Shining Friends

I am lucky to have good friends back in the U.S., and I also am happy to have made many friends at Harlaxton. I go for walks and watch movies (like Tangled and The Neverending Story) with Riley, Anna and Bill. Sarah helps braid my hair and she shared her favorite book with me that I am now reading (Inkheart). I also like to laugh with Craig, Jack, Christy, Jordan, Dex and Eric and some others. It is great having friends here in the UK. I also have many friends that are the faculty children, like Maddie and Laith. Some of us played a baseball game out on the Harlaxton College pitch the other day, and I have a photo of that. I also got a chance to make British friends through my Brownies troop. I do miss my friends back at home, but I enjoy having new ones here very much! I will miss England, and I will miss working in the library. I have been scanning books and the noise it makes is so comforting to me. Just the beeping makes me smile. I also create infos for students and faculty when they have overdue books and to remind them to please keep quiet in the Library in case they get rowdy! Linda is the librarian and she lets me come up with whatever project I want. I don't have ability to work in that Library again, and I already miss her. The last surprise in Europe before we head home was that I got to see Mama Mia (Muma Mia!) in London. The musical had so many funny details. I love the sheep in England, the shows, the horses we see and pet when we're walking on the footpaths and the people. It is now time to get home and hug the other shining friends and people I love.

Chess and Bridges

We’re on the go today, so we don’t have much time on the computer. We (Brock and Layla) are doing this blog together! Today we were heading into London. As we were leaving Harlaxton Village, we remembered we’d never blogged about the twist that is on the chimney pots on top of houses here. Most chimney pots just have a boring old rectangular shaped one, but the ones in this village are not plain old normal chimney pots. They are chimney pots in the shape of a chess piece. The ones we could see easily were the rooks and pawns. The idea was made in the 1800s. Since both of us are fans of chess we thought the chess pieces were so cool. They were meant to be guards, but all we were thinking was how to get on the roofs and start playing. If you ever need giant stone chess pieces, you know where to look for them. In that same little village there is a small little post office that we use for most everyday foods because it is like a mini grocery store. You can find these chess chimney pots all over England. Speaking of which, you can see them in London. That’s where we spent most of the day. One of our favorite places in London to see is Tower Bridge. We learned it used to be the largest bascule bridge ever. That is interesting if you know what bascule means, but we had to remind ourselves by looking it up. It is French and means "see-saw". The bascules were operated by hydraulics and used steam to pump the engines. The bascules still run by hydraulic power but starting in 1976 they use oil and electricity and not steam to power the engines. It took 8 years and over 400 workers to build Tower Bridge. Tower Bridge is on the River Thames. As a special thing, in 1977 the Tower Bridge was painted red, white and blue for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebration. This year is the Queen’s 60^th Jubilee which is her 60^th year as Monarch. They call it the Diamond Jubilee. There are things all over England celebrating this. Maybe they will put diamonds on the Tower Bridge! When we saw it in person, though, it had bright blue trim and was beautiful.

Lake District

Noticing we didn’t have much time left in England was super sad and we were looking for a good place to hit as one of our last trips. We chose the Lake District. Here is a little hint; it was so fun and crazy cool. We got to an area called Barrow-Furness a bit before dinner but still had time to go around a little bit. We walked about 2 miles. We didn’t truly know where we were going other than we wanted to end up at the shining sea. It was beautiful. We went down to the dock and saw live clams, dead clams and we even saw some tiny Jellyfish. The day after we went straight to a fun little sports day. We had so much fun playing golf, tennis, badminton, and football. For a break we went down to the beach to collect shells. Later that day we went to Elterwater in the Lake District. As we were driving on the big road to get there, guess what we saw? We saw what looked like a zoo, but it was right out by the highway. There were giraffes, rhinos and lions! The main part of the Lake District was beautiful. We saw sheep and we saw lambs. We saw two huge waterfalls that were amazing. One of them went two separate ways down to the lake. Under the other one there was a giant glob of mush! The sound the waterfall made is like the waves crashing and pebbles clinking down.

