Denounce Domestic Violence

I drew this today for a competition in our school against Crime & I chose domestic violence as my theme.

ALZA LA VOZ - RAISE YOUR VOICE

NO LO ACEPTES - DO NOT ACCEPT

NO TE CALLES - DO NOT SHUT YOUR MOUTH

DENUNCIALO - DENOUNCE IT

Hope my drawing represents the theme.

Reina Roja

Hola!!!!!!
I read a book called “Reina Roja” (Red Queen). It was written by Adriana Malvido. It’s about a Mayan queen. Fanny Lopez and her team discovered a sarcophagus in 1994, in Palenque, Chiapas state of Mexico. The called that as “Red Queen”, as the bones were in red colour due to a substance the Mayans added to the dead body. They knew that the sarcophagus was of an important person as it had Jade mask and skeletons of 2 other person with it. The two skeletons signify that the souls of these two persons will accompany the soul of main body to the nine worlds, which they had to cross to reach either one of the three heavens. They presumed that the sarcophagus could be mother or grandma or wife or daughter-in-law of a great Mayan king of Palenque called Pakal. Pakal’s sarcophagus was found 50 years ago in the same region. They compared Pakal’s bones and the queen’s bones to see if there was any DNA resemblance. But recently they found that there isn’t any resemblance between them. Hence the sarcophagus could be his mother or grandma. So they think that the Reina Roja may be his wife or daughter-in-law. But many believe that it could be his wife. It isn’t sure who the Reina Roja is yet. The true name of the Reina Roja is still a mystery. But when they searched more to find the identity of Reina Roja, they found many other Mayan secrets in Palenque. This book is very interesting. I liked it.

Parras-Pueblo Mágico

Hi!!!!!!!!
On 9th August we went to a town called Parras. We went with Dra. Lilia and Sra. Magda. We stayed in the house of Dra.’s friend. We met Sra. Mary (92 years old) and her daughters Lola, Sonia, Virtudes, Aurora, her son Arturo, son in law Sr. Carlos (husband of Sra. Sonia), her granddaughters, grandsons and many other people. Parras is nearly 1 and half hours from Torreon by car. Parras is very nice town. There are many orchards of grapes, nuts, avocados and other fruits.
On Thursday evening, we attended a festival of a saint called San Lorenzo, in which they also organize their fair of grapes and wine (Feria de las Uvas y el Vino). One of the granddaughters of Sra. Mary, Srta. Dora Maria Silva (daughter of Sr. Arturo) was selected as the Queen of the Fair. Sr. Arturo named his son as Rabindranath, in memory of great Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore.
They took us to a place where they make wine, called Casa Madero. It was established in 1597. So, Parras is more than 400 years old town. There we first saw some traditional dancers called matachines. They were dressed colorfully and danced very nicely. Then we went to the Church there, where they offered prayers for the event. The Church was decorated very beautifully.
In the night the matachines came down from a hill with a torch. At the same time there were fireworks on the hill. It looked beautiful. When they reached Casa Madero, they lighted wood fire. They danced around the fire until it went out. Again there were fireworks. It was very good and I liked them. It was midnight when we returned home, but the party continued with dances until morning.
On Friday at about 10 a.m. there was a parade from the town to San Lorenzo (where the Casa Madero is located). The queen of the grapes and vine, Dora Maria Silva, “God Baco” (Roman God of Grapes), princess of the grapes, matachines (one type of folklore dancers in Mexico), and other people took part in the parade. Ms. Dora Maria is the 4th queen of the Fair from their family.
In Casa Madero, the Queen and the princess crushed the grapes (“molienda”) with their feet. This is an old custom to start the wine making process for the year. It was very nice. After the “molienda”, we took photos with the queen and the “God Baco”. I took many photos of the event.
Later we also attended a lunch party in the Hacienda of the Casa Madero. It is a beautiful and big place. The owners of Casa Madero organized this party and have invited all those participated in the parade and their family and friends for the party. During the lunch Mariachi (traditional music group) was also played. We ate lot of sweet grapes of the town and also the traditional sweets of milk, fruit and nuts.
After the lunch Sra. Sonia and Sra. Virtudes took us to see various tourist spots in Parras. First we went to 2 tanks of water where people could swim. Then we went to Srta. Dora Maria’s house. It was very nice. Later we went to Sra. Sonia’s house. There she grows avocados, peaches and other fruit trees. She gave avocados, peaches and other things to Dra. Lilia, Sra. Magda and to us. They also took us to traditional sweets shops and we bought many sweets made of milk and nuts. They were very tasty.
We returned to Torreon on Friday night. I like Parras: Uno de los Pueblos Mágicos de México (One of the magic towns of Mexico).

