Siente se, por favor...

The first time it happens, you think it's just a fluke.  You get on a crowded subway car and a man looks at you from his seat, stands, and says "siente se, por favor."  (please, be seated).  And you wonder...do I look really old or extremely exhausted?  But you take the seat, naturally  First of all, you WANT the seat, and secondly, it would be insulting to say no.  People are polite here.  They say good morning, good afternoon, good evening.  They ask how you are, and listen when you tell them.  They say please, thank you, enjoy your meal.  They ask your name, and tell you their names.  They shake your hand.

So, after a few weeks in this country, you are no longer surprised when a gentleman offers you his seat on the subway, or a bus.  You start to learn to say "con permisso" when you want to get in front of someone, or "passole" when you step aside to allow them to go ahead of you.  Sometimes, the narrow sidewalks become a little dance of politeness...passole...no usted passole....no usted....until finally one of you takes the plunge and goes ahead.

It is the same on the road. For such a huge, traffic-clogged city you rarely hear the blaring of a car horn.  Many of the busy streets have no traffic lights or even stop signs.  Being from New York, I imagined the streets would be chaotic, with accidents, beeping horns, swearing, and even fistfights.  Right before I came to Mexico, I was in the parking lot of my local drugstore.  A lot of cars were in line for the drive-through window.  One guy tried to get ahead of another.  Both men ended up screaming the most obscene words in the language, oblivious to me and the senior citizens I was with ( one using a walker).  The men actually got out of their cars to fight each other.  I called 911.  That kind of behavior is typical in the northeast of the United States.

Here in Mexico City, traffic moves a lot more slowly than it does on the parkways near New York City, but it moves.  People let each other merge into  the lane where traffic is moving.  Police officers stop traffic so that one person can cross the street.  "Gracias," I always tell them.  "De nada...." they reply..."it's nothing..."  But, to me, it's a lot.