Blogging Landmark!

I am now a member of four blogs, and this new one is the first one I did not play a main role in creating! It is a site for my This I Believe class at BYU and it is located here. We will be discussing our class and talking about statements of belief once the semester begins. I'm so excited!!!

In unrelated news, I have spent a wonderful week in Newport Beach with my little sister, Melissa! I got to take her to the beach two times and we also went to the OCMA, the Pageant of the Masters (along with their Festival of Arts), and a lot of other cool places. Melissa especially liked the Environmental Nature Center or "ENC," where they had a butterfly house. While we were in there, a butterfly flew up to me and landed on my finger and then it came back and landed on my shirt. I tried to take a picture, but I wasn't quick enough. It was really cool though.

I'm excited to get back to the desert and finish up things before I move away for the year!

What goes on in your mind?

Well... life is fun. I went to the beach last weekend, so I just thought I'd post about it here. While Madelyn and I were walking along the bay on our way home from Balboa Island, we noticed a particularly picturesque spot where the lights were shining on the water (I'm just about to post the pictures here. While I was looking at it, talking to Madelyn, I realized something: I spend so much time (and I think other people do this, too) trying to think of ways I can bring an image with me that I don't really enjoy the image when I am looking at it. I am so caught up with trying to bring the things I'm living to my future that I don't enjoy them in the present.

Capice?

Catching up...

I am home now, as you must have deduced, so I will just finish up my trip stuff and have done with it. :)

The next day in Paris we visited Saint Chapelle, which is a beautiful church with exquisite floor to ceiling stained glass windows and jeweled light bouncing off of everything. I liked the Basilica best of all of them, but I think this one came in second. After we left the church, we took the subway to the Rodin gardens, which were more coifed than Monet's, but beautiful and gold and green in the summer. Madelyn and I ran around taking pictures and stuff and then we went home in a taxi. That night, I stayed up really late talking to our family and then went to bed.

The next day, we got up and got ready and went to church!!!! On the way though, something scary happened: we were walking down the stairs to the metro and there was this shirtless, grimy hobo hanging around. As I went down the stairs, he blew in my face, said something about pretty French girls (which is ironic) and slapped me, HARD, on the arm! Madelyn even heard the sound! After that, we hurried off to the subway and then we eventually found church. It was so nice to be in a familiar environment! We went to an English sunday school session and then the meeting was afterward. We could only get one set of headphones, so Madelyn and I switched off for the different talks. After church, we rode the subway to the Tuileries and ate a picnic on a bench there. Madelyn spilled the chips, so we fed them to the pigeons, which was fun. :) After we ate, we went back home and slept and Skyped and stuff. I was up really late talking to our family, and after that, packing. Madelyn took all these funny pictures of me that I didn't see until the next day, when I downloaded my camera pictures onto the laptop.

The next morning, we got up around 5:30 and got ready and then Madelyn, Grandma and I walked to the Austerlitz Bridge for a last look at the city. It was cool; we could see Notre Dame from there. After that, we went back to the hotel and had breakfast. Madelyn and I went shopping one last time at the train station stores, and then we came back and met the taxi, which took us to the airport.

You've all been on planes, so I won't go into the flight, but after 20 hours or so, we were back in Newport Beach and then the next morning, we drove home to Rancho Mirage! Once we were home, we gave our family the presents we got them. Shortly after, we were packing for a trip to Brian Head, which I returned from last night.

At last.

More still...

