REBECA BRITNEY

*for breakfast we stopped the donut man*

Hello! Since being here my Spanish has been getting a lot better. Although I have a really bad habit of saying “yeah” and “okay” when people talk to me then they look at me like I’m crazy. It’s okay if they look at me like I’m crazy because I’ll probably never see them again.

Anyway something really funny happened after my cousins and I all went home from my great grandma’s party. The next morning my grandma told us that the Mariachi band CAME BACK to “help” clean up. We were all upset because we wanted to see them again. Oh well.

On Sunday

We started our day sweet by having homemade donuts and fresh brewed coffee for breakfast. Then we went to my great grandma’s house for lunch and ate yesterday’s tacos. All my aunts kept teasing us about the Mariachi boys! It was so funny.

I also held this baby.

*baby love*

You know you’ve held a baby for a long time if you wake up the next day with your arms sore! Doesn’t matter though, holding babies are worth the sore arms.

After holding the adorable baby my family and I went to Cocula again to go to Church.

*The enormous church in Cocula*

The string hanging from the church is connected to a bell. Every time anyone pulls on it the bell rings extremely loud. It’s rung each hour of the day and when church starts and ends.

We arrived early so we sat down on benches and waited for the bell to ring. While we waited I gave my little cousin a piece of gum. Then she gave me back the tin foil folded into a little cat. I thought that was really cute.

*tin foil origami*

*my uncle and sister walking to church*

Once again mass was really nice.

Later at night. I heard a bunch of people chanting “MORENA MORENA MORENA!”

I got really confused. I honestly thought MORENA was the name of a bar or something. But if you’re anything like me, you probably don’t watch or read the news very often. I probably should because MORENA is pretty important. Also Sunday, July 1, was the Presidential election.

By the way Morena stands for, The National Regeneration movement in English. The acronym makes more sense in Spanish though, Movimiento Regeneración Nacional.

The reason morena is a big deal here in Mexico is because it’s the leftists political party that beat the current political party in the 2018 the P.R.I.

The new President of Mexico is Andrés Manuel López Obrador. He’s actually ran for President twice before he finally won. Third times the charm right?

On Monday

We went to La Plaza to eat pozole for lunch.

*pozole*

The pozole was delicious. The chicken tasted amazing too. I think it’s because the chicken is organic. Super local chicken. And the tiny coke bottle are so adorable. The only thing that bothers me about the coke bottles is that they’re 99 calories. Like why can’t they round it to 100 calories?

Then I watched the soccer match between Mexico and Brazil. They sadly lost 3-0 so now I’m going to support the next best team, France. Don’t you think that Mexico did a really good job this World Cup though? Because I do!

Later in the evening my grandma, cousins and I went walking to my grandma’s friend’s house to pray a Rosary. On our walk we saw tons of maguey plants. Maguey is the plant that Tequila is made out of and is actually only grown in Jalisco!

*little boys having a blast digging up a hole next to the maguey *

These boys were so happy digging up a hole. They reminded me that you don’t need much to have fun. All you need are good buds.

When we arrived to the house we went inside to pray for someone who’d recently passed away. My grandma led the Rosary. We prayed for their soul and prayed that they Rest In Peace with God. Inside the house there was an altar dedicated for the person who’d passed away.

*The altar*

Later when it got dark the mosquitoes were eating us alive. So then my little cousin Moises came to the rescue by electrocuting the mosquitoes with an electric racket. We all couldn’t stop laughing.

On Tuesday

My uncle drove us to a city called Villa Corona. They had little shops and sold coconut water in a bag.

*coconut water in a bag*

Well you could’ve gotten it with the coconut but the bag was more convenient.

On Wednesday

My cousin, Sister and I woke up early to do my little cousins hair for her elementary graduation. She looked so cute.

*my cute cousin.*

Then we went to her graduation ceremony and it was very interesting but really adorable. They even had little dances prepared. At the end all of the kids were crying! Turns out that all of these kids had been in the same class for 6 years together. In Mexico you have the same teacher, and same classmates from grades 1-6. Which helped me understand why so many kids were crying.

Then I spent the rest of my 4th of July at my uncles house celebrating my little cousins graduation.

And when is got dark we visited my great grandma and talked with her for a little while. When we got home it started to rain a lot then came thunder then came lightning. The lightning was so cool.

On Thursday

I woke up and ate a guava.

*Holding a guava*

I’ve been eating a lot of guavas lately. Guavas are a really popular fruit in Jalisco. Everyone eats them. They’re a little sour but honestly pretty good.

*Guyabate*

Later my grandma taught my sister and I how to make, a sweeter version of guavas, called Guayabata.

Cooking with her was really fun.

In the evening my grandpa took all of us to the cemetery to visit my passed away family members.

On Friday

My family and I went to the plaza to eat ice cream. Also France made it to the quarter finals! Yay!

*fresa y coco*

On Saturday

OKAY! Saturday was SO FUN.

My cousin, sister and I went on a day trip to Guadalajara. Guadalajara is such a cool city.

*The cathedral in Guadalajara*

The cathedral in Guadalajara is the biggest cathedral I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s so beautiful.

*Pancho Villa time*

Then we went to a museum full of art! Religion is so important when you learn about Mexican history. I’m mentioning this because a lot of the paintings were religious ones.

*painting of the Crucifix*

*more babies and an Angel*

*painting of the battle of El Cinco de Mayo.*

Later we went to a city called Tlaquepaque.

*Las sombrillas de Tlaquepaque*

Tlaquepaque was so colorful and had lots of little shops and candy. When it got dark we went back to our home stay and went to bed.

That’s my 2nd week!!! Thanks for reading!

R.C