so
hola amigos welcome to the beautiful mexico city i have been having a wonderful time here
for the last two weeks but we'll be heading on to cancun in the next couple of days
before heading on to somewhere else hope you guys will be uh surprised by my choices
what i wanted to do before i left the city is actually do a sort of sit-down video of
the sort of impression that mexico city has left on me if i'm looking at it through the lens as a
possible place to live as an expat i've touched on it a bit in prior videos that i am kind of
at this stage of my life where i'm starting to think more seriously about where i want to have a
home base now that's not to say that i'm going to stop you know doing what i'm doing stop traveling
uh i think it's just going to be more of a transition where i'm not traveling full time
you know like most of the year i basically do just want some more stability in my life
and i'd like to invest in real estate i'd like to have my own place and i'd like it to be in
a place that i really love so in this video i wanted to give you guys my first
impressions of the city obviously i'd have to come back for a much longer period of time to
really give a thorough sort of impression of what it's like to live here uh but just from
first impressions these are my thoughts and also uh at the end of the video i'll give
you guys a little tour of the apartment that i am currently staying at that i got on airbnb
my first impressions of mexico city it's big i mean it's a city of 22 million people with the
metro area it is an enormous city and i have only seen you know a tiny
portion of it i think you would have to live here for at least a few months and have a local kind
of take you around and show everything because it is very overwhelming in size so far i would
also say that it's a very cosmopolitan sort of city it's very diverse it really changes from
you know district to district you can kind of feel like you're in two different worlds
you know with a few blocks of difference and another thing that i really like about it is that
it's quite laid back like there hasn't been any area of the city that i've been in where people
feel you know really stuck up or like really busy and just like an angry look on their face
like that kind of stuff can happen and you know cities like new york or even in toronto
and certain parts of the city like some people just look like they're really on the edge and you
know everything's just go go go but here in mexico city i would say that it's a very relaxed friendly
more of a strangely slower paced large city that i've been in so far that's
a very general way that i think i describe my impressions of the city so far but i also made a
pros and cons list that i wanted to share with you guys of some things that i would definitely
take into consideration uh if i was going to move here and maybe these things might be insightful to
you guys even if you're just planning on traveling here as a tourist like these are still really good
things to know the first thing on the list and an obvious for me is the fact that it is quite
english friendly there's obviously a lot of reasons for this but obviously the largest
being the fact that mexico is on the border with the united states and obviously both countries
have kind of cross-influenced each other there's a lot of you know americans who live here and
obviously a lot of tourism that comes to mexico is from canada and usa and as much as i'd like to say
that obviously if i moved to a country uh where they didn't speak english i would try and learn
the language that is spoken there but there's no denying that english is the language that i feel
most comfortable in like even if we're comparing english to me speaking russian i don't feel fully
comfortable uh you know speaking russian as my dominant language so for me in choosing a place
to live it is super important that at least english is fairly well known in that country
or that they have you know a large expat sort of community that does speak english now speaking
about safety because for me personally that's like up here like that's a top um
priority about the place that i would choose to live i think it's safe to say that mexico city
isn't perfect you know it's obviously not going to make the list for the safest cities in the world
anytime soon but having said that i think it is actually more concentrated in certain areas of the
city ones that you know tourists probably wouldn't be going to for any reason and there are areas of
the city that from my you know first impressions i felt incredibly relaxed and i felt very safe
now that's not to say that you can totally just like put your guard down here like stuff
obviously still happens even in the districts like you know polanco which is super affluent or roma
norte or juarez i know i'm always using japan as a reference for safety but that is just because
i can't let go of the fact of how nice it was to be in tokyo and like you
could literally just like you know leave your wallet on the seat and probably 95
chance nobody is going to take it walking around at all hours of the night as a lone female like
it's fantastic so yes even though mexico city by no stretch is perfect safety wise this is
on the pros list because overall i would say i felt more safe and calm here in mexico city than
i have in any of the other major cities that i visited in colombia or brazil the other thing
that i really like about mexico city is that it is quite modern it does have a lot of great
amenities really nice restaurants fairly good public transit system to be honest like i know
some people kind of warn me about taking the metro system here especially at rush hour but to
be honest i found it to be fine and they even have like women and children only cards which i think
is a great idea to kind of lessen uh any kind of sexual harassment the cost of living is obviously
another big plus especially if you are comparing it to canada or usa i would say compared to canada
on a whole uh maybe it's about 30 to 40 percent less the weather the weather is fantastic i mean
other than the possibility of earthquakes this definitely beats uh minus 30 minus 40
in saskatchewan and lastly uh one thing that of course i find important is that mexico city uh
being such a large hub does make it fairly easy to get to other destinations in the world like i mean
canada and america would obviously be the easiest and probably not so expensive to go visit my
parents at home in comparison to if i was living in europe you obviously have easy access to the
rest of central and south america it'd be really great to be able to fly to those destinations
for not as much money and not as long of a trip but that point alone actually transitions me
to the cons list and the thing is uh for me personally i do see myself spending a lot of
time in europe and also southeast asia like those are parts of the world that i would actually say
that i have a lot of different places i want to explore there especially in the next few years so
if i was living here and my house was here i think it would make things a little bit more tricky
