New Apartment and New Cat

So quite a few changes have happened around here lately. We moved into a new apartment in a different part of town. It's not real far from where we were, but there is more stuff going on in the neighborhood and Jose likes it a lot better. I'm glad that we no longer live next to the psychotic neighbor we had. I think he was a pathological liar. He told some of the craziest stories and I can't believe he actually expected people to believe him. But anyway, I hope we never have to see him again.

I haven't taken any pictures of the new place yet. It's quite a bit bigger and better maintained than the last place. But we still need to get a couch and something for the TV. Then I'll post pictures.

I also finally went in for the interview for the Sentri Pass. I guess I failed, because they denied me one. Which is pretty disappointing because it means that my border wait is going to be long for the rest of the time that I live here. So I'm currently trying to find a place to stay in San Diego a couple nights a week. Having to cross the border only 3 days a week sounds a lot better than 5 days. I don't want to do it too much because the whole reason I'm here is to be with Jose. Might kinda defeat the purpose if I'm living in San Diego full time.

We also adopted a new cat!  I think we're sticking with the name Benny. He's a cat after Jose's own heart because he loves to sleep. And I don't think I've ever seen a cat look so comfortable when he sleeps as this cat does. I'll wake up in the morning and he will have put his head on my shoulder with his body stretched out next to mine. It's really cute. He's approximately 6 months old. I've found that kittens lose a little bit of their cuddly-ness as they get older. Hopefully he won't lose too much.

Perla and Addison haven't warmed up to him too much yet. Perla probably never will. Addison was really aggressive at first, stalking him and trying to corner him so that she could growl and hiss at him. Then she moved on to swatting at him to see if he would do it back. Now she's back to just stalking and watching him. She's not nearly as aggressive anymore. I think she maybe just wants to play, but Benny growls at her now.  I think she's got all his defenses up and he isn't ready to trust her yet. I noticed one of her eyes today is watery and won't open all the way. I'm wondering if maybe he got her with one of his claws. Hopefully it's not anything more serious than that.  Here are some more pictures of Benny. The first one was on his first night here when Jose finally got him out from under the bed.

Unfortunately, he may be taking Perla's place next to Jose while he sleeps. These pictures were taken last month.

Catch Up

We're keeping busy here in Tijuana. It's been awhile since I've posted, so I'll try to catch everyone up on what has been happening over the past three weeks. I've realized that I hate sharing my computer. As my friend Nate said, it's like living in a family. Luis really likes Facebook. I wish I had never helped him set up an account. 

But I can't blame the silence completely on him. Posting during the week is out of the question because I don't really have time, and I'm usually pretty tired and lazy on the weekends.

The most exciting thing that has happened is that my friends from Chicago, Kimmy and Nate, came for a visit. Paving the way, I hope, for more people to come visit. :o) They couldn't stay for very long, but Jose made them lunch and we showed them around the neighborhood. We walked in the park, stopped by the panadaria, and got some nieve at the ice cream store. If you're interested, Kimmy put a bunch of pictures up on facebook. She did a better job than I did at documenting the experience.

I think we can safely say that Jose has taught Kimmy everything she knows about boxing. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of that while they were sparring outside the ice cream shop.

I finally made it to the beach! Over labor day weekend, we went to the Playas de Tijuana. Being from Illinois, I didn't really understand the beach. Especially when I was told that the water was cold. If people didn't swim, what did they do? I think I get it now. It's fun to just sit and listen to the waves. And not swimming takes a little bit of the pressure off. It's like going to a really great park or something. 

Of course, part of my time there was ruined. It think I'm getting to that point in my stay here where little cultural differences are turning into big annoyances. When we arrived at the beach, we walked around a little bit and finally found a place to sit down. As soon as I sat down, this marching band walked onto the beach wanting to serenade people for money. Maybe it wasn't a "marching" band per se. But there were lots of loud brass instruments and drums. It was probably a 10 person band. They had some takers and started playing some loud traditional Mexican music. I don't have anything against traditional Mexican music, but they were so loud I couldn't hear the waves. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera that day and don't have any pictures of that band. Nor of the cool art festival that was going on a few blocks away that we checked out. But Jose and I went back last weekend and I took some pictures then.

The beaches are right next to the border. I'm not entirely sure what is keeping people from crossing. There is a sign that says there are dangerous things below the surface of the water. But some of the poles on land are far enough apart that skinny Luis could squeeze through. The US side is obviously not a public beach. It's a little weird to see that side so deserted.

 

This little girl was fun to watch because she kept dancing in the waves. I think that is her brother fishing. 

