Stereotypes

Mexican food is stereotyped to only consist of tacos, burritos, enchiladas, chimichaungas and chips and salsa. Other stereotypes are that everyone loves soccer; they have large families and are typically poor or lower income. I think most people think that they have strong religious backgrounds of Catholicism. I think Mexicans usually have more family traditions and have a closer ties and relationships with their families.

During my time here I have broken a lot of stereotypes about Mexican people and culture.  Mexicans are friendly, family oriented and hard working people.  There is much to the culture that can be overlooked.  Their food is “muy rica” and authentic.  There’s more to the food here than just beans, tacos and burritos.  Yucatan food is especially different than what I expected.

Expectations

I expect that I will make the best out of my opportunity while in Merida. I hope to meet several new people not including my fellow students. I hope to better understand the culture and traditions of the Mexico. I want to interact with Mexican families to understand the value of family in their culture. I also hope to gain knowledge about the history of Mexico and their current society. I also expect from this trip to become good friends with my fellow students. I look forward to excursions with the group and adjusting to new surroundings, different that what I am comfortable with.

I feel that I held up with most of my expectations, such as meeting and making new friends, but I know there are things I could of improved on.  I do wish I would of spoke Spanish more amongst the other students but it’s hard to resist to speak English.  But I know that I improved incredibly from where I was before this trip.  I couldn’t have improved as much as I did if I didn’t come here.