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- “Why Would You Live in Such a Shithole?!”
As I have mentioned in other recent articles, I’ve recently been on a marathon of watching videos about life in China.
And also other areas of the world where expats give their opinions on life in their areas.
Just to see if expats in other parts of the world have similar experiences in other parts of the world outside of Latin America.
These particular videos below here seemed interesting like the others.
I’ve really found this guy’s videos on life in China absolutely fascinating.
Fascinating but not necessarily with the positive connotation it has.
Fascinating more in the sense of “my god! China sounds like a SHITHOLE! FUCK THAT PLACE!”
It’s fascinating in the same way if you seen a vehicle accident in Mexico City where maybe the driver had his head severed off from the body due to not wearing a seatbelt and his body lunging forward.
Thus, you get the image of maybe some poor soul headless with his head laying on the ground yelling “NO MAMES WEY NO MAMES SOY UN MARICON NO MAMES WEEEY”
And you can’t help but take in the moment.
Absorb the entirety of its horrifying nature.
It’s stunning.
Fascinating.
But in a negative way.
Especially when the guy in that video talks in other videos about things that blow your mind.
Like how, apparently, you aren’t able to get citizenship in China or most Asian countries.
How, apparently, if you defend yourself from someone attacking you, you can provoke an entire mob of people to kick your ass.
Or how, apparently, if you do get into such an incident, the police will take you away “for tea” and you’ll have to pay an outrageous price to the person who attacked you.
So on and s on…
But, on top of that, I also find these videos interesting because it’s like watching a movie where you can so easily predict the ending.
“I’VE SEEN THIS BEFORE!” runs off in your head.
Whenever that guy in the video talks about our most beloved topics of life in Latin America:
- Xenophobia
- Gringo pricing
- Feeling like an outsider
- People staring at you
So on and so on…
Either way, maybe now I know what it’s like being my sister….
“Mexico is a Land of Slums & Beaches”
I think I finally understand the perception that my sister and rest of family have about my time in Latin America.
Of course, there’s the obvious concern about safety and all.
One too many articles published by CNN about the latest atrocity somewhere in Mexico gets the phone call going about “NOOOOOOO, WE DON’T WANT YOU KIDNAPPED BY THE CARTELS, NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”
But then you have real conversations with people about life down here.
Explaining what it is actually like.
At first, there is always the comment about “wow! Rent is only 250 a month? I SHOULD MOVE TO MEXICO JAJA HAHA JAJA HAHA JAJA HAHA”
But then you get to talking about aspects of life down here…
Giving out the usual complaints that any gringo would have.
“The cops extorted me for money today”
“Someone tried mugging me”
“I saw a homeless person’s gaping pink asshole turn brown as mountains of shit exited their asshole right in front of me as I was walking home on a sunny day”
“The metro collapsed and now I’m crawling out of the window all bloody with my legs cut off.”
“EVERYTHING HERE IS SO INEFFICIENT”
So on and so on…
And, listening to you talk about the negatives of Latin America, they recoil in horror “OMG! FUCK THE 250 IN RENT! MEXICO SOUNDS LIKE A SHITHOLE!”
In a way, by watching these videos out of curiosity, maybe I am reacting the same way as my sister.
After having seen at least 20 videos now, I can, without question, say that China seems to me like a complete hellhole.
It sounds like a terrible place to live.
Almost like an Asian version of Latin America but where group think and xenophobia are three times that of Latin America with more people and the legal system even more excited and capable of fucking you over.
And without a legal way to get residency.
Of course, I say this…
But it also comes with a point to be said…
I Don’t Know Shit About China
What I just said above could be literally the most ignorant thing said ever about China.
I have no idea.
Never been to China.
Similar to my sister, I can only speak as an outsider who has never lived the life of being in “x area” of the world.
Which is part of the point to be made here…
Anytime someone is observing life elsewhere, it has to remembered that we are still talking from a point of inexperience.
