Today I felt very comfortable with my class.
           This morning it was extremely cold and since the teacher didn't show up for a bit, Anita and I talked for a while in the frozen morning. Breakfast was very good (bread with a sausage and bean sauce) but the bread was not plentiful so I did not get a lot!
           Lore and I had math again and while I was bored, I drew swirls on my hand in a red pen that Lore had. During Spanish, Karla finished dictating about famous authors --a project we started more than a month ago. During snack, Lore and I held the adorable newborn (Dylan--Karla's son) and showered him in kisses. He kept going cross-eyed and making funny newborn sounds!
          Next I had English but instead, Rosie (the art teacher) came in and talked to us about the Christmas performance in which we are going to do a choreographed dance in which we are all toys under a Christmas tree. I forgot to mention this earlier but I am going to be Tinkerbell!!!!! When Rosie first suggested this to me I was like NO WAY but everyone kept saying how I would be perfect for it and blah blah blah so then I made a deal with Maya. The deal was that I would be Tinkerbell if she would be a fairy with a skirt. So my doom is sealed and I have recently been looking up homemade TinkerBell dresses!! I found this cool one that I can make out of a t-shirt!
        Rosie had us do the mirror exercise where one person does actions and the other has to copy them. That would have been very un-awkward, but then she told us we had to do it in boy-girl partners. She put Evodio with Ana, Diego with Lore, Pao with Kevin and then tried to put me with Andres but since Toño didn't have a partner we begged to be partners and in the end she let us. Just looking at Toño made me laugh so when she told us to try to make the other laugh I immediately lost.
        I was glad to be his partner and I had a fun time goofing around. After Art we had Geography but Karen turned it into Civics and Ethics. We watched a video on youtube about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and we got homework related to it. After school, we didn't do a whole lot besides listen to music from YouTube, do homework and eat but it was very relaxing. Well, I am off to eat some cupcakes!!

Such a cozy day, which is a sharp contrast to the freezing cold of the day before!.
            I woke up relatively early and got right to work on my day's plan of trying to finish many things.  After I was denied access to the TV from my mom (also an early bird....then again, the only other early bird), I took a shower. After that, I finished the last small part of my homework that I had left before I ate breakfast. I read before we got ready to go to Merposur to buy cowboy shirts.
           We took a taxi to Merposur which is pretty much a market where you can buy everything!! I had very little hope that we would actually find cowboy shirts (which by our definition are shirts that have western patterns on it and it HAS to have snaps; without snaps it is simply un-acceptable as a cowboy shirt). I found a really cute blue and green one and Oscar found a nice blue one.
            We then took a combi (colectivo)--which is a minibus that is extremely cheap and goes most places in town--and got off near the Santo Domingo Church so that we could visit their museum. The museum is new and looked very nice and it was very informative (if I had read the signs) and interesting.
            We left the museum and stopped at a bakery on the way home. We sat in the cozy warm loft and ate yummy pastries and sipped creamy hot chocolate as we chatted before going home so that I could skype with two friends before we went to bed. I had great times talking with them and I love skype/facetime!!

Finally, a soccer game I am mostly proud of.
         At eight thirty in the morning, I woke up to the cold house. I got ready for my soccer game and stepped outside to see how the temperature was. It was pretty cold. I put on my long-sleeved soccer jersey with the longest shorts I own (they are blue and down to my knees) and matching blue socks. We arrived there and it was colder even! I guess I should be glad that our uniforms have long-sleeves but I can't get too excited about it because there is mesh in the back. That means that I have to wear an undershirt...argh!!!
          My team starts to do the cheer and I am a little away from the group when Pepe tells me to join them. Then they pull out a cheer that I have never heard anyone practicing before and I am just standing there listening with my arms folded. Not in a grumpy way just because I don't have anything else to do with them. The first half was sloppy and by the end of it, we were down 2-1. During halftime, there was this paper that everyone had to put their name and number on. When it was my turn, Michelle (the boy) who wrote everyone else's names on it just handed the pencil to me because he had no idea how to spell my name. I wrote it down with my stiff hand as everyone craned to see what I had written.
           The part I was most proud of was when someone passed me the ball and I started dribbling down the line. Dribbling is very rare for me and it got even rarer when no one stole the ball from me. So anyway, I see Michelle out of the corner of my eye and I try to pass it to him, it bounces off the legs of the person who is following me and comes back to me. I pass it again and this time it goes through the guy's legs and to Michelle. What made that moment even greater was when I was dribbling and passing I could hear Profe saying stuff like "good job Yur" and other nice things. That made me feel really good especially because during halftime he told me I need to patrol my area (in a way of speaking). At one point, the ball slammed into my thighs (I was trapping it) and then a boy behind me (on the other team) slams into my back and I lurch forward with a strangled sound. I stagger forward as the referee calls a foul on his part. It didn't hurt but I am glad that I got a foul out of that one! As we were about to start play, the boy who slammed into me came over and asked me if I was okay, that was nice. Michelle was also fouled during the game and later the guy came up to him, put his arm around his shoulder and says "I'm sorry about that, no hard feelings" (as far as I could tell). In the U.S. we generally just say "sorry" as if it is their fault and then walk away. I am included in that "generally."
           We lost 3-2 but I was pleased of how I did. After that freezing game, we went to Jesus' (Doña Lesvia's grandson's) first birthday party. We are thinking that the first birthday is very important after going to that party. They had: a cake that was as tall as a wedding cake, ten piñatas in different characters, prizes for people who did competitions and a bunch of candy. It was very nice even though we were cold. A guy came around with hot pineapple punch and would refill your cups for you and for the adults, he would give you a little alcohol in it!! There were a lot of funny games that people played and it was very fun! None of the women would let us leave without food so we came home with a lot of food.
           I did a little homework before Oscar and I watched Despicable Me. I really love that movie!! The minions are the best part!
         We ate some more turkey for dinner before we watched another two episodes of Heroes! (Emery, I am on Season 2, episode 6 I think. What about you?)

