The border fence at Playas is always an interesting place to visit. I've talked to Americans on the American side through the fence, heard some pretty cool stories from Mexicans on the Mexico side, and even been buzzed by a border patrol helicopter.
I can now add seeing a movie get filmed to the list.
We go to Playas with every group as part of our border tour. When we were there with the awesome group from Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, we noticed these odd diagonal-runged ladders against the fence, and with all sorts of lights and cameras pointed at them.
Turns out it was a documentary being filmed, "La Historia de Migración". The film crew was rushing around and didn't have time to give us many details -- like, why exactly these guys were climbing ladders against the fence, while a guy played the bugle and another guy played a drum -- so I can't explain this picture much more.
But even though I don't understand this scene, and I doubt the film will ever be a box-office hit in the USA, watching it was still pretty cool.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Giant juice boxes
When we were kids, we all got juice boxes in our lunch boxes. But Mexico has taken the juice box to a whole new level:
That's right. It's a 1-liter juice box. Apple juice, to be exact. Maybe it doesn't seem like a big deal to you, but come on -- it's 1 liter of juice, in a box. To someone who always was still thirsty after drinking the juice box in his lunch, this is pretty cool.
That's right. It's a 1-liter juice box. Apple juice, to be exact. Maybe it doesn't seem like a big deal to you, but come on -- it's 1 liter of juice, in a box. To someone who always was still thirsty after drinking the juice box in his lunch, this is pretty cool.
A new post!
Well, it's come to my attention that some people (well, one person in particular) reads this occasionally-updated blog, so I'm going to try my best to keep it updated.
So, what's new in Tijuana? Everything is great. In fact, life is even better than it was when I posted my last entry -- and at that time, I couldn't envision life getting any better. I love it down here. The people, the work I'm doing, everything. So I'm doing my best to make the most of the time I've got left.
Of course, there's the possibility that when my year is over, I might be taking up a more permanent residence down here. But that's still in the works, so I can't comment on that yet.
I've been keeping flickr updated with plenty of new photos, so make sure you're checking that out.
Right now we're in a bit of downtime; now that Christmas vacations and winter breaks are over, we have a couple weeks before the spring breaks start, so that means there's no group. But I've been keeping busy working on stuff for Los Niños and spending time with this one girl I met down here...
So I'll try to keep this updated a little more. Check back. You may find something.
So, what's new in Tijuana? Everything is great. In fact, life is even better than it was when I posted my last entry -- and at that time, I couldn't envision life getting any better. I love it down here. The people, the work I'm doing, everything. So I'm doing my best to make the most of the time I've got left.
Of course, there's the possibility that when my year is over, I might be taking up a more permanent residence down here. But that's still in the works, so I can't comment on that yet.
I've been keeping flickr updated with plenty of new photos, so make sure you're checking that out.
Right now we're in a bit of downtime; now that Christmas vacations and winter breaks are over, we have a couple weeks before the spring breaks start, so that means there's no group. But I've been keeping busy working on stuff for Los Niños and spending time with this one girl I met down here...
So I'll try to keep this updated a little more. Check back. You may find something.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Oops.
Yeah, so I just deleted my entire blog by mistake.
How exactly did that happen? Well...everything in Blogger was in Spanish, because it sees my IP address as being from Mexico, so it defaults to Spanish. I decided to keep it that way, instead of changing the language, because hey, I speak Spanish. So it shouldn't be a problem.
How exactly did that happen? Well...everything in Blogger was in Spanish, because it sees my IP address as being from Mexico, so it defaults to Spanish. I decided to keep it that way, instead of changing the language, because hey, I speak Spanish. So it shouldn't be a problem.
Well, I don't think the problem turned out to be Spanish, but rather, sheer stupidity. I clicked the button to delete the blog, thinking it was the "Publish" button, and just was too lazy to read the warning.
Now I'm going to have to reconstruct all my posts from the Facebook feed I was using. The moral of the story? Keep your web pages in your native language. And if you don't, don't be lazy.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Pacific Standard Time
So you know the whole thing with daylight savings time beginning earlier and starting later this year? That may be true in the States – but it isn't here in Mexico. So tonight, the clocks roll back, same as always.
