This Tastes Salty!

When we woke up we packed right away and went straight to the spa alongside the Dead Sea, where we had more sulphur baths. These ones stung like a hornet wherever you had the tiniest cut or rash. Then we went to a mud pit, where there was a bunch of mud that you could put all over yourself. There were these huge pits where you could sit and slap mud over you, or you could stand in the pits or you could take mud out of the pits and put it on you. You could even have a mud fight. The mud was really dark brown and pretty cold, but there was really nothing in it,and it was really gooey. It would have felt really good on a hot day, although today was not a hot day. Then we walked to the water of the Dead Sea, where, for about ten yards from the sea, there was only salt on the ground. We even saw a sign that seemed to have fallen into the sea at some point, but now it looked more like a sign-shaped salt lick! And you physically could not swim in the water, you could only float and paddle in it, it is impossible to actually swim! And you can't get completely under.

Then we left and went up a wadi, which is a canyon with a river that can be sometimes completely dry. We saw more rock rabbits, and on the way out we saw some ibexes. I would absolutely have loved to swim in some of the wadi's pools, but unfortunately my bathing suit was still in the car and we had no time to go and get it...

Afterwards, we went to a store that was kind of hidden within kibbutz Ein Gedi, and bought food to eat in the car ride for lunch. Then we drove all the way to Jerusalem, where we had a hotel that I absolutely loved. For dinner we went to an Arab restaurant. Because it was the New year, the people at the restaurant could not wait for us to leave so that other people could come in that were celebrating the new year.

Masada

When we woke up we packed and started driving South along the Jordan for a few hours until we were at the dead Sea. We kept on driving till we got to a kibbutz called Ein Gedi. The whole time we were driving we were going past only desert. When we got to Ein Gedi we just unpacked, and went to another place called Masada which is a famous old Jewish settlement that the Romans conquered. What they did is that they went all around it so the Jews inside could not get food or water, but the Romans still could not get in. Then they built a huge ramp up the cliff and finally broke through the wall. So the Jews decided to commit suicide, the men killed their wives and children, then they chose ten men to kill all the others, then they chose one man to kill the other nine men and himself.

Masada is built on a huge hill, and it takes about an hour to walk up it. Susan, Aaron, Amy and my dad all walked up it. My mom, John, Josh, my brother and I just took a gondola up it, which took us about three minutes. We saw a big wall around the whole top of the mountain, the palace of Herod, and some huge cisterns. I was really tired, and I felt like sitting down rather than walking all around. From the top, you could see a bunch of Roman camps that were all around Masada.

We went back to kibbutz Ein Gedi. Then my brother, Josh, my mom and I went to the swimming pool. Then we had dinner at the dining hall and turned in.

Swimsuit String

We woke up in kibbutz Bet Alfa and went to a place called Hamat Gader, which has huge sulphur baths and a crocodile farm. At Hamat Gader we found out that my swim suit was way too big for me, and, if I did not put a rope around it, it would just fall. Susan, my friend Josh's mom, gave me a piece of string to tie around my waist to hold it up. I did not really like the baths that much, because I did not like the sulphur at all, and we couldn't go under water because of the sulphur. And, it was too hot for me. So, after a while, I got out. Then my mom bought me a different swim suit and I went back him for a little bit. A really cool thing they have was that, underneath the sulphur baths, they were other, way smaller sulphur bath, where you would sit down,and all the water from the top would come down in waterfalls over the seats, so you could sit in a waterfall of hot water. But I still got out before everybody else.

After that we went to the crocodile farm, which was awesome because there were all sorts of crocodiles and alligators there. The coolest type, I thought, were the gavials which are alligators that have snouts that are as skinny as the handle of a hammer. Then we went to a lunch which, I must say, was one of the best lunches that trip. It was pizza and gelato.

Then we went to a really awesome place called Beit Shean, which is the ruins of an old Roman settlement. But it's still really cool. Right when you get in Beit Shean there is a huge street, that probably used to be the main street when it was actually inhabited. Right next to it, on both sides, it had a bunch of columns. On the sides of the columns was where everything was. On the right side was an area which is kind of like a maze, and as I said earlier I like mazes. Closer to the entrance was the amphitheater. On the left side of the columns were a bunch of big bath houses. On the very very end of the street was a big tall hill which is a tell, and which is part of Beit Shean. On the right of the tell is a really big bridge, that I had not noticed from the tell, but that I saw on the town replica. And to the right of the place that was like a maze was something that looked a lot like a graveyard, but I am not sure what it was. At the beginning we went to the amphitheater. Then we went into the area that looks like a maze and it was really fun. Then we went up the tell. But Josh and I went down way early and played by the amphitheater. Earlier we had seen a bunch of kids that were climbing over a fence that you were not supposed to go over to get to this one place where Josh and I found a hidden spiral staircase that went right by the other side of the fence, so you could go there without having to climb the fence. It also went to the very very top of the amphitheater, and to one other place that was in the middle of a few bushes.

Then we went back to Bet Alfa, and had dinner at another kibbutz next door. After dinner, Josh and I made pictures, but then Josh started helping me with mine which was a war between a supervillain that I made up called King Squiggle and a superhero that I made up called King Straightline. I thought you should know that.

Buy Sweater, Lose Sweater

We had good waffles at the Frankels, then we went to a town called Tsfat, that is completely built out of little hills. The upper town is a few centuries old, and it is inhabited by people. At Tsfat we walked around, and Josh and I both got sweaters saying "Israeli Defense Forces", in green for Josh and black for me. During lunch, my little brother was playing with a dog that he saw for the whole meal. After lunch we went back to the Frenkels, and Josh and I played in the rocks until our last moment there, since we were leaving soon. Then I put my sweatshirt down the rocks, and then got a cut on my foot which took my mind off my sweater.

We left The Frenkels, and started driving south towards kibbutz Bet Alfa, where we were going to stay for the night. We drove by the Golan hills, and to the Jordan river. When we arrived in Bet Alfa, it was night. I noticed I was missing my sweater. We looked everywhere, then I remembered: I had left it at The Frenkels. We could not go back and get it, so we just had to accept the fact that it was lost. We had a pretty good dinner at the kibbutz for Shabbat that evening.

Olive Pies

At The Frenkels, we had a delicious breakfast that was hand-made by the people there, the best breakfast we had in the whole trip. There were home made mini-croissants, a bunch of rolls, great juices, salads, home-made jams, really good fruits, and the second day there were really good waffles.

First we went to a little town in the Golan called Katzrin. Josh and I played a lot in the ruins and spied on our parents while they were visiting. There was a marketplace, a synagogue and a few old houses from fifteen centuries ago. We also saw an old olive press, and when the olives where done being pressed, they kinda looked like cow pies.

Then we went up to the hills to see the abandoned Syrian city of Kuneitra, and the border with Syria. Then we saw a memorial to all the soldiers who died in the Yom Kippur war with Syria. We had lunch in a Druze village where we had very good falafel. Then we went to Nerom Golan. It is a fighting post against the Syrians. It was really cool, also, because there were so many little passageways, old turrets, guns, and bunkers. Josh and I played there for ages. The story of the war is that on Yom Kippur, when most of the soldiers were home, the Syrians attacked Israel with thousands of tanks. Avigdor Kahalani, one commander, had only about 18 tanks and 24 men, and they resisted for 2 days and they pushed back the Syrians, until reinforcements arrived.

