Shopping in Mexico City

There is an entire range of shopping experiences. You can get the same item in one place for $200 pesos and in another place for $20 pesos. BUT, the big BUT is you have to know where to go, when and how to buy. That takes training.

First there are the malls. If you are reading this blog then I am 100% sure you are familiar with the mall experience. It is the same here. There are department stores:
Liverpool - upper end choices, quality and prices
Suburbia - lower end but good quality
Sears - expensive for Mexico
Ok maybe there are others, but really, I don't go out of my way to look for them. In Mexico I have  come to love WALMART. A place I stuck my nose up in the air to back home. Here it is like comfort food. It's like eating Kraft dinner. Walmart doesn't change that much country to country. What they do have here is great PAN. That's bread in Mexico. Walmart makes great bread here, lousy bread back home. The produce is still the shits though. Don't buy veggies here.

In the mall there are upper end clothing stores like Zara, Bebe, Pull & Bear, and all the rest of them that you are probably familiar with. I love Zara. I didn't go near the place back home, but here, it is one of my favourite options. These stores have the same prices as back home without all the mega sales. Back home I would only buy things on sale. If you paid $60 for a jean jacket back home you will pay the same in one of these stores. So it is acceptable, but expensive and unnecessary in Mexico. BUT it is predictable and low stress. Sometimes I will pay for low stress.

There are a lot more men's clothing stores here than back home. The men dress better here. You hardly ever see a guy wearing a baseball cap or a jersey. The god-help-me Calgary flames jersey. Thank God the season is over when I go home for a visit.

Then there are the street vendors. Haphazard looking stalls are erected all along the busy streets. There are 'groups' of them and many of the vendors sell the same thing. Its funny that way. My boyfriend, who is Mexican, has forbidden me from buying anything on the streets anymore because I don't know a bad deal from a good deal. Well, I'm learning actually. Today I bought lots of things in the street! One of the lessons I have learned:

I no longer say, 'Cuanto cuesto?' Instead, if there is no obvious price I just look at the item until a Mexican comes along and asks for the price. Then I know it is the real price and not the foreigner price.

Today I was walking around the Zocalo and there are a few streets that are lined with a spontaneous black market. I don't think everything is stolen, but definitely made with slave labour. Because it is soooo cheap. The Mexican people buy here all the time. They don't mind that their cousin is getting paid $20 pesos a day to make the shit. So I bought some presents here - I will cleanse them with some incense before I give them away. Or sleep with them under my pillow - oh no, I might get nightmares, never mind. Maybe just pray for forgiveness as I hold them between my legs... it's getting weird.

TIENGES only one word needed. They look like the farmer's markets back home except they are just steel pipes and tarps that magically go up and down everyday around the city. The big markets are on the weekend, but they can happen any day of the week. You can find everything here. This is where to buy the best produce and the best fruit. They also have very tasty taco stands. No one speaks English and you have to know how to shop. Prices and quality very from vendor to vendor, I don't know why. I love the tienges.

Then there are the little neighborhood shops. I have mentioned these in another entry - THE STREETS OF MEXICO. So go there for more details on the shops available. But basically, the small locally owned store is still alive and thriving in Mexico. In fact, it is where to get the best price and the best service. You can get to know your local shop owner just like it was back in the day. Only it is today here. You have to watch because prices again, vary greatly neighbourhood to neighbourhood and store to store.

MEXICAN CRAFTS - ok this is the stuff made by very talented and skilled Mexican people who have learned a craft that has been passed down from generation to generation. I am not talking about the Mexican looking doll made in China, the tequila shooter or the dancing chiwawa dog for your dashboard. I'm talking the rugs, ceramics, baskets and jewellery of super fine quality that are made in the Pueblos around the country. My message to the foreigners: DON'T BE SO CHEAP! Yes, fight for a bargain for your everyday goods, but don't barder when it comes to these fine crafts. Pay. Pay lots of money because it will last you. The question you might ask yourself, is 'how do I know I am looking at the real deal?'. Quality is evident. The fine materials and methods for making these crafts come through in the product.

Often it is one person in a booth who has brought all the goods from the one Puebla. So they are not the sole makers of the goods for sale. Or maybe you are shopping at a store in a fancy neighbourhood. You will pay a lot more in one of these stores, but they have done careful sourcing and are most likely paying the makers full price for their goods. There are a couple of markets in Coyocan that I really like. This is where a picture would say a thousand words. One of these markets in Coyocan is in a building with two floors. It has every craft and non-craft available. The prices are good and the artisans are often working at their own booth.

Ok - go out there and have fun shopping!!

Teaching English in Mexico City

Native English teachers are a commodity in Mexico City. You can get paid very well as a teacher depending on what type of teaching experience you are looking for. I currently make between $150-240 pesos per hour teaching English to business students. There are a around a dozen small businesses offering English classes to business students and I am contracted by a couple of them. The companies line me up with the students, arrange the payments and the evaluations. I just show up and teach. Well, at least I try to teach. Business students often cancel. Everyone still gets paid or does the paying but no classes actually happen. It's weird. Most of these students are one-on-one, intermediate to advanced levels. Just me and the one student. I have one class of 6 and that is my favourite. I like the interaction that happens when there is more than one student. I also teach privately.

Private clients are paying out of their own pocket and if you have strict rules for cancellation, then you can generally count on their attendance. My goal is to move towards all private clients. I think the issue here is you may not find clients who can pay as much as the big businesses or they might decide after a couple of classes that they really can't afford it after all. The drop-off rate can be quick.

i have looked into the option of working at an English School. You teach at a school - so one location the whole time. You don't have to travel around and you are not tempted to shop all the time.:-). (SHOPPING - that will be my next entry.) They will most likely help you get your FM3 - which is the legal way to work in Mexico City. If you want to work full-time then you will have to do split shifts. Morning shift and late afternoon-evening shift plus Saturdays. That really turned me off, but as it turns out, I am doing split shifts anyway.

The one school I looked into also provided a month of training before you teach. This is their way to test you out as well.  The pay there was $50 pesos per hour which is a BIG difference in pay from the business students. Maybe you will be teaching students who really want to learn. Maybe the teaching experience is much more rewarding. Or maybe not. I'm tempted to find out. Here is a website with the list of all the possible English Schools in Mexico. I couldn't recommend one over another: http://www.eslbase.com/schools/mexico

Another experience I tried was working at a private secondary school teaching English to 13-15yr olds. Wow - I wasn't ready for that. I had some big vision of going in there and making lots of friends with the teachers and the students. Hanging out, feeling like these are my homies. Nope. I felt generally quite alone and isolated. I had no support and the kids were holy terrors in the classroom. I had no idea how to get them to shut-up, sit down and learn. Other teachers yelled a lot. I'm just not interested in that sort of stress level. I love kids though. I think it would be really rewarding outside of school. Teaching a small group of kids could possibly be the ideal experience, but I have not figured out how to arrange something like this.

I did tutor one 8 year old two times per week. I brought my paints and paint brushes with me. We told stories, drew pictures, made flash cards and watched short learning english videos. It was great and she learned a lot! I need more of those types of students.

Learning a new language is difficult and it can get frustrating very quickly. As a teacher, I need to be patient, calm, cool and collected. I can't take it personally when people quit or cancel. It is just part of the job as a teacher here in Mexico.