EXCHANGE REPORT MEXICO CITY

EXCHANGE REPORT MEXICO CITY PERSONAL INFORMATION ANR: 835564 Name: Rendal Derksen E-mail: [email protected] Exchange semester: Fall 2014 Academi...
Author: Beverly Bond
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EXCHANGE REPORT MEXICO CITY PERSONAL INFORMATION ANR: 835564 Name: Rendal Derksen E-mail: [email protected] Exchange semester: Fall 2014 Academic year: 5 Host University: Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) Country: Mexico

I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE CITY AND THE SCHOOL ITAM is located in Mexico City, one of the biggest cities in the world with a population of approximately 21 million inhabitants. ITAM is located in the biggest delegación of Mexico City, named Álvaro Obregrón with approximately 727.000 inhabitants. Within Álvaro Obregrón, ITAM is located in the neighborhood of San Ángel, a relatively safe neighborhood which is part of the historic center, the oldest part of the city. San Ángel is located next to the most authentic and cozy neighborhood of Mexico City, called Coyoacán, with numerous of nice restaurants and bars. Besides that, San Ángel is close to the famous night scenes called Condesa and Roma, to reach by a 20 minute drive in the evenings without traffic.

In Mexico City you are never bored. Besides going out in the vibrant nightlife, there are numerous of great museums which are without a doubt worth visiting. The National Museum of Anthropology is the most visited museum in Mexico City, and not without a reason. The museum exhibits the total rich culture of Mexico from the start of humanity, with beautiful replicas of the most important Maya and Aztec temples and numerous archeological findings. Besides that, Museo Tamayo and Museo Soumaya, the museum of the personal collection of Carlos Slim - considered the richest man in the world – are definitely worth visiting, with works worth billions of euros of all famous painters and artists. The best part is that all museums are free when showing your student card of ITAM. 1

When you’re done visiting the museums or hangover from a good evening going out, you can chill out in one of the biggest parks in the world, called Chapultepec. One of the most fun things to do in Mexico City is Xochimilco, called “trajineras” amongst the people. You basically invite a lot of friends and take a lot of booze, and rent a boat to sail over the narrow channels of Xochimilco while enjoying the Mariachi bands which you can take on board.

As earlier mentioned, ITAM is located in the neighborhood of San Ángel. In San Ángel, there is not that much to do, but the most important is that it is located closely to neighborhoods such as Coyoacán, Condesa and Roma, which are the most vivid neighborhoods of the whole city. ITAM is a really prestigious university which yielded lots of politicians and other famous people like the former president. It is seen as the best university of Mexico, and named the best business school of Latin America by Ámerica Economía. ITAM is a private university, and only available for the top of society. ITAM students pay approximately 75000 pesos per semester dependent on the amount of courses one takes (equal to about 4200 euros) compared to only 27 pesos a semester at public universities. Therefore, it is a small university with approximately 5000 students (undergraduates and graduates). This means that there is also only a small group of exchange students. In my semester, we were with 94 exchange students which was the highest amount ever. The semester before and after there were approximately 35 exchange students, but note that the spring semester is less crowded in general. The good thing of the small group of exchange students is that everybody is really close.

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Accordingly, the campus is way smaller than Tilburg University, but has a stylish appearance. The entry hall is made of marble and especially the library looks classic and authentic. During the exams you will notice that the library is really crowded, and even opened 24 hours a day. The sports facilities at ITAM are free. You can play football, volleyball, basketball or take salsa classes. The gym is not that big, however, that’s why I decided to subscribe at another gym close to our place with some friends. There is one eat facility at the university, but most students don’t make use of it. I only ate their once at the introduction day. Just outside ITAM there are a lot of restaurants where you can have a good full dinner for approximately 3 to 4 euros including drink. This is really common as dinner time is between 1 and 4 in the afternoon. After 7 these restaurants are closed, but you can go to the taco bars near ITAM for some evening snacks.

