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Shots My aunt who came to visit in May is here one more time. And, again, she brought us lots of gifts from the States. Books in Chile are very expensive, so she bought a few for us in Florida, in Spanish. Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble have many books in Spanish now, and they are a lot more affordable than here. Two of the books she brought are translations of the Judy Moody series. I first heard about these books in fifth grade, when the class made a model of Judy Moody to hang on the classroom door. I never read the books in English because, in fifth grade, they seemed too basic. But in Spanish, they are perfect for me BECAUSE they are basic, since sixth-grade books in Spanish are still a bit difficult for me. The one I am reading now is "¡Judy Moody se vuelve famosa!" ("Judy Moody Gets Famous!"). I already read the other one "Judy Moody salva el planeta" ("Judy Moody Saves the World"). All the Judy Moody stories take place in Virginia. She is a third grader who wants to become famous by doing all kinds of things---like saving the world, getting her picture in the newspaper for winning a spelling bee, etc. It's exiting to read these books in Spanish because I can understand almost everything. ------------------------- My aunt read, on a previous RatSoap post, that RJE likes doing origami, so she brought RJE a really nice origami kit. It has a book full of hard-to-follow origami instructions, and fifty square sheets of colorful paper. We all tried to do some samples from the book. In this picture, you can see a butterfly, a dragon, and a frog. The one that actually looks like a bird (on the left) came with the kit, already made. ------------------------- RJE got home from school the other day very scared because they told her she was going to have shots the next day. Everyone in first grade (that means RJE!) had to have the shots for measles, mumps, and rubella. Fortunately for her, Dad had the documents to show that she had already had those shots in Virginia, where you're supposed to get them BEFORE you start kindergarten. Here, they wait until first grade. I don't know anyone who has had measles, mumps, or rubella, but Dad says that when he was little, shots for these illnesses didn't exist. So he had all illnesses, and he says that mumps was especially awful. With mumps, the inside of your mouth starts to swell and peel, he says, and you get a fever and suffer a lot of pain. I am glad we have shots for it now. I remember when I had the chickenpox, and THAT was awful---right after Christmas at my grandparents' house. When I got back to Virginia, the first Harry Potter movie was showing in the theaters, and I went to see it still with pox on my face (NOT contagious!). The movie was so good, it made me forget about the itching for a while. ------------------------- In my school in Virginia, all kids I know have at least one sibling. I thought that in Chile almost everyone would have five or more brothers and sisters and have a huge family, because Dad's family had four children, and when he went to school here, most kids also had big families. But it's not the same today. In my class here, there are several children who have no siblings, and I can't think of anyone like that in my class in Virginia. Also, our teacher asked in class the other day to raise hands for whether we had been born naturally or by cesarean. Almost the whole class raised their hands for cesareans! Only four of us in the class of 34 were born naturally. ------------------------- A few years ago I participated in a contest. There was a jar filled with jellybeans, and the competitors had to guess how many beans were in the jar. That gave me the idea to do a contest just like it, except with beads instead of jellybeans. The whole family participated, except me (because I counted the beads). Everyone guessed a different number, and then I announced the winner (the person who had the closest guess). Dad won. Then we thought it would be a good idea to offer the contest to RatSoap readers. So look at this photo of the jar (the jar is 4.75 inches tall) and take a guess in the form below. We will announce the winner in the next RatSoap post, so if you don't want your name to appear, use a nickname. *** contest closed *** See results in next post. Write back to the rats at The RatSoap™ Project is a work in progress, 2006-2007
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