Establecerse (settled)

" After creation, God looked upon it and saw that it was good..."
Mission completed and finally it is done! We have moved to our house and start to get a life again :) and here are the moments that all have been waited for: the pictures of the new house and me. It was a hard days work, I can tell you, and especially when you want it European style. Anyhow I have to thank my wife, my son, my family in Mexico and especially all the Mexican people that helped us so good that we could achieve this in such a less time in what we have now. Actually words are not enough to thank. In about 5 weeks we established and furnished a house, bought all the new furniture and equipement in it (because we had nothing), a car, the school for Rafael, work for me and all the "ditjes en datjes" that actually seems nothing, but in the end are costing the most. I will spare you the details to move to another country and establishing these in so few time, but you can sent an e-mail if you want to do the same :)and in need of some tips. It was really an endeavour to do, and I thank GOD that we finally made it. After 1 (1/2) years of planning and a seperation of almost 7 months we have our lifes back on track again ...

The new house is a fact. The permission is almost gruanted and work can start soon for me at IBM, and the new life in a new country is a fact for me. From a point of project planning it was a success and tonight on my wifes birthday (hiep hiep hoera:) we are going to celebrate a little in our own humble style. In about 2 or 3 weeks we will have the open house party and I hope I can show you a lot more new pictures again. It's a high tech undertaking here to get pictures uploaded but as you can see I did it. Good old tricks from the past keeps you doing things that others did not held for possible, anyhow we hope you like them although their of a poor quality.

My car that is parked in front of the house. An old DODGE Stratus with no airconditioning what so ever in it, can you imagine :P with 36 degrees in a traffic jam.

The street that shows the other half of it. For the once that wants my cell phone they can subscribe to my e-mail address at gmail.com. Be aware that this is not cheap to call me because cellular is "mas caro"

The other site of my street and the neighbours on the other site. By the way lovely people here and very nice, they all try to speak English if my Spanish is not well enough. :)

Our dining room, that looks a little like a church from the inside, but is nice.


Our home entertainment corner, for the time being, because we have to save some money for the big screen flat LCD TV for on the wall which is very cheap here by the way!! Just 25.599 pesos!! But we wait till we have all the necessary stuff first, of course :/

And one of me, as photographic as I am, lost some weight jajaja and get some color allthough I was not really enjoying the sun...






And last but not least a picture from my son Rafael, that was made from out our room that we staid for 5 weeks together. This is by the way the house of our mother and father in Monterrey, with the aunty Rosie on the background.









Post you all the next time and thank you for all the support I got from you. Keep sending me e-mails and please put the e-mail address if posting comments anonymous.
Yours ...

Estar acostumbrado (to get used to)

It´s almost 1 month now and a lot of things are happened already. Most important part is that we found a house and are moving in this week. So you can imagine how many work we have at the moment and really to rent a house here is almost as good then rent a shack. Actually they should call it like this: ¨Rent a shack¨ ;), and we found the better of the worst it seems.If you here the horror stories from others you can imagine that a lot of people want to buy as soon as possible or stay at their parents as long as possible. The renting contracts are the worst and if you do not anticipate in the setup of the contract like we did, you get a contract that actually says that you have no rights at all and the owner can do what he or she pleases. You can imagine as good old Dutch knowing the human rights stuff and so on we changed a lot in this contract that is now even better then we hoped it would get. I mean there are better houses with better contracts but then you have to pay almost the same as in Holland for a ¨hypotheek¨, better we keep the budget for the time being low.

There are so many things we have to buy it´s almost impossible to do everything at once. Second thing is also that we need to be aware that here you have to pay in advance for things we are using later for example gas and water needs to be paid in advance but that means you pay a 3 months fee the same with rent and ¨borg¨ and all together takes a lot of money to start, but still cheaper then Holland. Anyhow we are doing fine and although some things are super complex we find always a solution. It´s a bit like a project that is not going as planned, but still within budget.

All of the houses are having a maintenance problem, none of the owners wants to invest and improve the house but try to get as much as possible money for there shack. There is also no regulation that forces the owners to do. In our case the kitchen was not really a kitchen and never used, so the stofe could not be used and the water from the sink is boiling down the pipes when opened. Imagine to have a house in which you can not cook your meal or get flushed away from the water pooring out the pipes when used. Anyhow it took us a lot of time and conversation to convince the owner this was not a way to use the kitchen and even endangered our lifes if it would stay as is. Finally the owner agreed thanks to my wifes persisting presure to talk and now this week we changing the pipes and stofe for new ones.Today the plummer is coming to check and maintain the waterpipes.

The problem is that everything takes so long and there is always an excuse to not deliver or come on time for appointments, we already 2 weeks busy to get things done before we finally can move in, and we planned this already last month, so we are the lucky once that can spend the time to force people to deliver on time, means you have to call almost every day or go by to talk to people. Lucky that I am still not working and can spend this time for the house.

