My oh my, how the time flies.
I have been home from Mexico for over a month now, which is frightening to realize. I’ve been so busy, yet my study abroad experience feels like it just happened, still.
The last few days I was there were CRAZY. Not only did I have oodles of studying to do and essays to write, but I also finally got sick. I’d been pretty lucky to be one of the few people to stay healthy the whole time, but, of course, with my luck, I had a terrible allergic reaction my second-to-last day. Luckily, the university doctor was very helpful and, with a lot of rest that day, I managed to finish everything in time and get back rolling for the last day.
All of my tests, papers, and presentations went pretty well, and before I knew it, it was time for the Farewell Dinner. All of us students came with our families to eat together at a nice restaurant, joined by our lovely coordinators, professors, and administrators from the Ibero. They gave us all certificates and, of course, delicious comida! Our one professor, Roxana, even hired a mariachi band to play! It was crazy that all of the families knew all the songs they played well enough to sing along, and everyone even got up to dance for a bunch of them! I even managed to passably salsa (well, according to me, anyway). It was an amazingly fun time, but it was so sad to say goodbye to everyone. It felt surreal that the trip was really coming to an end, and that soon we’d all be back, doing our separate things, here in the US.
It takes 2 hours to get to the Mexico City airport by bus from Puebla, and the earlier group of travelers, including myself, got to depart at 2 AM. Everything was smooth checking my luggage and getting through security, but the rest was a NIGHTMARE. The plane out of Mexico City was delayed about 2 hours which, sadly, was enough time to make me miss my continuing flight out of Chicago. After grumpily passing through customs, I got put on a standby flight to Allentown, which my luggage made, but I was not able to board. Long story short, it then took me 2 failed flights, lots of pointless waiting (on runways and near gates), tons of distraught phone calls to my parents, a night in the creepy, cold Chicago airport, and over 24 hours since I’d left my home in Puebla to FINALLY get home here.
Since then, it’s been a blur of Harry Potter premieres, family vacations, and catching up with friends—not to mention getting ready for the Fall semester. I think I’ve been putting off writing this last entry since it means that it really is over, that I really am back. Now, though, I feel like I can really look at the bigger picture of what I encountered.
The Mexico I experienced was neither one of pop culture dreams nor of horrific news stories. I wasn’t kidnapped or murdered, and though I did visit a lovely beach, it was far from being the highlight of the program. The true highlights were much more real. The highlights were chatting with my family for an hour after each meal, walking to the tienda down the street where the workers knew my name and taught me the names of all the fruits and vegetables, stopping to play with a friendly dog on the way to the bus stop. They included standing on the edge of a pyramid built hundreds and hundreds of years before, steps too small for us nowadays, and viewing paint strokes on pieces created only decades ago.
Mexico is a clash of the past and the present. Ancient temples are found in the middle of bustling cities, and buildings are built over the remains of others. There are literally layers and layers of history, all coexisting together to make the present what it is. And it’s not just in the lay of the land; it’s in the people, as well. Traditions, old, older, oldest, are all woven finely together like a beautiful tapete in a world just blooming with New, as well. Mexico is indeed related to Europe; it was and is still a kind of New Spain, only it’s so much more. Every state, every city, and every tiny pueblo has a different personality. This is a place where poverty and wealth coexist hand in hand, where different cultures have both parted and blended in every imaginable combination. The people know their past, however confused it may be, and are willing to teach it and learn from it in ways that make me question my own historical knowledge of my own country.
In my opinion, the Puebla program must be one of the most overlooked Spanish study abroad experiences. If it hadn’t been for a chance presentation and my own curiosity, I may have missed out on the experience of my lifetime. Many of my peers tend to look to other great cultures that are an ocean away when we have something so rich, so touching, and so beautiful right below us. We earned a solid 9 credits over 6 weeks in a summer, and of course our language skills improved, but I feel like we all gained much more than just that. The families, the professors, the university, the places we traveled, the things we saw, the people we met… If there is anything I have learned, it is that there isn’t ONE Mexico. It’s layers; nothing and everything is inherently Mexican. I’ve learned to go beyond stereotypes or expectations of a place and have found so much more than I ever expected.
I miss it and all the people who I shared the experience with, but, in the short amount of time I was there, I know that I discovered something that I will take with me for the rest of my life. Here’s to hoping all of your experiences are as great! Adios!
