Mexican Things

Kelly and Quang publish a new blog we've added to the GoNOMAD blog network. here is a dispatch upon leaving Mexico.

"The police are proud of their guns, and I’m not talking a handgun stuck in a holster and worn about the belt. I mean semi-automatics. I mean M-16s. I mean shotguns. Rows of bullets are slung about shoulders or looped about the waist. After a month, we are used to it, but the first few times we rubbed shoulders with an M-16-toting officer in a crowd, we both let out a little yelp.

6. School children run about in their school uniforms all day long. So much so, that Quang and I started joking that kids never actually went to school. They just got dressed up to look like they were going to school. Eventually we asked someone what school hours were.

There are an awful lot of Notary Publics. In every town we’ve passed through, on just about every block we’ve walked down, there is a sign outside a building advertising a Notary Public. Sometimes there are two Notary Publics in one office building and another one across the street. We figure this probably says something about the amount of red tape and bureaucracy in Mexico. Plus, in all our Notary Public talk, I learned something I never knew about Quang: he used to be one—that is until he let his license expire.

I think he should definitely renew when we get back to the States. I told him I’m going to hang a Notary Public sign off our mailbox and see if we can attract any business from our neighbors."