From there we drove further North to Mivzar Nimrod. On the way we saw a modern fort, used nowadays, that had a bunch of awesome tanks. We also drove by the source of the Jordan river in Banyas. Nimrod is a castle of the hashishins, which is where the word "assassin" came from because they were all assassins. But it was closed when we arrived. Then we went to a nature reserve, also closed. We had a great dinner at an Arab restaurant, then went back to The Frenkels.

Avocado Machine

In the morning we went to Kibbutz Ein Hashofet to visit the whole kibbutz. We went to the area where the cows were milked. We did one of the funnest things of the day, which was picking avocados. We got into a machine that had wheels on the bottom, and a crane that was holding you in a giant bucket where you could control the motion of the crane. We also saw a place where they raised all the little chicks. It was really hot, and the guide told us there were 10,000 chicks there.

Then we left and drove to a tell called Megiddo. A tell is a hill where, on top, there is the newest layer where people settled. Underneath is another layer for the people a century before, then underneath another, then another, then another... So basically, it's a place with layers from different centuries on top of each other. In the entrance of Megiddo, there is a model where you press buttons to show lights to see where things are and where parts can lift up to show layers underneath. It was a pretty cool model. Then we walked up to the tell and looked around. The oldest layers of the tell were about 55oo years old. After that we went into a really big tunnel that was hundreds of yards long, and probably at least 100 feet deep. The reason they had the tunnel was to get water inside the city because the spring was outside the city walls, and they connected the tunnels with underground springs so that, when they were surrounded by enemies, they could still get water through the tunnel without having to leave the city. The tunnel came up at the edge of the outside road, so we had to walk 20 minutes outside the tell so that we could come back to the entrance.

Then we drove to the sea of Galilee, where we were staying, at a place called The Frenkels. Right when we got there, we saw this weird animal called the hyrax or a rock rabbit that we had never seen before. Right next to the house there was a line of huge rocks that was about 100 feet long, and Josh and I spent a long time in them while we were staying there. We even made a fort in there!
In the evening we drove to Rosh Pina, which is a old Jewish settlement from the 1800s. Then we had sandwiches and hummus for dinner at home.

Technion

Today we had breakfast at the kibbutz, then went to Haifa, which took a really long time. We visited a university called Technion, whic is a science and math univeristy, where they do a lot of things with space. They help with high tech research for the army, and pretty much everything else you can think of that you can do in science.

My mom, Ruti, Josh and I left early to visit the Bahai temple, which is mostly huge gardens that are really pretty. Then we drove back, had dinner out, and turned in early.

My Tree Defies Gravity

After another good breakfast at the hotel, we went to a city called Old Yaffo, where we stopped at a plaza and waited by a lemonade stand for Josh's family. Old Yaffo is very small, and pretty much no streets, it is mostly made of tiny alleys, and all the houses are made of stone. It is also right next to the sea. While the parents went on talking, Josh and I ran through all the tiny alleys and usually would go with Kaelan to try to find us. We went through alleys, and also through a tiny little park where we could hide. We found, in particular, four very cool alleys. The fourth one was very awesome: you could go on for a very long time, then take a left, then go straight, take another left, then a right, then you found yourself in a real street with cars, on the far other side of the plaza. It only took about 3 minutes to get back to the plaza, but, still, nobody was expecting us to be so far. Also, coming back, we had a very good view, since we had to go through the park on the top of the hill. This whole alley thing is pretty complicated and I could go on for a long time. Then we walked around a bit. We saw a tree that was in a pot hanging by strings connected to other houses, which made the tree hang in the air. Because the strings were see-through, it looked like the tree was floating. We ate lunch at a really good restaurant where I had some oven baked St Peters fish that only comes from lake Kinneret, that is, the sea of Galilee, but it doesn't really matter, does it?

After lunch Josh came in our car, and we drove North along the sea until we arrived to a place called Cesarea, which is an old Judeo-Roman settlement where there are pretty much no rules, so you can go around wherever you want, and there is a beach right next to it. We went to the beach and skipped rocks for a long time. Then we went around the whole place. It was really cool because there were many places to hide and sneak around in. Josh and I could have stayed there for ages, but we had to go. There was a circus where they had chariot races along the sea. Behind all that, there was a big amphitheater. Well, it was small for an amphitheater, but it was still big. When we were leaving, Josh and I decided to climb on a big pile of rocks. When we went down it on the other side, we found a sign that said "no climbing".

We drove to a kibbutz called kibbutz Dalia where we were staying. Then we met the others at Kibbutz Ein Hashofet where they were staying. There we met a really nice kibbutz member named Ruti who was a friend of John. It was a really nice kibbutz, but I did not like the food that much at the dining hall. When we we went back to our kibbutz to go to sleep, we saw this cat who was always hanging around our door. He came back a bunch of times throughout our whole stay.

The Night we (Almost) Lost my Brother

We had a really good breakfast at the hotel, then we went to the University of Tel Aviv to meet all of my friend Josh's family. We were late because we got lost a million times trying to find it. When we got there we met Josh's father John at the entrance, and he took us to to where the others where. The others are Josh's Mom Susan, his 15 year old brother Aaron (...ooops... I mean 16, sorry Aaron!), and his 18 year old sister Amy. Amy and Aaron, if you are reading this, I'll have you know that I am only putting down your ages so that people will know you are not just one or two years older than Josh!First we saw films of how people used to live back then. Then we saw models of probably 60 different synagogues around the world, some of which we had already seen for real. Then we saw archaeological remnants of old things from the time.

Then we went to the Museum of the Palmach, which is a very good unit of the early Israeli army. In the museum, it showed their life and what was going on during the whole war of Independence. In the war, not many of them lived through. Mind you, this isn't the American war of Independence, it's the Israeli war of Independence. I really liked it because they actually had things moving and the backgrounds of the places where they were, and in one place they even had the area where we were turn into two sections. I think it was a pretty good setup.

Then our family went to see some business colleagues of my Mom's. They were really nice, and my brother danced with the woman whose name was Myriam. My brother actually wanted to stay and live with her. They gave us lots of candy and presents. My brother received a stuffed animal and some fish that grow when you put them in water, and I got a really cool game. At the restaurant, I felt a bit sick, and fell asleep in the car ride back home.

I'll order a Translation Times Two Please

On this trip we are leaving Barcelona for good. I admit I'll miss it a bit, but still I think I'll like it better in Paris. Right now we are going to Israel for two weeks before we get to Paris. We left really early and got to the airport at about 6:35 AM and barely made the plane. When we got to Zurich we had to run to get to the tram which made really weird mooing sounds by the way. We almost missed this plane too! The good thing about this plane is that it had TVs on it. That's what I love about Swissair. Any flight that is longer than one hour gives you personal TVs. We landed in Tel Aviv about 2:30PM. By the way all of the places that I am talking about here are in Israel. When we got to the airport we had a snack of Pringles (sour cream and onions) while we were waiting for my dad to get a phone chip. Then we got the rental car and drove to the hotel. My brother and I both slept in the car while my parents checked in.

