Cheap Mondays (again)

Okay, so I saw a movie today. It was Hugo, and it was really cool... not one of the movies I would want to watch every day, but pretty close (meaning, a thumbs up for Hugo!). I am really excited because I asked some of my friends which horse I would sculpt, and practically all of them agreed on the same horse. My mom looked up that my mistake last time was that I didn't knead the clay... I kneaded it a lot today, so I am really hoping that in the morning I will find it cracked. If I do, I will go crazy and kill it (not that I can). If it turns out fine I will go crazy and then choose what colors I want to paint it, then post a picture of it and its model up. I just really hope that it will turn out well! I have forgotten these last two days to mention something... my bookshelf is fixed, and the blinds installed! I am so happy!

Zoo

So, as the title states, I went to the zoo today. It was quite nice, although it was rather hot. We got to see big cats, small cats, monkeys (of all kinds) and the keepers feeding the little penguins (that is what the penguins are called, little penguins). Anyways, next Friday school starts. I do not know what I am going to do for Valentine's Day, since I will not be able to make Valentines fast enough for a whole class (at least I think so). I am quite excited, except that I do not have a shopping list for school (uh-oh). Also, my sculpture didn't turn out so well... in the morning I found out that parts of it were cracking and falling off, so I'll have to start over. I have not started again today because I feel really tired, but I will get to it soon.

Cinderella

Well, yesterday I went to the Cinderella opera. I could understand the opera singers (except for Cinderella's dad) and it was very short (one and a half hours). It was more like a funny show instead of an opera. The sisters were men and had bright yellow and red wigs. One sister was fat and the other very tall. I also found out that Cinderella's real name is Matilda, which is very odd. All in all, it was very fun and cute. I am also excited today because My family went shopping, and I got clay and sculpting materials. Today I have been at work... maybe I will show my finished product some other day. I am very excited, but do not know where to put this sculpture, but I will figure it out.

Racing

Racing is a really big thing in australia. It is really cool as well, since the horses go so fast. Yesterday I went to the races and I got to see seven races out of nine. Almost every single time I would watch the horses go over to the gates (not as fast as they would race normally, so I got some nice views of them) and then I watched them race past. Then I would go over to the winners circle where the jockeys would take off the horses' saddles. Photographers would take tons of pictures of the winner and the jockey would be interviewed. I also saw tons of old ladies in fancy attire. It was really cool and awesome, and I hope I get to see another race sometime! Today my dad spilled the beans about a surprise about today (no, I did not write yesterday, there were some problems with the wifi), and I found out that I was going to an opera today: the Cinderella opera. I probably will not be able to write, but I am hoping that it is really awesome that I will be able to understand half of it.

Australia Day

There is a day that is called Australia day, which is tomorrow. This day does not celebrate independence from Britain (that day is on January 1st, and isn't really celebrated), but I guess it is meant to. Tomorrow my family already has a plan: going to the races. I am really excited, I've never seen a horse race before! And there are like ten or something races! Awesome! I hope I get some proof that I was there... anyways, exciting! Yesterday I went to the swimming pool, which was really fun (and expensive, well, kind of). I also found out that there was this horse magazine that was looking for stories, so I wrote one. It is really short (one page) but I think it is nice and it came with an illustration:

This story is not one of my special stories (the ones that I want to publish), but I think it is cute, nonetheless. This drawing is of Alice and me (supposedly) and I think it is cute. This story was based on a real story (nothing to do with me) and I hope that it gets into that magazine. It is still in the process of editing. Today nothing really eventful happened: I continued organizing my room (It is almost done, just a few things to pick up), and my sisters dad and I went and bought some food and a coffee machine. I am really excited for tomorrow, and will hopefully have so much fun!

