If traveling makes you nervous, you can always start with nearby trips and move your way up to farther destinations. Leaving your comfort zone is important, but when planning for a year-long trip, having protections in place for when you feel homesick is good planning. As with any big move, getting settled in Monterrey was not always easy. A lot of things were done differently than back home, and it really helped to have a social circle to support me when things got tough.
Even though I had already been to Monterrey various times, my attitude with this visit was different. I had learned, because of my experiences in college, that when things are close to us all our lives, we tend to take them for granted. We do not really look for stuff to do because these things will always be there. Instead, we become convinced that a good trip needs to be really far from where we live. That is what I had done with Monterrey. I had visited so many times to see family members, but since it was so close by, I had never really explored it. I had not taken the time to do research and see what activities were available in this enormous city, one with more than six million people in it. Boy, was I missing some awesome opportunities!
Monterrey is a historically significant city in both Mexican and U.S. history. It was the site of a major battle in the Mexican American War (1846-48), and its foundational industry, steel production, was essential to building railroads throughout the entire country. Today it is known for hosting all sorts of business: automotive, aerospace, high tech electronics, etc. These industries have helped the city earn its place as the richest in all of Latin America.
