25 July 2000
My name is Martin, and I am aged nine. My parents are going on a teacher exchange with a teacher from the USA. These last few days before we go to America have been quite busy, and my mum and dad are running around trying to get everything done before we leave. We have only just broken up from school last Friday, so there hasn't been very much time to get everything done that we need to do for the trip.

This week my mum has been putting all her clothes into big, black bags and taking them to our great-great uncle's house to store for the year. Since I have fewer clothes to sort and pack, I am getting mum to help me sort out the ones which I don't need anymore, and those which I would need for a warmer climate like that of northern California. We are going to give lots of these to Third World Charities. It is taking a long time to do this, and I will be glad when it is finished. That is one of the jobs I don't like doing before going to the States!

I don't like having to part with all my toys and football trophies. These all have to go in big, black bags, and we will put them away in the eaves of the roof until we get back.

29 July 2000
I am helping my mum by doing lots of hoovering before we leave for the States so that the house will be lovely and clean for the new occupants. I don't want the new girl who is going to sleep in my bedroom to think that I was untidy or dirty!

30 July 2000
I don't really want to leave my grandma and grandad because we visit them all the time and my grandma even has a pet name for me! My grandma buys me lovely strawberries all the time! Most of all, though, I don't want to leave my little cat, Fizz. Fizz is like my little brother, and he sleeps in my bed. I have had Fizz since the day he was born because he was born in our lounge (front room)! I love Fizzy very much and will miss him lots and lots. I'm sure, however, that the American children will take really good care of him.

I will also miss all my friends on my football team. They gave me a lovely farewell present today, a signed autograph of all the team, but it was too heavy to bring with me. I have been signed up with a team already in the States, so at least I won't actually miss playing the game.

31 July 2000
I didn't like being at the airport much because it was so crowded and not very efficient. I thought that the service at Dulles (Airport) in Washington, DC, was much friendlier and better than at Heathrow in London. We kept having to stand in lots of different queues (standing in line, as people say in the States), and everything was very expensive at the airport. It was going to be my very first time in an airplane, and I was looking forward to being in the air. I wondered what it would feel like to be flying through the air.

It was fantastic, especially the landing. I think that looking through the clouds is a great feeling! The food on the airplane was good as well, and I wasn't air sick either, but my ears did pop, however.

2 August 2000
Yesterday we met the American family we are exchanging with. They seem really nice, and we are getting on really well with them. I think that Washington is great, and while the adults are at boring meetings every day, the children all go to a club. We play on the PlayStation, play board games, and do arts and crafts.

I've made friends with a boy from Israel, two girls from Berlin, boys from Portland (Oregon) and Minnesota in the USA, two Polish boys, and children from different parts of England: one boy from the North of England and two girls and their brother from the South of England. I hope to visit some of these children either in the USA or when they return home.

3 August 2000
We went on the trip with the child care center today. I liked the Capitol building the most because at the top of it is a little black statue called Freedom, and it is a strange shape. The tour guide said that it takes 875 gallons of paint to cover it. The White House is a lovely landmark, and I wanted to play President Clinton at Battleships, but my dad said the president was too busy running the country.

Since it is the last day, we had a special children's tour of the Smithsonian Museum and visited the Air and Space Museum. It is very cool inside the museum.

I thought that America would be just how it is – lovely, colorful, with great scenery and friendly. I have seen lots of films from America, so I sort of knew what it might be like.

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