Turkey and The Ramadan

Few days ago, I was doing my Cross Cultural Communication assignment and one of my team partners is from Turkey, so when she was explaining the turkish culture I was taking note of every detail not only because it was part of the assignment but also because it is a very interesting culture and most of the things that she was telling us, were new for me.

One of the most interesting things turkish culture has is Ramadan. I had already heard about this muslim tradition but never from a turkish person, so it was quite interesting the way she was telling us how it worked.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 or 30 days. During this month, muslim people do not eat and drink during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality and humility  to God (Allah), and they also pray more than usual. 

The most similar thing that the catholics as me have is the "Lent" which last 40 days and consists of a period of reflection, where many of the faithful commit to fasting and giving up to ceratin types of luxuries or things that we like a lot. Even though this could be similar to the turkish tradition, the Lent is not practiced by everyone as in the muslim religion, I mean is not so rigorous.

For Muslim people is the most normal and common thing in their lives and for sure It's something that must be done, of course there are some exceptions, but it is a tradition that families always practice. It's not like in catholicism, where the rules are allowed  to break, I mean, if one day out of 40 I eat in the morning, it's fine. Actually, I'm catholic and I don't usually do anything especial for these days, I just stop eating meat every Friday.

As you can see, every country has its own particular things, which is amazing but also kind of weird. I always think about how other people would see my culture. I guess they also might see many differences.

Being an Erasmus = Being independent?

The first time that I heard the word Erasmus I was like what? So, one of my friends explained to me that Erasmus is the name of the student exchange programme, which consists on studying in another part of the European Union.  He also explained that the government supports the students by giving them an scholarship. 

I was amazed because in Mexico we do not have anything similar to this. If you want to study abroad, you have to pay for everything. Of course you can look for a scholarship given by the government or some institutions, but it's kind of difficult to get it because the offer is smaller than the demand. 

But my surprise doesn't finish here. Some days ago, when I was travelling with my spanish friends, they started to say that sometimes they have money difficulties and that they have to be very careful with the way they spent the money because they don't receive anything from their parents. This was like the biggest shock for me, because I started to think about many things and that I was feeling very indpendent because I was living alone and I had to cook and everything, but now I don't know if I am independent because I receive everything from m parents, for sure I couldn´t afford my life in Europe. Eventhough my friends receive money, some of them receive less than the others and I am not sure if that quantity is enough for living here, but at least they are sure they cannot ask for money to their parents. I even remeber that one of them told me that he had a loan. I think that in Mexico, nobody of my age has a loan, that would be very weird and probably most of the loan companies, wouldn't say NO to the request.

For sure this conversation made me think about many things and now I think that I am not independent at all, just because I am studing abroad doesn't mena that I am doing it by myself. Without my parents I wouldn't be here, and eventhough I have learnt a lot and I always have to figure things out by myself it's very different from the situation that the rest of my european friends. 

Looking for a paradise

When I was in Paris I thought that I had already seen the most luxurious places, shops and cars. I still remember when I was walking in Champs Elysees and everything that I saw was fashion, luxury and of course expensive. Actually I remember telling my parents that I was amazed to see such things.

But when I went to Monaco I realized that I was completely wrong. What I saw in Paris in just a few avenues  it was everywhere in Monaco. Monaco is an amazing place, eventhough it is a very expensive place, it's worth it. It has an incredible view and a beautiful beach. 

There are no words that can describe this different experience, because I was very suprised for everything and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. There were only Mercedes, Porches, Ferraris and cars that I didn't even recognize. 

For sure the lifestyle in Monaco is different from many places in the world. You see men in suites, women wearing very nice dresses and high heels. Me and my friends went to the Casino Montecarlo and we were amazed by the architecture. It is a very big place and it is very well decorated. The dress code is very rigorous, you can't enter this place if you are wearing shorts or even jeans. That's also one of the main reasons why people is very well dressed, even if they are tourists. 

I loved Monaco, it is an amazing place, but you have to go with a lot of money because it is quite expensive, but I think is worth it, at least to go and see the great views.

Cold Austria

As part of my easter holidays I went to Vienna and then to Budapest. I just stayed 2 nights there, so we didn't have enough time to visit all the interesting places that the city has.

When I told my parents that I was going to Vienna, they told me that it was a very beatiful city and that probably I would love it. My father also told me that I should observe carefully the pople, their attitude, their way of thinking and that kind of things,so I tried to follow his advice.

