O, Canada!

So today we washed the windows for Mennorodes. We used a lot of soap and water. Another Canadian helped us. There are two Canaians here. One girl and one guy. They are both from Saskatchewan too! My mom knows lots of the girls family. We washed most of the windows then we had lunch then finished the windows. Then I went on the computer.

Country Study # 2 Netherlands

Climate - 9.8 degrees celsius

Population - 16 558 674 (as of 2010)

Culture - The Netherlands has had many well-known painters wich in the 17th was Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen, Jacob van Ruysdael and many others. Famous Dutch painters of the 19th and 20th century were Vincent van Gogh and Piet Mondriaan. M. C. Escher is a well-known graphics artist. Willem de Kooning was born and trained in Rotterdam, although he is considered to have reached acclaim as an American artist . The Netherlands is also a country of philosophers Erasmus of Rotterdam and Spinoza. The Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695) discovered Saturn's moon Titan and invented the pendulum clock. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was the first to observe and describe single-celled organisms with a microscope

If you want me to find out more on the Netherlands comment under this post.

Finally Working

Today we actually worked. As I may have tolf you we are working for our stay so it felt so good to finally do something for them. We helped with some stuff outside like gardening and such. That took up our morning and about an hour after lunch. After that I started blogging so here I am. I don't think we'll do much in the afternoon though.

Big Bikes

AHHH! I am sort of dissapointed because we wanted to go biking but the bikes were very large and I didn't know how to get onto it without falling! I really wanted to go biking. So instead we got a cab and went to a large town. That was cool too. We walked around and shopped for a bit. After that we took a cab back to Mennorodes. Then we had supper. We were one of the only people there so they didn't put out a buffet like they usually do and they just served us. I feel really guilty because we are supposed to help them out not get served like real guests! I guess that we will work when it is busier like on the weekenf but I still want to help!

Free Day

So yesterday we went to a small town near Mennorodes. It's a really cute little town. After we went we came back and had lunch. The food here is sooooo yummy! After supper I went to my room and watched T.V. Then we had another awesome supper. Not much happened.

Country Study # 1 Ireland

Climate - About 15 degrees celsius rainy
Population - 3,797,257 in 2000 (estimation)
Size - 84,431 square kilometers (Saskatchewan is 588,276 square kilometers so about 6 Irelands can fit into Saskatchewan)
Jobs - Tourism, Agriculture, Farming, and also Fishing
Animals - Well we saw sheep, lots of cows, sea birds, horses, dogs, I'd guess
that there is more but we did not see them
Arcutecture - Rectangled shaped buildingss
History - A very huge thing that happened in Ireland is the Great Famine. It happened between 1845 and 1852. It seems that the people weren't allowed to sell their own food and they didn't get much from the government. They grew good corn but the government shiped it away to North America and they shipped back their bad corn and the Irish were forced to eat that. Nearly 20-25% of the Irish died in the Famine.

Menorodes

So today we went to the Netherlands. We got up at 5:15 (ugh) and then went to the airport near London. The flight was really short something like 45 minutes. Once we got to the airport in Amsterdam we got a train and then went to Menorodes. After we got there we went for a walk and then had some supper. Menorodes is really beautiul and has lots of trees and tons of rabbits. We saw about 10 reabbits on our first walk! Anyway we are going to volunteer at the retreat centre so we will get to stay here for less money. Anyway I have to go but I'll write soon.

Windsor Castle

Saturday I slept in until like 9:30. Had a pancake breakast, hung out with one of the younger girls we were staying with then had a shower (I had still been in my PJ's) After that we went to Windsor Castle, the holiday home of the queen. I cannot even describe how huge it was. It was ginormous! Though despite the size I feel sorry for the queen because she has these beautiful parks which everyone from the village on the other side of the castle walk through and then to top these that there are all these people touring around her castle! Well I guess that she would have her own quarters and her own section of garden but still as soon as she walks outside it's paparatzie! I should probably get to my next post so see you in two seconds!

England Day

The next day we actually spent a day in London. First thing we did was go to a Shakespeare Play at the Globe. We went to a comedy called 'The Merry Wives of Wndsor' We were so close to part of the stage that we got brushed by some of the girls skirts! It was sooooooooooooooooooo amazing! After that we went to the London Eye (sadly we didn't go on) And then we went to see the Big Ben. That was really cool. Oh but before the London Eye we saw the London Bridge but just to tell you it's not that amazing. Pretty much it's just a bridge that is not that old or amazing. Oh well London was spectacular anyway. After that we went to bed very late at our friends house again.

London

We drove to Dubln to catch our plane to London. We got to London and met up with my moms friend and her eldest daughter. Once we met and put our bags in a locker we went to Buckingham Palace! You would not believe how fancy it is. Before hand we had had to walk through POURING rain. Anyway we had a a tour of the palace. Very elegant. After that we went back to our friends house and had supper.

