Classe Verte

This past Sunday my school left for the Classe Verte, a trip to the town of Angers. We were going to stay for a week in the Abbey St. Maur which is an abbey from the Middle Ages. We took a high speed train to get there. When we got to the station in Angers we took a bus to the Zoo de Doue. We ate at a restaurant and got into groups to tour the zoo. Our group took a trail that passed by almost every animal in the zoo. The animals had really big enclosures. My favorites were the vultures, the bats, and the leopards. The vulture cage wasn't exactly a cage. There was a big fence around an enormous area. You could go in behind the fence. You could watch them eat and after they ate they would sometimes wipe their beaks on your pants. After the zoo we took long bus ride to the Abbey St. Maur which is where we stayed the whole week. All the boys from my class - there were nine of us - stayed in one big room with bunk beds. At night it took hours to get to sleep because it was light until literally 12 o'clock, and it was so hot that we laid on top of the beds instead of in them.

The next day, Monday, we went to the Castle of Angers. People had inhabited this site for thousands of years. We saw tiny models of how the castle was through the ages. We went to the tallest tower of the castle. They used to have a windmill there so that they could make flour. We saw a tapestry called The Apocolypse which is over 100 feet long and not to mention is the longest tapestry in the World. The tapestry was begun in 1373. We had a nice picnic there by a fountain. I had a really fun time because we played army tag. Then we took a guided tour around the old town of Angers. On the tour I didn't learn much except that there must be many definitions of the words "treasure hunt", and that Gothic style flamboyant doors are really boring. When we got back we played soccer for a long time and had a snack of donuts filled with Nutella and mint syrup. After dinner back at the Abbey we had a thing called "veiller" where we did a bunch of dancing games and they tested us on our knowledge of all kinds of songs.

On Tuesday we visited another Abbey from the Middle Ages and don't ask me the name because I forget. I saw little room that had pictures of the story of Jesus. Then we saw the gardens which were fairly small but looked very nice. We saw the dining room which was huge, but all the table had been sold during the French revolution. The kitchen was awesome because it used to have 22 chimneys but now they have 12. The tops of the chimneys were domed shaped. They used these for hanging fish to smoke. Priests and nuns weren't allowed to leave the abbey for their whole life. They had a big wall surrounding the abbey so that they couldn't leave. Inside the walls they had a big garden and a lot of the things you would have on the outside, so that they wouldn't want to leave. That day when we got back we went to a humongous orchard by the Abbey that was filled with rose bushes. We played for a long time. We were playing tag and I was going through a small hole and hedge to get away form someone who was "it". I ran into someone else who was trying to go through the hole at the same time and I tripped and fell. My legs and head got all cut up, and I didn't even notice until we go to the place where we were having goutter (snack) . For goutter we had chocolate croissants.

On Wednesday we went to the Chateau de Breze. The outside was really small but the underground area seemed like the size of two castles put together. There were tunnels and caves where they lived and underground stables. There were bakeries and wine making shops. If an enemy attacked they would be trapped in a big holes where they would have hot oil and rocks thrown on them from holes in the ceiling above them. They also had holes in the sides for shooting at people. It was possible to take the castle but very hard.

On Thursday we went to the Cadre Noir de Saumur, which is one of the three best horse schools in the world. We saw a show and got a guided tour of the stables. The three famous jumps are the cabriole, the courbette, and the croubade . The horses were really awesome. There were two horses there who couldn't eat the food there and were only fed newspapers from England that have a particular kind of ink which is edible. On Thursday night, our last night there, we had a "boume" which is basically a disco party. There we had lots of candy which we brought for the train but hadn't finished. Pretty much everyone dance with a really lot of girls - I mean a lot. I danced with about 8 or 9 girls. But don't worry it wasn't slow dancing.

Friday we visited the Moulin or mill. This was a water mill which was used to grind flour. We made bread there that was actually pretty good and we got to take it home. After the mill we took the train and went home. All in all, it was a really, really fun week.

Montmartre

The other night we went to Montmartre. Montmartre is probably the tallest hill in Paris. It took a pretty long time to get there since we had to take the metro, then walk to the funicular, then my Dad and I walked up the hill, but my Mom and little brother took the funicular.

Montmartre is so famous because there is the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and because there are lots of artists there. We spent a bit of time watching the view. Then we walked into the village.







We walked through the Place du Tertre which is really famous because a lot of artists work there. Then we found a nice restaurant and had dinner there. It was really just a little courtyard, and it took forever for the food to come, but when it did it was really good!

My cousins from America!

Last Sunday we had a really really big brunch: my Dad invited all of his friends over and all of my cousins and uncles and aunts on my Dad's side. Then, right before the last people had left, my cousins from America John and Kristin arrived and came to stay for a few days.

We went with them to the Jardin des Tuileries. We played some soccer. My brother and I went to play on the trampoline. Then John and Kristin went for a walk to the Arc de Triomphe. My Dad cooked some French food for all of us for dinner. The next day I had to go to school, but, when I came back, we went out to dinner with them to a fondue place where we had some really good food. I got a goat cheese fondue. My brother got a plain cheese fondue., John and Kristin shared a beer and cheese fondue. My parents had a meat fondue, which is where they give you a bunch of raw meat, and the pot is boiling hot with oil where you cook the meat and it takes about 30 seconds to cook it.

Next day I also had school but when I got back I met with John and Kristin at the Luxembourg Gardens. We played some ping pong. Then, on the way back, we stopped at a restaurant and I ate dinner with my cousins. The next day unfortunately they had to leave. I saw them in the morning but when I got back from school they were gone:(

That week was the week of our final tests for the year, and, actually, I did pretty well. I was first in the class in math, and I was close to the top in French. In English I was also close to the top. In history I think I was first.

