This website has not only his anniversary tomorrow, but also changed of it’s hoster. Right now I don’t know how long we won’t be able to be reached over or domain. But somehow there had been some screw-ups. Which really pissed me off.

When installing the worpress new not every post was able to be imported correctly, pretty big pain in the butt! So, now I’m doing some problem solving of the next hours.

In typical mexican manners : It’ll be done tomorrow.. yes, tomorrow..

There are always topics which are harder to write about including the follwing words. Honestly, this post was most likely the hardest to write, it might been the hardest letter, post, text or how ever you want to call it I’ve ever written. Thinking about how one of the funniest years and a super fun time is going to be over soon is hard. Thinking what I might be going to be miss is hard. Then again, before the journey it was logical that there would be an end. From the beginning, it was clear for me and everybody else that I didn’t want to study all my carrier in Mexico.

In all abroad studies comes the time when it’s all over. With me the time has almost come. The final weeks of University have started, and given me time to review all the wonderful and less wonderful times I had. There were those times where I just wanted to explode, especially the times where it was 40C and the bus broke down. But of course, there were also the times, that I’m happy not to have missed out. Some of them where, meeting the exotic world of Mexico, meeting the natives, having a chance to meet lots of fun people, getting a chance to eat my favorite food for one year and having to understand that it’s completely different from Mexican food in Germany. Other fun times include learning Spanish, something that will probably help me on the long run. And I regret it for not learning it better. Most important of all I’ve learned a lot about myself. My strength and my weaknesses.

One think is sure, this feels like a damn short year.

The question that I’ve asked in my mind a couple of times was: Do you regret it? Do you regret not being able to see your family for months, being cut off, for days, from any kind of news media that I was close to understand. Till now I’m still owning myself an answer.

How was the University?

At this point, I prefer not to make any comparisons to any other schools. However, I personally enjoyed there, not only because the people welcomed me with open arms and helped me out, but also because I actually was able to learn something. At this point I would like to say thank you to all my teachers and professors, to the friendly family that sold me “Quesadillas con Carne” in the morning and remembered my name after the first day. I’ve enjoyed walking over the campus, in bright sunlight and the tiny classes, which most of the time felt very personal. And you knew that the teacher would have an ear for you.

The Food

Having always loved Mexican food from Germany, it was most likely the biggest shock of all when I had to realize that food in Mexico is completely different. Chilli con carne is just meat and chillies. Of course, the name of the food pretty much tells you what it consists of. However, why do they put in every chilli outside of Mexico beans and tomato sauce? There are not hard taco shells in Obregon – another big shock. The spiciness made me the tiniest problem. There where obvious times when it hurted, but nothing I wasn’t able to cope with. And yes the food here did make me sick, in the beginning. However, that’s something that every foreigner has to get through. Looking back staring to eat meet was most likely the smartest think I’ve done. Since, in Mexico most of the food has meat in it.(Tacos de Carne asada, Tamales de Carne, Chilli con Carne, Pollo Asada and so on)

Illness and Hospitals

In a few words: My insurance paid off. Just two days after arrival I had to go to the hospital the first time. The second time just a few weeks later down in Nayarit. And then in October a third time. My first and third time I’ve went to a private owned hospital. However, in Nayarit I’ve went to a public one and I was kind of shocked by the conditions. The toilets didn’t have toilet paper, neither were able to be flushed (And this with about 30C outside temperature.). At least the people had a good humor and made all together fun about my fear of needles. I stayed in the hospital for good 3 hours and cost only 150 pesos including a infusion. But I also had by my own toilet paper for around 20 pesos.

Did I ever miss Germany?

Most certainly, there where those times, especially those time when I was alone, where I wished to be back in Germany with my family and not sitting alone in my apartment. Then of course, I’ve missed the things that every German misses: the bread. However, at Walmart they started to sell decent bread.

I’ve missed the food my mom prepared. I missed my family. But, all of that isn’t enough to make me regret what I did.

In this year in Mexico I made friends and met a ton of people. Many people welcomed me with open arms and where almost to nice. Then of course, going a year without meeting something that you don’t like is rather unlikely. That’s why here I would like to thank all the people that welcomed me with open arms. And everybody that treated me bad or gave me a bad look should go f*ck himself.

Thank you for taking your time of reading this blog. Till now it’s not sure, if Estefania will actually continue or starting to write for this blog. If she should decide not to do, i’ll most likely keep it active and just start to add a section for my experiences in Germany – Hijacking the blog.

I do understand that in this post I’ve written thanks in many occasions. But there are a couple more people I would love to thanks in special. The first thank goes to my parents Klaus and Ingeborg, they where the two people who allowed me to full fill my dream and come to Mexico for a year. Something, that I image not every parent would allow their child. They allowed me to go to Mexico, without even knowing the people that I would be living with. Thank you for trusting me, thank you for supporting me. Thanks for showing me what good parents are. You guys Rock!

The next thank goes to Gina, she’s always been really kind and prepared tasty tacos dorados. And of course the last thnks goes to Estefania, she’s always been very supportive, helped me in school, washed my cloth, prepared food, showed me the city and introduced me to Obregon. I’ll miss those fun times we had – and can’t wait to have them again!

