fell off the blogging wagon - Wednesday

Yah, a few pictures!  Here is Wednesday.....

My maestro took us on a little walk around town.  We went and visited Juarez Park (no pics, I don't want to press my luck!) and these public lavados (where people wash their clothes).  Most people don't use them anymore, because the water is pretty funky.  But there are a few poor who do, like in this picture.  There is a spring that feed the "baths" (cement sinks).  

After I took this picture the lady on the right charged me =).  TIM!

We learned of an interesting Mexican tradition.  It is customary to give the gift of underwear on New Years Eve, to family, co-workers, etc.

Here at the school the teachers and employees drew names (like a secret santa), and all exchanged their "gifts" after class.

It was pretty funny to watch.  I guess different colors have different meanings.  

The girls underwear kept getting smaller and smaller.....

Here I am with some camels.  I'll explain more later.  I'm in bed trying to get a few hours sleep before I have to get up at 3:00am to catch my ride to the airport.  UGH!

Okay, actually I am here with a camel, an elephant, and a horse.  They were guys on stilts representing the 3 Kings.  Apparently Mexicans celebrate another holiday in early January called 3 Kings Day (or something like that).  While they do celebrate Christmas & Christmas Eve, and they do exchange a few gifts, it is this 3 Kings day where they really go crazy with gift giving.  Kind of makes sense, no?

And here we are enjoying New Years Eve at El Jardin (where everything that's anything happens).  There was a band playing for like 45 minutes, with fireworks going off in between songs.  

Genevieve loves these huuuge spaklers.  They were like 3 or 4 feet long metal ones.  It was a fun night although we didn't stay up to midnight to ring in the new year.  It was freezing, we were not dressed-accordingly, and too late for a 6 year old who had school the next day.