Barbecued meat in Mexico

I want to share with you what for many Mexicans is a delicacy. Barbecue in Mexico means meat roasted in an oven dug in the earth. But not only meat also the head of the animals (normally lamb) is cooked. The barbecued cooked head in deed is for some Mexicans a delicacy. But let me share this pictures that talk by themselves.

Lamb's head barbecue

Lamb's head barbecue

Tacos in Mexico vs Tacos in Finland

Food is one of the first things that a person living abroad misses from its home country. Tortillas, tacos and a really hot salsa are ones of the delicacies that are almost impossible to get outside Mexico. And these may be one of the reasons for many Mexicans living abroad to feel homesick of.

I wrote in a previous post http://hectorzeta.wordpress.com/2008/10/05/tacos-mexicaos-en-finlandia/ about a restaurant that presume to serve Mexican tacos in Ideapark (a shopping center in Finland). Last December I was in Mexico and of course I went to eat tacos several times. I recalled my old post and decided to take a picture of a real plate full of tacos and put it also here so that you can understand better what I wrote before.

Tacos al pastor

Tacos al pastor (al natural)

These pictures show a normal plate with 8 tacos ( 4 pastor tacos and 4 bisteck), in the first picture the tacos are served with fried onion.

The price of each plate including 8 tacos and a bottle of coca-cola was: $50MEX (around 3€)

Tacos Mexicanos in Finland

In Finland the price for 6 Mexican tacos was: 15€ (arround $250MEX) without softdrink.

My first recession as a bachelor engineer

The situation for this first half of the year is turning sensible because the financial crisis. It’s reaching every sector.

I’m just gonna share with you two pictures that a friend shared with me as well to give you a glance of the general feeling of a just graduated.

December 2008 – January 2009

December was a great month. I spent Christmas holidays in Mexico. The days before I flew I was basically trying to get some souvenirs and I worked hard since my project would end by the end of the year.

On December 19th I took a train to Helsinki, there I met Markus & Venla and I stayed at their place and on the 20th he took me to the Vantaa Airport.  After a stop in Paris for my connection flight, which by the way I almost lose, I arrived to Mexico City on the 20th at four pm but my luggage didn’t. I did not worry too much about my luggage and took the first primera plus to Queretaro. It was really annoying that they do not accept (maybe by now because it was in the new Terminal) credit/debit cards and if you pay with cash it needs to be in Mexican pesos ☹.
I was in Queretaro at 10 pm of the Saturday 20 of December; but my family expected me on the 21st so when I rang the doorbell and they opened they were really in a surprise shock.

During my holiday in Mexico this year I just stayed at Queretaro (my home city). I spent most of the time with my family (parents and siblings) but I also made room to visit my aunts, uncles, and my grand mother. Of course there was also time to visit my friends. I was really looking forward to see them again.  I met almost all the friends I wanted to see and the most important ones (except Hugo who was not in Queretaro during those days).

Get-together to wish Carlo a good journey

The city was for me exactly as it was one year ago. Of course some places changed their names, some new stores and so on, but in general the same lovely city ( or maybe I just saw it with melancholy eyes).

I drove as much as I could. Driving is something that I really miss in Finland. I don’t need to drive here and even if I needed I cannot until I get a valid driving license for the European Union what is kinda expensive and time-consuming process.
On the 6th of January I invited some of my friends to “cut the king cake” (partir la rosca de reyes).

Me cutting the king's cake

The full album of pictures is on facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=31451236&l=b3af0&id=100902255
Unfortunately the time goes too fast and the 10th of January came to soon and I needed to take my flight back to my old-new life in Finland.

I arrived to Tampere on the 12th. Tommi was waiting for me in the bus station took me home and helped me to move my bed to the new flat. Annukka was already in the new flat and she had already moved almost everything.

The rest of January consisted of working and catching up.

Random pictures from January in Tampere also in Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041799&l=48c73&id=100902255

November

November was a month with few happenings. I spent this month basically doing the everyday routine of working either for the University or the Work. The first weekend I went to play bowling with Matti and Sara. It was amusing but as usual I lost.

