Part 4.3 El bocho

Hi again guys,

I’ll make this chapter a bit shorter, because nothing too special happened and I’ve got some schoolwork to do. I will briefly tell about my fifth (!!!) week here in Guadalajara and also add some pics of my new car, Firebeetle.

Monday the 23.8 didn’t start too well, because I heard about the tragedy not until this morning in the school. There was no guessing in what was the most common subject to talk about on that day. Everything else went pretty normally, we had another political and history lesson in course “Doing business in Mexico”. I know it’s important to know about historical backgrounds before focusing on the business issues, but for three weeks? Well we had the expo visit in the between, which was fun. Hopefully it will get more interesting in the next week.

The rest of the week went also rreeeeaaally quickly with sports and school stuff. The agenda of this week was to buy a car for myself and open up a bank account. The opening of a a bank account didn’t go too smoothly, because you need all kinds papers to prove your existence here. The first time I didn’t have a correct proof of address, and when I the next day tried again with a phone bill including the right address, it still wasn’t okay. Reason: Only gas and electricity bills are approved in proofing your address, phone bill don’t do the trick. Should’ve known it.

The car buying went smoother. I had one criterion, which was the color. The car couldn’t be white. I went with my Mexican friend to look some cars first on Wednesday, but none of them really catched my eye (yes, looks is obviously most important). I had two very good cars on mind, which both were special versions of the normal beetle and looked really cool! On Friday we went finally to see one of those cars, and I felt really satisfied with the looks and the driving. Here’s a picture of it:


Because many other people wanted to buy the car also, we decided to lock our decision and buy the car! I think it was a pretty good deal until we were driving with my friends to a bar on the very same night, and suddenly the motor started to keep an enormous voice. The sound was like straight from a Harley-Davidson, but with double noise. Well we just left the car by another friend’s house, and went to see it with my Mexican cousin the next day.

STOP: A little info from Kimbo

Carnalism

In Mexico the friendships are much closer and they seem to have a bigger meaning to especially for the younger people than for example in Finland. Very good friends are often named as brothers or other relatives, even though there is no actual blood relation. The friends have often an own way to speak to each other and also in other behavior. They for example call only their “brothers” as “carnals” or do some own handshake/hug with them. I found if first pretty funny, but they actually take it pretty seriously and it just tells something about the Mexican lifestyle. Diego’s uncle, Paco, also wanted me to be his cousin so I just got my first relative here, whoa.

If you want to get a better picture of this, I recommend you to watch “Sangre por Sangre” (eng. “Blood in Blood out”).
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However, Paco was able to find the problem pretty quickly and he got the thing fixed. It was some kind of gasoline injection pipe that wasn’t well attached to the motor, so that the gasoline was exploding in the motor I think too much. We took the car today also to a car workshop and it should we working good finally. Hopefully there will not be too many updates on the condition of my car in the future posts.

The weekend went relatively peacefully besides the car episode, went out with friends on nights, but only some movie watching/beer drinking business etc. Could have gone out, but didn’t find the bar on Saturday (28.8) that I was looking for: 130 pesos (8.5euros) to get in, but all the drinks and beers were free. Maybe it was a good things that I didn’t find the bar, you never know..

This was my blog update this time. I spare my cultural jibberish of Mexico to the next posts, when I have more time. We have our first partial exams already coming, jaiks! Don’t want to stress too much about them, though, because I heard you get really easily graded here and we don’t get any numbers anyway in Finland from them. Thanks for reading and feel free to post comments!

Peace.

Part 4.2 Undertows in Manzanilla (and Michuagan)

Part 2 is about our trip to Manzanilla during weekend 21.-22.8. It was a pretty short trip for that long driving, but I really think it was worth it!

We left on Saturday morning to la Manzanilla (not Manzanillo) in Costa Alegre, a beach town in the west coast of Mexico that was said to have peaceful, cool beaches that weren’t packed with tourists. Its located on the west coast of Mexico, as shown below.

La Manzanilla on map

The road there wasn’t really the fastest one and we snaked through the mountains all together for like 4.5 hours (1 hour stops). The length didn’t bother me too much because of the magnificent scenery that lasted the whole trip and of course because of good company. Here’s a typical pic of Mexican countryside.

Mountain side view

The actual town of la Manzanilla was just the way that I had imagined. All the action was focused basically on the main road, on which the hostels, bars and all the shops were concentrated. We of course asked for a place to stay with a cheap price and we first went to see a hostel that cost about 1 euro per night. The place was worth exactly its price so we decided to find another one (the owner didn’t want us to live there either I think). Next we found a really good and tidy place and we stayed there for 8 euro per night per person. The name of the hotel was Topala and I really recommend it to all people visiting the place.

We were very lucky with the weather in Manzanilla. The first day it was so hot, that with only sitting in the shade and drinking cold beer you would get sweaty. The difference to Guadalajara was actually surprisingly big and it was obviously caused by the sea and 1500 meters difference in altitude.

Our main focus was to get to the sea. The waves were surprisingly big and especially the strong undertow of returning water made it feel like we're floating on a moving ocean. Here’s few pics of the beach.

Oh boy..

¿Comprende?

Dont worry, the sea wasn’t too dangerous to swim there, and we had a good time just relaxing and having a relaxing time. However, everyone else weren't that lucky. I will discuss that on the next chapters called.

