The Big Field Trip

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The flowery smell of incense floats in the air, mixing with clouds of smoke from burning trash. Dogs yelp as car horns honk. A two year old child with no shirt runs into the traffic to beg from tourists. The streets of India are different from the streets of the USA. They sometimes scare me. They can make me sad. They can be beautiful. They can also be ugly. The streets of India overwhelm my senses.

From The Big Field Trip – India, December, 2009

When I walk down the streets of India, I see a lot of roadside businesses. On the sidewalks next to traffic-filled streets people are pressing sarees with big irons full of charcoal, and others are sewing mattresses. People sell interesting things: papaya and carrots from wooden push-carts, incense that smells like roses, cotton socks, buffalo leather journals with hand-made flower paper, and sparkling, polished jewelry. Old men make and fix shoes; sheets of brown leather and black gooey shoe polish lay in front of them on blankets. A man in a white shirt sits on a chair while the barber cuts his hair with shiny scissors that reflect the sun. Black hair falls to the pavement.

From The Big Field Trip – India, December, 2009

In India, animals share the streets with people. Men in turbans kick smelly dogs, buffalos wander the streets with their calves, women in sarees feed leftover lentils and rice to street dogs, and carrots and chapatti to the holy cows. Elephants with gray, wrinkly skin take their time walking down the streets, camels pull carts full of cow dung, holy cows roam the streets, peddlers whack the holy cows to get away from their fruit stand, and dogs steal food. I’ve only seen 3 pet dogs the entire time I have been in India (2½ months). The rest of the dogs are stray. A toddler throws a stone at a dog. The dog barks and the child runs away.

From The Big Field Trip – India, December, 2009

People in India wear colorful clothes and shiny jewelry, bindis, sarees, anklets, and bangles. Men wear turbans, or Muslim prayer caps. Sarees are decorative cloth that married women wrap around themselves. My mom bought a beautiful rusty-red saree. Last night was the first time she has ever worn it. She hired a tailor to sew a petticoat and blouse to wear under it. Women wear beautiful sarees even when they are shaping cow dung or spreading tar on the streets. Women also put red paint where their hair parts to show they are married. They also wear bindis, a dot of red or pink or a dot of jewelry, on their forehead. In the countryside, many women wear huge nose rings attached to their earring by a golden chain. Some men wear turbans. Turbans are long strips of cloth that men wind around their heads. Some are 9 meters long – that’s about 30 feet! Our driver, Bupinder Sing, wore a brown turban one day, a purple turban the next day, and a pink turban the day after that. When I walk down the streets of India, it reminds me of walking through a butterfly garden with splashes of color all around.

From The Big Field Trip – India, December, 2009

There are lots of dirty and smelly things on the streets of India; you’ve got to watch out where you step. There are a lot of trash-covered streets with dogs, cows, and beggars eating out of the trash or looking for something valuable. People throw their litter on the street. Shop owners are always sweeping in front of their shops with brooms made of dried grass that look like dog tails. The trash sometimes gets picked up, but is often swept into a pile and burned, even the plastic. The smell makes me feel sick. There are also a lot of open sewers full of milky-white water. Once I stepped in the sewer, and I had to take a shower. I had to shower my shoes too. There is cow dung everywhere on the streets. It’s good for many Indian people because they pick it up off the streets, shape it into discs, dry it, and burn it with firewood in a small oven for cooking. It’s bad for me because I step in it so often, even though Indian people say that it is good luck.

From The Big Field Trip – India, January, 2010

Most of the streets are full of traffic. The engines roar and horns beep. Gray smoke comes out of tailpipes. People cover their faces with shirts, sarees, or handkerchiefs. In India there are a lot of auto rickshaws. They are called took-tooks because they make the sound “took-took”. Took-tooks have three wheels. The larger public took-tooks can seat seven passengers comfortably, or twenty-two with people shoved in, sitting on laps, sitting on the floor, and hanging off the sides. On the city busses I have seen people sitting with the luggage on the roof. Took-tooks, busses, cars, and trucks are zooming through the streets, dodging cows. People dodge the vehicles. Watch-out, you may get hit! Vehicles never stop for people – only for cows. If you have to cross a busy street, I suggest that you have an Indian person or a holy cow cross with you.

