Señor, we made a mistake... we want to go back to America!

Friday, we got some really exciting news… No Saturday class!  That meant we had the WHOLE weekend off!  Score.  While some decided to take extra classes at headquarters, others slept, and some spent it laying on the beach, Hilary and I thought we had an even better idea… since we wouldn’t have an entire weekend off again, why not make the most of it?  Why not rent a bright green Ford Fiesta and drive south of the border to Mexico?!  Sounded like a worthwhile way to spend our first free day, so that’s just what we did. 

Our Plan: Rent a car. Drive to the border.  Park the car in CA.  Walk across to Mexico.  Get a burrito for lunch.  Walk back to the US.  Do NOT drive into Mexico.  Do NOT get into a taxi and go to downtown Tijuana. Do not spend much more than an hour in Mexico because the rest of the day should be spent exploring sunny San Diego.

What Actually Happened: Rented a car.  Tried a new method to study dialogue on our drive.  Drove to the border.  Saw a sign that said “Mexico, no USA return.”  Couldn’t turn around.  Drove the fluorescent green roller-skate into foreign lands. Told the border control guy we made a mistake and wanted to go back to America… IN Spanish no less! He felt bad for us and told us to follow him.  We did.  He stopped an entire highway of traffic entering Mexico as we crossed 4 lanes of traffic, went through the gate he opened, and proceeded to cut in front of hours worth of cars waiting to get back into the USA.  ¡Gracias señor! Patrolman at the US side was a bit more skeptical.  He called me “Miss Hollywood” and told me to take off my sunglasses.  I rather liked that nickname! He asked us how long we were in Mexico.  We replied, “30 seconds.”  He rebutted, “No one is in Mexico for 30 seconds.” Hilary says, “We were!”  He asked us whose car we were driving, and in unison Hilary and I both say, “it’s a rental car!” He looked at us funny.  After playing 20 Questions, he finally believed that we really were stupid Americans who mistakenly drove into Mexico and not drug trafficking girls hoping not to get caught. Phew, we made it out.  Now, lets go back!  We parked the car and walked across the border as if it were a line to ride an amusement park ride with no line.  Easy peasy.  We stick to the plan and check out the local cuisine in Tijuana.  A cab driver approaches us asking if we want to go downtown, “better food, cheaper food.”  “No sir, we just want a quick burrito and then we’re going back.” He looked at us and chuckled, “Quick? No, you wait 4 hours to cross border.”  “No sir, we just want to eat and leave.”  He proceeds to explain that we should take his taxi downtown and get food, then catch the bus which will take us across the border in 2 hours instead of 4 hours and will only cost $5.  We stuck to our guns and walked away.  We got our burritos. Met a girl, an interesting girl, an American girl who gave us the low-down on the line back to the US... that cab driver wasn’t lying to us, the line really WAS 4 hours long.  Well, this girl we met told us to follow her because she knew how to work the system and this line was the longest she’d seen, at least a 5-hour wait.  We took her advice.  We cut the line.  After the fact, she said, “it’s a good thing we didn’t get caught, you can go to jail for cutting the line in Mexico.”  We about died!  After only 40 minutes we were finally back on American soil and couldn’t have been happier to be Americans!  Boy oh boy was that an adventure for the books!

Now onto more familiar, English speaking territory… San Diego.  What a beautiful place!  Nothing nearly as exciting as our Mexican escapade but we were thankful for that.  We spend the latter part of the afternoon driving along the coast.  We stopped at a beach and witnessed a wedding.  Then proceeded to La Jolla where we walked around, drank some kombucha, and got a delicious dinner overlooking the water.  Then we drove the 2-hour drive back “home” to the Radisson at LAX. 

Since we still had the rental car for another day, we checked out a couple local farmer’s markets (my fav!).  There was this awesome one in Santa Monica that Hilary’s friend told us about.  Unfortunately, it ended at 1:00 and we got there at 12:50.  Fortunately, they have it every Sunday so we will definitely be back.  At the hotel, we did some studying by the pool.  Tough life, I know.  Then it was game time.  Sunday night football, Patriots vs. Ravens, and despite being on the west coast, I was cheering loud for my home team.  I guess it wasn’t quite loud enough though. 

All in all, we had an exciting, adventurous, and still somewhat productive weekend here in California… AND MEXICO!  Now, it’s back to the grind for week 2. 

Namaste!