On Friday, we went to Giverny at last! Madelyn and I woke up pretty late, so we didn't get going until 10 or so. Then we rode to the train station, and barely made our train headed to Vernon, the nearest stop to Giverny. When we got on the train, nearly all the seats were full, so Madelyn and I sat on the stairs for a while until a nice girl a bit further down the train pointed out 2 empty seats to us. When we got to Vernon, we took a cab to get to the house and gardens, and before going in, we sat on a bench and ate some food together for brunch.
Next, we bought our tickets for the museum and went in. You go through a gift shop first, which was Monet's actual studio in his day, and then you step out into the most beautiful garden.
Ever.
I'm not kidding. If I have never been sincere in my life, this one thing I mean: Monet's garden is beautiful. It was everything I planned on it being when I was eight years old and first wanted to go there. We walked through the main garden for a while first, and then we headed down the subterranean passage (generously donated by the Annenbergs) to the water gardens. I never thought they could look so much like the paintings do, although one can tell that he painted the ones at the Orangerie at dusk, when the light is more purple and grey. We were there in the afternoon. Well...I won't cover it in words, I guess. You can see the pictures for yourself. We went back to the main garden afterward, and then went to the gift shop, where we bought a few things. (Okay, cut me some slack. Monet is my favorite painter ever and I couldn't stand not getting one gorgeous thing in a shop chock full of Monet paraphernilia.) After some confusion, we got a cab back to Vernon and rode our train back to Paris.
After we came back from Giverny, we rode the metro home and just relaxed for a bit in our rooms before we decided to go to the Eiffel tower. We wanted to get there late, so it would be dark and lit when we went. We were going to leave the hotel at 9:30, but then Grandpa took a really long time at the front desk doing something, so we weren't even on the metro until 10:00 or so. Then it took us about half an hour to get there, plus there were lines. To make this brief, we weren't at the second level of the tower until about 11:30. Grandma and Grandpa were pretty tired, but Madelyn and I still wanted to ride to the top. So we waited in a big fat line. Behind us in the line were a boy and his girlfriend. He was all excited about going up, but she was being the worst Debbie Downer I have ever seen in my life. They had this really stupid argument and I just wanted to turn around and tell her to be optimistic. It was pretty sad. Anyway, we went to the top and took a lot of fun pictures, which you can see on my album here, and then we rode back down. When we got ready to go home, though, we saw that the RER was closed!! Can you beleive it? It actually closes! Anyway, after that we took a cab home, where we had scriptures and prayer and then we went to bed. :)
I will start a new post for the next day.

The Next Day in Paris...

I slept horribly on the night train that time around, but eventually we woke up and got off in Paris. The day was half over by then, so once we got to our hotel (admittedly, with some confusion) we sat around together and decided what to do. Eventually we decided to go to the Musee D'Orsay and then either the Arc D'Triomphe or the Eiffel Tower. So we took the subway and then went to the D'Orsay, which was AWESOME!!!
There are so many impressionist paintings there it would make your head spin. They have an entire room full of Monet paintings, which was so beautiful. :) Plus there were all these gorgeous Van Goghs and Renoirs. And there was one awesome Klimt! It made me really happy. Once we were done with that, we went to dinner at a restaurant nearby.
The photos are now at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/somethingemily8/FranceAndItaly2009

Okay... it is the next day, and I am back on, so I just thought I'd edit this post rather than start a new one, because I just randomly posted about Giverny and the Eiffel Tower. So anyway, after the D'Orsay we went to a cafe nearby for lunch or dinner or whatever it was. They had really good sandwiches; we all ordered clubs. After that, we decided to go to the Arc d'Triompe at Champs-Elysees (I know these all have accents and such, but I just don't feel like putting in symbols). When we got there, we couldn't figure out how to get to the underground passage to the other side of the street. Just Madelyn and I were going to go, since obviously Grandma and Grandpa couldn't do all the stairs it takes to go up inside. Anyway, Madelyn and I spent about 15 minutes running around in the subway beneath Champs-Elysees. Then we finally found the entrance to the top. We came up from underneath and took a few pictures and then we went to the top. There were a million stairs, so once we got there, we were pretty out of breath. We took lots of pictures, bought a thing, and then went back down.
Once we were back on the ground again, we walked around the Arch, taking pictures and trying to figure out where Grandma and Grandpa were waiting for us, since suddednly, all the street corners looked the same. We saw them, and then we went down and then back up outside. We couldn't find them again at this point, so we just started walking around the Etoile, and then it started to rain, hard! Madelyn got her umbrella out and then we saw them and ran toward them, getting wet extremely fast. Once we were all together, we ran down the steps of the metro, where we bought some tickets and then rode the train home. At our stop, Gare de Lyon, it was still raining, but I decided not to use an umbrella just because... you know, we don't have rain at home. A bit later, I think we all had some food together and then we went to sleep, after Skyping the family.

