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Maltese Market Mexican-Style
It was Tuesday evening when he finally arrived at the train
station in Siegen Weidenau. His journey had taken 15 exhausting
hours, but "It is worth it", he was told and so
he ignored all the stress and strain. The young man who comes
from a very big city in Mexico was full of curiosity, interest
and expectations when he came to Siegen. Now it was my task
to show him a typical, but nevertheless extraordinary way
of life in Germany.
What could have been better than an interesting and varied
market at the University on Thursday?!
Arriving at the university in the morning the Mexican first
seemed to be astonished about the design and decoration of
the foyer in front of the Audimax, but after a short description
of our wonderful excursion to Malta he could understand the
presentation.
At 12 o'clock the Maltese Market opened its doors and I showed
him all the stands and explained to him some Maltese characteristics
and recounted several very nice anecdotes from our trip. What
he loved most were all the stands with photos on them. It's
not just that he loves photos, but they gave him some sort
of idea of another European country. In fact, our presentation
of Malta was a second, but totally different impression he
got of Europe.
Living in Mexico you feel like there is just one continent
in the world: The American one. Europe and the European cultures
are far off. The Mexican and the German cultures differ greatly
from each other. When you get to know another culture you
begin to generalize. Although I have only been to Mexico and
to no other Central American country I cannot lose the impression
that all Central American countries are alike. Cesar, my Mexican
host brother, had the same expectations for all European countries
that he had for Germany. It surprised him completely to see
so many differences between the two countries, although they
both belong to the European continent. To give an example
he could not understand how widely European food and drink
can vary from country to country.
Back home I, of course, had to explain to him that normal
German university life is not always like an intercultural
bazaar, but for him it was a totally new and absolutely interesting
experience.
Tamara Rigau
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