Funeral In Europe, And A Side Comparison Between The Cost Of Living In Mexico, USA, and Europe
Due to a death in the family I had to fly ASAP to Europe. I missed the funeral, but had a week to spend with my remaining family and to wander around.
It’s funny how I never thought of my native country or continent as a viable living solution, even though when I left it to do a PhD in the USA after college, I only left it temporarily in my mind, out of a sense of adventure, and not because anything was wrong in my home country.
I was not a refugee, I was not poor — on the contrary, my family was well off and of a pretty high social status.
What pushed me to go to the USA was simply a desire to explore new horizons, as well as my ex’s dream of going to America.
At the time, before the turn of the new century, many young people in Europe dreamt of the beautiful landscapes and cool cities of the USA. They may still dream of it now, but I don’t know for sure as I lost touch with what’s going on with the young generation in Europe.
I really liked living in the USA, all the space and privacy I had as a strong introvert was right up my alley. The things I didn’t like were the absence of the coffeeshop/walking culture in the suburbs (I’ll explain what I mean) and the job/corporate culture.
Due to the latter one, we decided that in order for me to be able to leave my stressful job with its salary, we would have to move to a lower cost of living area — hence Mexico.
Mexico also solved in part the first issue of the coffeeshop culture — as many people spend time in coffee shops talking, laughing, nobody being on their cell phone while engaged with others. It gave us back the ability to walk everywhere as supermarkets, shops, everything we need being somewhat close by.
Yet Mexico’s cost of living is significantly higher than we thought, and due to all kinds of extras (traveling to see the kids, paying for mail service for US mail, paying $70 for each document or new card sent to us in the mail, etc etc), it almost amounts to what we would have spend if we stayed in the USA.
On a Thursday morning, not long ago, I got the message that my aunt died unexpectedly.
She had been battling cancer for 5+ years and it had just come back aggressively, metastasized in the lungs. The doctors pushed a ton of chemo through her body and she seemed to be doing fine. But behind the scenes her body was too weak, and could not take it anymore.
When I heard this, I immediately booked tickets to get there, but unfortunately I missed the funeral by a few hours.
It was really hard to see my family without her there. She lived with her husband, my mom (aka her sister), their mom (my grandma) and her son’s family in the same place — a courtyard with 2 homes, one of them with a couple large apartments inside.
My aunt was the soul of the place — she was a great cook and fed everyone all the time. She would cook at least 7–10 dishes, cakes, pastries every day.
With her gone, the constant smell of good food is gone too. As is the joyful chatting, as she had numerous friends she was talking to for hours daily while cooking and washing dishes.
The week I spent back home was weird. I was sick all the time I was there (probably a bug I picked in airports), it was cold and rainy (especially after living in sunny and hot Cancun for a year, it really felt cold!), and I couldn’t sleep at all during the nights due to the change in time zone.
So I was like a zombie, or at least it felt that way.
Yet I walked with my mom to the supermarket, to the open market, and to coffee shops. It had been several years since I’d been home — I think the last time I was there was for my dad’s funeral.
There were a lot of positive changes that happened in my home city. New parks, they redid the main mall (most beautiful mall I ever saw!), the old buildings have been redone — they looked new, there were tons of coffee shops and people sitting on terraces talking.
I was extremely happy and proud to see all the changes that happened. My city was truly a 21st century European city.
Oh, and the prices!
Here are some examples:
- We got a KFC meal for my grandma, it was with 3 chicken tenders and 2 wings, with fries and a medium drink and I paid the equivalent of $4.20 usd. It was a promotion, and without the promo it would have been $5.5 usd
- At a beautiful and luxurious restaurant at the newly redone mall, we had a meal for 4 people (2 specialty pizzas, 3 beers, waters — you pay for waters in Europe, 2 espressos) and including tip it cost $44 usd. We spent a lovely time there.
- Coffees at higher end coffee shops in the center of the city are about $2 usd, while everywhere else about $1 usd
- Large pastries filled with cheese (salty) — I love them- are 50 cents — they are as large as my hand (palm and fingers).
- Veggies are all cheaper than Mexico and USA, same with chocolates, meat, milk, bread is half price, etc etc. Plus all my cherished foods, the ones I grew up with and cannot find in Mexico, are all there…
Another thing I was mulling over was long term care. My grandma is in her mid nineties and as it is harder and harder for my mom to take care of her, we looked at assisted living.
Well, a luxury assisted living place is 1,000 euros — about the same usd — per month!!! In Mexico the cheapest is close to 2,000 usd per month. In USA it can go to 11,000 usd a month… Similarly, rents for say 2 bedroom apartments are between $500 to -$700 usd in my home town, which are great prices.
All in all, the cost of living in Europe seems to be lower than Mexico and USA.
My poor aunt is gone, and my poor mom is left now to care for my grandma and the house.
I am on standby though in case she needs help.
If that happens, we may go there for a couple of months to make sure things run smoothly, as smoothly as they can with everyone aging and ailing.