These are los patos at my family's House in the Woods. We feed them tortillas. This should not come as a surprise.

Corn in a Cup

As always I don't know where to start, so.... well two nights ago I went to the movies with my sister Ceci, her boyfriend Pepe, Michael and Enrique. We saw Mi Villano Favorito, which is Despicable Me in english. Then we went to Pepes for a bit and met his sister and her boyfriend. They live in a private colony, which looks more like the neighbourhoods in Canada becasue there are no tall gates in front of the houses. There is just one gate that you need to pass through when you enter the colony where they ask you for the house number you are going to, and also they need to take some form of ID from you, which they return when you leave the colony.
After we were there for a bit, we went door to door asking would anyone let us go on their roof so we could see all of Leon at night. Ahah, well not really "door to door" but down the line of tall towers we asked. No one said yes.
Then we walked a bit around a lake and then went to a coffee shop. We sat outside and I had a Cookies'n Cream Frappe Latte which was really good. After that we went home, I think.

This picture was taken from the roof of my house. Same place where Enrique and I took the pictures of lightning, just on other side of house.

Last night I went to watch a belly dancing (recital?). One of the girls at school told me about how she is a dancer, and although I didn't understand most of her Spanish, we ended up making more or less a plan of meeting there. Well, she would be there dancing and me and a couple of the others would come to watch (or so I thought). So! I got there maybe three or four minutes late and the recital was just starting. The lights we already out so I couldn't tell if any of the girls from my class were in the audience somewhere. I ended up sitting in the back beside a guy who was taking pictures throughout the whole thing. It was a really interesting recital. Half way through it I remembered my phone was getting low on battery so I hurried out into the foyer and used my broken Spanish to ask for a pen. I didn't realize that if my phone died, I would not only have no way of contacting my ride home, but also I don't know my home phone number off the top of my head..... it's like fourteen digits long. So I wrote the number on my arm and sneaked back in to watch the rest. I think I didn't get my information right though, becasue none of the other girls showed up! ahahah. It wasn't really a big deal.
After the recital thinger I really wanted to walk around by myself. The theatre I was at was right in downtown Leon and it was really cool. There is like some crazy street market, but it mostly sells just clothes and the sweetest thing is that there is a cathedral with a plaza where you can sit by a huge fountain and it's awesome. Of course there are tacitos for sale on the street corners and also elote, which is like fresh corn with lime and cheese etc in a styrofoam cup. But the sad part is that since I was alone and it was probably 20:30 (the sun has set) I wasn't sure where it was safe for me to go and also I didn't really want to get lost. So I couldn't really do a lot of exploring. I would have loved to have stayed there all night though.

Tomorrow there wil be a goodbye party for my three hermanos that are leaving. Tonight Cecilia went shopping for some supplies, and one of the ingredients for the meal is cow tongue, which looks absolutely disgusting. Its like a blueish-gray colour and it looks cold and furry. Also it's a lot bigger that I would have thought. We will put it in the tacos tomorrow...
Before we went "food" shopping, we went to La Plaza de Zapatos(or something), which is a huge outlet mall full of shoes. I managed to find a pair.

No news is good news.

Mariachi

I had just turned out my light last night a little after 1:00, when a Mariachi band started to play a couple of doors down. It was pretty sweet; they were here for at least an hour because I fell asleep after that. Only in Mexico.

Another Blog Entry!

I decided to splurge and do two blog entries in pretty much the same day. Or at least in the last thirty hours.

Thank you for your comments and birthday wishes!!!!

It was an awesome day. But first I will tell you about last night. At 12:00 on the dot, my parents and brothers came into my room, where I was writing in my blog, and did a traditional Mexican song for me! It was called mananitas (my keyboard doesn't have the enyay key to spell this word correctly), or something like that and it means "little mornings". They brought a piece of cake with candles on it and a balloon. And also an iPod dock because they had some sweet Mexican music (birthday song?) playing from it. It was really nice of them and it was definetly a surprise! I woke up and my host family put up paper cut-out letters spelling HAPPY 18TH DIANNA near my breakfast plate, and there were more balloons! And then just in the last couple of minutes I noticed a picture frame that my host mom gave to me and she printed a picture of my family (in Canada!) to put in it. Also one of my brothers tied the pictures they took of me last night with my birthday cake, onto flowers, and put them into a vase in the bathroom I share with my sisters.

