Seals

Two days ago we set out on a road trip to Golden Bay.  It's about a two hour drive but it's always hellish sitting in the back of a small car with the girls when it's over about 10 min.  The first thing we did was stop by a cafe in a town about 20 minutes from Golden Bay.  It was nice stopping for a big plate of nacho's after a long ride through the winding roads.  Just 5 minutes from the town was the second clearest water in the world.  I don't know how they judged the first and second clearest but it was so clear you could barely see any water at all.  The next thing we did was going to a charming little village by the side of the bay and ate delicious chocolate.  Part of the bay is made up of the Farewell Spit, the longest sandbar in the southern hemisphere.  You could barely make out the end of the spit in the distance, which had a light house on it.  At this point in our journey it was getting late so we headed to our five star suite we were staying in for the night.  At least that's the happy place I went to as we were staying there, it was actually the worst place I'd ever stayed in.  It smelled bad, looked bad, and I couldn't drink the water.  I was scared to sleep but managed to rest for a few hours.  The next morning mom captured a cockroach encouraging us to leave.  One good thing about staying in that cabin was that it helped me appreciate my lifestyle more.  In the morning we went back to that small town next to the bay and got some breakfast.  Afterwards we went towards the Farewell Spit.  The walk was very scenic, through a shire with lots of animals and crap on the trail.  What I personally liked about it was the fact that you didn't have to wear shoes because most of it was through sand.  We hiked to the sand dunes, right next to the spit on the beach, and a couple people walked up to us and said there were a bunch of baby seals swimming in a tide pool beside the ocean.  So we went to where the seals were and just sat there watching them for like 2 hours.  It was really cool because they were just like little puppy dogs.  They were really curious and would flop over to you and sniff your feet.  One even let dad and I pet it.  It was a really cool experience.  At one point I left my shoes for a while and one flopped up and put it in it's mouth.  Dad told me to let it sniff it until dollar signs flashed before his eyes as the seal started dragging it back towards the water.  We had to corner it and take the shoe back.  After that I'd run around with the shoe as the seal chased me, it was a lot of fun.  They're normally curious happy creatures unless you get between them and the ocean.  I tried this and on started charging at me, trying to drive me away from the area.  I reluctantly left, not wanting to get rabies or something.  When we were done playing with the seals, we played around on the sand dunes for a while and then left for home.  On our way back to the house we're staying in now, we made a couple side stops with amazing views of the bay.  Make sure to check the bottom of the page for pictures of the baby seals.  

Rain in New Zealand

Ever since we got back from the glacier it's been pretty rainy so we've had to find indoor things to do with a few breaks in the weather allowing us to go outside.  One of those things was going to the Museum of Wearable Art.  At first I didn't want to go in because I'm not a big fan of art museums, except for the Louvre which was an exception, but I decided that I'd get bored if I waited in the car so I went in.  I'm glad I did because it ended up being really cool.  Most of the museum was interesting artistic outfits that people made that was supposed to represent something.  They have some contest every year where they have some of the costume artists show their costumes in a beauty contest or something and they had some of the previous winners in the museum.  I wouldn't say it inspired me to do more art because it didn't look like fun to make them but they were cool to look at.  Another part of the museum was a giant room with a bunch of old fashioned cars.  The girls barely looked at that exhibit but me and dad took our time looking at every car, wishing we had one.  There were tons of cool looking Ferrari's, BMW's, and Corvette's.  Another indoor activity we've done is going to an indoor climbing wall. It was a huge place with lots of different walls to choose from.  Isabel's almost as good as me at climbing, she got up one of the really big walls like a monkey.  Today was supposed to be rainy but was sunny all day.  Me and dad went kayaking in the lake by our house and later the whole family went to rabbit island, a nearby island where me and dad go running while the girls play in the sand.  We found some really weird jellyfish washed up on the shore and I got scolded for picking one up.  There was also a huge rainbow by our house, the biggest dad said he'd ever seen.  Hopefully it'll be sunny the next few days even though it's scheduled to rain.  We're also looking forward to swimming with dolphins.  C yA

