Jule's Dance Moves

Jule's dance moves have improved in America.  We have been practicing a lot!  Take a look at her special holiday dance for you!

Click here to watch Jule dance!

Jule's Current Projects at School

Jule now has only five weeks left in America!

Her grades are still great.  Some of the things she's doing currently are...

1)  Making a book of the Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America.  She's learning about things like our "right to have guns" and our "right to a fair and speedy trial" amongst other things.

2)  Crafts class will conclude with a Christmas wreath made of old book covers.

3)  She wrote an essay about "romanticism" in The Last of the Mohicans book/movie.

4)  Lots of Spanish and English vocabulary tests.

5)  Writing a report about the challenges of people during the Revolutionary War, as well as how they overcame those challenges.

6)  Labeling every bone in the human body in Anatomy class.

Tropical Smoothie Cafe

Last night Jule used the leaf blower to blow all the leaves to the front of my yard while I dug through my garage to find ski gear for our upcoming trip.  Luckily my ski pants fit her just fine.

To reward her hard work, I took her to one of my favorite places to eat healthy... Tropical Smoothie Cafe.

A "smoothie" (in case it doesn't translate correctly) is usually ice, fruit and sometimes yogurt blended to a very smooth consistency.  My favorite ones are just with ice and fruit.

Jule got the Paradise Point (which is Strawberries, Bananas and Pineapple) and I always get the Blimey Limey (Strawberries, Pineapple, Orange and Lime).











Another thing that Jule has become very fond of while here are Caesar Salads.  It's just lettuce and grilled chicken sprinkled with parmesan cheese and topped with Caesar salad dressing.  So we both ordered the King Caesar Wrap at Tropical Smoothie Cafe... and we both dislike fresh tomatoes, so NO TOMATOES PLEASE!

The Sky is Big

In just a few days we leave to fly to Big Sky, Montana!

We'll be flying from Little Rock to Denver, Colorado and then Denver to Bozeman, Montana.  From there we'll make the one hour drive to Big Sky.

We'll ski and go snow tubing at night, and hopefully do some sight seeing.  We'll also visit Yellowstone!  I've always wanted to go here and have never had the opportunity, so I'm very excited!

National Geographic picture of one of Yellowstone's geysers exploding.

Coolest Place in the World

On Saturday in St. Louis, we decided to get up early and head to the City Museum.  

We had picked up a brochure about it in the hotel, and I thought I'd heard from someone a few years ago that it was a really cool place.  Little did I know that this would be one of the best things that we'd do the whole time Jule has been in America.

Here are two videos, just in case you can't get to one of them.  They're both just from people who love the museum, so I apologize for any bad English.

And here are some pics...

The adventure starts inside and continues outside.  We were freezing, but it was so much fun that we had to keep going.  I felt like my hands were getting frost bite clinging onto the freezing metal, but I didn't care.

This "museum" is not typical.  It stretches your imagination beyond what you can.. imagine.  It's a maze (labyrinth) of steel, iron, concrete and glass that is unbelievable.  It's scary and dangerous, but you don't really care... because it's just that cool.  

The "ball pit"

Jule and I spent three hours crawling, climbing, sliding and hoisting ourselves through the indoor and outdoor mazes.  It was challenging, breathtaking, beautiful and ugly all at the same time.

Both of us emerged with bumps and bruises, skinned knees, and ripped pants.  The fun was oh so worth it.  I am still thinking about this place.  I can't even accurately describe the wonder of it.  Hopefully you can see one of the videos to get the full effect.

Fun in St. Louis

We awoke to a cold morning in St. Louis and headed immediately to the St. Louis Gateway Arch.  We actually went to the arch twice that day.  Neither time did we get up to the top.  The first time, the lines were so long that we decided to go on to do other things.  The second time, the tickets were sold out.  I was disappointed, but we tried.  We did get a few good pictures.

Next we went to the St. Louis Science Center.  This is a place that is pretty cool.  It's completely hands-on.  We built catenary arches, watched optical illusions, learned about how the earth was formed and played with tornadoes.  We spent several hours here.  Here are a few pictures.

The center spans across a busy highway.  You can use  radar guns to see how fast people are going,
and also spy on them with binoculars in their cars.  :)

Jule watching a tornado form.

While in the Science Center, we watched two movies in the Omnimax Theatre.  The Omnimax is a theatre where the screen is in a dome that wraps from one side of the theatre to the other side.  It's hard to describe how wonderful it is.  Here's a picture that I found on the internet that gives a tiny example.

The most fun of the trip was yet to come.

