Codyland

When I first got to Codyland, I landed my helicopter in Cody City. Cody City sits in the southern portion of Codyland, just north of Strawberry Peninsula and every building is as high as the Empire State Building. It was dark out and you could hear the dogirds (aka dog-birds) yawn from 590,678,510,660 miles away. I could feel the light, wonderful breeze. The next day when the Ooga (sun) came out, it got so hot (500*F) that I had to head to Snow Volcano to cool off and ski. The greatest part of Snow Volcano is that every time you jump a cliff and make a bomb hole, the pow immediately fills in your hole. All tracks are first tracks!


After my legs got too tired to ski any longer I headed to Paintball Land. Thing One and Thing Two, my head scientists in Paintball Land, make robots that are programmed to shoot paint balls at me. The robots roll across the land like rolly-pollys and make my target practice challenging. Unfortunately today I lost the battle when one of my robots caught me and threw me all the way to Air Bag Valley, just east of Mt. Everest. I hit the suction shuttle button which vacuumed me to the top of Mt. Everest. With my skis I dropped in from the highest points and launched a triple cork 1620* onto one of the airbags in the Valley.

I got so hungry I had to take a break and headed for Spaghetti Tree Peninsula, my very favorite place to dine. Yuuummmmm! My tummy was too full to do anymore bouncing so I went to Zero Gravity Land to take a nap while floating amongst the stars. Goodnight, sleep tight.

I just couldn't get enough of Codyland, so the next morning I got up and went to Dogird Land. My favorite Dogird in all the land is Duke. Duke and I spent all day flying around WaWa Mountain. Waterfalls, lagoons and geysers are everywhere! Whenever my Mom visits she always loves Wawa Mountains the best. Dogird worked so hard carrying me around all day I treated him to Snow Cone Land before heading home.

I may never leave, so I apologize if I miss a few of my classes and blog posts. I hope you understand.

Cody

Yacob land

Ahhhhh. it is so very nice to be here! Yacob land has a mountain, that has one really long chair lift, that takes you to the very top of the mountain and there is only one run, that goes from: powder trees, to park, to more pow pow, to a water fall were you clip out of your skis and ski boots and kayak down a very long river that spells: land. (That is why it's Yacob land.) You can see all of the animals along the river and then you get to my mansion. The water supply comes from The Water Tree. The Water Tree is a tree that hangs upside down from a cloud, (thats where it gets its water from) and has 2 hoses, 1 hot, 1 cold. The hot goes to my crater hot tub, and the cold is my drinking and river water. My language is fwigan, (pronounced: fweegin) this is how you spell hi in fwigan: hi. There is also a colorful forest on Yacob land, and all the trees are different colors and in it lives the rare plada-bird! It his orange, has a long tail, and has a long yellow beak. OOOOO!!!!! There it is!!! I'm off to catch it! Bye!

Yacob :)

Climbing Palm Trees and Dancing in Fiji

When Keegan and I went to Fiji, we went to see a Fijian meke dance where men, women and children all take part. The women danced with fans and the men danced with clubs and spears. The music was a steady beating of sticks. After their performance, they encouraged the guests to join them in a simple dance movement called the taralala. So, we went up and joined in dance with them. It was a new experience because I've been doing hip-hop as my dance, and now I got try a new dance.

After the dance, Keegan and I went to the beach. It was in the evening, and we found a palm tree sticking out over the water. I saw it and the thought came "I want to climb that tree!" So, what did I do? I climbed out onto the tree and I kept going and going and going. When I was almost to the end, something happened... My grip loosened, I struggled to keep on the trunk, but it was too late. I fell down, down, down toward the water and fell in with a SPLASH! It was warmer than I expected, but I still rushed to shore. Keegan and I ran back to our hotel so I could dry off. Anyway, it was a good vacation to Fiji.

See you all soon,

Nicholas

Before and After

Before I got to Bhutan with Cody, I made a list of 10 things I thought the country would be like:
1. It has square houses
2. Cheetahs live there
3. There are no trees
4. There are pyramids
5. The people look Korean
6. The people's favorite food is snakes
7. The geography is desert
8. The coordinates are: 23 North and 32 East
9. They have plenty of fresh, clean water
10. The people are mostly mad.
*Bonus thought: Countries that are nearby: Korea, India



Then I got to Bhutan and here is what Cody and I found:

1. Cody and I stayed in a traditional Bhutanese house, made out of mud, bamboo, and wood. The doors and windows were decorated with animal and flower designs. In the house we stayed in, the cows lived on the bottom floor, the second floor had storage, and the third floor is where we lived.  And the most important part of every house is a prayer flag in the center of the roof

2. One website told us there were cheetahs in southern Bhutan, but most websites talked about the snow leopard. Cody and I saw a snow leopard. It was crouching on the mountainside. This is what he looked like!

3. We saw the Himmalaya from everywhere! We also saw lots of rice paddies. There is flatness and pointiness everywhere here. We couldn't find any deserts in Bhutan.

