I know I haven´t written in a long time, but I´m going to jump back on the band wagon now!
I can list hundreds of examples of Americanization in México. From the incorporation of Halloween just the other day to Walmarts, Sams Clubs, TGIFridays, Chili´s, McDonalds, etc. there´s a lot of American influence. Unfortunately, there are some aspects of American culture that México really should incorporate! For example.
DRIVING! In the US, we have 4-way stops and red-lights at intersections. We know who´s going where because of turning lanes -- heck, we actually have lanes! There is nothing like that in México. Down here we don´t have lanes -- even on the highway! It´s just whereever you fit! We have no stop signs or red-lights at most intersections, so you just go driving through them honking your horn, hoping that there´s not someone doing exactly the same thing from the opposing direction. But luck doesn´t always pan out. Just yesterday I saw a car not too far from my house that was T-boned from a car at these intersections where you can´t see if anyone´s coming from the other directions but there´s no stop signs or lights. It´s crazy!
I´ll give you another example.
I went to pick up my dry cleaning, thinking it would take, oh, 30 seconds because I had my taxi waiting outside in the middle of the street. I show up and the old man is examining a sweater for stains. He says, "momentito" aka "just a sec." I think, ok, I´ll be patient, this can´t take more than a minute. No! I´m a paying customer and this old man decides to go through a HUGE pile of clothes to check for stains while I´m just standing there! I stood there for 9 minutes waiting for the old man to go through this pile of clothes. I said to myself, "I´m never coming back here! They are loosing my business!" So, moral of the story, México is far behind the idea of customer service and the idea that if they don´t provide good service they´ll loose business!
Need more?
As you know, I work in an office at a Mexican company. What I see is very typical for Mexican businesses as I hear stories from my friends.
My colleagues work very long hours! They arrive at work between 9-10am and most stay until 9, 10, 11pm! Why? Because they have "so much work" -- but I seem them chatting about how much work they have versus actually doing it! I can get the same amount of work done between 9am and 5pm as they can when they stay until 10pm. The people showing up at meetings are always 30 minutes to an hour late! Yesterday, my meeting was supposed to start at 1pm....but it didn´t really start (because everyone was late) until 2pm! As an American, you have to be sooooo patient if you want to do work down here!
Until next time!
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Sunday, September 9, 2007
I knew this would happen
Here I am sitting quietly on a Sunday afternoon, waiting for our groceries to be delivered, with a box of tissues and a pharmacy to my side. I'm sick...but not in the way you'd expect when you come to México. I have a sinus infection, a sore throat, and no voice. I've taken Airborne, Mucinex, Tylenol, Pseudoephd decongestant, and some throat anti-inflamatory. I have antibotics, but I don't want to take them unless I don't get better after today.
I think I'm sick because I didn't get much sleep all last week. You know, you're in a new place, you want to go out with friends and have a good time in the evenings, and then you have to wake up at 6am for work. The combination doesn't leave a lot of time for sleep and recharging my immune system.
On to business. I have now worked for one week in the airline business! I have learned so much already. I've read lease agreements and calculated the maintenance reserves they have to pay each month with escalation, found the costs of landing at all the major US airports and put them into a snazzy excel file. It's crazy how you calculate the landing/take-off fees. Every airport is different. Some calculate fees based on Maximum Take-off Weight, others on Landing weight, others on total seats, others on passengers, and others on Wing Span. What my department, the Finance Planning people, are working on now is the cost-analysis of the new 5-year business plan. Volaris is signed with Airbus to get lots of new A319s over the next 5 years, but maybe not enough new airplanes to quench the demand. So, Volaris has the option to buy new A320s in addition to the A319s. My group is doing the cost analysis which decides whether or not Volaris is going to buy the A320s. How cool is that? It is so real! Unlike textbook problems that are not significant in real life, this is serious stuff.
On to the fun stuff. Friday night there was a party given by two German guys, who having been working on the Volaris 5-year business plan, because they will be leaving soon. It was a Mojito party and my boss, and his boss and lots of other Volaris people were there. I got to bring 4 Fulbright friends and we had a great time dancing to the entertainment -- one guy with microphone, speakers, a Mac laptop....quite a sight to see! Let's just say you can't do that job if you are self-conscious. At one point in the night, there was a song with the beat of a Waltz, and I danced with one of the German guys, Florian, who appartently was a ballroom dancer for 10years! I hadn't Waltz'ed in 10 years!
What was awful about Friday night is I could bearly speak to anyone because I had lost my voice at about 9pm that night. Guess why? I had a great political conversation with two guys from work at a restuarant called "Beer Factory." We talked/argued (with good hearts) about everything from Iraq, healthcare, education, taxes....you name it. What a great way to practice my Spanish!
Last night I stayed in....it was so sad because I was invited by a guy from work, whose cousin was doing PR for a club called Vibó, to the opening last night. I got all my friends in VIP to the club with red carpet and all while I sat home with my tissues.