The New Zealand Glacier

3 days ago we went to a new home for a couple days to see the glacier. We also had a couple stops along the way. The first place we went on our rode trip was to the biggest swinging bridge in New Zealand. Mom didn't like the swinging bridge because of her fear of heights, but I didn't have any problems with it. The only somewhat scary part was passing people coming in the opposite direction. You were really high up with a rocky river below but it still wasn't a big deal. We did a little hike and walked down to the river. It was a really cool view because we were in a big river gorge. The most fun part of this whole swinging bridge adventure was the ride back. We took a zipline far above the bridge to get back instead of walking back across the bridge. You didn't go super fast but it was still a really good view. I filmed it so you will probably be able to see it on youtube soon. The next place we stopped along the way was a trail that led down to the ocean. It was spectacular view but not much to tell about it because not much happened. It was a really rough beach and had lots of warnings about riptides and all that. Our last advendure was the Pancake Rocks which was a major tourist attraction with lots of tour buses and cars. I really enjoyed this hike but it wasn't what I expected, I thought that because it was called the pancake rock it would be flat round rocks and the water would maybe be the syrup but it was really a bunch of layers of sharp jagged rocks so it was only called that because they were all stacked on top of each other. There was a whole formation of the that went on for quite a ways and it was a nice hike with that even had blowholes, the only problem was it wasn't high tide so the water didn't shoot as high as usual. Now I'll get to the glaciers, the most interesting part of the trip. We got to the town that was right next to the glacier and there were like 5 different helicopter tours to choose from, dad didn't want to spend money on the tour but mom convinced him so we got a flight where they brought us up and landed on the glacier. It was exciting to for me party because I'm into aviation and because we were going to get a birds-eye view of a glacier. We got headsets that blocked out most of the sound of the engine so we could enjoy the view more. Our tour-guide talked to us about the different parts of the glacier so we also got an educational experience. Basically they're formed when tons of snow and ice fall on the top of the mountain and freezes and as more and more pressure builds up from more and more snow, it eventually makes a river of snow and ice. I loved the helicopter tour because we flew really low, much lower than you could ever fly in a Cessna. When we got to a clearing, he landed allowing us to get out and take some pictures for 10 minutes or so. Isabel did a little dance imitating happy feet while Amelia filmed her. Amelia also filmed numerous parts of the tour which I'm planning on putting on my blog or youtube for you to see. When we landed we had a few burritos which didn't taste at all Mexican, it tasted more like a sloppy-joe showing that America's still better and some stuff although it was still pretty good. We went for a hike that led to the bottom of the glacier and they had it roped off pretty far away from the glacier because it can be dangerous and unpredictable at times. I guess a couple of Koreans decided to go under the glacier and ended up dying because it caved in so they make sure you know that there's danger involved in going any closer to the glacier. Me and dad went on a cool path with lots of climbing rocks to get to the bottom of the glacier passing a sign that said EXTREME DANGER encouraging us to go just a bit closer. We could actually see under the glacier where there was a river flowing out from under the glacier which I'm assuming is really cold so I was careful to not fall in. On our way back to the rental house we stopped to see some glow worms at a little park. They really glowed good because it nightime. Yesterday, we did our long drive back to the house we're staying in and we made a couple more stops on the way. The first stop was just at a cafe to get some coffee and then we went on a hike to see a seal colony. I love those little things flopping over the rocks, I just wanted to go up and hug one. That's all we really did yesterday. Today we just hung out and recovered from our long drive. We went to Rabbit Island for most of the day where I made lots of huge pictures in the wet sand. Everyone walking down the beach would stop to look at them because they were so huge. And that's bout it, later.

Hiking on the Coast of New Zealand

I was happy to see that it was nice outside meaning we could do the hike we weren't able to do a couple days ago. It was awesome, small green islands dotted the clear ocean with mountains all around, it was very scenic. On the hike there are numurous trails leading to sand beaches where you can take breaks but it wasn't until we got to the steepest trail that we went down to the beach, which we decided to spend the whole day at. We would have done the trail we were planning on doing but it was so relaxing on the beach and we were all so tired that we decided to take another relaxing day. Actually all the days we've been here have been relaxing days but that's what vacations are for. It was ice cold water and I was the first one to go in. I was out about 2 seconds after I got in but it was refreshing. There were also some big rocks further down the beach to climb on and explore which was also kind of fun. We thought it was a deserted beach at first but after walking down the beach we found out there were a couple kayaking groups hanging out which made me want to go on a kayaking tour. Mom told me I'd be able to because she got all the info for it and everything, the girls plan on taking an art class or something while me and dad go kayaking because you have to be 14. The miserable part for me was hiking out because my feet were all sandy and I hate walking in sandy shoes. Amelia and I ran ahead of mom and dad to make sculptures with rocks, there was a muddy part of the trail where you could make little pictures with these rocks and I just decided to do my initials for everyone on the path to see. After getting out of the park finally, we stopped by the cafe near the entrance to get a hot drink, I got a chai latte which I liked. For dinner we had one of the best meals ever, which is fish and chips. It came with too many french fries for our whole family to handle. Tomorrow we plan on going to the Sunday Market which should be a good cultural experience. Check out my pictures on the side, I have one of mom attempting a cartwheel!