The biggest event of November was the company’s Pikkujoulu (Christmas party). This was my second pikkujoulu at Sasken, and the first pikkujoulu of many this year. Finns love pikkujulu and during the Xmas season is the best excuse to have a party.

Joulupukki giving gifts

Contest

Arttu, Héctor

I will omit my comments regarding what happened in the party. I will just say that I really enjoyed it. The day after i woke up safe at home around 5pm.

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The last weekend I went to Oulu to visit Rodolfo and Elise. It was a perfect weekend, we had party, went to an Ice hockey match, talked a lot etc. The idea of going to Oulu came up because Esa had a pikkujoulu on Friday and invited me.

Joulupukki and me

Greatmen: Héctor, Esa, Rodolfo

Rodolfo, Oulu's Policeman, Héctor

October

October was a month in which everything turned around my trip to Germany. From the 22nd to the 26th of October I was in Germany visiting Annukka my girlfriend. Previous the trip I needed to work extra hours to compensate the time I would be absent. Furthermore I am taking a project software engineer an the university which requires work so let’s say that during October I was quite busy with work and university.

Germany 2008
Annukka finished her studies and I went to visit her and see her final project presentation.  So I flew to Frankfurt-Han (ryanair airport) from Tampere airport. I was in German On Tuesday around six o’clock. Annukka picked me up and we drove to Heilbronn (the city where she lives) that is at three hour from the Hann airport.

On Wednesday she had her presentation, so early in the morning (9am) we went to Stuttgart we basically spent morning at the university. I watched her presentation I did not understood a word. Well actually I did “situation”, “gut” and “danke”. But by the face of the professor I got that everything was going on fine. After the presentation and the respectively congratulation we went to eat a “real german donner kebab” and then we walked around the citycenter.

Annukka final project presentation.

Congratulations Annukka

In the city center I bought a postcard and a post stamp and was funny that when Annukka said: “Mexico” the guy said: “Mejico I speak Mejicano: Tequila, Pável Pardo” I barely understood what he was saying hehehe so it was funny. The weather was not the best for a long walking so we went back to Heilbron.

The next day we spent it on Heilbronn a nice city with a population of around 121,000 persons. The city has pretty much destroyed during the war and like in other places of Germany that something you can feel while you walk on the street even though everything has been rebuilt. That night we try to get into a night club “barococo” but for my surprise,  here also the security guys have problems handle the power and you need to be “important” to jump the queue and enter fast. Since the waiting time to get into barococo was undefined we decided to go to “enchilada” a Mexican restaurant-bar. Actually I don’t regret, I was a really good decision. Enchilada is until now the only bar that I have been outside Mexico that they have more than 5 different Tequila brands. I could not avoid to drink a shot of “Don Julio”, and “José Cuervo Especial” the funny part was when I asked for them because I said the names in a normal Spanish and the waitress needed to ask me 4 times to understood the names in a non-German pronunciation.

Heilbronn city center

Eating mexican chips at Enchilada (Heilbronn Germany)

On Friday we went again to Stuttgart because that day was the last day of presentation and after the last presentation all the new engineers get together in the university bar to celebrate. During the morning we visit the Porche museum and the Mercedes-Benz museum. Around 7 pm we went to the university bar and waited for Annukka’s friends, David (my ex-flatmate during my first year in Finland) and Sandra (a German friend that was studying in Queretaro in 2006). He has a really nice evening full of good memories, music, dance and drinks.

Outside mercedes benz museum

Inside Mercedes Benz museum

Party at the university bar. Only engineers were allowed to put that blue

On Saturday we went to the Technik MUSEUM SPEYER where they have a wide collection of cars and planes including the French and Russian concord. In this museum there is also an iMax movie theater. We saw a documental about the underwater life. I really like this 3D stuff. At night we went to a really German restaurant (I don’t put the name cos I can not recall it) with Annukka’s family to have dinner. It was something different, big wood table, local beer and food, people singing, typical bad-mood looking German waitress, etc. The food was really good and the experience quite nice. After that we when for a short time to a night club in Heilbronn because we needed to wake up early the next day to go to Frankfurt-Hann.

