Universidad de las Americas - Puebla

My favourite night spots have since closed. These include Cartujos bar and La Mulada. Activity wise there is so much going on. I really enjoyed my salsa classes and travelling all around Mexico. I would not miss Taxco, San Cristobal de las Casas or Palenque and many other places. Finding out about local concerts and festivals is also worthwhile. The Cervantino Festival should not be missed.

The dormitories were in a great location and they were quite modern. I was in a 4 bedroom apartment style dormitory sharing with 8 females. There was a full kitchen and lounge room. UDLA makes an effort to place foreign students in rooms with locals. It is a good idea.

The suprise for me is that you can do a lot more for a lot less. To save money you would do the obvious things, eat at home rather than out, buy beer instead of pina coladas and say no to buying a sixth silver ring or mexican rug!

One of my main objectives for going to UDLA was to learn Spanish. I learnt a huge amount while I was there. However as most students speak English and like to practice with you and they are the people you most interact with I did not learn as much as I would have liked.

Mexico is a great country full of so many contrasts. Puebla has a large Spanish influence so it is beautiful architecturally and quite conservative. The university is in Cholula, which is close to Puebla. It is a small town dominated by the university. It has a lost of history and culture as well. Beware of Moctezuma's Revenge, it is not fun (especially when you have to spend a day with a drip in your arm for rehydration) Cultural differences are huge and the longer your stay the more you realise there is so much more to learn. ie put your loo paper in the bin not the toilet, being a vegetarian is pretty hard- specify every possible type of flesh you do not want in your meal when you order ie I want a meal without pork without beef without chicken without fish, or the juice of any of these..., when you are told manana expect whatever to happen later not nescessarily tomorrow, and 8pm usually means 10pm if you want to meet people. Most of all ENJOY and do not get to phased by everything, the culture is different but brilliant and colourful.