My scooter has a license plate! There's even a card with my picture on it that says the Mexican government doesn't have any issues about me driving on their roads. I feel so grownup.
Very few people were driving with plates back in 2009 but they've become quite popular since the day the police parked three big trucks on a highway exit and confiscated 50 or more scooters within 2 hours last December. One of our teachers was unfortunate enough to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and had to pay to get his back. We all took our lesson from him. I couldn't take care of it right away. The license office was a crazy moshpit for 2 weeks and I couldn't navigate through that much of a frenzy with no Spanish on my lunch break. I rode around very cautiously until then, steering far from places that might make strategic road block locations.
I even have a helmet now. Took me a while to find it. The Dynamo shop carries them. I think they're moving quickly. There is a rumour circulating that, after plates and licenses, the next law to be enforced will be helmets. That's "casco" in Spanish.
So far it's a love-hate relationship. It's true they improve visibility because the shield keeps hornets and mosquitos from smashing into my face and tears no longer stream down my face from the wind on the fast lane back and forth to school. I've learned that ducking my head a bit keeps the wind from lifting it off my head.
Hearing is also improved. I suppose that's a plus. It means I can no longer listen to my MP3 player blasting rock 'n' roll in my ear. I was hoping bud ear phones would do the trick but the helmet flattens my ears when I put it on. I have to straighten them out again once it's on. Without a helmet or headphones, all a driver can hear is the roar of the wind in his ears.
The helmet came with an excellent bonus, a motorcycle girlie calendar. I thought that was so classic. The girls are pretty enough in their artificial way although a couple have had enough surgery done to make their original gender questionable and all of them look kind of cheap and high risk for STDs. They're nobody's muse . I just loved the sheer campiness of it. Classic garage. I stuck it up in my office without thinking and it probably would have stayed there if my more politically sensitive room mate hadn't tampered with it while I was in class.
Trust me. She's nothing special. She looks like the sort of girl who favors pot-bellied rednecks or the guy with the most coke in his pocket.
I thought the vandalism was hilarious but he made his point. This is Mexico and people just aren't as uptight about such things as home but this is a university and probably not the best place for it. I took it down. Now I have it pinned to my bathroom door. It's priceless.
And so are our heads. Helmets take getting used to but they're worth it. Everybody should wear one.
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