Isabella Sohns went to university in Mexico. She spent five months living in the driest and hottest region of the country, Hermosillo. Here, people prefer to drive rather than walk and drink beer with tomato and lime juice.a travelogueMyname is Isabella and I am now in my 7th and (if all goes according to plan) last semester studying Ecology and Environmental Protection at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences. In the sixth semester, our subject includes a 20-week internship that students can complete in a company, a research institute, a public authority or at a university institution. We also have the option of doing this abroad. As I had planned a stay abroad from the beginning of my studies, I scouted out the university's international contacts for internships abroad. I asked Professor Bernd Delakowitz about the opportunities available to me in my department. In addition to Poland, Russia, Latvia and Lithuania, he told me about his contact at the University of Sonora in the state of Sonora, which is located in north-western Mexico. The decision to go to the Mexican university was quickly made. My main motivation for going to Mexico was my interest in traveling to a new continent and getting to know the culture, nature and of course the people of a country that was completely foreign to me and learning their language. That's how I ended up in Hermosillo, the capital of the state of Sonora, at the Universidad de Sonora, also known simply as UNISON. But first to Hermosillo, my home for the last five months.[caption id="attachment_982" align="alignnone" width="1397"] Sunset over Hermosillo[/caption]Hermosillo is located in the northwest of Mexico, around 300 km from the US border, in the driest and hottest region of the country. The average annual temperature is 32°C and there is just 360 mm of rainfall on an average of 36 rainy days. In summer, temperatures reach up to 50°C. In comparison, the average temperature in Zittau is 13°C and the annual precipitation is 850 mm. And so, of course, in addition to a different climate, completely different vegetation awaited me there. Hermosillo is located in the Sonoran Desert, which is one of the most diverse and species-rich deserts in the world. Compared to many other deserts, the Sonoran Desert has a very varied landscape and is home to unique vegetation. The diverse appearance of the Sonoran Desert ranges from dry, sandy areas to semi-arid regions, pine-covered mountain regions and shoreline zones on the Gulf of California in Mexico. The Sonoran Desert is home to the large and strictly protected candelabra or giant cacti (saguaros - which can reach an age of 200 years and a size of over 15 meters and a weight of up to 8 tons) and the Opuntia cactus, whose fruits can be eaten (they are called "tuna" in Mexican and are really good in combination with lime juice). In early April, many of the cacti here are in full bloom, and not far from the city, heading west, you reach the beautiful beaches on the Californian Gulf. There, the cactus-rich desert comes right up to the beaches, creating unique landscape impressions. In addition to the popular and well-visited beaches such as Kino Beach and San Carlos, there are also numerous hidden and often not easily accessible beaches that appear deserted and untouched. For example, San Nicolas, where sand dunes pile up directly in front of the sea and invite you to sandboard.[caption id="attachment_986" align="alignnone" width="435"] Saguaros cactus[/caption]The city is also very different from the German and European cities I have seen so far. There is a small historic center with the typical Mexican central square (in Spanish Zócalo) where the cathedral, town hall and kiosk are located. However, there are hardly any old colonial buildings in Hermosillo, which I thought were part of the Mexican cityscape. Apart from the small historic center, there are few old buildings. Instead, there are many new housing estates in which house after house are built in the same architectural style. The "colonies", as they are called here, are mostly surrounded by high walls and you can only enter through the guarded gate, whose barriers only open after you have registered with the gatekeeper. Those who can afford it and don't live in such a gated community employ private guards who have to spend their nights in some front gardens. This sent a strong signal to me that security precautions are needed here that I had never seen before - and I was to find out that they are indeed necessary... In addition to the cityscape, city life is also very different from ours. Due to the enormous heat, life (at least here in hot Hermosillo) takes place very little on the street. There is no park or café culture where people relax outside in their free time. Above all, you hardly ever meet people out for a walk, even the shortest routes are covered by car. On the other hand, there are many festivals and it is not for nothing that Mexicans are known for them. In the evenings, when the heat subsided, the streets and the Zócalo would fill up with people and music. Before the super hot months and the rainy season began in June, July and August, one party followed another almost week after week. From Semana Santa, the holy week of Easter, to the Expo from the end of April to mid-May (when people drink heavily and dance to country music and rodeo fights during numerous concerts), to the Festival de Pitic, an open-air music festival where artists perform all over the city for a week and the streets overflow with food stalls and people. I particularly enjoyed this time, not just because there was something to celebrate, but because I also got an impression of Mexican culture and Mexicans at these cultural events. I was introduced to the culinary idiosyncrasies, such as drinking beer with tomato and lime juice ("clamato") and chili. On this occasion, I was taught by friends to dance to typical northern music (this is what it looks like when you know how to dance):[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEjZmtFA61o[/embed]At university, my professor enrolled me in two postgraduate courses in "Sustentabilidad" ("Sustainability"), which were "Climate Change" and "Life Cycle Assessment". In the former, we dealt with (it's easy to guess) climate change and its consequences, but above all, international efforts to address them. We compared the climate policies of selected nations (Brazil, Mexico, Germany, China and the USA) and evaluated what the climate profiles of the countries looked like, what countermeasures have already been implemented and what is still