Experiencing a new culture can be both exciting and challenging. For someone from Ethiopia, a move to Mexico can bring about significant culture shock. This article explores the various aspects of this experience, from social norms to personal safety, highlighting the differences that can be both surprising and enlightening.
My adventure starts in Mexico. It was my first time out of the US. I was twenty-two years old. After I saw Jim and May’s video about their first Spanish immersion retreat in Guanajuato, it didn’t take much to convince myself. I already had gotten my passport after a failed attempt at planning a family trip to Jamaica, and I had started teaching myself Spanish a few months before, so it seemed like perfect timing. After one week in Mexico, I knew it wasn’t enough. I went back the next month and fell in love all over again. Being outside your own country for the first time opens your eyes.
Initial Impressions and the Heat
Before I even delve into the serious stuff, the first thing that I noticed when arriving in Mexico was the heat. I’m convinced that Mexicans have an extra strong internal heat regulating system or something because everyone in the interior Mexican cities is wearing jeans, shirts, jackets, and boots or tennis shoes. I showed up in Mexico City (85 degrees, the sun was not here to play) in shorts and sandals not thinking anything of my usual summer attire, until I paid attention to the masses surrounding me. I was already counting in my head the number of shorts I packed for my two week adventure versus my 2 pairs of pants.
Also, ladies and gents, there is no AC. Anywhere. I repeat, do not expect a relief from the heat in the summertime until the night falls. Which honestly I liked (it made me feel like I got more bang for my buck as I wandered - I never even had to think about working out).
Social and Cultural Differences
The single biggest difference to me is the work vs family dynamic. In the US, money comes first. We work like crazy, constantly talk about our jobs, and it’s the first thing we ask others about when we meet them. In Mexico, family comes first. Kids live with their families longer, and many times an extended family lives together. Familial unity is at the forefront of everyone’s minds.
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Now, this is connected with other ideals within the two societies. Mexico is generally more patriarchal, traditional, and conservative, while the US is generally more progressive, capitalistic, and individualistic.
While on the subject, it’s worthwhile to mention personality traits that I noticed. Walking the streets of Centro Histórico, everyone looked me in the eye. most metropolitan Americans know what I mean when I say a bunch strangers staring at you on the street, in the metro, or in a store is a little off putting. Also, the need to be polite and vocal is stronger in the warm culture of Mexico. We value personal space more in the US. In Mexico, it’s common for locals to greet each other with a hug and a kiss. Lastly, you’ll hear buen provecho (Spanish version of bon appetite) all over the place. Not only by servers setting down food at your table, but also by other customers passing by your table on their way out.
Restaurant culture is sort of my speciality, as I have been working in restaurants for almost a decade, but you need no experience to notice the differences here. In the US, speed and impeccable service is expected. It’s great for people on the go. In Mexico, I’ve always gotten great service, but the pace is set by the group.
Food and Markets
Speaking of food, fresh and handmade food is abundant in Mexico. I rarely saw any fast food places, which you can find on every corner in a US city. And I completely understand. In the US, many places like restaurants, markets, stores, and even the streets are super organized. In Mexico it’s more like organized chaos. The mercados and street food stalls are all over the place. But disorder doesn’t mean dirty. I saw people taking excellent care of their space in CDMX.
One of my major Mexico culture shock moments was noticing how nothing was devoid of bright, cheerful colors.
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You’ve got chilaquiles (or as my husband calls them, “breakfast nachos”), huevos rancheros, enchiladas (yes! It’s a breakfast food!), omelettes, huevos motuleños, and huevos about a thousand other ways. All served with thick meats and a hefty helping of refried beans. The coffee in Mexico is some of the best and those bakeries!
My Mexico culture shock soon discovered how much of a “thing” drinking chocolate in Mexico is. And this isn’t new. The ancient Aztecs valued chocolate so much they used it as currency. And you know what else they did with it? It can be made with water, milk, or in a variety of more traditional, Aztec-y ways. Champurrado is a warm, thick drink made with chocolate, corn flour, and spices like cinnamon or anise. “Eat all the food” is just one of the 15 must-see Mexico City experiences I list in my full guide on the subject.
Yup, grasshoppers. They’re harvested from corn fields late spring to early fall, cleaned, left to rest for a couple of days (to get all the poop out, obviously), then cooked. We saw them in heaps while wandering through the markets in Oaxaca City and my friend Stephanie (who lives in Mexico) told me they’re apparently a good snack to eat while drinking beer. Chapulines are huge in Oaxaca and can be found in both street markets and high-end restaurants.
Now, had this been my first insect-as-food encounter, I may have skipped out-they look too much like their original selves to be palatable. The chapulines weren’t bad at all. The flavor was unique and definitely spice-y (not spicy). Since they were fried and smothered in seasoning, you’d never know you were eating a grasshopper if you didn’t look at it (until you had to pick one of the legs out of your teeth, that is).
| Food | Description |
|---|---|
| Chilaquiles | Breakfast nachos |
| Huevos Rancheros | Eggs ranch style |
| Chapulines | Grasshoppers |
Personal Safety and Encounters
Don’t get me started on the driving though, I wasn’t ready for the risky drivers of Mexico city! It’s probably crazy in any major city in the world, but being from an average sized city in the States, I cannot relate.
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I have always been told that traveling will broaden your horizons but I never thought that would also include personal boundaries as well. You see, I walk to work the same way each day. Generally, I exchange a friendly buenos dias with shop owners as I pass by without consequence.
As I walked along, on this particular day though I noticed an individual continuously following me. I became very aware of my surroundings thereafter but kept walking to my work. Just when I thought he had left me for good, he sped past me on his motorcycle, got off of it and popped out between two parked cars. At this point, every worse case scenario flashed in my mind but my initial reaction was very fight or flight. It was such a shock to see a human being standing directly in my path, and I sidestepped to avoid him and then walked past him. It all happened so quickly that I could not really believe it happened afterward, as I replayed the situation over in my head.