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II PRACTICAL INFORMATION Information before leaving I don’t remember the exact date when I received the pre-arrival information, but ITAM will send a folder with all necessary to Tilburg University on time. Visa procedure and arrival When staying less than 180 days in Mexico, a visa is not necessary. In general, students get picked up by their buddies from the airport. Although my buddy was still on holidays, another student from ITAM which I came through in contact by an earlier exchange student was so generous to pick me up from the airport. If not, you can take the metro or a taxi to your residence. A taxi drive takes approximately 30 minutes to 2 hours dependent on the traffic, but is not that expensive. Make sure you contact your house owner on time when you’ll arrive. Orientation/Introduction activities The last week before classes start an introduction day takes place. During this day you get an introduction to Mexican history and a tour around ITAM. Besides that, a lunch is organized to get to know your fellow exchange students. After the introduction day, you can organize an evening out with your fellow exchange students yourself. At ITAM all exchange students get assigned a buddy. There is, however, not a lot of supervision on the buddies. How much you hang out with your buddy is dependent on both yourself and your buddy. A few weeks before arriving you get assigned a buddy. Some will contact you, others you have to contact yourself. I would recommend to contact them. In case they don’t respond, contact Ana Lorena Barrera for help. Housing The housing is arranged by ITAM. About two months in advance you receive a mail with all available options. You have to choose a top 3, but make sure you respond as soon as possible because its first come first served. I would recommend to live in Hidalgo 92, 92A, 92B, or Hidalgo 26. These accommodations are great and at walking distance from ITAM. I lived in Hidalgo 92. I lived with 12 students, mostly exchange. The rooms are big and nice, there are enough bathrooms, a nice roof terrace, there is a cleaning lady and it is reasonably priced. The house owner is kind of strict in terms of parties, but in my experience house owners can be way worse. Living costs I financed my exchange period with almost the same expenses as in Tilburg. Only for an extraordinary trip to Las Vegas and a 3 week long road trip with my friends after the semester I took money of my savings account. For my room I paid approximately 235 euros (4200 pesos), but I had one of the best rooms in the house. The food is way cheaper in Mexico. You can go for a full dinner around ITAM for approximately 3 to 4 euros, or to one of the many taco bars near ITAM for 2 to 5 euros. You can choose to cook yourself, but in my experience this doesn’t turn out to be much cheaper. Public transport is really cheap. A bus from ITAM will take you for free to some places in the city. The metro is about 30 cents for a one-way 4

ticket everywhere in the city. For going out, the taxis are really affordable. You pay around 8 euros (150 pesos) with 4 persons to go back in the middle of the night from Condesa, but make sure you don’t let yourself get ripped off. The books depend highly on the courses you take. I was lucky that I didn’t have to buy any book. One book was made available on blackboard and another I could find on the internet. When you really need the book, make sure to ask around a little or post a message on the exchange students Facebook whether there are books available from former exchange students. In general, it’s great to be relatively rich . Academic Calendar My semester started at the 11th of August and ended the 20th of December. The introduction day was at the 7th of August but I arrived at the 23rd of July to get to know the city and travel around. There is no such thing as a Mid-term break. There are, however, such things as “puentes”, which means a long weekend from about Friday to Monday. Sometimes till Tuesday, dependent on public celebration days. This happens about 4 times per semester and gives you the chance to travel. If you discuss with your teachers they’ll be more flexible to exchange students to give you an extra day of for a trip. Mid-terms and exams are given during the whole semester, dependent on the courses. Only the last examination period is fixed, which lasted from the 6th till the 20th of December in my semester. The International Office There is an international office at ITAM in which you can walk in at any time. The person responsible for the exchange students is Ana Lorena Barrera. She is really helpful and you can always contact her by e-mail and she’ll respond really fast. Exchange promotion I spread a good worth of mouth about Tilburg University, and I even managed to get an ITAM student for a year to Tilburg University next year, while before she didn’t consider it as an option. Besides that, I made another two students think seriously about going on exchange to Tilburg University. Social Activities Except for an introduction day and a welcome dinner, not a lot of activities are organized especially for exchange students by the university. The university organizes, however, some great activities like a back2school party and an end of the semester party. Make sure you attend those. The lack of activities organized by the university is more than compensated by the student organizations. Organizations like Mexchange, Mexcal, Hang-out and Integrate organize trips to everywhere in the country and parties all semester long. They make sure you come into contact with lots of exchange students as well as local students and don’t miss out on anything. In my semester we had an amazing group of exchange students. From the 94 exchange students we had a really close group of about 45 students. With help of the organizations, we had parties every week and we made trips almost every weekend to all parts of Mexico.

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In my experience there seemed to be a great difference between Tilburg and Mexico in the relationship of exchange students to local students. In Tilburg I never had the feeling that local students hang out a lot with exchange students, but in Mexico everybody seemed to be wanting to hang out with the exchange students. Mexican people are so open and hospitable that they want to hang out with you all the time and are willing to take you everywhere. They will invite you to a lot of parties and trips, and even an invitation for Christmas dinner with their parents is not uncommon. During my exchange semester I travelled literally through the whole country, with one exception to Las Vegas.

