Italy

Meghan writes...

We left for Venice on the 4th of December. We had a good train trip, quite unlike the one back from Nice. Venice is quite amazing. There are canals there, but also streets. Our apartment was right beside a canal. If you fall out the window, you are in the water. They have about five latches on that window. We had a good time trying to tell the lady that stays upstairs (who only speaks Italian!) that we were staying three nights.

We found out the next day that Italians do not do pastries as well as the French. What we had after supper was three “cookies” that were shaped like mini cakes and were almost as hard as rocks. One of them was green. Despite that, we did have a good stay in Venice. There is lots of glass-blowing there, particularly on the island of Murano. We went there on the 6th by vapporetto. There are also lots of cats there; we saw four or five within about two hours.

The day after we went to Murano, we left Venice to go to Rome. Rome is just as amazing as Venice. (Although I like Venice better). I find it amazing that all those people are living in a city with so many very old buildings. We just had to walk about five or six blocks and we were at the Minerva Temple. We also saw the Coliseum. It is HUGE! We went inside it too. Beside it there are some ruins that they dug up from the ground. They are called the "Ludus Magnus". They are ruins of where the gladiators trained. There is also a secret passage from there to the Coliseum so that the gladiators were not seen in the street.

So, over all, we had a nice trip in Italy. We stayed three nights in Venice and four in Rome. On the way back we took an overnight train. That was fun. Cameron and I slept on the top bunks of the Couchettes. I was a little worried about falling off because there was nothing there to stop us. (Or so we thought). So I put shoes under my mattress on one side. I actually had a good sleep. The next morning we found some fence-type things to stop us from falling off the beds.

We were glad to see our apartment when we got back, after being gone for over a week.

Watercolours

BBC and CBC news stories: 23 Nov 07

Cameron writes...

French Transit Strike

Both the BBC and CBC cover the strikes in France in articles on their websites. Both articles were relatively the same and said how civil servants walked off the job on Tuesday; joining transit workers and energy workers who say no, to what they say is a decrease in earnings and available jobs. The BBC however, also has a section on some incidents of what SNCF says are vandalism and sabotage by militants. It reports several fires that were disrupting TGVs which were already slowed up by the union strike over reforms.

Giant Sea Scorpion Fossil

Both the BBC and CBC cover the “giant sea scorpion fossil” story, on their websites. This story is about a 46cm claw found near Prum in south-west Germany. Using this claw, scientists guessed that the sea scorpion it belonged to would have been about 2.5 metres long. Both also included quotes from Doctor Simon Braddy from the University of Bristol, in the UK. The scorpion was named Jaekelopterus rhenaniae, and was discovered by Markus Poschmann, one of Braddy’s colleagues.

Cave of Romulus and Remus

Again, both the BBC and CBC cover this story in articles on their websites. These articles cover how a cave was discovered which archaeologists say they are sure is the one in which ancient Romans believe a she-wolf nursed Romulus and his twin brother Remus. Romulus is believed to have the founded ancient Rome after killing Remus in a fight over who should control the city. The cave has been probed and looked at through endoscopes and laser-scanners, as archaeologists feared it would not stand up to a full excavation.

Links

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7105045.stm

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/11/20/france-strike.html#skip300x250

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7104421.stm

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/11/20/giant-scorpion.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7104330.stm

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/science/071120/g112006A.html

Interesting News Stories: 23 Nov 07

Meghan writes...

Explorer Ship Sunk

On Friday November 23^rd, a ship carrying 154 people hit an iceberg near Antarctica. The Canadian ship, the Explorer, sank 20 hours later. The rescue was very organized and all of the passengers were saved without injury. There were 12 Canadians on board, 24 British, 17 Dutch, 14 Americans, and 10 Australians. There were also other passengers from Argentina, Denmark China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden and Columbia.

California Wildfires

Some weeks after firefighters fought fires in southern California, a new fire started up in Malibu. It was because of the hot dry winds going through. There were some 1,700 firefighters there. Later in the day the winds started dying down. It gave them more of a chance against the fires.

Our Big Trip to Germany

Cameron writes...

In mid-October we decided we were going to go on a trip to Berlin and Rostock. Berlin and Rostock are two cities in Germany where some of my dad’s relatives live. We also decided we would first stay in Berlin for 3 days, then go to Rostock for 3 days, and then stop in Berlin for a day on our way back home.

