KL-AMS-MEX-AMS-KL (Chapter TWO)

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Previously on  KL-AMS-MEX-AMS-KL....
Chapter ONE.

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Landing the Mexican land, it felt like I was in a latino drama.

Hello or salam no longer been heard. People greeted you with "Hola" (pronounce it without H tau).

Instead of Mr or Miss, they called us Senor or Senorita. Furthermore, I started to practice thanking everyone by saying "gracias", and if they said that to me, i replied it with "de nada".

Peewit!!  :)

To order food at any restaurants in Mexico was always hilarious to us you know.  We totally could not expect that English is being used regularly as in Malaysia. Basic names of food we must remember such as;

- Chiken is pollo (pronounce it as poyo).

- Seafood is mariscos

- Rice is Arroz

- Bebidas is drinks

- Fish is Pescado

- Prawn is camarón

- Squid is calamari

- Beef is carne de res

- Pork is carne de cerdo

- salad is ensalada

In a  normal restaurant, most of the food available were either chicken, or beef or pork. Seafood was also available but at only selected restaurants and they're quite expensive.

Similar to what was served everyday in the cafeteria of the factory that i work in Guadalajara.

So, How did i survive there?

Alhamdulillah, not being a picky eater & maybe because I was not really a big eater, I managed to arrange pretty workable menu strategy for my food intake everyday.

Breakfast: at hotel (bread and bread and bread and bread everyday)

AM break: at factory cafeteria ( It is compulsory for me to take 2 pcs of pancakes everyday)

Lunch: I had no other choice except Saladddddddddddddddddddddddd and fruits.  :D

PM break: Biscuits

Dinner: Maggie Mee / plain noodle /bread again

Hasilnya, balik from Mexico i lost few kgs. Hoorey! :)

Oh yeap, the hotel we stayed in Guadalajara was Hilton. It was a nice hotel and English friendly staff. That was very  important because they're the only source of reference if we wanted to take taxi to go  anywhere. 

During my working period in the factory, Only engineers and superior management could converse in English. There was one time i tried to seek help from a technician there to get me a screwdriver, it took him 1 hour to understand. Haha cuteness! I tried to draw it to him, but they said it looked more like a banana.Pfffttt.

There was little times when things became stressful, but most of the time i really enjoy working over there. Even though we were like chickens and ducks, but we never gave up to each other.Owh i love them!

and... I think  they liked me too.:p

Some of them liked to stare at me from top to toe, then toe up to top and stop there. It was definitely because I covered my hair (hijab). During that time in Guadalajara, the Muslim population was very very minority, like 0.02%. Thus, Muslimah with hijab could not be found at all at their place. That's why I didn't surprise when every time i walked into the factory line, many eyes looking at me and they whispered to each other. According to my colleague over there, they thought that i have some issues with my hair. Hihi.

Mexican people is very helpful and the man...owh so gentleman i tell you!! :P They opened the door for me, they helped to hold my plate when we're queuing at the cafeteria, they 'wanted' to gimme a big hug every time i completed the factory test without any fail.  Wanted only la tapi! Hahaha. all my colleagues had alarmed them that with Nuurill, No touching touching okey! :) But they're very understanding and supportive.

My abang-abang in Mexico.

I felt safe,secured and really enjoyed the companionship.

Don't you think so? :) 

At the end of every weekdays, the most looking forward thing to us was the WEEKEND. Of course ma!! After we spent  many hours standing in the factory line, cracking the head why the machine not working, playing with tool ... then city tour, sigh seeing, food, pretty girls and boys definitely took place over there. :P

Let's do some tour with me right now! :)

Guadalajara City Central

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Me, Hai Ling, and the bosses. :)

Paid a visit to an historical church and got to see a Mexican Wedding in there. 

They're Lovely! :)

Tlaqepaque Town

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 The guy in Orange T-shirt named Joel. 

He's my working counterpart there. 

He took us tour the city that day. How nice! :)

 Joel's parents in law has a homemade ice cream shop. 

The lady on my right in the photo above is Joel's wife. I miss them already!

Zapopan Town

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 That's Erica with her husband. Erika was in the same working group too. 

She's an angelic lady. Very kind. Very generous. 

They brought us to Zapopan after work for some sight seeing. :)

 

During our stay in Mexico, we had also spent few weekends outside Guadalajara. We took bus and backpacking to Guanajuato, Zacatecas and the famous beach, Poerto Vallarta.

I will share some stories over there in the next Chapters ok :)

Til then....

xoxo,

.mommaholicSuri.


p/s: The stories, photos were back in 2006. I am totally different now.  :P

KL-AMS-MEX-AMS-KL (Chapter One)

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Ticket confirmed. Hotel confirmed. Travel advance confirmed.

