Episode 66

A Barber, a Spider & Pepe the Squirrel

After months of putting off getting a haircut because of my limited Spanish, I finally found a supposedly English-speaking barber in Mexico City. What could go wrong? Also, the math on how few Americans actually live here, why every country blames its outsiders, and four women at a bakery who remind me why loud Americans here annoy me.

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Transcript
Speaker:

Hey, Jef.

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It's Kirsten.

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Big fan of the podcast.

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Mostly wanted to call and say I'm loving the podcast as usual, so thank you.

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Um, and then also, Mike Mall didn't seem into it, but I really appreciated your

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comment about weather people in places where there's Celsius versus Fahrenheit.

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I never thought about that this whole darn life of mine.

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This is episode 66 of onefjef.

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Hola, mis amigos y amigas.

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¿Cómo estás?

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¿Está bien?

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Very good.

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Very, very good.

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Yes, you heard right.

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This is episode 66 of onefjef, not to be mistaken for episode 666,

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which would be the episode of Satan.

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And that'll be coming in quite a few years from now.

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But rest assured, episode 666 will be a very special episode of onefjef.

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I hope you're all thriving, as I always do.

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Hope you're all living your best lives.

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Hope you're all happy, wealthy, and wise, as I've said before, and I

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promise never to say again because that's a annoying clichéd phrase that

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I regret using in the first place.

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Thank you very much.

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Oh, yeah, so this onefjef the podcast, it peels away your mind like a banana peel.

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Exciting news.

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The podcast has been rising in popularity quite a bit over these last

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few months, and I'm happy to report, truly, that we are number 24 in the

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places and travel category in Mexico.

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I don't know how many podcasts in the travel and places category there are

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in Mexico, but I imagine there's quite a few more than 24, I would think.

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So hey, look at me.

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I mean, we're number 170 in places and travel in Germany.

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And in Canada, we're 194.

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And I know that Mexico has more people than Canada.

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So just based on population, you would think there'd be more.

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Who knows?

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If you are a new listener, thank you for joining us.

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I hope you're doing very well.

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I mean, I hope you're thriving, of course.

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Forgot to tell you.

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So yeah, number 24 in Mexico.

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Thank you for those of you who have helped to make that happen.

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It's a slow burn here, here at onefjef the podcast, and, uh, slow burn is a good burn

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I had put off getting a haircut here in Mexico City for a long time, for a variety

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of reasons, most of which is that I don't know a lot of hair terminology in Spanish.

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And when you go to the barber, usually you need to be able to use some hair

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terminology in order to communicate what you'd like done with your hair.

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So I had just let my hair get quite disheveled, quite disheveled.

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It had been three or four months since I'd gotten a haircut,

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and it was getting annoying.

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I was starting to trim it myself, and it was uneven, and

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I just don't care for that.

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It was, like, curling up in the back, which, not my jam.

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So I thought, "Well, I have to get a haircut."

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So I go on the internet, and I look for English-speaking barbers in Mexico City,

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and I find a Reddit post from somebody a, a year ago who, you know, found

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this barber who spoke very good English apparently, and said that they're great.

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You should go to these people.

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So I found them on the internet.

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They're only 10 minutes away by foot.

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Sent them a WhatsApp message saying, in Spanish I said this, "Hi, uh, I am

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looking for a barber who speaks…" Something… This is paraphrasing.

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"I'm looking for a barber who speaks fairly good English because

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I'm learning Spanish, but I don't speak hair terms very well, ha ha."

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I was trying to make it light And they respond, "Oh, of course, yes.

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When would you like your appointment?" And I'm like, "Okay, how about tomorrow

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00?" They're like, "Yes." Great.

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So it sounds good.

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Sounds like I'm gonna get a barber who speaks good English and will

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be un- understand me, 'cause I have had bad experiences with

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barbers in foreign countries.

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When I was in Russia many, many years ago, I got a haircut, and I didn't

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s- really speak any Russian at all.

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I'm not even sure how I communicated e- or if I communicated at all what I

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wanted, but I got it cut quite short.

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Like, I had a lot of hair, and I cut it all off.

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And he cut it in, like, this bouffant, which if you don't know what that is,

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you can look it up on the Internet.

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And if you know me, you know, not a good look for Jef, a bouffant, no.

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I remember when I got off the plane in Cleveland, when I had gotten back

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from Russia, my dad picked me up.

