Essen, Germany - 23rd January 2008
By: BlackCat
So, at the moment I am at home and I want to introduce myself, so that you know who is travelling around there !
So, this is me in a tree of my mummy !
I am happy living in Essen, that's in the West of Germany. But now it turns boring and my mummy found this site here. So we talked with my big brother and my twin brother and decided to send me on the way around the world.
Me in the front of my big and my twin brother !
I have my little notebook on my side where the people, who will give me a home, can write little things in and maybe paste inside photos and little postcards !
Me and my notebook, so you can imagine how big it is (15 cm) !
I am a funny and a nice bear. I love playing hide and seek, having fun and seeing all the nice buildings and places in the world.
That's me riding a wild cat ^^!
I'm good in playing hide and seek.
So now I'm looking for somebody who will show me his places and things all around the world.
That's me waiting for somebody to show me something nice !
There are some important things you should know before giving me a home:
1. I want to be at your house around a month, not longer please!
2. My mummy wants to get a postcard from me everytime I visit something special. But at least once I visit someone (so host #1 send her one, host #2 send her one and so on).
3. I have a little notebook at my side (it is 15 cm high) and I really would like to write in it as much as possible! If it is full, please tell my mummy and she will send another one out !
4. Please make much photos of me ! My mummy, my brothers and my daddy will miss me and I think I can make some happy moments, when I send them a photo !
5. Please update my Travelog at least 2 times a week!
It would be nice when you want to host me. Just PM my mummy please. She will send me to you or bring you on the list !
My travelling list:
Amerika
1. Hancock, MI - USA - masucci
2. Rome, NY - USA - Michele_one_L
3. Colorado - USA - wourpet
4. Miami, FL - USA - carlissa
Australia
1. sararingham
2. Sydney - becka_kate !!!NOT UNTIL SEPTEMBER!!!
Asia
1. Novosibirsk - Russia - Oksana
2. Japan - yumi
*searching*
Europe
1. Arras - France - Fleurdunord
2. London - England - Deborah
3. Munich - Germany - Pandamao
4. Wittshire - United Kingdom - Steve /+/ Helly
*searching for more*
Africa
*searching*
more to come !
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Posted Jan 23, 2008, 2:42 pm Last edited Aug 19, 2008, 10:39 am by BlackCat
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Hancock, MI, USA - 7th February 2008
By: masucci
Hi Mom!
I made it to the USA today - my new host Melissa was very excited to greet me!
It's very cold here, Melissa says the temperatures have been in the single digits or below zero degrees Fahrenheit for over a week now. It sure looks pretty outside, but boy is it deceiving:
Melissa lives in a small, old town, most of the buildings are older and the people of the town like to keep up that image when 'new' buildings come in.
I was greeted by a lot of furry friends at Melissa's apartment. I got to meet Stitch! He's Melissa's buddy, and guards the TV and DVD player in the living room:
And her apartment-mate, Bill, loves Penguins. I got to meet them all for a while:
And I got introduced to all the visiting TVs that were here already.
There's Little Teddy, Weasley, Sully Monster, and me!
We're heading out to look at the snow statues today. The deadline for having them done was 8am this morning - I arrived just in time!
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Posted Feb 11, 2008, 6:28 pm
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Hancock, MI, USA - 7th February 2008
By: masucci
Wow!
The snow statues we went to go see are part of the larger celebration at Michigan Technological University called "Winter Carnival". This is the history about it, from the Winter Carnival website:
Michigan Tech often registers more than 200 inches of snow in a season. Not content to let this abundant natural resource go to waste, students band together in an annual celebration of our beautiful, tough, exhilarating, and character-building climate.
Winter Carnival began in 1922, with a one-day Ice Carnival. It was so popular that students made it an annual event, and Winter Carnival as we know it began to take shape.
It was suspended in 1930, in the aftermath of the stock market crash, but in 1934, Blue Key Honor Fraternity resurrected the event. Then, 1936 brought the biggest change, one that would become Carnival's best known tradition: snow statues.
Since then, the statues have become famous for their size, detail, and design as building methods (and secrets) have been passed from year to year.
