Imagine Mérida

Becoming Expats in the Yucatán

Archives for November 2012

A Meridano in New York

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A Facebook friend of mine is in New York City this week, and it’s interesting to see the pictures he’s posting in his news feed. That’s because he’s from Mérida, and it’s a little striking to see how things that are mundane to me are interesting to him.

That’s probably what Meridanos would say if they saw me rhapsodizing about a Flamboyan or a panucho. My FBF’s photo album is filled with golden leaves in Central Park, the reds and greens in Macy’s window, and the battleship gray planks that make comprise the High Line’s walkway.

These are things I’ll be saying goodbye to, and will be special to me as well whenever I visit. If I’m fortunate enough to see New York and New England in autumn, I’ll be looking at the trees, and breathing in our crisp fall air, a little more intently.

Enter the engineer: Construction begins

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Miles and miles and miles away, in a far and distant land, where brown maple leaves aren’t carpeting frosty forest floors, someone is hammering away at my sweaty, crumbling walls … I think. I forgot to tell our property manager that the engineer would be starting initial work on the property, so when she called, asking me to immediately confirm that he wasn’t some devious intruder, I knew work had begun. Or at least people were starting to focus on Casa Nana.

One trick is to get the dollars in my U.S. bank account and make them become pesos in somebody else’s bank account. This is what is called an international wire transfer, and this is what costs $40 a pop. So to knock [Read more…]

Why is Ryan Gosling following me around?

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Ryan Gosling in MeridaThis blog is about to “go Hollywood,” which the best of the blogs often do.

I actually went Hollywood myself about three years ago when Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst shot some scenes right across the street from our house in Connecticut. Our neighborhood church parking lot was being rented by the production company to park their trailers, and the basement was rented for makeup and wardrobe. From my front lawn, I could see the crew grilling franks on a charcoal barbecue. A few times, [Read more…]

‘I’ve read your blog.’

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“I’ve read your blog.”

That comment always makes my heart skip a beat. Imagine Mérida started out as an anonymous site, but eventually my identity became the city’s worst-kept secret. Still, I prepare myself for whatever’s coming next.

“But it’s OK because you don’t name names.” This came from our real estate agent as we drove away from the attorneys’ offices, after a tortuous session of signing large ancient-looking documents. The house finally ours, and I’d been [Read more…]

Why am I smiling?

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Here’s another picture of Long Island Sound, obviously a little more recent than the one in the previous post. Since Monday, my house has been in darkness, but at least none of the trees that fell landed on us, our house, or our car.

The storm is gone, but that’s not why I’m smiling this morning. I’m smiling because I just booked our January jaunt to Mérida. We’ll be there 16 days, and it’s possible construction will have started on Casa Nana by then. The high I always get after booking myself a flight tends to last at least a day or two.

We considered saving a little money by booking on the Cancun route, which we’ve done once before. But Paul and I both found [Read more…]