The Fish Touching Museum

Today we learned about what kids our age in other countries think about America. First of all, they think of all Americans as overweight, saying everything is big in the U.S. They weren't trying to offend us by saying that, we were just curious about other countries views on us. They also think Bush is a dumbass which most people in America would agree with, but they thought Obama was a good president. I guess theres New Zealand trooops in Iraq because of a war we started. Those were just a couple of things I thought were interesting, I was also surprised that people in New Zealand would keep up with American politics but mom said it was because our decisions affect other countries like the troops from New Zealand in Iraq. They also asked about religion and other deep topics that I was surprised they'd ask us about after meeting us only a couple hours earlier. It was also pretty random like, Are you Christian? They were still fun to hang out with, we built a dirt jump and were taking mountain bike's off it. When mom and dad got home we ate and headed for the touching aquarium where the rules are that you can touch anything you can reach which was really fun. My favorite thing to touch was the Manta Ray because it was kinda slimy even though it's basically a type of shark. Most sharks skin is rough and dry so me and dad were both surprised. We were also able to touch fish, eels, turtles, etc. We were planning on playing tennis after that but all the tennis balls they had at the store were crappy. Me and dad went for a run at Rabbit Island while the girls sat on the beach and made a sand castle. Tomorrow we plan on hiking at the National Park we visited, we were planning on hiking it then but it was raining.

First Week in New Zealand

I haven't been able to blog lately because we've had trouble getting online at the previous places we've stayed at but we're at the last place we're going to be staying in on our trip and we've got internet access that isn't dial-up. I'll start with the plane ride. It was the nicest seat I've ever had on an airplane. It was business class but we didn't get to sit on the upper level of the 747. The seat reclined all the way back so it was just like a bed making it easy to get some sleep. I've always had a problem with sleeping on airplanes but for once I got some sleep. We also had our own TV's, but they have those on other airplane's too. This is the first one where we could watch whatever we wanted when we wanted to. You had a menu and could pick from a variety of movies, games, music, and music videos. I thought it was pretty cool that you could play other people on the plane in different games. When we landed in Australia, it was hell. We were really confused and couldn't get on any flights. Finally, they were able to get us on a flight to New Zealand. We flew on an airline called Qantas, I didn't like the seats nearly as much as the ones they have on United. The meal was really good though, I liked it more than the one we have on United. In New Zealand everything went pretty smoothly. We made it through customs quickly and found our driver that took us to our rental car without a problem. Finally, after about 25 hours of flying, we made it to our house near Auckland. The next day we just rested, nobody was in the mood to do any hiking so we just sat around all day except for our walk up to the village which was very nice. Now that I've summarized our first couple days in New Zealand, I'm just going to go over the highlights of what's happened.

THE PENGUIN MUSEUM was the first major thing we've done so far, it was a lot of fun. On our third day, we drove into Auckland to see some penguins and other sea creatures. Auckland was beautiful, right next to the ocean and it was a sunny day so there were tons of walkers and people on sailboats which made it a very happy atmosphere. When I saw that the museum was indoors, I wasn't as excited about it because it was such a nice day, but when we walked inside, it was really cool. There was a huge tank that they kept the penguins in that was just like a slice of Antarctica. We took a snowmobile type thing that ran around the perimeter of the tank so we could see the penguins up close. It was really cool because it was like riding around a group of penguins in Antarctica. We were also fortunate enough to watch them get fed. The penguinkeepers were putting fish in their mouths, one second the fish was there, then it disappeared very quickly. We also got to see baby penguins that were very fluffy. That was my highlight of the museum but there were also other tanks of stingrays, paranas, and other fish. We even got to see the parana's get fed which was pretty cool.

ZORBING is where you get in a huge rubber ball and roll down a hill. For one ride it's like $30 so it would probably be a good business idea for a business in America. You could choose between being strapped in and doing flips in the ball or having the squirt a bunch of water in and go rolling down without being strapped in. I chose to go down with water in it. First you have to dive through a tunnel that goes to where you are when you roll. You get to choose between two different tracks on the hill. One that goes straight down (the wussy track) or the one that zigzags back and forth (the fun track). I obviously picked the fun track while the girls picked the girl track. When I dove in, I expected the water to be freezing cold but it was actually as warm as bath water. When you're rolling down the hill, you don't have time to look outside the ball and enjoy the sights, it's violent. You're constantly being pushed in different directions in the ball when you come to another curve in the track. The girls experience with it was probably much different because they got to stay in one direction. It was lot's of fun and would love to do it again sometime.

THE WORLD FAMOUS SHEEP SHOW- Mom made us get up early to go to a sheep show which sounded really boring to me. We drove to the farm and went to where the show was going to be. There were tons of people in a large auditorium and a big pyramid where there were places for the sheep to stand and every stand was labeled. Before the show started, he asked what country everyone was from and we were the only American's there. Everyone was pretty much from Asia. The show started off by the guy naming different types of sheep while they ran up on the podium. It sounds like it would be boring but he was really entertaining and it was a lot of fun to watch. After he had all of the sheep on the pyramid he sheered one. The sheep started out all fluffy and after he sheered it there was barely and wool on it. He then did a demonstration with dogs used to round up sheep. Since there wasn't enough room on stage for the sheep, he had to use ducks instead. The dog was very well trained, it didn't know how to round up the ducks on it's own but the guy running the show would tell it to go right and it would go right or to go left and it would go left or creep up, there were tons of commands knew. The dog easily rounded up the terrified ducks and the show was over. To prove that the dog could round up real sheep, there was another show outside in a big area where he was having the dog bring a group of sheep through an obstacle course. Sheep are really stupid animals because even though they were twice as big as the dog, they were terrified of it and went through the obstacle course obediently. We then went on a tour of the farm and got to feed alpaca's, and other farm animals.

