A Spicy Life

Indian Taitais

2011-05-30T22:05:00.000-07:00

I like Indian people and they are a great source of revenu for my restaurant, but damn! Indians taitais can be annoying customers in a restaurant some times!

Today we got a group of 15 Indian ladies that came for lunch. Any group of ladies is already kinda of trouble regardless of where they are from. Most of the ladies we get in the restaurant are expat wives. They normally live in big houses with Ayis (cleaning Chinese lady), they have a van and driver. The Ayis take care of the kids. Drivers take the kids to school and to their afternoon extracurricular activities. Most of these ladies don't work and they also don't have to do any house work, because Ayi does it for them. So basically they don't have anything to do during most of the day. If they are not getting their nails, their hair or something else done, they tend to gather in groups at different establishments where they gossip in a loud manner. For some reason I still don't fully understand why, most of them are very cheap. Considering their economical status and the expat life styles they have, they shouldn't be too worried about money. My only guess would be that they feel some kind of guilt for just spending money all day long. These kinda lady is normally known as a "Taitai".

A lot of our business depends on these "Taitais". We really try to pull them to choose our establishment as their gathering point to spend some of their money while they gossip. This requires a lot of patience from the people hosting these gatherings. Taitais are very disorganized, everyone of them has an opinion and they all want it their own way. Also, there normally is a language barrier between the Chinese waitress and the group of ladies. This, added to the confussion of the ladies, becomes a disaster! While some of them are trying to organize things and order things to share some others are ordering just for their own. Some others aren't ordering anything because they are too concentrated talking while the waitress is waiting for them to decide what they want. Only taking the order takes for ages and then they complain about how long things took to be served.

Now, Indian Taitais can be specially difficult. A lot of Indians have special diets where they don't eat either beef; pork; beef and pork; chicken; beef, pork and chicken; or meat at all. There are also some of them who are vegans. It all depends on their beliefs or regional culture. So when you get a big group of people all trying to order with their specifications, believe me, it can be a PAIN!

At the end of their meal, trying to figure out who ordered what and who owes what, becomes another big problem. They count penny per penny until everything gets perfectly settled.

Anyways, there are also fun Taitais out there, that's for sure. Taitais that like to enjoy their taitai life in uncomplicated manner. Cheers for those!

Are Chinese really dumb?

2011-05-16T22:21:00.000-07:00

As a foreigner in China we are always complaining on how Chinese are so dumb, inefficient and antiquated on their ways of doing things. But there is one thing where they are light years ahead of western civilization. What I'm talking about are "FURNISHED APARTMENTS".

We were talking about with a good friend of mine. The Chinese have figured out that one pretty well. When you live in a big city and you change apartments so often why would you like to also move damn couches, washing machines, beds, tvs, tables all that huge stuff that is just a pain to move. Some may say, "well, you can also get furinished apartments in the west", to which I answer "Bullshit!". If you want get a furnished apartment in let's say USA, you would have to pay such a high rent that is not even funny. Instead, in Shanghai, you move from apartment to apartment with your personal shit (which is still a lot) without worrying about breaking your back trying to get a damn cabinet down the stairs.

So are Chinese really that dumb...

My Granpa is sick

2011-05-16T18:07:00.000-07:00

My grandpa on my mother side name is Jose Guadalupe Vargas. We call him Chato cuz somehow my grandma started calling him that at some point, or maybe it's cuz he calls all his grandsons Chatos. He's definitely been an exceptional man. He has dedicated his life to the well-being of his family and the ones around him to the point where he forgot sometimes to take care of himself.

At some point he was the richest man on his village in Zacapu, Michoacan. He had all kinds of businesses going on starting from raising pigs till the point where he had a factory and different kinds of retail businesses.

His big mistake was that he maybe gave away too much to his kids. So much that I think he spoiled them. I think he wasn't very good at teaching them how to keep producing money or that you have to work hard to earn it. What happened was that he lost it all. I'm not sure exactly how, but I'm pretty sure it was mostly his kids fault. All he has left is a few properties here in there. He lives off the rent and he still gives away most of that money to help out the his sons and daughters families that are struggling to survive cuz of bad money situations.

Just a few weeks ago he got lymphatic cancer. When they found out about it, it was pretty much spread already. So they took him to a public hospital where he gets the social security cover. These Social Security Hospitals in Mexico have very low standards of service and they get so many patients that they just can't handle it very well. In my grandpa's case he needed immediate attention cuz he was really dying! But it was the middle of the night and they didn't have a single doctor to take care of him. They didn't have bed where he could lay down, all the beds were already taken. They finally found something a kind of furniture that got improvised as a bed where he layed down. This "bed" was so small that his arms where hanging on the sides and since he was unconscious they had to tie his hands so they didn't just hang down there. They kept calling for medical attention without an answer, and he was just dying there. The family finally decided to take him to a private hospital. There he got proper attention and after a few days of critical moments he made it, even when the chances of survival were really damn low. My mom claims that the reason he survived shows how strong my grandpa is.

