Hello. Once again i write from my mobile device, because some how the internet doesn’t seem to work on the stationary computers. The weather is harsh today, it feels like we’re in the jungle and not the desert.

However, this isn’t the reason for this post. 2 days ago has been Halloween, a widely celebrated ‘holiday’ under children. A day where they can dress up, pretend to be their favorite super hero and most important collect candy! While this old tradition is becoming more and more popular it kind of lets Mexicans forget about a nice tradition in Mexico ‘dead day’.

My host family was so kind to make a trip out of the city to show me how this day is celebrated. We drove once again into a tiny Mayo village, where Estefania’s sister works.

This post is only showing my experience, so please excuse me in case I say something wrong.

Now back to the story. For those that haven’t read my past story about the Mayo village ‘la Esquina’. This town is about 50 people strong and is home to an ethnic group called the mayos. They are one of, i believe, 8 Indian groups left in Sonora. Dont confuse them with the Mayas, they are a different tribe. Just as an information on the side. This village has been struke by the hurricane, just like many other mayo villages.

So, i know we got a bit of the path, let’s better get back on…

As i experienced it, the day of the dead is actually the night of the dead. Since the main event, if i may call it so, starts when it gets dark. This is also the time when you are able to see candles light up over the entire grave yard. Spooky!

Like I said before, the celebration started at night, at least for us. This was when we left la Esquina to drive a bit down the road into an other town, which holds the grave yard.

The graveyard is actually divided into 2 parts, this wasn’t always the case, but after a hurricane, part of it was destroyed, and thats the reason why there is a road dividing the grave yard. Further more, the graveyard is not divided into squares, but it rather seems that there are graves everywhere. And you need to watch out not to step on one by accident.

While we walked through the graveyard we encountered many different people, when Fannie asked one family, if she’s allowed to photograph the grave and the flowers, they agreed, but also asked for a picture of them. Because, they said, it’s the first time after years that they are united again.

While walking further, we actually came upon somebody that was willing to explain us something about that day…

This is what he said:

It’s actually a pre-Hispanic celebration, but when the Spanish arrived they accepted this holiday. So, that more people would be willing to convert. He further said, that on that day you shall go to the favorite place or the grave of the dead person and place his favorite food, drink or flowers next to it. Next, to that he also mentioned that it’s not a sad holiday, but rather involves parties, music and food. This part was hard for me to believe, because in Germany it’s usually the total opposite. You will never see anyone happy on a graveyard…

Link for more information about death day.

On this point, I want to say thank you for this wonderful explanation and thank you that you took the time to explain us everything.

After we’d talked to him, we went in front of the graveyard, where people sold food. Everything ranging from nachos, popcorn, hot dogs and tamales. This was also the first time I ate Tostadas - Yummy!

Tostadas are some kind of circle shaped nacho and on top you put all different kinds of vegetables, cheese, beans or meat.

Coming to the end of this post, I would like to say thank you again for the time that everybody took for us. But a special thank you to Estefania that took those lovely pictures. Even though not all are 100% sharp and pretty dark. I think everybody can understand that we can’t walk around the graveyard with the flash turned on.

While reading this post again, I’ve noticed what always happens to me. That I got kind of off the path - Oh well.

Yes, this time it’s finally my birthday. Even Sonora didn’t seem to have forgotten it, because it send lots and lots of rain – just like in good old Germany. The only difference is here the streets stayed flooded.

So, what did we do on such a special day? Honestly, nothing except sleep, yes for some reason I’ve almost slept all of my birthday and, of course, hearing Mexican birthday songs. Till now there is still a birthday cake missing, but I’m hoping that till the weekend someone will buy me one. Just in case one of you wants to buy me a cake, I would be willing to give you my address so you can send it to me. A couple of days before the testing period and the Mexican independence day, the most important day in all Mexico, I’m sitting here without having no clue of what will actually in my exams or neither where I spend that oh so magical Independence day…

But what I do know is that there is suppose to be an awesome Book/ Café in Obregon called “Libros y Mas”.

I hope that this weekend I will get a chance to check it out and then tell you the truth: Do they have awesome cakes and salads or not. I want to close the post with the same theme I opened it - my birthday. Thank you for all those people that remembered it and said happy birthday to me. A very special: thank you, to all of those people that sang me songs or cooked tasty food for me. But at very last a special thank you for the person that bought me balloons in the color of the German flag (well at least almost, I understand that the balloon looked black when it wasn´t blown up). Yours Sincerely Thomas.

