TravelBio

An aerial view of the University of California at San Diego campus, my home for the next two years After my trip to Mexico City I flew back to Tijuana, which is across the border from San Diego. Flights within Mexico are typically cheaper from Tijuana's airport, and it happens to be accessible from San Diego. There is actually a border crossing from the US side directly to the Tijuana airport. On my way back from Mexico City I also stopped over a a friend's place in Tijuana for the night; I'll have to make more trips down over my next two years in grad school. Speaking of grad school, I was all set to start fall quarter in late September. I haven't posted in a long time, so this winter break I'm catching up. I had originally arrived in San Diego for a six week summer prep program, but my real classes didn't start until September 28th. Now that I'm done with the quarter I can look back and reflect. Overall it was tough; not impossible, but certain...

Back in September I took a trip to Mexico; the last post was about Guadalajara, and I never did get around to the update for Mexico City. Well I'm on winter break from school now, so after much anticipation and waiting, here it is. The day before I was scheduled to fly to Mexico City an earthquake struck near the capital. It killed over 150 people in Mexico City itself and damaged thousands of buildings; several dozen were completely destroyed. This was the worst earthquake in the region since 1985, and actually struck on the exact anniversary of that quake 32 years earlier. A local told me how, that same morning this fall, they had gone through the annual earthquake drills like normal, unaware that only hours later the real thing would happen (check out photos from a NYT article  here ). As I watched the news from Guadalajara, I was unsure if my flight would be cancelled for the following day. The website had no new info, but the night of the quake the airport in Mexi...