# Wandering my way to Mexico City



## Swinsanity (Jan 19, 2013)

Hello everyone! I'm a 21 year old college drop out currently working at a bank. More recently my friend was telling me about how a lot of his friends moved to Mexico City. Unfortunately my first thought was "Why?" because everytime you hear anything about Mexico up here it's involving the cartels and how dangerous it is. But me being the objective individual that I am started researching it and found that Mexico City looks like a pretty cool place. I just have a couple of questions:

1. Is it viable to live there for me? I have lots of experience in customer service, I'm a licensed bartender, and a lot of determination. Could I find a job? Nothing fancy but enough for me to subsist on. Also I'm fluent in Spanish.

2. Could I go back to school? The only reason I dropped out of college was because I didn't know what I wanted to do and unfortunately I realized what I did want to do (teach history or literature) after I dropped out and lost my financial aid  So are there any community colleges that I could go to part time?

3. Is it really dangerous? Most of the research I've done comes from the internet so it'd be nice to get some info from someone living there. I know that every city has it's dangerous parts (I'm from Philadelphia) so I'm not completely naive in that aspect, but still it'd be nice to know if I'm going to get kidnapped in the middle of the night hahaha. 

Thanks in advance!


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

Get a list of those friends' email addresses and ask them how they made the move and what jobs they have.

Get in touch with a career counselor and go back to school.


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## Swinsanity (Jan 19, 2013)

Well they're not so much my friends as they are my roomates friends but I'll definitely try! And should I go back to school before I move?


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

If I were you and had the financial resources, I´d head for Mexico City and attend the university of real life rather than float for a while through the insular environment of academe. Of course Mexico City is dangerous. What interesting and challenging place isn´t dangerous? Just watch your butt and take all propositions with a grain of salt. In that city of over 20 million people, lots of folks are winging it so why not try. Just keep enough money in the safe to get the hell out of there on the first bus north just in case things don´t work out.


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## Swinsanity (Jan 19, 2013)

I like the way you think Hound Dog. But do you think I could find a job there? I have some savings but I'd rather not live off just that.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

_


Swinsanity said:



I like the way you think Hound Dog. But do you think I could find a job there? I have some savings but I'd rather not live off just that.

Click to expand...

_In 1969 (when I was 27) , I walked into my boss´s office in San Francisco and told him I was out of there. He admonished me for being a fool and asked me what I would do from then on. Now, granted, this was 1969, but I had $2,500USD to my name, the shirt on my back and, otherwise, not a pot to pee in. I told him I could only plan ahead beyond a while. During the next year or so, living solely on that $2,500, I visited many parts of Europe, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, India and Isreal before returning to my home state of Alabama where I met my soon-to-be French wife in Mobile before moving back to San Francisco and starting over where I left off with a new job. 

Today, when I am approaching 71 years of age, I know that I was right in embarking on these adventures as a young man. As I got older and accumulated the financial resources to go anywhere I pleased and, while there, to eat and drink anthing I desired, I had the money but lacked the enthusiasm and energy to go to these places and the ability to eat and drink all those things that my insatiable curiosity once demanded. It´s God´s joke on us and he has an endless sense of humor playing these games with us. Do it now or regret missed opportunities in your dotage.

Do it now, amigo. It doesn´t become easier over time.


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## Swinsanity (Jan 19, 2013)

I appreciate the advice and I'm glad to see I'm not the only one living with a sense of romanticism. Thanks Hound Dog!


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## johnny vaughan (Jan 19, 2013)

*The Immigrant*

This is a lyric in the folk/Irish folk genre which I'd love to be set to music.Any offers? ].
Thanks
Johnny

Registered: 06/22/11
Posts: 2939
Loc: Lancashire,UK 
Uptempo Irish folk/Folk Rock

v
No work for me in Dublin town
though I loved her so she let me down
Gave up me barley and me hops
took casual work till I dropped
Glad to put down that pitching folk
tonight I board a ship for New York
c
Let the ship reel and dip
in and out of waves nearly swallowing it
I'll make New York on this one way trip
out of poverty's cruel stinging whip
b
I reached New York on the 4th of July
my eyes saw hundreds of fire crackers light the sky
I thought it was a welcome for those such as I
wishing us all prosperity

v
The streets smelt foul, and full of siht(naughty word)
found lodgings in the heart of it
Five Points became my new address
sharing with four men from Ennis
Money for me was always tight
but this Irishman knew how to fight
c
Let the ship reel and dip
in and out of waves nearly swallowing it
I'll make New York on this one way trip
out of poverty's cruel stinging whip
v
Never a man to run with mobs
I found me own feet got a job
Worked in a bar and within time
saved enough, till that bar became mine
Do I miss the place of my birth
If I stayed what would I be worth?
c
Let the ship reel and dip
in and out of waves nearly swallowing it
I'll make New York on this one way trip
out of poverty's cruel stinging whip

I can give you the romantic version of the Emerald Isles
valley's of green pastures, for miles and miles.
Rosy apple cheeked maidens carrying the milk
ladies on Sackville Street wearing fine silks
The bars on Saturday night,me old pals Donald and Mick
what's the use, you'll make me homesick


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## circle110 (Jul 20, 2009)

Isn't anyone going to mention to this fellow that 1) he will need express permission from the Mexican government to work legally and that 2) said permission is not very easy to acquire without some unique skill that a Mexican wouldn't have? Seeing that he has no degree, the only unique skill he probably has is being a native English speaker. 

Swinsanity, I think the idea of spending time in Mexico City is great. However, if you need to work you are going to have a tough row to hoe. I would either a) try to land a job with a US company that has offices in Mexico City and request a transfer/posting there or b) get certified as an English teacher and seek employment in that field. The entry level English teacher jobs don't pay much but a young single guy could no doubt get by on the salary.


