Thursday, October 11, 2007

Here comes new pack of cultural differences and some facts

Here comes new pack of cultural differences and some facts:
1. Inside house/flat everyone is walking in shoes never saw someone use indoor shoes.
2. They have a lot of highway for which you have to pay, but also with this payment they give you insurance and it is much safer to drive highways, then free roads.
3. The most reach areas in the market own government companies with monopoly. For example, oil – get and sell on gas stations only one company Pemex, what is government company.
4. Here they give a lot of different services, like washing window of your car, making shows while drivers are waiting for green light in a cross street, helping to put bags to a taxi, in FREE parking place there are guy, who like watching your car that no one do any bad to it, children in shops, who pack your stuffs into a plastic bag, and … SHOCK – in toilet is a boy, who is giving you a piece of paper for dry your hands. BUT all of them want some money for it. Sometimes you thing “what a hell, why I need it and why I need to pay”. For example, for boy in toilet.
5. You always can find place to eat during the night. Here all the time are opened places to eat tacos – very tasty and quite cheap.
6. Some inner country buses are really good quality, I never used such level buses in Europe and at least this buses has enough space for my legs.
7. People are extremely friendly and they don’t say so much ¨I don’t have time¨ as in Europe.
8. A lot of people have cars, rarely I can meet someone even my age without a car
9. Too bureaucratic and too official everything. Often you have to put suit and tie.
10. What should be green color in Mexico city is not green. It is like dirty green, but outside Mexico city it is normal green.
11. In public schools people don´t study English, only in private schools. Very weird taking into consideration that they have border with US.
12. Here is not many GOOD PRIVATE universities, what has good education, but private universities is very good and many of them are very expensive.
13. They don’t use so much normal plates; they use a lot one-time plates or use plates made from plastic. In fast food places, they put plastic plates into plastic bag and put on it food, after you ate, they took away bag and don’t need to wash plate.
14. Metro in peak time is a mess. If you don’t push people, you never will enter metro train.
15. Here are extremely many gays and lesbians. You can meet them very many on the streets. Here no one surprised about them.
16. Mexicans smoke a lot and in the flat to smoke is normal, even if your child is not smoking.
17. Very many young people has cars, almost all my friends has car and they always drive you to home.
18. In Mexico don’t have bath in the flats, only showers. Baths are only for reach families.
19. They dance and sing very much. They can dance and sing everywhere – mostly latino musica.
20. They have big family connections. When have celebrations, are invited all family and it is a lot of people. And invited family can invite some friends too. So celebrations have a lot of people. And celebrations mostly are: eat a bit (not too much), chat and dance salsa or reggeaton.
21. Don’t drink tea. Here is not so much choice of tea and expensive. Noone use it. They drink or coffee or soda. And soda/lemonade is extremely popular here.
22. During birthdays of children they have Pinata (box of candies in form of some cartoon hero), what they need to destroy with by kicking it with stick and then all guests try to grab some candies.


23. When you meet someone, it is opposite sex person, you need to give kiss into cheek, but generally no one gives kiss, they just put their cheek to other person cheek and make noise like kissing :D. Very strange.
24. The very weird thing!!! They always ask you “Como estas” = “How are you doing” and in 90% of time they don’t care and often they even don’t listen your answer. Some times you can hear “Como estas? Hola.” = “How are you. Hi”. In this case for sure no one is waiting for your answer, to question “how are you?”. This question I don’t like the most.