We skipped school on Friday to cook, or so we thought.
            Oscar and I woke up on Friday morning and after preparing ourselves breakfast, we ate while watching Pirates of the Carribean which was two and a half hours long (I don't think my parents really noticed!). After the movie finished, we got dressed and made some apple cider before I took a shower in order to be ready for when Lore came over to help cook. We made mashed potatoes and set the table before everyone else came.
            In my opinion the food was delicious and I had a lot of fun. Emma, Lore and I played a game where one person stands on the lounge chair and the other people try to hit them with a mini-soccer ball!! It was pretty fun, if hard.
            The pie was outstanding and it was my very favorite part. After everyone else left, Lore, Oscar and I had a blind pillow fight. Lore and I also tried to play "slide" (a hand clap game) and no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't make it to ten. We would always burst out laughing or mess up!
            Our fake Thanksgiving night was very fun and I think it was a success!

"Is that a girl? Oh my god, it's a girl!" Those were the words that came out of my mouth at soccer practice. But more about that later.
         On Thursday this time during PE we did obstacle courses instead of standing on our heads the whole time. I was glad for the change even though I am awful at dribbling a basketball through cones that are too close together. I suppose there is always a trade-off, right?!
        After we did those races, we convinced Triceratops to let us play basketball this time instead of soccer. I was on a team with Evodio, Lore, Pao and Emma. I got sandwiched many times because of my willingness to get the ball. One time, Toño slammed into me and I fell over; he gave me a hand up. In general when you accidentally foul someone or knock someone over, they help you up and try to make sure that they didn't hurt you too bad. We ended up losing but it was fun regardless of who won.
       After our seemingly routine shopping trips to Soriana, we went to soccer practice where I said, "Is that a girl? Oh my god, it's a girl!" I greeted Profe and then Oscar and I did the whole sashaying thing that we always do to warm up before we practice. I did mine next to the girl; I was so excited she was there that I introduced myself (I rarely do that) and we got to talking. Her name is Michel; she is ten years old; her brother is Javier (he is also on the team) and her parents are forcing her to play. Oscar and I were going to be partners for the drills but Profe put me with Michel (probably Michelle but this is how they pronouce her name and plus I don't want to get her name confused with the boy) so that she could "work with confidence" as Profe put it.
        She had very little soccer experience from what I could tell, so it  was a little hard to work with her but I was just happy to have another girl in our midst. Profe saw that we weren't quite at the same level so he switched Michel to work with Alfredo and Erick came to work with me. That was a lot better and I feel like we are a good match for each other. Profe told us to play keep-away and when we ran past Gabriel (Erick's older brother) while I had the ball and Gabriel said "Ohhhh, Erick, a girl is beating you ohhhh, Erick," I felt kind of like hehe or mwah-haha!!
       Out of ten, soccer practice on Thursday was probably a nine; I was pretty pleased with how I did. If every practice were around those numbers I wouldn't complain!
        When we got home, we ate pizza we had picked up on the way and started to make pies for our Thanksgiving dinner that is going to take place on Friday so that we can stay up later. 

I goofed around with people in my class a lot today.
               During Physics, we solved some problems using formulas. Lore and I played with the babies before breakfast; one of whom gets the same face Oscar does when he tries not to smile!
              We had some surprisingly good empanadas that Lucerito (the cook) had to drain (the oil from it) with her spatula! That probably would be considered "unhealthy" in the United States, though I would like to point out that the school system (in the U.S.) was fine with giving me and my classmates green and bouncy hotdogs......That is not even all...I don't want to make you all lose your appetites so if you would like to know those other stories about U.S. school lunches, you can comment or email me about it!
              We had History class before we had a practice for the biathlon. For the practice, we stretched and then ran four laps. For the actual race it will only be two but we are doing more for practice. Most people started too fast and by the second lap or so, the only ones left running were Evodio and me. Evodio could have beaten me if he hadn't started walking fifteen meters from the goal! So I beat him at that part though if it is only two laps and then swimming.... I better pick up the pace!
              I changed and then did the sixteen laps followed by ten laps around the pool and then got back in the pool to recuperate. Evodio and I splashed each other and just goofed around before we were forced to get out. I got out and handed my goggles to Mafer; I unzipped my wet suit (most people wear those while swimming in my school) and peeled it down to my waist. Don't worry I wear a normal suit underneath because it is easier to change out of at the end of class and once when I didn't where it, there was a little bit too much water circulation in parts where I don't want it!
              I changed into my normal clothes and ate some watermelon for snack. During art class, we talked about what we are going to do for our Christmas celebration. The teachers want us to do a big collage of talents meaning they want us to dance, sing etc. I don't want to do any of those things in public so when she asked what we wanted to do, I said well maybe I could do some flips on the bar or something. She sort of chuckled when I said that and then said well I guess you could.
            After school, we went home and had our Spanish lessons!
Good Night!!