Well, I can say that people from Vienna are very cold, they always seem to be angry or stressed. Of course this doesn't mean they are not good people, but I am used to live together with people that is always very nice. I remember one day that we were in the train station and we went to buy some coffee. The lady that was in charge of the cafeteria was very rude and actually one of my friends bought only one coffee and she was charging him 4 coffees and she didn`t want to accept that she had made a mistake, and she was arguing and arguing, until another girl in the shop checked the tockets and found out that the one who was wrong was this girl. 

This is only one example, but everywhere we found people like this. I can only remember one nice person which was in a souvenir shop and I guess that she was nice just because she has to sell. 

I did like Vienna, but I just remember the people and I don't feel like I want to come back and the same hapenned with the rest of my friends. So we only remember Vienna as a cold city with the coldest people we have ever met.

Du you need a fork? No thank you, I can HANDle it!

The second week of easter holidays I went to Budapest. I can say that it is a beautiful city, full of history and many things to do and to know. Thank God we had an hungarian guide who showed us all the amazing things that Budapest has; including restaurants with typical hungarian food, supermarkets, cafeterias, etc.

The first day we went to an hungarian restaurant, where we asked for many different menus so everybody could try different food. For example, I asked for one of the most famous, which is langos. Langos is like a deep fried flat bread that has garlic, cream and cheese. It tasted very good, but it is very big and it also has a lor of garlic, so it is better to share with one or two more people. 

You must be asking yourself why did I put that title. Well, here comes the explanation. One of my friends asked for a menu that included rice and when he started to eat all of us were amazed by the way he was eating. He was eating rice with his hand!!! I must say that he is from India, so for him is the most normal in the world, but for the rest of the group (spanish, mexican and hungarian people) it was not only weird, but dirty and rude. I remember one of of my spanish friends telling him: "Radja my mom used to tell me that eating with the hands it's not ok, that it is rude" and he told us that in his house, his family always eat like this. 

Let me share you the experience with a video:

Once upon a time in Barcelona

One week ago I went to Barcelona for holidays. I had heard many things about this city, about how amazing it was and also some things about the people, so I had many different ideas, but I thought that I had to discover everything by myself and create my own opinion.

Well, I can easily say that Barcelona is one of the most amazing cities I have visited. I don't know if it has to do with the fact that spanish people is the most similar that I have found to mexicans but I can say that this city has everything: good food, good places, amazing people and besides it has a beach and sea. 

The food is very different from the mexican, but we wanted to tried it as much as possible, so we went to many typical places to try some spanish food. We had tapas, gambas (shrimps), spanish tortilla, etc. 

What I liked the most is a place called Champagnería where there are different kind of sandwiches made of chicken, jam, vegetables, etc, and they are very cheap. The place is very typical and it always very crowded, so you can just buy your food and go to the beach to eat it.

As I was told, the people is kind of different to the rest of the spanish, why? Because they do not speak spanish. Their mother tongue is catalan, which is a weird combination of mmm...spanish, french and I don´t know, it sounded to me like these languages but I know that it comes from latin. As I was saying, many people told me that people in Barcelona were not very nice and when you spoke in spanish they would always speak in catalan even when they do speak spanish, but the truth is that I felt the opposite. The catalans were always very nice with us, actually one day when we took a cab the driver was very excited because we were from Mexico and he made us a disscount.

Even though everything is written in catalan and everyone speaks that language, I had a very good time and it was very good to be in a different place but I felt as if I were in home, so we must not judge before we really get to know what is going on.

Go to Barcelona!

Little kids in Ghent

Something that has called my attention since I arrived to Ghent is that I have seen many kids alone walking in the street, especially in the morning when they are goint to school. Why is is weird for me? Because in Mexico is not common to see kids that are alone in the tram or in the bus, not only because its is not safe but also because they are always with their moms.

I think here in Ghent the kids can go to school without any adult because is safe and also because sometimes it is impossible to walk them because their parents are working. In Belgium both mother and father have importants jobs and have the same responsibilities.

In Mexico is very different. The head of the family is the man and he is the one in charge of bringing money to the house and most of the women only have the responsibility of the house; cooking, taking the kids to the school, and things like these, so this is why most of the kids do not ever go alone. In my case, my mom always took me to the school and my father only did it like 3 times in 6 years, weird right?