Edith Patricia

In March we went to the Baltics. We had a lot of fun in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. I went before but I was too young to remember it so I was very glad we went back. My aunt had not been before. She had a friend that recommended two places off the beaten path, and we went to those: the Hill of Crosses and the Hill of Witches. My favorite part was the Hill of Witches as each of the many statues represented different local legends / myths. When we didn’t know the backstory, my aunt would make up a funny one.

My mom went on a girls’ trip and the rest of us joined her in Paris at the end of the trip. It was really fun! We went to the Eiffel Tower, which is always cool to visit. We had some chocolate crunchy puffs and they had many different flavors. We met our family friends that were part of the girls’ trip.

For Spring Break in April, we did a big trip through the Eastern Balkans and Eastern Europe. My favorite was North Macedonia because it was my 50th country! We also slept in an awesome boat hotel there. I loved the big fountain there too. I was really happy throughout the whole trip because it nearly all new countries and we got a lot of new currencies. Romania’s currency is named RON which is my Dad’s name! We did our first family overnight train and it was a funny scenario because we were 3 adults and 2 kids, and assumed the two sleeping cabins would have 3 lower beds, but one of the cabins had a 3-level bunk bed!

We also did a long weekend in a medieval Portuguese town named Monsaraz. It was really cool because there was very little light pollution. It’s even certified as a Dark Skies location.

Firstly, we’re going to back a few months and get everyone up-to-date.

We had several big family trips:

• Japan! It was super fun for me and my family. We had a wonderful time and lots of sweets like tanghulu (fruits covered in melted sugar). We saw a 3D screen of a cat playing. How can I forget about the cat and capybara cafe?! We also went to a minipig cafe, took samurai and ninja lessons, and learned how to make mochi. At the end of the trip, we went to Universal Studios!! It is a super fun place with a lot of games and elaborate cities such as Super Nintendo World and Harry Potter World. My favorite drink is butterbeer and my favorite snack is butterbeer cookies! Everyone was super, super, duper happy at the end of the day.
• My Aunt Cici came and visited us in November! It was super fun because she spoils us. We got to hang out a lot. She’s always happy and when she comes we’re super happy that we get to see her in person (because she lives far away)!
• Over the holidays, we took quick trips to Chicago and New York City to celebrate Christmas with our grandparents. We then went to New Haven where my crazy dad wanted to eat their famous pizza three meals in a row. After that we went to Wales for New Years where we went to an old castle that had ice skating (my other Aunt Emmy skated with us!) and we got cool souvenir wooden spoons. We spent a day in Bath, England to visit Stonehenge before meeting up with friends in London.
• Last weekend my dad had a friend coming to Europe and we all decided to take a quick trip to Sweden to meet him. On Friday we went to a Viking restaurant, then on Saturday we went to see different designs in metro stations, and on Sunday morning we saw a real Viking ship in the Vasa Museum before returning home. When we got home everyone was super happy about the trip and delighted we were home.

First things first, we went to and bought traditional outfits for me, my mom, and my sister. We bought a traditional suit for Oktoberfest. My mom got a dirndl dress, and my sister got lederhosen. My dad and my aunt sadly did not get anything (this time). We went to Oktoberfest when it first opened for our first of two reservations that day. Both of them were in the Olde Wiesn section of the festivities. At the first reservation we used eight beer vouchers for the four adults. Our friend Allison joined us as the forth adult. She ended up having so much fun that she was dancing on the bench to one of the songs. We also got a large meat and cheese platter to start, and later added a couple 1/2 chickens and a pork schnitzel. We had a couple extra vouchers when our time was up, so we bought some coffee and treats on the way out.

After that first reservation, we walked around and went on the ferris wheel and a few other rides. One of them was tall with swings that went higher than the ferris wheel. We also went on a roller coaster that have FIVE fast loops. Back in the cheaper Olde Wiesn section, we went on the tea cups three times in a row! We also did a couple of games.