Cheap Mondays

In the cinemas (movie theaters) they have cheap Mondays where all the ticket prices go lower. Today I wanted to watch Hugo, but since the movie was in 3D and not normal the tickets were still expensive, so we watched a different movie. It was called Arrietty, and I really loved it because of its music. I want to paint something from it, but I just can't figure out what (that is always my problem when it comes to drawing and stuff, and music is constantly inspiring me so it gets really frustrating), but am still really glad to have seen that movie since it was really I can't find the word (awesome, emotional, inspiring, etc.?). Speaking of art, I am planning a clay sculpture. A horse, if you're curious. The next step is to find some wire and clay... but anyways, I really like the sketch I made of it and I hope it turns out at least half as good (I have learned that usually the breyer artists use wire for their sculptures and discovered that it was necessary last time I sculpted a horse... that horse had no detail, so it wasn't very good. I have a plan for this horse, and will try to make it as good as I can.). Anyways, my family rode on our bikes to the movies (my mom not stopping to go on to work), and when we rode back it was really hot... my sister took two minutes to go like a meter. The rest of the day I sat down thinking of what to draw or something... and came up with the idea of the aforementioned horse (although I still have to think of what will go with the Arrietty music). Vocabulary: Skipping rope instead of jump rope. I was just looking at my first post and this is what came up:

In three days I am moving to Australia. I am very excited and nervous. I give thanks to some responsible friends for helping me create this blog. I will write in it when something interesting happens and hopefully you'll enjoy!

I can barely even remember that day, except for all my teachers helping me make the blog... thanks to all of you teachers. So much has happened since then... and maybe in a few years or so I will find this post again and go like "Oh, wow, and I thought that a lot had happened then!". Maybe I will be moving to Spain, or America, or somewhere else... but that is how it is.

Something Happened Today

Okay, so as you can see, something happened today... I went to a beach. It was halfway nice because it had very shallow water. But it had boulders. These boulders were full of seaweed. Eventually the tide went down so much there was barely any water. I had to step on the rocks. My sisters refused to race with me. So there was the review of the day... but the post is not done yet. Look who I drew:

 Okay, so these two guys are Rascals. No, seriously, that's what they are. I'm just saying that they are on the dark side... but easily stoppable.

Ikea House that is Ten years old

I say that because, well, this house is badly built. Right after I posted my last post, something really bad happened: My door fell off the door frame. I mean, hinges and everything. The door frame was not damaged in the least... it seemed as if the door was supposed to fall down! I mean, what will happen next? Will the roof collapse? Will the glass fall out of the window pains? Who knows! Oh, and by the way, the ceiling leak is not fixed. This is terrible! I mean, technically the house is only like a few months old... should it be falling apart or not? The answer is, NO! Today I found another whole box full of books that belong to me... where am I supposed to put that!? I mean, the people here have really slow service. I am worried, and am wondering if the garage door will fall off... what do I do? Okay, to get on to more pleasant matters, today I went on a bike ride with my family. I mean, with EVERYONE. My mom, dad, sisters... it was pretty cool.

DVD Zones

Do you know about the DVD (or CD)  zones? I have been with them all my life, because my dad also has spanish movies from Spain, and we have to play them on the computer. Well, here there is a whole new zone... guess what that means: we can't Cds from here! Anyways, yesterday I made a mistake. Yesterday we went to a beach called Elwood beach... that was my mistake. Today I went grocery shopping and found out that my sisters didn't want a horse stall for their toy horses... so I took it apart and am going to use it for something for my own horses. Right now I am trying to organize my room... looking around at it, it... isn't that bad, actually. I took a break because my dad came in a and gave me a mug of hot chocolate, which was really nice of him. While I was looking at all my stuff I got really sad at times... there were so many things from my friends and all. The one thing I remember the most is a picture of when my sisters and I were in front of our first house in Denver (rented). Monkey was sitting in a wheelbarrow, and Cat was pushing it. I was sitting down with my cat, Miss Kitty. We had to leave her with some friends when we moved here. I am going to organize right now... after I finish my hot chocolate.

Saint Kilda Beach

Saint Kilda is a beach... obviously. It stretches really far, and is separated at points put always starts up again. The other day I was at Saint Kilda Beach. Today I was at Saint Kilda beach. I had fun, and I found out that Saint Kilda can be very different at parts. The other day the beach was cold and calm, but this beach was very wavy and it was warm, kind of. Monkey refuses to go into the water, which is a problem, since we are living in a beach city. That will probably be resolved soon. Anyways, I have important news: My shower has been fixed! (:p). It was fixed with a chisel, since apparently there was some hard stuff down in that drain. The ceiling was fixed also, and we saw a dude go up in some thing. I am about to take a shower right now (Yay, not all the way upstairs!). Another illustration:

This is Kit, a character in The Story of a Family... I know that I am leaving you guys (at least some of you) in the dark to who some of these characters are, but I am not sure of what else to do. Anyways, Kit is kind of a minor, although she has a part that helps close up the story.