Hacienda de los Hornos

Salut!!!!!
This one is about my trip to “La Hacienda de los Hornos”. On 5th August we went there with Dra. Lilia, Srta. Yessica, Sra. Luz Maria, Sra. Magda and Sr. Miguel Angel, brother of Sra. Magda and his family. I made friendship with Andrea (daughter of Sr. Miguel) in this trip.
La Hacienda de los Hornos is near the village of Viesca. It’s the first house that was built in the region “La Laguna”. In that place there is a church which is also very old. It’s the region where there are the cities of Torreon (where I live), Gomez Palacio, Lerdo and other little villages. Las Dunas de Bilbao (sand dunes) is also near Viesca. We couldn’t go there this time.
Though the hacienda is in deteriorated condition, it was nice to see it. It has 2 floors, but there aren’t any stairs to go up. So Andrea, Yessica, amma and me climbed the wall to go to the first floor. From there, the view was very beautiful. In the church there were little statues of Santa Ana (Mary’s mother), paintings and the many other old things. After visiting these places we returned to Torreon. We went to eat tacos in a home restaurant. The tacos were very tasty. I liked this trip. I hope you enjoyed reading about it.

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows

Hola todos!!!
Dra. Lilia and Yessica gifted me the new Harry Potter book. They bought it in Venice, Italy during their Europe tour. This blog is about it. The book is very very interesting. I loved it!!!.