Prime Meridian

We went to Greenwich! In Greenwich we went to the Royal Observatory which is the Prime Meridian of the world. The Prime Meridian is the place where East and West split. It was so cool. At one second I was standing on the East, wait, the West. I couldn’t believe it. This is called longitude. Longitude measures how far something is East or West from the Prime Meridian. Longitude lines are the lines on a globe that go from top to bottom, so East to West. Latitude lines go left to right and measure North to South. The equator is 0 degrees latitude and the Prime Meridian is 0 degrees longitude. The Prime Meridian line goes through the UK (that is the place that we saw it in!), France, Spain, part of Africa and Antarctica. The Prime Meridian line also controls time. Everything is based on the Prime Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time. There are different time zones based on longitude. That’s why in my United States home it is 6 hours earlier than in my England home. In all, there are 24 time zones in the world. When we were in Greenwich, we had lunch at The Greenwich Tavern. At The Greenwich Tavern, we ate Fish & Chips. Fish & Chips is popular in England. It was super good. But think about it, I wasn’t eating chips, I was eating French fries! In the restaurant we saw actual puppy dogs laying down while their owners ate lunch. They were big, adorable dogs.

Rutland

We went to Rutland. It was so much fun. Rutland is the smallest county in England. The place we went in Rutland was a large manmade lake. It was so beyond lovely. I went on a walk with my mum and my brother around it. For a little bit of time, we sat and gazed at the sparkles coming out from the water. For lunch we ate at Chandlery Sailing Club. On our walk on the footpaths we saw some sheep. In the country side you see it a lot. The sheep seemed to like to baa, because when we went up to look at them they started baaing away! We had lots of fun on the paths and skipping rocks by the sand. What a gorgeous and fun time we had!

Bats

At Haraxton Manor there is a group of endangered bats. We even got to see some! We saw UK’s smallest bat. I could have made a stuffed animal out of it. It was called the pipistrelle. Its ears were so huge it seemed as though it were the size of her body! There are 18 types of bats in the UK and 11 in Lincolnshire (Lincolnshire is the county where I live). We got to see a few types of bats. The thing with the long eared bat is that it is 1/3 of its size when it is in sleeping mode. In 1981 all of the bats in the UK became protected. When the bats turn three weeks old they start flying. After six weeks the baby bat gets weaned from its mother’s milk. Bat milk is one of the richest types of milk. A normal pipistrelle weighs about 5 grams. That’s about the weight of a small coin. We also got to see upclose the UK’s largest bat. It is called the noctule and weighs up to 40 grams. It was an awesome (very cute) experience to get to see the bats like that.

Stratford-upon-Avon

We went to Stratford-upon-Avon! Stratford-upon-Avon is not only where Shakespeare was born, but he grew up there and was there when he was an adult. I got to see the home where he was born. William Shakespeare was a playwriter. My mum has been explaining lines from Shakespeare and certain plays to me and my brother, and our first night in Stratford-upon-Avon we went to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and saw Twelfth Night. It was so cool. The people that were acting came out of real water because the play starts off with a shipwreck! My favorite characters were Sir Andrew, Sir Toby, Malvolio, Feste and Viola. Sir Andrew, Sir Toby and Malvolio were really goofy and made me start to burst out laughing. I liked Feste because he did some good things in the play, but my favorite part about him was when he sang (especially the tune of “with a hey ho the wind and the rain”). I liked Viola because she made the whole entire play go into a big mess because she dressed up exactly like her identical brother and caused lots of confusion. The play was fantastic! For Easter Sunday we went to Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare was baptized, went to church and was buried. We even got to see his grave. Shakespeare created 39 plays, including Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Julius Caesar. At the River Avon, there are a lot of boats. There is even an ice cream boat! 

