Adventure to the Mexican Embassy (by Mikael)

8.50 am

I arrived to a shopping mall called Kamppi, in the center of Helsinki. I was really excited of the opportunity to meet the Mexican Ambassodor in the Embassy of Mexico! I noticed that the leather in my shoes was in pretty bad shape so I was bit embarrassed. An idea came into my mind that what if I walked into a shoe shop and asked them to solve my problem. And they did! Perhaps my comment: “I’m going to have a presentation in the Mexican Embassy” had enough shock value. So now I was in a shape that was eligible in embassy.

9.15 am

We had a pre-meeting at the Expresso House, a franchise coffee shop in Kamppi. Only Mareike could not attend the meeting – she is still breathing the fresh air of Lapland. We read through the presentation and enjoyed hot morning coffee. We were all excited and energetic!

10 am

The Embassy of Mexico locates in the middle of Helsinki right next to Kamppi. We arrived to the embassy and met with Anni and Matleena. It was a pleasure to meet Ambassador Norma Pensado, Minister Marco Loustaunau and second secretary Ingrid Berlanga. They were welcoming us with open arms and as we sat to the table, amount of hospitality rose to a level that only Mexicans are able to provide. Yes, we sat to a table full of tasty tapas. And there was also these delicious brownies! At the beginnig of the meeting me and Ville presented Aalto Lab Mexico’s idea, history and this year’s project purposes from the perspective of Aalto-University. Situation continued with a really interesting, informative conversation about Mexicos current situation and direction. This was really helpful to us, and our understanding gain more depth. For example we now understand better of what kind of governmental participation could there be with the project. We are now, as before, eagerly waiting to go to the community of ‘El 20 de Noviembre’! (Sidenote: the name of the community is also the day on which Mexican revolution began.)

We hope to see the Ambassador again after our fieldtrip! Muchas Gracias!

Br, Mikael & the Labbers of Aalto