Outside Technik Museum Speyer

iMax 3D Movie theater

Concord cockpit

Celebrating Annukka

On Sunday I took my flight back to Tampere and the life went back to the routine of study and work. Now I’m focused on January when I will see Annukka again ☺.

En español:

Octubre fue un mes en el que todo torno alrededor de mi viaje a Alemania. Del 22 al 26 de Octubre estuve en Alemania visitando a mi novia Annukka. Antes del viaje tuve que trabajar horas extras para compensar el tiempo que estaría ausente. Además de trabajo en la universidad estoy llevando un proyecto de ingeniería de software que requiere de su tiempo y trabajo entonces digamos que todo Octubre estuve bastante ocupadito entre universidad y oficina.

Annukka terminó la universidad, fui a visitarla y a ver su entrega de proyecto final. Volé a Frankfurt-Hann (a el aeropuerto de ryanair) desde Tampere. Llegué a Alemania el martes a eso de las seis de la tarde. Annukka pasó por mi al aeropuerto y nos fuimos a Heilbronn (donde ella vive) que son mas o menos tres horas en carro. El miércoles ella tenia su presentación así que tempranito (9am) nos fuimos a Stuttgart y básicamente pasamos la mañana en la universidad. Vi su presentación, la verdad no entendía nada, bueno dos o tres palabras “gut”, “danke” y ya; pero por la cara de los profesores sabía que las cosas estaban saliendo bien. Finalmente después de su presentación fuimos a comer ( yo me estaba muriendo de inanición). Comimos un típico donner kebab. Después de recargar energía caminamos por la el centro de Stuttgart. En el centro compré una postal y fue muy chistoso  porque le dije a Annukka que la pidiera por mi, y cuando pidió el timbre postal y dijo que para México (con la x pronunciada “cs” como en Inglés) el empleado dijo: “a Méjico yo hablo Mexicano: Tequila, Pável Pardo” la verdad yo apenas entendí lo que estaba diciendo según el hablaba mexicano porque pronunciaba México con j y sabia el nombre de Pável Pardo que juega en Stuttgart, fue muy chistoso. El clima no estaba muy bueno, llovía y hacia algo de frío por lo que decidimos regresarnos a Heilbronn.

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pff continuará. Que ahora me tengo que ir; pero ya terminaré de ponerlo en Español.

The most expensive Tacos of my life. The price of a whim

6 tacos = 15€ ($230MX aprox Oct. 2008)

After almost twelve months without eating Mexican tacos, I knew that few months ago a Mexican woman married with a Finn and her bother opened a new restaurant in Ideapark. This restaurant is called “Tacos Mexicanos”.  As its name states their specialty are tacos. Definitely I could not resist and I went to check it out. The result: I ate for first time in Finland the most similar to “unos tacos”. I had eaten tacos in Finland before but always home made, in a restaurant this was the first time.

The taste, variety of food in the restaurant was good and completely Mexican. The decoration of the place was good as well. Actually the difference between eat tacos in Finland or Mexico is: In Mexico normally I will not eat them in a restaurant (but possible), but the real big difference was the price. I will never pay 15€ (around $230MX Oct. 2008) for 6 normal size tacos. But what can one do, when have the whim of eating tacos. Eat tacos.

After eating six tacos: 2 of discada, 1 of pastor, 1 chicken, 1 of chili with queso and the other I cannot remember. And paying 33€ ($510MX Oct. 2008) including transportation to Ideapark, the tacos and a couple of beers (pacifico). I just hope be able to wait 76 days more to eat tacos again.
And just for those who cannot believe here is the ticket as a proof:

Después de 12 meses sin comer tacos, me enteré que hace unos meses una Mexicana casada con un Finés y su hermano, abrieron un restoran en Ideapark. El restoran se llama “Tacos Mexicanos” y su especialidad son tacos. Definitivamente no pude resistir y fui a checar el lugar. El resultado: Comí por primera vez en un restoran en Finlandia los más parecido a unos tacos. Había comido tacos en Finlandia pero siempre hechos en casa, en un restoran fue la primera vez.

