Catholicism & Men

My dean here is the best--he's really taken care of me so far and has made sure that I'm very comfortable and happy. He's a pretty important and controversial dude--he's the lawyer for the Cardinal of Mexico. Needless to say, our politics differ substantially; regardless, we get along famously.
He invited me to mass at La Catedral in the Zocalo, and I received VIP treatment the whole time--it was insane. We were escorted by the police to the Zocalo from the freeway all the way downtown, I was personally escorted by members of the Cardinal's security to various special places in the Catedral, and I was allowed to enter rooms not available to the general public, which included some of the most incredible art I've ever seen.
After mass, I was escorted into a special room where the public is not allowed to go, and the door was locked behind the small amount of people that were allowed in to see the Cardinal off. After he changed out of his vestments, I shook his hand before he left. Again, though we disagree politically, it was pretty impressive to shake the hand of someone so politically powerful. I also wonder what my grandparents Olga & Nick would say if they could've seen me going to mass at the Catedral & shaking the hand of the Cardinal!? Que locura!

Also--a note about men here in Mexico. They stare at me like I have 3 heads (unlike my experience in Chile, apparently I look different than the general population here...people can tell right off the bat that soy gringa), and if they're over the age of 40, they like to ask me out on dates (which happened to me today...DURING MASS!!! GROSS!). I talked to my host parents about guys here--and they explained to me that the culture is simply different. Here, there's really no shame in telling a woman she's beautiful and asking her out, even if it's TOTALLY OBVIOUS THAT SHE'S NOT INTERESTED, NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT. The machismo will take some getting used to...it's not at all out of the ordinary to get asked out or be told that I'm beautiful and that they're totally in love with me--it's weird and I'm not used to it.