Officially off Hiatus

So this blog has been put on the backburner for the first month of school. I'll try to update but with homework, social life, and pure laziness who knows.

Here are some of the highlights from my first month of school:

• The football team had to make a public apology for their behavior. I won't go into the details but let's say they made our lunch lose our free-time.
• Someone tried to take our usual lunch table and then one of my friends made a move to take it back.
• Our cross country, football, and softball teams are undefeated in week 2. (not to mention our football team beat last years record with 2 wins.)
• I magically finished Pride and Prejudice in time and my essay was finished.
• I have friends in most of my classes.
• Me and my friends wanted to start a "Senior Bucket List." (a list of everything we want to do in senior year. Some of the ideas were plan ridiculous)

Let's move on to something more current. Me and another one of my friends want to write a script/book about if 120 students were locked in the gym and had to fight out for survival. A modern day "Hunger Games." We also thought of all these weapons you could have using school/gym supplies. One idea was to use white out as chloroform. Another was to use the plastic jump ropes as whips. We thought the plot would be a really good idea for a movie.

Peace, love, and middle school.

Final Count

I've been back from Europe for just over 2 weeks now. It's weird... I spent half my summer traveling. I left my house 4 days after school let out for summer and got back home with only a month of summer vacation left.

It's amazing how many places I've been to. Everything I look at reminds me of places I've been to. I miss looking forward to seeing some of the most famous sites in the world.

On a different note - have you ever had those moments where you imagine your life as a movie, well I had one coming home. Here's one possibility of what the end of my trip would be in a movie.

The shot would be my car pulling into our driveway and us getting out. My parents would go inside but I'd stay outside for a moment. The camera would come down on my face and I would look ecstatic. Then my mom would call me inside and the while I was running inside the narrator's voice would say "She was finally HOME."

Anyway I had a great time in Paris. It was funny on our first night there we were going to eat at this restaurant with another family on our tour group. We decided on one our tour guide had pointed out on our way to the meeting point. We sat down (which in itself was an accomplishment with the language barrier) and the menu was completely in French. We recognized only a few words including escargot, or snails. The adults knew that none of the kids would eat this food. So we politely told the waitress (who was smoking a cigarette) we were leaving. Then we ended up getting slightly lost trying to get to another restaurant.
Then it started raining really hard and I was wearing flip flops. The sidewalks were really slippery and flip flops have very little traction. By the time we got to the restaurant we only had 40 minutes to eat. (We watched the two families who had gotten there earlier than us eat fabulous looking desserts.)

I had the vacation of a lifetime and it was awesome.

On another note I now have to read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen for honors English. I also have to do an essay on it before school starts. My mom loves anything written by Jane Austen. I on the other hand think it's tedious to read (but what do I know, I'm only 100 pages in.)

Here's the final count on my vacation:

• 11 hotels
• 6 countries
• thousands (and thousands) of miles
• 49 nuns (in Rome alone)
• 33 days (away from home)
• 24 hours on a plane
• 5 flights
• 4 metro systems (Washington DC, London, Rome, and Paris)
• 3 buses (London, Rome, and the Heidebloem tourbus)
• 2 gondolas (Venice and Switzerland)
• 1 train and boat (Venice and Switzerland)
• Infinite memories made

Also here's some of the best pictures I took in Europe...

St. Pauls and Millennium Bridge in London.

A cake at Kennisington Palace where we had English Tea.

The famous Trevi fountain in Rome.

The Coliseum in Rome.

A view of Florence.

A gondola in Venice.

A swan in Germany.

Another beautiful mountain in Switzerland.

Sunset in Burgundy, France.

Sunset in Paris.

The Eiffel Tower.

So that's it for my vacation. Next time I write on this blog will be before the first day of school. It's a new year, and anything can happen. 8th grade here I come.

Phase 3

Okay, so I haven't blogged for over a week. Currently I'm in Switzerland and one week into our 2 week Rick Steves trip. First I should fill you in on what happened in London.

Me and my mom went to 3 musicals. My favorite one was Billy Elliot. Since it's going on tour soon I'll probably go see it when it comes to Seattle. We also saw Legally Blonde the Musical. I was pleasently surprised how good it was. My least favorite was Oliver. I just didn't like it very much and the plot was very confusing.

We also went to the British Museum. I was outraged about how people were touching the artifacts. There were do not touch signs all over the place and they STILL touched them. I mean these were artifacts that were hundreds of years old. It was amazing that the staff of the museum didn't do anything about it.

On one of our last days in London we had tea at Kennsington Palace. I am now addicted to clotted cream which is basically a spread in-between whipped cream and butter. It is soooooo good.

After checking out of our London hotel we went to another hotel by Heathrow airport. It was the nicest hotel we stayed in so far. There was even a speaker in the bathroom.

Next we flew to Rome. On the airplane I got food poisoning and air sick. I felt horrible. Luckily I didn't throw up and felt much better when the plane landed.

When we got to Rome phase 3 officially started. Me and my mom are going on a 2 week family trip to Europe via Europe Through the Back Door. We got to see all the sites in Rome but it was really hot. Then we moved on to Florence which to date is my least favorite part. This is because I got over 20 mosquito bites. I was miserable.