Venice

Hello! It's morning now in Paris. Well, technically it's 11:14 AM because Madelyn and I always sleep in. Today we are going to Giverny, which is kind of the main point of our trip. My Grandma first introduced me to the art of Monet, who is my favorite painter, so it's been a plan of ours since I was eight to go and see Monet's garden together. I can't beleive it's finally happening! Wow!
Anyway, I am obviously supposed to be blogging about Venice, so I will start now. In the morning on our day in Venice, we woke up and got all packed and then rode a water bus back to the train station. There, we left our bags at the left baggage place and then headed off to begin our adventure. First, since it was late, we walked down the street a bit to find some lunch. We at at this little sidewalk stand and I got this delicious peice of pizza with really really spicy pepperoni. We sat down in the back of the restaraunt to eat, and when we were done, we threw little peices of bread at the ugly pigeons and mostly at these cute little birds (which were very fast) there. After that we bought a few presents at this little stand nearby and then we wanted to to go on a gondola ride. Unfortunately, there were no available gondoliers yet, so we decided to go to Saint Mark's Square first. We got on a water bus and rode for a half hour or so.
The water bus feels kind of like the subway, but much slower, and it rocks way more. Plus it's only a boat, so it's super crowded.
At Saint Mark's square, we went to the Basilica first, which was an amazing, majestic church. Unfortunately, you can't take pictures inside, or I would post them here. Unlike most Catholic churches (in Europe and the States) it wasn't all stained glass and statues. The entire building is covered with mosaic pictures of saints, apostles, and Biblical, stories. The spaces are filled in with gold peices. It's dark inside, so when you look up, only a few peices of gold glint down at you. They reminded me of stars.
Needless to say, I gaped with my head back at the ceiling the entire time, and I kept running into things in front of me.
After we were done with the Basilica, we went to the Doge's palace. Grandma and Grandpa were tired, so Madelyn and I just went through the museum alone. We crossed the Bridge of Sighs, where condemned prisoners would look out at Venice and sigh on their way to prison. We also saw the largest oil painting in the world, called "Paradise" by Tintoretto, I think. It is of Mary and Jesus surrounded by apostles and saints in heaven.
After we finished those, we bought some stuff and then rode the water bus back to the railway station. Near there, we got some sandwiches for dinner and then we took our gondola ride. Madelyn and I sang what pretty songs in Italian we know while we were going through the extremely silent canals and backways of Venice. It was an awesome experience.
When we were done, we went back to the railway station, bought one last present, and soon enough, we were on the night train to Paris.
Tada! I have to brush my hair so we can leave, so that's all for now!

Hooray!!! I have the internet!

Soo... we're back in Paris at a hotel with free Wi-Fi at last! I will be blogging faithfully for the next four days, therefore, and will hopefully have lots of cool stories to tell you. :) I will continue with Florence, then.

The next morning, we woke up and ate breakfast at the hotel. They had these awesome little containers of Nutella, packaged the way you'd see jam and butter in the U.S. I put one in my backpack to take home to you guys, but it sort of exploded in my backpack pocket on the train yesterday. After that, we took a cab the Uffizi gallery, where I was really afraid of getting pickpocketed, so I carried my backpack in front all goofily and stuff. Inside, we saw The Birth of Venus, which was really beautiful, and this other painting I really like (also a Botticelli) but I can't remember the name right now. After that, we walked around by Ponte Vecchio and bought a few presents. Then we got lunch and this amazing tall gelatos. They were delicious. After that, we got a cab to the Academia, where we saw the David. It was so huge and amazing and majestic. After that, we took another cab to our hotel, where we picked up our luggage and went ot the train station. We took the train to Venice, where we spent a while looking for some office. There, we checked in and then we had dinner at a restaurant. Next we rode a water bus to our apartment, where we went in, settled, and went to sleep.
The next day was our day in Venice, but I have to get off now to let Madelyn on! I will write more later. :)

Trip to Europe!

