Late night packing

Well, not so much anymore since I am done but anyways.. Wow, I have never travelled this light ever! I swear; my bag weighs in at not even seven kilos. FOR FIVE DAYS! Granted, the heaviest pice of clothing I am bringing are my flipflops, but still a personal victory I have to say. I will however be heavily relying on the hotels to sponsor my personal hygiene by providing soap, shampoo, towels etcetera. Looking forward to this trip, it will be fun to get out of town. And the weather forecast is actually looking good; sun and around 35 degrees, atleast for two of the days. BTW; saw on msn that tomorrows forecast for Stockholm is 17/3 degrees. haha, suckers!

But just to be clear; ths will not be a drunken booz-vacation; firstly Magda is on antibiotics and cannot drink. Secondly, we are planning both to see the aztec pyramids and to be cultural 'in general', thirdly we want to visit the sea turtles at Isla Las Muejeres. And finally, WE DO NOT WANT TO MISS VALUABLE TIME BY THE POOL!!

I will try to keep you guys updated, I am sure there will be internet connection in Yucatan. Or will it...?

Bon voyage (to me) /J

Cancun, here I come!

Yes all my darlings back home i cold cold sweden, you heard me! First project done and apt looking like it is going to work out. So what does one do? Book a trip to Cancun ofcourse! Me and Magda are leaving Tuesday, first for Merida on the Cancun peninsula. It is supposedly a cultural city with alot of heritage from the spaniards. Two nights there for some culture (and relaxing by the pool). Then it is on to the hotel strip and the fine beaches facing the Caribbean sea. We have two nights at an All inclusive resort which I am perticularly looking forward to. Feels so tacky, so american so...wonderful! They are supposed to have a swim-up bar, I will try to document how that goes. Anyhow, here´s a photo of our resort:

Looks kind f nice eh?? The name says it all; Park Royal Cancun. Let´s just pray there will be sun (please please please!) and that all of our online-booking with low-price airlines and discount websites will proove to work. Otherwise I will just have to make my living as a waitor in Cancun...

Whate else. Oh, yesterday we (Magda, Allan and me) went to Elizas farewell party. Eliza we met while living at the hostel and now she is going back home. So after a nice dinner and a few beers, we went out to dance salsa. I whish my hips and feet would have been quicker, it is so much fun! Much to my joy I saw what I believe to be salsa-classes being offered at the gym when I went there this morning. I am seriously contemplating wheter or not to sign up for classes. What do guys think?

Tomorrow I have to do laundry (ergh) and pre-pack for my trip. We are flying super budget, meaning that you are only allowed one carry-on. How am I going to manage that; I can´t even pack for school without forgetting something important!

I will let you know how it goes.. Hasta luego /J

One project down, many many to go

Even though the title might indicate slight resignation, let me assure you that is not the case. More a solemn reflection of how the rest of my trimester is going to look: project after project.. All good though!

We finished our presentation around 2am monday night, and after four hours of sleep it was time for school and time to deliver! We (me, Magda and Saana) were prepped and ready, delivering a (according to me, two germans and a few of the italians and frenchies) really good presentation. So again, nice to have that one done. The rest of the day offered tropical sideways raining and a very confusing lecture in venture capital. Our two professors, one man and a lady, are a mix between Bert & Ernie, the turtle & the hare and Bill och Bull (Swedish book-reference, FYI). I can not get a grip on what their outline for the course is. So far we have had three presentations of articles and not a single word about VC, its origin, models, themes, companies or anything else you actually would like to know. I am hoping next lecture will provide me with some knowledge beyond 'the necessity of using a stapler when handing in more than one paper'(apparently a major concern of Dr. Card who spent 20 min on the subject).

Today i slept in and worked out. I improved my running from last time (no wonder really) and did 5k in 22 flat. The reason was not so much determination as a misconception; I thought I was running like crazy but getting nowhere. Not surprising since the machine was set on english miles and not kilometres...

