We thought that by having traveled as much as we have, doing the research about what types of visa we needed, packing our backpacks, and taking Uber to the airport, that the rest of our day would be all about choosing between chicken and pasta, or which movies to watch. We were wrong.

We arrived at the Seattle airport this afternoon almost three hours early, checked in, arranged our seat assignments, and headed to the gate. Security was a breeze. No problem, right?

Wrong. Less than an hour before the flight was scheduled to leave, we were approached by the gate agent asking us if we could provide original birth certificates for both of the boys. Huh?  Never in the whole trip around the world were we ever asked for original birth certificates.  After all, the boys have passports, which happen to require birth certificates to attain. In fact they have two passports each.

It turns out that since our last visit to South Africa 18 months ago, they have changed the requirements for entry with minors. So in all of our research, we hadn’t thought to check that.  We had made sure we had passports, looked into visa requirements, and thought we’d dotted all our i’s and dotted all our t’s. Nope. Not enough. Here we were, 45 minutes before our 6pm flight at the gate, and we were without the documentation we needed to fly.

As many of you know, during our one year trip around the world, we hit 25 countries with the boys.  All countries have their own rules; yet, never once were we asked for any documentation other than passports and/or possibly a visa. The gate agent explained that we needed them.  We were able to pull up copies of their birth certificates on our computers and had their Italian passports which include in them the names of each of the boys’ parents. Unlike our last trip when we traveled sans cell phones, this time we had the advantage of Google at our fingertips.  A quick search on South African government site taught us that if we have passport documentation of the boys’ parents (as is also the case with Indian passports), we were good to go. Unfortunately the supervisor of British Airlines had been given different instructions. With her clipboard and spreadsheets, she showed us the rules for letting us on the plane. Without original documentation, she insisted, there would be no boarding. Despite reading and re-reading the South African website together, she was adamant that her spreadsheet held the rules by which she needed to follow.

We tried to explain to the lady that we have traveled to more than 35 countries with the boys and have never once been asked for an original birth certificate.  Who carries around original birth certificates? Passengers seated nearby listened to the conversation, watching us brainstorm together as a family about what options we may have besides abandoning our flight. One couple commented on how impressed they were at our cool. Another lady commented on how we clearly were avid travelers because we were still calm as we watched all the other passengers slowly being called to board around us.

Although we had arrived at the airport around 3pm, three hours before our scheduled flight, they failed to mention this new South African law until after 5pm, Pacific Time. We had no way to confirm. There was no longer any embassy in the U.S. still open. We considered calling a different embassy in Europe. No, it was 3am there. We thought of calling South Africa directly. No, it was 4am there.  With some quick calculations we figured out it was business hours in Asia. So, we tried to attain answers calling the South African embassy in Tokyo. An answer!  Woohoo!  So, while Kathrin was busy on the telephone with Tokyo, Nathan was processing answers and options with the gate supervisor. At this point, we were pulling out American passports, Italian passports, and Kathrin was on the telephone speaking Japanese, all with more than six agents surround us wondering whether we would be boarding before take-off.

Our heads were spinning with what our options were.  Would they even let us on this plane?  Would we be stranded at our London layover, not able to board the next plane?  And, although we were flying out of Sea-Tac airport in Seattle, any original birth certificate paperwork was in Portland, more than three hours away. Should we scrap the flight to London and drive down to Portland for birth certificates? All of the agents were telling us that would be our only option.  We didn’t want to give up. All of us were convinced there must be options other than postponing.

Imagine the scene now… every single passenger had boarded, except us. The entire gate area was quiet. We were being observed by at least six gate and flight agents as we discussed our options, referencing the South African website and the supervisor’s British Airlines spreadsheet.  The tension was incredible.

Finally, the supervisor reluctantly admitted that according to the South African government site, that the boys’ Italian passports which, inside the front cover, list their parents’ names should in fact be sufficient.

Then another caveat….   The boys’ mother’s name listed was Kathrin’s maiden name.  Unlike U.S. paperwork, the Italian government tends to leave everything in a woman’s maiden name – which did not match Kathrin’s passport!  Again, the supervisor objected. Luckily, we were able to pull up an electronic copy also of our marriage certificate.  Would that be enough?

Meanwhile, Kathrin got disconnected from Tokyo. She tried again. The only person in the Tokyo office who can confirm the new South African law was out.  Sigh.

At this point, there were only a few remaining minutes before the gate door was to be sealed, and we were still sitting out in the gate area.  Finally, just seconds before the doors closed, the BA supervisor reread the website and decided we had enough documentation with us to go on.

As we maneuvered to our seats at the very rear of the airplane, our heads were still spinning. We had made it!  A couple other passengers let out a cheer. We were onboard.