Safety Campaigns

I have in part mentioned this topic before... like when I was talking about the trams. They have signs up about the trams weighing like thirty rhinoceroses. They also have adds about forest fires (on tv). They let you hear people screaming, and fire burning, and then all goes silent. Then they show you a burnt up car in a forset and a creepy voice goes "Listen to forest fire alerts, check the fire status before you leave home.", or something like that. There is also an add about home swimming pools... a kid goes "Stop! Have you checked your pool safety rules?" and goes over a really long list of home pool rules. They also have a really scary commercial where they call everyone bloody idiots... which brings me to my next mention of safety advertisement: the really busy road that runs right by my house, which looks like this:

Wonderful, isn't it? Well, if I want to, I can walk over there every day and look at it (not that I do that).
Anyways, today was kind of eventful. We went to the bike shop to get my bike fixed and they fixed it in like five minutes. Then, when we got back from the bike shop, we found that some little girl named Milly (she is our neighbor) was home. My sisters were playing with her for hours until dinnertime, and I got rather bored trying to figure out what to do (although I did find the cutest video in the world, email me if interested). Then after dinner we went to the famous Queen Victoria Market. It was really cool because they had awesome things to see (like precious stones, cute stuffed animals, so on). I got a sugar rush eating some ice cream, according to my parents. Vocabulary: According to all their adds, Australians like saying bloody idiot a lot.

What Do I Call this Post?

Okay, I do not know how to call this post, but I do have things to say, like that I went to the beach today. We went to this little beach where there were like five people apart from us, and it was really nice. My dad had to pick up and throw my sisters so they would go into the water. I just swam around and found out that there were these weird jelly things lying around. I took a seashell and hit one hard. It split in half, and it didn't seem alive. I mean, it didn't look alive in the first place, but my dad thought it was a jellyfish or something. It did not look anything like a jellyfish... it was just like this piece of ice that was shaped like a tube... really odd. Apart from that, it was a pretty uneventful day. I did math, played flute, did my puzzle, so on. On my puzzle: it is going pretty well. I am missing a few pieces (moves fault) and I just need to fill in some dolphins and blue sea. Then I will take a picture and show it to you guys... I bet you will like it!

Anyways, I just a picture:

And who is the lucky artist, you ask? Well, um, it was me! Do you know the youtube video that I mentioned a few posts ago, the one that inspired me to write The Story of a Family? Well, take a look at this video (click the link to see it) and if you are not interested in the content of this video fast-forward to about 7:35- 7:40ish. You'll see where I got the idea from (the idea for the drawing, I mean. I don't think anybody could guess where I got the idea for my story from). Oh, and tell me if you like the other version or my own.

Vocabulary: Stove top= hot plate (odd).

Ikea House

I believe that I am living in an Ikea house (you know, cheap, not great quality). I have my reasons: broken shower drain, leaky ceiling, faulty power, and so on. Now, my family just discovered today that the stove is dangerous. No, not because it has fire (although my dad did get his finger hairs singed off), but because it brought down the whole circuit. My mom and dad had to unplug every single electric thing and find out when the circuit would start again. We did all this today because one of the things that was affected was the fridge. It stopped working and my parents got really worried that all the food would go bad. But in the end (with advice from a young neighbor) we were able to solve the problem and I can write to you guys.

 Now, these two guys are Idocus and Brom. I am not going to reveal their parts in the story, but they are both very important (Idocus more than Brom). These were drawn off my toys, so some parts may seem a little awkward... but I like them both, nevertheless.
My new Ikea desk has been assembled and I am writing with my computer on top of it right now. I am going to use it to store my books in for now (because my bookshelf is broken, :(, sad and mad). I am also feeling much better and ate a huge dinner, but now Cat is feeling bad :(.

