Pre-departure Jitters #HogsAbroad in Mexico

In just one week, I will be settling into my new home in Puebla, Mexico! I am so excited to be able to study abroad, as it's something I’ve wanted to do before I even started college. But, the pre-departure jitters are starting to set in! To be honest, I’m nervous to learn a whole new city, get used to a new culture, and to speak Spanish all the time! Here, if I ever don’t know a word in Spanish, my professor will let me know how to say it. One of my main goals for this trip is improving my Spanish-speaking skills, and being immersed in the city of Puebla will definitely help with this. As I pack and get ready to go, it’s becoming more and more real that I’ll actually be living in a different country. I’ve been out of the country quite a few times on mission trips to Honduras and Brazil, but this is completely different. It’s a little bit like starting college all over again: different place (in this case a different country), a new routine, and new friends. Just like I adjusted to the U of A, I’m sure I will adjust to this study abroad program.

So why Puebla? There are so many beautiful Spanish-speaking countries I could have gone to, like Spain, Argentina, and Chile, just to name a few. But my whole family is from Mexico, and is a country close to my heart. It’s beautiful: with beaches, mountains, volcanoes, booming cities, pyramids, and colonial era cathedrals. It has a little bit of everything for everyone. The food (in case you already didn’t know!) is incredible, and the history and culture is so rich. Puebla is in the middle of Mexico, and is a city of 3 million people. With the Dallas metroplex (my hometown) being around 7 million people, I’m already used to a big city feel! Another reason I chose Puebla is because it’s a service learning program, done through the U of A and is led by faculty members. Service learning lets you have hands on experience, and you have the opportunity to apply what you learn in a lecture into a real life experience. What this will look like for me is being able to use the vocabulary I learn in my Spanish class for health professions as I go to my clinical rotations in the local hospital. As a nursing major, I want to be able to speak with patients who are Latino and are more comfortable speaking in Spanish. Being able to speak Spanish directly to patients instead of using a translator helps you build rapport, and ensures that you communicate everything that you want to!

I am most excited about the clinical rotations I’ll get to experience while abroad. Seeing healthcare in a different country makes you appreciate what we have here. While on a mission trip in Honduras, I went to a hospital for a small town in the mountains. Even our smallest clinics in the most rural parts of America had better quality of care than this hospital. While the health care system in Mexico isn’t quite at that level of poverty, I am still interested to see how their hospitals run, versus how hospitals in the US function. Having these clinical rotations in Mexico will be an awesome learning opportunity for me before I start nursing school in the fall, and I can’t wait to be in Puebla! T-minus 5 days till I leave!

¡Hasta Luego!

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My name is Lili and I am from Dallas, Texas! I’m an honors junior Nursing student and also minoring in Spanish. This summer, I’ll be studying in Puebla, Mexico in a service-learning health professions program. I’ll be living with a host family, taking Spanish classes for health professions, and also shadowing a doctor in one of the local hospitals. I’ll be writing about my experiences in the hospital, around Puebla, and on the different excursions my group is taking. I hope you follow along!

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Nursing major Lili Barrientos is spending the summer 2018 term in Mexico with our U of A Faculty-Led: Spanish Immersion & Service Learning in Puebla.

Read more from Lili at https://lettersfromlili.wordpress.com/blog/.

Don't miss your opportunity to study or intern abroad! Start your search at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/