The Barcelona Zoo-By Beckett and Jaden

We went to the zoo and saw different kinds of animals. We saw lions and tigers and bears,oh my! The most interesting thing I saw was a Tapir. It had a long a nose and had grayish brownish fur. My favorite part of the zoo was the dolphin show. By Beckett Turner

We went to the Barcelona zoo on our first day in Barcelona. The place where zoo is located is very interesting it is in the city park the park was humungous, it had to be because it had a zoo in it! It was huge even though it was in a park!

We saw a dolphin show that had two dolphins, and a guy in a wet suit told them to do tricks, when the dolphins did a trick he would give them a fish. The dolphins did all sorts of tricks including jumping like 3 feet high and over ropes, they also swam onto platforms and did flips.

We saw ostriches they were doing something that looked like they were cleaning each other. There were gorillas to. There was a little gorilla getting chased by an older gorilla it was super funny, they were throwing hay at each other. We saw lions, elephants, giraffes, a tiger, 4 lions, a bunch of birds, and some bears.

Our trip to the zoo was super fun. By Jaden


Here are some more pics of our day and of the zoo! We will be adding more soon!
 

Leaving Venice - Jaden

Hi everyone,

Has anything interesting happened at home?

Me and Beckett on our taxi (boat) ride to the Venice Airport

Yesterday, Feburuary 20, 2014  we left Venice. To get to Barcalona we first, we took a water taxi to the airport. It was kind of weird that the airport was on it's own island. The ride was pretty bumpy but we made it. The front of the taxi looked like a speed boat but the back was like a little room with benches all around it. The ceiling in the taxi was only like 4 and a half feet high. When we got to the dock we took about a 5 minute walk to the airport.

Our Welcome Cake at the Apartment we are staying

When we got to thne airport we went through 2 really long lines one for check-in and the other for security. Then we went and had a snack at a resturant.

After that we got on the plane. The plane ride was about an hour and a half to waste the time my brother and I read and played games.

Our first walk through Barcelona...Gaudi!

After about an hour and 10 minutes we could look down and see Barcalona, it was amazing I could see everything it was huge!  I could see 100,000,000,000 tiny little buildings that looked like a bunch of legos! My first thought was why are we only staying 5 days when the city would take 20 days to see everything?

A couple of  minutes later we landed at the airport. I thought that the airports size fit the city. Then we got off the plane and got our luggage and caught a taxi to our apartment. The ride was about 20 minutes  long. We were there but we couldn't find our apartment so my mom called the lady who owned it and she came down and showed is it. It was really cool and modern.

Our apartment that we rented...super awesome!

I hope everyone is okay. See everybody soon.     -Jaden    
more pics of Barcelona...check back as we will be adding A LOT!

PS...my mom is going to do a blog update soon with everything else that we did in Italy that my brother and I didn't cover in our blogs and she will post more links to pictures!
 

Our visit with Vally, Leo, and Emanuele -by Beckett

Me with Manuel and Leonardo!

After Rome we went to Treviso to stay with Vally and her family. We got here by a bullet train. We got to stay in their house. Vally was a foreign exchange student who lived with my grandparents, my mom, and my uncle when they were in high school for a year.  That was almost 20 years ago!

In Padova with Vally!

We met some of her friends too!  We went on a walk into down town Treviso. They taught me some Italian words. We met a girl named Elena.  Her mom knows 5 different languages and teaches English in Italy.  We went to Padova the next day, and went to dinner with her parents! it was fun spending time with people from a different country and culture!!!
See more pics of our time in Treviso and Padova HERE!

Our walk to Treviso with our new Italian friend Elena

We had a confetti fight at the square in Treviso during Carnivale.  It was lots of fun!

The food of Rome - Jaden

Ciao (hi),

Today I'm going to blog about the food in Rome. We went to a lot of trattoria's (restaurants) while we were in Rome because we stayed in a hotel and we didn't have a kitchen.

One of the most common foods in Rome is thin crust pizza it was really good but not my favorite food. Some most common kinds were Margarita, Salami, Funghi (mushroom) which I don't like, and Speck (smoked ham). Out of those 4 I like Salami the most it tastes a lot like pepperoni but it is a little bit different, the differences are really hard to describe but one of them is that salami tastes like it is a little bit oily.

Another common food is pasta. Some common pastas are Carbonara, Black pepper and parmesan, and pasta with red sauce and bacon. Out of those I only had Carbonara, which is pasta with cheese sauce and bacon. It was not the best dish I have ever had but it was still delicious.
         
In Italy they eat a lot of sweets! They have baked goods for breakfast every day! Some of the my favorite sweets are the croissants filled with cream sauce, the little pies filled with lemon curd with fruit on top, and creme brule'. My brother liked the crispy biscuit with cinnamon and sugar the most. Finally there is the gelato (Italian ice cream), it's AMAZING! They have a lot of different flavors. I saw one gelato shop with 150 flavors.

