Day One, Mexico City: My height gave me away

I met my father at Los Angeles International Airport; he was wearing a black Stetson hat one of my sisters bought for him before my trip.

We checked in and without even leaving the country I had already failed my first Spanish quiz. I let my dad go in front of me and heard everything he asked and how my dad responded so it should have been a slam dunk. Wrong!

When it was my turn, the attendant assumed I spoke Spanish and got away with it for about 10 seconds. The second thing he asked my dad was: How many bags are you checking in? I knew that question and yet for some reason I didn’t get it. Within seconds my dad ripped me. So we already had a good time without even leaving.

My dad and I arrived in Mexico City at approximately 3:40 local time. We had our customs paperwork filled out before we landed but there was one more to fill out, a H1N1 flu questionnaire. It asked about how you felt two days before your trip and needed to be done before entering the country. If you answered yes to any question (Have you had a fever? Have you had sore muscles and so on) there was a doctor there to check you out.

I had an easier time with my luggage than my dad. By the time we got there my bag was there, my father wasn’t as lucky as he had to wait another 10 minutes. Once we got our bag we had to go through one more security check point and have our bags scanned again. Then there was a random check and you had to push a button and it either gave you a green light or a red light. I got the green. My dad got the red so he needed his bag check one more time.

Once we got out my cousin, who I have never met, stopped me and said, “Andres?” I said yes. He soon saw my father and embraced him. Every time I go with my dad to meet family, my father is always treated with the utmost respect. He introduced me to his wife and son and we got into his van to go to my Aunt’s place. Getting there was quite the adventure.

Now, I’ve just started playing the video game Grand Theft Auto for the past month and the one thing I can take from that game is that there are no traffic laws in that game. Run over pedestrians, rear end a cop, it’s usually all good. My cousin was a former taxi cab driver and drives like that video game. My sister had posted a video of his driving and it was pretty amazing. Experiencing it first hand was unbelievable. It was just like GTA, mainly because drivers are doing what they want. There were times that I had no idea who had the right of way. And just like the video game, he would pass the police with little hassle. I just sat there in awe.

Also, this was the first time in 20 years I didn’t wear a seatbelt. I realized I was the only one buckled up when we were almost at our destination. Apparently it is not a law.

We arrived at my aunt’s and meet more family. It was a Spanish style house with a center court. It’s a pretty inviting style and comfortable too because it was cooler outside than it was inside. More family came by to see my dad and later on my cousin took me and my dad to a nearby restaurant that he runs where I meet more family.

The typical response after meeting me was, “You’re so tall.” At just under six feet, I don’t consider myself tall although on average I am. The average height for an adult male in Mexico is about 5-5. For a Mexican-American it is 5-7. So, I have been getting some looks and I’m sure that is going to happen to me for the rest of the week.

The only real downside about today is that I’ve been real tired. I went to bed last night at 2 a.m and got up at 6 for the flight. Beyond that, I’m having a great time.

Tomorrow we go to the pyramids at Teotihuacan. I plan to walk to the top of one and hopefully, I won’t be suffering from any altitude sickness since I moved up from about 50 feet above sea level to more than 7,400 in the span of a day. The smog won’t help either.

Almost in Mexico

I’m a few hours away from flying to Mexico City, my second international trip.

This time instead of going with a friend I am going with my father. I’ve been told by some of my sisters that he is looking forward to me going with him and I can say the feeling is mutual. After taking my father to Las Vegas I know we are going to have fun.

I was told by my dad that he would be staying with my aunt and that I would stay with my cousin, which is fine. I just wonder how I’m going to tour the city and if I am going with my dad or I’ll be going at it alone. I’m sure everything will be worked out.

I look forward to whatever happens, even if that means me going out on my own. That does present me with a kind of a problem I’m ashamed to admit: my Spanish isn’t as it should be. The last time I went out of the country it wasn’t a problem since I was in Tokyo and people helped you as best they could. Now, I’m not saying the people of Mexico City won’t help me, but they will just look at me and assume I can speak the language. I can speak, but it is so remedial. I just feel it is going to be embarrassing for me because I should know more and don’t.

I know my family will help me as much as they can, maybe a little protective. I’m going to be grateful for that since this will be the first time that I meet some of them. I have a feeling I’ll know just enough to get by.

I plan to go to as many museums, parks and monuments I can and hopefully my dad will be with me. I know we are going to Teotihuacan and look at the pyramids there. But the big highlight, well at least for me outside of spending time with family, is going to the World Cup qualifying match at Estadio Azteca. I’m going to be among the up to 105,000 spectators cheering for their nation as they take on El Salvador. A win clinches a berth in the 2010 World Cup with a match to play.

As a journalist, especially one that works in sports, it can’t get any better. I’ve been in stadiums where there are professionals playing for a club. This, however, is for national pride and I can only imagine that I’ll feel the entire nation in there with me.

For now, I’ve taken every precaution in regards staying well and have taken a lot of advice from how to deal with the thin air, pollution and personal safety. Soon enough it will be time to put that in action.

My first love

How hard is it to be a facebook friend, honestly?

… For the first time since 2004 I can say my favorite baseball team – the San Francisco Giants – won more games than lost with a handful of games remaining in the season. I believed in them more than most but at the same time, if you were to ask my friends, never really felt positive about the team.