My father happens to be in a comfortable economical situation and he covered the expenses of the private hospital. He might not get any help from any of his brothers/sisters in law. The sad part was that when he was close to death, they were worried and fighting not about how to pay for a private better service, but about who would get what kind of inheritance from him.

It is really sad to see somebody who worked all his life, somebody who accumulated a lot of wealth, to be dying on public hospital and the ones responsible for it still trying to see what they can get from that awful situation.

Zup?

2011-05-10T01:53:00.000-07:00

Hey!

Well I'm still in Shanghai. Now I'm running a Mexican restaurant in JinQiao Pudong. I love my job and I guess that gets reflected in the numbers of the restaurant. I have a new and lovely girlfriend from Michigan. We are going on a date tonight to eat sushi. It's nice to have those kinda date nights with the gf. I'm even a bit nervous about it... naaah!! Hope I can score tonight! =P

Cheers!

Sister Menace

2009-08-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

Hey all!

Remember I mentioned that I was going to Mexico... well at the end I will not. I found out that I didn't really had to go out of the country to have my visa extension, therefore, I decided to not go to Mexico. At that point I was still thinking about going out of the country though. I started considering different options like, India, Nepal, Mongolia, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Mongolia, etc. Most of these destinations are pretty cheap places to go to from China. I talk to my family about the possibility of making a trip and by talking to them, I mentioned to my sister at a random moment during our skype call, "Why don't you come to Shanghai for a while? You can spend a few days here and then we could take off for a trip to wherever... Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, whatever, it would be a lot of fun!" She liked the idea and told me that she will mention that to my dad and then she would decide. The day after, she was like, "yeah there seems to be not so expensive tickets, I also have three week vacations so I really think I'm going. I also think I will try to invite a friend to come with me!" It sounded great to me at that time. I thought one more girl it could loose things up and make it more of a party trip. We also started considering different options and it seemed that we were going to Thailand or Singapore. Thailand is a place that I've been dreaming about for a long time already, however is not the kinda place where I ever imagined going with my little sis. Singapore seemed a little more calm and more like a place to visit with mi sis, but at the same time it seemed boring and expensive. So we kinda decided that Thailand was the place to go. She told me she was gonna ask one of her friends if she wanted to come with my sister. She was then gonna give me some news the day after. The day after, I was surfing the internet when I got a skype call from Hermosillo. It was my sister and she said, Ok I bought the tickets to Shanghai for me and THREE more girls that will come with me...

(To be continued...)

I'm back to my blog!

2009-07-26T08:52:00.000-07:00

It’s been ages since I wrote a post for this blog. I’ve always kept my eyes open for interesting things that happen in daily life that I could write about, but by now I’ve forgotten most of them. So what I would do now is a little summary of what’s going on with my life.

Last time I wrote it was about how I was happy because I was in Mexico living the good life. Well, I’m about to do that very soon again. I have to go out of the country for my new student visa.

-Wait… student visa? Wait… what?

Well, yeah, I’m going back to school.

-So, are you gonna be doing your MBA that you always wanted?

Nope. I will be going back to Chinese lessons, intensive Chinese lessons at Donghua Univeristy.

–But, didn’t you quit Chinese Lessons to get into the job you have?

Yes, you are right. I kinda regret it right now, but I don’t at the same time.

–I don’t get you!

The thing is that back then I had a job opportunity and I took it. I worked in my current company for almost 2 years now, my first real corporate kind of job and it’s been quite an experience. I’m definitely not the same person I was 2 years ago. I’ve learned so many things from this job and at the end I think it was a good decision.

–So what makes you think now that you should really get into Chinese classes?

Well, it’s about time. I’ve been in China for almost 2 years already and I don’t speak the language. I’ve been investing by living in China. I’ve learned a lot about Chinese culture, history, rituals, manners, etc. and I don’t want to waste all that knowledge. The best way to complement that knowledge is by also getting to speak the language. If I get to speak the language I would be one of the few Mexicans to have all these knowledge about China. All my time invested here would be then worth. I’m also finally getting more into international trading, because this is the kind of business that would be worth doing if I become a polyglot. It’s the kind of business in which I could be dealing with people from different parts of the world. If I learn Chinese I’d be able to speak 4 out of the 5 most spoken languages in the world. As I have said before, I’m extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to travel to many different countries so far and getting to know people from all around the globe. This gives me a competitive advantage that I should use at its maximum potential.

–But I thought you wanted to do something about a restaurant…-

Who said that I couldn’t do both? I think I could easily be involved in the two kind of business. I wouldn’t be the first nor the last person to be involved in more than one business. I really think I could be good at both. So, right now I will be going to Mexico to see the family and friends, do my student visa in Tijuana and maybe go down to Ensenada and the Valle de Guadalupe for the Fiestas de la Vendimia. I will come back right before August 31st when school starts. I’m also applying for a job at a Mexican restaurant called Maya for a Marketing and PR position. I already had one interview with the general manager of the place and it went pretty well. I’m supposed to have another interview with one of the owners of the place when he comes back from his holiday on the firsts days of August, right before I leave to Mexico.