On the 8 November, we set off on a train to Offenburg, Germany, which is just 25 minutes away. From there we caught a train to Berlin. On the way there we took the computer out and played on it using the plug-ins provided on almost any major European train. We also ate and read some books.

In Berlin, we got some S-bahn¹ passes and took the S5 line to Friedrichstrasse. From there we took the S1 straight to Birkenwerder, the place Horst and Eva live. Horst is somehow related to my dad’s mother. They welcomed us with a good supper, and then Meghan and I went to bed while our parents sat up talking with them.

On Saturday Horst’s son Matthias² came and we had supper with him. For supper there was a little grill in the middle of the table, first you were supposed to put some meat on top. Then you put other things in a little pan in the bottom (e.x. potatoes, cheese broccoli). When both the meat and “others” were done, you took them out and ate them together. It was a wonderful supper and you never really got full, because you always had to wait a little for it to cook.

On Sunday Matthias drove us up to Rostock. There we met Tess and Gina for the second time. Their mother’s name was Sabina, and Matthias let her and her three kids (we didn’t meet Gloria) stay on floor two of his four-floored apartment. We got all settled in a spare room and went to bed on the two beds there.

The next day we were supposed to go to Gina’s English class and tell them about Canada. The teacher there was teaching them simple past tense verbs, but still had time for the kids to ask us questions. They also got to tell us a little about their school. It was quite an interesting experience, both being in a German school and hearing about it from the class.

Over the next few days, we played Playstation 2 with Tess and Gina and had them over for supper once. On Wednesday we were supposed to go back, but there was a train strike in Germany, so we ended up leaving on Friday. In the meantime we went bowling with Gina and Matthias, but Tess was too sick to come. It was a lot of fun. Late Friday afternoon we finally got back to Berlin.

We spent Saturday in Berlin, and then left on Sunday Morning. On the train we again pulled out the computer, and that helped pass the 5 or 6 hour train ride a lot. After a while we ate lunch, and then my mom and dad tried to catch up on missed sleep for awhile. At 2:30 we got off in Offenburg and switched to the final train back to Strasbourg.

We were glad to finally be home again even if it meant more schoolwork. Travelling is ok but after awhile it really takes its toll. Now we are greatly anticipating our trip to Italy. Hopefully it will be even more fun than our trip to Germany!

¹S-bahn: S-bahn is a type of inter-city train which runs both above and below ground.

²Pronounced “Ma-Tee-Iss”

Our trip to Berlin

Meghan writes...

On the 8^th of November, we left our apartment at 7:00. We were going to Berlin. We wanted to go there to visit Horst and Eva. They are some relatives of ours. (I do not know exactly how they are related to me). Although it was an early start, we had a very good trip there, going by train, and arrived at about 3:30.

We stayed in Horst and Eva’s house for three nights, and then went in Mathias’s car to his house. He lives in a nice apartment in Rostock, which is two and a half hours’ drive from Berlin. There are only four floors in the apartment. Mathias has two and Sabina (the person that lives downstairs with three girls) has one. There's a restaurant at the bottom. Gina and Tess live downstairs, and we went to their school for a day.

We stayed at their school for an hour and a half. (We went during their English lesson) It is a nice school; it has lots of floors instead of one, like the schools in Canada. At the schools in Germany (maybe Europe too) they have to learn three languages. The English teacher (during English) also taught a little bit of French and a little Russian.

We also went bowling with Gina and Mathias. (Tess was sick). We were planning to go back to Berlin the day after but then there was a train strike. We left a couple days later, going back in Mathias’s car again. It was no problem for him because he was going somewhere else and Berlin was on the way there.

We stayed in Berlin for another day. In that day we visited Asta, (who is 86 years old) her two sisters, her daughter, and one of her sister’s husband. We left the day after, and had the same uneventful (in a good way) train trip as the one on the way there.

Louvre Greek and Roman art comparison: 5 Nov 07

Cameron writes...

Greek Art: The Satyr

The satyr was the companion of the Greek god of wine Dionysus. They were most recognizable by their pointed ears and stunted horns. This bust is a mere part of the statue it used to be. It is from the collection called “invitation to dance” and was probably created during the Roman epoch.

