Scout camp

After school last Friday, my dad dropped me off at scout camp. The location was Birch Bay, past the Esso oil refinery. When I got there we had a little game of ball tag. After that we had hot dogs for dinner. After darkness fell we gathered around the campfire. Then we had a game of capture the flag in darkness. I didn't use my lantern because I said to myself "light is my enemy" because it would just give away my position. I came close to the flag, and managed to slip past two guards but someone caught me before I could locate the flag and as a result I was in jail for half an hour before I got out. The second attempt was worse than the first because when I was sneaking in the field someone ambushed me from the trees, and I was in jail until the end of the game.
Later that night one of the the leaders was lighting a fire with a candle but it went out, everybody was shouting and clapping but it was ineffective. Then I start rubbing by hands and guess what. I made the fire start with my hands!!!!
After that we sung campfire songs and did skits. Mine (with Brad and Tyler) was about a guy who was bankrupt and a doctor being sued jump off a bridge! We didn't go to sleep until midnight! The morning was rotten, when I woke up I was freezing!!! Brad, Nicky, Tyler, Tried to wake me up. But I wouldn't budge. They got me out of bed by threatening to throw me in a nearby lake. I would die of Hypothermia!
When I got out, breakfast was waiting. After that we went to the activity area. The first one I did was archery. The arrows were blunt but at the right speed the could puncture the human body. Another one of them is the mini zip-line, Only a few feet in length. However it was still fun. The most frightening part was the tower zip-line! There was an other one but the one I went one had a 10 FT FREE FALL!!!!!! Before that you had to climb a ladder.Once you done that you had to cross a wooden bridge, and the wood was 2 feet apart!! When I was on the bridge and ladder my mind was swarming with VERTIGO!!!!!!!! When I went down the zip-line, I was saying "I'm too young to die"!!! After it, I was saying stuff like "I feel sick and disoriented, "CAN WE DO THAT AGAIN!?!?!?" or "THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED!!!"or "that was scary, BUT TOTALLY AWESOME!!!! It was the most EXTREMIST thing I've ever done in my entire life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IN THE OL' WILD BOREAL FOREST

After the first 2 days of Jr. High we went to grandma and grandpa's house in the coniferous forest of the north. Before we left my dad bought a quad but there were some technical difficulties. We weren't the only ones visiting, Mike, Sandra, Daniel, David, Val, Heather, Scott, Dionne, Suzanne and Kirk and their children were all their. The first thing we did was riding on the quads. After that we had a campfire. Some of my uncles left wood on the ground, and the fire was burning it! I said they were MAD! So I ran to the house to warn them of the oncoming Armageddon, but they didn't care. Luckily the area was not burned in a fiery inferno.
The next day we went tubing. Before that I went searching for leeches. I called Thunder Lake, The Leech Breeding Grounds since there were lots of them. When the boat arrived I was the second rider to go on the tube. I went on the single tube and on the first time I went I fell off. You see, a series of waves shook me off balance and caused me to plunge into the lake. The minute my head was above the surface of the water I shouted, "Help! man overboard!!" But I really enjoyed the adrenaline rush.
On the final day in Barrhead we went tubing a second time and I fell off again only this time I flipped. You see, when I was approaching Grayson's tube (we were riding together) my tube flipped and I plunged headfirst into the lake again.
We also did fireworks on one of the days before and I have to say they were really amazing.

THE FIRST DAY OF JR. HIGH!

It's the first day of school. I really enjoyed it! Before I left my eyes spied a hot air balloon with all the primary colors(red,yellow and blue). The minute I got there I went to room 26 where I did a practice lock down and where my teacher explained everything. The first subject I did was drama I explained to the teacher that I had a lot in common with drama then we did a little game to know each other. After that I did math. We did a movie that taught us about facts such as that in the future China will have the most English speaking people and that the first text commercial appeared in December 1992. The next one was Mandarin. I didn't learn any words but the good news is I can finally take Mandarin on the laptop program. If I'm successful I can speak another language. Another subject was science units coming up are planet earth structures and forces etc. Another one was Language arts, where I heard a funny story about a guy who needed to use the washroom and ended up vomiting in the hall! The gr. 7er's avoided it but the students of grade 8 walked through it! Just sick! After the final bell I walked through a small gap in the fence and jaywalked home! Don't tell anybody and I mean anybody that I did that! Or else.

The beginning of the end

I'll tell you the things I did in London before I leave to Canada. When we got there we settled at our apartment. That morning we walked through westminister abbey where we saw many coat of arms, the tomb of elizabeth 1, even graves right underneath our feet!
We also saw Churchill's war cabinets where I saw maps, typewriters, a 1900's timeline, Churchill's cigar, royal marine guards (fake not real) commonwealth allies (on a map) etc. etc. My dad bought 3 war books for me to read. One was about the M4 Sherman tank another was about airborne tactics, the last one was about the kamikaze suicide weapons. I also went to Downing street where the prime minister lives.