I’m considering that I have 50% chances of getting the job. That means that if I get it, I would be so f’busy going to school in the mornings and working on the afternoon-evenings. This means though, that I will be earning money and not living a mediocre student life. I would be learning some more about the restaurant industry in Shanghai and expanding my contact list, which is great for my restaurant plans. If I don’t get it, I would have a lot of free time. I would be looking for part time jobs to get some income and hopefully some experience in the international trading business or the restaurant business. Also, I would be more involved working with MEXCHAM (Mexican Chamber of Commerce), which I am already and it is putting my name out there in the Mexican community in Shanghai. There could be some good opportunities coming out of this and I would be learning more about the Mexico-China business practices. Also, I would have time to start studying for the GMAT and I would be maybe taking the test in February to start in September 2010 at CEIBS. I would also be trying to do some trading deals. This is something I’m already studying about on my own and that I would like to master. In the future I would be registering a company to do this in a formal way. I know I make it sound a little easy, but it is not. I would need to work a lot on that. I’m sure thought that it could be a business that if I get it running well, it could stay as my legacy here, so when I go back to the western world I could keep running it from where I’ll be and just come back here to China once in a while to check on it and keep things running. Ok, this is going to far. Step by step.

-What about girls? Anything going on?

As you can see I’m not very stable and I have no money at the moment. At my age is hard to be with a girl if you have no money. So, I will be organizing my shit and making something out of me before I get to worry about having a girlfriend or whatsoever.

-Ohhh, now I see. It seems that you have your things sorted it out.

Yeah… I just have to follow my plans and work hard. I think I’m on the right track I’m just going through a difficult stage right now. But I see a brighter future coming. This doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy life at this moment. Remember the movie “Click”? Well, I learned something from that movie: Enjoy and live everyday of your life as if it was the last. Well, you cannot really live everyday as if it was the last, but you get what I mean. So, I would leave you now after this philosophy moment and please cheer up everybody cuz we are alive!!!! Yeaaah!!!

Bienvenido a Mexico Paisano

2008-07-12T09:16:00.000-07:00

I just got back to Mexico yesterday night after 10 months in F China. I landed at San Diego and they sent a chauffeur to pick me up (So cool!!!!). What a way to begin my journey in Mexico. No more buses, metro, chifus (taxi drivers in China). He brought me down to Mexico and since the moment I crossed the border, I had a sigh and that feeling of being back home. The weather here is amazingly good. Not hot not cold, just perfect.

This morning cuz of the jet lag I woke up at 6:00 am I went to run to the City's Sport Center, a perfect sunny day. Now I came back to the hotel where I'm staying with my parents. They came up to Tijuana to spend the weekend around the area. I took a shower (Yes, I take showers once in a while!) and now I'm having breakfast at the hotel restaurant, there is a buffet with all the Mexican breakfast dishes that you can imagine, chilaquiles, pozole, menudo, machaca, quesadillas, chorizo, rajitas, etc, etc, etc. There is a family right beside me and is the grandpa's birthday and they just sung Las Mañanitas to him and here is a picture of the view outside from the restaurant to this perfect sunny day!

Becoming Famous

2008-03-29T02:25:00.000-07:00

It seems I'm becoming world famous. hehehe. Well... not really. What happens is that we are celebrating our 100th lesson published at SpanishPod. For this we made some promotional videos about it. I invite you to take a look, they are quite funny. Enjoy!

Spanish Fever in China

SpanishPod: Milestones

SpanishPod: Old Photos

My parents are coming to China

2008-03-10T08:48:00.000-07:00

My parents are coming to China for 10 days. They'll get here this Friday 14th. I can already listen to my mom complaining about how dirty is everything in China. I'll try to record her the first time she gets in a taxi. The way they drive here is freaking crazy, hahaha I can't wait to see her, she gets so nervous when people drives a little risky, she is gonna die here. Hopefully "daddy" will buy his little kid a camera. Then I will make this blog a little more interesting with pictures and videos. I'm so excited (btw, never try to translate "I'm very excited" to "estoy muy exitado" it doesn't mean the same thing in Spanish, in Spanish that means "I'm so horney", so you better say, "Estoy muy emocionado"), I'll get to see the whole family in just a few days. The Guerrero family in China, it's going to be amazing.

Cheers lads! (Since I live with an Irish I'm trying to learn some Irish expresions, isn't that brilliant mates?)

Bienvenido a China!

2008-02-17T02:41:00.000-08:00

Cuando recién llegué a China, noté un tipo de negocio muy particular. Estos consistían de pequeños locales con finta de peluquería. Con un aspecto bastante raro para una peluqueria o salon estético, estos lugares siempre tenían mujeres bastantes sexys esperando clientes. Después de observar con atención me di cuenta que no era precisamente una peluqueria sino una casa de citas. Entre los otros estudiantes de chino les denominamos las "peluqueras sexosas".

En uno de mis viajes al interior de China, decidimos viajar a pueblitos que nadie conoce y simplemente ver la China profunda. Sin hablar Chino ni al 5% nos aventuramos un amigo Suizo y yo a una prueba de supervivencia.