Once we were actually en route and in the air with a glass of wine in our hands, we laughed. It was all a part of the adventure of family travel. After all, the difference between a calamity and an adventure is simply attitude, right?

Well, we’ve officially added another grand adventure to our list! (Albeit a little too much adventure for my taste…)

As I post this, we’ve officially been allowed into Cape Town.

So, now, let’s go see South Africa!

Kite Surfers in front of Table Mountain

Balinese kitchen

Many people in rural countries don’t have a home or a reliable source of food. There are countless people in developed countries too. It’s very important to remember all those people. Many people forget to recognize those people, which is very sad because there are millions in the world who are very poor. We saw many people on our trip that had no house; they just lived under sheets of scrap metal. That made me very thankful to have a good house. It’s important to think about this because it makes you feel more fortunate.

Home on stilts, built in a flood zone, Cambodia

Outdoor cooking

If you don’t remember to focus on how fortunate you are, then you can start feeling that you are unlucky. From there, it isn’t hard to become very greedy and selfish. Thanksgiving is a great time to remember how fortunate you are and to prevent yourself from becoming very greedy or selfish. This year, I am especially thankful to be able to see all my family again after my trip.

On a tree in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Gabriola is a small island in BC, Canada. It’s about 22 sq miles. We come here every three to four months. We stay in a tiny, old cabin, made by my great grandmother and grandfather, while they lived out of a motor home. It’s only 400 sq ft, but I love it and I always will.

 Gabriola Island has many memories of mine, such as watching movies on the 10×10 inch screen, playing board games by the fire, and eating the most delicious pie in the world, handmade on the island by Gwen. There are three main beaches: Sandwell, Drumbeg, and Mallaspina Galleries. Sandwell is an enclosed, remote beach. Now I bet you are imagining palm trees, warm water… if you are, stop! This water is freezing, such a thing as a palm tree has never been considered, and I highly recommend bringing sweatshirts. It’s still wonderful to be out on the beach, but think of it as a fun place to sit down and enjoy a snack and get your feet wet. I swim, but most people (and me too, but I swim anyway) would get hypothermia. Be careful! The nature can be wild up here. I remember going there and being surrounded with yellow jackets wanting the meat on my sandwich.

Drumbeg Park

Drumbeg’s water is the same temperature, but that is where the similarities end. Drumbeg has no sand, the whole thing is covered in driftwood, and the reason you go there is to climb on the rocks and huge logs that rolled up in the last storm. Mallaspina is a rocky beach. At Mallaspina Beach, there is a special area called The Galleries that is a passageway with an overhang, hollowed out by wind and waves. There are many starfish, sea anemones, and small crabs. I remember carefully jumping off the overhang into the water the summer between 2nd and 3rd grade.

Malaspina Galleries

Pie for lunch (circa 2013)

Gwen’s Famous Pies

Also on the list of things to do is: taste Gwen’s famous pie, generally eating one pie a day. We visit my Grandma’s property (a piece of land in the forest). We hike Yogi Trail, which is this small trail guarded by Yogi, a stone statue. We visit Silva Bay Yacht Club, walk around the dock, and then check out another small beach to look for crabs under rocks and get your feet wet.

Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal

Traveling to and from Gabriola takes a while. The drive takes two to three hours, though it used to take six to seven when we lived in Portland. Then the ferries take two and a half hours, not counting the possible wait for the next ferry. You also cross the border into Canada on the drive.

All in all, Gabriola Island is a fantastic place to visit. Gabriola Island holds many memories for me. I love going there and am happy to go to Gabriola whenever possible. The area has always been a great place for my family to get away from the stress of work. I hope that it will always be in the family.

The Mississippi river is a enormous river. Its tributaries stretch from Montana to Pennsylvania. Here is a map:

The Mississippi water basin is the third largest in the world and it all drains into the ocean in Louisiana. This is a picture of the gigantic water shed that goes into Canada.

Me in front of the Mississippi River, Vicksburg, MS

The Mississippi is a beautiful river that supports many riverside towns. But there are also dangers.

I’m “flooding” the banks of the river

The Mississippi River… If you’ve ever seen it, you would probably picture it big, serene, and calm. Most people do. But sometimes that beautiful river, the one that covers half the U.S.A., floods. In 1927, the river did just that. The main reason was the rain that started in the summer of 1926. The floods that started on Christmas Day, 1926 went over all the levees and flooded parts of Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee. That flood was the most destructive river flood in the history of the U.S.A. The Mississippi has its dangers, but its advantages often outweigh the problems. The fishing and cheap, easy to get water makes this a prosperous land, and its amazing wildlife makes the land beautiful.