This would never happen in the United States!!
            Even though I showed up ten to fifteen minutes late yesterday morning, I was still the third person at school! Lorena doesn't really count because she comes with her dad (the teacher of the class) to school every morning. Occasionally--only halfheartedly-- does Eloina try to lecture us on coming to school on time because she knows that time is something not heavily regarded here and that some times, the teacher is even late.
          After breakfast (in which we had delicious hot chocolate), our whole class (or who was there, that is) piled into the car, this time with less squeezing. Three kids from our class didn't show up so there was more room. Karla with her newborn baby sat in shotgun with her husband driving us. Karla got back today! I am really happy because she is my favorite teacher!! She has to take her baby in a sling to teach classes and in the case of yesterday, to parades also. She would have left him at home with someone but he won't take a bottle so to be able to breastfeed him, she has to carry him around!
          After hunting around for a parking space, we jumped out and stood on the side of the road to watch the Day of the Revolution parade. The parade was pretty much groups of kids from almost all the schools in San Cristobal parading the streets and showing off their skills (mainly pyramids, jump roping and pom-pom dancing). We watched in the sun and it was more fun than it seems. At one point, Wicho (a kid from my soccer team) came down the street with his school group and for what felt like an eternity, our eyes locked. Now, I wish I could have had the class to smile but I guess I am slow about those social things.
          We had to leave before it was really over because we heard that these indigenous people were really pissed at the president of some local thing and were trying to kidnap/kill/protest against him depending on who you talk to. We drove straight back to school despite the pleas of seventh, eighth and ninth graders who wanted to go anywhere before we had to go to school. When I say they wanted to go anywhere to waste a little time before going back to school, I mean ANYWHERE. They even asked to go to Soriana (a new supermarket), that's how desperate they were!!
        Upon arriving, we had a short class (taught by Karla) before her husband substitute taught us PE. I like his form of teaching us PE (playing games) better!! We played hide and seek and as Julian (just a kid) counted to thirty, I started to climb a big knarled tree for my hiding spot as Yair said "tipico"(typical). I just smiled. Since I have been here I climb up on a bar and do flips. Now people thinking of me as part monkey (not in the racial sense) because of how much I love to do flips, much to the anxiety of my teachers and classmates! 

