Jade: Yesterday we had a Carnival, it was awesome, it was dancing and singing and floats and people throwing candy and I got a little doll that’s name was Roseta, she is in a blue/green and pinkish white dress with long hair and a blue butterfly in the middle.
Mady: Carnival is when people dress up and people are on floats and they pick princesses for each float. They dance on the floats. It was really, really fun and I got to dance. We went to Progreso to see the parade.
I went with my friend Maria Sophia and her sister Maria Regina (and their family)
Mady:This weekend, I have a new friend and her name is Silvana. I go to her house evey day. She’s here for Carnival.
Jade: At school I enjoy having a boy in my class who speaks English. I find it hard when recess comes because everyone thinks I’m Spanish and they talk at me and I don’t understand them. At school we do work like math and studies and write poems and practice words in Spanish, for T it is ‘te’ ‘to’ ti’ ‘tu’. Those help us with words in Spanish.
We had Valentine’s Day and it is really different because you buy chips to share and you draw names and you buy chocolate and you give it to him/her that you’ve drawn the name.
Mady: I am always worried to go to school, but once I get there it is fine. It is hard at school because I hardly understand anything, but once I get my work I just do it. My friend Alexandra sometimes translates if I want her to. School was really interesting because on Valentine’s Day we gave presents to each other and we hugged each other when we gave them to each other. Boys had to give presents to a girl and girls to a boy. I really wanted to give the gift to my friend Alexandra but I had to give it to Jose.
Jade: We have a house that has 4 dogs – they are all boys – Tomy is the one I’m holding in the picture. Tomy belongs to the person next door who is a boy named Roberto.
Mady: Yesterday I had my birthday party with all of the kids and we whacked Elsa (Elsa was the pinata). Pinatas are made here in Mexico. They have them on birthdays or celebrations. I had a cake and it was terrifying and I had to eat the cake without hands and my friend pushed my head into the cake.
It was called ‘La Mordita’ (which means ‘the bite’). And it is now our family tradition.
And we also roasted marshmellows and had smoores with all of my friends.
Jade: Those are the Mexican money which are called Pesos. (Dad: 12 pesos = 1 Canadian dollar. It costs one kid 10 pesos to take two buses to get to school.)
Mady: I saw a big Iguana and it was about 5 feet long. (Mom interjects: it was about 2 feet long – argument ensues about the length of Iguana’s tail…). The iguana was all grey and it can run very very fast. It ran into the bushes when me and Jade chased it.
You hardly ever see them, but don’t say you don’t want to come if you read this, you’ll be fine… there are black scorpions here but if you surround them they will sting you and it hurts like a wasp. Just because I said that, don’t say you won’t come here. Yesterday I saw one under a cup, it was fine. It is not a big deal.
Mady: This is me and Jessie and Jade. She is my Mom’s cosuin. Jessie was here for about a week because she wanted to get away from snow. It was really fun to have her here.