La gente es muy diferente en los "pueblos" (pueblo en china: dicese de una ciudad muy grande en cualquier país de occidente, estos tienen poblaciones de entre 1.5 millones y 4 millones de habitantes). La gente de la ciudad, especialmente en Shanghai, son extremademente capitalistas e individualistas, sus vidas, sus actos y decisiones giran totalmente alrededor del dinero. En cambio, en los "pueblos" la gente es mucho más sencilla y le dan mucho menos importancia al dinero. En cada uno de los pueblos a los que llegamos, el hecho de tan solo intentar preguntar por información sobre dónde podiamos encontrar un hotel o cómo llegar a alguna parte de la ciudad, la persona a la que le preguntabamos nos encontraba un hotel decente y barato, nos llevaban a algun restaurant local, en el cual normalmente no nos dejaban pagar por la comida, nos invitaron borracheras completas, otros chinos nos llevaron en un tour a un lago en una montaña, etc. etc. etc. Increible de verdad!

De la gente que conociamos en los diferentes lugares todos tenian un comun denominador, algo muy especial y poco común para la gente de occidente. Esto consistía en lo siguiente:

a) Los chinos nos preguntaban, quieren conocer chicas? a lo cual nosotros no podiamos negarnos.
b) Todos se contentaban de que aceptaramos y tomabamos un taxi.
c) Surprise! Nos llevaban a un lugar de "peluqueras sexosas".

Jajajaja, para ellos, llevarte a estos lugares es como para nosotros llevar a alguien que esta de visita en tu ciudad a comer a un restaurant (Para los hermosillenses, es como llevar a un wacho al xochimilco), totalmente normal!

En una ocasión le dijimos al chinito que con todo y esposa nos llevo a un lugar de estos, "no! no! muchas gracias pero no es lo nuestro, pero podriamos ir a ver!" (nosotros pensabamos en un table dance, nos preguntabamos si es cierto que aqui tienen el asunto horizontal o vertical? jajaja) Pues el chino nos lleva a un lugar que parecia un antro de lujo. Entramos y era un lugar con varios cuartos privados , era un lugar de karaoke al mero estilo chino. Pss ya nos dieron una salita para nosotros, nos trajeron unas cuantas cervezas y un plato de frutas. En eso llega un ejercito de chinas, muy guapas todas, y nos dicen no que escojan... y nosotros totalmente sacados de onda, le preguntamos al chino que si de que se trataba el asunto, y medio entendimos a señas que nomas nos iba a acompañar. Pues dicho y hecho la china se sento con nosotros y la inocente nos trataba de sacar platica en chino, también se puso a cantar con el karaoke canciones en chino. 15 minutos después estabamos aburridísimos, bueno pues vamonos, pedimos la cuenta y sorpresa numero dos! US$100 de cuenta, por 30 min de karaoke y 5 cervezas, que para un pueblo en china es muchisimo dinero! Despues de pelearnos dimos como $60 y nos fuimos con un dolor que no podiamos ni caminar bien. Resulta ser que estas son semi-prostitutas, y estos lugares son para ejecutivos que les encontan a los Chinos de negocios. Y parece ser que los chinos negocían despues con las chinas para llevartelas a un hotel.

Ahora ya saben, si vienen a china y les ofrecen conocer mujeres, no van a ir precisamente a una fiesta o a cenar con amigas de los chinos. Para esto, después nos enteramos, no existen los table dance en China. Estan prohibidos por la ley, y si hay son super clandestinos. Eso si, encuentras peluqueras sexosas en casi cada cuadra ya se con finta de peluquería o lugar de "masajes".

Cheers!

Nota: Trat'e de buscar una foto en internet para ponerla aqui en el post, pero por si no estaban enterados, China tiene filtros para controlar la información a la que se puede accesar en intenet. Por ejemplo, busqué "china prostitution" en el buscador de imágenes de google, aparecieron solo dos imagenes e inmediatamente después se bloquió todo el contenido relacionado, cuestion de 3 segundos. Asi es de que no pude adquirir una buena foto de estos lugares.

(English Version)

When I first got to China, I noticed some peculiar kind of store that you could find all over the place. These are kind of barber shops but not really. I noticed there are very sexy girls waiting for customers all the time, which is not very normal on a barber shop. Well after a few days I noticed that these weren't barber shops, these are massage places, but not any kind of massage, these are massage with happy ending.

A few weeks after I got here me and a guy from Switzerland, dicided to do a trip t0 the interior of China. We wanted to go to those little towns that no body knows and get to know the real China. We didn't speak Chinese at all. We only knew like 10 words each, but that didn't stop us so we bought a dictionary and a Lonely Planet guide and we went out to discover China. BTW, we lost the Lonely Planet guide on the second day.

The people in the little towns (a little town in China is what we know in the occidental world as big city of about 2 million people) are very different from the people that lives in big cities. People in Shanghai for example, all they care about is money, they are extremely capitalists and individualist. On the other hand, people on "little towns", they are way more simple and they don't care about money that much, they find happiness on other things. These people were extremely welcoming with us. Whenever we got to a new town we asked somebody for directions or for hotels on the area and they would walk with us to show us, invite us to eat to a restaurant, where they wouldn't let us pay at all. They even invite us to go out with a bunch of chinese were we got so drunk and they didn't let us pay for a single beer. There was a Chinese guy that took us on a tour to a lake that was the tourist attraction of the town. Also, a bus driver took us in his big bus on a tour around the city, it was hilarious!

