I didn‘t have much time to write blog lately, but the current circumstances allow me to take some time for it in class. This morning the teachers announced that a student died last night for a reason that is not yet confirmed. He was a footballer, therefore popular and almost everyone in school knew him, so we‘re not doing any work in my classes. I‘m currently in debate and the atmosphere in the classroom is legitimately despondent, so here I am writing a quick summary about Christmas Eve and New Year‘s.
On the 24th of December, all we did all day was cleaning the house due to my host mom wanting to impress our guest we were expecting that evening. So after wiping the floor, scrubbing the sink and polishing every metal in the house, we were finally ready to welcome the Nagles family and my host dad‘s mom and sister. It was about 7 when we ate Tamales, a traditional Mexican dish that I‘ve grown to like a lot! And to my surprise, my host parents made mousse au chocolat after my dad‘s recipe. After having dinner, we played some games my host mom had prepared. The main reason for those games was to get the time until midnight to pass quicker, since in Mexico gifts shall not be opened before midnight. The first game consisted of the same principle as beer pong. We had plastic cups and tried to throw little bells into the cups and the winner could have one of the small gifts prepared for those games. The second game was all about sucking a marshmallow through a straw and then running form one plate to the other with it. The third game involved a lot of little chocolates and oven gloves. The goal of the game was to unwrap as many chocolates as possible in the given time of 10 seconds. Most of us didn‘t even get a single one unwrapped but my host mom did better and won the challenge. The fourth and final game is a little more complex to describe. What we needed for the game was two dice and a lot of candy wrapped inside of different layers of plastic wrap. So it starts out as a huuuuuge ball with this candy inside and one person in a circle of people starts unwrapping the foil, getting access to the candy falling out, while the person next to them throws the dice until rolling the same digit with both dice. When that happens, it‘s that person‘s turn. It was a funny game and the fact that my host mom also put money between the candies made all of the kids more competitive.
Once we finished the games, it was midnight and we started opening presents. Apparently unwrapping gifts works a little bit different here in the US. Everybody just gathered their gifts and started opening one after another in just a matter of seconds. It was a little odd in my opinion but whatever…
I got my host mom gloves for weight lifting, my host dad a book, my host brother a figure he uses for his favorite game dnd and for my sister a gift card for her favorite art supply shop „Michael‘s“.
After the gifts we just talked some more and most of us fell asleep on the couch. Our guests finally left at 3 in the morning. On the 25th we didn‘t really do much. We got some fast food at Sonic and then watched Family Guy, so it was a lazy day.
New year‘s Eve wasn‘t too special. We had planned to spend it in Mexico with all the relatives but due to the flu we stayed at home and didn‘t go to Mexico. In the evening we all gathered on the couch and watched a movie. A few minutes before midnight we stopped the movie and turned on the radio. It‘s a Mexican tradition that before midnight, there‘s 12 bells ringing every few seconds and for every bell you‘re supposed to eat a grape. We didn‘t turn on the right radio channel, so we just stuffed the grapes into our mouths before it was midnight haha…
After clinking glasses and wishing everybody a happy new year, we finished the movie and went to bed.
A few days later, my host family helped me cross one thing off my bucket list. It was a Saturday and we went to a mall in Dallas for rather affluent people. After walking coming to the conclusion that we can‘t afford anything anyway, we went to eat at Hooter‘s. I‘ve always wanted to visit a Hooter‘s but was pretty disappointed with it. The food wasn‘t that good and the the girls serving the food definitely didn‘t look like the one on the commercials. I expected supermodels in their skimpy uniform, but instead, they looked like your typical girl from next door, wearing a random outfit (some looked like they came from the gym). Like I said, it was pretty disappointing.