From The Big Field Trip – India, December, 2009

In India the poorest people are worse off than poor people in the USA, especially the children. Many poor kids have no homes and some are so dirty that they are sick all the time. Poor children don’t grow as tall as healthy children because they don’t eat enough nutritious food. Some also use drugs like alcohol and white-out to make them feel better. This also keeps them from growing tall and healthy. Many kids have to work to earn money for their families. Poor children work in the fields, sweep the streets, look in the garbage for something valuable or food, work in factories, or beg for money. Sometimes the father is drunk so he uses all the money on alcohol. Some poor kids run away from home to escape poverty and make money for themselves.

From The Big Field Trip – India, December, 2009

On the streets of India I see a child with brown dust in his knotty, black hair. He is begging with a short old woman with gray hair, who puts her hand to her toothless mouth repeatedly to show that she needs money for food. A naked girl with wood chips in her hair stands in front of the tent where her family lives. The tent is on the sidewalk of a busy road; it is made of sheets of thick plastic and bamboo sticks. Beside the tent, a man carves a cricket bat to sell to passersby. A cricket field is full of boys playing cricket. A boy hurls a red ball into the dusty ground. The ball bounces. The batter hits the ball with a cricket bat. The boys tell their mothers that they go to school, but they play cricket instead. An old woman prays to an orange god at a shrine on the side of the street. Her hands are together and she is on her knees. She ignores the sounds of the street; her eyes are closed and she doesn’t stir. A small baby at her side sleeps in a torn blanket.

I’ve never been to another place like India. Just walking down any street in India makes my senses feel like they are going to burst. When I walk down the streets of India, I feel like home is half a world away.

Tags:   animals · clothing · India · poverty · streetsNo Comments.

Indian food has always been one of my favorite foods. It has always been a special treat for me. It is very flavorful and spicy. Indian food has many different varieties, North Indian food and South Indian food differ greatly. Indian food is delicious.

Some things in the north and south of India are the same. The main staples in all of India are dal, lentlils, and rice. Indian food has lots of spices. Indian food uses turmeric, cardamom, cumin, ginger, red chili powder, black pepper, coriander, fresh green chilis, cloves, and garlic. Most of Indians are vegetarian, so almost every Indian dish has vegetables. It uses potatoes, cauliflower, chilis, spinach, peas, onions, carrots, squash, tomatoes, eggplant and okra. Pinkie, from our host family, made a really good dish from okra yesterday. It was fried okra seasoned with loads of spices – simple, yet tasty.

From The Big Field Trip – India, December, 2009

In every culture, cuisine is influenced by the traditions of the people and the climate the food is grown in. For example, no Hindus eat beef as cows are sacred. In North India where it is cold and dry, wheat is the main grain. In South India, where it is hot and moist, rice is the main grain. Also, in the South, they use coconut oil to fry their food. In the North, they use mustard oil. When I leave a North Indian restaurant, I feel like I’ll never eat again, because the food is so rich. When I leave a South Indian restaurant, I feel like my mouth is on fire. South Indian food is less rich than in the North, but it’s much more simple. North and South Indian food are very different, even though they are the same country.

From The Big Field Trip – India, December, 2009

I have had a lot more North Indian food than South Indian food because we live in Rajasthan, which is in the north. Gee is very popular in the North. Gee is clarified butter. It is added to Indian food to make it rich. Most Indians in the north eat food with their hands and/or chapatti. Chapati is a simple tortilla like bread, used as a spoon. Some popular North Indians foods are palak paneer (spinach cheese) and aloo gobi (potato cauliflower). Most people in India are vegetarians, but some eat meat. Since Hindus consider cows holy, and there are many Muslims in India, beef and pork is not eaten. Indian meat dishes have either chicken, mutton, or fish in them. My favorite meat dish is tandori chicken, which is baked in a special oven called a tandoor.

