Traffic, the Heat, and life in General

Chris and I have started school and begun to sync into a rhythm so I thought I would give you a little update on how life is going.  Our primary goal so far has been trying to manage the traffic.  The traffic here in Guadalajara is about the same as in Rome, if not a little worse.  I know many folks are slightly concerned for our safety while in Mexico, I assure you all that drug lords and roving bands of thieves, while exotic are very low on the list of ways we could die here in Mexico.  Walking to school everyday however, is a daily leap of faith.  However I promise you all, that Chris and I take great caution crossing the streets.  It is not that the volume of cars is greater than say Chicago or New York, rather it's just that the number of traffic lights is far less and the practice of weaving through traffic is much more common, which makes crossing a street slightly tenuous.  There is a 3 lane "glorietta" or traffic circle on the way to school and it amazing to see cars every day make it from the innermost lane to turning out of the circle in a matter of 10 or so feet.  However to the credit of the drivers, I have only seen one accident since I have been here and it was just a small fender bender.

Unlike the States, May is the hottest month of the year in Mexico and all of you know how much I love the heat.  The average high has been in the mid 90's but thanks be to God, the lows are in the low 50's.  The mornings are fantastic and the walk to mass and then school is very pleasant.  The walk back in the afternoon and then again in the evenings, however, are quite the uncomfortable trip.  However I am told that the summer rains are coming soon and that when they do, things get more bearable.

Now that I have sorta mentioned our schedule I should probably give you all a clearer picture of what life looks like down here in Guadalajara.  Chris and I live with separate host families about 20 minutes from each other with the school sort of in between us.  Mon - Fri we meet at the Church of St. Rita (more on that later), which is sort of in between us (but closer to Chris) at 8AM for mass, which usually begins around 8:05 - 8:10.  Remarkably despite the usual delay, daily mass is always over by 8:30 at which point we make the 10 minute walk to school, which begins at 9.  The good folks at the language school have graciously allowed us to get there a bit early so that Chris and I can pray Morning Prayer together and they also let us stay a few minutes late so we can pray evening prayer as well.  From 9 until 1, with a half hour break at 11 we have class (each person has a private tutor) where we work on grammar, vocabulary, tenses, conjugations, etc.  Then everyone returns to their host family for lunch, which is the main meal of the day here, which generally starts around 2:30/3, this of course leaves time to take a little siesta as well!  At 4 we return to school where there is a 2 hour session with another teacher.  The afternoon session is a bit more laid back and is focused more on conversation.  There is no real formal agenda, it is meant really just to get you speaking in Spanish.   After class and Evening Prayer we head home, or to another nearby Church which conveniently has Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament  at this time.  After I get back there is time to study and do homework, do some reading, and maybe update this blog.  Dinner is usually pretty light (a sandwich or something similar) and pretty late, usually around 9:30  Chris and I have been warned a couple of times by a few different people that going out later at night (past 10ish or so) isn't the best of ideas and those who know either of us fairly well, know that the two of us have no real problem with that.

Saturdays and Sundays we are off, so today Chris and I made use of our free time in search of a luxury we had been missing all week: Air Conditioning.  Luckily there is a massive (and fairly high end) mall close to us with a movie theater, which provided 3 hours of air conditioned bliss.  The movie itself: Robin Hood, was pretty good, but as Chris put it, "for 46 pesos ($4.60) I'd be willing to sit through anything, the air conditioning alone is worth it."  But before the movie we made it to mass at noon at our usual Church, St. Rita's.  What we overlooked was that today is the feast day of St. Rita.  A church's feast day is a fact that often passes without much notice in most American parishes, but not here.  What we thought would be a half hour mass was actually a 70 minute mass with a 20 minute homily and some sort of special blessing, on the forehead of each person.  Given the fact that the church was packed, this special blessing alone took 10 minutes.  I did want to make a couple of quick observations about mass today, not critiques just observations, which might help folks understand the nature of the Church in Mexico.  The actual Eucharistic Prayer took no more than 4 minutes and was fairly well lost in the 70 minute mass and while everyone went up to get the special "St Rita Blessing" about only half of the church went up to receive communion, which is still only given under one species and on the tongue.  There was also a priest hearing confessions during Mass and it was fairly common for folks to get up from Mass, go to confession and return to the mass 20 or so minutes later.  There is definitely a difference in attitude and piety in the Mexican Catholic experience.

Well that is about all for now.  I hope that everyone has a blessed Pentecost tomorrow.  I am headed with my host family to their local parish, while Chris is going with his host family to the diocesan Ordination, where 31 men are being Ordained to the Priesthood tomorrow by the Cardinal Archbishop.  Please pray for these men as they enter Christ's Holy Service.