Conexiones - The Journey Ends

A view from Guanajuato

This is the latest installment in a series of blogs from a former KNME intern, Kaycie Robinson. She spend part of her summer in Mexico as part of the Conexiones trip, an annual study abroad program put on by the Honors Program and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese:

"Guanajuato and Mexico City!! The Conexiones group split into two smaller groups for the final weekend excursion, one went to Guanajuato and the other went to Mexico City. Following the weekend of fun, students faced the reality of only having five more days in Morelia.

The last week of Conexiones was bittersweet- people seemed ready to see friends and family back in the states, but it was obvious that they would miss the new friends here in Morelia. For many of the students, their host families really became family, and tears were all around at the Conexiones "Fiesta de Despedida"(Goodbye Party).

The effect of the Conexiones program was reinforced in our last few days in
Mexico. Five students and I visited the beach town of Sayulita for a few
days of surf and sun before returning to Albuquerque. While we relaxed on
the beach the second day, a woman came up to offer us a piece of cake. It
was her daughter’s birthday, and the whole family was celebrating by spending
the day picnicking and playing in the waves. The problem was that they had
bought a huge cake and couldn’t finish it- did we want some before the
mid-afternoon sun turned it to mush? We happily agreed to slices of cake,
and shared our “Gloria” caramels in return. As I talked with the family
later in the day, they said that they thought we were Canadians. “Why?” I asked the mother, Alicia.She frankly responded, “Because your faces are gentle. Most Americans we’vemet don’t have any interest in getting to know the people (of Mexico)”.Shocked by her honesty and embarrassed by the behavior of my fellow Americans, I told her, “Wow. I apologize for my countrymen”.She smiled, the family smiled, and we continued to talk for another 20 minutes. When the time came to get my dehydrated and sunburned self back to the hotel, they made sure to give me their email address, telephone number, and street address in Mexico City.“Tienes casa en D.F.”, they assured me. Literally, this means "you have a home in Mexico City", and I have no doubt that this family would gladly welcome me into their home whenever I find myself back in Mexico.This feeling of welcome sums up Conexiones- it is the process of falling in love with Mexico."

For more information about the Conexiones program at UNM, click here. Our thanks to Kaycie for taking us along for the ride this summer!

Kevin McDonald & Kathy Wimmer

The Public Affairs Team