Due to popular demand that I write about my trip (Leslie) (haha) I am writing about my trip.
So far we have been to Paris, Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre, and now we are in Florence.
I will write about the best parts of every day, since I'm sure you don't want an account of my boring multitudinous train rides. :)
On our first day in Paris, which was Thursday, we took a bunch of trains and went to Versailles, which was very pretty. Of all the inside portion, the Hall of Mirrors was my favorite part. :) I can't post pictures yet, because I didn't bring a USB cord, but I will post an album when I get home. After we went through the palace, Madelyn and I explored the gardens there, which was the coolest part. We took lots of pictures. There was a part of the gardens where they played very loud classical music, which I liked, of course.
On Friday, we went to Caen, where the Normandy beaches are, and we had fun going on a tour for a long time and seeing all the cool war stuff there. It took a long time and it was fun going to a lot of different places. Also, on Friday night, something interesting happened. We went to eat dinner at a hamburger place, and when we sat down to eat, there was a guy sitting diagonally from us who stared at me the whole time. When we had finished eating, he waggled his hand in a "call me" signal. I looked away and laughed, sort of embarrassed, and he borrowed a pen from someone, wrote his number on a napkin, and held it up. When we were about to leave, I got up to tell him that I'm American and I wasn't going to be in Paris long. He introduced himself and he said he really wanted to contact me. He wouldn't take no for an answer, and he gave me his email and asked for mine. I thought, "What's the harm?" so I gave it to him. And now I have a friend in Paris.
Saturday was the best day by far. We went to Notre Dame first, which was just as majestic and beautiful as you'd expect it to be. And when we went to the Louvre, a miracle happened. During the morning, I tried to contact my friend Megan, who was with my school's tour group in Paris, but I couldn't reach her, so I gave up. Somehow, impossibly, they happened to go to the Louvre on the same day we did and we ran into members of the tour group. It was so exciting and amazing! We went to dinner with them that night before taking the night train on our voyage to Italy.
All day Sunday we traveled, and eventually we got to our town in Cinque Terre, which was Riomaggiore. Because we got there so late, we didn't get to spend a lot of time there, so Madelyn and I explored the city together for a few hours. At night we had a testimony meeting because we couldn't go to church (click for more information about my church), which was pretty cool.
Today we took a lot of trains and made it to Florence. Once we got here, we got a cab driver to take us to our hotel, the Hotel de Rose Palace, which is very pretty and well furnished. Shortly after we arrived, we went to lunch together and when we came back, we talked to my mom for a while on Skype and told her what's been going on. A while later, Madelyn and I went exploring around Florence, which, around here, is kind of dirty and not very pretty. Plus I was really scared a lot of the time because I have heard it's not the safest city in the world. When we came back, there was a very cute boy at the hotel desk. Later that night, we went to dinner at a pizza place, and I made up stories to myself about each table.
For instance, at the table across from us, a middle aged couple was out with their son and their daughter's fiancee, and he was trying to impress them because he wanted to marry their daughter. The son liked the fiancee, because he has a cool car and because he signed the son's cast really well. The mother also approves of him and thinks her daughter has chosen a handsome man. But the father is still trying to ascertain whether there is the potential for success behind the young man's scruffy beard.
Et cetera.
When we came back, we Skyped our family some more, and Madelyn and I went to the lobby to ask the guy if we could take a picture with him (and to ask for a wake-up call). He said no. It was really embarrassing and I felt pretty stupid and depressed. After that, we ran up the stairs and now we are back in our room.
Ah, well. At least one person in Europe liked me, right? I guess I'll post this now.
By the way, Leslie, you need to sign on to AIM or something so I can tell you more. And, which Euros do you have in your foreign currency collection? Do you want any more?
That's all for now, then! Bye!

Hmmmm....

Not much to post about tonight, so this is mostly just so I can keep doing NaBloPoMo.
Today, my grandmother came over and we planned some more of our Paris trip this summer. We're also thinking of stopping in Copenhagen to see the Christus and stuff, and because we have ancestors there. I am so psyched!!!

Leaving, again...

Well, tomorrow I am off to Lake Powell and after that, to EFY! It should be pretty exciting and fun, but nonetheless, I am not particularly pleased with having to leave again.
First, I didn't get to have my rehab day with Leslie this week, because of jet lag, getting wickedly sick on Wednesday and having to lay around the house in a stupor all day, and that days after effects hanging over the whole week.
Second, having to pack and worrying over what to bring and all of that.
And third, having to give a devotional at the Youth Conference, finishing planning camp, and making sure I extend my online math course thing.
And, again, I am really mad that I have to postpone rehab day.
On the upside, the next two weeks will be filled with water games, sunshine, and sandcastles, and then spiritual classes, cute boys, new friends, and (if I make it) a thrilling, euphoria-inducing performance in the variety show.
So...I look forward and backward.
Here I go...

Getting Better...

Well, I stayed in bed until 5:30 this morning! Jet lag is wearing off and things are going pretty well; Leslie and I are planning her birthday in August! It's going to be pretty awesome. :)
Next week I am going to Lake Powell for a church youth trip, and just after that, EFY. It's going to be a busy few weeks, so this is my one week to breathe before more vacation stuff!
I hope everyone enjoyed my blog during our big trip to Europe, and thank you all for reading it and commenting. I'll continue to keep track next time I'm gone and hope your summers are as wonderful as mine!
Love,
Emily