The bad news section: 223 -> 222

The undertows were apparently even bigger in another town in Mexico, in Michoacán, where a local student association group held a big camping trip. Around 180 international students were partying on a beach, where the currents and waves were really dangerous. Some people still went just to walk in the sea, and it resulted to one French girl missing from Friday afternoon. The missing wasn’t first taken seriously and there was only minor searching in the beach on Friday night in the dark. The first organized searching to find her wasn’t started until Saturday morning and on Saturday afternoon she was found dead by the Mexican army, either drowned or smashed to the cliffs nearby the beach. The whole episode was a real disaster and I heard so many bad words about the organization team. I heard that many other people were also really close from drowning and they were saved by their friends in the last second.

I didn’t know the girl, but some of my school friends knew her and it touched them obviously a lot. The student group already held a ceremony for the girl, and some actions from Tec are also expected.

I have to add news from Puerto Vallarta, where a hand grenade was “accidentally” blown, causing a death to 1 person and injuries to 20. This kind of news really tells you the bad situation that Mexico is in, with all the gang wars and corruption. Guadalajara is safe place to live and all these kind of news seem really distant from us. However, Puerto Vallarta was also considered as a safe city, so you never know what’s going to happen next.

I could explain more about the horrible news here, but I rather focus on telling the positive memories that I have here in Mexico. A exhange student friend of mine has told a bit more about the big problems considering Mexico, u can visit his blog here.

Note to self : Eyes open and don't drink too much Tequila.

However, on Sunday 22.8 we just drove around Costa Alegre and went to a different beach with remarkably smaller and nicer waves. The city itself was really empty of people and the reason for that revealed when we arrived at the beach. Literally everyone was just chilling out in the beach and drinking Tequila in the middle of the day. Maybe it was partly because it was Sunday, but no-one seemed to try to do absolutely anything, which is very different for people in the similar economic condition in Asia. The same situation was occurring in the local towns. The landscape was really beautiful and it’s seemed like a really potential area for tourism. However, it seemed like a missed opportunity, because the majority of the bigger hotels there were abandoned, ruined, or half-constructed. A big reason for this was the earthquake of 1984 that was really disastrous for the local houses and hotels, but anyway it feels really sad to see the hotels still in the same condition.

Another finding was that all the ladies in the town were more fat on average than e.g. in Guadalajara, which really reflected their style of living. I don’t want to generalize, but it seems that in Mexico the poorer people are generally living a much unhealthier lifestyle than the rich people, who generally make a big effort on their looks and health. Maybe it’s because of social dichotomy (yes, I googled that word) that rich are very rich and the poor are very poor. The rich want to look better than the poor people and that’s why they exercise more and eat healthier.

Above said, I’ll give the poor Mexicans a valuable tip. Try harder. We’ve talked quite a lot on the economic situation of Mexico, and it seems that the social system and deeply rooted habits prevent Mexico from revealing its true potential. A problem like that is extremely hard to solve, because it is related to everything and people are accustomed to it. For example, the police are corrupted here, and instead of getting bills, you pay them bribe money. The government tries to eliminate this by making the punishments of drunk-driving much bigger, but actually it just gives more power to the police to ask for more bribe money. The real answer would be to affect to people’s mind, and especially among those people, who can motivate also other to do the same. This means that you should primarily the chief officers, who currently enable the current situation to occur. That’s a hard nut to crack, because they have a lot of power and such proposition to eliminate corruption would most probably have a negative effect on their benefits and income. Good luck with that.

Urgh, I constantly get lost from my actual story of our trip to la Manzanilla. Anyway we had a little bummer on our way back to Guadalajara on Sunday afternoon. The road was full of big holes and our Swiss driver accidentally drove into one, causing the tire to explode. The spare tire was in bad condition, so we had to find a place to change the old one. Luckily a friendly family stopped by behind our car and told us the route to a place nearby (which was owned by his brother, what a coincidence!). After the fixing operation of some 2 hours, we could finally continue our trip back to Gdl, this time in the dark. We took it really cautiously, and it took all together like 6.5-7 hours to finally get to the city, at 2am. All in all, a really good trip that I really enjoyed. More of these please!

This is the end of chapter 2 of this update, hope you liked it :). Chapter 3 is about my next week until today (23.-29.8) and I'll try to pop it out soon enough. This time I added my views of Mexico in between the chapters and I don't know whether the text is too hard to follow up now. You guys can comment on that!

Part 4.1 Kickin, trickin, shittin + some school stuff

Hi guys

It’s been one week again from my last post and much has happened since then. Just noticed also that it has been over a month year in Guadalajara.. Oh my god how fast the time goes by here. I love it! Also some bad things happened so far, I’ll write about them in the text. For making it easier to comment, I decided to divide this mega-update into 3 partitions, named 4.1,4.2 and 4.3. Hope you find it conventional, enjoy!

This blog story starts from the beginning of my third school week starting on Monday the 16^th of August. I’ll also add some of my experiences about the local climate and the macho culture of Latin America!

The beginning of the week started off pretty normally with some sports (gym, tricking, capoeira) and a lot of classes.

STOP: A little info from kimbo

Tricking

I have had to explain my sports hobby nearly as many times as the letters of my name so I think it’s time to write something about it also in here.

