When Wasa (our friend) picked us up and brought us back the girls( Macey 5 and Addison weren’t there, but Vanessa was there. When Macey and Addy( short for Addison) got there we played Monopoly. Addy was playing me while Macey was banker 🤑. In a while it was dinner 🍴 time. Addy and I had a hard time going to sleep. When we finally went to sleep it was already 9:30!!

We woke and went to the children’s museum!!! It was very cool! There was a thing where you crawled through a fake mouth   and when you got to the end it made a fart 💨 noise [ and it smelled]!! We had lunch af the children’s museum. After the children’s museum Wasa and Vanessa gave my mom and dad a tour of the University. We went home and played some games. We watched the Polar Express next!! We had dinner and went to bed.

We got up and had breakfast 🍳. In a while we made cookies 🍪! It was a special recipe and they were so good!!! We had a nice dinner 🍴 with Wasa and Vanessa friends. Then we watched movies and went to bed!!!!!!

We woke up on Christmas morning and were very excited but sad that we were leaving… then it was time to open presents! I got a socceroos [ Australia’s soccer team] jersey, a wallabies [ Australia’s Rugby team] cap, and a triangle frisbee.

I was sad to leave Australia 🇦🇺 but happy to go to New Zealand 🇳🇿!

Australia was super super super fun!

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It was raining ☔️ when we came into Sydney, but we were actually lucky 🍀 because it was supposed to be very hot. A cab picked us up and brought us to our apartment. We went to Macquarie bench and saw the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge for the first time!

The next day we went took a walk through the Royal Botanic Gardens to the Opera House. The Opera House looked like sea shells 🐚 to me. The architectural design was amazing!!!!!!! We took a ferry ⛴ to Manly and walked around the beach and town. My mom’s student told us about a brewery and we went there. My dad had squid 🐙, I had mini burgers, and I forgot what my mom had. Then we found a doughnut 🍩 place where I got a Nutella stuffed doughnut 🍩. It had like a can of Nutella in it!!!!!!!!! The place was called Doughnut Time. Then we caught a ferry back to Sydney. We went to the Queen Victoria Building. It was a a very very old building and we saw a  very very big Christmas 🎄 tree 🌲. It started at the bottom and went all the way to the top of the building! The building was very tall and there was a very cool clock too! We took a cab back not knowing that there was a train station right under the building! And guess what: I actually wanted to check it out! After a long day of walking we settled down and relaxed with a home cooked meal.

The next day we went to the Zoo! It was so cool to see al the animals that we can never see at home at all!! I was most exited to see the Australian animals. We saw the seals first. We went to the Australian animals and saw the Tasmanian Devils first. We saw kangaroos next! We saw emus next. The emus just wandered around and they weren’t separated from us! It was cool! We saw kualas next! They were so cute! We saw red pandas next. We didn’t see it’s face at first, but then it came out!! We walked to the ferry and took it back.

Sydney was very fun and we have got one more day ( right now ) and friends in Wollongong!

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When we went to this restaurant we all wanted desserts 🍨. I wanted a chocolate cake 🎂. It was the BEST! We didn’t know          that it was a chocolate lava cake and we did know that it came with a scoop of ice cream! It’s name was Mie Cafe. IT WAS THE BEST! Remember this: Passion fruit sauce is great with chocolate and melted ice cream.

When we woke up we were very tired 😴 but exited. It was only 4:40 AM. Then our tuk-tuk driver picked us up. We were heading to famous temples to see the sunrise 🌅! Sunrise at the the temples was AMAZING 😉! What was really cool was we were stumbling on rocks and following the crowd not knowing what to do. At 6:30 sunrise came. We went back to the hotel for breakfast 🍳. We met our tour guide for the day. Then we went to the East gate, we saw sunrise at the West side. We went inside and found ancient carvings from 900 years ago! He told us stories and a lot of other stuff about the temples ⛩. The second temple we went to had more ancient carvings. He told us about Demons fighting Gods in wars and a tug-a-war with a snake 🐍 as the rope! There was many other temples that we explored but my favorite temple was a jungle temple that trees 🌲 grew into! We took a lot of pictures and most of them were of the trees 🌲 but one of our pictures was a freaky one where my dad was doing a panorama picture where my dad started with me and while he scanned it I ran around his back and he ended with me. The trees 🌲 were on top of the temple and the roots were growing around the side trying to find the soil … IT WAS AWESOME!

