Student's Perspective

To drink or not to drink: The best places to go according to the students of the UNAM

“So…” my lovely boss said “Do you know any pedagogues or not?” That was a good question… well, not the question itself but all what it implied. That week at the office things got complicated by the lack of personnel. For the next week we needed about 3 psychologists, 5 pedagogues and 7 accountants, willing to work with us for free (well, it was about social service, but in our office its almost the same), and so far we had success only with one Freudian psychologist and two clueless administration students (those count as accountants, right?). So, basically we were still in big troubles.

Her question was innocent and free of malice (or that’s what I tried to tell myself), after all, I’m studying Economics at the UNAM, the university with most students of the country, so I should know a truckload of people, right? I had to know dozens of acquaintances and friends from all age groups, majors, income and prettiness levels, so I should know about a couple of pedagogues or psychologists, right? Well, to be honest, of about 200 people that I had the opportunity to meet in UNAM, most of them are fellow economists, like me, at the school and the rest are the engineers that usually populate the CELE.

It’s not an aspect of my life that surprises me, after all, most of the places that I go to socialize are mainly small reunions with close friends that end with me screaming in pain the next day, swearing that’s the last time I drink alcohol in my life, so it would be naïve to think otherwise.

Now, I needed to meet new people, I needed to go out and learn a little about the social life at my own university and get those volunteers to my office but, where do the accountants dwell? Where do the social workers drink? Where are the places where dentists go dancing? When do the law students plan their next evil scheme?

So, instead of solving the problem at hand in my office (and other insignificant things, like completing my major thesis or my final exams) I armed myself with 138 hastly-made surveys and I went around Ciudad Universitaria (UNAM’s main campus) in the Pumabus (the university’s transport system) to find out, and in the process, give you some tips and recommendations about which places you can visit and meet all those wonderful people that take classes at UNAM.

SO MANY PLACES, SO LITTLE TIME

First, we must understand some little facts about or “social habits” when we are going out in Mexico City.

Mexico City is a huge place, with over five thousand restaurants, bars and nightclubs. It’s almost impossible to name them all or just the ones that students like. With so many places available it’s natural that every person has their own personal favorites, all of them scattered along the 2000 square kilometers that conform this city.

Nevertheless, it was possible to find some favorite places in the surveys, most of them preferred by their location, close to Ciudad Universitaria. One of the main reasons for this is transportation time. Most students do not live close to campus. In fact, many live several minutes, even hours away. So, if you live far in the north like in Tlanepantla or Naucalpan (far in the north of the City), you probably won’t find attractive the idea to go to drink to Coyoacan or Xochimilco, (both sections located far in the south), on top of the 2 or 3 hours that it will take you to go back home.

Coyoacan’s main square

So, in the next sections I’ll try to show you just the main activities, the two or three places that received more mentions and some recommendations if you are planning to go there. Let’s start.

PARTY HARD!

The first significant findings in my investigation had to do with the student’s preferences to spend their free time. An overwhelming amount prefers to go drinking and dancing. Of course, this is not particularly surprising. A lot of young people around the country and the western world like to go out and have fun with a little help of alcohol. But what really surprised me is the fact that most of them are not very different from me with regards to going out.

To my surprise, 11.7% of all the people surveyed prefers to go to local parties, and from that total, almost 80% prefer to go with the almost the same people and close friends every weekend. Even the people who prefer to go to nightclubs admitted that they still liked to go to small parties with close friends from their major or school. Massive big parties with dozens, if not hundreds of people were not amiss (2.1% of the total), but those were certainly atypical. The most common activity was just to hand around the very close friends always in one of their places.

Now, as I said, this surprised me at first. As an almost social pariah, I imagined that the rest of the university population were much more outgoing and looking forward to making new friends and that loners, like me, were atypical students, preferring to go to intimate reunions only with the closest friends. But once I heard their explanations, my surprise vanished right away.

Those reasons were almost the same. In the first place, we have costs. When you go to a friend’s house you don’t have to worry about entrance fees or overpriced drinks. You just go to your friend’s house after a short visit to the nearest supermarket for the corresponding alcoholic products, play some music and you have got yourself a nice party.

There are also some security factors to explain this preference. Maybe we don’t like to accept it, but a lot of nasty stuff can happen in big parties or even in respected established night clubs; from wallet thefts from waiters, to violent fights fuelled by alcohol. The dangers of going out are many.

Also, there is the problem of transportation. Most of UNAM’s students do not own a car, so if a vehicle is unavailable, the parties and get together need to finish earlier in order to avoid being left stranded in the middle of the city once the buses routes stop running. Likewise, it’s not worth paying a high entrance fee in and expensive drinks in a club if the fun is going to end by 10:00 pm.

Last but not least, there is the cultural factor in the Mexican culture; we just love to hang out with our friends, enjoying the company of persons that we know best and who we got a special emotional bond with. I guess that makes us feel secure and happy.

Now, if you were planning to meet new people while you are studying at UNAM, please do not feel discouraged by this information, make new friends in Mexico is easy, just talk a little with your own classmates and you’ll find a friendly group that would accept you in no time. Once you got some friends, it’s even easier to get invited in this kind of parties, in fact, it’s almost unavoidable.