Today we had a dinner at our house and it seemed like a lot of people were here! There was Ernesto (dad), Cecilia (mom), Pollo (hermano), Enrique (hermano), Michael (Canadian host brother), my host grandmother, my great aunt, a nextdoor neighbour who is also an aunt, Eduardo and Tito (from school). We had pork ribs and chicken wings, of course tortillas with some accessories to put inside, cucumber water, chips with salsa, asparagus, zucchini... and more food ahah. For lunch I had a cake made by my host dad's sister in law, who has a catering buisness. It translates to "combination chocolate cake". Delicious for short.

After we ate, me, my brothers and our friends went out to the yard and played ping-pong, futebol, reloj, and then later guitar hero while watching the soccer game on tv. It was a good time! They stayed for most of the afternoon and evening and then my parents (Canada) called me to wish me a happy bithday! So that was really nice.

Then! I was on the computer with Enrique and Michael when Cecilia told us there was a lightning storm outside. So we shimmied onto the roof which I had no idea we could go on! It's flat, pretty big and you can see a lot of the colony (neighbourhood) when you're up there. Michael went to bed but Enrique and I stayed up there trying to catch the lightening for a long time. We took probably two hundred pictures at least and maybe a dozen of them are half good. But it was great though; it wasn't raining or anything, there was just lightning in the distance. He was using a tripod and I was thinking of creative ways to keep my camera steady. In the end a glow stick worked the best jajaja. It was awesome being with someone who shares an interest in taking crazy pictures.

When we decided to come back inside the house we used the glow stick to lead the way and we started laughing becasue it reminded us of (Finding Nemo?) when it was like all dark under the water, and then some wacko fish comes into the picture and he has some kind of light dangling in front of his face. So that was a good birthday.

Holy Poop and Tacos

Holy poop I can't believe that my adventure started only a week ago at about this very minute (currently it is 23:45 and it is Wednesday). I had my first day of school on Monday and it was ok. I would not do it again though hahaha. Not that it was horrible or anything but it is just so hard. I knew the two other exchange students a little bit but other than that no one. It just feels like all eyes are on you and you truly are representing your country, because however I act, people here might assume all Canadians are the same. So I'd better be good (haha).

By the way the picture is one of Chanklas puppies!

I have Spanish in the morning at 8:30, then a half an hour break, matematicas, then filosophia. On day two my last two classes are political studies (or something) and literatura. Some of the classes are in english but most are spanish. I prefer that they are in spanish because a) I have the oppurtunity to train my ear to spanish and b) Maybe there is less homework? jjjajajaj. Just kidding (kind of). Today school was better but the search for Mexican amigos wasn't accomplished. Maybe tomorrow. It's weird though because I don't know whether I am supposed to approach potential friends, or if they are supposed to approach me or what. I don't even know if anyone wants to be my friend! It kind of sucks. But the hope of tomorrow lingers in the air :D

After school Enrique picked me up and we went back to the house to have a good meal of chips with salsa, and a fish salad made with cheese, tomato and a lot of other things. It kind of looked like a bruschetta to me but it had (raw?) fish in it. Then me and my brothers played on the nintendo (something Brad and I would do in Canada!) we played Mario Cart and some other Mario battle game. Then some of Enrique and Pollo's friends came over and we went to the detached part of the house to play pool, guitar hero etc. They are really nice people. Later we migrated outside where we played Reloj, which is like Around the World (basketball game) and also futebol.

THEN we went for a walk down the street to a small vendor around 22:15 where we ate the best tacos ever. I don't even want to think about Taco Time after trying all the miracles Mexicans preform with tortillas. You can get different kinds of tacos; some have different types of meat like steak or pork, or if you would rather have fried tongue it's also an option. Of course there was a medium spicey sauce and also it is common to squeeze lime juice onto your taco before you roll it. Each taco cost six pesos which is more or less, sixty cents. They are just little guys but they are so good. I ate four. My brother Enrique's record is twenty-five.

Food, Etc

Wowzie wow wow! Where to begin? This is Day Two and already I feel very comfortable here. My family is so warm and welcoming that I feel I couldn't ask for anything better. My mom is Cecilia, my dad Ernesto, my triplet hermanos: Ceci, Pollo and Enrique, my little sister Regina, and my Canadian host brother Michael. There is also a dog called Chankla and she had puppies two weeks ago! they are so cute. I need to remember to post a picture of them because I know Olivia would love them.

