Foreign Country

Where we live in New Jersey is basically a foreign country. There is a great population of Latinos here. It is so much fun! There's a LONG street full of shops, just a block or two from where we live, and it's like little Mexico or South America. It's so much fun. Lucky for me, just about everyone speaks English :).

Last night I went with Aubrey and Gabe to a wedding reception at their old ward, in Passiac, New Jersey. It was awesome! I felt so welcomed - I don't know if it was the traditional Latino greeting, or just that everyone loved Aubrey so much that the love spilled over to me, but whatever it was, I was very warmly welcomed!

I made two great friends there - Maria, who is about 17 years my senior, and Rosanna, who is 12 years my junior. Amazing how some people you meet are just instantly your friends, you just connect, and age, language, race and everything else fall away! So cool!

The couple who were married are from Mexico, and therefore I got experience and participate in some of the Mexican traditions associated with marriage. At one point, we ladies started gathering in the middle of the room for what I thought was going to be the bouquet toss. Instead, we formed a line, hands on hips of the person in front of you, like we where going to preform the bunny hop. The first person in line started to run, and we followed suit, running beneath a veil type thing that was tied to the bride , who was standing on a chair, and held up by the groom, also on a chair. I was laughing my head off, not having any idea what we were doing or what the point was, when suddenly the bride fell off her chair. "Yikes!" is what I thought, but everyone else laughed and cheered and clapped. Apparently the point of the game was to knock the bride or groom off of their chair. We ladies went on for a little while, then the men took a turn, then the kids. It was so funny! They also had some other traditions...most of which I didn't understand, and neither did Maria, who is from the Dominican Republic. She'd just tell me, "only Mexicans do that" and shrugged her shoulders.

There was plenty of dancing of course, and a did dance a little, but I tell you, away from my little Rexburg bubble, where there's more gringas and gringos at the Latin dance than actual Latinos, I felt a little more than slightly self-conscious. But it was fun!

I'm sure I will have many more cultural experiences yet...and I may add Spanish to my list of fluent languages by the end of the summer :).