Yes I write sincerely to show everyo ne how mature I´m now.

Four days ago I arrived in Mexico, but haven’t really found time to write something new on this blog. This is just suppose to be a very quick update, because my family kept bugging me why there isn’t anything new on the blog.

Once I get time I’ll write about how the flight and the airport in Obregon were.

Just for now, the airport was the first real surprise, because there were big worms, crickets and other bugs crawling all over the place.

Then on the third day I had to go to the hospital, since there was a suspicion of an appendix infection. Luckily it was a false alarm. But still it wasted one entire day…

That’s it for now

Thomas

Just so that I don’t disappoint anyone this is just a reference for people, especially for people out of the European Union, which apply for a Mexican student visa. The visa is free - no application fees or any other costs besides the price you pay for making 4 pictures. It’s much easier than applying for an American visa - that’s for sure!

My nationality is German and it took about 2 weeks to apply and get it handed out to me. For other countries that might be different, I believe to have heard that for Russians or Chinese it takes longer up to 4 month.

You can acquire the visa at every embassy and consulate. But bear in mind, that you need to do it in the closest one to your home. If you live in ‘Hessen Germany’ Frankfurt am Main will be the place you want to go.

Now to my story and how I got my visa.

I had a bit of telephone contact with the embassy in Frankfurt, which was difficult because their working hours aren’t the friendliest ones (Monday till Friday from 9am - 1pm). While talking with them on the phone they’ve told me that I only can get a visa when I have a written letter from my university that says that I’m a fully accepted student. A letter that says that I’m a guest hearer wouldn’t be enough.

This was an important fact for me. Before the phone call I was still looking for a guest seat, that all changed after the call obviously. ‘How I found my university’ can you read in an earlier post of me.

To the other problems I had already came on top that the official website of the Mexican embassy in Germany was down, so that I wasn’t able to get the proper forms. Luckily I was able to get them faxed to me by a helpful employee for the embassy. The forms weren’t too complicated to fill out it basically just asked for normal and reasonable information:

“Will you visit the northern border of Mexico? Will you visit the southern border of Mexico? Where will land or enter the country? What are you intentions (student, worker, employee)? Have you ever had a visa before? Was your last visa accepted? ” The questions ‘where will you enter the country’ supposes that you bought a ticket before your apply for a visa. Or am I mistaken? I found that a bit weird, but OK.

What wondered me the most is that they didn’t want an address were I’ll be staying. On the paper it said further that I need to have a bank recipe that ensures that I’m having at least 500$ at a monthly basis - I guess they just want to make sure I don’t starve in Mexico or become a bum. All the paper work was filled out pretty quickly just took about 10 minutes. I think the hardest part of it all was just getting the proper papers from the embassy.

There I was, all happy and smiling, in the train to the embassy with all my papers:

• Appliance letter
• Passport
• Bank recipe
• 2 Photos

It took just 30 minutes for me to arrive in Frankfurt and luckily there was a train station next to the embassy. But it’s not like I found it immediately, oh no I searched for approximately 20 minutes till I saw that little sign saying: “Mexican Embassy”.

At least there weren’t too many people in the embassy, just an hectic Russian that was anxious to cut me in line. When it was my time to get to the counter the woman was very friendly and she accepted my papers - except my bank recipe. She told me that she would prefer a letter signed letter from my dad with something similar like that on it:

” With this letter I’m assuring that my son Thomas will be getting 500$ each month from me. Dad”

I just thought: “great I made the entire journey for nothing”. But at least they kept my papers and passport and promised that I just need to send them this letter and they proceed from there. The same day my dad faxed them the letter. So we called them again the next day but then they told me that this wasn’t enough they also wanted a copy from my dad’s passport. Another day was lost. Finally at the third day they seemed to be happy and said they process it now. This was the start of just waiting and hoping that everything will turn out good. There are all those myth that Mexicans are lazy and it usually takes them longer till they get something done, but not this time. After the 10^th working day has passed I’ve called them and asked whether they got my visa done and they said ‘yes, you can come and pick it up.’