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The first thing he said is, like, "What happened to your hair?" And

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then he said, "What's that on your nose?" And on my nose, on the very

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tip of my nose, was a giant zit, which was very obvious to anybody,

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but thank you, Father, for pointing it out right as I got back from Russia.

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Anyway, so there's a history here.

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I get to the haircutting place, the barber as they call it, and it's closed.

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And I'm like, "Oh, all right. It says it opens at 9:00, but I guess… I

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don't know." So I message on WhatsApp.

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I say, "Hey, there's nobody here.

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It's closed." And they're like, "Oh, the, the person who's

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cutting your hair is on the way.

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Sorry." So about 10 minutes later, the person who's cutting my hair shows

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up. Very, um, quiet, you know, trying to be friendly. I'm, "Mucho gusto.

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Soy Jef," blah, blah, blah.

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And he's just not really being very responsive.

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So I'm like, "Okay, he's, you know, just got up, whatever." So I wait,

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you know, while he gets the store together, and, uh, then he's ready to go.

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And I go and sit in the chair, and he's like, "English or Español?" And

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I'm like, "Oh, I don't speak a lot of Spanish, so English would be better."

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And he's like, "Okay, okay." And so I explain to him what I'm wanting my

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hair, how I want my hair cut, and I get the impression he's understanding,

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'cause he's like, "Yeah, okay.

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Okay, okay." And at one point, I made a gesture.

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Like, I was showing him that I part it on the side, and I was kind of, like,

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gesturing to my head, and I think I just swept the hair back And I think that was

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my mistake, so we'll get back to that.

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So then he starts to get me ready, puts the bib on and everything, and the apron.

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Then he goes to his phone.

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He's looking at his phone for a while, and he shows me a picture of, like,

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the side of somebody's-- of a man's hair, and he's like, "Like, you know,

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like this?" And it was, like, how f- and I assumed he was just asking

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how far above the ear it was cut.

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And I was like, "Yeah, about that." But the hair, the picture was, like, of

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slicked back hair, and that should've raised a red flag right there, but

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it didn't because I assumed, again, that this man spoke good English and

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had understood it when I said, "I part it here, and this is how I…"

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Because he had said, "Okay." So he starts to cut my hair, but the first

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thing he does when he starts to cut my hair is, like, spray my hair

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down wet and then slicked it back, directly back like a gangster, like

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somebody in The Sopranos or something.

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And I think, "Well, this is just the way that he cuts hair.

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You know, he wets it down.

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Everybody wets it down.

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This is kind of…" But as it goes on, as the haircut progresses, he

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never actually changes the pulled back thing, and I start to realize, "Oh.

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Oh, no, no." I mean, the haircut's very awkward.

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There's no music playing.

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We're the only two people in the entire shop.

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I tried to make a little conversation, but he didn't really respond.

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And then at a certain point, he's like, "Can you excuse me?" And he goes to the

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bathroom, and I hear him literally, like, coughing up a lung and blowing his nose.

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So he's got, he's got a cold too, which is great 'cause he's

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right-- he's cutting my hair.

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So I breathe through my nose for the rest of the haircut, which I'm not a

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mouth breather, but, you know, sometimes.

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So that was exciting.

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But yeah, by the time I realized that he was-- he had misunderstood how I

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style my hair, it was too late, and I really just wanted to get out of there

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because there was no redeeming it.

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The amount of effort it would've taken to explain to him.

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When he finished up, he gets the mirror out, and I'm thinking,

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"Oh, Jesus Christ, he's done?

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That's really it?" Like, you know when they pull the mirror out, you know that's

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the end of it, and you're like, "Oh.

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Oh, no." 'Cause it was still… And so I start to, like, brush it forward,

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kind of give him an indication, but it's not brushing forward because it's

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been pushed back for so long, so it's kind of making this Conan O'Brien-esque

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waterfall of hair in the front.

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It was quite a look.

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Pretty ridiculous.

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I think it's funny now, but boy, uh, didn't think it was funny then.

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And I think when he looked at me, he actually was amused

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at how ridiculous it looked.

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I think he even recognized it.

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But who knows?

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Who knows?

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And as I'm walking home, like, I'm looking at myself in my phone,

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and I'm, like, licking my hand to, like, push the front of my hair

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down 'cause it's really high up.

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It looks absurd I should have taken a picture, but I was too, uh, angry

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and embarrassed to, to do that.

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So I get home, and I finally get into the elevator, and the elevator's

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got a mirror in it, and I look in the elevator, and I'm like, "Oh.

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Oh, Jesus.