Tricking is a newly-founded sport which has developed from martial arts and different dances. It combines gymnastic moves with some martial arts kicks and also some moves from break dancing or capoeira. A really good local tricker from back in Tampere is Vellu Saarela, who trains in the same place that I used to. He’s considered to be one of the best in the sport so far and at least I got loads of appreciation for him.

Here's a clip to Vellu's newest video to get an idea what I'm talking about.

As said, tricking is a really new sport that still is pretty unknown. Internet and YouTube has helped it to become more popular and actually the whole things started just by some guys posting videos of their tricks on YouTube. Other cool trickers besides Vellu are Daniel Graham, Anis Cheufra, Jeremy Martinas, Mike Guthrie just to name a few. Check out their clips on YouTube (by searching their names), you’ll be impressed!

I went to my first acrobatic course in my school in Tampere in just under 2 years ago, but for around 6 months I couldn’t do pretty much anything because of my ancle injury and my living in Taiwan. The last year in Tampere I was officially in a “adult-gymnastic” group doing different kind of gymnastic moves, but I also did some tricking there also. I’m still super-bad at it, but trying to get better all the time.

I’ve found tricking a freaking hard sport to do, because it requires much body control, flexibility and strength (in addition to mental insanity), all of which I don’t have too much. However, I feel that it’s a good sport for me, mostly just because I’m like 1.5 meters long. So far I LOVE it, but have got some difficulties to find too many other trickers here in Guadalajara.

Capoeira

Capoeira is also a martial arts-like sport, but it's more of an art form, where two capoeiristas dance - or battle - with - or against - each other. It's more like an dance art that combines elements from martial arts, dance and music. The origen of capoeira isn't truly known, but it's said that it all started in Africa by the slaves. They weren't allowed to fight with each other, so they disguised the fight as a rhytmical dance and the guards couldn't stop them from doing it. The musical part is strongly affected by its origin and the dance includes different special instruments, like shown below:

I've done capoeira only for 3 weeks for now, so can't really tell too much info about it (except when copypasteing from wikipedia). I like it so far very much and I can train my non-existing kicking skillz with it. An example of capeoira dance is shown here.

Well, actually I had only 3 classes for 75mins, but that’s pretty rough for a exchange student right? Anyway, fun things happened when I was walking home in the school parking lot at about 21. Ray, a Mexican friend of mine saw me walking and offered me a ride home. I greeted and everything was cool until we got to his car. Then he suddenly looked at me, and realized that I was not Rouven, a German friend of ours, to who he had promised a ride home. Well he did a nice thing and drove me to the half way, where I did my other everyday habit: ate some good-ass tacos. I tried both tacos the lenguas (whole tongues) and tacos the tripas (intestines) for the first time. They both were very good.

On Tuesday 17.8 I did some capoeira which I also like very much. I want to learn it more for now tho, my “battling” looks pretty tragicomic at the moment. Besides capoeira I did the first squat training of my life. Result: 2 days of pain and stiffness.

Wednesday morning woke up at six and headed for the migration office for the second for the second time. It actually opens at 9am, but there is a hell of a queue every day and you really want to be there on time. Well, I arrived at the place at 8.15, got a reserve queue ticket and was in a good position. A little setback came when I arrived to the actual desk, because I had taken a wrong ticket and couldn’t naturally hand in my papers on this desk. I got a new number from the end of the line and started to wait for the desk next to the first one. The whole place is a real mega-hassle and I tried to capture it with my superb camera:

The place and was such a complete hassle that I actually found it pretty hilarious. I didn’t want to stress about it tho, and just went to buy some fruits and walk in the nearby parks on the waiting. I got to the desk after some 3 hours of more waiting and after a little more hassle and lack of information management I actually finally got my student Visa for the whole year. It can’t get any better than this, chido we!!!

On Thursday and Friday I had just normal school stuff. We also visited a big furniture expo here in Guadalajara, which was actually a pretty good experience. We were the only non-Mexican visitors there and everybody else were wearing business casual+, when we came there with shorts and slippers. We were supposed to interview the companies and figure out the way and the reasons that the companies are producing/importing/exporting their stuff to/from Mexico. Anyway it was pretty fun, as you can see from the pics.

School stuff

Mexican furniture?

Got some papers, must smile!

A screaming and a wondering man

I tried also to get a car already on this week and actually found a one really good looking. Too bad that Diego’s uncle, who was supposed to come with me to see/buy the car, wasn’t able to come on Friday and the car I desired have most probably been sold already by now. On Friday evening went to play some home poker with Diego and my Mexican buddies and had a really good time again! The only negative thing was that we were home not until 3am and had to wake up 6am to drive for 4 hours. But more of that stuff on the next part of this update!

Part 3. 6-15.8. Prisas y fiestas

I've got to know many cool people here in Guadalajara. Therefore I want to continue writing in English, at least for a while :). Maybe next, when I/you get frustrated with my bad writing, I'll switch to Spanish.

This blog entry starts from Friday 6th of August where the last blog entry stopped. I write about the rest of the orientation week and also something on the first actual school week (jaiks!). I'll add once again my thoughts on Mexican culture and focus this time on religion, prices and the art of bargaining, and last and most importantly, my experiences in the busses here in Guadalajara.

