We’ve been back in Guanajuato for less than a week, and already I’m having to ration my social/event time. The day after we arrived, we attended an annual seasonal gathering of the expat community here where we saw friends we haven’t seen since the Spring. The next day, another gathering in support of an organization that provides university scholarships to deserving students from impoverished homes. Many, but not all, the same people.
On our third night, we went to a concert. Yesterday, my writing group met. Tomorrow, another concert. Dinner with friends Saturday. A concert Sunday afternoon. There’s one tonight as well—choral Christmas music—but God help me, I just can’t.
(The plastic bag is not a Christmas decoration.)
I love these people who have become friends here in my second home. They have given me one of the most pleasant surprises of older age—the fact that it’s not too late to make new and meaningful friendships—something I’m also finding at home, though at what seems a saner pace. Being “outsiders” in the larger culture no doubt hastens the process.
We’ve been doing this long enough that I know the social whirl will slow down, and we will choose events more deliberately. It’s the holidays, after all, and we’ve just arrived. January will come, the orchestra will take a six-week break, and I will let my more outgoing spouse attend some things on his own while I curl up with a book.
But it does have me thinking, as I do most years at about this point in our annual migration cycle, about the difference between my two lives. One slow-paced and steeped in the familiar and the comfortable: familiar places, comfortable, long-standing friendships, and routines based on decades of belonging. And this one: colourful, stimulating, and filled with new friendships—more every year as increasing numbers of Americans and Canadians make this city their permanent home.
I am still certain I will never do that. My life is richer for our time here, but my roots and loyalties in Canada are too deep, my sense of home too strong, to make that final leap. At the moment, though, I’m basking in the warmth of our welcome here and looking forward to celebrating the Christmas season with friends and our wonderful Mexican family.
lovely Paula.
Believe it or not, I really indentified with much of your post. My winter home used to be in South Texas..very Mexicana in so many delightful ways. Now we stay home…in our new home in our new exotic location – Elliot Lake. Here we fill our dance cards, our dining-out dates, our invitations and our entertainment options on our chock-block full calendar. Similar….but different. Do I miss Texas? You betcha! Would I trade places right now in the current zeitgeist? No. Resoundingly!. We’re invited to Mexico…with new friends who have a place just south of Manzanilla. So…next year I’ll once again hide from the cold of Northern Ontario, and dance in the streets of Melaque. YoullY hear my castanets from wherever you are!