being considered for the future. We also looked at the carbon footprint method, which we determined individually with the help of internet programs (such as the website www.carbon-footprint.de). To do this, each of us first carried out an everyday analysis of resource-intensive activities (such as the use of private or public transport, cooking, use of air conditioning, etc.) and, based on the results of the carbon footprint and the everyday analysis, we came up with individual savings targets. Based on the course results, we developed a workshop for a climate conference in Brazil, at which two of my fellow students gave a presentation on the course findings on climate change and the climate policies of the five nations discussed, and the conference participants were asked to estimate their personal carbon footprint as part of our workshop.in the second course, we learned about the "Life Cycle Assessment" method, which is known in German as Ökobilanz and is an environmental assessment tool that can be used to analyze the sustainability of products during different phases of their life cycle. We also learned a software program called "OpenLCA", which we used to model life cycle assessments for simple (i.e. non-complex) products and compare them with their product alternatives. On the basis of these two courses, I dealt in more detail with life cycle assessments of wheat, which is one of the most important economic goods in Sonora. This was my project work. I collected data on the production of wheat in the Yaqui Valley, which is the birthplace of the green revolution and one of the most productive wheat-growing regions in the world, to conceptualize a life cycle assessment. This involved an extensive study of the literature and contacting agricultural institutes to obtain the necessary data. In addition to these two courses, I also attended a Spanish course at the university's Language Institute, where I was able to refresh and develop my mini-skills from the first and second semesters in which I learned my first bits of Spanish at the HSZG. I also dropped in on the institute's German course from time to time, as they were always happy to speak to a native speaker. For "Earth Day", we developed a campaign against disposable tableware together with the students on the German course to raise awareness of the resulting waste problem and make the campus a little more sustainable. Even though the university has a sustainability policy in which, among other things, it commits to wasting as few resources as possible and producing as little waste as possible, plastic plates, cutlery and polystyrene cups are distributed daily and exclusively in the canteen (which is all the more critical given the lack of recycling). Even if the Language Institute cannot change these circumstances, the poster that has now been distributed throughout the university is intended to raise awareness and encourage people to use their own reusable cups and to avoid disposable tableware at events.being integrated into everyday university life also enabled me to make friends quickly. The rough and tough tone that prevails in Sonora can be off-putting at first - especially if you don't understand much yet. But in fact, most people are super warm and just very bubbly. I made my first contacts with my fellow postgraduate students, who showed me around the city and the surrounding area. We planned lots of excursions together, such as camping on the deserted dune beach in San Nicolas, celebrating the traditional festivities in a village during Semana Santa, visiting nearby waterfalls or climbing the city's local hills. At the climbing gym, I met a biologist who was mapping the cave complexes around Hermosillo and examining them for their bat populations. He also took me on one of his guided tours into a cave that had several rooms and reached down to a small groundwater pond. Another biologist, whom I met through friends, took me into the desert with a small group of students and explained some of the special features of the vegetation. Closer friends also invited me to visit their families, and so I got to know Mexican family life, which is very different from mine at least. Family ties are very close, most family members live in the same town and people traditionally meet up at the weekend. In addition, they often have many children and it is not uncommon for daughters and sons to live with the family while they are still studying. A weekly family get-together like this can easily bring together 15-20 family members. During the five months, I lived rent-free in the university's house for international students (known as "la Casa UNISON"), which is directly opposite the campus. A fellow student told me about this option during my first week, as I was staying with a friend temporarily after my arrival. I then lived in Casa UNISON with three students from Argentina and my German fellow student. Of course, it was a total luxury as we lived rent-free and in a very central location. Unfortunately, we didn't have the best of experiences there, as we were robbed several times and my room window was broken into once, despite the solid bars and alarm system. Fortunately, I wasn't at home at the time and apart from my hard drive, nothing was missing.[caption id="attachment_983" align="alignnone" width="1600"] My "Climate Change" course[/caption]If I now draw a conclusion about the five-month internship, it is positive in many respects. The semester abroad gave me the opportunity to get to know Mexico and its people and to learn Spanish. The university routine made it easy for me to make friends and integrate into life in Hermosillo. The courses were balanced between theory and practice, which made for good learning and understanding. I was also able to take a few weeks after the internship to travel around the country and get an impression of Mexico's diversity. However, I was very disappointed with the personal support I received during my project work. My own work on the topic of life cycle assessments in wheat production and specifically in the Yaqui Valley consisted mainly of self-study of literature and was therefore not very practical. Unfortunately, there were no alternatives and I was not helped with any problems that arose. Although this was good training for independence and resourcefulness, on the other hand this feeling was also discouraging and I did not progress as I had hoped without support. Nevertheless, I am leaving this semester with a lot of good and interesting experiences, new insights and some wonderful acquaintances and I wouldn't want to miss this time!