Around the waters, many animals thrive, invasive species as well as native. Fish, algae, deer, beavers, snakes, turtles, snakes, and even bears live contentedly on its banks. The Mississippi also has a rich history. It has had steamers chugging on it, wars fought on its surface, and many a great dam blocking its flow. The earliest people here were the American Indians. They lived here until the first explorers came here in the mid 1500’s . Those explorers were Spanish and they gave Spain control of the southern Mississippi until the French kicked them out. They owned that area until Napoleon sold the Louisiana property. Then the US colonized the area.

Battlefield along the Mississippi River

The Mississippi became an easy way to transport goods, supplies, and people. Then, in the Civil War, the Confederate Army used it to transport supplies. Many Union and Confederate ships fought against each other on this river and against forts along the Mississippi’s banks. The Mississippi was in the middle of the Confederate states and, once it was conquered, the Union army, which was led by Ulysses Grant, had an irreplaceable advantage that helped them win the war.

Ulysses Grant

The Mississippi River basin is a giant watershed that covers half the US. Many people use it in their daily lives for work, for fun, and even for transportation. The Mississippi is a beautiful river that has run for generations and has helped humankind since the time of Native Americans. We must care for it, or it may not be there for the generations to come. We can keep garbage out, reduce water pollution, and take care of the animals on its banks.

And the best part of the Mississippi…. the mud pie!

La Rocca, Senigallia

First we drove to the castle of La Rocca, where we met my tall cousin twice-or-thrice-removed, Fabio. We walked under an arch with Fabio to the inside of the castle. All of us got an audio guide to share and then traveled around the fortress. We stood on top of the towers and circled around the balcony. The towers are high and majestic. It was built as a duke’s fortress, controlled by Urbino. The castle has prison caves, rooms with gorgeous views for the duke, and an area for the militia to assemble.

Then my dad and I went to lunch after saying goodbye to our cousin.

For lunch, we enjoyed delicious pasta at another cousin’s house.We saw all our cousins one more time, than got on the road. In the middle of the 4-hour drive, we stopped for a break in San Marino, which was beautiful!

San Marino is a tiny, independent country on the north border of Marche. San Marino (city), San Marino (country) is a city on top of a mountain, with many very old towers and castles. We looked at the majestic view from on top of the mountain and had some chocolate chip, white chocolate, and cream gelato, before driving the rest of the way to Milan, where we would spend the night and then get on the plane to Portland.

We got the most out of our last day in Italy. If we hadn’t, I would have felt that I missed something. As it is, my dad and I had a fabulous last day. We even were able to add country #25 to our list

Napoleon Bonaparte was a fascinating ruler and military strategist. He was born in 1769. He lived until 1821, where he died in exile on an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Napoleon’s Rise to Power

The French Revolution had finished. It had been a long and bloody battle, with many deaths. In 1794, the directors came to power. Many royalists and Louis the XVI were executed by “humane ways,” (namely with the head-chopping machine called the guillotine) and then the republic was formed.  There were five directors in the counsel.

In 1795, people started getting frustrated. Their director counsel had not changed the fact that people were still going hungry and the wealth of France had not increased. That had been the original reason for becoming a republic and executing the king. Many people even thought that with a king and queen, they had had more money! As a result, many people became royalists, and the royalists attacked the government building and it even looked seriously problematic for the directors, because the royalists had better numbers. Luckily for the directors, they had a young, very ambitious artillery captain on their side, a man named Napoleon who would change the course of history.

Napoleon Bonaparte had witnessed the siege of the Tuileries (when the revolutionaries stormed the government and imprisoned Louis the XVI), and he reflected that if the royalists had possessed better artillery, they would have won. So, he prepared the grapeshot cannons. A grapeshot cannon is a cannon where they fill the barrel with pellets that are clustered together so they resemble a bundle of grapes. You can imagine these allowed him to mow down the enemy with ease.

The directors saw the obvious ambition he had, and so sent him far from the seats of power. They gave him the rank of Commander-in-Chief of the Austrian-occupied Italian front, where they were at war with Austria. France wanted to help people in other countries overthrow monarchies. The resisters in the First Coalition were Prussia, Austria, and Great Britain. Great Britain attacked the North-west front on the ocean and the Prussians and Austrians attacked eastern France. In 1796, he was hugely successful in the Italian campaign, and he made much ground. Later, Austria saw the damage and made a very temporary peace with France in late 1797, ending the First Coalition.

In 1798, Napoleon went to Egypt, and took over the country. Some people think that he went to Egypt to eventually capture British India. Others think that he might just have wanted to take over Egypt because it was a formerly great empire. Either way, he was again very triumphant. But there was a little problem. The 20,000 troop army had gone to Egypt, obviously by ship. After they landed, the British trapped them in with their dominant navy force, led by Horatio Nelson, because they were at war with the French. He sank all their ships in the battle of the Nile and stranded the Napoleon and his army in Egypt. So, in 1799, Napoleon wreaked havoc in Damascus and Syria. But they were still trapped in the Middle-East. Napoleon, as ambitious as he was, wanted to get back to France. So later, Napoleon abandoned all his 20,000 troops at the hands of the Ottoman Empire and snuck back to France.

