El Pasonians

The dust of our arrival has begun to settle and things are working out for Jessica and I. A few days ago I put money down for an apartment of my own, ignoring my instinct. The next day Jessica and I visited the apartment that she had arranged before she came and we decided that it would work for both of us. I lost a little bit of money but in the long run I will save a bunch as we won’t have to buy double of everything! The apartment is currently being fixed up and should be ready for us on Tuesday.









We’ve been stalking craigslist for decent cheap furniture which is not as easy to come by as other cities. We did find a couch we both fell in love with (hide a bed included so if anybody wants to visit we have a place for you now). The only problem was that we couldn’t move it across town. After a bit of brainstorming I suggested we call the manager of our building, Angel, and see if he knew of anybody with a truck and we were in luck!

Yesterday we went to our apartment and met up with Don, the owner of the building and his massive truck. He drove us out to the west side of El Paso where we got our couch. He then took us on a bit of a tour crossing the state line into New Mexico and then drove us along the border where Texas meets Mexico. It was really interesting to hear from him what life on the border is like. Right across the slow muddy river lay another world; shanty towns and poverty. El Paso is certainly not the most pretty place to look at but homes on this side are not made out of scrap metal. Our tour guide explained to us why there was plexiglass set up at intervals. He told us the sometimes the Mexicans would shoot at the American border patrol to just be assholes. Funny, I didn’t see any Mexican border patrols on the other side.....

After dropping off the couch Jessica and I spent some time walking around down town El Paso. It was incredible, shop after shop after shop stacked to the ceilings with cheap discount clothes and shoes, plastic Jesuses, plastic guns, cowboy boots and every other possible cheap discount wallet or pair of knockoff Gucci sunglasses you would ever want.

El Paso is a strange place, straddling two different worlds. Its rough and reminds me of the gathering of debris when several streams or bodies of water meet. Things become caught, colors meld, creating something new and possibly stranger then before.....