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During a month of travel I think about what I miss and what I like.

I miss:

• My family,
• my friends,
• my dog 🐶 ,
• School,
• Recess,
• Home,
• My room,
• and people speaking English.

I like traveling:

• sometimes trying new foods,
• meeting new people,
• having new experiences
• seeing new places
• sitting on the beach🌞🌞☀️☀️☀️☀️ 🌊 when it is below zero at home 🌨❄️⛄️☃️,
• and getting ornaments to hang on our tree 🌲 to remind us of our experiences!

It was very fun kayaking! I was okay after the fall but it hurt a little.

Squid 🐙 fishing 🎣 is fishing 🎣 but with a different hook. You move the pole up and down and it is done at night.  My mom got nibble of a squid 🐙 and it released ink! A crew member caught a squid 🐙. We were looking for squid 🐙 about a foot long.

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The name of the ship was Dragon 🐉 Legend 1 and it used to be Dragon Princess. Our guide told us about the legend of how the bay was formed.  You can read about it here . We were in Bai Tu Long, where the legend says the Dragon’s children descended.

It was very very very very fun!

Today we went to a fishing 🎣 village and there was a floating school! It was a fishing village 2 years ago, but they relocated the people. I liked hanging out on the hammock near the crazy 😜 fish 🐡 🐠🐟.

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We motored to the beach 🌊 and explored a cave that some people lived in! After that we had a BBQ 🍗 lunch on the beach 🌊. It was very fun because I got to run 🏃 on the beach 🌊 while they were talking after lunch 🍴.

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We went kayaking next. I went with my dad in a double. This time it was longer so we stopped at a beach 🌊. We made a 2016 drawing out of seashells! We barely did it in time! They were just about to leave when 1 of our best friends gave us a handful!

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It was a very fun day but tiring!

When we woke up we were very excited 😊 about our luxury cruise 🚢. We had breakfast 🍳 and then our luxury van picked us up. We drove for 2 hours to a shopping place in the middle of nowhere where we had some time to stretch and buy food. We saw durian wafers and tried them. They tasted like a mix of stinky socks and vomit!

After that, we got back in the van and went to the cruise boat! It was very exciting to see the boat ⛵️ at first!

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Then we went inside and our tour guide gave us a welcome and safety talk. Then we checked out our room and we switched rooms just so I could have my own room! Then we went kayaking but I fell down the stairs! I still went kayaking though.

After that we went squid 🐙 fishing 🎣 but we had no luck.  Then we went to dinner 🍴. Then we went to bed🛌.  It was a amazing day!

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When we landed in Hanoi we went to a British pub to get fish and chips for me because that’s the only thing that sounded good to me after I was sick. Then we went to bed. In the morning we woke up and mom went to cooking class while dad and I made bracelets. Then mom came home and we had lunch. After that we went to the Ethnology Museum where we went to the outdoor area where there were Vietnamese🇻🇳 tribe houses🏠 and then went inside and learned about Vietnamese family life and the role of a women in the war. The next day a college student who was practicing his English gave us a walking 🚶tour around the french quarter and old quarter and the women’s museum.

Hanoi was very fun!

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At the end of November it was Tooey’s birthday (but we forgot her birth date)! We called her in the morning and wished her  a big birthday! I miss her sneaking into my room at night and sleeping there, I miss her under the table watching if any food is going to be dropped off the table, I miss after walks Tooey and I would race me home from a certain point, I miss Tooey trying to run out of the bathroom because she hates baths but afterwards loves it because she’s clean.

Tooey is the best dog ever! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!