Harry was waiting for the people of the order of phoenix to take him, his aunt, uncle and Dudley to a safer place as Voldemort might be searching them. After his uncle’s family had left, Moody arrives with Arthur, Fred, George, Bill, Ron, Hermione, Fleur, Lupin, Tonks, Hagrid, Kingsley and Mundugus Fletcher. They plan a trick and form 7 Harrys’ with the poly-juice potion in order to confuse the death eaters. Harry goes with Hagrid. In this journey Mad-Eye Moody and Hedwig get killed as they were attacked by Death Eaters.
After some days the family of Ron and their friends celebrate Harry’s birthday in the burrow. The minister of magic came during the party and gave the things that Dumbledore left to Harry, Ron and Hermione in his will. Harry got the snitch that he caught in his first Quidittch match and Godric Gryffindor sword, Ron the deluminator and a children book for Hermione. The minister gave them all those things except the sword. Then Bill and Fleur’s wedding took place. During the wedding party, Kingsley informs everyone that the minister of magic had died. Harry, Ron and Hermione disapparated to a common muggle street. There they went to a quiet bar where death eaters attack them. After escaping they went to Harry’s house (the house that Sirius left him). In there Harry saw a letter from his mom to Sirius. He also finds out that R.A.B. was Sirius brother. So they start searching for the locket. Later Hermione remember that Kreacher hid all the valuable things of the house. They went with Kreacher and ask him if he knew about the locket. He tells them that Mundugus had taken it. Harry also asked how Regulus got it. Kreacher started telling the story. Then Harry told him to bring Mundugus there. Lupin visits them and asks if he could also go with them. But Harry tells that he has to be with his wife Tonks, as she was pregnant. Some days later Kreacher came with Mundugus. They ask Mundugus about the locket and he informs that he has sold it to Umbridge. So Harry, Ron and Hermione decide to go the Ministry of magic to take it. After lot of struggle, they take away the locket from Umbridge. Then they disapparate into the forest. There Hermione put many charms to their tent in order to be safe. Now the problem was that they couldn’t destroy the locket as they didn’t have Godric Gryffindor’s sword. After a quarrel with Harry, Ron leaves both Harry and Hermione. After some time Harry and Hermione went to Godric Hollow. This was where Dumbledore had lived, Harry was born, his parents had died and where Gryffindor was born. They go to the cemetery first. Later they saw Bathilda, they follow her. Bathilda takes Harry to a room and attacks him. She converts herself into Nagini, Voldemort’s snake. Hermione saves him but accidentally breaks Harry’s wand. They both return to the forest. Later one day Harry sees Gryffindor’s sword in a lake and goes for it. But the water was so cold that he was nearly dying. Ron returns, saves Harry and takes the sword. Then Harry asks Ron to destroy the locket with the sword. Then they return back to the tent and tell Hermione about what they had done.
Some time afterwards they visit Mr. Lovegood to get details about a sign. He tells them that it was the sign of the Deathly Hollows and about its legend. Harry understands that he has 2 of the 3 things. He just didn’t have the elder wand. He wants to find it, but Hermione and Ron tells him that they should first destroy the horcruxes. They later return to their camp. There Harry accidentally mentions the name Voldemort instead of telling He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Suddenly death eaters appear and take them to Malfoy’s house. They lock them up. Suddenly Dobby appears, saves Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna Lovegood, Mr. Ollivander, Dean and a goblin and takes them to Bill’s house. But Dobby also gets killed by Bellatrix. During the fight, Harry takes away Malfoy and Bellatrix wand.
After some time Harry, Ron and Hermione ask the goblin if he could take them to the Lestrange’s account. They thought a horcrux could be there. The goblin wants the sword in change. They accept and go to Gringott and take the horcrux. It was Helga Hufflepuff’s cup. They escape in a dragon. The goblin took the sword from Harry as they were escaping.
Harry thinks that Voldemort might have the final horcrux in Hogwarts. He has to kill Nagini as the snake was a horcrux. In the meantime Voldemort opens Dumbledore’s tomb and takes away the Elder Wand. Dumbledore’s brother helps Harry, Ron and Hermione to get inside Hogwarts. In Hogwarts they meet many their friends, who are in Dumbledore’s Army. They help Harry to find out the diadem of Rawenclaw. Luna took Harry to Ravenclaw’s common room as there was a statute of Rawenclaw with the diadem. Harry stuns the death eaters and tells Prof. McGonagall about the object that he was searching and that Voldemort is going to come to Hogwarts to fight. Many people of the order of phoenix come to Hogwarts to fight against Voldemort. Percy also returns back to their family. Lupin tells Harry that Tonks had her baby. He was called Teddy and requests Harry to be the godfather of his child, which Harry accepts.
Later Harry, Ron and Hermione go to the room of hidden things, where Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle attack them. The diadem was destroyed by the fire caused by a spell uttered by Crabbe. Harry and others escape. Earlier, Ron and Hermione destroy the cup with the basilisk.
Later Voldemort kills Snape. Snape gives his memories to Harry. He goes to Dumbledore’s office to see memories of Snape. Fred, Lupin and Tonks die during the fight. Harry comes to know many new things from the memories of Snape. Snape was not really been in Voldemort side and realizes that Snape was a good person and was doing things as per the advice of Dumbledore. When Harry goes to fight with Voldemort, he says Neville about Nagini and that it should be killed. He then saw his parents, Sirius and Lupin in the forest and they tell him that they are always with him in his heart. In the forest Harry pretends that Voldemort has killed him and discusses mentally with Dumbledore. Dumbledore tells him many things. As Voldemort thinks that Harry is dead, take his body inside Hogwarts so that others can see that the Dark Lord had won. When they were inside Harry gets up and fights with Voldemort again. Neville kills Nagini. A rebound from Elder wand hits Voldemort and he dies. Harry wins the fight against the Dark Lord. Harry has the Elder Wand now, but returns it to the tomb of Dumbledore.
Then Harry marries Ginny and nineteen years later they both have 2 sons and 1 daughter. They were called James, Albus Severus and Lily. Ron had married Hermione and had 1 daughter called Rose and a son called Hugo. Teddy was also with them. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny go to King cross Station to see off their children to Hogwarts. There they meet Draco, his wife and son.
I hope you all read and enjoy this book.

Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix

Hello everyone!!!!!
Now I’ll tell about the new Harry Potter movie. It’s directed by David Yates. It lasts 138 minutes. But it really goes fast. It doesn’t have many things that the book told. But however it was good.

