France- Day 5 (Last Day!)

21 March 2010; 8:42 pm (Paris time)-

Today, my dad and I went to Notre Dame Cathedral. We listened to the mass in the morning and looked at the inside of the cathedral, seeing the rose windows and the amazing ceiling. We went into the bell towers on a tour. We saw a lot of gargoyles and one of the main bells. Some of the gargoyles looked very funny. You can tell in the towers better than anywhere else that the cathedral is on an island. There is a statue of Charlemagne outside of the cathedral. We also went to the Crypte Archeologique, which is an ancient Gallo-Roman city underneath the front of the cathedral. Across the river from the cathedral, we found Shakespeare & Co. (Finally!). It is an old English bookstore with many nooks and crannies. It actually looks like it is one of the oldest shops around. Amazingly, though, it was packed with people. My dad got Master and Commander, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, but I got Agatha Christie’s Murder in Mesopotamia. I had a tart called Tarte Mendient, which is made of chocolate and nuts. I also had a panini called Le Dinde, which had French sausage and tomatoes inside of it.

France- Day 4

20 March 2010; 8:15pm (Paris Time)-

Today, my dad and I went to the Chateau de Versailles, an overgrown mansion made by Louis XIV of France. We saw the great chapel and the Hall of Mirrors. I learned that a lot of the stuff that was originally from Versailles was stolen when the French Revolution took place. That meant that some rooms that we saw had just a bust or a painting. The most amazing thing about Versailles for me was the ceilings. Almost all the ceilings were painted with pictures of gods and other people in the sky, and although the building was amazing, the gardens were more amazing. The garden was huge. Everywhere, there was a fountain. We had lunch in front of the Fountain of Neptune. After a long nap and resting of legs, my dad and I went to the Musée D’Orsay, and we were the last people allowed in because we only had an hour until closing time. We saw paintings like the Large Dressed Dancer by Degas, Dancing at the Moulin de la Galerre by Renoir, the self-portrait of Van Gogh, and many others. Something else I noticed about France is that there are a lot of statues. On almost every road, there is a statue of some somewhat famous person in history.

France- Day 3

19 March 2010; 1:51pm (Paris Time)-

Today was interesting. Today, we went to the Eiffel Tower, but before we did, my dad made me go into the grocery store alone to get our food for the day. I got cheese with cumin and batard bread. We went onto the train during rush hour (which was a huge mistake) and made it to the Tower before any large crowds got there. I thought that the double-decker bus was very inventive, and the view from the top of the tower was amazing. I took a lot of pictures up there. We also went to the Arc de Triomphe, which was amazing. I thought that it was crazy how the road around the Arc was basically a free-for- all. The staircases were larger than I expected and that was a tiring climb to the top, but the view was great.

19 March 2010; 10:04pm (Paris time)-

We went out to find the book store, Shakespeare & Co., but to no prevail, so we went to the Jardin du Luxembourg and ate grapes in front of the fountain of Marie de Medici. We then went to a restaurant called the Hippopotamus. Although we had hamburgers, we also had an Ile flotante, which was basically meringue in custard. We saw a park with a bronze statue that I’ve seen in books of baby Romulus and Remus underneath the wolf.

France- Day 2

18 March 2010; 7:41 am (Paris time)-


Last night we went and looked at Notre Dame Cathedral. We took lots of pictures of the river. After that, we wandered around and got lost for a while, but found our way to the Café Creperie, where we had crepes. I had a crepe called the Belle Hélène, which had ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, maple syrup, almonds, and pears on it. It was one of the tastiest desserts I have ever had. We had breakfast of croissants, hot chocolate, and baguettes, which were also good. I lost my hat today, and I think that I left it at the crepe shop. We are going to look for it today. I hope I find it.

18 March 2010; 9:55pm (Paris time)

We went to the Louvre today. We saw the Venus de Milo, tha Mona Lisa, and many other famous works of art. I was amazed at how large the whole place was. I was so happy to be there because in all my architecture books, I saw the great center pyramid, and I have always wanted to see it, and today was that day. I was so excited. We had lunch outside of the pyramid. I had a salami sandwich and an éclair for lunch. We saw the obelisk in front of the garden of the Louvre. It amazes me how someone was able to bring the obelisk all the way back from Egypt. We later went to the Pantheon. We saw Focault’s pendulum, which hangs amazingly high in the building. I learned that St. Genevieve was the patron saint of Paris and that St. Denis was the first archbishop of Paris. I thought that it was great that both St. Genevieve and St. Denis were helping and encouraging the French when Attila the Hun came to Paris. We also saw the National Convention statue and the memorial of Denis Diderot, editor of the first Encyclopedia. I also saw the crypt in the Pantheon and saw the coffins of Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, Alexander Dumas, Pierre Curie, Marie Curie, and Louis Braille. Afterward, we went to see an old Roman colosseum that was turned into a park. We had Salami, Cheese, and a baguette for dinner. We are going to see the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triumphe tomorrow.