Sick

I am sick, as the title might portray. That is why I did not write yesterday. I will explain why: I went to Vietnam. Haha, kidding the audience, I went to the Vietnam section of Melbourne to a festival, called the lunar festival. There we all walked around, looking at all the food and such. We ate some of it, and it turns out that all the food was extremely greasy, and I guess that did not go well with me. I started feeling odd when we were about to leave the festival, but it didn't really hurt that much. But by the time I got home I had to lie in bed and feel bad. I did throw up. So that is why I didn't write yesterday. I also got a new Ikea desk, but it isn't assembled yet. It will match my chair. Today I will draw lots of drawings of my characters and then post them up tonight. I am almost done with one right now, but my mom insisted on a new layer for the text... which I don't know how to add, so I need her help. Don't worry, I am the only one that got sick so the rest of the family will be fine.

Weekends

Here people almost do not work on the weekends. Today my mom wanted to get my bike fixed. We brought it all the way to the bike shop... just to discover that it was closed after 12:30 p.m. Tomorrow the bike shop is not opened at all. It reminds me a little bit of Spain, because when it is lunch time all the shops shut down... and then they open up after lunch time. Then they close early. I don't quite remember if they are open on Sunday... sorry, I might type something wrong, the neighbors are young people and have their music on super loud. Anyways, today we had some friends of my mom's come over. They are really nice and have a little boy named Xander (I'm not sure if that is the right spelling), who is like one and a half. We had cheese enchiladas for dinner, because they were vegetarian, and we had a cake for dinner (it is australian). I built a stable for me and my sisters' horses too, and I really liked how that turned out. You might be wondering why I do not have a drawing out today... no, I have not run out of characters to draw, its just that today was a really busy day. I might start drawing a picture tonight but I'm not sure. Vocabulary: Carton, instead of box (for cereal). Oh, and check out the drawing of Anastasia again (I enlarged it).

Mom Sharing Blog

First things first, I address the title. My mom is sharing the blog with me and is going to write every once and a while on my blog. She would have started a blog herself, except she wouldn't write on it regularly (she used to have a blog and she still does but her last post is when Monkey was like two or three years old). So she is writing as a guest writer on my blog. I'm fine with it, as long as she doesn't write everyday. She just posted her first post today... look under this post.
Next, I address the two lovely drawings of two lovely horses that I drew today. May I please introduce you to Sam (black and white) and Sean (palomino). They are characters from The Story of a Family, and are brothers. Sam's drawing is my favorite so far... I love Sean's as well because of his dapples (the spots he has all over him). These drawings might look a little bit different from Anastasia's drawing because I actually studied the horse models I used to come up with them... Anastasia is a horse that I got in a kit to paint myself, therefore I practically know her by memory. Sam (his real name is Buddy) was not painted by me and I do not really know how to draw his features by memory. Sean... well, I did it half and half. In his model he is as big as Buddy, and about his age. But in the story there is a big age difference. So I decided to make him look cooler than he does in real life... and make him look older and his dapples more in a better place. I did kind of draw from his model... but the neck got too slanted and I decided to make him look like he was chasing something, which I rather like. Just to tell you guys, I drew these by hand without a mouse. I am on a laptop, so that is why I don't have a mouse.
Also, I found out what GIMP stands for... It is something really complicated that is something like ______ Image Manipulation _______. I put the underline because I forget what those words are. I just finished watching Never Say Never. Some of my friends, when they read this, are going to say "Why would that girl ever watch that movie? I hate Justin Bieber!". Well, I just thought that it would be interesting to see what songs Justin Bieber has sung (yes, I admit it, I have only heard parts of two of his songs before).
Today my mom rode my dad's bike to work. Monkey, Cat, Dad and I went for a walk to the park we went to yesterday.

Experiments in car-light living

This is M2A (MovingToAustralia)'s mom. I'm privileged that M2A has invited me to contribute a post now and again to the blog. So here's my first guest blog.

You probably noticed that M2A has mentioned how bikes are popular here and how she has been riding her bike a lot -- well, until she got that flat tire which unfortunately we still haven't fixed. We've been trying to reduce our dependency on a car, because we don't want to run more than one, because cars aren't particularly fun in this city -- there can be horrible traffic in the inner area where we live -- and because it is actually fun to explore on foot or 2 wheels. Not to mention the health benefits for all of us and the pleasure of enjoying fresh air.

