Griffin's New Friends

September 23, 2010

My new friends are Mateo and Felipe from Argentina. I have had three playdates with Felipe and two with Mateo. And a few pool playdates with them. Today they came over and played legos with me. We wrestled a little and had a lot of fun. They are both short. Felipe is very funny and weird. It's hard to understand their accent. All the same, I like them.

I was invited to my first birthday party by them. It'll be a soccer party this weekend. Felipe is in second grade. Mateo is in fourth grade. They live in the tower connected to ours and ride on the bus with us. How I got my friendship with Mateo was because he sits right next to me on the bus everyday.

Hari Raya Dress-Up Day at School

September 23, 2010

We are celebrating Hari Raya at school. Hari Raya is the end of the Muslim fasting called Ramadhan. Today we are dressing up in Hari Raya clothes. I have my own as you can see in the picture. So do Alice and Boom Boom. Not everyone wore Hari Raya clothes. It was optional. We made our own sarongs but didn't bring them home. We learned to tie them around our waists. It is very hard to do it. There is one stripe down the middle. For girls, it goes in the front. For boys, it goes in the back.

I learned a celebratory dance for Hari Raya. It is very hard in the beginning but it gets easy as you practice. Then we had an assembly. They showed us all the different Muslim clothes from all over Malaysia, such as Malacca, Sarawak, Sabah, Singapore, and much more. Then we learned a few words in Malay. When we were about to leave, our teacher took us to taste some Hari Raya celebration food. Some were cookies in the shape of a fried flower. Round with little holes in it. And there was orange juice that tasted a little bitter. And, there was something like a rolled up crepe that looked like lace, a circle with lots of lines.

I'm having a nice time in Malaysia.