I also did some reading for tomorrows class as well as updating my CV, resume, and researching future work/thesis prospects. I am feeling a bit stressed out about that already for some reason. I do not understand why I have the notion of being less than desirable as potential employee, and subsequently not finding a job. I do have the most important qualifications; wits and looks. Eh, I´m sure it will be fine; I´ll just sleep on it and pray on it :)

Oh by the way, you guys suck at commenting (Siim excluded); how am I supposed to know if anyone actually CARES about me if you don´t say so?? Shape up! :)

Service management all in my head

Yesterday and today have not been very fun day to be frank. Well in a sense since I have been doing a lot of studying and studying at EGADE is fun, but then again spending your weekend working on a presentation is seldom the most awesome way to spend it. However, we are close to finishing up and I think it will be a good one. I did manage to squeeze in a movie yesterday, we needed the break. It was a new one with Eva Mendez, called something 'russian roulette' and was pretty good. Today my break was supposed to be another ten or so laps at Téc Stadium, but it was closed so I ended up doing two very asymetrical laps around campus feeling like an idiot. Atleast I got some exercise which is good.

Tonight we watched the 61st Emmys while eating dinner. God it was boring. Then some final editing and off to bed :)

Chiao /J

Tired but airconditioned

Yetserday was yet another glorious day in school. We had the very interesting course 'Sustainability & Development', basically about how a business impacts the environment and how this factor should become more important in firm´s decisions and way of thinking. This is one of those courses that has the potential of actually affecting you and to challenge your concepts of life and work. Take for instance the fact that the US has around 6 percent of the world´s oil reserves but uses 25 percent of the oil produced in the world. Or the fact that 4 billion people in the world live off less than 2 dollars a day. And here I go complaining about not getting a desk to my room (which I have gotten) or that the airconditioning is not working properly (which it does now since the janitor stopped by). Interesting class as you might understand, but it made me feel like bad person for my way of consuming, spending, not recycling and my affluent way of living in general. Naturally I had to do some retail-threapy in order to feel better about myself :)

I also went for a run yesterday - the first one since I got here. I went down to Téc stadium and used their tracks. It was not my best run - 4k in 21:34, but atleast it was nice to start. had Saana as company and we are planning to become sporty spices from now on. Might also take up tennis with Allan and Frederic, let´s see about that...

Today I have been in school despite not having any classes, working on our case project in Service Management. We have to prepare 1 1/2 hour lecture based on Service management in bottom of the pyramid-markets until tuesday. A little bit stressed seeing as how it is alot and we only have three days left. But I am sure it will be just fine.

Tonight we went again to Téc staduim, not for a run, but to watch American Football. I have never seen it before and it was quite difficult to understand. The guys line up; throw the ball backwards (!) and then crash into oneanother. Sometimes someone really fast gets the ball, breaks left or right and runs like Forrest Gump. As I said; complicated. But the experience was fun and the cheerleaders and team mascot was even more fun!

Since it is back to projectwork tomorrow, no partying tonight. Off to bed and a (fairly) early start! God natt /J

Oh what a party(ies?)

First off all; it has been 42 degrees outside today and we still do not have a functioning airconditioning. How do all of you think that makes me feel?????!

Yesterday was independence day in Mexico and that means a wee bit of partying. It sure was fun and the selection of potential parties was abundant. First stop was San Pedro as my new friend Marce was kind enough to invite to a fiesta. We enjoyed good food, company and drinks (and even managed to run into another swede!) before moving on to a more rustic party in the neighbourhood around campus. By more rustic, I mean a house filled with 19-22 year old students, beer-cags, mexican liveband (and a harmonica-playing guy in a corner) and some interesting remarks about us being gringos. Noth the best party I´ve been to, but I did find myself a sombrero as you can see.

Don Joñathan del Blanco

Being the only gringos, we felt it was time to move on again. Together with two friends of Saana, we went to another house party, this time with many of our fellow international students. When that party died out, the few ones left in the party spirits went to a club next to school for some mariatchi-band music and Reggaeton-beats. The evening ended at six when I finally rested my head on the pillow. Ofcourse I woke up again at nine, thinking I had mistaken a sauna for my bedroom, but it turned out it was my room afterall...