It starts when Harry and Dudley are attacked by dementors. So Harry makes the patronous charm. For this reason, the ministry of magic may expel Harry from Hogwarts. He manages from not getting expelled with the help of Prof. Dumbledore. He also goes to number thirteen Grimmuald Place (Headquarters of the order of phoenix) where he sees many of his old friends and also meet new friends. Some time later they go to school. They see Luna Lovegood. There they find out that their new Defense against Dark Arts teacher is Dolores Umbridge. She works for the Ministry of Magic. As a fact she doesn’t teach them anything. So Hermione tell Harry to teach them defense against dark arts in secret. So they decide that, and many students also go. Harry teaches them many things. Some time later Harry dreams on an attack on Ron’s father. So he goes with Dumbledore to save him. Later Ron’s father gets better. In Hogwarts Harry have occulemency classes with Snape. After some time Snape refuses to give Harry those classes. Umbridge was now the high inquisitor of Hogwarts. She goes to see how teachers teach their class. She fires professor Trelawney and tells her to get out. But Dumbledore says Umbridge that she can’t get teachers out of Hogwarts. So Trelawney stays there. She also finds about Harry teaching. Then she goes with Dumbledore to complain about that. He says he told them to do that. So she is made as principal of Hogwarts and she says that Dumbledore should go to Azkaban. But Dumbledore escaped. Later the Weasley twins also went away and bid farewell with beautiful fireworks. I liked this part very much. Then Harry also dreams about Sirius asking for help. He sees as if he was in the department of mysteries in the ministry of magic. He goes to check if it’s real by calling Sirius by fire in Umbridge office. But she catches him. She thought Harry was going to talk with Dumbledore. Harry was telling that he wasn’t doing that when Hermione told yes. She said they had a weapon in the forest. She and Harry took Umbridge to the forest. They took Umbridge with Grawp. It is Hagrid’s half brother and also a giant. There some centaurs attack them but Grawp saves Harry and Hermione. Centaurs take away Professor Dolores Umbridge with them. Now Harry tells he has to go to the ministry of magic to save Sirius. But Hermione, Ron, Neville, Ginny and Luna say they’ll also go. So they all go there. When they reach the department of mysteries they see some type of balls. Soon they see one with Harry’s name on it and at this time they also see death eaters. One of them Lucius Malfoy tells Harry to give the ball to him. He also says it’s a prophecy. But Harry refuses to give it to Malfoy. After running for some time they get to a type of arch. Suddenly it goes black and then the death eaters have Harry’s friends. So Lucius tells Harry to give him the prophecy. Harry gives it to him. Suddenly wizards of the order of phoenix come. Lucius drops the prophecy and break it. The wizards fight against the death eaters. On this a death eater called Bellatrix Lestrange kills Harry’s godfather, Sirius Black. Then the death eaters go. Dumbledore comes and Voldemort is there. They fight each other. At that time the minister of magic and other people come. Cornelius Fudge, minister of magic is surprised about the return of the dark lord. Soon Voldemort disappears. They all return to Hogwarts and again Dumbledore takes his place as director of Hogwarts. They finish another year at Hogwarts.
I saw this movie on premiere show. It was on Thursday 12th of July at 12.00 at night. Many people were there too. I liked it very much. Hope you all also will enjoy the movie.

My Summer Holidays

Hi guys!!
In this blog, I am writing about my activities during this summer holidays.
I’m going to a basketball course in ESBAL, Escuela de Basketball Algodoneros de la Laguna (Cotton growers Basketball School of Laguna & basketball team of Torreon). We go from Monday to Friday. We start classes at 9.00 in the morning and finish at 1:30 pm. But we have a recess at 11:30 for 30 min. But from 16th to 27th July, our class is from 4 to 6 pm.
There are nearly 100 kids (5 to 16 years) in this course. One of my classmates from school is also in the course. Few of my school team mates, Karla, Paty, Andrea and Luisa are also in this summer camp. We are divided into different categories. I’m in the category of 11 and 12 years old boys and girls. Our coach is Tony. He is also my coach at the school.
We are practicing many things. We practice defense, shots and dribbling. They gave us 2 T-shirts and told us that they give us a free pass to go to all the matches that Algodoneros play. I’ve made new friends here. It is fun. I like it. Today some basketball players from the Algodoneros team came. We played a friendly match with them. Our group played just for 5 minutes as there are many groups. But we couldn’t reach them as they were very tall. However it was fun. It was very good.
From the 3rd week of July, I will attend another course in the Arocena Museum. I have already told you all that I go to the Arocena Museum on all Saturdays. I help them and I’m getting ready to be a guide in the museum.
During the evenings I just read something, draw fairies (I like to draw these very much) or watch football matches (Copa Oro, Copa America & FIFA under 20 World cup) and cartoons.

See you all soon in my next blog!!!

Maratón 2007

Hi everyone!!!!
On Friday we had our public class. That was also the last day of school. We first sang an English song, “breaking free”. It is from the movie “High School Musical”. After that we had the maratón. It’s a competition like Quiz, questions on all subjects. We were divided into different teams. Christian Torres and Naina were in my team. There were five teams. Our team answered all questions. After that we sang the Spanish song called “no me voy” of OV7. It was good.
Finally Miss Kate and Miss Alice gave the mark sheets. After that Miss Kate announced the winner of our class House. The names of the houses are same that of Harry Potter, as Miss Kate too likes Harry Potter books and movies very much. I was in Huffelpuff. But the winner was Griffindor. Huffelpuff came in 2nd place, Slytherin in 3rd and Rawenclaw in last place. The difference between Huffelpuff and Griffindor was less than one hundred points.
Then Miss Argentina, Director of our school gave the certificates for hard work and good marks. I got the certificates of first place for good marks for all subjects both in English and Spanish. Miss Argentina also spoke of me in front of all the parents. She told that I am a very good and disciplined girl. She also told that I easily got adopted in this school. She informed others that I knew to speak many languages.
In the evening it was the 6th standard graduation. They gave the certificates and other things to the persons who finished 6th grade. In Mexico we finish primary school on 6th grade. On this occasion, there was the escolta change (escort change). My friends are in the new escort team. So I went to see that. After that we came home and I started my holidays. We celebrated my first prize in the school by seeing SIVAJI, the Boss. I liked it very much. Next day appa gave me a treat by taking us for a lunch in a big hotel. It was buffet system and I enjoyed lot of tasty food varieties.