When he arrived back in France, he saw that the directory has grown even more unpopular because the people were still poor. So three of the directors schemed with him to seize more power, as he was hugely popular. They resigned and encouraged the legislature to go to an estate west of Paris where they would be protected by Napoleon. When they arrived, Napoleon made a long speech about them not doing enough to help the people, the state, the army, etc. They didn’t like that, so they just jostled him out of the room. After he has been kicked out, his brother told him how those legislators were becoming violent and Napoleon needed to go in the building and take order. So Napoleon’s guards went in and dissolved the legislature. That allowed two of the plotting directors and him to seize power and become the “Three Consuls of France.” Soon after, Napoleon was able to scheme his way into being called the “First Consul.” That really marked the beginning of Napoleon’s rule.

Napoleon’s Rule

The Second Coalition started in 1798, and the main opposing forces were Austria, Russia, and Great Britain. Napoleon fought against this coalition by attacking Austria-controlled Italy, and was again successful. The Austrians and Napoleon established another treaty in 1801. The next year, he designed a treaty with Britain. Later that year, newspapers proclaimed Napoleon “First Counsel for Life.” In Haiti, France’s most profitable slave center, the slaves revolted, and the slaves were later freed. That lost France a lot of much needed money.

In the beginning of 1803, Napoleon realized that Great Britain controlled the seas and he gave up on controlling any of North America. As a result, he remembered that France owned Louisiana and thought, “If I don’t sell Louisiana, either Great Britain or the United States will take it from me. And, if I sell it, I will get the much needed money.” So he sold it. 

Fast Fact: Napoleon declared himself emperor in 1804. The big difference between First Consul and Emperor is that it assumes his descendants will also have the title of Emperor.

In 1803, Britain started forming a coalition and by 1805, Austria, and Russia joined. Then the British navy, led by Horatio Nelson, went to where the French navy was, off the coast of Trafalgar, a cape in Spain. There they destroyed the French navy, the only navy that could compete with them on any level. This firmly gave the British (and every other country) the knowledge that the British navy ruled the seas.

We visited Trafalgar Square in London. In the center of the square is Horatio Nelson’s column.

The next big turning point was when Napoleon’s army destroyed the Austrians at Ulm. They did this by distracting them with the appearance of a major army coming from one way and then going around to attack them from behind with the Wheeling maneuver. Then later the Russian forces and the Austrians regrouped and met the French again in Austerlitz. They were able to massacre the Austrians’ and Russians’ forces once again. After that, France emerged dominant and gained much territory from the Austrians.

We also visited the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which was commissioned by Napoleon to celebrate his victory at Austerlitz.

In 1806, the king of Prussia got paranoid about Napoleon attacking and waged war. Later, Great Britain and Russia also joined to make the Fourth Coalition. Soon after the war started, Prussia got trounced at Jena and Auersted, two cities in what is now Germany. The Russian forces then arrived and were chased through what is now Poland. Then in Eylau there was a bloody, long stalemate with Russia in 1807. France won the battle, but barely. Napoleon decisively met them again at Friedland and finished the Fourth Coalition. A month later, France signed the treaties of Tilsit. He signed an impolite, I’m-more-powerful-than-you treaty with Prussia and a polite treaty with Russia, saying we are allies. The Prussia treaty also declared that half of Prussia would become France’s satellite countries and made his brother king of one half and his other brother king of the other half.

He also realized that he had a good amount of Europe under his control, and so he established the Continental System, which said pretty much, “If you are France, my ally, or my satellite country, you will stop trading with Britain, and then Britain will have a problem.” The Russian treaty said “Russia will enter the Continental System, in exchange for being able to do whatever it wants with the Ottoman Empire.” Before this, Napoleon had promised he would defend the Ottoman Empire if Russia attacked them. That made the Russians accept the treaty.

Napoleon’s Fall

After all this, Napoleon was feeling pretty good about himself. After all, he had conquered most of Europe. But he realized that Portugal still did a lot of trading with Great Britain. So he said to the king of Spain, “If we team up, we can defeat Portugal.” The Spanish king thought, “Well, if we destroy Portugal, I will get all its territory in other lands as well as completing the peninsula.”  So he accepted and France poured troops into Spain. Soon they were all over and they had the excuse of being in Spain to destroy Portugal. They did destroy Portugal in late 1807, but after, in 1808, they kicked out the king of Spain and Napoleon’s other brother took over. Napoleon headed back to Paris, certain of his brother’s control.