Meet Me in Saint Louis, Louis

We're in St. Louis (aka "Saint Louie")

We ate Thanksgiving dinner with my mother on Wednesday night and with my father on Thursday at noon.  Then we headed north to St. Louis, Missouri.  Until we got close to the city, we said that it felt like the Apocalypse.  There was nobody driving on the roads.  It was really strange.

Click here for the updated map of Jule's Adventures.

Our total trip from Sherwood to St. Louis has been 600 km, to give you a frame of reference.

St. Louis was bustling with people, although admittedly less people than normal.  St. Louis generally has horrible traffic jams... I remember it was called "stau" in Germany.  But luckily last night the only people on the roads were those preparing for shopping.  That included probably half of St. Louis population.  Every woman!

We ate dinner and then drove around a bit so Jule could see the chaos that was about to take place at the stores that were set to open at crazy hours.  If the stores aren't open, people make a line outside.  We saw on the news some guy yelling "If you don't stop pushing me, then I'm going to stab you."  Absolutely crazy.

Jule went inside Wal-Mart to buy one thing at 11 p.m.  THAT was a bad decision.  While she got to see the insanity, it took 45 minutes to get one item and get through the line.  She said that one line stretched to the back of the store.  And if you ever go to Wal-Mart, you'll know that's pretty far!

Today (Friday) we're going to take a ride to the top of the Arch, visit Union Station and go to the Science Center.

Weekend 13

Jule has been at my house for over 13 weeks now.  I can't believe it's been that long!  The time has gone by so quickly!

This weekend we stayed at home.  We have lots of travel coming up, so we need some rest!  Friday night Jule did homework, as she has a lot due on Monday.  I decided to clean out my office and throw away documents that are very old.  I finally threw away the last of my undergraduate college degree papers and tax documents from 2000 and things like that.  It was well overdue.

Saturday we had two things to do.  First, we met at the Alexander family house to sample Filipino food made by Wimee and her friend.  I had never tried Filipino food before I met Wimee.  She has made me a big fan!

Chicken Adobo

Lumpia

Pancit

Flan Dessert

Jule will also remember the cute little girls that fell in love with her.  (Jule was tired from twirling them around outside.)  Here are the girls from Wimee's friend, as well as Marissa and Marissa's friend Gracie.

Next we went home so Jule could wish her mother a happy birthday via Skype!  Then we went to a bonfire at my brother Tony's house.  Jule made her first "smore" over the fire!

A "s'more" is a traditional American campfire treat that is DELICIOUS.  This won't translate correctly, but the word "s'more" comes from the words "some" and "more", as in "give me some more."  You can ask Jule about the sweet goodness of this treat.  It is a toasted marshmallow and a piece of Hershey's chocolate bar smashed between two graham crackers.  The hot marshmallow partially melts the chocolate.  It is messy, gooey, and oh so good.

As always, I was at work with my camera.  Here are a few of my favorite images from the night!

Jule's best friend here, Andrea Martinez.

My brother Tony playing the guitar.  We sang some Lady Gaga!  :)

At the end of the night, we had some great luck!  Jordan Alexander left his phone at my brother's house.  He called and said that he was driving back to get it.  So, of course, we had to make the most of this great opportunity!  We began snapping pictures with Jordan's phone so he would have a surprise waiting!  Here are just a few of the pictures we put on his phone.

Smelly arm pit picture.

 

Red popcorn up the nose.

Sausage eyes!

We are very sure that Jordan loved the pictures that we made for him on his iPhone!  We hope you love them too!

Hopefully you can tell that Jule is having fun in America and taking advantage of the American sense of humor.  We DO love to have a good time, and we take very few things seriously.  At least in my family and with Jule's friends... we are all about FUN!

Happy Birthday Anita!

We want to wish Anita a 

VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Anita... I wish Jule could be with you on your birthday!  We do have a great gift on its way to you in the mail!  I am sorry that it will be late.  But the gift that I can give to you today is the gift of knowledge that Jule is being cared for well in America!  :)  Thank you for allowing her to come here and have this experience!

Thanksgiving OLD Traditions

Thanksgiving Day is the holiday in America where we celebrate things that we are thankful for.  Family, friends, and good food are important that day.  The tradition was started hundreds of years ago as a celebration of the year's harvest.  Today, there are many traditions that are completely unrelated to "giving thanks" that I'll cover in another blog.

This is a famous Norman Rockwell painting depicting Thanksgiving in America.

Thanksgiving Day is always the fourth Thursday of November.  Generally people are off work Thursday and Friday both.

