MeXscape

I was planning on continuing my rant about word theft. I had lots more to say on the topic. I even had insights into my personality, like what it says about me that I am bent on crushing the thief. It was going to be witty and fun and just a little vicious. But you don't get to read that now. Because now I'm mad about something else. There has been another theft. Not words this time. No, now it is theft of reputation.

Over the past couple of years, I have refrained from opening a Mexican bank account for several reasons. One of which is that every time I have gone into a local bank, the size of the crowd and the length of the lines made me think that they must be giving away large bags of money. Needless to say, the massive presence of the banking public dampened my enthusiasm for establishing a financial footprint in Mazatlan.

We have been avoiding opening a Mexican bank account. Everyone we have talked to has told us it is a long, grueling process that takes most of a day. I certainly didn't want anything to do with that. I have much better things to do with my time than sit in a bank all day, thank you. And really, we have gotten along just fine without one. All our money is in an American bank account that we access through an ATM without problems. In fact, our bank charges us no fees to use any ATM anywhere in the world, so keeping our American bank account has been a very practical and economical choice. Until now.

The federal electric company, CFE, works in ways I do not understand, and sometimes hurts my brain. Of course, a lot of my confusion stems from the fact that I have NOB sensibilities and ideas about how things should be done. I am sure this will change slowly over time, as I become more integrated into my new home and culture, but for now, I am really annoyed.

Today is the one year anniversary of our border crossing into Mexico and the start of our new life. We celebrated it by going to migracion to finish the renewal of our FM-3s. Yes, we just took our final proof that we had registered with Hacienda to pay taxes 9 days ago. It took us so long to get our working permission, that we only had 9 days of sweet, blessed legalness before we had to reapply.