Tuesday, November 29, 2016

欧洲圣诞,教育研究:每周三 - EUROPEAN CHRISTMAS, EDUCATION RESEARCH: WEEK THREE

WEEK THREE
Day 15, SATURDAY, 11/26

今天,我们乘坐火车到Szentendre的小镇,绰号“艺术之城”。在火车上,我们遇到了一个匈牙利人,他也是我们的老师。我们不得不走大约十分钟到镇上。步行是非常漂亮,虽然。你沿着多瑙河一直走到城市。这是一个很好的小镇都设置为圣诞节庆祝活动。沿着主要道路出售匈牙利美食以及甜酒,小吃和手工制作的首饰,木制品和围巾。这是非常漂亮。在镇中心是一个大的圣诞树。我们遇到了一个来自纽约的男人作为一个艺术家住在那里。他似乎很喜欢住在布达佩斯。他给了爸爸一些关于如何照顾自己的建议,以防经济崩溃。他说把珍贵的东西储存在房子下,人们在萧条期间需要的东西,如威士忌,香烟和黄金。当然,这些东西都不是生活所必需的,但它们是有用的货币替代品。

Today we took a train out to the small town of Szentendre, nicknamed "the Art City." On the train ride there we met a Hungarian man who was also a teacher like us. We had to walk about ten minutes to get to the town. The walk was very pretty though. You walked along the Danube River up to the city. It was a nice small town all set up for Christmas festivities. There were stands all along the major road selling Hungarian food as well as mulled wine, snacks, and handcrafted jewelry, woodwork, and scarves. It was very pretty. In the center of town was a large Christmas tree. We met a man from New York living there as an artist. He seemed to like living in Budapest quite a bit. He gave dad some advice on how to take care of ourselves in case the economy crashes. He said to store valuable things under the house, things people would need during a depression like whiskey, cigarettes, and gold. Of course none of those things are essential for living, but they are useful substitutes for currency.




















Day 16, SUNDAY, 11/27
我们第二天早起,乘公共汽车到维也纳。我们可以坐在公共汽车的前面,看到匈牙利和奥地利的乡村。有景观大多是绿色滚动他。我了解到奥地利是欧洲森林最密集的国家,几乎有树木覆盖的国家。当我们到达维也纳我们乘坐公共汽车旅游的国家。在游览期间,我们看到许多圣诞老人团体游行城市。这里有一堆愚蠢的圣诞老人向我们的公共汽车挥手。我们看到另一组圣诞老人骑着自行车沿着主要的大道。

奥地利似乎是一个非常有趣的城市,我们希望我们有更多的时间在这里度过。该国以咖啡馆而闻名。我们了解到,这座城市历史上拥挤,许多人将咖啡馆作为自己家的延伸,类似于日本人如何选择一家餐馆来日常游荡和聚集。我们还了解到,在1月维也纳有一个大城市范围的舞会。超过150个地方开放他们的大厅给每个人和任何人进来,跳舞的夜晚。在晚上,我们去了一个美丽的晚餐Weinerschnitzle在一个加热的庭院。

大约午夜,我们跳上一辆公共汽车到我们的下一个位置,布拉格!

We got up early the next day and took a bus to Vienna. We were able to sit at the front of the bus and view the Hungarian and Austrian countryside. There landscape was mostly green rolling his. I learned that Austrian is the most heavily forested country in Europe with nearly have the country covered in trees. When we arrived in Vienna we took a bus tour of the country. While on the tour we saw many Santa groups parading the city. Here were a bunch of silly Santas waving to our bus. We saw another group of Santas riding on bikes down the main boulevard.

Austria seems like a very fun city, we wished we had more time to spend here. The country is famous for its coffee houses. We learned that the city has been historically crowded and so many people used the coffee house as an extension of their own home, similar to how people in Japan would select a restaurant for daily loitering and congregating. We also learned that in January Vienna has a large city-wide dance party. Over 150 places open their halls to everyone and anyone to come in and dance the night away. At night we went to a nice dinner of Weinerschnitzle on a heated patio.

Around midnight we hopped on a bus to our next location, Prague!
