Fast Fact: Remember, before this, Spain and Portugal have all that other territory in South America. While they are engaged with Napoleon, many of those Latin American countries think, “Why do we have to listen to them? We don’t even know who is in charge there.” This was a big reason for the eventual revolt of those countries.

The Spanish naturally didn’t like that, and they realized that if they attacked with a full-on battle, they would lose. In 1808, they tried the tactic called guerilla warfare, where little groups attack the soldiers when they don’t expect it, then run away before they can retaliate. This weakened the French so much that they had to retreat, and Napoleon thought, “If you want something done well, do it yourself.” And so he went down to Spain at the end of 1808 and temporarily stopped it. The Spanish kept fighting though, and continued to weaken the French troops. This kept draining his supplies slowly but surely.

Before Napoleon came down to Spain, another uprising occurred in Portugal, which the British saw as their chance to push France out. So Sir Arthur Wellesley and his fleet traveled to Portugal to challenge France’s control. This was another reason for Napoleon to come back down to the Iberian Peninsula (the peninsula that Spain and Portugal are on).

Napoleon also saw that the Papal States were not participating in the Continental System. So he went down into Italy and overpowered the Papal States, which became a part of France. Pope Pius VII, the pope in charge in the Papal States, excommunicated Napoleon, and so the pope was abducted by the French. It’s not certain that Napoleon ever gave the order to abduct him, but he never ordered his release, either, so it must have been okay with him. The Fifth Coalition, which included Austria and Great Britain, started in 1809 and ended pretty quickly. By the end, Austria had to give up a quarter of its land to one of his brother’s kingdoms. As you can imagine, that just made Austria all the madder.

In 1811, Russia started to relax the Continental System, which infuriated Napoleon, because he thought he was being nice to them. After all, they lost in the Fourth Coalition and he allowed them to attack the Ottoman Empire in exchange for entering the Continental System. The next year, Napoleon heard that Russia was considering invading the Duchy of Warsaw. Napoleon got very mad when he heard about this. He then decided that they weren’t friends anymore and invaded Russia in April of 1812. Here is a chart of his invasion. This is one of the most famous charts in the world and many people think it’s the best. It was made Charles Joseph Minard.

This is one of the most famous graphs every made.

See how thick it is at the beginning? The thickness of the line signifies the amount of troops they had. At the beginning, Napoleon had 422,000 men. The chart’s curves and rivers were the turns and rivers they had to cross. The bottom chart is the temperatures during the retreat. It’s on the Reaumur scale, but if multiplied by 1.25 you get Fahrenheit. The shrinking of the line occurred as they traveled into enemy territory, because Napoleon had to leave soldiers behind to guard the supply routes and some were lost in skirmishes. The only minor battle was at Smolensk. The French won, but it was not a decisive battle. The Russians only retreated and the French continued to move toward Moscow. It was getting into fall now, and it was getting cold. But you might think that there were grain and starches for the advancing army to plunder along the way. The Russians noticed the disadvantage they had, and so they burned the fields as they retreated towards Moscow. Then, in 1812, the French finally engaged the Russians at Borodino, a city right outside of Moscow. At that point, Napoleon had 135,000 troops. They engaged the Russian army in a super bloody battle. The battle ended with the estimated casualties numbering 44,000 on the Russian side and 35,000 on the French side. The French won barely, and progressed to Moscow. Napoleon was expecting that they would just hand over the title of emperor to him and then his troops would eat all the food that should be available. So a week later Napoleon walked into Moscow and found it deserted, empty of food, and soon it began to burn! Napoleon recognized defeat and retreated away from Moscow, worried about the coming winter.

He walked away from Moscow with 100,000 troops, and if you go back up to the chart, you can see that at the end of the retreat, he only had 10,000 of those troops. Here are some pictures of his retreat:

Napoleon at the end lost 300,000 men, 200,000 horses, and thousands of cannons, and the other countries smelled blood. So Britain, Prussia, Austria, Russia, Sweden, Spain, and Portugal teamed up in the Sixth Coalition, to try and defeat him once and for all. After all, he controlled a whole lot of Europe. This is a map of Europe when the French empire was at its greatest extent.

Napoleon’s European Empire

This is a map of Europe nowadays.