As I continued to walk, I glanced behind me and saw that he was still watching me. This is not the first time that a woman has had this type of encounter but for me, it was my first experience and I really did not know how to register it in my mind. Catcalling is one thing but there has always been a safety blanket of distance between me and catcallers. No personal boundaries are crossed. In this situation though I realized the key difference was that this boundary line was overstepped.
And the a flurry of questions came: Did I put myself in that situation? Did I do the right thing? Maybe I overreacted and he just wanted to chat? Could I have protected myself if needed to?
Then feelings of guilt yet helplessness surfaced and I had no idea why. As I had these thoughts swirling about in my mind, I noticed this young man was STILL watching me as I continued to walk away.
Of all the places I’ve traveled, I encountered fewer people in Mexico that could speak English than in any other country.
Regarding Mexico’s unfair reputation as a high crime and dangerous country, the only violence I saw during my time there was in a ring between a couple of guys in Speedos and fluorescent body paint.
Practical Considerations
The last big difference I noticed while traveling, is cost. As a very young and broke (budget friendly if you will) traveler, I noticed how everything was generally cheaper in Mexico. Especially public programs. Now, I’m not talking about which country has better services, but at 5 pesos (about 25 cents) you can go just about anywhere in Mexico City on the metro. And when I told my Mexican friends that back in the US my college was $40,000 (800,000 pesos) a year, their looks said it all.
One of them explained that the costs for the two popular universities in Mexico, UNAM and ITESM, were around 100 pesos ($10 USD) and 2,000 pesos ($100 USD) per semester, respectively. That sounded crazy to me so I had to check Google. Lo and behold, the tuition for UNAM ranged between $0 and $500 USD per semester ($1,000 USD per year).
There are places you hear about being famously cheap like Thailand and Prague and Mississippi. But Mexico? Mexico was so affordable I almost felt guilty at how little I was paying. Upon arriving in Mexico City, we took an Uber to our hotel in the Condesa neighborhood. This one-hour trip across the city cost us only $8 USD. That same journey here in Boston would have been about $100 + some crap about a non-negotiable airport pickup fee. The seven-hour bus ride on Mexico’s (really nice) ADO bus system ran us less than $20 USD.
Newsflash: Mexico writes their peso prices using the same dollar sign we use here in America. So $400 could mean either 400 Mexican Pesos or 400 US Dollars. For instance, when booking bus tickets from Mexico City to Oaxaca, the price shown was $457. HOLY CRAP! Buses in Mexico are expensive! In actuality, that was $457 Mexican Pesos or $23 USD. Same thing happened when I looked up Lucha Libre tickets. Front row seats are $400! I knew it was popular but damn. Oh, so it’s actually just $20?
Did I base my prior assumptions of bus travel in Mexico on the conditions of American Greyhound bus stations? Or on the quality of the cross-country chicken buses in Belize? And I as so wrong. The ADO bus system in Mexico is so nice! These buses have bathrooms, fully reclining seats, HD TVs, wi-fi, air conditioning, more legroom than someone 5’4” tall even knows what to do with, and the nicest employees. They even give you welcome bags with free bottled drinks, headphones, and more.
The size of Mexico City had turned me into a blubbering cartoon character. I had heard Mexico City was big, but seeing its endless expanse with my own eyes was, forgive me for being trite, mindblowing. Like my head actually felt like it was exploding. Even from the air, there was no end in sight to the urban sprawl of Mexico City. I know now the greater metropolitan CDMX is home to 21.3 million people (that’s a lot of mattresses) and is the largest city in North America. Yes, bigger than New York City.
Altitude Sickness
Mexico City is, by far, the highest place I’ve ever travelled and that statement has nothing to do with the drug cartels. The elevation of Mexico City is 7,382’ above sea level. Before my trip that I learned “altitude sickness” is both a thing and a concern.
Basically, altitude sickness is a combination of symptoms you experience when traveling to high elevations-all due to the lowered oxygen levels at higher barometric pressures. So, the higher up you go, the less oxygen there is in the air and therefore in your brain. Typical symptoms include headaches, dizziness, nausea and vomiting, fatigue, shortness of breath, loss of appetite, problems falling asleep, and, because it’s WebMD I’m reading, coma and death.
I landed in Mexico City with a headache pounding like Rocky Balboa in a meat locker that lasted until the next day. It wasn’t until we’d dropped off our bags and started making our way through Bosque de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Forest), heading up to Chapultepec Castle, that I realized what was happening.
I had to stop every ten feet or so to catch my breath and even that was work. Yes-breathing was work. I had to focus on taking only deep breaths and I couldn’t take them deep enough anyway. Besides my complete inability to breathe, there was a whole slew of other stuff going on. I felt simultaneously drunk and like I was having a stroke. The earth spun. I felt dizzy and light-headed. I would turn my head and what I was looking at would take a few seconds to even register.
You know when you stand up too fast and all the blood rushes to your head? And you can’t see things and you feel dizzy and your head hurts? That’s how I felt… non-stop for an entire day.
I ended up taking it easy my whole first day in Mexico (so not my travel style) and by the next day most of the symptoms were gone. I still had a hard time walking more than 30 seconds without stopping to rest but the headaches, extreme fatigue, and general vertigo were gone.
Final Thoughts
But after pointing out all these differences, maybe you ask, “what’s similar?” And honestly, people’s passion for their country remains the same. Mexicans and Americans share the same intensity for whatever they choose to pursue.
Experiencing another culture for the first time only makes me want to go explore more, and see what countries all over the world have to offer.
