Caserta Reggia

      Today we went the gardens in Caserta Reggia. My friends here kept telling me how amazing it was and how much I would love it because they knew how I loved nature and trees (something you don't see on a regular basis here in Naples), so this day we had all planned to go there in a large group of friends. Before we entered the gardens (and without my approval) three of my friends covered my eyes and lead me out the entrance and finally uncovered them. It was a green, grassy field with a big trail down the middle that went on and on straight forward, there were big, tall trees lining the edges of the land and horse-drawn carriages all over on the trails. I was happy to see the green and the grass, but what I was most anticipating was the big lake and the great big climbing trees and forest I had been hearing about.
                 We all took the first left on the trail to the forest and I couldn't help but touch and feel all of the leaves and trees I missed so much. The birds were chirping and singing and a creek was flowing nearby, it was shaded and green all over, just as I had lived with back at home in the states. I was in heaven. The lake we were headed to was man-made, but still it was beautiful with the geese (we even saw a red slider turtle) and these monstrous, gray fish swimming near the surface. There was word of a swan who lived in the lake but he didn't seem to be out at that time, there was a little goose island in the middle of the lake and he was suspected to be resting there in the the shade.  
           After we all ate lunch near the creek, we all raced to the big climbing trees (I didn't know where they were so I just followed). I kicked off my shoes an leaped limb to limb almost to the top. Both of the trees were giant magnolias and had bark as slippery as nothing else so even I was cautious in my climbing. My friends Camryne, Janay, Alaina and Anna and I sat there for a while, some kicking off socks and dropping them on another one's head (especially me since I had the highest limb). All of the older kids were messing around in the tree next to us and we could only hear them yelling and laughing. When we got back down, there was word of a pinecone fight and my friend Cecily grabbed a pinecone and threw at her boyfriend and it started an actual pinecone fight so I backed out and kept my distance in order to avoid getting hurt.
                     Later on, we were on our way on the long, paved road down the middle to the English gardens. It got increasingly hotter every hour or so, so my friends Alain, Anna and I kept our shoes off and every once in a while, stuck our feet in the long fountain that followed the road next to it. Shoes remained off until we went into the English gardens (which are sacred) where the rules were to wear shoes, no littering, no start ding under the trees (I thought that was absolutely ridiculous) and no walking on the grass.
          The English gardens were very beautiful and completely surrounded by a variety of trees, and in the spring time, it felt just magical with all of the colors of the flowers and trees. Often when no one else was around, one of us would step a little closer onto the grass to get a better look at the existing nature beyond. We also found a bamboo forest where we got lots of pictures of us in it (though it wasn't allowed).

