Okay, amigos, week one is officially in the books, and I have a LOT to say. I knew I’d enjoy this experience, but wasn’t prepared for how deeply this city would move me. From the cobblestone streets of Coyoacán to the lectures on ancient aqueducts, everything here has made me rethink how I see engineering, water, and even what it means to walk through a city with purpose.
✨ Walking is a Love Language
I feel like I’ve walked more this week than I have in entire semesters at Rice—and I mean that in the best way. Mexico City is so walkable that even when we’re tired, we keep walking. There’s just too much to see: little cafes tucked into corners, vendors with hand-painted signs, and plazas that burst with music, dogs, and families at all hours of the day.
Walking here doesn’t feel like a chore but like participating in the city. It’s quiet resistance to car culture. Its presence. It’s motion with meaning.
Us walking to grab lunch after visiting the Basílica! It was so beautiful!
Water is Complicated… and Human
We learned how the Aztecs built their capital, Tenochtitlán, in the middle of a lake, using brilliant engineering like chinampas, aqueducts, and dikes to live with water, not against it. Their system was rooted in balance engineering that responded to nature rather than trying to dominate it.
Then came colonization. The Spanish destroyed much of the Aztec system and began reshaping the city through drainage and extraction, setting the stage for centuries of water mismanagement. Now, Mexico City relies on imported water from systems like Cutzamala while its own aquifer is being overdrawn, leading to the literal sinking of the city.
It’s a tangled history of power, displacement, and innovation. The more we learn about it, the clearer it becomes that water justice isn’t just technical—it’s social, historical, and deeply human.
Diego Rivera painted an underwater mural, “Water, Origin of Life,” inside the Cárcamo de Dolores in Chapultepec Park, Mexico City.
CDMX After Dark = Core Memory Unlocked
What makes these nights so special isn’t just the vibes, it’s the people. Our cohort is full of the funniest, most thoughtful, down-to-earth individuals I’ve ever met. And honestly? I think joy is an underrated part of learning. We talk about water systems and infrastructure in the morning, and then two-stepping to cumbia at night. That balance is everything.
Tecate Emblema in action! #Morat #Natasha #DavidGuetta
Did someone say dancing with friends?
What have I learned so far?
Before this trip, I had a very academic view of engineering. Here’s the problem, the spreadsheet, and the solution. But being here has cracked that wide open.
Now I see engineering as storytelling, empathy, and accountability. It’s about knowing history, like the colonial shifts that disrupted entire hydrological systems, and understanding who’s still impacted by those decisions today. It’s about asking: Who is this solution for? And who gets left out of the blueprint? What is the cost of the solution?
And honestly, the most radical thing I’ve learned is that some of the most innovative solutions are already in the past. Indigenous engineering wasn’t “primitive;” it was brilliant, and we have so much to learn from it.
Hard work on the chinampas!
What’s Next? San Cristóbal!
As we prepare to head to San Cristóbal, I’m excited to slow down a little and fully live within the city for a few weeks. I want to immerse myself in the pace of life there and see how people interact with their water, their environment, and each other on a day-to-day level.
I’m especially looking forward to continuing our research while being physically embedded in the environment we’re studying—actually seeing the water sources, visiting the lagoon, and learning what access, conservation, and scarcity feel like from the people who live there. I want to understand not just the data but the daily rhythms of water: how it flows, how it’s used, and how it’s valued.
To feel the constant rate.
To feel the need.
To feel the solutions rise from the ground up.
It’s one thing to learn in a classroom or a lab, but this kind of learning stays with you.
Here’s to more walking, learning, dancing, and reasons to rethink everything I thought I knew.
Vámonos otra vez,
— Yaz