New concept

Today is a great day;-) and I'd like to present the new concept of my blog to you.

I realized that during the last few weeks visits to my blog have been relatively rare. I guess there is more than one reason for that: everybody is busy, you thought I stopped blogging after Mexico, I actually posted only few things etc.

Therefore I thought hard about how to go on and I came up with some really great ideas;-) which I like to present to you and which I will realize starting 1st January:

• Starting every first Monday of a month and lasting for one week there will be the Paper Boat Challenge (PBC). That will be something interactive so I hope to motivate as many people as possible to participate. That should be really fun!
• Some of you know I sometimes record my own music. I will present some of my songs to you and if you like you can tell me what you think about them.
• I would like to keep presenting interesting facts about Mexico and Latin America.
• The rest will be spontaneous: funny, serious, interesting... news about the world and my own life.

I hope you like the new concept and if I forgot something very important please let me know.

BTW, on the right-hand side bar (the blue one) you can find some new features. The new "Blog Archive" and "Topics" should make it easier to find previous posts. It would be nice if you would go to my "Friends Map" and put your pin on it. I haven't really tested it so please let me know if it doesn't work!


I guess that was it for the moment. See you in the new year (I guess there won't be any more posts this year) and be prepared for the first Paper Boat Challenge (1st January!!!).

Christmas everywhere

Last weekend I was in Hagen and Aachen. I went there to make sure they are ready for Christmas, too. Just kidding...

In Hagen I was to meet some of my fellow students. Oh my God, EX fellow students I should say to be precise. Unfortunately not too many actually came but we had a nice talk. The Christmas market in Hagen was more or less like every year and there were people who were already prepared for Christmas and others who better should skip this year;-) I talk about people who crossed the market swearing and looking very stressed.

Old Town Hall in Aachen

To Aachen I went because I had been there four years ago and had found it a very nice city. I hadn't much time to visit the important parts of it then. That's what I did now. I saw the Old Town Hall, the Cathedral, the Cathedral treasure and the Elisen well. And I found out that the museums there have quite strange opening times. Of course they have a Christmas market there. The people, however, are more friendly in Aachen. Honestly. For me Aachen is one of my favourite cities in Germany (not only because of the people).

1 day after = 4 1/2 years after

From the previous post you know that yesterday was THE day. I had to defend my thesis. It started at 4pm and at 4:30 I had to leave the room for a few minutes (During the discussion of the professors). Probably you want to know how it was. Well, it could have been worse. Although I have to say my two professors managed to make me sweat;-) Afterwards they explained to me that their questions were meant to find out my limits because they hadn't found anything big to complain about in my thesis.


Now I can call myself "industrial engineer" and I'm not a student any more. My sister asked me how it feels and I had to say the only difference is that today I'm relieved while yesterday I was a bit nervous. The truth is that I don't feel different. Receiving my title yesterday wasn't really a surprise, was it? I worked for it 4 1/2 years (almost exactly 4 1/2 years ago I started my first internship which I needed to start my studies). So it just was the "last step".

But of course things will change. I hope I will have a job soon (you can ask me on Monday again) and I guess that will bring some changes anyway. I wonder if it means being free or the opposite. My friends who already finished their studies have their own philosophies...

Thanks to everybody who supported me during my studies (some may not even know they did). Thanks to all of you who thought of me yesterday, crossed their fingers and pressed their thumps...

Note to myself

Defence of my thesis: 6th December, 4pm

Don't forget!!!

Rien ne va plus

Finally! I handed in my thesis today. Now I can't do anything but wait for the result. The mean thing is that I won't get to know the result before the defence. After reading my thesis in detail the two professors will "invite" me to have the defence of it. There I'll have to present in brief the results and afterwards they will ask me questions. Usually that lasts between 30 and 45 minuts. I don't know yet when that will be because professors are soooo busy;-)


For those who are interested in details: My thesis is a feasibility study for an extension to the existing water treatment system at Volkswagen de México. Really interesting... :-)

Looking back

After one month at home (one month but one day) I guess it's time to look back a bit at my time in Mexico. I don't look for a basket in the bathroom any more and driving according to rules is easier than I thought (it's really relaxing driving in Germany no matter how much traffic) but:

• It's hard to be one time. I really don't expect any more that people are punctual.
• You can't untwist German beer bottles.
• Food I considered hot before isn't hot any more.
• I forget to speak in a low voice sometimes... (The people in the cinema were quite annoyed!)
• No trips on weekends any more (I'm still working on my thesis and looking for a job).
• Sometimes I think people could be kinder.
• I wonder about many people who complain about their situation.
• I still confuse "y" and "z" on the keyboard.

That's what just came to my mind. I guess there is more... (to be continued)

:-)

Guess what that is! Yes, my (missed) suitcase. I'm really glad that it finally arrived. This morning my a parcel service ("Good morning, Mr. Manns. I've got a parcel here. Really heavy.").

Nobody told me where something went wrong or what went wrong but I guess that it didn't stay in Madrid where I changed planes. While they could tell other passengers directly that their suitcases or bags had stayed in Madrid, they couldn't tell me anything until yesterday night. Therefore, I guess the suitcase stayed in Mexico and arrived yesterday with the next plane. Maybe it was to heavy for the worker on the airport and he said: "I've got a pain in my back anyway. The guy who will come tomorrow can do that."

And now guess the weight of my suitcase...

30kg!!!