Thursday in Helsinki

I can't really remember Thursday either... we woke up eventually. I read Da Vinci Code a lot that day. We mostly hung out at the house while Dad, Alec, and Collin went to Teemu Selanne's house to play tennis (except Collin didn't get to play). They said it was really nice. Teemu is this hockey player who's on the Ducks and Alec knows him because they're both Finns. :) It's really cool, all the people we get to know through him. We had spaghetti and salad for lunch, and then Alec decided to take us to this go-kart place. It was pretty cool. We all drove go-karts really fast around the track. (Well, not me- I was the slowest one). :) But I had fun too. We wore these funny red suits like we were real drivers at the place. It was really fun. We took some pictures, so you can see what it was like when we download them on here.
After that, we went back to the house and hung around for a while. I read Da Vinci Code some more. Alec and Sari had put on The Little Mermaid for the girls to watch (they want them to learn English words), so, of course, we were all watching it after they got bored of it. Alec invited this Mormon family he knows over and we all had pizza together and talked and stuff. After they left, we got packed and all and we stayed up really late. We thought about pulling an all-nighter, since we had to get up at about three in the morning anyway. I was reading Da Vinci code, and I went down and watched T.V. with everyone else. When Melissa wanted to go to sleep, I went to our room with her and read some more and then flicked the light off and went to bed.

Wednesday, in Helsinki

On Wednesday, we woke up on the cruise ship (which seemed really early), got dressed, packed, and got off the boat in Helsinki. Then the rest of us waited while Alec and Dad picked up the car, which is this great big white Volkswagen van; it seats 10 people! It's really great.
We drove around; Alec had to go to a meeting, so we dropped him off and then drove around in Helsinki for a while. It was pretty; a lot like the other European towns we've been in. We stopped at a little store, and Collin, Spencer, and I went in and bought two pastries and two rolls, some sweet rolls, some peanuts, and a pack of this "yoghurt" drink called Actimel. We ate that in the car, and then we picked up Alec after it had been an hour.
After that, he drove us in the van to his house around a little municipality nearby; it's actually in the forest. It's a pretty house and it was built by one of his relatives 20 years ago. It's very nice and high tech, especially for so long ago. There's this nanny-type person he hired to help around, and she brought us some juice and we talked to her for a while; then Alec showed us around the house. We went back outside and I talked to that lady some more, and now I'm in the car blogging more!
Okay...later on Wednesday we ate dinner, cooked by Sari, which was this really good Thai food stuff with rice. I can't really remember much else, but I picked up the Da Vinci Code at some point (it was in Sari's library) and I read a bunch of it for the first time. It's pretty good and really interesting.
Later Alec drove us around and we geocached and went grocery shopping and bought ice cream and cookies at the store. Then we went home and went to sleep later at Alec's house.
That's Wednesday!

Monday in Stockholm

On Monday we got up, went to breakfast and all, and then we got ready and left the hotel. We took the subway to central station, where we walked to city hall, which looks really cool because the tower of it is all gold and shiny with these three crowns above it. We wanted to all take a tour of that, but apparently it can only hold 30 people at once, so Mom, Spencer, and Madelyn all went up while the rest of us stayed down. They thought it was really cool, but by the time they told us it was worth it to go up after them, the line was about 40 people long and we didn't want to wait. By the time they got down it was around 11:30 am. We then decided to walk across a bridge and see the Royal Palace. We saw that, and then while we were walking somewhere else, it started to sprinkle. Shortly thereafter, it started to rain. And minutes later, it was pouring down on us and water was rushing down the gutters of Stockholm.
Great day to forget my umbrella.
We sought shelter under the shade-things at some Pakistani-Indian restaraunt, where we stayed for the bulk of the storm. Some of us wanted to eat there, but Dad didn't want to, so when the rain slowed up, we ran down a street to see if we could get anywhere. By mere coincidence, after we had been searching for the Nobel Prize museum a lot of the day, the very edifice of the Nobel Museum rose up in front of us.
We huddled by some of the doors for a minute while Dad went inside to check it out. Then we walked in together, paid the fee, left our soaking jackets in the cloakroom, and started browsing the museum. It was really cool; there were pictures of the winners and models of things they had discovered; really interesting. We stayed there for an hour or so, looking around and watching informational movies and all that interactive museum type of thing.
After that, we walked around Stockholm for a while, looking for a cheap place to eat lunch and somewhere to get an ATM, since we were out of cash. After a lot of walking, we found a junky hamburger place and Dad went to look for an ATM.
We ate lunch and then we walked to the Vasa museum, which is a great big building that houses a boat from the 1600s. The Vasa was commissioned by some Swedish king who gave the boat builders some if not all impossible, then impractical demands. It had two gun decks, loads of gilding and paint all over it, and had insufficient ballast to keep it from tipping over.
On its maiden voyage, the boat was sent into a harbor of Stockholm to parade before the king. Unfortunately, before it ever reached any destination, during a turn, it began to tip onto its side. Due to the redundant gun decks, all open for the showy parade, it filled with water extremely fast, and sunk, standing straight, Swedish flags flying from its masts until it was completely submerged.
Right; this is boring, so why am I telling you all this history crap? Hundreds of years later, the Vasa was brought back out of its tomb in the Stockholm harbor by researchers who were riveted by the story of its remarkable disappearance. With much care and many boats, the Vasa was resurrected from the sea in the 1950s, almost entirely preserved. This is because of the Baltic Sea's negligible salinity; it is more like freshwater, whereas briny water would have rotted the boat more. Because the boat was so perfectly preserved, it gives visitors insight into life in the 1600s.
It's really pretty cool.
We stayed there for about an hour and a half, and we would have stayed longer if the museum hadn't closed. After that, we walked for a while, bought some ice cream and food at a little store and we all had ice cream bars. Then we walked to the subway, rode it to our station (Gardet). Dad and I decided to exit the subway a different way than usual, but we ended up getting really lost and walking a lot more than everyone else. When we got to the hotel, we napped and stuff for a while, and Alec came to the hotel, which we realized when he poked into our room with Dad and asked if "our future Nobel prize winner" was here. (I assume he meant Collin, due to his scientific prowess)
We got up and got ready for dinner and then we all went down to the lobby. We decided to eat at this pizza place at the bottom of the hotel, but Dad and Alec and Mom wanted to go out to eat in Stockholm, so they went after they had ordered us three pizzas to go.
When the pizza was done, we took it up to our room, and, while we were watching T.V., cut them with spoons and ate them. They were kind of gross and salty, but we finished them off and watched T.V. until the adults got home, I think. Then we went to bed.

Thank Goodness it's Friday!

On Friday we got up and drove to the hotel and all that stuff that I'm tired of saying. :) Dad and Mom and Alec needed to make reservations for Stockholm and Finland (which is later this week), so they gave us kids some money and told us to go spend it. The two boys had about 300 kronor and us girls had 500 (300 is about 50 dollars and 500 is about 80 something). So we ran off to the shopping part of the town and looked around. We split up, girls and boys, because, of course, we wanted to go clothes shopping and the boys- I don't really know.
First we hunted around inside the wall, in little boutiques and stores that we'd passed before while window shopping and stuff. We couldn't find anything we really liked, and a lot of it was way out of our price range, so I elected that we go outside the wall to these other, bigger stores, that I'd seen before, which would probably be cheaper.
We went into a couple stores; I bought a shirt at this store called Ahlens. We found an H&M and we looked around there for a while. I saw this elephant necklace that I really liked, but we kept looking because Melissa and Madelyn hadn't bought anything. We went to another store, called (ha ha) Lindex, and eventually Melissa bought some shoes, Madelyn bought a white shirt, and we had extra money, so we got Melissa a purple shirt and we all bought a necklace. Plus I went back to H&M and bought that elephant necklace :).
We came back to the hotel later than we were supposed to and the boys, who had returned early, had been sent back out until 2:30. So we waited for them with Mom. When they got back, we saw their spoils: Spencer had bought a Swedish soccer uniform, and they each bought some old coins for their coin collections. (Don't worry, Leslie, I'll bring you some Swedish kronor.)
We met up with Dad and Alec at some restaurant and, since we hadn't bought lunch, Mom took us to this hamburger joint where we ate while we, yet again, sent the boys off to go shop more. When they returned, we were almost done, so they helped us finish off our fries and whatever and then we all set off for this ice cream place they'd been to. We bought some ice cream (I had two scoops- some Italian mandarin thing and Violet! flavored ice cream, which was, unfortunately, weird.) and then we went and hung out at this big ruined church, where we climbed around and took some pictures.
Okay, Madelyn and I are going to breakfast now, so I'm going to sign off and write more when I get back.

More of Thursday!

Okay, so while Alec and his racing people taught all the newbs how to drive, I read Jane Eyre and played UNO and stuff with the other kids; I also blogged some and worked on some homework stuff for school. That's basically what I did the whole time we were there; near the end, we Skyped Grandma and Grandpa Brown (we have yet to talk to our Shill Grandparents). :) For those of you who don't know, Skype is a kind of instant messaging software; it enables you to make international calls for free; we used it to make a video call. We talked to them for a while and showed them the ring and everything, which was fun.
I figured I was going to drive the next day, so eventually we drove home and I guess we fell asleep or something. I'm so sorry! It's already Sunday! We're in Stockholm now and my memory's kind of blurred.
Coming up next... Friday!

