Saturday, February 12, 2005

Yo estudio Espanol.




I've now started taking Spanish classes at the UNAM which stands for Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and here are some pictures of the campus and it's famous mural covered buildings. It's a huge campus and all us foreigners study in the CEPE which is like the, well exactly like, the foreign students centre. Anyway, the classes are good and my Spanish has been improving at a faster rate although not quite as fast as I'd hoped, but I've come quite a way for someone who didn't speak a lick before coming here. The campus of the UNAM is quite amazing. I don't think I've ever seen such a large University. It was built on an ancient lava field and is so large you need to take busses from place to place on the campus as there are large faculties nested everywhere. Luckily the centre for foreign students is near the main entrance and bus and metro access is relatively good. The University is unique in some ways for instance it's free for citizens, which surprised me considering that most of the lofty education here isn't by a long shot. There isn't much money for public education here so most of the youngsters who want to receive a Canada - like education usually attend a private school, or not, as is often the case. Also, I was surprised to see the absence of fast food outlets and many other signs of crass marketing which seem to adorn many of the schools in Vancouver. Apparently the University tries to maintain a relative amount of anonymity from the city state and has it's own security etc.