Anyhow we already have our furniture in the house and this week we bought the bed for us and our child. I fixed the airconditioning and bathroom, because also here maintenance was not done for years.In the meantime I strugling with the washing machine that needs to be connected to a connection that is not there, so also here we have to fix things again. About house regulations and a way of constructing houses they have never heard here about in Mexico. I mean they have some regulation for building houses but if your a not on the spot a lot of construction errors can occur and you find out later when it´s already to late. The same happens to our house we rented. I think the owner was not aware of many things he let do in the house and for example if you see the paint job they did in the house, the cheapest of the cheapest and not professional. I mean the wall is white, but this all I have to say about it, if you know what I mean. Guarantee only till the door or till completion.

There is a lot to do here in this country to get the regulation sharper and better, but I am afraid this will be a long way to go. And there is one thing more about houses, the quality, no one ever hears about this word here I am afraid. Things in Holland we take for granted, here is almost impossible to make people understand why and how, because security in the house or quality is not important here and nobody feels responsible. Anyhow we are making progress and finally we hope to live in our house next week the 24th of september. FINALLY!!!

In the meantime I am travelling a lot with the car we have between our parents house and our rental house. And one thing in Monterrey that is a horror is the traffic. No one, but really no one, knows how to drive correctly. Here are happening things that if happened in Holland already would have a lot of people killed or wounded. The worst are the taxi drivers because they are really having no responsiblity at all and do have no respect for pedestrians. Last week I was walking with my child on my right and on the left a taxi stops to let a man out. I was 2 meters from him and the road was free, I crossed and just at that moment the taxi pulled up. He just stopped on time becuase I bounced furious with my hand of anger on his car but almost hit me and my child. The only excuse he had was laughing and joking that I almost became a trofee of his car. Unbelievable in Holland they would hang up these people but here ¨nada¨.

The other extreme is that each day passing trucks over the mainstreets with dangerous stuff loaded and without any security driving across a suburb of the town. In Holland this is even forbidden to transport these dangerous stuff over the road, especially in a town, here it is every days normality. And seen the irresponsibility of people and companies here, a lot of bad accidents happened.Yesterday it happened to me that I was stuck in a traffic jam and that a truck of 25 tons suddenly did not want to stay in line anymore with the rest to wait for passing. He turned his super big truck in the middle of the highway to the left and crossed the paveway that actually marks and splits the one site of the highway and the other site that has traffic coming from the other direction. All the traffic that came from the opposite way had to be full in the brakes and I saw a lot of smoke from tires coming up behind the truck of breaking cars. And he pulled his complete 15 meter truck square over the other highway from the other site and continued his road to the opposite direction without any remors. The state police was 3 meters in front of him when he pulled his action and did not do anything. In the meantime the truck was crossing the highway in the opposite way a lot of him followed that was tired to stand in the traffic jam. I mean imagine you are doing this in Holland and drive the opposite way on the other site of the highway an accident would be the result of unknown magnitude, here it is as normal as is.

Another example that really happened. Last week a truck exploded with dynamite in front of watching people that actually were looking at a car accident that took place in a traffic jam. Hundreds went out to see a dying man on the streets as if it was a public spectacular and just at that moment somebody (drunk maybe) drove into the truck loaded with dynamite that was at the end of the traffic jam and catched fire. Although the truck driver run to inform the spectators to run for their lifes, nobody moved and got killed by the explosion. The tragedy cost 50 people their lifes and a lot of wounded.

This is daily business here in Mexico. People have no responsibility what so ever and driving like idiots. Even I getting passed on places it is even not possible and crashing almost my car if I am not a driver that reacts quickly. Anyhow I am taking a lot the bus that makes transportation a little more acceptable but is dangerous also to use, but to be honest you get used to things. Like my title I getting used to a lot of things that in the past and especcially in Holland was not possible, acceptable or never could happen because of the good regulations in Holland. Then you noticed how good we arranged things in Holland and how far away this country is to become. Things you learned and are for granted, are here not anymore and even different. It´s a complete other ballgame as they say.

However with all these tragedies and a bit of stress, we find our peace and have a good perspective of what we can achieve here. Although my permission is still not ready (burcratic regulations here) I am still candidate for the job and it seems that this week I going to be invited for my final interview. After that I will need a couple of weeks more to get my permissions ready but at the end I will have a job and work just like all others. And then our real life can start as we planned because now we are only in transit.

Keep you informed and please conduct your email address when comments are posted thnx;) in advance already. Greetings to all of you.