Indian food is delicious. From palak paneer to dal, Indian food is rich and spicy. Indian food can differ from north to south, but all of it makes my mouth water. I like Indian food, but I think I’ve had too much. When ever I go to a restaurant, I order fried chicken. I’m tired of rich food.

From The Big Field Trip – India, January, 2010

Chapati recipe (serves 5)

Ingredients:

3 c. Flour

2 t. Salt

2 c. Water

Directions:

1. Mix the flour and the salt in a large flat bottomed mixing bowl.
2. Slowly add the two cups of water to the mix kneading all the time.
3. Break the dough into small balls, about the size of golf balls.
4. With a rolling pin roll the balls one at a time into thin circles about 8 in. in diameter.
5. In a frying brown the chapattis on both sides, then put them over the direct flame until they puff up. Be careful not to burn them.
6. Serve hot with any North Indian dish.

Tags:   Food · India · RecipesNo Comments.

We traveled from Bulgaria to Istanbul on an overnight train. It was fun even though I was feeling like my lungs were going to split any second. I was coming down with the swine flu (so my mom says). When we got to Istanbul, Cy, Cruz, Papa, Mama, and I were sick. We had the flu. I felt bad. I could barely talk. We just stayed inside our apartment and napped. After a few days it was G-O-N-E! We could go out and explore.

From The Big Field Trip – Istanbul, November 2009

Traveling in Istanbul is like a flash. We often went by metro. Mom had a metal pass that she pressed against a slot and took some money out of it. Sometimes she had to re-charge it in a machine that recharges them! The pass also lets us get onto trolleys, trams, funiculars, and ferry boats. We had to take ferry boats a lot because there is a big strait called the Bosporus that splits the Asian side of Istanbul from the European side! A funicular is a cable car that goes up hills in underground tunnels. We used the funicular called Tünel a lot because it was right by our house. It is the second oldest underground train line in the world. The oldest one is the London Underground, which we rode on a lot in London.

From The Big Field Trip – Istanbul, November 2009

Istanbul is like a mosque made of many mosques. When I was there I could hear many people in minarets singing the call to prayer at the same time. There was a minaret right outside our window and the call to prayer woke us up every morning. It sounded like it was right inside our kitchen. There was a call to prayer five times a day. We went to one of the biggest mosques in the world! Outside of the Blue Mosque there was a black kitten. She was cold so she jumped in my lap and started purring. In the Blue Mosque there was a huge red carpet. People with strange caps were paying on it. They were Muslims.

From The Big Field Trip – Istanbul, November 2009

From The Big Field Trip – Istanbul, November 2009

Even though we were only in Istanbul for two weeks, we learned a lot of Turkish. A man whose name is Alper taught us Turkish at our house. He didn’t want us to pay him anything. He just wanted to have the experience of meeting new people. Here is some of the Turkish I remember: Please is “loot-van”, no is “hire”, yes is “evit”, and hello is “merhaba”. Thank you is “to-shake-your-adedom”, goodbye (when you are leaving) is “oyster-column”, and goodbye (when someone else is leaving) is gule-gule.

From The Big Field Trip – Istanbul, November 2009

Of all the places we visited in Istanbul, the Princes’ Islands were the most interesting. We went to the Princes’ Islands on a ferry. We threw bread to seagulls the bread in mid-air with their beaks. There were no cars, trucks, or buses. Instead of taxis there were horse carriages.  We rode bikes all around the border of Büyükada, the biggest of the Princes’ Islands. I saw a crow flying with a piece of pottery in its mouth. There were also a lot of cats: big cats to small cats. On the way back, Cyrus and Papa saw dolphins jumping out of the water. I didn’t get to see them. I was disappointed, but I had a great day. I loved the Princes’ Islands.