We've also done many other thing while here in New Zealand but I'm not going to go into detail right now because I'm going to go explore around our house. One disappointment though is that we didn't get to see the Shire where the Lord of the Rings was filmed.

New Zealand Coming Up!

Tomorrow we're heading to New Zealand on a really long flight, hopefully we'll get business class. Make sure to keep checking it, I'll be blogging every day when we're in New Zealand.

My First Flight

Today was my  first step of my future career in aviation.  I had to start out the day by going to our math tutor, not that I'm bad at math but she makes sure we're where we should be compared to the students in school, then I got to actually start my day.  It was a perfect day for flying today, not a cloud in the sky which made me even more excited because we'd be able to do some sightseeing.  While the flight instructor that was taking us up was checking the plane, my mom took tons of pictures of me in and next to the plane.  Me and my dad climbed in, me in the front, dad in the back, and plugged in our headsets.  I didn't quite understand why we each needed one, I assumed only one person would have to talk to air traffic control but they were also used to just talk to each other.  It was nice because without them we'd be screaming over the loud engine but the headsets blocked out all the outside sound so we could all hear each other crystal-clear.  After we'd taxied and were about 30 feet from the runway, the instructor had to go over a long checklist before we could takeoff and I was longing to be in the air flying the plane.  Finally we pulled out onto the runway and he told me to push the throttle all the way in and we started down the runway.  I've never realized how big a runway actually was while sitting in a passenger seat on an airliner but when your in the cockpit it looks like it's be impossible to steer off it.  When we were up to the takeoff speed he eased the yoke back and we were soon two thousand feet in the air.  He asked us where we'd like to go and neither me or my dad had any preference so we flew over Buckeye Lake and he let me fly the plane from that point on.  I loved the feel of flying, after a couple minutes of it I was 100% sure that's what I want to do when I'm older.  We flew across the lake and then decided to fly over our house.  It was very easy to find because we live next to the mansion which has a huge field.  Two thousand feet really doesn't seem that high when your flying, I could clearly see the lacrosse goals and the fence.  Once we were done flying around over Granville, we had to head back to the airport.  I can't wait until I'm old enough to actually land the plane because it looked like the best part.  When we were off the runway we taxied back over to a hanger and got out.  My mom took pictures of us as we were walking back towards the airport.  Flying is the most fun thing I've ever done and I can't wait until I'm a pilot.  My dad was supposed to take pictures while we were in the air but he was too busy talking to the instructor, but I do have pictures of me in the plane on the ground.

Jeff's Piano Recital

Last week on Friday our new piano teacher Jeff held a recital in a church in Dublin. We had our rehearsal on Tuesday so we knew what we were doing and had heard each other pieces. It was different from other recitals like Mrs. Palmer's where she just sat up on the stage calling out names and making us bow. In Jeff's recital he told us to just recognize the crowd clapping with a nod but some kids still bowed. He also didn't announce everyone's name but just told us to look at the sheet and come up when it was our turn and just start playing. It was a lot more fun than Mrs. Palmer's recital because the pieces were more interesting and played with a lot more energy. In Mrs. Palmer's recitals people would just go up and play their Minuet or whatever but in this recital there were cool Christmas songs. Also, in Jeff's recital there weren't just pianists but also singers who were very good. I have to say though, I liked Mrs. Palmer's receptions more but that was because she made everyone bring something unlike Jeff who brought everything. So my main point in this is that I like our new teacher more than our old one.

What I'm Thankful For

The first thing I'm thankful for is being able to play tennis. My parents spend a large portion of their money on my tennis which I'm very grateful for. Even when they're having financial problems they'll still spend a lot of their money on tennis lessons and tournaments. During the summer I went to all three of Peter's camps which are all very expensive. The next thing I'm grateful for is having food on the table. In a lot of places homeless people are starving and I'm grateful that we always have a gourmet meal on the table. I'm also grateful that Obama got elected president because I think he'll be able to help the economy and make more job openings in America. Another thing I'm thankful for is being able to do lots of traveling. Even though the 7 wonders idea is kind of out we still plan to do lots of traveling in the next year. We've been to too many places for me to remember so I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful to be able to play piano even though sometimes I don't like it I think it will help me in the long run.