Burghley House

My mum, brother and I went on a Harlaxton field trip to the Burghley house. It was so cool. The person who built the Burghley house was William Cecil. William Cecil lived from 1520-1598. He was the Principal advisor for Elizabeth 1. During his lifetime, William Cecil, the first Lord Burghley, was one of the most powerful men in England. He built the Burghley House for his family, not himself. He only came here occasionally. The journey to London (about 85 miles) took two days on horseback. Queen Elizabeth 1 came to throne in 1558 and died in 1603. Another person that later lived in the Burghley house was Lord David Burghley. Lord David Burghley won a gold medal in the Olympics that were held in Amsterdam in 1928. In the Burghley House we got to see the things he wore in the Olympics including his cleats and uniform. We also saw the hurdle that Lord Burghley would run full speed and jump over. In the Burghley House we saw where Queen Elizabeth would have stayed, wow! In the Burghley House there are over 300 paintings. There was this one place in the Burghley House that had an old chess board. Instead of rooks, the pieces were elephants. All the pieces were of the Indian army because India was one of the first places to play chess, and the kings would choose how the pieces look. In most of the rooms of the Burghley House there would be a door for the servants to slip in and out of. Here are a few words from the Elizabethan time and what they are now. The Elizabethan word for why is wherefore. An Elizabethan word for very is verily. An Elizabethan word for away is aroint. Isn’t that interesting? After everything it was Tea Time so we went into the little café and had some proper tea (my mum had cappucino and almond cake with cream, my brother had milk and a brownie and I tried tea and a brownie)!

Grantham Fair

In Grantham there is a fair that reminds me of the Fall Festival just a little bit. They had bumper cars, adventure rides, funhouse mirrors and other things. They also had a ride called the Big Ben, which is funny since the real Big Ben is in London. At the Fair there were many food booths. I had a rainbow slushy and some fudge. It was super fun to be at the Fair. We also played this game where you would try and get the ring over the box and win a huge thing of chocolate, soda or you would win some type of technology. The Grantham Fair has been going for 600 years now. In Grantham, there is a market held outdoors every Saturday. That is where the Fair was held.

Costume Ball

At Harlaxton Manor on Saturday night there was a fun time where a whole bunch of college students and faculty came out in super funny or traditional costumes. I dressed up as Rapunzel, my mum dressed up as a hippie and Brock dressed up as a Gladiator. My costume was bright purple and I had an extra maybe 5 inches of blonde hair. My mum’s costume was super fun. She had a little handbag with a peace sign on it, a really fun headband that went around your head in a circle, a fun shawl, sunglasses with a peace sign in front of each shade and rainbow pants! My brother’s costume had a cape, headpiece, shin guard type things that had spikes on it and armbands. Some of the college students had these costumes: a cat, Tommy Pickles, dinosaur, Japanese Girls, Caveman, a group of Coca-Cola cans, the Blue Man Group, a cowboy, people with masks and many more fun things. When we danced to the music the lights were pitch black and the DJ made it so that the room (the Great Hall) was flickering with colorful spots. It was super fun.

London Field Trip and Show

Yesterday we went to London. It was so much fun. The first thing we did was go on a River Cruise. Our cruise ship was called the Symphony. Another ship we actually saw was the Hispaniola which made me think of Treasure Island! The Hispaniola I saw on the River Thames was a really big ship. For lunch we had salmon and chicken. It was delish. On the River Cruise we went under the Tower Bridge! It was so cool to look up and see the bridge. After that we went to the BBC for a field trip my mum had planned for her students. BBC stands for British Broadcast Corporation. The BBC is where the TV, News and other things happen for the UK. When Jennifer Lopez came to the BBC she wanted her dressing room to be big and she wanted fuzzy cream carpets and white walls and she was only in the room for less than an hour! We also got to see TV studios. My brother and a few other college kids got to try out their own trivia show. I also played Harry Potter with my brother. We got in front of a Blue Screen and the guy showing us around put blue things over us and we were floating heads! After that we saw the musical Wicked! It was so awesome. Wicked explains how things happen in the Wizard of Oz. At the beginning the Wicked Witch of the West came out of the mum’s belly and was a bright green baby. It was super funny.

Cambridge

We went to Cambridge! It was so pretty. For lunch we went to The Eagle. At The Eagle is where they first discussed DNA. DNA stands for Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid and it is about genes that are in our bodies and makes each of us different and special. For lunch I had Fish & Chips. Fish & Chips are popular in the UK. In Cambridge there is a Sunday market. We saw so many street performers that played music. Some of them were jazzy. Some were pop. Some were slow songs. We also went to King's College. King's College is a gorgeous college in Cambridge that was founded in 1441 by Henry 6. Trinity College is also in Cambridge. That is where Isaac Newton went to college. King’s College and Trinity College are 2 of the 31 colleges that are part of the University of Cambridge. In Cambridge people walk and ride their bikes everywhere. It was so neat to see how people put all their bikes next to each other!

