Report # 948

I went for a second super long run at Fundidora Park on Sunday afternoon, running basically the same route as I did on Saturday. I am assuming it was about 10 kilometers as I finished in about 47 minutes and that’s more or less the time I did the Vancouver Sun Run in. I felt some pain in my side near the end, but I managed to finish. I came home and then walked up to Starbucks as I had to finish uploading some pictures to Xanga.

The other day the man from the house told me that there was a new password for the strongest signal here and it had been reconfigured. There has always been an internet signal with full strength here but for whatever reason I was never able to connect to it before. I ended up using a connection with two or three bars and for that reason sometimes the internet was so horrible I really couldn’t do anything. So at least now I should be without internet problems !

On Monday morning I went to the national institute of migration for some more information and the guy there gave me a sheet with the requirements and he told me that since November 9 of this year the rules have changed, and people can not change their visa status from Mexico or something to that effect. This would mean from what I understand, even though I have an address here, have been here for a few months, and have a job offer, I would still have to go back to Vancouver to do all of the paperwork.

I explained this all to the lady from Teleperformance and she told me she talked with some people from the administration department and they don’t think that it would be necessary, but I think the company is just behind on the rule changes. Later in the day she sent me an email telling me my job offer letter was ready to pick up on Tuesday morning. So on Tuesday morning I went and was sent in after talking with the security guard.

The lady there was asking me if I knew all the requirements and stuff, but I really just wanted her to give me the job offer letter, as the rest I’d be able to do myself. She printed the letter off and gave it to me and I thanked her and headed out of the office. Within a few minutes I read the letter and realized there were two errors on it. It said “La Sr. Kyle.” However “la” in Spanish is for women, so it should have said “El.” And it also said that my nationality is American. With these types of errors on a document like this I’d obviously not get accepted.

I walked back to the place and the security guard let me pass, and I returned to her office and she was gone. A man was sitting there and he tried to call her, but she had gone back for lunch. They told me to return in an hour, which I did, and I waited more time, but the lady just didn’t return. So I told them I would return today in the morning as I had a friend to meet by Paseo Santa Lucía. I met my friend and we walked and talked lots, and we had dinner at an Argentinian restaurant called Neuquen.

I had a big piece of veal cutlet with jam, tomato sauce and melted cheese….. it’s called Milanesa Napolitana and it’s my favourite thing from Argentina. We shared a dessert afterwards and then I returned home by the metro train. This morning I got up and headed to Teleperformance once again, and I waited and waited and finally the security guard put me on the telephone to talk to some lady. She gave me the number of the lady I had seen yesterday and told me to call her on Friday afternoon.

This is really getting frustrating, as it just would take five minutes to sit down with her and correct the errors on the letter and get a letter that’s 100 % perfect. So now I have today and tomorrow to find out more information about exactly what I need to bring and do to process all of this stuff, and if I will have to fly back to Vancouver or not. What a long and frustrating process, the government people and the people at the company certainly aren’t making this a very easy task.

I have decided though that if it turns out I have to return to Vancouver, I would do so within a few days of getting my job offer letter as it would only be valid for 15 days, and it would be very important to get everything processed to get any close to actually working. In that case it would be good to go home for a month and see my family and city and spend a bit of time there, but I really wouldn’t understand the point.

I’ve been here since August, and I have an address here, and the job and job offer is here, and I have my passport so I don’t know why the people in the government wouldn’t be able to find a way to just process everything here, but at the end of the day rules are rules and I’ll have to do what they say I have to do if I ever want to get the work permit. I was thinking I could call my old job and see if they would need any help for 3-4 weeks while I wait for the my paperwork to be processed, as at least in that case I’d be able to pay off the plane ticket for going back and returning here and make a few extra dollars.

However this is all still speculation as I really don’t know what will happen in the next couple of days, what I will do and where I’ll be in the next week. I asked my mom if her or my dad would be able to talk to the Mexican Embassy in Vancouver to see what they say, and I would return to the national institute of migration here one more time to be 100 % sure of everything, so there are still a lot of unknowns.

I’m more disappointed right now in the sloppyness of the letter I was given. The people doing this stuff are university graduates, they aren’t stupid. However the errors they made, saying that I was American and putting a word in the letter indicating that I’m female are just ridiculous. They took almost three weeks to do this, and in the end they probably just copied and pasted my name to an already made letter from the past and failed to do the other changes necessary.

I will try not getting too frustrated now as it’s really not worth it and my frustration won’t change anything. I just have to be sure I know all that I can know of what I have to do, and that I’ll be ready to do these things when I need to do them. So that’s basically where I’m at right now…. for the next question:

What sort of errors made by other agencies have had effects on your life before ? Do you think it’s an issue of everyone makes mistakes, or more of government/employee negligence in terms of doing their jobs properly ?

I will leave you all with some more pictures from Parque Azul in Guadalajara. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Saturday, bye for now.

Report # 947

Hey everyone, I hope that you’ve all been having an amazing weekend. I still haven’t gotten myself up early enough to go to the national migration place to find out exactly what I would need aside from the work letter, but I really do plan on doing that tomorrow. On Thursday I went for a run at Fundidora Park and walked to Super Salads in the afternoon; aside from those things it was a pretty boring day.

On Friday I went to Cinépolis in the Las Galerias Mall to see Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. I had wanted to see this movie for a long time, but it hasn’t been in theatres here until Friday. It was a pretty good movie overall, though they kind of went a little too far with the gross humour again, though certainly not as far as a lot of other movies have gone. Afterwards I walked home though I returned to the mall at night time to eat at Wendy’s.

It was a horrible day for healthy eating. I had a large popcorn, a large coke, a hot dog, two big chocolate chip cookies, two packs of M&M’s, french fries, and a double bacon burger from Wendy’s. I was so disappointed in myself that I made myself run for a very long time yesterday morning. I returned to Fundidora Park and did the route I always do, but this time I made myself run all the way back, so it was about double as long.

