Drilo, Temuco, Chile

Leslie Posted Jul 10, 2010, 8:30 pm	I'm leaving to Germany!! I just can't wait to get there and explore around!! Im totally excited!
Apperveilchen Posted Jul 22, 2010, 9:25 am	I arrived savely in Germany, just when the weather turned not quite so hot and more stormy, but that's okay. I'll show you around later.
Apperveilchen Posted Jul 26, 2010, 3:17 pm	There was supposed to be a photo-tour of the city today, but as you can partially see in the picture it's been raining cats and dogsnearly all day today and big parts of the weekend. Hopefully we'll have some nicer days again soon. While I as a crocodile am not adverse to water, not all of my companions see it that way.
Apperveilchen Posted Jul 31, 2010, 8:01 pm	Some of the toyvoyagers here like to cook or tr new food and want to make some. Our host told us we could make something nice but we'd all have to help. We, that is all the tvs that arrived last week: Jelle, and TravelingTuffy and Crush who's been here for a while and I. We looked through some books and magazines and decided on apricot tarts. We got out the form and the ingredients. We measured and added flour, sugar, eggs and butter for the dough. Plus peeled a line for some more flavor. We kneded the douhg (the Kitchen Aid did most of the work) and wrapped it to put in the fridge for half an hour. We prepared the apricots by cutting them in half, taking out the stone and marinating them in orange liquor and powdered sugar. Actually one's supposed to take a special aprocit liquor, but we made do with what we had. This too has to rest for half an hour. Meanwhile we made the filling, preheated the oven and oiled the form. Then we took out the dough and made the bottom. We baked it for 15 min and then added the apricots and the filling of eggs with powdered sugar. We baked it for another 40 min and now have to wait for it to cool down before we can taste it.
Apperveilchen Posted Aug 3, 2010, 5:18 pm	We saw another part of Essen today, called Kray. Here's the townhall: It now houses a small sub-division of the library and some offices of course. There was a mayor just for Kray-Leithe, a town that mainly consisted of farms, until 1929. During the industrialization som of the farmland was sold for coal mining instead and there are still some of the old miner's neighborhoods and a few buildings of the mines, that are now used as dance clubs, for expositions or for private parties. We walked some way and found this residential street. We had to highlight the colors because in the bright sunligt/shade the camera didn't display them very wel, so we now look extra bright. And here's a football club where some boys are getting ready for training and where it can get loud on the weekends when there are games of the local leagues .
Apperveilchen Posted Aug 10, 2010, 1:49 pm	I did not yet see a castle, but today I visited the old town of Hattingen. There are about 150 old half-timbered houses, dating back to the 16th century. Here the modern ciy center merges with the old town: This is part of the old town hall. Lot's of the Ruhr area used to look like this but was "modernized and improved" in the 1960s and '70s, something the inhabitants of Hattingen prevented in their town. This house is called Bügeleisenhaus (flat iron house). Parts of the old city wall still surround the old town. Some houses are hard to access. They are all very close together but usually not attached. There are even windows and stairs in these narrow alleys, or they are the only entrance to other houses. The Kirchplatz (church square) is very well preserved in its original layout of houses that have a lower level that leads to the street and one higher up that leads to the church place, where they surround the church in an oval form, with narrow stairs leading from the street to the church place between the buildings.
Apperveilchen Posted Aug 24, 2010, 10:11 pm	We visited the parrot park in Bochum today to get some new toys for the budgies. There are some aras free in the middle of th shop area. They seemed friendly, but when we wanted to get closer to say "hi", this one wanted to get a bit too friendly for my taste, so I stayed at a save distace after that. HEEELP! I felt safer around these guys: This one is a really pretty red and seemed very curious about foreign visitors. He wanted to chat.
Apperveilchen Posted Aug 25, 2010, 3:05 pm	We enjoyed the view on the way back. Former police headquaters The convention center On the Autobahn Fields between the cities of the Ruhrgebiet A newsstand with soccer magazines Chocolate Müsli (cereal) anyone?
Apperveilchen Posted Aug 26, 2010, 1:22 pm	The budgies completely destroyed their old toy, so we as toyvoyagers were tasked with getting creative and making new ones for them. Here's the pack we bought yesterday: This is what we got to work with: The budgies love leather and aren't allowed any fibers. Do you like it?