In the scene he used to be posed in, he was inviting a young woman “nymph”, who was sitting on a rock, to dance. His original group is lost today, but is known by some pieces of money they were seen on. It looks like a type of Hellenistic art called “rococo”. The Romans liked to sometimes put statues of satyrs, like this one, in their gardens.

Roman Art: Emperor Commodus

This is a marble statue of the Roman emperor Commodus. It appears to be made after he was already emperor for awhile. It was also made on the special occasion of his marriage to his wife Crispine. The impressionist that created it appears to have used a style that seems one of the possible outcomes of the Antonius Style, which was already present in some statues on Marcus Aurelius.

Similarities/Differences

The Satyr	Commodus
Neck very detailed	Not much detail in neck
Appears relaxed, laughing	Appears very “serious”
Head slightly tilted	Head slightly tilted
Cheeks very meticulous	Cheeks very un-detailed
Hair less curly	Hair much tighter curled
Very apparent eye-lids and detailed eyes	No eye-lids or detail in eyes
Ears very small	Ears very small

Over all I think the Greek art is much more detailed and expressive. The satyr is laughing and joking around while Commodus sits and stares at you with his nonexistent eyes. The satyr’s neck has a lot of details in muscle structure, much like his cheeks. For some reason both the Romans and the Greeks like people with tilted heads more that straight ones. They also make people with small ears.

I think they both civilizations have different reasons for doing statues this way. The Roman generals might have wanted to appear fierce and mighty, while the Greeks care-free and happy. It could also be that the Louvre doesn’t have all the art in the world; this is just a small dose…

Greek and Egyptian Sculptures at the Louvre

Meghan writes...

We went to Paris by train on November 5^th. We were going there to see the Louvre museum. There were a lot of people there. There was a big pyramid that was made of 673 panes of glass and you have to go inside it to get into the Louvre. There was lots of security there, kind of like an airport. The Louvre building looks very old.

First we went to see the Mona Lisa. We went into the Denon wing and followed the signs that said “Italian Paintings”. There were lots of people gathered there to see the famous painting. I waited until there was a gap in the people and then snuck through to get a picture of it. It is a nice painting.

I am going to compare two types of statues, one is Greek and one is Egyptian.

This is the Greek one:

The Greeks are expressive sculptors. They also like sculpting the gods. This statue is made of marble and the lady in the sculpting is Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt. Artemis is also the daughter of Zeus. The statue was discovered in Italy. It was restored twice, once in 1602 by Barthëlemy Prieur and once in 1808 by Lange.

This is the Egyptian sculpture:

This Egyptian sculpture is made of sandstone. It is a statue of king Seti II. With another statue kept in the museum in Turin, it provided guidance entry to a repository in the courtyard of the Temple of Amon at Karnak. The Egyptians put a lot of writing on their statues. I think the Greeks put more detail on their statues than the Egyptians.

Our ensemble music lesson: October 10, 2007

Cameron writes...

On Wednesday the 10^th October, Meghan and I had our first group music lesson, our last lesson in the first trimester. There were five other kids there. Four were drummers, and one was a guitarist. There was supposed to be another guitar player but he didn’t show up. My guitar teacher gave us the notes for the song we were going to play while we were waiting for the other “band members” to arrive. The song was from the 80’s or 70’s, and was called Owner of a Lonely Heart, by the band Yes.

When we got there, there were already two people, who I later found out were named Arthur and Adrien. Arthur was a drummer and Adrien was a guitarist like me. When the three other got there, we split off into two groups: drummers, and guitarists and pianist. I quickly learned the notes, as they were quite easy, so my teacher (who was in charge of the group) told Adrien and me to try and play along with Meghan and went to talk with the drummers. We had it down a few minutes later.

When the teacher came in, he listened, and said it was time to go and play with the drummers. When we walked into the drummers’ room I put my guitar on a stand, plugged it in and tested it out, it was great to finally play with an amp there! From there on in we had lots of fun playing together, and it sounded great. I was really glad I had joined that group. I was actually quite disappointed that I would have to miss music while travelling. I can’t wait until December 12^th when I can play again.

Passage Vauban: September 28, 2007

Meghan writes...

