It’s now been two weeks since my first vaccine. In one more week I’ll get #2, then have the two week wait until it kicks in fully. I was considering getting the shingles vaccine after that but see that the one dose vaccine has been discontinued. I’ll have to ask my doctor if only getting one dose will give me any kind of protection.
Amtrak sent me an email talking about $50 fares, so when I come home I’ll be taking the train from Seattle to Los Angeles, then an overnight stay in a cheap hotel so I can catch a flight to Mazatlán the next morning. Cost, including the hotel, is just a bit more than flying from Seattle to Mazatlán, and I get a little mini train vacation out of it. The views from the Coast Starlight run can be amazing.
Twice now I’ve encountered crazy, angry people when the term ex-pat has been used to describe a Canadian or American living in México. They’ve said that the correct word to use is immigrant, and that ex-pat is what people of privilege use to describe themselves, and that those same people consider immigrants to be lower class.
I’ve tried to explain that expatriate and immigrant are two words that describe the exact same situation, and that neither has a positive or negative connotation. Apparently I’m wrong on that last part as the crazy just gets worse when I say it.
Let’s look at definitions, from Webster’s Dictionary.
- Expatriate: To withdraw (oneself) from residence in one’s native country.
- Immigrant: A person who migrates to another country, usually for permanent residence.
So – an expatriate has left their native country and an immigrant is someone who now lives in another country. I am expatriated FROM the United States, and I immigrated TO México. I am BOTH an ex-pat and an immigrant. The exact same could be said of a Méxican citizen who moves to the USA. They are BOTH an ex-pat from México and an immigrant to the USA.
For the life of me I am not understanding the reason for all the anger, but believe me when I say that it’s there. So while I won’t be striking the term from my vocabulary, I will consider to whom I’m speaking and chose my words appropriately.
And before I close this post I’d like to revisit my rant on misinformation from a post or two ago. To refresh, I’d seen videos on YouTube where vloggers told people to take the WRONG buses to/from the Juárez tianguis. I had commented on one of the videos stating that the information presented was incorrect and could put a tourist in danger (one of the buses that could have been taken mistakenly would have dropped the rider off near a tuna packing plant in Parque Bonfil – just a little bit away from the Ciudad Perdida. Neither are places I’d want to wander if I didn’t know where I was). Those vloggers decided to delete my comment while doing nothing to correct their misinformation. These people have left Mazatlán, but that video will survive to misinform viewers for years. Please – unless you have first hand information, ALWAYS verify things people tell you before relying on them. Taking a new bus someplace? ASK the driver if they go there, even if you’ve read/seen/heard that they do. There are very few places I wouldn’t go around Mazatlán, but there ARE some. Just like there are places in Seattle where I wouldn’t go.