I woke up on the ride to dinner which was with a bunch of my family that I hadn't met yet. When we got to the restaurant they gave me and my brother presents since it was the first time we had ever met. Mine was a Tech Deck skateboarding side bowl with metal ramps to grind on. I really liked it. We met my dad's cousin David and his wife, my cousin Yuval who is my age, and his parents Elie and Avital, who are also my dad's cousins, and mine. Yuval doesn't speak French or English, only Hebrew, so we had to talk using hands and sign language. We got along pretty well but I bet we both wanted a translator - especially him. He probably wanted two since I spoke some French and some English to him. Some of the adults spoke only Hebrew, some only English and some spoke both, plus French. You can imagine how confusing this was.

I got huge ribs to eat and I got a chocolate Marquis for dessert. When we left it was about 10:30 or 11:00 PM. When we got to the hotel I found out that for one of the only times on the trip I had my own room (attached to my parents'), and what's even better is that I had my own TV. That's pretty much all there is to say about that.

All Caught up

I am finally caught up with all my blogs so now I am working on answering all my e-mails - sorry it is taking me so long! Everytime we go on a trip I have to write a bunch of blogs AND I get a bunch of extra homework. This means trouble!

Also at the end of this week I am leaving for Israel for two weeks. Then, when I come back, we are moving to Paris. So I won't be able to post for a few weeks until I have received my computer again in Paris. So Happy Holidays to all!

I am going to miss Barcelona very much.

Superbean

We arrived in Segovia at around five o'clock. But we couldn't find the hotel and it took us about an hour to get there. On the way we saw a HUGE aqueduct (which is a thing that looks like a bridge but was used to carry water from place to place). My parents got a big suite that had a deck with a really good view. Lindsay, and Kaelan, and I got a small room with three beds. Actually the rooms were probably the same size not including their deck. But they also had one less bed so they had more walking space. Then we unpacked and went to a super good restaurant for dinner. They had the best beans that I've ever tasted in my life. They also were the biggest beans I've ever tasted in my life. They were as big as an adult's thumb! Which isn't that big, but it's still big for a bean. Then we just went to bed.

In the morning we went out and had a humongous breakfast. After that we switched hotels. Our new hotel was right on the Plaza Mayor. This time our hotel room was way bigger than my parents'! Then we walked around town for a few hours. Because we didn't eat lunch we got some ice cream. We went on to the aqueduct. It was so cold that we could only spend a few minutes up there because we were freezing! The aqueduct was 800 yards long and 25 or 30 yards tall. It is built with stone blocks the size of a big cardboard box. I don't know how but it looks like it is brand new even though it is almost 2000 years old! After that we went to dinner at a tapas bar and we went to bed.

The next morning we had a really good breakfast at the hotel then we went to a big castle that looked really new and that my dad says looks very much like Snow White's castle in Disneyland. In the middle of the castle there was a big interior courtyard that the whole castle went off of. They showed knights' armor and horse armor. The furniture looked really old and when we saw the king's bed my brother thought it was the bed for the "King" from the movie "Cars". Around the castle was a really deep moat. It also had a museum that showed how weapons and armor had changed through the ages.

We went back to the hotel, got our luggage and left. On the way back to the airport, we stopped at the Escorial. The Escorial is another castle, but this one is really enormously big and might even be the biggest in the world... Thank god it was closed so we did not have to visit it:-) Then we left Castilla la Vieja for good and arrived at the airport.

Pension Tension

We stopped in Avila very late for a late lunch, around 6:00pm. We just walked around for a while. It was freezing cold! Then we walked into a nice square. My mom got some gloves and we found a pharmacy to get some medicine for me. After that we ordered some food and things to go at a restaurant. Then we took a bunch of pictures of the city walls and left. The city walls looked like exactly what you would imagine of what you see in a Hollywood movie if they ever show knights, and they are completely together!

We drove on to Salamanca. We got to Salamanca really late, after 9:30pm. Our hotel was on the Plaza mayor, but it was really bad. By some mistake our room had no bathroom, it was really cramped with five beds in it and one bed wasn't even a bed it was a mini mattress that only a baby could sleep on. Then when we told then that we couldn't have no bathroom because my brother and I were sick they moved us into a slightly better room that had a small bathroom and five good sized beds. This room also had a really good view of the Plaza Mayor. It's supposed to be the best Plaza in Spain but I thought it was lousy.

In the morning we went out and took a really long walk. We went into a really old convent. It had a really good view of the city. It also had a small little section that was basically just tunnels in part of the roof, but I thought that it was pretty cool. Another thing was that it had a room that had very old toys. Then we walked around more. There was a big tower that was leaning over that I was scared to walk under because it looked like it might fall over. I just thought that you should know that. We walked into a church that was pretty boring. Then we went back to our hotel and got our things, we ate at a sort of buffet and then left. I was starting to feel better and I had no more fever!

Salamanca was supposed to be a really pretty city, but I thought it was actually very boring. I liked Madrid more. But my dad thought the opposite.

Sick Sick Sick

We left our house very early in the morning for a 1-week visit to Old Castille and Madrid. We got to the airport at seven o'clock, went through security, and went straight to the gate. I slept for forty five minutes and woke up right when it started boarding. On the plane I didn't sleep at all. We landed in Madrid but we had to take the subway for an hour and fifteen minutes. Our hotel was right off of a big square. At the hotel I slept for two hours. While I was sleeping my dad got a huge packet of tissues because kept having times when my nose would start running really badly. In one day I used eight packets of tissues.

We had some sandwiches for a late lunch. Then I went to the museum of the Prado with my dad. I didn't really want to. After a while I started to feel sick so we went and got a coffee and I rested a bit. Then we went back into the museum. I felt sick a lot in the museum. My dad thought that I just wanted to leave and that I wasn't really sick. There were a lot of Spanish painters but because I was sick I don't remember much about it. After we left we went to "Ben and Jerry's" to get some ice cream. Then we went to a place that had montaditos for dinner. Then we went to bed. I woke up a lot during the night and we found out that I had an eye infection and fever.

We stayed home till 1:00pm to try to recover. Late in the morning we went to a xocolateria where we get melted chocolate and churros and we are supposed to dip the churros in the hot chocolate. We walked to a big square where you could see one side of the royal palace, called the Plaza del Oriente. In the middle of the plaza was a statue of queen Isabel II on a horse, and some pretty gardens all around the statue. My brother and I ran around them and nearly coughed our brains out. Then we walked alongside the palace, which was completely white and huge. I thought it was a pretty building. Then we went back home and stayed there for the rest of the day because we were sick.

The next day we woke up early to pick up my mom at the airport. Then we drove to Toledo. Our hotel was really nice. We stayed in the hotel and took a really long nap. Then we ate some sandwiches and stayed home until dinner time. I felt really sick so I stayed in. Then we went to bed. In the morning we went to a bar for breakfast. Afterwards everyone went out to visit while my dad took me to the hospital because I was still not getting better. At the hospital they figured out that the eye infection was gone, but I still had a fever due to a throat infection, and I had to take antibiotics and a nose spray again. What a pain! Then we left for a long road trip to Salamanca.

