All Saints Day at Powązki

Polish people celebrate All Saints Day on November 1st. It's a very important holiday.

While we were in Poland we went to the cemetery three times. Few days before All Saints Day we went to clean the graves in the Powązki cemetery (which is the oldest cemetery in Warsaw). Here are some photos of our family graves:

Before cleaning

After cleaning

My great-grandmother and
great-great-grandmother's grave

Most of the alleys in the cemetery looked like this:

On All Saints Day we went to the Powązki cemetery at night. It was even more beautiful than during the day. There loads of people. All the graves had candles and lots of flowers on them. There was the nice candle smell in the air.  It was quite cold, but not as cold as in previous years.

Look how nice it is now!

Graves of famous people, like this singer, had  l o a d s  of lights!

And more!!!!!!!

On November 2nd is All Souls Day. On that day one should also go visit more graves. We went to another cemetery, Powązki Military Cemetery. Many polititians, soldiers and famous people are buried there. 

I was most interested in seeing the graves of young people who died during Warsaw Uprising in 1944. I found the grave of the author of one of my favourite books "Kamienie na Szaniec", Aleksander Kamiński. There were also graves of those who were portrayed in that book, Alek, Zośka, Rudy and other  Warsaw Uprising heros.

Graves of those who lost their lives in World War II.

The grave of the author of the book.

The graves of Zośka, Alek and Rudy.

Polish cemeteries are so different to the Taiwanese ones and people visit them more often than in Taiwan. What do you think about Powązki cemetery?

On water and in air

A week ago we came to Poland. Before coming here we stayed a few days in Hong Kong. On the day we were flying out of  Hong Kong we went on a yacht cruise - it was so nice and warm.

The boat we were on.

Relaxing on a yacht

The next day we landed in cold, but sunny Europe - Zurich and later Warsaw.

So far in Warsaw we went to the Old Town.

We also went shopping. My Mom got me some shirts and books. One is about the history of Poland.
                                                                               

Yesterday we went to the Warsaw Rising Museum. It's a museum about Warsaw Uprising which took place during World War II (Aug.1,1944 - Oct.4,1944). The whole Warsaw was destroyed and many, many people were killed.

The divided Poland

The uniforms of Polish army pilots.

The plane that dropped food to occupied Warsaw.

Skiing with my sister in Japan

Three weeks have passed since I got back from Japan. I've spent there for 21 days with Zozo and other ski instructors.

It's not all ours!

First Japanese drink - strawberry milk tea! Yummy!

Banner welcoming Taiwanese tourists

Zozo was teaching skiing to the Taiwanese kids who were coming there with their parents. Each camp was 5 days long, the first day of the camp was the last day of the previous one.
Most of the days we skied from 9 am to 3pm, with a break for lunch.
The weather was constantly changing - there were sunny, snowy and rainy days.
My sister has a ski instructors license and I don't, so I could only help her a bit, most of the time I was helping kids to get up after they fell and making sure they put back the skis well.

Salomon skis

Me

On top of the mountain

We stayed in Shizukuishi Prince Hotel and Resort in the very north of Honshu island (Iwate Prefecture). In summer the mountain we skied on is a golf course. Unfortunately after a few days of eating the same food every day, we had enough of it. The hotel didn't have a washing machine so we had to wash everything by hand, it was not fun at all. But there was an outdoor onsen, which I liked a lot!

Our hotel

It was fun to be back on snow! In two weeks I will be going skiing again, but this time with the whole family.We will even go heli-skiing!

The snowman other kids made.

I am in Poland !

Last Sunday I arrived in Poland. It was a VERY long flight - it took us over 24 hours door to door!
We first flew Hong Kong where we waited for 3h for our flight to Zurich. And then in Zurich we had less than one hour to change.
In Warsaw Babcia, Dziadek and Ciocia Basia waited for us at the airport.