El sabor y la variedad fue bueno y completamente Mexicano. La decoración del lugar es muy buena. De hecho la diferencia entre comer unos tacos en Finlandia o en México es: En México normalmente nunca los comería en un restaurant (pero podría ser) pero la gran diferencia fue el precio. Nunca pagaría 15€ (como $230MX Oct. 2008) por 6 taquitos; pero que puede hacer uno cuando tiene el antojo de tacos. Comerlos.

Después de comer seis tacos: 2 de discada, 1 de pastor, 1 de pollo, 1 de rajas con queso y el último no recuerdo de que y pagar 33€ ($510MX Oct. 2008) que incluyen ir a Ideapark, los tacos y un par de cervezas (pacifico). Sólo espero poder aguantar 76 días mas para comer tacos de nuevo.

Y para aquellos que no me crean el precio aqui esta el ticket como prueba:

Ticket of 6 tacos in Finland

September (Mexican Party in Tampere 2008)

September was a quite normal beside the celebration of the interdependency of Mexico; my days in Tampere could be resumed in working a lot. A normal day of my life, starts early at 7am. I spend the whole day (until 7aprox) at the office on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. Wednesdays and Thursdays are similar start at 7 and end at 7 but I go to the university. So as you can see I’m living really long days.

This year Memo and Roberto organized for second time a Mexican Party on the occasion of the Independency of Mexico. This time we were much more Mexicans than the previous year. Everybody prepared a really traditional Mexican plate. I should say that the event was practically perfect. As you can see in the picture we had from flans, to a real homemade mole.

Traditional Mexican plates/Comida tipica mexicana (Tampere)

After we the Mexicans enjoyed these delicatessens the party was opened to the public in general. They only needed to know the password for the party, that was simple, !Viva México! (Long live Mexico). Laureno, who designated to “give the shout”, this time he prepared himself and was dressing properly to the occasion. But better watch the video and see why I said it was a great Mexican Party.

Tommi, Hector and Matti celebrating the anniversary of the independence of Mexico

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I invited my friends to celebrate with me.

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After the party my life went back to the routine. The autumn is now here and all the trees are now yellow and losing their leaves. That only tells you one thing, the cold and darkness are coming, the only good thing about that is that I will spend Christmas in Mexico and I will be able to run away a little bit from the cold winter.

Yellow trees in Hermiankatu because of the Autumn

August

Ready to fish in Sikosaari

August began really nice with a weekend at Siikosari(View Larger Map)an island property of Annukka’s family. We spent the weekend there, in a really Finnish way, picking up berries and mushrooms, fishing, and of course going to sauna, and not any sauna, a real traditional and original smoked sauna.
Sikosari

August turned sad by the second week when Annukka had to go back to Germany to work in her final project. 77 days was the countdown to see each other again. That day was one of my most difficult days in Tampere. But thanks God I have also friends that helped me to look further and don´t get deep into the sadness.

The third weekend of August I went to Olli Jukarainen’s summer cottage. A nice place at the shore of a nice lake (I cannot remember the name of the lake) close to Hämenlinna View Larger Map. It was a good weekend we went fishing, sauna, etc.

Matti and Saara at their housewarmingparty

On the 23 Matti and Saara had their housewarmingparty, their place has a cozy living room, a nice bedroom,  one bathroom, and a tiny kitchen, that together with the terrace (only place were ia alowed to smoke in Finnish homes) were the places more populated during the party. Around 2 am and with some tequila shots and many cocktails up we moved the party to a pub. In this case we went to tabu were we stayed until they closed at 4am. After that I took a shared taxi to Hervanta.

Me and Ruth and Saha

Finally at the end of August the newies arrived Tampere. Ruth is a girl from the Basque Country friend of Denis a friend of mine that I met in August 07. She has been my contact with the newies. As usual he have been partying at Saha on Fridays. And this last Saturday we went to play badminton and it was so funny.

SAHA’s Photos

What language is spoken in Mexico?

During my last year I have been getting along with people from different parts of the world, and many time they asked me, What language do you speak in Mexico? Mexican? at the beginning I always thought we spoke pure Spanish, but that idea changed when I got Spanish friends.

