Mexico Adventure: Brooke's take (Part 1)

So before going to Mexico, I had never been out of the United States. We had heard from others that Tijuana is not a place for tourists and that it was one of the scarier parts of Mexico. I was pretty worried, but it was not bad at all with Ricky’s friend and his brother showing us around. They knew the area well and drove us around. They translated for us, ordered our food for us, and helped check us into the hotel we would be staying at. This was good because, despite my four years of Spanish in high school and one year of Spanish in college, I could hardly understand what anyone was saying. I guess I didn’t use what I learned enough to really remember much of it; plus, people in Mexico just talk really, really fast.

Anyway, it was an interesting experience. One thing that was super annoying was there were a lot of police cars around and they always had their lights flashing, even if they were not doing anything important that I could see. Our tour guide (Ricky’s friend’s brother) said they always obnoxiously leave their lights flashing just because they can. I guess they just try to show off or demonstrate the power that they hold. 

Some of the things we did in Tijuana were: 

• Walking around the grounds of the new Tijuana LDS temple
• Seeing the new Star Wars movie for cheap - in English with Spanish subtitles!
• Walking around a mall - very much like American malls but more expensive, and you have to pay for the toilet paper you use in the bathroom (literally, there is a woman sitting there and a big roll of toilet paper by her and you have to give her a coin and then grab some toilet paper before you go into your stall!)

I was a little worried when Ricky’s friend and his brother dropped us off at our hotel at the end of the night. I had enjoyed the day in Mexico and would rather just have gone back across the border with them. But, we stayed in the hotel that was such a “great deal” as Ricky insisted. It was like $30 a night and was actually a pretty nice place. Ricky’s post mentioned our favorite TV channel of a cartoon guy sleeping - haha, so funny! Checking out of our hotel in the morning, finding our way to the border, and crossing the border on foot is what I was nervous about.