First exam - good impression

Actually, I had my two first exams today, but especially the very first one made me think much better about environmental considerations in Mexico.
It was the exam in Administración Intercultural (lit. - guess what - intercultural administration) and either if it was just to save costs or really ecological awareness - the result was positive:

We got used paper to write on (of course the back side was blank) - I really like this idea!

The exam wasn't too bad either. But for only one hour I definitely knew too much...

The second exam was in Administración Financiera Internacional (International Finance) and it was a real joke: We picked it up between 10 and 12 a.m. and now have to solve it within 24 hours. Of course everybody works together, but still we were occupied from 4 p.m. until 9.30 p.m. - without any breaks! It really was a LOT to do. But still - what kind of exam is it, when you can take it home? I was told that it's not that unusual here.

But even more: Last Saturday our football team (the Aztecas) had its first match in this season. If you showed up during the half so that our professor could see you were there, you participated in a "bet": If our team would win (they did), you'll get 10 extra points for the exam, in case of a defeat you'll lose 10 points. I didn't go, as there was a lot of other stuff to do and I don't find it a proper behaviour on the part of the professor. But I still can't believe how "normal" the Mexicans considered this proposal to be... Different cultures, indeed.

Considering this, the exam was surprisingly tough, moreover as team work was not really as helpful as I had imagined it to be, because the Mexicans just didn't have the foggiest idea about what the questions were about... So in the end it actually was kind of a real exam, as there was just nobody you could have had worked with...

Although M. didn't have to write the exam, he was kind enough to wait for me until I had finished. So after the exam, that is at 10 p.m. we had dinner at Flautlán, which is a place that serves flautas (lit. flute).

It's fried tortillas and Flautlán boasts a vegetarian version - incredible. You can also order a pretty good salad and decent refried beans, so I like to go there, as I feel the combination being quite a proper and complete meal, providing all the nutrients many foods lack here. Most Mexicans probably never eat salad - there's not so much demand for anything than meat in this country - and when they get one, it's kind of an "overload".

For example here the salad combines lettuce, tomatoes, carrot, onion, red cabbage, corn, cheese, avocado, peanuts, cranberries... I love all of the single ingredients apart from the cheese, so I also really like the salad, but for Mexican standards this is still a pretty "plain" version. In our canteen it's totally common to add ham, sausages, pasta, croutons etc. to the salad. Lettuce by the way is not obligatory for any kind of salad. Meat of course is.

From top, clockwise: Flauta and some extra avocado, refried beans, another flauta, and a salad. In the middle some sauces I really like.

Since I described the flauta in yesterday's post about the different forms tortillas come in, let's take a closer look on the crispy-fried and rolled style today:

Flauta vegetariana, filled with whatever's left in the kitchen. I even already had some asparagus in it. I think today it was, among other, some kind of pumpkin.

Flautlán also serves agua de pepino (lit. Cucumber water), that is pureed cucumber with lots of water and a bit of sugar. Although in this restaurant you don't get it with lime and mint (which is common, but hey, Flautlán is still a fast food chain), it's really good. The picture also proves the statement I made yesterday: Beverage sizes in Mexico are insane...

M. happily sipping his "little" Agua de pepino

When already talking about things I do like in Mexico, let's just continue. You get fried fava beans and fried garbanzo beans on most markets or from street sellers. I really like them, buuut in Thailand (sorry for the same comparison over and over again) they were still better, because here in Mexico they are salty as hell. Yet, I like the acidic flavour of the seasoning. Tastes like sumach, but I don't think they use this spice here. According to the vendor it's just lime.

Fried, salty-sour fava beans...

... and fried garbanzo beans with the same seasoning.

So, that's it for today. Tomorrow there's the next exam in Administración de Operaciones (Operations management). Finally I'll give to you the tune which accompanied me during the day: