Tuesday's Are Down Town Days...

...And they always have been, but today was really fun.


We had French, which was kind of fun, but also a bummer cause I'm 'getting' it a lot faster than my brothers and I kind of get bored :D


So we got done with that a we went to McDonalds. I had barely been to McDonalds before I came here...buut things change. So, my mom wanted to spend 15 dollars on lunch instead of 50 at the museum (understandable) So, we got McDonalds. So, there are doing the Monopoly thing right now, and we had like 6 of the little pieces. Soo, there was a group of people next to us were collecting them, and my mom was like, 'hey, we should give these to them.' (In my head I was thinking, "If we keep coming to McDonalds like we have been, we'll probably win the whole game.) Anyway, so she handed the pieces to the a person from the group who then was like, 'ohh, thank you so much!' and the other people in the group were like, 'what, your giving those to her, you should have given them to me...' It was all in good spirit of course. Anyway, so there was a lot of shuffling around and stuff, and my brother turns to me and says, 'Today: French, McDonalds, Slagle-caused Riot. What else is going to be interesting today?' Haha, so, we kind of, almost (not really) caused a riot at McDonalds.



After we left McDonalds, we walked back across the street and went down the stairs to the Red Line where we got our tickets and boarded the subway system. It was all done very fast though, because we were running down the stairs while the tram was waiting for us...which is something that it very rarely does. So, we got aboard it, took it to the Adler Planetarium.



The planetarium was very interesting, it was kind of boring, almost like an art museum...there was a lot to look at, a lot to read, and we had to be kind of quiet. We saw a really cool movie about Black Holes, it was realy cool until I kind of fell asleep cause I didn't all the way understand what it was saying. And then we went to this planets exibit that showed us the sun in real time, and what the planets look like in comparison to eachother...it was more interesting than the movie. Annd, my lifelong dream has been fullfilled, I found out that I weigh 147lbs and I'm 24 years old on Saturn. I can die now. :p



So, then they had an exibit with the Little Einsteins and weather...Christian and I had a lot of fun acting like we were 4 again and chasing eachother around the floor.



Hehe, well, I think that's all for now!

More Later!

~Eliana

On My Way Home

October 7, 2007 3:30pm

Haha, guess what? I’m driving…again.

So, yes, here I am, driving again. But, this time, it’s back to Naperville, my home there, J Well, where do I start, I could go backwards from this point, or I could go forwards from Friday...(That randomly reminds me of the fact that my family is terrible at making decisions. Terrible. We were sitting at Chili’s today, and my brother couldn’t decide whether he wanted Country Fried Steak or Honey BBQ Sirloin…that’s only one instance of it, but it happens all the time, and it’s kind of annoying. :s

So, I’ll start from Friday. My brothers and I finally got to go see where my dad works! Haha, we kind of just had the idea that he worked from his office and maybe talked with people in another state…hehe, yeah, so we saw his office and we met his boss and his assistant person, it was so fun to be there! Annd, I think that a lot of office would be this way, but it had and extremely strong resemblance, for me, of The Office. I don’t know why, but they always seemed to be laughing and joking with each other and complaining…hehe, it was fun! And then, I got to do school! Hahah, I know that that seems like I’m crazy, but I was way behind…so, I did like 3 hours of work while my mom took my brothers to the library or something. It was a happy thing. Then my dad and I said our goodbyes, (and I stumbled through ‘good-to-meet-you’s’) as well got directions for to the Mall of America, or MOA as it addressed itself. (We either had to go under the 77 exit, or get off on it…I don’t know what we did cause my mom had us get off on 2c.)

We traveled down the almost bumper to bumper highway at decreasing speeds, but we eventually got there. And, we walked right through the actual ‘mall’ part of the building into . Haha, so I was kind of bummed that we didn’t do any shopping or anything of the sort, just RIDES! HA! They were so much fun though! The ‘park’ wasn’t that busy, and that allowed us to not have to wait for the rides for more than 10 minutes. That was nice. J So, that was about it for the MOA. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it was overall tons of fun!!

So, that’s Friday, on to Saturday. Saturday was a lot of fun too! We woke up about 9:00 and went to have breakfast with the family that we are staying with. Pancakes! They were so good! Thenn, as Saturday-day was a lot warmer than Thursday night, we went back out on the lake! This time I tried water-skiing, I pretty much got up, but it wasn’t perfect…so, yes, I can say that I actually went water-skiing, it just didn’t go very well. J Hehe, I had a great time, and the sun felt so good! After we went out in the boat we went back home and played guitar hero for awhile…I beat Christian which was fairly amazing…and tons of fun. J Then we went and played kickball before we had amazing pizza. And then, because all the sudden there were like 10 kids, we played a bunch of night games, and met this girl named Clara. (She and I didn’t really play that many games, we more talked when we were supposed to be playing…the other kids got kind of mad at us) That was it for Saturday…

And today, Sunday, after we packed up the house we went to church with the family that we were with. And then to lunch at Chili’s…and now we are on the road. I think that we have about three hours left, and I’m pretty bored. Hehe. There has been a lot rain and wind while we are driving, and my mom keeps asking me if we have our seat belts on. Ohh, and the trees are beautiful!! They are orange and red and gold and dark violet, it’s amazing!! And then there are a few that are green…those aren’t as pretty. J I’m thinking that’s it for now!!