AND NOW... THE FABULOUS WEDNESDAY!

Okay, so I'm really really behind. Forgive me. I'm having a good time and not enough time to blog all the time. :( Sorry!
On Wednesday we didn't meet at the hotel. We planned to go to this island off the North coast called Faro(except the "O" has two dots over it and the "A" has a circle over it and I'm too lazy to add special characters), so we bought some food for breakfast or lunch or whatever it was and we picked up Alec at his apartment on Visby(Sari took the car with her, so he's sometimes at a loss for transportation- it's really ironic). After that we drove to the ferry that would take us to Fårö(there, I did it!). We stopped at this military fort turned fancy hotel for a while; that was cool.
Then we drove around to our destination, which was this beach covered with all these weird rock formations. You can see a picture on my family's blog, which I listed somewhere on here. The beach was pretty cool; we climbed around on a bunch of rocks and romped around for a while.
After that, we drove to a different beach so we could actually go swimming. We sat around and ate for a while and then Madelyn and I put on our swimsuits. When we came back everyone but Mom was playing soccer, so we decided to play too. I got tired after a while, so I went and laid in the sun for a long time with Mom. When it was almost time to leave, I went out to the shore; I knew I would regret it hugely if I never actually swam in the Baltic Sea when I was so close. So I waded in. It was freezing! Madelyn and Spencer were there, and they tried to hug me (they were wet), but I wouldn't let them. I waded out to about waist level and then Madelyn told me I would want to make sure I went under. So we counted to three and then we dunked under the black water together. It was so cold! We "swam" a little, though the water was really too shallow to swim in, and later we left.
After that we went to a grocery store and bought some popsicles or something and ate them. Then we all piled back into the car and we drove to this place with sand dunes in the forest(weird, huh?). We jumped off dunes for a while and took pictures and stuff and then we went back to the car.
Next, Mom and Dad drove us to the cabin and dropped us off; I was under the impression that they were going to drop Alec off and come home with dinner. BUT they actually returned about four hours later at 11 at night, after we watched the Simpsons and whatever "football" match was on for most of that time (Of course, I was placidly reading Jane Eyre for a substantial portion of that in the next room). It turns out Mom and Dad and Alec went out to eat at a super fancy restaurant and hung around for a while, which I'm sure was fun for them. After they came home, we fell asleep or something. I can never remember.
And that's Wednesday!

More Tuesday, Anyone?

After we all met up at the hotel, we went to this restaurant for pizza together with this friend of Alec's named Gustav. He was some kind of driver or something; I really have no idea.
Mom, Dad, Alec, and Gustav all sat at one table at the restaurant while all of the kids sat at a separate one. That was kind of fun; Spencer blew out our candle, which was pretty goofy; we had to relight it. We talked a lot and joked around, which, as most of you know, is inevitable when you put my family together. Especially when we're stuck with each other. (Just kidding; I love them)
We went back to the hotel and hung around the lobby for a while until we decided to go home. I can't really remember what happened then; I assume we ate and watched T.V. or something. I probably read Jane Eyre and eventually fell asleep.
And that's Tuesday! I guess I'll start a new post to talk about Wednesday.

Monday...what I wrote yesterday!

Today we woke up pretty late. I had this oatmeal stuff for breakfast. It's called Oatibix and we got it in London and like to make fun of its name a lot. I didn't have time to shower, so I got dressed and we sat around for awhile until we drove to Visby.
Alec was in a meeting with some Gotland Ring people, so we had to wait for him before Dad could go play tennis and all that. We went to the hotel for a while and I blogged and Madelyn checked her e-mail. Mom wanted to go souvenir shopping, but I wanted to wait and finish e-mailing and blogging and everything and so did Madelyn. So we stayed behind at the hotel and I e-mailed pictures to a bunch of people whose e-mails I had handy. Yay!
When Mom and everyone got back, they had bought lunch, too, so we decided to walk down the coast again and have a picnic, like yesterday. First we were thinking of eating on that walk where those people talked to Madelyn and I, but it was really cold and windy, so we decided to go to the park again. We ate our picnic under a tree, and sampled the Swedish versions of tortilla chips and salsa (you'll think that's funny, huh, Leslie?). Yup. The salsa was pretty pathetic. It was medium hot and was about as spicy as ketchup.
At some point Alec texted us (Collin finally unlocked his phone, so we have communication!- but ONLY within Sweden, so don't- DON'T- call us) and we met up by the hotel, piled into the cars, and drove to these tennis courts outside of Visby that they were going to play tennis on. While Dad, Alec, and this other girl (and whoever wanted to play) hit on the courts, I played UNO and read my book and laid around in the grass nearby. It was nice. Sari and the girls were there too. They're so cute. :)
Near the end, Alec, Sari, and the girls had to leave back for Visby (Alec had a meeting and Sari and the girls were heading back to Finland- where we'll see them later). We said goodbye, and Dad, Collin, and that girl hit some more until she had to leave, and then Collin and Dad hit some more, cleaned up the court, and then we all piled into the car and went home after grocery shopping again at the same big store.
We rambled home, singing all the way, as usual, and ate curry with rice and vegetables and some kind of Barbeque pork we got at the store. We had ice cream bars for dessert. Yum! We also bought this really good swedish chocolate (toblerone- they have it in the US, too).
We watched this English program on T.V. for a while, and the Simpsons, and I recorded this fun song I've been working on with just my voice, and now it's time to go to sleep! Post this in the morning!
Love, Emily