The Stay

The first two weeks are over and in the meantime I already found out what a real rainy day in Monterrey means. Since the passing storm of hurricane Dean and now Felix we had 5 days in a row rainy days. In Monterrey this means that in the morning you have nice weather followed by rain and rain again. Even in the night it can rain heavily followed by thunderstorms and heavy wind sometimes. One day we had that much rain that the water boiled out of the sewers and in our street even out of the houses. The rain kept on pouring for just 1 ½ hours enough to put the whole street into a waterfall of mud, water and waste, most of the waste is house trash rushing down the hill and coming from the people living a little bit higher then us. Because we are living at our parents house (a poor neighborhood) we can do nothing to prevent the flooding of the pathways and streets. Even in the house the water came to unknown heights and we had to check that the rooms we are living are not flooded. But because we are living in a hill side the water passes us only and the rest flushes downwards to the river. At the bottom of the hill the water flooding is the worst, because the sewers are not able to absorb all the water at once and all the water rushes in a stream of force towards the river, streets are changing into dangerous waterfalls. In no time the bridges over the river cannot be used anymore, causing major traffic jams because it all happened on that moment when everybody came from work. Even the streets downwards the hills are now become dangerous and craterous river streams were no eye can see what is underneath the brown muddy water. At that moment you expect that people take care and drive easy but just the opposite is true, they are driving even faster and not taking care of any unexpected wholes in the street. After the rain it stops as sudden it started and the sun starts shining again, you think its over but the worst is yet to come. Just because of this rain and the sun shining again the temperature is taking high levels and before you know it, it feels like living in a jungle, and with the jungle the really horror show starts. In a jungle all kinds of insects are starting to fly and crawl in search of dry and warm shelters, and we are just in the middle of it. Because of the moist and hot temperatures of sometimes 30 degrees insects I never saw before start to show there presents, mosquito’s as big as 5 centimeters, eating you up alive during the night or just when you are in a room watching television. In the meantime they seem to have every night a “fiesta del comido” because I already bitten 40 times and I am still counting. Every night I have to cream myself with a kind of hazardous “anti-insecticides” that makes my skin burn terrible but it seems the only way to kill these beasts. Sometimes I forget a spot and they hit me again. I think this cream is not a regular product we could sell in Europe, but anyhow I am happy, it keeps at least the bites away. Once I did not use it and the day after I already counted 10 bites more and all itching like hell. We are now looking for a “clamboe”, which is a kind of net over your bed, but as everything in Mexico it goes very slow to arrange things here. About the other insects I even do not want to talk, because everything is a size bigger then you expect, like yesterday we had a visit of a thousand feet worm which is looking like a stretched scorpion and 20 centimeters long, horror I can tell you, not talking about the cucarachas that are sometimes pop up like an unwanted bug. I can tell you that till now |I kept my room super clean, as an expert I doing each week now the disinfection of the whole room and inspecting all cloth, just in case, but it is necessary to survive in this jungle, and they are becoming like unwanted house pets sometimes, and only because of the rain season. Jajajaja.

Talking about arranging things I still awaiting my second interview of my work but for some reason they are still in process about my benefits and starting date. I also still awaiting my call for the permission to stay and work in Mexico anyhow everything seem here to be not as nicely organized as you expect it would. I mean they have everything and similar to Europe here but everything is “mañana” and at this moment I can be very happy that I arranged already a lot from out Holland. The internet is a horror here, because modem connections seem not to be accepted every time here (forcing you to buy the expensive ADSL connection) causing you even to learn more patience then you already had to endure. If you let come somebody from the telephone company for example and you complain because of a bad connection you first get a number, kind of waiting list, then after 2 days a man shows up and looks at the connections from out his car knocks on some doors and then goes home again because the tree that causing the problem is on the neighborhood side and needs to be cut, but for this the man need permission of the neighbor. Only the neighbor is not at home means he cannot do anything, and goes without doing anything back to the office again. If you call again the whole procedure starts all over again. Seen the situation that the neighbor is always working and comes home late the problem will probably never be solved. So you can see how small things can become a major problem, because without a good connection the internet connection is even not possible. The only way out is to go to a internet café, but then you need to make expenses again and you cannot do everything you want for example uploading pictures from an USB stick is not everywhere wanted or even possible, they still have old 520 MB machines working on a network build by the owners themselves. Anyhow I am working on it to solve that problem trust me!!

In the meantime we found our house and it seems that we can arrange this week the contract to move in. It is in a super nice neighborhood and looks like a working class surrounding, with school, supermarkets and all the entertainment at close hand. The house is not a s big we hoped for but gives us more space we had in Holland and even has a small garden in front and behind the house. We need only to clean a little and maybe a bit of renovation but that’s all, it was between all the choices we had the best we could find in a neighborhood that is not terrorized by gangs or noisy traffic of busses and others. The other choice was to take a bigger house for less money but 3 streets further away we had the ghetto with all kinds of problems that this brings. Anyhow we are happy that we found something similar as we had in Holland, although my 3rd bedroom is still an option, for the next time. At least we have space to do everything we need to do and a little bit more and most important of course the price is also good, even with one salary we can afford it.

Other good news is that my spouse had an invitation of a new job that pays 8.000 pesos more and gives us more freedom even later when we want to have more children. Most important of it is that it is a government job, which gives us the opportunities to do something with our projects we had in minds. Talking about children, my son is doing super fine and he is super happy to go to school and everything. Sometimes he asks about Holland but this is only that he does not understand that we are not going back and he still thinks that we are here on Holiday. Anyhow he is doing fine and we have again a good bound with each other.

Other things are that my Spanish becomes everyday a little bit better and that I already can talk more then just ordering “servesas” and “pappa fritas” … hahaha. Anyhow it is a long way before I can speak without thinking and count without counting back all the time to euros. I have still to get used to a lot of things and sometimes it is not easy especially when you know that you are the main course of a dinner at the moment you go to bed again. However we are doing fine till now and progressing slowly. Keep you informed and hopefully with photos.

Saludos mi amigos y amigas
RS