I must have ran about 10 kilometers, though surprisingly I felt really good, so I might go again today.I thought it would be difficult, but I really had no problems, so it was a very nice run. I returned home and had a shower and walked to the Las Galerias Mall and had a club panini and some soup that was a little spicy. I picked up a frappuichino and a donut after and walked home and stayed in until Arturo invited me to go with him to a party.

The party was out in Allende, which is almost an hour from Monterrey, but seeing as I hadn’t seen Arturo since I left his house over three weeks ago, I thought it would be good to accompany him. He picked me up from one of the metro stations and we headed off to pick up one of his friends. His friend didn’t want to go because he thought the highway would be too dangerous. Arturo seems to think that he exaggerates, but I can definitely see his point, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

We just basically arrived and there were lots of people standing outside in front of a house on a quiet street. Unfortunately Arturo was pretty disappointed as it seemed that it was over 75 % guys. We just talked to some people for about an hour or so and then we headed off. Arturo was kind of sleepy on the drive back so he pulled over at an Oxxo to rest for about half an hour and then he drove me home.

I went to bed after a bit and I didn’t get up until after 12:00 pm, so it was a good sleep. Today I just wanted to touch on the UN vote to recognize Palestine as a state in the UN. From what I have read 138 countries have voted yes, and just 8 countries have voted no…. including Canada and the United States. Looking at the numbers though, it is clear that almost the entire world was for this vote, and as with all votes, the outcome needs be be accepted.

Personally I have felt that Israel and Palestine need to really put away the guns and the soldiers and just sit down and have a talk to work things out. Clearly both sides have failed to do this for so many years, so it’s hard to see them doing this now. I think the problem with the issue and how the world perceives it is that too many people are just willing to take sides. Some people will say how Israel is the bad guy always at fault for everything, and other people will side with Israel and believe everything about Israel is right and the Palestinians are just a bunch of terrorists.

In my opinion both of these stances are not only extremely extreme and ridiculous, they are not helping anyone. I feel both countries have their points and their faults and there is really no reason to side with just one of them and create a huge fire in terms of what is said against the other side. I am sure the majority of Israeli and Palestinian people would just love to be able to live in peace, and the government’s on both sides have failed in giving them that peaceful coexistence for so many years.

One can always dream, but I don’t know if true peace between those two groups is possible based on all of the things said and the actions taken over the years. However if Israel and Palestine can’t live in peace it’s clear to me that the Palestinian people deserve land to call their own as well, which would mean having a country as Palestine; it’s only fair. So for Canada, and the US and a very few other countries in the world to vote against the UN measure of giving state status to Palestine in the UN, they are just not being very fair with their thinking in my opinion.

The world has spoken though and the vote turned out overwhelmingly in the support of Palestine, so I think that will send a strong message to the select few countries that didn’t vote in favour of Palestine. Now I’m no expert on the whole Israel-Palestine thing, that is definitely for sure. I could definitely do a lot more reading up on the whole history between those people’s and the true issues on the table, but I do believe in peace and equality, so I believe the decision reached by the UN was the right one.

Israel is already saying things won’t change, and other countries are throwing their fits as well, and this is just being stupid. So like before the politicians are the true problems here, they will continue to say nasty things on each side and try and strike anger among their people, and while it may be seem as good politics, they are only hurting chances at world peace, and that is just a shame. For the next question:

What are your thoughts on Israel and Palestine ? Do you agree with the UN vote, why or why not ?

Today I’ll leave you all with some pictures from Guadalajara. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Wednesday, bye for now.

Report # 946

Wow my last entry for November, Christmas season is in full swing and I’ll definitely be out taking some Christmas pictures of some of the places around here soon. On Monday morning I finally decided to call the lady at Teleperformance to find out what on earth happened, since I hadn’t heard from her in 10 days. I called her and she answered this time and told me that they are in the process of preparing my letter and that eventually I’ll have to pick it up from the downtown location.

I’m not sure exactly when this will be, but either way I definitely won’t be working until 2013, that is for sure. I really don’t mind when I start, as long as I know for sure that I will get an opportunity to get this done. Tomorrow I will definitely force myself to go to the national migration institute and see exactly what I would need so I am prepared in advance. I have continued looking at other jubs as well, though the Teleperformance one seems to be the by far the best lead right now.

I went for a run at Fundidora Park on Monday morning and returned home and had a shower before walking up to the Las Galerias Mall. I had the super cheap spaghetti and pizza combo, though I think the next time I go for that I’ll only eat half the pizza in one meal as it’s a lot of food. I also had a frappuichino from Santa Clara, which seems to be my newest favourite frappuichino place. I headed home and applied for some jobs in the afternoon and that was about it for Monday.

On Tuesday I went to Interplaza and had lunch at Super Salads and went to see the movie The Dinosaur Project. It was a movie about a British scientific team that headed to a remote jungle in Congo to investigate the possible existence of dinosaurs in modern times. It was kind of a thriller type movie, so very entertaining. I was going to go to the migration place yesterday, but I slept in a little late and I had to be at the Valle Oriente Mall by noon to meet a friend.

We went to Starbucks and had frauppuichinos and then we headed over to a buffet called Los Generales. The food was good because it wasn’t fatty fried stuff and it was a more healthy type of buffet. I finally had lots of fruit, though it probably didn’t help that they were covered in lots of chocolate sauce. We headed back to the mall and walked around for a long time before seeing a movie from Spain called Cambio de Planes (Change of Planes)

I have to say that it had to be one of the best movies that I had seen in recent years. It was a very touching story about a man who encounters a young teen in the hospital and his mom isn’t around to sign the papers for him to continue with his cancer therapy so the boy asks the man to act as his father and sign. And they end up being great friends and both the families and other characters come connected along the way…. just a wonderful movie.