From all these people we met, they all had something in common beside the fact that they all had chinese eyes, what I'm talking about is something very special and very uncommon for westerners. This is explained on the following points:

1) The chinese would ask us, "Would you like to meet some girls?", how can you say no to that? So of course we answered with a big smile to say YES.
2) Every one was so happy that we have agreed and we would take a taxi cab together.
3) Surprise! The would always take us to one of the happy ending massage places.

So funny! To these people is totally normal to take you to this kind of places. Is like when you receive guests from another city and you take them out to eat to a good restaurant typical from your city, just normal! Each time we thought we were really going to meet some "real" girls, and each time was the same, we were like, "oh no, no thank you, we just want to see girls!", well they took us to a karaoke place where there is girls that come and sing with you for so expensive, it's crazy just because there is a pretty girl singing for you the beer gets like 5 times more expensive than in a normal bar. Well, we finally learned that those kinds of karaoke places are nothing but a rip off, but it seems that local Chinese business people like this kind of places. Supposedly they negociate with the girls to take them somewhere else after the singing session.

Now you know guys! If you ever come to China and they invite you to go and meet girls, they wont take you to a party or to have dinner with their girl friends. Naah ahh, They will take you to the hookers!

Cheers!

Relax… there is no rush

2008-01-29T06:03:00.000-08:00

The importance that we give to time in Latin America is definitely not the same as they do in USA, Canada or Europe. This is linked to why Latinos tend to be late and why things run a little smoother in warm countries generally speaking.

People have different perspectives of time depending on their cultural background, and the importance they give to it could vary enormously. I think everybody knows the Mexican reputation for being late. Well it’s not just a rumor. Really, it’s amazing! Now I get to notice it from an outside perspective. Before, I just thought it was completely normal to be late and I didn’t even notice it. Here are some classic examples in Spanish with it respective translation about the different perspectives on time between Latinos and the rest of the world:

1) Dame 2 segunditos – Give me 5 minutes
2) Dame 1 minuto – Give me 15 minutes.
3) Nomas me voy a tardar 15 minutitos – It only will take me about an hour.
4) Nos vemos en la entrada del restaurant a las 2:00 en punto. – Let’s meet in inside the restaurant at about 2:40
5) La fiesta empieza a las 8:00pm – The party starts at 11:30.
6) Te llamo mas tarde – I’ll call you in a few days.
7) Vamos mañana – We’ll never go.

Seems funny, but it’s true! When I used to make appointments with my friends back in Quebec they would always ask me: “Mexican time or Quebec time? Just to be sure…”. They never ever got to trust me completely with time measures, even when I did my best to be on time, maybe by the end, after 5 years, I got to learn to be in time. Now when I go back to Mexico I get so frustrated. Now I really think it’s important to be in time, it shows respect for the other person’s time. In the other hand, the way it works in Mexico is that when you have an appointment you know in advance that the other person is going to be late, so just need to be late too and you both will be alright. It depends on the formality of the appointment though. This is something you get to master in a lifetime.

So be patient with Latinos… it’s not our fault!

Hitting On Girls

2008-01-12T23:40:00.000-08:00

(Versión en español)
El saber como ligarte a una chica, es algo muy importante que todos los hombres deben de saber para tener una noche de antro (antro: bar de noche a donde se sale a bailar) exitosa. No se que tan verdad sea eso que dicen las chicas cuando mencionan que ellas salen a los antros solo para divertirse y bailar entre ellas, porque como hombre, uno no sale nomas a bailar se los aseguro. Los hombres salimos a los antros con la esperanza de terminar en la cama acompañado y la calidad de la noche depende mucho de éste importante factor.

La acción de ligar (ligar: acción que te permite de terminar acoplando con una femenina o con un masculino, dependiendo del caso), puede variar mucho dependiendo de donde estés. En algunos lugares tienes que ser agresivo y en otros solo tienes que ser paciente y esperar a que todo fluya por si solo.

