It was the same drop off….Morgan and Cole great…..Alysa and Laina screaming.
I had 45 minutes to kill before I was to be in line for the caravan to the zoo for Laina’s class so I worked on decorating the car. I got all the parts put on the van and ended up sitting in line until 9:30 when we finally left!! I could not believe how detailed some of the cars were!! Some were completely decorated in a jungle scene (windshield and all!!). One lady spent over an hour tying stuffed lions onto her car. Another car was decorated like an elephant. Four adult men came to put it together. I can not believe how much work people put into a nursery (preschool) activity!!
(The pictures were taken really early on before the majority of the cars got there!) All of the kids were dressed to match the car! I had no idea what was about to happen!! It was another one of those moments where I realized that I am definitely in a different culture!!
Let me attempt to describe what happened next. I was #3 in a line of 25+ cars all decorated. A gentleman that works at the school went out into the main road and stopped a huge semi and all of the traffic that followed it so that our “parade” could begin. It must have taken forever for all of the cars to get onto the road…especially since we were only going about 10 kph. (= 6 mph). I can only begin to imagine what the drivers would have been doing in the States if somebody had tried to stop them in the middle of the road so that all those slow cars could go in front!! Oh, it is also one lane each way!! Laina’s English teacher drove with us so she showed me the proper way to do things. First, I had to turn my flashers on. (Everybody uses their flashes constantly here!! If you slow down, you put on your flashers. If you stop in the middle of the road, you put on your flashers. If you are trying to park, you put on your flashers. Etc. You get the pictures!!) So, on went the flashers. Then, I was instructed to honk my horn…..the entire way to the zoo which took us at least 15 minutes!! All of the cars were honking their horns to get everybodies attention. Next, Laina had to sit on her teachers lap in the front seat with the window open so she could wave at all of the people. She had so much fun waving…or maybe it was sitting in the front seat without her seatbelt on!! Yes, life is different here! One car even had the kid sitting on top of it!!
I sure wish I could have gotten a video of the parade but it was a little difficult since I was driving!!
The zoo was pretty boring after the excitement of the parade. There was a worker at the zoo that showed the kids a bunny and a snake. Laina didn’t want to pet the snake because she didn’t want “to get snake germs”.
Laina complained the whole time that she was hungry and wanted to eat her lunch. I couldn’t believe how long it took us to walk through the tiny zoo!! Alysa’s class did it in less than half the time. When we got to the jaguars, they were fighting and one growled at the other. I thought for sure Laina was going to turn around and scream because it scared her. Instead she turned around and laughed while saying, "The jaguar burped, Mommy."
It was already the end of the school day by the time we got through seeing the animals so we didn’t have time to do the games that were planned and didn’t even get to eat half of our lunch!! The rain started so everybody opted to leave. I didn’t realize it but all of the teachers were waiting for me to take them back to the school. I love not understanding what people are saying to me!! I told them that I had to pick up Chris from the job site first so that he could have the car. Oh, the look of pure embarrassment from my wonderful husband when the mini van decorated like a hippo pulled up at the job site to pick him up!!
(A little tired????)
The rain was pretty heavy again today. I’m not sure if it is this intense for the next 6 months or if it tapers off but it is pretty crazy! We probably get more rain in one day than an entire year in Vegas. It has also been fun to be in a brand new house and to find all of the water leaks!! We have had more water coming in through the windows and doors than in through the plumbing the past few days. Luckily the water was back on when we got home today though! Let the dishes/laundry begin!
While Chris was at work, all the kids and I went grocery shopping. The power went out about three times while we were in there. I used to love the power going out in Alaska in the fall. Here it isn’t quite as exciting since it happens so often!!
During dinner Cole came up with a great Spanish word!! Breakfast in Spanish is desayuno. Cold thought that it was called that since it was the first meal of the day. He said something about how he loved his desaytres. We couldn’t figure out what he was talking about. He said isn’t dinner called desaytres. It still took us a little while to figure out what was going on but once we figured it out, we all laughed pretty good. (Uno, Dos, Tres. Breakfast= desayUNO, lunch= desayDOS, dinner=desayTRES).
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