I don't have a bike of my own yet (more on that in minute) so I've been borrowing one from either M2A or her dad to commute to work. It's about a 25 minute ride to my office, with only a few inclines here and there, so it's a totally reasonable way to get to work. I only get slightly out of breath because, well, I'm slightly out of shape! Melbourne is quite bike-friendly, with quite a few bike paths and many bike lanes on roads around the city. The biggest challenge is that my route requires me to cross a few busy roads at intersections without a traffic light; I'm still tweaking the route and am hoping to find a way to avoid that.

I have a few options to get to work. Walking, which takes ~50 minutes each way. I've done that a few times, but that's a lot of lost time in a day. Train + tram, which still takes ~40 minutes when you factor in walking to the train station and the indirect route I have to take due to the wheel and spoke nature of the transport system, and costs $7/day. On the other hand, I can read during that time. Car, which works out to be expensive because parking near the university is pricey. It is also only marginally faster than the bike -- and maybe not at all -- because of traffic congestion. See how the bike is looking attractive? Minimal cost beyond the up-front investment, relatively quick, fresh air, environmentally friendly, and built-in exercise I can't avoid if I want to get home at the end of the day. :) Apparently I'm not the only one who's made this calculation, because the bike lanes are full of cycle-commuters.

The kids have gotten into it as well. We live right next to a great bike path along a creek. Every day while I'm at work they go for an extended bike ride or walk with their dad, and they have gotten to know our neighborhood and beyond much better than I have! Coffee and cake at the Fairfield Boathouse, an adjustment to a bike at the local bike shop, some play time at the great Edinburgh Gardens playground; every day is a new adventure.

I'm hoping we'll be able to commute the kids to school by bike. Their school isn't far; less than 3km. The challenge is to find a route that is safe for all of us. We bought a second-hand trail-a-bike for Monkey which has been working great so far to go further than she can go on her little bike with training wheels. Cat rides her own bike, though at 7 she sometimes doesn't judge intersections or other vehicles well and I'm not sure she can handle the route to school. I'm considering getting a cargo cycle (a Yuba Mundo) that could accommodate her, or both her and Monkey, as well as a huge pannier bag. Then we could go longer distances, or along routes that aren't safe for the kids to navigate on their own. I have visions of going to the Farmer's Market at the Collingwood Children's Farm and buying lots of yummy fruit and veg. The farm is a very short bike ride from here, wouldn't it be great to go on pedal power and still be able to bring back goodies? But, it's a huge cost compared to a regular bike and I haven't quite decided whether we're fully committed to this lifestyle as it is all still so new for us ... decisions, decisions.

We did buy a new (to us) car. It's basically inevitable for a family of 5. We've had it 9 days and so far have put 55 km on it, including the 10 km drive from the dealership to our house. We'll be using it to explore farther afield than our own 2 legs can take us.

My Stories

GIMP is the software I used for this picture. First of all, don't ask me what GIMP stands for, because I don't know. It is a drawing program though. As you can see, today I was using it. I am writing about four stories right now (I know that you might think that this is a lot, but let me tell you that like for ten nights I work on one and then get bored of it and then work on the other for ten nights and then the other and so on. Also take note that one of the stories is just a note in a file so it really isn't a story yet.). This picture is of Anastasia, a character in one of my stories that is one of my favorite stories (not that I do not like them all). And you ask "Where do you get inspirations for four stories? Do you want to know? Well, the first story that I started working on was when I was about eight years old, so I don't really remember how I got the inspiration.
It is about three magical horses  going to a place where they complete three steps to get their species of magical horse back. If they fail one of the steps they are doomed to live forever in solitude, and if they complete these steps they will get a mate and bring their species back. This whole time their owners and a normal horse will help them.
The next story that I started writing was about a girl named Katrina Nome. She has a mom that pays no attention to her because she is a movie star and constantly makes movies. Katrina gets tired of her mother and escapes from her home in New York. She encounters strange things that no other human being has heard of. Will she survive, or be killed by treacherous monsters? I was inspired by the Percy Jackson books, which are basically made out of greek mythology (they are really good books).
 The next story is about  a family. Anastasia (that is my drawing), Sam, and Sean live peacefully in their own little cave. But their peace doesn't last when a strange horse named Brom comes into the picture... bringing evil horses with him.
The next story that I came up with is about a clan that survives with many struggles and happiness.  Babies are born, men killed by wolves, and marriages. Will this clan survive in future years or will it be consumed by death?
I did not explain the last two because they are both from one cause: my breyer horses (the story about the family was also inspred by a youtube series called Conquering Tide witch I absolutely LOVE). They are plastic horses that I play with every now and then when I get bored of doing anything else. I often have to come up with stories to use while I'm playing, and some of these stories stick and eventually become part of a collection of stories. I even use my sisters' horses at times because they seem important to incorporate as well. I want to publish a book someday, hopefully a book that will include these stories. I will be really happy if I ever do.
Anyways, today was a fine day. We (meaning Cat, Monkey, my dad and I) went for a walk (my sisters biked) around to a main street where there are stores and stuff because we needed to buy some milk. We went to a park so my sisters could play a while and had some fun. It was basically raining lightly all morning. Then after dinner I asked my mom to find GIMP for me and when she found it I used it (obviously, the evidence is posted up there). I am in the mood of writing Katrina today (that is what the story is called), just if you're curious. If you guys like I can tell you which story I am working on every day. Email me if you're curious.