After all the fun games, we went to a different tent for our second reservation. It was a much bigger tent and had a couple different musical stages. Overall, it a similar experience. We had more drinks and more delicious food. It got a little crazy near the end of the night so we left a few minutes early. We enjoyed seeing all of the other tents lit up at night on the way out.

At the end of the school year, we got to leave half way through the day and we went with our parents and sat on the football field for people to get awards. I got an award for upholding the school’s values, and I was the only winner out of both 3rd grade classes!! After that, the principal gave a speech because it’s his last year at our school. He’s going to run all of the regional schools now. We ended the assembly by giving out awards for the “houses” that were competing the whole year (Gators, Elephants, Tigers, and Lynx). Gators got last place, third place was Lynx, my house was Tigers which came in second place, and Elephants came first! We celebrated with ice cream at the end.

I had a great year at my new school here in Portugal. I just finished a week of soccer summer camp at Benfica, and I have a week of surf camp next week before going back to the US for most of the summer. I’m looking forward to having a great time at Camp Tannadoonah in the US, and then coming back for 4th grade!!

I just got back from Spring Break. We took a road trip around northern Italy. We also took daytrips to the micronation of San Marino on the east side of Italy, and on the west side, we drove through a tiny bit of France to visit Monaco. All three were new countries to me!

We flew in and out of Bologna, which I really enjoyed. We started the trip by driving up to Parma and taking a couple cheese-making tours because I love cheese. On the first tour we got to see how to make parmesan cheese, and on the second tour we got to see empty equipment and realized how deep the different containers were. The wheel shape is formed due to the circle at the bottom of the main container. We got to sample lots of different ages of cheese, and my favorite was Parmigiano Reggiano 24 months!

On the day trip to San Marino, we climbed up the two main towers surrounding the city. On one of them, there was a ladder that went through a small hole in the ceiling above it. My dad backed out and I went up to explore on my own!

After spending time in Bologna and Florence, we stopped in Pisa for the famous leaning tower. My sister was crazy enough to go to the top! We got tickets for all of us because we didn’t want miss out. Dad really loved it but me and Mom were sort of scared of the height.

Next up we went to four different fishing villages on top of mountains in Cinque Terre. We took the train between them and stopped for food, drinks, or desserts in each one. My dad and I climbed over 150 stairs up an old tower for great city views in one of them.

Our last city we stayed in was Genoa, which we used as a launching off point to visit Monaco. In Monaco, there were fancy cars everywhere! We thought all the restaurants would be expensive so we went to Steak N Shake, but we looked at the menu and it was all beef which my family doesn’t eat. We went to Planet Pasta instead, which was great. Afterward, we went back to Steak N Shake to get delicious milkshakes.

I would definitely recommend visiting Italy and the countries around it. Here’s a tip — do not spent too much money in Monaco!

We are loving it here so far!

When our house was empty my dad asked our family friend David half-jokingly if he would help us move in and he came! We had a great week getting the main furniture and housewares. We had to go to IKEA like a million times, and they have a great restaurant in the middle of it. My mom bought our mattresses entirely in Portuguese at another store! We have all of our furniture now. We are thinking about bringing our other house pictures to hang up next to our new pictures from here.

We have gone on a lot of trips around Europe already. We have done Switzerland (Zurich and Lucerne), Liechtenstein (Vaduz), Germany (Cologne), and Spain (Badajoz). We also went back to Chicago for Halloween and Memphis for Christmas. In Memphis, we went to a candy store named Dinstuhl’s and Target a lot. I got a big giant squishmallow for Christmas — her name is Erica and she’s Italian. When we came back, we brought back a lot of things from Target and Costco.

In my school for PE, we had swimming and roller skating. There are different types of roller skates. I used the more traditional ones. Now we’re doing basketball and fencing. Our double-block PE is when we do fencing, and I also do fencing for aftercare! My other aftercare activities are home economics, tennis, more tennis, and nothing on Fridays.