Hedges for Landing Strips

Last week we went to the Chateau de Versailles. The line took about 45 minutes, so my Mom, my brother and I played around for a bit while my Dad and my babysitter waited in line. When we went in, instead of going into the castle, we went into the gardens that were absolutely ENORMOUS, and when I say ENORMOUS, I mean ABSOLUTELY ENORMOUS. All over there were statues and nice fountains. There were all kinds of different plants everywhere.

We saw these little karts that you could drive around the gardens, except that there were only 2 left, and not many coming back, and the line had maybe 10 people ahead of us. My parents said that if we got one I could drive it, but unfortunately we never got one.

When we were walking down some nice steps to go into the main part of the garden, my brother fell off the steps and onto the top of the hedge. I don't mean into the hedge, I mean onto the hedge, because instead of falling through the hedge like he normally should have, he stayed on top of the hedge. Then I found out that even I could walk on top of the hedge!

Then we walked through a sort of maze that took us a long way further into the garden, and when we came out of it we kept walking forward we found out that we could take rowboats out on the water. So we bought some sandwiches at a little food stand, rented a boat, and had a picnic on the boat in the water. On the way back, we had some really good ice cream. I got mango.

Then we went into the castle. We saw a lot of it, but compared to the size of the castle we saw pretty much nothing. The king who built it was Louis XIV. Louis XIV apparently had, if I remember correctly, 11 drawing rooms, which, for those of you who don't know, are rooms for people to stay in while waiting for the king. There were also lots of sun symbols everywhere, probably because Louis XIV was called the Sun King (Le Roi Soleil).

We also saw the king's bedroom and the queen's bedroom. I think the queen's bedroom was a lot nicer than the king's bedroom even though the King's bedroom was a lot bigger, because he really had 6 rooms. Both rooms were off the famous Gallerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors). The Gallerie had hundreds of mirrors. As a matter of fact, the whole room except for the ceiling was mirrors. After that we left and went home.

Overall I think that it was a very good trip except for the fact that I could not drive any of the karts.

Le Champs de Mars

The other day we went to the Champs de Mars for a school picnic.

The Champs de Mars is the big park that's right in front of the Eiffel Tower. Everybody brought something to eat and we all shared. We brought brownies and sandwiches. Then we played some soccer. After that we played some football (American football), and then we played three flies up. Then we did a bunch of games of sharks and minnows. I won every game except the last game.

I really liked the place and we had a lot of fun. My dad thought that it was really cool to have a picnic under the Eiffel Tower and I thought it was too but still, considering the facts, we could probably go there any time we want. All in all, I think that it was a really good picnic.

The Black Rooster

In the morning yesterday, we were going to drop my Dad in Naples, but my Mom had neck cramps, so she could not drive. So we decided not to drop him off, and we kept on driving towards Rome to our new hotel. We stopped on the way at a town called Alatri, where we ate lunch at a restaurant called the Gaio Nero. We had a really good lunch, and the people there were really nice and gave us a lot of candy.

There were lots of medieval houses there. The town is famous for its huge Greek Acropolis, which means "the high city", at the very top of the hill. We went to a park there and played a bit, and my brother got three bloody noses there.

Then we drove to our hotel in Rome. We weren't really hungry so we went to sleep without dinner. In the morning, we drove to the airport really early and took a flight back to Paris.

The Perfect Day

Today we went to an island called Capri. We rent a small motor boat for the whole day. First we drove the boat to Capri and got off at a small harbor called Marina Piccola, which means, you guessed it, "the small harbor". Then we walked around and took a taxi convertible up the hill. Then we walked some more, Then we went to a restaurant and had an excellent lunch where I had the best pizza that I ever had in Italy.

After lunch, we walked back to the boat, then boated all around Capri. In the end, when we were waiting for some friends to come back, my Dad and I went swimming into the water next to our boat. It took me a whole 10 minutes to decide to go in since the water was freezing cold, but eventually I did. Then we sailed back to Nerano.

In the evening we had another wonderful dinner at Charlot the restaurant. They cooked us a special dinner that was not on the menu just for us, that was made of typical dishes from the region.

Swimming Like a Queen

Today my Dad went to Naples and Herculanum, and the rest of us went to a place called the Queen's Bath. It's called the Queen's Bath because that is where a queen used to bathe. It's really a little tiny salt water lagoon, but it's super small and there is a natural arch that leads to the ocean next to it, and there are old Roman ruins around it.

There we had some home made sandwiches. Nobody wanted to go in except for me. Since I had forgotten to bring my bathing suit, I went in my boxers. It took a while for me to get in, and when I did, I cheered Linda on until she went in too, but my Mom and my brother did not go at all.

Then we went home. When we got back my Dad came back a few minutes after us and we found that every place he had got to was closed so he was not able to visit anything. Then we had a big birthday party for my Dad. We grilled all the meat that we had gotten, and took out the birthday cake that we had bought. The only problem that we had was that we forgot to get him any presents...

The Road of Hell

Today we drove to a place called Paestum, which took a while to get to, but it was worth it when we made it there because it was super pretty. And there were a bunch of things that were like mazes there! Paestum is the ruin of a very old Greek town. It has probably the best kept temples in the entire world - and I am not exaggerating. The temples looked as if you could use them today.

When were done looking at the temples, we went to a place that was a lot like a maze where I played hide and seek with my Mom and my brother, but it was actually the ruins of old Greek houses. Then we had a picnic under a big tree where we right sandwiches, chips and soda right by a temple.

