Saturday, 11 November
Today we went to a place called Calistoga. This is apparently famous for several
reasons. First, an American football player named Joe Montana, who played for
the San Francisco 49ers, has a ranch there. The scenery on the way there from
our house was very beautiful. There were lots of very big coniferous trees,
and it looked like the kind of scenery that you would see on the television
about Canada. We do not have such big, open spaces like this near our home in
England.
When we got there, I noticed that the whole place smelled a bit funny. It smelt like some kind of strange mud. I soon found out another reason that makes Calistoga famous: the spas. We did not actually go and take the waters. We decided to leave that for another time.
The place was absolutely beautiful as well. It was a bit more European than many American places, a bit more like England, where you get small shops instead of large department stores.
On the way home from Calistoga, we visited a petrified forest. This is a forest that has been ruined by a volcanic eruption, and the ash came down onto the trees and kind of turned the trees into stone. I don't think there is such a thing in England.
Tuesday, 21 November
In our leadership lesson at school, we made a Thanksgiving teachers' brunch
in the morning. All the children helped set up, and some children cooked spice
bread, banana bread, and pumpkin bread for the teachers to eat in the teachers'
lounge.
Thursday, 23 November
Thanksgiving isn't celebrated in England, of course, so it was interesting for
me to witness my first Thanksgiving celebration. That day I went round to my
friend Heather's house. We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in New York
on television. The parade had floats and people parading down the street. Some
of the casts from the Broadway shows performed dancing and singing. After that,
we went to Jack in the Box for breakfast, along with lots of other people. (In
the States, lots of people don't bother to cook their own breakfasts.)
Later on in the day I went home, and my dad cooked a traditional Thanksgiving meal of roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, mushrooms, and vegetables. He also made a pumpkin pie.
Friday, 24 November
Today is the day after Thanksgiving, but it is also my birthday. I have arranged
to go shopping with my best friend, Heather. We are going shopping to the mall
to spend some of the money that I was sent as a birthday gift from England.
Traditionally, most Americans use this day's holiday to do the first of their
Christmas shopping!
Saturday, 25 November
Today is my sleep-over party. I made a lot of effort to clean up the house and
buy in all the food we would need. I invited four other girls apart from Heather.
That evening, one of them phoned me to say that she was ill. Another girl phoned
to say that she could not come because her grandma had a broken rib and she
had to look after her, but she still came round to the house to wish me a happy
birthday and to give me a present. The other girls never turned up or even offered
an apology, even though they said that they were going to come! It was a bit
disappointing!
Web Resources
Reading Matters
Read about a young girl's experiences in war-torn Sarajevo in the book Zlata's
Diary.
http://www.readingmatters.co.uk/books/zlata.htm