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## Swinsanity (Jan 19, 2013)

Ah I see. I kinda figured with work visas and the like. Well thanks!


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## Swinsanity (Jan 19, 2013)

How would I go about getting my english teaching certification?


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

Swinsanity said:


> How would I go about getting my english teaching certification?


Dave's ESL Cafe is a good start


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

_


circle110 said:



Isn't anyone going to mention to this fellow that 1) he will need express permission from the Mexican government to work legally and that 2) said permission is not very easy to acquire without some unique skill that a Mexican wouldn't have? Seeing that he has no degree, the only unique skill he probably has is being a native English speaker. 

Swinsanity, I think the idea of spending time in Mexico City is great. However, if you need to work you are going to have a tough row to hoe. I would either a) try to land a job with a US company that has offices in Mexico City and request a transfer/posting there or b) get certified as an English teacher and seek employment in that field. The entry level English teacher jobs don't pay much but a young single guy could no doubt get by on the salary.

Click to expand...

_It´s not easy and that´s what makes it fun and that´s also the reason that you are no longer surrounded by those from whom you fervently wished to escape who sit back there where you were raised weighing down incessantly on all notions even imagining what adventures lie down the road beyond the town they know. 

I lived for months in the 1960s in Paris selling the New York Times on the Champs Elysees and in Munich working for the quartermaster laundry sorting dirty underwear for the U.S. Army in what had been the Dachau concentration camp a few years before and I would have found neither job had I not ventured forth virtually penniless and gone looking for those opportunities. No venture no gain.

Both of those jobs, selling the newspapers on the Champs Elysees and working for the U.S. Army in a NATO Base in Bavaria were without work permits and I survived. I got those jobs because I showed up at the doorstep and asked for them out of the clear blue. Somehow I don´t think I would have landed those survival jobs out of my home in Alabama. As with you, when I left home I had no idea where I would land but I, by God, landed.


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## Swinsanity (Jan 19, 2013)

You're the man Hound Dog. Sounds like you had an interesting life. Thanks everyone for all the advice.


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## GARYJ65 (Feb 9, 2013)

I suggest, whatever you do, go back to school.
Mexico City is a very dangerous place, as all major cities around the world are.
Yo have to be street smart


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

GARYJ65 said:


> I suggest, whatever you do, go back to school.
> Mexico City is a very dangerous place, as all major cities around the world are.
> Yo have to be street smart


Mexico City is a very dangerous place, oh, my God. Then why do I feel safer living here than I did back in the States?


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## GARYJ65 (Feb 9, 2013)

Isla Verde said:


> Mexico City is a very dangerous place, oh, my God. Then why do I feel safer living here than I did back in the States?



Yes, Mexico City is a very dangerous city, as many big cities around the world, some cities in the US, I do not feel safe there at all.
I was kidnapped in Mexico City once, lived there for 24 years and go on business every 2 weeks. Just my point of view


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

GARYJ65 said:


> Yes, Mexico City is a very dangerous city, as many big cities around the world, some cities in the US, I do not feel safe there at all.
> I was kidnapped in Mexico City once, lived there for 24 years and go on business every 2 weeks. Just my point of view


Being kidnapped must have been a horrible experience, one which colors your opinion of Mexico City. Obviously, I have a different point of view, having never once felt in danger while living here for the past five and a half years.


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## Justina (Jan 25, 2013)

Circle 110 has probably given you the best comments but as to danger then it depends where you live and what you are up to in the DF. I lived there for 39 years so I do know and up until now if you are not looking for drugs then in theory nobody is going to bother you. What I mean is that looking for a little bit of something brings you to the attention of the pushers and that can result in a kidnapping where you are crying down the phone to your parents to help you. I do not joke. As to where you live then make sure you check out the zones, cos the further out you are then the more dicey can be the area as you go home at night. It is better to pay a bit more for a place like Coyoacan or Condesa where there is a pleasant nightlife than have to rush for the metro like a latter day Cinderella. Never ever take out money from a cash point after a set point at night like after 7pm but there are plenty of malls around where one can go until later, but then that is just organising oneself. If you take a taxi then make sure it is from un taxi de sitio, there are so many dodgy taxis around and I speak from the experience of two situations where one friend dropped off her car to be serviced, picked up a cab and got robbed at 9am in the morning. The other one was a woman with her niece in a similar situation. Which brings me back to if you live in a reasonable area with a jolly night life then you won't have to go too far for your evening entertainment. In general the metro is super and super cheap and one can use it during the day to visit the museums, just wander, whatever.
As to jobs, I have no idea.


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## Swinsanity (Jan 19, 2013)

Thanks everybody! I appreciate the help and advice!


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## ehw23 (Sep 21, 2012)

Circle110 said it right... have a plan before just leaving. Job search is much different here and unless you are gonna work under the table, which I doubt, you will need a some idea of what you want to do beforehand. TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) as noted per joaquinx is a good way to start or get hooked up with some American company operating in Mexico City. 

As for peoples security in DF (Mexico City), it all depends on a variety of factors: what part of DF you will be in, how you dress/carry yourself, how often you go out into the world, and sometimes its just plain fate/luck/whatever you want to call it. You can find peace anywhere you go but I would say Mexico City is SO big that its hard to say its just VIOLENT or its just PEACEFUL. A very happening and volatile place for sure. I would definitely say Mexico City is safer than the border regions by far but you must keep aware for the sly pickpocket etc. 

I know plenty of people who easily get by teaching online English to non English speakers. Good luck and dig deep, you only live once and make it sweet


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

A small clarification: TOEFL = Test of English as a Foreign Language and is taken by non-English speakers as a way to certify their knowledge of the language. It is usually required for admission to universities in the United States.


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