Visit with Mexican hosts

I had an enjoyable visit with some of the other conference attendees and our hosts last night.  We talked about their vision for the conference and bringing people together from different fields to discuss perspectives on international organizations.  It should be a very engaging conference.

We ordered dinner from the hotel kitchen and got some delicious flautas!  I love Mexican food.

Mostly we talked about different university settings, Mexico City itself, and families. I didn't know that Mexico City was located on top of an old lake bed.  Apparently parts of the city are sinking, in some places as much as 9 meters!   I also learned that the hill that our hotel is on is actually an old landfill that they decided to cover it over and build a new suburb.  We talked about the sprawl of the city and the serious challenges of rampant corruption.  Our hosts noted that tax rates were about to go up, but it was difficult to swallow because the quality of government services is so low.

On of the hosts works an an elite university in the city where very wealthy student attend.  Some of them apparently even come to school with body guards, likely linked to the violence and kidnapping of potential ransom victims that is part of the social reality here.  There is a local joke that the university is the "only parking lot in the city with a university" - it has a large parking lot because of the number of students who are wealthy enough to drive cars, not common in many other universities.

I visited with a participant who was currently teaching in China.  He talked about  higher education in China.  At his school he had the top students in the country.  They are very math oriented and would far rather solve a problem than write a paper.  He teaches Business Ethics -  a real challenge in China.  He described how the first assignment he gives is for the students to write what they think about ethics- their own views.   Students stare at him with complete confusion and often ask him what they are supposed to read in order to write this paper. They don't understand what he wants from them, they really struggle to give their own opinion on the topic.  "what do you think" is not a commonly asked question in the Chinese education system.

He also shared a story about how the two hour lunch break in China is taken very seriously.  A friend of his who delivered a baby there was told she couldn't have an epidural until after 2:00 when everyone got back from lunch!

When he went looking for a pre-school for his 3 year old, he had to look hard for a school that had flexible hours and did not require that his daughter be in pre-school from 9:00 - 6:00 5 days a week and 4 hours on Saturday.  Talk about a different perspective on child care.