ITAM, Mexico City. History and Spanish Major. Studied at ITAM January June 2013

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1 ITAM, Mexico City History and Spanish Major Studied at ITAM January June 2013 Mexico City is amazing. I had an absolutely incredible time on exchange and I absolutely recommend both ITAM University, and Mexico City. You will have an incredible experience. Although Mexico has an unsafe reputation I felt incredibly safe throughout my time in Mexico. Mexico City is a culturally diverse city of around 30 million people. Cultural events and activates are abundant. No Friday night was ever the same with a great variety of activities from luche libre (Mexican wrestling), Chinese New Year celebrations, trips to the beach, fantastic restaurants, incredible clubs and amazing concerts. For someone who is outgoing and loves adventures regardless of your level of Spanish Mexico City and Mexico will be an amazing experience. Above: Top left the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert in Mexico City, Top Right Frida Kahlo s clothes exhibition at her museum in Mexico City, bottom left a pyramid at Chichen Itza in the Yucatan, bottom right the luche libre in Mexico City The University - ITAM

2 ITAM is a private university with a great reputation. With only 5000 students and 40 exchange students ITAM has a really good sense of community and you ll quickly meet a lot of people and build a community of great friends. I found the process of arranging courses from Dunedin difficult my advice to others would be to the exchange coordinator in Mexico throughout the process. Although I only intended to take 4 courses at ITAM I signed up for 6 papers. I did that because it is a lot easier to drop papers than pick them up and because exchange students have preferential entrance to courses before the semester starts. When I arrived in Mexico I had just finished my second year of Spanish at Otago. Although I originally found it challenging I took two papers in Spanish and would advise everyone to do this regardless of their Spanish level. The professors accommodate your language levels and those hours of academic Spanish help you significantly to improve your language skills. Overview of the papers I took: History of the United States Two 1.5 hour classes a week; No exam; English - This paper was in English and although it has a consistent workload, with quite a lot of readings (in English) it was a good paper to take your marks are based on three presentations and two essays. Contempory political history Two 1.5 hour classes a week; No exam - This class is in Spanish. The professor is incredibly kind and accepts written work in English. I adored this class and I strongly recommend taking any Classes of Alexandra s. Spanish Classes Three 2 hour classes a week; No exam - The Spanish language classes at Itam were not amazing. Because the exchange group was so small we only had one Spanish class which encompassed a large variety of abilities. I understand that the format and quality of language classes change every semester so it could be different when you are there Overall my Spanish improved hugely from being in Mexico. I supplemented the ITAM classes with a week of language school in the south of Mexico at the end of my semester. I think it would be even better to do this before starting the semester started if you could. At ITAM I attended Mesas del Mundo - a weekly speaking group in which students correct each other and aid each other in learning new languages; If one your goals is to gain Spanish fluency then the Spanish papers are a must, but be prepared to supplement them. Mexican History Two 1.5 hour classes a week; No exam, in Spanish. - In theory this class is great and interesting however it is aimed at Mexicans so a lot of basic prior knowledge of Mexican history is assumed making it a bit difficult for exchange students. However the professor was very accommodating, creating a separate course for exchange students with more broad readings etc. In this course we learnt about Mexican history until 1920 s. The ITAM buddy program The buddy program had differing levels of success, however you have nothing to loose by signing up your buddy will pick you up from the airport show you some

3 sights and help you orientate yourself. If your lucky like me you ll get an amazing buddy who will become one of your closest friends on exchange. Currency/visas The currency conversion is great with 10 pesos being the equivalent of 1 New Zealand dollar. Although Mexico is cheaper to live in, I did not save any money compared to living in Dunedin however my quality of life was better. Eating out at least once a day is common and my house included luxuries such as a cleaner. For Mexico I used a 180 tourist visa and it worked fine, it seems the official visa is more annoyance than use for someone going away for only one semester. The 180 days restarts every time you leave Mexico so if you wanted a bit more time in Mexico you could quite easily receive a new tourist visa. However I had lots of visa problems because the United States does not count Mexico as leaving America for this reason I needed to get a US visa I was lucky because the law was new and the embassy aided me a lot in getting that visa in Mexico however I think needing a US visa will complicate your ability to only use a tourist visa in Mexico I found this process very confusing so I would advise contacting the very friendly New Zealand embassy in Mexico for advise. Travel Traveling was a highlight for me, there are lots of cheap flight companies (vivaaerobus, Volaris) and great comfortable buses (Turibus). I tried to get away at least every 3 rd weekend and traveled for 6 weeks after the end of classes. Mexico is physically diverse and exceptionally stunning. With lots of regional diversity, I would advise traveling lots! Although I loved traveling Mexico City itself is awesome, with pryamids like Teotechacan, boat rides at Xochimilco, the Frida Khalo museum and lots of other great sights - so don t forget to explore the gorgeous city you will be living in. Taxis and the metro in Mexico City are both really cheap making getting around the city very easy. Above: On left a beach close to Puerto Escondido, on right swimming with turtles

4 Sport I joined the ITAM rugby team and another rugby club in the city centre although I don t play rugby in New Zealand this activity was a defining aspect of my successful experience in Mexico. I made lots of different friends and was embraced by a community of Mexicans from all different walks of life the club was very social with parties on the Mexico City tour bus and amazing tournaments in exotic places like Cancun. Above: On left the girls after a match, on right club prize giving. Culture Mexico is such an exciting place with a friendly culture, it is colourful vibrant chaotic and loud. If these things excite you you will have a blast. As a vegetarian I struggled at times to find food however the limited options I found never failed to delight me. Men can ogle at you in the street if you re a women I found that the biggest cultural difference I encountered. Housing ITAM is situated in the South of Mexico City in a suburb called San Angel, San Angel is a very relaxed suburb about half an hour from the central city. I loved living in this location because we had the excitement and the activities of the city very close but also were able to build a strong local community. I personally felt very safe in San Angel a feeling all the exchange students who lived and studied there shared. ITAM has partnerships with a few different landlords in this area for exchange students. I choose to live in Hidalgo 92B and highly recommend this house. It only has 5 people so it remains clean and manageable but it is next door to Hidalgo 92 which has 12 people and could become quite rowdy The landlord Clemente is friendly and threw us a great welcoming party. Clemente can be vague about when rent is to be collected etc so I would just him a lot and you will get good results. Rent at Clemente s Houses is usually about New Zealand dollars a month, depending on the quality of your room. The housing from ITAM arrived quite late and most land lords took a while to respond to those who like to be organized my advice would be to be a bit of a nag and keep ing till you get results; but also have faith - accommodation was found for all exchange students.

5 Hidalgo 26 was another big house that was also popular with exchange students, however it is a wee bit more expensive because all rooms have private bathrooms. There were other housing options but these were less central and quieter. Using Craigslist I had a few friends who chose to live in a more central hip suburb called Condesa, they loved living in Condesa however found the commute to uni in peak traffic an annoyance. If you like the idea of an unforgettable adventure Mexico City is the place for you. Above: A cave beach in Puerta Vallarta