Flag Day Confidential: Destination Tijuana

So guess what?  We are leaving the country.  Sort of.  Barely.  Tijuana.

I can't say that I was as thrilled as some of my classmates.  Of all the Spanish speaking posts that they could have sent me, they chose - Tijuana?! I mean come on guys, I was hoping for something a little more exotic - a little more sexy.  What about the South American capitals?  How about a jungle town in Central America where they have monkeys and bananas?  Why do I get the post that earns me the look from my classmates that says, "They barely even trust you outside of the country"?

I guess it's because I want to help out US Citizens who get in trouble.  I guess it's because a lot of them get in trouble in Tijuana.  I guess it's because I have had a little bit of practice visiting them in jail and saying, "You did what?"

Here's the thing. Tijuana actually meets everything that I'm looking for in a post except that it doesn't sound impressive to those people that I want to impress. (Anyone who will listen to me.)  I mean I want to be able to tell those stories that start out with "One time when I was living in __________," (fill in the blank with somewhere exotic and impressive.)  Tijuana doesn't seem to cut it.

So, anyway.  I moped.  It's kind of what I do.  I went to Happy Hour and listened to everyone else say how thrilled they were to be going wherever.  Then they would tell me about how great it was going to be in Tijuana.  I was still not convinced.

Then I came home and ate the closest thing in the house to Mexican food - a bag of Fritos.  Then I checked the "go to" source: Wikipedia.

Tijuana is the largest city of the Mexican state of Baja California, situated on the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to its sister city of San Diego, California. Tijuana is the westernmost city in Mexico, however, the westernmost population center is located in Isla Guadalupe. Tijuana is considered by the Mexican government to be the most dominant regional center in northwestern Mexico.

According to the 2005 census, the Tijuana metropolitan area was the sixth-largest in Mexico, with a population of 1,483,992, and one of the fastest growing cities in Mexico. Tijuana forms part of the San Diego-Tijuana Metropolitan Area, the total population of which has been estimated to be just over 5 million in 2009, making it the 22nd largest metropolitan area in the Americas and the largest bi-national metropolitan area that is shared between US and Mexico. It is estimated that the two border crossings in Tijuana account for 300,000 daily border crossings.

That helped.  Well, not really.  Stupid Wikipedia.

Okay, but when it comes down to it, I am getting psyched.  I should get some great experience in Tijuana.  I can help a lot of people there - both from the US and Mexico.  After that, I will get to move on to somewhere else with decent Spanish skills.

More importantly, Tijuana does sound like fun.  It's a big city in Mexico.  It's close to the beach.  It's on the front lines of the border control and immigration issues. Oh, and we could go to Sea World for the weekend.  (Hopefully, Shamu won't eat anyone while we are there.)

Also, apparently, there are Mexican soccer games played there, they have not 1 but 2 bullfight rings, and a regional cuisine is fish tacos.

Maybe it doesn't sound sexy and exotic to you, but for a guy who has never been outside the country Tijuana sounds fun, exciting and new. 

In this picture you can see that Jacob and Benjy couldn't agree on how to feel about Tijuana either.  Eventually they warmed up to it, and Benjy refused to put down the flag.






So, next year when you get arrested in Tijuana while doing something embarrassing, I will know about it - especially if it involves a donkey, a ping pong ball, or a bottle of tequila.