US-Mexico TIES

Salut!!!
As the last month was special for fathers, I’m going to tell about appa’s recent project. It was an award given under United States of America-Mexico TIES program through USAID-HED. The award was given for a project appa applied with his friends. Of many projects received, just 5 projects were chosen for the award. This was announced officially in a conference at Queretaro, Mexico held between 13th and 15th June, 2007. US ambassador to Mexico announced this. There were also many people from the US and Mexico government including former US ambassador and at present, the consul of USA to the United Nations. In this project 8 of appa’s students will go to the Georgia University, US and will be work there 6 months to compete their Tesis. There are two complete fellowships for Masters Degree program at Georgia University in this project for students. Achi, thatha and everyone are happy as appa’s project was approved. I’m proud for appa’s award. Details about this project can be seen in the following link;

http://www.uga.edu/news/artman/publish/070622UGA_Mexican_partnership_biofuel.shtml
I am writing this late, because I was busy with my school examinations during last month.

Piratas del Caribe: En el Fin del Mundo

Hi!!!!
Yesterday I went to see the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” with Yessica, Carlos, Andrea and a friend of Andrea. The movie is very thrilling and good. I liked it very much. I think this movie is far better than the other 2 Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
The plot of the movie is that Captain Barbosa, Elizabeth Swann, Will Turner and many others go to bring Captain Jack Sparrow back. They go to bring him as all the Pirates had sang a song when Beckett was going to execute them. That song makes that all the 9 pirates Lords need to get together. But the problem here is that Jack Sparrow is also a Pirate Lord and he’s dead. That’s why they go to save him from Davy Jones land. To do this they need the map that shows the route to go to the world’s end. The map is property of Sao Feng, Pirate Lord of Singapore. However they rob it from him and make a deal with him for a ship and a crew. After saving Jack, they find that the Kraken has dead and have many fights with Captain Beckett and Davy Jones. They also make a deal with Sao Feng in which Elizabeth stays with him and all the crew is free (as they were caught by him). While Elizabeth is with him, he dies during an attack by Davy Jones. He makes her his heir, Lord of Singapore and as one of the Lords of the Brethren Court. When all the lords get together, they decide to vote for a king of pirates. All the lords vote for themselves, except Sparrow who votes for Elizabeth. So she is made the King. She declares a war against Beckett and Jones.
They tell Elizabeth, other Lords and their group to surrender but Elizabeth refuses. All the lords decide to free Calypso (a sea goddess), who was Davy Jones lover. Long back, once when Davy Jones went to see her after 10 years, she wasn’t there. So at that time, Jones and the Brethren Court together captured Calypso and changed her into human form, so men could rule the sea. At present, Calypso is living as Tia Dalma. After freeing her from her human form, Barbosa ask her to attack Davy Jones. So she creates a whirlpool. Everyone fights against each other. At this time Davy Jones hurts Will Turner. As Jack Sparrow had Davy Jones heart due to his interest to be immortal, he gave the heart to Will to save himself. Later Will kills Davy Jones, frees all Davy Jones crew and he is now the captain of the Flying Dutchman. Crew of Flying Dutchman take the heart of Will and place it in the dead man’s chest. Because of this, Will could see his wife Elizabeth and his son only once in every 10 years. Those 10 years he had to sail the dead people to the next world. At the end, Jack Sparrow is going in search of the Fountain of Youth in a little boat as Barbosa had the Black Pearl. I think there’s going to be another Pirates of the Caribbean movie as Sparrow goes in search of the Fountain for Youth. This movie is very exciting and interesting.