Maya's birthday was very fun for me even though it wasn't my birthday!!
---            Monday was nothing very special but that doesn't mean it was a very bad day. Lorena didn't come to school, so that was a little saddening, but at least I have Mafer, Maya, Paola and Ana.
---            Again on Tuesday, Lorena didn't come but I had more fun this day than the day before. Tuesday was Maya's fifteenth birthday and for most traditional Mexicans, that is a big deal. When a girl turns fifteen, they generally throw a big party because it is considered when a girl becomes a woman. Many people gave her flowers and chocolate and she gave everyone a little red candle shaped like a rose. I thought it was very generous of her to give people something when it was HER birthday to begin with.
                Before breakfast, Maya (who we all call Masha), Ana, Paola, Mafer and I went to the forest to do a little celebration for Maya. Ana and Mafer smuggled out a little ding-dong-like thing for her and lit a match so that she could blow it out like a candle. Maya gave us each a bite of her little birthday treat and then Ana (I think it was) shoved it in her face so she had sweet white sugar cream on the right side of her face. Pao took pictures of us with her camera (she wants to be a photographer when she grows up) and then we went for another photo location at the treehouse. We walked down back to the school and barely avoided missing breakfast even though Lucerito threatened!! Yair (Mariana's best friend) who is a sixth grader gave me chocolates; when I asked him why he was giving them to me he just replied "They're just for you." They were very good I may add!!
                  Over the course of the day, I gave Maya many hugs and said Happy Birthday three times. We got into a disagreement that started when I said I loved her; then she said "I love you more" then of course I had to counter that my saying "No, I love you more." Now that sounds like a fight a lesbian couple would have, but I think in general, people here are more lovey with their friends.
             The best part about soccer practice was when I beat all the boys (in my age group) three times in a row in a running race. I could hear them saying "no mames" and laughing in disbelief!! In your faces!!!
---        Wednesday, we accidentally went to breakfast early after sitting in the sun as the Math teacher pulled small groups out for math.  Our swim teacher told us about a race that we are going to do. It is a race where we run these two laps around the school grounds, then take off our sweats under which we will have our wet suits. We will dive into the water and do 16 laps. Then we will get out, do one more lap and that's where it will end. I am going to enter the race y tengo ganas de ganar (exact translation is unknown but it roughly means and I really want to win). I plan to train a little on the weekends. My advantage will be in the water (I may be the fastest swimmer in the class). I am not too bad a runner but I am nervous that with the laps first, I won't pace myself and will be very tired by the time we get to swimming.
            We did a practice circuit and even though he said jog lightly, from the moment he said go, I knew this would be no light jog. By the end of the running I was in third place. Judging by that, the transition (where we take off our sweats and shoes to get into the water will be crucial. After a run through of the race, we sat on the grassy hill with Mariano (who is filling in for Karla while she is on Maternity leave) and he read our palms. I will do a summary of what he said for me: I will get a nine out of ten in money; I will have a job in design or natural sciences (I highly doubt that). When he was telling everyone about how love would go for them he looked at my palm, stared up at me and goes ohhhhhh you should talk with me later (he didn't specify so I don't know what he was implying exactly). He also said that when I get sick it will generally be stomach problems and that I am very sensitive so I need to do some sort of art to balance it out otherwise it will cause me harm. I doubt the probability of most of this stuff but it was fun to hear about anyhoodle!
---       On Friday we worked like crazy for another festival (we are practically doing one every week!). For and hour or more, Pao and Toño would pass us banana leaves they had just heated on the stove, then I would pull off the coarse fiber then pass it to Lorena who would wipe it off with a towel. Lore whispered something to Toño and then he turns to me and goes "que si" restarting a disagreement that Lore and I had concerning Evodio's relationship with me. As I mentioned earlier, she thinks Evodio likes me and I disagree. Lore now has Toño on her side and then they call Evodio over and say "que si verdad" (trying to get him to agree with them even though he has no original knowledge of our little "disagreement"). He looks at me as I tell him to say no and after a brief talk in which he asks us which would be better for him he throws his hands up and walks away, sick of not getting any previous information. Then Toño pulls him to the side and tells him what it's about. Upon hearing this, Evodio says "no, solo somos amigos" (no, we're just friends). He says to Toño and Lore, "Like you guys, just friends," then whispers to me on a side note "Well, not them" because we both agree that they like each other though they won't admit it!
          We worked a bit more before we started eating because we were famished. In addition to eating tortillas with mole we also ate a noodle-vegetable-broth soup that tasted even better than it probably was because of our empty stomachs. I sort of love it when your taste buds--so hungry for taste--fool you into thinking this is food from the heavens!
         For the festival, most of the kids from primary stood up and talked about a character from the Mexican Revolution. Maya, Lore and I (unwilling to put on skirts) drew mustaches over our lips for our costume. The teachers and parents lit mini-campfires on sheets of metal to give the atmosphere of a camp where rebel soldiers lived. In this festival they were especially celebrating the women of the revolution who (as Eloina told me) "traveled from camp to camp making tortillas for the soldiers." Okay fine, she also told me that they acted as nurses and cooks but that part of what she told me sounded the funniest when telling why women were so important to the revolution.
        The middle school kids (aka me and my class mates) served food and ran games after the presentation. We drove Ana and her family home and then they invited us for some coffee. The kids played Clue and Monopoly before we went home to get some sleep.
---       My family had to get up earlier than we had wished for to stand at some inauguration for a little soccer field. No one on my team payed attention for more than 2 minutes so once it was over we went home and didn't think much more about it.
---      On Sunday, I did my homework and stayed in my pajamas all day; note to self: follow Emery's advice next time and get out of your pajamas before eleven am.
---      Today we didn't have school because of the anniversary of the Mexican Revolution, so we went to a tea shop that reminds me of Butterfly Herbs (in Missoula, Montana) and is really nice. We were going to try to check my math book but because the computer kept going really slow, we barely got any work done. That was frustrating but oh well... For everyone reading this, you guys know that I have had a pixie cut for about a year now.... well I recently decided to grow my hair out again because:
a) everyone in my class thinks I would look better with long hair
b) I am now wishing for a pony tail
c) maybe if I don't sort of look like a boy I will be more accepted on my soccer team as a girl.
Most of you who read that are probably thinking something along the lines of "She shouldn't do something just because other people want her to..." but I don't mind that. I could use a change of pace. Now, my game plan: AVOID THE MULLET AT ALL COSTS. Therefore at 4 o'clock, I went to get a trim at a hair salon.
           Really soon we will watch an episode of Heroes (both of my parents have very little energy and feel sick) before we go to sleep!!
Good Night!

