Lil’ Bit of Culture: Land of the Long White Cloud

Hello, friends! Welcome to Road2Gold!

Maybe you remember the time when I blogged about Japan. Well this is my blog about New Zealand, Land of the Long White Cloud. I would like to go there someday because of the scenery, Lord of the Rings was filmed there, my favorite bird the Kiwi, and there’s plenty of cool things to do there.

The landscapes and scenery are beautiful. There are huge mountains, rivers and lakes, islands, and grasslands, and even volcanoes. New Zealand is located between the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea so you’ll a lot of beaches and waves.

The Kiwi is a flightless bird seen in New Zealand. They’re cute, quite fluffly, and around the size of a domestic chicken. The kiwi is a national symbol of New Zealand, and the New Zealanders actually are also known as kiwis.

The Maori, the tribal group of New Zealand, preserve their way of living as much as they can. They are talented in wood carving, dancing, and singing in their special way. A greeting they often use still is the Hongi, an act of rubbing noses.

The climate and weather here depends where you are. In the south, it gets colder seeing that Antarctica is getting close. The north is much warmer. There are actually volcanoes and boiling hot springs up north and in the sea.

There’s a whole bunch to do in New Zealand. You can ride a jet boat, watch dolphins playing underneath you from a boat, there are plenty of museums, and you can watch sailing races. New Zealand won the world cup twice.

So pack your Baggins and let’s go to New Zealand!

#1kid

Just Keep Swimming!

Hello, friends! Welcome back to Road2Gold!

I know I said that I’d post a Blogiversary post, but I’ve been SUPER busy and it completely slipped from my mind… sorry.

This past week we went to the Fitter And Faster Swim Tour. We took a three hour drive all the way to Beverly, Massachusetts. It was a really cool experience!

The first thin g we did was we got to meet two Olympic medalists, Peter Vanderkaay and Emily Silver. They helped us do some drills and taught us to do some pretty cool stuff.

Some of the drills we learned were the “Bow and Arrow Drill”, the “Six-Kick-Switch Plus Three”, and “Sculling”. I struggled a lot in Sculling because I had never done it and I couldn’t figure out how to get across the pool when moving my arms in such a strange way. Eventually, Emily showed us how to do it and I finally got it.

When we got out of the pool, we learned about goal setting from the Olympians. Emily Silver also taught us some yoga stretches. I felt like Jello afterward.

The next thing we did was race the Olympians. Of course, they won. We didn’t even know what we were doing when behind the diving blocks. Basically, it went like this:

Guy with the microphone says, “Swimmers, step up to the block!”

We all get on the blocks and do some quick final stretches or a last second goggle push.

“You are doing the 25 yard Butterfly. Swimmers take your mark… Beep!”

And then we swim like no tomorrow! For we know that Emily Silver is coming up right behind us in lane four. She still won, even though we got the head-start and she went easy on us.

We then played Sharks and Minnows. It was very difficult with one hundred-fifty kids all trying to swim to the other side. Just when you think you can sneak by the “Shark”, along comes Vanderkaay. And then you’re a Shark.

It was a really fun day! I even met some new friends from my lane.  After I had gone back to the hotel and I had eaten dinner in Salem, I was back in the pool at the hotel! Of course, I couldn’t do as many things in a small pool, but I loved the water!

I have some news! You many have already heard this but… the 2020 Olympics might be hosted in these three cities: Istanbul, Turkey; Madrid, Spain; and Tokyo, Japan. My goal is to compete in the 2020 Olympics and if they’re in Japan, I am going to throw a party.

This past week was the beginning of the Summer 2013 Swim Season. And this season, I’m going for my first gold.

#1kid

Mom’s Blog Today

Hey, peeps! I just wanted to let you know, that I’m blogging with my mom today. Be sure to check it out!

ALSO: Blogiversary coming up! Big party here in a few days so stay tuned!

#1kid

#1KID is Back to Talk Writing.

Art of the Goat and the Cat

Hello, welcome to Road2Gold!

Today, I’m going to talk about the arts. My family has always been pretty artistic. My mom writes, my bro and I play instruments, I draw.

Here’s what I do to get an idea for a work of art: Listen to music, let my imagination go free, and boom… art.

There are many forms of artistic talents out there. There’s music, literature, painting/drawing, dance, and a whole lot more!

So, what do I do for art? Let me show you…

Here’s what I wrote in English class the other day:

Billy and Friskies, Chris and Joe

                “Get back here you goat!” Farmer Joe yelled.

Billy Goat was running as fast as he could from Joe. He had a dream to become president of the United States. The day he would become president, he’d lock Joe in jail.

“Stupid goat,” Joe muttered to himself. “I’ll get you!”

Billy ran into the town square in D.C. He saw an orange cat with stripes. “Good day,” He bleated.

The cat cocked her head. “Meow?” She purred. “Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow.”

Billy gave up speaking to the cat for he didn’t understand meow. “Bleat bleat.” Billy continued running until he felt something on his back, the cat!

“Meow meow!” The cat said. “MEEEOW!

Billy and the cat turned to the post office. They tripped a guy with a bag and almost hit a mailbox.

