Spring Break - part 3

Hello!  In my last blog, I ended it with unpacking in Mexico.  After we unpacked, we went down to the snack bar near the pool.  At the snack bar, I ate mac-n-cheese, fries and carrots.  I wanted to go in the pool, but my mom said that we had had a long day and we should get some sleep.  I was a little sad because I couldn’t swim right away, but we had seven days of vacation left.

After we got ready for bed, I sat out in the balcony and watched the birds fly; it was so amazing. As I went in, I started to feel really sleepy. I got in to bed and took off my glasses and went to sleep. That was my first sleep in Mexico! In the morning my dad woke my sister and I up by moving the curtains so the sun was shining on our faces. We woke up groaning as the sun felt like cooked eggs on our foreheads. I quickly got dressed because today we were going to the pool!

When we got to the pool I jumped in and came right out because the water was freezing. Then my sister came and pulled me in. I was really scared but I remembered to hold my breath. After that the water started to get warmer. I started to swim and after about half an hour of swimming I got out and went to the beach. It was my first time at a beach! I played in the waves and… got completely wet! Good thing there were showers at the beach! I got off all the sand and we went back to our room.

We had buffet dinners every night and watched a different show each day.  In the morning, it was swimming and the beach, every day.  We spent a whole week doing only this and it was great!  This was the best Spring Break ever!  I can’t wait to go back every year and spend a whole week in sunny Mexico!    

Spring Break Part 2

Ola!  In my last blog, I ended with my mom,sister and I arriving in Vancouver. At the Vancouver airport, we meet my dad! I was really happy to see him. It had been three months since I saw him last.  After hugging him a lot, we went to eat at the food court in the airport. My sister and I got ice cream,then we chatted a bit while eating our food before we went though security. While waiting, my sister and I had a drawing contest. She won most of them. After a bit of ice cream I looked out side the window and saw three planes land and take off!

Then we went through security.  The Vancouver security is like the Calgary airport except that it is in Vancouver. After we got through security, we waited to board the plane. It felt like days of waiting and then finally we got onto the plane. My mom,sister and I were in zone three but my dad was in zone five. So my dad sat in front of us on the plane. When we were on the plane it took FOREVER until someone on the speaker said " Please prepare for take off and please put on your seat belts.  Thank you" and then they talked about all the safety stuff such as the life jacket under our seat and how to put on a breathing mask if we need it.

A few minutes later we took off! This flight was four and a half hours long. That was way,way longer then the flight from Calgary to Vancouver. I looked out of the window and an hour later I fell asleep. When I woke up, we were in Mexico! Mexico looked really cool from the plane. This time the landing didn't hurt my ears as much as the last landing. When we arrived at the airport the people there were so nice and there were pictures of dolphins were and nice restaurants. Then we went ou side and got directions to where the bus was waiting to take us to the hotel! The bright sun was making me feel really hot by then!

We got to the bus and put our luggage in a cool little compartment under the bus. On our drive to the hotel we saw lots of different types of cacti. That was so cool! I hadn't seen any cacti before I went to Mexico. The hotel looked amazing. Inside, we signed in and got wrist bands.  The kids' wrist bands said No Alcohol but the adult wrist bands didn't say that. Then my mom and dad got a tour of the hotel and then we went to our room and unpacked.

Mexico was going to be awesome!!!!!!!!!! 
                                                                 

Spring Break - Part 1

Ola, it's me, Aanya.

I went to Mexico for Spring Break.  The place I went to in Mexico is called Cabo San Jose.  It is such an awesome place.  It is very hot and there's only a slight breeze in the evenings.  When I left Calgary, it was still so cold, and I was very happy to be in the sun.

I liked going to the airport in Calgary.  It was very early in the morning and there were not very many people there.  My mom, sister, and I only had a couple of bags each and we could carry them ourselves.  The first thing we did was find out information about our flight from a screen.  There was a bit of a wait for checking in and more people started to arrive.  We were so thirsty that we had to buy water but we had to finish it before we reached security.  This was no problem for my sister, but it was really hard for me to do.

Before we checked in, we had to see if our luggage could fit in the measuring bins.  My suitcase did, but my mom and sister had to check their suitcases in.  The backpack and purse were fine and we carried them to the plane with us.  It was really cool to see how the machine took the suitcases away so that they could be put on the plane in a separate compartment.

At security, we all had to put everything that we were carrying into a x-ray machine.  We also had to walk through a metal gate.  After that, there was a lot of waiting.  I got bored while waiting to board the plane...ha, ha, ha!

We did get on the plane with so many other people and found our seats. I sat by the window with my sister next to me, and my mom sat just behind us.  A bit more of waiting and then...TAKE OFF!  It was a short flight to Vancouver, where we would have to change planes.  There was a screen in the seat in front of me and I spent the whole time watching Moana, and some tv shows.

I loved being on a plane.  The last time I flew, my mom told me that I was very small and I can't remember that.  The only thing that I didn't like, was the landing at Vancouver airport.  My ears were hurting for some time before we landed and I was crying a little bit.

I was very happy when we reached Vancouver because of two things.  We were almost in Mexico, but I was most happy to see my dad, who was meeting us in Vancouver.