Book Fun

I decided it would be nice to get some people out on such a great day and enjoy talking about books and reading books. The reason I am saying “great” day is because it felt like 80 degrees! The first two things we did were set out blankets and all of the people that were a part of the group ate homemade cookies that were fresh from the oven, mushy and made specially from my mum. The next two things we did were writing our own little books and talk about each other’s favorite authors, books and why they are our favorite books. I learned that Riley likes The Twilight Sagas. I learned that Julie likes Chocolat because she likes the descriptions of the small chocolate shop in a village in France. I learned that Nancy likes Junie B. Jones and it reminds her of the students she has taught in the last 29 years. Brock likes the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. My mum likes a Hemingway book called The Sun Also Rises and a book called A Separate Peace by John Knowles. I like Charlotte’s Web that I read with my mum, Treasure Island that I read with my class and the Grandma’s Attic series that my Grammy got me. After we talked about books, we played a matching game. The things you had to match were the author and a book they wrote. We had things like Jules Vernes and you had to match him with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. You also had to match Rick Riordian with Percy Jackson and Barbara Park with Junie B Jones. There were other matches too. We also read books, and some people drew flip books. Poem made one with a sheep. We had so much great fun. I might do another book picnic again someday.

Segovia

We went to see Segovia! It was such a quaint little town that I thought was so super cute. We went and saw the Alcazar and the Roman Aqueducts. In the Segovia Alcazar (castle), we saw giant cannons that looked two times the size of me! We also saw outfits that soldiers would have worn. The main colors were blue, red and yellow. In another room we saw lots of armory. The reason they had these things was because they were very protective of the castle because it was huge and on top of a hill that stood in an honoring spot, and different royalty lived there. In one of the bedrooms we saw so many neat painted designs on the walls. The bed was crazy beautiful. It had great drapes. At the Aqueducts I got to climb up into one of the giant arches. It is made of plain stone and has 167 arches in it. There is also a hidden route called the Canal Madre (which stands for Mother Channel) that helped give the city all its water. On the street we saw lots of performers. One of them was doing a puppet that was of a girl playing violin. The person doing the puppet had a dog but it looked like a lazy dog that was asleep. When Brock went up to give some coins to the street performer and also to pet the dog, the dog bopped its head up and barked. It surprised us and made Brock jump. It was so hysterical!

Madrid

 We went to Madrid. We visited several places and spent the most time at Plaza Mayor. The streetlamps have what looked like an ancient design pattern that is wavy and gorgeous. At most plazas there are street performers. We saw one that was a goat with lots of streamers and sparkles. We saw another street performer that I thought was very, very cool and it was a guy making music out of glasses. The way you do that is use different sizes of glasses with different amounts of water in it and it makes a different tone. At Plaza Mayor people do different things. It not only has street performers and shops and cafes, but it has held markets, soccer games and bullfights. From the Plaza Mayor you don't have to walk a long distance to get to where we ate. It was at the Restaurant Botin. It is the oldest restaurant anywhere in the world. Ernest Hemingway used to eat at this restaurant. My mum has read all his books and she visited this restaurant before and couldn't wait to go back. Ernest Hemingway even wrote about the restaurant in his book The Sun Also Rises. We ate in the downstairs where it was all brick on the walls and it looked like a wine cellar. I ate scrambled eggs with green asparagus and my mum ate cheese and bread and a fish casserole. Last year we went to a Hemingway Museum in Chicago.  

Barcelona Aquarium

 

Barcelona, Spain

We went to Barcelona! We didn't do it alone though, we went with the Elseas. It was awesome. Barcelona is located on the Mediterranean Sea. On the first day we were there we went to La Sagrada Familia. It is the Family Palace. It was made by a family that wanted honor. It had a mix of dark brown and lots of happy colors. At the front there were four straight up poles that looked almost as tall as the whole building. That night we went to the Barca Game!!! It was so amazing. If it helps to say this, Lionel Messi is on the team. We went to just the perfect game (match) because Messi scored a hat trick and beat the record of goals that players on the Barcelona team have made! OMG. It was Brock's dream to see. We also went to the Picasso Museum. Pablo Picasso was a very famous painter. We saw so many amazing paintings. Some of my favorite paintings were of a portrait Picasso made of himself. Another was of an old man in a beret. In one of the rooms there was a big chandelier. We also went to a big aquarium. Inside of it we saw: sharks, eels, puffer fish, zebra looking like fish, squid, sea horses, and many more fun types! Something I was fond of was one of the types of sharks. It is called the Black Tip Shark. The reason is because if it stopped swimming it would drown and die. We saw baby fish and star fish too! What a time!