Of course I had to have popcorn too, so once again it was failed day in terms of healthy eating. Today I’ve already done my run around Fundidora Park, and I plan to have Super Salads, so definitely a healthier day. On Saturday Mexico will inaugurate their new president, Enrique Peña Nieto to start his first and only six year term in office. A lot of people in Mexico are upset as they believe his party cheated to win these elections.

He is from the PRI…. Institutional Revolutionary Party in English, the party that ruled Mexico for over 70 consecutive years until they were ousted from power in 2000. After 12 years on the sidelines the party has returned, thus giving some people a little bit a fear that its the same old PRI from before. Now I’m sure there was some fradulent activity taking place, but it would be a bit of a stretch to say that all of this fradulent activity was being done by just one party.

From what I have read there were accusations of PRI party people giving gift cards to people who voted for them, and there probably were, but President elect Nieto won by over 3.3 million votes…. this wasn’t such a squeaker. I really can’t see the PRI being able to buy or bribe that many voters, and imagine that the other parties behaved 100 % honestly themselves. The Mexican court looked into this and has certified the win, and while some people may not think it was fair, I don’t think the outcome could have been altered enough to change the results of the election.

Of course cheating is cheating, and bribing someone to vote for someone else is wrong…. no matter if one person was bribed over hundreds of thousands….. it’s wrong. What really has to be done here is to look to the future and to ensure that the people who are trying to bribe voters with gift cards and vote buying, are identified and punished for these very serious crimes…. no matter which party they work for.

The reality is now though that on December 1 Enrique Peña Nieto and the PRI party will lead Mexico, and people will be better off focusing their efforts on working together with them to help create a better Mexico, and holding the party to account when they believe they are not pursuing an agenda that will have a positive impact on the country and the people in general.

Peña Nieto has been pretty busy this week as he has already travelled to Washington D.C. to visit U.S. president Barack Obama and to Ottawa to meet Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper:

From: esmas.com

From: torontosun.com Andre Forget QMI Agency

I think it was a good plan by him to meet with the leaders of the NAFTA countries and to discuss what some common goals and priorities are for the countries over the next couple of years.

With Nieto in power for six years, Obama for over four more years, and Harper at least until sometime in 2015, the leaders will have plenty of opportunities to meet and work together over the next few years. I watched the press conference meeting that Nieto had with Obama, and I read about his conversations with Stephen Harper, and there was a lot of positives.

Harper said that he does prefer visa free travel, and that once Canada fixes the broken immigration system, Mexicans will be able to visit Canada without visas once again. I’ve long been against the visa requirement, and I hope this will be something that happens sooner rather than later. And US president Barack Obama and Nieto talked about things related to immigration, and certainly a lot needs to be fixed on that front as well.

So while Enrique Peña Nieto is not the president that many people in Mexico wanted, for better or for worse, he did win the election. And while there is no excuse for fraud and cheating, ultimately the decision to accept a gift and change their vote lies with the voters themselves, so anyone who did sell out their democratic principles to change their vote and receive a gift really has only themselves to blame.

While there is a lot of not so nice stories in the personal life of Mr. Nieto, he will utlimately be judged how he performs as president over the next six years. If he can do what so many other Mexican presidents have failed to do over the years, which is to really boost salaries in this country, raise living standards, combat the corruption, and put a halt to the drug violence, he will be remembered very fondly as a president. And with a whole six years he has a hell of a lot of time to implement some great policies and create some very positive changes.

A lot of people are against Nieto as president, but just like with every election in any country, sometimes the person that you didn’t vote for wins, and after its time to accept the results and get to work for the good of the country. If Nieto truly cares about this country and can govern without corruption, and the citizens and the people from the other parties work together to help him out, the sky is the limit for the next six years in Mexico.

If people choose to spend the next six years pointing fingers, and fighting and politicians from every party go against all the other parties on every single measure, then of course the next six years will be a mess and things will look no better by 2018. People and politicians have a choice, and if they choose positivity over negativity, to help over to hinder, compromise over disagreement, and hard work over corruption, I believe these next six years will be very good for Mexico.

And the stronger Mexico gets is not only better for the people in Mexico, but for Canada and the United States as well. NAFTA has been so great for the three countries, and the stronger each one of them are, the better off the continent is as a whole. And I’m sure no one in North America wants to end up like Europe right now ! For the next question:

Do you view NAFTA and similar agreements between countries as a positive or a negative ? What changes would you implement to the NAFTA agreement ?

That’s all I have for today. I will leave you all with some pictures from Ixtapa, Guerrero. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Sunday, bye for now.

Report # 945

Hey everyone, I hope that you’ve all had a wonderful weekend. It’s almost 2:00 am here as I’m typing this up, but the internet here is so unreliable. Sometimes it’s soooo slow the pages won’t even load, or if they do, it takes one million years for that to happen. I swear at times it’s like the internet here is from 1987 or something. It’s so odd and then suddenly it will start working normally.

Originally I thought it had something to do with the weather, and that it just went super slow here on days that were very cloudy and rainy, but today was super sunny with not one cloud in the sky and all day it was so slow you would die waiting for a page to load. At night time a couple of hours before I went to bed it started working normally again so I thought it would be a great time to upload all of the pictures I had taken on Sunday to Facebook, and get my xanga entry posted in case this morning it’s back to the 1987 internet.

On Friday I got up around 8:00 am and walked to catch the bus for my job interview with Sutherland. I got on the bus at 9:00 am and figured with an hour I’d have plenty of time; wow was I ever wrong ! The traffic wasn’t that bad, but wherever my stop was, it must have been the very end of a very long route. I don’t know if it was possible to take that bus number the other direction or not, but wow I never would have made it on time for my interview had I stayed on that bus.

