Mexico 2025 # Casa Nolia - Home sweet home (Patreon)

I already wrote in this section about finding a home. About how we arrived in Mexico, did the paperwork, and started searching for a place where we’d live for at least next six months while waiting for the visa.

Sounds calm. It wasn’t. It was more like a survival quest with suitcases.

And finally, after a long search, we found our house. It’s almost called Casa Julia - you just need to change two letters. Casa Nolia. I decided it’s either a sign or a compromise.

Saying I was happy doesn’t even begin to cover it. After living out of a suitcase, constantly moving, never staying anywhere longer than a month or two, even when it was “home” - having a place where you can actually unpack and not think about packing again felt like luxury on an emotional level.

Fully unpacking a suitcase. Fully. That felt almost intimate.

This house immediately felt the most cozy and alive. Not like an Airbnb where you’re scared to sit wrong, but like a place where someone actually lived and left a bit of their soul in it. And during this time, I really started to feel at home. I built my little family here, became the person in charge of the kitchen, and even almost started going to the ocean as often as I used to imagine. Almost is the key word.

I never understood people in Odesa who “don’t go to the sea”. Like how is that even possible. It’s literally right there. You living in a city with the sea within arm's reach and you don't go there? What's wrong with you?

Now I get it.

When the ocean is a 10–15 minute walk away, you just… don’t go.

There’s always something “more important”. It becomes background. Like Wi-Fi. It’s there, but you stop noticing it. And you only start valuing it when it feels temporary.

And here’s the funny part. The moment we got our first visa approval, I suddenly started seeing everything differently. Cabo. The house. The ocean. Everything felt temporary. Like something that could be taken away. And I was like: oh, hi life, I see you now. I wanted to go out more, walk to the water, sit in cafes, talk to people, just wander around.

Classic. You only fall in love with something when you’re about to lose it.

The brain is brilliant.

But this post isn’t exactly about that. It’s just pieces of life in Casa Nolia. And this life is still happening. I don’t know when it will end, but I’m not rushing it. I’m trying to actually live through this period and not sleep through it. And to photograph it. Us frying little pies. Taking a taxi to some random place. Our gardener cleaning dry palm leaves while I watch and realize he’s more organized than I am. Me drinking tea and catching my reflection in some distorted half-mirror surface and thinking - okay, that’s also me, just slightly surreal. Cactuses. Beach. Dead fish. Shower.

This is what life looks like) And right now, I really like it.