While my father was at the museum, we bought him a birthday cake because it was his birthday, and we had the best gelato I have had in my entire life.

On the way back to Nerano, we took a road, that should have been called the road of hell. It was super super narrow, and sometimes we were behind a bus, then another bus came, and we had to go back many yards to let it pass. Sometimes it took 20 minutes to get a few feet forward. That road was the coastal road on the coast of Amalfi. Then we drove up the hill to a small town called Ravello, where we also got some meat to grill at home. But then we arrived home too late to cook because the road was so hard to drive on.

Magma Chair

Today we walked to Ieranto Bay. It is a tiny, unusually isolated little beach, in a bay where the Romans thought there were sirens. It was at least one hour and forty five minutes to walk, but it was still OK because the path was really nice. There was absolutely nobody at the beach and in the whole bay which looked totally uninhabited.

I found a little area made out probably of million year old magma that I more or less claimed as mine. It even had a bathroom (which was a little hole) and a living room, and a thinking chair. And also a place to put your stuff.

Most of the time I was climbing on the rocks, and skipping rocks on the water with my brother. On the way back, instead of coming up the way we came, we climbed up a path that was so steep that we had to use weeds as pulleys to get ourselves up. When that was finished, we took an easier path than what we came on which was going through a bunch of olive fields. But it was very hard for my little brother who was very tired and thirsty, and hungry.

For dinner we went to a really good local restaurant called Charlotte.

Hot Spot

Monday we went to Pompei, which I thought was really really cool. On the houses for which they knew who had lived there they wrote the names of the people. First we just looked around at a lot of houses in various streets, and then my Dad told us about what certain places were, and we even saw a few "fast food" places from 2,000 years ago. We saw wine tasting places and restaurants and bars from the Roman times.

I liked the big houses best, because many times there were a bunch of walls and passage ways and, as I have said before, I love mazes:-) We also saw old graffiti from the Roman times, which is basically carving pictures and words into the rock. Another thing we say was that, on each street, on the ground, were smooth little grooves that chariots had been going over for hundreds of years and made. We also saw some really nice paintings of mostly birds and animals on the walls of many houses.

Then we left and had lunch at a restaurant near by. Then we went back home, but we stopped in Sorrento to get some gelato and look at the view. The view was really nice and it showed the whole bay of Naples, and there were cruise ships and barges. You could also see Mount Vesuvius, which is the volcano that destroyed Pompei.

Not to mention that this was probably the hottest I ever got in my entire life...

South by South East

Friday night we drove to the airport in Beauvais and left for Italy. We landed in Rome. When we got there it was very late and we took a shuttle to our hotel which was pretty nice. The next morning, my Mom and Dad went to rent a car with my brother while Linda (my new baby sitter) and I stayed and ate breakfast at the hotel. Then we drove to Nerano, which is a small village further than Sorrento, which is further than Pompei, which is further than Naples.

On the way there we only stopped twice: the first time to go to the bathroom, and the second time to get some money from the bank and buy some food and sandwhiches.

The place where we stayed at was called Olga's Residence, a very nice house which is probably the only modern place in the village. It had a really nice swimming pool (though the temperature was probably below zero...). Our place had two stories, and a tiny narrow staircase up to the roof which was a perfect place to sunbathe.

Right after we arrived we left again to get my brother some medicine we had forgotten at our apartment in Paris. First we went to a village called Termini to find a pharmacy, but apparently it was closed although we waited almost an hour because it was supposed to be open. Then we went to Sant'Agata and there the pharmacy was open.

For dinner we walked to the beach, at a place called Marina del Cantone, where we had some pretty good food.

Today my Dad and I went swimming in the pool. Well, I did not really go swimming: I just jumped in and jumped right out. But then I jumped in again, because my Mom and my brother wanted to see me jump in. The my brother took a nap, and my Dad stayed with him while Linda, my Mom and I went to a private beach that was reserved only for us. Then my Mom made pasta for dinner.

Notre Dame de Pompidou

The other day I went with Adin, Jennifer and my brother, to Notre Dame de Paris and the Pompidou Center (which in Paris people call Beaubourg).

First we took a little boat, called a bateau mouche, which travels on the Seine and takes you to certain places around Paris. We got off at Notre Dame de Paris. When we got here we stood outside for a while, just looking at the outside and the famous big round stain glass window. When we got in all the windows looked different, because from the inside you can actually see the pictures on them. We also saw many retables (they are long wood carvings that tell a story) and statues from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Then we got back on the boat, and went along to the place closest to the Pompidou Center. It is a giant art center but it's really weird because most of it is made out of glass and all the heating pipes, water, air conditioning, etc. are color coded and instead of being inside they are outside the building like the exoskeleton of a bug. That particular day by chance it was the last day of construction but it was still closed so we could not go inside. We went to a statue garden outside and got some hot chocolate. After that we went back home.

Eiffel Tower II

Yesterday we went to the Eiffel tower for the second time. This time we went at 10:00pm after my brother had been put to bed, so that he would not feel bad about not going. I went with Adin and Jennifer.

First we were only going to the second floor. Then Adin and I wanted to go all the way to the 3rd and very top floor. It was about a 45mn wait to get tickets to get to the first floor (second American floor, 1st European floor). We took an elevator to the first floor, then an elevator to the 2nd floor, then an elevator to the top. It was really, really fun up there, but Adin and Jennifer did not like being that high, so we went down quickly.

On the way down we took an elevator down to the 2nd floor, then down to the first floor. It took us a long time to find the elevator on the first floor, but when we finally did it took a long time to get there, but for some reason the doors did not open for a long time, so we finally took the stairs. But I have to say that I think the stairs were a lot more fun.