It didn’t help that the bus driver stopped once to get coffee and another time to buy cigarettes. He actually left the bus running at a red light and went into a store to buy himself a cup of coffee. I have a feeling if a bus driver did that in Canada he wouldn’t have a job for too long. And if that didn’t get him fired, it would probably be the smoking on the bus. Of course it’s Mexico and there are usually not rules for these sorts of things, so the bus driver just does what he wants.

At around 9:45 am I realized that this bus was not going to get me to my interview on time, so I got off and got a taxi, and I basically arrived at 10:00 am exactly. I guess it didn’t matter that I was on time as the lady didn’t actually see me until 10:30 am. The interview was in English and Spanish and she explained the job to me and asked me a bunch of questions. It was one of the more serious interviews I had had since I arrived in Mexico. She told me that she would talk with her supervisors, and the lady from the recruitment company would get back to me.

I wanted to see a movie in the afternoon, but it was only 10:45 am, so I walked over to Super Salads and waited until it opened up at 12:00 pm to have a healthy soup and sandwich lunch. Afterwards I walked back to the Las Galerias Mall and purchased my ticket to see Luna Escondida (Hidden Moon). While I was waiting for the movie to start, I got a call from the recruitment lady and she told me that the company had wanted my Spanish to be a little better, so I wasn’t able to get the job with Sutherland, but she told me that she had another opportunity for me.

This was for a company called Arvato, but I explained to her I had been there a few weeks ago, taken their exam, and never heard back from them after explaining my situation to the recruitment lady there. The lady on the phone told me that someone else would call me back about that job. Another lady called me back and I explained the situation to her and she told me she will talk with the recruitment lady from the other company to find out what happened.

I figured that the lady at the other company just didn’t bother trying to help me because it would be more difficult to get me hired, and she gets paid more for getting people hired, so she probably just went with people that she could have hired easier. It will be interesting if they get back to me and find of what did happen with that, but I have no idea if they will or not. I was pretty disappointed that I didn’t have a chance with the Sutherland job, but I can understand, a person has to be pretty close to 100 % in a language to help people with sophisticated technical stuff on the telephone.

I felt kind of depressed on Friday, feeling that I’ve just been going around in endless circles with the whole job search thing, but I suppose I have to keep up the confidence, at least until I’ve exhausted all of my options. I got an email from the job search website telling me that the posting for MSCI has closed. The recruitment guy from that company had told me he would call me when there is news, so I’m really hoping that I hear something on that job this week, though of course I can’t be holding my breath.

Aside from that, I still have to see if I could have an opportunity with Arvato, and I have to phone that lady from Teleperformance to find out what on earth happened. She told me they were going to write me a letter, so at the very least I want an answer to what happened. There are a few others companies I could apply for, and a teaching posting that I could at least inquire about. So while my hopes have taken a few hits over the last couple of weeks, I still have some confidence and I will see how things go over the next couple of weeks.

The movie I saw was about a Mexican woman who had to choose between two guys, an American or a Mexican guy, and they were all involved in some very interesting story-lines, so I enjoyed the movie a lot. After the movie I walked home and just a relaxing Friday evening. I went to Fundidora Park on Saturday and ran through the park and through the Santa Lucía Riverwalk as well. It was a great run and I bought some gorditas, (which are like Mexican hot biscuits) one with chocolate and the other with creamy milk.

I took the train home and had a relaxing day. I did walk to Super Salads in the evening to have a healthy dinner, though I stopped at Carl’s Jr. and bought two of their chocolate chip cookies…. they seem to be the latest thing that I’m addicted to. Yesterday I was in bed until almost 11:00 am, so I really have to get myself up no later than 10:00 am. It was the first really sunny day in 12 days, so I knew I had to get outside, explore, and take some pictures.

I took the train to UANL (Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León) to walk around the campus and take tons of pictures. It was such a huge campus and I was probably there for almost two hours. Afterwards I had lunch at Las Alitas, and I definitely had too much fatty food. I had two glasses of coke, cheese sticks, fries, and a bbq burger with bacon. Of course I didn’t feel so great after that, but thankfully with all the walking I had been doing before and after I was able to get through just fine.

I really do need to eat more healthy, and one of these days I’ll buy some fruits, vegetables and breakfast bars ! After lunch I took the train back one stop to visit the Niños Heroes park. It was a very nice treed park with some large ponds where people were fishing and a small aquarium building with some fish tanks inside. I walked through the park and took tons of pictures and headed home after seeing pretty much everything I could see.

When I arrived back at home my internet was still working like it was from 1987, so I walked up to Starbucks, purchased a grande mocha frappuichino, and I was able to leave all of my Xanga comments. I got back to the house a little after 9:00 pm, and the internet was still working horribly, but sometime in the next two hours it finally got to a normal speed, and I was able to get my 230 some pictures that I took yesterday uploaded to Facebook, and now I’m getting this done before bed time.

While I was at the university walking around yesterday and taking some pictures, there was a security guard kind of telling me I couldn’t walk past a certain point and asking me why I was taking pictures. I just explained to him that I was a tourist and wanted to take pictures of the campus, and he was telling me sometimes people say things like that but are taking pictures of students or something to that effect. I’ve been told not to take pictures before in Mexico, once by a security guard to a company building, and another time by security at the metro station.

I believe with all of the drug related violence and deaths in the last few years, the security guards are really looking out for anything, but it’s a little annoying that I have to worry about getting in trouble just by taking pictures of the places I go. I do think it is important for security guards to be watching what is going on, but I don’t think there is anything wrong with taking pictures of company buildings or university campuses.

