Should I do the abroad program in Cuernavaca, México?
Hello everyone, I am writing this short excerpt in hoping that it will help you to decide if you should do this program. I am going to be completely honest about that program and how I experienced it. I just got back from my 11-week experience in Cuernavaca, Morelos. If I had to describe it in one sentence, I would say: “It is truly the experience of a lifetime.” With any “experience of a lifetime,” it will have a profound effect on who you are as a person. You will experiences great struggles and joys, and end up as a better, more knowledgeable member of society for having done so. Looking back on it, I wouldn’t have asked for anythiºng different. I would take the good and the bad all over again. I could try to explain to you all of the individual events that occurred when I was there with my group, but it wouldn’t do it justice. Some of the things that we all got to see, hear, taste, smell, and feel on both the physical and metaphysical levels are entirely indescribable. You would just have to do it for yourself if you really wanted to know what it is like to stand on top of a pyramid that was handcrafted over 3,000 years ago with less technology and engineering than the pencil that I have in my pocket, and stare off into the amazing sunset with some people you have quickly built incredibly strong bonds with, and to just be at peace. You will become so much more confident and proud of yourself. I mean, you were thrown into a foreign country with a different language and completely different culture, and you not only survived it, but you thrived. When you return to Putney and back to the U.S. in general, asking to someone on the street for directions, giving your order at McDonald’s, and having to meet someone and shake their hand will be pan comido. You won’t avoid situations in which you have to speak Spanish, which is practically the unofficial second language of the U.S., with someone else, because you will be completely capable of doing so. There are too many benefits to list in this short excerpt, so I will leave it how it is. This journey will pass you by faster than you can master the subjunctive tense in Spanish, and you are going to miss every single moment of it. And when you think about it many years down the road, you are going to think, “Man am I glad I took that trip to Cuernavaca, México and studied abroad there. I mean, how many people in the world are fortunate enough to even have that experience presented to them, much less to live it.” I loved it. I have no regrets. So, I leave you with this, “Why shouldn’t you go abroad to study in Cuernavaca; what’s your excuse?