Day 17, MONDAY, 11/28

我们在上午4:30到达布拉格。爸爸和我睡了一会儿,妈妈侦察出该地区。在妈妈回来6点左右后,我们了解到公共汽车站的其余部分正在开放。我们搬到另一个温暖的地区,餐厅和wifi。在那里,我们开始制定我们的计划。妈妈仍然很累,所以爸爸决定早点走在城市周围。他直奔到老城,一路贯通,直到他到达国王桥。

在那天晚些时候,我们将采取同样的路线,除了我们会更进一步,爬到国王的桥的顶部,直到顶部的大教堂。这是一个很长很累的步行。我们惊讶于那里有多冷。它甚至开始下雪了。幸运的是,一辆公共汽车来了,带走了我们大部分的路。之后,我们热身了一个漂亮的杯热巧克力。

我们没有人在公共汽车上睡了很多,所以我们决定终于找到我们的房间,晚上,洗澡,并提前休息。我们先在当地一家杂货店停车,拿起一些小吃。

We arrived in Prague at 4:30 AM. Dad and I slept a bit while mom scouted out the area. After mom returned around 6 we learned that the rest of the bus station was opening up. We moved over to another warmer area with restaurants and wifi. There we started making our plans for the day. Mom was still pretty tired so dad decided to take an early walk around the city. He went straight to the old city, cutting all the way through until he arrived at the King's Bridge.

Later in the day we would take the same route except we would go even further, climbing all the way to the top of King's Bridge and up to the Cathedral at the top. It was a very long and tiring walk. We were surprised how cold it was up there. It even began to snow a bit. Luckily a bus came by that took us most of the way down. After that we warmed ourselves up with a nice cup of hot chocolate.

None of us had slept much on the bus so we decided to finally find our room for the night and take a shower and turn in for an early rest. We did stop at a local grocery store first and picked up some snacks for the house.





















Day 18, TUESDAY, 11/29


今天我们离开布拉格,所以只有很短的时间留在城市。很难知道该怎么做。到目前为止,我们只看到了老城。还有更多的事要做。妈妈想要得到泰式按摩,然后乘坐公共汽车游览整个地区。爸爸想去参观犹太区。

我们最终从圣诞节摊位获得一些街头食品,然后前往按摩院。在我们的路上,我们遇到一群捷克学生在实地考察。我们标记了我们的方式,我们遇到了一个男人制造数以百计的泡沫从打结的绳子,他浸泡在肥皂水。我喜欢在泡泡里玩。朋友和夫妇也站在泡沫里,拍照他们的照片。走得更远,我们看到一个人在他的背上有一个大的娃娃。娃娃是泰国女神的代表。他是广告的按摩院!我们去了。房间以非常舒缓的方式装饰。妈妈预订了自己的按摩课,我和爸爸下楼去买妈妈的礼物。

爸爸不知道首先买什么。很难知道为妈妈买什么。她通常不喜欢爸爸选择的衣服。她不喜欢香水或化妆。她喜欢任何匹配 - 例如匹配衬衫为我们所有的人。或者一条带有心脏或其他浪漫符号的项链。爸爸然后记得那些卖着小项链的大圣诞树上的铁匠。他决定买两个。铸造的妈妈的黄道十二宫符号,天秤座以及。

这是非常寒冷,当到达弗罗茨瓦夫巴士总站下午8:30。雪刚刚开始在街上旋转。爸爸匆忙地试图为我和我们的行李找到庇护所。我们最终在售票处找到了避难所。我们的主人,Ceasar,不久收到我们,带我们出去在城外的我们的公寓。在到达之前,他同意让我们停在一个小商店,拿起一些杂货。

车票柜台的女人列出了她认为我们会喜欢的推荐小吃。凯撒帮助我们收集物品。我们很快就知道他们大多只是薯片和其他零食。那天晚上,我们吃了一些波兰饺子,拉面汤,香肠和薯条晚饭。

什么是最好的是我们的房间。凯撒做了一个非常创造性的工作装饰。大厅的灯光穿过一个圆顶帽,金箔裹在里面。他还用木板在原始石膏上修整天花板。装饰来自他的旅行环游世界 - 古巴,阿富汗,俄罗斯,巴西,伦敦和其他地方。总而言之,一个非常好的经验。