If there is someone going around with a camera taking pictures of people, or worse yet children, then yes that would be a concern and the police should be notified, but getting super strict on the average person with a camera who just likes to take pictures is a bit much. As long as the person is respecting the laws and not trespassing, I really don’t see a big deal. Then again I’ll never understand how those idiotic paparazzi people get away with taking and publishing millions of pictures of actors and singers !

I think most people who are out taking pictures are following the laws and are just out enjoying something they are very interested in: photography. And it would be a real shame if everywhere people go they have to be paranoid that they won’t get themselves in any trouble just because they are enjoying their hobby. For the next questions:

What are your thoughts on taking photos in public places such as universities, parks, plazas ? Should a photographer generally be allowed to take the shots they want, or should there be restrictions to what types of photos they take and where they can take them ?

I will leave you all with what I believe is my final set of pictures from Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Thursday, bye for now.

Report # 944

Hey everyone, I hope that you’ve all been having a wonderful week. On Tuesday I tried calling the lady at Teleperformance to see when the job offer letter would be ready and if I would have to pick it up, but she didn’t answer the phone. I sent an email, and as of three days later I haven’t heard anything. I will try calling her again today maybe, but I have to admit it’s kind of frustrating.

When someone says that something will be done I’d like to be able to think they are sincere, but with these kind of episodes happening I really can’t take too many people for their word. I ended up hanging out with a friend that I talked to online and it was very awkward ! I hadn’t met anyone and spent such an awkward time together in such a long time that I couldn’t even remember how torturous it could be.

Basically we just walked to a park and sat and talked for a while and later on stopped at El Pollo Loco to have something to eat. Afterwards I went with her into a dollar store and she bought a few things. Afterwards we went our separate ways and I can say I was happy. It’s not anyone’s fault, sometimes these things happen. It was just a very awkward couple of hours and I don’t think either of us knew exactly what to do. Hopefully no one else has been through these types of situations, they aren’t too much fun !

In the evening I went to see a movie called Hidden. Apparently it appeared to be a Canadian movie, though I have to say it wasn’t very good. It was a horror movie about a son who inherits a property his doctor mother had, and there she would conduct very inhumane experiments on people with addictions. I never know what to expect with these horror movies, sometimes they are somewhat decent and other times they are just pure awful. I do plan on seeing another movie today though and I’m certain it will be much better.

On Wednesday I applied for a few more jobs and I sent an email to a lady that I had talked with a month ago before arriving in Monterrey. She was with a company called Human Quality and she told me they do hire people from other countries. She set me up for an interview and I at least had something else to look forward to. In the afternoon I walked to the Las Galerias mall to have some lunch, and later in the day I went to Interplaza to get my resume and work documents printed off. I arrived just before the internet place closed, so it was great timing.

Afterwards I picked up a frappuichino from a place in the mall and I returned home. I woke up at 9:00 am yesterday morning and walked to my interview. It was quite a walk, but I did manage to do it, though I probably could have taken a bus at some point. It turns out that Human Quality is not actually the company that is hiring people, but they are doing the recruitment process for a company called Sutherland. I had to fill out a form with my personal information, education and work experience, and then I had an interview with the lady I had been talking with by email.

She just took about five minutes to explain the job and she asked me a few simple questions, but nothing really related to the actual job. She set me up an interview for today at 10:00 am and she told me that I would have to do a test that she sent to my email before my interview tomorrow. Afterwards I walked to the Las Galerias mall and had lunch at Chilis and then headed home and did the test. Once again I had to fill out a form with all my personal information…. it’s really getting annoying.

The test was very long and it took me well over an hour. I had to do English testing, math, and choose how strongly I agreed or disagreed with about 100 different sentences. I’m really disappointed with this whole process. I’ve been through it a number of times and it really seems I’m stuck in a never ending circle and getting no where. And whenever it seems like I have something to look forward to, things don’t seem to come through.

I won’t give up quite yet on the company that said will write me the letter, as I will at least try calling until I get a hold of that lady to find out what happened, but it’s certainly frustrating. And with my interview tomorrow, at the very least I know this time the testing part is done and I shouldn’t have to fill out any more forms. I know I have to be patient and positive but sometimes it’s extremely hard. For example in an email last month the lady from Human Quality said “We would love to have you on our team.”

Well how on earth can she say that ? She doesn’t work for the company that is hiring people, she just is a recruiter who does very basic interviews. And she tells me the company hires people from other countries, but I haven’t actually heard from the company itself yet. I just really hope something positive comes out of tomorrow and it’s not just a waste of my time. Aside from these two companies, I might still be waiting on MSCI. The guy did tell me he would let me know when there is news, but of course that doesn’t necessarily mean he will do it.

I’m pretty sick of filling out forms with my personal information and education and work experience. These companies should be able to read my resume ! That is what the point of a resume is ! And I know a number of companies use other companies to do the recruiting process, but it’s a bit ridiculous to have to fill out the same types of forms multiple times. The lady today did tell me I won’t have to bring my resume tomorrow, but I should probably bring some reference letters just in case.

After finishing the exam I just did my laundry and ended up going for a walk and taking some pictures. Anyways that’s about all I have today, for the next question:

What have the hiring processes been like for you in previous jobs ? Did you just have one simple interview, multiple interviews, was another company involved with the recruitment process ? Do you feel the hiring process is often more complicated than it needs to be ?

I will leave you all with some more pictures from Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Monday, bye for now.

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.

 

Report # 942

Hey everyone, I hope that you’ve all had a fantastic week. On Wednesday I was waiting at home to see if I would get a call from the HR Element company as the other guy I was sent an email saying that they wanted me to come in for an interview, but I never heard anything. The phone did ring, but it was for another company, Teleperformance, and they told me to come in at 10:00 am on Thursday.