Nunca he ido a Argentina o Italia, pero he conocido gente que venían de ahí y a otros que han visitado alguno de estos paises. Parece ser, que si quieres tener alguna oportunidad de ligarte a una argentina o a una italiana, tienes que tener muy buen verbo (buen verbo = buena hablada) y muchas pelotas. Los chicos argentinos e italianos, son muy agresivos en cuanto al ligue, ellos intentan con cuantas chicas sea necesario antes de obtener cualquier tipo de aceptacion de la parte femenina. Habrá noches enteras en las que se la pasen intentando por aqui y por allá sin tener suerte, pero pues asi se acostumbra. En cambio, en norteamérica y sobre todo en Canadá, los chicos no tienen intentar obligatoriamente ligar a una chica si quieren terminar bien la noche, si no que las chicas son las que se encargan del ligue la mayoria del tiempo. Si eres hombre y estas leyendo esto, debes de estar pensando, "eso debe de ser genial!" Pues dejenme afirmarles que es de poca madre! (poca madre: expresion mexicana utlizada para expresar algo muy bueno). Dejenme explicarles el porqué de esto; en Canada el feminismo esta presente por doquier: las mujeres son independientes, toman decisiones, en fin, las mujeres hacen lo que se les da la gana. Entonces, si un hombre se le acerca a una mujer a tratar de ligar utlizando sus mejores frases de Romeo y Don Juan, las probabilidades de que ligue, son realmente minimas. Al mismo tiempo, si a una mujer le gusta un chico, no tiene porque sentirse apenada de ir y ligarselo con el mismo derecho que un hombre puede ligarse a una mujer. Esta es la manera feminista de ver las cosas, por lo tanto como hombre, lo mejor que puedes hacer es relajarte y esperar si no quieres que te vean como un desesperado y urgido por tener a alguien en tu cama. Por otro lado, las chicas ahora estan poco acostumbradas a que se las liguen por lo de la feminista situación. Pero dejen les cuento mi historia; cuando recién llegué a Canadá, yo solia ligar al estilo latino, lo cual es bastante proactivo, pero no tan agresivo como los italianos o argentinos. Anyways, yo me aventaba e intentaba por aqui y por alla, aunque me batearan (batear: dicese de la accion de no responder a los intentos de una persona al tratar de ligar) algunas veces. El punto es, que algunas canadienses se sienten muy alagadas cuando tratas de ligartelas de buen modo, porque simplemente, ya no estan acostumbradas a que haya hombres que se les acerquen. Con el tiempo, me empece a adaptar a la cultura canadiense y por lo tanto cada vez me hice más pasivo en esto del ligue. Ahora, cuando regreso a México, me es casi imposible el acercarme a una chica y tratar de bajarle la luna y las estrellas, simplemente me siento muy incomodo y como un entrometido. Así mismo, es muy raro que una chica se decida a ligarse a un chico, esto puede ser muy mal visto en una "señorita decente". La gente puede pensar que es una mujer "fácil" y como el estatus social es muy importante, ninguna chica quiere que se llegue a hablar mal de ella, por lo tanto, ellas tienen que comportarse a la altura y esperar. Sin embargo, una miradita coqueta nunca queda de más, pero tendra que esperar casi obligatoriamente hasta que el hombre se decida a hacer la primera movida. Después de todos esos años en el polo norte, ahora me es casi imposible el hacer esa primera movida.

Aquí en China, la situación es muy parecida a la de México. Esto quiere decir, que no he tenido mucha suerte con las chinitas. Con las europeas puede ser bastante útil la técnica canadiense. Espero, sin embargo, poder volver a usar la técnica latina de nuevo algún día, si es que quiero tener la posibilidad de volver a México y casarme con una mexicana. Por cierto, las mexicanas son las mujeres perfectas para casarse, ya hablare de esto en otra ocasión. Salud!

(English version)
The way to approach girls in a bar is a very important know-how to be aware of, in order to have a successful night out as a guy. I don't know how true is it that girls really go out to a club just to have fun only by dancing between girls, but between guys this doesn't really work. Guys do go out with the hope to get laid, so the quality of the night out depends a lot on how it ends.

Well, hitting on girls could be very different depending on where you are. There is some places where you have to be very aggressive and some others where you have to stand back and wait for things to happen.

I've never been to Argentina or Italy, but I've meet many people from both countries and some others that have been to these countries. It seems that if you want to have any chance to get laid to get laid with an Argentinian or Italian girl, you better have good talking skills and big guts. Argentinian and Italian guys, they are very proactive when hitting on girls, they might get refused a few times or even all night long before they can pick up a girl, it seems a little lame, but that's the way it is. In North America and mostly in Canada, guys normally don't go and hit on girls, but actually, girls go and hit on guys. If you are a guy, you must be thinking, "that is great!" and let me tell you, it is awesome! There is a reason behind this. There is a big feminist kind of thinking in Canada. This means, girls really are independent, girls take decisions and well, girls can do whatever they want. So if a guy come to a girl and try to bullshit on a girl, he won't have lots of chances to making it happen. Also, if a girl likes a guy, she shouldn't be ashame of hitting on a guy just like guys do on girls, this is just the feminist way of thinking. So as a guy, the best thing to do is to chill and wait if you don't want to be judge as desperate to get laid. On the other hand, girls are now used not getting hit on. When I just came to Canada I was used to act more on the Latin way of hitting on girls. Which is some kind of proactive style, but not as strong as the Argentinian or the Italian way. Anyways, I used to go out and try a lot here and there with different girls, even if I failed a few times. But my point is that, there is some Canadian girls that they feel very flattered and special if you go and hit on them, because they are simply not used to this anymore. With time, I became more as a Canadian, more like a passive guy on this hitting on girls thing. Now, when I go back to Mexico is almost impossible for me to go hit on girls and say bullshit to them. I feel like I'm being disturbing. Girls in Mexico will rarely go and hit on a boy. It just doesn't seem good on a girl. "People might think she is an easy girl" and because society status is very important in Mexico, well, they don't want people to talk bad about them. Consequently, girls hold back. However, they might try to give some flirting looks to the guy they like, but they'll wait all the way until the guy makes the first move. After those years up in the north pole it's almost impossible for me to do that first move anymore.