Apperveilchen Posted Aug 27, 2010, 9:31 pm	TravelingTuffy and I are helping prepare the food for a birthday party tomorrow. We have a lot of cooking planned. First we are preparing a big pan of veggies is red wine sauce. I had TravelingTuffy cut the onions, after all we didnt want any crocodile tears. Those puppy eyes are bad enough. We put them into pan with olive oil and added egg plants, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers dried tomatoes... and let them simmer in red wine Then we added fresh finely cut garlic, fresh herbs from the garden, chili powder, salt and pepper... Now let it rest over night. Next we made pork in orange sauce. We washed and prepared the meat, and quickly sautéed all sides. Next we prepared some more onions with pepper salt, chicken fond and some orange juice. We poured it over the meat and put all into the microwave oven. We also prepared turkey roulades. We cut turkey into thin layers. Mixed dried tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger root and spices, spread that filling on the turkey meat and rolled it up. We rolled them in spiced flour and put them into the pan to brown them from all sides. In a casserole dish we added chicken fond, cream, coconut milk, red curry, a habanero pepper, lemon leaves and soy sauce. Then it all went into the oven for half an hour. For dessert we made tiramisu. We spread out some Löffelbiskuit and dreanched it in espresso. We prepared the cream with amaretto and raw eggs, spread it over the lower layer and put more Biskuit on top. We added more espresso and put it all into the fridge over night. Who wants to come for dinner tomorrow?
Apperveilchen Posted Sep 18, 2010, 2:30 pm	We went to the famer's market in Rüttenscheid. There are farmer's markets in many parts of the city, but we like the one in Rüttenscheid best because it had the largets choice of fresh vegetables, fruit and cheese. We had to park quite some way away because many people think the same. They had some very pretty flowers. Here are rolls and bread from an organic bakery. There's always a long line here. These wreaths are hung on the front door or put on the table as fall decoration. The fountains is a sitting woman with kind of an umbrella with water dripping down. Luckly we haven't had any rain today. Behind it is an older house that has been renovated and kind of a winter garden added to the top floor. There are also stands selling meat or fish.
Apperveilchen Posted Oct 4, 2010, 10:18 pm	We're still here and because TravelingTuffy likes to try out the candy of the world, out host unpacked some. Of course we other tvs were there at once and had to try some, too. We started out with some swiss chocolate with 70% cacao, our host's current favourite. Jelle's favourite, too. Personally, I prefered the sweeter kind. Here's a Butterkeks (butter cookie): They come as regulars, whole wheat, with or without choclate cover and sometimes, as in this case, with a yoghurt cream. Yummy! Swiss chocolate also come in variations, of course. Napolitains are small pieces, individually wrapped and often come in packs of different kinds: Zartbitter/dark chocolate, Haselnuss/hazlenut, Milchschokolade/milk chocolate, and giandor(or a variation - a kind of chocolate/nut cream) Here's Brause. It bubbles and prickles on the tongue. Ahoi is a favourite kind of that sweet here and these little bears come in coke, strawberry, banana or peach flavour. There's also powder to dissolve in water, big chunks or other small forms with different flavours. Maoam is another favourite brand. It's chewy candy in all kinds of forms now, regular or extra sour flavours (which should be "sauer" in German, but for some reason it says "sour" on the wrapper). No list of favourite brands of candy would be complete without Haribo. Here we have their licorice mix, called Matador, but licorice is Lakritz in German. There's salt licorice or other kinds in there. Here's the favourite licorice snail: Lakritzschnecke. It can be eaten like this or be unwound, or even separated into halfs before eating. I'm stuffed! I think I ate 10x my weight in candy today.
Apperveilchen Posted Oct 9, 2010, 10:11 pm	We went for a long autumn walk today. Here are the pictures, I'll add comments later. mushrooms:
Apperveilchen Posted Oct 10, 2010, 3:18 pm	We were in the city center today after our host got off work but we had to hurry in order to complete our errand before closing time. Here you can see part of the main public library.
marcie08 Posted Nov 14, 2010, 2:40 pm	Hi Mom! I have arrived here in Austria and was greeted by many other toyvoyagers. They had just returned from a short holiday in Belgium! They told me all about their adventures and even shared their chocolate with me! That was so really nice! Bye for now!
marcie08 Posted Nov 14, 2010, 2:43 pm	Hi Mom! We had a really nice breakfast today and I even got my own cup of tea. Then we watched the start of the skiing-season on tv. Austria is a big skiing nation and so we tvs watched and had our fingers crossed. It did not help though... But I enjoyed it very much! Take care, Mom!
marcie08 Posted Nov 28, 2010, 2:19 pm	Hi Mom! My host mom started to prepare for Christmas time! It is a tradition here that you have an "Adventkranz". The four weekends before Christmas are called 1., 2., 3., and 4. Advent. Every family has a wreath with 4 candles on it and every Sunday, you light one. I helped prepare this Adventkranz. We put some candles on it and some ribbons! We also decorated the door wreath! What do you say - great, isn't it? Have a nice first week of December! Love
marcie08 Posted Dec 5, 2010, 1:20 pm	Hi Mom, today I went to work with my host mom! I was a huge help!  I stapled some papers, and we printed stuff and I managed the telephone! And I found the secret office sweet stash  But I was happy when the work hours were over and we were allowed to go home and relax! Bye!