The story begins on Friday, when we had a school trip to the city of Tequila. We were supposed to leave at 9am, but at the time we got there, we found out that someone had magically changed the leaving time to 10 am. The busses finally left at 10.30 and we watched a killer movie - The Green Mile (or 1/3 of it) - on our way to Ciudad Tequila. First we went to see a huge Tequila brewery in the city. The tour around the factory with a English speaking (thank God) guide and 3 security guys was really fun and it was interesting to see the manufacturing process of Tequila. I'll just add some little info about it here:

Tequila

Tequila is made from an Agave plant. There are actually over 150 different species of Agave, but Tequila is made only from blue Agave like shown in the first picture below. It's mainly produced in the state of Jalisco, and in my knowledge only small areas in other states have the "right" to produce Tequila. The restriction comes from the right soil, climate and of course the greedy people. It can contain up to 55% alcohol, but nowadays it's rarely made over 45%.

There is three type of Tequila: Tequila blanco, Tequila Reposado and Tequila Añejo. Añejo (and extra Añejo) are considered the best Tequila, because of their smooth taste. I'll explain the differences of them when explaining the manufacturing process.

First the Blue Agave is chopped into pieces, so that the leaves are ripped apart from the main plant. This is shown below:

After the chopping process the plant, or "pinapple" is thrown into an big oven for like 24 hours, where the sugar of the plant will drop into vein. We got actually to taste this "sugar", didn't like it too much :S. The ovens and the "baked" pineapples are shown below:

The sugar of the pineapples will ultimately go to a big canister, where it will be mixed with a right amount of water. This mix will look like this:


When the mixture is right, the sugarwater will be transferred in a pipes to huuuuge, open-air containers, where the liquid will stay for about three days.


After those three days the sugar in the mixture will fragment and become more sour, it will contain about 4-5% alcohol. It's actually pretty similar to a normal beer at this stage and it's called "the must". After this step, the liquid will be transferred into a distillation process, where the actual Tequila is distilled from the other liquids.

The most left bottle shown in the upper picture is the must. It's distilled many times, until the actual Tequila is finally separated. This step is the end of the actual manufacturing process and the liquid contains now approximately 55-60% alcohol. After this you can decide, whether to make Tequila blanco, reposado or añejo. Tequila blanco is bottled right after the manufacturing process with a desired amount of water added. The colour of it will stay transparent. Tequila reposado and añejo will be first taken into big barrels, where they spend a certain amount of time. Tequila reposado has to be over 2 months in a wooden barrel, giving it a gold/bronce colour. Tequila añejo has to be in the barrel for over a year, whereas extra añejo spends over three years in the barrel. They will be also coloured light brown/copper, depending e.g. on the age of the wooden barrel.

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We got to also see the old part of the factory, from 1870s. It was fun to see that even though the equipment is nowadays much more developed, the manufacturing process works on the very same principles and not too much has actually changed. A pleasant experience was naturally the tasting opportunity at the end of the visit! A friend of mine has taken some good pics of the factory and he'll probably upload them soon in hes webpage. You can check it out at www.rouvencanzler.de. Ps. There's also some good photos of our city in the same page :)!

After the factory visit we went to the city to buy some booze. On the way back to the Campus we saw another 2/3 of the film Green Mile. In the evening we had a party at Cherry Lobby which was also arranged by the school. The whole place with its airport-like -security checks was a bit too much for me and we decided to go other bars in that night. All-in-all we had a really good time in other places.

On Saturday 7.8. I woke up late and had a bit headache first (wonder why). In the afternoon we saw a movie "Sangre por Sangre", which was actually pretty good and showed a bit more about the carnalism -culture that is often shown in the streets in Mexico. On Sunday we had a traditional Mexican lunch, which was very nice. In the night we went to see the Inception in the movies. It was sometimes really weird and extravagant, but overall I still liked it and the special effects were really stunning!

The school started on Monday the 8th of August. All of the courses had a typical beginning of telling 10 times not be too much absent and so on. Besides that, there was positive buzz or "pörinä" all the time in the school in general and I was pretty sure that I would enjoy my year studying here at TEC :). I have only 4 courses, which will leave me plenty of free time to get to e.g. know the city and do some sport activities.

I don't have any school on Wednesday, so we decided to go out on Tuesday night also. The place we went into was called WallStreet. It was a bit posh, but still more relaxed than the other clubs we've been to and we had a good time there!

Wednesday was my day off, which I pretty much spent with my friend in chilling at his top-class pool. Thursday I went tricking and swimming after school and I was pretty much done. I was super hungry when I finally got home in the night and wanted to try a fruit never tasted before. It was rather good until I saw a fckn living worm inside the fruit in the middle of it. Wonder how many have I been eaten already..

On Friday 13.8 we went out to a place of 5 French guys. The house was uber nice, but I would've not still want to live only with people from the same country here in Mexico. Well their French, what can you do.. Saturday was another chill day for me, but I still achieved to hurt my pinky when tricking on the nearby grass. That's what happens when you are doing a round-off fulltwist and change your mind in mid-air :S. Well it's not too bad now, and I'll be probably heading to do some more suicidal attempts on tomorrow..