Sunday- a day of rest

I am finally caught up in blogging! I wrote this last night, so I am just posting it while we have Wi-Fi. More tomorrow!
Today we woke up very very very late, which was great. I had some toast with jam for breakfast, and I spent a lot of the morning looking for an iron so I could iron my very wrinkly dress. Later we all piled into the car (church was supposed to start at twelve) and drove to the location of the branch.
According to the Swedish church website, the branch was held in an apartment complex at number 22, which Dad, when looking for it while we waited for him, could not find. We decided to drive to Visby and look for the other address we found, on the English church site, which was to start at one.
We looked up the branch on the Wi-Fi from the hotel, and then walked out to where we thought it would be, but it didn't appear to be the right place, so we went back to the hotel. While Collin worked on unlocking his phone in the Gotland Ring office, Dad decided to take a walk in this park down by a park on the coast and make a picnic of it, so we took our food we brought for lunch.
We walked along for a while, and Madelyn and I wanted to eat by these trees a little ways down, so we walked ahead that way and sat down on a bench. But Melissa and Spencer wanted to eat by a park, and Spencer had to go to the bathroom, so Mom and Dad went with them to the park by the library.
We weren't sure if they were going to come back for us or what, so we just sat on the bench together and talked for a while, which was nice, because we'd been feeling really crowded. It's easy when you're part of a family of seven.
A guy and a girl came up to us while we were sitting on the bench. The guy said something to me in Swedish; I told him I only spoke English, and he asked if I had a cigarette. i said no, sorry and he asked, jokingly, if I had anything else he might smoke. Then the girl asked if I liked Gotland and I said yes, I did. She asked if I had been over this part of the wall nearby; she was looking for a word or something, what it was called. I said I'd been over the wall. She told me that if a man carried you over that part of the wall, that was the man you were going to marry. She told me, "So next time you want to marry, have the man carry you over." I said okay and they smiled and walked away; I assume, through the gate, though I forgot to look and see if he carried her over. That would have been cute.
Madelyn and I talked some more about that and other things, and then we figured Mom and Dad weren't coming back, so we decided to walk around and look for them. We saw Sari and Ada and Vivian in the park and said hello to them. They were going to get ice cream and Sari told us they had seen our family and she said they were eating lunch at the playground. We walked over and found them and ate lunch.
After lunch, Dad let Madelyn and I walk back to the hotel by ourselves, which was nice. We decided to sit in the library in the hotel while we waited for them. I found a book about J.M. Barrie's life and I read it for a long time, curled up in this library armchair. Madelyn was looking up Swedish words in this swedish book I found about English grammar. We were there for maybe an hour and then Mom and Dad got back. Dad saw me in the chair and thought it was pretty, so Mom took a picture of me.
After that we decided to drive home to the cabin. We talked in the car for a while, which was fun, and Madelyn and I sang a lot of goofy songs. We were going to explore the forest around the cabin, but then I didn't want to go because it was cold and Mom didn't want to let the younger kids go without Collin or me. I went back to the house, ate some oatmeal, and took a nap for a long time, until dinner, when I woke, typed blogs for a while, and then ate rice and vegetables. Right now everyone but Collin and me is off on an excursion in the woods with the GPS so they don't get lost. They should be back soon. Then maybe we'll eat ice cream or something for dessert.
It's about 7 or 8 at night right now, I think. I can never really tell, because it's always light outside. I can't believe I'm finally caught up. Yesss! I'll post this tomorrow when I have Wi-Fi at the hotel.