Vayamos a México, otra vez

Yesterday Dayna and I went to Tiajuana to get my TN visa. This time we parked "State Side" and walked over the border because we didn't feel like waiting in line in our car for over an hour to get back (while people bang on our windows trying to sell us sombraros, castanets, ponchos and anything else nobody in Mexico under the age of 120 actually has). I've mentioned it before, but there is no security going into Mexico. Here it is evident that the Mexican government's strategy to protect citizens from foreign drugs and weapons and also to prevent cheap foreign labor from coming in and destroying its thriving "really big hat" industry is to only let in those who know how to push a revolving gate.

What follows is the process you must follow when getting your TN visa:

1) As soon as you walk into Mexico turn around. Immediately.
2) Get into the lineup outside the US admin building.
3) Wait for over an hour.
4) Right before your turn is up, watch as the first white person you've seen in over an hour cuts the line and walks right into the building.
5) Get really mad because you know if your older brother was there, he would have flipped out on that girl because you know as does he that people cutting lines is first in a short serious of human behaviors that leads to...Total Anarchy!
6) Overhear the attractive white line-cutter girl in the bad powersuit get her TN visa, flirt, giggle, and do everything but actually have sex with the Customs and Border Patrol officer across the desk.
7) Just as she was leaving, (and at this point I had been thinking for about 20 minutes of what I could say to her because I was so mad), she said to the CBP officer "Like..wow! This is like totally the fastest I've ever done my TN!". Perfect. Almost...too....perfect. I walked up behind her, tapped her on the shoulder, and informed her that this was because she actually cut everyone in line. She got really embarassed and started making up some excuse about how she was such a hoochy or something like that. I wanted to turn around and give Dayna the "up top, down low, too slow!" but for some reason she didn't look like she would be into it.

The serious point about this whole affair is that she, being white and good looking, looked at the line of what she saw as poor Mexicans, and knew that if she walked right in, they wouldn't even question her. People just looked around at each other and thought there was nothing they could do. When I saw that I got so...emotional? I don't want to read too much into this incident, but it was a subtle yet powerful display of how powerless people can become based on, and even saying this phrase sounds cliche, the color of their skin.

Aaaaanyway, that got a little preachy but needless to say I got the visa without having to get beaten with a phone book for hours on end by a man in uniform.

We went looking for a library today. What did we find? Stick around to find out!