Today I went with a friend of mine to his place to do some school. After that I prepared a typical "Finnish" pasta that I used to make a lot of times back in Tampere for Susana, Diego and el abuelo. I think I did pretty well and they liked the meal a lot :)). In the evening I went to have a birthday dinner with my schoolfriends in a Japanese Sushi place called Nikoy. The place was really good and the sushi rolls were very taestful with a decent price. The best thing was in the end, when they had mexican-style birthday ceremony. The best part of it was after the flame-shot, when Saana - the birthday start - was asked to bite the cake without her hands. Just when she tried to do that, the waitresses pushed her head straight to the cake, bwuhahahahaaa! :D The whole face was just full of the birthday cake and oh boy, how bad we laughed. Later on I heard that that's the tradition here in Mexican restaurants. Luckily she didn't get pissed off from it and we had a good time.

I'll just tell now some viewpoints of mine about the Mexican culture in my series of

Views of Mexico by a local foreigner

Religion

Catholism is the main religion here in Mexico and about 90% of people living here are Roman Catholics. Religion is really, really a much bigger thing here in Mexico. You can hardly see a place or even a car without seeing the cross or some little fresco on the walls or hanging in the windows. As I said in one of my previous posts also, people go often in the church to pray and also make cross signs to their cheasts. I haven't digested myself into too much of this, but it seems that the younger generation isn't too religous anymore or so it at least seems.

The religion plays an important role in Mexicos history too. After the Mexican independence in 1821 the separation between the liberals (later renamed as Partido Revolucianario Institucional, PRI) and the conservatives (Partido Accion National, PAN) was made. The church favored very much the conservatives and before the Revolution in 1911 it had a huge role in people's lives. However, after 1911 the liberals started to be in power and especially after 1929 (when PRI was founded) the leaders started ignore the church. PRI was in power until year 2000, when the concervatives won the election. The church has played again a bigger role after this, because the concervative leaders were more fond of the church.

I heard the story above from our class in Doing Business in Mexico (yes, we talked the whole first two classes about the history, religion and cities of Mexico..). However, I don't know why church plays such a big role after all in Mexico, because the government didn't appreciate it and none of the country leaders never even went into a church between 1928-2000. Maybe the normal people weren't too manipulated from the government, who knows :P.

Prices

Mexico is a cheap country to live in. The everyday things, like milk, bread, tacos, fruits, cost about 1/2 as much as back in Finland and even the living expenses are really low. Besides the cheap food in the markets the restaurants are REALLY cheap in general. Depending on the place, you can have a good meal for 2 euros. Everything is cheaper when you go farther away from tourists or city centrums, as imagined. The things that are ridiculously are all the cakes, donuts and other sweet stuff. You can buy good donuts for 3 pesos, or 20 cents and all the cakes shown in the picture below cost about 60 pesos, or 4 euros.

Some things are of course pretty much the same price as everywhere else, including electronics and good brands. Besides those, the internet or the phone subscriptions are actually pretty expensive and they cost maybe even more than in Finland. Freaking monopolies.. Hey and by the way, why the hell do you have to walk in an actual BANK to pay your bills here. Oh come on, that's so 1990's :S.

Some prices are negotiable, mostly in smaller stores or e.g. with Taxis. You should always ask the price of the trip beforehand, otherwise they will rip you off. I've noticed that the real price is about 30-40% lower than the first price the driver asks. They prices vary quite much, especially with longer trips, and it's very useful to know the route beforehand you go to the taxi. If the taxi can't find the location right away - which quite often is the situation - he will charge you more and it isn't that much negotiable anymore. A good way is also with the taximetro, which isn't usually the cheapest way, but provides a decent price. Sometimes when driving with a taximetro the drivers will purposely go to a wrong direction first or just take a slower route. So again it's good to know the route beforehand :).

La cultura de los camions

I usually take the bus to school, although it would cost only 30 pesos - or 2 euros - with a taxi. There are two reasons: The first is that the bus costs only three pesos for me and it's practically nothing. I have to use 4 busses (or 2 taxis) a day, so it counts up to some euros monthly and it's good to save in something.

Besides the price, the busses are a really good way to get to know the local culture. First of all, the busses don't have any timeschedule. Secondly, there are no official bus stops in most of the places. Instead, there are some places in the middle of the street that have developed into a bus stops and you can't know the beforehand. This has created some troubles for me a few times, when I waved and watched busses go by me for 45 minutes.

Another world is when you get into the bus. In many cases the bus is literally packed with people and sometimes you feel that the only thing that is missing are those little children thrown in the top of all people. And nevertheless how full the bus is, it will always stop for more people, and it isn't only one time that my backpack has jammed between the doors when I've hopped into the bus. It may sound harsh and bad, but it's actually a fun and different culture trip every time you get into the bus. You see every kind of people there and you can really feel the "Latino Heat" coming :D. If you are a girl, the things are not that easy, because i've heard many stories where the guys try to touch the girls in the bus. Not happened to me, YET.

A fun thing is also the design of the drivers space. I think that the drivers can pretty much choose for themselves, how to use and design their nearby place. Many guys have painted the front of the buss after their favorite band or brought some extra widgets to their space. They usually have also some religious stuff besides them or in the front window, but these things vary also a lot. A really bad example of the bus drivers place is down below. I couldn't manage to take a good pic of it :((.


Oh yes, one fun and notable details are the ticket checking persons that I saw once. Instead of that typical image of an old and angry woman or man the ticket checker was a young girl with a miniskirt. Me gusta!