In the evening I walked to the Las Galerias Mall and I saw Argo. It was a great movie and I was able to learn a lot more about the situation of hostages in Iran in 1979. Apparently Canada had some involvement in the whole thing as well, though I definitely don’t remember learning much about that in school. I just ended up taking a taxi to my interview on Thursday morning, but the taxi driver really didn’t know where the place was.

I had to call Arturo to pass the phone to the taxi driver so he could help him out. Arturo seems to think that all the taxi drivers know where Teleperformance is, as it’s next to a major university here, so it’s possible the taxi driver was just playing stupid to get some extra pesos. Luckily I left early so I still managed to be there before 10:00 am.

When I arrived I had to go to a computer and enter in all of my personal information, my work experience, and education as well. I don’t really like doing this as it’s all on my resume already, but a lot of companies in Mexico seem to want the people applying for jobs to do this step. After I finished I waited for about 10 minutes before being told that they were super busy and they wouldn’t be able to interview me until tomorrow.

I was a little mad, but I was still going to return on Friday as it would be stupid just to throw away an opportunity. Afterwards I walked along the highway and took some pictures in San Pedro. It was a gloomy Vancouver type fall day, very cloudy with a little rain and fog as well. In fact the last four days have been about the same, like this and 15 C (60 F). It’s a nice change for me as I definitely saw enough hot weather for a while.

Monterrey has a very interesting climate, and I’m sure the temperature will get right back up to summery weather in a few days, though there will surely be more cooler days in December and January. I had some chinese food at the food court in the San Agustin mall and a blizzard from Dairy Queen as well before heading out and trying to find my way home.

There was a bus that would have taken me right back to my area, but I had no idea, so I ended up walking for like two hours and getting pretty lost before just taking a taxi home. In the evening I looked up the bus route on the internet and now I know how to get there. Yesterday I was able to take the metro train downtown and catch a bus that took me right to Tec Milenio University, where the company is next to.

Unfortunately it’s the very last stop on the route and with traffic it’s kind of a long trip, but nothing I can really do about that. I went in and waited for about 10 minutes and a lady called me in for an interview. It was in Spanish for a while and eventually she switched to English and I actually was kind of stumbling on one question about what areas of businesss I like the best.

It’s just that after being here for three months I really haven’t spoken much English, and the words just weren’t coming to me right away. I will have to speak it at least a little often to avoid getting all rusty like that again. The interview went well and the lady explained to me the next steps. I believe that the company is going to write me a letter with a job offer for me to present to the national migration institute to see if I can get permission to work here.

So I have gotten a little closer to achieving what I’ve been trying to do, but I will still need to get the letter, and then go to the migration place and find out what else I actually need to do. I phoned them yesterday, but the lady told me they are not authorized to tell people over the phone, though I have no idea why.

I am hoping the company will have the letter for me ready in the next few days and then I will go to the migration institute next week sometime and see what else I need to do. I’ve already sent the company a copy of my passport picture page and my tourist visa, and I’ll have the job letter, and I got my birth certificate, so I don’t know what else they will want, but I’ll find out soon.

This is pretty exciting news, but I won’t be too excited until I know whether or not I can get the visa. In the afternoon I took the train and walked to a Mexican restaurant as I wanted to have some tortilla soup, but they didn’t have any, so i just had piece of steak with melted cheese and some type of soup. I returned home and I got an email from a company that I had applied for asking me to send my resume in English and to answer some questions.

I ended up doing that as I want to ensure I have as many options as possible in case something doesn’t work out with this company. I walked to Las Galerias to catch the 9:45 pm movie showing of Arbitrage. The theatre was jam packed though I have a feeling 75 % of the people at the theatre were there to watch Twilight. I have no idea why people like that movie, but it’s definitely going to make lots of money again.

The movie I saw was about a business executive who ends up making some very poor business and life decisions and tries to cover them all up, though it all unravels on him in the end. It was a very good movie, and I think has some great lesssons for people as well. I walked home though I didn’t have a jacket so I got a little wet. By the time I got home it was after midnight, so I just ended up going to bed.

The forecast I’ve been seeing keeps saying it will warm up and be sunny, but today is another rainy day. I am still thinking about going to Fundidora Park and going for a run as I haven’t ran since last weekend… I can handle a little rain. The malls here will be super busy this weekend as they have a special weekend called “buen fin” which is basically a Black Friday type weekend here in Mexico. I think they have it a week before the Black Friday in the US to encourage the people here to head to the malls and the stores and spend a lot of money here.

A lot of people in Northern Mexico will probably drive to the US for the Black Friday weekend, just like lots of Canadians do, so it makes sense to have a big savings weekend here as well. I’ve always found a lot of these shoppers crazy, especially the ones who are camping outside of stores the previous night lining up, but it’s their lives and if that’s what they want to do they can do it ! That’s all I have for today, so for the next question:

Do you have plans to go to any stores for the Black Friday weekend ?

I will leave you all with some pictures from Plaza Azul (Blue Beach) in Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Tuesday, bye for now.

Report # 941

Hey everyone, I hope that you’ve all had a great start to the week. I’ve been getting into that habit of going to bed a little too late and sleeping in too much, so I really need to get out of that pattern. On Sunday I walked to the Galerias mall to meet a friend. We just walked around a lot and had lunch at a sandwich/salad place and talked for a couple of hours. She had studied at UBC in Vancouver so it was interesting to talk to her.

In the evening I went to the Cinépolis in the mall to see The Campaign which was a funny movie, but another example of a movie that had gone too far with some of the most disgusting humour. It’s unfortunate that so many of these comedies today really try as hard as they can to be so gross. A little stuff can be funny but some of the stuff they are doing in these movies is just so nasty !