Wine and Laundry

A few days ago we went to the Museo de Historia de la Ciudad, which means the Museum of History of the City (of Barcelona). The museum is in the Barrri Gotti district. It is in the building that used to be the Palace of the Inquisition, but they never talk about that... We got up really late, had breakfast, and went straight to the museum. It was almost noon by the time we got there. We got audiotour speakers and started the tour.

In the first room there were Visigoth sculptures from the old cathedral. The Visigoths were barbarians that invaded Spain after the Romans. The second room also had old Roman sculptures and artifacts. The third room had artifacts from the Celtiberian and Roman times, and had an old iron chariot wheel from the Celtiberian times before the Romans.

Then we went underground, which is where a lot of the old Roman city is. The excavated the old Roman city underneath the rest of the existing buildings, for example the cathedral, and then they opened it up as a museum. First we saw the old fortress walls and we were able to go into one of the thirty six towers. Then we walked into a street that was between the fortress wall and the houses. Then we saw a big laundry place, and a place where they dyed clothes. One disgusting thing was to dye clothes they sometimes used urine. Then we saw a garum factory. Garum is a kind a fish sauce that was very expensive in Rome. Then we saw a place that dried fish and sold them.

Then we saw an old Roman house. Roman houses had a big area with columns and a fountain called a peristyle that was a very big room. In the center of the house was the atrium which was like a big living room that had all the other rooms going off of it. Next we went to an old Roman church shaped like a cross. They showed a video of how the church was built. Then we saw a huge place where the Romans made wine. There were big bowls that were half way into the ground,and where they put flavors in with the wines, to mix them. There was also a big press that spun around to mash the grapes.

After that we saw a little wood model of the whole Roman city, with a model for each house, and it showed the wharves and some ships too. My brother wanted to play with it very badly, but here was a woman who was hogging it... There were a lot of other rooms, but it was closing so we had to leave without seeing all. The last thing we saw was a small chapel that was not very good because it had almost nothing in it and the things it did have looked really ugly.

I think it was really cool to go underground and see a whole part of the old city.

Note

Sorry I am still catching up with my old blogs from Andalucia, so might not be able to write a new one for a few days - of course I might but who knows? A few people have written some e-mails and comments to me, but I have so much homework and things that I have to do at home that I don't think I will be able to answer them all any time soon. With all my homework, my blogs and things, I have been staying up late most nights, so don't kill me if I don't answer you right away. I'll try to answer you soon.

I Love Mazes (that's a fact)

In the morning we woke up in Arcos de la Frontera. My parents went off on a little walk so my dad could show the city to my mom. Then we went straight to Sevilla, so as to see the Alcazar which was going to be closed the next day. The Alcazar is a humongous palace. We just parked our car and walked straight there because we did not have much time to visit it. We walked through the mudejar rooms that are like Moorish rooms but a bit different because they were built by Moorish people for the Spanish kings. We did not go to the other parts of the palaces.

Instead we went into the gardens. The gardens were awesome!!! They were humongous. It took me about five minutes to get lost in them! There was even a really really cool that was squashed but long and big. I played hide and seek with my mom The first time she found me. The second time I found her. But the third time she did not find me and she had to give up. By then it had been a really long time, so we had to come back and look for everybody else. We found them by the gift shop right at the exit. Then the Alcazar was closing so we had to leave. But I could have spent my whole life in that maze!

We had a late lunch in a super good restaurant near the cathedral, and also got some really good desserts. Then we got our luggage from the car and went to the hotel. My mom had to go on a business trip so my dad took her to the airport and came back. We stayed in the hotel for a while. In the evening, we took a taxi to a tapas bar to have a quick meal, then walked straight to a flamenco dancing place that we heard was really good. It was OK, but I got really bored half way through. Then we returned to the hotel and went to bed.

The next morning we walked around the barrio Santa Cruz, which is an old Jewish neighborhood. We stopped at a bar to go to the bathroom and get something to drink. Then we went to the cathedral. On the way I climbed up street poles, and I timed myself: my best time was 6 seconds. You don't need to know that but I felt like saying it:-) The line for the cathedral was really long, so we left and came back, and finally visited it. I personally thought it was quite boring but my dad thought it was cool. One thing that I thought was really cool was that we got to go all the way up the Giralda, which is a super tall tower from which you can see the whole city. Unfortunately, we had to go up 37 steep ramps to get there.

Then we walked to a very small palace, called Palacio de Pilatos, that is also a mudejar palace. Right as we went in, it had a very big area with nothing in it. On the right, there was a large patio with a fountain in the middle, and columns on all sides with rooms going off of them. There was one other patio that had a bunch of really nice sculptures. Most mudejar walls have azulejos on them, which are little colored tiles. And this palace had lots of them. Most of the rooms off the main patio led to gardens that I did not really like. One thing that was in the bathroom was a sculpture of the bust of Julius Cesar. I don't know why the heck it was in the bathroom, but it just was...

We went back to the hotel, got our bags, and had to get really quickly to the bus. We made it to the bus just in time, then went to the airport, and flew back home to Barcelona.

The Devil for a Guard

After leaving Cordoba we drove to Medina Azahara, which is the old palace of the calife, that is the old Moorish king. I thought the palace was really cool, but what was even more fun was that the palace was like a maze and I lost my dad in it. The only two times that I did bad things the guard happened to be watching me, and he yelled at me twice. He almost kicked us out. What's wrong with running and not having parents with you every second, really? You'd think he likes getting kids in trouble!!! Then I needed to go to the bathroom again, but there was an enormous line ahead of us of older people jeering and telling each other to go into the same bathroom with another person of different sex. It was absolutely disgusting. And, I was desperate.

Then we left, and kept on driving until we found a room in Osuna. We walked around town and saw a pretty plaza. For dinner the hotel that we went to had a restaurant, but we did not want to eat there. My dad asked at the hotel for directions to the area of another restaurant, the lady asked why, so my dad said we were visiting a friend, then she asked for his name, and my dad said Fernando Rodriguez Marquez. Of course that was all made up because we don't have any friends named Fernando Rodriguez Marquez. It was not actually very useful though, because when we walked over to the other restaurant it was closed. So we went back to the hotel and ate dinner there. The dinner was actually super good. In the morning we also had a really good breakfast there.

The next morning we went to Ronda. When we got to Ronda, we walked around for a bit and had lunch at a parador (don't ask me what that means) that had a really good view of the cliffs, which Lindsay and I call the Cliffs of Insanity II because we already saw the Cliffs of Insanity I in Arcos. Ronda is built at the top of a ludicrously high cliff. Because of the cliffs, there are two parts two the city, and a very big bridge connecting them. And there is at least a thousand foot drop in the middle. At the bottom we could see a really old water mill. There was also a dried up lake. Then we walked around for a really long time, planning to go to a museum, but when we got there it was closed. On the way back we stopped to two ice cream places. I did not get anything at the first place, and at the second place I got some banana ice cream with nuts on it that I was just trying out for the sake of it, and that I thought was really horrible.

After that, we decided to spend the rest of the day into the white pueblos. I wanted to get out and do something so we stopped at some rocks. Behind them, in the middle of nowhere, we found a really old Roman road, and we also found big slabs of granite and marble. We could not find any place to stay for the night so we drove all the way to Arcos de la Frontera and stayed there, so my mom could see the town since she was not with us the first time around.