“Stop him!” Joe cried. He had followed Billy all the way to the post office. “The goat, get him!”

The guy with the bag grabbed Joe’s leg, trying to get up. But Joe just fell down.

“What are you doing, fool?” Joe lectured the guy. “My goat is running away from me!”

“Help me up first and I’ll help you find your goat and my cat!” The guy said. After Joe had helped him up, he introduced himself as Chris Hanbag.

“I’m Joe. I live on a farm in Pennsylvania. How my goat ran to Washington D.C., I don’t know.”

Chris and Joe tried tracking the two animals. They asked the city’s people. All they said was they saw them going towards the White House.

“Oh no!” said Chris. “What are they going to do now? That cat’s curious. She’ll climb Mount Everest!”

“Bleat! (It’s the White House)” Billy exclaimed. “Bl- Bleat! (I’m going to become President!”

“Meow meow! (I’ll be your Vice!)” The cat said. “Meow meow purr Friskies! (My name is Friskies!)”

A week later, Billy and Friskies ruled the United States for eight years. They locked Joe in jail and appointed Chris for U.S. Senator of Virginia.

THE END

There you have it! A work of art!

Another type of arm I enjoy is, as some of you may already know, drawing!

Here is one of my recent drawings:

Another type of “Canvas Art”, as I call it, is using computers. Back in the summer, I wrote a post about using PhotoShop to make my pals from the neighborhood the Superfriends. Well, I’ve gotten a bit better using PhotoShop since then as you can see. (The one in the top left is the original picture.)

The musical part of the arts is another one of my favorites. I play the piano and my little bro plays the electric guitar. We sound quite well together.

In the end, anything you create is art. Whether it’s drawing, composing, choreographing, it’s still art.

What types of art do you enjoy?

#1kid

Christmas Sketching

Hello, welcome to Road2Gold!

Nice to see you all again. I hope you all had a great Christmas! I know I did!

Christmas is a great time to hang out with the people you love. It is also a time of doing things you like to do. One of those things to me is sketching or drawing.

My sister and I have been drawing a lot over Christmas Break. I’ve been helping her with her heads and anatomy, and I have been reading how to improve my own drawings.

Here is a few that I’ve drawn:

And here is one that my sister did:

We both drew characters from a TV show and we both were very pleased with how they came out!

I have finally mastered heads and faces. We both have gotten better at drawing this winter and we hope to improve all the more in 2013!

Happy drawing and Happy New Year!

#1kid

Land of the Mouse

Hello, hello! Welcome back to Road2Gold!

This past week my family and I took a trip to Orlando, Florida! Land of the Mouse!

The first thing we did was head to Epcot in Disney world. We stayed there walking around the countries and flying to Mars and back. (I guess space travel makes Mom and Dad a bit queasy.) My favorite part was Japan. (If you don’t know, I have always wanted to go to Japan. I had a whole post on it.)

Japan’s area at Epcot had the country’s arts. Anime and everything! It was so awesome!

We had dinner in Morocco and had dessert in Italia! Go Gelato!

The fireworks are really amazing! If you ever go, you always stay until closing.

The next day we went to LegoLand! Where nearly everything is made of Legos! There were roller coasters, fly-cycles, boats, cars, and horses, made of Legos! It was so cool! I even got a caricature done of me swimming!

On Tuesday, we took a trip to Disney’s Hollywood Studio’s. We watched a whole special effects sequence of Indiana Jones, took a tour through the effects behind war sequences and the factories behind dress making. It was all very interesting.  My favorite part was Star Tours, the Star Wars ride. It felt like you were really in hyperspace and flying through the galaxy!

Also at Hollywood Studios, we learned how to draw Daisy Duck, met the amazing Mickey Mouse, and greeted our friends Wreck-it-Ralph and Vanellope Von Shweetz!

Our hotel was awesome! I mean really, how many times do you get to stay at a hotel with a water slide! The staff set up a giant screen and we watched a movie in the pool!

My fat cat got even FATTER and he still woke us up for food. It seems that is all he ever wants!

Have you ever been to Orlando? What did you do there? Was it fun?

See you next time!

#1kid

Book Worm

Hey, peeps! Welcome back to Road2Gold!

Sorry about that crazy long wait… Academics, sports, and stuff like that have been keeping me from blogging.

Okay so I’ve been reading A LOT lately. Cuddling with my cat and my Nook on my giant leather chair we call The Chair of Wisdom.  I’ve never really discovered how much I like romance novels until this year. And paranormal romance has also caught my attention this past summer.

In June, I read Howl’s Moving Castle. I really was hoping it would be like the stellar animated movie but no… man…

During the Awesome Trip, I read the Talisman series by Brenda Pandos. It’s a part of the Vampire Genre, which I really don’t like, but this was EXCEPTIONAL! I cried, laughed, giggled, and I would not stop talking about it with my family. You can imagine my brother’s annoyance on our vacation.

The next book I read was a Supernatural YA Romance. OH MY GOSH! It was the best book EVER! The book is called Halflings by Heather Burch. It is about half angel half human beings protecting a teenage girl in Missouri. If you like romance novels, you will LOVE the Halflings series!