Le Louvre: Beetle Art

Today we went to the Louvre with Adin and Jennifer. We saw the remains of a hidden castle under the Louvre.

Then we went on through some of the art galleries in the Museum. There was a really disgusting worm creature, that was reall super, super long, maybe seven or eight yards long, or more, that had the head of a human being, and that was going through a fake graveyard. It was so realistic you could even hear it and see it inhaling and exhaling.

We also saw these cool art things that were made out of beetles, but the light reflected out of them in such a way that they looked like they were the colors of the rainbow. And you could not tell they were beetles unless you looked really really close.

There is only one thing there that I did not get to see that I wanted to. It was the stolen crown of a King of France that they found in a garbage dump many, many years later after it had been stolen. But I forgot to look for it.

The Adin is Coming! The Adin is Coming!

My friend arrived a couple of days ago from California! He arrived Thursday, and I actually was surprised to see him because I thought he was supposed to arrive really late in the day. I was super happy to see him! While I was at school, he seemed to have fallen in love with my dart guns. So we ended up having a lot of dart battles.

Yesterday we went to the Jardin des Tuileries, where we played on the trampoline a lot, and I finally mastered doing back flips on it. Then we also played a lot of soccer (football if you are British) with my Dad. After that, my brother decided to go to the merry go round, and we are not going to. Then we saw there was a cup that turned when the merry go round went around, but yhou could also turn it very fast with a wheel that was in the center of it, so we decided to go and make ourselves dizzy. Then I made myself a little bit too dizzy and nearly threw up on it. Right before we left we saw a little ice cream stand so we got some ice cream. In the picture above you can see me do an unsuccessful backflip.

Today, we went to the Eiffel Tower. Bu the lines were so long to get there we did not go up at all and just looked at it from close by. We'll have to go there another time. Then we had lunch at a Romanian restaurant, but instead of getting some Romanian dishes we just got roast chicken:-). This being because there were no Romanian dishes on the menu - but, still, even if there had, I think I would still have gotten roast chicken...

After lunch my Mom took my little brother home, and we (Adin, my Dad, Jennifer who is Adin's Mom and I) walked to the Invalides. It was really nice. We looked at a bunch of cannons first. Then we went to see the tomb of Napoleon. Then we saw a huge museum there on World War I and World War II. All in all I thought it was a really good visit.

Then we had to walk back really quickly to meet my Mom because we were going to the Passover Seder at my Grandma's house.

The Revenge Of The Burritos

Last night we had home made burritos to make up for the horrible ones at the Mexican restaurant. This time they were pretty good. Except for the beans which were only good if you didn't put to much of it in. That was the revenge of the burritos.....

But since we have so much I think we'll be eating it for many many dinners to come. We even had so much that we made sandwiches with to eat at the school picnic that was today! And Adin if you're reading this, considering the fact that you are coming on Thursday, I hope you like burritos!

WBE (worst burritos ever)

Last Saturday we went to a Mexican restaurant that my mom had seen. It smelled really good on the inside and the guacamole and chips were good so we started to think that it was a good place to go to but as usual we didn't know just how wrong we were.

Everyone except my mom got burritos con carne.

When we got our burritos we found out that they were just the lousiest tortillas filled with chili con carne. In other words they were the worst burritos ever.

Easter Week End

On Saturday we went to see l'Arc de Triomphe to take a picture of me next to it for schol. Then we picked up my brother at the train station and left to see a bunch of our friends who were in Normandy in a village next to the ocean. It took two and a half hours to get there. The village is called Villers sur Mer.

When we got there we looked around at what the place looked like, then we played a bunch of ping pong. Then we went out to dinner and got some pizza at a restaurant. When we came back, there wasn't enough room for all as we were at least 16 people. So I slept in a couch downstairs that could fold out into a bed with another boy named Arthur.

In the morning we had a big breakfast and I played on a mini-PSP that Arthur had where we played Grand Theft Auto. Then we went to the beach to do a treasure hunt in two teams. I found the first two clues, and then I was the first person to get to the next clue but somebody else found it. Someone in my team found the last clue. The winning team got to order lunch and icecream first. And, where we were, that was really a privilege, because, at the restaurant we went to, it took a long time to get our food!

Then we drove to a place called Deauville where it took forever to park, then once we finally did, it took us forever to find the restaurant. To top it all off, it was pouring rain. When we finally got there, it took them forever to find a big table for 16, then, once we ordered, it took them at least a half an hour to actually get our food... But then it got better because all the food was supergood. I got a really good fish with pesto and some French fries with ketchup. After that we went out to get ice cream, or crepes. There were also gauffres but I don't know what that is in English, but it looked like some kind of waffle with stuff on the top. I got some really, really good banana ice cream. I was going to get crepes, but in Paris we can't find good ice cream easily, and you can get crepes all the time, so I decided I would get ice cream for once...

Then, once we had gone back to the house, another family arrived with a really nice guy named James, and we played Monopoly while watching the movie "The Party". In the end, I got kind of tired of playing, and I landed on one of his places and I had to pay all of my money and mortgage all the places I owned, so I gave up and said he won, although I could have kept on going if I had been really determined. The kids had some really cheesy pasta for dinner while most of the parents went out for dinner. There were 13 of us kids!

In the morning, after another big breakfast, I played Monopoly with my Mom, then we had an Easter egg hunt and I found 7 eggs. We kept on playing but then we had to pack and get ready to go. It took us another two and a half hours to get back to Paris.