Istanbul was fun. There are lots of new things to learn and places to see. I’ve only seen a tiny bit of Istanbul, because I was only there for two weeks. When I grow up I want to go back to visit Istanbul to explore more. I hope to find more surprises. Maybe next time I’ll get to spot some dolphins.

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Rajasthan Tour

India is crazy. There are stray dogs and holy cows (cows are sacred in the Hindu religion) roaming the streets, open sewers and trash everywhere. India is the country with the 2^nd most people, behind China. India’s population is about 1,198,000,000, so there are people everywhere. There isn’t a lot of privacy in India; people take baths on the street. Some people live in tents made from scavanged tarps and bamboo sticks, while others live in manisons. India is smelly, loud, religious, colorful, beat-up, delicious, crammed, friendly, and dirty; it is the wildest country I’ve been to so far.

From The Big Field Trip – India, December, 2009

We took a two week tour of Rajasthan, a state in Western India. We started in Delhi, the capital of India. My family and I loaded up a huge silver van with our many bags. We climbed into the van and met Mr. Singh, our huge Sikh driver, and his assistant. There were 10 seats in the huge van, so with Cruz, Bella, my mom, my dad, my grandparents, and I there were seats to spare. We also met our travel agent’s mother. We where going to drop her off at Agra, our first destination.

From The Big Field Trip – India, December, 2009

We drove over windy roads, dodging holy cows. Cows are everywhere, from laying in the middle of the road to digging in trash dumps. The cows don’t belong to anyone; it is against the Hindu religion to kill cows, so cows that stop producing milk are abandoned to the street. Stray dogs drink from the open sewers on the street. There where animals everywhere. I saw many animals on the road: donkeys, cows, antelope, monkeys, dogs, a cat, birds, etc. People were also on the roads. Kids played cricket, an English game like baseball, on the cracked roads. Poor people dug through the trash dumps, searching for things they can sell and/or eat. Farmers walked down the streets, selling their colorful produce. Tuk-tuks (auto rickshaws) full of people drove by. We hopped from town to town, seeing sites along the way.

From The Big Field Trip – India, December, 2009

Most of the sites were amazing. We saw many forts; I was forted out by the end of the two week trip. About half-way through the trip I didn’t want to see any more forts – it was to much! The most spectacular fort was in Agra, called Agra Fort. It was built by a Mughal emperor. It had a moat, which was a river that was diverted to go around part of the castle, and two extra-thick walls, so if the enemy got over the moat and breached the first wall, they would be stuck between the two walls were elephants, tigers, wild boars, and other wild animals were kept. The wild animals were kept there to fight, entertaining the royal people. The stone carvings and inlayed stones in the Agra fort were astonishing; they were very intricate and flawless.

The Taj Mahal, also in Agra, was something else. It was huge and the 4 big reflecting pools around it made it seem bigger. The Taj Mahal’s 4 minarets almost touched the sky, and it’s the marble glimmered in the sun. The Taj Mahal was amazing, but the carvings weren’t too great. The baby Taj on the other hand, the carvings and inlays were incredible. The baby Taj was almost exactly like the Taj Mahal, but smaller (babyTaj). The carvings and inlays were a lot better in the Baby Taj than the Taj Mahal.

From The Big Field Trip – India, December, 2009

We ate at many restaurants; the varieties of Indian food was staggering, from aloo gobi (potatoes and cauliflower) to palak paneer (spinach and cheese, also known as saag paneer). North Indian food is very rich and spicy. It is usually eaten with rice or chapati, a tortilla-like food that you use as a spoon. The Indian food was delicious, but now I’m sick of Indian food – it’s a little too rich.

From The Big Field Trip – India, December, 2009

When we were in a small town called Mandawa, I met a kid named Krishna. When I first met Krishna, he gave me string for a kite I had just bought, then he ran off. The next day Krishna was at my Hotel, waiting for me. I went to his house and met his extended family. After I finished saying “Namaste” (hello and goodbye in Hindi – Namaste means “I bow to the god within you”) to all his family members, I went on the roof with Krishna. He had loads of kites, and he taught me how to fly them. All the kids in the neighborhood were out flying their kites, practicing for the big kite festival, that was on January 14th (one month from then). Krishna showed me how “cut” other peoples kites. You made your kite-string rub against the other persons string; the person who broke the other persons string won. Krishna was very nice; I really enjoyed flying kites with him.