I am extremely happy on how they played this year. I knew they could be contenders. For a while they were proving me right, they just could not come up with a clutch hit as often as I would have liked.

It does give me hope for next season and if they can get a hitter in the off season I think this could be a very dangerous team in 2010.

… While I’m on the subject of sports, let me talk about my first love, the San Francisco 49ers. I have haven’t seen a 49ers team this good in a long time, even though they lost to Minnesota this weekend.

The credit has to go to head coach Mike Singletary. I became a big fan of his when he kicked tight end Vernon Davis off the field after getting an unsportsmanlike penalty during a blowout loss. The post game interview after that game was everything you wanted to hear as a fan. He made his point and Davis has responded with the rest of the team.

While they did lose on Sunday to Minnesota, they looked real good. Unlike with the Giants, the 49ers played tough in the clutch; they just got beat on a perfect play.

I’ll be watching them as much as I can this season.

… For the first time ever, I’m going to Universal Studios the theme park. I’ve been to CityWalk, but never inside the theme park which is sad for two reasons: I’ve lived here in Southern California for 13 years and I’m a huge Simpson fan and have yet to go on that ride.

Well all that is going to change this week as I go on Monday. I’m looking forward to it, especially with the time I’m going to spend with my sister and niece.

… I have everything under control with a week left for my trip to Mexico. The only real fear I have right now is the language.

I had the same fear when I went to Japan but I soon learned it wasn’t a big deal since most everyone tried their best to help me out. Going to Mexico is different because they are just going to assume I know the language and I don’t want to let anyone down. I’m sure my family will help me out as much as possible. I just worry when I’m out and about what is going to happen.

I also had a tetanus shot and a regular flu shot done last week. I hate shots, but each time I go, I wonder what the big deal is. Although the one I hate the most are blood sample shots.

So now all I have to do is pack.

Socrates justifies this blog

I’m letting my facial hair grow out for no reason what so ever.

… Recently, tennis player Serena Williams lost her U.S. Open semifinal match due to her receiving a penalty point on match point against Kim Clijsters.

She had received a warning/code violation after she lost the first set when she broke her racket in frustration.

The penalty came when, on national television, she verbally abused a line judge that called her for a foot fault causing her to earn a penalty point. I say earn because they usually don’t give those out very much.

She clearly went off the deep end telling the line judge from what could be heard on camera: “I swear to God I’m … going to take this … ball and shove it down your … throat, you hear that? I swear to God.” The ellipses are in place of swear words, I’m sure you can figure it out.

The line judge promptly ran to tell the chair umpire and a conversation began that also included the tournament referee. While most of what was said couldn’t be heard, you could clearly hear Serena say: “I didn’t say I was going to kill you. I didn’t say that.”

Did she say that? Only the people truly close to the action know that answer. What can’t be denied is she did tell the line judge she would shove the ball down her throat. Now, I don’t know what the chances of survival are with a tennis ball being shoved down your throat, but they are probably not good. While, Serena may not have said she would kill the line judge, one could say she did threaten her life by saying she would do such an action.

… With three weeks left to go before I go to Mexico, I received some good news about the trip. The Mexican National Soccer Team defeated Honduras this past Wednesday and could secure a spot in the 2010 World Cup with a victory on Oct. 10 over El Salvador. My cousin is working on getting tickets.

I’ve been to plenty of sports venues in Southern California covering things or just being a fan. The biggest crowd I’ve been a part of was during the 1994 World Cup semifinals at the Rose Bowl in front of a crowd of over 91,000.

This event will probably top that for two reasons. The site for the World Cup qualifier can hold about 105,000 people. So far an average of 95,000 have showed up, however, with a chance to see the national team advance to South Africa, there could be more people watching.

The second reason, and the reason why it draws me so much, is that unlike when I went to the World Cup semifinal, this time it will seem like an entire nation will be in that stadium rooting for their team and I want to be a part of that.

I have a friend of mine that has been to there to watch the U.S. and Mexico play a WC qualifier four years ago and he said it is unlike any place he’s been. I hope so.

… The following is from a facebook note I wrote more than a week ago:

For those that really know me, they know that I spend a lot of time in thought.

Recently my friends and I went to see comedian Demetri Martin perform at the Grove of Anaheim and we all had a great time. A day later a friend of mine showed me a show he did years ago titled “If I.” This stand up isn’t so much a stand up as it is a reflection of his life. While it is funny, it's not his funniest show; however, it is his best show because it is extremely well written.

Now, I’m deep, but I’m not this deep. I do look believe in looking at other perspectives than mine. In fact, one of those exercises at the end is something I do; the “If I...?” game especially now.

If I had chosen a different major in college, how different would my life be right now? I’d be working in a secure field, maybe. I’m 99 percent sure I’d be married. Knowing what I do know now about my college sweetheart, however, I’d probably either divorced or close to one.

The one thing for sure is that if you are reading this and I met you after my sophomore year in college you would be doing something else right now because there is no way we would have met. In a small way, my major choice affected you at this very moment.

The unexamined life is not worth living, man.

For those of you that have 40 minutes to kill, I invite you to watch it. It's in six parts and here is the first.