Back home

Those for who it makes a difference (I mean those friends who live in Germany or close and not far away anyway) should know that I'm BACK. Yes, it's true, my time in Mexico is over and I have to say it feels good to be at home again because:

• I can see my family.
• I guess I will see some of my friends here soon.
• I can eat German bread.

At the same time I'm already missing Mexico a lot because:

• I miss a lot of the people I met there.
• Life there seemed so easy there (now I have to finish writing my thesis and I have to look for a job).
• I definitely will be in trouble with German police;-)

And something funny: When I needed the toilet on the airport in Madrid, I looked for the basket for the toilet paper. I really forgot that I can trow it in the toilet again.


And something really annoying: One of my suitcases did not arrive. There were a lot of people who missed something on the arrival in Frankfurt but until today they can't tell me what happended to that suitcase. There are most of my books in it, my letter of reference I got from Volkswagen (I have to say which is quite good), one of my suits, things I bought for my family etc. I really want this suitcase back!!!

Ahorita

Some of you may know that in Spanish you can form the belittlement (shame on me if it is the wrong word; looked in up on LEO) by adding -ito or -ita to a word (depending on whether it is male of female). Example: el dibujo (the drawing) - el dibujito (the little drawing); la casa (the house) - la casita (the little house)

But it is not only to "transform" nouns by this way. It also works with adverbs. One of my favourits and very often used in Mexico: ahorita! Ahora means now, so little now. Very helpful for example when your boss asks you to do something... to be honest it is very difficult to explain in English or German what it really means. My trial: not exactly now but soon (where soon can be between "in 5 minutes" and "during the next week"). It guess it is also a cultural thing;-)

When I told my colleagues at work that we don't rally have a word for this in German (except for maybe in Schwaben) they asked me: "But how do you say ahorita then?" And they hardly believed me when I explained that it is either now (jetzt, sofort) or soon (gleich).

Death

Maybe you have heard about Día de los Muertos. I think in English that is called "All Souls' Day" and it is on November 1st (or 2nd?), as a Catholic I should know!;-) The Mexicans celebrate that day in a very strange way. For example when they prepare dinner there are also chairs and plates for the dead. Or it is a custom to give each other a sugar skull with their name on it. I would call it a bit macabre but well...

Our landlord explained to us that death is present in Mexico anytime anyway. If you remember what I keep telling about Mexican traffic, I guess you will agree. But there are more occasions to prove this. As a German I would say that Mexicans don't care much about security: cars that only exist because of the rust, the foundry at the Volkswagen plant where hot iron is moved in open containers, zebra crossings on the motorway...

"Bueno"

Those who called me here in Mexico may have noticed that "bueno" is the way you answer the phone here. I guess everybody who is used to saying their name, find this a bit strange because how do you know who's talking.

Now you may say: "Well, I just can ask."And exactly that is the problem! It is considered inpolite to ask. Why? Because you didn't recognize the other person. I know, hard to understand but it's part of the Mexican culture. So they prefer pretending in case they don't know who is talking. I can imagine this already caused a lot of funny situations...

Jobs

I wanted to publish a post about "jobs" already some time ago but I didn't have the right picture. Now I have, here is the post...

To be honest, I don't really know how you call somebody who polishes your shoes in English. The Spanish word is botanero and you can see one of them on the pic. They are quite common here and some time ago it was a notable job.


For me as a German it is still quite strange imagine having somebody polish your shoes. I would feel a bit bad because I don't want somebody "getting to his knees" in front of me.

But to be honest this is not the only service you get here and which seems a bit strange to me. There are people who wash your car. For 30 pesos (a bit more than 2 €) and many people tell them afterwards where they have to wash or polish again because their car doesn't shine enough.

Then, there are people on the carpark of the super market, for example, who "help" you getting into and out of your parking spot by blowing a whistle and making wild gestures. After your shopping they expect a little tip. And they are not there because Mexicans can't park (although...). Usually those people don't have a proper job and try to earn at least a little money by that. You should know something like a social system doesn't exist here although there are a few ways you get help from the state.

Something else which doesn't exist in Germany (and I guess the rest of Europe) any more: filling station attendants. Of course they expect a little tip, too.

There are people who don't do anything else but waving a red flag at the railroad crossing. To tell you, you can pass...

And the best (I saw it when I came to the internet café): People painting topes (humps to reduce your speed). Of course expecting a little tip for it when you pass.

80 maximum

On our way back from our week of vacation I had my first real encounter with Mexican police. I'm not sure what I've told you about Mexican policemen but it is definitely another thing...

Mexican policemen are corrupt. At least some of them. No matter how much some Mexicans keep telling it is not true. Let me tell you that last week, for example, one of my friends turned left with his car where it was not allowed (which in some cases you can't know because there are no signs or they are kind of "hidden"). She had to get out of the car, had to show her driving licens etc. Then the policemen told her that it was 200 pesos and because it wasn't really much she decided to pay. But when she wanted to, the policeman said: "Get into your car, get into your car." She didn't understand and said: "But I want my driving license back." "Get into your car, you'll get it back." Later he explained that it was in order to prevent that anybody would see him receiving money. Of course there are official fines which you have to pay at the police station. Although in most cases it es cheaper it is a lot of trouble. Therefore a lot of people "pay" the policemen. BTW, this is called mordida ("bite"), one of the words in the vocabulary test.