GO OBAMA!!!!!!
---                 After school on Monday, Oscar and I went rock climbing. It was challenging (because I haven't practiced in months) and fun. I ripped a callous which was not optimal but I survived.
---                On Tuesday, the Biology teacher had it out for my whole class. She starts out with "today I am going to check your notebooks, you should have all of these in them (respiratory system, digestive system......)" knowing perfectly well we had little more than none of those. How she can do that while smiling at us, I have no idea. She then says, "Since you don't have it now, I want you ALL to do it for Thursday (our next Biology class)." I knew then, I was in for it. I called my dad and told him I wouldn't be able to go to soccer due to an emergency homework session. He understood and told me it was okay for me to skip one practice.
                 After school, we went home; Oscar really really didn't want to go without me though it is possible he was unintentionally working himself up. He was crying so I helped him get dressed (he had asked me before to try and convince dad to let him stay home and since I quickly found that a useless cause, I decided I would try to make it easier for him to go). After he left tear-streaked in the van with my parents and Papa Tom (who was going to watch him), I sat down and got to work on my project that seemed big but I didn't realize how enormous it was until I started writing explanations. To imagine my project, think about the Asian legend where this guy uses chopsticks and moves grains of rice one at a time.....yeah....it took me more than four hours I think!!!
              I was bent on watching the election so I sat at a table doing my homework while my family gave me updates about the ways that the states were going and such. I stopped to eat dinner and watch the part where the channel announced which candidate had to win. I am pleased Obama won because I cannot imagine having such a lying, doofus, fake, creepy man (ahem...aka Romney) for President. Though Obama had his faults and didn't do some of the things we wish he had done, we think he is still a great man and we have hope he can help turn things around.
---              On Wednesday, my grandparents had to leave. We were all very sad because they are such good company. Papa Tom and JoJo, if you are reading this, I thank you deeply for leaving my room better than it was when you guys had it!!!! I miss you guys!! After school, I still had to finish my Biology project so I finished that before I went to sleep.
---              The part of Thursday that really stood out to me was soccer practice. Profe only had us do drills that were challenging but not impossible. Oscar and I were partners so I did not have the awkward time of waiting for Profe to choose some younger kid to work with me. Profe used me as an example of a drill we were going to do with headers. I am generally not great with headers but that time it all worked out and I headed all three right to him. Another accomplishment was that when we were practicing juggling, I felt like I could actually make it most of the time.
                 When Profe told us to get into triplets, we kind of stood around wondering who could be our third person. Without even waiting, Profe told Fernando (the smiley) to be our third person. We were very pleased and the whole time we did group drills, we laughed, talked and smiled. When we did the scrimmage, I made a goal!!! That practice was the best practice I have ever had here. I wouldn't have changed anything about it.
---             On Friday, we went to San Diego's festival; we played foosball for probably a half hour (we all really enjoyed playing that) and then ate some churros. There was a lucha libre performance that none of my family seemed to enjoy as much as we liked the idea of watching it. Then we shot BB guns at little metal levers that when you hit them it would activate music and dancing puppets. It was very fun to do!
---             On Saturday, I went to Lorena's birthday breakfast with her family. In the U.S. when they say a family birthday they generally mean their siblings and parents; here they invite cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and even more distantly related family members! Also when they say birthday party it means like a WHOLE day party. It was really fun because I met a lot of cool cousins I didn't even know she had and we played some fun party games.
                At one point Lorena (who I had been sticking with practically the whole time), went to go set something up and told me to wait where I was. Monica--who is the cousin who was around at the time- started asking me questions. First she asked me if I had relatives in the United States and when I told her that I was from the United States, she was gob-smacked! I was kind of surprised she didn't just automatically assume that's where I was from. So, apparently I sound mostly like a Mexican! She proceeded to interrogate me about the U.S. The question I thought was the funniest was when she asked me if there are a lot of carpets in the U.S. and once I answered that, yes, there were many, she then questioned how they kept them clean! I said normally they have a welcome mat or something similar and that it depends in what climate you live in. I forgot to mention that in the U.S. most people have vacuums which is pretty much essential for living in carpeted places. She also asked if most things are industrial and gave me some examples of things she thought there were a lot of in the U.S. (pre-made microwaveable food, big stores etc).
              We played musical chairs (I tied for first); we played a game where everyone ties a balloon to thier ankle and then tries to keep theirs out of reach while attempting to pop others (I was the first to lose because my ballon popped with the sun), and then we played basketball. That was pretty fun until I was accidentally elbowed in the face by Lupita (one of Lorena's many cousins), though she gave me a big hug and said she was so sorry. I didn't blame her and it was kind of funny how part of my lip ballooned up!
               For Lorena's gift I gave her a a picture of her and me in our costumes for the Day of the Dead festival! She seemed to really like it and gave me a big hug after she opened it!

Day of the Dead like you have never seen it before.

                At school, we did less preparation one and two days before the big Day of the Dead festival than one would expect. Of course we made up for it the day of. Whenever Eloina puts "8am-12pm normal classes" for everyone before a festival, know that it will really be 8-9am (or in my case 7-9am) normal classes before we start in on the organized chaos Eloina and the teachers like to call "set up."