Talent show

Hello everyone!!!
Now I’m going to tell about the Talent Show in my school. This was presented by many students from Primary, Junior High and High School in our institution on 25th May, 2007. In this show they sang, danced and played many different types of music. They started the program at 8:00 p.m. But I don’t know the time when they finished, as we came home at about 11 p.m.
First, a music group formed by some high school students, played and sang a song (I couldn’t write its name. I don’t remember it well). Later a girl named Pamela, from Junior High School played the violin as in a song called “Molinos de Viento”, it’s originally by the musical group “Mago de Oz”. Then my friend Leyla’s sister sang a Lindsey Lohan’s song. Also my friend Melissa and a friend of hers sang a song called “Me enamore de ti”. Many people sang. All of them sang very well.
In the intermission one of our school teachers played an electric guitar. He played it for nearly half an hour.
After the intermission, some girls from Junior High School danced for a song called “Candy Man”. When they finished some girls from 4th grade of primary danced for the song “Hips don’t lie” of Shakira. They danced very well. Then many girls from Junior High School and High School danced different songs. Later, a girl from High School danced ballet. She danced it very good. I liked it very much. After she finished there was a skit (like comedy). We didn’t saw it all. I knew that after the skit, there will be music & dance by all. As it was late, we returned home before the skit got over.

I liked the show. Hope you enjoyed reading about it.

Science Fair & Mini Olimpiada

Hi everyone!!!
Today I’m going to write about the Science Fair and mini Olympics in my school. They were held on 4th and 5th of May, 2007 respectively. In the science fair each class presented a theme.
Our class theme was "human body". Our class was divided into 6 teams. My team presented about the Nervous System of the human body. My team members were Sofia Andrea, Christian, Jibran and Francisco. We made many charts about the parts and functions of a nervous system and a model of a brain in clay. We gave folders about the nervous system and sweets to the visitors. We also served tea of the “7 Azares”, which is made of 7 types of flowers and is good for relaxation. My friend Christian’s mother prepared it. Other teams in my class talked about the digestive, reproductive (man and women), circulatory, respiratory and skeleton system. It was fun.
The presentations of other classes were also very good. But I liked very much the presentation by 1st grade students, because the classes and projects were beautifully decorated. Among the 1st grade presentations, I liked I C section very much. They presented details on the caveman. All the students and the miss were dressed as caveman. The decoration was very interesting and nice. It was very much fun. I liked the Science fair very much.

On the 5th of April we had our Mini Olimpiada. On this day we ran 2 rounds in a race around the school. Me and Nancy finished almost together in 9th & 10th place among a total of 50 students. My friend Sofia came in first place. She’s very good at running and earlier she practiced athletics in the City Sports Centre. Our class also won in the basketball match against the other team. Although I wasn’t in the class team, I played for a little time, as Sofia got hurt. I also ran in relay race. I ran 3rd position and gave the baton first to my team mate, but she was out-competed by runners of other team and we came in 3rd place. This day was also very fun.

Mis vacciones de semana santa 2007

Hi everyone
I am going to tell about what I did in the holidays for Semana Santa (For Easter and Good Friday).
First, we went to la Granja del Abuelo with Sra. Lorena, Andrea, Carlos, Gracia, her parents, aunt, cousins and her grandmother. In this place, there are ranch animals like horses, cows, ostrich, goats, sheep, rabbits and mules. You can feed them and play there. We milked cows, I was scared initially but it was interesting. I liked the Granja del abuelo very much.
Then, we went with Dra. Lilia, Sra. Luz Maria, Sra. Lorena, Sr. Carlos, Srta. Yessica, Andrea and Carlos, to a little town called Ceballos and then to a ranch “La Flor”. There some of their family has been living for a long time. They are in the Zona del Silencio, (silence zone), Durango (a state near Coahuila). Further this comes under one of the biosphere reserves and one of the protected areas in Mexico, called Mapimi. It’s a semi desertic place. But it’s very beautiful. In La Flor there is a museum. We visited it. Though it was small, it was interesting. Then, Andrea, Carlos, me and other children went to explore in a little hill near by. We saw many chameleons and many cactus as biznagas, tree cholla, etc. Then we went to ride on a horse. It was fun. We also ate a delicious food, a type of gorditas (a typical Mexican food) and homemade cheese In La Flor they had horses, hens, chickens and pigs. This place is very good, even though it’s in a semi desertic place.
On another day, we went to Gracia’s aunt house. There we played with the water and soap bubbles in the Jacuzzi. We were there all day. It was very much fun. On the same night we went to El Cristo de las Noas with Dra. Lilia, Sra. Luz Maria, Sra. Lorena, Srta. Yessica, Andrea and Carlos. It is a very big and tall statue of Christ. It is very beautiful. It is the second tallest statue of Christ in the world, next to the one in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Andrea, Carlos and me were playing outside the church. The Cristo de las Noas and the church are in a hill called Cerro de las Noas. From there we can see the view of three cities, Torreon, Gomez Palacio and Lerdo. It’s very nice.
On Saturday 14th April, amma made pongal, sambar, vadai, and payasam for the Tamil New Year. When I got up on that day, amma made me to go first to a mirror, which was decorated with jewels. The food should not be tasted while you are preparing it. We prayed and then ate. The food was very tasty. We also went to Andrea’s house on Sunday because it was Sra. Lorena’s birthday. From the 9th of April we started training basket ball again. I liked this vacation.