Don't Worry, I'm Working on my British Accent

Thursday I left for a four day trip to London. We left for the train about 11:00. We took a taxi to the station and we arrived so late that we almost missed the train. We found some seats, sat down, and relaxed. Then we went to the dining car and got some lunch. I got this pita thing that was kind of like a pizza on the inside and was really good. We played a game that we brought and when we finally got there we walked straight to our hotel. It was really nice and had the most comfortable bed I've ever slept on. Then we went to Burger Shack. They had some of the best burgers I have ever tasted in my entire life. I got a chili cheesburger and chili fries.

After that we left to see the grand opening of "Zorro" because one of my best friend's dad is the producer. The bus ride to get there took over two hours. I thought that it was a really good musical. At one time Zorro came down a rope with a safety belt and took a long time to unhook it. That was kind of weird. Then my mom got me some gummy worms and some hearts that tasted like fizzy peach Nestea. After the show there was a party that lasted about 45 minutes. I was so tired that I went to sleep on a couch with my jackeet and my dad's jacket covering me like blankets. My dad woke me up when it was time for the bus to leave. In the bus I also slept for long time. After that we went back to the hotel and went to bed.

The next day we took double decker buses all around London. On one of them I hurt my arm so bad that we had to stop and go to a pub to put ice on it and have lunch. Then we went to the Tower of London. For those of you who don't know, the Tower of London is a Medieval castle where many of the kings and queens of England lived. They also kept a lot of prisoners there before they were killed. We saw all of the jewels, crowns, and crests of a lot of the kings or queens who ruled England. We also saw a really cool armory. I really liked it and thought it was a really awesome place. Then we took a boat back to Westminster. We saw Big Ben and then went to try to get into Westminster Abbey but it was closed. After that we went to meet John and Susan, one of my best friend's parents, and had dinner at an Indian restaurant called Mela. After that we went back to the hotel and went to bed.

On Saturday we went to the British Museum. We were going to see an exhibit with thousands of sculptures of Chinese soldiers but the tickets were sold out so we couldn't go. Instead we went to see some Japanese Samurai armor and paintings. Then we went to see some Egyptian mummies, and we stayed at that exhibit for a long time. Then we went to see some sculptures of Assyrian lions and after that we went to see the Elgin marbles, some marble scultpures that were stolen from the Parthenon in Greece by Lord Elgin. The very last thing we did was go to see the Bog man from Lindow in Great Britain. He is a human who has been kept in a certain kind of soil which makes it so that even his skin is still there after 2,000 years. He looked pretty disgusting, but still it was cool to see.

Then we went to Covent Garden, saw some street preformers, and got pasties. I got a cheese and bacon pasty. After that since my dad had promised me that I could have Sushi, we went to a Sushi restaurant. When we got home we watched TV and waited for my mom. When SHE got home, she wasn't sure we would find the Sushi so she brought some more back and I ate some of that. Later at dinner I barely ate anything, just a few bits from other people's plates, since I had already eaten all that. I got some jasmine tea and drank a whole put of it and also two or three glasses of water. I had to go pee three times in about fifteen minutes. Then my parents had planned a surprise for me which was to go to a show called Spamelot. It was really, really, really funny. At the show I hit the bathroom I think four times because of all that water and tea.

It was really a good trip and I liked London a lot. But still, I wish it would rain less there.

Away for a week

This whole week I went to a ski camp in the French Alps. Everything was really good about it except that on Tuesday I felt sick and had to stay in bed the whole day. The other days were pretty good, except for something. I was in the highest level group and the director was the one skiing the us, and it's really weird because if you did just one thing wrong he would start screaming his head off at you. He screamed a lot at me because I had never skied in the French style before. But here is the weird thing: everywhere else he was very nice and making jokes and things like that.

A good thing was that the food was really, really good. We must have had the best cooks in France there! But since it was all French dishes, I can't really tell you what they were... After skiing we had gouter, which is a little snack you have between lunch and dinner in France. Then we went straight to our rooms to take showers and then got in our PJs, and did things in our room.

I was in a room with three other people. One of them was the director's son! He was my best friend there. We weren't really old enough to go the the big kids' floor, but we were older than the little kids' floor. There were two rooms that we might get when we arrived, one of which was in the big kids floor and had the only PSP in the whole building! Unfortunately we got the one on the little kids' floor! I can't believe I was so close to having a PSP at my disposal for a whole week! Also, since we were more often with the big kids, we went to the activities room on their floor to do things there, so we stayed there until 9:20pm.

The train ride to the camp is about 5 hours, then there is a bus for about 45 minutes. My parents dropped me off at the platform around noon, and we got to the lodge right before they started dinner. We just had time to put our snowboots downstairs before we went straight for dinner. On the way back, since there were three of us who were really good friends, we squished ourselves into seats for two people since we all wanted to be together on the train back.

Eurodisney

Last Wednesday we went to Eurodisney, which is Disneyland, just in France, so they call it Eurodisney. For breakfast I made pancakes for the family. But, since this took a while to make for the whole family and since we had woken up late (and it took a long time to eat) we left for Eurodisney around noon.

When we got there, it took a while to get in, and my brother and I jumped around a lot. Then right when we got past the entrance I realized that I had lost the necklace I was wearing, and we went back to look for it. I never thought we would actually find it. We miraculously did find it right next to a pole that I had tried to climb and fallen off of. I think the necklace must have fallen when I fell. The chain was broken but I least it was still there. And, you know, you can get a cheap chain like that pretty much anywhere. Then in Eurodisney we got annual passes so that we can go almost every day of the year, although there are a few days when we can't go.