Nose Spray

We left Granada right after lunch on our way to Cordoba. First we stopped at Alcala la Reale, which has a nice castle, but the castle was closed. Then we went to Almedinilla to visit a Roman villa which was also closed. Then we went to Priego de Cordoba just to look at the nice Renaissance buildings but everything there was also closed at the time when we were there, and we could not wait long enough. Finally, when we got to Cordoba, we just had a nice dinner at a restaurant and went to sleep.

In the morning the first thing we did was go to the Mezquita, which is an old Moorish mosque that is really pretty. It has at least one hundred arches on the inside. The Mezquita has a very very large patio with trees, and also a lot of pigeons. My brother and I started to throw bread for them, then we started throwing bread at them, then I unleashed the beast (that's my brother) to chase them away. As you can see from the picture, he can even hunt them with his eyes closed...

We walked around the Juderia, which is the old district around the Mezquita. We went to an old Jewish synagogue that was very small. We went to a very old Jewish house that had been turned into a museum, and I almost fell into the well, because I thought it was only a pot and I bent into it all the way until I discovered it was a very deep well. I was so surprised I almost fell into it. Then we went into another old Jewish mansion with two wells and an old passage around the back with a pretty fountain. It also had paintings of people who had lived in the Juderia long ago.

Then we rented a horse and carriage and drove around in it. My ear was still hurting a lot and had not gotten better, so we went to the hospital to see what was wrong with it. We found out that I had an ear infection, and I had to take a bunch of medication every day for over a week. But the worst of it was a kind of watery spray I had to put up my nose five times a day for a week. And because I loved it in Andalucia another bad thing was that I was still probably good enough to take the plane back and go to school the following Tuesday.

We went to lunch in a really good tapas bar. Then we got our bags from the hotel and left because we couldn't find a room for another night in Cordoba.

Pastry Nuns

Finally we were in Grenada. My dad woke up early to pick up my mom from the airport. Then when they came back we had a super good breakfast at the hotel. Then we walked around the Albaicin, that is the only Moorish quarter in Europe, which was right around our hotel. In the Moorish district, there were all kinds of very old doors and houses. You can recognize Moorish doors because most of them are in the shape of a keyhole. The streets were all very small, and all the house houses were white, or red in brick. And every single Moorish house has an inside Moorish patio. We went into a little square that had a market. Then we went into some little side streets, where we found the best clementines in the world. We finally found a very high plaza that had a very good view of almost the whole city and of the palace of the sultan on the other side, the Alhambra. Then we had lunch at an incredibly restaurant that had Moorish recipes, right below the plaza, that also had a really good view.

Then we went to the Alhambra. First we went to a huge garden that was really cool, called the Generalife, that had a bunch of hedges. Also my dad kept taking pictures of a tree, and my Mom kept asking why, so my dad told her that this was where the sultana met somebody she liked, but then the sultan found out and cut off all the heads of all the men in that family. Kind of disgusting, I know.

Then we got into a palace, called the Nasrid Palace, that was really pretty and that had Moorish writing all over the walls. Unfortunately, in the line for the palace, I had to go to the bathroom. We asked the guard where the bathrooms where, but he said there were none. I had to go so badly I almost decided to pee in my brother's diaper. Finally my "heroic" mom agreed to leave the palace with me to find a bathroom, which meant she could not see more of the palace. Then we found out at the end that there was a bathroom hidden right next to the line that I could have gone to at the very beginning.

After that we went to the Alcazaba, that is, part of the fortress. My dad and I went running everywhere in there. My dad made it look like he was hanging me off the walls even though he was not really and Lindsay took a picture of me like that.

When we were done with the Alhambra we walked back down to the Albaicin on the main street and went to a pharmacy because my ear had been hurting since the plane and we could not figure out what it was. They told us that it was probably just pressure from the plane and gave us some ear drops that were useless and some other syrup. After dinner we got some super good gelato ice cream at the Plaza Nueva.

The next day, we walked more around the Albaicin. We spent an hour looking for shoes for my Mom. We went to an old Moorish bath, which was not very interesting in my opinion. My brother had a tantrum and could not come with us to get some pastries, so we went to a place where my dad said nuns made very good pastries for the community. They had secret recipes like Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was a convent of nuns. Because the nuns did not like anybody seeing into their convent, they had two wooden doors in the wall where they would put the pastries through the first one, then they would shut it, then they would yell that it was ready, and then we would open the second and take the pastries out without us seeing the nuns. We went home and tried them: they were super super good, and they were all gone in a few days.

After that we took our luggage, went to a little bar for a snack, and left for Cordoba.

Senor Matador

We woke up in Arcos and did not have breakfast at the hotel. We went to the pool, to see how warm it was, but it was too cold to swim. While we were there, we had a really good view of the city, because we were at the very bottom and we could see everything up to the top. Arcos de la Frontera is at the top of a very big hill, so that's why we could see it so well. Then we drove into the very old part of the city and got lost. We parked in a very small parking lot and walked through the city. It had all narrow streets and white houses. We also saw a really big church. We were almost at the very top of Arcos then, and could see all the way down the cliffs. Lindsay and I thought that they looked like the Cliffs of Insanity in the movie "Princess Bride"!

We found a really, really good breakfast place that made "REAL" hot chocolate, in other words, melted chocolate with milk. We also found the mercado, which is the market. There, we got mandarines, and pestinos, which are little cookies shaped like a bowtie and covered in honey. They are very old Moorish cookies. We went into a church that was supposed to be very nice, but ended up being very bad, and it had real mummies with bones that had a little bit of skin on them. It almost made me throw up. Then we got our luggage from the hotel and drove to Ubrique. We were going to spend the whole day driving through very old white villages called pueblos blancos. They are all white because that way it does not get too hot. Most of them have big walls and were protected by hills. They have very very narrow streets.

Ubrique turned out to be very boring so we took a few pictures and left. We drove to Benaocas, then to Villaluenga del Rosario, where we walked around. We went into the plaza de toros, which is the bullfighting arena. Nobody was there, so I jumped from the stands and went into the middle. It was really cool and you could still see bull footprints. I took the pose of a matador, which is the person who takes place in the bullfight. To get back out, I had to climb over a fence then jump back into the stands. We also got some really good cheese and meat, and a knife to go with it. Then we went to Grazalema and got lost. One guy who we asked directions to we saw about five more times, for instance when we were going through the high mountain pass called Puerto de las Palomas.

Then we drove to Zahara de la Sierra. We stopped and walked around, and saw a very big tower and castle at the very top of the hill, above the town. Then, for the whole rest of the time, we were trying to get to Grenada. On the way we got lost into Algodonales. Then, when we finally found our way, we raced the evening light to the freeway, and lost. We arrived in Granada, and got lost walking. It took half an hour of walking to finally get to our hotel. My dad went out to eat while everybody else went to sleep.

Let's go to Africa... Pleeease!

From Cadix we were heading for Tarifa. After a while we decided to stop at a beach for a bit of fresh air. Then we kept on driving. We we finally got to Tarifa, we went to the southermost point. From there we could see Africa! Morocco, to be exact. You can barely see it, but in the background of the picture above here, you can see Africa!!!

