Sabado y la mañana de domingo

Yesterday I studied my Spanish books up until the mid afternoon until I went with Joca and Dalila to Sara’s (a girl from our church) surprise bridal shower. My first Mexican wedding shower—it was neat!

The surprise bridal shower was held in a class room at the BI and was supposed to start at 3 PM (that’s when I got there with a few of the other girls), but people trickled in for the next hour until the bride finally arrived an hour late—typical to the Mexican culture. They started the shower with prayer, then the married ladies each gave advice (all of which incorporated scripture—which was neat), there was a slide show of pictures of the bride (likely taken off her Facebook or Myspace, judging by the photos), and the last part I stayed for was the games. The bride did two races against a shower attendee: one was who could fold laundry faster; the other was who could iron the best. Sara, the bride, won the first against my Tia, but lost the ironing contest against her best friend. Half of the attendees had to leave early for a fasting meeting, and I was bummed about that because I wanted cake. Aunt Lila whispered, “Well, they’re gonna eat tamales first, you sure you want to stay?”, “Oh, nevermind!” I whispered back.

**Have I mentioned that I HATE tamales? When my mom would buy them for us at home, I’d coat them in sour cream, then smother them in sour cream, and then drown them in sour cream before I’d take even a bite. Here in Mexico, they are a favorite meal—but my taste buds haven’t changed much, and they don’t have much sour cream around.**

So no cake, no tamales (gracias a Dios), so we walked over to the Chapel for the meeting to end the fasting. We worshipped, Tio Kent gave a short sermon on “why we fast” according to the Bible, and then we ate donuts and drank coffee. Efren, who organized the fasting chain and called the meeting, asked me to take a few pictures, so I went around taking “high-flash” candid shots of everyone (I don’t know what they say for “Smile!” or “Say cheese!”—“Dicen queso”??).

After the meeting, Gloria (who organized the bridal shower),came and told all the attendees who had to leave early that tamales and cake were set aside for them. I gave my Tio my tamale, of course, but I was all-for downing that slice of cake. And I did. :)

After cake, and after Tia and Tio finished their tamales, Tio had made some fruit salad (he makes the best ever! Con LaLa crème y agave) that we enjoyed. While eating that we discussed Luke 14:26 and ended up on a translation/Greek lesson tangent, which I really enjoyed. I would love to learn the Greek and Hebrew languages.

This morning Aunt Lila and I did our normal routine of crossing the border to go to TMI HQ for bread, rice, milk, and beans. They had rye bread again in the closet, which is mine and Tia’s favorite, so I munched on a few slices for breakfast. :)

I have 8 minutes before church starts, but I don’t think I’ll make it—still have to shower and get ready.

Luego!