The first thing we did was go to the Buzz Lightyear ride. But the line was so long that we got a fast pass for 4:00pm. Then we had a hot dog and chips for lunch, then we split up. My mom went with me, and, after a lot of crying, my brother went with my dad. First my mom and I went to Frontierland, where we looked around but could not see anything interesting. That took a while.

Then we went to Adventure Isle, which is not a ride, but has two sides, on one of which there is a really big tree and a bunch of little passages that go under the roots of the tree. Then on the other side is what appears to be a humongous rock with a bunch of caves that lead to a bunch of places. There are two bridges to get from one side to the other. One of them goes from the top of the tree to the top of the rock. The other one goes right over the water, there is not even a foot over the water.

Then we also looked at the Indiana Jones ride, but I was too small to go, and we also went to Space Mountain where I was only one inch too short to go. I think it's pretty unfair, because in America I can do Space Mountain, but not here. Then we just walked around, because we did not have time to do any more rides before 4:00pm. But my brother and my dad were a bit late so we waited a while for them.

Then we switched off. My brother went with my Mom and I went with my dad. My dad and I went to the Buzz Lightyear ride. After that we went straight to the Pirates of the Carribbean ride. The line was pretty short but it was still about 15 or 20 minutes. But that's not long considering this is Disneyland we are talking about here!

Then my dad and I went back to Adventure Isle to play hide and seek. The first time he found me in five minutes. The second time I found him in two minutes. The third time he did not find me at all, and he went back to our agreed meeting point if we got lost. Then we just walked back to meet my Mom at Main Street. There we went in a store where my brother and I got huge lollipops. Right at 7pm when the park closes they light up the big Disney castle and we watched that before leaving for good.

On the way out we saw a movie theater that looked like it might have some good movies. It did not really have anything, but my brother smashed my lollipop so I got some strawberry cheesecake icecream, although my dad disagreed but I still was able to get it.

No More Lindsay

Friday night Lindsay took me out to dinner and a movie since it was her last week day in Paris. We were going to go to a sushi restaurant, bu they were closed. So we went to a place that I think was called "Lyons". There we shared a really good meal. It had a bunch of mussels covered in tomato sauce, melted cheese, fries and something else that I dont know about, but it was really good anyway.

Then Lindsay took me to a candy shop and we both took a bag of candy. One thing that I got there was a huuuuuuuuuge gummy snake that was over 60 centimeters, and might have been 80. That's over two feet long!!

Then we went to the movie "National Treasure: Book of Secrets". But like most movie theaters you weren't allowed to bring food that you had not bought there, so I had to smuggle the candy in by putting it in a big pocket I had in my sweatshirt. The movie was pretty good but I still think that the first one was better.

Saturday we did not do much. But Sunday we went to the Luxembourg garden. There we found out they had tennis courts and ping pong tables, but the only problem was that we did not bring any ping pong or tennis gear with us. Then we walked around for a while, and when my brother woke up we went back to a pedal kart stand where I went rode 15 laps around a bunch of cones going as fast as I could. Then we went a a hamburger place for lunch. It was pretty bad, but it still paid off since it was the first time I had a hamburger since leaving California.

When we asked Lindsay what she wanted for her last day she asked fro fondue, so that's what we made. Except that, for some reason we don't know, the cheeese never melted quite enough. It was still good though. Tee next day Lindsay left for California, and we found out that her boyfriend proposed the day after she arrived!

Double Party

Yesterday a person who may become my babysitter came over from Roumania, or, more exactly, from Transylvania, land of the vampires!

Today, we walked around the Louvre, but not inside, and we went in the glass pyramid, but we weren't able to go around the underground castle that is underneath the Louvre, because we needed tickets and we were in a hurry. Instead we went to the Louvre gift shop and bought Lindsay a pretty necklace as a gift since she is leaving next week. Then we got her a gift card so she could got to a place called the Moulin Rouge that she has been wanting to go to for a while. We also got her a shirt of the Moulin Rouge. The Moulin Rouge is a place where there is a lot of dancing like the French cancan and stuff like that.

Then we walked alongside the Louvre for a long time, while looking for things to buy. We almost bought me a pair of boxers that had the whole metro lines on them. But the smallest size was too big for me so I could not get them. My dad said that if I bought them, from now on he would use them as a real metro map, and he would look down my pants at them when he needed to know where to go in the metro. We walked next to the Seine river for a while.

Then we came back and drove straight to my cousin Samy's for his birthday. We were half an hour late, but we were still the second group of people there! There we also had a surprise party for Lindsay. The whole thing was a lot of fun.

The Longest Line Ever

Yesterday, my grandma and her friend were there for the whole morning because they had slept over. We had breakfast with them, then the rest of the time we were in the house I played legos, that I had just received from California with all our things from there. My mom went for a haircut while I was playing. Then we went to the Jardin des Plantes, where we met my mom, my aunt, my grandma, her friend, and my aunt's friend. The Jardin des Plantes is a really big garden, and it has two museums.

We went to one of them called La Grande Gallerie de l'Evolution, which means the Great Gallery of Evolution. One of the really cool things that we saw was three different kinds of whole whale skeletons. They also showed a lot of animals that had been killed and stuffed, so you could see them as if they were real. And they had small videos about some of the animals that were there and some that weren't there.

After the museum we had crepes, then we went on to a cafe to get some drinks, then on the way back my dad went to a Chinese restaurant to get some Chinese food to eat at the house, which was really far away from the restaurant. That's when we noticed my brother's sippy cup was missing, so I had to run all the way back to the cafe to get it then run all the way back. We had not had Chinese food since being in California, except once in Barcelona.