                The only kind of preparation for the Day of the Dead celebration I did on Monday and Tuesday was make "pan de muerto" or dead bread or more likely bread of the dead. All the women who were making bread told me to come in again and again because according to them, I have soft hands which makes the dough soft also. At one point Lucerito (the cook) told me "Wille, will you just make all the bread?!" Of course, she was joking, but I did end up making most of it in the end.

               "Set up" on Wednesday for me started with washing pumpkins for a sweet pumpkin soup with Paola. After, I went over with Maya and Lore to help them set up the giant altar - which for all the time they had been "working" on it - had come along very little. We taped up "papel picado" (think square multi-colored snowflakes made by 3rd and 4th graders) on all the levels of the altar then we started in on the marigolds. I brought an armful and a bucket full of flowers to use for the altar; we put some in "vases" made out of chlorine holders for the pool. The rest of the flowers got their heads cut off to make a path of marigolds to the altar. Then we decked out the altar with offerings of sugar cane, bread of the dead and other little candies. There was one bread of the dead that was only half of one, and my art teacher, Lore and I ate it very suspiciously as crumbs fell from our mouths!
                After we finished the altar, Lore and I walked around seeing all the little kids get ready for their speaking part in our presentation. We kept trying to avoid getting dressed for the reading of legends. I didn't want to change into my dress because I was nervous how people in my class would react. In the end Lore and I got changed in a guest room in her grandma's house (which is right next to the school). I got into my dress and self-consciously put my hoodie over it. I walked around to the classrooms to check on my little friends. I was in one classroom when Evodio came by and seeing the bottom of my dress, he made a pose and then I pretended to punch him in the face. After that I was nervous he or anyone else would tease me more. But then the next thing I knew, he is telling me how I should wear the shawl (that Eloina let me borrow) with my dress! Then, Maya tells me that I look gorgeous so that makes me feel better. She gently forces me and Lore to put lipstick on and tells me to take my sweatshirt off.

Evodio's pose, more or less!

                The little kids line up to say their speaking parts and I stand with Lore, Maya and Evodio who mans the smoke machine. It's a job he seems to really enjoy! After the little kids' turn, they pull out a giant armchair for the story tellers (Maya and Paola) to read in. As Maya starts reading her legend, Lore (who is dressed as a nurse who is one of the characters from that legend) walks around to set the scene. While Maya reads, Evodio trains the smoke machine on her so that occasionally when the smoke is really bad she pauses till the smoke clears. Then it is Pao's and my turn. Pao starts to read and I cover my face with my shawl because the character I am playing is one who disfigures herself (by throwing coals on her face) because she is sick of being liked for her looks and wants to be recognized for who she really is on the inside. I walk around people with my face covered up and at one point I am walking behind Pao's armchair when the top part of my shawl falls off my head. I quickly walk over to Lore where she rights the shawl and I continue walking!
              The thing is a big success and we all gather in the kitchen after a picture and a change of clothes to eat bread, sweet pumpkin soup and tamales. Once Mariana got her makeup off (she was covered in it) she gave me many many hugs to make up for the ones she missed! I ran upstairs to get my backpack and I was out the classroom door when I thought Evodio said something. So I walked back to the door and say "Que?" (what?), and Evodio told me that I needed to say goodbye to him properly. I sighed and went over to give him a kiss on the cheek and went back out the door. Then I realized I need my other bag, so I got up,  got the other one and was at the top of the stairs when Evodio said again "Say goodbye to me properly." I stuck my tongue out at him and walked down the stairs. (And Lorena says he has a crush on me, can you believe it!!). My principal wouldn't let me leave the school without bringing food home so the next night we had left-overs. Note: here they call Day of the Dead, Día de Muertos instead of Día de los Muertos!