Oh. and the funniest part of this week, "learn something new everyday"....I've been waiting on two FedEx boxes from home with clothes, towels, mattress pad, etc that should have been here 1.5 weeks ago. I finally get a call from the FedEx lady. My packages are stuck in customs because it's illegal to send USED clothes to Mexico from the US.???? haha. Well, I think everything has been approved now, so hopefully they will all be here tomorrow because I've been living off very few clothes. So yeah, FYI, don't send used clothes to Mexico!
I think I'm sick because I didn't get much sleep all last week. You know, you're in a new place, you want to go out with friends and have a good time in the evenings, and then you have to wake up at 6am for work. The combination doesn't leave a lot of time for sleep and recharging my immune system.
On to business. I have now worked for one week in the airline business! I have learned so much already. I've read lease agreements and calculated the maintenance reserves they have to pay each month with escalation, found the costs of landing at all the major US airports and put them into a snazzy excel file. It's crazy how you calculate the landing/take-off fees. Every airport is different. Some calculate fees based on Maximum Take-off Weight, others on Landing weight, others on total seats, others on passengers, and others on Wing Span. What my department, the Finance Planning people, are working on now is the cost-analysis of the new 5-year business plan. Volaris is signed with Airbus to get lots of new A319s over the next 5 years, but maybe not enough new airplanes to quench the demand. So, Volaris has the option to buy new A320s in addition to the A319s. My group is doing the cost analysis which decides whether or not Volaris is going to buy the A320s. How cool is that? It is so real! Unlike textbook problems that are not significant in real life, this is serious stuff.
On to the fun stuff. Friday night there was a party given by two German guys, who having been working on the Volaris 5-year business plan, because they will be leaving soon. It was a Mojito party and my boss, and his boss and lots of other Volaris people were there. I got to bring 4 Fulbright friends and we had a great time dancing to the entertainment -- one guy with microphone, speakers, a Mac laptop....quite a sight to see! Let's just say you can't do that job if you are self-conscious. At one point in the night, there was a song with the beat of a Waltz, and I danced with one of the German guys, Florian, who appartently was a ballroom dancer for 10years! I hadn't Waltz'ed in 10 years!
What was awful about Friday night is I could bearly speak to anyone because I had lost my voice at about 9pm that night. Guess why? I had a great political conversation with two guys from work at a restuarant called "Beer Factory." We talked/argued (with good hearts) about everything from Iraq, healthcare, education, taxes....you name it. What a great way to practice my Spanish!
Last night I stayed in....it was so sad because I was invited by a guy from work, whose cousin was doing PR for a club called Vibó, to the opening last night. I got all my friends in VIP to the club with red carpet and all while I sat home with my tissues.
Oh. and the funniest part of this week, "learn something new everyday"....I've been waiting on two FedEx boxes from home with clothes, towels, mattress pad, etc that should have been here 1.5 weeks ago. I finally get a call from the FedEx lady. My packages are stuck in customs because it's illegal to send USED clothes to Mexico from the US.???? haha. Well, I think everything has been approved now, so hopefully they will all be here tomorrow because I've been living off very few clothes. So yeah, FYI, don't send used clothes to Mexico!
Sunday, September 2, 2007
After Twelve Days in Mexico, I know this...
I'm 'all' situated now. I have an apartment, roommates, furniture, food, and water, but most importantly, wireless internet. I know my way around my Colonia (in México City, the neighborhoods are called Colonies) which is called "La Condesa" -even though I still carry around a map just in case. The other cool Colonias in Mexico City, called DF just like we call our capital DC, are Polanco and Coyocán. What's perfect is that I have fellow Fulbright friends living in both of the other colonias, so we can all hang out in different parts of the city -- it would be very easy to get "stuck" in our colonia.
I know now how it is to feel perfectly normal eating lunch, called "comida" here, at 3pm. I know now that I like having a dish washer and a dryer for laundry...neither of which I have here. I am the dish washer and my room has clothes hanging up all over to dry, which takes days...not 50 minutes. It's now normal not to drink tap water and brush your teeth with bottled water - I'm slowing trying to rinse my tooth brush with tap water, so as to introduce the germs into my system. It's also normal to be a little sick.
DF is about 7300ft above sea level -- we beat the mile high city --so the temperature is always between 60-80 degrees. As a result, we don't have air conditioning or heat, and the amazing part is that I haven't really needed/wished for either. Another result of the altitude is shortness of breath after climbing to the third floor in our apartment. We keep saying to ourselves, "we can't be this out of shape." Speaking of, I'm going to join a yoga studio that's down the road!
After twelve days in México, I'm so glad to have great fellow Fublrighter friends....cheers to the second biggest Fulbright program in the world! But I'm also looking forward to meeting more Mexicans. Condesa is ripe with young, educated, well-traveled Mexicans....and with restaurants and bars where we hope to meet them and make friends. I love how this Mexico is completely different from the stereotype that most people in the states hold about Mexico and the people. This area could be in any big european city. There is a beautiful park lined with fancy coffee shops, posters of a concert in Sept by a Canadian classical pianiast playing Bach, and an open air market yesterday and today that's selling art, furniture, clothing and colored-glass martini glasses made by local designers that's far above my price range.