Today we met a babysitter that might take care of me after Lindsay goes back. Then around noon we went straight to an amusement park called Jardin d'Acclimatation that my other aunt had invited us to, where we met her, her husband, my grandma, her friends, and two of my cousins that are way younger than me.

When we arrived we were really hungry as we had not had lunch, so we went to the restaurant to eat, and it took 1/2 hour just to get our food because the line was so long, Then we all went in separate directions to go to different places. My dad and I went in one direction together.

First we went to a climbing strucutre that was made entirely of ropes except for a central pole that was about 30 feet tall, with ropes all aorund it like a spiderweb going all the way up to the top of the pole. I climbed it once, then I had my dad time me twice going up it.

After that we went to a ride where there is either one chair or two chairs connected to each other that have chains on them attached to something else really high up, then, when you are in the chair, the whole thing turns and you fly really high and fast. I got a headache in it, so I did not want to go in any ride that moved fast. So we went to a place where you could remote control boats on the water, and my dad and I tried to crash each other. It was really fun!

Jardin des Tuileries

Guess what? Yesterday we found out that, during the night, the whole building night next to us caught fire and burned to smithereens, and the outside is still there, but if you look inside the windows, all it is is coal and you can't even see anything that was in there. It is all pitch black. What is even more amazing is that we did not hear any of it. Come to think of it, I did wake up and heard some weird noises but I thought I was imagining it and I went back to sleep - that could have been it.

Also, the other big news is that my babysitter who has been with us for more than two years, Lindsay, is leaving: she is going back to the US in a month. She is going to live with her boyfriend. I think she is going to get married (to him), but she does not like me saying that... We are all really going to miss her!

Today we went to the jardin des Tuileries, which is what I wrote was 5 minutes walk from home. Right when we got there, we went to play hide and seek in a bunch of hedges that we saw that weren't supposed to be a maze but that were kind of like one. Then we walked around and my brother went on a pony ride. While he was doing that, my dad was timing me climbing up a lamp post, and I think my record was 6 seconds. Then I went on trampolines practising flips. Then we went to a really big Ferris wheel to see what the whole garden looks like from above.

My New Life in Paris

Our apartment is in the center of Paris, about 5 minutes walk from the garden of the Tuileries and from the Louvres. It's on a pretty small street for Paris but big street for California, and right next to our building we have a bakery, and a cafe on the other side. Our building is about 300 years old. It's been remodeled about a million times and it looks really nice.

Our house has a really small entryway, and right next to it there is a door for the kitchen and for a bathroom. Right next to it there is the dining room, which has another door for the kitchen, and also a tiny spiral staircase that leads up to my brother's room and mine. In the middle when you go up the tiny spiral staircase is a tiny bathroom, on the left is my brother' s room, and on the right is my room> The bathroom in the middle is so small that I can barely fit in it: it is all sized for children. Right below my room, at the bottom of the spiral staircase is another bathroom that is kind of big but that only has a shower and two big sinks at kids' height, also for my brother and me. In front of the dining room is the living room, that's pretty big with a fireplace and a really big coach that's awesome because it has wallish-like things on the sides of it. And even in front of the living room there is my babysitter's room, that is very big, and has a luxury bathroom, and it has stairs that lead to the the bed. Also, on the far left of the living room, there is a little hallway with a desk: that's the computer room. And right next to it is my parent's room that I like to call the luxury suite, that has a luxury bathroom, luxury bed, luxury extra space, luxury desk, and even a luxury closet! Everywhere the ceilings and doors are humongous, except our my brother's room and mine and the tiny bathroom. I really, really like our place here, it feels comfortable.

My school is also really great. Because I don't know how to read well in French and to write in French (or more exactly I couldn't because now I can write some things), I am in an adaptation class where the teacher speaks French and all the classes are in French, but it's a bit easier from what the normal 4th grade would be, and if we don't understand things the teacher will repeat it in English. For some classes like history where it's kind of hard they will say almost all of it it English.

Here we have 3 recesses. In the morning, before lunch, we have one that is literally 5 or 10 minutes. Then for lunch we have one that is one and a half hours, including time for lunch, and I eat at the cafeteria. Also, before the last class we have another recess which is 15 to 20 minutes. At recess we usually play soccer, but sometimes we play ball tag, plain tag, and once now we also played football (or American Football). We also sometimes play foot tag, which is where you try to step on other people's feet,and if you step on someone else's foot and you're it then they are it, etc. Also what's great about the school is that if you have a yellow pass which almost everybody does you can leave without a parent at the end of the day. Of course, usually I have parents or babysitters waiting for me, but, the few times that I don't, I can go outside and play while I am waiting.

Don't Worry, it's not his Favorite Finger!

When we woke up we packed for departure, then we went straight to the Mea Shearim district. Everybody there is really, really religious and since they believe that every one should cover their head with something and that all women should wear skirts. Because some of us had forgotten to bring kippas and we weren't incredibly religious and the girls weren't wearing skirts, when we walked by a school the kids were yelling names at us...at least I THINK they were yelling names at us but I couldn't be sure because it was all in Hebrew. Then we went back to the hotel, said our goodbyes and left. I thought that Israel was really good, and I want to go back.

We took a cab to the airport. We flew to Zurich and switched planes and went to Paris. In the terminal when my dad was opening the stroller, my brother left his pointer finger there and when my dad opened the stroller, my brother's finger got squashed between something that barely has enough room to fit a fingernail in it, not to mention a whole finger. It was bleeding and we had to take care of it right away.