This means that for about a week or so, we're going to be an hour behind San Diego, and four hours behind the East Coast. We're picking up a group at San Diego International at 4 PM on Tuesday, and after pick-up, we'll probably arrive back in Tijuana at 3:30 PM.
Gilberto says that it's actually good, because it staggers the traffic rush hours at the border, making crossing a lot easier. I guess we'll see -- but it's definitely going to keep looking at the clock a little more interesting during the next week.
This means that for about a week or so, we're going to be an hour behind San Diego, and four hours behind the East Coast. We're picking up a group at San Diego International at 4 PM on Tuesday, and after pick-up, we'll probably arrive back in Tijuana at 3:30 PM.
Gilberto says that it's actually good, because it staggers the traffic rush hours at the border, making crossing a lot easier. I guess we'll see -- but it's definitely going to keep looking at the clock a little more interesting during the next week.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Wildfires
I woke up yesterday to the Santa Ana winds, which blow into the area during the fall and winter months. It was pretty cool at first -- and great for doing laundry, because with the warm wind, my clothes dried on the clothesline in no time.
That's about where the good part ends. At around 1 PM yesterday, I started smelling smoke. I just thought it was the neighbors burning something -- which happens fairly often -- but then it didn't go away. By 3 PM, the skies were yellow, visibility dropped drastically, ash was raining from the skies, and it started looking like the apocalypse outside.
As it turns out, there are wildfires in California, spanning from San Diego all the way up north of LA. The Santa Anas are making the fires worse, and blowing all the smoke down here. You can't really go outside without your eyes stinging from the ash, everything smells like smoke, and there's ash everywhere.
It's better today, at least here. Yesterday you couldn't see any blue in the sky, and it was lousy outside -- today at least you can venture out for a little while, although I'm staying inside as much as possible. I'd rather not have smoke in my lungs. But it's pretty bad north of the border. I took this panorama today by taking a series of pictures and stitching them together -- the shot is looking northeast from my apartment.
It's pretty crazy, but the winds are supposed to die down tomorrow, at least a little bit. There aren't too many fires south of the border, it's concentrated mostly in California, so hopefully they'll get it under control. For now, though, the winds are howling, the smoke is blowing, and Tijuana is looking like a bit of an ashtray.
That's about where the good part ends. At around 1 PM yesterday, I started smelling smoke. I just thought it was the neighbors burning something -- which happens fairly often -- but then it didn't go away. By 3 PM, the skies were yellow, visibility dropped drastically, ash was raining from the skies, and it started looking like the apocalypse outside.
As it turns out, there are wildfires in California, spanning from San Diego all the way up north of LA. The Santa Anas are making the fires worse, and blowing all the smoke down here. You can't really go outside without your eyes stinging from the ash, everything smells like smoke, and there's ash everywhere.
It's better today, at least here. Yesterday you couldn't see any blue in the sky, and it was lousy outside -- today at least you can venture out for a little while, although I'm staying inside as much as possible. I'd rather not have smoke in my lungs. But it's pretty bad north of the border. I took this panorama today by taking a series of pictures and stitching them together -- the shot is looking northeast from my apartment.
It's pretty crazy, but the winds are supposed to die down tomorrow, at least a little bit. There aren't too many fires south of the border, it's concentrated mostly in California, so hopefully they'll get it under control. For now, though, the winds are howling, the smoke is blowing, and Tijuana is looking like a bit of an ashtray.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Flickr
Originally uploaded by dcipjr I decided to bite the bullet and get myself a year's subscription to Flickr. I was using Picasa Web Albums, and it was pretty good, but I was already starting to run through my gig of space, even with the quality scaled down to 2 megapixels. Now I have unlimited room, plus Flickr lets me better-organize my photos. And it's just so damned cool with it's Web 2.0 goodness.
My old Picasa Web Albums site (http://picasaweb.google.com/dan.cipolla) will continue to remain active, but new photos will be added to Flickr instead.
You can see all of my photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcipjr/
My old Picasa Web Albums site (http://picasaweb.google.com/dan.cipolla) will continue to remain active, but new photos will be added to Flickr instead.
You can see all of my photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcipjr/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)