School Celebration

Our kids are doing online courses at home for their schooling (Nevada Virtual Academy), but they are also visiting a public school once a week so that they can have the Spanish immersion experience and some socialization time.  During September, they attended twice a week, but we had some scheduling conflicts, so now they are only going once a week.  The school that they attend has elementary through high school all at the same location.  There is a group of buildings for the high school in one section, and group for the middle school in another, and a group for elementary in a third section.  The boys are all at the elementary school (1st, 4th, and 6th grade), and Elena (a ninth grader) is part of the middle school which has 7th - 9th grade.
Since there wasn't school on the 16th of September, the students celebrated on the 15th of September.  Elena was invited to the party at the secundaria (middle school).  They didn't have to wear their uniforms (I'll post a picture of our kids in their uniforms soon), and it was suggested that they wear native costumes, but most of the students were just excited to wear regular clothes.  Elena took the following pictures, so I'm going to have her write the commentary for this post.

So, the school celebration was completely awesome.  They did a flag ceremony that was just plain fun to watch, and a couple did a traditional Mexican dance that was very well-performed, and some of the teachers prepared delicious Mexican dishes that we got to eat, like chalupas (a flat tortilla with either red or green sauce; it's a popular dish in Mexico), tostadas, and chanclas (a sort of bread in red sauce.)  Another thing they have here that's popular is corn-on-the-cob that they cover in mayonaise, cheese, and chili powder, and sometimes even lime.  It's surprisingly tasty.  After the lunch, there was a school dance, and it was basically the same thing as school dances at home: loud, nearly unintelligible music playing, kids totally crowded together to dance, etc.  The only differences were that it was outside and during school hours, and it wasn't as decorated as our dances are - just a few ribbons and things.  But it was still fun, and nothing like the so-called school 'parties' we have at home.

Cute costumes -- I think the two girls on the left are sisters.

another cute girl

These are all the elementary school kids lined up for the ceremony with their little Mexican flags.  It was fun to see them all waving them, but the camera was a little slow, so you can't really see the cool effects

some cute girls who wanted their picture taken

friend

(left to right) Fannie, Alondra, and Lorena, friends from my class

Miss Magda, the English teacher

more friends

cutie

fun costume

These boys were dressed up as soldiers for some sort of presentation they did.

These kids are Stephen's age, and they're really fun.  The girls on the right are Lorena and Claudia (left to right) and they sort of hang out with us after school.  They're totally in love with Daniel and ask for kisses and give him treats and whatnot.  It's really cute.