The last few days have been really crazy. On Friday we spent the first half of our day packing all of our things and saying our goodbyes to the friends we would be leaving behind. Then, at 1:30 we gathered up our luggage and piled into the vans heading for Tijuana airport. After a slight hassle with our supplies box and a 40 minute delay, we boarded the plane. We arrived in Mexico City at almost midnight and were greeted by our Megacities host and translator who negotiated prices for our taxi ride back to our "new home". As we turned onto a street and our translator said "we're almost there", my first thought was "uh oh", because honestly it looked pretty sketch. We opened our gate and drove down a small streetish thing in between buildings to our door. We got settled in and after waking up the next morning we realized that it really wasn't as scary outside as we thought, but still not somewhere where you would want to be walking alone at night. And, come to find out, there is no reason for us to fear at all, because we have a GUARD DUCK! Yes, a duck! His name is Lucas.
Yesterday we were able to explore the city. We walked about ten minutes to a downtown area of the city called Zocalo. It is a gorgeous place filled with magnificent buildings (most of which churches or museums), cobblestone streets, shops and people EVERYWHERE! I don't think I have every seen that many people in my life. Mexico City seems to work around some sort of organized chaos. People flood the streets and walk across streets whenever they want to and cars just kinda do what they feel. We went to a local church today for their Christmas service. It was actually fairly modern and pretty similar to American churches, only in Spanish. There was a potluck afterwords and we were served with a lot of amazing food, and good (also disfunctional at times) conversation. Things I've learned about the Mexican culture thus far:
1. They are very warm, friendly and hospitable people
2. They are on their own time schedule, in no hurry. No event you go to will ever start on time.
3. When saying hello or goodbye, you hug and side kiss on the cheek. (unless its guy to guy)
4. If someone says "almost free" get ready to pay a lot for it.
5. If you are a blonde, get ready to get stared at.
We are going to start ministry tomorrow so I will be updating my blog as I can! God bless you all!