Venezia

                                    Our second visitors being our cousins from Oregon have arrived and this month our journey is set for Venice (in Italy they call it Venezia). Before this we also did a second trip to Pompeii, and took a trip to Florence again, so my cousin Mati and I were exhausted. We took a plain to an airport right outside of Venice and took a bendy-bus (Mati and had a blast messing around on the moving platform) to get to the city. We spent quite a bit of time just finding the apartment we booked for these next three days, as my mom said "You can't get lost when you're on an adventure".... well... we got lost. Walking round and round in circles until we found out that we had passed it many times already. The landlord showed us the ropes on how to use the washing machine, what to use in the kitchen, etc and we put all of our baggage in a small corner so she could finish cleaning while we were out. Another adventure beginning for the day, unfortunately we didn't get to take a boat ride through the narrow canals tight between the buildings, we just walked around and saw what there was to see. That day seemed like it lasted long... All we did was walk here and there until we were super hungry. Some of us split up and our group went to find a place to eat and sit. We found a cheap (but very good) sandwich place and bought sandwiches for the five of us for only 7 euro (we each had two). Then we rested our feet while eating and sitting on the steps that lead down to the water. There were schools of shiny silver fish and a small white crab nearby the steps underwater and this entertained us until we had to leave. Funny.... I never thought any creatures could live in the canals because of the pollution. The next day we took a water bus to an island called Murano, a place of mass production of Venice's famous glass. There were shops and shops full of glass figures and vases etc., and my cousin Mati and my aunt Kat kept wanting to go in every store, they slowed us down quite a bit (we didn't mind all that much) and we were hungry again so we kept walking along the canal until we found another sandwich place (this was even tastier than the last place) and ate until the others caught up again. Meanwhile we were sitting on some stairs and studying the huge glass sculpture as big as a car (a jetta VW to be more precise). After our short trip to that island (we also purchased some souvenirs) we headed back towards the apartment as the Stone family split from us and went to go see some synagogues. We headed to the apartment and I stayed while the rest of my family headed to the grocery store to bring back some dinner supplies. Next day was our day to finally go home (Naples) and at four in the morning Mati woke me up to hug me goodbye (i was excited because a hug from Mati is as rare as my grandpa liked his burgers) and her and her mom left for the airport to fly back home. We all awoke at six in the morning and walked to the bus stop where we waited a half-hour in the wind, rain, and cold. We took the bus to the airport outside of Venice only to find out that our flight was canceled due to a strike (as always). Then we checked our booked flight and found out that the flight we booked was actually for April sixth (the next day) so we had to take a bus back to the train station and wait for a train that stopped at every stop along the way to Naples. To top it off, all of us were assigned seats that were all spread out so we traded seats with some people but had to move every time the train stopped.

The First visiters

                                                   Our first visitors (our grandparents) have come and we had quite a fun time with them as we lead them around our new (temporarily permanent) home. They first flew in and were exhausted from the flight so we ordered in some fresh Napoli pizza as their first experience. The next morning, we were all energised and ready to go! To warm up and soak in all of the surroundings, we took the grandparents for a walk around town and looked at the pastry stores, the clothing market, the fruit market and eventually bought some pastries to take back to the apartment. After we ate those, it was riposo (nap time) so we put on some Psych on the TV and let them snore part of the day away.
                     A few days of this and we were finally all energised enough to go on a real trip! Off to Herculaneum, the smaller, more intact ruins than Pompeii (in my opinion better than Pompeii). Pepa (what we call my grandpa) was very excited to begin his adventures, but Grandma wasn't all that enthusiastic and preferred to wait in the main building until we came back. The ruins were quite beautiful despite the damage, there was a lot more art on the walls and floors too. My favorite parts of the city were the small little restaurants and kitchens with the counters and the pots built in it (of which it had little pummus stones that hailed into the city during the eruption). Pepa, Race, Mom and I enjoyed it very much, so when it was time to go back up to Grandma, we got to show her pictures and tell her all about it.
                    The next trip we got after a few days of napping and watching tv, was Roma. We knew that the grandparents couldn't take all of the walking there in Rome (since there is lots to see) so we bought tickets for the sight-seeing bus. It was quite cold outside, but we took the roof seats anyway for a better view of the Colosseum and all those amazing ruins. Our grandparents may have come here exhausted, but I think they left contented, happy, and most definitely done with over-seas travelling!

Lazy days are what we mostly have every week now that we aren't moving around place to place so much (the weather lately gives another reason). Mom has her Pilate classes every week, dad is at work, and my brother and I stay at home all day and do school (except for when I have to babysit). I doubt our "lazy days" are as lazy as you think, though. Until about 2:00, both me and my brother are doing school, babble italian (an app for learning Italian), math, Rosetta stone (before our computer broke down), and translating Italian from a book she found. After we finish our school, we get an our of playing Xbox, then we watch netflix, play card games, take a walk occasionally and last night, my brother and I played Wii sports together (if you didn't know already, we don't get along most of the time so seeing us work together is an unusual sight). We were failing miserably at Wii golf when my dad got home and sat down on the couch with my mom. After we all ate dinner, my dad pulled out a black box and pulled off the lid; a nexus tablet! "Happy super early birthday, Jules" (my birthday is in May) both my parents said. Since then, I have gotten lots of amazing apps like temple run 2, sims freeplay, minecraft pocket edition (just the demo), taptap revenge 4 and a game my brother and I play for hours at a time, Draw Something.

