Hola folks,
It is 07:00
on a Sunday morning here in Querétaro in Mexico, and a combination of jet lag
and the local alarm clock (a rooster crowing somewhere in the vicinity) has me
awake and blogging.
It has been
a busy but exciting forty eight hours to say the least.
I let my
apartment at 09:00 on Friday morning with a suitcase weighing 22.5kg, which
should deter any potential burglars as there is obviously nothing left behind to
steal. I survived the ordeal of U.S. customs to get on the flight to JFK, where
I ignored the horrors of an Eddie Murphy movie shown on the flight where
apparently leaves fell from a tree every time he told a lie being (seriously,
Delta? Why would someone do that to helpless passengers?), and shared my
airspace with a… unique fellow traveller. I had an aisle seat, and in the
window seat was a woman who spent seven and a half hours writing intensely into
a journal and underlying thoughts vigorously. For seven and a half hours. I am
not exaggerating. She did not even take a toilet break, as she would have had
to ask me to move. I kept my eyes on Games of Thrones on my ipad, and pretended
I could not see the occasional swaying beside me.
At JFK, I
had to leave one terminal and check in again due to an issue with my boarding
pass, so I once again had the joys of U.S. customs. The flight was delayed by
two hours, so I ordered a burger from Beatrix, the world’s oldest waitress. I
think she may not have had any teeth, but she never smiled so it was hard to
ascertain for certain. She wore a badge saying “Five top tips for customer
service” but I feel she may not have been really committed to the concept based
on the way she threw my burger at me.
Aero México
almost lost my bag, but found it in time for me to finally check in to my hotel
room in Mexico City at 02:00 local time, which was 22 hours after leaving my
apartment. I crashed for five hours before meeting the rest of my fellow IBMers
to travel to Queretaro. I think the general confusion bleariness must have made
me stand out, as Laura (from the U.S.), Yuri (from Holland) and Barbara (from
Austria) recognised me and took me to their table and fed me with coffee and
watched as I accidentally had curried tortilla for breakfast.
The rest of
the day is a bit of a pleasant jet-lagged blur.
There are
only eleven of the fourteen of us together at the moment due to lost luggage,
missed flights, and religious occasions, plus our fifteenth member who is Paula
from D.O.T. – IBM’s local partner in Mexico for the CSC program. We piled into
two mini-vans to bring us the three hour journey to our new home for the next
month, which is much more beautiful than any of us expected. Everything in this
city so far has a rustic, Spanish charm. The hotel looks like Zorro might swing
by at any moment. My room has a skylight and a chandelier, although with no hot
running water yet. There will be no need for an alarm clock here, due to the
skylight and my new friend the rooster, who seems to take his job very
seriously.
We all went
for a small walk to find somewhere to eat for lunch and ended up in a beautiful
square which was like something out of a 19th century novel but with
buskers that play Adele songs. It is nice to know some things stay the same
where ever you go.
Yesterday
evening we had a ninety minute orientation meeting to learn more specifics
about what is expected of us in the next month. Our deadline is August 30th
where we will have to give a presentation on our work to the local government,
which will include the governor of Queretaro. The specifics of what we will
have to work on are still vague. The project specified in the previous blog
entry is now not going to happen. The Spanish government changed last month, so
the new government has requested that my team of five people consult on a
security issue between two different customer information systems. We will
hopefully find out the specifics tomorrow. We also have a dinner with the head
of the local IBM offices later today to learn more of what will be expected of
us.
The evening
ended with a meal in a gorgeous traditional Spanish restaurant, where I learned
of Vitamin-T (tortilla, tequila, and tacos), and that grasshoppers are a local
delicacy but they are best when young (which are bigger than old ones
apparently) and served with guacamole. Somehow I think I will take that one on
faith…
Now I
better go take a cold shower, drink a lot of coffee, and go on a bus tour of
this lovely city with the rest of my new amigos.
Buenos dias!
#ibmcsc
mexico1
Muchoes gracias! Jamie
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