Pedro, Magda, Tove, Me, Saana, Fernando

Today have done laundry plus finished some of the many articles I have to read for school. The only thing left to do (besides re-hydrating for the 40th time today) is a COLD shower and preparations for tomorrow´s classes. It´s going to be a good day I´m sure!

/J

Challenged by EGADE

Now I see what business school is really all about. I have to admit I thought this semester was going to be a walk in the park, or atleast not more than loose jogging, but it became instantly clear that will not be the case. After todays classes (which by the way ends at 9:30 pm) I felt like I had been hit by a hurricane of cases, papers, presentations and reading materials. BUT - and this is the important part, I feel challenged not discouraged. Challenged by one of the world´s leading business schools is, I guess, a good thing. Another good thing is that I will have to work harder than before but then again probably learning more from this first trimester than from an entire year at CBS. Eat that Copenhagen.

Studying aside, it is also independence day here in Mexico. That means that tonight people celebrate, get drunk, party and slack off tomorrow. We foreigners are not going to disagree with that, and do our best to get into the celebration spirit. I´m not entirely sure what will happen tonight but I do know it is going to be good.

I´ll report tomorrow :) Hasta luego /J

Hot day at school..

..and I am ofcourse referring to the weather! Today it has been 40 degrees and clear blur skies. A shame we could not use the day sunbathing but had to be in school. No really, it was quite alright, I enjoyed school and are pleased to finally be on with it. We did however find time to lunch at the large mall close to school. With close I mean only a fifteen minutes deathmarch along the highway. There, we found these two interesting features:

It seems as though christmas starts early in Mexico, and that their idea of santa and frosty the snowman is somewhat different from ours, atleast looking at the colour palette. It also showes that they reallt have a sense of humour when it comes to naming stores.

Tonight, me and Magda have had a deep and meaningful conversation together with our new friend Saana basically about the meaning of life after school as a business graduate. The outcome was a mix of depressing corporate cultures sucking the life out of you and positive challenges with idealist features, plus one or two religious experiences. We agreed on continuing that very rewarding discussion another time. Now it is sleepy-time!

/J

Dead Piñata

We are closing up on the end of the weekend and with that the more or less official end of my sumer brake. Tomorrow at 10 am I will be in Cross-cultural comunication class in room 220 (if anyone feel like dropping by). But the weekend has not been all aout school, we managed to do a little bit for partying as well.

Saturday offered a meeting with our realtors that was a progress however not a completion of our turbulent search for a contract. Enough about that, you all know about it by now. In the evening we were invited to Öyvind, a former CBS graduate now in the middle of his internship here in Monterrey, for a birthday celebration. The four current CBS-students (me, Magda, Allan and Ole) ventured to yet a new part of this strange city and a fun evening. The best part by far was the killing of the piñata. I have already showed you pictures of some of the different piñatas you can buy (snow-white still being my favourite for a good bashing) but the cartoon up for sentencing was... Kakmonstret! Below you can se first all four of us parading with the poor fellow, and secondly the miserable remains. It was ugly but it was fun!

When our thirst for cartoon death had been quenched, we went to a party for all internaitonal students at Art in Barrio Antiguo. It was more of a mingling session than a flat out party (even though some ventured into the dark side after a while) but fun to meet so many of my fellow students. I am looking forward to many new acquantaincies. The evening ended, as should be, with a mexican hot-dog and then a fun cab ride home to our hood.

Today I met with my appointed mexican buddy, Marce. A very charming, fun and interesting mexican girl who took valuable time out of her day to meet up for a frappuchino and talk. Not only was it a very fun meeting, it was also a perfect day for a frappuchino with around 35 degrees outside. Then again it was time for the weekly shopping. It is strange how you go to the supermarket in a good mood and end up leaving it hours later, wallet much lighter and mood strikingly bad from hunger and annoyance. Magda and I quickly agreed that Soriana, the supermarket, is the devils work aimed at stripping us of cash, willpower, time and spirit. Luckily we only need to go there once (or maybe twice) a week.

Now it is time for bed. Our airconditioning seems to have given up its last breath (go figure) so it will be a hot night. Unfortunately not in the pleasant way.

