It is my day of departure for Mexico City and the excitement has kept me up all night. Sleep deprived but ready to welcome the experience of being in Mexico with open arms, I am writing this blog post as I wait for my boarding group to be called. With me are two other girls who are also participating in the Public Health in Mexico Program. So far, we have been chatting about everything we know about Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City, Mexican culture and Spanish.
I will say that our excitement to be in Mexico is more than obvious! There are so many historic sites we want to visit and foods we want to try. For example, I have only seen pictures of Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City and of Oaxaca but I bet that a picture fails to fully capture how majestic these sites are in person. Furthermore, I am very interested in learning more about the public health system in Mexico — both in the classroom and at the local clinics that are associated with the program. Something I have learned during my time at Northwestern is that a perfect public health system does not exist, therefore, it will be a learning experience not only to see how the Mexican system differs from the American one, but also to analyze its shortcomings and advantages within the context of Mexican culture.
Lastly, this will be an interesting time to live in Mexico City as the Mexican soccer team gets closer to making it to the final rounds of the World Cup.