Culture and Language

During my exchange I learned a lot about almost every aspect of the Mexican culture, but also about my own culture. I was especially amazed by the openness and hospitality of the 6

Mexican people. As an exchange student, you gained a lot of attention and people loved to hang out with you. You got invited to all parties and trips and were able to establish lots of friendships with the Mexican people to get to know the country the best. For example, it was rude to not invite someone for a party you were talking about, no matter who is the host. Everybody is always welcome. This is mainly because of their warm culture. This warm culture can also be noted by small things, such as the way in which people greet each other. Everybody gives each other kiss, no matter if it’s a friend, her grandma or someone you meet for the first time. The boys give each other always two hands and a warm hug. In social terms, people in Holland could learn a lot from Mexicans. On the other side, Mexican people could learn a lot from Dutch people in terms of rules. Rules seem to be guidelines in Mexico. This yields a lot of fun and is part of the relaxed culture and setting of the people, but is also one of the main causes for the governmental issues and political problems in the country, which shouldn't be forgotten. Every day in Mexico you come into contact with the huge contrasts between rich and poor. Compared to Holland, the rich people are way richer in Mexico, and the poor people are way poorer. For me iconic was the business man who got his shoes cleaned on the streets by a guy who lived of a few pesos a day. Despite political issues, during the exchange program I think none of the exchange students ever felt unsafe. Obviously there were neighborhoods were one shouldn't come, but there is no need whatsoever to go there. Almost every day you came into situations which are unthinkable in Europe, but which are one of the many charms of South America. The exchange made me think a lot about our own culture. What I found especially striking, was becoming aware of how liberal Holland is. In Mexico all students live with their parents, unless they’re from outside the city, but that was not that common. Taking someone home after going out to your parent’s home was just not done, and for some of them drinking neither. Even sleeping on the same room when having a relationship for a few years is mostly not done. This doesn’t mean that they obeyed the rules however. As I mentioned earlier, rules are just guidelines in Mexico. Another thing which I became really aware of, was the directness of Dutch people. I sometimes noted that I was too direct. But I also had to get used to them being not that direct. For example, after a party in my place some things got broken. The house owner told me: “Note that these things are broken”. A few days before giving my deposit back he told me: “You didn’t replace the things I told you, so I have to get them of your deposit”. I told him: “You never told me to replace them”. After a small discussion a Mexican friend jumped in and told me that “Note that these things are broken” is the Mexican way for asking to replace them. Then I immediately agreed and apologized for the difference in my culture. Mexico is such a big culture that there are hundreds of subcultures. When going on a trip outside the city you got the feeling that you were in a totally different country. A lot of parts in Mexico seem really undeveloped. In this way we got into a lot of strange adventures, especially during our own road trip with friends by car through half of the country. For example in a village of a native tribe which had total authority, taking a photo could lead you to jail. In these ways, you learn to respect all different cultures and their habits.

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At ITAM, there were not a lot of language issues. Most students at ITAM speak decent English. Nevertheless, the older people or employees of the university in lower functions like security guards or cleaners do not speak English. Outside ITAM, in taco bars or all street shops, it is very unlikely that people speak English. Therefore, you definitely need a basic level of Spanish. Especially when going on a road trip to undeveloped parts, speaking and understanding a sufficient level of Spanish is necessary. Taking courses in Spanish turned out to be really hard. In my experience, passing the basic and the intermediate course Spanish at Tilburg University was not sufficient, unless you really study hard yourself. Especially working on your vocabulary yourself is necessary before leaving on exchange in order to follow courses in Spanish. The fact that you hang out with a lot of exchange students doesn’t promote your Spanish, as the main language used between exchange students is English. Personal Development Going on exchange makes you not only think about differences in culture, but also about your own interpretation of these social rules. During your exchange you learn to develop your norms and values by getting in touch with a lot of different people and their cultures. This will make you more flexible in getting along with other people, and learns you to respect their norms and values. If you manage to do this, you will gain a lot of new friends. Although it sounds really cliché and kind of impossible in six months, I really got the feeling that I made friends for live. Your fellow exchange students are the only ones who really know what you’ve been through during your exchange. I’m so glad that I had the chance to meet all these amazing people. Besides that, I have friends all over the world now, which I’m sure of that I could visit them any time. Through my exchange, I made so many new connections, that this will obviously increase my future career possibilities. Besides that, going on exchange confirms that you’re open for new experiences, which is an important selection criteria for companies. Moreover, getting to know different cultures is really attractive for companies operating in international business. And of course your language skills of both English and Spanish improved considerably, which gives you more future career possibilities. This exchange period was the best time of my live. I learned so many things, and the country, the food, the weather and the trips were amazing. But without a doubt, the best thing of all are all the new friends I’ve gained. The most important lesson I learned about myself is that I should be a little less direct sometimes, to not unintentionally hurt people. I really think before I’m saying something now what I want to say, how I’m going to say it, and who I’m talking to. Academic level at the host university Courses at ITAM are offered in both English and Spanish. Most of them are only offered in Spanish though, but nevertheless there is enough choice of courses in English. The course structure is way different. Courses are given twice a week for the whole semester, and exams and mid-terms can be given during the whole semester. Attendance is obligatory, although you can miss a maximum of 20% of the course, which is about 6 classes. The final exam is mostly a small part of the grade. In my case the final exam counted for two courses for 20%, one course for 40% and another course for 50% of the final grade. Participation, however, is really important in every class and covers a considerable percentage of the final grade. This is 8