Now let me tell you how I got to know 2 Mexican police men:
When you are on your way back from your vacations and you have to travel more than 1000 km it can happen that you like to get home as fast as possible.
Therefore it can happen that, when the motorway is very good, has two lanes and your Jetta has 105 HP, you drive 150 km/h.
It also can happen that you do so despite the sign "80 maximum" (nobody respects the trafic signs in Mexico!).
Then it can happen that you overtake 5 cars.
It can happen that the first one is police... *oops*

First they didn't really care about my speed. I guess because their car was slower anyway. Unfortunately about 1 km further there was the toll station and a queue in front of it. The police passed and after the station they called me out... *f...*

Martin already hid part of our money, in case we had to pay we could tell them we didn't have that much. I stopped and got out.
- Where are you coming from?
- From Playa del Carmen.
- And where are you going?
- Back to Puebla.
- Where are you from?
- From Germany.
- Ah, from Germany. I'm not sure how it is in your country but here driving that fast is not allowed. Maximum speed on the motorway is 110 and that part only 80.
- Yes. *very guilty face*
- Can I see your driving license?
- Yes, of course. *I had him over a COPY of my driving license* (It's something you learn in Mexico: Never give them the original unless they insist on it because it can happen you didn't do anything wrong and they just want money for giving you the license back.)
- You know we can take away your car? Then you have to go back to Puebla by coach.
*Martin gets out of the car. I can see despair in his eyes.*
- So, did you rent the car in Puebla?
- Yes. Well, it's a Volkswagen car. We are interns there and they give a car to 4 interns each.
- You are interns? The girl (Ute), too?
- Yes.
- For how long are you here.
- I'm here for 4 months and a half.
- Me for 6 months and she as well.
- Aha. Your Spanish is quite good.
- Thanks.
- Well, please don't drive that fast any more. This is not your country. Like this you'll cause an accident.
- Ok.
*He gives me the copy of my driving license*
- Take care. *He shakes my hand*
- Good bye.
- Good bye.

To be honest, I have no idea how I got out of this without paying or any other punishment. It must have been a combination of the fact that we weren't just tourists, we weren't gringos and we understood and spoke quite a bit of Spanish. And definitely the two policemen must have had their best day of the year! I still can't imagine... Such a story, for so little. Just cost me some nerves.

Palenque

On our way back, we passed Palenque because we still had a lot of time until we had to get to Puebla.

Palenque is another ancient town but contrary to Tulum it is in the forest. It really looks great as well and what impressed me is that only 4% of the whole town are discovered. The rest is still hidden in the forest. And if they wouldn't constantly remove plants, all buildings would soon be covered again.

There is one hill and they told us that probably there is a pyramide underneath as well.

To be precise: Martin told us as he was our tourist guide there. He had already been there before and to be honest I did a good job as tourist guide. There is more to learn and discover than in Tulum. So I prefer Palenque a bit. But both is worth seeing!

Yucantan - VIII

On our last but one day, we finally went to the famous ruins in Tulum. Nice, aren't they...


Unfortunately the weather wasn't perfect but ok. To be honest there isn't much to tell about the Tulum ruins. It's very nice there because it's on the beach (I guess the only Maya ruins on the beach) but there is not much to "learn". I told you all the important things before...

Yucatan - VII

As I already mentioned, the weather wasn't too good in Playa del Carmen. Therefore, one day we went to Tulum (about 1 hour from that town) to do snorkeling in the Cenote Grande.

A cenote is a cave filled with water (or partly filled). So weather isn't that important for this kind of sport. Although it would have been a bit nicer with sunlight as I was told that the water appears turquoise when the sun shines into the cenote. Well, it was very cool anyway. The formations of stones are really impressing. Of course I don't have fotos of that. But here is another nice one.

Hanna, who you can see on the left hand side on the pic is (almost) a professional diver. Martin wanted to dive as well and asked what would happen if he went diving without knowing about handling the equipment. Her answer: You'll definitely die!

Martin is still alive. But he didn't go diving after such a motivating answer;-)

After our snorkeling adventure we wanted to see the famous pyramides of Tulum which appear on almost every tourist guide about Mexico. As the weather go even worse we didn't go there that day.

Yucatan - VI

To be honest, the rest of our tour was a bit quieter. We went to Playa del Carmen where we met 5 other Volkswagen interns which was fun (and not always easy;-).

Playa del Carmen is a tourist town, too, but not as "gringo" as Cancun. It is not that big and more international. And the police is very eager there concerning parking. First I should explain that in Mexican towns you can park along the streets unless the curbstone is painted yellow (if I'm right it's the same in the USA). By saing the police there is eager I mean they don't even allow you to be 5 cm on the yellow part. Because of this they unscrewed the number plate of onother intern. Well, I should also explain that if you see a car with a missing number plate in Mexico this can have to reasons:

• The plate was stolen.
• The police unscrewed it.

In the second case you have to go to the police station and pay. Then you'll get it back. Strange way of making sure people pay but it seems to work. (In the first case there is not much to do.)