Today we are leaving Prague and so only have a short time left in the city. It's hard to know what to do. So far we've only seen the Old City. There is still so much more to do. Mommy wanted to get a Thai massage and then take a bus tour of the whole area. Daddy wants to visit the Jewish Quarter.
We ended up getting some street food from the Christmas stands first and then headed over to the massage parlor. On our way we encountered a group of Czech school children on a field trip. We tagged along and on our way we met a man making hundreds of bubbles out of a knotted rope that he dipped in soapy water. I loved playing in the bubbles. Friends and couples also stood in the bubbles and has their photos taken. Walking further on we saw a man with a large doll on his back. The doll was a representation of a Thai goddess. He was advertising for the massage parlor! We went inside. The room was decorated in a very soothing fashion. Mommy booked herself a massage session and me and dad went downstairs to buy mommy a gift.

Dad wasn't sure what to buy at first. It's hard to know what to buy for mommy. She usually doesn't like the clothes dad chooses. She doesn't like perfume or makeup. She likes anything that matches--like matching shirts for all of us. Or a necklace with a heart or some other romantic symbol. Dad then remembered the blacksmiths by the large Christmas tree who sold little necklaces. He decided to buy two. A casting of mommy' zodiac symbol, the libra as well.

It was very cold when arrived in Wroclaw bus terminal at  8:30pm. Snow had just begun to whirl over the  streets. Daddy hastily tried to find shelter for me and all our luggage. We eventually found refuge in the ticket office. Our host, Ceasar, picked us up shortly after and took us out to our apartment just outside the city. Before arriving he agreed to let us stop at a small shop and pick up some groceries.

The woman at the ticket counter had made a list of suggested snacks she thought we'd enjoy. Caesar helped us gather the items. We soon learned they were mostly just chips and other snack foods. Well, that night we had some Polish dumplings, ramen soup, sausage, and chips for a late dinner.

What was best though was our room. Caesar did a phenomenally creative job decorating. The hall light was strung through a bowler cap with gold foil wrapped around the inside. He also refinished the ceiling with wood planks over the original plaster. The decorating came from his travels around the world--Cuba, Afghanistan, Russia, Brazil, London, and elsewhere. All in all a very nice experience.



























Day 19, WEDNESDAY, 11/30


我们睡了一会儿,早上准备了一天。 我们买了很多圣诞贺卡,所以我们填满了。 我们最终走出了路。 我们的第一站是药房。 我几乎出了我的咳嗽药,所以我们买了另一瓶。 我们碰巧进入的药店实际上相当老,部分是博物馆。 我们接下来去邮局。 我们给所有的家庭发送了很多卡和款待。 我们的最后一站是当地学校。 波兰的学童似乎很友好。

然后我们乘坐“电车”到市中心。 我们知道我们想买礼物带回家,但它是那么冷,我们认为,以最好的时间外面的最低限度。 我们去了一家书店,也去了几个孩子的游乐设施,然后出去吃饭。 之后,我们决定找一个甜点的地方。 我们最后在一个乔治亚餐厅,我们有奶酪蛋面包。

We slept in a bit and spent the morning prepping for the day. We had bought a lot of Christmas cards and so we filled them out. We eventually made our way out. Our first stop was the pharmacy. I was almost out of my cough medicine so we bought another bottle. The pharmacy we happened to walk into was actually quite old and was partly a museum as well. We next went to the post office. We sent out lots of cards and treats to all the family. Our last stop was the local school. The Polish school children seemed very friendly.

We then took the "tram" to the city center. We knew we wanted to buy gifts to bring back home, but it was so cold we thought in best to keep out time outside to a minimum. We went to a bookstore, and also went on a few children's rides, we then went out to eat. Afterwards we decided to find a place for dessert. We ended up at a Georgian Restaurant where we had cheesey egg bread.




















Day 20, THURSDAY, 12/1


好吧,这是一个漫长的一天。我们在上午4:30乘公共汽车到达柏林。现在是上午5:30,我们乘渡轮前往丹麦。我休息,但爸爸醒了,所以累了。

爸爸没有睡一天。他也没有睡在最后两次公共汽车旅行,所以他是非常困!