I thought this guy was funny. I could see Jose do something like this. He would just lie down and nap if he were tired. He wouldn't worry about a towel. I guess that's what I'm here for. If you can't tell, I was having fun experimenting with my different camera settings.

These look like snow boots to me.

My American Nights have gone from consumerism to being out-doorsy. My manager at work suggested I check out some of the trails at a park close to work. It is the Mission Trails Regional Park. When I talk to San Diegans about it, they don't really seem that excited. But I think this place is awesome. There are little mountains there that are right next to the city and don't take that long to summit, but still give you that feeling of accomplishing something. I hiked the tallest peak a couple weeks ago. It was fun, but I've found that some of the other peaks are a little more fun because there are fewer people. I've also started running on some of the trails in the morning if I get to San Diego with enough time before work. Some of the hills kill me. But I can tell I'm getting stronger. Here are some of the pictures I have taken at that park.

These pictures are a part of the first trail that I ran on.

This was a cloudy morning. I swear there is a mountain there.

These are pictures from the top of Cowles Mountain, the highest point in the county.

The last bit of noteworthy news is that I burned my arm last weekend. We finally figured out how to turn on the oven. It doesn't have a pilot light, so we have to light the burner with a lighter through a hole on the bottom of the oven. I thought I had lit it and was pre-heating the oven, but Jose noticed it wasn't lit. He suggested that we let it air out, but I was being impatient and told him it would be fine if I just lit it. When I lit the lighter, it ignited the gas that had accumulated in the oven and a ball of gas shot out. It burned my arm, but only the heat reached my face and melted some of my hair along my hairline and my eyebrows. My arm was red from my elbow to my fingers. It didn't really look that bad, but it hurt like crazy. Jose took me to the doctor and she prescribed a cream for the burn and pills for the pain. I had to ice my arm for most of the night because of the pain. By the next day, the pain had receded considerably. Only my hand still hurt when I accidentally rubbed it against something. A week later it looks really good. All the red is gone. The only places that look bad are where my veins have raised up my skin. I guess that it burned more there. Overall, I was pretty lucky. It could have been a lot worse.

I thought I'd throw this picture in here. Jose and Perla are really warming up to one another.

American Night

Last weekend, Jose and his brother were out of town and I had the whole weekend to myself. I decided to stay in San Diego on that Friday night to do a little shopping.  I spent some time at Kohl's, Sport's Authority, Ross (which is basically just like a Marshall's), and Borders. They were near this mall area called Mission Valley Mall (if I remember correctly).  Later, when I was telling someone about how great this area was, he asked me what was so great about it. It made me think. I guess what was so great was seeing a Chipotle, a Pei Wei, a Nordstrom Rack, and a Target all so close together. That was when I realized that I am homesick.

I'm not homesick in the obvious ways. I'm not missing Chicago or Illinois.  Nor am I really even missing the people there yet. (Sorry guys, but it's only been 2 months.) The part that I'm missing is being in my own culture. I miss the predictability and the feeling of being comfortable and of being where everything makes sense to me. Jose is getting really irritated every time I ask him why someone is doing or has done something. I think he's feeling a bit like he has to answer for the whole country of Mexico and everyone in it.

The crazy thing is is that I live only 5 miles from the US and am in San Diego 5 days a week. But it's just not the same. Culture can be a difficult thing to define.  I suppose you can be in the US and still be missing your own culture if you aren't in a neighborhood you are familiar with or are with people you may not normally hang out with.

I have decided to define my culture (at least for purposes of this homesick feeling) as food and retail stores. And so I have instituted American Night. I am going to spend my Friday nights for the indefinite future in San Diego eating at whatever familiar restaurant I feel like and going to stores where I'm fairly certain they will have something I like. I'll probably change it up as time goes on, but I'm not sure what other things San Diego has to offer between the hours of 5pm and 8pm on Friday nights.

As a side note, speaking of California culture, I do not get Californians' obsession with In-N-Out Burger. I'd heard about it over the years. People said it had the best burgers but you could only get them in California. I've had it twice and I honestly don't understand what the big deal is. The first time, I got a few burgers for me, Jose, and Luis when I was in San Diego getting my mail. I then had to drive 30 min back to Mexico before we ate. I didn't think it was that great, but I also thought maybe you needed to eat it right away, so I thought I should give it another try. Last weekend, I had it again when I was in San Diego and I still didn't think it was that great. It was good, but not enough to warrant the lines. They put way too much onion and tomato on the burger, not enough meat, and the special sauce is just thousand island dressing. It was a little cheaper than your average fast food restaurant, so I'll grant that maybe it's a good value. But I grant nothing else.