Unfortunately the weather wasn't that good there. Therefore, I won't publish pictures. I don't want to destroy your imagination that there is always sun in Mexico;-)

Because of the weather we didn't spend much time on the beach. I'm not so keen of it anyway so I don't really complain. Instead we went sailing as Ute knows how to do it. It was really fun. I was captain for some minutes as well and can tell you that sailing isn't that difficult. As long as somebody tells you what to do... ;-)

Yucatan - V

As I already said, our next stop was in Cancún. I guess Cancún is for US Americans what Mallorca is for Germans. The difference is that Cancún was built around 30 years ago from scratch! There is the zona hotelera (area where all the big and expensive hotels are) next to the sea and... let's say the rest of the city. At least, there the hotels aren't that expensive. But there are tourists (gringos) all over the place and they try to fool you everywhere;-) For example we ordered a beer each of us in a pub and got tow each. My friend asked if at that day there were dos por una (two for one; sometimes they have those offers here) and they told us that yes. When we had to pay we had to find out that it wasn't true and there was nothing we could do about it. The next day we were looking for a relatively cheap restaurant. After asking some people in the street we found one. That is to say: the food was cheap. The drinks were not listed on the menu and we didn't think about asking how much they were. At the end, the two cokes I had were much more expensive than the meal *annoyed*.

As Cancún is a place crowded with tourists we went to Isla Mujeres (Women Island) which got it's name because the Spanish conquistadores found a temple with many statues of goddesses there. There is a more romantic explanation for the name but it is not true;-)

It is true that Isla Mujeres isn't that crowded with tourists but by no means it is a quiet place. Martin and I went snorkeling there which was very nice. The funny thing was that after we had paid and everything was almost ready on the boat they asked us if we could swim... And you will be surprised to hear that the majority of people there couldn't or couldn't swim very well in deed. They got their lifejacket and the promise that they would get extra attention...

You already know the less good news. Some of our things were stolen on that island.

Besides of that the beach is nice there...

Yucatan - IV

Let's continue a bit with my tour:

On Monday we went to Chichén Itzá. Probably the name doesn't ring a bell but I guess the following picture does. You definitely have seen it in any kind of information about Mexico:

The pyramide is quite famous and I found it really impressing. It's not only the buidling itself but its function and meaning. It has 91 steps on each side which makes (91 times 4) 364 in total. Plus the "last step" on top... mmh? ... 365! The number of days of a year. Maybe you don't find that too impressing but they didn't only calculate the number of days per year exactly but also had a system to add days (as we do in a leap year) which was almost as exact as the system now (btw, it's quite interesting as it's actually a bit more complicated than adding a day every four years). Considering that they knew that already 1000 years ago and were much more exact than the Gregorian Calendar in Europe, it is something really worth knowing (for me;-).

In addition, twice per year the sun is the reasons why more people than usual come to Chichén Itzá. Because of light and shadow it looks as if a snake is coming down the pyramide. You can see it on the next picture although I think it's a bit difficult to imagine. Well, I didn't see it either as it is for the start of spring and autumn. The interesting question is how the Mayas calculated the adjustment of the building.

And some more about Mayan mathematics: they had a number system based on 20 including zero. Those who know a bit about mathematics and the history of numbers know that it isn't self-evident and that "our" zero comes from India.

Going back to Chichén Itzá and the Mayas, let me tell you that the pyramide isn't the only building there. Of course they also had a ball game field there. I think by now I told you enough about it (see previous posts) and the building called "The Observatory" is quite cool as well. You can see it on the picture on the right.

We stayed a bit longer in Chichén Itzá to see the luz y sonido ("light and sound") event in the evening. The light effects were very good and they told in short (30 minutes) the story of the region and the town.

By the way, around the archeological site there is really nothing worth mentioning. The next town is more than ugly. Therefore we continued our travel at about 9pm to arrive in Cancún about 2 hours later... (Cancún will be the next post.)

Yucatan - III

The next day (Sunday) we went from Campeche to Uxmal which is a quite famous archeological site. Or just stones again (depends on your point of view).

We took a guided tour there which is always quite helpful. There are hardly any signs to tell the tourists about the history and buildings.

What I learned there is that Mayan language has some similarities with German. Very strange... Uxmal (pronounced oosh mul) means 3 times (ux=3; mal=times which is the same in German). The Mayas gave this name to the town because it was constructed 3 times. Or lets better say they but 2 times a new layer of stones over the old one;-)

The town was constructed at that place because of some big cenotes (like holes in the stone) where the rain water collected. It was quite interesting to learn that the ancient Mayas already did the same as we are doing now at Volkswagen. Collecting and treating rain water for further use (this is part of my project here).

But the Mayas didn't use all the cenotes for collecting drinking water. They also believed that in some of them lived the rain god. To get to know about the weather of the following year, they threw somebody into one of the cenotes (after 3 days of fasting). If the person survived for more than one day, they were retracted and asked about the weather. They believed that the rain god revealed his plans to those who survived. Well, it's a kind of weather forecast but I prefer the modern ones;-)


Later that day we continued our trip and went to Mérida. Again we followed the "Lonely Planet" (I still had it then) and went to a youth hostel. There we met quite a lot of people that had also been in Campeche. As Martin expressed it: Buying the "Lonely Planet" means buying in to a certain community.

And there was evening, and there was morning - the second day. And we saw that it was good!

Yucatan - II

As I promised, I'll tell you a bit more about my trip last week.

I went with two other interns at Volkswagen, Ute and Martin, and we took one of the Jettas Volkswagen gives to the interns. Of course, officially the car is only for going to work and back and maybe doing your shoppings. But let's say they tolerate that we interns also use the cars for our weekend and holiday trips. Or how do you explain that the car assurance is valid all over Mexico...?

