Rhythmic gymnastics and other random things

Hi again! Ariel didn't want to post anything right now, so I'll update you on what we've done. :) So, a few days ago, we went to our last Olympic event. We saw rhythmic gymnastics! 

It was definitely my favorite event to watch! The individual gymnasts preformed with either a ribbon or clubs (for juggling). 

It was really fun to watch, but after the 1st hour, all of the 'acts' pretty much looked the same. 

The entire event lasted 4 hours!!! It got pretty hot and stuffy in that building! (Is stuffy even a word???)

America didn't do very well (and Great Britain got last place). It wasn't a medal round, meaning that they were just competing to qualify for the final round and no medals were given. The top 8 got to go to the final round. I'm not sure which countries made it to the finals, but I know it did NOT include USA, Great Britain, or Canada.

The 2nd half of the event were group performances. I found those a lot more interesting to watch!!!

Oh! And for those of you who were wondering, USA didn't win this either!

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I thought I would do another 'batch' of leftover pictures from various parts of our trip!

We saw this sign outside of a pub! It said, "Showing Here... That Sporting Event 

we aren't supposed to mention!!!" I guess that you can't advertise the olympics without permission! My mom found it really funny!

We went to Stonehenge!

This was the only real 'Modern Art' that we saw at the tate modern museum ;)

We saw Matilda the musical a few days ago. It was not my favorite! I couldn't understand what the kids were saying half the time and the special effects weren't all that special! I wouldn't really recommend this show, but it could just be me! I think Ariel liked it!

Mind the Gap!!! They say this everywhere here! "Please, mind the gap between the train and the platform..." Make sure to read this in a British accent!!

Tomorrow we are going to China for a week, and then to Taiwan for a week! It should be a pretty interesting week! I am not really sure what our internet will be like because I heard that china like, limits your access or something.... I hope this week will go by quickly!!!! I really want school to start! Yes, you heard me right. I think we are having a little too much family time. Anyways, I really need to go to sleep now. We are catching an early flight tomorrow! Wish me luck! -- Laurel :|

Olympic Soccer and Beach Volleyball

Hi it's Laurel again. We have had so many people tell us how much they enjoyed Ariel's last post, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to top that! ;) I'll tell her to post more soon though.

The day after we came back from France, we went to a Beach Volleyball game (part of the olympics.

We saw both men and women play. The men's teams were Latvia vs. Norway and women's teams were Holland vs. Brazil. Latvia won this match!

The women's game was very very close, but Brazil ended up winning.

This was a lot different from the gymnastics because it was outside, so it was super hot!!! It was still fun though.

The other event that we went to was Soccer (or 'football' as they call it here :) The teams that played were Japan and France.

Our seats were pretty high up!!! We had a really good view though.

And here we have my only problem with the game.... This guy decided to wear a super tall hat and sits directly in front of me!!!! Seriously?!?! Sweden wasn't even playing that day!!!!

Eventually, it bugged me too much so I made Ariel tell him to take it off........

....... Which he did, for about 10 minutes! Then he decided to be a genius (not) and push it down an inch! Thank you. That helps sooooo much.... :P

Japan ended up winning, but the game was so close! There were so many times in the game when France could have tied them 2-2. Like when France had a penalty kick and missed the goal by like, 5 feet! After the game ended we had to wait in a huge crowd to get on the train to go home! There were sooo many people there!

That's all for now! Keep watching the olympics! Go America! Thanks for reading! -- Laurel :)

P.S. Stay cool! I heard it's like 100 degrees in America! I hope you all survive the heat!

Tate Museum

Today we went to the Tate Modern Museum, and it was just as boring as all the other museums. The only thing that made this one different from all the others was the really weird paintings. The whole art gallery had things that were seen every day yet they became famous! Now I have hope in becoming a famous artist! Here are some pictures of the weird art pieces:

     Scribbles! Can you believe it?
     A two-year-old could have done
    this! I can't believe it became famous!






 


      A block of marble? This art is 
     supposed to be by adults, not toddlers!




















   This person probably just found some
   dirt on his porch and made it art. I 
   guess it isn't that hard to be an artist!


















  This looks like a toy that a dog would
  have played with. Maybe the artist's 
  dog got tired of it.





















  I could barely see this piece. A piece of
  white construction paper cut into a 
  deformed hexagon is what it looks like!

  
  Can you believe that this piece was 
  called "The Snail"? I see NO 
  resemblance to a snail in this!

  The Tate Museum DEFINITELY
  wouldn't be the same without this...
  um... block of wood!






















  For all I know this person spent
  like 2 minutes making this!

















  I don't know if this is just a vent
  or an art piece. Because in this 
  museum it's hard to tell! 

  Even the workers were bored!
  I don't blame them!


















 That's all for now! Thanks for reading!   Ariel :)

France

When we went to Disneyland, we went on "It's A Small World" and when we got to the US, the way France thought of us was Hollywood, cheerleaders, wild westerns, cowboys, and palm trees. There is a LOT more to us than THAT!

Our hotel in France was very nice and right next to it was a duck pond, but there weren't just ducks in the pond, there were also beavers! 

We went to see Olympic Cycling, because it was going right by our house, and we waited about 15 minutes just to see super fast bicycles speed past our faces. The whole thing took about 10 seconds.

We went to Kew Gardens and we saw a bunch of cool plants and flowers and trees. We saw one tree that was cut open in the middle to show its detail.

Aside from all the other cool things at Kew Gardens, we saw a beautiful peacock!

That's all for now! Ariel:)

Disneyland Paris

Two days ago we went on a trip to Paris. We took like, 6 trains to get there, one of which was the chunnel. The chunnel is an underwater train in france. My grandma found this really exciting that we got to go on it, but honestly, I was asleep for most of that train ride. Sorry grandma! Anyways, we got to visit the disneyland in Europe!!! It was really similar to the one in California, but it was still fun! Here are some pictures....








Disneyland Paris!!! -->

We spent a lot of time here at the entrance, while we waited for my dad to come back with the tickets. We accidentally left them at the hotel room. Oopsies ;)

The disney castle!!! -->

Me with rex! 

Do they have a toystory section at Disneyland? If there is, I don't remember one!

Hollywood tower of terror! Looks identical to the one in California adventure. The only difference is, the video is all in French! 


This was in the walt disney studios park. I guess that's like California adventure for them. We had a park hopper so we went to both parks.





Space Mountain. My advice to anyone who ever comes to Disney Paris: Don't go on this ride. It was probably the worst ride in the history of rides. Seriously. It starts off like the one in CA, but then it rushes you into a corkscrew (double or triple loopdeeloop) and then jerks you back and forth. I swear my head hurt for like an hour after that ride. :(



 




20th anniversary of Disney Paris!
















It was a really fun day! I think I like the disneyland in CA better though. It seems more friendly there. Here, they didn't all speak English and there weren't a ton of staff. Overall, it was really fun!!! I would definitely go back!!! Today we took the same 6 trains back home. Tomorrow we are going to the olympics! I'll keep posting! Thanks for reading! -- Laurel :)