We went to a Jain temple, it was fabulous. It was made from marble and was two stories high. It had lots of carvings of Jain stories in the temple. There were also many statues of Jain gods and prophets. We went to many temples, but they were mostly Hindu. We ended our trip in Udaipur, the town we’re in now and we will stay in for 2 months. I really enjoyed our tour of West India, it was fun and educational.

Tags:   Ancient Sites · Food · Hinduism · India · Rajasthan1 Comment

In Bulgaria, people hang up Martenitsas, which are red and white bracelets, to celebrate Spring coming. The white on the bracelets represents purity, and the red on the bracelets represents blood and ancestry.  The name “martenitsas” comes from Grandma Marta. In English Grandma Marta means Grandma March. She represents the month of March. People think of her as an old woman. If the day is cold and snowy, they think of her as a grumpy old woman, but if the day is warm and sunny, they think of her as a nice and loving soul.

From The Big Field Trip – Bulgaria, October – November 2009

When Bulgarians make their martenitsas, they make them for their friends and family, never for themselves. In early spring, they make martenitsas in their homes by braiding red and white strands of wool together.  On March 1^st they are given out to friends and family or people they want to meet. The martenitsas can also be bought at stores and markets. If someone gives you a martenitsa, it is like saying, “I wish you health, good luck, happiness, and friendship.”

When you get a martenitsa, you put it on until you see a stork, a swallow, or a blooming tree. Storks, swallows and blooming trees represent spring coming.  Then you tie your martenitsa on a branch of the first blooming tree that you see.  You can also put the martenitsa under a rock, and if a worm comes to it first you get good luck. On the other hand, if a spider comes to it you get bad luck. If an ant comes to it first you’ll get good luck, but you’ll have to work for it.

From The Big Field Trip – Bulgaria, October – November 2009

The first day we arrived in Bulgaria, we saw martenitsas hanging on tree branches. Martenitsas, martenitsas, martenitsas! Some of the trees were full of them! There were dozens on every branch. Until I arrived in Veliko Turnovo I didn’t know the tradition about these red and white bracelets. I learned about them from Georgi, our guide. Georgi makes martenitsas for his friends and family every year at the end of winter. A lot of friends give him bracelets; sometimes he gets so many that his wrists are full of them.

I think martenitsas are awesome, including the spider part. When we get back to Santa Fe I am definitely going to celebrate the arrival of Grandma Marta by making bracelets from red and white strands of wool. I am going to give them out to my friends on March 1^st to wish them good luck, health, happiness, and friendship.

Tags:   Bulgaria · Celebrations · folk tales2 Comments

This is a Traditional Bulgarian Folk Tale. Our language teacher’s husband, Petko, told it to us. Petko told us that Bulgarians are very clever, they have morals and hidden morals. 

                  Once upon a time there was a very large man-eating brown bear. It had been eating people from a village nearby its lair so the villagers sent their bravest men to track down the bear and kill it. The men followed the bear’s footprints to its lair, high up in the mountains. It was a small tunnel descending into the bear’s den in the mountain. A man named Gyuro decided to crawl into the tunnel (it was to small to walk into). He tied a rope around his waist and crawled in headfirst. After a while, when Gyuro didn’t come back, they tugged on the rope nervously. When he still didn’t come out, they pulled and pulled until they dragged him out, a man without a head.  “Didn’t Gyuro have a head?”  One of the men asked.  “Of course! Or did he?” said another man. All of the men argued for a bit, and then one said “Let’s go to Gyuro’s wife, she’ll know!” So they went back to the village. They found Gyuro‘s wife out beating rugs in front of her house. They told her the story, and then asked her “Did Gyuro have a head?” She thought a bit, and said “Good question.” She thought a bit more then exclaimed “Ah, I know, Gyuro bought a hat last year, so he must have had a head!”

