg Right . If you do get a rainy day

27:56

and you want to sit inside , it's available Right , or

27:58

you want to , you know , see what's going on in the

28:00

news , or whatever . You can sit down and do

28:02

it . But yeah , you know , and

28:05

it is all internet based

28:07

. So you know , depending

28:09

on what service you have , it can get

28:11

. So it's buffers

28:14

, or what do I want to say ? Buffers , you know

28:16

? Yeah , we have fast internet , but yeah

28:18

our internet , the internet options

28:20

here . You would think going to a developing

28:23

country like this , you'd have problems

28:25

with that . But you really don't know , you know it's

28:27

fast , I mean , and so

28:29

many of the things that you buy are are connected

28:32

to you know , like our , our oven

28:34

can be connected to our Alexa

28:36

, yeah our fridge and our

28:39

air conditioners . All can be run

28:41

off the phone and so the technology

28:43

in Mexico is just as good as it is

28:46

anywhere in the world ?

28:47

I think so . Yeah , I

28:49

agree .

28:50

I was going to say also along technology solar

28:52

, we have solar , you guys

28:54

have solar . That's one of the best investments

28:57

we've made here . I know

28:59

several people you know install

29:01

around this area . We ended up getting ours for

29:03

a heck of a deal . Our

29:06

last bill on our solar bill was 62

29:08

pesos . That's

29:10

like what , four bucks .

29:11

I should say our electric bill on our solar , but

29:13

yeah , yeah , like three or four bucks .

29:16

For two months . For two months , yeah , we got

29:18

. We had eight panels put on before

29:20

we moved here . We had them put on our condo

29:23

and we figured they

29:25

paid for themselves , probably about a year ago

29:27

. Yeah and we've been here not

29:29

quite three years .

29:31

Our bill a month , or

29:33

the two months before we got it , was 7400

29:36

pesos as opposed to 62

29:38

pesos , so big

29:40

difference .

29:42

But 350 us , even

29:44

a little bit more on the exchange difference

29:46

yeah .

29:47

And before he was always

29:50

watching to make sure that there was one

29:52

air on and I

29:54

told him he was cheap because I wanted

29:57

a little bit more especially in the hot months

29:59

.

29:59

You want that air .

30:04

But now he's more . He's okay

30:06

with having two on three on

30:08

whatever you need ? Yeah , because it's paying

30:10

for itself .

30:12

Especially in these cooler months . You're racking it up

30:14

, stores it goes right back on the grid here and you don't

30:16

have to have any right , any batteries

30:19

or anything .

30:20

It's like buying stuff on Amazon . It's almost

30:22

throwing away money to use

30:24

your solar to run your

30:26

air conditioner .

30:29

So the only , you know , the only drawback is

30:31

I know people that moved

30:34

here and you know they see how cheap

30:36

people have with their solar panels

30:38

or whatever . I want solar panels and

30:40

if you're buying in a condo , just

30:43

make sure that your unit is allowed to have solar

30:45

panels , because we've had friends that

30:47

have a garden level or middle level

30:49

unit and they're limited to maybe

30:51

two or three solar panels , which doesn't

30:53

quite do it . So then they

30:55

have to really limit how much they use so that

30:57

they don't go into the non

31:00

subsidized electric rate , which is much

31:02

higher . And you know I feel bad

31:04

for him . It's summertime . You'd like to have your at least

31:06

air conditioner on in the bedroom at night .

31:08

And .

31:09

I know people that limit themselves because of that

31:11

, so that's a good question to think

31:13

about or check out before you , before

31:15

you buy .

31:16

Yes , One of the reasons we chose this townhome

31:18

because we have our own rooftop and we

31:20

knew we could and you guys your whole

31:23

building has solar for the entire building

31:25

, so put up solar panels till the cows

31:27

come home .

31:27

Exactly , you could power

31:30

the whole neighborhood with this place . Yeah , yes

31:32

, but yeah , amazing technology

31:34

that we have down here , and that's just one

31:37

aspect of it . Well

31:39

, I think that's it for our podcast today

31:41

. I think so , thanks to Chris

31:43

Kowalski and Erica Kowalski and my

31:45

wife Sherry , and we'll see

31:47

you next time on Xpats Like Us . Hasta

31:50

luego . In

31:56

each episode of Xpats Like Us , we're

31:58

going to teach you a new Mexican slang

32:00

word . This is something you may not find

32:02

in your phrasebook or your online Spanish

32:04

class or your Spanish app , or wherever

32:07

you're learning your Spanish . Instead , this

32:09

is a term used primarily by

32:11

Mexican Spanish speakers . Today's

32:15

word is no

32:18

manches , no manches . I've

32:21

heard that or I've read that before . How

32:24

do you spell that ?

32:25

No , no manches . M-a-n-c-h-e-s

32:29

.

32:30

No , manches . What does it mean ?

32:32

It literally translates to don't stain

32:34

, but it usually is used

32:36

when you're talking

32:39

to friends like no shit , no way .

32:41

Okay , no way , no

32:44

manches , no manches . That's

32:46

a good one . Thank you , Erica Kowalski

32:48

. From Me , Vita Margarita . We'd

32:54

love to hear your thoughts on today's topic

32:56

. Just look up Xpats Like Us

32:58

on Facebook or send us an email

33:00

at xpatslikeus at gmailcom

33:03

. You can also see the video version

33:05

of today's discussion and all of our discussions

33:08

on our YouTube page . Follow , like

33:10

, subscribe and leave us a review

33:12

. Thank

33:15

you to the producers of Xpats Like

33:17

Us for getting together and playing a round

33:19

of K-Padre K-Malo . It's been

33:21

fun . Thanks , Chris and Erica . From Me

33:23

, Vita Margarita , and thanks to my wife , Sherry

33:26

. Most of all , thank you for tuning

33:28

in to Xpats Like Us and thank

33:30

you for interacting with us on social media

33:32

. Next time , we'll bring you more firsthand

33:35

information about your international

33:37

mood . Until then , remember our

33:39

homes are not defined by geography or

33:41

one particular location , but by memories

33:44

, events , people and places that span

33:46

the globe .

34:11

Hey Jose , please pass the Pico

34:14

. Don Julio , kick

34:16

chopping that cilantro

34:19

.

34:19

Add some avocado and little

34:21

avocado because

34:23

we're about to pay his discounts . Our

34:25

next door shout out to you , carnitas .