It does not seem possible, but in seven days Lea and I will be moving to Mexico. We will be renting a house until we get our temporary visa. After this task is accomplished (30-60 days) we will return to the US and have our household goods moving manifest certified by the Mexican Consulate in Saint Paul. That certification will permit us to import our household goods without paying duty. If all goes well, we should have our household possessions by the end of November or early December. It will then be a mad dash to get everything put away so that we can return to the US to see family in Minnesota, North Carolina and Virginia over the holidays.
The past few weeks have been brutal. Packing, deciding on what to give away or toss, cleaning the house, closing on the sale and then going through the very emotional act of letting go of the house. Of course, this was much more traumatic for Lea–since her father designed the house and she grew up in it. The ghosts that reared their heads during the purging and cleaning process were very revealing. It was almost as if they had been embedded in the walls and were waiting to be released. She had flashbacks to moments in her childhood that she had not thought about since they originally occurred. At one point, I almost could have sworn that her father was chatting with me as I was scrubbing the garage floor (by hand.)
Now, we will be creating new ghosts and embedding new experiences in our new home in Merida. It will be the first house that Lea and I have designed together. The process took 2 1/2 years; 13 iterations of the design; advice from dear old mutual friends who mediated when there was an impasses; countless discussions about alignment, symmetry invention versus tradition. All in all, I am pleased with the way it turned out. I am sure that we drove our local architect, Victor Cruz, crazy. Our insistence on alignment, contemplated placement and axial symmetry probably caused him to have a few too many glasses of vino after our visits. He wins the award for patience.
Now, we will embark on a new life. We will meet new friends. We will create new memories. We will be a minority in a foreign country. My hope is that within a few years my Spanish will be good enough to post on this blog in Spanish and to sit in a square and debate politics with a Mexican–or discuss the nuances of peppers in the market.
I am feeling invigorated, optimistic and motivated to move to another level in cultural, economic and personal well being. If my experience with the Merida people so far is any indication, it will be a joyous ride. I will miss sitting next to the wonderful folks at MSR. But, as with all things in life, there is a time to move on. I will continue to work: serving my many clients as long as they need me.
This blog will now evolve from building updates to personal observations and reflections on my new life in a new place that is old.
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