The First Seven Wonder

We had to get up at three to go to the airport to catch a flight to Washington D.C.  I've always hated getting up early but it was especially bad because I'd just been at a friends birthday party (his name's Alex and we went to see an Ohio State soccer game and I got back around midnight). I got about 3 hours of sleep.  We got business class once again going to Rome but long flights still aren't fun.  When we were landing in Rome I didn't know what to expect but there was a beautiful ocean and it was really nice and sunny out.  It was really confusing trying to find out how to get to our apartment.  We were originally planning on taking the train and then the metro or something but that was to confusing and expensive so we just got a taxi.  The actual city was a lot like Paris except not as nice (it's more crowded and lots of graffiti).  The driver's were also very dangerous.  There were lots of scooter and motorcycle riders that would go in between cars passing them by inches.  There was obviously lots of honking and yelling.  When we got to our apartment we had to wait for a while because we showed up two hours early.  We visited the Vatican and St. Peter's cathedral which wasn't fun, not because it was boring but because we were really tired.  We went to bed around 4 and woke up really early in the morning the next day.  The second day was the day we decided to see the Colosseum and the ancient ruins.  We got an early start and it was a really nice walk even though day got really frustrated because we couldn't find it.  When we got there we were on a balcony looking off at all the ruins imagining what it would have been like to be living in them 2000 years ago.  We walked through the ruins and it was amazing.  There were scientists studying certain parts so we watched the for a while.  It was really big but I'm not going to go into lots of details on this because I'd rather focus on the reason we came to Rome.  It was huge.  We could see it from the balcony rising up a lot higher than any of the other ruins and when we were right next to it looking up, we couldn't believe it was built thousands of years ago.  We started on the ground floor and walked all the way around.  There was a cross marking where Cesar used to sit.  You could look down and see where the trap doors were and where they would set lions on the gladiators.  Part of the underground passages were covered by a flooring that was supposed to show you what it used to look like when the gladiators were fighting on it.  It was just a wood covering with sand on top.  Then we moved to the second floor where you could look down on the passages which was really cool.  We didn't really spend a whole lot of time there though because we were all hungry and tired so we took the metro home.  The metro's in Rome aren't nearly as nice as the metro's in Paris.  On the last day of our trip we visited a lot of places but I'm just going to write about the Pantheon.  It's an ancient building but it's still in one piece so you can walk inside of it.  Before we went in we got gelato (ice cream) which was good but not as good as the ice cream in Paris.  Inside there was a big dome that had an opening but there was no glass covering it so when it rains it just rains right into the Pantheon.  It's supposed to being pretty cool.  There's lots of drains so it never floods or anything as far as I know.  It was a short trip but we saw a lot and learned a lot so we all thought it was plenty of time and were eager to get home.  It was nice but not as nice as Paris.

The Obama Rally

Today we went into Columbus so we could see Obama speak live.  When we got to the area where the rally was taking place there was a long line of people that were heading somewhere that we couldn't see.  We finally found a place to park and started walking towards the line.  On our way there were tons of vendors selling shirts, pins, and hats.  Above all the noise you would just here some guy yelling, "hats and shirts!, shirts and hats!"  It was a big line but it moved quickly and soon we were in.  There was already a large crowd gathered up where Obama was going to speak and if I would have known how many people were going to be there I would have wanted to get a spot in the crowd then but since we had an hour and a half we found a nice shady spot and waited there.  There were a few volunteers handing out free water so we didn't get hot and thirsty so it wasn't all miserable waiting.  Before the future president took the podium there were various people talking such as one of the senators and the mayor.  They were just trying to get the crowd going.  When Obama came everyone went crazy and started waving signs in the air but I couldn't see a thing because of the massive crowd.  There was some kind of construction vehicle that a bunch of people were standing on and mom told me to go over and get some good pictures for her blog.  I found a spot on it where I could see Obama clearly and it was much better than being in the crowd.  I got one really good picture of the huge crowd and the American flag in the background and I think mom nominated that one to go on her blog.  We didn't watch the whole thing so we didn't have to worry about the crowd but he was done soon after we'd left.  My favorite part of the whole thing was the secret service agents.  They were all dressed up in a suit with dark sunglasses.  They had guys on the roof with giant binoculars looking for potential problems.  It looked like a cool job to me.  When we left we went to the closest fast food restaurant (Wendy's) and all ate big meals because we were all starving.  We then went to Easton (a shopping center) and watched a movie about religion.  It was pretty much about some guy talking about how stupid religion is.  It was rated R but Isabel still watched it because there was just a little cussing.  Those were the highlights of our day.