Some words I have learned are:
ciao(hi, bye)
bonjorno(hello)
gratsi(thank you)
prego(your welcome)
bambino(baby)
perfecto(perfect)
torta(cake)
scuzzi (excuse me)
si(yes)

Here are some pictures that we took.  We didn't take enough pictures of the food...so we will make sure that we take more during the rest of our trip...
click HERE to see more pictures of Food in Rome that we took

My trip to the Colosseum by Beckett

 Yesterday we went to the Colosseum. It is a old building that gladiators fought in. Gladiators were people that were usually slaves who were forced into the colosseum to joust, fight wild animals, and sword fight sometimes to the death to entertain the crowd.  I think it was a bad idea of the leaders to entertain by killing others.

The colosseum was about 2 football fields long, over 150 feet tall, and 50,000 people could fit in the stands!  It was also built out of concrete about 2,000 years ago. Part of it is rubble now.
View our pictures of the Colosseum here!!!

The Foro Romano - Jaden

Bonjourno everybody,


     
         How is everyone doing? This blog is about the Foro Romano (The Roman Forum). We visited it today (today is Feb. 12, 2014).
         The Foro Romano was the first urban center in Rome, it was where gladiatorial matches, political speeches, and elections were held. It was also where people lived, shopped, and ate. Right now it covers about 1/6 of modern day Rome! But more parts are still being found. It was first started about 700 years BC (before the birth of Christ)!
         One of the well known and famous structures is the Colosseum which is where gladiatorial matches, circus, and executions were held, but my brother is going to blog about it tomorrow so I can't tell you guys about it.
         The Foro Romano also includes a couple palaces. The structures are mostly made of brick, but the most prominent structures were built with marble. The Foro Romano was buried under a mountain until a huge archaeological dig, they have almost uncovered the whole thing but they are still digging in a couple areas.
         I wish that I new exactly what it used to look like because right now it is in ruins but it is still amazing. If I walked around in the Roman Forum when I walk around I would wonder how they built and made the buildings back then. I wonder how they did such intricate work without the tools and technology we have available today.        
         I will bring back a lot to show you. I already miss everybody. Here are some pics that I took:
Roman Forum Slideshow by Jaden

Beckett flies to Rome

Our flights were amazing. We came from Seattle to London, and London to Rome. Our first plane had three sections the middle had four seats, the other two had three seats.  It was also a double decker,  we had our own tvs that the plane handed out. We sat in the middle four seats and the first flight was 10 hours long. I slept through most of it, but I did watch one movie. At the end of the flight we all got jet lag. You get jet leg when you go to a place that has a change of time.  In Rome, we are 9 hours ahead of Long Beach.  Right now it is 7:11pm in Rome.  Can you tell me what time it is in Long Beach?

This is our first plane from Seattle to London.

Look at the clouds, they're so pretty! 

The tv's we watched in the jet 

This is the bus we took from the plane to the Airport in Rome.

                                     

Getting Here by Jaden

Ciao everyone this is Jaden,

      How is everybody?Rome is amazing! To get here, we drove to Seattle and spent like 4 hours in the airport because there was a 2 hour delay,  we finally got on this huge plane. The plane was amazing it even had a second story in the front! At 8 o'clock we flew from Seattle to London! The plane looked like it sat about 400. The plane ride was 10 hours long, and we had to go to sleep part of the way! When we got to the London airport we had to run to our flight to Rome, when we finally got to the gate we grabbed some snacks at a coffee shop. Then they started to load the passengers up on the plane. We got on the plane and I think it sat about 150 people. The plane ride was around 2 hours, during that time we played on our electronics and read. When we got to the airport we went through customs in Rome and they stamped our passport with an Italy stamp. After that we got a cab and went to our hotel. We were super tired because on the plane to London we only got like 5 hours of sleep. I hope you guys are having fun. Here are some photos.

This is the plane we flew on from Seattle to London, it's huge! 

                                  This is outside of our plane from London to Rome. Isn't it pretty?                            

                            This is me on our flight from London to Rome. I was really exited                                

  This is a part of a messed up panorama I did in our line for customs. My brother is double headed. I thought it was funny.

                   This is a vending machine in the rome airport. Look at the different products. Isn't it cool?

This is outside the window of the hotel room. Isn't Rome pretty?

Getting Ready....

We work hard, and we play hard.  The Turner family just embarked on a month long trip to Europe.  We will be spending time in Rome, Treviso and Venice, Barcelona, San Sebastion, Amboise, and Paris.  Jaden and Beckett will be the masters of this blog.  As part of their daily schoolwork, they will be posting pictures, anecdotes and more about where they've been and what they've learned while they are missing their friends and their classes at Ocean Park Elementary School.  Please post back to them as it will help them engage and learn!  Every once in a sweet while, you might get Brady or I making our mark!  We are all looking forward to some amazing family time, exploration, cultural expansion, and FUN!  We wish you could come with us, but hope you enjoy our journey!