Tarifa is the southernmost point of Spain. It's very small but it has several castles and some very very big walls. Both the castles and the walls are about a thousand years old. It's the closest point in Europe to Africa. It was so windy there that we could see at least two dozen windsurfers out. At Tarifa, we stopped at a beach, and I played around some. As I said, it was very windy, so, when I went to hide behind some rocks that would block me from the wind, I fell over and got some nasty cuts on my chest and my knee.

After that we went back into the direction of Arcos de la Frontera, and we stopped at a lot of beaches to check them out and take pictures. I fell asleep for about an hour. When I woke up everybody had sandwiches that they were eating for lunch. For us lunch was at five o'clock that day...

On the way to Arcos, we stopped at a really nice town Vejer de la Frontera. When we got to Arcos de la Frontera, it was almost eight o'clock. The hotel had an actually gigantic swimming pool, and the most comfy beds that I have ever slept in in my entire life. We left our bags at the hotel and went at a restaurant for dinner. The restaurant had tapas, bocadillos which are like montaditos but still a bit different, a bar, full meals and desserts. It was super good. Then we went back to the hotel and went to sleep.

Who Would Like a White Chocolate and Jam Sandwich?

From Sanlucar we wanted to drive to Cadix. First we drove around a lot and kind of got lost. In about three or four hours we could see Cadix across the bay. Then my dad got really tired and took a nap on a beach, although it was only about twenty minutes. Then my brother had to go to the bathroom - I am not going to tell you what happened (you probably don't want me to tell you either)... When we got to Cadix, we could not find our hotel even though we passed it about five times, and we had to call the concierge to give us directions to get there.

Cadix was very big and had a lot of churches. I liked it. The fortress walls were very cool. it is also well protected: we had to drive through the fortress walls to get in. Cadix used to be the biggest shipping harbor in the Atlantic in the times of the Greeks. Our hotel was right off the biggest square in Cadix (in the old town). It had a very nice patio right in the middle and was about six stories high. Our rooms were very small and cramped.

That night we were going to go to a tapas bar. We walked around, then found a super nice square that had a huge cathedral in it. We were also going to have ice cream after dinner, but in the morning we found out we could have had ice-cream right there in a Ben & Jerry's! We went to a "tapas bar" on the square. We were super hungry, and the tapas, from the prices, looked very small, so we ordered twenty four of them! When my dad went to the counter to order them the woman looked at him like he was crazy. We also saw some little sandwiches that people had, that looked really good, and kept wondering why we could not find them on the menu. When we got our dinner, every single thing we had was in small sandwiches, and, on the check, we found they did not have tapas but montaditos, which is the name for the sandwiches. Of course we had plenty left, that we kept for breakfast. The best one, I thought, was one that had white chocolate and jam - that was for dessert if you couldn't tell... After dinner we went to a great gelato ice cream parlor where I got very good strawberry ice cream.

The next morning we woke up and walked around a bit. My dad got us some candy, and, afterwards, we had some really good breakfast with pastries. Then we drove around by the water and found a really cool old fort - it was awesome!

Can we say "Terrorist"?

Today we are going to Andalucia. We woke up really early to leave for the airport. At the airport gate, while we were waiting for the plane to come, there were two people playing flamenco music with their guitars and singing. They were really good. On the plane, we were reading magazines, we read a section on what to do in an airplane, and one of the things was: press the button on your seat and pretend it's dropping a bomb on the people below, and then look down out the window and apologize to them. After that we also came up with a game that we called "what NOT to do on an airplane". On one of the magazines, I saw a picture of a nice slingshot that I thought was really cool. Then Lindsay said that I was crazy if I thought I could bring it back in the plane. Can we say "terrorist"? I just thought you should know that.

When we got to Sevilla, we got a rented car and stopped to buy a map of Andalucia. We were going to go in the direction of Cordoba but the gas station attendant asked my dad if we like good food. My dad said yes. Then he asked if we are prepared to drive for good food. Then again my dad said yes. Then the man told us to go to a specific restaurant in Sanlucar de Barrameda that he said had the best tapas in the world. Then we changed our plans and drove back in the other direction to Sanlucar. When we got there it was almost exactly lunch time (here lunch time is 1 or 2pm). We found the place. And that was the best tapas we have ever had: it was delicious (and cheap)!!! The best of all the tapas, I think, was kind of a shrimp casserole, just hard and crusty and it was so good we had four portions of it!

Sanlucar is also the place where a big river, called the Guadalquivir, meets with the sea. I think that if the rest of our trip is going to be as good as this, it's going to be a really good trip!

The Shortest Blog That I've Written (Isn't Exactly Short)

Today we went on a walk around our neighborhood which is called the Eixample- (pronounced ashomplay)-with my aunt and two of my cousins. We were going on the walk to see the kind of buildings that Antonio Gaudi made which are called Art Nouveau (Modernista in Spanish) which are really popular in Barcelona.

We went inside one of the two Gaudi houses around our apartment, called the Padrera. The walls on the outside are curved and the balconies were made of metal that was in the shape of horses pulling a chariot. The door looked like a spider web and when you walk in right in front of you is a really big spiral staircase that led to the top. Also right up the middle there was a big hole that went up to the top. The only thing that was in the top part that we saw were paintings. Lots, lots of paintings. On the top of the building there were chimneys that looked like things that I don't know about.

After the Gaudi house we walked around for about an hour. I don't know where we exactly went because I wasn't paying much attention. One thing that I do know is that we saw a house that looked really weird and went in it. The inside was really cool! There were some awesome stained-glass windows! After that we went home.

I am going to be gone for two weeks so I won't post then. When I come back I will write a lot about Andalucia which is where I am going.

Tarragona and the little engine that couldn't

Yesterday we finally went to somewhere other than Barcelona. But let me start from the beginning. Well in the morning we woke up and left at about ten thirty in the morning. We started terribly. First my mom took us in the complete wrong direction. Then when we were finally on the freeway that led to Tarragona my dad succeeded in getting lost again and took us on not one wrong freeway but two wrong freeways! Oh and I forgot to tell you that the only words I said on the way were "@!#%+~?!". A trip that should have taken one hour took two and a half hours!

Right before arriving in Tarragona, we stopped a place called Pont del Diable, or "the Devil's Bridge" in Catalan, built by the Romans. It used to carry water to Tarragona, but was destroyed probably by the Barbarians. It was really cool: first we had to go through a very small opening in the fence, then we had to walk straight forward through a bunch of trees to another gate, then there were about a million paths going in different directions. Right in front of you you could see a tremendous aquaduct that looks like a bridge.

When we finally got to Tarragona it was lunch time. We were about to eat lunch when my brother saw a train tour. And if my brother sees a train he gives us no choice but to go so we went on it. It was so boring. It was the worst in the world. It was totally uninteresting. The comments were so dumb that my parents were actually laughing at it! It was so bad that I can't even find the words to say it. The only good part is that my mom vowed that she would never take me on one those tours again.

When we finally got out of the @!#! train we ate lunch. The place where we ate was called Pigot. The first platos where really bad but the second platos and the desserts were delicious! Then we went to a museum and after that we walked around for a bit. We saw the Roman governor's palace, the old amphitheater, and the circus, all of which are about two thousand years old! Most of the streets were very small and made of massive stone. After that we had some Italian gelato. And then we left.

