In the summer of 2017 I was able to study abroad in Mexico. This was an important feat for me because I never thought that I was going to study in Mexico. I was fortunate enough that I got to attend two programs in Mexico and the the dates of the programs managed to align themselves so I could attend both of them. The first one was in Mexico City in La Salle University and the second one was in Universidad Anáhuac, in Puebla. There were pretty big differences between the two programs, and I enjoyed attending both of them. The focus on the programs, the location of the school relative to the city, as well as the number of students that attended the program were some of the key differences in the two.
The first program I attended was in Mexico City. The program introduced me to couple of firsts since I got out of high school. This was the first time I walked to school as well as having a roommate since we had a homestay. The school is an urban campus and is walking distance from where I was staying. It took me a while to get used to having a roommate and walking to school, but I quickly adjusted. This program had six people, but two left after culture shock and homesickness. This left us with four people and I think in the end it worked for the better. When we got to the school we two classes on Mexican history and an in-depth look at the ancient civilizations in Mexico. These were a great refresher because the previous semester I took a class about both of these things. It also helped that I took that class because we went to the National Museum of Anthropology, where we got to visually see what we learned. It was one of my favorite trips. After those classes we were placed in a Spanish class based on our level. The classes had around seven students of a similar speaking level. The students were from Iran, Germany, Canada, and the U.S. All of our levels were around the same, so we got along just fine. The classes mainly dealt with grammar and writing, the basic stuff. Homework was pretty simple too, as it was just doing workbook stuff.
The key highlight of this trip for me was what we did afterwards. After class we went to an elementary school that is also part of the La Salle school system. Colegio Simón Bolivar was the one that we attended. Before leaving we were asked some questions about what we are good with and what grade we would like to teach. I choose third grade because I thought it was a place since the students a bit more mature, but not that mature that they might not listen to you. I think I chose well since I got along with the teacher I was helping. The first day we were there was a day that they have their educational clubs, like art, science, or even technical clubs like cooking or sowing. The teacher I had was in charge of the science club. We did couple of projects the three weeks we were there. While the work that we did with the teacher did vary between us, I was simply tasked with reading mental math problems that the students had to solve and with grading. I think this was a good start to see what teaching in elementary school is like. I really enjoyed the time that I was there and the students were absolutely fantastic. As I mentioned before I did have a homestay and my homestay mom was amazing, she sort of reminded me of my mom. She was really nice and I think I was really lucky since she has a restaurant that her son is the chef in, so the food that we had at home was always very delicious. We had the opportunity to go to her restaurant couple of times and it was one of my favorite experiences in Mexico City.
In the Puebla trip I was also able to experience a bunch of firsts. This was the first time I lived on campus and the first time I was in a very restricted campus. First time I had a meal plan and the first time that I was really bound to a schedule. All of these were not necessarily enjoyable experiences, however they were all good learning experiences. While La Salle was a bit more focused and a bit more organized day to day, this one jumped around a lot in terms of what we did every day. Like La Salle, we had a Spanish class that was about general grammar and language rules. Afterwards we would have different classes like a psychology class or a public health class, which discussed the different aspects of the health care system in Mexico. These were all very good experiences and I gained a lot from going to these classes.
The other part of this trip was going to hospitals in Puebla. This was an interesting experience and a sentimental for some in out group too. All of our visits to the hospitals were generally the same, we took a tour of the hospital and we looked at the facilities that the hospital has. Out of all the ones that we went to, my favorite was the one in Atlixco, this hospital has a section that is devoted to using traditional remedies instead of newer solutions. This is something that I liked because it is something that can attract more people that would be scared of going to a hospital. Visiting a doctor that can prescribe traditional medicine is something that they like. Most people, like my parents, are generally weary about going to a doctor for this reason. Having someone that prescribes traditional medicine is a much better solution for them.
The last part of out trip focused on cultural knowledge and having free time. We visited many museums and historical sites that gave us an insight to Mexican history. My favorite were the sun and moon pyramids in Teotihuacan, we had visited them before with the La Salle group, but being able to climb all the way up was a really fun experience. Climbing back down, that was a different story. Aside from that we were able to explore downtown and were able to visit all of the surrounding attractions. Since we were a large groups we often split in to groups of four so we could take Ubers easily. At the end of the day we would talk about the places that we went, the places that we liked and did not liked, and if we ate somewhere if we liked it or not. Being together talking about that stuff was a really good experience. At first I was very hesitant on doing these two trips, at the end it was really happy that I went on them and I think I grew up a lot on this trip with all of the information I gained. I made new friends and got experience things that I have not experienced before. Because of this trip I want to go back to Mexico City and Puebla and explore all of the places that I know I missed. I would like my parents to see these places too, since they have not been outside of their small ranch near Guadalajara. This trip was one of the best experiences ever, and I hope that other people decide to study abroad so they can experience these too.