marcie08 Posted Dec 5, 2010, 1:23 pm	Hi Mom! Do you know the tradition of having an Advent-Calendar? Children in Austria get one on December 1st and every day they can open a window of this calendar. There are small presents in it, usually chocolates. You can see me here with a chocolate-advent-calendar and I was allowed to open the window today. Look, I found some chocolate  Bye!
marcie08 Posted Dec 19, 2010, 4:01 pm	Hi Mom! Today we went to one of Vienna's famous Christmas markets. This one is in front of the city hall. You can get everything from Christmas decoration to toys or other handmade stuff...they also sell food and various kinds of hot wine! It is called "Punsch" or "Glühwein". It is delicious, but I was only allowed a small amount because of the alcohol!
marcie08 Posted Dec 26, 2010, 6:27 pm	Hi Mom! Today, a new voyager arrived! It is a really nice bunny! I am sure we will be friends soon! Bye!
marcie08 Posted Dec 26, 2010, 6:32 pm	Hi Mom! It will be Christmas soon, so we decided to bake some cookies! We made some shortbread cookies - called "Linzer cookies". They are filled with jam and the ends are then dipped in chocloate. I am sure you want to try, but sorry, no cookies left
marcie08 Posted Dec 26, 2010, 6:46 pm	Hi Mom! Today I helped to build some furniture. My host mom brought some packages from IKEA home and we then tried to assemble it! You have to look at the instruction manual and then find the right parts! That was fun, but hard work, too. So when we were finished, I was treated to a huge cup of coffee!
marcie08 Posted Dec 26, 2010, 6:53 pm	Hi Mom! Today we did some sightseeing. You can see that Vienna is decorated with Christmas lights, but you can't see them right now, as it was not dark then, but believe me when I say it's beautiful! We walked from the State Opera through Kärtnerstraße down to Stephansplatz with the famous Cathedral. You can also see the Albertina, a museum where you can see some of Michelangelo's and Picasso's work right now. The place in front of it was renamed after the late major of Vienna, Helmut Zilk. That was a nice tour, but now, I am really tired!
marcie08 Posted Dec 26, 2010, 6:58 pm	Hi Mom! We continued our sightseeing tour today and went to the Kaisergruft, the place where the late Habsburg kings and queens and emperors are put to rest. We walked around in the city center again and then we went to the Hundertwasser Haus, decorated by the late architect and painter Friedensreich Hundertwasser! What an extraordinary building! And on the last picture you can see the landmark, the Riesenrad.
marcie08 Posted Jan 11, 2011, 7:08 pm	Hi Mom! Here you can see me helping in the kitchen. My host parents prepared for the big Christmas dinner and I wanted to help, too. You can see me preparing a jelly for the starter. I had to grate the lemons and then I put them in a pan together with some wine and juice and let it simmer. Then we took care of the fish. We stuffed it with fresh herbs and lemons! Wow, I am such a good cook
marcie08 Posted Jan 11, 2011, 7:18 pm	MERRY CHRISTMAS, MOM! Here in Austria, they celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December. Every family has their own tradition on how to celebrate and what to eat. Yesterday I helped preparing some things for the meal and today I was finally allowed to eat it  You can also see the Christmas tree. Of course, there are different ways to decorate the tree. Some people use glass ornaments, others figurines carved from wood and here we used a mix up of things that the family has collected over the years! Of course there also were presents! The presents are brought by the Christkind here by the way - not by Santa Clause. The Christkind is kind of an angel that brings the presents and the tree. When it has finished decorating and arranging the presents, it rings a bell and flies away! Well, I heven't seen the Christkind, but the presents!
marcie08 Posted Jan 11, 2011, 7:22 pm	Hi Mom, the days after Christmas are normally spent with the family. So we drove around from family member to family member. Here are some impressions of the visits!
marcie08 Posted Feb 24, 2011, 8:17 pm	Hi Mom! Today we went to a wonderful shop, it's a paradise for dinosours with a sweet tooth  It is a hops that sells beautiful cakes and cupcakes. We bought cupcakes. You can see the two flavours we bought: Mango (the yellow one) and cranberry (the red one). Wow, they were delicious!
marcie08 Posted Feb 24, 2011, 8:33 pm	Hi Mom! Here are some pictures from our sightseeing tour through Vienna. We started with the Schönbrunn Castle and the Gloriette. It was sooo cold there, with an icy wind blowing... So we went back to the city center to the Museum's Quarter. That is a combination of many different museums, for example the Leopold Collection. We enjoyed a coffee in a restaurant there and then went on to the Museum for art history and natural history! Servus!
