We're here!

We made if safely and event-free to Mexico!  This was our group picture before we left from church at 6:30am.  We had 2 flights, both were great.  Once we got through immigration and customs, we waited for our crew to show up - it was so nice to meet them! Adrian and Marcos helped us change money at the airport (which takes about an hour with 11 people!).  After that, a few of our new friends took our luggage back to Adrian & Lula's house where we are staying and Adrian took us siteseeing in Mexico City.

We saw so many cool sites, including the cathedral built in the center of the city on top of Aztec ruins.  We also went to the top of Mexico's equivalent of the Empire State Building - WOW what an amazing sight!  It was night by then, so the city was filled with beautiful lights and life!  I took tons (TONS) of pictures, but to narrow it down for the blog post, I'm just including some of the people I saw along the way ... hopefully it can help you see life here!  What an amazing city, SO MUCH FUN!  Many of these pictures were taken while I was walking and I was quickly losing the light, so some of them may be blurry, but you get the idea.



A few observations about Mexico City so far ...

1. There are street entertainers everywhere - the guy with the microphone was preaching from the Bible!

2. People hang out on the streets well past what we Americans consider bedtime.

3. The people on the streets eat a lot of ice cream.

4. There are a lot of old Volkswagon Beetles for taxi cabs.

5. People are much more affectionate in public than in the States.

6. There are stray dogs everywhere.

7. Said stray dogs have no problem finding food with the trash left on the streets from local vendors.

8. There are homeless families sleeping on the streets ... although I see that in Baltimore, I don't typically see children with their mamas.  My heart hurt for them.

9. Traffic is crazy, although still calm compared to China.

10. There is a lot of really cool graffiti in many places all over the city!

After we toured the city, Adrian hijacked a public bus for us that took us to the bus station - we then took the bus to Texcoco where he and his wife, Lula, live.  Their house is also where they host church on Sundays and there are a total of twenty-one people here!  The girls are upstairs in a loft (which is the 3rd floor), the boys are on the first floor in the living room (which is also church) and everyone else is staying in the bedrooms on the middle floor.  Adrian and Lula are so hospitable and have gone out of their way to make everyone comfortable.  Lula cooked a yummy dinner last night, it looked like taquitoes?  Whatever they were, mmmmmm delicious.  The homemade salsa, cheese and lettuce were perfect toppings!

In closing, I just want to thank everyone for their prayers!  God is certainly listening, and we are so thankful to Him to be here.  I am so excited to see what He is going to do on this trip and having been praying that I am open to whatever He sends our way.  To Him be the glory!

We are off to see the pyramids today, how exciting!!  Will update again when I can!