The Davinci Code

What's been happening in the book I'm reading, the Davinci Code, is Sophie Neuveu, an agent in cryptology, left a message for Langdon telling him he was in grave danger and to meet her in the bathroom and to make sure Fache didn't follow him. He did what he was told and met her in the bathroom where she told him that Fache thought he was the one that murdered Sauniere and that they had to break out of the Louvre and get him to the Embassy, where he could have a fair American trial, if he got to the embassy he was considered on American ground where he would be safe for the time being. They were following Robert Langdon with a tiny tracking device to make sure he didn't try to make a run for it. They put the dot in a bar of soap and and broke the glass, immediately the sirens started to blare and they threw the soap onto a passing truck. Fache called for all the agents to follow the truck giving Langdon and Sophie time to escape. When they were about to escape Langdon figured out the code Sauniere had left which said:

Leonardo Da Vinci!
The Mona Lisa!

They figured they had enough time to go take a look before Fache got back so they went back to look for clues on the Mona Lisa. Written across the paintings protective glass, there was another puzzle that led to another painting. Before she could figure it out though, a security guard came in and told Langdon to put his hands up and get on the ground. As all of this was going on, Sophie managed to get to the painting and found a key that earlier in her life, Saunier (her grandpa) had told her unlocked unbelievable secrets. She pocketed it then turned and used the painting as a hostage, she told the security guard that if he didn't drop his walkie talkie and gun, she would smash her knee through the famous Da Vinci painting, horrified, he dropped his gun and radio and as they ran out of the room they took them. They left the museum and got in Sophie's Smart Car. The cops saw them but they managed to loose them in the maze of streets. Now they're trying to find a safe place where they can try to find out what the key will unlock.

Homeschool Acivities

Since we haven't been able to see our friends every day due to home schooling we've been doing various activities in home schooling.  Two days ago me and dad went to chareoke night where we ate wings and watched people sing.  It was fun but it seemed like I wasn't really in the conversations, you know just sitting there but it was funny watching some of the kids.  Yesterday we had park day where pretty much the same kids met at a park and just hung out.  It was kind of boring but I was more in the conversations.  They're going to have other activities including skatepark day which I'm looking forward to.

The Davinci Code

Although I haven't read a lot of it, I've been reading the Davinci Code which so far has taken place in Paris so going to Paris has helped me understand it a bit better. It's kind of confusing for me but this is what I think has been going on. Oh, another thing I'm not good with is names of people in books, I only remember 2 so I'll use nicknames. In the beginning there's a man trying to get away from a person trying to murder him. The murderer is some Christian crazy person (goes as far as wearing a belt that burns into his skin to simulate the pain Jesus felt when he died on the cross). The other man holds some kind of secret the murderer is trying to figure out. The victim runs into one of the galleries and rips of a random painting from the wall. In modern museums, they don't use lasers or anything to guard the paintings but when someone rips a painting of the wall, bars come down around the gallery blocking his/her exit. By doing this, the victim was trying to seperate himself from the murderer. He just aimed the gun through the bars and asked him the truth about whatever secret it was (it hasn't said the secret yet) and he lied so he got shot. He got shot in the stomach which makes it so he dies very slowly (over a 20 minute time period) and very painfully. Before he died he positioned himself to look like a star and drew a star on his chest with the blood from his wound. He also had an invisible ink pen which can only be read with certain light. Proffesor Langdon was planning on meeting him the next day so the police (not actually the police, more like the FBI in France) had him get out of bed to meet Fasche, the head of the secret service. They met at the Louvre where Fasche met him and took him to the crime scene. The star stood for a feminine god, it was one of the first symbols ever used. They paint it on American airforce planes. Right at the end of the chapter I was reading, Langdon read the writing the man had left and the last thing he said was "What the hell." so I'm guessing this is where the story starts, trying to find out what the writing meant.

Paris Compared to Granville

In this blog I'm going to write a compare and contrast about Granville and Paris. I'll start by saying that everything in Paris is small. Stores, appartments, restaurants, cafe's, pretty much anything, but still I'd rather live there because of the location. In Granville, everyone pretty much has a big house, if you don't have one you're considered 'poor' although I doubt that anyone living here is actually poor. In France they're a lot more earth freindly for instance, instead of driving a Hummer, like about 10 people in G-ville, everyone either drives a small scooter, motorcyle, or smart car. It's rare to even see a car as big as a Mini Cooper. People in France seem to also be a lot happier and nicer. We went to get our portrait taken by a drawer on the side of the road by the Pompadue (no idea how to spell it) and although he probably doesn't make a lot he seemed to love what he did and was really enthusiastic. This was a short blog because the main point is bigger isn't alway's better. I now want to get a small motorcycle when I'm older instead of a big car and want to be more eco-friendly. One thing I don't want smaller is a bathtub (certain things need to stay big for me.)