MorgenSter Posted Jun 3, 2011, 8:39 pm	Oh BOY !!! What a beginning!!!! So many things happened and we couldn't upload the photos we've taken... but here they are )) My host had many life serious problems and disappeared... She is so terribly sorry and so afraid to come back to people that hated her now ... but she wanted to do this for me and my mommy... To show a little bit of what I have seen here so far... I'm fine mommy, not lost !!! And we will see each other soon AND I made a wish come true!!! I went swimming in a tropical beach!!! Check it out !!!! That's it for now
MorgenSter Posted Jun 3, 2011, 8:40 pm	Oh BOY !!! What a beginning!!!! So many things happened and we couldn't upload the photos we've taken... but here they are )) My host had many life serious problems and disappeared... She is so terribly sorry and so afraid to come back to people that hated her now ... but she wanted to do this for me and my mommy... To show a little bit of what I have seen here so far... I'm fine mommy, not lost !!! And we will see each other soon AND I made a wish come true!!! I went swimming in a tropical beach!!! Check it out !!!! That's it for now
MorgenSter Posted Aug 9, 2011, 10:05 pm	Hello!!! Before I keep on with my traveling around the world there is still one post left from Brazil... *actually two. The big new evangelic church Old train station that is no longer in use City view at night ! See you at the next post, my Goodbye party!!!
dzejna Posted Sep 19, 2011, 6:28 pm	Hello Mum! Yuppie, I finally arrived to my destination here in the Czech Republic. According information on the envelope I got stuck at the customs office - we have no idea why, but luckily I got through without any complications - it just took quite long. Anyway - today I have met many creatures - humans (my host mum and host dad of course) and bunch of other toys. Three of them are home staying toys (the big ones) and the two little fellows are TV´s too. They all have been very pleased to meet me They said that I am first dragon who came into this house and they all wanted to see me spit fire. He he. Luckily they were not disappointed to hear that actually I am a terrible crocodile.  We spent this afternoon chatting - I told them about my time in Brazil where I was with Fed (Fed spent summer here in 2010). I also started to learn Czech... funny language. I think that´s all for now, I am off to bed, but I try to write again soon. Love, Drilo
dzejna Posted Mar 16, 2012, 7:34 pm	Hi Mum, today I have a sensational update for you. Imagine, my host dad prepares for his doctorate at the university and he took me with him to his research lab! First, I had to listen to a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo (which I did not understand at all), but then finally I was assigned a special research task to do. The research project was focused on testing of new material using so called acoustic emission method. The aim was to prove the method to be usable on brand new material specimens - so called geo-polymers. These state-of-art substances resemble to an artificial stone. First, I was given a range of specimens to select the right one for the experiment. I have selected the leftmost cube as you will see later. Then, I carefully chose an appropriate sensor for the acoustic emission measurement. I was not easy as my host dad has an impressive set of sensors for various applications... To further enhance the signal, I was told to use the pre-amplifier. I fixed it on the end of sensor cable using a special turn-over lock. The pre-amplifier was then connected to the signal analyzer, which is a box-like machine, similar to desktop computer as you know it. The cube specimen was quite heavy, as I moved it to the right position and chose the best surface for the sensor. Using a rubber band, I tried my best to fix the sensor to the cube. However, my host-dad helped me with this part, because it was too much for my little paws. And the, imagine, I was given a micro-pensil and I tried to generate a broad-band acoustic pulse by a procedure called "pentest" (funny name, isn´t it?). To do so, I was told to break the lead of the pencil on the surface of the cube close to the sensor. And gosh! It really worked! During the measurement run, my host dad told me several times to adjust the signal volume, so I carefully set a new signal level on the analyzer. Of course, I worked with the control PC as well! I was given a training so that I could recognize the right sample of digitized signal on-screen. It was real fun to select proper wave-forms and save them to dis for further processing. Some experts from the lab came to see me and everybody was surprised how nice my pulses were (you know, scientists are a bit weird...). The only thing I regret is that I did not get a white laboratory gown, because I was to small for regular sizes... Gosh, when I am reading this again I see I might become a successful scientist when I come back home :-) Don´t you think? Well, this is all for today. Your Drilo alias "Einstein"