Book Report

So to anyone who is actually reading my blog I would advise to go look at something else because I have to write a book report for school. (sigh) but I don't want to fail so here I go.


The Poison Apples

The Poison Apples is a book about three girls Molly, Reena, and Alice. Each of the girls parents have had a devorce and each of the girls fathers have re-married to very mean stepmothers. The stepmothers don't like the girls so in different ways the girls are sent to Putnam Mount McKinsey, a very posh boarding school. The girls don't like each othe at first but once they find out the others have evil stemothers as well, they form a group called the Poison Apples. They have sworn to get back at their terrible new moms. They each get a plan to get at the very most important thing their stepmoms lives but those plans don't seem to work. As for the girls pesonal lives each of the girls have a crush on someone but only Alices relationship actually works out by the end of the book. In the end the girls all are alright with their stepmothers and they all help Molly babysit over the summer.
The book is written by Lily Archer an Irish author. The Poison Apples was written in 2007. To me this book was very well written. The author was funny and she used splendidly good wording. I would definately give the book 10 thumbs up!

Cave

So today was a slow day. Pretty much we just drove around and went to cool sites. One of the ones we went to was a cave.We took a tour wich was nice. This is one of the tmes I'm glad I'm short. I didn't bump my head on the ceiling! After that we went to an old tomb. After that we went shopping at a larger town and looked at some of the shops. Then we drove back to Doolin.

Island

So my family went to a small island near Doolin. The island was one of three. The boat was small so it was really bumpy and I got sick. (ewwwwwww...) The island was pretty cool, and we walked around for a bit and then got a little tour around the island. After we got back to the mainland (I didn't get sick that time) We went to the Meher cliffs. The were so SPECTACULAR! There was a sunset on the water that was fabulous as well. Then we just went back to our B&B.

Ocean

Welcome to the ocean! Oh sorry, I should probably talk about the start of my day first right? Ok... At the start of my day we went to church. It was a really small church, only about 15 people. That was alright. After that we drove awhile. That was boring but we finally got to the ocean. WOW. For someone from Saskatchewan, the sea was amazing. We found this really cute town called Doolin (I will definately mess it up with Dublin) and fond a B&B. You would not believe the amount of B&B's here! There is like at least one every two buildings! Ok maybe not that many, but a lot! Anyway that's what did today.

Blarney Castle

Today we went to Blarney Castle it's this really amazing castle with the Blarney Stone. Apparently if you kiss the stone you get "the gift of the gab" or eloquence. The legend of Blarney Stone came from two resources. One was from the goddess Cliodhna. Cormac Laidir MacCarthy (the builder of the castle) was involved in a lawsuite. So he pleaded to the goddess to help so she
told MaCarthy to kiss the first stone he found on his way to court. He did so then he was "gift of elouence" and he won his case. So now the stone has "magical powers". Sadly I for one did not kiss the stone. (I was to scared I would fall) Anyway the grounds around the castle are also amazing. There is a lot of really cool trees and a bunch of interesting rocks. (there's even one that looks like a witches head) So you're probaly getting tired of reading so I will stop now.

Book of Kells

The Trinity College is home to the amazing Book of Kells. The Book is a really old version of the gospel books of the Bible, Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. It's really old about 9th century. The guy's who wrote it used many illustrations and they are BEAUTIFUL. Also in the college is the Long Room. It's this really long hallway that was used as a library of sorts.

Dublin

WOW... Dublin is AMAZING. After the 51/2 hour flight We took a cab to the hostile. Sadly the room was booked until 10:30 (Dublin time) so we had a walk and then got some hot chocolate. We walked around a bit more then went back to the hostile. After a few minutes we could go in. Once we got in we just went to sleep. Around 5:30 we woke up and I had a shower. Then we had some supper then took some pictures of the river in Dublin. W also took some pictures of the cathedral by the hostile. I'll post the pictures of Dublin after we load them onto the netbook. The weather here is alot like Rosthern but a bit windyer. I have to go now but I'll try to post soon!

Denver

After we flew into Denver we found out that we didn't have tickets for the next flight! It seem the girls in Saskatoon that were helping us after our flight was cancelled messed up with our tickets! Thankfully he guy that was heping us n Denver gave us a nght in a hotel room and gave us our original flight only a day later. So we got to Boston and now we are waiting for the flight to Dublin. I hope nothng breaks down!

Airplane

Well I woke up this morning at 2:45. I felt like a zombie. When we got to the airport I was somewhat awake. Security went by pretty smoothely. But when we actually got on the plane the pilot told us the plane was broken! It seems the signal to the emergency brake was on so they didn't know if it was or off. Thank goodness my mom got us a flight in the afternoon. I'm now just writing to kill time before the flight. I hope I can sleep on the plane!