Concrete suburbs are unforgiving, made some friends though. Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

On-site administration of your program

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I ended up forming an awesome friendship with my host mom. That was huge for me. However, I found the endless concrete suburbs where all of the IFSA students were housed to be intolerable. There was absolutely no sense of community. People only got around in their cars. I rarely saw other people walking on the street.

My host mom is an amazing cook and I really enjoyed preparing meals with her and learning dishes from her.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Mérida is very segregated. The suburbs where we lived tended to be much more white/mestizo (often people from Mexico City). People who provided services and worked in construction would commute by public transit to work at houses/properties near where I was living. They are mostly indigenous and from rural parts of Yucatán. It was very hard to feel "integrated" when that would have meant a normalization of that gross inequality.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I never got reimbursed for my medical expenses (though they weren't huge) even after having gone through the process that IFSA told us we had to follow to get reimbursed.

I generally felt very safe in Mérida. I think that has a lot with me being a cis man. A lot of the women who I studied with got harassed on the street continuously throughout the semester and often expressed feeling less safe walking at night. Additionally, it feels important to note how IFSA markets itself using the supposed safety of Mérida (in contrast with other parts of Mexico). A big reason for this perception of Mérida is that narco families from the cartels in other parts of the country send their families to live in cushy compounds in Mérida and thus have a vested interest in keeping things calm in the city where their loved-ones live.

Mérida is terribly spread out, flat, disconnected, and the downtown area caters to tourists. I've visited several other parts of México where I can imagine having a much better time studying abroad.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language

There was very little emphasis that we speak spanish amongst ourselves.

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• Host Family

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• Host Family

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• Local Students
• Americans
• International Students

• The friendship I formed with my host-mom.
• Trip to Yaxunah (community in eastern Yucatán)
• Papadzules, delicious.

• The program's course: C&C
• Giving us the illusion of agency. Treating us like children.
• Program excursions could be more critical/self-reflective.

The Nearly Native or Trail Blazer