CIDE exchange: part 1- I'm in Mexico!

I arrived without a hitch. Arrived at my place safe and sounds and got to meet some really amazing and helpful people. A friend of a friend connected me with Patty, the woman who owns the home I am staying in. I have my own room with a private bathroom attached to the main house. It is very cozy and feels private, but I still have someone living near me and tons of dogs to play with! I am in a residential area southwest of the central part of the city. I like this a lot because I am surrounded by trees and mountains, but I still have everything I need close by. I have figured out the bus routes relatively quickly, and Patty has been so nice and driven me around a lot to show me where stuff is.

I like my study abroad group, I am the oldest, haha. There are a total of 10 of us, 6 of us are from out of the country and 4 are doing an exchange from other universities in Mexico. It is pretty common here for students to do a semester or year exchange with another school. CIDE is a unique experience in the sense that it is not a university, but a research institution that offers bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees. 4 students are finishing their bachelors degree, 5 of us are doing our masters, and one is a doctoral candidate writing his thesis.

I am trying to explore as much of the city on my own as I can, and I also enjoy going places with the group. There are no “official” events for the exchange students as such, but we still try and hang out together.. I’ve made a map of all the important places in the city I plan on going. I love googlemaps, it really makes things so easy!

So far, I am taking 2 classes at CIDE: analysis of social programs and evaluation of education policy. The social programs class will take the most effort since it is a master’s level economics class, but I feel ready to tackle the challenge. We have a laboratory component (the class collectively asked for one) and I will be battling my frenemy: STATA. For my education policy class I will be working on a report about a pilot program my professor is working on with some other researchers at CIDE to integrate technology into education. I will update with more specifics as I get them.

I am also doing an internship for credit at the Mexican Commission for Defense and Promotion for Human Rights. I will be working on Institutional Development on projects almost exactly mirroring what I did at Rainforest Partnership this summer. I will be helping create a database of potential funders, create a master calendar about of grants, and start an individual donations program. I will only be going once per week, but it looks like it’ll be a way for me to perfect some fundraising skills.

I was also just invited to help collect some baseline data for a research project! I am thrilled because September 6-9 I will be travelling with 3 other women to interview and survey a small community in San Luis Potosí called Las Margaritas. Something crucial to note about Las Margaritas is that it is isolated technologically. By this I mean no cell phone signals or internet connections at all. Our job is to talk to people to get a sense of whether or not people want to be connected, and, if so, how and why they see this as desirable. It will be a fascinating experience, no doubt.

I look forward to see what the rest of my time here brings. I will continue to post pictures here. Keep in touch!

Crossing the Southwest

This post is a not-so-short update about my latest move from Austin to Mexico. This post is covering my last week in Austin and a road trip I took with my brother and father.

Packing week:

So my brother, Stephen, was visiting me my last week in Austin and I couldn’t have asked for a better time. It was filled will beer on the porch, a visit to the Austin zoo/sanctuary, Blues on the Green, and some pretty fantastic potlucks. It was certainly bittersweet to leave Austin and one of the best summer’s I’ve ever had, but knowing I will be back in the spring reminds me there is certainly more Austin fun to be had. I will miss Eric’s and my house, for sure, nothing can top our amazing location and porch. But a new adventure awaits and it began with a 5 day road trip that I will try and describe next.

TX to NM to AZ to UT to NV to CA (6 states in 4 days)

Day 1: Austin to Carlsbad Caverns

My father, brother, and I started our trip started off with some last minute packing into the Taurus, but we started on the road at 4:30am. I took the first leg, somehow wide awake despite the darkness. We made good time and got into Carlsbad around 1pm (after the extra hour we gained from the change of Time Zone) and were able to go through the Caverns all afternoon. They were unbelievable! Being 75 stories underground is pretty surreal, and the formations that took thousands of years to form were impressive. By the time we hiked out of the Caverns we were all pretty tired. We headed back to Carlsbad (not exactly as amazing as the Caverns), and slept about 10 hours straight. One of my favorite parts of Carlsbad was the Chinese Dragon restaurant whose advertised slogan was “Cheaper than a Trip to China” (needless to say, we did not eat there).

