Graduation Mass, Super Salad, Party, Party and More Party!

So, Friday we go to the mass.  I really enjoyed being in the geographic location.  The view of the city, while super smoggy, is really pretty.  (Strange that it's smoggy in pictures since I don't notice it in real life.)  Seeing the city from up so high is nice.  And the church itself is very interesting; it's shaped like a pyramid.  After the mass, we all congregated outside (we finally found Marisela and Papá).  Tía Laura (the buñuelos aunt) came up and hugged all over me.  She asked about Christmas, the buñuelos, my family, and the biscuit recipe.  When we were making buñuelos, she wanted to know how to make biscuits.  I told her I would get her the recipe, yet I didn't.  I'm right on that.

We took pictures of the fam.  With Carlos (boyfriend).  Without Carlos.  With Laura.  Without Laura.  

The party was scheduled for 9pm, so we had over an hour to kill.  

I had only had a peanut butter and honey sandwich (Lockeland gals- there's your peanut butter reference again) at 1:00, and that was before I ran.  I was starving.  There was a salad place right next to La Lomita, so I decided a salad would be something nice and light to tide me over until the meal was served at 10:30 or so.

Ha!

The salad I ordered was HUGE.  I ended up eating all of it, though when it came to the table I would've never imagined.  I was much hungrier than I knew!

From there, we returned home for a bit.  We killed about 20 minutes and then returned right up the street to the Salón de Fiestas (Party Hall).

We got there and entered a HUGE hall with 100 tables set for 10 people.  This graduating class had 80 students.  Each student could reserve however many seats they needed.  Marisela had two tables.  

I guess the average student reserved one table (if my math serves, no pun intended).

During the mass, they were all dressed in all white.  I would say they were in dental attire, but they weren't.  They were all in white suits.  For the party, they had all changed into prom dress-code.  I'm talking seriously dressed up.  And the girls all had to wear a shade of blue.  The hairdos would put Texas to shame.  

When Mexicans get done up, I mean, they get: Done. Up.

Mabel, Cosette and I took our seats at the table with Tía Laura, her daughter Cecy, and another one of Mabel's aunts and cousins.  

Papá and Marisela were also sitting there with Carlos.  We all just chit chatted for about an hour.  They came out for our drink orders.  They didn't have Diet Coke, so I was up a creek.  

Mabel got a bottle of Squirt for the table since she had brought a bottle of tequila.  It was a BYO event.

All of the servers were male, which I found strange.  Mabel said it's always that way.  

In restaurants, there are waitresses, but at catering events, the men are the wait staff and the women are hostesses.

By 10:30, they had brought out a tray of appetizers to each table.  Having eaten a gigantic salad, I wasn't interested in the hors d'eouvres ( how do you spell that?!).  A bit later, they brought out our main plates.  It was salmon, a baked potato (which Mabel said I just had to try.  I burst her bubble a bit by telling her we had those.  They seem very American to me, no?), cheese rice, a roll and it seems like some other carb.  The salmon was drenched in a sauce.  I love salmon so I wanted to taste it.  It was yummy.  I ate about half of the salmon and rice and then called it a night on food.  So I thought.

At 11, they began introducing all 80 graduates.  Eleven o'clock was our original planned departure time.  Earlier in the week, Iván, one of Alma's friends that I met right before Christmas, had texted me telling me he was having a birthday dinner on Friday.  Mabel and I decided we'd pull an Alma and show up at the end.  Supposedly the dinner started at 9.  So that means 10.  We thought we'd leave graduation at 11 and hit the second half.  When the clock struck 11:30, I decided to start sending texts to see if it was even worth going to the dinner.  After several rounds of texts, we found out that Alma had left, and that they were finished eating, but that the party was still going on; they hadn't asked for the check yet.

Mabel and I went back and forth about what the texts meant (I was afraid I was mistranslating.  Unfortunately, she was over-served and misinterpreted something at first.  We weren't going to go.) and I got a call to clear things up, but couldn't hear it.  We eventually figured out the mistake (Mabel had thought the text said the opposite of what it said.) and headed to the other side of town to T.G.I.Friday's.  Of course, we get there and the check is being brought.  Awesome.  I reintroduce Mabel to Iván (she met him on another over-served night) and she and I split their last piece of birthday cake.  We spend about 30 minutes there and then head back to the graduation party until it ends at 2.

I had no plans for Saturday daytime.  Mabel, on the other hand, had to be at an English teachers' training at 9.  I slept until she got home a little after 11 (she left early to pick Cosette up from Papá's).  I still was tired.  Something about changing from early to bed in the week to late to bed on the weekend is killer for my body, even when I still get 8 hours of sleep!  I was thankful to have an empty agenda.