             Since we had Thursday and Friday off, we visited some different places to see how the different places celebrate the same holiday. On Thursday, my grandparents, dad, brother and I went to Romerillo which is a small town outside of San Cristobal that is not a hot spot for tourists. Once we realized how heavy the traffic was, we backed up and parked a bit away from the actual cemetery. What we saw was very different from what we expected. We expected indigenous people to be talking with their dead with shawls over there heads; what we really saw was a little fair set up with rides, stalls to buy food and clothes and men so drunk they were passed out cold on the ground. Families were gathered around the graves but it was still very different from what we had imagined. The typical offerings were flowers and a coke (how sad).
             We left after a short time there to make it back to our house in time to get ready for a Day of the Dead gathering at Doña Lesvias house. We got there and the family band sang (as beautifully as ever) and we ate delicious homemade food!
             My mom went home to work some more while the rest of us went to the market to shop for her birthday presents.
            The next day (Friday), Oscar and I stayed home to relax while the adults went to a cemetery to see the celebrations there. When they came back, we went to TierraAdentro (a really cool coffeeshop where I am writing this post from) and played games while we ate lunch. After we left, we went across the street to a lotion-natural-body-stuff store and secretly bought something for my mom's birthday.
          On Saturday, while my mom got a birthday massage with a professional masseuse, Oscar and I took Papa Tom and JoJo to get some things to make a cake for my mom. We went home, looked for recipes and realized we needed more ingredients. Papa Tom and JoJo went out and got the missing ingredient and we got to work....until we realized we needed another thing. Then they went out again to get flour (which we had some of but not enough). In the meantime I did what I could until they got back. We hurried more near to the end of the cake-making process because my mom was coming home and we were going to a museum. We used frosting that Auntie Sarah froze for us while she was here, (Thank you very much for making that,  Sarah; it saved us a lot of time.)
       We went to Sergio Castro's museum for a tour. Sergio Castro is a person that treats wounds for people who can't afford a real doctor. All the treatments he does are free of cost; he works seven days a week even though he is seventy something and not getting any younger. We got a tour, gave a donation and watched him treat a wound (even though it was roughly 7 o'clock at night!)
        After that, we went to Entropia (our favorite restaurant) to celebrate my mom's birthday. After another delicious meal, we went home and my mom opened her presents and ate cake.
       Sunday was sort of a weird day; we drove to Chamula to show our grandparents the amazing church there. The moment we opened the door to our car, indigenous kids swarmed us. They tied bracelets on our wrists quicker than you would think possible. They started out saying: "It's a gift; It's a gift" then "You can pay for it later" then "Pay for it now." We paid way more for them than they were worth but we finally escaped. We went inside the smoke-filled church. It was illuminated by candles and there were floral banners that seemed the sort of thing you would find in Connie's house (my piano teacher). It smelled of smoke and pine needles that were strewn over the floor. I heard chanting that the indigenous were doing to pray to a saint. The saints were in glass boxes because in the past, whenever one of their prayers wasn't answered, they would punish the statue--sometimes by sticking the statue's head in the ground--take that!!!
       We walked back to the car and again were surrounded by indigenous children. They told us we needed to pay for the bracelets that we had already paid for. Two of them wouldn't leave us alone and  when my dad tried to close the driver side drawer to drive away, one put her weight against it to keep it open. My dad started yelling at her to leave us alone, but she wouldn't. So he pushed her and quickly shut the door. Not one of his brightest moments but it had to be done. (Generally the people here are not aggressive like that, so that was weird.)

           

A week in which we go half a block from heaven.

                    Highlights from the past week:

---          On Monday, we went out to buy ingredients for our international food that we were going to prepare for Wednesday. This was the day we were going to have a presentation for the parents, showing our work for Geography. We each had to choose a recipe from the country we were researching on and then the whole class would help prepare them. My country was Mexico (one of the kids from 7th grade had to do it and since I am coming here to learn about Mexico, why not me?) so I chose a delicious soup (called pozole) with chicken, pork, garlic, onion, a sort of chile and radish.

               We went to a little market and with the money that we had gotten from the first food sale, we bought all the ingredients with that and then went back to school to prepare for a while. I cut onions with Evodio and he kept saying to me as my eyes watered, "Don't cry" -- but jokingly of course. Then we both tried to make ourselves cry and our eyes got extremely watered up. It was actually pretty fun!

---        On Wednesday we had the big presentation. We cooked like crazy practically all day to make up for the missed days of cooking. We were running around and talking as we cooked for the majority of the day. You know when you have been cooking a lot when the little kids actually come and sit next to you and watch you cook just to get to talk to you!! The younger kids did their presentations first but then after a while, we were
all called to go to the little kids of pre-school who had dressed up in the traditional costumes of each country. No kid dressed up for Mexico but one of them held the flag anyway. We are getting positioned in line but none of us could figure out what the heck we were supposed to be doing. We asked Eloina multiple times but finally sorta-kinda figured out what we were going to say. We started walking around the parents but before we had even
gotten half way around, the little boy holding the Mexican flag, started crying and ran over to hug his brother. To get the little kid to keep moving, and asked the older brother to walk with him. Before all the other represented countries came out, I had to explain the dish I made. I was kind of at a loss for words so Eloina fed me the names of the ingredients inside the soup.

              Everyone else explained their dishes and then we filed out with the little kids. Then it was show time for the real presentations. Of course, Eloina had to start with me. I don't like to go first in general but since I had no choice, I grabbed my papers and poster and just tried to get it over with. Xochitl held my poster for me as I read my speech. I was really nervous but someone later asked me if I was nervous at all because apparently, I looked very composed.

               After everyone presented, we scrambled to get our international food ready for the parents. At the beginning, I ran from the kitchen to the serving area over and over again to get some things that we were missing. Later, I settled down to serve free coffee. After everyone ate, I stole some sushi before we left.

                We cleaned most of the afternoon before we went to pick up our grandparents from the airport in Tuxtla. We arrived in the surprisingly warm climate just fifteen minutes or so before they arrived. We bought some drinks and two bags of microwave popcorn as they went through customs. They confiscated some beef jerky that my grandparents tried to bring us but otherwise, everything went smoothly. We had big hugs for them and we had an entertaining ride home in the dark.

