Weekend in the city

I didnt take any trips last weekend, so I stayed in La Paz. I like having time at my homestay so I have time to chat in Spanish with my host family. They are extremely nice and have the patience to work with my Spanish. My host dad has a house out a ways from the city that he is building, all by himself. It is very impressive. He is making the cement pillars for support, buying and shaping the iron girders, planning the whole thing out. He was a civil engineer when he was working. So we took the form of public transportation out their and gave it a look. Hen then showed me around the touristy parts of the city that have all the markets for souvenirs, the giant old church (St. Francisco Cathedral), while we were looking for some parts for his house. He really likes oldies so we watched some dvds that he has of some of his favorite artists: Paul Anka, Enrique somebody that apparently was the Mexican equivalent of Paul Anka, and The Platters. I know my dad would have had a good time joining us that evening. A quick note about public transportation. Traffic is so bad here that I cant imagine owning a car here. The roads are constantly congested and as I mentioned in my last post, the traffic laws seem flexible. Similar to many countries, most of the public transportation is conducted by vans that fit a lot more than they look like they would. They are only about 25 US cents to take. There are a few busses that are even cheaper. The vans look like they will stop in the middle of the road any time someone wants to get on or off. There really is only 2 things that I am not a huge fan of in Bolivia that I have experienced so far. Littering, and honking. I have personally witnessed littering a number of times, people just throwing packages on thr ground or out of their car. I heard it is just common here from people who live here. Its not something I can understand. Honking here is soooo common. Everytime traffic causes a car or 20 to stop, every car just honks until it goes, which is pretty much all the time. Honking has lost all meaning in this city as it is just one honk after the other, as far as I can tell. But dont get me wrong, I like many and most things about this city and country. On Sunday, I went to the local Latter-Day Saint church. Someone here told me that Mormonism is the second most common religion here, next to Catholicism. I would believe it, as I saw some LDS churches in some very rural places on my trip over 1 week ago. The church I went to was huge. I arrived 30 minutes early, but ended up being later, because I found out I was waiting in the wrong chapel. They have 2 entire chapels and churches in 1 building to accomodate more people. I could only understand bits and pieces, but I had a good time. There are always lots of nice people at church. One of the biggest differences was timing. I had heard that punctuality isnt stressed in much of Latin America. People slowly streamed in at the beginning of church and I dont know if it is normal, but we ended a good 30 minutes late. That being said, I look forward to going next week if possible.