Here at la UDLA, life is a little bit different, at least for me. Of course this is pretty obvious at first glace, considering I am in Mexico, but when you compare life at UNC and life at la UDLA, you see some striking similarities. First of all, both UNC and la UDLA are fairly respected liberal arts universities, which means at least 75% of the student body is addicted to some form of coffee, there is a great diversity in hairstyles and places to put piercings, and of course, central areas of congregation which make for pretty interesting people watching places. Even though 82.5% of the student body of UNC is made up of North Carolinians and a comparable percentage of la UDLA is made of up of Mexican students, there are enough similarities to make me have to remind myself sometimes that I am here and not at UNC. However, with all these similarities, there is one huge difference for me: I am an international student.

While walking through campus during one of our first days here at la UDLA, two friends from UNC and I were having a conversation (in English) about what returning and regular students thought when they saw us. Two of us being güeros (in other parts of Latin America this word usually means whitey, but here in Puebla it is almost exclusive to blonds) and the other obviously a gringo as well, we noticed that we caught the attention of many as we tried to find our way to one of the exists. Walking past the library, we noticed another stare, this one without a sign of intended concealment from the onlooker. After we passed, the other güera in the group turned to us and made a remark which couldn’t have described the situation any better, “You know when we’re walking at UNC, and you hear some other kids speaking in some other language like Chinese or Spanish and you wonder who they are and where they are from. Well now we’re those kids.”

After the initial laughter died down, I started to think about what she said, and what I thought of when I saw the students at UNC which she was talking about. What did I think when I saw them? Where were they from? Why did they choose to come to UNC? Did they go to high school in North Carolina? What do their parents do? Maybe they are from the USA. How well do they speak English? What do they think of UNC and people like me when they see me walk by? Of course, the list could go on, but I came to the conclusion that I liked my situation of being an international student, and of being the curiosity of someone else. Not to sound conceited, as there are so many international students here at la UDLA that many regular students may not even notice the most noticeable extranjero, but judging by my and other’s experiences from UNC, I know that seeing a group of two blonds and a pale gringo speaking English evokes curiosity in a Mexican who has grown up in Puebla only seeing US Americans on TV and in the movies, and on rare occasions walking down the street.

Being an international student, I have found out how it feels to not completely understand how things function on a certain campus (although sometimes I'm not entirely sure of how things work at UNC either). I have also come to be familiar with something that has boggled my mind for a while at UNC, which is the notion of every student of a given ethnic background knowing each other. Maybe I am generalizing by making this point, but going by my experiences with students from Latino backgrounds at UNC, I am certain of this phenomenon occurring in at least one group at UNC. While all of us international students are certainly not from similar backgrounds, we all share a common experience, which is enough to allow us to make this place feel a little bit smaller, and give us the comfort to meet others outside of this group. All in all, it’s a pretty different experience for me, with a sort of different setting.

P.S. – Sorry about the length, I decided to make up for lost time. Hope everyone is well and that its not too cold back in the states.

John