I've been meaning to write for the past three nights, but complete exhaustion and inability to think have prevented me from doing so. I have officially survived my first three days of work in Mexico City, and things are going great... By great, I mean overwhelming at times, exhausting, humbling, challenging yet intriguing and rewarding. I don't think I realized when I accepted this internship what kind of responsibility I would be taking on, and while close to receiving my college degree had made me think I had learned so much about the world, my first days here have been a lesson in how much left I have to learn.

I apologize in advance for the perhaps less exciting description of my new full time employee life.... When I walked into work on Tuesday morning, after passing through tight security and metal detectors at the U.S. trade center, I walked into the "Benjamín Franklin" library (the principal library for the U.S. embassy in Mexico City)- my new office- to be greeted by a life-size cut out of President Obama. I wasn't aware of all of the factors and organizations and people that go into this particular organization, but this has been perhaps the most interesting aspect of my first few days. Just to give you all an idea, I work with a U.S. State Department sponsored organization called "Education USA"- it is a network of some 400+ advising centers all around the world that offer information and advising on U.S. higher education. EducationUSA is funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in the U.S. government. Here in DF, EducationUSA is housed by the Institute of International Education, a New York/ D.C. based non-profit organization. Our office in Mexico City is the largest advising center in the Western Hemisphere and is also housed with in the U.S. trade center for Mexico. I am now an educational advisor, in part working with students desiring to study in the U.S. There has been a lot of information thrown at us in the last few days. Technically, we are not government employees, yet as one of my new bosses' explained, "when we want to be, we can be affiliated with them...when we don't want to be, we don't have to be." The office staff is great, and while there are many Americans, my two bosses being former interns and Seattleites like myself, there are also many employees from the area....

Aside from a myriad of responsibilities I won't try to explain here, perhaps the best part of this position is working with the public. Our main goal is to help Mexican students that want to get their undergraduate and graduate degrees in the U.S., to get there. As if it wasn't complicated enough for those of us from the U.S. with English as our first languages, the process is long and complicated for international students. English exams, financing, entrance exams, letters, essays, student visas, and more make entering a U.S. university a challenging endeavor. Yesterday I spent awhile helping a student who wants to get his MBA, today we worked awhile with a student applying to a Fullbright scholarship to study in the U.S. to help edit his personal statement. Yesterday a student called to let the outgoing intern know she had been accepted to a PhD program at the U of Chicago- another was recently accepted at Columbia. They had been guided the entire way by 2, 20-something college interns, like myself and the other intern Wing Mai. Hopefully soon enough, she and I will be able to lead other students to similar paths. The girls in the office were all ecstatic.

Today, while stressful, was also an exciting day. We learned Obama will be making his Mexico City visit soon, and most importantly, Hillary Clinton will be here soon to meet with ten students who have gone through IIE programs in Mexico! (sadly I don't get to meet them). Through an outreach program one of my bosses is working on, IIE is trying to reach out to under-served communities (mostly indigenous students) and recently 10 Oaxacan indigenous students went to the U.S. for a 5 week seminar in Spanish (most of the students speak spanish as a second language). I was also talking to someone at the front desk, unaware of who he was, and would later learn he was the most recent ambassador to Mexico under President Bush.. Since he's no longer the ambassador, I guess he had some spare time to read a book in our library.

On another note, there seems to be a non-stop ringing of telephones and my mind seems to be a constant mess of Spanish and English. Most of my coworkers and other interns speak English, yet all of our contact with the public, emails, the phone is in spanish. The constant back and forth is a skill I have yet to master and I find myself constantly saying strange things like "department" instead of "apartment" and "examens" instead of "exams." Even at home, Gomez speaks mostly english, Jess speaks spanish- and i am stuck somewhere in between constantly trying to figure out what, if any, language I speak.

Everyone at the office seems really great, and most of the people working with IIE are quite friendly... It's hard being the newbie, but in time I know that will change.

As for Mexico City, I'm kind of figuring my way around- but long hours during the week mean most of my exploring will be left to the weekends. As i have said before, this experience is humbling, and while I thought of myself as an expert in taking cabs and navigating public transportation in massive cities, I quickly realized how little I have really seen of this megapolis. Riding the metro to the zocalo (the center where the government buildings are held) was a new lesson in the word "push." Last night, I had my first lesson in Mexico City cabs. Note to self: NEVER assume the cab driver knows where he is going. Just because he knows where a colonia (neighborhood) is, by no means does this mean he knows your cross streets. To make a long story short, both on my way to and from an apartment I was visiting, a 20 minute trip resulted in a much longer adventure through rush hour traffic. It wasn't that the drivers were trying to scheme me, the foreigner, but rather in a city of 24 million its impossible for them to know every last street where I live that starts with "Rio." While I was not so entertained at the time, in retrospect, i find it funny that the girl with the accent had to direct the cab driver with her touristy mexico city guidebook to make it to my final destinations- both there and back.

Well, that's the latest from DF... While I wish i had less work and more fun to tell, I've enjoyed the controlled chaos of my last few days. Nonetheless, I'm sure our days off next month for "semana santa" (holy week) will be much needed and relaxing...