Mexicali, Mexico

One of the biggest surprises from my first day was when Claudia, my host, and a friend of hers asked me, "Do you know what the official food is of Mexicali?"

I answered that I assumed it was beans or rice or chicken.

"No," she said. "Chinese food."

Evidently, huge numbers of Chinese settled in Mexicali at the beginning of the 20th century. And now, many Chinese continue to immigrate here.

"Chinese never die in Mexicali," Claudia's friend said. "When a Chinese child dies, the family sends news back to China that they have documentation for a five-year-old boy, and a new kid is sent over to live under that name."

As luck would have it, there was a fashion show of traditional Chinese clothes that night at the city's cultural center. Claudia and I went and joined nearly 400 people in a large room. Looking at the crowd that was about half-Chinese and half-Mexican, I had a hard time remembering that I wasn't still in San Jose until I saw that I was the only white person.

The clothes were absolutely stunning, and ranged from simple yet ornate sleeveless dresses to elaborate get-ups with furs, insane hats and fantastic patterns. While watching the models, sometimes my mind would wander back to a simple, ridiculous fact: I was an American, in Mexico, watching a Chinese fashion show. Before I left, people asked me why didn't just fly down to Peru or some other final destination. If I had done that, I could never have had a surprise like this.