Someone just asked me “So tomorrow is your last day with us?” and that was when it hit me: My time in Mexico has all but come to an end. While it dawns on me that it won´t be long until I´m going to have to leave this fascinating city and part from my talented Mexican colleagues, I´d like to take some time to reflect a little bit upon the last couple of weeks and what all of this has meant.
My Global Exchange adventure started with a 15 hour flight taking me from Stockholm to Mexico City. When I reached my destination, my host Paulina came to pick me up at the airport and took me to my Airbnb. I was greeted with amazing hospitality right from the start and that same hospitality would later come to be the theme throughout my time in Mexico.
All of the superstars at the Mexico office really went out of their way to make my time in their country as rewarding and as memorable as possible. For that I am truly grateful. During my time here I have been fortunate enough to stand beneath starry skies in the Estadio Azteca and hear the roar of 100 000 fans during a soccer derby, I have been given the privilege of ascending the mythical pyramids of Teotihuacan and every single day I´ve had absolutely incredible food in restaurants that tourists probably wouldn´t be able to find on their own. I could keep listing great things I´ve experienced here but my instructions are to keep it short and punchy J
I obviously spent most of my time here working with the Maxus team and their clients. I found it helpful to apply some of the strategies that I use for my clients back home on a new market because it forced me look at things in new ways and I feel like the team and I learned a lot from each other. There are a lot more similarities between the Swedish- and the Mexican media landscape than I expected and for example, I was surprised to learn that the Swedish music service Spotify is the most downloaded app in Mexico.
One thing that stood out to me was the way in which my Mexican friends eat lunch. In Sweden we never spend a lot of time having lunch; people like to eat fairly quickly, talk about what´s on the agenda and then get back to work. That´s not the case in Mexico. Lunch is a big deal here and it is evident that it is a meal that is cherished and prioritized. The food is amazing (often more than one dish), the discussions are lively and most importantly, they let it take time.
To sum it all up, I would like to say that this exchange has been incredibly rewarding both on a professional and personal level. The time has come for me to leave this country and go back home to tell my colleagues all about my time here but on my way back to Stockholm I´m going to swing by the Maxus office in New York City to say hello (and have a few days’ vacation in the city that never sleeps).