Here in China is a lot like in Mexico. This means that I haven't been very lucky with Chinese girls. With Europeans though, it's not that bad to use the waiting technique. I hope I'll be able to develop that being forward technique again if I ever want to go back to Mexico and marry a Mexican girl, by the way Mexican girls are just great to marry with! I might talk about this another time though. Cheers!

To share or not to share?

2008-01-09T03:52:00.000-08:00

That is the question!

It's very normal and natural to be selfish. At the same time, the most "human" thing is to behave yourself and try not to. Well this can change a lot from one country's culture to another. In one hand we can notice that in most of the industrialized countries (USA, Canada, Australia and most of the countries in Europe) the society is highly individualistic. Everyone has it's own things, his own space, his own everything. In the other hand, most of the less developed countries have a tendency to be more group oriented and to share a lot more. In Mexico, people is quite unified and it's very normal to share a lot. In the USA, which it's neighbor just up north, thing are almost extremely different in this aspect compared to Mexico. In the USA, the family is generally not as important as it could be a little bit southern. For example, how many kids get kicked out of their houses exactly when they become 18 in the USA? A lot! In contrast, how many young professionals still live in their parents' house in Mexico? A lot!

I guess is not only a question of rich or poor countries what determines whether there is an individual or group oriented society, even this is a very influent factor. In Japan for example, society is very group oriented, even when they have a very good economic situation. Japanese give a lot of importance to hierarchy and family. So countries with more unified families trend to be more collective, we could say this two go often together

Let me give you another example, when people go to a restaurant in Mexico, let's say it's a small group no more than 10 people, there is a big chance that there is going to be only one person paying, while in Canada, when they bring you the bill, they actually bring one different for each person depending on what each one ordered. The thing is that in Mexico the way it works is that maybe somebody paid the whole bill this one time but the next time is going to be somebody else who does the same thing. In Canada when you go out to a restaurant you do it most of the times with friends, while in Mexico we often go out to eat with the family.

In some African countries this sense of collectivity is even stronger. I had a roommate from Congo once. His computer was broken for a while and he didn't have a TV in his room. It was very normal for him to come to my room when I wasn't there, dressing nothing but boxers. He had always a kind of smell not very pleasant (I don't have anything against Africans, but it is true that on a westerner perspective, they have a very strong body odor) and he would take my laptop, sit on my bed over my sheets, with my pillow over his laps to put MY laptop on it(I hate when people use my laptop! I hate to write my usernames and pw's all over again after somebody else checked his email, signed in to msn messanger, etc. I just hate it, but when people ask: "Can I just check something in your computer very fast?" I can't just say no, it would look so mean, anyways...) and watch TV. Absolutly normal for him! All mine is yours and all yours is mine (I don't know if we can say this in English, but in Spanish we say: "Lo mio es tuyo y lo tuyo es mio"). A lot of you might know the Spanish expression "mi casa es su casa", well he took it pretty seriously. And let's not talk about the food, all I can say, is that he would take whatever he felt like from the fridge. Even that nice cheese that you normally save for a special occasion.

In Mexico, people will always offer to some one who suddenly comes a piece or a little bit of whatever they are eating. Just because it's polite to do it, even when you don't really feel like offering. At the same time, the other person will always answer that he/she doesn't want, what ever fake reason is good to justify, just because that's the way to act if you are a "well raised" person, even if you are really hungry. If they insist a couple more times, then you can accept. It's just the normal and polite way to proceed. Conversely, in Canada nobody offers anything unless they really want to offer you something and people wont retain themselves if they are offered something and they feel like having some. That left me in very bad situations many times.

A funny story; Me and one of my Mexican friends went to a Quebequer's room in the university's residence, where he was with a couple of friends. We went to visit him just to hang out and chill a little bit. They had ordered a pizza just before we got there, so when the pizza got there something really chocking happened. I was OK if they didn't offer us pizza, I mean there wasn't enough for everyone and if they would have offered me I wouldn't have accepted. Well, what happened is that they kicked us out! They said: "We are sorry guy but we just ordered one pizza and it is just enough for us, so is not that we are kicking you out but... you know..." Really, we couldn't believe it! It was way to incredible for us. We left and we never came back! Damn bastards!!! hahaha! What I try to say to myself in this kind of situations is the following: "No no no, I know it's a different culture and I shouldn't judge. It's not a worst way to act, it's just different." And just to clarify, not everyone in Quebec is like this. There is some very nice and welcoming people too.

Anyways, if any of you, between my thousands of readers would like to share a funny story on this subject, please don't hesitate, I'd be very glad to read about it.

