Hola Mexico Film Festival: Australia

Hello Everyone, A quick mention of the Hola Mexican Film Festival this year in Australia, which is supporting Misión México - which is the orphanage in Mexico that one of our previous Success Story women, Pamela Skuse, so selflessly runs with her husband, Alan.

Opening night in Australia is Wednesday 18 November in Sydney at Dendy Opera Quays. To find out the tour dates for other Australian cities and to see the program, please click here.

Living On High Alert

Hi Everyone, Coming back to Mexico City this week, after leaving our four-year-assignment here two years ago, completely threw my emotions upside-down, as anyone who has ever returned to a previous assignment location would probably understand. I was nervous, excited, happy and sad. I was re-living great memories, but feeling like I've been missing out, but then feeling like nothing had really changed and everything was still the same. At one point, a strange sense of calm overwhelmed me when I genuinely felt like I had returned 'home', but on the other hand, I sometimes felt so far from home that I wished I was elsewhere.

The latter occurred when I was at the police station yesterday to report my stolen camera (in order to obtain the police report that I need to satisfy my insurance company). What started as the normal multiple-hour test of patience with local government officials, turned into both a "please don't shoot the guy, so I'm not a witness" when one of the detainees escaped through the station and a dozen police bolted out after him, and a "please get me out of here" in the last 15 minutes of my second round of grilling about my camera, when I was being intimidated by three police officials in a "no escape" zone if they were to decide that they didn't like me.

After 4 nights here, I've finally managed to articulate the main difference between living in a city like this, and living elsewhere...

It's the fact that here (or in similar places), you are, without realising it, always living on a high sense of alert - as if your body knows it needs to stay super-sensitive to what's going on around you... just in case.

The best example of this would be... at home I often daydream when I'm driving - a bad thing to do, but the roads are so easy and so 'boring' that I sometimes find myself daydreaming and not remembering the last few minutes that I had just driven. That would never happen here. The same when we lived in Jakarta, Indonesia. And most likely the same for you if you live in similar cities. You have to stay alert 100% of the time - and by the time you get home each day, you've successfully avoided or witnessed multiple near-misses on the road.

But it's not just the driving, or the police station episode yesterday: in the conversations that I've had here, everyone is always dealing with some 'issue' that is unexpected and which is adding to the stresses of their normal day. It's hard to explain unless you've lived it, but I guarantee that when I hop on my plane tonight, my body will sink into the chair and be grateful for the opportunity to 'switch off'. Maybe that's why when you live in cities like this, you are always planning your next weekend getaway... your brain and your body need a rest!

Just a personal oberservation. Maybe you feel the same. Thanks for listening, Andrea. :-)

Newcomers Club Mexico City & Trafimar Relocations

Hi Everyone, A great big thank you to the Newcomers Club Mexico City and to our valued Gold Sponsor, Trafimar Relocations, for organising the two events in Mexico City that I spoke at this week about 'Inspiring Your Success Abroad'.

If you are an expat in Mexico who has not yet joined the Newcomers Club, I highly recommend that you do. Not only do they have wonderful people and a wide of variety of events/activities for members, but they also recently produced The Guide: An Insider's Guide to Mexico City - which is a fabulous 'bible' of member recommendations for anyone living in Mexico - and which is being given free to all members of the club.

And of course if you are ever moving to/from Mexico, or know someone who is, please support Trafimar Relocations, who kindly support Expat Women and also support Newcomers Club projects.

Many thanks and best wishes, Andrea.