My First Mass

I just got back from my first mass with choir in the main cathedral in el centro historico. I got to the cathedral about fifteen minutes early and Penelope was already sitting there. I introduced her and Ashleigh (who I had been hanging out with for a few hours before mass). A few minutes later Ashleigh left and other choir people started arriving. There’s this one red headed girl who I thought was foreign too in the beginning, but she’s not, she’s from somewhere near DF. Her name is Paula and she sat next to me and chatted with me the whole time. She’s really nice and offered to show me around the city and take me to her other music school where I might be able to take guitar lessons!

She also helped me through the mass. Being with the choir at mass was like being backstage at a show that’s been playing for 20 years with the same cast. They were all goofing around and making hand gestures and still saying “Amen” in all the right places. There were several songs that we didn’t have music for because they all knew them by heart (any good Catholic would, I guess). In these cases, Paula would lean over and whisper the next line really fast to me right before we had to sing it. This had about a 20% success rate but it was nice of her to try. About an hour or so into it, Penelope realized that I’m not Catholic because I didn’t know about “passing the hand” (that’s the direct translation) and any good Catholic would know that. She immediately whispered the news to the organist (the guy who auditioned me) and it didn’t seem like too big of a deal. I wonder if he’ll give Cassandra a bad time about it.

After the mass, Paula walked me from the cathedral, down Avenida Juarez all the way to Federalismo (about ten blocks), pointing out landmarks and good cafes as we went. There’s a café near la Iglesia Diana (?) that I need to check out on a Frirday night. She asked me if I like dancing and told me she would take me out to the good places. When we got to Federalismo and passed through the park we turned towards Morelos and she walked me to where I could catch the bus. It was really nice of her to take the time to hang out with me. I hope this is a sign of the new possibilities choir will open up for me!