On Friday, September 28^th, we walked to Passage Vauban, which is very close to Petite France. Passage Vauban is a tunnel that goes over the river Ill. It is very old and it has lots of statues in it. Once you get to the end of the tunnel you go up some stairs and onto a platform. From there, there is a view of Petite France, the Ill River and some battlements that are in Petit France.

In the tunnel there are pigeons nesting in the cracks of the roof. The tunnel is usually dark, but there are windows so in the daytime it is mostly light. Most of the statues in there are half completed. Once I saw the bottom of a horse, then, further down the tunnel, there was the upper half of the horse with a rider on it. It was a little creepy in the tunnel, but mostly just cool to know that you’re in something so old.

When you are at the top, you can see the battlements. They are very big and have little holes at the top, probably for guns to fire out of. On one side of Passage Vauban is the part of Strasbourg that is very old. On the other side is the part that was built after the Passage was. Passage Vauban is very cool to be in.

Our music lessons: September 19, 2007

Cameron writes...

Yesterday Meghan and I had our first music lessons in France. It was a very interesting experience.

It took a lot of navigation to get there. First we walked all the way up our road, Faubourg de Saverne, until we got to Boulevard du President Wilson. From there we went north-west until we saw Petit rue des Magasins, which we turned north-east onto. We walked up petit rue des Magasins for one block, and then turned north-west again onto Rue des Magasins. We walked up there for quite a long time until we hit a car wash, then we cut straight through there, turned left, and we were there!

The outside of the building was a little shabby, but the inside was much nicer. There were lots of couches on the inside and four doors. One was marked Salle de Guitare (Guitar room), the next was “The big cheese’s room” and the others were Salle 1 and Salle 2(rooms 1 and 2). We could hear guitar coming from the guitar room and piano coming from Salle 2. I was pretty sure Meghan would be going into Salle 2 (as she was playing piano) and I would be going into the Salle de guitare (as I was starting the electric guitar).

At 1:15 it was time for Meghan’s lesson, so we went into Salle 2 (surprise surprise!), there we found her teacher Maxance waiting for us. Inside I noticed there was a piano, a drum set and an amp for an electric guitar. While Meghan played piano with Maxance, I plotted out on the map where several music stores were, as we needed a guitar and keyboard to practice on. Meghan learned that, in France, they learn music with La, Ti, Do instead of A, B, C. I thought that would be very difficult!

An hour and fifteen minutes later, it was my turn, so we walked into the Salle de Guitare. At the beginning I had a choice of three guitars I could practice with during my lesson, so I chose a dark silver one because I liked the colour. My teacher, Emmanuel, went on to show me all the different parts of the guitar, how to tune it, and how to play a few chords. I was having trouble with switching between letters and “Do, Re, Mi”. At the end he showed me how to unplug it and put it away; we thanked him for the lesson and left.

I was very happy with the way my lesson had gone, and couldn’t wait until I got an electric guitar of my own to practice on.

First two weeks: September 11, 2007

Meghan writes...

We decided to go to France a few months ago because we were tired of living in Burns Lake and needed a change. Today is September 10^th. We have been in Strasbourg, France for two weeks. I really like it here.

The plane trip here was a little boring but there were TVs in the plane so there was at least that to do. First we took an Embraer 190 from Calgary to Toronto and we met Uncle Steven there. We had a five hour layover so we went to the lounge and tried to get some sleep. From Toronto to Paris we took an Airbus A-330. That trip was seven and a half hours. It was hard, but I managed to sleep for an hour and 15 minutes. We took a Fokker from Paris to here and then a taxi to the Residence Jean Sebastien Bach Hotel. All of us were really tired when we got here and went to bed at nine p.m.

The second day we went to the ATAC grocery store. It is about 6 blocks away from the Hotel. It has very thin isles but is not that small. In my opinion it smells a little. (Maybe it is because of the meat there). We bought some tea, cheese, chicken, butter, and our very first baguette. After that we went back to the Hotel and had lunch. The baguette and chicken were very good but I did not like the cheese because it was too waxy.

For the next week or so we looked for an apartment and found three. The first one is really small and old but it has a cat there and it has three bedrooms. (Cameron really wants his own bedroom and both he and I like cats a lot). The second one is big but only has two bedrooms. The third one is about as big as the second one and I think it looks really comfortable but it has two bedrooms and the bathrooms are really dirty, not to mention kind of ugly. Cameron wanted the first apartment and I wanted the third one but Mom and Dad decided that we will take the second one. We are going to put curtains in between Cameron’s bed and mine.