Tomorrow is my first day of work at Volaris and my first day in the "real world"...getting picked up at 7:30am when I'm used to class at 11! Actually, I went into the office on Friday and met my boss and my boss's boss (CFO). I am working in the Finance department, but looking forward to collaborating with the technical/operations department and the planning department. The company only started flying in March 2006 and have 12 A319s. However, they are expanding rapidly: more planes, more routes -- with flights to the US in the future. So everything is new and exciting. P.S. Their Chief Pilot is a female...first in México! Next week my boss gets to go to London for an airline conference and rides home on the delivery flight of their brand new A319 from Germany.....sweet. But what's even cooler is that the CEO, Pedro Aspe was a Fulbrighter himself! I can't wait to meet him.
Friday night I went out to a Cuban salsa club called Mama Rumba's. They served excellent mojitos for cheap! The band, which was huge and comprised of about 15 members, kept everyone on their feet -- they all danced like professionals! I wish there was more dancing in the States. Most of the night I was a spectator, but then, out of nowhere, a guy comes and takes me onto the dance floor. I say out of no where because it was so funny watching guys stand sort of near our table and keep looking at us. I don't know if they were looking at us because we look foreign or because they wanted to dance but were just too shy to ask. I kept saying to my friends that I wanted to dance, but none of the "stalkers" were doing anything about it. But this guy, as I said before, came out of nowhere and was an incredible dancer. It was so much like a movie because a lot of people started cirling around us to watch -- ?again, because I look foreign or because he was leading well and I was following fairly well. I can't wait to go back! Watch out DF! haha :)
I know now how it is to feel perfectly normal eating lunch, called "comida" here, at 3pm. I know now that I like having a dish washer and a dryer for laundry...neither of which I have here. I am the dish washer and my room has clothes hanging up all over to dry, which takes days...not 50 minutes. It's now normal not to drink tap water and brush your teeth with bottled water - I'm slowing trying to rinse my tooth brush with tap water, so as to introduce the germs into my system. It's also normal to be a little sick.
DF is about 7300ft above sea level -- we beat the mile high city --so the temperature is always between 60-80 degrees. As a result, we don't have air conditioning or heat, and the amazing part is that I haven't really needed/wished for either. Another result of the altitude is shortness of breath after climbing to the third floor in our apartment. We keep saying to ourselves, "we can't be this out of shape." Speaking of, I'm going to join a yoga studio that's down the road!
After twelve days in México, I'm so glad to have great fellow Fublrighter friends....cheers to the second biggest Fulbright program in the world! But I'm also looking forward to meeting more Mexicans. Condesa is ripe with young, educated, well-traveled Mexicans....and with restaurants and bars where we hope to meet them and make friends. I love how this Mexico is completely different from the stereotype that most people in the states hold about Mexico and the people. This area could be in any big european city. There is a beautiful park lined with fancy coffee shops, posters of a concert in Sept by a Canadian classical pianiast playing Bach, and an open air market yesterday and today that's selling art, furniture, clothing and colored-glass martini glasses made by local designers that's far above my price range.
Tomorrow is my first day of work at Volaris and my first day in the "real world"...getting picked up at 7:30am when I'm used to class at 11! Actually, I went into the office on Friday and met my boss and my boss's boss (CFO). I am working in the Finance department, but looking forward to collaborating with the technical/operations department and the planning department. The company only started flying in March 2006 and have 12 A319s. However, they are expanding rapidly: more planes, more routes -- with flights to the US in the future. So everything is new and exciting. P.S. Their Chief Pilot is a female...first in México! Next week my boss gets to go to London for an airline conference and rides home on the delivery flight of their brand new A319 from Germany.....sweet. But what's even cooler is that the CEO, Pedro Aspe was a Fulbrighter himself! I can't wait to meet him.
Friday night I went out to a Cuban salsa club called Mama Rumba's. They served excellent mojitos for cheap! The band, which was huge and comprised of about 15 members, kept everyone on their feet -- they all danced like professionals! I wish there was more dancing in the States. Most of the night I was a spectator, but then, out of nowhere, a guy comes and takes me onto the dance floor. I say out of no where because it was so funny watching guys stand sort of near our table and keep looking at us. I don't know if they were looking at us because we look foreign or because they wanted to dance but were just too shy to ask. I kept saying to my friends that I wanted to dance, but none of the "stalkers" were doing anything about it. But this guy, as I said before, came out of nowhere and was an incredible dancer. It was so much like a movie because a lot of people started cirling around us to watch -- ?again, because I look foreign or because he was leading well and I was following fairly well. I can't wait to go back! Watch out DF! haha :)
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