Sincerely,

Thomas Kreis

In case, you have a question regarding studies or anything else you can always drop me a message per email and I’ll answer.

thomme1337(at)gmail(dot)com

Edit: I do not find the time to read this post again and search for gramatical or spelling mistakes. Forgive me for that. Maybe in the future I’ll find time to do so…

Having watched tons of horror movies in which the world ends. Nothing should be able to surprise me anymore. However, that was before the swine flu came into the news again. Earlier today the Mexican government closed down all schools, universities and larger events in the country. Something that I wouldn’t have dreamed in my wildest dreams. I guess, it opened my eyes once more to the danger we might all be in.<em> It’s only fair to say that till now, there had only been a couple reported cases of the swine flu. Of who none are close to Ciudad Obregon.</em> Seeing pictures of empty streets in Mexico D.F.  is so absurd that, it almost feels like Mexico is in a war. Somewhat it’s true – War on Swine flu.
The Television ads are like the “<em>Duck and Cover</em>” commercials during the cold war. They show tips on how to cope with this disease: no shaking hands, no kissing, ventilating rooms and washing hands often.
Like I’ve said earlier there haven’t been any reported cases in Ciudad Obregon. However, we’ll lay low the next few days to see how it all will develop.

I can’t image how my parents must feel, knowing that their son is more then 20 hours away. I only know, that it doesn’t feel good knowing that I’m separated by a big ocean from my family at such a time.

In case anyone has new developments you can always drop me a line. This especially counts for my parents and brothers.
thomme1337 (at) gmail (dot) com

Best wishes to Mexico and the rest of the world.
Thomas

Edit: There had been a couple of people with mouth covers, it wasn’t anything close to what you see on the pictures from Mexico D.F.

Ok, maybe the title is a tiny bit to hash. But today we got the notice that all schools and universities around Mexico are being closed for one week. The reason for all that is ofcourse: the swine flu.

Thomas

There have been some major changes around the world. Some include the financial crisis, the foreclosures of houses in the United States, major problems in the stock markets around the world. A new president in the United States was elected – the first black president. During his campaign he’s always called of change. “It’s time for a change” he pledged in very emotional speeches. Yes, they where so full of heart and passion that they even touched me, a person that doesn’t have any roots in the USA.</p>

It kept me up at night and thinking during the day: How could I answer Obama’s question? How could I change? So it went for weeks. When all of a sudden it struck me and I had the perfect respond: “Yes, Change! I’ll stop being a vegetarian”. This decision wasn’t easy after all I’ve fought over 8 years against the desire of eating meat. And I was pretty good in it. I changed the eating habits of my parents and even of Estefania. The only person I never was able to convince was my big brother, he’s the born carnivore. He’s that kind of person that would start to eat people, once all animals are instinct just to eat some kind of meat.

Anyway, my decision was made and my mind let me sleep again. Over the next days fear and horrible thoughts came up. Most important what would Estefania think? After all, she always got critics from me for trying to put meat in the food. And I never really accepted that she started to eat meat again.

On the 15th of February I finally hat my guts together and said to her: “I want a steak – grilled medium, no sauce, no side dish. Just meat.” The bomb was dropped. Relief on my side and laughter on the other. In my mind I already started to think: “What have I done, why?”. After some minutes the present people (Estefania’s mother and Estefania) realized that I meant it.

So, we’ve got in a truck. Drove a couple of hundred meters down the road to a: carceneria. Translated it would mean something like: butcher. Except that they also grill your meat to your wish. So, thinking now it’ll be easy to choose a piece of meat and that the hardest part was over – by that I mean convincing me… .

We went to the counter. And got asked: “What would you like?” Not knowing a lot about meat we took a shot and said: “Meat from a cow – beef I guess – for a steak.”. And there he went showing all different kind of cuts. Honestly they all looked the same to me. So in the end we ended up with more than half a kilo of Rib eye cut, for about 10 Euros.

When I saw the price I was shocked for a minute. After all without meat the world seemed cheaper… For that price I could have bought almost 4 kg of grapes. But immediately I remembered what Obama said: “It’s time for a change”.

The grilling luckily only took a couple of minutes, because I insisted my meat medium and not how it’s usual in Sonora: well-done and cut into tiny squares. The way home, with the sweet and herb smell of grilled meat filling the truck, made me think on memories of me being a child.

Memories of watching my dad grill in the backyard and my mom in the kitchen preparing salad – for me. Yes, it remembered me on the times where I’ve missed out where I only ate potatoes and the specially prepared salad for me.

But all of this was about to change. The package in my hands was the long awaited and by Obama praised change! – two tasty smelling steaks.

After a felt year we finally arrived at home… and me sitting at the table waiting to take my first bite. Rapidly after the first the second bite followed and the third.. Till it all was gone and also the entire house was filled with the sweet and herb smell we had already enjoyed in the car.