Then we went to Venice where it was still hot. I am now terrified of gondolas. We went on one and it kept rocking back and forth. The tour company hired this singer and I didn't like it (it was overkill.) SO on that one gondola ride I was thinking half the time that the boat's going to tip, a fourth of the time how much my bug bites itch, and a fourth of the time wanting to knock the singer into the water.

Next we went to Austria which was so much fun. The hotel had a trampoline and a playground (not to mention adorable bunnies.) It also rained so hard and I LOVED it. I have missed the Seattle rain so much and it reminded of home.

Now we are in Switzerland and the cool Alpine air is certainly refreshing. Me and my mom are having our lazy day.

I might complain about the trip a little bit but four moments are really stuck in my head.

The first is when our tour guide "lost" us. He was trying to get us all together to get on the subway in Rome. HE then thought we had enough time to all get on. Eventually though only he got on and the rest of us were still at the station.

Next was when I saw a member of our tour group fall into a Venetian canal. He was trying to save this other girl who had fallen into the canal and he also slipped in. Sadly we don't have any pictures. I'm not kidding!

Next when we were driving to Austria we got in a fender bender. A car swerved into our lane and the bus hit its door. We caused a giant traffic jam.

Finally when we were in Germany my mom bought me a traditional Bavarian dress. IT cost 60 Euros and was a rash decision. Now I have to wear it for Halloween and maybe go to Octoberfest in Leavenworth.

Here's a small taste of Switzerland. I will post more photos at the end of my trip.

Anyway that's it for now.

Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Popsicles Here

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, but would you if you were on your first vacation to London.

They don't speak English here. I'm serious they have a lot of different slang here for some of our commonly used words. Also the goulash of accents make it really hard to understand people.

So now I present the....

Incomplete Dictionary of English Slang

• Elevators = Lifts (this may because an elevator can lift you to higher (or lower) floors in a building.)
• Popsicle = Lolly (this may be because popsicles are on sticks.)
  
• Where's Waldo = Where's Wally (I have no clue why they would change a perfectly good book title.)
• Baked Potatoes = Jacket Potatoes (because they still have thier skin on them like jackets.O
• Bacon = Bacon (though it's called bacon you could get American bacon, or British bacon. or plain old ham.)
• Lays Potato Chips = Walkers potato chips (I don't know why.)

These are just some of the English slang I've heard over the last few days.

On another note they have some crazy potato chip flavors here in England. So far I've tried Smoky Bacon, Onion Bahji, and Roast Chicken along with other more normal flavors. By the time I'm don e maybe I'll have worked up enough courage to try American Cheeseburger or Brazilian Steak.

So long for now on my English adventure.

To London and Beyond

So I just got to London a few hours ago. I'm doing this post from yet again another hotel computer. Our room won't be ready for another few hours so we were thinking about going on a bus tour. You know those iconic red double decker buses.

We also saw Toy Story 3 yesterday in the theaters near our Washington DC hotel. Me and my mom both though it was really good.

Also if anybody knows where I can find a Thunderbird 2 matchbox toy in the London area - tell me. That's what my dad wants when we get home.

Try to update you tonight but there's only one computer at our small bed and breakfast hotel so I might not be able to.

More details on leg two of the vacation later.

Freebies at Exhibits

Went to my mom's ALA (American Library Association) exhibits for the third time today. Before I tell you about that let me fill you in about what happened yesterday and this morning.

Yesterday we went to the exhibits in the morning and got free books. The books weren't truly free because we had to spend almost $100 to ship them home. Then we went to the Newseum. It was huge - seven levels in all. They had some really cool exhibits but we didn't have enough time there because it closed at 5pm

This morning we went to the National Postal Museum. I'd been there once before but it wasn't as good this time because the best exhibits were under renovation.

Now back to the free books at the exhibits today. Since it was the last day of exhibits, many publishers were trying to get rid of their books so they wouldn't have to ship them. Many publishers sold $20 hardbacks for $5 and paperbacks ranged from $1 to $3. Galleys, in other words books that weren't yet published, were free.

I waited in line for almost 45 minutes to get an autographed copy of 4th book in the Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter. People were lining up more than an hour to get an autograph copy.
The best books I got over the 3 days of the exhibits either for free or at a very low price are:

• Monster High by Lisi Harrison (due out in September)
• The second NERDS book by Michael Buckley (due out in September)
• The Gift by James Patterson (due out later later this fall)

In all, I got over 40 books. My dad flies home tomorrow while me and my mom continue our vacation to Europe in 2 days. Update you soon.

Updated Finally!

Okay - I haven't updated in a while. I've been really tired and it is really hot and humid in Washington DC (at least compared to Seattle.) One day we even hit 100 degrees a new record for that day.

Here's a general overview of what I've done so far:

• Wednesday: American History Museum and the National Archives.
• Thursday: Air and Space Museum and American Indian Museum.
• Friday: Koshland Science Center and ALA exhibits.
• Saturday: Natural History Museum and National Building Museum.

Foodwise we've eaten at the morning hotel buffet every morning so far and 3 Smithsonian museum cafeterias. Restaurants we've ate at include Legal Seafood, Cheesecake Factory and a really bad Italian place.

Since we came here for my mom's librarian conference we get to go to the exhibits and get free stuff. We've already gone for two hours and will be going again tomorrow.

I'll try to update you later if I'm not to tired.

We've learned that vacationing is hard work.