because i would be taking such a long flight to ever come all the way back but obviously right now
europe is going through it and i wouldn't make any kind of choice about living there until the war is
come to an end and things are sorted out and everybody is rebuilding so that whole conversation
is obviously on the back burner now moving on with the other cons that i have on my list
is that so far i would say i haven't really found the kind of apartment
that i would be you know uh looking for if i was to purchase a property and uh to be honest
like some of the places in the areas that i'm interested in are quite a bit more expensive you
know than i was expecting because you know all the foreigners are choosing to live in
those areas so it becomes even more expensive another con is that i don't think i will ever
fully blend in you know so to say and that's not always like a terrible thing per se but one thing
actually being here in the historical district almost right on the border of lagunila which is
you know very local there are no gringos you know in this area i'm literally the only tourist in
this area that i have seen so from that experience overall it has been fine like i said most of the
people are super friendly here super laid back there's nothing to worry about but at the same
time especially with the men sorry to call it out but it is what it is um the men in the very
uh local districts here in the city i have felt quite uncomfortable in because in comparison to
literally anywhere else that i have been in the last few years like it's on a whole other level
here where they just stare like they literally like a guy will like you know cross paths with
me and stop and like just stare at me or be like across the way and just be like looking me up and
down in a super creepy way unabashedly and it just makes me super uncomfortable when i was in
the more expat friendly areas i didn't find that to be as much of an issue like it still definitely
happens sometimes it makes me incredibly sad that for the majority of the world
the dangers of especially just being a woman being out by herself is like a constant threat
that you have to do so many things like keep it in the back of your head of like i have to
do this i have to do that no i can't just you know exist in the world without the risk of
being assaulted and you know not being able to you know have nice things and not being able to dress
in the way you want of course this is a super privileged position like i'm a hundred percent
you know aware of how good i have had it in my life to be able to be raised in a place
small town saskatchewan where i have really never had to worry about that kind of stuff that much
and then even in the other cities that i have lived in like toronto and tokyo and kiev like
these are really not that big of issues there they have other issues there's definitely other issues
you know that people face in those countries but safety really isn't that big of a factor now to
end off my video before i actually give you my final thoughts of whether i would come back to
mexico city to really test it out like you know to actually live here for at least a month or two
rent an apartment in the district that i'm super interested in that kind of thing i wanted to give
you a tour of this airbnb that i am staying at here near the historic district and just give
you guys an idea of prices if you are coming here as a tourist so this is my very spacious studio
apartment i would call it because there aren't any actual walls they did put a cute divider in here
for the bedroom and then instead of using an actual wall they actually put in a really good
storage space which i appreciate because then i can hide all of my luggage put my clothes away
i thought that this was actually a really good idea and then over here we have the living room
and i love how much natural light it gets that was definitely one of the reasons
that i wanted to stay here we have a nice table that i can work at the kitchen overall
has everything you need and as i mentioned before this apartment is kind of on the border
of the historic district and i am paying 45 u.s dollars a night which to compare with
other similar sorts of places and let's say roma norte or la condesa it would almost be double that
for the dates that i was looking at and to be honest the other really big selling point for
this apartment was the 24 hour security and also the amazing rooftop so let me give you guys a tour
of that starting with the mini gym which was not even in the airbnb listing because you know it is
small there's not really a lot of equipment but it is good like it's good to have a treadmill a bike
an elliptical and then with the main portion let me actually start with the view the view
is spectacular because we are in the historical center you do see these beautiful cathedrals all
around and you are one of the higher buildings in the area but let's go back to the indoor portion
since it is really nice we have a sofa sort of sound system there is wi-fi in here there's some
nice tables where you could do some work and then over here in the outdoor portion they also have
some really good seating you know if you had quite a few people you could actually
do a sort of dinner party or something like that or have your morning coffee out here a
glass of wine for sunset really really nice and now my final thoughts would i live in mexico city
or at least i guess i should say give it a trial run because that is what is really needed to know
if this would be my place the answer is yes but as i said before i think europe and uh
seeing south east asia are still definitely on you know the higher levels of my priority list
just because europe would be incredibly central to all the other places i like to visit
and then southeast asia is kind of the area of the world that i haven't really fully explored
yet and i know there's a lot of expats who absolutely love living in those countries so
maybe this year that would be really great if maybe i could do a full southeast asia sort of
tour and see what it has to offer but having said that it can be more complicated to get permanent
residency in southeast asian sort of countries compared to latin america and compared to
a few countries in europe so that's a whole other conversation that i actually didn't really include
in this video because i still have yet to learn all the specifics about the taxation system here
in mexico and uh getting permanent residency but from what i did read it would be you know
not that difficult in my scenario so that's a whole other conversation but just as a
first impressions of mexico city i have really enjoyed my time here i would definitely come
back i would absolutely urge you to come visit here as a tourist there is just so much to see
and do so i hope you guys enjoyed the video let me know your thoughts down below especially if
you have lived in mexico city i would love any tips and suggestions from any kinds of locals
or people who have spent a lot of time here so thank you guys so much for tuning in
hope you enjoyed the video and as always keep being your own kind of beautiful bye guys
you