4. Cody and I went base jumping off the Lakhang, which are monastaries. Check this out. (We got this picture after we jumped.)

5. The people don't look Korean. They come from tribes of northern Burma and northeast India and Nepal. So they look like this

6. "Ema datse," which is chilies and cheese, is one of the favorite dishes in Bhutan.

7. Bhutan is comfortably squeezed into the middle of the Himalaya

8. 27 N, 90 E.  I was close!

9. Glaciers are melting and so water is harder to get. Also, even in Bhutan, there is a problem with dirty water.

10. The goverment watches out for the happiness of its people. For a long time, they knew TV would not make people happy. They were the LAST country to introduce TV. It was the year Eleanore was born. 1999. They don't allow tobacco or plastic bags in Bhutan because the goverment thinks they make the people less happy. The one traffic light they ever had made people frustrated so they took it down and put back the person to direct traffic. That must be sooooo tiring. There is hardly ANY advertising. And Bhutan cares about the environment and the spirit of the people.

*11. I was right on one of the countries that are near Bhutan, which was India. The other one is Tibet.

 Frances Joy

Bird Watching in Madagascar

It was so fascinating to find these awesome birds and see them hanging out in the forest. This is one of my favorites, the long-tailed ground roller. It is rare (endangered) and is a ground dwelling bird.

This is the male velvet asity, which also called a false-sunbird and eats fruit.

Here is the female velvet asity. What have you been eating lately? Burger King? (Ha ha ha.)

I happened to catch this helmet vanga peeking out from behind his nest.

This pygmy kingfisher is so cute! I saw it catch a grub and feed it to its babies.

While I was bird watching, I randomly saw this little fluffy guy here. He is a lowland streaked tenrec and I named him Sparky because he looks like a mini firecracker. He was looking for earthworms when I found him, and I motioned to Logan to come over to see him. Logan looked surprised and said "What is that thing?!" The tenrec scurried back to his family burrow near a small stream when he realized we were there.

I wish I could keep one as a pet, but I can't (sigh). Oh well, he'd be too spiky anyway and I could never pick him up.

Have good travels!

Jacob

Australia

This is the Sydney Opera House

This is a Numbat. Cute right?

This is Mike

Okay I'm finally caught up on my blogs!! Good thing I kept a journal of EVERYTHING that happened on all of my trips.

We are in Sydney, home of the world famous Sydney Opera House. We saw an opera there, but I can't say I'm a big fan. Opera just isn't my style. But the opera house itself is amazing! The architecture is just wonderful.

While in a small town just outside of Sydney ( I can't remember the name) we met a man named Mike. His name may be modern, but don't be fooled. He is descended from the original inhabitants of Australia. He showed us how to throw a boomerang. Mine didn't come back. Mike says it takes years of practice to get it right. I say it takes natural born talent. Either way I had to walk for 100 meters to get mine back.

Okay, the Numbat is one of the most cute animals I have ever seen (okay, I say that to every animal. But still...)!! It looks like a striped anteater (and I think it may be a type of anteater, I can't remember) with just a little bit of chipmunk. It is just so darn cute!!!

Okay, so the two things I always notice about a country is how cute the animals are and the food. We've already covered the cute animals, so on to the food. Now I'm not a big banana person, in fact I don't eat them without peanut butter, but in Australia they grill them on the BBQ. It was amazing ( I use that word waaaayyy to much). The banana caramelizes on the inside and it is delicious!

Well, all for now. I have to get some rest for our trip to the outback tomorrow to (hopefully) see some Kangaroos!! (By the way, Joeys [ baby kangaroos] are so cute!!)

Kelsey

0 degrees, 67degrees west

This is a Black-Faced Lion Tamarin

This is (in order) Yara, Davi, and Thiago

Hey everyone! We are always talking about the equator...but we are always on one side or the other. How about being on both?? That's what Mia and I did when we went to S. Gabriel da Cachoeira. It is right on the equator. It's so cool to have your left foot where the toilet bowl spins one way and your right foot where it spins the other. I'm not going to say what country or continent S. Gabriel da Cachoeira is in. That you have to find out ;)

Our tour guide took us to a wildlife preserve where we saw a Black-Faced Lion Tamarin, a very cute endangered species. Her name was Victoria, and she was cute as could be. Until she decided the banana in my backpack looked good. She pounced. Then off I ran, screaming at the top of my lungs, and Mia and the Guide laughing their heads off. That happens a lot (not the Tamarin jumping on me, the screaming at the top of my lungs part).

We met three children on our journey. Yara, Davi, and Thiago. Yara is 11, and she made us the best rice and beans with bananas. It was amazing. Davi is 8, and he showed us their pet dog, Rio, SO CUTE! Thiago is 10, and he was silent until soccer came up. He loved soccer. He showed us all the moves he knew and told us someday he would be on the national Brazilian soccer team. All three kids were adorable.