Leon Zeisel

Leon Zeisel is a fourth-grader whose teacher, Ms. Hagmayer, forces her students to sew animiles ( or animals). However, a supernatural occurence involving spit allows Leon to get back at his teacher in Leon and the Spitting Image. In the sequel, Leon and the Champion Chip, Leon gets back at a bully called Lumpkin, whose been tormenting him for years, the same way. I like these books because Leon is an very interesting kid.

Ranger's Apprintice

This is one of my favorite series. In the books, a boy named Will is apprinticed to the Ranger Corps, the eyes and ears of the mythical kingdom of Araluen. In the first two books, Will, his master Halt, a Ranger called Gilan, and Will's friend Horace fight Morgarath and his Wargals. If you want to know more, read the books. There are 7 books, the first five are out here in the US. John Flanagan, the writer, is Australian. You can also go to his website at www.rangersapprentice.com .

Einstien and Switzerland

You probably know about Albert Einstein. He was in Switzerland applying for ETH when he was 17 years old. When he couldn't go because he failed the General section of the exam. He went to a Swiss high school in Aarau. Then in 1896 he past the matura exams at the school and could enter the institute. In 1900 he graduated. He couldn't find any permanent work untill 1902 when he was employed at the patent office in Bern. He was still at the patent office when he published six revolutionary papers in 1905 including the special theory of relativity. One of these papers got him a Ph.D. In 1909 he worked as a teacher for Zurich university. His Swiss history ends there.

Bern

A few days ago,we went to Bern, I enjoyed the town. Bern's old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, other UNESCO World Heritage Sites we've visited are Angkor in Cambodia and The Jungfraujoch. I also enjoyed watching the bears in the bear pits(1) begging for food. I think it's sad that they are in that pit
. After the bear pits we went to the Paul Klee Zentrum. I enjoyed looking at his art. After the Paul Klee Zentrum we wanted to go to the Einstein house but unfortunately it was closed when we got there. So instead we saw the clock(2) chime. It starts with the rooster crowing, then the jester rings the two small bells while Father Time turns the hourglass in his hand. Then the bell on top chimes and the rooster crows again ending this popular atraction. It was fun. Then we went home. It was a wonderful day!

Delft

On our third day in the Netherlands we went to Delft, where Vermeer lived. They had a nice place there called the Vermeer Center. It talked a lot about Vermeer and Delft. One of the things that are troublesome is that we don't know much about Vermeer. He didn't leave much behind. Another thing is that none of his paintings remain in Delft. There are only a few at the Hague in the Mauritsheis, and maybe some in Amsterdam. Another place we went to was a windmill. It was National Windmill Day that day, so almost every windmill in the country was open. The windmill we went to was actually grinding flour! We could go very high up in there.

Keukenhof

The second day we were in Holland we went to the Keukenhof, a big flower garden with lots of tulips near the city of Lisse. Their flowers were in great arrangements. Besides flowers, there was a pen with farm animals in it and a windmill. It was great day!

Holland

Last Tuesday, we came back from the Netherlands. On the first day, we went to the Hague. We went to the Mauritshuis and Madurodam. The Mauritshaus has many paintings, including several Rembrandts and three Vermeers. Two of their most famous paintings are Girl with the Pearl Earring by Vermeer and The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt. Their website is here.
Madurodam has models of famous buildings in Holland. As well as famous buildings, they also have a model highway with moving cars, an airport complete with moving planes and a monorail, trains on a miniature railway stopping at various stations, the Rotterdam seagate, ships of many different sizes, and an oil rig. My favorite part of Madurodam is a tanker that has a controlled fire and a fireboat "puts it out".