Some recommendation to keep an eye if you are planning to go to bigger parties include going with close friends or acquaintances, keep an eye on your belongings if you are planning to drink too much (you never know!), and relax.

Also, most of the parties take place in the south of the city, in neighborhoods like Coyoacan, San Angel, Coapa or Pedregal (43.75%) or around Ciudad Universitaria (25%), so, if you are looking for a flat, it could be a good idea to look around those areas… unless you don’t want to end being the host of those parties, of course.

About the kind of students that you are going to find, well, considering that we are talking about small parties, you can bet you are going to find people from your school, but if you are from the Philosophy or Architecture schools, your chance to get in one of those parties increases.

Now, I guess you will find it easy to get invited to those small and personal reunions with people of your own major, but if you are reading this, I suppose that you want to find good places to go out and maybe meet some of your peers from other schools, and I’m not going to let you down.

COFFEE AND DINER

I know that I’ve been talking about alcohol and that the first thing that I think about non-academic activities somehow involves it, but that’s not true for all the students in this university.

A noticeable 29% of all the people surveyed do not consider alcohol an indispensable element in their fun. Their favorite activities include going to a nice place to have a good meal (7.2% of the total), go to the movies, (6.5%), to a café (5.8%), to walking or shopping (5.07%) and some cultural activities, like the theatre and museums (2.17%).

Sport activities take a rather meager rate of just 2.17% of the total, so I guess that’s why we are so fat in this country. But to be fair, many students actually play some kind of sport, like the ever popular soccer or racquetball, it’s just that practicing sports is not our favorite activity.

The preferred places to eat are, again, mainly around Ciudad Universitaria and Coyocan’s central square. This sounds logical as at lunch time you probably are… well… listening to lectures, so going to “La Condesa” neighborhood for a couple of sandwiches between classes seems kind of stupid. With the demand of over 100,000 students, the places to enjoy a good taco are virtually impossible to name all and, from all the surveys, not even one place was repeated.

My recommendation is to try out the Architecture and the Philosophy School cafeterias if you want something cheap and not too fancy, (although the Architecture cafeteria is a little more expensive). If you are feeling adventurous and you don’t care too much about decoration, science school cafeteria is a good option. In case you are not afraid of the “Montezuma’s revenge”, near the science school cafeteria you will find several other options In some informal food carts that range from homemade cooking to a salad bar.

The Cineteca Nacional is famous for displaying international cinema

If you want to get a little far away from the campus, you could check “Las Tortugas”, which is near subway Copilco station you can reach it coming out from the Medicine School pass going to the station, after the 7/11 store. You need to try the “enchiladas suizas” and the salads. In front of “Las Tortugas” you can find a Japanese restaurant if you are already tired of Mexican food. Also, close to those ones there is “El Ciruelo” in “Paseo de las Facultades” street, famous for its “Arrachera” steak. Finally, next to the entrance to the metro station you can find “Los Tres Poblanos”. Try their “aguas frescas” (cold and natural fruit flavored drinking sodas).

American fast food chains are not exactly favorites among the student population, but there were a couple of mentions about them in the surveys, so, if you want standard flavors it’s your call.

Not all is about food, and if you just want to enjoy a good cup of coffee and good chat, you can find several great cafés along Coyoacan and Tlalpan central squares. There not only can you get to meet UNAM’s students, but also some arty people, like writers and future artists. If it’s certainly true that chains like Starbucks are winning market share among the students but they are not the main favorites of the students. The favorite places use to be small coffee shops not too fancy and with bohemian aura. Still, that doesn’t means that those coffee shops can’t turn into chains, an example is “El Jarocho”, famous for their great taste and cheap prices. You can find the “original” café a few meters away from Coyoacan’s main square, but there are several ones scattered along the south of the city . For something different, you could try “La Ruta de Seda”, a small place near the “Miguel Angel de Quevedo” subway station, on the avenue with the same name. It was recommended due to its “passara” tea and cakes like “Kyoto” and “Tartetatia” (do not try to pronounce it fast…).

Going to the movies remains a popular activity, with the “Cinepolis” chain complexes winning the market share of students, the favorites being the ones located in “Perisur” and “Universidad” malls. But if you want foreign and art films, the most popular place is “La Cineteca Nacional”, located by Coyocan’s metro station, just behind “Centro Coyoacan” mall, which is actually cheaper than Cinepolis or Cinemex movie chains.

Finally, if you want to enjoy a cultural event, there is the “Centro Cultural Universitario” inside UNAM’s campus where you can find always a dance recital, a play or just take a tour to the “Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo”, to find a little taste of what modern artist have to offer.

I’M STILL SOBBER…

If you are like me, you are probably anxious to know do the alcohol and the nice ladies get together, but as in all the previous sections, we need to understand some aspects of the Mexican society.

When you are planning to go out in México City, you must be aware of the kind of place that you want to go, the kind of things that you’d like to do there and how much money you want to spend. I think is almost an universal aspect in any place you go, but in a country like Mexico with drastic income difference between social levels and the students themselves, this becomes an aspect to consider more carefully.

With this in mind, I’ve divided the places recommended by the amount of money that the students usually expend there.

AMIGO

VINCULO 1

sports, sports