That was my blog entry this time. I hope you liked it and I hope my English didn't sound too bad! :) I'll be writing anytime soon more, I want to tell you guys for example about the climate, music and macho culture of Mexico and Guadalajara.

Hasta Luego!

Kalle (Mexican way: Korle, Karle, Koule, Kole, Kaje etc.)

EDIT: A bit more storiez about the religion. Super interesting text, You'll love it!

Part 2. 30.7 - 5.8. Lomaviikkoa ja vaihtarilätinää

Moro taas kaikille!

En ala pahoittelemaan hidasta päivitystahtiani, sillä 1) se tulee varmasti jossain vaiheessa hidastumaan vielä enemmän ja 2) toistuvat pahoittelut ennustavat usein blogin loppumisen.

Tässä blogientryssä kerron guadalajaran toisen lomaviikkoni lopusta sekä orientaatioviikosta koulussa. Mukaan mahtuu myös pieni infoisku tacoista sekä Guadalajaran kaupungista. Laitan kirjoituksen sekaan taas muutamia kuvia tekstiä värittämään.

En ehtinyt tähän päivitykseen lisätä kaikkea tähän asti tapahtunutta, kuten jo otsikosta käy ilmi. Laitan seuraavan päivityksen orientaatioviikon lopusta sekä kouluviikosta tulemaan toivottavasti parin päivän sisällä, kunhan kaverini saisi vain lähetettyä mulle kuvia reissuista.

30.7-1.8 Lomalomalomaloma

Perjantaina 30.7 illalla menimme Diegon ja Susanna kanssa syömään illalla Meksikolaisten tavaramerkkiä maailmalla, eli tacoja. Paikalliset tacot ovat suomalaisiin sukulaisiinsa verrattuna ainakin puolet pienempiä ja en ollut aikaisemmin maistanut kyseisiä otuksia.


Olin hämmästynyt. Olin ihmeissäni. Tunsin saavuttaneeni seuraavan askeleen tähän asti kestäneessä lyhyessä ihmiselämässäni, josta ei olisi koskaan paluuta. Tacot olivat sanoinkuvaamattoman hyviä, minkä lisäksi niitä pystyi muovaamaan ja maustamaan mitä erilaisimmilla lisukkeilla ja kastikkeilla. YYAAAAAAMMM.


Yleisimpiä kastikkeita on näkyvissä yllä olevassa kuvassa. Kyseessä on usein erilaisia chilisekoituksia, joiden lisäksi tarjotaan lähes aina minun suosikkiani, guacamolea. Edellä mainittujen lisäksi voi tacojen kanssa syödä paistettuja sipuleita sekä muun muassa jalopenoja. Erilaisia tacoja on tarjolla jopa kastikevalikoimaa enemmän ja lihana käytetään kaikkea lehmän kielen ja possun suolen väliltä. Söin itse huomaamattani esimerkiksi lehmän huulta ja maistui kyllä tosi hyvälle :D. Kastikkeet ovat tarkoitettu käytettäväksi eri tacojen, mutta mun silmiin kaikki näyttävät samoilta ja oon lähinnä tuutannut samat sössöt kaikkiin eri tacoihin.

Tacoravintoloita pystyy löytämään lähes joka kadunnurkasta ja ne ovat tyypiltään usein hyvin alkeellisia.

Hyvä perse

Yksittäisten tacojen hinnat vaihtelevat ravintojan sijainnista ja ruoan täytteestä riippuen 6-10 peson välillä, joka vastaa suomessa hintahaarukkaa 40-70 eurosenttiä. Hassu huomio on se, että useimmiten lätyn hinta ei korreloi mitenkään ruuan herkullisuuden kanssa. Parhaana ennustamiskeinona lienee populan määrä :). Normaalisti näitä pystyy syömään 4-8, joka tekee koko annoksen hinnaksi useimmiten juoman ja tippien kanssa n. 50 pesoa, eli 3,5 euroa. Ruoka on todellakin hintansa väärti! Olen tästä päivästä asti syönytkin lähes joka päivä tacoja ja alan jopa pikkuhiljaa löytämään myös eroja tacoista sekä lisukkeista/kastikkeista. Itse arvostan kastikevalikoimaa ja niistä erityisesti guacamolea. Lihavalikoimasta suosikkina on tällä hetkellä tacos al pastor, jossa maissilätyn välissä on lampaan lihaa sekä sipulirouhetta. Liha raavitaan kebab-tyylisestä vartaasta. Pastor on siis eräänlainen meksikolainen miniatyyriversio Döner-kebabista.

Päästyäni hetkeksi tacotaivaasta takaisin lähdin lauantaina 31.7 tutustumaan hieman lisää naapurustoon, nyt hieman eri suuntaan. Löysin puistojen ja tacoravintoloiden lisäksi asuinalueen, jossa jokainen talo on hauskasti värjätty eri värillä.


Vaikka alueesta jäi hieman karkkimainen fiilis, niin kokonaisuudessaan tykkäsin kyllä alueesta vaihteluna muista asuinalueista, joissa harmittavan usein on värimaailmaksi suunniteltu tasaisen pirteä peessinharmaa, tai mallia värjäämätön.