But i still couldn't believe that I'd be flying to Mexico. Lived and worked there for a couple of weeks. I felt so grateful and excited. It's like one of a life time experience, right!

My mom cooked for me the most delicious sambal ikan bilis and kept in a quite big Tupperware (she scared that I akan kebuluran kat sana :)) while my fiance's dad lent me his luggage bag, travel adapter and also bought me a book titled MEXICO. Sweet.

I left Kuala Lumpur on 1st April 2006 at midnight. Since it was my first ever time leaving the country, agak lama pulak tu and very very very far..the whole family member, few uncles & aunties  and also fiance's family sent me at the airport (nasib baik tak satu kampung :p). 

When i met my 2 other colleagues at the check-in counter, they wondered what did i bring inside a huge sealed box next to my luggage beg. The answer was Maggie Mee. I imagined myself would eat them day and night, so if 30 over days times 2... 60 over packets of Maggie. Maunya tak sekotak??? dengan Nescafe 3 in 1 lagi.. sambal ikan bilis lagi.. =D 

Hai Ling and Ng LOLed at me.

"Nuurill, you wanna go a year meh?" 

"Hey! i first time ma... U ols can sedap-sedap eat chicken. I eat maggie chicken ok la kan!" :)

When I was about to leave the departure hall to the gate, everybody made a circle surrounded me to bit good bye. Confirmla i cried so much! Who knows that would be the last time I saw them. 

My mom whispered at my ear.

"Kak Yong kamu tu darah manis. Jaga diri baik-baik. Kamu jangan gatei dengan oghang sana walaupun hensem macam boipren maria mercedes tu. (hahaha!). Kamu jangan tinggei solat. Kamu doa banyok-banyok Allah lindung kamu"

I hugged my mom harder.

Hai Ling and Ng LOLed at me again. Ciss cake sungguh tau! :)

And then, next to my mom was my future husband. 

Hei confirmla tak peluk!!. :P 

We're speechless. 

"Bye"

"Take care"

But then i heard my mom's voice..

"Itu aje kamu cakap??"

Oh mamaKu (slap forehead). My fiance's mom smiled widely at us.

"Diorang malu tu kot Kak Ana"

Memang la malu. Tapi dalam hati gila tak malu ok! I siap doa sungguh-sungguh semua Allah panjangkan umur ku, safely return back home and dapat kahwin dengan dia. :) Ga-Alif-Ta-Alif-Lam.. haha. Yes, we're tentatively getting married in 2 months time.

At 11.45pm, i flied to Amsterdam via KLM. Segala doa baca.Seram sejuk badan. I didn't sleep at all for that 12 hours flight. Hai Ling who sat next to me was the other way around. She just woke up when the food came and the moment she finished her desserts, she ZzzzZZZZ. How easy! :)

The plan touched down Amsterdam at the very early morning of 2nd April 2006. At 18 degrees, It was very cold and i was almost frozen. :P We have 6 hours to visit the central before checking in the next 13 hours flight to Mexico City.

We took train from the Schiphol airport to Amsterdam Central. Along the way, I almost cried when i saw windmill here and there. Rasa macam tak percaya okeh! :P

It was raining cats and dogs when we reached the Central. First thing we did was to visit the Tourist Information Office. Here we were received the map of the city, interesting places, how to get there by tram and the tram schedule. Because of the rain, we didn't get much chance to visit many places but we promised each other that we gonna re-visit the city the next month when we returned from Mexico.

Owh Amsterdam is really a very beautiful place!!
Let me share some photos with you.

 

ps: Muka mu sunguh remaja, Nuurill.  X boleh blah. 

 Bahahah.

Ok let's get back a little bit more to Amsterdam. :P

Everyone in this world mostly knows that Tulips are the symbol of Holland. At every market in the Amsterdam Central you gonna find beribu-ribu lemon of tulips. Too Awesome!!! We hoped by the time we came down here again the next month, we could visit the Keukenhof, the world's largest Tulips garden. (We did and the place was Superb!! Will tell about it later k).

After 12 hours from KLIA to Amsterdam + 9 hours Transit in Amsterdam + another 13 hours from Amsterdam to Mexico City + 2 hours Transit in Mexico City + 1.5 hour from Mexico City to Guadalajara, I was finally arrived the destination and looked like a zombie.  

:)

Syukur Ya Tuhan for such an opportunity given to me. My life and my career in Mexico bounded in such a wonderful memory. I couldn't be thankful enough.

 Flextronics Guadalajara, Mexico

 Nampak sangat berlakon! :P

I do have a lot more to share in the next Chapter...

Til then, Stay tune lovelies! :)

xoxo,

.mommaholicSuri.