Week 2 and 3 – Arrival in Hermosillo

After my adventures in Cancun I safely arrived at the airport, to only found out that my flight was delayed for at least 1 hour. Good start…. I only had a 2 hour lay-over in Mexico City, so I was already getting worried I would have to spend the night sleeping on a bench in a terminal. After a bumpy flight with lots of turbulence I arrive in Mexico city where I made a sprint to the terminal, since by the time I exited the airplane I only had 40 minutes left for my connecting flight. Luckily I arrived on time since it was not that far, but there was no gate listed on the screens. Five minutes before departure, still no gate. I went to an information point since I was afraid I was in the wrong terminal or something. Of course there was a giant line and that with only 5 minutes left… arrggg. When it was my turn, 5 minutes after my flight was supposed to leave, the speaker sounded: flight to Hermosillo 1 hour delayed due to crowded airspace… at least I didn’t miss it.

After another flight with a lot of turbulence I arrived in Hermosillo. Both flights had free movies btw, just another reminder: Condor sucks! Three people of CIAD were waiting at the airport to pick me up. Such a nice welcome! They were super friendly, although they were a bit shy to talk English. Now after 2 weeks and a lot of mandatory English practice from talking to me, it’s a lot better. Since I didn’t have dinner yet they took me to get some real tacos, not the one with the hard tortilla shell, but with the soft corn tortilla’s filled with meat, onion, guacamole and some chili sauce! After the delicious taco’s they brought me to my new house which is really awesome! A big house with a nice living room and great kitchen as you can see in the pictures. My room doesn’t have much furniture, but it has a bed, a closet, a small drawer and a Dutch flag which is everything I need. I also met my new roommates, one of the girls that picked me up, Alison, and Gonzalo.

The days after I arrived I got settled in the house and the city. Especially the heat is crazy, thus far the temperatures have been around 30-36°C each day. But this is still spring, everybody in CIAD is warning me that around august the temperature will easily be around 50-55°C. Luckily I have some time to get ready for that, but I don’t think it is going to be funny. The Saturday after I arrived Alma, Alison and Yaeel (the 3 who picked me up) also took me around town. The town is pretty big, like 750 thousand people, but also surprisingly flat. I expected a lot of high flats and buildings for the size of the city but they are pretty uncommon. The city is nice though, it has a nice central square with a big church and a lot of small restaurants and shop everywhere, but not really touristy or something. I also have a Walmart nearby which is great, everything I need in one shop.

The Monday after I arrived I started my first day at work. CIAD is way bigger and also different than I expected. I expected an institute like NIZO or TNO, but it’s more like the ‘research’ part in Wageningen University and Research. The researchers all have their own department with a lot of PhD’ers, and Master and Bachelor student that are doing their thesis. So it’s more like doing a second thesis than an internship. The laboratories I am going to work in look a bit outdated, but it has all the equipment I need, maybe I am just a spoiled with the hypermodern labs and truckloads of money at WageningenUR. The people I work with are also great, everybody is super friendly and all of them are willing to lent me a hand and are teaching me everything I need to know about Mexico and CIAD.

In the last 2 weeks my days were mainly filled with reading literature, luckily I will start experiments this week. The evenings are mostly filled with some exercise, chilling with my roommates, watching some series and learning Spanish. I really hope that in a couple months I can have a decent conversation with my new friends here. I also went to a VIP cinema, which was awesome, we had these super comfortable leather chairs with foot rests and a butler to bring you food, like cheese and chili covered popcorn.

Alison is also learning me how to cook Mexican food which is super nice! I now know the difference between a taco, burrito, enchilada, empanada, etc. Also she, Alma and Yaeel have been taken me around the city and showed me everything I need to know to live here. I also went salsa dancing again. I still suck at it, but it was a lot of fun! The club was also a dance school so everybody could dance really well which was awesome to see. There I finally had my first tequila! Not the one you buy at the end of the evening in Holland which makes you gag, but one that is smooth and soft like a good scotch. I am definitely going to bring a bottle back to the Netherlands.

Bart