Pieniä kömmähdyksiä sattui reissun teeman tyyliin tottakai matkan varrelle. Minulla oli nälkä ja halusin tacoja. En kuitenkaan löytänyt kahden korttelinmitan matkalta (!) yhtään tacopaikkaa, kunnes helpotuksekseni näin tien päässä viimein yhden tacoraflalta näyttävän kioskin. Meillä oli myyjän kanssa aluksi ”pieniä” vaikeuksia päästä yhteisymmärrykseen kysynnästä ja tarjonnasta ja välikohtaus päättyi siihen, kun myyjä alkoi latomaan neljän tacon sijasta neljää kiloa pelkkää tacolihaa tiskille. Kyseinen paikka paljastui siis pelkästään ns. tukkutacokioskiksi, josta tacolihaa myytiin kiloissa eteenpäin pienemmille kioskeille.

Pettymyksen jälkeen suunnistin läheiselle hedelmäkioskille, jossa loistin juuri opettelemieni hedelmieni nimien kanssa ja ostin kassin täyteen erilaisia etelän hetelmiä. Myyjäpariskunta oli tosi ystävällinen ja jäimme juttelemaan hetkeksi siitä, miksi ja mitä olin täällä tekemässä. Käynti hedelmäkojulla ei myöskään mennyt aivan putkeen, sillä ostin juttutuokion päätteeksi 200 grammaa mansikoita, jotka myöhemmin toki söin suoraan purkista ilman minkäänlaista pesua. Myöhemmin törmäsiin Susanaan ja hän kauhisteli tapahtunutta, sillä täällä kaikki mansikat on kuulemma ehdottomasti pestävä niille tarkoitetulla nesteellä tai saattaa saada tosi pahan ripulin seuraavaksi 4-5 päiväksi.


Söin seuraavina päivinä onneksi ison kasan Suomesta tuomiani neliapiloita, joiden avulla pystyin välttämään mahakivut ja tacojen syönti sai siis jatkua. Neliapilat loppuivat kuitenkin yhteen kertaan ja tästä eteenpäin joutuu vissiin pesemään ja liottamaan mansikat ennen niiden syöntiä :(.

Lauantai-iltana oli Diegon parhaan kaverin, Dumbon synttärit.

Ilta oli kokonaisuudessaan aika huikea, sillä synttärikemuille oli varattu Diegon isoisän omistama vanha rivitalorakennus, joka muistutti lähinnä vanhan ajan tanssiaistilaa. Seinät olivat rappeutuneet, lattia oli kulunut tai halkeamilla ja muutenkin rakennuksessa oli hyvin nostalgiaa tallella. Juhlinta jatkui aamukahdeksaan saakka, jonka jälkeen suuntasimme aamupalalle läheiseen markettiin. Kotiin pääsin kymmenen aikaa aamulla, jossa olikin hyvä aika alkaa juttelemaan aasian edustuston kanssa. Pääsin lopulta nukkumaan kello 11.30. Minun oli tarkoitus lähteä Susanan ja Diegon mukana sukuloimaan koko sunnuntaiksi, mutta he antoivat minun nukkua ja heräsin neljän maissa iltapäivällä. Diego-ressu joutui heräämään jo klo 12 ja oli lievästi sanoen kypsän olonen saavuttuaan takaisin kotiin illalla seitsemän aikaan :D.

Valmistauduin sunnuntai-illan orientaatioviikkoa varten, sillä seuraavana aamuna kello 9 alkaen olisi tiedossa tutustumista koulun sääntöihin sekä molemminpuolista mulkoilua muihin ulkkareihin.

2.-5.8 Back to high school.

Maanantai 2.8 oli yllättävän tiukkaa settiä kalvosulkeisten muodossa. Meille esiteltiin koulun sääntöjä sekä kerrottiin hieman yleisesti meksikolaisille tyypillisestä mañana –kulttuurista, jossa aikatauluilla tai välillä millään muullakaan ei ole juuri väliä. Aikatauluista puheen ollen, TEC de Monterrey on näemmä ottanut tehtäväkseen parantaa meksikolaisille tyypillistä hälläväliä –kulttuuria, mistä päästäänkin ensimmäiseen kunnon pettymykseen koulussa. Koulun kaikilla kursseilla on läsnäolopakko. Tunnit alkavat tasatunnein ja jos tunneilta myöhästyy viisikin minuuttia, niin saa kyllä tulla sisään luokkaan, mutta kyseiseltä tunnilta saa poissaolon. Opiskelijat saavat olla maksimissaan poissa kahden viikon viikkotuntien verran. Eli jos kurssin luennot pidetään kahdesti viikossa, saa kurssilta jouluun asti kestävän periodin ajalta olla neljä kertaa poissa. Jos keskiarvo on yli 83 sadasta kolmannen osajakson lopussa, niin saa ”palkkioksi” yhden lisäviikon poissaoloja.

Jos poissaoloja tulee yksikin liikaa, niin tietokonesysteemit merkkaavat kurssin automaattisesti hylätyksi ja noppia kyseiseltä kurssilta ei täten saa. Kyseessä on kuulemma hyvinkin tiukka järjestelmä, eikä aikuisten ihmisten koulun tyypillisesti tarjoavaa ”joustovaraa” ole olemassakaan. Järjestelmän tekee v-mäiseksi se, ettei MIKÄÄN syy kelpaa hyväksyttäväksi poissaoloksi ja kaikki sairastapaukset, malariat ja dengue-kuumeet mukaanlukien, lasketaan normaaleiksi poissaoloiksi. Toisin sanoen, jos siis sattuu sairastumaan hieman äkäisempään viidakkotautiin täällä yli kolmeksi viikoksi, niin voi heittää hyvästit koulunkäynnille kyseisen puolivuotisen ajaksi. Onneksi en sairastu koskaan :).