Fall of Giants and The Corrections

I figure that I talk about books with enough people that it wouldn't be weird if I talked about books on my blog. So feel free to leave comments about these books or books you are currently reading.

The majority of the books I read are fiction. But I'll occasionally throw in a few nonfiction books about whatever subject I'm interested in at the time. Did you see the list of books that President Obama was taking on vacation with him? There were 5 books. How in the world can he read five books in one vacation?

The only book I brought with me when I moved to Tijuana was Fall of Giants: Book One of the Century Trilogy. I couldn't fit my box of books in the car with me for the ride out here, so my mom said she would send them to me. It's been almost 8 weeks and I'm still waiting.

Ken Follett is the author of Fall of Giants. His most popular book is Pillars of the Earth, which I really enjoyed. Fall of Giants is a historical fiction book set mostly in Europe during World War I. I really liked this book. I'll admit that I don't know that much about WWI, so it was fun to learn more about it through his fictional characters. Ken Follett is a simple writer, so although it is a big book (almost 1000 pages), it is actually a pretty quick read. All of his magic comes from the characters that he creates. I would definitely recommend it. It is the first of a trilogy. His subsequent books will follow future generations of the same families throughout World War II and the Cold War. The book was first printed less than a year ago. So the only bad thing about reading this book now is that I know I will forget a lot of details by the time the second and third books come out.

I finished Fall of Giants several weeks ago. Since I hate paying full price for books (sorry Borders), I have had to find alternatives. Paperbackswap.com and bookmooch.com are both pretty good places to start. You have to send other people books through the mail to get credits. You pay for the postage. But when you have credits, you can request books from others and will receive the book completely free. These sites are not very good if you want brand new books. But if you are looking for classics or older books, then they work great.

I also started buying books from Goodwill. They have great deals there. Small paperback books are only $.75 and larger books are $1.99. I'm almost obsessed with going to Goodwill to see what new stuff they've got. Over the weekend, I finished my first Goodwill book, The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. I didn't know anything about this book when I bought it other than it was an Oprah's Book Club book. It was an interesting book. I guess I would say that I liked it. The author has a way of writing that was at times hard to follow. There were certain points that I had to push on accepting the fact that I didn't understand what he was trying to say. But all his characters are messed up which makes for a good story. And at times he went on tangents that reminded me of some of the tangents my own mind makes sometimes. Like being reminded of a gift one of your parents got you when you were a kid that you didn't really like, or something like that. All in all, I would only recommend this book if you had nothing else on the reading list.

I'm currently reading The Law of Nines by Terry Goodkind.  So you'll probably hear about that one in a week or so.

Happy Anniversary

Last weekend, Jose and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. The past year seems to have gone by fast, but it also seems like so long ago that we got married. It's weird how time can do that.

We didn't really have any big plans for our anniversary. We decided not to do any gifts. When I brought it up to Jose, I'm pretty sure that was the first he had even thought about it. And I had just started my job, so I didn't really have time to get him anything. So it worked out.

We went to a nearby restaurant for a late lunch. I had the flautas. Then Jose and I went to a movie. There are 3 movie theaters really close to where we live. We went to the theater that is located in the Macroplaza, the outdoor mall that has the Wal-Mart. The movie was really inexpensive compared to Chicago movie prices. Each ticket was 57 pesos, about $5, and we got a large popcorn for 41 pesos, about $3.50. True to form, I snuck in two cans of Dr. Pepper for us.

We saw the move The Green Lantern. We should have checked reviews before we went. It wasn't good. It was entertaining, I guess. But there wasn't much substance to the movie and I wouldn't recommend it.

After the movie, we walked around the mall a little bit. I bought a new hat. I'll have to take a picture of it. There was a clown that was getting ready to perform. We didn't actually stay because the sun was going down and I was getting cold. But before his performance began, the clown was blowing up balloons and shooting them up into the air. The kids were running around like maniacs trying to catch them. There were several men and women that were also trying to catch them. They had an unfair height advantage.

We also happened by this jewelry store. I was really excited to find it. Some of you already know that I would like to eventually start a jewelry business. Of course, I need to learn how to make jewelry first. This is one of those stores that sells beads and other supplies to make your own jewelry. And they give lessons too. In Chicago, it costs $25 on the low end to take a jewelry class. Of course, that includes the materials. This place charges only $2.50 for the class. You have to buy your own supplies, but I have a feeling I'll still come out ahead. Stay tuned for more on this.

As I said, we didn't do any thing big or exciting for our anniversary. It was just fun to be together.