Thanksgiving Day meal traditions:  Eating "turkey and dressing" is essential on Thanksgiving Day.  My mother happens to be great at making Thanksgiving dinner.  Here is a traditional Thanksgiving Day meal:

Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy and cranberry sauce.

I'd LOVE for you to make American turkey (or chicken) and dressing on Thursday, November 26th so we can have the same experience!

1)  Make your turkey or chicken however you'd like to.  Boil, bake... whatever.  The tradition in America is to bake it.

2)  Make your "corn bread dressing".  RECIPE COMING SOON!

3)  Cook some green beans or carrots on the stove.  Or make a "green bean casserole".  Recipe below in German.

4)  Make a "gravy" to pour over the dressing and meat.  (See picture above.)  A turkey or chicken flavored gravy is best.  The gravy is important because the dressing is supposed to be a bit dry.

grüner Bohnen Auflauf

Zutaten
2,5 Esslöffel Butter
100 ml gewürfelte Zwiebeln
500 ml geschnittenen grünen Bohnen
750 ml Hühnerbrühe
1 kleine Dose Creme der Pilzsuppe
1 kleine Dose Röstzwiebeln
Salz, Pfeffer und Knoblauch, Salz nach Geschmack
250 ml geriebenen Cheddar-Käse

Anfahrt

Heizen Sie den Backofen auf 176 Grad C.

Die Butter in einer großen Pfanne. Brown die Zwiebeln in der Butter. Kochen Sie grüne Bohnen in Hühnerbrühe für 10 Minuten und abtropfen lassen. Fügen Sie die grünen Bohnen, Pilzsuppe, und Röstzwiebeln der großen Pfanne. Mit Salz, Pfeffer und Knoblauch mit Salz abschmecken. Gut umrühren. Gießen Sie in Auflaufform. 20 Minuten backen, dann oben auf der Kasserolle mit dem Cheddar und backen für 10 Minuten länger, oder bis der Topf heiß ist und der Käse geschmolzen ist.

Thanksgiving NEW Traditions

As I mentioned, Thanksgiving in America has grown to encompass several traditions that are not at all related to giving thanks.

The day itself is the fourth Thursday of every November, but most people celebrate from Thursday through Sunday.

Thanksgiving is one of the year's busiest days in America for travel.

Tradition #1:  BLACK FRIDAY

Black Friday: Because only in America people trample others for sales
exactly one day after being thankful for what they already have.

Black Friday is one of the craziest days in America each year.  This is the real beginning of the Christmas shopping season.  But what makes Black Friday crazy is that stores (which were closed on Thanksgiving Day) open their doors at crazy hours, oftentimes at midnight or 2 a.m., and offer such insane discounts that people LITERALLY trample each other to get in the doors and buy gifts.  I am serious.  People DIE each year on Black Friday because they are trampled to death trying to get into Wal-Mart or other stores.  Here is a visual for you:

Stores must have lots of security on this day, as things get out of hand quickly.  People begin fights over things when there are small quantities.  You may see two women fighting over a large television that is priced at 90% off.  It is truly crazy.  The stores actually create this chaos by marketing their sales for weeks in advance and releasing their sale items and prices.  If you could get a $600 laptop for $50, or an iPad for $100... would you brave the crowds?

Now... these scenarios don't happen everywhere.  But it is pretty nuts.  Wimee actually goes out each year and just sits in her vehicle, sips her Starbucks coffee, and watches the crowds.  :)  I've avoided it each year.  But my "practical joker" best friend Ami still calls me some years at 2 a.m. to wake me up anyway.

Tradition #2:  Movies on Thanksgiving Night

I don't know why, but going to the movie theater on Thanksgiving afternoon or night is also a tradition.  Many movies make their debut that day or that week.  I guess that people are so full from eating lunch, and since no stores are open for shopping, the only thing to do is to go to the movies.

Tradition #3:  Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

All major television networks broadcast the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.  The parade began in 1924 and has grown each year.  I'm sure it's wonderful to see in person, but it also keeps me glued to the television each year -- even as an adult.

Tradition #4:  American Football

All football leagues have football games from Thursday through Sunday on Thanksgiving week.  Most men "check out" mentally during these days and are glued to the television.  I have no idea why it's such a tradition, but it is.

Tradition #5:  Volunteering

Generally I spend Thanksgiving morning volunteering to feed the homeless.  Many other Americans also donate their time on this day to make sure that nobody is without food. I started feeding the homeless each year when I was about Jule's age and have continued it most years in my home town of Poplar Bluff, Missouri.