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.

Roads

Mexican roads are quite "interesting" (from the German point of view). Sometimes I have the impression they consist of more chuckholes than paving;-) Of course I'm exaggerating a bit but honestly, it's terrible sometimes. It's a question of knowing where the holes are to avoid ruining your car.
Well, sometimes they try to repair the roads but that doesn't last very long...

Another important requisite of Mexican roads are the topes (humps). They have them almost everywhere here to make you reduce speed. On the one hand I can understand that they are cheaper than signs, traffic lights etc. but they are quite a nuisance. And they are quite dangerous because sometimes you can see them very good. At least you can hear them. At the latest when you hit the ground with the car. Furthermore, they prevent any economic driving (my opinion) because you are forced to reduce speed but everybody accelerates right afterwards.

Finding your way

Finding your way is not always easy in Mexico. In most cases you have to ask someone. After some time I found out that it is better to ask several people because it increases the possibility that one person gives you the right answer. In most cases Mexicans don't tell you when they have no idea where the place is you are asking for. It is considered as inpolite to give a "negative" answer. Difficult to understand for Europeans, I agree. A very common answer if you ask for the way, is todo derecho which means something like "Just right this way." With what I wrote above you can imagine how often it is REALLY "Just right this way."















What helps a bit finding your way is that most Mexican cities are structured systematically: like a chessboard. Most cities have a central square called zócalo. The streets leading direcly to the zócalo have a real name like "5 de Mayo" or "Avenida Hidalgo". The streets which lead to one of those streets to the west are called ponientes, those to the east orientes, to the north nortes and to the south sures. So far, so good. You still understand the system;-)? Of course not all streets to the north can be called nortes etc. Therefore they also have numbers. The start with the small numbers from the zócalo but not like 1, 2, 3... In one direction are the even numbers and in the other the odd numbers. For example the nortes that are in the west of the city have the numbers 2, 4, 6... and those in the east 3, 5, 7... (the 1 never exists).

Buses

During the last few days I used the buses several times. Guess what? The bus drivers drive even more crazy than the car drivers. Maybe it's because it's not their buses. Or they think they know the streets. But I think more probable they just think they are the best drivers on earth;-)
What may appear stange to most Europeans is that there are no timetables for the bus! It is just there when it arrives;-) And if you ask people on the bus where you have to get off, you always get a different answer. But to be honest it's not that easy. If you ask in a nice way, you can get off almost anywhere. Nonetheless, I took the wrong bus once and couldn't get off where I wanted.

Houses etc.

Water
What you have to know about water in Mexico is that the water which comes from the tap is not drinkable. You can use it for brushing your teeth but for cooking etc. you have to buy water.
The thing is that the water quality isn't that bad originally. However, they have a special "system" here how the water comes to the tap. As the pressure which is supplied isn't very high, every house has a pump here which pumps the water into those black reservoirs you can see for example on our house. With this "trick", water pressure is a bit higher.
By the way: We have WARM water only in the shower.

Special note to those who have been to China: Here they clean the clothes with cold water in the laundry, too. And if you have a spot on them: Just tell them, they will use more chlorine!

Electricity
Electricity is another interesting topic. The general system here is very similar to the one in the USA: the same plugs, the same voltage (110 volts). The latter causes some problems. 110 volts cannot be transmitted over very long distances. Therefore, you find a transformer close to your house. And how the current comes from there to your house can look a bit chaotic...














And in most cases it does.

Gas
Gas is very common here. Most cookers work with gas which was a big change for me. Cooking with gas is really not the same!
Also the WARM water in the shower is heated by gas. To do so, they use those boilers you can see in the picture. To be honest the don't look very safe to me. And the stories about exploding boilers don't make me feel any safer.

Driving

Yes, it's true. Most Mexicans drive like crazy. And if you want to get somewhere, you have to adapt to their way of driving. At Volkswagen they have courses for those Germans who have been working here for 3 or 4 years and are about to return: the repatriats (some know the expression). You know what they teach them? Well, besides other things that in Germany there are rules for driving!
But honestly driving here is not as bad as it sounds. You get used to it very quickly. You just have to take care a bit more and think for the driver next to you or in front of to you.
During my first week here only one of the interns and one of the trainees had an accident...;-)