Last Day in France

Mom was sick today so we decided to just go get souvenir's and walk around, shopping day sort of. We took the metro to this church that's way up on a hill and when you walk to the top of it you can see all of Paris. It was a bit surprising because it's not a big hill and almost every building in Paris seemed to be higher than it but it gave a good view. Not a whole lot happened because dad wasn't really feeling good either but we got some gyro's from a vendor (Greek food) and ate them by the Seine where we watched cruiser boats go by. We were thinking abou taking a cruise ourselves but the girls talked dad out of it (I wanted to go but there's two of them and one of me so it's hard to win votes). I got my souvenir by a painter working by the modern art museum. I got it to look funny and I liked it, Amelia got a serious one. After that we went home and hung out the rest of the day. Yesterday we flew home, we got business class again so it wasn't so bad. I finished an entire book and slept for a while. We got stuck at the Chicago airport and we got home late.

Versailles

Today we took an hour long metro ride to the palace of Versailles which used to be the biggest power berore the French Revolution. It started when Louis XIV wanted to get away from the city so he moved his palace to Versailles taking the whole French government with him to live in the castle. When he died Louis XV took over and ruled until he died and he was probably the least significant ruler becuase nothing happened to him. Louis XVI ruled and married a woman called Marie Antoinette. She wanted to live in the country so she built a village right near the palace and pretended like she lived there and had a simple life. Louis XVI built a canal to remind him of Venice. When the French Revolution started they both got beheaded. When we got there there was a huge crowd of people heading towards the castle which couldn't be good. Of course there had to be like 7 switchbacks before the final stretch and the guy was yelling that it was a 2 hour wait. Mom and dad held our spot in line while me and Amelia went and got drinks and a sandwich. After that me, Isabel, and Amelia went and sat on the wall. When we finally got in it was an elaborate room which mom would describe as gawdy. The first king to rule there (Louis XIV) called himself Apollo after the sun god because he said he brought everyone light or something. The first room we saw was the cathedral where there was a big throne where I assumed the king sat. The first thing we walked through were the art galleries which had a lot of war pictures and paintings of the king. They were all different colors and seemed to all have a different mood to them like some might be light and some were dark. It seemed like the rooms went on forever but then again it was said to be the most magnificant palace in France. There were great chandeliers everywhere and marble staircases, gold railings. Mom said she wouldn't want to live there becuase of how big it was but I'd be more than happy to take it. I can imagine myself on a skateboard or go-cart or something driving or riding down the halls and all that. Nobody would even find out because the chances of 2 people running into each other in such a ginormous house are very minimal. Upstairs is where all the royal bedrooms were. Of course they had other rooms but I'd describe them all as the same thing, elaborate. The king's room was kind of dark but lined with gold and a huge canopy over his bed where he could completely close himself in. There were big feathers on top of it and royal chairs were for some reason facing the bed. He also had a second bedroom where he'd put on a show for the other people in the castle of him waking up in the morning. I thought that'd be a pretty boring show watching him go through his morning routine but I guess it was some kind of ritual. The queens room was even more elaborate I thought, maybe because it was lighter but it was pretty much the same thing. I was surprised that the king and queen wouldn't sleep together like most couples but back then I guess it was more of a delicousy maybe to have your own bed, of course I'm just making an obsevation and a guess. There were rooms lined with statues and chandeliers and war paintings. Finally, we got to the gardens outside. It was pretty hot out because there was barely any shade at all but it was beautiful. Everything was semetrical and there was a lake of in the distance from the palace. You could rent one but the line was too big and they were coming in too slow. We got Panini's for lunch which are a lot like baget sandwich's but on a different type of bread. We also got there on the day that they had the water fountain show which had different statues spurting out water. I would go into detail about all of the elaborate statues but that would take far too long. It would have been a lot nicer though if the guards wouldn't have been blowing their whistles for people to get off the grass.

