Study abroad- summer (may- july 2017)
After four years at CSUMB, I finally had the courage to go after one of my biggest dreams. i decided to make one of my biggest dreams possible by studying abroad. Studying in a Mexican university was always a big dream of mine and I was finally able to make it come to life. I wanted to do this ever since I was little therefore, I decided to go to two different places i have not been before in Mexico. One of them was my dream city to go for vacation and the other one was a destination I had not thought of before. These two places are Mexico City, and Puebla.
Mexico CITY- uNIVERSIDAD LA SALLE
Mexico City, a place full of culture, tradition, one of the biggest cities in the world left a big print in my heart. The program in Mexico City had a lot included. We were to complete service learning hours in an elementary school and assist to various different excursions that were offered. The classes taken abroad were the finishing touch to my previous knowledge I previously had. In Mexico City, I learned a lot about the history of the country as a whole. I learned to appreciate it, and that it is very interesting. The classes taken in Mexico city were also about history and some culture, but mainly focused in history. The three weeks spent there I was able to appreciate my roots and value them. Some of the many historic places we went to are, the Museum of Anthropology, Xochimilco, Teochtitlan, the Pyramid of the Sun and the Moon, Frida Kahlo's house, Chapultepec, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Plaza de las tres culturas, Historic center of Mexico City, the Basilica of the Virgen Mary, Zocalo, etc. One of the most interesting ones I went to was the Chapultepec castle were I learned about the Porfiriato time in history. This was when Porfirio Diaz had Mexico under dictatorship and then the people rebelled leading to the Mexican Revolution. I was even able to understand much more about my capstone than what i had imagined. I was able to see Porfirio Diaz's castle and I got a grasp of why he behaved as he did, and I was also able to understand the people. Moreover, the people in Mexico City are really busy people. i made friends in Mexico City and i saw the insight of their lifestyles. It seemed really similar to the life style we have here in states. Half the people are nice and talk to you the other half are scared of you and avoid you. i enjoyed studying here because I learned much more than i could of ever imagined about my own history. We also went to the state of Guerrero and Morelos to learn more about the history that took place there.
Without a doubt, one of the best parts of this program was my service learning experience. I did not want to leave Mexico City not only because I fell in love with the city but also because I loved my service learning. We were asked to take place in an elementary school, Simon Bolivar, that is located in one of the suburbs of Mexico City. Here we were the teachers assistant and in some occasions we were asked to take over the class and teach english to the students. My assigned class was a first grade class. i do not find the correct words to describe this group, they are so intelligent, kind, caring, loving children. The elementary schools are divided into two sections morning or afternoon. The section I had was the afternoon section. The relationship with teacher-student in Mexico is extremely different than the one here in the states. Here we have more of a strict relationship because of laws and unpleasant events that have occurred, but in Mexico the teacher sees the students as part of their family, as well as the student sees the teacher as a family member. I loved this because I felt the connection I had with the students was strong and unbreakable. At first the students were shy and would just stare at me, but after a few days I would walk into class and they would come running to me and hug me and tell me "I missed you teacher Anita". This is where the passion I had hidden inside me for teaching bloomed. All in all, i would go back to Mexico City without a doubt and I would be more than fascinated to go back to every single place I went to and live every moment of it again. Mexico City, was very good to me, it gave me that extra push I needed to finally decided into my career for teaching.
Without a doubt, one of the best parts of this program was my service learning experience. I did not want to leave Mexico City not only because I fell in love with the city but also because I loved my service learning. We were asked to take place in an elementary school, Simon Bolivar, that is located in one of the suburbs of Mexico City. Here we were the teachers assistant and in some occasions we were asked to take over the class and teach english to the students. My assigned class was a first grade class. i do not find the correct words to describe this group, they are so intelligent, kind, caring, loving children. The elementary schools are divided into two sections morning or afternoon. The section I had was the afternoon section. The relationship with teacher-student in Mexico is extremely different than the one here in the states. Here we have more of a strict relationship because of laws and unpleasant events that have occurred, but in Mexico the teacher sees the students as part of their family, as well as the student sees the teacher as a family member. I loved this because I felt the connection I had with the students was strong and unbreakable. At first the students were shy and would just stare at me, but after a few days I would walk into class and they would come running to me and hug me and tell me "I missed you teacher Anita". This is where the passion I had hidden inside me for teaching bloomed. All in all, i would go back to Mexico City without a doubt and I would be more than fascinated to go back to every single place I went to and live every moment of it again. Mexico City, was very good to me, it gave me that extra push I needed to finally decided into my career for teaching.
Puebla- Universidad Anahuac
In Puebla, I was able to further understand the health system and its functions. I enjoyed my stay here as well because I was able to learn more about how the system works and more about the people living here. I noticed a couple of differences from Mexico City. The people in Puebla were much more talkative and more humble. I liked this because I was able to see the differences of the people even though these two states are right next to each other. In this program we also focused more on the culture and linguistics. We went to the Pyramid of Cholula, the first library in latin American, el parian, tunnels where the battle of Puebla happened, Fuertes de Loreto, and to the historic center. Puebla is filled with culture in every block there is a church. i learned that it had more churches than the days of the year. This to me was fascinating because I am religious, therefore going to a lot of churches and seeing the different structures of the insides was amazing to me. We had Spanish classes every day and we learned about psychology, health, and the health systems and its functions. This was also accompanied by different hospital visits and tours around the hospitals. There was one in particular that caught my attention. In the country of Mexico, Puebla is the only state that has traditional hospitals. Traditional hospitals are hospitals were every medicine is made with natural herbs and oils. The state of Puebla has thirteen of these hospitals and people from all around the world come here. There is people who have been able to be cancer free and other deadly illnesses free because of this hospital. The even more surprising thing is that it is cost free, the hospital takes everything as a form of donation. In other words, a person can give money to these hospitals depending on how much the person thinks the treatment of medicine was worth.
This experience helped me grow as well because I was able to learn much more than I expected about culture and the health system. With this program I learned that language is something that is different for all of us, and no certain language is wrong or right. I learned to appreciate my own language even if it sounds "Americanized" as I was told. I learned that my Spanish language is as correct as Spain's Spanish language. I learned that it is okay to mispronounce things and correct myself, I learned to love my Spanish language. Puebla was just the finishing touch to my value an appreciation of my own identity. With this program I learned a lot more about myself as well, and I learned to adapt myself to the different lifestyles there were in the university and outside of it. These study abroad programs to me were more than just programs. Both of the programs helped me value my roots and understand my own culture. I learned to appreciate myself in a complete new level. I learned to value something that felt as if it was missing for a while, my own identity. Mexico City and Puebla helped me see what I really am, a proud Mexican-American that has the luxury to call two different countries as home.
This experience helped me grow as well because I was able to learn much more than I expected about culture and the health system. With this program I learned that language is something that is different for all of us, and no certain language is wrong or right. I learned to appreciate my own language even if it sounds "Americanized" as I was told. I learned that my Spanish language is as correct as Spain's Spanish language. I learned that it is okay to mispronounce things and correct myself, I learned to love my Spanish language. Puebla was just the finishing touch to my value an appreciation of my own identity. With this program I learned a lot more about myself as well, and I learned to adapt myself to the different lifestyles there were in the university and outside of it. These study abroad programs to me were more than just programs. Both of the programs helped me value my roots and understand my own culture. I learned to appreciate myself in a complete new level. I learned to value something that felt as if it was missing for a while, my own identity. Mexico City and Puebla helped me see what I really am, a proud Mexican-American that has the luxury to call two different countries as home.