pre-Christmas

I hope everyone is in the Christmas spirit! I'm not so much in the Spirit this year because it's not so much of a big deal here. Most people in India get Christmas off, but there aren't as many lights. Actually, I take that back there aren’t any lights, except for at Central Mall. But that’s okay. 

For Christmas we are going to give some gifts to the poor people.  We chose some of our things to give away--since my mom doesn't want to keep all of it for our move, and just for the good of it.

So while we have been here we have noticed some weird names...

Top FOUR

Mammy Pocko Pants (diapers)

Choco Crunchy Bites (cereal)

Cornitos (chips)

Museli Nuts Delight (cereal)

We have been like "Miles,  where are your Mamy Pocko Pants?” He says, "Ders my Many Pocko Pants."  or “ I want Choco Crunchy Bites for breakfast!"

Miss all of you!!! 

Hailing a rickshaw

Hopes photo shoot

The beautiful design of a Jaipur quilt

Not sure what this is all about, but my head now has a red dot on it

Hiking, sweating in the first few feet

Sugar Cane doesn't really taste like sugar, but it's good. You might be surprised by how not sugary it tastes

Miles is now Indian

Sleeping in the back of a rickshaw.  Making it look cool. It looks bigger than it is. 

Goin' to Goa

I know I haven't been posting for a while. But in my defense I have been on a trip and it was Christmas.
So about Goa. It was a lot of fun! We did all sorts of things like... first we went dolphin spotting, we saw about 6 or 7. Then we spent the next 2 days on the beach. We also got cashews which are grown in Goa. While we were at the beach we walked up to this really old fort, I'm pretty sure that my mom was freaking out because Hayden was climbing on the wall and if you fell off you would fall like 50 feet onto the rocks the be washed out to sea. Not to sound dramatic.
So then we went to this church that had a mummy priest that was like 500 years old and his name was Francis Xavier. We didn't actually see him because the line was 5 hours long so we got pictures of him instead. But in the picture that we got you could see his fingers and one of them was not there so I was really creeped out and I was creeped out because of the fact he had no face.

It was like crazy and I'm so happy I went. I would go there agin in a heartbeat, but on the way there my heart would probably stop beating, the drive was crazy it was like a 2 lane road the whole time, and there were a bunch of sharp turns.

Dolphin spotting. Us kids got to take turns driving the boat

There we about 50 monkeys in the road we were dodging 

Pregnant monkey eating corn.  Originally, I thought she was just really fat

s

Look closely at Francis Xavier's fingers, you'll see that one is missing...

Today was a not so exciting day.  We went to another foreigners  house just to go straight to the hospital. Ok so maybe I lied about it being not exciting.

It turns out Hope isn’t so merry when it comes to the merry – go round. We are still waiting to see what happened, but her arm is most likely not going to be broken.

We have had three energize here. First Hayden was running on the couch and fell and had to get glued up. Second Miles fell on the marble floor. Now Hope is at the Hospital. I AM NEXT! Oh-NO! I’ll just buy some bubble wrap and bubble wrap myself.

New update. Hope has a cast.

Hope's broken arm

 Going to church with a broken arm

Today I will be writing about Homeschool. Moms request.

In the beginning of the day I do math. After math I usually do spelling and language. I have a different spelling list every day, so on Friday when I do my test I take a couple words from each list. For language I just do a different worksheet every day.

Then I do Hindi, and yes I am learning Hindi. Hameed is my Hindi teacher, . I usually do stuff I learn on the computer, like doing x-tra math, learning computer programing to make games, and really everything. I can do social studies, science, art, and all that stuff. I go on this website called Khan Academy, (it’s free) and I can just type in anything and it will teach me how to do it. It’s kind of like Google. It even has history about India.

Then I read. I just finished reading “Lord Of The Flies”. After I read that I am going to read “The Giver”. When I finish “ The Giver” I get to watch the movie with my mom. Every book I read my mom gives me a worksheet to go with it or I have to write an essay. Since I have been here.....

I have read

The Tale Of Emily Windsnap (first 2 books)

Number The Stars

Wonder

The Host

Dork Diaries

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

 Lord of the Flies.

And a bunch of Geronimo Stilton that take me a half an hour to read.

After reading I have lunch then I have free time to do what ever I want for a certain amount of minutes wether I have done a lot or not. I usaly watch TV or go outside.

Then I go to this activity center, Sanskriti Kids, and do art, yoga, and physical exercise or something like that. After that homeschool is over.

HIP-HIP HORAY!!!! By the way this is my name in Hindi, अडेलीन  हंटर  

 I know its kind of weird but This is Miles with a different hair style

 LOL!!!

As you all might not know, my Grandma and Grandpa are here.   We have been traveling the country of India.

On Saturday, we went to some caves.  They built a temple out of the cave over 1000 years.  When I walked in the caves, I felt like I was walking into the past.  I could see the old engravings on the wall.  My grandma felt out of place, and was not able to feel the complete reverence that the natives felt.  God loves all his children.   I didn’t feel the spirit of reverence, but I liked touching the walls of 1,000 year old construction.  There was an old bearded man who came in chanting.  He paid respect by bowing to the idol.

On Sunday, we went to our new church in Mumbai. The church moved from Vashi to Gotekapal. It was a great church, compared to the old church in Mumbai.  We came late, so I was thinking no one thought we were going to make it.  They were so happy to see us when we arrived.  I got a Christmas present from Sister Keller.  It was a scripture bag with a Book of Mormon inside. 

On the way to church, we got pulled over because our driver wasn’t in a uniform.  We paid a police officer 500 Rupees bribe so we could get to church.

On Monday we were in Jaipur so we got a tour guide and went around the city. We got to, first charm cobra, second visit a 1,000 year old castle, third ride elephants fourth see pink everywhere ( it’s called the Pink City) , fifth see the water castle, sixth go the 2 museums, and seventh see a different castle were the king still lives with his family ( he was adopted and is 16 right know). As you tell I didn’t have time to write my blog.

 Tuesday. Here is the summery I am in a Tempo Traveller that is very nice with 9 other people, and 3 of those people (Hayden, Hope, Miles) are VERY LOUD!!!!!! So even though it is a big car I feel like I am at a singing competition with 10 of the worst singers in the world. But it all pays off when they are watching the Ipad and I lean my chair back.

When we got to the Taj Mahal on Tuesday, we took a camel to the place where we get tickets. After we got the tickets when walked to see the Taj. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.  It still appeared original.  I felt like I was walking into it as if I was there the day it opened,  350 years ago. There is no way to properly describe it in words, but I will try. It was almost pure white.  It was made up of the 2^nd strongest material on the earth, a special type of marble. The entire complex was symmetrical, with the exception of an Arabic script.  There was a special type of marble that lights up like fire when light flashes through.   

We got to go in, but we had to wear shoe covers. Inside they had the tomb of the  king and the queen. We walked around for awhile the went home. It was an experience I will never forget.

Wednesday we got on a train that goes on for 20 hours. We had four beds that were actually a little soft.  They served us ice cream, which I thought was better than dinner.  We also had snacks, samosas (which is grease with more grease and a tiny little potato – I still like them).

Going to the Taj Mhal.

 Miles is always like 'don't mess with me!'

 If you look closely you can see tear stains on Hopes face ( we finally got her to smile).

View from the top of a 350 year old castle.

ELEPHANTS!!!