The Never Ending Story

Hi all
Now I am going to tell about the never ending story.
It is a very interesting story.
It is about a boy named Bastian Baltasar Bux who reads a book named The Never Ending Story. He robbed the book from a library. He reads it. It talks about many things happened in the land of Fantasy and also about the adventures of Atreyu, a boy in Fantasy land and Fujur, a dragon. The book also mentions a little about Bastian. He needs to give a name to the infantile empress a name because Fantasy and the world of the humans would get destroyed if a human being didn’t give a name to the empress. He gives her the name of Daughter of the Moon. She gives him a symbol of her named Auryn. He can desire whatever he wants.
He has many adventures with many things. But he also becomes a bit selfish.
He goes to the Marble Tower. He didn’t find the empress there. His friend Xayide a witch of Fantasy tells him that Atreyu and Fujur are danger for him. Bastian tells Fujur and Atreyu to go to another place, but they want the Auryn. Bastian tells that he will not give it. Xayide tells Bastian that he should be the new emperor of Fantasy because the Daughter of the Moon had given him all her powers with the Auryn. So they organized a coronation for Bastian. On the coronation day Atreyu, Fujur and others come for a war. Atreyu gets hurt there and Bastian escapes from the Marble Tower alone.
Now he also has many other adventures. And he learns many new things. He now desires to get back to his own world. To get back to his own world Earth he goes through many adventures. Later Bastian apologizes to Atreyu and Fujur. With the help of Atreyu and Fujur he could get back to Earth through the Water of Life, but Bastian has to give some of the water of life to anyone he loved. He brought back some for his dad. His dad was very worried about him and asked him where he was. He told about his adventure in Fantasy. He also says that he robbed the book from a library and wants to tell sorry for the man there. He goes there and tells the man his story. The man says that the book does not belong to him, but tells Bastian that he also once lived in the story in Fantasy and named the Infantile Empress with another name.
Hope you liked it. There is also a movie of this story. I saw it but I couldn’t write about it as I don’t remember well.

Basket ball- my new interest

Hola
Yesterday I went to a school named Instituto Alpes, as we had a basketball match there against that school. This is the third game I played against another school. The other’s I played were against Colegio Ingles and Cervantes. We lost to all of them. Yesterday’s game score was 4-35. We just put 2 baskets and I put both of them. The girls of Instituto Alpes put many baskets. But we were happy for our performance, as we have just begun our practice.
I play in the position of “Post” (forward). Our group is of the people born between 1995 and 1996. Our coaches names are Tony and Cesar. The boys’ team played against the Instituto Cumbres. They also lost, but I don’t know about the score. Today our team of boys and girls born between 1997 and 2000 are going to play against the same schools. We hope our school wins in this one.
In the basket class I have many friends there but I play more with Paola, Gracia, Andrea, Roy and Guicho (Luis).
Last week we trained on a type of play style named “Rombo”. Earlier we trained on other types of play called “Uno” and “Cuatro”. In yesterday’s game we used these types of play. I don’t know which school we are going to play against next week. We hope to win.
I like basket ball very much.

Oscar awards 2007

Hi all
Now I am going to write about the Oscar awards
The Oscars took place on 25th Feb at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. I like to watch the Oscar awards. I have been seeing the Oscar Awards in TV for five years now.
When we went to Los Angeles last year, we saw the Kodak Theater and the walk of the fame and the Chinese theater.
This year there were 2 Mexican movies that had many nominations. They were “El Laberinto del Fauno" (The Pan’s Labyrinth) and “Babel”. I haven’t seen both the movies. I can’t see Babel as it is for adults. But appa has seen it and he says that it’s very good. Appa, amma and myself were sad that Babel didn’t get the Oscar for the best movie and also that the Pan’s Labyrinth didn’t get the Oscar for the best foreign language movie. However Pan`s Labyrinth got awards for Best Cinematography, Make up and Art direction and Babel won the oscar for best music. The thing I like the most is the part for the best animation movie. This time “Happy Feet” won the Oscar. Also during this show, I liked the formation of different figures such as oscar statue, gun, car, penguin, etc. by different dancers. It was excellent.

I like to see the Oscar awards every year.