From Bulgaria

The End

The Moral of this story is never go into something Headfirst (especially man-eating bear caves) without checking it out first.

 Or

The hiddden moral: If you do something stupid, people will question your intelligence.

Tags:   Bulgaria · Story1 Comment

One of the most difficult things about traveling is learning different languages. It’s uncomfortable when I am sitting next to strangers on an airplane and I want to speak with them, but I don’t know if they speak the same language as I do. Sometimes I get nervous when I walk down the street and somebody starts to talk to me, and I don’t know if he’s mad at me because I don’t understand him.

When I walked down a street in Sofia, somebody stopped me in my tracks and said something to me that I did not understand. He was speaking n Bulgarian. It made me feel uncomfortable. I wish I could have said that I did not speak Bulgarian, but I couldn’t even say that.

When we were on the airplane from London to Bulgaria, I was terrified. What was I going to say to the woman beside me who was speaking in Bulgarian to me?  Luckily she was from London and spoke English too. When she said, “Oh, do you speak Bulgarian?” I said “No. Do you?”

She said, “A little bit. What’s your name?”

I said, “Bella. What’s yours?”

She said, “Niki.”

Then I felt brave, happy, and excited too, because she was going to teach me Bulgarian. She taught me how to say “hello” in Bulgarian. She said say “zdra-ve-te”, and I did. I’ve been in Bulgaria for six weeks now, and I’m still not good at speaking Bulgarian, but I’m getting the hang of it.

When you’re traveling you should learn some basic words because they will come in handy. I think it’s important to learn numbers, letters, and words like “hello”, “good-bye”, and “I don’t understand”.  I also think it is important to know how to say “thank you”. In Bulgarian thank you is “blah-goo-dar-ya”, but you can also say “merci”.  In Spanish thank you is “gracias”, in Portuguese it’s “obrigada (o)”, in Arabic it’s “chokran” ???? and in French it’s “merci”.

From The Big Field Trip – Tunisia, March, 2009

In Bulgaria it is important to know the head signals too. Shaking your head  from side to side means “yes” and nodding up and down means “no.” Learning this is very difficult. Once someone asked me if I understood Bulgarian, and I shook my head. So he kept on talking in Bulgarian.

When I got to Bulgaria, I did not know how to speak any Bulgarian except for what I learned from Niki. The hardest part about learning Bulgarian is they write very differently than we do. My name is spelled like this in Bulgarian ????e??!

I learned languages in many different ways. Mom has been speaking Spanish to me since I was born, so in Peru I was fine speaking in Spanish. My understanding of Spanish helped me learn Portuguese in Brazil and Portugal because these two languages are very alike. When we went to Brazil, my family and I took Portuguese lessons. Cyrus and I took one lesson before Mama and Papa took another lesson. We took lessons from a professional young lady. Inãe was very patient and very nice. I even learned by reading books and listening to people on the sidewalks chattering to each other.

From The Big Field Trip – Brazil, December, 2008

I learned Arabic and French in Tunisia. I took lessons from a young lady named Fadoua, who taught us French. Sometimes she taught us arts and crafts because she was in college studying art. Yousef was a friend of ours from Tunisia who took us to the Sahara Desert. He spoke Arabic, French, English, and Italian, and taught us some Arabic.

From Bulgaria

I am learning the Cyrillic alphabet in Bulgaria. I listen to Bulgarian language podcasts with my family. My mom taught me how to say “goodbye”. You stay it like this “do-veezh-de-ne”. Both of my brothers have shirts that have the Cyrillic alphabet written on them. Mom quizzes us on the Bulgarian alphabet and animal names every day. I read signs on the streets. Ventzi, our Bulgarian teacher, has taught us names of animals. Bird is “petitza”. Now I can go to the grocery store and say “pet mlyako molya”. (They will give me five cartons of milk). There is still a lot more that I need to learn, but at least now I know how to say “ne razbirum Bulgarski”, which means “I don’t understand Bulgarian”. That gets me out of a lot of difficult situations.