Bueno noches, J

Birthday-boy

Firstly, thank you all that sent me happy whishes for my birthday; it makes me feel very appreciated and most of all not forgotten way on the other side of the globe. Gracias!

The day started with me making coffee on the bed for Magda who was a little more tired than me (that´s a first) . We had a meeting at EGADE with our programme director regarding our courses. It turned out that we will have all five electives this semester (!) and focus completely on thesis and internship next year. This is actualy good news since we have plenty of time to finish it. On the other hand it is somewhat stressful since I need to organize all of that while having a more than ful workload in school. But again; I a very motivated for this so I wil cope just fine. For those who are interested; the five courses are:
1. Doing business in Mexico
2. Cross-cultural comunication
3. Service Management
4. Venture Capital
5. Leadership & Sustainability. Does it sound exciting??

After the meeting and signing up for the classes, we wnt to the internaitonal office to get their help with our living situation. It is not going as planned with changed and stalled contracts, broken things and money not being shifted correctly. Me and Magda are not sure how to figure it out so we asked the people wit experience. The agreed to support us, so hopefully with some mexican institutional backing (all of you business students too familiar with institutional theory knows what I´m talking about) we will work it out. Keep finger crossed :)

The rest of my birthday was celebrated with traditional mexican taco-dinner together with Allan and Magda, then the three of us went to the movies. 42 pesos for a movie is a good deal. Especialy if you spent it on a shitty rom-com starring Katherine Heigl. But it was great fun anyways.

Oh, and finaly some good news; I talked wit Delta and I will be getting around 250 USD in reinbursement for my delayed luggage. I am rooting for a hefty appreciation of the dollar in the following months :)

Now birthday-boy will get some much deserved sleep. Hasta luego /J

EGADE...for real.

It has been a long and eventful day, but I am really tired so it wil be a short post tonight.

School started today with introduction day. As usual, alot of information you already knew and slideshows with pretty pictures. The fun part was obviously meeting new people. And it seems like there are many very fun ones. I have heard that we are somewhere around 100 international students at the masters level, CEMS-students not included. Many Italians, french people, some germans and all scandinavian countries are represented. I also met a Belgian and a Dutch guy. So on the whole I really think it is going to be a great semester. Not all of these students are staying an entire year, most are on a three month exchange, so a fresh batch should arrive after christmas (if I for some reason want new company). I will get some pictures of the school to post so you can see what a charmingly wierd building it is.

After the introduction speaches, Me and Magda was invited by our realtor to go looking for new furniture for us and the other apartments. With us was another swedish girl who also had Cecilia as a realtor. I previously told you that mexicans loves cars, and Cecilia was no exception riding in the Lincoln Navigator. I have always considered those cars too big - despite the fact that I secretly covets for a Range Rover, but my god was the comfort-level high in that monster or what?? She drove us to see a really nice town called Santiago (which FYI also is the town mentioned in the book '100 years of solitude' by Garcia Marquez) and showed us how a 'real' mexican town looks. Too bad I forgot my camera. Then we went for 'real' mexican tacos at Taco Mario. So all in all an eventful day and evening.

Now it is almost 11:40 pm here so in mexican time I am still just 25. I did notice that some of you busy beavers back in europe (and other parts of the world, thank you) already congratulated me to becoming 26. Even though I´d preffer to stay 25, I humbly thank you for your kind thoughts. The rest of you that has yet not congratulated me have another 24 hours (mexican time) to do so before I condemn you to the third level in Dante´s Inferno.

Clock is ticking... :) /J

A 'normal' day

I am glad to say that today we have pushed most of our worries regarding the apartment aside and just had a nice day. We started with Home Depot at noon. Together with Magda and Allan we visited this bleak copy of K-Rauta, Bauhaus and a little IKEA. Suffice to say it was not that good. I did however find myself a reading lamp as well as a lamp for my desk. No adapter thought, so still just one adapter in the house for all our european plugs.