So when the Sixth Coalition started, Napoleon quickly raised 400,000 troops, which is a number that might be able to withstand another coalition. But this coalition was much stronger than the previous ones. The opposing forces were 1,000,000 men strong. Although he was outnumbered, Napoleon won many of the first battles in 1813. So the opposing forces issued the Trachenberg plan, which basically said how their military should try not to engage Napoleon’s army. They did that because Napoleon was a very smart strategist and if they fought the other generals, they would more likely win. And then, in autumn of 1813, Napoleon lost his first very influential battle, and he had to give up control of the Confederation of the Rhine. He then went back to France as the opposing forces started to attack the French Empire itself. Meanwhile, when all this went on, Arthur Wellesley, the British leader of the rebel Spanish and Portuguese forces, had succeeded in pushing the French army out of Spain and now was continuing to push into France. But Napoleon, as a last line of defense, engaged the allied military in North-East France, starting the Six Day Campaign in early 1814. He was able to keep his line for four battles, but at some point his forces just got overwhelmed by the 2:1 ratio against them. In March, 1814, the coalition marched into Paris. But Napoleon didn’t want to give up, and so he said to his generals, “Let’s go retake Paris!” Fortunately his generals had given up and they and the soldiers refused to follow him, because if they had, more people would have died and the result would still be the same. In April of 1814, Napoleon was forced to resign. He was moved to the island of Elba, a little tropical island off the coast of Italy. He was even given control of the island, because all the royalty at that time were afraid to punish him too severely, in case that punishment came rolling around to them. So then Louis the XVIII, the brother of the executed king, was restored to the crown. Louis the XVII never got a chance to become king because he died in prison when he was just a boy.

Napoleon Statue, Paris

Ten months later, Napoleon was able to come back to the southern shores of France. He came back because he thought he was in danger from assassination, he wanted to be back with his family, and he wanted to rule France again. The French authorities figured out that he had returned and notified the king, who sent an army to go and kill him. When Napoleon saw the army, he walked up to them, completely weaponless, and said, “Go ahead. Shoot your emperor.” And soon, they placed him in charge of their army and he took control. They did that because everyone in France still really considered him their emperor. He stated the golden age of France and he was greatly respected for that. Then he and his army started walking to Paris. When Louis the XVIII, the brave man that he was, found out about this, he ran away. By the beginning of spring, 1815, Napoleon was back on the throne. Before that, the rest of Europe got word of his return and decided to attack. But Napoleon, knowing that they needed time to reorganize, attacked before they could. He assaulted the combined forces of Prussia and Great Britain in what is nowadays Belgium. There he encountered many battles; the biggest was the battle of Waterloo.

The Battle of Waterloo

Part of a panoramic painting of the battle

On the Lion’s Mound, looking over the field where the battle of Waterloo took place in Belgium. 300,000 men and 7 countries fought in this battle.

After that, Napoleon noticed that if he didn’t surrender, the Prussians might do something really nasty to him. And so he surrendered himself to the British and was exiled to the island of St. Helena, which is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Napoleon’s reign was ended for good. Six years later, he died from stomach cancer.

Napoleon was a fascinating military genius, and he is still a popular figure today. His influence can still be seen in France, Elba Island, and his conquered territory. He will not be forgotten for a long time yet.

Napoleon’s Tomb in Paris.

Japan, Sept. 2013

Our trip is coming to an end. I am excited, but sad, knowing that we will soon be leaving our trip and settling down. I know that from now on my life will always be different because my view of the world has forever changed. My mom and my brother will be heading home early, because my brother is going to school and should not be jetlagged and without school supplies. My future after getting home will be flexible. After ten months back in the states, I have no idea what will happen next, though I know what I am hoping for.

My mom and Elio will head home on the 20th of August. My dad and I will stay in Italy until the 7th of September. We will drive my mom and Elio from our rented house in Osimo to the Milano airport. There they will go to Amsterdam, then Portland, and after staying in Portland for a week, they will go to Seattle. We will come back down to Senigallia, the city with many of our Italian cousins until the 7th. We will then go the same plane route. In Portland, we will drive to Seattle that day. Then my dad and I will get settled, recover from jetlag, and transition from roadschooling to homeschooling.

We are moving to Seattle because it’s better for my mom and dad’s work. In Seattle, Elio will go to school. I will continue to be homeschooled. Though we don’t know exactly what my homeschooling schedule will be yet, this is what I hope it will be similar to:

Of course, being homeschooled means I can have a flexible schedule so this will change if necessary. My dad has found a swimming team for me. I will be studying a lot of math and hopefully a good amount of science.

After living in Seattle, I hope we will move back to Portland, buy a house, and settle down. Hopefully we will continue homeschooling until college. In the next few years, I would like to continue to travel, but I don’t think I’d like to be gone for more than three months at a time. It would be fantastic to tour South America and travel around the states. I want to see highlights like the Grand Canyon, Washington D.C., and New York.

Cambodia Oct. 2013

In so many ways, I now know much more about the world’s poverty, history, religion, and culture. This has helped me learn that the world is not just a place to live, it is a place where cultures develop and flourish.