In less than two weeks Zozo will also come to Poland and later my Dad will join us too. This year we will spend Christmas Eve in Poland (on the X'mas Day we have to fly back to Taiwan). I wish it would be a white Christmas! Right now it's only cold and a bit wet, no sign of snow :-(

Babcia and Dziadzia have a new dog, his name is Lutek - just like my guinea pig (R.I.P.). They got the dog from a shelter. I take him for long walks. He likes to play with a stick and his reward is bread - strange dog - likes bread and carrots :-)
I will write more in the next few days. 

Ania 來我們家

禮拜二很忙，爸爸媽媽和我坐了一整天的車。我們先開車把爸爸送到高雄，然後我跟媽媽先去屏東接 Ania，再回去高雄接爸爸。在回台北的路上，我們去楠西找莉莉阿姨，她送我們很多芒果。回到家已經晚上10點了。

玲玲來我們家的第二天很想屏東的家。星期四Ewa阿姨來我們家，Ania 除了看她的兒子Artur在玩水以外，也在看我吹saxophone。

星期五我們在家裡等蘇力颱風，結果颱風半夜才來。星期六早上我發現我們院子裡的搖椅被風吹走了！下午我做了cappuccino spice 餅乾給客人吃，因為下午有爸媽的朋友來我們家。因為他們也有帶狗，所以我很他們的兩個孩子去遛狗，帶他們看瀑布。今天瀑布的水特別多。

Cruising

Do you know why I haven't written for so long?

I went for a cruise with Zosia, my Taiwanese grandparents and 2 aunts.

Our cruise liner

Arrived in Keelung and ready to go on board.

Ready to board

It was my first cruise ever. We went to Japan and Korea.
I liked the time on the cruise ship, but I don't enjoy the land trips. They were boring.
On the ship I went swimming (the water in the pool was salty), walked around, watched people dancing on the deck. Zosia and I made friends with bartenders (they were from India and Philippines) and some other Taiwanese teenagers.
 

There was even a water slide!

Fun in the pool!

Look at me jumping!

One of the Indian bartenders, Kuma.

Taiwanese friends that we met on the cruise.

The first evening we watched a magic show, but we couldn't watch it to the end, because my grandparents and aunts told us we have to go for dinner.
I liked the food on the cruise very much. There was a 24h buffet restaurant an a-la-carte restaurant. I liked the Italian food (ravioli with mushrooms, spaghetti, pizza) and chicken soup with noodles the most. The ship was Italian so the Italian food the best!

All dressed up for dinner.

I forgot to write that the ship was called "Costa Atlantica".
I wish that one day I can go on a cruise again or maybe be a bartender on a cruise...

Next I will need to write about the basketball camp I had last week...

3 days in Pingtung 屏東

We were away for 3 days last week. We left on Thursday morning and came back on Saturday night. On Thursday we drove straight to Pingtung city 屏東市 where we met with somebody. We went for dinner with another homeschooling family.
For the night we stayed at a Pingtung University 屏東大學 guest house. This university has a huge campus! And it's very easy to get lost. On Friday we went to the LiuDui Hakka Culture Park to play in sand and water. It was very hot so playing in water was the best thing to do.

I loved playing in the fountains!

 

 

 

Construction ahead!

That was not all for the day.
Later we drove a very narrow mountain road, which was broken in few places, to Dashe 大社村 aborigine village.

We had to turn back and take a teeny tiny temporary road.

Will it come down or not? My Mom was really scared.

Everybody from that village was evacuated after the Aug 8th, 2009 八八水災 floods. Since then only 4 families came back. We met two of the families. They have 5 kids, 3 of them are homeschooled, just like me. We had lots of fun walking around the abandoned village  with them and playing together. On Saturday we even worked with them in the field!

Take a look at the photos my Mom and Zozo took:

My new friends!

We made special dumplings out of the millet they grow.

Next morning we rode in their Ferrari ;-) to the filed.

 

There I made fire to boil water for lunch.

 

Had to turn over the weeds so they would dry..

And later burn them to fertilize the soil.