Personal Hygiene in Mexico

There are a few things I have had to adjust to in Mexico. The personal hygiene aspects have been the biggest. Here, you obviously cannot drink the tap water under any circumstance. The locals here dont even drink the water. They all have drinkable filtered water delievered to their homes. Eating salads is very iffy. Anything that is washed in tap water can make you sick, so this includes the mojority of fruits and vegetables. Soup is ok if the water has been boiled. The street food often involves some tap water, because of this we refuse to eat any food from the street vendors. Some people have warned us about having ice in our drinks, but none of us have had problems with that. I brush my teeth and wash my hands with the tap water. That is it. When you go the the bathroom here, there are waste baskets next to the toilet for your toilet paper. The plumbing here is so bad that even toilet paper can cause problems. Taking a shower is definately different. My shower barely has water pressure (if I can even call it 'pressure') I am pretty sure the water just falls out. This makes it difficult to take quick showers, which you need to learn to do here. Otherwise, you will run out of warm (not hot) water. My first day, I actually did not get to take a shower because their hot and cold knobs are backwards here. So, I sat there waiting for the cold water to warm up for 10 minutes. I passed up the shower idea. I was not about to shower in freezing cold water. I later asked my host mom what was wrong with the shower, and I realized how silly I looked when she told me about the knobs. I have grown acustomed to showering in the middle of the day after comida (lunch). I never thought this would be my daily routine, but it gets so hot here! Showering in the middle of the day after a sweaty walk home is more refreshing.