Moira, the circus of wonders!

                                       January 30th, 2013, Today we went the local circus! I must say this was one of my most exciting days I have ever had! We go in to sit down in the bleachers and wait for the show to start and I'm sitting there just drinking in all the sights to see, there was a clown with a blue parrot weaving about the crowds taking pictures with some of the guests, there were clowns, maidens, people selling food and little glow sticks, and the inside roof of the tent was a dark blue with stars all over it. The props on the middle stage made us wildly curious as to what kind of acts they would be doing that night.
                                      The music began to sound as the start of the show (which was live with a drummer, saxaphone, trumpet, bass, cello and keyboard up in a windowed room above the stage) and the giant, decorative, star-shaped sheet began to lift off of the stage and up to the top of the tent. The show began with some dancing maidens and a few clowns running around the stage, and as boring as that sounds, it was more beautiful than anything you could immagine! To make it even more mind-blowing, they brought in a man wearing a suit and tie,  and a woman wearing a white dress. The would dance around the stage to music and put up a little curtain and quickly take it off and they would be wearing something different! An instant wardrobe change! After this act, a man came out with little ponies of all different colors and they would circle the ring (stage) and spin around and rear and all that, Then he lead the ponies back behind the stage and brought out 7 zebras and 7 camels that would circle around the ring and spin and do just about the same things that the ponies would do (except that the camels can't rear). Then the zebras would disappear behind the stage and the camels were motioned to lay down. When all lie down, a single, brown llamma came trotting out and started jumping between the camel's humps!
                                           After a few side shows like clown acts and the like, there was a 15 minute intermission and they anounced that you could pay to come behind stage and see the white tigers and white lions they had. We stayed in our seats and waited the 15 minutes, And the lights darkened and the show began again. When the lights lit the ring again, there was a type of figure that had a hamster wheel the size that would fit a man in it on one end, and on the other end there was a smaller one. This was all very large and in mid air, held up by many cords and cables. A man was inside the big hamster wheel (which it was just a wheel with no sides and no way to spin) and the metal shape began to spin around faster and faster, and the man remained in the wheel walking and quickening his pace to a run inside the wheel. After a while of this, he leaped to the outside of the wheel and started walking on the outside of the wheel. After a while of this, there came a drum-roll and a man nearby the stage announced that he would do a front-flip while on the outside of the spinning shape. He succeeded in doing this as the shape began spinning faster and faster and he did a couple more of these, the crowd was wild in excitement and he was encouraging them to cheer "Bravo! Bravo!" (this they did after every big act).
                                    In another act, a man brought out a white tiger (after dimming the lights to put up a a chain-link fence) and the tiger grazed the fence walking around the ring to show the crowds. Then another white tiger came out, and then another, and then an orange one, and another until there were nine tigers in all sitting on stools all around the ring. The first white tiger that had come out, (who was the smallest and the purest white with stripes that you could just barely see, which we later figured he was the newest to the circus because of his friskiness and the amount of tricks they had him do) was laying on his seat as lazy as possible with his front paws drooping off each side of the seat like he was hugging it. The trainer looked at the tiger, smiled and laughed, and the crowd laughed with him as he tried to get him to sit back up straight with his training stick, but the tiger bit and swatted at the stick and lie back down just as lazy as before.
                  After a few little tricks with the tigers to show their beauty, all but 2 lazy, old Bengal tigers left the ring. The trainer brought in a motorcycle with a sidecar (but it was only a flat platform) and a platform on the back of the bike. He drove it around the ring and brought it beside the tigers and tried to coax one to jump aboard the back of the bike (which this took quite a while. My brother and I felt that the trainer shouldn't be too upset about the tiger's disobedience because it is already almost impossible to train a house cat), and finally he reluctantly hopped on the back of the bike, then the other tiger almost instantly jumped onto the side-car, and the trainer drove around the ring and finally let the tigers back behind the stage.
                  The lights dimmed, and we could no longer see the stage so well as a few people came out to take out the props and put in new ones. When the lights came back on, The trainer was there with a big white lion, walking down the middle of the ring and stepping onto an elevated platform. The crowd cheered as both beast and man rubbed eachother's face up against eachother affectionately. Then a disco-ball with a platform on the top lowered down to the ground and the trainer and the lion walked behind it and the lion jumped onto the platform and the trainer followed, hugging and rubbing the lion from behind as the lights went out and the disco-ball shown it's light all over the tent like a thousand lightning bugs flying around. The lion and the man spun on the top of the disco-ball and sat soundly and proudly.
                         The finishing act was a woman dressed up like a butterfly spinning and flipping around in the air, and then she alighted to the top of the tent and watched over all as the flying trapesists did their thing, swinging and flipping and spinning all about.