My aunt Babette and my cousins Ariel and Morane picked us up to bring us to our new apartment in Paris. Our apartment is really nice and already I can't imagine leaving it.

And ANOTHER Sweater

We had our breakfast at the hotel, and I took a really good video of my brother dancing. I think he could be a famous dancer and singer some day, because he was really good! I can't show you the video because my dad won't let me post pictures of faces of the family...

Then we walked straight to an area in Jerusalem called the German Colony where there were supposed to be really nice art galleries. We couldn't find it at first but after asking a few people, we found them. We didn't actually find the galleries at first, but still found a really nice area that had houses all around it, called the Artists' Colony. Then, on the other side of the houses we found the art galeries, but most of them were closed so we could only look through the windows.

Then we went into the old town again, inside the walls, and walked to the Kotel, and then to area around the Dome of the Rock, which is a dome covered with gold used by the Moslems as a religious place. When we were leaving, we looked all over for the exit because we could not find it. It took us about twenty minutes just to figure out how to get out.

Then walked for a long time around the Arab Quarter and the Jewish Quarter and I bought a Star of David necklace. We went to a place that we found out had the same sweatshirt as the one I lost at The Frenkels and we bought ANOTHER one there. After that we had the BEST shwarma I've ever tasted at a place in the Arab Quarter.

At about 5pm my uncle/cousin Elie picked us up and drove us over to Tel Aviv to have dinner with the whole family. First we stopped at their apartment just to stay for a few minutes and then we went to another Arab restaurant that was pretty good. But if I was in America, I would basically be having a hamburger and french fries because that is what falafel or shwarma are like in Israel. We then took a taxi back to Jerusalem and we went back to our hotel. I fell asleep on the way and my parents had to wake me up when we arrived.

To Be (in the Caves) or Not To Be

In the morning, we walked around the Jewish Quarter till almost lunch. Then we realized we were almost late for a guided tour that we were supposed to go to. So we literally ran most of the way, got sandwiches to go, and ate running on the way to the Tunnels, which start right by the Kotel (the Wailing Wall).

In the tour, we went through a bunch of tunnels that were dug by the Israelis to be able to see the full length of the western wall of the temple underneath the city. I thought it was really cool. First we walked along the old western wall, then the guide told us we were walking underneath the Arab Quarter and that actually the Arab Quarter had been built on old arches from the Ottomans' time. The tunnel also took us all the way down to the old streets from King Herod's time, and we were able to walk on the street and see the old shops that used to be there. And, at the very end of the street, there was a humungous stone blocking off the street: the guide told us that they were digging the street through the rock, but, when King Herod died, they just stopped digging. At the end of the tunnel, there was a huge cistern and aquaduct dug into the rock.

When we got out, we were in the Arab Quarter, and there were guards that were escorting us back. One of them had a machine gun, and the other one had a handgun with a folding piece that made it look like a rifle. Then we walked down to the Dung Gate and took a cab to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum.

We had found out that my friend Josh and I were too young to go in, so instead, John, Josh's father, "took us to the Caves". First we drove for an hour or two. By then, John thought we did not have enough gas to go there and back, so we looked for another hour for a gas station (which are very rare in Israel). When we finally found one, then we kept on driving for another hour. Then I fell asleep and don't know what happened. But when I woke up we were very close to the Holocaust Museum, and John said we did not go to the caves because it ended up being to late so we had to come back and pick up everyone else.

Right when we were about to leave there, Josh and I had to go to the bathroom. Then we finally were able to drive back to the hotel. That night we went to dinner at the YMCA, but my brother and my mom stayed home because my mother was sleeping and somebody needed to stay and watch him. We had a pretty bad dinner there, and brought some back for my mom and my brother.

The City of David

We had an OK breakfast at the Prima Royale, which was our hotel, then we walked to Jaffa Gate, to meet our guide for the day. He was very nice and he really knew pretty much everything there is to know about Jerusalem. There are different quarters in they old town of Jerusalem. When we were walking across them, we went first to the Christian Quarter, then to the Armenian Quarter, then to the Jewish Quarter, to go to the Dung Gate. It's a weird name, I know, but that's what it's called... The old town of Jerusalem was really nice. In the Christian Quarter, we saw almost no one, but probably that was because it was early. All the buildings were made out of Jerusalem stone, and so was the pavement. Most everything where we walked was over a thousand years old, and sometimes it was two thousand years old! Except that the Jewish Quarter is almost all new, because it was destroyed by the Jordanians in the war of independence, so there was not too much to see there.

From the Dung Gate, we went to the City of David, outside the Old City walls, which is where a part of the old Jewish city was. First we went to a bunch of excavation sites, where we saw the old Canaanite wall, and where King David and his descendants had also built. Then we walked to this place where there was a really old pool, called the pool of Shiloah, that had steps going into it, because the level of the water always changed, so one of the walls was made of steps so you could get to the water. Then we had to walk all the way back up the hill to the Dung Gate. We were really tired so we were literally staggering up the hill to go back into the Old City and to have lunch.

We had some pretty bad shawarma for lunch. Then we went to the Davidson Center, which is the area around the western and the southern wall of the temple. We saw the remains of the Robinson Arch, and a bunch of original pieces of the wall that had fallen. Then we saw a lot of old houses and their cisterns which I thought were the coolest part of the visit, because there was a tiny staircase leading into the houses and the cisterns, and we you walked through them you go back up into a steep tunnel that takes you into the other side of the wall. Then we walked to another part of the wall.

Then we went to the Kotel, which is the Wailing Wall. We saw a lot of people praying by it. They pray there because it is the closest part of the wall to where the old temple used to stand. Then we went back home.