A Day in the Life

My days have recently been a lot busier.  I am now employed with Cricket Communications.  If you live in an area with Cricket, you should check out their wireless plans.  I started on Monday and thought I'd share what my day now looks like.  Gone are the days of sleeping until 9 or 10am and not having anything of consequence to do all day.

Crossing the border is the biggest party of my commute to work.  I had to be at work at 9am on Monday and was really worried about not making it on time.  I tried to go to bed early, but it was hard to get to sleep.  I woke up about every 2 hours because I was so concerned about oversleeping.  I got out of bed at 3:45am and left the house at 4:45 am.  I only had to wait in line for about 2 hours.  (Can you believe I say "only"?)  Not including the wait at the border, it takes me about 45 minutes of driving time to get to work. So I got to work at about 7:30am. I had to wait around a little bit, but it was better than being late.  That's a bad way to start your first day.

My first day went well. My new manager showed me around and introduced me to people. I am in the income tax group. Some people might think it's boring, but I'm actually really excited to learn how to prepare and file corporate tax returns. My manager and the other guy in the income tax group took me to lunch at an italian restaurant near the office. I had the lasagna and it was really good. I left the office at about 6pm and it took me a little under and hour to get back. There was no wait at the Mexico border. Unfortunately, Jose had already left for something and I got in bed before he got home. I hope we don't have too many days like that.

Yesterday I left at 5am for work and I got there in just under 2 hours (just about an hour wait at the border).  I ate in the company's cafe for lunch.  It's a really nice cafe.  They have real chefs there that really seem to care about how the food tastes and there is a lot of variety of things to choose from.  I got home last night at about 6pm.  Jose had dinner ready by the time I got home. That was pretty awesome. It's nice not having to cook. Unfortunately for me, Jose may have a lead on a job.  If he does start soon, we'll have to figure out our schedules and I may have to start cooking.

Today it only took me 1 and a half hours to get to work and I arrived at 6:45am (only 45 min of border waiting).  My office has a gym so I decided to take my gym clothes and work out if I got to work early . The gym is small, but there were only 2 other people there, so there was plenty of room for the three of us. My plan for the next few weeks will be to take my workout clothes with me.  Then if I arrive really early, I can work out.  And if the border wait is long, then I can skip the workout and still not be late for work.

My schedule will probably be like this for the next few weeks. When I get a Sentri pass, my time to get to work should be a lot more predictable and consistent.  The delay in the Sentri lanes is rarely more than 15 minutes, so it should only take me about an hour to get to work.  That is about how long it took me to get to work when I lived in Chicago. Although I never enjoyed the commute in Chicago, that experience has prepared me for my cross-border commute now. If I had never commuted a long way before, I don't think I would've been able to handle even three days of this commute. I haven't felt really stressed yet.

Even though I'm a little shorter on time, I'd still love to hear from everything. Feel free to leave me a comment or send me an e-mail.

Border Crossing

I know that everyone is probably most interested in the border crossing that I will be doing daily.  My daily commute will start next week because I accepted a job with a company in San Diego!  Yay!  I'm very excited about that development and am amazed at how good God is.

So far, I've only crossed the border about 6 or 7 times.  The first time was my second day in Mexico.  I was taking my dad to San Diego so that he could catch his flight back to Illinois.  My dad gave me a GPS as a going away present when I left Illinois.  It includes Mexico streets and has been immensely helpful for me getting around Tijuana.  I would have been lost several different times if I hadn't have had it. Unfortunately, the GPS is only as smart as the person following it (anyone remember the episode of the Office where Michael follows the GPS into the lake?).  There is construction on one of the ramps on the Mexico side going to the border.  Therefore, the GPS told me to go the second easiest way, which took me to the Sentri lanes.  I didn't know what this was at the time and I got in trouble for going in that line.  It is for people that have already been subjected to a background check and have received a Sentri Pass.  I was given a warning, but if I go in that line again without a Sentri Pass, I will be fined $5,000.  Several times after that, I was really nervous about crossing the border because I was never certain I was in the right line.  But I think I've got it figured out now.

The second time I crossed the border, I had to wait in the line for about an hour.  It was incredibly chaotic because about 5 of the booths were closed.  So trying to merge into a different line was difficult because I wasn't really sure which lines led to open booths and whether people would let me in.  I tried to go around a woman who was trying to merge to the left, and I hit her car with mine.  The woman who was driving immediately started screaming at me and saying I hit her because I was trying to cheat and go in front of her.  The difference between her response and that of her husband was pretty comical because he was really calm and nice. He realized that I didn't really do any damage to his car, but we exchanged information because his wife was screaming at us to do so. But before we left, he said I probably wouldn't be hearing from them.  And I haven't yet.  It has been several weeks, so I'm guessing that won't.

