Meeting my friends after 21 days

On November 22 [2010], my school reopened and I was really happy to see my friends. Everyone kept asking everyone else how their holidays had been, and how they all had been keeping.

We got to see some of our exam papers. On November 23, which was yesterday, we got a new Maths teacher. Her name is Vanessa D'Souza, and she's really sweet and kind. She explains everything so well -- each and every word actually.

On November 22, they told us that we are going to have a school picnic on November 27. We are to go to Bondla, a wildlife sanctuary about 70 kms from here. I already know that our picnic was to be at a wildlife sanctuary, because on our tour, a teacher asked Alphina to ask her father for some ideas of a good picnic spot, and he works in the Goa Forest Department.

A concert at Emerald Lawns

Just nine months ago, I jointed the Taught to Teach, which is a music school. It has three different branches, all in Goa -- in Mapusa, Porvorim and Bicholim.

Every year they have this concert at Emerald Lawns, a place where parties and weddings are held in Parra.

This year, we had a concert, and they placed me in a song. Its name is "Puun tuh mozo daddy" (based on the Konkani version of But You Love Me Daddy). We had to play in the band, so we couldn't look at papers or notes. We had to by-heart the song. At first, I thought it would be hard because I didn't know the words of the song in Konkani.

But my guitar teacher Gordon D'Souza told me that I only had to by-heart the first verse and the chorus. So that's what I did, and it got quite easy. (And my brother keeps on saying, "But Heidi's mike was not put on." Heidi was really angry about her mike not being put on.)

The concert was really nice. There were at least 40 items. It started at 5 pm and ended at 10 pm. I had school the next day. Of all the times, I liked a song called Holiday. My guitar teacher played it. It was basically Rock, and really cool.

I also liked another song played by a group of boys -- 11, 12 or 13 years old -- and all were playing on drums. They had separated the whole drum set, and were making different noises. The audience really liked that the best.

In my song, there was one drummer, three guitarists (I was the rhythm), three keyboards and two singers. One was the daddy and the other, the son. Not in real-life, just in the song.

HP is finally here...

On November 19, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released in Goa. Me and my friends went to Inox and watched the movie. It was really awesome. Two parts were 3-d (three dimension). One was when a snake came shooting out of the screen, and another was an evil teacher, who was Draco Malfoy's father, was flying on a broom and it crashed.

This is the plot of the story from the Wikipedia:
Throughout the six previous novels in the Harry Potter series, the main character, Harry Potter, has struggled with the inherent difficulties of adolescence along with being a famous wizard. When Harry was a baby, Lord Voldemort, a powerful evil wizard, murdered Harry's parents but mysteriously vanished after attempting to kill Harry. This results in Harry's immediate fame, and his being placed in the care of his muggle, or non-magical, relatives Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon.

Yippie, the IFFI is come finally

The IFFI is the International Film Festival of India.

My parents are journalists and have a journalism pass, so they can bring other people in with her. We (me and my little brother) are not allowed to watch any movies, because they are only for eighteen-and-above. But we get to see a lot of actors and actresses.

There's a band over there too.

Last year, we met Sunil Shetty, and I even got his autograph.

IFFI is always conducted in the month of November. It is only there for ten days.

The festival of lights in India

On November 5, we celebrated Diwali.

Diwali is known as the festival of lights.

Diwali (also spelled Devali in certain regions) or Deepavali,^[1] popularly known as the "festival of lights", is an important five-day festival in Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism, occurring between mid-October and mid-November. For Hindus, Diwali is the most important festival of the year and is celebrated in families by performing traditional activities together in their homes. Deepavali is an official holiday in India,^[2] Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Suriname, Malaysia, Singapore, and Fiji. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwalihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali

Children in our village make Narkasurs (monsters or evil creatures). They burn it on Diwali. Burning Narkasurs symbolises the destruction of evil.

In the village where I stay (Saligao), every Hindu house is lit up so beautifully. They hang akash divos (lanterns) and they also keep pontis (small clay lamps) and put rangoli designs all over the floor. Rangoli is a particular type of colour, which is used to decorate floors and make designs.

My school tour

Every year my school conducts an educational tour. We go to different places.

This is the second tour I'm going for with my school, since the fifth standard.

Last year, the tour was cancelled because of swine flu.

When I was in Standard V, we went to Bangalore, Chennai, Pondicherry and Mahabalipuram. Bangalore is a big city, where you can get lost. Chennai is a really big city according to me, and it's really dusty and there is a lot of garbage around.

Pondicherry is a really, really lovely place -- with so many things to see. For instance, Auroville (it has a huge golden dome structure, and at one time 3000 people can fit). Pondicherry has many beaches, like Goa, so I felt so nice.

Mahabalipuram has a lot of temples and statues and stuff.

As I said, when I was in the sixth standard, the tour was cancelled because of swine flu. This year I'm in the seventh standard (grade), and we have just arrived five days back from our tour.

This year we went to Agra, Delhi, Nainital and Corbette National Park.

I really, really, really liked Nainital. It was beautiful. The weather there was nice; it was really cold. We had a campfire and a party on the terrace of our hotel.

On the tour, we basically did sight-seeing, experiencing new things, and SHOPPING. Last year we learnt not to have a big attitude, and this year we learnt responsibility. We learn it from the bigger children, by their mistakes.

One girl lost five thousand rupees....

We also learn how to make new friends. A lot of new friends. And that was the best part of all....

Bumper cars

During the Diwali holidays I went for the school tour. We went to Delhi, Agra, Nainital and Corbet...in Nainital we went to the hill top view by cable car, there was a fun park in that place.

They had all types of entertaining games.... like the bouncy slide, dragon ride, BUMPER CARS and lots more.... I chose to go on a bumper car it was alot of fun,mainly because all of my friends were playing..and what fun we had bumping into each other....

Luiza was bumping into Abednego and I was bumping into Jeshua.... Bumper car is the generic name for all types of flat ride cars..