not only important for your grade, but also for your relation with the teacher. Classes are small with about 30 students per class. Therefore, every teacher knows you personally. The teachers at ITAM are really good, but will make you work really hard as well. Courses are way more intensive than at Tilburg University, but the level is more or the less the same, dependent on the courses you take. It is, however, easier to gain a higher grade when you work hard, as the final grade consists of different aspects. I followed the following courses: Comportamiento Humano I (Human Behavior) (ADM-14401) (BA) (Credits:6) I would really recommend this course, but make sure your teacher is Francisco Gil-White. This is by far the most awesome teacher and class I’ve ever followed. The teacher will make you work really hard, but classes are so much fun. The teacher will try to make a real leader of you by getting you into the most embarrassing situations, but I never had the feeling that I learned so much from a single course. The course is not hard to pass, but a lot of work. The final grade consists of a final exam, two mid-terms, two research papers, two simulation reports and participation in class. Managerial Skills Development (ADM-14413) (BA) (Credits:6) This course is really useful for your career and I would definitely recommend it. My teacher was Maggie Sloan, an American woman. During this course, you learn all the things you need to master as a manager. The course focuses especially on mastering your presentation skills, and will make you feel comfortable with giving presentations for big groups. Besides that, you learn how to make a perfect powerpoint presentation, how to write an academic report, how to make a perfect CV and how to do a job interview. The final grade consists of a final exam, three presentations, homework and participation. International Business (ADM-11013) (BA (Credits:6) During this course you will learn all the basics of international business, without going into detail on the mathematics. I would recommend this course if you’re interested in international business, but for economics students it might be a lot of repeating. The content seems easy, but the mid-term and the final exam are quite hard. The final grade consists of a final exam, a mid-term, quizzes and participation. Eleccion Publica (Public Election) (CSO-15021) (BA) (Credits:6) The course is about politics, but mainly about game theory. I wouldn’t recommend the course, unless you’re really interested in game theory. The teacher loves to hear himself talking, and has a strange system to give participation grades. During the whole class he points at people for questions, and he will grade students every class. If you don’t come up with a good answer or example within 10 seconds, he will give you a five. The final grade consists of a final exam, a mid-term and participation. Español de immersion (CLE-10512) (Credits:6) This is the hardest of the two Spanish courses for foreign students. In fact there are three levels, but the chance that you come into the highest group is very unlikely unless you already speak almost perfectly Spanish. On the introduction day you will make a test which places you in one of the three groups. If you passed the basic and the intermediate course Spanish at Tilburg University it is likely that you will end up in this class. The teacher is very nice, and 9

will teach you Spanish in a fun way. She makes sure you will practice your Spanish speaking. The content, however, is a lot of repeating from the intermediate course. In addition, she will learn you the differences between Spanish in Spain and Mexican slang, and will also teach you about Mexican culture. Note that the course takes some time. The classes are three times 2 hours a week. There is not a lot of homework, but consider it before taking the courses because you will have your hands full on other courses at ITAM. I decided to drop the course in the end, because of time issues and because the course didn’t count for my degree. The final grade consists of a final exam, a mid-term and a presentation. Other The library is open for all students, though you need a student card to get in. The library is silent and has a classic and authentic appearance. During the exams it will be really busy in the library, but the library will be open 24 hours. Computers are available in a different place, in the computer lab. Tips for future students I would definitely recommend an exchange period. No matter where you go, I think you will have the time of your life if you make the best out of it yourself. Going to ITAM is the perfect combination of working hard, getting a good reference at your CV, having a lot of parties and make awesome trips with amazing people. To go to Mexico, you have to be adventurous and open for new experiences, but this will yield you so much fun. Mexican people are really amazing, they will embrace you and make sure you have the time of your life. And one thing is sure, in Mexico you’ll never get bored. I would recommend students going to Mexico to work on their Spanish. The Spanish in Mexico is really clear without too much dialect, but if you want to have good conversations, you really need to study yourself besides passing the basic and intermediate Spanish course at Tilburg University. This is not a prerequisite, but it will give you something extra. In case you want any tips, feel free to contact me. Contact details The university can use this report for whatever they want. I want to thank Tilburg University for giving me this amazing opportunity and the time of my life. Prospective exchange students should feel free to contact me on [email protected], or via Facebook.

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