今天早些时候,我们了解到德国法律要求我们有一个婴儿座椅。当然,当我们到公共汽车座位不再需要,但是,尽管如此,我们花了几个小时寻找一个。

我们去了两家商店寻找一个座位。首先,我们去了一个商场,我们花了很多时间请教,以及玩所有的婴儿玩具。妈妈买了我自己的婴儿车和一个大房子玩家。之后,我们开始走向另一个婴儿用品店。它是远,外面冷,所以我们最终不得不停止吃午饭。我们很累,冷,饿。我们去了一个越南的地方,有,什么妈妈叫的不真实的汤,人造皮肤。我们也有鸭炒饭。食物只是这样。

我们再次走出去,终于找到了我们一直在寻找的婴儿用品店。汽车座椅是180欧元,但是225美元!爸爸发现一个加高座椅,妈妈马上同意购买。

骑在直升机上后,我感觉真的很冷。它是轻轻下雪,我感觉相当寒冷和潮湿。爸爸看到附近有一个小的购物中心,我们决定跳进几分钟,以逃避冷。

里面我们发现了一个大的圣诞节展示设置。显示器类似于两条街道的交叉点。在交叉口是一个大的说话树。树只用德语发言,所以我们不知道他在说什么,但其余的显示是精灵准备圣诞节,所以我们可以假设他的故事是关于精灵或圣诞老人的车间。有半打的房子。有一家面包店,一家木制店,有一个精灵扑克牌的房子,另一个房子与精灵吃晚饭。我不记得所有的商店了。当我们第一次到达时,我承认,有点害怕。我以前没有见过这样的事情。

感觉所有热身,我们回到外面。妈妈遇到了一些老师在城里举行教育会议。我们和他们聊了一会儿,然后我们再去一次。在下一轮,我坐在一个更老的四岁的德国女孩旁边。后骑妈妈和她谈了一会儿。我们了解到,女孩的奶奶,谁是她今天带她去圣诞市场的奶奶,在波士顿有一个亲密的朋友。朋友其实住在我们旁边的小镇里。她非常兴奋地得知,我们是她的朋友的邻居,我们决定我们会尝试访问他,我们回家后打招呼。

好吧,这是一个漫长的一天。妈妈和爸爸都很累,因为他们没有睡得很好,最后一次公共汽车,他们知道他们有一个漫长的过夜漫长的旅程。我们回到了有很多时间的公共汽车站。

我们有点失望地得知,所有我们努力工作找到汽车座椅是真的没有意义,他们甚至没有检查或要求在公共汽车上。至少我们没有费心去真正买到真正昂贵的。骑行很长。我们在下午11:40离开,直到上午8:40才到。大约5点左右,我们的公共汽车乘坐渡轮到丹麦的岛屿之一。我睡了整个时间,只醒了几秒钟。当我们终于到达柏林,我们都很累。

Well, this has been a long day. We arrived in Berlin by bus at 4:30 am. It is now 5:30 am and we are on a ferry to Denmark. I'm resting but dad is awake and so tired.

Dad hasn't slept in over a day. He didn't sleep on the last two bus trips either, so he is extremely sleepy!

Early today we learned that German law required us to have a baby seat. Of course, when we arrived on the bus the seat was no longer required, but, nonetheless we spent several hours looking for one.

We went to two stores in search of a seat. First we went to a mall where we spent a lot of time asking for advice as well as playing with all the baby toys. Mommy bought me my own baby stroller and a large house player. After that we started heading towards another baby store. It was far away and cold outside and so we eventually had to stop for lunch. We were so tired, cold, and hungry. We went to a Vietnamese place and had, what mommy called an inauthentic soup, faux pho. We also had fried rice with duck. The food was only so-so.

We headed out again and finally found the our baby store we'd been looking for. The car seats were 180 euro though, that's $225! Dad found a booster seat and mom immediately agreed to buying it.

After riding on the helicopter I was feeling really cold. It was lightly snowing and I was feeling rather cold and damp. Dad saw that there was a small shopping center nearby and we decided to hop in for a few minutes to escape the cold.

Inside we found a large Christmas display set up. The display resembled an intersection of two streets. At the intersection was a large talking tree. The tree only spoke in German so we don’t really know what he was saying, but the rest of the displays were of elves preparing for Christmas day so we can assume his story was about elves or Santa’s workshop. There were over half a dozen houses. There was a bakery, a wood shop, there was a house with Elves playing cards, and another house with Elves having dinner. I can’t remember all the shops now. When we first arrived I was, I admit, a bit scared. I hadn’t seen anything like this before.