On Monday I basically headed downtown and walked around all day taking some pictures. It was a much cooler day than the previous days as it was cloudy all day and no warmer than 20 C (68 F) I think I’ve forgot what cold weather feels like because it felt kind of chilly walking without a jacket. I do feel that 20 C here feels cooler than 20 C in Vancouver though. I had lunch at Las Alitas and walked around some more in the afternoon before picking up a frappuichino and heading home.

In the evening I applied for some jobs and that was about it for Monday. I slept in again yesterday and spent a few hours at home before heading out to the Plaza Cumbres mall. I honestly thought it would be about the same distance as going to Las Galerias, and even though it was basically walking straight the whole way, this mall was soooooo far away. I will never try walking there again and I will definitely take a bus in the future.

I even took a bus for the last part and I still didn’t end up at the mall but I was able to walk the last part. My friend was waiting for me at the Starbucks, and she had a class to teach at 6:00 pm so I didn’t want to be too late. It turns out we had lots of time and we even had dinner at Peter Piper Pizza. It was my first time there and I was pretty impressed. It was great pizza and since it was Tuesday it was a two for one day.

Afterwards we went to HEB to buy some things for her class and then took a taxi to the school. It’s actually a family business and her whole family basically works in the school. All of the students were asking me questions in english so it was pretty fun. After there was an activity where we had to try and put a skewer through both ends of a balloon without popping it. Some people were able to do it but not me ! The class had to choose a song for some Christmas concert that the school has and some of the options were very interesting

One of the songs “Lollipop” had a whole bunch of sexual meanings but the teachers were aware of that so that song won’t be getting chosen ! Just before 9:00 pm I said good-bye to my friend and walked up the hill and waited for a bus. Thankfully a bus came and took me almost all the way to my house so I didn’t have tons of walking to do. I noticed I had received an email from a guy from HR Element, which is a company I applied with on Monday and had explained my situation to.

He told me they would be interested in giving me an interview to see what I think about the work, so I responded saying I could basically come in at anytime this week. I wasn’t expecting to hear back from him, so it was a nice surprise. I received a call this morning thinking it was from that company, but it was from another company that I applied for, Teleperformance.

From what I heard it’s not the greatest company to work for in the world, but I’m not really in a position to be picky, so I will take any chance I have at an interview. I’m hoping the other guy gets back to me today as well, and of course I really would love that job with MSCI, but that is the company with the extremely long recruitment process so nothing much I can really do there. So I still have a few options so I won’t give up until I’ve exhausted all of them.

I really would like to go for a run or make it to a park soon, but with possible interviews coming up it will probably have to wait until the weekend, which is fine with me. Anyways that’s all I have for today, for the next question:

What is something that most people don’t know about you that you find pretty interesting ?

I will leave you all with some more pictures from Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Saturday, bye for now.

Report # 940

So I’ve finally made it from my friend’s house to my own place. On Thursday afternoon a taxi came to Arturo’s house and I put in my extremely heavy suitcase and other things and I was off. I thanked Arturo and his mom for all of their help, and they always told me if there is anything I need I can always call. I’m sure I’ll accompany Arturo on some of his more crazy adventures in the future but for now it’s good to be out in my own place.

It’s really just a bedroom though there is a television and I have a great internet signal, and laundry as well. It will be great not having to go to a laundromat every two weeks. The only thing that I wish there was here is a fridge, but I guess you can’t have everything. Seeing as I finally got into a place and got myself an address I was able to resume with the job search on Friday. I applied for a couple of jobs, and sent an email to the guy I had been talking with at MSCI, the company that I had an interview on November 1.

He told me that the recruitment process is still going on, that I am still in consideration, and that he will let me know when there is news. I just wasn’t use to the process taking so long, but I guess with some companies it takes a lot more time than with others. I headed to Fundidora Park in the evening and walked around for a while before stopping at Subway to get something to eat. There was an extremely sad soap opera on the tv about a young girl around 12 years old with abusive father, having to work cleaning houses, and who eventually ran away from home.

It seemed very  interesting but I don’t know who likes watching those sort of stories. I suppose because they like to see how hard things are for someone and to see them overcome it in the end or something to that effect. I returned home and in the evening I accompanied a friend to a hotel convention center for the celebration of a couple after their wedding. It was so random that I got invited, but I thought why not. I had nice dress clothes, but not like a suit and a tie, so someone lent me those and I was ready to go.

It was a fun evening as there was lots of delicious food and dessert and so many songs and lots of people dancing. They had live singers with a big video screen behind showing some of the videos. They played songs in spanish, traditional Mexican music, a couple of Portuguese songs, and lots of the english songs that everyone knows. They even played Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, and Barbie Girl ! They had a man wearing a mask standing on a chair with a bottle of tequila and he was pouring it into people’s mouths in the line while other people counted.

I have a feeling a lot of those people in the line ended up super drunk. One girl that was with us just finished the very last part of the bottle, but she was very drunk and sick after, so I can’t even imagine some of the people who had even more. I accidentally drank whiskey at the table as it looked almost the same as the glasses of water, but I spat it out immediately….. it was horribly disgusting. Overall it was a fun night and afterwards we went to a restaurant.

Ordering Queso Fundido (melted cheese) at 4:00 am wasn’t one of my best decisions, and I didn’t feel great after, but I went home and slept from about 5:30 am until 12:30 pm. After getting up I took the metro to Fundidora Park and I went for a long run through the park, through the river walk and all the way to the government palace. It was a great day for running as it wasn’t all that hot and the sun was covered. It was my first run in 12 days, but I did well.

Afterwards I walked around the downtown for a few hours in search of a coffee shop that I like, and I finally did find it. I definitely know where it is now so next time I will be able to locate it easily I believe. I just had some soup for dinner and I got home just before 7:00 pm and had a relaxing day. Today I believe I will head out with a friend, and tomorrow I will apply for more jobs. A few people have told me recently that Microsoft plans on shutting down the service of it’s MSN messenger within a few months.

