November 20, 2012

• Report # 943

  Hey everyone, I hope that you’ve all had a wonderful weekend and a great start to the week. On Saturday I went to Fundidora Park and I went for a long run through the park and along the riverwalk to the government palace. This was the second time I did that run and I really would like to do it a little more often.

  I returned home and had a shower and later on I walked to Starbucks to use their internet as the signal I was using here had completely vanished. I definitely learned that the Starbucks in Mexico really is no cheaper than the Starbucks in Canada or the US as I ended up paying more than 12 dollars for a mocha frappuichino, a hot chocolate, and a panini.

  I talked to my brother on Facebook for the first time since I arrived in Mexico. He’s been at home resting as he fell off the roof at his job a few weeks ago and broke both of his ankles. He has been improving, but it’s going to take him a while to get back to 100 %. My parents actually cancelled their trip to Hawaii so they could stay home and help him through these tough first weeks after the fall.

  I had no idea that they had cancelled their trip as I sent an email to my dad at the end of October and I never heard back from him. It turns out he says that he never received it, though it says it was sent in my inbox, so I’m not sure what happened. I did get to talk with my parents, grandmother and brother for the first time on Skype so that was good .

  My brother had some Skype credit left so they were able to use Skype to call my cell phone. Seeing as I was sitting in a Starbucks it wouldn’t be good to Skype me and have the whole place hear the conversation. Afterwards I stopped at KFC and walked home and that was about it for Saturday.

  The internet connection here got fixed, but it’s really not a great signal I have. It’s sometimes only two bars, and sometimes it’s so bad the pages don’t even load properly. It’s a little frustrating but really there is not too much I can do about it. On Sunday I was supposed to hang out with a friend but things didn’t work out so I just spent the day alone.

  I went to Carl’s Jr. in the evening and spent most of the rest of the day at home. I think this was the first time that I actually had Carl’s Jr. in my life. I can say it’s basically just another fast food hamburger place like Burger King or Wendys or McDonalds. There is a Carl’s Jr. in my province now, but it’s about four hours away so I never actually have had it yet before yesterday.

  I was going to head to Fundidora and run yesterday, but I remembered I had a skype call to do with my aunt and grandmother at 11:00 am. I rushed back home and before I could call my aunt, my old spanish teacher Carlos called me and we talked for a few minutes. This was actually the first time I had talked to him since I left. He has enough students and he’s doing well, so that was good to hear.

  I talked to my aunt and grandmother for more than half an hour and I ended up meeting a friend and we just walked around the park. I got to see some parts that I hadn’t seen before so that was interesting. We walked through the riverwalk and downtown and eventually took a bus to San Nicolas to see a university campus and stop in at a plaza.

  We had dinner at a restaurant called El Portón which is actually run by Wal-Mart, just like another restaurant here called Vips. The difference is this place is more Mexican, but that was good with me as I wanted to have some tortilla soup. Afterwards my friend took a bus home and I walked through the mall and picked up a frappuichino before leaving.

  I walked and found my way to the metro station and headed home and relaxed a few hours before going to bed. Today I have to call the lady at Teleperformance and ask her if she knows when my job offer letter will be ready so I can take it to the migration institute and find out what else I need. I have a feeling it will be a few days yet as the last three days were part of the weekend, but I just want to know where they are at with that.

  There are definitely some jobs that i have seen in Mexico that probably wouldn’t be legal in some other countries. For example there is a store here that sells tires, and outside they have girls dancing to music showing off their stomachs. Other companies such as restaurants and telecommunications companies sometimes gives these women microphones to explain the offers sometimes as well.

  Clearly these stores are trying to catch the attention of clients by usingt hese women, but I really don’t see how that works. You either need to buy a tire or not, a girl dancing to music outside the store in provocative clothing is not going to be the deciding factor in whether or not a person goes to buy a tire !

  A company here that has cellphones dresses women up in Christmas costumes this time a year, though I don’t think that will bring in any more customers either. Surely some guys will probably be interested in talking with these women, but I just don’t think they will be bringing in more business. I really do think these girls deserve better and they should have better job offers than having to do that.

  I suppose some of them enjoy it as they get paid to dance to music and make announcements, but I am thinking they would go for other offers if they are given them. So instead of these companies almost exploiting these women to try and drive their sales, I really think they should be finding them positions that they can really realize their potential.

  Some people tell me that Mexico is a very Machista society, which is more of a manly place. In many aspects this seems to be the case, but that doesn’t mean that people an companies and the government cannot work together and start breaking down the walls to change this. The only reason this can’t be done is if people just accept things the way they are and think it can’t be done !

  Another job here that I really don’t think is great is the people who work in some of the places that sell alcohol. Here there are actually drive-thrus where a person can actually go through with their car and buy alcohol. And insome of these places the employees will actually open the bottles for the driver ! If this isn’t basically approving drinking and driving I don’t know what is.

  Here it’s not legal to drink and drive, but there are certainly a lot of people who do it. And while this is a problem in many countries, here it just seems to be too easy to do it and get away with it. So in my opinion the government needs to shut down these alcohol drive-thru places, it was just a horrible idea to start with, and a major crack down needs to be done on the people who choose to drink and drive, and the employees who think it’s a goodidea to help the drivers get away with it.

  And it wouldn’t be hard to find better jobs for a lot of these people either, so I don’t see why the police haven’t cracked down on drinking and driving. I can only imagine how many accidents there have been over the years do to this issue. And like the issue of women being exploited at certain jobs,if people get talking about this and realize it’s a problem, the differentbranches of society here can work together to fix it.

  Now I love being here and I truly appreciate the culture and the people and the history. I am just pointing out a couple of things that I think could be changed to make things safer and create a better environment. Of course I’m not in a position to make these changes, but it would be great to know that there are people who share these concerns who care enough to put something together and get things done.

  For the next question:

  What types of jobs do you think are unnecessary or need to be changed ?

  I will leave you all with some pictures from the Mexican Independence Day on September 15 in Lázaro, Cárdenas, Michoacán. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Friday, bye for now.
  

  

  

  

  

  

  

   

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  • 12:59 pm
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