As the title states, I arrived back in Mexico City after a few weeks in Utah, and another month in Puerto Rico. Because I don’t tweet, use Facebook, and post perhaps twice a year on Instagram, I realized my updates are more sporadic, and large gaps in my travels are obscured now.
Why am I back in Mexico City you might wonder? I think it honestly might be the best city in the world for me at this time in my life. My priorities are to become healthier, work, improve my tranquility, and have a bit of a social life, and I’ve never been anywhere that surrounds me with that full package (with several options for each) in a 10 minute walking radius. I’m walking distance from two large green parks (Mexico, Espana), a tree-lined beautiful peaceful walking loop (Amsterdam Ave), several good grocery stores (Green Corner, Smart Fish), a good gym (CrossFit Condesa), unlimited restaurants/lounges, and tons of great cafes to enjoy coffee and work from (Black Coffee, Postales, Blend Station, Almanegra to name a few). If I want to extend my radius even further 15-25 minutes walking into Roma Norte and Juarez (my pick for the next/current super-cool neighborhood, but I like living in the established places and waiting for complete post-hipsterification) I can multiply all of these options. If I don’t want to walk out to the other neighborhoods, Uber is about $2-3, and I often walk back as it’s pleasant.
I’ve been feeling a lot of gratitude here. I realized (after my girlfriend embarrassingly told me) I was complaining a lot about trivial things in Puerto Rico, and so much of it were things that were in my control to fix. I think I got stuck in some negative loops of not wanting to invest time/money into a better apartment, but then I was annoyed on a regular basis about my living situation. My trivial apartment issues that were nagging on me, and combining that with consuming “news” about Covid trying to keep up with less/more/potential restrictions and problems wasn’t the best thing for being a mindful person. A change of scenery here in CDMX helped clear my mind. I’ve also stopped following news as much as possible, especially anything about what might or might not happen.
I’ve been on an apartment hunt here in Mexico City since I arrived that consumed the majority of my time. I want to stay more this year and part of next year, and staying in Airbnbs isn’t always great value for longer stays. As of today I finished the entire process, and am taking a break from moving to write this. It took about three weeks from arriving to moving in and even having the majority of it furnished by me (bed, mattress, couch, bar stools, internet is setup, etc.) which is pretty crazy considering I only knew the area where I wanted to stay, and nothing about the laws/rules/processes about renting, where to get furniture, etc. before I landed. I didn’t intend to get an unfurnished place, but that limited my options a lot, and the place I liked the most was beautiful but completely empty even with holes where the refrigerator, washer/dryer, and dishwasher were supposed to be! I wouldn’t ever consider doing something like that in most countries for a non-permanent residence, but the quantity/quality of furniture and people willing to deliver and install things made it possible.
I’m very much looking forward to a quasi-normal work week. I probably got more done than I realized during these past few weeks, but the amount of trading projects and ideas I want to explore far surpassed the amount of time I could give them with constant interruptions due to apartment viewings/negotiations/furniture shopping/moving/etc. When I’m creating new trading algorithms/strategies I often have to redo them several times, somewhat like revising but I often do it from scratch (download different datasets, try different versions,etc.), before I feel confident that it’s good. I have a new medium-term stock trading strategy that I’m excited about, but I have to put my brain fully into it for a week or two and figure out if it’s as good as it seems/the best way to implement it.
With that I’m going to get back to some matcha and unpacking. I hope to be able to write a little more frequently now that I’m settling in. Leaving you with a few pics!
Andrew Manser 