Culture Shock: Food, Street Life and Making Friends

Eating

One should also watch out when eating in Mexico. Mexico has one of the richest cuisines on earth, and one can literally discover a new dish or type of food every day. Foreigners should of course be very careful when eating out, especially when eating food from street vendors. Like any country, Mexico has its own particular type of germs and bacteria which foreigners need to become accustomed to.

Until the body can develop the necessary immunity, one can experience an unpleasant time in coping with the change. The physical discomfort that accompanies this period of adjustment is often referred to as “Montezuma's Revenge.” Nevertheless, with a little care and some discernment, there is a lot to discover and enjoy when it comes to eating in Mexico. Many will tell you to stay away from street food, but for those who are a little daring, street food can be very satisfying. There are hundreds of different things to find, hundreds of different types of tacos, tortas, flautas, tamales, etc… You can eat anything and everything—literally.

Street Life

Another aspect of city life that will strike foreigners as different is Mexico’s very vibrant street life, including vendors, mendicants, performers and even window cleaners. You can buy anything off the street, from electrical appliances to clothes, from computer software to food. Always bargain with the vendors. You can usually find exactly what you're looking for, with maybe some pleasant surprises to boot. There are also a lot of street people. One will be struck by the number of women with children begging or selling snacks on street corners.

On the other hand, an interesting spectacle can be found in the various (and talented) performers who put on little shows at major intersections: fire-swallowing, juggling, minor acrobatics. And then there are the window cleaners who come squirting soapy water on your windshield, often without warning. All of these features make street life very colorful and interesting in Mexico City, although they also point to a high level of poverty overall. 

Making Friends

In terms of making friends in Mexico, you'll find people are generally very warm and know how to have fun. Friendships are usually based on a group of friends who have known each other since childhood and/or school and thus are usually very tight. Therefore these groups can have many insider jokes and topics which hold them together, often making it hard for foreigners to be included.

Added to this is the uniqueness of Mexican Spanish, a language incredibly rich in colloquialisms and slang words, which even Spanish-speaking foreigners have difficulty getting a grasp on. Spanish in Mexico is characterized by doble sentido or 'double meaning' which can mean that one has to not only master the unique vocabulary of Mexican Spanish but also its peculiar semiotics. Nevertheless, Mexicans are extremely hospitable and will strike many foreigners as being very friendly.

Further Reading

We can suggest some further reading to help you deal with culture shock. The book Culture Shock: Mexico by Mark Cramer may be a good start. To gain a background in Mexican history and culture, we suggest Octavio Paz's masterpiece The Labyrinth Of Solitude, and also The Buried Mirror by another great Mexican writer, Carlos Fuentes. For additional introductions to Mexican culture, try The Mexicans: A Personal Portrait Of A People by Patrick Oster, There's A Word For It In Mexico by Boye Lafayette, and NTC's Dictionary Of Cultural Code Words.

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