Billy Elliot and Camden Market

We went into London. It was so much fun. We saw the musical, Billy Elliot. It was the best one of all time, or at least to me! Billy Elliot is about a boy who is around 12 and has lost his mum and wants to dance, but the rest of the Irish that he lives with won’t let him. That includes his family and other people in the village. One of my favorite lines was when he and his ballet teacher were talking about his mum and the ballet teacher said to Billy, “She must have been very special” and Billy Elliot said, “No. She was just my mum.” It was one of my favorite lines because Billy loved his mum very dearly and missed her. The music and dancing was something I had never seen before. In one part Billy jumped off a wall and did a back flip. My favorite song from the musical is called "Electricity". The song is about Billy trying to explain what it feels like to dance. In London we also went to Camden Market. It is the biggest market in the world. I can see why. The reason, there are 1000 stalls! Mum’s Day in Britain is on March 18, which was yesterday. My Mum keeps on teasing because she will get celebrated twice this year. Brock got her a ring from one of the Camden Market stalls and I got her some fun clothing that has lots of British Flags on it. Mum had to give Brock and me most of the money but she said the gifts were special since we picked the stuff out and we spent the day together.

Lincoln

For the last day the Lothamers were here we went to Lincoln. It is about 1 hour away, so we took a train there. For lunch we ate at “The Slug and Lettuce”. I had a hamburger and “Buttery Mash”! One of the spots we hit was Lincoln Cathedral. There is a castle about a few hundred footsteps across from the cathedral. William the Conqueror had the castle built. At the castle there is a hawk that you can see. Back to the cathedral. Along the walls there was stained glass. It was super cool. On the ceiling there were lots of zig-zags. The reason for this was that the builders thought it was going to fall so they put support on it. One of our friends (the one who made the quilt with me) lit a candle for Papa there a week ago and we did the same yesterday. Lincoln has a huge, steep hill that won the best UK street award last year. You have to walk all the way up the hill to get to the cathedral and castle. That night we went to a humongous bonfire back at Harlaxton Manor. We had s’mores. What an awesome day!

Eiffel Tower

We saw the Eiffel Tower! It is so gorgeous and I have never seen such architecture before. We visited the Eiffel Tower in 2008 but the beauty never changes in it. The Eiffel Tower was built in 1887-1889 and is dark brown. It gets painted every 7 years. It takes 60 tons of paint to paint the full Tower and has eight elevators! The Eiffel Tower’s nickname is La Dam de fer, which means the Iron Lady. We even went to the tip top. It was a blast. It was super cold and windy but the view was worth it. I hope you like the video.

Notre Dame

On our trip to Paris we went to Notre Dame. Notre Dame is a beautiful church that is on a little island in Paris (it is called the Ile de la Cité). If you have been watching most of my blog posts you might have seen the one about my Grandpa. Inside of the church you are allowed to light candles for loved and missed ones. My mum, brother and I lit one for Papa. It did make me teary, but it also made me smile. Through the church there were neat things but I adored a very beautiful stained glass window. It was all different colors of blue, green, yellow and purple, and maybe some more. The Notre Dame was an experience.