HoiAn, Vietnam October 2013

Elephant Nature Camp (where we volunteered) with friends from Melbourne

Lantern Festival, Thailand Nov. 2013

Ziplining past gibbons, Thailand, Nov. 2013

My view of the world has expanded so much this year, and I am very glad we embarked on this traveling adventure. Now, I am ready to settle down, work hard on homeschooling, and visit family and friends, though. I am very excited to see how my life will change after this trip, because it’s bound to change in ways I cannot guess.

It has been a fun and busy year.

Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur with new friends from Texas, Feb. 2014

Learning to surf in Bali, March 2014

Petting kangaroos with new friends in Australia (whom we met in Laos), March 2014

On the beach in Australia, March 2014

Exploring mines in Australia, March 2014

On Safari, South Africa, April 2014

Exploring Prague with new friends from Vancouver, B.C.

Visiting my great great aunt in Dresden, Germany July 2014

It is going to be hard to say goodbye to my Italian cousins!

Italian food… The word conjures up images of perfect pizzas, super soups, preposterously tasty pastas, brilliant breads, and great gelato. Italian food is mouth-wateringly delicious. Crazy fact: Italy went without tomatoes until the Americas were discovered. Then the tomatoes and seeds were exported to Europe. Imagine Italy without tomatoes!

Breakfast:

Normal breakfast: Croissant and coffee at a bar.

Lunch or dinner:

Appetizer:

Prosciutto and melon: Italian ham on melon.

Olivi ascolante (breaded olives): Delicious appetizer. They can be either green or black.

First course:

Pasta: Cooked wheat or egg and wheat noodles with scrumptious sauce of your choice on top, with Parmesan cheese on top. Warning: Putting Parmesan on seafood pasta is strictly forbidden in Italy, and if you don’t want to silently yell “I’m a tourist” than avoided doing that.

Pizza: Flat baked dough with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and toppings of your choice.

Pane (bread): Deliciously crunchy hard bread, with a completely different shape and texture than American bread. Generally baked with very few ingredients, sometimes only flour, yeast, and water. Personally, I prefer Italian over American bread.

Zuppe (soup)

Insalata (salad)

Roasted eggplant

Second course:

Meat: Beef is the most popular meat in Italy, followed by chicken, then pork, wild boar, and rabbit.

In Marche, where we are now, they eat a lot of pesce (fish)

Sea food plate – Sea snails anyone?

Dessert:

Gelato (ice cream): A creamy, smooth ice cream. Not really meant for a cone, as it melts easily and is prone to fall off.

Torta (cake)

Frutta (fruit)

Drinks:

Caffé (Coffee): Italian coffee brands such as Illy, Segafredo, and Lavazza rule the market here. Italians know good coffee.

Fanta: You know the fanta in the U.S.? I personally think it’s way too sweet. Here they make fanta with sparkling water and sweetened orange juice. In the rest of world they make it with artificial orange flavoring.

Acqua frizzante (Sparkling water): In Italy many people drink sparkling water, more than people do in the U.S.

    Italian food is delicious and it’s my favorite cuisine. It’s healthy, flavorful, and rich. I strongly advise you to try it. I would be amazed if you didn’t like it.

Hello from western Switzerland! We went to the dazzling Gruyere Castle yesterday. First, we drove up to the castle with our Swiss friends. The regal old landmark was on a very big hill surrounded with pastures of grazing cows. Gruyere is famous for its cheese and the sound of the cowbells that are around every cow’s neck. As we parked our car and walked up, we got a beautiful view of all the farmland and hills around us.

Then we hiked into the medieval village of Gruyere. The cobblestone village has a little hotel and a restaurant or two. The town now makes all of its money from tourism. We continued through the main square (and only square) and bought the tickets for the castle. The intro video would happen in 10 minutes, so we enjoyed the view as we waited. We saw lots of mountains and quite a few small towns. A lot of the mountains were covered in fog.

Then we went into the castle and watched the video. We learned all about the history of Gruyere. For instance, we learned that women, seeing the approaching army, brought their goats into the castle. One of them had the bright idea of tying torches to the goat’s horns, lighting them, then making them run towards the enemy. The enemy, seeing the huge amount of torches approaching, thought a giant army was approaching and ran. That was one of the great victories of Gruyere. After the video finished, we strolled into the castle. We saw bedrooms, lookout rooms, and beautiful tapestries and paintings. Then we went walking around the rampart. We spotted the gardens and walked through them. The gardens were full of hedges, flowers, and fountains.

Gruyere Gardens

On the castle’s rampart

Gruyere cheese fondue

After that, we went to the little village to eat a late lunch. I had Macaroni and Gruyere cheese with some ham. It was a delicious, yet rich and filling, meal. We tried some tasty cheese fondue as well. After that, I had a great meringue and cream dessert that was famous around there. Somehow I got an extra dessert that Elio and I split. Then we headed back to the car, content with our visit.

Fresh meringue with thick cream for dipping.

