Some differences

I booked a trip to Cuba!!!!!! I will go for 5 days in October to discover this amazing island and see what is left of communism. If you have been there do not hesitate to send me some tips and must-do’s! Well furthermore I have made an amazing food related discovery this week. After classes on Monday we had our usual dinner at 11pm with whoever invites us. This time we went to a taco place that served Arabic tacos. Oh my gooooood, truly amazing. Not really tacos as there is no tortilla involved but thicker Arabic bread with I have no idea what kind of meat but everybody was so impressed and we enjoyed it so much we ordered it for take out a few days later! I always get a bit nervous calling on the phone as I know they will be asking for my address. Which normally is not a problem but here in Cancun they have this weird apple system. So you have your street name and number that is not often used as they ask you; ‘what apple do you live in’ and after having answered that they want to know what ‘super apple’ you are living in and as the cherry on top also the ‘lote’. All these numbers!! But it went all well in the end.

Tuesday we went on our weekly movie date. We went to a different and fancier cinema ;). When paying we got a menu to order food from while sitting in the theater. However we decided to get it ourselves. We went to the theater but we were the only ones! We enjoyed our crepe and later on 2 couples came in but that was it. A waiter came to take our order and bring it to us but we did not order anything, nice service though. Movie was ok but funny (Ted2). When it finished we walked down and just followed one couple outside and the other couple followed us. We then ended up in this concrete room which was definitely not the right exit. But we were kind of trapped and so confused and I don’t think that couple was expecting us to follow them but we were all there ahahahah. We followed all these stairs down and ended up in a parking space and what even. It was a whole maze to get outside.

On or free day Wednesday we finally went to the beach again as we haven’t been in ages and already started to lose our tan. I went to my favourite beach where the water is just incredibly clear blue and the sand so soft and white and even better; almost no people. Every time I swim in it I am so stunned by it, incredible! I saw tiny fish on the bottom which is why I was floating the whole time and refused to stand. The sun was strong as heck as usual and it was a good 35 degrees such as every day. We then went for lunch nearby in a supermarket called Chedraui. It is HUGE and on the top floor you have all kinds of different food sections. A few meatballs rice and crepes later we went for a drive around the hotel zone and back home.

Thursday we had big plans to do something fun at night until I fell asleep at 5PM and woke up at 22.00. Woops. I have just been so tired lately these siestas have become a routine. I then went to Fenja’s room and we had a long conversation about our Dutch food cravings. I normally am never homesick or anything but I have to say I miss my Dutch food a little. Adapting to Mexican food is not that hard for me as it is really good, but doing groceries is a bit tricky because I don’t know what to buy anymore and it is SO EXPENSIVE. Here a list of the biggest differences in supermarkets:

- Yoghurt; well basically all natural or Greek or fat free yoghurt tastes like there are 10 sugar cubes in them. Everything is so sweet and if you want sour yoghurt you will have to buy normal milk and but some kind of bacteria in it so it becomes yoghurt.

- Bread; same story. All breads taste sweet, it is a weird taste to explain but yeah. I have been eating too many tortillas which taste kind of sweet as well.

- Chocolate; my biggest weakness. The affordable type is Hershey’s or the Mexican version of that which I personally find tasting like plastic and sugar. There are some European chocolate brands but it costs you like 5 euros or more for 1 chocolate bar. Help!

- Crisps; as they are trying to lower the obese rate in Mexico the prices for fatty foods have raised. Including chips. I know how people in Holland say that you buy a bag of air and coincidentally there happen to be some crisps in but no. Only 1/3 of the bag is filled. And the bags are HUGE. Like the size of my torso and there is nothing inside and you pay 3 euros. Another weird thing; they give you a free shot glass when you buy chips?

- Everything has chili on it. Every restaurant and café and even cinemas have a special section with chili and hot sauces to garnish your foods with. On popcorn, fruit, crisps anything you want.