So we left last week friday at about 10pm. Our first stop was in Campeche. For Mexicans: Campeche, Campeche (i.e. the city Campeche in the state Campeche; many states are named equally to their capital or another big city). We arrived there about 12 hours later. Quite tired as you can imagine. But happy;-)

Campeche is the cleanest city I have seen in Mexico. It is a really nice colonial city with small streets, restored colonial buildings and of course the important city wall. You can see part of it on the picture.

We travelled with the "Lonely Planet" (at that point I still had it) which recommendet the Monkey Hostel. It is located directly next to the zócalo (city square) and we got to know quite some... mmh... let's say "freaky" people including some Germans. Backpackers with matted hair etc. The whole program... ;-)

Campeche is also very nice at night. They play music at the zócalo, there are clowns (well, that was more the kids' attraction) and they sell beer there...

And there was evening, and there was morning - the first day;-)

Yucatan - I

I'm back from my week of vacations in Yucatan and there are a lot of things to tell you. I had a great time, took a lot of pictures and enjoyed my time.

However, not everything can go fine on such a trip. My friend was robbed at the beach and with her things my watch and my "Lonely Planet". Fortunately those were not of such great value. It was a bit annoying to continue the tour without the guide. And the watch... had more of an individual value to me.

Don't worry. This is the only "bad" news. I'll continue blogging with positive experiences of my trip.

Special note

I'll be away for about a week but keep writing!

Expect a lot of pictures after my holidays... :-)

Solution - Finally!

As 3 people keep nagging me to puplish the solutions of the vocabulary test, I finally want to do that. I really thought a bit more would participate but it was fun anyway.

So here are the solutions:

1. Malinche (Hernán Cortez' lover and translator/ name of a volcano near Puebla): I think I have to explain again that "lover" can refer to both a man and a woman. In this case it was a woman. So it has nothing to do with "gay". The thing is that this woman Malinche was an indígena being Hernán Cortez' lover and translater. Therefore the word Malinche has become a symbol of betrayal. So calling someone Malinche is not too nice;-) - Sorry, nobody got that right!
   
2. Orejas del Elefante (elefant ears): Is a name for a taco. It is filled with a LOT of meat. - Nobody got that right either! - he he, it seems I' winning;-)
3. güey (ox): right Michael, that would be something like dude in English. But you have to be careful because if you say it to a stranger they will feel insulted. Calling people by an animals name generally is quite a bad thing here.
4. agua del calcetin (water of the sock): This has nothing to do with alcohol and it isn't the obvious thing. That's how people call a very weak coffee here. Why is up to your imagination...
5. una fiesta de tornillos (a party of screws): is a pary where there are mainly guys and the girls are missing (there are the screws but the screw nuts are missing). Fabian, it has nothing to do with "screwing someone" or any other "sexual" meaning. At least as far as I was told...
6. pinche (scullion): Right! That's "f***ing" in English. You can use it as an adjective in front of any noun. I have no idea where is the relation to scullion!
7. pendejo (pubic hair): "idiot" would be an adequate translation. It's not as strong as "asshole".
8. cabrón (billy goat): originally it's an expression for a cuckold. The German expression "jemandem Hörner aufsetzen" is similar. So if you want to insult someone, you can call him cabrón. But - just as 3. - calling one's friend cabrón is quite usual and not considered bad at all. As I explained before: Mexicans like a STRONG language.
9. I'll just cite Michael because I didn't know so many English expressions for it: " looked up a few terms that describe what I think this means. Here's what I came up with:
   - beat the meat
   - choke the chicken
   - burp the worm
   - shake hands with the cyclops
   - slap the purple headed yogurt pistol (I like that one :-))
   - whip the weasel
   Now that I think about it... You seem to have a - well... - interesting time in Mexico, considering what you call "part of every day's communication"... 8-)" And to explain how that comes into "every day's communication": Mexicans (guys) like expressions with a double meaning. And quite often it happens that you say something which you think it quite a normal sentence. A Mexican says this sentence slightly different and everybody starts to laugh. Except yourselft. He sais it again. You still think it is a normal sentence. If they are nice, they explain the double meaning to you...
10. mordida (bite): bribe money. Definitely part of "every day's life" here (although some Mexicans deny it). The police here often stops people who look a bit more wealthy because you can avoid a lot of trouble paying a little bribe. It's something deep-seated in Mexican culture and I guess even if they would exchange all policemen (as New York's former mayor Giuliani who acted as an advisor for the Mexican government) nothing really would change.

And here are your grades, cabrones:

• Michael: You did pinche well on the test. Did you forget to tell me about your Spanish/ Mexican girlfriend?;-) Or how come you got so many words right? I guess you were bored and found a good dictionary on the web... So best grade on the test but you definitely failed convincing others to participate! So I would say 5 points on the test and -10 for convincing others.
  
• Digger: Nice guesses. But just guesses!:-> Well, it was fun reading them anyway. So 1 point for that;-)
  
• Fabian: More guesses that made me laugh! Especially how carefully you expressed your guess on 5. Sorry, it wasn't right. I give you 3 points. But just for the amount of text you wrote;-) (remember Dave Link's scales!!!)
• Everybody else: shame on you, you didn't participate!!!

Another "Wake up!"

Last weekend I went to Zacatlan. It's a nice small city about 3 hours by car from Puebla. On the pic you can see the nice view you have there. When we were at that place (where I took the picture), we asked ourselves if it wasn't possible to go down this valley. So we asked a woman in a shop who told us that it was possible and also told us the direction where we had to go. Because of our experience with Mexicans telling you where you have to go (see one of the previous posts), we also asked a policeman for the way. He told us that it was forbitten to go down there because it was so slippery.