Score! About 2 hours later I was at their office and standing in line for picking it up. I got all nervous because the person who wanted to hand me the visa out didn’t find it at first - I guess he mixed up my last name, well that happens to a lot of people. Once he found it he wanted me to put one finger print and a signature in a booklet - or my student visa. Yes, the Mexican visa is an extra booklet with lots and lots of pages where you can put lots and lots of information… Next to the booklet he also handed me my Passport back, they also put a new sticker in it, saying that I’m a having a visa. The employee also told me that I need to carry with those two items (visa and booklet) the entire time while traveling around Mexico.

That was it basically. Hopefully this will help someone someday.

Thomas

Ps.: The student visa allows you to leave the county and entering it again. Oh, and if anyone wants or needs the forms i’ll be happy to send them to you!

Let’s begin. To be honest I don’t have a lot of information about my new university yet. Reason for that is once my language barrier and secondly that they seem to have holidays already. As soon as I arrive I’ll write something more for example the number of their students, what they offer, how the transportation system is and much more.
Anyway, for now we have to life with the little information we got. The full name of the university is: Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Cajeme. It’s located a bit outside of Ciudad Obregon Sonora, but I heard that there is a Wal-Mart close to it. So that’s definitely going to be a plus, this way I’ll be able to buy me always new notebooks, socks, shirts, shoes, cloth or food when I lose mine on the bus. To get a little idea of what it looks like I attached a photo of Google maps. The university doesn’t look too big - but still very pretty true? They offer a variety of subjects: ranging from tourism to software development.

How did I find the university?

That was easier than I thought. Since I didn’t study already at a university I also couldn’t relay on partner universities. Meaning it was all up to me, I tackled that problem all alone. Ok, to my excuse: I know a few people in Obregon Sonora and they were at least able to give me some names of the universities. Yes, Ciudad Obregon has more than just one University - there should be about four. All of whom claim to accept international students, at least if you trust this website: http://gotosonora.com/education-sonora.htm.

Like I said earlier I have friends in Obregon which told me that ITSON would be a great university. So I had a couple of weeks contact with ITSON either by phone or email. But after weeks of talking it soon got clear that they most likely couldn’t offer me anything because there just weren’t enough interested students.  After that I had a bit of contact with private school, they were quick in answering and they got a lot of experience with international students, the biggest downside was the price of over 5000$ usd. per semester.

That’s why I kept on searching and then - by a lucky - convenience I saw that there was another university listed on the Webpage: ITESCA. My last hope and it worked. They immediately were able to talk to me in English and didn’t keep me in a long waiting line unlike others. Just a few hours after my first call  and an email later I got the administrator for the students on the phone. He told me in a few words that he would be also interested on having - another - international student. And that they could offer me most likely something like a big buddy program.

Maybe you guys still know it from Junior High or Elementary school. Basically it’s a person that stands by your side and helps you with administrative, language barriers, homework and any other kind of help - just like a big brother should be, huh.

He then transferred me to a mate of him. She told and cleared some of the details with me. Since ITESCA, she said, is a public school the fees are much lower even for foreign students, approximately 500$ usd.  per Semester, plus about 100$ for a Spanish course). She also send me a few pdfs with the information of my courses - the only problem was that they were in Spanish. Luckily the computer-stuff words are similar in German, English and Spanish. So, that I understood most of it even without a proper translation. That’s the stand I have for now.

Well, just one more thing, there seems to be a club for ‘free software’, basically a bunch of Linux geeks, at this school. http://www.linuxgli.org/. I’ve talked to one of them, he seemed pretty nice. He also told me that they sometimes make LAN parties in school. So, for all you addicted computer-players that’s the right club for you.

I found an English speaking person at every university I’ve called except here: http://www.ulsa-noroeste.edu.mx/, because of the looks of it they weren’t capable to transfer me to the right person. And a phone number I got from them of a website was wrong, so that I kept on calling a private household with a pretty confused Mexican mother on the phone.  I actually called the poor woman twice, because I thought at first I dialed the wrong number.  That was basically the talk I had with her: “Hello, do you speak english? Habla  espaniol?  - “No habla  ingles, habla espaniol?” - “*disappointed me* Noo, perdon” ( two minutes later the same thing all over).

If anyone should ever get interested and want some information about this university, and I shouldn’t have posted it already on the website, let me know I’ll do my best to collect them for you. This only includes information about this subject and not your newest math homeworks!  It’s just about 22 days till I will stand in front of the university and beg for more information and a guided tour through their holy walls.

So long Thomas