Entrance Exam
Everytime I am preparing to go to Mexico, I always forget: no one will search me, no one will stop me, no one will even look at me with suspicion. Everything is so easy, once you know where you are going. Even in a city as savagely industrialized as Monterrey, there is a kind of non-chalance and casualness in people's movements that contrasts sharply with the formality and politeness of their spoken interactions.
I got up at 6:30 and it took me about two hours to drive to Laredo. In Nuevo Laredo, I spent about thirty minutes getting my travel documents were in order and then it was another two and a half hours to Monterrey. I didn't realize that I could park on campus, so I circled the block a few times, changed some dollars to pesos to pay the exam fee and ended up parking across the street at a convenience store. I reached over into the back seat for my briefcase then I got out of the car and put on my blazer. A young man was standing on the street corner. He was dark and well-built, about my height, wearing white jeans and a yellow t-shirt. In a single moment we inspected each other and probably came to the wrong conclusions.
Once I made it into the admissions office, I saw a young woman standing in front of a touchscreen. She asked what I was the there for. I told her I had come to turn in an application. She touched the appropriate icon on the touchscreen and gave me a ticket with a printed number on it, and asked me to wait for my number to be flashed on the an overhead digital display. Very high-tech, very courteous, very efficient. I wasn't really surprised, as I've come to expect this level of high-tech stuff in Mexico's upper- crust environments, such as hotels, private universities, and corporate offices.
posted by Crazyhands @ 4:53 PM
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