Math is my favorite subject. In my old school in Chicago, we were only doing addition. Here we have also done subtraction, multiplication, and division already and it’s only been like half way through the year! I’m the only American in my class, and the rest are a lot of different nationalities including English, Ukrainian, French, Brazilian, Chinese, Russian, and Korean. English is my second favorite subject. One time my teacher said I could use my math and English skills to help my classmates!

Lisbon has two futbol (soccer) teams, Sporting and Benfica. We have been to games for both teams, and I want to go to a Porto game next. My family and I decided together and think that we like Sporting better. We like their uniforms, ease of transportation, and there was more action on our side. Benfica is still a great game because of the vibe and we were there for a championship game.

Some of our Chicago friends have visited us and we’ve made new friends in Portugal too. Today we were with Maddie and yesterday my sister was with Amnah. It’s so safe here that my sister is able to walk to the store by herself, grabbing us breakfast and lunch regularly.

I’m looking forward to my Aunt Cici visiting next month! I hope she has time to pick up my other squishmallow from Chicago and bring it with her.

We had 6 big duffle bags and it held most of the stuff that we needed. The flight was about 8 hours. Once we landed, we were all super excited except for my sister. We were in 4 different hotels for the first week while we were setting up our house. We slept in them for 1-2 days each. One aunt lives with us, one aunt is coming to visit us in 2 weeks, and my third aunt is coming in February! We found our favorite pizza place, which is Tozzi’s, and it has a nutella pizza!

So far we are having a great time. We started school about 2 weeks ago. We have lived here for a whole month now. In after school at school, I have fencing on Wednesday, and tennis on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Monday is home economics, which is sewing, planting, drawing, and making puzzles. Friday we don’t have any after-school activities, in case we want to sneak away for a weekend getaway. We have everything we need for now.

My parents bought us tickets to Cedar Point Amusement Park for Christmas and we went this weekend. We arrived on Saturday but it was too late for the park that night. The road around the park was fun because we got to drive near all the huge rides including a big wooden roller coaster. We spent the whole day Sunday there and half a day on Monday before driving home, missing a day of school (shh!).

My favorite ride called the Millennium Force had a 310 foot drop with a high speed of 96 mph. It was very fun. My second favorite ride was called Blue Streak they said it was all wooden and it is the oldest coaster in the park. We went on it twice as a family, and then my dad and I went on it another 5-6 times while my sister and mom did a different ride nearby called the Valravn. My third favorite ride was a scary one for me. It was kind of like swinging hammers. It was called Skyhawk and it had two arms that swing up really high into the sky and it felt like we were going to fall off. My mom couldn’t watch! On my first try it felt like were going upside down and I was scared because I only went upside down once on a ride before. I also liked the Matterhorn because it went sidewards.

It was my first time ever at an amusement park for two days! It was really fun! Next time I hope I’m tall enough to go on the adult rides. I bet that would make it even more fun.

Webby is a new cat in my Aunt Cici’s house. He is 6 years old in cat years and he is black. He is cute and soft. He was in the shelter with two other cats that my Aunt Cici had but they never met because Webby was in a separate kitten section at the time she got the others cats. The two other cats were named Oscar and Batman.

Webby got his name because he was like a “wrecking ball of love” and jumping between my Aunt Cici and Uncle Louie and giving them cat kisses.

There was another kitten that Cici wanted but her limit is 5 years old and older. The kitten was only 1 and a half years old. She said that she would buy him if no one buys him in 2 months because he was so cute.

I went to the Alcatraz prison! It is in a city called San Francisco, California, in the middle of the water. It used to hold soldiers but when there were soldiers the doors all opened at the same time. When it was holding very bad people and not soldiers they opened one-by-one. There were bigger prisons when they had soldiers and smaller prisons for the very bad people. The A section was only open on Sundays and we were there on Sunday so we got to see it. It was still set up for when it housed only soldiers. My favorite part was the fake people in the prison cells.