dzejna Posted Aug 14, 2012, 7:37 pm	Hi Mum, finally I do have some update for you!! Last Sunday we decided to go for a short trip to see a Macocha Abyss.It is in the Moravian Karst area, which is close to place I live now. This abyss is quite deep. Macocha means step-mother and there is a whole story about this place having this name. Many years ago there was a happy family - mother, father and their son Martin. But one day the mummy got sick and died. After couple more years the father got married again and he had another son with his new wife - Martin´s step-mother. She became very jealous of him. One day when she was at home alone with Martin she took him to the forest. They came near to the abyss and she pushed him down! (Uff, what a horrible idea!).  But as soon as she did it she realized the terrible guilt and jumped down too.  After couple hours the father got back home and found the house empty. He went to the forest to look for the rest of his family and heard someone crying from the direction of the abyss. When he carefully looked down, he saw his own son hanging on a tree. With the help of neighbors he got him back up and found out the whole story. Since then people call the abyss "Macocha". Today there are two bridges which allow you to look deep down into the abyss safely, so there is no need to worry about any TV who goes there. Here I am on the upper bridge checking it out. And here I am looking right down… uff. I was also studying the all the information signs, so I can tell you all about in when I get home. And these images are from the lower bridge. On the way back we had to climb all these stairs, luckily my host dad carried me  Resting... And here I am with the baby girl I was looking after all those months. She looks funny here. That’s it for today, hope we will do more trips like this one soon. Love, Drilo
dzejna Posted Aug 16, 2012, 7:14 pm	Dearest Mum, today I have visited a local sweetshop, or maybe a bakery, I don´t really know what is the proper name for it in English. It is a shop where you can have ice cream, coffee and where they bake sweet pies, cakes and this kind of stuff.  Check out the images. After a looong thinking I choose coffee with whipped cream and of course ice cream, because the weather here is quite hot at the moment. Yummy yummy! Bye for now, Drilo
dzejna Posted Aug 28, 2012, 7:49 pm	Dear Mummy, on Saturday I have visited a small airshow in the village nearby. It was not airshow for any big airplanes, only the small ones (also small choppers) and models of airplanes. Look at the images I have for you! These are the real airplanes: Here I was sitting right at the propeller and I muts admit, it was a bit scary  And here you can see some of the models - perfect size for me, don´t you think? I could have take it and fly right over to you, but I soon realized that I would have a fuel problem And some choppers here - they were really tiny, I couldn´t believe that they are ment for two people!! Here you can see a bit of the airport... Bye for now, I will write again soon! Love, Drilo
dzejna Posted Sep 1, 2012, 7:02 pm	Hi MOM, today we went for a walk in the town of Blansko where my host-dad works. It is a small town with not many sight-seeings. On a small square, there were funny bronze statues of foals. I sat on them for a while, look at me there! People here seem to like statues, there were some more very close… And the building behind me is a town-hall. There are many weddings and ceremonies in summer. Unfortunately, there was nobody today. There is also a small chateau with statues in the park and a fountain. I was told that there were so many statues in the town – there used to be a famous ironworks there and the products included art castings. Some of them were placed in town’s squares and parks. I also saw this old bridge. It was ment for trains years ago, now it is just a technical monument. What a nice walk! Write to you soon, love, Drilo
dzejna Posted Sep 3, 2012, 7:16 pm	Dear Mum, last week we went for a very nice walk with the baby in small town Jedovnice. This place is very popular during the summer among tourists because of it´s nice surroundings and a big lake. The walk we took was all the way around this lake, so you can check it out with me. This is the very beginning of our walk. Me against the sun and water. Boats… Meadows… Some construction for new lake, which will be right behind the first one – it is ment for fish, not for swimming. On the way again. And here on the other side of the lake. We didn´t forget to stop for the refreshments. Behind me you can see the baby. And this was the last part. The weather was very nice, I really enjoyed ale the afternoon. I still have plans for more activities here, so you can wait couple more updates before I head back to you! Xo xo, Drilo
dzejna Posted Oct 17, 2012, 7:34 pm	Dearest Mum, guess what I did last weekend! My host dad took me to the firing range with him, and I was actually aloud to shoot from a real gun. Wow. Now you will have your own agent to take care of you as soon as I get back home. And here come the images You need to load the gun first… It is ready now. Then I was checking the target… here is the whole perspective. And Bang! Bang! Shooting was next. I am very good, don´t you think? (And looking quite tough  .) Bye, Drilo.
Leslie Posted Dec 9, 2012, 2:42 am	Hi everyone! I'm finally back home after my long trip through the world! I bought a beautiful postcard from Czech Republic And I met my sister Kirin after more than 2 years apart from eachother! It's so nice to be back home! Thanks to everyone who helped me on my journey! Drilo

Back