Swimming, Sweating, and a Six Hour Wedding
This past weekend has been wild and crazy and so much more, so hopefully you will understand why I haven't posted in a few days.
First of all, we had an A-mazing Friday. Irma, our culture teacher, got us the hookup to go to a private club. She is a member and we all got in for free for the whole day, which was awesome, cause we practically had the place to ourselves. El Molino had a huge pool, a gym to workout, tennis courts, a running path, a restaurant and a ton more. We were set for the entire day.
We have been trying not to tell people here that we went to El Molino..because it makes us seemeven more spoiled than we already look. In Mexico, if you are snotty or stuck up, they call you a 'fresa' or a strawberry. We tend to hang out with a lot of those people here, so we try not to come off as little white girl fresas too.
I'm not sure why I didn't take any pictures, but Friday night after class we went out to dinner. We ate with four of the missionaries here in Tehuacán and then some friends from our Sunday School class. It was a lot of fun; we are so lucky to have so many good friends here at the church.
On Saturday we got super sweaty and decided to take a long bike ride all over the city in the morning. We al borrowed bikes from our families and then just went at it. It was 90 degrees here on Saturday and that, as we were told is only the beginning of the hot weather. Riding bikes was awesome, but we rode downhill...uhh..down mountain for a while, and then realized we had to go back up. Crap. It was quite an exhausting ride, and that wasn't even the half of it. At first, we realized that it was actually kind of scary riding our bikes on the streets like everyone else, because people here drive like wackos. So we stopped for a prayer and screamed a little every now and then. Our butts are kind of sore, but we really enjoyed the ride.
After our super sweaty bike ride, we headed over to the mall to enjoy the cool air, and some lunch. We actually got subway for lunch, which tasted so stinkin good. I miss Subway. It was funny to have such American food here, but we loved every bit of that $2, 6 inch sub. Yum.
Saturday night is when the real party began. We were invited to go to a wedding with Jen's family and it was flippin wild. The wedding began at 7 at the church, which was beautiful and huge and super cool.
Nothing about the ceremony shocked me too much, because I have been to Catholic weddings before, and it was pretty much the same. There was Mass, and some sitting and standing and they kissed and all was well. The couple came out of the church and we threw rice and rose petals at them.
We drove out of town a little bit to the reception, which was held at this giant pavilion at the water park. Funny, there could have been so many perfect moments to go push someone in a pool. The venue was actually decorated really nice, and we were pretty surprised, because other weddings we have seen, are less formal and more of a party.
Our expectations were pretty low to begin with, but there was non-stop entertainment after dinner. Don't get excited, because the food wasn't anything spectacular...I actually did not care for it at all. Womp. Womp. The cakes were really pretty though!
The first surprise of the night was the bride and groom's first dance. Los novios, or the newly wed couple started out dancing all sweet and then busted into a flash mob with about 15 of their friends and family. They jumped up from their tables wearing oversized glasses, threw some confetti, then popped out into a remix dance of american songs. It was super cute. Here are a few action shots...
There was also a bouquet toss, which Ashley and Mandy joined in on. All of the girls got little pieces of tulle to stick in their hair like veils. Too funny! Unfortunately, neither of them caught the bouquet..so I guess they aren't getting married anytime soon ;) When the bride's garter was tossed all of the men had to wear handmade foam yellow polka dotted bikinis with foam bow ties. Hilarious!
There were several traditions which had us cracking up, there were two that involved the groom. First, the bride sat in a chair in the middle of the dance floor, and the groom was dressed in an apron, handed a broom, a spoon and a few random kids. Then he had to dance around the bride, trying to juggle all of the parts of family life, while keeping it all together. It was pretty entertaining and the bride got a good laugh out of it. I don't think the wedding would have been as fun if the bride and groom weren't party people.
The second thing that had us really confused was the funeral procession. Several 'groomsmen' came and picked up the groom, so he was laying parallel to the ground, about 5 feet in the air. He was holding the bride's bouquet, with his eyes closed...mimicking a funeral. They carried him around the dance floor, while the bride and her bridal party followed, pretending to cry dramatically. Apparently, all of his 'libre tiempo' or free time, is now dead and gone because he is a married man. They said the bride was sad, but really she was actually celebrating the death of her new husband's single life. Cool...but also a little odd.
Another tradition which had us a little nervous for the safety of the crowd, was the scramble...uhh I don't even know what to call it. The bride stood on a chair, and the groom as well opposite of the bride holding her veil between the two of them. First all the women got in a conga line of sorts, played crazy music, then ran through them in a 'london bridge' fashion trying to get the bride or groom to drop the veil, because that would show the strength of their marriage. Let. me. tell. you. These women were NOT messin around, the bride had two of her brothers holding her up on the chair just so she wouldn't fall off. It got ugly, but they didn't drop the veil! Then the men had their chance, and they held on to each others pant waists, and also ran around like maniacs. It was ridiculous!! But I am telling you, this was ALL so entertaining, no wonder the weddings here last so long.
Once all the madness was finished, the dancing began.. Here is the before....
And then the after....
We had masks, and streamers, and balloons, and big bows on our head, and tons of other crazy things. WE danced...and danced...and danced.. Then ate some cake..then danced some more. Wow. Remember how I said a 6 hour wedding?? Yes we didn't make it home until about 3 ....which makes for a really long night. Sheeeew, we had tons of fun and I am so glad we went..but seriously, that was long. I need some extra sleep tonight! Adios
-Sara Jacqueline