Orsay Art Museum and the Catacombs

The Orsay is a famous art museum across from the Louve which has a lot of Monet's paintings especially. We walked there which was relatively short and when we got there there was no line or anything. It used to be an old train station and I liked the setup a lot more than the Louve. For one thing, there's too many people so sometimes you can't even see the paintings very well but at the Orsay, I think the art is just as good and there's no one never a crowd around one painting. I like how at the Orsay there's this big elaborate clock right in the middle of a wall which makes it feel like an old train station. My favorite work of art was the Polar Bear statue. It was probably really easy to make and everything but I just liked the smoothness and how real it looked. Another thing I liked was a sculpture of a Roman gladiator with his foot on another's neck looking up at the king to look for the thumbs up or thumbs down. If you didn't already know this, a thumbs down would meen that he'd have to kill him and a thumbs up was to let him live. Most of the time I think he gave a thumbs up but there were also a lot of thumbs down. There was a sculpture that one of Rodine's students had made because she'd loved him. She wanted to marry him but he decided to stay with his wife so she made a sculpture about it. There was her, a beautiful girl with a miserable look on her face and Rodine kind of looking like he was thinking if he'd made the right decision and then Rodine's wife looking like a witch dragging him along. She later went crazy and ended up in a mental institution. The Monet paintings were also interesting to me because he'd do the same painting about 5 times but in different colors according to his mood. I left out a lot of paintings I liked but there are too many to go into detail about. When we were done looking through the museum (dad made sure we 'bagged it' meaning we see every single painting in the museum) we hopped on a Metro to go to the Catacombs where we wanted to see lots of bones. When we got there there was a huge line so we were worried we wouldn't be able to get in but we barely made it. The descent seemed like forever so we had to have been really far underground and it was pretty dark with a creepy vibe. All I can say about most of it is a bunch of tunnels without any bones for a long way. It made for a really good picture though. When we got to the bones there were millions of them stacked neatly together. There was every bone there including a bunch of skulls. I touched one and it just felt like a rock. I'm pretty sure Isabel touched one too. Amelia was to chicken to even go near one. Unfortunately the camera wasn't charged so we didn't get many pictures at all before it died but it was amazing. There were also a few skull and crossed bones. It looked just like the ones on a pirate ship flag. It was a lot more fun than the sewer tour but much more creepy. Today we didn't go anywhere because I was sick and still am a little. I finished my whole 343 page book in 2 days which wasn't a surprise because it's my favorite series about the Olympian's of Greece. I did get out a little to go to the bookstore and out for an ice cream cone but that was later in the day when I was well rested. More tomorrow!

Le Louvre

This is one of the most important things to see in Paris mostly because of the Mona Lisa but it's the largest museum in the world. We walked there and it didn't take as long as I had expected. We got there before the crowds I think because there was hardly anyone there. I was feeling terrible when I went in and for the first part of our visit because I hadn't had a good breakfast and was really thirsty. I was feeling dizzy and spent a lot of time sitting down looking at the art. I know that it was because of hunger now because after we had lunch I was feeling fine. The first part was mostly sculptures of naked people and animals. They all have some kind of meaning which I understood in a lot of them. There was one famous sculpture we saw that was of Venus (or Aphrodite, Greek's called her Aphrodite and the Roman's called her Venus) and was famous for how her body was twisted kind of as if she were dancing. Both of her arms were missing but there was still a huge crowd taking lots of pictures. Aphrodite was the god of love. After we saw this we got lunch at a cafeteria because my head was still hurting and mom and dad ranted about the prices. I don't blame them because it came to about 64 euros which is over a hundred bucks in the states and it was just a little cafeteria. We then went to see the Mona Lisa. I appreciated the art a lot more then because I was feeling a lot better. Some of the statues were amazing. One of my favorites was the sphinxes which looked like they'd come from ancient Egypt and looked like a cat ready to pounce. Another was the lions just because of how much detail the artist added and how realistic they looked. Most of the rooms in the Louve are elaborate with gold everywhere and really good paintings. I recognized some of them like Icarus falling from the sky after his wax wings had melted due to him flying to close to the sun and his father watching. Another statue I liked was an angel-like figure standing on a ship which was made after a big naval victory. It haded tons of detail in the expression and how her shirt was kind of sticking to her because of the water. When we finally got into the room where the Mona Lisa was being held there were huge lines and the painting was behind bulletproof glass. The eyes of the painting are supposed to follow you wherever you go in the room but I couldn't really see because it was behind thick glass. The reason for this was because the Mona Lisa was stolen and not found for 2 years so they probably didn't want this to happen again. It's probably worth over a billion dollars. It's so famous because of how the colors mix and other small details that are apparently unique to the painting. There were tons of other paintings in the Louve that were similar and some that I thought were a lot better but critics probably see some kind of style that they've never seen before. We were going to go to a different museum but instead decided to go see some of the rooms they'd recovered from Napoleon's castle. I would love to live in a place like that. There was gold everywhere and it was all really fancy. His bed was also elaborate. The ceilings were painted with colorful images that gave the whole place a happy vibe. After this we went and some some more statues and my favorite one we saw then was the one with a man with his hand stuck in a tree trunk with a lion biting his thigh. The story behind it was a myth about a man who was a great olympic athlete and he made a bet that although he was getting old, he was still strong enough to break a tree trunk in half with his bare hands. He tried and ended up getting it caught in the tree. He couldn't get out so wolves came and ate him. There were also a lot of statues of horses and unicorns. When we got upstairs to look at more paintings there were lots that I liked but none that are famous that I could pick out. We kept looking at paintings until the PA told us they were closing. We then headed back to our appartment with a plan of picking up an ice cream on the way. I got a three flavor cone which was huge with whipped cream on top. It was way better than anything I'd ever had in the states. When we all finished our ice cream we went and climbed all over a sculpture in a sitting area for a while before heading home. Tonight us kids picked up dinner by ourselves again. We got a couple of pizza's and some Pan du Chocolat's. A Pan du Chocolat is a croissant with a small amount of chocolate in it.