During World War II, Winter Carnival was again suspended. It took off again in 1946, when the Stage Revue was added, with fraternities, sororities, and other campus organizations presenting skits for the enjoyment of the crowd and the performers alike.
Winter Carnival events start at the beginning of the Spring term, with the construction of the month-long statues (the bigger ones I'll show you in a minute!). Then two or three weeks before the actual event, there are a lot of competitions, like broomball, skiing, human dogsled races, snowboarding, etc.
Then there's a big ta-da at the end on a Wednesday night. On that night a lot of other groups get together and while the people making month-long statues are finishing theirs, they make one-nighter statues that are a lot smaller. There is activity on campus all night until the wee hours of the morning, and the deadline to be finished is 8am on Thursday. Then Thursday morning everyone walks around the area taking photos of them all before they melt/fall apart. All the minute details usually don't last more than a couple days (it warms up and melts, or it'll snow more on top of them, etc.) but the big structures will be up most of the rest of the winter until they melt.
There are so many people around that it was too hard to get a photo with me in it, but I hope you like them anyway! They look so awesome in person, the detail on some of them is amazing.
First the big month-long ones:
King Kong fighting a monster!
Oh yeah, the theme was Frightful Creatures with Chilling Features...
The Abominable Snowman!
The Ghostbusters fighting the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man!
More coming in the next post!
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Posted Feb 11, 2008, 7:45 pm
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Hancock, MI, USA - 14th February 2008
By: masucci
Happy Valentine's Day, mommy!
I hope you had a wonderful day back home!
Miss you,
Pooh
PS. We're going camping! Photos coming soon!
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Posted Feb 16, 2008, 1:42 am
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Hancock, MI, USA - 15th February 2008
By: masucci
There is this small little tea room in Houghton (Hancock's "sister town") that Melissa goes to at least once a week and writes postcards and letters. Everyone there knows her, knows what she orders, and they're all very nice.
You can order an endless pot of tea, soup and sandwiches, cookies, and cake. There are also lots of older/silly hats to wear while you're there.
Melissa brought the others with her last time she went - before I got here. This time she brought just me. We had some yummy Mocha Nut cake and "Buckingham Palace" tea.
We had a lot of fun and it was nice to have something warm to drink to get rid of the chills. The weather has been -way- below zero for several weeks now. Brr!
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Posted Feb 21, 2008, 1:20 pm
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Hancock, MI, USA - 17th February 2008
By: masucci
The town of Hancock, MI has a very strong Finnish Heritage.
We found a little information about it on Hancock's website, if you would like to see it, here: http://www.cityofhancock.com/cityinfo.html
Hancock has an official "sister city" relationship with a town in Finland, called Porvoo. Melissa doesn't know much about it, and had a hard time finding much information (beyond the fact that the relationship exists).
There's a small park on the waterfront called "Porvoo Park" in honor of this sister city relationship. It overlooks the city of Houghton, across the Portage Canal, and gives a good place to take a photo of the Portage Lake Lift Bridge.
You can't see much due to the snow, but in the summer there's a boardwalk along the water, lots of picnic tables, and there's a set of condos to the right.
To the left is the bridge:
This is a pretty unique bridge. It opens to let water traffic through by lifting up the middle part. There are lots of videos about bridges that talk about this unique design. Melissa said she watched one while she was in high school and the people pronounced the name "Houghton" wrong, for Houghton, MI.
There's a little information about it, if you're interested, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portage_Lake_Lift_Bridge
Melissa loves giving us these "history lessons" about the area. More coming soon. Hope you like it!
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Posted Feb 21, 2008, 2:17 pm
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Hancock, MI, USA - 25th February 2008
By: masucci
Yesterday Sully Monster left us and today we got a new visitor, Archibald.
Today we made Broccoli-Cheese soup with Melissa. Usually she makes everything from scratch but today we just made it from a "kit" because she's been so busy she doesn't have a lot of time.
But we tweaked the kit to make it taste really awesome so it's okay.
Melissa says not to worry, that none of us got close enough to the heat to get burned or anything. It was yummy, and a great way to meet our new friend!
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Posted Mar 29, 2008, 9:48 pm
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