Next stop was S*Mart with a break for lunch. We ate at this fish restaurant Magda insisted we try. It was actually very good; fried fish with bacon and melted cheese on top is better than you would think. The place itself was decorated in the same style as the doors I posted a picture of a couple of days ago. Festive to say the least.

fish with bacon & cheese...Mmmmm

Then it was grocery-shopping at S*Mart, and after yet another marathon shopping exerience, we relaxed with a donut. Again, I can not help but to point out the splendor (and potential death-trap) that is called 'mixed donuts, only 3 pesos'. But then again you need to regain some strength after fighting your way through a mexican supermarket.

A shelf filled with spam.

Now, me and Magda have cleaned the apartment and are taking a little siesta. We are going to meet up some friends for drinks at a bar called La Rambla later tonight and need to rest in order to look pretty. Well, I always look pretty but just another excuse to read my tremendeously exciting book, Cathedral by the Sea.

Recharging batteries is only 3 pesos

Hasta pronto /J

Apartment apocalypse

As have already written, we have had some problems with our apartment. Yet another problem that surfaced during the weekend was one with our mexican friend Esteban. Basically he could not really afford to live with us and we had to talk to our landlord about him moving out. The problem though is that me and Magda lent him the money for the deposit and the first months rent. Now we are doing our best to get that money back from our landlord who is not very happy. It is a good thing we haven´t signed a contract yet because then it would have become an even more difficult ordeal. Throughout the weekend poor Magda has not had a proper door to her room, nor access to her bathroom. Besides those obvious discomforts a few other small things has not been working the way we were promised. So as you can see, when we needed to deal with all of this today, it got pretty apocalyptic. I will not bore you with more details of our day but lets just say it looks like most of the things are under control now. But I am getting really fed up with the 'mañana' attitude as well as all the hassle. Come on, just fix the damned door(s)!!!

My only excursion today was to the laundromat. It wasn´t exactly my idea of afternoon fun, but atleast it was better than sitting at home waiting for the overly-friendly janitor. I finished three machines for me and Magda (yes we have not washed since we arrived, dirty pigs we are) so now my rom smells of fresh laundry. I kind of like it. Tomorrow we will get up early and do important stuf like re-bandage Magdas foot at the hospital, shop for a desklamp, more hangers and an adapter for the electrical cords. I am really looking forward to it; I need an eventful day!!!

/J

Funny photos and more troubles

As you might have figured out from my previous post, the activity today has been fairly limited. Its been one of thos nice days wehere you are just tired and don´t really want to do anything. However I did venture out for a short walk and can present you with two interesting findings; One is a poster outside a restaurant, the other is changing rooms in a store. Kind of fun eh??

We were also hoping for the janitor to show up today, even though he outstays his welcome everytime. We have three rather acute problems that needs his attention;

1) Magdas bathroom door has locked itself and she can subsequently not use her bathroom

2) The plumming is really bad with virtually no drainage at all. So everything involving water needs to be done i small portions

3) accidently during last nights pre-party, Magda´s door broke loose from its hinges and now stands leaned against the wall. Poor girl´s had a fair share of bad karma recently. We expect thing to change the upcoming week though! I just hope I don´t get hit with the leftover bad karma...

Now we are going to watch the game between Mexico and Costa Rica in soccer; apparently a huge thing here in Mexico. /J

Night on the town makes Jonathan tired

Seeing as how it was friday, it was time to hit the town to see what Monterrey could offer. Again as the perfect host(s), Me and Magda decided to have the mandatory pre-party at our place. We made good drinks using our new blender and had a really good time. Eliza brought her friend Jonathan (what a nice name, wouldn´t you agree??), and Ole and Allan showed up representing denmark. Together we finished off..well since this blog is family-orientated, lets not go into details but just settle for alot.

All warmed up we went to a club in barrio Antiguo called MANAUS. Now that was an interesting club! It was kind of a mix between a house club with reggaeton-music, Wallman´s salonger and a circus. Now I mean this in the sense that they had both a DJ (actually two I think) and a live band with singers and performers putting on a show and singing covers on stage now and then. Then from time to time there was a little bit of acrobatics, usually involving ropes or rings above the stage. All in all a very fun club! We stayed very late and finished off with a mexican hot-dog outside. Both me and Allan agreed that it was the best hot-dog ever! You got fried onions, bacon sprinkles, chips, mayonnaise, mustard and ketchup on top of a red sausage wrapped in bacon. Divine!! Unfortunately I did not bring my camera so I can not show you any of the events from last night. Perhaps that is for the best =)

Today I am on the couch watching Oudin vs. Sharapova in US open and I am not planning on doing much else. Except maybe clean a little.

