La última semana de vacaciones

Days in México: 182
Today I have been in Mexico for exactly 6 months!!!

This past week has been the last week of holidays. I will return to school on Tuesday to start the equivalent of year 12.

My Mexican grandma, aunty and cousin were in town for the whole week so we organised a couple of last minute parties. On Monday, we had a surprise 15th birthday party for Diego. It was his birthday was in June but it's always better late than never! A balloon arch was created for the event as well as a making costumes in his favourite football team's colours.

The balloon arch 

Surprise!

The next day the balloon arch was still up so we had a surprise baby shower for Yola, who helps around the house. She is expecting a baby girl in late October/ early November.

We continued with the surprise parties with an early celebration of mamá's birthday. Her actual birthday is next week but we were in party mode so we decorated the room in a 70's theme.

We then had a 'Miss Tampiquera' competition to crown the next Miss Tampiquera (La Tampiquera is the name of the area where I live.) The competition included answering a couple of questions as well as dancing to a couple of songs, including the Macarena. The crowned winner of the competition was Mamá! Including Dany's party last week, we had 4 surprise parties in the space of a week!

Cousin Fernanda, Mamá and Dany 

Feliz cumpleaños mamá 

I have been feeling less and less homesick but I occasionally have a day when it comes back. Wednesday was one of those days.
I woke up to the sad news that one of the pets in my house in Australia had died. Lily was a much loved and very cute guniea pig who brought a lot of joy to my family, especially to my sister. I won't be able to see her again when I return to Australia but I knew before leaving that there was a possibility of something like this happening, I'm just sad that it did happen. RIP Lily

Rosie and Lily at Easter time

Friday afternoon, most of the exchange students that were in Veracruz went to the movies. I met 3 new exchange students; Jonas from Germany, Ryan from the USA and Kevin from Taiwan. Kevin is on a short term exchange for 2 months, but everyone else will be in Mexico until next July. More have arrived since Friday so I will get to meet them soon!