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Oh, Jesus.

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What hath God wrought?

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What hath God wrought?"

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So I go in.

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I get in my apartment, and I go in the bathroom.

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I rinse it down to make the, the waterfall Conan O'Brien thing go

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away, and then I, you know, assess the damage, and it's not horrible damage.

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It's shorter than I would have liked.

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It's shorter than Estie would have liked because she liked the long hair.

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She thought it was very stylish, which I don't understand because

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it literally was a lack of style.

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So maybe that's a style.

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Anyway, it's not as bad as I thought it was.

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It's not great.

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I mean, at least I don't have to get it cut again for a while.

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I mean, I'm not going to.

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Maybe I'll wait till Christmas now.

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I will.

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I will wait till Christmas.

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It would be nice to find a haircutter here.

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I mean, at h- some point I'm going to have to find a barber or haircutter here

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that I can trust because these beautiful locks of mine need the utmost attention.

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If you knew me, you'd know how realist- how ridiculous this whole thing is

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'cause I don't have that much hair.

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But when you don't have that much hair, y- maybe you're more fixated on it.

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You know, nobody else notices when you're having a bad hair day.

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Do you know that?

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Almost never.

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Do, uh, does anybody else but you notice when you're having a,

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quote-unquote, "bad hair day"?

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It's a true story.

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But you notice, and it's oftentimes all you can think about is that

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my hair looks ridiculous today.

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I mean, today I was having a bad hair day, and I'm convinced that many people

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noticed that my hair was looking absurd as I was walking home from the barbershop.

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Like, it's embarrassing to walk out of a barbershop with that on your head.

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I mean, honestly.

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You would think that they wouldn't want that to happen.

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It'd be bad advertising

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This is yet another CDMX dispatch.

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What does that mean?

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That means that I'm just going to ramble here for a while.

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Hopefully, it'll be entertaining and/or engaging and/or, I mean, even

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if you get angry at it at this point or if it makes you afraid, like

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maybe that's even better, right?

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Because If we've learned anything in this political age of ours, it's that

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the worst emotions you can elicit are the most profitable emotions.

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Whatever that means in terms of this podcast, I have no

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idea, but there you have it.

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Speaking of politics, and I'm very sorry in advance, for the last, let's say,

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three, two months, I have been getting bombarded, if you will, number one, with

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text message campaigning from Ohio, which is where my home address is listed as.

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So nonstop.

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And even if you write stop, they don't stop.

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And I've been three to four a day of these messages.

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And it makes me hate politics even more.

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If you're listening to this, please stop.

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And please don't ask me for money.

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I got a message from Vote Blue the other day asking me for a donation

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for Elizabeth Warren's campaign.

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Are you fucking kidding me?

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Are you kidding me?

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Do you have any idea how much money is going to be spent on this

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election alone in the United States?

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An obscene amount.

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A truly disgusting and obscene amount of money is going to

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be spent on this election.

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And I'm getting text messages asking me to give some of my money to Elizabeth

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Warren to help her get elected?

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What have you done?

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What have any of you done to make the country better in the last 10, 20 years?

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It triggers me when these politicians ask for money.

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It triggers me because the system is so corrupt with money

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that like, are you kidding me?

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You want me to flush, you want me to hand my hard-earned money to you

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to flush down the toilet, the media political complex that just, ugh,

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sorry, getting on my high horse.

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Where else is there, Jef?

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Oh, I know, I know.

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But I've also been fed these posts on social media of all

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sorts, YouTube, Instagram.

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I've seen it on all of these.

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It's these videos from celebrities in the United States.

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I think there was a Julia Louis-Dreyfus in one of them.

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Conan O'Brien did one.

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A bunch of celebrities, fairly well-known celebrities doing these

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messages, essentially begging expats to vote in the next election.

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And first off, the number of times I've been fed these ads is also very obnoxious.

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Like, I get it.

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I heard you the first time and the 10th time.

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Beyond that, though, did we not learn that putting, you know,

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elite celebrities up there as the spokespeople for the Democratic

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Party is perhaps not a great idea?

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Did we learn nothing?

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It turns me off to see these people shilling for, and let's not pretend

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this isn't a Democratic thing.

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Of course, it's Democratic.

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More expats to vote.

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Expats generally vote Democratic.

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Yada, yada, yada.

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I tell you, it's like nobody ever learns anything.

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You know?

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It's like if you don't remember history, you're doomed to repeat it.

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We're not for remembering things that happened literally two years ago.