Another Bike Ride

As the title reveals, I had another bike ride today. But I won't tomorrow, because what bad luck I have: My back wheel ran over a piece of glass which totally pierced it right through. I realized that something was wrong right when we arrived at our alley, and my dad found the piece of glass. I do not know when we will go to fix this problem, but hopefully it will be soon because my sisters go crazy if they do not get their daily bike ride. Anyways, before that, we just kind of went a different way. We ended up going across a tall bridge and into a little park that was there. Then it started raining and we went back home. In the morning it had also rained, but much harder, and every once in a while I would stop playing my flute to peek out my window, because rain is interesting to watch. Today my mom also found out that we have a leak in the ceiling (well, we have two, but the second one just gets the ceiling wet and doesn't drip down like the other one). Now we have to put a bucket in the middle of the hall and hope that the people will just fix everything already. I am getting kind of mad at the broken drain in the shower business because I do not like having to share the shower with my parents because sometimes I have to wait and I also have to go up two stories to get there. I also am mad because I don't have shutters yet and there is a street lamp right outside my window and the sheet doesn't really block out its light much, so I have some trouble getting to sleep. I am sitting here, listening to music, and thinking "It has been like months already, and these people won't fix simple things that all people need in life!" after that a mad face. This is a list of what these people are not fixing: shower drain, shutters, ceiling, kitchen fan (we have set the fire alarm off like two times aready, so at least we know it works!). There might be other things, but I forget. Also, the mover people have to pay to fix my bookshelf, my souvenirs (I have said before that many of them are broken, like my unicorn which lost its head and its horn off its head), a special ceramic lizard, and so on. It is really sad how many broken down things there are in this house (including the flaws of the house itself). I have not been looking in my australian language book so I cannot say anything else (and even if I do say something tomorrow it will probably be something that australians almost never use, like the rock name which I forget).

Today's Events

Today my family went for another bike ride (except for my mom, of course, she was at work). We went to the Fairfield Boathouse. Monkey, Cat, and I shared a cake and my dad drank a coffee while we looked at the river. There were tons of ducks (they were all in my bird book, but I forget their names now) and one of them was just constantly flapping it's wings, without ever taking flight. (I believe it was to get dry because it later proceeded to put it's head under it's folded wings). My dad also encountered a bird that almost jumped into his hand (I am telling you, the birds here are not shy) and I heard a cockatoo and saw parakeets (the cockatoo was like some screaming lady). It was very nice and I rather liked it. Right when we were riding back home my dad decided that we should explore around the neighborhood, so we did. I had to yell at my sister today as well because she was going even slower than yesterday. She yelled for us to slow down as well, which we couldn't really do because we were already braking pretty hard and we didn't want to stop. She also almost got ran over by a car because she wasn't looking while she passed this car.When we got home my sisters took a nap and I practiced flute. When they woke up we watched Earth (which is a really good movie and is very cute and beautiful).