Nonetheless, he went with us to the place where the path starts downwards. Additionally he went away and came back with to boys (about the age of 8) to guide us downwards for a coke each.

I guess that describes some more things in Mexico.

Wake up!

The other day, when I looked out of my window in the morning, I saw this:
You think that's the Mexican style of changing tyres? - No!
That's the Mexican style of stealing tyres over night.

To be honest I don't feel that save any more although they told us that we live in a quite save area. I guess "quite save" means "relatively save considering I'm in Mexico".

The "funny" thing is that usually it's not a problem to find your tyres or other parts of your car again. In most cases you can find them on a market in town (called Falluca) the other day. That means if you are quick enough before somebody else buys them. So what you can do is buying them back at that market. Proving someone that they stole them is almost impossible.

So I should say: Wake up! You are in Mexico!

Trapanovia

or: macho y hembra

Some time ago, I promised to write about Mexican men and women and their rolls. Or should I better say: how they behave in public?

As Mexico is a very catholic country, you can find the classical roles of men and women in society: he goes out to work, she stays at home to look for the children and the house. Although things are changing here as well, at least those who don't study marry and have children early.

What else? If something like that exists, the "typical" Mexican guy is someone between a macho and a caballero (gentleman). Opening the door for a woman and similar things are very common. At the same time you hardly find a Mexican who doesn't say that women can't drive and many more things I don't want to mention here. And how to describe the "typical" Mexican woman? According to Tiziano Ferro they all have a moustache;-) (I guess that was a great publicity gag. And it worked!). Well, without being mean I think I can say that there are more beautiful than intelligent Mexican girls/ women (Of course there are exceptions and one doesn't exclude the other).

Some politics

Mexicans don't like it very much, when foreigners make comments about their politics. So I won't do that. But it should be allowed to write something about the elections that were helt the weekend before.

Honestly, for the presidential elections there were only two real candidates: Felipe Calderón and Manuel Obrador (or to be precise: Felipe De Jesus Calderón Hinojosa and Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador). One candidate for the PAN (Partido Acción Nacional) and the other for the PRD (Partido de la Revolución Democrática) and other centre-left parties.

Before the elections Calderón was the favourite. Well, maybe just here in Puebla where there are a lot of foreign companies and the people are even more catholic than in the rest of the country. The actual result was quite a surprise for the people (here). 35.88% for Calderón compared to 35.31% for Obrador. It seems that although almost the whole (rich) North of Mexico voted for Calderón, Obrador has a lot of supporters in the (poor) South. While Calderón promised to create new jobs by reducing obstacles for (foreign) companies, Obrador's program is a more social one.

But if you think that was it: wrong, wrong, WRONG! Obrador claimed irregularities during the counting of the votes. Now the whole case will end in front of the Surpreme Court. Until September they have to investigate the whole thing but it seems that Calderón is to be the new president. He probably will succeed Vicente Fox who is president now.

BTW, Goerge W. Bush was one of the first who congratulated Calderón being the new president. How come...?;-)*

And don't forget there is still a vacabulary test waiting for you!

*This isn't Mexican politics so I can be a bit ironic.

Where the emperor has to go by foot...*

... he also has to use paper.

or: What to do with it afterwards?

Fabian wanted to hear more of this "every-day stuff". This post is dedicated especially to you, Fabian. :->

People used to what we could call "Western European standard" will be shocked by this information: In Mexico you are not allowed to throw the toilet paper into the toilet. Instead you have a wastepaper basket next to the toilet. This is because of the bad quality of Mexican drainage systems. They just would clog.

But to calm all of you who were shocked too much: At our house we throw the paper into the toilet. Hey, we all are Germans and our landlord never mentioned that it's not allowed.

Please don't forget the vocabulary test (see post July 01)!

*In German this is a nice expression to avoid the word "toilet".

Vocabulary test

The other day I had a crazy idea. Why not make a vocabulary test for the visitors of my blog:-) It would be nice if you participated although everbody seems to have gotten a bit lazy writing comments (exceptions of course conferm the rule). Otherwise it will stay just a crazy idea.

The following list contains some Spanish words and expressions you hardly find in a dictionary but which are definitely part of every day's communication here in Mexico. As a little help I gave you the literal translation. Be creative and guess what it really means (or maybe you know as some of them are quite well-known) and write your ideas down in a comment.

I'll moderate comments again for some time so that you don't copy from each other;-) So don't wonder if your comments don't appear immediately. I'll publish the comments related to this post when I give the solution. All other comments will appear soon after you wrote them.

Now, I hope this will be fun! For you and for me. Here is the list:

1. Malinche - Hernán Cortez' lover and translator/ name of a volcano near Puebla
2. orejas del elefante - elefant ears
3. güey - ox
4. agua del calcetin - water of the sock
5. una fiesta de tornillos - a party of screws
6. pinche - scullion
7. pendejo - pubic hair
8. cabrón - billy goat
9. hacer una chaqueta - make a jacket
10. mordida - bite

Teotihuacan, City of Gods*

Last weekend I was in Teotihuacan, which is a place east of Mexico City.


You can find the most ancient pyramids of Mexico there and the whole place is very impressing. There are three main pyramids which are:

1. La Pirámide del Sol (Pyramid of the Sun)
2. La Pirámide de la Luna (Pyramid of the Moon)
3. La Pirámide de la Ciudadela (Pyramid of the Citadel)

The first has a hight of 63 metres. The second is about 40 metres high.