Destination Conservation Team

Two weeks ago on Monday, I went on a  Destination Conservation field trip. Destination Conservation is a team of students from different grades that think of ways to make their school green. My Destination Conservation team only has eight students. For the field trip we went to Beddington Elementary School. I had a super awesome time there.😃

At Beddington school we made name tags and settled in; then a woman gave us an enormous piece of paper.  On that paper we needed to write a short little song that had something to do with what our school did and our song is: 🎜 If you go down Barrett Drive you will see our compost bins. Do not throw you snack wrappers out. If we recycle everybody wins. Remember to reuse; the environment is for everyone. D-R-C-O-F-F-I-N(I-N); Dr Coffin cares.🎜

The second thing we did was to make a chart with these categories:  MAKE IT, MOVE IT, USE IT. and LOSE IT. My group was MAKE IT. We got an item and we had to figure out how it was made, by only looking at the ingredients.🍲

The last thing we did was plan what we will do next.  Then we  made waste-less lunches and also made an antibacterial soap spray. We went back to our school on the Dream Wagon, which is what the bus was called.🚌

                          

And the Bronze Goes to Aanya!!!

Yesterday I went to a Taekwon-Do tournament. The tournament was at Arden's Taekwon-Do.
I thought is was exciting and awesome. I loved it so, so, so, so much.

It worked like this. One division did their patterns and when they finished they went and put on their sparring gear while the next division did their patterns, and so on. But there were different belts so the lower belts always went first. The lowest belts are yellow belts and green stripes. The next ones up are green belts and blue stripes, and the higher ones are blue belts and red stripes. The highest levels are red and black belts and they went last.

The patterns were done in a particular way and the sparring had its own way of working too. Two people went up at a time and were given two colours; red and blue.  Both did their patterns and then the judges decided who was better and that person moved to the gold and silver round.  The person who came third in patterns got a bronze, and that was me!

For the sparring, the referee would tie a blue or red ribbon to each person's belt.  This helped the judges to decide between the two people sparring.  You have to stop sparring every time there is a warning or a foul.  The higher the contact on the body, the more points you get, so you get the highest point which is three, if you hit the other person's head.  If you get three warnings, you lose one point.  Warnings happen if you fall down, or one of your feet is not touching the sparring ring floor, or if you push someone.  Even if you do a really good kick but it hurts someone, you don't get that point.  There are a lot of rule for sparring!  You also have to be super careful because there can be lots of injuries.  Even with all of these rules, I came third and got another bronze!

When I got my medal, I had to stand on the lowest step of a podium.  The silver winner stood on the next highest level, and the gold winner was at the top.

My favourite part of the tournament was watching the Black Belts.  They were awesome!

I loved this day so much that I can't wait to be part of the next tournament!

Family Day Weekend

During my Family Day weekend I did two things. The first thing that I did was that my family and I went to IHOP on Saturday. IHOP is a restaurant and you can order some really good food. The food there is really filling.  It was so filling that I couldn't finish a bowl of Mac and Cheese! IHOP also has really yummy milkshakes. I had a vanilla milkshake and so did my sister. My mom had a chocolate milkshake. IHOP was so busy!  There seemed like there were 100 people there!

When we were going to leave my sister and I donated some money to a foundation to help children and we got to write our names on a balloon. The staff at IHOP will pin the balloon on the wall. The wall allows them to put push pins in it. Then when we come back we will be able to see the balloon we wrote on and other balloons like ours. I think that it is really cool that people can write their names and others can see who donated money. I really liked IHOP and I hope that we can go back there.

The second thing I did was go to Flying Squirrel today. It was so awesome!!  I loved it!! The place had trampolines, foam pits, arcade games and a rope swing. There was also a dodgeball court, and a ninja obstacle course. There is a candy machine and a place where you can buy food. There are a lot of rules to follow so you need to pay attention to the TV that shows you all the rules during the long wait to pay and get in.

I did all the stuff with my sister and we took videos of me doing tricks and flips. Then we sent them to my mom's phone. My sister gave me challenges to do and I did all of them right! It was so amazing that I can't wait until Good Friday because that is when we are going to go back to Flying Squirrel.

I LOVED FAMILY DAY SO MUCH!!!

                 

My First Vacation Ever

Last week I found out that my family and I are going to go to Mexico for Spring Break.  I am so excited!  I have not been on a vacation ever.  I came to Canada when I was 1 year old and I haven't gone anywhere since.

I have always wanted to go to the beach and now I can do that.  I am going to sit by the sea and make lots of sandcastles.  I have to remember to take my bucket and spade.

There will also be a swimming pool at the hotel and I think that I will spend most of the day there.  I also want to show my family my somersaults in the water.  I heard that there is a snack bar right in the pool and I can't wait to swim up to it and eat something!  I should take a few swimsuits also.

There is also a kids club and I can't wait to meet new friends.  I don't know what activities there will be but I am excited anyway.

We will be gone for a whole week; that is seven whole days.  My mom says that we will arrive back very late in Calgary and I have school the next day.  Oh no!  I will be so tired!  I will still get to go on vacation and see the ocean, and I am very happy about that.

I will write more about the vacation when I get back.