Most of the time I do not feel Mexican in the way that I long to. There are too many things I don’t know - things I would have learned along the way had I grown up exposed to the culture. Do you remember learning to sing "Happy Birthday"? I don’t. It was just something you picked up in the same way that you learned to talk. There are moments when I say “I am Mexican” as a joke. Like when John asked why I bought limes - you know, was I cooking something? Were they for drinks?

We bought planes tickets and in August 2025, we headed to Querétaro with the agreement that unless we HATED it, this would be as good as place as any for a home base. It is centrally located with an international airport and only 2 1/2 hours to Mexico City where we easily get to anywhere in the world.

The plan was to create a list of the cities that met the criteria and spend a year traveling back and forth from our home in NC. Then I discovered it is expensive to fly back and forth from the US, but affordable to travel around México. That's how I ended up signing a year's lease in Querétaro