Blog Tres

I am writing this blog in one of the biggest libraries of Latin America – Biblioteca Jose Vasconcelos. It has an innovative form of architecture and its home to 550.000 books, I wanna stay here for the entire day!

How have I changed?

I do not think that I have drastically changed the way I behave and talk here in Mexico, however certain things such as greeting people are different from "Canadian culture". Kissing a girl on the cheek is expected most of the time, at least with the girls I’ve met. This is normal for me as in Colombia and most Latin American countries a kiss on the cheek is the equivalent of shaking hands in Canada. With regards to food, tortillas are very popular here, people tend to fill the tortilla and wrap it, I have seen some other foreigners use forks and knives when eating this which is just comic to me. Some people try to be full of formalisms but in the end they just look uncultured when doing things like this.

Moving into bargaining, I think I am good at it as most of the time I get the price I want, but I’ve noticed that bargaining is not as common here as I have seen in other places. I also thought that my Colombian accent was going to give them the chance to increase the price but it does not seem to affect – Fortunately, I have not been ripped off - yet. However, I see that sometimes these street vendors get very little profit out of their products so I only used it a few times because it would not be fair for them if I can actually afford the regular item price.

Something that I was impressed by here in Mexico City is that wearing shorts could signify that you are a tourist or you are disrespectful to certain spaces. For instance, in La Salle University, shorts are not allowed on campus. It is very rare to see someone wearing shorts in the city which I though it was weird at first. My reason for this might be that it is usual for capital cities to attempt to behave more “formal” and conservative, but I still do not fully comprehend how in a city so hot (for me) people choose not to wear something more comfortable.

Another aspect I have slightly changed is how I communicate with others. In Spanish you can use both Usted and Tu – which both mean you. Usted is formal and Tu is more informal. I use more usted when speaking to others but here people tell me that it sounds weird because it does show respect but it feels, as if I have not generated a rapport with them yet. So I am using tu more often. I have tried to adapt to various things in the culture, but overall I think I haven’t made any major changes and it might be because this culture is not very distinct from what I am accostumed to.