sick in the city

it's 5:47am new years day (3:47 pacific time), and i'm in the mexico city airport on the first (or second, i guess) day of my trip trying to find my way to the plane to Bogota. oh, and i'm sick too. this is one of the most disorganized airports of all time. the information screens from 1963 actually leave out information such as the gate of the flight. and for some incomprehensible reason, they made me pass through mexico customs. i have been given 30 days in the country even though i am spending 2 hours in the international terminal. i should have had to walk 10 feet to change planes--instead i spent half an hour getting lost in this maze of an airport and talking with various officials (at least my spanish is getting a jump start, which is a challenge when sick at 4am).

by the way SFO was easy. i got there 3 hours early which was completely unnecessary. they had one of those terrorist blowing air puff machines in use. funny thing is there were 2 lines, so anyone could choose to avoid the air puffer if they wanted to. clever. i chose to avoid it for fear of being stuck in line due to technical difficulties. still i was pulled aside and tested for explosives.