HappyWanderer.org

Hello Friends,

This is our route log:

5/25                 Lysekil, Sweden
5/26                 Hällö, Sweden
5/27                 Hunnebostrand, Sweden
5/28                 Ursholmen, Sweden
5/29                 Tisler, Norway
5/30                 Sandspollen, Norway
5/31 – 6/2        Oslo, Norway

We are now in Norway.  We have seen lots of beautiful sights and done lots of interesting things like climbing up rocky islands to lighthouses and finding sandy beaches.

Now we are exploring Oslo, the capitol of Norway.  When we came here it was my Dad’s birthday.  We celebrated with cake, and presents brought from home.  The next day we went to a big children’s festival.  It was like the spring fair for us but we got to make old fashioned things such as wool balls and Viking bread.  The wool balls were very interesting.  We first took some loose wool and put it in soapy water (it is special soap but you can use shampoo).  Then we took the wool out of the water and squeezed it.  Next we rolled the wool for a long time between our hands until it got hard.  One other amazing thing was the circus.  In the first act two cats were doing tricks on a balance beam and on two people.  The second act a man was bouncing seven balls at one time.  In the third act there were clowns.  The fourth act was very amazing – an acrobat hung from two ropes and was pulled up into the air.  From high up she was doing many amazing tricks.   Finally an elephant came marching out with two camels behind it.  Someone was riding on the elephant’s trunk.  We are planning to go to the Nobel Peace Prize Museum and the Viking Ship Museum while we are in Oslo.

You are all very great friends and I miss you very much.  Have a great summer vacation!!  Until next year…

Your friend, Sophie

Hi Friends,

I had a lot of fun reading your messages.  Thank you!

We are in Norway!  We found a sandy beach and we saw lots of interesting shells and one bone.  Some were razor clam shells.  In the water there are jellyfish.  I made a sand castle with a bridge and Sophie made a wading pool.  I also see a lot of trees on shore.

The city where we are is called Oslo.  It is very very hot.  Our first day here we walked all around. Then we changed clothes and we were allowed to go in the fountains.  In there Karla and I played tag and there were lots of other children too.

We went to a festival.  In part of the festival many people were dressed up like in the Viking times.  We saw people dancing and they showed a hand that meant we could dance with them.  We also made balls of wool.  You take apart the fluffy wool and you put it in soapy water.  (If you don’t have the special kind of soap you can use shampoo.)  You roll and roll and roll the ball between your hands until it feels very hard.  It is sticky and you have to wait until it dries.  We also made viking bread and ate it with honey.  It was really really good with the honey but my hands got sort of sticky.  We jumped on the moon bounce too.  There was kind of a slide moon bounce and one next to it that was not a slide.  It was where you just jumped.  We went to a circus at the festival.  It was amazing because there was one girl who was on two ropes and she did very fancy tricks.  She even stood on the rope and went upside down.  There were also two clowns.

We also saw a book store and it was all in Norwegian.  We found three books that we liked.  One is a Spot book and we guess what the words are and what the story is from the pictures.

I hope you are having fun.

Your friend,  Maria

Hi Friends,We are in Norway.  The last couple days in Sweden we spent on rocky islands with lighthouses.  On those days we studied the plant life, made books describing it and drew pictures of it.

On our first day in Norway we went to a sandy beach, went wading, saw lots of jellyfish, and swam off the boat.  In the Oslo Fjord there are more sandy beaches and more trees on the shoreline, though it is still rocky. Now we are in Oslo, the capitol of Norway.  On our first day in Oslo it was very hot.  We went to a Norwegian bookstore and got a few books.  Then we played in a fountain!The next day we went to a festival in a castle courtyard.  There was a small tent with hula hoops, jump ropes, balls and other toys.  Then we went to a medieval section.  We made wool balls by putting wool in soapy water, squeezing it out and rolling it between our hands.  The longer you roll the harder they get.  You should try making them.  We were told that if you don’t have the special soap they used, then you can use shampoo.  Then we shaped dough into bread, cooked it over a fire, and ate it with honey.  There was also a jester and a man on stilts.  Then we went to the circus tent with an acrobat and even elephants.   The last thing we did at the festival was go on a moon bounce.

Today we went to three museums.  The first one was about Viking ships.  The second one was about a man who had sailed a raft with his crew from Peru to Polynesia.  One adventure he and his friends had was when a whale shark swam underneath their raft.  He was trying to prove that South Americans were the ones who discovered Polynesia and how they could get there. The third one was about a North and South Pole explorer.  His name was Roald Amundson.

I hope you all have a great rest of the school year and summer vacation.

See you in fifth grade!

From, Karla Geagan

Hi Friends,

Thank you so much for your letters.

We are in Lysekil.  Since the last time I wrote to you, we have made lots of new friends, been to a ship museum where we could look at and walk around on the ships, and gone to a petting zoo and an aquarium.  We have gone rock climbing, hiking, and swimming.  We have collected mussels, gone on a cable ferry, and seen lots of fortresses.  I’m also trying to build a fishing rod.

