Con Todo El Corazon

2 de junio

Today I finally got street mango that I've been craving forever!

Most of today was spent working on and practicing our "corrido" about the history of the PRI party and its dictatorship in Mexico. 

3 de junio 

Today we had our first professional visit and visited PoliThink, essentially a lobbying group in Mexico. One of their most recent efforts was putting a tax on sodas. This was an especially interesting visit for me because of my interest in policy and government as well as my connection to one of the largest soda corporations in the world. 

On our way back, we walked through Parque Mexico in Condesa which is absolutely huge and also home to many fruit stands. So of course we had to get some mango and lime, which was even more delicious than the day before. As we continued to wonder our way back, we stopped by Sanborns which is a huge department store they have here that has everything from fragrances to books to a bakery and a restaurant. We picked up a little snack to keep us motivated to work on our corridos:

4 de junio 

Today is the day we present our corridos to the entire class. Needless to say, it was a very entertaining hour and a half of listening to our classmates sing (and sometimes dance) along to the 70 year story of PRI. 

Before class, I checked out Frutos Prohibidos for brunch and had a Nutella and strawberry wrap:

I've also seen this vendors on the street that sell chips and I've always wanted to by something from them. These fried wheels in particular reminded me of India and of home. But in typical Mexican style, they were sprinkled with lime: 

After class, we did some work on our final project (our topic is medical tourism in Mexico) and also researched for our debates. My debate topic was genetically modified corn and I was arguing against it. 

5 de junio

Today's debates were surprisingly more entertaining and fun than any of us expected. I guess arguing is arguing, eve when it is in a different language. After class, we did some work on our final project, attempting to contact people for interviews and also just get our ideas organized. 

Finally, we took some time in the evening to explore the city and walk around a little bit. We walked up to this statue we had first seen on Turibus our first day here. It's absolutely crazy to think that was over a month ago!

6 de junio

This morning my final project group and I took our hand at using the metro on our own to go to one of the businesses we wanted to interview. After two train lines and a ten block walk, we made it to what ended up being a residential complex that the business just happened to be working out of for now. Unfortunately, the interview didn't happen. But at least now we know we are proficient in the metro system and also asking for and following directions. We then made it back to class just in time for a professional visit from a man who runs an augmented reality business. 

After class, we made it back for much needed naps and showers to get ready for this "fancy" event we had been invited to by the school. It was this event sponsored by Veet and the venue was large, while the people were not. From what we could tell, it was a fashion show with some (probably famous) band. At the very least, it was fun to get all dressed up and to also see how people around our age get dressed up.