Shopping in Barcelona

Welcome to Cameron's guided tour of some of the best places to shop in Barcelona ( in my opinion I should put in, and you're not actually going to go there as I hope you know).

First: El Corte Ingles, description: humongous building with things from the newest cell phones to the highest fashions and from the most delicious foods to the most disgusting personal hygiene products. In other words pretty much everything.

Second: Fnac, description: gigantic building with every electronic I can think of. Even Wiis!

Third: The Bocqueria, description: a market that is completely outdoors except for a big metal roof that's about the size of a soccer field. Has around 100 stands inside that all have different kinds of foods, spices, and drinks. There are also other markets that are almost exactly the same like Sant Antoni or La Concepcio.

Fourth: Carrefour, description: Target (just French, much bigger, with produce and better food).

Fifth: Passeig (pronounced Passeo) De Gracia, description: A beautiful boulevard with all kinds of high end shops and boutiques (make sure you've got lots of cash because it isn't cheap).

Sixth: "Electronic Strip" (or Ronda de Sant Antoni), description: A very large strip where about every other store is an electronic store.

Also I should tell you that my brother got sick last week. Then I got sick and then my dad then Lindsay my babysitter and then my mom. That's why I did last week' s blog so late.

Barceloneta and Chelsea

A few days ago we went to Barceloneta. Barceloneta is a neighborhood of Barcelona that is right next to the harbor. We got to Barceloneta in the subway. We were supposed to take an immediate right to get to the aquarium but instead we took a slow right turn and we missed the right way: we ended up totally on the wrong side of the harbor. All around there were very cool buildings and restaurants. My first impression of Barceloneta was thinking that it was exactly like San Francisco, which I still do think now! We walked by a lot of restaurants, then by a large strip where people were selling all kinds of arts and crafts. There were necklaces, purses, and others. When we finally noticed that we had gone the wrong way, we had to walk all the way back down towards the old harbor. At the very end of the whole road was the big Aduana building, in other words an old customs building. In the harbor that we walked by, there were some pretty big ships, and also some sailboats that were always coming in and out. Once I also saw a gigantic cargo ship that seemed to come in and then go back out.

In Barceloneta we went to a very big aquarium called"L'Aquarium Barcelona". In the aquarium there were a lot of interesting fish and sharks. For instance there were some odd looking seahorse kind of fish that looked like a plant, except that it moved a lot so we could tell that it was a fish. There were also humungo sharks that swam over your head in the glass tunnel!

PS - you are probably wondering what the heck Chelsea has to do with this. Well, first, for those of you who don't know, it is an English soccer team. This is just a tip, but if any of the British teachers in my school ask you anything about soccer that involves the Chelsea team in any way whatsoever, always in some way or another answer "Chelsea is the best", or they will consider the answer wrong...

One hour late makes no difference

At school right now I am learning German, Spanish (four times a week) and Catalan. Catalan is the language that people generally speak in this area, that is, Barcelona and all of Catalunya. Catalunya is a region of Spain. Catalan is related to Spanish and French and Italian. I learn mostly Spanish, though, because all the kids speak it when we are out at recess. Other classes I have are English every day, PE twice a week, Science four times a week, Math every day, Art, Social Education twice a week, Computers, Religion and Music. We also have Assembly once a week. I have soccer (here they call it football in English and Futbol in Spanish) twice a week at school after school.

As I said earlier, I was really spooked out when I came to this school. But I made many friends quickly, they are really, really nice and they helped me out at the beginning. This week I went to a double birthday party, for two people. One is called Gian and the other is called Alejandro. And, for some reason, all of a sudden, at the end of the birthday party, a lot of my friends asked me for playdates. That was a really cool birthday. When we arrived everybody was jumping on really big trampolines, where I did front flips and back flips on. Then, after about half an hour, we went inside, and we had a snack of various kinds of chips, pop corn, coke and fanta, and very small sandwiches (bocadillas). Then we gave out the presents, and then we played some karaoke where we sang songs with microphones and boomboxes. Then we played videogames on PS2. I was with my friend Hugo and we played Formula 5 racing and NBA 2004 basketball. At the very end we went back to the trampolines right before being picked up. It was a great birthday!!

I did not tell you that we got lost on to the way to the birthday party and wasted about an hour, so if something had happened before the trampoline I cannot tell you. We were so late, in fact, that after a while we had to stop at a gas station to get something to eat because I had not had any lunch and I was getting a bit hungry. We made it almost all the way to the building, but then we could not find exactly the right building although we did pass it at least thrice:-) I mean three times... We went up the same streets about a hundred times, and we asked a thousand people for directions, and they kept sending us left and right - they all told us different directions. The only person who told us the right direction in the end was a gas station attendant.

The other good news is that I have also become friends with a boy who lives in the same building as us, and who goes to the same school too, just he is in the other class 4 (there are two class 4s in my school).

The falling tower of the Barcelonians

Last weekend there was a festival called "La Merced" in Barcelona. It's the biggest festival of the year, and it lasted several days. One of the things at the festival that was very fun was the human towers. They are called "Castells", that is, castles. On one of the castles that we saw, when they went to eight stories of people, the whole thing fell over. Nobody got hurt, but four of the people at the top fell into the crowd.

I did not take pictures of the Castells, but here are some pictures we found on the net:
http://www.onexposure.net/?photos=member&memberid=150&photo=5719
http://cellar.org/2002/humantower.jpg
There is a site called Castellers de Barcelona that you can go to to find out a lot more about them: http://www.castellersdebarcelona.org/eng/.

And here are some pictures of the castells we saw and of the whole festival this year:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13577978@N04/sets/72157602188218164/

We wanted to go to a lot of other places at the festival, but for nearly every one the sheet that we had said the wrong place so we missed almost everything... My dad, Kaelan (who is my brother) and I, we also went to Plaza Catalonia to see the end of the festival (I also had to practice German with my dad at the same time). It was a big dance on Plaza Catalonia. Kaelan really loved it.

This week has been pretty normal, that is I went to school. But one thing that happened is that I got "sick" eating too much of my favorite tapas, which are tiny whole fried squids, called chipirones, or xipirons in catalan. At school I am starting soccer Mondays and Wednesdays starting next week. Now I am better at Spanish: I understand about half the things people say and I can speak a little bit of Spanish. I also know a variety of German words but they are such a variety that I can't make a sentence with them.

Flamenco

Last week on Sunday night we went to a place called Pueblo Espanol. The Pueblo Espanol is a remake from 1929 of different parts of Spain all put into one place.

At the Pueblo Espanol we had reserved seats at a Flamenco dance. For those of you who don't know, Flamenco is a kind of Spanish dance and music. At the Flamenco dance, there were five men making the music and singing, and there were five women in dresses dancing. Some of the dresses were very bright, and some of them were very dark. The music was all very fast, with guitars and vocals. All the men and women were clapping their hands all the time to mark the rhythm. All of the dancing is done by stomping your feet, and, for the girls, twirling their skirts. The dancers almost always danced alone. There was also one man who came to dance. Unfortunately though, I did not understand very much of what they were saying.

My brother loved the dances and kept staring with his mouth open at the dancers and singers there. But that did not stop him from eating half of our food... We ate lots of tapas, which are basically appetizers in Spain. My favorite tapas are xipirones, which are little fried squids.