Our paper mache map of Mexico 

Lore and I making papusas (or something along those lines)

Our paper mache map of the world

Presenting my food

The girl and boy representing Spain

Kid dressed up in winter clothes to be an "eskimo" for Maya and Favio's state: Alaska

Kids dressed up in the traditional clothing of the country Kenya

In the traditional clothing for Brazil

The boy is saying the traditional greeting in whatever language they speak in Brazil

Kids in the traditional costume of Spain

The girl on the left is named Kenya, how fitting

Little kids filing out

Working the cash register

Waiting for Oscars volcano to explode

My presentation

---                On Thursday, I woke up later than my grandparents who had long plane rides the day before! By the time I woke up, Papa Tom and JoJo (along with my dad) were already walking downtown to pick up pastries for breakfast. Oscar and I watched some TV before we went out to show them a little about San Cristobal. We didn't stay out to long because we had to get in the car for our road trip to a coffee route. We drove on surprisingly straight roads for roughly five hours and just when it was starting to get dark, we came across a long line of cars all stopped up. It was a bloqueo (a blockade.)

                 We all groaned knowing how long these things could last and knowing that we were only roughly seven kilometers from Tapachula (the place we were going to stay the night). We got out of the car to go talk to someone to get the basic information. Apparently, there was a road block because some people were upset about not getting paid. The guys we talked to said he thought it could go on for many hours. We relayed the information back to the people in the car. We discussed our options and watched some people back up and go the same direction but in the wrong lane. We told the guy who told us about it what we planned to do and in response, he said follow me. So we both flipped around and, going against traffic, we saw the long line of people who were unable to back up. We felt very bad for those people and thinking that we would be able to get to Tapachula, we already mentally high-fived each other at our cleverness. The problem was, they weren't letting people through the other way either so we were stuck at the front of an unmoving line.

    We thanked the guy for getting us this far and we discussed our options,

1. we could wait there until they let us through (it didn't look like that would happen extremely soon)

2. we could spend the night in the car if the blockade lasted overnight

3. we could go to Huixtla (a near town), spend the night there and then start afresh the next morning

In the end we chose option 3 though we considered spending the night (most grandparents wouldn't even consider it but since our grandparents are so cool, they did!!)

               We went back to Huixtla and checked out some hotels and we were scared by all the hotels with psychedelic-fun house colors (to which I said from the back seat "these fun house colors are tripping me up" I was very tired!!). Instead of staying another hour trying to find a hotel, we turned back around to go to Tapachula. We were surprised to see that there was no sign of the road block. Once I was sure that we weren't going to get stopped again, I laid my head down on JoJo's lap and I was out...out until we got to the hotel, that is. The hotel was decent and the only misgivings I had about it were when it smelled suspiciously like armpit. That smell passed though after some minutes of watching Storage Wars on TV!

---           The next morning, we woke up and after getting dressed speedily, we ate some breakfast before we jumped in the car to do the last leg of the trip before we got to the coffee route. The roads leading directly up to the coffee plantation, were awful (to put it nicely) but the whole drive was worth it be there!

              We arrived at "half a block from heaven" and practically immediately I am raving about how beautiful it is up there which I hardly ever do! It was jaw-dropping, stop and stare, awe-inspiringly gorgeous. You looked out mountains and hills covered in pine trees. The scenery was blanketed by a veil of poetic fog. It smelled of fragrant flowers and had a perfect temperature. The manager of the restaurant comes out and greats us like we were something special! A guy came out and fixed our tire right there (which we ruined on the drive there). As my dad said "that's what I call service!" We ate first thing and we were surprised to find that is was still more or less breakfast time!

           The rest of the weekend we:

   - Read on the porch of our bungalow
   - Took baths in the first bath tub we have seen in months
   - Took naps
   - Watched a lightning display light up the sky in beautiful patterns from the safety of the porch
   - We took a tour of the coffee plantation and learned about the INCREDIBLY extensive process the coffee bean goes through before  it becomes the coffee that we drink. I translated the whole tour for my grandparents and by the end I was happily exhausted. Every worker in the coffee process works incredibly hard and we resolved to never ever waste a drop  of coffee.
   - Were treated extremely nicely by the staff and especially by the manager
   - Drank coffee in the morning on our porch (the staff brought it to us daily)
   - Learned that we won't get insomnia and WILL get all the health benefits of coffee if we drink it before six minutes (apparently all the health benefits leak out of the coffee by the steam so that's why you want to drink it fast)
   - We went on a zip line that once you stepped off the cement block, you had no fears on the way down
   - We made our own world with our own countries on it. We each made maps, my country was called Reu (pronouced Rue).
   - We played card games also


Pictures from our trip to the coffee plantation:

Since they put flower arrangements on our food, I got into the habit of putting them in my hair!

I have such a florid mouth!

The little coffee plantation village

Oscar and I, German style

Wowee!

Machinery for coffee

Unprocessed-newly picked coffee beans

coffee beans on its plant

What a view

YUM

In the back-round you can see a bungalow

A manicured round about

Our front lawn and then a big drop

the porch of our bungalow

a pruned hedge...but of what?

Oscar in his German-Mexico heaven

A funny looking girl and a feminine looking boy!

Ta-dah!!