There are a number of smaller pyramids which all represent the planets. I found it very impressing that they know about our solar system already 300 BC (or a little later, around that year the constructions began).

The name Teotihuacan is of Aztec origin. The Teotihuacanas (name of the people that orignially lived in the city) lived already before the Aztecs but for a reason unknows they abandoned the city. Later the Aztecs found the city and believed it was the city of their gods. They also named the main street of the town "Avenue of the Dead" because they believed the small buildings along the street were the tombs of their former kings.

As you can see on the pictures the weather was very good and although I protected myself quite well from the sun, I ended with a little sunburn on a very strange place. The next day I had to wear my safety shoes which was painfull.

*There is no relation to the film "City of God" (Cidade de Deus) which I can recommend, however. People say it's similar in some parts of Mexico City.

You don't need a watch...

... when it starts to rain, it's 5pm

As Anne asked how the weather is over here, I don't want to hesitate answering her question, too.

If you are looking for a general description, you better look here. I couldn't explain it better. But for my experiences read on!

First, I should mention that figures don't mean anything to a Mexican. If you ask, for examle, how far is this or that place away, they look at you as if you asked for something impossible or as if your question was pure blasphemy. You can be happy if you get an answer like 15 minutes or 2 hours (the translation of which is in most cases 25 minutes and 3 hours and a half). But you never get to know a distance in kilometres.

It's the same with temperatures. You won't get an answer from a Mexican and I can't really give you an answer either because we neither have a termometer in front of our house nor at the office. However, I can tell you that I find it quite chilly in the morning; at least in a shirt with short sleaves. If you ask now why I wear a shirt with short sleaves then wait till I explain that around noon it's already very warm. And when I leave the office at about 5pm I guess it's 30° C or more.

Around this time of the year starts the rainy season (which lasts until October). That means it starts to rain in the afternoon or evening until around 10pm. Other people who got to know this already last year told me that often it starts raining at exactly 5pm.

In a way that's a bit annoying because that's when my free time starts. On the other hand, you can rely on that. One of the few things you can rely on in Mexico...

Special note (to those who are looking for the meaning of the picture again): There is no special relation between the pic and the text; I just think the sky looks really amazing.

What's expensive, what's cheap?

Svenja asked about prices here in Mexico. Here is the answer for you and for everybody else who's interested.

I think in general you can say that food and services are quite cheap. Everything that's imported or things that require a lot of technology are almost as expensive as/ more expensive than in Old Europe.

But judge for yourself. Here is my personal pricelist of things I recently buy. He he, just kidding! But at least it's a pricelist:

1. haircut - $40
2. car wash - $30
3. VW Jetta (remember in Europe this is Bora and vice versa) - $180 000
4. W-LAN card - $500
5. 250g of ham - $21
6. Nokia 1110 - $400 (incl. 500 text messages and $50 credit)
7. 400g of cheese - $26
8. 1 liter of petrol - $6
9. 1 hour internet café - $10
10. having your shoes polished $20

Important note: "$" does not stand for US dollar but for peso, the Mexican currency. At the moment 1 Euro = 14,4 pesos or 1 USD = 11,4 pesos.

Every place has its attraction...

...it just depends on the measurement.

I hope nobody from Cholula will read this post. Otherwise they'll kill me for the way I talk about their pyramide.

Maybe you remember the picture of Popocatépetl with the church in front. On that picture also was the greatest pyramide on earth!

You didn't see it? Well, it is underneath the hill with the church on top. Perhaps the next picture helps a bit to imagine a little better. But the real pyramide really is underneath the hill!

And if you always thought Cheop's Pyramide in Egypt was the greatest. Well, that depends on the measurement. Cheop's is the highest pyramide. The Cholula pyramide is the greatest in terms of volume and ground area.

Find the pyramide...

Mexican "football"

Those who thought this was about the match of the seleción mexicana last Friday were wrong. Does the match need any comments? ;-)

My contribution to this topic during the world championship is about the ancient ballgame. (Maybe I'll also write about recent Mexican football but first let's see how far they get in that match).

The ancient ballgame is the world's first team-sport. In pre-Hispanic times it was played in several variations all over Mesoamerica.

The ball was made of rubber and wighted several kilos. The players were only allowed to touch it with shoulders, elbows, hips, thights and knees. Those parts of the body were protected with leather protectors. However, when the game was over the players were bleeding everywhere because of the weight of the ball.

The ball was not allowed to touch the ground but the walls on each side of the field (sometimes they were sloping) could be used. The aim of the game varied depending on the region where it was played. In Xochicalco - where I was last weekend - the ball had to be thrown through a kind of rings on the walls (see picture: the two things on the ground used to be attached to the wall) while in other regions the aim was to move the ball to the other side of the field (similar to modern football).


In most cases the game had a religious meaning. Sometimes the ball represents the sun which has to make its way on the horizon and is not allowed to crash (fall on the ground). In other parts it was related to the fertilization of the ground somehow representing sun and rain.

After the game players were often sacrificed. And now the surprise: not the losers but the winners (at least that's the conclusion of some sources). It was an honour for the best team to be sacreficed because they believed that by this they gained a "better life" after death while "normal people" would have a "miserable next life". As our tour guide in El Tajin said: "Modern people will never really understand this thinking."