So then I was very nervous about getting in the wrong line AND hitting someone every time I tried to go to San Diego.  But I've gotten over most of that now and am more comfortable with where I am going.

The time it takes to get to San Diego varies drastically depending on the day and the hour. Here is a picture I found online and that is pretty much what it looks like. The Sentri lanes are on the right and all the regular lanes are on the left.  The only thing this picture is missing are the vendors. People have carts that they set up right in the middle of the road in between the lanes.  They mainly sell food.  You can get any type of Mexican food that you want and you typically have more than enough time to eat it.  They do a lot of business there.  I saw one woman that had an apron that advertised all the different foods she sold. The one I thought was hilarious was "comida corrida." Jose and I would eat that a lot in Mexico City.  It basically means that it is a 3 or 4 course meal: an appetizer, the main course, the dessert, and a drink.  Just because it was on her apron doesn't mean she was actually selling that.  But I thought it was funny because you would have time to eat it if you wanted.  But if you had soup it might get a little messy.

That picture is really pretty much the end of the line, meaning you are almost there.  Those people probably have about a 20 min wait if all the booths are open. Behind them are the ramps to get to this area.  There are 3 ramps that converge on the border crossing, but 1 is under construction right now.  The problem is that the lines spill out onto the regular roads where there are intersections and such. A police officer is typically stationed at the entrance to the ramp and only let cars in from one direction which seems to work pretty well most of the time.  The ramp I use has longer roads with fewer intersections and it makes it harder for people to jump in line.  When I was going to my interview on Monday, I left 3 and a half hours early to make sure I had plenty of time to get to my interview. (I had done a dry run the Friday before and it took 2 hours.)  When I got to the line, I almost had an anxiety attack because the line was so long.  I had to drive south for three intersections before I found the beginning of the line.  And by that intersection, people were getting into the line from all three directions which made it even slower. I knew it would take a miracle to get to my interview on time.  And of course I was late.  It took me 4 hours to get from my apartment door to the office for the interview.  If I didn't have to stop at the border, it would take about 40 to 45 minutes.  Which means I spent over 3 hours in that stupid line.  Luckily, my interviewers didn't hold it against me.  And when I told them I lived in Tijuana, they understood why I was late.  Fortunately, they didn't hold that against me either, because I'm starting next week! Yay!

I had to drive back into San Diego this morning (Wednesday) to fill out some paperwork for my new job.  I made my appointment for 11am so that I would be sure not to be late.  I left at the same time this morning as I did Monday, giving myself a full 5 hours to get there.  I thought that even if it didn't take quite that long, I could maybe go by and get my mail and maybe go to Walmart beforehand. When I got to the ramp, I was astounded.  There was no traffic spilling into the local streets at all.  I had to wait in line for only 30 minutes before I was back in the US.  And there I was, driving into San Diego at 7am for an 11am appointment.  So I got my mail and went to Walmart and then called them at 8:30am to see if I could come early. They said yes and it all worked out.

The only explanation I have for this is that maybe many people drive into San Diego on Monday and then stay there throughout the week, coming back to Tijuana on Friday.  At least I hope that is the case, because it will make my life a lot easier if Mondays are my only 4 hour commuting days.  I just found this website which updates the delays at all the border crossings for both Mexico and Canada: http://apps.cbp.gov/bwt/.  My crossing is the San Ysidro border. I'll have to test it out and see how accurate it is.  It takes me about 15 to 20 minutes to actually drive to the border.

I have applied for a Sentri Pass.  I don't know how long it takes to get one.  They have to determine that I'm not a security risk and I have to go in for an interview and get my car searched and registered.  I'm really hoping that pass comes through.  While there are delays in the Sentri lanes, they seem to be a fraction of the waiting time of the normal lanes.

Getting back into Mexico is simple and fast.  I did have about a 15 minutes delay coming back today.  But that was the first time I've had any sort of delay and I think the only real reason for it was that a small part of 2 lanes were blocked for construction.  There was a lot of merging and I happened to get in the slowest lane.  But you are not required to show a passport to get into Mexico, so they don't really stop any cars.  You pretty much just drive through and are on your way.  I did stop today to get a tourist visa.  I read online that you are only required to have one if you are planning on being in Tijuana for more than 72 hours.  (If you drive further into Mexico, you are then required to have a passport and a visa.)  Technically, if I am driving back and forth 5 days a week, I won't actually be in Mexico for a 72 hour period.  But I'm not sure if that actually follows the spirit of the law or not.  Regardless, it's better to be safe than sorry.