Bienvendos a Monterrey!

Bienvendos a Monterrey!

From the plains of the border, as we drove there was an ominous mountain range on the horizon. The Sierra Madre Mountains cut through Mexico like a blunt knife, leaving jagged peaks and treacherous slopes. They are a young mountain range and were once part of the Andes in present-day South America. Thanks to the phenomenon of continental drift, the two have split. Monterrey is like a sleepy hollow, except a bustling city of 3 million people. It’s like Chicago, but in the mountains. The buildings are accented by the mountains on the horizon, the most recognizable peak being la Serra de la Silla (de Caballo), which is Spanish for “Peak of the Saddle.” It really looks like a saddle!

But aside from the geography are the people. Coming from Texas, DC was a very unfriendly place, however, now Texas is like DC in comparison to Monterrey. The people here are just lovely. Their humility and kindness reflects in every word and gesture.

The University I’m attending, El Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores, Monterrey (ITESM) is prestigious from what I read and heard when applying; however, I had no idea how powerful a place this really is. It is without doubt, the MIT of Latin America. The sciences and engineering programs are world renown; however, their business and economics schools are stellar. The campus is gorgeous. I went with my family today to check out the campus and maybe take care of a few logistical things and look where I would be living and eating (something I never got to do for AU). There are Peacocks and Fawns randomly grazing the campus! I asked where the dormitory I was assigned to was located and the guard said it was off the map. It turns out it was like a half mile from campus and secluded. It seemed pretty sketch to me. Not to mention, the barbed wire fence made me a bit uneasy. Immediately, I asked if I could change rooms and live ON CAMPUS like I had requested. I got moved to edificio 7 (which had no air conditioning) but was overlooking MY POOL And the mountains. I figure that I am in a third-world country and that living on the actual campus was safer. I figured, I could always cool of in the pool, right? With that said, I’ve got my first day of orientation tomorrow and I’m excited to meet the other exchange students and make some new friends.

Ciao!

-Gerardo