It's ok, I sort of did.
Oopsie.
Things have been going pretty well. Probably should have enjoyed all of that down time because it's that time of year all Flight Attendants dread....SUMMER FLYING (insert scary music here).
So last week I worked a nice little trip on the 767 over to San Diego, had a 24 hour layover, then flew the red eye back (that part wasn't so nice). Did I mention I had a super awesome crew too?? It was sort of the icing on the cake.
So let's just get straight to the story then....
Got into San Diego late on Wednesday night (extra late if you didn't change your watch over from EST), and went straight to bed so I could get up early and go for a nice little jog along the water before the fun began. Gotta get those steps in!
10AM rolled around and Brett and Jamere met up with me down in the lobby to begin our adventure. Brett and I worked with each other about a year ago when he was new(ish) and bonded over the fact that we couldn't deal with the other new FA on our trip who refused to do any work. No really, he kept leaving the cart during beverage service to go to the front galley and eat oatmeal while Brett was stuck doing all of the work. Yes, seriously. Jamere is this petite, adorable new hire from Louisiana. She has this sweet voice and gentle personality...but girl can haggle. It was pretty amazing to watch her jump in and rep us on the other side of the border. Plus she thought I was funny & laughed at my jokes, so clearly I thought she was a keeper.
First on the agenda was to walk the few blocks from our hotel to the trolley so we could make the 40 minute trip down to the border. It was pretty fun watching San Diego go by...not so fun to realize we were being taken further and further from our nice side of town, as the neighborhoods started to get a little sketch looking. Finally we made it to the border and sort of just blindly followed the other people in the direction they were all walking and tried to act like we knew what we were doing.
Did I mention that this was my first time in Mexico??? How on earth have I been a Flight Attendant for 6 years and this is the first freaking time I have been to Mexico!?!? It was very barb wirey....
We started off our trip to Tijuana by getting ripped off on a cab ride to the downtown area. By now some of you are getting all worked up that we wandered off to TJ, but we did a *little* bit of research. We at least knew we had to get down to the shopping area because it was the safe(r) part of the city. Actually, Tijuana wasn't as scary as I thought. Not that it was the most sunshine & roses place either...but at least I only worried like twice if we would get kidnapped. And only once did I really consider it for a second. Whatever. A little fear & a hefty ransom (it had BETTER be a hefty ransom) never scared this gal away!
Our main objective once we got to where we needed to be was to get some food. Which was not an easy task as each restaurant we walked past had someone outside aggressively attempting to get you to come inside. I have never been promised so much free tequila in my life as I had in that few hours spent in Tijuana. How we made it out sober is beyond me, but I feel like we deserved some sort of gold medal for the efforts. Finally we settled on a restaurant and met Edgar the waiter. Edgar had a really gross band aid on his face. Which wasn't nearly as gross as when he came out to deliver our food and the dirty band aid was gone and instead was some open face wound thing with cream smeared all over it. Yep. You better believe your burrito that I checked every bite of food I took for that band aid!
The 3 of us decided to split a giant platter of mostly meats. For a whopping $17. There was so much food. So much that 3 of us very hungry Flight Attendants couldn't finish it. Seriously.
With bellies full, we waddled off to do some shopping. Jamere spoke a tiny bit of Spanish, which was pretty helpful. Let me tell you, these Mexicans mean business. Like, chase you down to other stores and keep lowering the prices of their wares so you will buy them and think you are just a master haggler when you say you don't have any more money on you. By far one of the most amusing parts of the day was when this little old lady got ahold of us and dressed me like this:
Not 30 seconds after donning this obviously amazing ensemble, literally at least a dozen Asian tourists came running over to take my picture. It was my 15 minutes of fame, to be sure. Finally I just gave in and started smiling and posing for them. Brett made the purchase of the day by getting the biggest, brightest hammock ever for $20. Our back up plan was to use it as a weapon if needed. I got the brightest woven blanket I could find & of course a poncho.
All in all it was a really fun, chill day with some cool people. The only thing that could put a damper on it would be if say we got stuck in line to get back across the border to the U.S. for almost 3 HOURS. 3. Freaking. Hours!!! It was the biggest cluster I have ever seen in my life. Ever. Line cutting wasn't the only cutting that I thought was about to go down! We stood there and kept watching people get turned away from crossing into the U.S. and it was a little concerning (read: alot concerning). No fears though, we managed to get back! I know all of you would have missed us.
Anyways, I am super sleepy after a long holiday weekend & getting a call from Crew Scheduling at 0400 to work an MCO turn this morning. Yes, just living that dream. So I will leave you with this disjointed blog and some pics....
"Woh, down in Mexico, I never really been so I don't really know.
And oh, Mexico, I guess I'll have to go." - Mexico, by James Taylor
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