On Wednesday I reached the exact half way point of my exchange! It was my 171st day in Mexico and I had 170 left. Time is ticking by and I am now the exchange student who has been in Veracruz for the longest amount of time.
Tuesday morning at 5.45am I woke up to a very strong earthquake. My bed was literally moving across the room! It was originally reported as a 6.2 but later got upgraded to a 6.4 and was the strongest earthquake I have felt so far. Since arriving in Mexico, there has been 6 earthquakes and I expect there will be more as aftershocks.
During the week I went to the aquarium with Iina. There were lots of people there because it's the school holidays but we still got to see all the animals. When we were waiting in line for tickets, a girl asked us in English where we were from. I answered her in Spanish and said that I am from Australia and Iina is from Finland. She was a bit surprised because I think she wasn't expecting us to be from countries so far away!
I went to the aquarium in February with school friends but there is now a new penguin enclosure and some things have changed. My favourite animals were the dolphins because they are well trained, put on an impressive show and are really photogenic.
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| The new penguins |
We also met a past exchange student who now works at the aquarium. Edwing went to Tamworth, New South Wales in Australia, 3 years ago with Rotary and he was able to tell us a bit about the animals at the aquarium.
The 1st of August was Dany's 17th birthday. At midnight, an 8 piece Mariachi band turned up at the house as a surprise. She was next to me on the couch and was almost asleep when the music woke her up.
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| Mariachi at midnight |
We have been joined by grandma, an aunt and a cousin from Mexico City for the past couple of days for Dany's birthday. They were also at the house when the Mariachi came so we had birthday cake at 1am in the morning once the band had finished. In the traditional Mexican way, Dany got a face of cake.
I tried a new fruit this week. It's called 'tuna' and they grow on cactus plants. You can't touch them with bare hands because the outsides have little prickles on them. To eat the fruit, you carefully peel the skin with a knife and eat the flesh inside. There are also little black seeds inside which are edible but can't be chewed. I don't mind eating it but it is a bit sweet for me.
On Saturday we were joined by another exchange student! Marcos from Brazil! I still have one week of holidays left before I start school so I will get to catch up with him and Iina some time soon. At the same time as Marcos' arrival, Larissa, another exchange student from Brazil arrived and she is sponsored by a Rotary club in Tuxpan which is about a 4 hour drive north of Veracruz. We will get to meet each other again when all the exchange students in the district come together.
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| Iina, Marcos and I at the airport |
There was also another exchange students from the previous year who returned from Brazil on the flight. He was sponsored by my host club so I will probably see him at the next Rotary meeting.
This afternoon my family and I went into the city center to watch the Festival de Globos Aerostáticos (hot air balloon festival.) We watched as 4 hot air balloons were inflated as the sun was going down. I haven't seen hot air balloons before and I didn't realise how big they were! It's normal for people to go out at night, rather than during the day because it is cooler.
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