Here is a cool picture that we found of a flamenco dancer:

http://blogs.elcorreodigital.com/media/hechizo_flamenco_farbe_01.jpg

Red Socks

Unfortunately my new school in Spain has uniforms. The uniforms consist of: black shorts, black pants, a red polo shirt, a white turtleneck shirt, a red sweater, big black leather shoes that give you blisters and make you sweat till your feet prune, and accursed red socks that make me look nerdy and look nerdy themselves! The socks are also very tight and stick to my feet... The school decides which combinations we wear, the summer one (red polo, black shorts) or the winter one (white turtleneck, black pants).

Anyway enough about the uniforms. On my street a school bus comes at 7:43 to pick me up. It is an hour ride to school. When I get there I go almost straight to class. At school most of the classes are in English but four of them are in Spanish. The day before school I felt really freaked out and now I still am a bit but I'm getting a bit better. One thing I don't really like very much about school is that all the other kids always speak in Spanish together and I don't understand much of what they say. Some good news is that our only homework is some things we don't finish during the day.

Barcelona: Goodbye Summer

We have been here since Saturday. In Barcelona we have an apartment with 2 floors and that’s really nice on one of the most famous streets, Paseo de Gracia. There is a picture of our building above. So far we haven’t done much. I have mostly been learning Spanish, preparing for the school year and updating my blog. My school is called St Peter’s (but it's not religious) and it has uniforms. The uniform is OK but it has shoes and socks that look very bad. The good thing for me is that the school is mostly in English (and some in Spanish). But all the students are Spanish.

I have also had some ice cream here, which is not nearly as good as in Italy but still good. We have also had some good Spanish food, but usually we eat dinner at home. Here they have 4 meals a day, and they are later than we do. Breakfast is at the same time as home, and lunch is at 2:00pm. Between lunch and dinner they have a little snackish meal called merienda, then dinner is at 10pm or 11pm, but we eat a little earlier than that.

A Good Summer Read: 6,000 Pages

This summer, since July 1, I have read more than I have ever read in my life in a short amount of time. I read 15 “real” books or more. They are Harry Potter 4, 5, 6 and 7 (some more than once), the Amber Spy Glass, A Series of Unfortunate Events 1 and 2, Sign of the Beaver, The Thief Lord, Tucker’s Travels, Scorpia, The Diamond Frontier, Eragon, Eldest and the Fall – and maybe some others too that I am not counting.

Altogether that means about 6,000 pages in 2 months. I think I read so much this year because I had no camp to go to, so this is something to do and I enjoy reading. On average that is about 100 pages per day.

Cadaques: Did Someone say “Beach”?

Our house in Cadaques was very close to the water and the beach, and the main square. We drove the car as close as we could to where our house was. We had to drag all of our luggage a couple of rocky streets up a hill to get to the house. I did not help bring anything in as I was still feeling sick from the ride. The house was an old fisherman’s house from the 1800’s, and was owned by a violinist. It had 4 floors. The first floor used to be where the fishermen kept their fish, and it had 2 couches. One of them we accidentally broke later on and repaired. The other one folded out into a bed. The whole house had 8 beds and could sleep 11 people. Also we had a mysterious room that had no door and no trap door: we could only see it through a window.

The next day I found out the world track and field championships were on, and my Dad let me watch TV for the first time since we were in Europe to watch them. So the coming week I spent a lot of my idle time in the morning watching the championships on TV. The next day, we went to a rocky beach, and my dad and I went snorkeling. When Lindsay went into the water she broke her sandals, and suddenly miraculously fit in mine... When we got back to the house my feet were all orange from my new orange sandals. The next day we went to a big waterpark that was a lot of fun. We spent the whole day there.

Then, we went to an old Greek and Roman city that is being excavated called Empuries. The name Empuries comes form the name “emporion” which means marketplace because it was a big trade city. Also, right outside the city, there was an amphitheater and – now this is pretty disgusting so brace yourselves – there was a penis carved on the walls of the city which was supposed to keep the city safe. There were also mosaics on a bunch of the old floors, and there were water tanks called cisterns that were made so well that they still held water in them – so the water they had in them could be thousands of years old. There were also still piers and breakwaters to protect the ships on the beach. The beach was so nice there that we decided to come back the next day just to stay on the beach. Before we left, my dad sent me out to buy some bread on my own, so we could make sandwiches. I came back with bread AND caps for a capgun! At the beach, my dad saw a foot-long fish jump out of the water in the waves. I lost a tooth at the restaurant taking out my retainer. I tried to put it in my baby sitter's plate as a surprise while she went to the bathroom but she figured it out.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Barcelona. We are going to stay there until the end of the year. Then we go to Paris in France.

Cavaillon: Baby Emperor

We finally arrived around noon. But when we looked in there were still a bunch of people in the pool playing around – nobody had left yet of the previous renters. We went to ask if this was even the right house, and found it was… We were told we could move in right then, but, as they were still cleaning the house, we decided to offload our huge luggage and go out to lunch.

When we came back everyone was gone. On the outside there were a very big garden, a croquet area, a ping pong table, a badminton court, a petanque court, a pool, an open pool house and an outdoor kitchen. On the inside downstairs, there was a huge living area with 4 big rooms linked together and a kitchen. In the far room there was a piano, a table, and a couch. In the next room, there was just one big table and chairs. In the next one there was another big couch, a TV, and an Xbox that did not work. The front room had plants and a big closet with lots of clothes and shoes. Then there was also a bathroom and a desk to the left. Upstairs there were 3 bathrooms and 7 bedrooms. Two of my cousins and my aunt shared the biggest bedroom with me. At night the same day my other French aunt and uncle arrived with my 3-year old cousin Clara and my newborn boy cousin Julian. For the first few days everybody was concentrating on Julian. He was named after a roman emperor.

In the whole week we only went out once. The rest of the time, we stayed at the house playing badminton, ping pong, all kinds of pool games and other outdoor games. A few nights into our stay, we had a fashion show using each other’s clothes and the clothes that were left in the house. My cousin Ariel (he is a boy) and I dressed up as girls, and my little brother dressed up as a little girl with a purse. My cousin Morane (she is a girl) dressed up as Michael Jackson, my cousin Clara dressed up as a witch (although she looked more like a pirate), my aunt dressed up as Michael Moore and my baby sitter Lindsay also dressed up as a boy. The next day we went out to watch the movie Ratatouille that my French family had not seen yet (but I had). The bathrooms in that movie theater are like dungeons: we have to go down two flights of stairs then there is a long deserted hallway.

The next day my cousins Ariel and Morane, my uncle Michel and I went out to play golf. My uncle Michel and I kept breaking tees and my cousin Ariel kept pushing them into the ground. My cousin Morane was the only one who was not damaging them at all. Then on the way back we ate some pastries and pizza. French pastries are really good! That was our last day at the house in Cavaillon. The next day we left for Cadaques in Spain. As we were ready to leave I started feeling sick, so my Mom turned the AC in the van while we waited 20 minutes for my Dad. Right as my dad got back, I threw up. For the whole trip I had a garbage bag by my side so that I could get sick as needed. When we were almost in Spain I did it again, and we had to stop at Carrefour (a big French chain of supermarkets) to let me feel better and also buy me some medication. That was the end of our week in France.