/J

FYI...

...I have activated the comment-function now, so please feel free to do so! =)

Poor weather and restless souls

As you might have figured out by now, our apartment has some flaws. One of them is the internet, which is why I have been out of touch for a couple of days. We also noticed that the plumbing is somewhat off so we have added that to the 'to-do-list' for Jore the Janitor. He by the way really likes us now; he´s here evry night, even the nights we lie and say we are not supposed to be at the apt!

But in all honesty, the last couple of days have been rather boring. It is raining and the weather is bad, so we just sit inside and then go shopping. Poor Magda still has her orthopedic shoe and cruch. But on the plus side, every larger food store has there own wheelchairs, sometime even the electrical ones! We have had quite a few laughs going shopping as you might understand. And as you can see, Magda likes it.

My to-to-list for today is:

- Using the internet while I can

- Buy a reading lamp

- Buy an adapter for the electricity (how stupid of me not to think of that before leaving!)

- Lunch with Magda and Allan

- Maybe a movie

- Authentic mexican party tonight at Barrío Antiguo (old quarter) with margharita´s and daiquiris at our place first. We thought about getting one of the piñatas you see in the picture but we´ll save it for our real house-warming. Wouldn´t it be fun beating the crap out of snow-white??

Chiao /J

So I just thought I should report that the strange janitor was here this evening again and did a few things. This time he did not over-extend his stay by drinking our beers, but just did what he was supposed to. So you can all relax, all lights are again working (including the crazy one in the fridge) as well as the hot water and most of the other small irritating problems. Thank god for that; another cold shower and I would develope a kidney infection within days.

Another crazy thing; the Téc campus has animals in it! Seriosuly, there are ducks, peacocks and even deer grazing the campus lawns. How wierd is that??? I was more chocked by facing a deer on the campus lawn than the deer (as you can see from the picture).. And keep in mind that the campus is in the middle of Monterrey, not in the countryside. I guess it is good if your hunter-gene suddenly kicks in..

Now it is 00:50 am and subsequently time for me to sleep. Had a really nice night; Magda made fajitas with chicken, beans, vegetables and cheese (of course). Allan (another CBS student) joined for dinner and then our new-found french friends Sebastian and Celina joined for a cerveza. Life is pretty decent.

God natt/god morgon! /J

So today we lost all ligh in the livingroom/kitchen when a circuit burned out. Add to that the lack of hot water and you get somewhat...annoyed. I like the place; it is nice according to mexican standards, but I hate that there is always something wrong. Feels like you are constantly being hastled. So we have an extensive list of thing that needs to be taken care of before any contract will be signed. There, that about that.

Just finished a little siesta after yet another day of grocery-shopping. This time we went to S*mart (haha clever name!). A few things about mexican food:

1) they eat a lot of cheese. Quesadillas (very good), papas (potatoes), tortillas...everything is covered with cheese. I like cheese but not on everything.

2) They like pastries and doughnuts alot. The selection is very good and the prices as well. One doughnut for 3-4 pesos, yo te quiero!

3) They have fairly cheap food with alot of variety. S*mart, Walmart, Soríana; all supermercados with everything you need. Los problemos; no small stores around the corner. For that you are left with 7-eleven or the mexican equivalent oxxo.

4) They do not only sell food in the supermarkets; each one has their own pharmacy. You might need prescription for the heavy stuff (I say might because it is somewhat unclear) but the 'over-the-counter' selection is very good. I have not yet done alot of pharmacy-shopping but I am almost looking forward to feeling a little bit sick.

Yesterday I cooked lintle soup with vegetarian tortillas (including cheese) and today Magda is making chili con carne sin carne con pollo (can you figure that one out eh??). For desert; giant watermelon and ofcourse cervezas.

/J