I hope you are all having fun and am sad to hear that Oliver and Olivia are leaving.  I hope your new schools are very fun and that you make lots of new friends.

Here are the answers to your questions:

1.  I really like living in Sweden.
2.  The cities are all very clean and the islands are rocky.
3.  The little mermaid in Copenhagen is kneeling on a rock facing the harbor entrance.  She has her hair in a braid.
4.  I am learning vocabulary, math, grammar, computers, science, social studies, art and gym.
5.  In Sweden people speak Swedish but know a lot of English.
6.  In Swedish both Hei and Hallo mean “Hello”
7.  In Germany people use different names but your names would stay the same.
8.  When you share a cabin, it is really nice to talk to each other late at night.

Adjø

Karla

Route log since 5/15 (all in Sweden):

5/15-16/08      Kungsö
5/17-20/08      Göteborg (Gothenborg)
5/21/08            Högö
5/22/08            Marstrand ->Koön Island
5/23/08            Kölkerön Island
5/24/08            Tjällsö
5/25/08            Lysekil

Hi Friends,

It is sunny but cold sometimes.  We are in Lysekil, Sweden.  There is an aquarium here with fish and things that live in the water here.  In the petting tank we saw a sea cucumber, star fish, crab and a mermaid’s purse which really came from a shark.  A man was talking in Swedish and a little bit in English so we could learn.  One fish in the aquarium was a huge bluish fish that grows new teeth every year when the old ones are worn down.  It looked scary to me.  On our boat we sometimes see lots of little fish near the dock.  I even found two little starfish one day and lots of mussels.

It is really rocky here.  On the islands there are prickly bushes.  We try not to walk on them so we don’t get prickled.  There are some sandy places and some muddy places, but mostly rocky.  We anchored at a nature reserve.  We got to see rams (daddy sheep) with horns.  They were too scared of us for us to pet them.

The biggest city was Gothenborg.  There was a ship museum.  We went in a submarine.  We pretended we really lived on it. We went on a freighter with a model of a captain.  It was a giant ship.  Another day we went to the zoo and petted the goats.

Today we are going to a library.  We are hoping there will be an English section.  We are also going to bring an English book and look for the same book in Swedish to try to read Swedish.

Is it sunny and warm or cold and rainy?  Have you been finding interesting things or not?

Love, Maria

Hello Friends,

We have made some new friends since the last time I wrote to you.  We have also climbed a lot of rocky islands.  There are many prickly bushes on the rocky islands.  One time we went to a rock where we could tie up our boat on some metal posts, while our boat floated against the rocks in the water.

We have also gone to a ship museum where we got to go on board the ships.  There was even a submarine.  In the submarine there were sound effects to make it sound more real.  The submarine was very small and it looked very crammed to live in it.

Have you been having a good time too?  What have you been learning?  Are there any special things happening?  I hope you are having a good time.  Please write back.

Your friend, Sophie

Hi Friends,How was the spring fair?  Did you take any more field trips?  Are you still getting ready for field day?After we left Copenhagen, we stopped once more in Denmark and then went to Sweden.  While we were sailing we could see both Denmark and Sweden.  The next day, our first full day in Sweden, we climbed up and down cliffs and visited a lighthouse.  To climb down one cliff we used a rope.  At the bottom of that cliff we explored a cave which the Vikings probably used.  The next day was really fun.  We went swimming, kayaking, and saw ponies that were on the beach.   That day we also took a long hike on the island.  On May 11th, while we were sailing, we saw porpoises in our wake.  We could hear them breath out when they surfaced.  That evening we rowed and kayaked to an island where seagulls were nesting.  Because they were nesting we had to leave quickly.  Instead we rowed and kayaked to a different beach where we built huge sand castles.  On that beach there were a lot of mosquito larvae.  The next morning we woke up to waves rocking our boat from side to side.  We had to sail out of the cove and to another harbor.  In Varberg we have visited an old castle and museum.  In the castle there was still a moat and we could climb up stairs and see the whole town.  I hope you are having a great time.From, KarlaP.S.  Here is our route log so far:4/18                 Schleimunde, Germany
4/19-20            Bagenkop, Denmark
4/21                 Enehøje, Denmark
4/22                 Onsevig, Denmark
4/23 – 4/24      Vejrø, Denmark
4/25                 Vordingborg, Denmark
4/26                 Kalvehave, Denmark
4/27                 Rødvig, Denmark
4/28 – 4/29      Mosede, Denmark
4/30                 Dragør, Denmark
5/1-5/6            Copenhagen (København), Denmark
5/7                   Humlebæk,Denmark
5/8                   Hoganäs, Sweden
5/9-10              Hallands Vederö, Sweden
5/11                 Stensjö, Sweden
5/12 – 5/13      Varberg, Sweden