Matrimony

Today is the day!
♪Going to the Chapel and we’re gonna get maaarried♪
I mean… not me! Sarita! Sarita and Oliver! Don’t worry, Mom.

So yes, this will be the first Mexican wedding I will have ever attended (as you may have made the connection, same bride as was the bridal shower last sábado). Sarita and Oliver already had a civil wedding earlier this week and today is the church wedding at 5 PM (or more like 5:30…)—Mexico doesn’t recognize church weddings as a legal matrimony. I was in the Chapel earlier and it was beautiful: the several doors that separate the cafeteria from the Chapel were all opened and so the light comes in so beautifully. And it smelt amazing! Dried flowers and rose petals scattered on the table and down the aisle—awww, I wanna get married! :) Just kidding. I’m looking forward to cake and I guess the service to. :P

*In Mexico it’s kind of a thing, the parents of the bride don’t pay for the entire wedding—instead they ask certain guests to pay for things. Like Aunt Lila and Uncle Kent bought the cake (pretty expensive contribution, I’d say). And in most parts of Mexico it’s also a tradition for the groom’s family to pay for the civil wedding and the bride’s family for the church wedding. Pretty interesting stuff…*

Oh my goodness, so my face broke out the other day—no big deal, it happens. Well, while I was watching Abril, we took a nap together, and right after I had woken up, the girls started walking into the apartment and when they saw me they looked shocked and asked “Que paso?” I didn’t even think about my zits, I thought maybe I had red blotches on my face from sleeping on it; “De dormiendo,” I suggested. Chely came up and looked at me close, “Granos?” she asked; oh, granos. “Ah, si,” I replied. So I guess maybe because of my fair skin, zits look really terrible. Oh, well.

Every day I am noticing more and more how much I tower over these girls. I am such a giant, white chick! I was never considered “tall” in Loomis, maybe average. Here, I’m sometimes even taller than the men—I feel awkward.

Oh, and I completed the 1-3rd grade Spanish workbook my mom sent me here with—now I’ll be working on the studybook “Spanish for Educators”—quite the jump! :) I really need to get my verbs down, that’s most important.

Last night we went for Chinese food, and they had some really tasty breaded fish that we tried. We ate some of the leftovers in fish sandwiches that Uncle Kent made. We have fish at least twice a week, which is both good for your health and your tongue.

**There is a man from China who has opened two or three large—and very successful—Chinese restaurants and buffets here in Tecate. It’s weird because he also has girls my age working in his restaurants for a few years and then they leave, Uncle Kent says. He must a have some sort of deal with them or something… college related maybe? And he has young kids who go to school in California.**

Oh, and I went to the woman’s meeting last night, too! There were only 6 or so ladies that went—and daycare isn’t provided, so kids were running in and out—and Aunt Lila gave the “sermon” on Spiritual Growth. It was interesting comparing it to the other services I’ve attended. Since it was just ladies, they were much more open with each other (talking about pap smears and wrist pains, things they wouldn’t talk about if men were in the room) and talked a lot more. It was nice sitting in on it!

Alright, if I don’t want to be late for this wedding, I’d better wrap up. Who knows whether or not this thing will start on time!
:D


Later, after the wedding, I added more:
Welp, that was fun. Pretty much the same as an American wedding, I'd say; except more frugal. Um, it started on time; I was actually late getting in there (the bride had already walked in). The ceremony was about 45 min. long and then we ate dinner directly after (pollo, macaroni salad, salad, and sodas)--the plates and cups were all styrofoam (frugal, I'm tellin' ya). Oh, and our guy students here at the BI are the ones that served the tables (the tables were set up in the chapel for both the ceremony and reception). Um, we toasted with Martinellis, then we had CAKE (I LOVE CAKE!), then they played the game:
It's a very slow race between the bride and groom up the aisle; they move by people pinning money on their clothes (or they also accepted change in the grooms shoes), so for every currency, they take one step. It wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped. Uncle Kent was funny about it--kept pinning ones consecutively on the groom.

After that there was the bouquet toss; they made sure that every single single lady made their way up for it--they nearly dragged me and three other girls up there. It was funny, I was forced up their, stood in the very back of the crowd of girls, and then when the bride was doing her "juke tosses" ("uno, dos... cinco!" and not tossing), I thought, when she throws it, it's coming right to me. I just know it. She finally tossed it, and it came right at me,so a reached for it to block my face and then let it hit the ground, I slightly bent to get it, but when I saw some other girl go crazy trying to get it from off the ground, I lost all interest. Haha! Some girls get really into catching that bouquet--I've been to a wedding where there was even hair pulling! It's not that important to me, though. Haha! But everyone gave me a hard time after saying I let her take it or some said she ripped it out of my hands. It was funny. Well, then, of course, the guys did their toss (the groom's tie rather than a guarder), and their were five or so guys that literally wrestled for it! Too funny! No dancing--I've never been to a wedding reception without dancing--it's frowned upon in the religious culture here. It was neat overall. Oh, and we even threw rice legally. :)