I am so tired right now. I have just been on an airplane for 13 hours! But I am very happy to be back home and I'm very excited to see you tomorrow!
But before I see you, I want to share the last few days of my trip. I got to visit with your teacher in the place where he lived when he was little. It's a city called Hamilton. No, not the one you can drive to from Auckland. This Hamilton is in Canada. It's got lots of trees and a mountain. Well, they say it's a mountain, but it looks like a really big hill. I got to climb to the top and look at the city. It was very beautiful. I even got to see the school that your teacher went to when he was your age. It looks very different from your school.
On the way back, I got to stop in Vancouver again. There were some pretty neat statues and carvings in the terminal. I also got to see some big mountains outside. I even spotted the plane I would travel on for that very long journey.
It's been a fun journey, but I'm glad to be back home. And I can't wait to see all of you tomorrow! I wonder what adventures we can get up to this term?
When I was in Chicago, I was lucky to get to visit some of my relatives. These are my second cousins, twice removed. I can't remember all of their names though.
I also got to meet lots of their friends that live with them in the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago (which didn't cost any money to visit!) and the nearby Aquarium. How many of these animals can you name? I'll give you 5 house points for each animal you name.
This animal is very slow.
I used to listen to a song about this animal when I was little (you could ask Mrs Brienza, she might know)
Wow, I have been so busy I haven't had time to write. But I did have time to take lots of pictures. I spent an amazing week in the city of Chicago. Did you know that there are more people in Chicago than there are in the whole country of New Zealand? Actually, there are twice as many people in Chicago as there are in New Zealand. That's a lot of people! There are lots of interesting things to do there though.
Before I left for Chicago, I was really lucky to get to see something right where I'm staying. This is a picture of the Stanley Cup. It's the trophy that they give t the best team in the National Hockey League. And I only had to walk five minutes to get to see it. Do you know which team won this last?
When I was driving to Chicago, I saw this sign. I thought someone in your class might find it interesting...
This is a baseball stadium. It's very famous because it's more than 100 years old. It has ivy on the wall instead of the regular cushions.
This is what Chicago looks like from the water. Look at all those big buildings!
I got to visit a museum all about space! They had a rock that some astronauts brought back from the moon!
Here is a model of one of the robots that they sent to Mars! I bet if you worked really hard to learn about robots, you could send one there.
This is a very cool looking stage for concerts in the park.
I really like this picture of me. The thing behind me is called "The Bean." Lots of people liked looking at it and taking pictures.
This is from a science museum. Can you see the big airplane. It's inside a building!
Can you name this dinosaur?
This is my favourite dinosaur. It's a bit harder to name. I bet you could figure it out if you were really clever.
I found a Marae in Chicago. How cool is that?!?
I went to one place and got shrunk down to a very small size. I ran into this scary thing here...
... and here too! I don't like spiders. I'm glad it already has something to eat.
Remember that tall building from the picture before? I got to go to the top and take some pictures. It was a very nice view.
There was even a place where I could stand on the floor that had a glass bottom. You could see all the way down. It was very far and very scary. But I was brave.
It's an important day in Canada today. It's their birthday. They turned 148 today. That's pretty old isn't it? That's not as old as New Zealand. Do you know how old New Zealand is?
I had a really fun day celebrating. Can I tell you a secret? It's not over yet. Today I got to go to Toronto. That's the biggest city in Canada. We have a tall tower like you do in Auckland, but it's a little bit bigger. Here's a picture of me in front of the CN Tower and a picture of what the Sky Tower would look like if they were beside each other. It's a very big tower.
I also got to go to another baseball game. I got a Canadian flag and a team jersey for the Toronto Blue Jays. It was an exciting game. Here is a picture of me later in the day.
Later I made a new friend. Her name is Lexi. She gets excited very easily. And she's much bigger than I am. I was a bit scared, but she is nice.
When the sun goes down tonight, I will go and watch some fireworks. This is something lots of people do in Canada on Canada Day. I can't take pictures because it will be too dark. Do you ever go see fireworks? When do you go see them?
I have to go now, but I will write to you again soon.
Sorry I didn't write sooner. I have been very busy with your teacher learning about some amazing new things we can do in class (and boy if you knew, you would be so excited about next term after the holidays!).
I heard that you've chosen who our models for the fashion show will be. I'm so excited to see what you've made. Can you send me some pictures?
I had a chance to see some parts of Philadelphia, so I got some friends I met here, to take some pictures of me at some famous places. I'll try to tell you about some of the pictures so they make more sense to you.
Did you know that Philadelphia means "The City of Brotherly Love? This statue was really nice.
It's hard to see this picture, but it's the Liberty Bell (the line was really, really long so I had to see it from the outside). This bell is really important to Americans. When they decided to become a country, they rang this bell to let people know the good news. Unfortunately it has a big crack in it. You can't see the crack though because I didn't want to wait in the very long line.
This building is where the bell used to be (over 200 years ago!). This was also where they signed the paper that said they were a country. It was a very big deal for them.
Back at the conference, I visited some people from Lego. They have some great ways we can learn and have fun at the same time! Maybe we can go and ask Mr Vasau really nicely and see if we can find a way to get some of these things for our classroom.
Look at me go here! I can ride this really big bicycle all by myself!
I made a new friend here. Can you tell me what kind of animal he is? 10 house points for the first student who comments with the name.
I also went to some steps in the city. I watched this movie a long time ago about a man who runs up these steps. Watch the video below the picture and you can see how I tried to act out the movie. Ask your parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents or friends. Or you could even try to google it and figure it out. If you can name the movie (only the first Meerkat), I'll give you 10 house points when I get back!
Yum! I got to eat a Philly Cheesesteak! It was delicious, and very big. But I didn't waste any of the food.
I also got to go see a baseball game. It was a really exciting game to watch. Can you figure out the name of the baseball team in Philadelphia? You can ask anyone or search google to find out. I'll give another 10 house points if you can find the answer.
Well, that's all for now. I've got a busy day ahead of me (I drove back to Canada and now it's Canada Day here! - I think someone told you about that). I hope you're having an incredible week without me. I really miss each and every one of you, but we will see each other soon.
