Texans

Horsetail Falls

Yesterday we went to Horsetail Falls state Park, which was pretty stunning, except for if you hiked up the mountain behind the waterfall, there's fucking mounds of trash everywhere. It's really sad, but the place was beautiful. But I also had my first taste of churro, which made me want to live in a house made of churro all the time, so I could eat it, the rebuild it, then eat it again. I can't believe I'd never had it before, but everyone there said that the churro you get in Austin didn't compare to this churro.

Some girl, enjoying my churro. Also, not in Monterrey.

I also finally found some coffee this morning. I've been lamenting, nay, constantly whining, about the lack of coffee here, which I found shocking. You can get it in the cafeteria of the Tec, but it's from a Nescafe machine, and it's watery and tastes like toilet water. And there are no coffee shops. There are 2 Starbucks in this town of almost 4 million, but they're both in the rich part. I don't even need Starbucks, in fact I'd prefer not to have Starbucks, but give me something!! One of The Girls, Sandra, whose family is from Mexico, told me yesterday that coffee shops aren't something that middle or lower class Mexicans do. They might grind some in the morning for breakfast at their house, but that's it. Which would explain why there are no coffee shops in Monterrey. *Sad Face.*

Buy there is a chain of restaurants here called VIPS, that's just like Denny's, and there's one about a block from campus, so Jaisen (my roommate, and yes that's how he spells it) and I had breakfast there this morning and I finally got some coffee. And it was exquisite.

There are also a lot of other Texans on this trip. I met one the other day named Matt, who's a native Austinite, and judging by the looks of him, King of the Hipsters. He has not only a slight mullet, but also a rat-tail, that he braids, HUGE, dorky glasses, a scumstache, wears t-shirts that are 2 sizes too small, with the sleeves cut off, and rolls his pants halfway up his calves to show off his Sauconys. It's pretty extraordinary.

There are about 3 other Texans, however (I mean, there are a lot of Texans, actually, but these are the ones that stand out), that are ruining it for all of us, I swear. They're totally fat, beer-swilling, backwards baseball-cap wearing assholes. They call each other "fucking faggots" a lot, say things like, "Dude, you are so fucking gay!" and are otherwise very loud and obnoxious. I went into the TV room this morning while I was waiting on Jaisen to take a shower, and they left it totally trashed last night while watching some game. There were empty sodas, bags of snacks left laying around, and trash on the floor. I ended up cleaning it all up, partly because it grossed me out, and partly because I was embarassed for the maids to see it, lest they think all the spoiled Americans just leave all of their garbage everywhere for the maids to clean up. And the boys, of course, are from fucking Baylor. Explains a lot. Jaisen's funny because he first brought them to my attention, and pretty much refuses to be within 100 feet of them. We took 3 buses out to the falls yesterday, and he refused to be on any bus that contained the "Texans."

I'm ready for classes to start. There's not really a whole lot to do around here without pretty much striking out on your own, and most of us are too big of pussies to do that just yet. I actually started kind of feeling the disconnect yesterday for the first time and got pretty lonely last night. I ended up going out barhopping in the neighborhood around the campus for a couple of hours last night with all the St. Eds girls, just because I was really bored, but eventually they all took cabs down to the Barrio Antigua, and I didn't want to go. The Barrio Antigua is pretty cool, though. It's a huge bar/restaurant/nightclub district, but it's all in the old, colonial part of downtown. Most of the buildings and cobblestone streets were built very early 16th century. We went Friday night, though, to some club there, and I was pretty unimpressed. Except for all the security, which is insane. Huge, beefy dudes in suits; about 5 at every entrance and exit, and talk about getting frisked when you go in! They leave nothing untouched, believe me. They're not fuckin' around.

Barrio Antigua

Mine and Jaisen's suite-mate moved in last night, too. He seems cool, and is actually a local, from Monterrey, which is exciting. I really want to meet some locals and maybe have them show me/us around the city a bit. That seems like the way to do it. He said by Tuesday there would be people everywhere. Cool. The campus has been so empty these last few days. I'm glad more people are arriving.