This morning I took the daily paper outside to read in the sunshine. I wasn't sure if I could leave the gate so maybe I will ask if I can sit outside of it tomorrow. I ate Raisin Bran for breakfast. Although yesterday I tried something new! I will talk about the food later. After breakfast I went to the Immigration Office (I think) to extend my visa. We filled out papers online and everything went fairly smoothly. The for lunch we had chips (kind of like the crunchy cheetos) and a spicy potato chip dipped in salsa (different than the salsa as we know it). I think salsa generally means "sauce" and not the stuff we only dip our nachos in. That was kind of like our appetizer. As we were eating this one of the house helpers was making the rest of the mean, which was spaghetti with more of a cheesy sauce and pork with I think a mustard sauce. Lunch is their biggest meal here. The meals are at different times too; breakfast is served around 11:00 or 12:00, dinner served at 16:00 and then on the days we eat supper it usually occurs at 23:00! I've been surprised at how not hungry I've been.... the last two nights I wasn't really hungry for any supper but I felt I should eat three meals a day! ahah so I ate fruit.

Yesterday I had cucumber with a chili powder on it, and also I tried chicken liver. It wasn't really for me. Jajajaja. When I was about to eat my watermelon tonight my host mom recommended that I put salsa polvo I think was the name, on top of it. But don't let the word "salsa" throw you off! It doesn't taste spicy at all, it's more of a lemon/lime flavour. It was really interesting! I would definetly try it again sometime. And while we are (still) on the topic of food, yesterday for lunch I also had a tortilla with avacado, lime, and green tomato sauce rolled inside of it. Again! it was really tasty! They are so creative with tortillas!

My school starts on Monday. I have three classes a day but I think I have a day one, day two schedule. I know I have Spanish as a Second Language first thing in the morning, then a recess (spare?), math, philosophy, and then something else I can't remember. I was told half of my classes would be in Spanish and half in English. I think I can switch classes within the first week, and for semester two all of my classes will be in Spanish. My school starts at 8:30 and ends at 13:00 but they really encourage us to particiapte in the after school activities. There are a few different types of dance offered, guitar lessons, singing, theatre, photography, and several more. I know I'm for sure doing guitar! but I don't know what else.

Anyways I'd better go to sleep. I'm sharing a room with my two sisters and I think we're heading in for the night.

I need to remember to tell you about the dessert I had for my first lunch (remember: milk) and also my first breakfast (remember: tortillas).

Toronto Airport

Hmm... sitting in Terminal 3 waiting for luggage to come through. I think it might be lost because I've been waiting here for about an hour now. Don't panic mom and dad ;) I guess it was a good thing I had over four hours to do nothing here!! Oh well, I'm just hoping it comes eventually ahahah! I'll let you know how that goes.

Mostly all I can think about right now (besides Mexico), is getting something to eaaaaat. I didn't realize it was 15:30 and suddenly remembered the only thing I ate today was a bowl od porridge! And that was at 9:00!!!!! This is torture for me :D

Did you ever notice that when you spell STATE backwards it is ETATS, which means state in french? I learned that while I've been sitting here reading signs.

My flight here was a bit boring. It was a nice short flight but the person beside me wasn't interested in swapping life stories, which is a bummer. Maybe I'll have better luck on the long flight to Texas. If I'm lucky there might even be a meal included!

Almost There

I just can't believe it's tomorrow! Or today...... aha. And I'm mostly almost finished packing...

Tomorrow!

Oh my GOODness! Today is my last day on Canadian soil for one whole year!!!!!!!! That blows my mind. It still feels totally unreal to me, but I have a feeling that tomorrow at this time it will have started to sink in.

My room is just about empty now. All that's left is putting a couple more boxes into storage and then I need to do some serious dusting. I did most of my room cleaning yesterday and it was really weird, especially going into some of the places I haven't seen for ten years. I found my favourite barbie and all my Nancy Drew books. One thing that wasn't exactly a pleasant surprise was to re-discover, were my braces behind a dusty picture frame.

It's kind of exciting because sometime in the twelve months that I'm away, my room will get repainted. Seeing as we might be getting an exchange student stay at our house (in my room), my parents thought it could use a fresh coat of paint. And also if a boy will be staying here, I can't imagine he would appreciate a pink and green room.