Smiling all the time

Days in Mexico: 40

Noche Colonial last Saturday night was amazing!! It was like a massive fete that thousands of people attended. Every class group at La Salle from Pre-primary to Year 12 performed a dance on one of the 2 stages set up. Other dance and singing groups from different schools, universities and independent acts from around Mexico came to perform in between the dances. There were also carnival rides and lots of food stands.

There were lots of people!!

My group's dance. I am the tall Hawaiian girl, sixth from the right. 

My group’s dance was based on the theme of Lilo and Stitch and ended coming 5^th out of 11 in competition between the upper school classes. It was the highest ranked dance from my year level. The dance that came first was a year 12 classes who danced to the theme was ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’

My friends and I as Hawaiian girls. I am on the right. 

The costumes were amazing! On the left is Stitch

This weekend is the multidistrict convention for Rotary districts 4180, 4190 and 4200. All the exchange students from the three districts are together in Veracruz for the convention and in total, there are about 200 of us! About 70 of the exchange students are from Brazil (which is a lot from the same country) and all the others are from all around the world.

I am the only Australian which means I am representing the country by myself. There was a parade on Thursday to open the conference as well as a small parade this morning. Each country that was represented by an exchange student had a flag. The parade was in alphabetical order by country name so I was second, behind Germany which is ‘Alemania’ in Spanish. I have become friends with some German and Belgium students who have kept me company during the parades.

Ready for the parade

Students from all around the world! 

During Thursday's parade

I don’t understand most of the things that are said at the conference but there are always photos being taken so I have to keep smiling all the time- especially because I’m the only Australian here and everyone wants a photo with me because I am a unique species.

6 exchange students from 6 different countries; Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Indonesia, France and Hungary.

Lots of photos are taken all the time at the conference.

At the conference with a Belgium and a Canadian.

Next week is also set to be a big week because it will be my birthday on Thursday!