Ojos de Chino / Chinese Eyes

2008-01-07T07:07:00.000-08:00

Mail que he recibido hoy, es curioso:

Los chinos tienen poderes extraordinarios, o eso dicen...
Quizás el secreto está en que ven las cosas de modo diferente.
Por ejemplo, la imagen adjunta al final de este e-mail es del todo
incomprensible si la miras como occidental...
Pero no como chino ...
Si no lo crees, prueba:
Primero mírala sin más.
Luego tira de los extremos de tus ojos con las manos, pon ojos de chino,
y mira la imagen...sorprendete.

buenísimo!!!

An email I received, i

Chinese people have special powers, at least that's what they say...
Perhaps, the secret is that they see things in a different way.
For exemple, the following image doesn't mean anything to us (occidentals) if we normally see it...
But if you look at it with Chinese eyes is totally different.
If you don't believe it, try it!
Try to look at it normally and then try it again but pulling the skin at the out parts away with your fingers to look like a Chinese and look at the image again.

Amazing uh!

ESPAÑOL

ENGLISH

Introduction

2008-01-07T05:48:00.000-08:00

(Spanish Version)
Hola a todos!

Me llamo Jorge Leonardo Guerrero. Nací en México. Viví los primeros tres años de mi vida en España, despues regresé a México para vivir en Hermosillo (Noroeste de México). Pasé dos veranos en campamentos de verano en diferentes partes de Canadá a la de 13 y 15. Despues de la preparatoria decidí irme a vivir a Vancouver. Ahí estuve 6 meses estudiando inglés en la Universidad de British Columbia. Despues de eso, en enero del 2002, me mudé a la ciudad de Quebec donde pase cinco años y medio de mi vida y donde hice mi licenciatura en administración de empresas. Ahora vivo en Shangai China. Vine aqui a buscar oportunidades porque parece ser aqui es "el lugar" del momento. Pensé que seria conveniente aprender Chino y agarrar algo de experiencia laboral aqui en China. Asi es de que aqui estoy, he encontrado un muy buen trabajo en SpanishPod. Trabajo en marketing y servicio al cliente. Es una compañia extraordinaria y con mucho futuro. SpanishPod.com es de los mismos creadores que ChinisePod.com. SpanishPod es un nuevo proyecto que acabamos de empezar y que deberá tener mucho exito basado en un equipo que trabaja muy duro con este mismo fin.

Como puede ver, no soy precisamente una persona promedio. No es que trate de elogiarme, pero estoy conciente de que he tenido muchisima de poder tener la oportunidad de hacer todo esto y estoy orgulloso de mi mismo por haber tomado estas oportunidades y haberlas aprovochado lo mejor de estas.

Ahora dejemonos de formalidides y dejenme decirles que los proximos post que publique ser más interesantes. Hablare mucho sobre diferencias culturales y como esto puede meterte en situaciones ambiguas, chistosas, penosas, difíciles y/o raras. Creanme que el estar en China te presenta aventuras diferentes en todos y cada uno de los dias que pasas aqui.

A veces voy a escribir posts en español y en inglés (mi inglés no será perfecto, pero creo que entendaran bien lo que queiro decir), en otras ocasiones me dará y escribiré solo en español. Así tambien habra veces en las que simplemente habra cosas que no se pueden traducir. Tambien podrán encontrar ocasionalment meterial en francés y si llego a aprender chino pronto, pues tambien habra cosas en Chino.

Bienvenidos!

(English Version)
Hello everyone!

I'm Jorge Leonardo Guerrero. I was born in Mexico. I lived in Spain the first three years of my live, then moved back to Mexico to live in Hermosillo (Northwest Mexico). I spent two summers at summer camps in different parts of Canada at the age of 13 and 15 . After high school I decided to go to live to Vancouver. I stayed there for 6 moths studying English at University of British Columbia. After that, in January 2002, I moved to Quebec City where I spent five and a half years of my life and where I did my bachelor degree in business. Now I live in Shanghai China. I came here to look for opportunities because it seems to be "the place" to be. I thought it would be advantageous to learn Chinese and get some work experience here in China. So here I am, I found a really nice job at SpanishPod. Here I work on marketing and customer service. It's a great company with a lot of future. They are the creators of ChinesePod.com and now we just started with SpanishPod.com which should become a big success based on a great team working hard for that.

As you can see, I´m not be the average kind of guy. I'm not trying to praise my self, but I'm contious that I've been extremely lucky to have the opportunity to do all this and I'm proud of myself for taking them and try to make the best out of them. I´m very Mexican at deep of my heart, but at the same time I feel and I thinks a lot like a Canadian and more precisely Quebecois. The weird thing is that now I´m not a typical Mexican nor Canadian and now that I live here in China, I just feel that I´m a simple citizen of the world.

Now, let's cut the super formal stuff and I'll just tell you that the next posts are going to be a bit more interesting. I will talk a lot about cultural differences and how this can get you in ambiguous, funny, shaming, difficult and/or weird situations. Believe me, being in China means a different adventure on each and everyday you spend here.

Sometimes I'll write this posts in Spanish and English (My english might not be perfect, but I think you can get to understand what I mean), some other times I might be lazy and write only in Spanish. Also there will be sometimes or some material that it just can't be translated. You might find some material in French too and if I get to learn Chinese soon, well there will be some things in Chinese too.

Welcome!