Raspberries and fresh cream

The fresh and tangy cheese was wonderful, and I thought about how much you both would enjoy it if you were here. And Gruyere castle is a very interesting castle to learn about.

Love,

Lorenzo

One morning, Dr. Spaghetti woke up refreshed and ready to investigate a cure. Yesterday afternoon a mysterious phone call had sent him chasing a particularly mysterious disease. The disease was discovered after a very interesting meteorite hit earth in Australia. The meteorite was very interesting because it had a new element in it, called gelatonium. The disease was a little stubborn and would not be cured very easily. It was very dangerous though, and it was in Australia and quickly appearing in south-east Asia. He got up and looked around his clean room, picked out some clothes and had a delicious breakfast. He had breakfast with his wife, Mrs. Penne and his friends, Mr. Tagliatelle and Mrs. Ravoli. They were visiting from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They had come to visit originally, but they were still happy to be away from the now fast-spreading disease. At the breakfast table, Mr. Taliatelle “I’m worried about this disease.” Mrs. Penne said “No need to worry. Dr. Spaghetti will find a cure soon.” Dr. Spaghetti finished eating and went into the garage.  He stood on his new Segway, admiring it. He zoomed around the garage and headed out the door.

As he cruised to work, he looked at the beautiful sights of Lake Oswego. He saw the deep, blue lake, Tryon Creek, and the Willamette. When he arrived at work, he plugged in his Segway, and entered the glass elevator that would take him down into the ground, to his underground lab.

In the high-tech lab, he pulled up a chair to the microscope with the bacteria. He continued to attempt cures. He tried a pasta sauce puree with a little 50-year-old parmesan… nothing. Essence of pasta with 25-year-old parmesan…nothing. Tablespoon of Tylenol with a clove of garlic… YES…but no, not the tablespoon of Tylenol. The clove of garlic and a leaf of basil… no. The clove of garlic and the juice of a tomato… YES! The bacteria had withered up and died. He zoomed up the elevator and jumped on the Segway.

Soon he hopped off again at his house. He ran in the door to the living room where his friends were gathered and cried, “I found a cure! We have to go immediately to KL and then Sydney. They both have medical centers that can spread the cure all around.” They all jumped in the car and headed out the door. They stopped at the airport and jumped on the small, emergency plane to KL.

The flight was bumpy. Everyone else had fallen asleep, but Dr. Spaghetti just couldn’t. He thought about how many lives this cure would save. Over the radio, the pilot said, “We shall soon be flying over land again. We will fly over North Vietnam, then 10 minutes over Laos, then a half an hour of Thailand. Then a hour of ocean and then we land in KL. Only 2 more hours!”

They continued to fly along. The pilot announced, “We have now passed all of Laos, now we will start to see the Thai Jungle.” Soon there was a small lurch, then the pilot said, “Coming up is a little turbulence, so please, fasten your seat belt.” Almost the exact moment the sound of the click hit their ears, the nose of the plane started to angle downward. Down, down, down, down… the nose was aiming down at least 80 degrees and still going!

Dr. Spaghetti yelled over the rush of the wind, “We are in a hurry… please stop doing tricks!

The pilot, Mr. Pennette, yelled, “I didn’t do that!’

“Wait, the plane is falling?” Mr. Spaghetti said, half surprised and half terrified.

“No reason to worry, I do skydiving as well,” said Mr. Pennette. “I have some parachutes in the back.”

“IN THE BACK!”

“Climb the empty seats like a ladder. It should be easy enough.”

“Why aren’t we flat right now?”

“No time for questions. GO!”

He took off his seat belt and jumped onto the seat opposite. He thought he felt a good deal lighter than normal. He climbed up on the back of the grey, cushy seats like a ladder. Mr. Tagliatelle screamed “I’ll catch you if you fall.” Mrs. Penne exclaimed in fright “Go quickly!” One seat that he had his foot on was wiggling, and he wasn’t sure why he wasn’t squashed by the ground by now. As he climbed, Mr. Pennette said, “Those seats aren’t meant to endure such strain. Go quick, before the seats fall or the plane crashes.”

Dr. Spaghetti said, “I’m on it!” before returning to the task at hand with double the vigor. The seat he had just moved his foot on wiggled loose and the seat fell to the front of the plane. He swung his foot on another seat and was able to push off that one. Behind him, all his friends had woken up and were dodging falling luggage. He continued climbing and gripped the door handle to the back part of the plane. Just then, the seat that his other hand gripped jerked and fell, leaving him dangling to an open door handle. He swung his arm and caught another seat. He turned his body and the handle, pulled it open, and was engulfed in a heap of parachutes.

He fell down with them. The rest of the group got closer …but he was going to hit his head on a metal bar… Then suddenly, everything went black.