Thus the journey begins......

Last night I was on the red eye from LAX to Leon, Mexico. Being the weenie that I am when it comes to flying, I took some sedatives and tuned out to a slew of new songs that had recently been added. However, due to my nervous I-hate-flying energy, any sort of substantial sleep was not experienced. I would slip in and out and snippets of Zac Effron in "17 Again" would be gleaming from the overhead screen above. A soundtrack consisting of Wilco, Radiohead and Cat Power would accompany. Somehow during this hazy time, I managed to fill out all my necessary customs forms in full. I was ready to land.

When we touched ground, I was overjoyed to be sitting in seat 6F. Seat 6F was going to guarantee me a speedy exit off of the aircraft and into the international terminal where I could use a much needed trip to the toilet. The initial de-boarding was prompt. Customs forms in hand, I grab my backpack and make my way towards the tunnel. Once inside the airport, I follow a confusing set of pictorial signs to end up in this ginat crowd of people. It was a mass exodus of passengers from all international flights that had just landed. There was one man ensuring that each person had the needed items filled out prior to getting into customs. It was a free for all. No line. No system. Just people with overstuffed bags pushing and shoving to move one inch forward a minute. Think of a herd a cattle and you may begin to envision what this was like. And there was no bathroom to be seen. After what felt like 10 years, I made my way to customs, got lucky in the lottery of bag inspections, and made my way through...and immediately went to the bathroom.

Like clockwork, the shuttle man was holding a folded sheet of paper with the name of one of my classmates. Exiting the airport was a stark difference from LAX. Gone were the 6 lanes of chaos. Instead were people walking to the airport from nearby homes. A stray dog in the passenger pick up area. Loitering. Very relaxing feel. We boarded the shuttle and made the 2 hour trip to San Miguel down a hilly, bumpy and very narrow two lane highway. Despite the nature of the road, the experienced driver took each turn like a pro. We arrived to the hotel around 8, slept by the pool on lawn chairs and finally, got out rooms around 12:15 this afternoon.