Been in Mexico the last three weeks and since late-October been working or traveling about every day….but the two days off, Saturday night out with some friends, and afternoon checking out a local site was awesome.
The two days off were great, Sharon came down and we spent most of the time in San Miguel and when out for my birthday dinner with my co-workers. I think Sharon likes San Miguel better than Seoul.
Sharon in front of “La Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel”
Been a lot of Korean translation issues at work (really can’t share too many of those because of context or other reasons) and Spanish translation issues. Apparently, my Spanish accent is pretty believable, as I interface with someone at first they talk slow, then I order (using my 20 word vocabulary) “uno, numreo uno, coca-cola light, grande, takaway”. They then reply talking very fast and seem to be asking a lot of questions assuming I actually know Spanish. I just repeat louder and faster – about a 50% success rate – ended up with tres chili-cheese fries the other night.
Seen in a dive bar in Queretaro – 
Zombie Parade in Queretaro
I did have a non-work related translation issue at work. We were waiting for a meeting to start when a non-Korean employee showed a picture from a holiday party, I proclaimed “I’m a genius” and my Korean counter-part (in the fastest English response he has ever had) said “No – not genius, pretty smart, but not genius”. I thanked him for his quick assessment and shared my idea – he did agree the “idea” was genius (can’t say the other piece,but it ends up with a holiday party). Then the discussion revolved to how I connected the dots to have the idea – I said it was a positive side effect of ADD. They had no idea what ADD was – the translator explained in Korean. We pulled out the google to further explain. They had no idea of the condition and didn’t know any Korean that had it. And I agree – haven’t seen anyone with the anything close to ADD or ADHD in Korea.
Of course, any work environment has conflicts. I have been “discussing” various issues with a person via email/phone and we have a different point of view – he arrived at site this week from Korea and we met in person for the only the second time. He suggested we get to know each other personally and that may help with our relationship. I agreed and this is a synopsis of the discussion:
Him -“I actually went to law school in the US”
Me –“Where”
Him – “The University of Oklahoma, I selected it because I wanted a big football school”
Me – “I went to Oklahoma State”
Him (very excited) – “Wow – they had a very good football
team last year- I was expecting to lose but I got up to watch the game on the
internet in the middle of the night with my favorite OU shirt on. OSU was much better team, was going to win conference and go to a good bowl, and seemed to be about to run away with the game. But somehow Sooner magic happened and we won. Did you see that game? It was very exciting, even the kicker scored. We should watch the game together this year. Did you see that game last year”
Me –“leave now, not just my office, but Mexico” (actually I didn’t say that, but wanted too). I told him that I was aware of the circumstances of last years game. But I have to admit that we did seem more aligned after the discussion and if are both in Mexico I will suffer and watch Bedlam with him.
On my afternoon off, headed to Pena de Bernal – the second
or third largest monolithic rock in the world. About 30 minutes from Queretaro. Pictures below.
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