From Bulgaria

I still have many languages to study, from Turkish to Hindi to Thai. I’ve got an adventure in front of me and lots to learn.  In the past year that we’ve been traveling I’ve felt scared of learning each new language, but now I know that I can learn to say some basic words and that will help me to communicate with people in tricky situations. Now I feel brave and excited to learn new languages.

Tags:   Brazil · Bulgaria · Fear · Language · Tunisia2 Comments

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzip! Splash! Uh, oh, my turn. I walk to the edge of the cliff, then jump.

We had been going on a tour all day. We were somewhere outside of Lencois, Brazil. We had been to Devil’s Hole, a pool so deep that its water looked black. If you held the water in your hands, it was brown. The pool wasn’t that big but it was hundreds of feet deep and there was a huge, steep waterfall feeding water into the pool. It had a steep zip line going into Devil’s Pool. People were flinging themselves off the waterfall and into space, and, instead of falling, they were yanked along by the zip line, like helpless kittens being kidnapped by an owl in a strong wind. There was no way I was going on that thing. I swam in the pool instead. I swam under the waterfall, which was a mistake because it pushed me underwater. It was fun, I did it again. Then we got into our guide’s car and continued our tour of Chapada Diamantina National Park.

From The Big Field Trip – Brazil, December, 2008

It was a really fun, adventurous day. I fed monkeys and ate many mangoes from the trees. I got within three feet of a viper with poison so deadly it could kill an adult in two hours. Its mouth was full of frog, but still. I got close to enough take good pictures, only backing off when my mom told me to. You don’t see one of those every day! I stuffed myself with Brazilian food from a buffet, which was delicious.  We went into a cave that looked like it was on the moon. There were no plants at all. My parents had to sign a slip that said it wasn’t their fault if anyone died. The cave was awesome! It had loads of stalactites and lots of alien insects like huge millipedes, blind grasshoppers, and tarantulas. I got as many close-up photos as I could, including a great one with Bella and a millipede. 

From The Big Field Trip – Brazil, December, 2008

Then we walked until we came to a crystal lake. It was very clear so we were going to snorkel. Then I heard the zip. It was another zip line. I could either climb down a 40 foot cliff or fly down the zip line, which cost 5 Reals (about 3 dollars). It went across the lake, almost, and landed in it. I decided to do it with my dad. It seemed like it would be fun. We paid and the owner strapped us to the zip line. I had on a harness, which was connected by a carabineer to a rope which was connected to the zip line (which made the zzzzzzzzz sound).

From The Big Field Trip – Brazil, December, 2008

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzip! Splash, went my dad. My turn. Gulp. I walked to the edge of the plank, looked down at the dizzying drop, then jumped.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, went the line. I was flying!  I held on tight to the rope, being yanked all over (or so it seemed). My heart was in my throat and then my strength seemed to leave me. I couldn’t hold on any longer so I braced myself and then let go of the rope, expecting to fall into the shallow water a long way down. Nothing happened. I felt a huge jolt, but I was still moving through the air.  I looked up to see that I was connected to the zip line. Of course! Then something yanked my feet back. Ker-splash! I hit the water. I got up and unhooked myself. “I want to do that again!” I told my dad. 

From The Big Field Trip – Brazil, December, 2008

That was one of many times I was nervous about doing something, then realized it was OK and/or fun when I “let go of the rope”.  Whether it’s talking to someone in a foreign language or walking around town by myself, I find out its OK.

Tags:   Brazil · Bulgaria · FearNo Comments.

Sofia is a city of people. People live in apartments that are drab gray blocks of cement. Trains rumble by on iron tracks, and people look out of the windows and talk in Bulgarian. Dull black wires bring electricity to people.

