UPDATED: We made it to Monterrey! Here’s the run-down…

SATURDAY
After packing and packing and packing, Rob and I finally hit the hay around midnight. When the alarm went off at 4:30a, I was less than thrilled. Yes, I was excited about our trip, but I was exhausted…
I’d been out of the shower for about 10 minutes before the power went out. Black. Pitch black. Seriously?!?!?!

With sopping wet hair, I felt my way over to one of the several flashlights I’d stashed around Casa Saratoga. I headed outside to one of the two circuit breakers, and was greeted by the sound of our neighbor’s generator. Great…it’s not just us without power. Keep in mind, I’d lived there for 7 months at this point, and had lost power once for about 12 seconds. Of COURSE, on my last morning in the house, we’ll lose power. Of course…

As I’m sure you’ve deduced, losing power is not great for my high-maintenance hair…and therefore, there will be no photos posted of our journey from San Jose to Monterrey. After managing to finish last-second packing, say goodbye to Kal : [ and get out the door…we started making our way down the hill, only to hit a wall of fog. Fog so thick that it took 25 minutes to inch our way down the hill. Ugh, I hoped this wasn’t an indication of things go come…

We got to the airport and through security without incident. On the flight to Dallas, the fact that Rob hadn’t slept more than 4 hours a night for the last week finally caught up with him, and hit him hard. He was sick as a dog, and resorted to laying on the floor of the Dallas airport (ick), trying to get some rest. Awesome.

We got into Monterrey as the sun set, and headed through customs. We got a taxi fairly quickly and easily (using the taxi-stand inside the airport to avoid getting ripped off) and headed out to our apartment, by address alone. Naturally, I’d tried to find it on Google Maps, but couldn’t track it down…great. Luckily, our cabbie knew the area, and my nervousness further subsided as we got our keys and found our pad.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by our accommodations. Each apartment has one ‘great room’ with a kitchenette, a couch and a table. Off of the great room are four bedrooms, each with a mini-fridge, modern desk/side table, TV and its own bano. The floors are tile (which makes it a bit chilly). Mexico’s a little weird, and we each had to rent our own little room (complete with little twin bed), but I imagine it’ll be nice to have the extra space for our stuff.

common area

Rob's room

view from Rob's room

Nicole's room

view from Nicole's room

Essentially, every spring for the past 5 years, Thunderbirds have taken over the entire “Tec” complex. We’re a block off of Taco Row, and wasted no time checking out our food options. We tried Dona Toto’s Gorditas, which basically served little flour tortilla pita-like pockets with meat inside. So far, so good…


SUNDAY
Since Rob was sick and needed rest, we spent most of the day sleeping. Really. Rob didn’t make it out of bed before 3:30pm. For breakfast/lunch, we headed to Taco Felix, our second shop so far. We tried Trompos & Gringos – some type of pork leg, I think - before we headed back to the apartments.

With forty other students here, it’s not uncommon to run into someone we know wandering back from the taco stands or the Pharmacia. Stuff is SO cheap here, even in the Pharmacias, where they obviously mark up costs. $11USD bought us 2 boxes of cereal, 2 Gatorades, a half gallon of milk, plastic (red solo) cups (likely to be used for flipping), and two bags of candy. We know of several Wal-Mart’s near by (no, I‘m not kidding), so that run should be fun!

Monterrey is the most affluent city in all of Latin America, set up in the mountains. It has it's rough areas, but is definitely safer than somewhere like Mexico City! According to Google Maps, we’re 150 miles southwest of the Texas border and 125 miles west of the Gulf of Mexico. So far, the weather’s been pretty mild. I’ve gotten away with jeans and flip-flops and not been freezing. It definitely gets chilly at night, and is a little hazy when we wake up. Our place is near the undergrad campus of Egade, and we can see downtown from the rooftop terrace:







MONDAY
Rob’s first day of school! In case I needed to get to campus (and because I’m curious about exactly what he’ll be doing all day…), I attended school with the group. A 15-minute cab ride (in possibly the smallest green cab I’ve ever seen…) showed us Wal-Mart, Costco (no joke!), and some less affluent areas of Monterrey. As the only girlfriend here (another person brought her sister…who will likely be my sidekick). I’ve been deemed the mascot/cheerleader/official note-taker. I hope to find a Spanish language school near our apartment so I can be fluent by the time I leave. I’d KILL to be fluent…and I really have no excuse to not be, once I live in Mexico for 6 weeks!

Next adventure for the day…Wal-Mart! After spending close to an hour in the store, we ended up with all this, including a 24-pack of beer, for a mere 673 Pesos (roughly $50):