France- Day 1

This last week, I went on a trip to France, and I decided to use a travel journal while I was there. Now I will write down my journal entries as blog posts. Enjoy!

17 March 2010; 4:27pm (Paris Time)-
Today was a big eye-opener for me. I know little French and felt like a child in Paris because of my limited speaking abilities. The way everybody talked made me feel American. My dad stood out in the crowd even more than I did. He wore a white sweatshirt, while everybody around us was wearing dark clothing. Luckily, I was wearing a dark coat that day. Although we walked by the Pantheon today, we did not go inside. We are going to save going inside for a different day. We went into the Jardin du Luxembourg, which was probably the largest park I had ever seen. The fountain was interesting. I thought it was funny how you could rent a small toy boat and set it free in the fountain in the middle. We also went to the Jardin du Plantes. This garden had its own zoo. I had a panini today for lunch. It was called a 5 Fromages Panini and had Emmental, Chevre, Feta, Mozzarella, and Mascarpone cheese. We had a nutella-filled beignet for dessert. We hope to go to the Louvre tomorrow.

Using Words Weirdly

CLAMS

There was once a clam who happened to be a CLAM club clam. This clam was no ordinary CLAM clam. He was a member of the Cooperating Limo Association of Mustard, also known as the CLAM club. In this CLAM club, clams club clams. The name, CLAM, the club uses to hide the clams' clubbing of clams. When a CLAM club clam from the CLAM club clubs a clam, he clubs the clam as best as a CLAM club clam can club a clubbed clam. Soon the CLAM club clams had clubbed so many clams that there was not a clam to be clubbed. The CLAM club clams had an idea on how to club more clams. The CLAM club clams decided to club the clubbed clams again. When the CLAM club clams had finished one round of clubbing clubbed clams, the CLAM club clams would go to their club and eat some clubbed club sandwiches. After the CLAM club clams had finished their clubbed club sandwiches, the CLAM club clams went outside to club the clubbed clams with their clam clubs again, But when the CLAM club clams went out to club more clubbed clams with clubs, they found that the clubbed clams had run away from the town of the CLAM club clams. The CLAM club clams had no idea where to find more clams to club. Unfortunately, the CLAM club clams could find no one else to club but the CLAM club clams. So the CLAM club clams who clubbed clubbed clams had to club other CLAM club clams, and the CLAM club clams clubbed happily ever after. The CLAM club clams clamed down.

The Clubbed Clam End

The Different Types of Friction

Rabk’s Depressingly Strange Day

There was once a person named Rabk Doomfish and he lived in the town of El Dorado Hills. In his house, Rabk had a room covered in wallpaper, and when Rabk got tired of the wallpaper, he went outside of his room. One time when he got tired of his wallpaper, he decided to go to the park. On his way there, a squirrel popped into existence right in front of him, about 5 ft of the ground. It hovered in the air for a second and then fell with a crash onto the sidewalk. Then, a small skateboard rolled up to the squirrel who immediately got up and rolled off on it. Bewildered by this strange event, Rabk kept walking to the park. When he got there, he saw Bigfoot, who was trying to knock over a tree. After a couple minutes, Bigfoot pushed too hard, hit his head on the tree. Bigfoot fell over, unconscious, on the ground. Just afterwards, a small mouse came up and tried to topple the tree. Although he didn’t knock it over, he did get it to slide all the way onto the sidewalk, where a jogger promptly ran into it. Rabk shook his head in disbelief and walked over to the fountain in the middle of the park. He fished around in his pocket and when he found a penny, he threw it into the fountain and said, “I wish all these strange things would stop happening.” Unfortunately, that wish did not come true. The water in the fountain started to over flow and so much water came out that Rabk slipped and was being carried away. As he was being washed about he looked over and saw Genghis Khan, in full uniform, swimming the other way. After a while, the water went away, and Rabk got up to find himself completely dry and in front of his house. He decided to go back into his room to get some rest and clear his mind, but then a Pterodactyl flew overhead and dropped some dynamite on his house.


The End