And that experience effectively makes it impossible to give a real judgement, I would argue, of what life is actually like or how you get used to it.
Or how bad it actually is on a day to day basis.
Take violence in Mexico.
People always think “drugs and cartels!”
But, on a day to day basis (especially for foreigners), it’s not so much an issue unless you make it so.
Of course, there’s other things that come to mind.
Getting Shit Off Your Chest
Finally, there is the aspect of “getting shit off your chest.”
I don’t know the particular guy in the video above well regarding all of the topics he covers.
But a lot of them do seem to be, at least for now from what I’ve seen, focus on the negative.
Which I don’t hold against him because, when I started this website, I focused a lot on the negative also.
Still do!
But while I do try to focus a little more on the positive when I can…
I get also the need to just get shit off your chest and vent for a little bit to someone.
And understanding that also makes it easier to understand that maybe life in China isn’t so horrifying or terrible.
Because if you are only getting the negative aspects of life there, obviously it’d look like hell.
But such a discussion isn’t nuanced at all.
And finally….
Get Used to It
That’s the thing that many outsiders don’t realize also.
Even if the issue in question was more reoccurring than cartel violence…
Like, for example, gringo pricing.
You simply get used to it.
Or you don’t.
If you don’t and it becomes such an issue for you…
You leave!
As most foreigners do leave from Latin America anyway after a year or two.
The honeymoon phase is over.
And you look at your new home country or region for what it is.
Accept it, learn to at least tolerate it or move on if it too negative for you.
In a way, I’m sure many of the negatives the guy talks about China could be things I could get used to.
Like pretty girls trying to scam you by taking you to bars or tea shops?
Well, just tell them no I suppose.
Simple.
Or troll them.
Honestly, I don’t think I could help myself.
If a pretty lady wanted to take me to a bar to have me buy a 500 dollar beer or whatever…
I’d probably say “let’s go to a clothing store first!”
And then troll the living fuck out of her.
“Do you think you’d look good in this shirt? I don’t know. Looks too small for you. Do you prefer an extra extra large shirt? CMON WHERE YOU GOING!?!?”
If people are fucking with me, I can’t help but sometimes be a smartass.
Adjustment to Life: Native?
Either way, getting used to it and spending years in China or Mexico can also have another effect…
Some might call it “going native.”
Where you get so used to it that it becomes part of how you behave also.
Like me bribing people if needed in Mexico when I’d never do that back home because nobody would tolerate it.
Same way with how you negotiate in markets in China to Guatemala.
You get used to it.
And, maybe in a way, go a “little more native.”
In such a way that, over time, getting used to things wherever you are makes it easier to accept the negatives and not see said society as such a shithole…
“SO WHY LIVE THERE?!”
And also cement your future there even longer as adjusting to how things were back home could take time for you that you don’t want to deal with.
Like adjusting to how people expect you to show up on time in the US versus Mexico or wherever (maybe China but I don’t know).
And, in a way, adjusting to life in helps you enjoy life down here in Mexico or China even more.
Explaining the answer to the question “Why would you live in such a shithole?!” by those who have never set foot in such a shithole.
Because you can understand, adjust and maybe even enjoy the craziness of the imperfections.
The imperfections that can, in a way, give some extra life to your day wherever you are.
Especially as I wrote here…
About how the informalities of life in whatever country – Mexico or China – can have their own benefits.
The cops might want to extort you but it also means that you can, at times, bribe a cop to get away with shit that you wouldn’t back home.
And learning to dance to the craziness that others would be horrified at allows you all the easier to enjoy or at least get accustomed to the imperfections that horrify those who haven’t lived it.
Such as myself who hasn’t been to China.
Or my sister who hasn’t been to Mexico.
All the while enjoying the larger benefits to living wherever you are that are not seen as imperfections by anyone (such as low cost of living to whatever else).
Anyway, just a random thought I had today as I was watching these videos about China today.
And enjoy this other video on China that I found funny.