Bicycles

Bicycles here are a big thing, since gas is expensive (like everything else). Everybody rides them everywhere, they have big giant trailers for groceries, and so on. Buying the bikes is also expensive, just to mention it. Anyways, today I went on a bike ride. The reason for this ride was that my parents had bought a bike rack for me but were missing a few screws. We all rode there (except for my mom, since she was at work) and it was very stressful (at least for me). It was stressful because of Cat. She was riding behind me. She was all the time like at least two meters behind me, and cars got so close to her sometimes. I had to scream the whole time at her to hurry up or else get run over by a car. She would say that she was trying but then she would always fall even more behind. She also ran over me two times, and cut me off. The first time she totally bumped into my wheel flat on, which made me almost fall off. The second time she ran over my foot and it hurt because I was just wearing flip-flops (or thongs). I believe that she does not know how to use her breaks and I've noticed that she tries using her feet to stop herself, which is not going to help her. But she always refuses to listen to how to use her breaks, and always ends up out of control. Like when we were riding back: we were crossing a road, and she about to cross it. There was a tiny hill the preceded the road, and I do not know how she lost control on that. First, instead of going down the right way to the road, she went right over the curb. Then the other curb on the piece of sidewalk that was in the middle of the road. Then she narrowly missed crashing into me. It was almost as bad as her stunt ride that I mentioned once (the one where she looked like she was in a movie), but she survived. When I asked her what happened she made a face at me. Anyways, it was dangerous. Today my dad was unpacking some of his books, and now one and a half of our bookshelves are full. I got a box of my books as well, but can't put them on my bookshelf since it is damaged. It is damaged in such a way that if you put weight on the shelves in the case that they will collapse from the top to the bottom. I learned this the hard way and it smashed all my souvenirs from different places of the world. So now I have to store all my books in my wardrobe which is not convenient since it takes up space.Vocabulary: Also, my dad found a book called Australian English English Australian which is a book that has tons of Australian words. I read a teeny bit and decided that most of these words are not used in every day language because there are apparently like five different words for "idiot". I also saw that they had thongs instead of flip-flops in there. I even saw that there was a different word for rock which surely nobody uses (I can't remember what it is).

Far Away

Australia is so far away from the rest of the world... it is hard to get certain things that you can easily get in America. For instance, Santa's mail. We tried getting amazon to ship the shipment directly from there but ended up sending it to my aunt. She had to send it to us and so on. Hopefully my sisters will start asking for things that can be found here and not somewhere else. Today I got a new wardrobe. But that was the end of the day. In the morning I didn't really do anything but in the afternoon we all (except for my mom) rode our bikes to the park. We played there for a while and Monkey was really excited because she got to ride on a bike that my mom bought her that we attached to my dad's bike. It is like a second set of set and pedals that you can attach. Vocabulary: Colour, instead of color. See, my computer counts it as wrong.

Weather

The weather here is rather inconsistent. Today it was overcast, but still hot. Yesterday I believe that it was sunny and hot.The weather here changes a lot. Today my family and I (after lunch) went to buy bycicles for my mom and dad. My mom still doesn't have a bike, but my dad rode his home because it didn't fit in the car trunk. Later we went to Costco and bought like $700 worth of stuff. Half of this cost was some trash cans (movement sensing) and a rack that has wheels for the garage. We also stocked up with a lot of goods that will last a long time and good for a normal week. Our american Costco membership actually worked in this Costco, so that was pretty cool too. Vocabulary: Ginger beer, instead of ginger ale. Trolley, instead of cart (I might have already said that one).

Christmas Decorations

I know I'm kind of late in saying this, but there are no Christmas decorations out out. Or were put out. Seriously, only a few houses (like one out of every ten) had their lights put out. Our house was no exception since we had no decorations... not our fault, but the moves. Anyways, today was the Three Wise men. This is what we got:

Monkey:
-A schleich fairy with horse
- a shovel and rake for the beach
-A shirt that said "I am next to the center of attention" (Cat)

Cat:
-A breyer horse (the Rocky Mountain horse to be exact)
-Shovel and rake
-A shirt that had an overhead view of who was the coolest. The person standing next to the person was not the coolest, but that person was (Cat is supposed to be the coolest according to that shirt)

Me:
-A paradise horse (You probably have never heard of this type of horses, they went out of business years ago yet they are still on amazon)
-A puzzle mat so that I could put all my puzzles on and then roll them up and carry them around
- A puzzle of a unicorn (Haven't started it yet because I am still working on the ocean puzzle)

Parents:
-Nothing

My sisters were really excited about their gifts and I surprisingly didn't know what any of my presents were ( I knew that I was going to get a paradise horse, but didn't know what color). My sisters loved their fairy and breyer horse and wore their shirts all day. We have been playing with our horses all day and are in the process of making a stable (even for horses we already had before). Also, we went to the fort park and found the firefighters there. There was a fire right next to the park but they let us in anyway and went away before we did. Today was a good day.

