The Novelty of Latin America Fades Over Time

Let’s say you are living in a small town in Ohio.

There’s a few bars you go to.

Only a few.

Not many to work with since it is a small town…

But there’s a few you go to often enough.

A burger joint some odd feet to the side of the building also.

A good place to stop by at 2 AM for a quick snack with some friends.

Before heading some feet down to get some beer at the nearby bar.

It’s time to go home.

In the morning, you wake up with a slight headache.

But you march onwards to your job.

Working at a factory perhaps.

Maybe you have child support you got to pay to your 5 baby mommas who take care of the 9 children you got between them.

And all sorts of other stresses that come with life…

That fucking car payment you got to make.

The landlord fucking you over time and time again.

Who never fucking fixes the leak in the building.

Maybe the internet is slow and you hate your plan.

Or perhaps the boss who runs the business that your girlfriend works at is fucking her on the side without your knowledge.

But it’s for a good cause – if she sucks his dick better than the other hoes of the office (Jennifer, Megan, etc), then perhaps she gets the promotion.

Which you’ll need the money from because you need a medical operation on your knees!

And your alcoholic cousin won’t stop calling you up for a 100 dollar “loan” that he really needs to fix his car.

Even though he never paid you back last time!!!

Plus, the factory you are working at is going to relocate to Mexico in a month.

So there goes your job.

Also, you have a opioids addiction.

So that’s weird.

All around, life looks kinda shitty.

And you contemplate a new life.

A life abroad in Latin America.

Somehow you manage to pull it off.

After reading the blog of some random dude you don’t know…

Who convinces you that Colombian women are really hot and how you should sign up for his dating affiliate course…

Which motivates you even more to go abroad to some random city somewhere in Latin America.

So you finally make the big jump.

The Beginning

At first, life seems pretty dope.

You are in a completely new country.

Which, in of itself, has a bit of novelty with it.

You are practicing a new language.

Perhaps you are getting more female attention from the local women.

Though they are not all super models in looks, they pass what you are cool with.

And the blowjobs they give aren’t bad either!

You check out some random ass mountain in the middle of Costa Rica that the guide tells you killed 5,000 people one time a long time ago.

You nod as you see smoke rising from the volcano and mumble “cool story bro.”

Maybe even enjoy some of the local cuisine.

If you happen to be in a country like Mexico, Peru or Argentina – then you are in for a treat.

Happen to be in Colombia?

Well, the food might suck ass but just down a bottle of aguardiente and you won’t notice the bad taste.

Plus, you meet other Americans.

Something interesting when you are a foreigner abroad in another country.

Other Americans that you hang out with at the local expat bars.

So, at first, this all seems pretty dope.

It’s just one new experience after another.

Either way, it might seem pretty cool at first.

And maybe it stays cool.

Hopefully so.

But the experience of “living abroad” becomes less of a novelty over time.

What do I mean by that?

Growing up in Iowa

Back when I was living in a small town in Iowa, I never would have thought that my life would be where it is today.

Living in Mexico.

And having been to over 30 countries in my life.

When I was just 16 years old even, all of this would seem way too fucking crazy.

However, give it over 10 years later…..

And it is not as crazy.

It’s reality.

Though, to be fair, when I do reflect on my life over the last 10 years, it does seem crazy to me in another sense.

As I wrote in this article here, there is an aspect to living abroad that is just weird…

Where you realize in a brief second – “I’m in Mexico?!?!”

Where you suddenly “snap out of it” and realize that you are living in a foreign country that you would never have imagined that you would live in.

So that aspect of the novelty may or may not ever leave me.

I don’t know if it ever will.

Sometimes it hits me again once in a blue moon.

Maybe once a year

But the other novelty of living abroad…

When you want to escape the shitty life back home as described above…

Granted, that wasn’t my life.

I was just trying to make an extreme example lol.

But many people do try to “escape” something back home.

Not all but plenty enough that it’s not unusual.

Whatever about home that they want to escape.

The bad dating or job prospects…

Whatever it might be.

So they envision a life elsewhere

A life abroad.

And how different it seems.

Plus, even if you are not looking to escape something….

That idea of “living abroad” seems so fucking weird to most folks in small towns.

At least in my experience.

As I said, it would’ve seemed like a completely fucking crazy idea before I did move abroad.

Something unimaginable.

As I was talking with a friend of mine named Cody as you can read here…

It seems crazy to him also.

Something only for the rich as he sees it.

So there is a novelty to it also in that not only can it help you escape something from back home….

But also in that it is just seems like a crazy thing in general.

Especially if you are from a small town where you don’t know too many foreigners…

And if you have never left your country even…

Back then, I rarely even left my home state of Iowa.

So all around, the idea definitely has a novelty to it.

But….

Over time…

That novelty will probably fade.

The Novelty Fades

Simply put, the novelty fades.

Over time, it becomes normal.

You are adjusted to a life abroad.

And you realize that you don’t need as much money as some would assume to make it abroad.

On top of that, you might also start to fade into a typical routine…

Where before you left in part because you wanted excitement…

Difference.

Adventures maybe.

But now your life here resembles life back home.

You still go to the usual ol’ bars in the neighborhood with other foreigners maybe.

You still work at some type of job that you are not overly excited about but pays the bills.

Maybe there’s dumb shit down here that annoys you that you have to get used to.

Just like with dumb shit back home when you lived there also.

You start to eat the same ol’ restaurants that you always go to.

Ordering the same thing you always do.

The regular food you enjoy at each specific place.

Start to live a normal life.

Wake up.

And your day doesn’t involve hiking mountains, canoeing among ice glaciers in Patagonia or smashing pussy walls….

Well, that’s bullshit.

It always involves smashing pussy walls.

We can’t leave that out of the picture, can we?

But probably less mountain hiking and canoeing in Patagonia…

And more grocery shopping and getting laundry done.

Normal people shit.

You get the point.

You start to live a normal life.

On top of that…

Even if you did hike a mountain today or saw an ice glacier…

At least in my personal experience…

In my first two years in Latin America, it involved a loot of both of those things.

Over time, the novelty of that fades also.

As you see one thing to the next.

And the type of scenery needed to impress you has to be greater.

For example, I remember visiting the Mexican city of Pachuca for the very first time over 2 years ago…

And a girl I was dating who introduced me to the city was showing me around….

“Here we have a nice clock tower! And here’s a park!”

“eh….esta bien…”

She could tell that I wasn’t very excited.

Truth be told, I’ve seen enough of this shit in my travels to over 30 countries.

The novelty of seeing cool shit abroad also starts to fade.

And it takes bigger and greater things to impress you.

Well, at least in my experience.

At any rate, there isn’t much more to say.

This isn’t to say that life abroad becomes terrible.

Just that the novelty fades away a little bit compared to when you are in the honeymoon phase especially.

Which isn’t a bad thing.

Just an aspect of life that most will get accustomed to.

And hopefully, even after the novelty fades, you still find life abroad in Latin America to be nicer than life back home.

At any rate, here’s my Twitter.

Drop any comments below.

Thanks for reading.

Best regards,

Matt