The Epic Return Home

As most of you know already, I was returning back to my homeland of France after 11 years living in Mexico and a grand total of 13 years abroad. Quite a move! And to add a little bit of saucy extraordinaire, I was going to travel back with my 3 beloved cats. My mom jumped to the roof when I told her that. And I quietly explained her that it wasn't a question, it was a fact: I was taking my cats with me. I rescued these cats it's not to abandon them again. It's not like a pair of shoes you can leave behind.

Don't go believing that travelling from Mexico to France with 3 cats is an easy task. I'd be lying if I said it was complicated but let's settle it by saying it's tedious. Fortunately, I had the inmense fortune of having a friend who did just that a few years prior and his help had been priceless.

To sum it all up, there are more paperwork to be done than what I imagine you need when you want to transport a transplantable liver to the other end of the country.

So I did it all. I chipped my 3 cats, I had my vet issue a medical certificate for each one of them, had the zoosanitary services of the airport inspect them all to check their health, got a cage for each, bought special travel nappies and paid for their flight to Paris …

After thinking about it long and straight, I finally decided to have them sedated just before I went to the airport. My vet told me the sedative would last between 6 and 8 hours which meant that with my 7 hours waiting time in Mexico City, they'd be up, alive and kicking by the time they'd be boarding our plane to France. Well at least they'd have some drugged up time to kill some of the super long waiting time in D.F.

I couldn't believe how heart-breaking it was for me to see them stuck in their tiny cages knowing they'd be stuck in there for a good 28 hours. I was more worried for their well being then my own and I naturally cried my eyes out at the moment I gave them away at the checking counter. I was glad for my friend's support and thought that it would have been quite another story had I been alone at the airport on my last day in Mexico.

I had been informed that I had to go through the zoosanitary services in Mexico City as well since they were the ones who would deliver me the other St Graal I was needing: the “importation” papers for the French customs. My cats were registered, just like my lugages, all the way to Paris but I had to get them back to present them to the airport vet. And trust me, getting lugages back at your stopover when they're registered all the way to your final destination is quite something. I was actually glad for the 7 hours transit time I had between my 2 flights since it took me a good 2.5 hours to do it all.

And I had to check them in … AGAIN. The guy at the counter asked me if, considering the huge time left before my flight, I wanted to keep them with me for a few hours and I decided against. As I said earlier, seeing them in there was heartbreaking, and if they'd awaken while I had them it would have been worse to hear them cry. So I took them back as soon as the paperwork was done.

I don't know how I managed to sleep at all in the plane considering my latent anxiety about my cat's well-being and my neighbor snoring like you've never heard before but I did. CDG's airport is worse than I remembered, I arrived at terminal E, had to travel to terminal D than back to E to get my suitcases (don't ask, I still don't get it) and the only thing I was worried about was my cats. I didn't care if my suitcases hadn't make it but I wanted to see my cats so bad.

I heard them arriving on the bulky lugages delivery mat since they were all meowing on top of their lungs. They stopped the second they saw me. I couldn't do it the mexican way with 3 suitcases and 3 cages (meaning all piled up on top of one kart) so one of the airport's officials helped me out. Is there someone to help you? He asked. I said yes.

Nobody from Customs asked for my papers even though I passed right in front of 5 of them chitchatting. My friend was right … There was no need to worry.

All was good.

All is good.

Allow Me A Little Laugh

As you most likely know by now, i will soon be moving back to France. And even though some of you might find it crazy, i am very much planning on bringing my 3 cats with me. Yep, you read right, i'm taking my 3 Mexican stray cats back to France with me. No, we won't be living in Paaaariiiiiis like everybody is telling me here but yes, we'll land there so they will be able to actually "say" that they've been to Paris. LOL. What can i say, i have posh cats.

Things are getting sorted out and arranged and set up for me to go back at the end of this month but since i want to surprise my parents, i wont mention any date here. Only a handful of people actually know my departure date and i intent it to remains this way for as long as i can. 

Moving from Mexico to France with 3 cats obviously implies some paperwork to be done well in advance and thanks to a good friend of mine who moved from Mexico to Italy via Paris with his 4 cats, i believe i'm actually up to speed with all the administrative shit involved. The only thing that was left to be done was to actually purchase my plane ticket. Which i did. Today. YAY.

I did it online. And then i called the hotline cuz i was having issues with my payment (because it's a French credit card and we're in Mexico, i never understood but anyways, i'll figure it out someday). And once i had my confirmation code, i asked the lady i was talking to about my cats. And that's when she dropped a bomb: "you can only take 2 animals with you".