Several days ago we went on the tram (the train-like thing that runs around Strasbourg) to see the cathedral. It is huge! It is 142 metres high! All around the cathedral are little clothes shops and candy shops. We went into one of the candy shops and there were lots of varieties of candy. There were cookies, lollipops, and even chocolate olives. (Which I think is kind of weird). It smelled really good in there. Also, right by the cathedral is the tourism office. Once, some days later we went there to buy a map of Strasbourg.

I can’t believe it is only a ten minute bus ride into Germany! That is what I was thinking as we got off bus number 21 two days ago into Kehl, Germany. We shopped there because one of the Hotel staff said that that is where everybody goes to shop and the prices are lower. We went into lots of clothes shops and Mom and I bought coats. (I really like mine because it is very colourful). We also ate lunch at a restaurant and had a really good kiwi dessert.

By the end of the ten months we are here, we will have gone to Italy, Germany, Greece, England, and of course France. We already went to Germany and we will probably go to Venice, Italy next. I think the canals there are really neat. I’m a little nervous about going to Greece and Italy, though, because no one in my family speaks Greek or Italian.

We are going to move into our apartment in four days. I think this apartment is not so bad after all; Cameron is okay with it too. It is so exciting! I can’t wait to go to Venice!

Cameron writes...

In May 2007 our family decided to go to France. On the 26 of August we woke up and drove to the Calgary airport, that was the beginning of the realization of our dreams...

On our flight to France we had to stop in Calgary, Toronto, Paris and finally came to Strasbourg. From Calgary to Toronto we took an Embraer 190 airplane, from Toronto to Paris we took an Airbus A330, and we arrived in Strasbourg in a Fokker 10. In Toronto we had supper with my uncle (dad’s brother) Steven, and his wife Christine. It was delicious! At the Paris airport Charles De Gaulle we met Rachel and Eric, who had visited Winnipeg for two months and were just coming back. They were very nice and made me feel welcome so we decided we’d visit them once we got settled in Strasbourg. One hour later we were finally in Strasbourg.

The next day we took the Tram to the centre of the city, the stop we got on was Observatoire, and we got of at the crowded Homme de Fer (Iron Man). Then we walked up to the cathedral. It was a huge 142m tall!!! It also has detailed carvings all over. It made me feel tiny! From there we walked a little bit and stopped in a store to purchase two cell phones. Then we walked back to Homme de Fer and took the Tram back to our hotel, with some groceries we bought from the ATAC grocery store. We soon went to bed.

On our third day in Strasbourg we went to multiple “apartment agencies” (Immoblieres) to find an apartment for ten months. We located an apartment in Orangerie five blocks from the hotel we were staying in, so we took a short walk to go see it. The woman that owned it was called Mme. Kraemer. The apartment was a little old, but it had three bedrooms and a cat that came with it! (My sister and I love cats) It also had two different floors. Finally we had seen our first apartment!

The next day we contacted a Pied a Terre and someone there (Bernadette) decided to show us an apartment by the Tram station Homme de Fer. I didn’t exactly enjoy the neighborhood (graffiti everywhere, shops selling knives and guns that shot out little plastic balls). The apartment wasn’t that bad though, it had two bedrooms and a huge living room and dining room. It did only have a tiny balcony that looked about three feet squared, though. I liked the other one more, and that evening we told Mme. Kraemer that we would take it. I was glad because I really wanted a cat!

A week later Mme. Kraemer told us that the people that were in her apartment when we looked at it were still there. We decided to look at another apartment in Esplanade, just south of our hotel for another option. It was ok and had a huge balcony, but it was in the “Apartment kind of town” where there were a lot of huge apartment buildings. It was supposed to have three bedrooms but it turns out the owners had put all of their stuff in one and locked it up. It still had a huge kitchen with a nice view though. We decided we’d take the other one by Homme de Fer at the end of the day though, that was ok with me but I was a little disappointed by Mme. Kraemer.

Here I am, 6 days later, September 11^th waiting for the 15^th when the apartment is available; Sitting in the hotel writing this “Journal” and trying to get it done fast enough. I can’t wait until the 15^th!!!!!