From The Big Fieid Trip – London and Sofia, September 2009

Sofia is also a city of trees. Brown tree trunks line the streets like hundreds of statues. Leaves with all the colors of the rainbow float down to cover the sidewalks like a warm blanket. Chestnuts in a spiky cover hang on chestnut trees ready to fall.

As I wandered in Sofia, I noticed that the trees were full of seeds; big and little, circle and oval, they all scattered far from the parent tree. I saw crazy teenagers throwing chestnuts at bikes and trains. A maple seed with curved wings fluttered to the ground like a spinning parachute, and I picked it up. I split the seed open and put it on my nose so I looked like a rhino! Cruz did the same with papa’s help.

From Bulgaria

As I stood beneath a mighty walnut tree, I spied a dry walnut (stored by a lucky squirrel) hidden in a knot-hole. I reached up, standing on papa’s shoulders. I heard the “chip! chip!” of a squirrel chattering at us!

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After that we said, “Sorry for taking your lunch, but thank you!” Oak trees were raining acorns, and squirrels were leaping and dancing as they gathered them up. I saw seeds in pods, cotton, purple fruit, spiky shells, berries, parachutes, and flat banana pods. Everywhere I looked there were seeds. 

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 Trees are living things. They get minerals and water from the ground through their roots. They use energy from the sun to turn carbon dioxide and water into sugar. This happens in the leaves, and it is called photosynthesis. Trees grow and then reproduce. When their flowers are pollinated they grow seeds.  Seeds are baby trees with food and nutrients so they can start to grow. They need enough food to live until they grow leaves and roots.

Seeds are made in all different shapes to help them disperse. Disperse means move away from the parent tree. If seeds did not disperse, when they grew they would be all crammed together, and they would have to fight for minerals, light, and water. Trees can’t move. Trees depend on other things to move the seeds like animals, people, gravity, and the wind. Some even get moved by the sun! When their pods dry up their seeds burst out of them like a spring had pushed them out. Seeds can even be dispersed by a wild teenager chucking chestnuts at trains!

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For my project I took a lot of time to observe seeds. I threw seeds up in the air to see how they moved. I collected as many different types of seeds as I could and took them home to observe them. I drew their outside appearance then cut them open and drew their inside appearance. I drew details like color and texture. I described each seed in words. I read about seeds on the internet and saw a lot with my own eyes. On the internet I learned that poppies have very small seeds. The top of the poppy is like a rattle with really small holes. When the wind blows the poppy around, the rattle shakes, and poppy seeds go flying out. The whole seed experience was a lot of fun, especially standing on papa’s shoulders to get the dried walnut out of the tree.

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As part of my project, papa and I made Baklava out of walnuts. Baklava is a great tasting desert that is made in Bulgaria. We made it because it has a lot of seeds. Walnuts are are the seeds of walnut trees. The sheets of phylo dough are made from the seeds of wheat, which is a grass. Here’s the recipe that we used. It is best to eat it with ice cream!

 BAKLAVA

INGREDIENTS: 

1 lb.  pastry sheets (phylo dough)

1 cup of butter

1 lb chopped or ground walnuts

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

1  cup sugar

1 cup water

1/2 cup honey

1. Grease a baking pan with melted butter
2. Layer 8 pastry sheets with melted butter brushed between every two sheets
3. Mix the chopped or ground walnuts and cinnamon and spread 1/3 of the nuts over the pastry sheets
4. Cover with 2 pastry sheets and brush with butter
5. Add another 1/3 of the nut mixture, spread evenly
6. Cover with 2 pastry sheets and brush with butter
7. Add remaining nut mixture, spread evenly
8. Cover with remaning pastry sheets with melted butter brushed between every two sheets
9. Cut the bakalava into diamond shaped pieces
10. Bake until golden
11. Make syrup form sugar  and water. boil & add honey. simmer for 20 minutes.  let cool.
12. Spread syrup over cooled baklava & soak for 24 hours!

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Tags:   Bulgaria · Recipes · Seeds · Trees3 Comments