Say what?

Taking 2 of my 3 cats was not even an option. I mean you don't ask someone who travels if he's gonna take his left leg or his right leg to go on holiday, no, he's gonna take both. Well i'm gonna take'em all.

Long story short, the lady at the Aeromexico counter at the airport kept on bringing on the good news to me:

- yes you can take all 3 cats with you

- yes you can prepay for it now (and get a $20US discount on each)

- yes you can prepay your extra bag as well (and get another $20US discount)

- the maximum weight allowed for your suitcase is 32kg (and not 23 as i had read before - i'm repacking first thing tomorrow and i'm gonna STUFF another 8 kg in each of my suitcases!) and your second suitcase can also weight 32kg (rhaaa, i can carry up to 64kg with me)

- both your cats and your suitcases are set up all the way to Paris

- i'm changing you for a slightly later flight so you're now only flying with Aeromexico instead of having the second flight with Air France (hence i don't have to pay twice for the cats, twice for the excess luggage, and more important i don't have to collect my bags or cats in terminal 2 and then get my ass, my 64kg of crap and my 3 cats to terminal 1 and do another check in).

The only setback i'd say is that i have a 7 hours (or so) transit time in Mexico City and that my cats are going to be locked up in their traveling cages for 24 hours straight. 

They are going to HATE me for it. But hey, they're gonna live in France damn it. And i won`t take any of their ungrateful resentment.

I know this is going to be pretty epic. I know i'll feel so much better the second i'll let them out of their cage. But damn, i can't wait to write about it! 

Stay tuned!

Scream and Shout

There is a lion roaring in me. It makes me want to scream from the top of my lungs and shout to the entire world what's happening to me. And what's happening is that i am crazy madly in love. 

So what's stopping me from doing it? Because it's insane to feel this way after such a short amount of time. Because it's insane to feel that deep of a connection with someone I've never even met. Because people will think i'm crazier than i seem at first (not that i really care about what they might thing to be honest). Because they'll try to reason with me and to convince me it's just a crush that will evaporate like a drop of water under the Mexican sun. 

It's not. 

It's so much more than that.

I've been in love before. Many times. But this, goes beyond it all. Just wait and see. I might even spare some details soon ...

PS: i promise i'll try to keep the cheesiness away from this blog. But you know, sometimes, nice stuff happens to me too (not only crazy oh-my-god-how-did-she-land-herself-in-that-mess situations!)

5 de Mayo

It's been 11 years. ELEVEN YEARS. Eleven years that I've been living here in Mexico. I never thought i'd stay this long, i never thought i would ever come to realize that damn, i'm actually going to miss this place.

Me in Mazatlan, early May 2002

11 years ago, i entered Mexico by bus, from Los Angeles, through one of the busiest border city: Tijuana. I was heading South, and i spent my first 22 hours on Mexican territory in a bus, got stopped and the entire bus searched out a few times by armed-up-to-their-eyeballs military men in balaclavas, little did i know back then that this supposed 3rd world country was the place i was going to call home for the next 11 years.

I believe the real date stamped on my passport was May 3rd. But then the IMM (Mexican Immigration Institute) got it wrong and stated that i entered the country on May 5th. And i kinda liked it better.

Me: why is everything closed today?

Taxi driver: because it's May 5th, we celebrate the Battle of Puebla.

Me: what happened during that Battle?

Taxi driver: Mexican army kicked the French army's ass!

*** sigh ***

It was in 1862.

And 140 years later, here i was. Doing my own personal revengeful invasion of Mexico. At the ripe age of 24.

Mexico is nothing like what the medias are showing or saying. It's an amazing country, with amazing people. It's been the place I've called Home for the past 4000+ days. And it would most likely have remained this way wouldn't have life gotten in the way.

My neighbors asked me to make a list of all the things i'll miss when i'm gone. So they can see, through my eyes, what i value most from their country. It's a great idea for a post. I'll work on it soon. We tend to forget what we have and even worse, forget to enjoy what we have while we have it for focusing so much on what we want. Life is short. Every minute counts. 

What i'll miss the most are the people I've met throughout these years and who have been, somehow and somewhat, part of my life and part of the person i have grown into. Realizing that i will probably never see some of them ever again drills a painful hole in my heart.

These 11 years were never planned. But I've came to realize that even the best laid plans go awry. Life is good. It's only just a new beginning :)