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I don't know who's gonna win this election.

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It looks like the Democrats are gonna do well.

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Who knows?

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Honestly, yes, I understand that this is a consequential election in some ways

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with the man we have in the Oval Office.

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Yes, I get it, but do I believe that things will change much at all if the

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Democrats take over the House and Senate?

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I do not.

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Why does everybody hate the government right now?

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Why is the approval rating of the House and Senate, I think,

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as low as it's ever been?

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Because you're not doing anything, because you're corporate shills acting

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on behalf of your biggest donors.

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That is why

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onefjef the podcast es una revelación divina A large spider has chosen

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to make its web on my terrace.

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It chose this probably three weeks ago now.

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It's been there.

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It's a big spider.

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It's not a dangerous spider.

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At least I don't think it is.

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I tell Estee it's not dangerous because-- but I don't think it is.

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I think I, I looked it up.

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It's not dangerous.

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But it's made a very impressive web on my porch, and it's not really in the

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way, so I've kinda let it go, and bugs, you know, spiders rather very good to

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get rid of bugs and, you know, there's mosquitoes here, so it's good to not have.

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I was calling the spider a him for a while, but I looked it up

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and now apparently the spiders you see on webs right in the middle,

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those are almost always females.

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The male spiders are usually cowering in the side.

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True story.

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I guess they tap the web gently to see if the mate-- female wants

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to, the female wants to mate.

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Like, they just kinda go tap, tap, tap.

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"Excuse me.

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Uh, uh, excuse me.

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Uh, do you, uh, have an ape- No?

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Okay." Yeah.

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Anyway, this female spider, who I've named the Spanish word for spider

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as the spider's name, but I don't remember the Spanish word for spider,

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so you're gonna have to look it up.

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This female spider, very beautiful spider, uh, I went out one time,

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and there was another spider in like the corner of the web.

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And I was like, "Oh, maybe she found a boyfriend or

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something." But so I let it go.

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You know, took some pictures.

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And then a little ways, I don't know, maybe a week or so after that, I

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don't know if it was the same male spider, but another spider had moved

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in and decided to build another spider web, like near the other ones.

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And I'm thinking, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is not spider web

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town." Like, the female was probably like, "Hey, guys. Come on in." No, no, no, no.

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So I took care of the other web.

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One web is all.

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This is not a spider, uh, habitat, my terrace.

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One spider.

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Also, I should try to remem- memorize the Spanish word for

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spider, because it's somewhat embarrassing and, and, and offensive,

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uh, as well for that spider to…

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I don't know, I don't know her name.

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I don't know her name.

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And it's not like Spidero.

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Anyway, so that's real excitement on the porch.

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Speaking of porch or terrace, I was out there today just wandering

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around, minding my own business, and I was leaning on the edge, and I just

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look over and, oh, look who's there.

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Uh, Pepe.

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Pepe the squirrel just peeked her head out right there, right next

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to my hand, like right there.

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And I was like, "Oh. Well, hello. Where, you know, where have you

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been?" I didn't say this out loud, but I thought it Pepe didn't respond.

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Pepe just kept getting closer to me.

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Pepe really thinks that I am the avocado man of the entire neighborhood.

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Like, it's somewhat creepy.

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Pepe hasn't been around for a while, but Pepe showed up back and fiercely.

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Like, I went into the house 'cause Pepe was getting too aggressive.

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I have this effect on a lot of female squirrels.

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And I closed the door, and Pepe's still, like, on the chair staring at me.

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Just staring.

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Just staring.

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She also lounged on the railing for a while.

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That was cute.

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Anyway, Pepe's fine, and Pepe didn't last long.

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Once Pepe realized that I was not going to give her any more

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avocados, she scurried away to look for love elsewhere, I suppose.

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So lots of excitement on the terrace lately.

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So much excitement on the terrace

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Only about 0.6% of the population of Mexico was born in the United States.

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0.6%. This is as of 2020, so let's say even like 0.8% now, right?

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1% we'll round up.

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In the United States, it's like three or 4% people living in

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the US were born in Mexico.

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And of the 1% of Americans that live in Mexico right now, the majority

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of them are not even retirees or expats or immigrants or whatever.

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They're US-born first-generation Mexicans who have family here and move

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back here because of their family.

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So the reality is, if you do the math like this, quote-unquote, "expat problem,"

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this immigrant problem in Mexico City that so many expat immigrants are coming

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here to and ruining everything, it's such a small percentage of the population.