Vegetables, Fruit, Etc.

The produce here tastes much better than in the US. I didn't like tomatoes before, but now I love them. I actually enjoy eating fruit now, because it is good. I hope that the produce will stay that way. Also, the meat here isn't expensive. I think that it is cool that the meat is not expensive. Anyways yesterday I didn't really do anything except take a walk around the highway (I live literally something like two streets from it) and do some of my puzzle (some decent progress). Today in the morning my mom went to work and then the rest of us took a walk. We also live very close to a river and it is really pretty, so it was a nice walk. In the end we stopped walking and stopped at a convent. We ate lunch there and took a walk all around its gardens (which are really pretty). Right when we were leaving I saw a swimming pool that was empty, and I know why: it was half covered with marsh plants. Seriously, they were just like growing out of the concrete or something (I couldn't see the bottom of that half, so I don't know). The other half looked sad, because parts of the swimming pool were falling apart and it had not been used in years. In the afternoon we went back home and played Uno, three times to be exact. My dad won the first time and Monkey the next two times. She has never won a game of Uno before. Then my sisters wanted to play princess monopoly. We played it two times. The first time Monkey won, and the second time I did (Monkey did not play that time, only Cat and I). I won by $87. Also, the three wise men went shopping today. They will deliver their presents when my sisters go to sleep. Their mail arrived two days ago, so all is good. Tomorrow hopefully Monkey and Cat will like their presents. We have left the carrots in our shoes and the bucket of water that is five liters full for the camels. We are having croissants for breakfast.

Spelling

The spelling in this country is bizarre. Tons is spelled tonnes. And then the end of some words are spelled with re instead of er. How am I going to remember all this? I will get all the spelling tests wrong for this reason! Anyways, yesterday was rather uneventful (actually, only in the morning). In the afternoon we went over to a person that went to college with her. My mom didn't really remember him so she would not call him a friend. He is married to another man and has two daughters that are two years old. They are twins and really cute. I did not have a bad time because the grown ups were talking about boyfriends and girlfriends and such... it was really interesting. The guy's story was amazing. In the end I read the little girls a bed time story and we left like an hour later. Today was a lazy day (for me) so I don't have much to say. I worked on my puzzle, chatted with some friends, and went to the awesome park in shape of a fort. I LOVE that park, because I have never been to a park that is like a little fort for kids. I quite like it, and my sword fits in nicely.My mom went back to work on my bike and apparently ate lunch out at a japanese place. Looking at the puzzle right now, I made amazing progress... I feel like I lost a few pieces (the puzzle is 750 pieces, so it is logical). Vocabulary: I think that I exhausted all the words, but there are so many different spelling out there.

Vacation

Okay, today my topic is about vacation. Australians take it very seriously. My mom hasn't gotten a single work email since the last day of work (maybe not even before that, but who knows). The mail stopped going like maybe two days before Christmas, then started working like one or two days after Christmas. It stopped again something like two days ago, and will not work until the third. There is also a coffee shop that is really close to our house that shut down maybe a few weeks ago. They will be on vacation for a total of five weeks, and no, I do not know what week it is right now. Also, since today I went to the grocery store, I noticed that there was almost nothing left of bread and many other things (soda was a highlight too), and am thinking that the stores have not been able to stock up since everybody isn't working. Anyways, today I basically stayed in the house all day (all day it was like 40 degrees centigrade, like 100 degrees Fahrenheit) because it was so hot. My mom and dad had to move the laundry to the balcony where anyone can see it because my mom was worried that the clothes would fade because of the sun. I had to stay out of my room most of the time because I was sweating like crazy. Just because I thought it might be interesting to comment on, I am reading The War of the Worlds. My dad recommended it, and I am kind of interested in how the world can end (haha, the apocalypse hasn't happened yet!). No vocabulary since I have not been in contact with the outside world today.