[Fanny Soyeour lives for a year the pride of being an UPAEP eagle.]
July 25th, 2018
Translated by: Mercees A. Hernández Pacheco
Even though there are a lot of prejudices and bad news about Mexico being heard in foreign countries, Fanny Soyeour; Business Engineering student, decided to come to UPAEP and not another Institution in Latin America in order to learn more about the culture and gastronomy which has made nowadays to keep Puebla, UPAEP and Mexico in her heart a little bit more than her hometown Belgium.
Although she had a few bad experiences because she went through two big earthquakes in September, she says that she likes Mexico more than Belgium. “There are too many good things in here that makes me feel more comfortable than in Belgium. Here it is a little bit more calm and a little bit more open minded”.
Her first experience in Latin America was Peru; therefore, it was not so hard to adapt herself to the Mexican culture and even though she cannot compare both countries; she can always feel the people’s warmness.
“I arrived at Peru and saw a big disadvantage in the country because of the poverty, poorer of course than in Belgium; that was a big culture shock for me, the airport was really small and I barely spoke any Spanish, that was tough”.
When she came to Mexico, she got the same impression; however, when she was able to get more into the city, she found out a more developed country. “I was surprised because UPAEP University is indeed very pretty, it is very well organized specially in the international area. In Belgium, if you want to go to an exchange, you have to look the way to make it happen. Here, they welcomed us, you have an orientation week and that made me feel at home right away.”
When it comes to her academics, she told us that it was much more different since Mexican students have a closer and warmer interaction with their professors. In Belgium, it is hard to ask questions while they are teaching a class.
“Here professors are very open-minded, they help you a lot even through the email and they are quite familiar. I also see my classmates a little bit more interested and maybe that is why the participation in class is bigger. In Belgium during lectures, almost nobody talks; the professor is the one that speaks the most and by the half of the class, a lot of people are falling asleep.”
Another difference that Fanny saw was the Mexican personal space. Although she got used to the almost inexistent Mexican personal space, at the beginning, she was being touched a lot when people talked to her and it was uncomfortable.
About her experience with the September earthquakes, she said that she was not really able to observe how bad they were until later. During September 19th, she was in Casa del Sol (an orphanage) doing social work so she was more worried about keeping the children and the babies safe than herself, and it was not until she was able to call her parents and friends, that made her realized the magnitude of it.
Besides the earthquakes, Fanny will still recommend her friends in Brussels to have an exchange experience in UPAEP. “My friends came to visit me for three weeks and they loved it; one of my friends came to Puebla and she wanted to stay because Mexico has a lot of places to visit, the food, and the traditions, everything that we do not have there”.
When it comes to spiciness, she realized she is able to handle it more now. She went back temporary to Belgium before continuing with her exchange, she ate some “spicy” chips in Brussels and she realized that in reality, they are not as hot as before.
She also invited some Mexicans to visit Belgium, especially those who really enjoy architecture because you will find some antique buildings with a lot of history.
ORIGINAL TEXT:
https://www.upress.mx/index.php/opinion/entrevistas/2825-upaep-conquista-a-ojos-belgas
