Susan Reid (Yolisto: Sooz) was a newlywed when she and her husband made an abrupt decision to move to Mexico and buy a house last year.

Within two months, the couple left their Portland-area home and moved into the Chuburna house they bought in one day after seeing it on the Internet.

“It happened really, really fast,” she said about the life-changing experience. “We’re both kind of impulsive, I guess.”

The couple is still learning the quirks of living in a foreign country and how to get tasks completed without speaking fluent Spanish. Dealing with frequent maintenance  at a beach house is often Susan’s responsibility. Her husband Phil works in Merida  where he is training Mexicans to test turbine blades used in jet engines. What he thought would be a 40-hour work week when he transferred here from Portland has evolved into substantially more hours.

So, Susan spends a lot of time with a Spanish dictionary, looking up construction terms so she can get a leaky roof fixed. She has dealt with being without electricity for an extended period after learning her bill had blown away and not been paid. She knows how to improvise with replacement parts and used the Internet for instructions to fix a pool pump. 

“I go and try to get stuff all day. It’s very strange,” she said. “Nothing is standardized. You think you’re going nuts.”

Like many people who relocate here, Susan discovered early that electricity can be a challenge. Many of the lights in her house do not work. The house doesn’t have enough juice to power a microwave oven.

“Most everything else works most of the time,” she joked.

Spanish lessons are helping. A woman comes to their home several nights a week to help the couple with pronunciation and learning new words.

“I don’t get as many blank stares anymore,” she said.

As her language skills improve, Susan would like to work with the humane society group in Progreso that is dedicated to spaying and neutering street dogs. She brought one dog to Mexico and has adopted two homeless dogs since.

In spite of the setbacks, Susan hopes to live out her retirement years here. At 44 years old, it seems strange not to work every day, she said, but good books and a long list of tasks keeps her busy. Phil, 54, hopes to continue with the job in Merida for another five years and then retire.

“He will have a little gap before Social Security kicks in. We hope to stay here. I know he does, but I have my moments,” said Susan. “He loves it here, mostly because of the people and the romance. He likes that Mexicans are openly affectionate.”

She is looking forward to a time when Phil’s hours aren’t so brutal so they can explore Mexico “and actually see more of Mexico instead of this one little circle.”

Susan enjoys a sense of freedom since there aren’t excessive laws in the Yucatan. As an example, she said, Oregon enforces strict rules about passengers in the back of a pick-up truck.

“After watching everyone riding in the backs of trucks here, I tried it for the first time,” she said. “It’s hysterically fun, especially if you are standing up leaning on the cab for balance. It feels like you are flying. I actually had to sit down a few times because I got woozy.”  

Before leaving Oregon, Susan used her chemistry degree at Nike, developing faster and stronger soles for the sports shoes.

“We had recipes that we would mess around with until we’d get something they liked,” she said.

She enjoys photography and finds many opportunities for pictures locally.

“I need to get braver with people pictures. I feel very touristy when I take them. In Chuburna and Chelem now, most people recognize me.”

Phil plays electric guitar and “is quite good” on the harmonica, Susan said.

Tags: Expat Profiles