While in London we took a lot of trains. One announcement said that pickpockets operated at the station. As soon as I heard that I became very suspicious of everyone. On Thursday we saw the Tate modern museum where we saw the movie The Itch of the Golden Nit, which was made out of children's drawings. Before that we saw my favorite place, the imperial war museum. We saw tanks, planes and artillery. We went to this area where what it would be like during the blitz (the nazi firebombing campaign), and what it be like to be in a World war 1 trench, well the trench had models of british soldiers and the area smelled like Sulphur. Sadly we did not see everything but no worries we returned and saw the rest today! We also saw the Holocaust exhibit and it was just tragic what happened. On a little documentary Joseph Gobbels (head of the nazi propaganda) was speaking about the Jewish people. I never heard such lies in my entire life!

We are now preparing to go home. I will be really happy to see my family again, but I'll miss the wonders of Thailand, Hawaii, Egypt, Turkey, and England.

This is the Shipley around the world trip, 5 countries, 4 continents, 3 oceans, 2 many flights and 1 BIG EXPERIENCE

Aegean adventure

This is my final day in Turkey, but first let me tell you what I did the previous days. We went to Pamnukale where we waded in hot springs and swam in cleopatra pool among ruins of the ancient city hierapolis and we saw saw tombs, ruins and the necropolis. Yesterday we went on a boat tour with our relatives on the Aegean Sea. We swam and dived and used a plank as a diving board. We saw fish sea urchins even a white tube worm! We also had a BBQ on the boat, the food was extraordinary. For entertainment I jumped off the boat while doing an action pose. Today I am going shopping and to the Marmaris castle. Yesterday my father was stopped by the police just because he forgot to use a hand signal when turning. (he was trying to get around a garbage truck stopped in the middle of the road). At that moment I thought we were going to the slammer, the big house, the grey bar hotel. My dad spoke english really fast to get out of it because the police couldn't understand a word he was saying.

Turkish delight

Right now I'm in Marmaris, a town not far from the Aegean sea. I'll tell you what I did in Istanbul. I went to the famous blue mosque which had six minarets and the tiling on the inside which was blue. I also visited Highia Sophia where my sister Sophia got her name. My favourite place was the turkish naval museum. Which had warships from world war one. Galata tower was fascinating and I went vertigo just by going on the balcony. We went to istakal ave. on a tram where I overeacted about an upset stomach.
After Istanbul we flew on a plane to Cappadocia. It is in the Eastern part of Turkey. The best part is we slept in a cave. We explored. We went to the cavern cities where the Hittites and early christians settled. We saw an extinct volcano which formed hoodoos. We climbed the uchisar castle and journeyed across zelve valley.
Then we flew to Marmaris, the town I mentioned earlier. We traveled to both the Medetariannian and the Aegean sea. I visited my cousins. I even played mortal combat a (video game) with them. We went to the ancient city of Ephesus. Ephasus is where Paul preached and was home to the Ephesians. We also went to an abandonded Greek town called Kayakoy. We drove down the datcha peninsula and went to the ruins of Knidos.
I love turkey but still, there is no place like home.

Aquarium adventure

Istanbul was a lot of fun. One day we rode the tramway to the Forum. It's a shopping mall in Istanbul. My dad was going to buy DVD's but first we went to the aquarium. It was called Turkuazoo. I began to like it as soon as I saw the first exhibit. There was a turtle called the mata mata turtle which was found in the amazon river. The next exhibit was full of red bellied piranhas! I heard this story that when a bus crashed into the amazon, 39 people were eaten alive by those ferocious fish!! The next exhibit had puffer fish which was fascinating. The next one had the legendary Arapima. These fish can leap out of the water a whack people off their boats and the person would soon drown. There was a red tailed catfish which could swallow a man whole! Some of the ocean exhibits were full of stingrays. In an 80m underwater tunnel, one stingray flew directly over me. The aquatic tunnel had also sand tiger sharks, a nurse shark and a zebra shark. In one exhibit there was whole family of clownfish, and in another there was very rare fish that reproduced only once in its life! In another there were lots of crustaceans such as crabs, lobsters etc. There was a horseshoe crab exhibit where you can even touch them.
Later we did find DVDs. One movie we saw but did not buy was called Shark in Venice. We get to have a family movie night every night when we come home.
Right now I am in Cappadocia. It is very hot but it will be a lot of fun.