So back to Mexico. We drove down to San Luis on Saturday afternoon and crossed the border without incident. They have these stoplight looking things and if it's green you just go. And obviously red means go faster:-) So we went on through and as soon as you drive through the little area you're in the city, boom! On a Mexican street with hundreds of people and different stoplights and no signs in English. But luckily Pedro and Shannon, Angela's friends, were waiting for us off to the left. We stopped and Shannon got into our car and we followed Pedro to their house (and only almost ran through one stoplight - because as Angela pointed out they are in different places, off to the side, not out in front like here). Some of you may know Shannon and Pedro's story, some may not - so here's the cliff notes. They met in the U.S., they got married, and then because Pedro was technically an illegal (even though he'd been here for years, his mom sent him to the U.S. from Guadalajara when he was about 13 with a coyote (he showed us one in a movie we watched) and had lived in Chicago for a while, they went to get him a green card. They walked into the courthouse and Pedro never walked out - he was immediately deported. So after a few years of heartache and headache, Shannon had Pedro move to San Luis, a border city and she got a job in Yuma and now commutes up to 4 hours one way to get to work. This is a prime example of the awesome teachers our public school system has!
So we went to Pedro and Shannon's too cute house - it's an apartment really, that's tiny but done up like Martha Stewart visited. Painted, and decorated, and clean and just like I'd like my house to look like someday. It's different because there's no carpet (flooding is an issue whenever it rains which is rare but does happen) and small. As in tiny. But cute! So a few tidbits about Mexico for those of you who haven't visited: You can't flush the toilet paper, you must put it in the bin next to the toilet. Also, Shannon and Pedro have no hot water and usually only a trickle for a shower. Also, the food rocks! We visited this great little restaurant "Chipiloen" that had good tacos and drove around the city and outskirts. While there are some big houses there (Pedro took us by a castle, really! Some guy has built a castle in the neighborhood, complete with suits of armor next to the doorways), what was more prevalent was the poverty. The houses without roofs or doors, what looked to be sheds. The trash - everywhere. A couch floating down the river where the water they use in the fields comes from. And the tires, everywhere used tires. I guess some are used to hold down the earth, literally, but still! And the dogs - dogs running around everywhere but strangely I saw no cats. Hmmm....
After dinner we tried to go to a movie at the new theater but the ones in English weren't at the right times so we rented Dodgeball (as funny the 10th time as the 1st) and Goal - a Mexican film that takes places partially in Los Angeles and England about what else but football (soccer to us Americans). If you can find Goal check it out, very good (cute lead actor), and interesting slice of Mexican life in other countries. Pedro said the coyote scene was similar to his own and that the same van that takes you to the border goes into the U.S. and picks you up after you've crawled under the fence.
Pedro made us margaritas (with Squirt - very good), and we ate popcorn and hung out. Shannon had us watch some Mexican-equivalent of MTV which was pretty bad (mostly half-naked women and men singing about them and money) and then we flipped to the customs line channel. Yep, they have a TV channel devoted to showing you the line to get back into the U.S. And on Saturday at midnight it was long. We went down and got in it and waited over an hour to cross. People have good ideas there, they try to sell you things while you're in line, which I can say, I've never seen when I've crossed from Canada to the U.S. - but what made me sad was the little kids out at 1am, trying to sell Chicklets (Mexicans seem to have an abundant supply of this tiny gum).
We finally crossed back and headed home. And that's my first trip to Mexico! Bet you can't wait to hear about the second trip! :-)