After living together with people from Spain, we realized that the differences between Spain-spanish and Mexico-Spanish were more than we believed. At the first glance it was just the pronunciation becouse in Mexico ‘S’, ‘C’ and ‘Z’ sound exactly the same while in Spain don’t. Later we realize that the use of the verbal tense is also different in Mexico we use mostly simple past, while in Spain they differentiate between simple past and perfect past. And finally a really big set of words that mean things completely different or nothing when you use them in the spanish from the other side. These words gave us (and still give us) topic to argue for hours.

I will be brave and I will put a list some of the words I could remember easily, but I’m sure that as soon as my Spanish speaking friends go through the list so many other words will come up. So fell free to add a comment hehe.

Durante mi último año he convivido con gente de diferentes partes del mundo, y muchos de ellos me preguntaron, ¿Qué idioma hablan en México? Mexicano? al principio siempre pense que nosotros hablabamos español puro; pero esa idea cambio despues de conocer a mis amigos españoles.

Después de convivir con gente de España, nos dimos cuenta que las diferencia entre el español de México y el de España era más de las que creíamos. A primera vista era solamente la pronunciación, porque en México ‘S’, ‘C’ y ‘Z’ suenan exactamete igual pero en España no. Después nos dimos cuenta de que los tiempos verbales también los usamos diferente. En México básicamente usamos pasado simple, mientras que en España diferencian entre pasado simple y pasado perfecto. Finalmente un conjnto de palabras enorme que significan cosas completamente diferentes o nada si son usadas en el país contrario. Estas palabras nos dieron ( y siguen dando= tema para discutir por horas.

Me voy a atrever a poner una lista de las palabras que pude recordar facilmente, pero estoy seguro que tan pronto como mis amigos hispano-hablantes la lean, muchas otras palabras necesitaran ser agregadas. Así que con confianza agrega tus comentarios.

Mexico	Spain	Example	Example	English
apartamento	piso			flat
banco	banqueta			stool
bañar	duchar	me voy a bañar	me voy a duchar	to take a shower
básquetbol	baloncesto			basketball
betabel	remolacha			beetroot
bocina	altavoz			speaker
boleto	billete			ticket
caballitos	chupitos	me tomé un caballito de tequila	me tomé un chupito de tequila	shot
calificación	nota	ya estan las calificaciones de	ya estan las notas de …	grade
camión	autobús			bus
camioneta (van)	monovolumen			weekend
celular	móvil			cellphone
chabacano	melocotón			apricot
chamarra	chaqueta			jacket
chaqueta	paja			to wank
chicharo	guisante			pea
chido	way			cool
clutch	embrage			clutch
cobija	nórdico			blanket
coger	follar			to fuck
computadora	ordenador			computer
contestar	coger	no me contesta (el teléfono)	no me coge (el teléfono)	answer
control remoto	mando			remote control
durazno	melocotón			peach
envarado	tener agujetas	estoy envarado porque ayer fui al gym	tengo agujetas por que ayer fui al gym	soreness
estacionamiento	parking			parking place
fin de semana	finde			minivan
foco	bombilla			light bulb
frijol	judia			bean
glorieta	rotonda			roundabout
joto (cartas)	jota, sota			jack, knave
laptop	portatil			laptop
lentes	gafas			glasses
lentes de contacto	lentillas			contact lenses
licencia de manejar	carnet de conducir			driving licence
manejar	conducir			to drive
materia	asignatura	este semestre tengo dos materias	este semestre tengo 2 asignaturas	course
naco	cutre			pleby
papa	patata			potato
par	pareja	par de reyes	pareja de reyes	pair
pena	vergüenza			shame
pendejo	gilipollas			asshole
plumón	marcador			marker
refrigerador	frigorifico			refrigerator
rentar	alquilar			to rent
reprobar	suspender	reprobé matemáticas	suspendí matemáticas	to fail an exam
seguro	pestillo	pon el seguro	echa el pestillo	bolt
tarea	deberes	no he terminado mi tarea	no he terminado mis deberes	homework/assignments
tocino	bacon			bacon
tomar	coger	tomar el camión	coger el autobús	to take
trapeador	fregona			mop
wey	tío, macho			dude
x sobre y (x/y)	x partido de y			x over y
ye “y”	i griega			letter y