Im Here... Monterrey Mexico

The past couple of days have been a total adventure and its great to be back in Mexico.

I left Saturday for Laredo where I was going to meet my friend Adriana. She rode a bus across to meet me so she could help me get back to Monterrey where she lives. Its a huge city, about 2 million people and finding her house was going to be next to impossible so Im very glad she met me.

We crossed the border on sunday morning, at around 10am. I was filled with horrible thoughts of being murdered or shot and the anxiety was just filling in my brain and body. It was heavily taking effect on me and starting to affect my dog as well. We got a little turned around looking for the car permit building (Aduana) and I made an illegal u-turn, which promptly had me pulled over by the police. I was a little nervous about the police because here in this city, a battleground, you do not know who is a friend or foe. He talked with Adriana for a minute about how dangerous the illegal U-turn was but then said "well, we are both Mexicans so I will not write you a ticket. How about some money for some cokes for my friend and I?". I was about to hand him $10usd when I remembered my lesson about being a cheap ass in the wrong moments, so I handed him $200 pesos (about $17usd) and he was happy. He then led me the proper way to the Aduana where we got our permits and got back on the road to Monterrey.

Once here, Adriana had to leave for work as soon as we parked so I just hung out with her mom all day. She is a sweet lady and I quickly had to start remembering all of my spanish becuase she speaks no english. We took a walk to the park in their neighborhood and Chica (my dog) played and pee'd on everything. Back in the house I watched spiderman in english, had some chicken tacos and then went to sleep. I felt great!

Today Adriana woke me up and convinced me to go on an adventure with her. She had to do a favor for her professor she works for so we had to goto the other university across town and get some copies of some newspapers. We took a great city bus that got us there in about 40 minutes and I got to see all of downtown again. The university was nice and the library was very cool. The architecture was all concrete like most buildings in Mexico but the lighting was perfect and it made for a very "cafe" type of feeling.

After leaving the library we took the subway back to downtown! I have never been on a subway before and this was very cool, not to mention cheaaaap! It goes pretty fast and we were in downtown in no time! From there we jumped in a taxi back to her house and now here I am! Im sitting here enjoying the sounds of Xavier Rudd and the cool climate that Monterrey is having today. It is probably 88F today which is a nice break from the high 90's Houston has been having. Im about to take my dog for a walk to the park and I will take some pictures of this nice little neighborhood.

Ahh... I love Mexico. Im glad my fear and anxiety is finally dissapearing and I can enjoy myself.