Monterrey: Part I

Originally I had planned on going to Monterrey with a buddy to see the Seattle Sounders play. I find soccer a generally boring sport, but I appreciate the impact and popularity it has around the world, so I thought it'd be fun. I also have a couple of friends who live in the Monterrey area, and it's always nice to have people willing to show you around and apologize more fluently when you upset the natives.

Unfortunately, my buddy ended up not going, but I decided to go anyway, and I decided to skip the soccer game... me navigating Monterrey alone to see an event I wasn't particularly enthused about struck me as madness, and I was more excited about the prospect of hotel nap than that.

Soo... I took a redeye Tuesday night through Houston and arrived at the hotel around noon. Here are some thoughts/experiences from the first half of my trip:

The weather was disappointing. Hazy/muggy/unsunny. There are beautiful mountains ringing Monterrey but I couldn't really see much of them because of the clouds. Compared to the massive flooding the city experienced over the summer, though, from Hurricane Alex, I obviously had little to complain about.

Patrón picked me up and we had lunch together. I hadn't seen her in person in about 15 months, and one of the first things she told me was that I look old. I informed her that I am, indeed, oldER but that I was also operating on about three hours of sleep. Always a nice thing to hear from a friend, in any event. :|

Another odd thing? A consistent topic of conversation (or at least comment) that kept cropping up: marriage. She talked about the people she dated in terms of marriage, she pointed out where people get married, she pointed out where SHE wanted to get married, etc. There's nothing at all wrong with this, but I think she might be pretty ready to get hitched sometime soon. Just a guess. :)

We went to a museum and it was pretty cool. It had art on the wall and architectural models in a special exhibit. At one point I leaned in to see one of the models and, although I wasn't touch anything, I guess I got too close, because one of the security guys said something. Of course, lots of people say things, and since I can't understand Spanish very well I ignored him. Patrón had to poke me and tell me that he was telling me to back up. Oops.


Wednesday night was uneventful; Patrón had a class and then had to pack for her trip to Vegas the next day (ironic given the circumstances in which I met her)... we loosely planned on meeting up for dinner later that night, but it didn't work out. There was no proper goodbye with her, but at least I got a good night of sleep.

The next morning I got out of bed around 10:30. I went to the gym in the hotel and lifted a little bit, and then I wandered across the street to a mall to get some food. Inside were all the exotic food options one might expect: Subway, Chili's and McDonald's among them. I guess a mall is a mall, right?

After some deliberation, I remembered that Mexican McDonald's had not, the last time I'd checked, changed their fruit pies from fried to baked. I have no idea how much worse, health-wise, a deep fried apple pie is than a baked one, but I have a strong opinion on how much better they taste. Much better.

So I approached the woman behind the counter.

And it was suddenly weird.

Not McDonald's. That wasn't weird. It was weird.

I was weird.

I've studied Spanish for enough of my life that I should be able to speak it reasonably well. I should be able to say standard things like, "Where is the bathroom?", "I would like a Big Mac and an apple pie, please," and "How old are you, pretty girl?" in Spanish without freezing up.

Normally I don't freeze up. If properly motivated, I can talk to business people, homeless people and beautiful people without too much trouble.

At that McDonald's? I simply couldn't communicate. Couldn't understand what she said. Couldn't say that I wanted a Big Mac. It was an odd feeling and not one I enjoyed very much.

After stumbling over my words in two languages for about 20 seconds, I figured out that McDonald's wasn't open yet so I went over to Chili's and had a breakfast skillet.

Got back, took a nap, hit the gym again, showered again, and waited for Diecinueve, my other friend in Monterrey, to pick me up for dinner.