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Like at this point, we're talking about of the expats or immigrants here

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that are American-born that are not related to somebody in Mexico, it's

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probably like 0.3 or 0.4%, if that, of the entire population of Mexico.

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How many of those are in Mexico City?

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I don't know.

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Probably the majority, but still, this is a very small amount.

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But everybody wants somebody to be angry at and to point fingers

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at, and it's very easy for humans to point fingers at the outsider.

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We do it everywhere in the world.

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Hatred of the immigrant, finger-pointing at the immigrant, it goes on everywhere.

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It's the-- one of the oldest stories, right?

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It's another one of the stories we can't seem to shake because we keep doing it.

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You know, we're all like, "Oh, they treated the Irish horribly when they got

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to the United States," but we're, we're literally doing almost the same thing

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now with Mexicans and whatever else.

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And of course, there's different reasons to dislike the, you know, the American,

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the United States, the gringos here.

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They have the money and da, da, da.

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But it-- you're always gonna find a reason to dislike the foreigner.

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It's just human nature.

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This is what we do.

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This is what the brains do If we could just stop and understand that this

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is what our brains do, so then say, "Well, maybe I shouldn't be doing it.

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Maybe if I can recognize the, the human nature of this feeling, then I can

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then resist it and reject it," because the fire is being fanned by the media.

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The media knows this, and they can… You know, they put a few

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coals under there and just fan them for a bit, and then everybody's

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pissed off about the foreign people.

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They're the problem.

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It's not what's going on.

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It's not the politicians.

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It's not the people in this country.

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The problems, all the murder and all the bad stuff, that comes from the

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people, the, the, the immigrants.

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I'm not saying that it's a different narrative for the United States and,

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and Mexico, but you see what I'm saying.

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All the problems I have, I can't get an apartment because of the gringos.

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I, uh, drugged him.

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It's always something, 'cause it's easier to blame people from another country

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than it is to blame your own country that you're literally sitting on your

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couch eating Doritos, watching a hockey game or something in your basement.

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Barely talk to your wife anymore.

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Sometimes you just sleep in the basement because you don't wanna deal with the

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arguments that happen every time you go up into the bedroom and talk to her.

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She… You don't really know what happened

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It's only been three or four years, and when you first met, you were so in love.

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It was like poetry.

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I remember thinking that.

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Even said it to each other.

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It was like your, your little joke.

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Poetry.

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We're poetry.

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Yeah, and then we got-- you got married, and slowly but surely, things just

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started to peter and peter and peter.

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It's hard to ask somebody how they're doing every single

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day and get the same answer.

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It's boring.

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It's hard to hear the same stories over and over and over.

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It's frustrating.

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It's irritating even.

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It's hard to see a person and their bad habits in front of you and

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know you have your own bad habits and see it reflected back to you.

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It's hard.

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But that, I think, is love, right?

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I think if you're able to take a step back and see beyond the frustration,

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the irritating, and you can turn these things into things that you, that you

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love, that you love about this person

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Anyway, gringos aren't the problem.

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That's my point.

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Gringos are not the problem

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There are many stereotypes of American expats or immigrants or whatever you

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wanna call them, gringos, here in Mexico.

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Some of them are accurate, and some of them are not.

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Some of them I go out of my way to not reflect or perpetuate because when I

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encounter a group of Americans here in Mexico City, I get annoyed usually.

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I mean, I, I get irritated because usually when you encounter a group of Americans,

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you n- know that they're American because they're talking very loudly,

:

and I don't really understand this.

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This is a stereotype that holds across countries.

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Every country you go to, generally speaking, there

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will be loud Americans there.

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I don't consider myself a loud American, and I think many people

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can probably attest to this.

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I'm not just saying this.

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I, I think it's true So I am entitled to talk about it.

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I'm allowed.

:

Okay.

:

If anybody has any insight as to why American tourists are generally, and

:

expats and so on and so forth, are so loud, I would be interested in

:

that insight, onefjefpod@gmail.com, because I really have no idea.

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Estee and I were at a bakery this past weekend, um, getting some baked

:

goods, and it's a gringo bakery.

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There's a lot of businesses here in Roman Norte and Condesa cater to gringos.

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This bakery apparently used to be, and still is, I mean, it wasn't bad, but

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for some reason, certain businesses get on the radar of gringos, and so

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you go to these places and you see mostly gringos, which is what we saw

:

in line at this bakery, mostly gringos.

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More gringos than I've seen in one place for quite a while, actually.

