OM - Day 15

Ok, here I am again. Like I said, Mexico City is ridiculously huge! With over 8.8 million inhabitants, it is the 10th largest city in the world. It is quite densely populated. There are few trees and basically no grass anywhere (sound familiar?). It's basically your big city, but in a valley in the mountains and very, very Mexican (obviously).

If you're an American who hasn't yet learned the virtue of total, unconditional trust, being driven around Mexico City will quickly teach it to you. Perhaps this is just my naive, ignorant American self, but from what I can tell, seat belts don't mean a thing here, stop lights don't mean a whole lot more, and the concept of lanes quickly deteriorates once you get off the main roads. The back roads are so narrow that you are forced to silently cooperate with other drivers/bicyclists/pedestrians to get through, often having to back up to let another car go or fold your mirror in so you don't hit it.

Church yesterday lasted from 11:30 to 2:00. There was nothing very surprising or culturally different. We sang worship songs and hymns in Spanish, had a few times of personal and corporate prayer, heard from members of the congregation what God was doing in their lives the past week, and listened to a message about money and tithing. The youth had their own service, and it appeared that the women had a separate meeting or something after the service...not quite sure what that was about. Going to church was actually quite convicting for an American. The attitude wasn't go to church because you have to, listen to the message, and leave ASAP. The drive was quite long (for us), and people stuck around for a good 1/2 hour to an hour afterwards to talk and hang out. I ended up talking to many people after church (much more socializing than I've ever done). I felt bad, because one lady was trying to talk to me in English, and her English was not very good. She kept apologizing for her poor English, when in fact my Spanish is much, much worse. If I ever visit again, even for a day, that is the first thing I would change. (Though I am getting better! Yesterday I was able to form the sentence "Mi novia es muy hermosa" all on my own.)

Even though I've only been here two days, I love the Mexican daily schedule. Apparently every family does it differently, but in Fernando's house, we eat a big breakfast at 9:00 in the morning, lunch around 3:00 in the afternoon, and dinner around 9-10 in the evening. If I could do that every day, I would totally adopt that eating schedule. No more of this 12:00 lunchtime where I'm not at all hungry because I ate breakfast only a couple hours earlier!

But there is one thing in which the U.S. and Mexico are not at all different in the slightest, and which both have an abundant supply of...couples. It's no surprise that love is universal.