Further information

Nicki, king of Momoxpan

Some explanations first:

• Momoxpan is the part of Cholula (city next to Puebla) where I live here.
• Nicki is a dog.

People here say that I belonged to a family but since this family bought a new dog, he is living in the street. I don't know if that's true but fact is that Nicki is everybody's dog in Momoxpan. Therefore he is also called "king of Momoxpan". It's quite a wonder he is still alive because, for example he drinks from puddles and that water isn't clean at all. My housemates once gave him a piece of really hot meat and Nicki didn't appear for some days so they thought he was dead but no... still alive. Now we bought some dog's food for him and also give him water but Nicki just can't get enough. The other day he stole a whole bag of sugar from our house. And some weeks ago he stole a bag of toast. This dog is incredible!

Besides of that he is very calm and I've never heard him barking. Strange dog! But he's cool!

You have to know that here in Mexico don't have to register a dog and nobody would think about paying taxes for a dog like in Germany. Therefore there are a lot of dogs just living in the street. And some even live on the motorway on our way to the Volkswagen plant. You can imagine some of them don't live very long. Almost every second day you can see a dead dog there. The road we use is called periferico but some also say "perroferico" (perro = dog). How good Nicki is living in Momoxpan...

How to say... (without words)?

Today let me introduce the "strange" world of Mexican gestures to you. In many situations gestures are used. Sometimes it's because you can't understand each other like in the disco or between two drivers. And sometimes I guess Mexicans are just to lazy to open their mouth.

To say "yes", you open and close your index finger while the rest of the hand is closed. I don't know how to describe this in a better way therefore I add some pictures.



If you want to say "no", you show the back of your index finger and move your hand from one side to the other while the rest of the fingers is closed.




To say "thank you", you make this gesture. It took me some time to get used to that. Before, I had known this gesture only from German drivers where it definitly doesn't mean "thanks";-)


You make this gesture in order to say "sorry". I guess it represents a person falling to their knees.





And this means "gay". It is used by Mexicans, for example, when they talk about Ronaldinho (this really happened in a bar in Papantla).




Special note to Mr. Ronaldinho's lawyer: I didn't say Ronaldinho is gay.

666

Don't worry. I haven't become a satanist. The title of today's post is related to the belief of many Mexicans that today something very bad would happen. Like an earthquake or the breakout of a volcano (see post May 25). And that's just because of the date (06.06.2006) and the relation of the number with the devil. By the way, does anybody know where that comes from?
It's true that many Mexicans took this date very serious. I guess they have a somewhat special relation to supernatural things (and to death as well). Some people at Volkswagen didn't like the idea of having a meeting today because they thought it would have a bad outcome. And in similar ways quite a lot of people believed in some kind of effect.

As far as I can see nothing happened. And if there really was something at 06:06:06 in the morning: I still slept at that time of the day (or better NIGHT).

D.F.

D.F. stands for distrito federal (federal district). That's how most people here call la Ciudad de México (Mexico City) although that is not 100% correct. The federal district is just a part Mexico City. Anyway, most sights are in the distrito federal and it's much shorter so why not say D.F.

Why do I explain all that? Last weekend I was in D.F. First of all, don't worry: I'm still alive, I wasn't kidnapped and I wasn't robbed. Second, the city is really amazing! I really don't know where to start...

Facts & Figures

• about 9 million inhabitants in the city itself
• more than 22 million inhabitants in the greater city area
• density: 5.900 inhabitants/ km²
• about 5000 km² surface of the greater city area

Smog
Smog really is a problem in Mexico City. Although I was there during the weekend (when it isn't really bad) I could sense it a bit. And when I returned on Sunday night I had really dry eyes. I guess it was an effect of all the exhaust fumes in the air.
Smog is such a big problem not only because nobody cares about catalysers and filters but also because Mexico City is situated in a valley so that the polluted air cannot escape. The production plants on the hills around the city also contribute their part to pollution.
To reduce smog and pollution, the government has introduced a system which takes part of the cars off the road. I don't remember exactly which numbers are affected on which day but it is as follows:

• cars with a 1 or 2 at the end on the number plate are not allowed to drive on Monday
• 3 and 4 have to stay at home on Tuesday
• etc.

The only problem is: Most people who live close to the city centre are rich people. Those usually have more than one car and of course they don't have two cars with the same number at the end!

Traffic

There is really a lot of traffic in D.F. and in a way it is even cazier than anywhere else. I even saw a traffic circle which was used in both directions. It's on the picture but, yes Michael, you can hardly see it;-) Well, to be honest I didn't understand the system behind it.

Bochos
In Mexico City and anywhere else in Mexico you still can see many Käfer (Beetles) which are called bochos here. A lot of them are used as taxis. By the way, a lot of people here call Volkswagen la bocho although they haven't been produced any more. But the Mexicans are very emotional about that. The shop floor where el bocho used to be produced is also called "hall of tears".


Sights
There are so many sights in D.F. that it's unpossible to see all of them on a weekend and I struggle a bit choosing some to present them here.

What is very famous is the Museum of Anthropology where you can learn a lot about pre-hispanic Mexican histroy.



There is the Metropolitan Cathetral as a repre- sentative of the Spanish colonial era.









Furthermore, there is the Templo Mayor or better it's ruins. It was the great pyramide of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.


Situated on the zócalo is the Palacio Nacional where Diego Rivera painted his great murals.









And the Palaco de Bellas Artes is quite nice, too. As long as you are interested in arts at least a little bit;-)