They seem to want people just to be using Skype. I just have to ask why ! I’m sure not as many people use MSN as they did back in 2002, but it’s still a very simple and convenient messenger system and if people are still using it, and I’m sure lots of people still do, than Microsoft should just let it be. Sure a lot of people use Skype and Facebook, but I think they are all good for different things. Skype is great for people who do the video calls or just want to use it like a phone, but for pure chatting I don’t think it’s that good.

As for Facebook, it’s a great place to keep in touch with lots of friends and store gazillions of photos, but once again the actual chat part of the site isn’t that great. Sometimes I am having conversations on Facebook and I forget and I don’t notice that someone was talking to me for like 20 minutes later. I’ve used MSN messenger for over 10 years and it’s just clearly what I’m used to for certain things, but clearly the times are changing and for whatever reasons Microsoft has decided to shut it down.

In the past I had AOL messenger, but that was just for very short periods of times. For a long time I preferred to use yahoo messenger over MSN, but MSN kind of took over for me over the last four years. And now it looks like the next phase of change is coming. This isn’t anything that I’m too passionate about. It’s not like I’m going to be protesting the decision Microsoft has made, though it will be interesting if at least a few people do.

This is just another example at certain periods (though not a huge one) throughout time things will change and there will always be some occasions where people miss things about the past. So we all just have to enjoy the things we enjoy in life as we never know when they will become things of the past. For the next question:

What do you think about the decision that Microsoft has taken ? Did you ever really use MSN before ?

I will leave you all with some more pictures from Lázaro Cárdenas. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Wednesday, bye for now.

*PS: I hope that everyone observes a moment of silence for all of the brave veterans and those people who lost their lives fighting for freedom*

Report # 939

Hey everyone, I hope that you’ve all been having a wonderful week. On Monday I went to Fundidora Park to meet a friend and we walked by Paseo Santa Lucía. The sun was getting pretty hot so it was good we passed through there early. We walked around some downtown sites and stopped to get some drinks at the Oxxo. We continued walking downtown in search of Pan de Muerto (Bread of the Dead) which is sold around the time of Day of the Dead in Mexico.

We found a cafe called El Globo (The Balloon) which had some Pan de Muerto so I was luckily able to try it for the first time. It’s a very sugary bread, though it tastes very good. I had a frappuichino as well which was very thick but full of flavour of mocha and chocolate so I loved it. Afterwards we took the bus to another part of town and explored a church. They have started selling candy canes here, and some of them were the size of huge walking canes; I don’t think I had seen that in my life before !

In the afternoon we headed to the mall San Agustin and walked around some more and stopped for lunch at Focaccia. They had a very good deal where you could order one principal plate and two side orders and a dessert for 99 pesos, ($ 7.54) so it was a wonderful deal. There was so much food I was absolutely stuffed after. Luckily we walked around for another hour or so and finally we headed home. It was a long day but lots of fun.

On Tuesday I had lunch at Chili’s and walked around Fundidora and Paseo Santa Lucía once again. I finally had begun my search to find a place to stay, and in the evening I went to see a place. It was downtown and a man came out to let me in and show me around. He was a very talkative guy, though I thought he was a little odd. He was almost giving me a job interview to see about living in the place. He asked me about what I do, my interests, what kind of person I am, and my religious beliefs.

I definitely learned that he is not religious at all and he doesn’t have any belief for The Virgin Guadalupe like so many Mexicans do. He was a fascinating person, but the room was kind of dull and there were a lot of rules such as I couldn’t invite anyone over or anything like that. I told him I was going to see another place and call him back if I wanted to stay at his place.

Yesterday I took a bus to San Pedro and walked around before heading to the Galerias mall to see a movie called Después de Lucía (After Lucía. It was a lot better than the last movie I saw, though it was incredibly sad as it dealt with the subject of extreme bullying, and those types of movies are very hard for me to watch. I had some sushi in the evening and went for a walk and eventually was able to get a taxi to find my way to the next room I was looking at.

It’s simple, but all the services are included including laundry and internet, and its only 2,000 pesos ($ 153) every month, so that price was almost unbeatable. So I said I will take it, and there is no deposit either so that’s great. I will move in there today, and now that I have a fixed address I can get on with searching for jobs. It won’t be easy, but I’m going to give it my all. I returned to my friend’s house at around 10:00 pm. I talked with his mom for about an hour and thanked her for having me over and helping me out so much.

It’s a great family here and it’s a wonderful place to be and I’m very appreciative of all of the things they have done for me. And even though Arturo is a lot different than I am though he is a great friend. So today I’ll meet the man at his place at 2:20 pm and get myself moved over there and then I will be able to get things on track. During the movie I saw, the father was so upset with the disappearance of his daughter (who was actually still alive and ok) he decided to take justice into his own hands.

He basically kidnapped one of the students most responsible for the tormenting of his daughter, and took him for a ride in a boat and through him in the ocean. This got me thinking that in many situations people are so fed up with the justice system and its failures they make the very poor decision of taking justice into their own hands….. vigilante justice I believe it’s called. At the end of the day I do think it’s best that justice be left to the courts, though I can certainly understand the pain and anger many victims’ families would feel.

Obviously killing someone responsible for a crime is taking it to the very extreme and that is not acceptable, but clearly the courts need to do a better job of considering the personal hurt and pain of those people affected most by a crime before choosing their sentence for the criminal. And in many other cases the forms of vigilante justice would be much less serious than killing someone, but at the end of the day two wrongs don’t make a right and that is what everyone should be aware of.

For the next question:

What are your thoughts on vigilante justice and taking the law into your own hands ? Is it ever acceptable ?

I will leave you all with some pictures from Lázaro Cárdenas in Michoacán where I stayed for two months. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Sunday, bye for now.