Isabel Murrin

 I had always wished to study abroad in order to improve my Spanish skills and chose this program because my time was limited as a transfer student, and I heard from other transfers that Summer programs were a great opportunity for us. I chose Mexico City because I have family there, there is so much history to learn and explore in a hands-on manner, and financial aid covered most of the cost which was really important to me.

 I am generally a low-energy, slightly introverted kind of person, so I chose to contact a few people in my program and choose flights that corresponded with them, and I even met up with one of them in person a few weeks before to push and prepare myself for a higher level of social interaction.

 On a typical weekday, I would wake up about an hour and a half before class, get ready, eat my breakfast, and then walk over to campus. I lived about 25 minutes walking from campus so I always gave myself about 30 minutes to walk over. Most days I would stop and get a smoothie from one of the stands on the way, or sometimes a sandwich for lunch. Then we would have a few hours of class with breaks for lunch. Our classes mainly revolved around Mexican history and cultural/bilingual communication. Our latest class ended at 3, so it gave us a lot of time to do homework and explore the city. Homework generally took an hour. On some weekdays we would go on field trips, usually lasting the whole day, and most meals were provided. We would take buses to where we were going and spend the day immersed in Mexican culture and history. On weekends we would explore the city by going to museums that weren't included in our field trips like the Anthropology museum, going to different events like Lucha Libre or fútbol matches, or shopping at flea markets. Some nights we would all get dinner and see a movie or head to a bar/club. Though I am slightly introverted, so I spent some days alone but if I was going out alone I tried to only go out during the daytime.

 I took a Mexican history class, a cultural communication class, and an intermediate Spanish class. The workload and readings were generally light but the lectures were very rich and informative. Though I had taken intermediate Spanish before, I liked how this class took a more linguistic approach rather than focusing on vocabulary like other classes I had taken in the U.S., though not at Berkeley.

 I learned a lot about my immediate family while I was there by spending time there with my extended family. Because of a lot of craziness in my family life, I had been estranged from a lot of my family, even my extended family in the states. It really reminded me how strong "family" really is. Though I may feel estranged and it can be hard to reach out, it has inspired me to rebuild relationships with my family that I used to spend a lot of time with as a child.

 Definitely seeing my family for the first time. Hearing all of these stories about them my entire life but never having met them before, I was flooded with a lot of emotions that I had never felt before. Though I was planning on trying to find them while I was there, it was completely coincidental how I met them.

 My biggest challenge was probably speaking Spanish. I have learned a lot over the years and had pretty good reading and writing skills, but especially with the amount of time I spent online, I was not confident in my speaking and comprehension skills. It was a challenge, especially because sometimes I would have really good experiences where I felt like I was improving a lot, then I would have another experience that would break my confidence. I had to tell myself a lot that it's okay, and despite those tough experiences, I was still improving.

 Try to make friends that live in the area you are studying abroad in. You will learn so much by spending time with them from learning common phrases/slang to learning the best spots to visit. It took me a while to meet people but finally, after a few weeks, I met a great group of people who I had a lot of fun with. I would also recommend that if you have any hobbies, bring them with you. Though the program is short, there is some downtime that you may want to spend doing something you like. And if your hobby is cooking, look up recipes to cook in advance for while you're there because there are some ingredients you may be used to in the U.S. that you won't find there.