I'm Back From My Holiday- But I Didn't Blog About Scotland!

Well I'm back at school and I'm straight back into learning. Our topic this term is Visual Arts. Any way, while I was traveling, I completely forgot to blog about Scotland, which was the main country that we stayed in.

CASTLES:

There are so many Castles in Scotland! We went to 2. They were Eileen Donan Castle and Brodie Castle. Eileen Donan castle is located near the Isle of Skye in the UK. You can access it by walking across a bridge to an island where the castle is built. The island is on a huge lake. Inside the Castle is awesome. There are all these staircases spiraling up through the castle walls. They made a bit of fun for the kids by hiding fake skeletons and witch heads in tiny cupboards throughout the castle. 

We went to Brodie castle with our grandparents. This time we didn't just wander aimlessly through it, we got a guide to take us around. This one seemed a little more modern because it had all the old furniture and beds in it. The guide was really good because he told us the whole story of the Brodie family and what the paintings meant. 

FAMILY:
The whole time we stayed in Scotland we were staying at my grandparents house. The whole point of going on our holiday was to see our family. My grandparents garden is so awesome! It is actually quite big and it has a badminton net. It is a maze of hedges and sheds. Our cousins live in Elgin, which is an hours drive away. We only went there twice. There is only one of our relations that I haven't mentioned yet. My uncle. He lives in Aberdeen which is ages away from where we were. We were in Lumsden, a tiny village that is basically one street. And it is in the middle of nowhere. But it has awesome walks! My cousin, my sister and I went walking of by ourselves over the hills.

ENGLAND:
In the middle of all this, we managed to do a trip to England to see my mum's old friends. We saw the Kelpies, which are huge horse heads and they look absolutely awesome! You can climb up inside them and look out through the gaps. Then we went to another friends house. They had 3 dogs, 2 horses/ponies, 4 cats and they are looking after one pony. The last friend we visited was from Trinidad but they had come over to England. Their daughter has just had a baby and when we went over it was only 2 weeks old!

OVERALL:
Scotland is an awesome place. I loved getting to know my relatives better and to check out a different country. Scotland is a lot like New Zealand but there is a bit more countryside and tiny villages in the middle of nowhere.

Spain- Pals and Barcelona.

Well, we knew one thing for sure. This was another scorching hot country. We wandered about the airport a bit before getting in a car and driving in the direction of pals. Pals is a small town near Barcelona. We are going to be staying in it for a few days before heading on towards Barcelona.

We eventually arrive at a beach in a little town called Callela. This is the best beach I have ever been to! It had crystal clear waters and it was so nice to escape the heat by diving in. We spent a few hours here before zooming off again.

The days in Pals were spent mainly at the beach. We went to loads of beaches and had fun at mostly all of them. At one of them, I slipped and gashed my toe on the rocks. That wasn't very nice. Slap bang in the middle of Pals is a small Medieval village. We walked around it, admiring all the old buildings and shops. Then we sat down at a small café to have a drink. While we were sitting there, a small band consisting of A Trumpeter, Guitarist and a cellist started to set up next to the Café. You would think this was just an ordinary busking event but no! I think they were professionals because they were selling their CDs and they sounded really good.

Anyway, the time came to move on to Barcelona. When we arrived at our hotel, there was an amazing view of the Torre Agbar. It is a huge tower, that is a bit like a long dome. It is humongous! We went for a walk that night to see the Sagrada Familia. Now, one very famous person in Barcelona is Antoni Gaudi. He has built the Sagrada Familia, the Torre Agbar and many more! The Sagrada Familia is a colossal cathedral. This is one of the most famous buildings because Gaudi died in the middle of building it. The people in Barcelona are trying to finish it. It is very hard though because while they are building the rest, bits of it need repairing for it is 100 years old. By the time we set off again, it was dark and we could see the Torre Agbar from miles away. Why? Because it was lit up with powerful red blue and yellow lights. We only stayed in Barcelona for three days and we all felt that it Wasn't enough. Advice for going to Barcelona: Wear a T-shirt and shorts and stay for at least a week!

Camp Kaitawa Slide!

This week we went on camp Kaitawa! It was a fun and exciting experience and I really wish I could go again! The slide above has a diary of my favorite activities. I hope you enjoy reading about my fun!

Ouch!

Ouch!

As we drove to the pharmacy, nervous thoughts filled my head. Was it going to hurt? I felt my ear lobes. They were soft and fuzzy. I knew that they would never feel like that again. We arrived at the pharmacy and went inside.

As we went up to the counter I started to get butterflies in my stomach. The man asked me which earrings I would like. I went with the diamond ones. He went into a small room at the back of the shop and after a lot of searching he came back with the earrings. Then he led me into the small room and sat me in a chair.

First he cleaned my ears with antiseptic lotion. Then he inserted an earring into a sort of needle thing. He asked me if I was ready. I thought about it for a while, then nodded my head. I felt the needle press against my ear and then go straight through. My brain screamed “OWW!” but then I realised it wasn’t so bad after all. The man got ready to do the second one.This time it was really fast and it hurt a bit more. Then he gave me a mirror so I could see myself. I looked really different.

While he talked to my mum about keeping them clean, I thought things over. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Feelings seemed to be bottled up inside me. My ears felt hot and stingy. Mum and I thanked the man and went out to pay for some stuff. On the way home my ears turned red and they felt really itchy. That was the weirdest experience of my life!

By Malena.

Fun Run Word Cloud.

On Thursday the 11th, I did the fun run. In the word cloud above are some words that describe how I felt. I created this on abcya. Hope you like it!

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Matariki!

Matariki workshops!

Snip, snip! Scissors sliced the wool that we were fiddling with. We were in room 18 and we were making Poi. Once we finished getting the wool ready, we started a four plait. Georgia and I did my plait.I hadn't done a four plait before and it was a little bit tricky but I did OK. When we finished our Poi,I was pretty happy with mine but I think I made it too short.

After morning tea, I did Myths and legends. We listened to a man telling Maori stories. It wasn't what I was expecting but the man was a great story teller.

Finally, after we had our lunch, I did Rakau ( Maori stick games). First we learnt a game called Maui, Matau.I think I was pretty good at it and it was really fun!

At the end of the day all of rimu hub met in the hall to say thanks to the people who came and taught us all those things. I thought the day was pretty fun and I learnt lots too!