I don’t know whether the hectic and the stress, the meat or just the weather made me sleepy. I only know that I fell asleep right away, after finishing my first steak in eight years and woke up 3 hours later feeling happy and full. But most important of all I did what a foreign president told us all to do: “Change!”.

This experience gave my mouth to taste some totally different flavors of the Mexican kitchen. Now, I was ready to taste carne asada, which is a classic and must-eat in Sonora. And many other fine dishes.

Thanks Obama. Even if you can’t fix the American economy, you surely changed me…

Now, that I’ve lived quite a few weeks in my apartment. I can only say that I feel really comfortable. Even though there had been some pretty weird problems. One morning I wanted to go to university. My first apartment door opened normally with no problems. But when I got to the second door (gate) the problems started. Probably, the worst scenario happened. My key got stuck in the lock and wouldn’t move anymore. So, there I was stuck inside not being able to leave the house at 7 in the morning… The funny thing is it happened before, but there the door was luckily opened already. Since, I didn’t have the phone number of my landlord. There was nothing I could do except shake the gate, curse it and try to turn the key with all my strength. Obviously it didn’t work! After about 10 minutes of restless shaking and bending, my neighbour finally opened the door and seemed to instantly know what’s wrong. My guess is, he was driven by the hope that once the door opened he could go back to sleep. He pulled his cell phone out and tried to dial a number with his sleepy eyes. Probably he was to tired to read the display, because with a few dry words he asked, if I would have the phone number of the landlord. So, I started to search in my cell phone. After about 10 minutes we both had figured the number of the landlord out and called him successfully – about another 10 minutes later Mr. Landlord came with a bunch of tools, with which he hammered onto the lock and bended it – till it in the end gave up and freed us!. Sweet freedom! Apparently, the freedom came good 20 minutes to late. So, that in the end I missed my first class… Since it happened about one week has gone by, and the lock hasn’t been hundred percent repaired and replaced. But now everybody has to lock the door from the outside, because the inner part of the lock doesn’t work – annoying.]]

A couple of weeks back someone posted a comment in our blog referring us to a very interesting blog about Ciudad Obregón. In this blog you can find stories written either in English or Spanish, which is kind of confusing. But for anyone that wants to have a look this is the URL: http://obson.wordpress.com.

Sadly, his blog is blocked in our university, so that I can’t post links to certain post of it. I’ll do this though as soon as I find time today or tomorrow…

Long time there hasn’t been any activity in this blog. The main reason for that is that Estefania and I had been in Germany for about a month. Anyway, there have been some major changes: I got me an own apartment. It’s in walking range of the baseball stadium. So, I might get a chance to visit a local baseball game now and then.

Basically searching an apartment in Obregon seems to be fairly easy. First of all, there are many places that rent apartments. Secondly, a renting-contract is not that common. Meaning you can move in and out anytime. I guess this has some hidden problems as well.

Let’s look at my case for example. My landlord doesn’t and didn’t want to have contact with me. At first he also refused to give me a receipt. But after some talking he agreed to sign a receipt once I print one out by my self and hand it to him.
I’m not even sure; that if there would be problems with the landlord the paper would help in anyway getting my safety deposit back. However, I’ll try to get him to sign a paper. So, I can sleep better at night and knowing that in problems at least I can prove that I’ve paid already.

Back to the actually topic.

When you look for an apartment or a room you can choose to stay with a family, which will let you stay inside of their house, cook and wash for you. Or you can look for an own place, it all just depends on what you like more. Especially near ITSON (the biggest university in Cd. Obregon) there are many places that rent rooms to students. You can spot those houses easily, because they often have signs in front of the house saying that they help students.

The second day is over and I have to say that I sleep very well in my new bed.

In case anyone would like to have some more information on how to find an apartment just drop me a comment and I would me more than happy to help you.

What would be the least thing you would expect to find in Ciudad Obregon? Yes, you guessed correctly: Monks from India that are work in a missionary.

When talking to those two lovely gentlemen, they explained me that they have made an over 45 hour journey through the entire world to finally come to Obregon. Well actually, they live along an ethnic group called the: Primas. This is one of original inhabitants Sonora’s. And the town they come from is over 4 hours away. But they currently are attending a church congress.

We probably talked for good half an hour about everything that came into our mind. But something that he told me really made me smile and it reminded me on the problems I sometimes have in Mexico.

In the past, they asked people, if they would want to attend a holy mass. And the Primas always replied “Yes we will come”. Apparently when it was time for the mess no one showed up.

This just reminds me, on the time when I lend money to someone and he said over a period of 4 month: “tomorrow you get it. Don’t worry”.

Just in case you guys will ever read this.

Thanks John for taking your time to talk with me and Estefania. Sadly I don’t remember the name of his fellow mate. But of course a big thanks to you too.

Gracefully Thomas

Yay, happy birthday Florian. Hope you have a great day and celebrate lots, and lots.

Everybody that wonders and asks himself: who is Florian?  He’s currently a student in Darmstadt where he studies Informatic, if I’m not mistaken. His blog address is: http://www.q-nox.de/blog. I’ve known him all my life and therefore it’s very sad that we’re not able to drink a birhtday beer together.

Anyway, happty birthday Flo.