The second book in the Halflings series is Guardian. It just came out and I snatched a copy instantly. The third and final book is called Avenger. It’s not out yet! AAAAH! March 27^th Avenger comes out! When will that date come?

What kind of books do you like to read? What is your favorite book or book series?

I’ll see you next time, peeps!

#1kid

The Awesome Trip

Hello! Welcome to Road2Gold!

Sorry about the loooong wait. I’ve been on vacation for a while and let me tell ya… awesome.

We went to North Myrtle Beach. The waves were perfect and boogie boarding was great! We rented a condo, which we named Excalibur for a bit of a magical experience…even though there wasn’t a stone in sight. But when you’re within walking distance of the beach, who cares!

There was one not-so-awesome problem, though … Storm Isaac. Luckily, the storm just missed us. But it still rained…and rained…and rained. But we didn’t let that stop us from going into the water!

Another awesome thing we did was go to Charleston for a bit!

Charleston had perfect weather! No rain! We walked around a bit, ate lunch, rode around in a horse and carriage, and a whole lot more — Like old plantations and stuff.

Another really awesome thing we did was Gettysburg, PA. Now, I didn’t really know that much about the Civil War so I was like “huh?” I mean, I knew who Lincoln was and about the Gettysburg Address, but not much about the civil war. I learned SO much on the Gettysburg trip, starting the school season with the Civil War will be cake! Well, not really. There is always much more to learn about, but I think get the “gist” of it, plus more.

For me, the best part of Gettysburg was relating to what I knew. I had read a story once about a certain battle. It didn’t mean much to me then. But standing in the place it happened in made it come to life for me.

On Little Round Top, a part of the battlefield that was crucial for the outcome of the war, Col. Joshua Chamberlain held more than 3 charges from the Confederate soldiers while being nearly out of ammunition. Chamberlain knew he had to hold down at all costs, so he and his men flipped their bayonets and charged. The Confederates assumed the other side had reinforcements and surrendered. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a 34-yearold school teacher in Maine, became a general a few years later. Seeing where he charged and seeing the 20^th Maine Monument was awesome.

When we got home, the fat cat got fatter and the milk went bad… bleh… I did NOT drink it, thank goodness!

See ya later!

#1kid

Swimming2Gold

Hello everybody!

Happy Olympic weeks!

Being a swimmer, my favorite part of the Olympics is swimming. But my coaches have said that I’m not allowed to try what the Olympians are doing. BOOO! The Olympians are a whole lot more flexible than I am and have been training hard for many years. But I sure am tempted….

I am gearing up for a lot of newbie swimmers this fall. Town swim teams like mine get very busy after the Summer Games.  Little kids watch the games and think “I wanna do that!”

Which I think is great! Swimming is a great way to stay fit. Kids around nine or ten and possibly eleven come and try it, but because their bodies aren’t used to the intense workout, many don’t stay. So starting as a little squirt is best, so by the time you reach eleven the 130 laps of practice time is nothin.

Speaking of swim teams, this past Saturday was my Summer Championships! It was a time of waiting FOREVER to swim…

But it’s also a time of hanging with your friends and teammates one last time…while you wait FOREVER to swim.

I did a 4x 50 Medley Relay, a 100 IM, 50 Backstroke, and a 50 Butterfly.

I really like swimming! Hopefully, I can go to the olympics and possibly medal. They only want the best in team USA so I’m going to have to work hard.

Do you swim (competitively)?

#1kid

Where the Buffalo Roam

Hello, welcome to Road2Gold!

In the adventure of Lewis and Clark, the adventurers found buffalo on their journey. (And lots of them! In one of Meriwether Lewis’s journals, he says he is looking at about 20,000 of them roaming in one place!)

Since we are studying Lewis and Clark, we wanted to go to see buffalo.

We went to a buffalo farm and ate buffalo burgers. We fed a buffalo, cow, pony, an emu, and we saw a peacock.

We boarded a wagon and went on a ride to see the buffalo. Most of them were mommas. Momma means there is a baby, and there were baby buffalo! They’re so cute.

The ride was fun! We noticed the buffalo’s way of communicating was shoving and pushing…and lots of grunting. (In fast, Lewis said in his journal, his men would have to shoot their guns off into the night to make the loud beasts go away and stop their grunting just so the men could get some sleep.) But anyway, on our trip, the guy buffalo came in and practically said, “Hey you! Get outta my way! It is MY turn to eat!” but only in shoving. He was very large. And the babies were so small! He just shoved everyone around! We took some pictures so you can see how cute they are!

The buffalo meat was very different than that of a cow. It was a bit meatier than beef and it tastes good too! I like it more than beef. You should try it!

We learned about buffalo stuff like how even female bison have horns and they don’t ever grow back if they are broken. Bison can jump six feet in the air without running or any sort of “Oomph!” to get that large animal in the air!

We got to pet the buffalo, eat the buffalo, see the buffalo, and feed the buffalo! I like buffalo!

Have you ever eaten buffalo meat? If so, did you like it? Have you ever seen a buffalo? Did you get to pet or feed it?

Buffalo are awesome!

#1kid