Despidiendo a Saltillo

Hi all!
Today I am going to tell about our change to Torreon. We moved here because my father changed his work place to Torreon.
Torreon is a big city. It has frontier with the cities of Gomez Palacio and Lerdo in the state of Durango. But Torreon is in the state of Coahuila. Torreon is often called la Laguna or the Comarca (lagunera). Torreon is very hot and not like Saltillo.
It was sad to me to leave my friends and everyone I knew in Saltillo. Mrs. Doris, one of our friends told that her brother, Sr. Alfonso is in Torreon. They both offered help to appa for his stay until he found a house for all of us. Appa stayed with his family for two weeks. In Saltillo, we went to tell to everyone we knew. In Idiomas we went with Ms. Maru my teacher in the Claai in the English course, with the Director of Idiomas and with Ms. Betty who was another of my teachers. All of them were very good teachers for me. We went and informed Ms. Gaby, our aerobics teacher too. We also went to the house of Khaila, one of my classmates for the Despedida (send off party). Her mother, mother of Alexis and of Ana Karen organized this party. In the school my friends Mildreth, Ana Karen, Karen Jazmin and Lesly gave me some gifts. Sr. Jose Alejandro Torres Tovar, Director of my school in Saltillo and Ms. Violeta, my teacher told that they will miss me. They were good teachers too. I liked them all very much. I am still in contact with all of them.
We couldn’t pack anything during the last days in Saltillo, as it was very cold and it snowed (it was the first time I saw snow in Saltillo). On 27th of January night, we put everything in a mini lorry. The loading took nearly four hours, as we were also packing at the same time. Mrs. Clara, our house owner in Saltillo and her sons Jose Luis, Ruben, David and her daughter Laura helped us a lot in packing things. Previous night Mary, one of our friends also helped a lot with our packing. As we finished very late, Mrs. Clara invited us to stay in their house for the night. We all ate Pizza at their house.
Early morning (4.30 am) on 28th January, Jose Luis and Ruben took us to Torreon in their car. We reached our new house in Torreon at about 8 o’clock. Sr. Alfonso and his family helped appa in finding this house. The truck with our things was there already. We unloaded the things and then went into the city for breakfast. We ate at Vip’s (a restaurant). Nearly one o’clock Jose Luis and Ruben left Torreon. Sr. Alfonso came by afternoon and helped us with gas connection. He and his family, Mrs. Paty, their son Israel and daughter, Eunice helped us in this new city.
I am going to my new school. Its name is Instituto Britanico de Torreon. It is a bilingual school. Everyone is very friendly here. It’s nice. I also like this school. Later I will write about Torreon.

Pongalo pongal

Hola amigos!
I’m going to write about Pongal.
It’s a south Indian festival celebrated during middle of January for four days. Each day has a special meaning. The days have a name and they are: Bhogi Festival, Thai Pongal or just Pongal, Mattu Pongal and Kannum or Cani Pongal.
The first day Bhogi Festival, people clean their homes and take out the things that they don’t need. They use new things. They also white wash and decorate their houses.
The second day is the first day of the Thai month of the Tamil calendar. It is to worship the Sun God. The women get up early in the morning to make the Kolam (it is a figure made in the floor with rice flour). When there is sun people go out and cook pongal in a new mud pot (it is also common to have the pot of stainless steel). They also offer different vegetables and sugar cane to Sun God. The different types of rice cooked in this day are: Ven Pongal and Chakarai Pongal.
The third day is called Mattu Pongal. In this day they decorate the cows and bulls. They also make pujas to these animals.
The fourth and last day people visit their friends and family. In house they prepare different variety rice like tamarind, coconut, tomato, lemon and curd rice.
We still make Pongal here in Mexico. I like Pongal very much. Happy Pongal to everyone!

An Inconvenient Truth

Hello everybody!

Happy New Year to all.
I am going to tell you all about a movie I saw on 1st January, 2007. The title of the film is “An Inconvenient Truth”. It’s a documentary presented by Mr. Al Gore, ex Vice-President of USA. He talked about global warming and what we should do to prevent it. He also told that we should care about our planet. He told that he was interested in this theme because one of his professors in college taught him about the importance of the ecosystem and global temperatures. He showed many graphics and explained many things. He also said that the glaciers in Arctic and Antarctic will soon melt as the heat of the sun is trapped inside the atmosphere because of the increase in the level of green house gases. The water could cover Australia, part of China, India, USA and many countries and Islands. This will make many people die and we may have to redraw maps. He also told that this could happen with in 10 years and so from now on we should be more careful, prevent pollution and should leave a healthy planet for future generations. You can visit the following web site for more information; http://www.climatecrisis.net