Feeling all warmed up, we went back outside. Mommy met a few teachers who were in the city for an education conference. We chatted with them for a while, then we went on another ride. On the next ride I sat next to an older four-year-old German girl. After the ride mom talked with her a bit. We learned that the girl’s grandmother, who was the one who took her out to the Christmas market today, had a close friend in Boston. The friend actually lived in the town right next to us. She was very excited to learn that we were neighbors to her friend and we decided we would try to visit him and say hello after we returned home.

Well, this had been a long day. Mommy and daddy were both very tired because they had not slept very well on the last bus ride and they knew they had another long overnight ride ahead. We got back to the bus station with plenty of time.


We were a little disappointed to learn that all our hard work finding the car seat was really pointless, they didn’t even check or ask for one at the bus. At least we didn’t bother to actually buy the really expensive ones. The ride was long. We left at 11:40pm and didn’t arrive until 8:40 am. Around 5 am our bus took a ferry across to one of Denmark’s islands. I slept the whole time and only woke up for a few seconds. When we finally arrived in Berlin we were all very tired.
































Day 21, FRIDAY, 12/2

好吧,首先我们得乘坐火车去机场。我们去轨道5,当有一个制服的人告诉我们,火车被重定向到轨道7.爸爸不得不把所有的行李上楼,并回到轨道7.正如我们到达我们看到火车离开,下一个火车正在轨道5!所以我们不得不把所有的行李倒回来。当我们回到第5轨时,我们在那里遇到了一个英国人。他和爸爸谈了一会儿,告诉我们下一班车在20分钟内到达。我们放松和等待火车,聊聊在英国和美国的政治和生活。那么,我们看到一列火车上来跟踪7说机场!他告诉我们要赶紧,火车必须重新被重定向,我们应该回到轨道7.我们已经知道,这个时候,在轨道的另一端有一个电梯,所以我们不需要把我们的行李上了楼。但仍然,我们再次不得不上下下来得到下一个火车。好吧,当我们在那里,我们意识到,这不是机场火车!虽然我们结束了,我们错过了真正的火车!所以,回到轨道5另外20分钟。我们不再被愚弄,做了下一列火车。这是从那里到机场的一个容易的旅行。我们很幸运能够得到我们的行李在飞机上,因为爸爸以为我们只允许检查2袋,我们有3个重袋。所以,我们现在在飞机上,在回家的路上。

旅途中的想法... hmmm ...。对我来说什么记忆?我认为在所有的游客出来之前早上走过布拉格是我最奇妙的时刻。渡轮乘坐第二。城堡Elsinore也是非常神奇。妈妈问爸爸他想住在哪个国家,他说匈牙利。匈牙利很有趣和有趣,我想爸爸说他想住在那里,因为他相信它提出了更多的机会仍然被发现。

Well, first we had to get on a train to the airport. We went to track 5 and while there a man in uniform told us the train had been redirected to track 7. Dad had to carry all the luggage up the stairs and back down to track 7. Just as we arrived we saw the train leave and the next train was coming on track 5! So we had to lug all the luggage back up and back down. When we got back on track 5 we met a British guy there. He talked with dad for a bit and told us the next train should arrive in 20 minutes. We relaxed and waited for the train, chatting about politics and life in England and America. Well, then we saw a train pull up to track 7 that said airport! He told us to hurry, that the train must have been redirected again, and that we should go back to track 7. We had learned by this time that there was an elevator on the other end of the tracks so we didn’t need to carry our luggage up the stairs anymore. But still, we once again had to go up and down to get the next train. Well, when we got over there we realized that that wasn’t the airport train! And while we were over we missed our real train! So, back to track 5 for another 20 minutes. We weren’t fooled again and made the next train. It was an easy trip from there to the airport. We were lucky to be able to get all our luggage on the plane since daddy thought we were only allowed to check 2 bags and we had 3 heavy bags. So, we are on the plane now and on the way home.
Thoughts on the trip…hmmm…. What memories stand out for me? I think walking through Prague early in the morning before all the tourists came out was the most magical moment for me. The ferry rides rank second. Castle Elsinore was also very magical. Mommy asked daddy which country he would like to live in and he said Hungary. Hungary was fun and interesting and I think daddy said he wanted to live there because he believed it held out more opportunities still to be discovered.














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