                 Then the circus show ended that night with all of the circus people coming out and dancing around the stage and bowing and singing. What a magical night indeed! This was my first time to the circus ever, and I think it made a great impression! I will most deffinately be going again someday.

                                                         Staying in this apartment in Naples has been surprisingly layed back, we have been doing most of the things that we would do at home in the States. It is abnormally quite for place in the heart of a city, but if you open the windows, you will hear people yelling to eachother and cars and scooters honking and buzzing by (this is the reason that we never open our windows). It feels much like home the way it is quiet, (not to mention the weather is always changing) and empty feeling most of the time, but it feels a bit too empty without all of our animals to take care of. Last Christmas, Race gave me the present of a promise to buy me a turtle (a small red slider turtle) once we moved into this apartment. I just remembered that today! So hopefully we will get one soon. As I said in a past blog post, our plan when we go back home to the states is to either give to a friend of ours (she really loves turtles and already has three) or put it in a pond we found behind a museum with lots of turtles already in. Hopefully this new creature will help us feel a little more at home :) although it isn't an animal demanding food and attention all the time like dogs, cats or horses, I'm sure we will enjoy this little creature very much.

Jules' Art projects

                                                         Since we arrived at our temperalily permanent appartment (which if you want to hear all about it, you should read my mom's blog at http://dayinthelifeoftheleclairs.blogspot.ca/ ) in Naples, we have each been sitting in our room and  doing our own thing for all day, so I won't be telling of any adventures in old ruins and stairways and such. But these past few days havn't been entirely boring and un-productive. My room in the appartment came with a reme of paper on the desk (I ran out recently) and that just made my day! It actually made three days ( of craftiness)..... Anyways so I only had white paper the first day, so I just used what I had (colored pencils, crayons, glue, tape, and markers). I planned on making a 3-d pop out scene with a semi-folded sheet of paper that I colored with colored pencils lots of hills and trees, flowers and grass, and the sun, sky and clouds(my original plan was to have 4 scenes, each depicting a season, but I was inspired to do otherwise. This one was supposed to be my summer scene). the main object of the scene was an apple tree, so I drew the trunk on the semi-folded paper, and created the leaves on a seperate piece of paper and connected the sides of it to the 'sky' to make it pop out (this I did with the sunshine except I used bunched up paper strips underneath it to make it bounce a bit). The finishing touches was a little girl on a swing and the pop-up grass that I glued to a paper traced out just to fit the angle of the semi-folded paper (the whole scene took 2 days!!), and TA DA!-

Inspired by the last, I made another after I bought some new sheets of colored paper at IKEA, and used the same technique, but instead of coloring the sea and sky with pens and markers, I used my new colored paper (I used my pencils for the ship)! So it didn't take as long as the last (merely 3 hours), but I think I like this one even better than the summer scene---------------------------

 

Since I had very little glue after these two crafts, I just decided to use an old pen to get those last bits of sticky out and onto my butterfly craft!----

It's really amazing what you can do with just a few pieces of paper and some glue!