I miss you all!

<3>

PS...On My Way Home is actually a song...idk who it's by though. :)

Amazing Days, Amazing Ways

So, I had the most amazing day yesterday! We woke up at 8:00 (like normal) and we went to St. Paul to the amazing science center that they had! We stayed there pretty much all day! We saw how the enzymes in your mouth break down the food you eat; how tornadoes form, how sound and light interact with each other, ooh, and sooo much more! Hmm, we saw a tug boat, directed a barge down the Mississippi River (in a simulation), saw tons of different dead animals, we saw the Pompeii exhibit (which was pretty cool…) did a bunch of weird math activities with this one guy from Bolivia, and, we saw a really cool movie about Greece that got really old about 40 minutes into it…but then it was over. Hehe, I probably could have stayed at the museum all day, but, we had to get back to the amazing house that we are staying in. I’ll get to the house in a second…

Buut, we had to get back to the house because we were going WATER SKIING!!! Ohh. My. Gosh. Have you ever been water skiing at 7:00pm at night? In October? In Minnesota? Hehe, I was SO cold, and almost miserable, but it was TONS of fun!! We tried this knee-boarding thing, and I almost got up on it. I tried two different times, and I was equally cold in each. Hehe, I LOVED it though. Trenton managed to get up, and Christian didn’t. J It was fun though. After that we went and took HOT showers, so hot that all of the hot water ran out. And then we went and had amazing food at the people-who-took-us-water skiing’s-house. It was fun. And they have two really sweet girls, and I loved being with them!

Ohh, and the house is amazingly nice! It backs up to the lake where we went water skiing, and it is so much more spatial then our Illinois house…go figure. That’s actually about it, they are selling it, so it’s all clean (and it’s our job to keep it that way :s)

That’s about it! I am going to the Mall of America today, but I’ll write more once it happens!

<3!

Crazy Long, and Adventurous, Day

October 3, 2007 7:50pm

Driving…again.

This has had to be the longest day ever. (Or since I was driving across the country…from AZ to IL) Anyway, no I’m driving (again) from Illinois, through Wisconsin, to Minnesota. New Prague, to be exact. We are going to be staying on Cedar Lake, in a fairly nice house. It’s going to be amazing, once we get there of course. For now, I’m ready to be done. We’ve been driving from about noon today, not straight though…this is our day:

12:00pm – We finally left the house. We left about an hour later than we wanted to, but we didn’t really have that choice as my dad had to work all morning.

12:45 – We stopped for lunch at the ‘Oasis’ on the freeway. I love Panda! (That was actually the same place that we got ourselves lost at when we went to the football game)

2:00 – We stopped at the Jelly Belly factory! We walked in, received our Jelly Belly hats and were hurried along through the ‘Jelly Bean hallway’ to the train that was waiting. The tour was somewhat boring, all it talked about was how much sugar they use everyday. (I don’t remember how much, but it was some extreme number.) So, we got our free jelly beans, and were escorted to (where else) the gift shop! Haha, so, we wandered around, and walked out with 45 dollars worth of jelly beans. J That was a happy thing! Hehe

4:00 – We went to an indoor rest stop. Haha, I don’t know why I find that so fascinating, but, we don’t have indoor rest stops in AZ or CA, cause it never gets cold enough. J We played football for a few minutes and then got back in the car…

That was also the same place that we realized we had taken the wrong route and we were going up towards the cities instead of where we were supposed to be. Soo, we turned ourselves around and then turned off onto a more scenic route that led us through the way cute town of Black River Falls. It was about an hour out of our way…but I think that it was worth it. J

7:30 – We finally got dinner!! Rushing through Wendy’s, we got chicken nuggets and salads and frosties and waters…and we got back in the car again. J

And now…we are in St. Charles, MN, about an hour and 10 minutes away from where we are going! I guess the day hasn’t been that terrible, just long. Annd, this week is going to be pretty exciting! With water skiing, the Mall of America…and, the Science Museum, I’m way happy for it!!

Well, that’s all!!

More later…and I’ll post pictures too!

<3!

The Wind & the Rain in OCTOBER!!!

IT'S THE FIRST DAY OF OCTOBER!!!! I'm soo happy about it! Mostly because it means two things: 1) I am one month closer to coming home!!! 2) I made it through one month...so I can do at least one more. (Ha, I don't really have a choice about the 3 months...)

And, last night, I fell asleep about 10:00ish...I was SOO tired!!
Then, about midnight, I hear this crazy WHOOOSHING noise up against my window, and I'm soo confused and turned around (and half asleep) that I hit my head on the wet window sill. It was RAINING soo hard outside. And the rain was being blown about by the WIND. You could seriously hear the house resisting the wind, and it felt like the house was going to fall to the ground when the wind stopped blowing. I preceded to close my window and fall back into bed, but you could still hear everything blowing and pushing and pulling...and the house groaning under the weight of the wind. It was wonderful. Today has been somewhat dreary, cloudy skies, no sun. The temperature has been nice though, pretty much perfect. Our big maple tree out front is the only one in the neighborhood that hasn't begun to turn yet, (we secretly think that the landlords poisoned it...probably not though) Soo...that kind of a bummer, but it's ok...I'm sure that it will change!

More Later!!