Germany Castle

We took an early train to Fussen. This is where the fairytale castle is. Its name is Neuschwanstein Castle, and it’s what Disney World uses as a model for its pretty castle. Neuschwanstein Castle is in a town called Bavaria, Germany. If you watched the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, you can see the castle. You walk up a big mountain to get to it. We got to go inside it. The person who built Neuschwanstein Castle was King Ludwig II. He died before the castle was finished. Even though it is not finished it still has beautiful architecture. The chandelier in the King’s Room is 2,000 pounds. In his bedroom, the bed was about as big as an elephant! He had an amazing view of the Alps from almost every room in Neuschwanstein Castle. Swans were his favorite animal, and there is a room filled with swan paintings on the walls and ceilings. There is a manmade cave in the castle with some funky lights. In another room there are four chandeliers that have blue jewels and candles on it. Around the room there are a lot of arches. On the ceiling there is a lot of art. At Harlaxton College I volunteer at the Library. I learn facts and then put together posters, bookmarks, flags and other things about different countries. Then we hang the posters and copies of the flags all over the Library and along the balcony so people walk by and see and learn. One of the countries for my volunteering was Germany. I researched what the colors on the German flag mean. The color black on the German flag stands for determination. The color red on the German flag stands for hardness, bravery, strength and valor. The color yellow on the German flag stands for a symbol of generosity. I also looked up how to say different sayings that you might need if you went to Germany. To say Where is the bus stop, you say Wo sich eine bushaltestelle? If you want to go to the library, you say Wo ist ein bibliothek? The capital of Germany is Berlin. A famous person from Germany is Albert Einstein and also the Brothers Grimm (Jacob Ludwig Karl and Wilhelm Karl) who wrote some of the best fairy tales ever were from Germany. 

Munich, Germany

We are in Germany!  I can’t believe it! Again there was a different language/accent. In class we learned some German, and even went to a very fun German restaurant in Indiana. It was called the Schnitzelbank. It’s a great name. What we have been doing on this trip is first we flew over to Germany with our friends, the Lothamers, and landed in Munich. We walked around a little bit and then it was time for lunch. We didn’t just have any lunch—we had a lunch in a huge revolving tower. It is called the Olympiaturm. You can see it in our picture. After lunch we walked around Olympiapark, where they held the 1972 Olympics. That night I had potato pancakes and mashed apples (applesauce) for dinner. My mum had spinach strudel. The name of this restaurant was Kuchloerzeichnis.

Isaac Newton

Today we went to Isaac Newton’s house. Its name is Woolsthorpe Manor. It only took us 15 minutes to get there from Harlaxton. Isaac grew up with a rich family on a farm. Isaac was not a very good farmer and one time he let all the sheep go and his mother had to pay a fine because of it! Another time he rode a horse into town and when he came back he didn’t have the horse with him because he forgot about it! Even though he wasn’t a good farmer he was a really good thinking scientist. I got to see the Apple Tree where Isaac Newton first came up with the idea of gravity. One day when Isaac Newton was home from Trinity College, he was sitting under a tree at Woolsthorpe and an apple fell from a tree. Even though people think it hit him on his head, it didn’t really do that. He just saw it fall. Watching the apple fall made him think more about why it did, and he invented gravity. The Apple Tree was in a huge and terrible storm many years ago and it fell but it managed to keep growing. I thought the Apple Tree looked small and curly. Before Isaac invented gravity, he went to Kings School, a school that is still a school in Grantham where boys go. When Isaac was a boy he made a windmill that could grain wheat and corn, and he made a sundial. Since they didn't have cars back then and it was too far to walk to Kings School, Isaac Newton stayed with a different family in Grantham. Later Isaac Newton invented other things like a reflecting telescope. When he was older he became Sir Isaac Newton. In the photos you see Woolsthorpe Manor and you see the real Apple Tree that Isaac Newton sat under.

Terrific Grandpa

My Papa died this week. He was a big part of my life. Without him there would not be such a thing as the Big Mouth Frog joke, my favorite joke in the whole world he would tell Brock and me. Every Saturday morning he would come over for cappuccinos, a special tradition. He made the coolest clubhouse for us with lots of windows and a real doorbell that I could ring. I would play cornhole with him and go fishing. He made a high chair for my American Girl dolls. He was a great tennis player, and he taught me how to play tennis. Every time I would see him he would give me a Papa’s mint, a peppermint. In the top photo is me, Papa and Brock sucking our thumbs. Papa used to tease me how I sucked my thumb so he and Brock acted like me. In the bottom picture, it is a picture of the three of us again. Every time he comes over for cappos he would have a fun lesson or thing to do. My mum used to be a reporter in New York, so Papa got us a typewriter so I could write stories too. I love the typewriter. In the same picture Papa is teaching Brock about money because that was a popular thing for them to do. Even though my blog is about my travels in England, we got the call about my Papa in England and are going to be in the USA for a few days. My Papa was the kind of person any child would want to have as a grandpa.