Dia: 23

El 23 de junio

Today was Irma's wedding. I hadn't thought much about this except for the present I needed to purchase. Marta (another lady from work) bought her bed sheets. I felt like that was an extremely boring present but after talking with my host mom, I found out that it is most appropriate to buy practical household items for a wedding present. Therefore, I bought Irma a glass set. At 10AM, Marta, her husband, her daughter, and her nice picked me up and we we were off to the wedding, which was a little south of town. We arrived on time but everyone else was rather late, partly because they are running on Mexican time (generally a half hour late) and partly because there was a presidential rally that blocked the street. Once the wedding had started and the music was playing, I put two and two together: I was at a Mexican, Jewish wedding. About 90% of Mexican's are Catholic, so for some reason, I wrongly assumed that I would be attending a Catholic service. I was quiet stunned at this realization but once I thought about it, I determined that this was probably a rarity. There was a group of about 12 people that were usually dancing during the service: 6 girls and 6 boys. They danced according to their hight and wore matching blue outfits. Also, there was a group of four men standing at the alter holding a large blue decorated cover where the bride and groom stood, the entire ceremony. This ceremony was rather intricate and took 3 hours. My co-worker invited 400 people, so I was not shocked to notice that there was not enough room in the church; some people watched from outside. After the ceremony, I decided to go home due to the fact that I have strep throat and probably shouldn't be dancing away (or pretending to dance away for that matter) at the reception. I would have loved to have seen it but when I was at home, laying in my bed, I knew I had made the right decision.

P.S. Pictures to come!