Day 2: Carlsbad to Tuscon

Stephen had some business to attend to in Tuscon, so we made our way across the desert of New Mexico and Arizona to Tuscon. Not really much to say about the drive, desert is desert my friends, and boy did I see enough of it. It was a bit of a dead day, but provided some much needed rest for the remaineder of our journey. The highlight of the evening was a good ol’ fashioned Western style meal at Pinnacle Peak. Many people mistake cacti and cowboys as a Texas phenomena, but in reality a lot of those classic Cowboy and Indian movie images come from NM and AZ. Anyways, it was a delicious meal of beer and salmon for me, and I couldn’t have asked for more.

Day 3: Tuscon to Kanab, UT

This was an epic day. We started off a bit later than intended, but still hit the road ready for 2 big stops (Sedona and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon). Sedona is absolutely gorgeous. Even though I was a bit tired from desert, this had some unbelievable picturesque views. It also had the most amount of churches in one concentrated area than I’ve ever seen. I’m not talking bible-belt style churches here, I’m talking EVERY kind of church imaginable. Our personal favorite was the Church of the Red Rock. There was also a spiritual center than claimed to guide you through the vortex…yeah, the vortex. The actual town was a strange mix of psychedelic hippie locales and high end resort style buildings. After having a quick lunch, we headed off up north. It became clear we were chasing a storm and could see the dark storm clouds ahead of us. The red cliffs surrounding us were nothing short of amazing, and guided us towards Marble Canyon, the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Looking over the bridge at the Colorado River amidst the silence surrounding me was calming and satisfying. This world has something wonderful to offer us if we just take a look around. As ya’ll probably know, I’m not a city person, and this stop really reinforced that in me. There’s just nothing that can compare to being outside, smelling fresh air, and knowing that anybody can experience the beauty of our land.

The last leg of this day was the longest, for sure. Not much after Marble Falls and we had almost caught up to the storm. The day started getting darker and darker and we were driving through curving roads along the mountains of northern Arizona. It was a bit frightening when the only light around as we’re diving down into the valley is coming from the car, but luckily it didn’t last long. The lighting shooting across the sky ahead of us was awesome, but also foreboding. We crossing into the next town, Fredonia, AZ and immediately decided this was NOT the place we wanted to stay. It had a hotel that screamed “stay here and you will not wake up alive” and a lovely gas station advertising “FOOD AMMO AND BEER”…not exactly waving a warm welcome sign. Luckily, 10 miles ahead was wholesome Kanab, UT where we were welcomed with a stoplight, a gas station with a beer cave (yes, beer cave, people, beer cave!), and an open Pizza Hut. We ate our pizza, watched some of the Olympics, and passed out, satisfied after a LONG, long, day of awesome.

Day 4: Kanab to Los Angeles

We had a great morning filled with fresh mountain air through Zion National Park. It was such a relief to have some cool air around us and be able to have the windows rolled down as we drove around. Zion was beautiful, as can be imagined, but my goodness, the squirrels were insane! As my dad and bro were walking through the river and I sat atop a large boulder, a squirrel was plotting its robbery. While admiring the beautiful red cliffs surrounding me, I took a quick look down to notice a little squirrel approaching our bags. As I tried to call out to my brother, it was too late. The squirrel had already started digging through my dad’s bag and took off with Steve’s Pepperoni Pizza Combos. My dad and Steve took off after the little thief as I attempted to scuttle down the boulder, but it was to no avail. Team squirrel won, and left a trail of dead combos across the battleground. Annnyyyywwwaayyysss, we took off towards Los Angeles, but not without a quick tour through Vegas. I’ve been here plenty of times, but it still never fails to impress upon me how entertaining human stupidity can be.  So many things, I can’t even describe. Excess at its best contrasting with the natural wonder of Zion. Sigh. Anyways, we had some food after walking around the city and safely made it to Los Angeles. Yay! Back in California!!! I look forward to our last leg back to the Bay Area and I look forward to my next adventure…Mexico J