UPAEP

We arrived in Mexico City, and without even leaving the airport, we boarded a bus bound for Puebla. The trip took about 2.5 hours, an hour of which was just getting out of Mexico City! Wow. I can now say I’ve been in the largest city in the world. What a mess of people and cars and trash and culture. Wow.

When we arrived in Publa we took a taxi from the bus station to UPAEP, or rather, La Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Puebla. How is that for a mouth full? We met with the director of international programs, and he had someone show us to our temporary housing, a group of apartment buildings/houses. The other group from K-State who are working specifically in Puebla live in one of the houses and we stayed in the other. We stayed there both Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and the accommodations were very comfortable...especially compared to what we have here in Z! The houses have a couple of bedrooms upstairs, a large living room with cable TV (even some channels from the United States!), a large kitchen full of appliances and a bathroom upstairs with the bedrooms. Leshia and I shared one room while Patrick took another.

Tuesday night we basically just talked and talked with the Puebla group, Sean, Melissa and Molly. It was great to see them and hear about their projects. It was also nice just to see other people from the United States! Sean is the same age as Leshia and I, and will be returning to K-State in the fall. Molly will be starting at KU med with Patrick in July, and Melissa is going to San Francisco to be a Americorps VISTA volunteer, which Patrick was this past year at K-State. We’ve all been in class together this past spring semester and have become good friends. After catching up we went to bed, exhausted from all the traveling.

Wednesday we had a morning meeting with the men from UPAEP who do work here in Z. We talked about details, goals, what to expect, etc. Then Leshia, Patrick and I had our first taste of Mexican food at a cafe near the University. Later that afternoon we got a tour of UPAEP and were issued ID cards, in case we’re ever stopped by the Mexican military!

UPAEP is absolutely beautiful. It is the top private university in Mexico, home to about 6,000 undergraduate students and 700 grad students. It is a Catholic University, but doesn’t receive any funding from the church. UPAEP is so different from K-State that the two can hardly be compared, but I would say that UPAEP is of equal quality to K-State.

Like most buildings in Mexico, the university is designed to be cool in the hot months. There is a small library that they’re working to update, tennis courts, a pool and other recreation areas. They have an awesome cafe/student lounge in the middle of campus, and the best part is a stunning chapel, located on the second floor of a centrally-located building. I’ve included pictures of everything. Across the street from the main campus is a technology center, with many computers wired to the internet. Unfortunately many things are blocked, including Facebook and instant messaging, which was a disappointment to the Puebla group, but what can you do?

Wednesday afternoon Leshia, Patrick and I spent a little bit of time walking around the city of Puebla, which I think is the fourth largest in Mexico? It’s really cool and we hope to spend more time there at the end of our trip.

Wednesday evening after finishing all the logistics of the trip we went out to dinner. We just started walking through the streets and spotted a Cuban restaurant named after Ernest Hemingway! How could we resist?

It turned out to be significantly more fancy than we had expected, but it was so much fun to be pampered. The food was amazing and everyone but myself had mojitos, and Molly had a daiquiri. Delicious. Leshia and I shared a citrus chicken dish, which was a half of a chicken smothered in yummy pineapple and orange. We sat and talked and talked and laughed a lot. Right before we were about the leave, our waiter brought us complimentary mini daiquiri from the bar, which were, of course, well-received.

Patrick, Leshia and I were growing continually more nervous about life in Z the more we heard about it. First of all, NO ONE we met had ever even heard about Z, except the men at the university who go there often. I mean no one knows about this place. It was ridiculous. Anyway, alcohol was just what the doctor ordered and after a few rounds of cards and more talking with Sean, Molly and Melissa, we hit the sack because we were leaving for Z at 7 a.m. Thursday morning.

Thursday we got up and hauled our stuff to the university where we loaded it into a van for the 6-hour trip up to the mountains. We stopped a couple of times along the way to collect and drop off various people....see the next blog for more!

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Part of trip: Community Service Summer in Mexico

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