Paluu yläasteelle potenssiin kaksi siis tiedossa. Läsnäolon lisäksi opettajat pitävät tottakai pistokokeita testatakseen kotiläksyjä. LOL.

Joka tapauksessa, maanantaina ei ehditty kalvosulkeisten ohella juuri tekemään muuta kuin käymään syömässä. Tiistaina oli vuorossa lisää kalvoja, mutta nyt oli jopa hieman vapaa-aikaa luentojen välissä ja porukkaan pääsi paremmin tutustumaan. Alla lupaamiani kuvia kampukselta. Pahoittelut kuvien huonosta laadusta. Kaikki kuvat ovat kännykällä otettuja, sillä otin väärän kameralaturin mukaan Meksikoon xD.

Finance class

Uima-allas

Administration building ja vaihtarikaveri

Yleiskuvaa kampukselta

Lisää yleiskuvaa Starbucksilla varustettuna

Iltapäivällä menimme koulun omilla busseilla (obvious) Guadalajaran keskustaan tutustumaan oppaiden johdolla. Yliarvioin ehkä hieman espanjan kielen taitojani ja menin espanjaksi opastetulle kierrokselle. Moni asia jäi hieman unholaan, jotka olisi ollut hyvä tietää kaupungista, mutta jotain jäi sentään mieleen. Kävimme muun muassa katsomassa aikaisemmassa blogipostissani esiintynyttä ”rinkulaa”. En vieläkään muista paikan nimeä (hehe..), mutta nyt tiedän että rinkulaa ympäröivät patsaat ovat Jaliscon osavaltion kannalta tärkeitä henkilöitä, joiden jalkojen asennosta pystyy näkemään henkilön kuolintavan (väkivaltainen vai normaali).

Yleisesti ottaen kaupunkikierros oli todella hyvä kokemus. Joka puolella oli hyvin outoja ja väkivaltaisia maalauksia valtion sekä osavaltion historiaan liittyen. Erityisinä huomionkohteina olivat Meksikon itsenäisyys vuodelta 1810 sekä vuoden 1910 vallankumous.
Bongaa Hitler ja Stalin!

Meksikon itsenäisyyteen liittyvä fresco (alaosa, yläosa alla)

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla "Meksikon isä"

Sinänsä Meksikolaisille tyypillinen, vahva uskonnollisuus oli jo itselle tiedossa, mutta vierailu kaupungin keskustassa sijaitsevaan katedraaliin sai yhä kummastuttamaan. Harvassa paikassa porukkaa näkee tässä määrin rukoilemassa hienossa katedraalissa ja Euroopan kirkoissa vierailleena tiedä niissä tapaavani lähinnä turisteja. Kirkossa tuli muutenkin hieman epämiellyttävä olo, sillä seinillä roikkuvista kaiuttimista kuului taukoamatta kerjäävän tai rukoilevan naisen tuskainen ääni.

Jäimme kierroksen jälkeen parin tyypin kanssa kaupunkiin tacoille ja olusille. Olutterassia ei löytynyt keskustasta sitten mistään ja jouduimme kävelemään yli kilometrin verran pois ydinkeskustasta.

Keskiviikkona oli vuorossa lisää paperisotaa ja odotusta. Iltapäivällä koulun päätyttyä oli paikallisen opiskelijajärjestön järjestämä poolparty läheisellä uima-altaalla. Tästä jatkettiin Chalet –nimiseen yökerhoon, joka koulun tyylille uskollisesti paljastui fresojen asuttamaksi paikaksi. Paikka on aivan täyteen pakattu, mutta avokattoisella tupakkapuolella oli verrattain hiljaista, ja saimme jopa pöydän porukallemme varattua. Pakko myöntää, että paikan yleisilme oli aikaisemmin Meksikossa käymiini baareihin verrattuna paljon korkealentoisempi. Tarjoilijat toivat juomat luoksesi ja jopa sytyttivät tupakan puolestasi. Lisäksi, jos olit esimerkiksi tilannut vodkapullon lantringeilla, niin tarjoila seisoi pöydän vieressä ja sekoitti kaikille drinkit valmiiksi. Kaikki toiminta vaikutti tietysti hienolta alkuun, mutta pidemmällä tähtäimellä toiminta alkoi vähän puuduttaa. Tämän näköisiä baareja näkee kaikkialla muuallakin ja en tullut Meksikoon kuuntelemaan Lady Gagaa. Ihan kivaa kokemus siis, mutta mieluummin jätän nämä baarit vähemmälle.

Torstaina 5.8 sain ostettua elämäni parhaat nappikuulokkeet kymmenellä eurolla. Ei muuta tärkeää sanottavaa.

Tässä tämä blogipäivitys tällä kertaa. Koitan tosiaan pikapikaa lisätä lisää juttua loppuviikosta ja sitä seuraavasta :). Kommenttien tulva on yllättänyt odotukseni ja en valitettavasti ehdi kaikkiin vastaamaan. Teen kuitenkin parhaani!