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Very strange, 'cause you would think that if Mexicans aren't going

:

there, then maybe it's not good.

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I mean, Estee's Mexican, so she was there, but still.

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Anyway, lots of gringos.

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And we were standing in line, and there was this group of four Americans,

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I'm gonna assume based on the accent, American women probably in their

:

20s or early 30s, standing right in front of basically where the line is.

:

So we assume they were in the line.

:

And of course they're doing, "Oh my God, have you been to this place?

:

Oh my God.

:

Oh, what's it like with Frankie?

:

Is it weird to work with him and also be your boyfriend?

:

Oh my God.

:

Oh my God, have you heard they have feta cheese at Walmart?

:

Oh my God, I love feta cheese." It's a lot.

:

And you think I'm exaggerating, but I'm really… I am a

:

little bit, but not too much.

:

And of course they're loud, so everybody can hear around what

:

they're, what they're talking about.

:

After about 10 minutes, five, 10 minutes, one of the women looks to us and is like,

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"Oh, we're not in line. Sorry." And, like, we'd been standing there for a while.

:

And it's like, w- what, what, what are you… It's not all

:

Americans here that I dislike.

:

It's those kind of Americans, those loud, inconsiderate, self-absorbed Americans.

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I cannot with that.

:

I cannot.

:

And it makes it embarrassing to be an American near them, 'cause

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you feel like there's guilt by association to a degree, right?

:

So I should be like, start a fe- I could be like, "Oh, I do not

:

like those girls." I should start speaking French or something.

:

And I feel bad for Estee sometimes because she gets mistaken for an

:

American because of her adjacency to me.

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Sorry about that, Estee.

:

And that's going to do it for this episode of onefjef.

:

Thank you for listening.

:

I hope you enjoyed it, and I also hope you'll go to patreon.com/onefjef

:

and sign up for my Patreon page for as little as 500… 500, phew.

:

For as little, for as little as $5 a month, you yourself and your

:

wonderful humanness can help support this independent podcast and feel

:

good about yourself for doing so, and also get access to some extra content,

:

more of which will be coming soon.

:

I'm gonna put some pictures of, uh, Dia de los Muertos up there once

:

it happens, which is this weekend.

:

Uh, I might do an episode about it too, so we'll see.

:

So please do go there and sign up.

:

It's nice to get paid for this, you know?

:

patreon.com/onefjef.

:

Thank you very much, and thank you as always to my

:

continuing Patreon subscribers.

:

I love you very much.

:

And also hello and a big onefjef Nation welcome to our

:

newest Patreon subscriber, Joe.

:

I don't know if you want me to use your last name, so I

:

will not use your last name.

:

If it's important to you, then let me know, and I'll say your

:

whole name on the next episode.

:

Who doesn't like to have their whole name said on a episode of a podcast?

:

I mean, some people probably do.

:

Anyway, thank you, Joe.

:

Appreciate you.

:

And, uh, be like Joe, everyone.

:

Sign up for onefjef Patreon page, patreon.com/onefjef.

:

Ooh, if you want to contact the podcast, meaning me, that email

:

address is onefjefpod@gmail.com.

:

What you should do is you should follow the podcast on Instagram, @onefjefpod.

:

That's @onefjefpod.

:

Or if you're feeling saucy or sassy, sassy and saucy, you can call and

:

leave a voicemail on the onefjef voicemail line at 1-669-241-5882

:

That's 1-669-241-5882.

:

I may play your voicemail on the air, just like the voicemail you

:

heard earlier in this podcast, at the very beginning, that is.

:

You can go back and listen now if you'd like.

:

And I will end this episode with a quote by the late, great Hunter S. Thompson.

:

"The main problem in any democracy is that crowd pleasers are generally brainless

:

swine who can go out on a stage and whoop their supporters into an orgiastic

:

frenzy, then go back to the office and sell every one of the poor bastards

:

down the tube for a nickel apiece."

:

God bless him.

:

I'll see you next week.

:

Very good, Jeffrey

About the Podcast

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onefjef
Expat life in Mexico City: interviews and solo dispatches about language, culture, and what it really feels like to leave your life behind and move to CDMX.

About your host

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Jef Taylor

Jef Taylor is an editor, filmmaker, and reluctant grown-up. He hosts onefjef, where he talks to people (and sometimes himself) about work, purpose, and the strange ways life unfolds. Before podcasting, he spent years shaping other people’s stories—now he’s telling his own.