- I am still stunned by the 4L CocaCola bottles they are insanely big and hard to carry and impossible to finish but it happens.

- One of the things I love is the music. I went grocery shopping a few days ago and there was this loud reggeaton music playing and people were just dancing. Fenja and I joined and danced while pushing our shopping cart around and danced to the ground while grabbing some cheese from the cooler. Literally nobody cares because everybody has this dancing tick inside them haha

- I spent a good 12 euros on a ‘Dutch Gouda’ cheese but I have to say I have never tried this in Holland haha!

- As I am studying Tourism and taking Sustainable tourism classes I am really interested in the environment and eco-friendly and wooh saving the earth factors. However I have seen a big difference here. A lot of older people work at supermarkets and pack your things for you. They do not get paid by the supermarket but earn money by what YOU give them. Now I don’t have a problem with that at all but what they do is that they use thousands of plastic bags per day to pack everybody’s groceries. Literally hurts my soul seeing it haha. That is why I bought my own grocery bag to avoid the use of plastic bags but this is not appreciated by them. It happened to me twice that the person got mad at me for ‘taking away their job’ and ‘not leaving them with something to do’ and god knows what. The mentality towards this is so, so different. However I don’t mind, if they want to help me that is fine and I will give them a few coins but if they start growling at me then that is their problem.

- Same thing for straws. With everything that you order you get a few straws but imagine the difference it would make if you did not receive those straws and only got them when you specifically asked for them. A lot of these straws (especially at beaches) end up in the ocean and end up hurting cute animals. We discussed this in my class at school and it really is a serious problem.

But enough of this, I also did some fun things. I spend 3 hours at a café doing my diving theory homework which is quite interesting but also a bit scary. A lot of consequences of things that can go wrong end up in diseases or death. However that is why I have to study it well. Next Saturday I will dive for the first time in the ocean at Playa del Carmen and I am soooo nervous but can’t wait at the same time. Saturday we had a geology presentation at school about the peninsula of Yucatan (a state in Mexico). Very interesting as it explained how it was created together with the Cenotes (underground caves filled with water where you can swim, around Cancun there are around 7000!). Later that day the American Football team (Leones) of my university had a game. We bought tickets and decided to go. The game started at 5PM but everybody told us to be there at 4PM. As the sun was burning a good 33 degrees we did not feel like waiting there. We got there at 4:45 and there was a line of cars waiting to get into the university! The field was filled with so many people! After we parked we walked to the field and sat down. I put a towel on my head because I was scared my hair was going to catch fire from this heat oh my. And then there are people in JEANS. Nope. Anyway they told us to wear orange for the team but I didn’t have anything orange so I wore a white t-shirt with some sparkly bronze/gold things on it. And guess what? The other team was white and gold hahahha. Woopsie. The atmosphere was really nice. I had no idea what the rules were and how the game was. I just saw 55 players and was confused and cheered when everybody else did!

Sunday night my two German friends invited me to see a movie in the VIP section of the cinema as a late birthday gift! We went to see the new Maze Runner movie which was really unexpected but so cool! We picked some food from the menu and got it served to our seat while watching the movie. Afterwards we waited for like 15 minutes for a bus or taxi but nothing happened. Then a different transportation van stopped and we just hopped in. When we were close to our home we asked if he could stop and he literally said: “no”. Well then. He took us all the way to a mall where we had to take a taxi back. Next time I will have to be clear in asking if he is willing to stop at a bus stop.

P.S. Third time hand washing all my clothes, third time hanging them up in the garden, third time it starts to rain. This can’t be a coincidence. I must have this power on Mother Nature. I was finally asleep and then heard the palm tree leaves hitting my window and a few drops. I thought ‘Oh it is just a few drops’ and then it started pissing down which resulted in me running half asleep downstairs at 1AM to rescue my clothes in the rain.

P.P.S While you are reading this please be nice and fill in my 1 minute questionnaire about tacos for school? Thank you!
https://www.onlineencuesta.com/s/f4441b8