Sumner

The day started out really late today, ten o’clock for me. We didn’t go to breakfast because we were going to have lunch in just a few hours. I decided to go up to the crows nest but on the way I saw a boy that was bouncing a ping-pong ball on a paddle. He looked like he was just slightly bored. So I asked him if he wanted to play. We played ping-pong for about half an hour and then Colton, that’s the boys name, and I went down to the theater to watch a talk about the history of the cruise boat. I met Oma and mom down there at the talk, which was very interesting. I learned a lot about cruising in the speech. Then we met up with Hannah went to go eat lunch. After lunch, which was really good, mom and Oma went to go watch another talk and I went up to the crows nest to do my class. While I was waiting for the ladies to show up the people that I had done the trivia with yesterday called me over to play with them. I didn’t help much but it was kinda neat just to listen to the questions and think of good answers. Anyway, as the people in my iPad class showed up I asked them if it would be OK if we just met two hours later at four for the class instead of two because the talk that mom and Oma were going to was on that the ladies in my class wanted to go to as well. I decided go go up to Club HAL to see what they were doing it wasn’t anything that I wanted to do at that moment so I went down to the pool and talked with Colton’s brothers and mom. He has two brothers, one is named Sebastian, the other is Nathan. Colton is ten, and the others are seven and eight, I just don’t know which one is which. Anyway, I went back up to Club HAL for a few minutes until I went to go do my iPad class. After class we decided to meet in two days, on Monday, so that they could try out everything that we had gone over. At that point it was about time for dinner so we went to the room and got ready. The food was good and after we had eaten we went to the show. Today it was an Olympic gymnast performing some things. Mainly he used silk things that hung from the ceiling to do some tricks on. One time though he said that he was going to take a break and let the band play but he went over to the piano and started playing with them! He had learned to play because for the last few years he as been doing shows on cruise ships and he had learned from the musicians that he met on the boats. He also did a few juggling routines, one of witch he did in the dark with lighted balls. It was really cool. After the show we went back to the room to go to bed.

Sumner

Today we got up earlier than we did yesterday, about seven or a little after. We actually got to go to breakfast today! The food was good and after the meal we had to decide what to do. Hannah and I went with Club HAL to play ping-pong. And after we were done we played UNO for a little while. Then Hannah went with Oma to a cooking demonstration and mom and I went to hear a person talk about one of the ports that we went to. I dosed off during part of it do I’d don’t really remember everything that he said. Oh well. Next was lunch, which was very good, and then we played a little ping-pong before I went to meet with the ladies for our little iPad class. We didn’t have much of a class, only about twenty minutes. This was because there was another talk that all of the ladies wanted to go to so our meting adjourned and the ladies left. I decided to go and find mom and Oma, who themselves were at the talk. I couldn’t find them but we had arranged for everyone to meet in the room at about four to get ready for diner. That was done and we went to eat at the restaurant. I wasn’t feeling great, it was a little rocky. (I’m fine now, it was juts over that one spot for a few hours that was really bad. It wasn’t that bad though I just didn’t enjoy everything to its fullest extent.) After dinner we went to watch the boats sings perform some Broadway songs. I fell asleep for part of it, (I seem to be liking to sleep through things… Oh well it doesn’t matter). We all went down to the trivia show, it was pretty funny. We left a little early because Hannah wanted to go to a room where someone was playing the piano. I came to the room and am writing this blog. Well I should probably start getting ready for bed. I’ll keep you posted!

Sumner

We started out really late, nine o’clock or so, because we have such a dark room in the interior of the ship and we don’t have any windows so we were all just thinking that it was three in the morning and went back to bed. Finally I figured out and looked at my watch. Oh well we had some nice rest. We actually didn’t have breakfast because we were so late getting started. Instead we got ready to go to this “Meet and Greet” meeting hosted by this group called “Cruise Critic” (if you ever want to go on a cruise check it out, I actually don’t know what it is but it must be good or else mom wouldn’t  have used it). Anyway Hannah and I got ready before mom and Oma so we went up to the Crows Nest to write yesterday’s post. The meeting, by the way was at the Crows Nest on one side. We were sitting on the other side looking out at the ocean in front of us. Mom showed up at the meeting late, really late, so late that she missed the entire meeting. She did show up for the mingling time after the meeting and somehow or another she ended up talking to some ladies about the iPad and how they didn’t know how to use it. Well she volunteered me to teach an iPad class. I had come over just as she was doing so and I was just a little surprised. Well, I walked out of the Crows Nest with an iPad class with four women at two o’clock in the afternoon. We decided to go have some lunch and after we ate we went to play ping-pong until time for me to teach the iPad class. The iPad class went well, our progress: we made it to learning how to mass delete photos! Anyway after an hour of class we decided that we would have another class the next day at the same time two o’clock. Remember this time, it will come in handy near the end of the day. After I was finished with the class I joined club HAL for ice cream an then plagued ping-ping with mom. Then Hannah and I went swimming for a little while. Once we were done we went back to the room to get dressed for the formal dinner. The formal dinner is a very formal occasion. I wore a suit and tie. If you’re reading this Nic, thank you for the suit, it has come in handy. Goodwill also helped out by supplying the shoes and tie. The food was delicious, we had an appetizer, soup, an entree and a desert. All of which were good. After our dinner we went to go see a pianist perform. Before he started though, the guy announced that there would be a time change in the middle of the day tomorrow, at two o’clock. There will be no two o’clock tomorrow. He joked that he was going to work out from two till three. Now remember that time I told you to remember? Well if you remember I had scheduled my iPad class at two o’clock but tomorrow it not exist, oops. Anyway the pianist was really good. I enjoyed the songs. One of the songs was a medley of some of Beethoven songs made modern, it was really interesting. It just goes to show that the melodies are the same just the style, and instruments that the melodies are played on change. After that show as we were going towards our room we saw another thing set up. It was a game show. We decided to watch that, they took some people form the audience that wanted to do it and one of the guys from the staff asked the questions. One of ladies was just not good at all but he staff guy made her feel fine. He asked all of the other people to step back and let her get some questions for only herself. One time when she answered a question “John F. Kennedy!” he said, “Yes, also known as Jimmy Carter but you know he went by a lot of things back then.” Anyway everyone had a good time and it was really funny to watch. After that we came back to our room and got ready for bed. I am currently writing his post and getting tirrrrrrrreeeeeeedddddd oops, I think I held down a key on he keyboard, that probably means I should go to bed.

Sumner

Today was tiring at best. We started the day out in Ft. Lauderdale and ended it out of site of the shore. We had breakfast in the hotel and then went back up to get ready to check out of the room at ten. Then we went to the port, Port Everglades. There we dropped off our bags and went to the airport to drop off our car. We took the shuttle from the airport back to the port and went through a very extensive security and check in. Eventually we got to the jet-way. Oh wait, it can’t be a jet-way, we weren’t going on a jet. It did look like it though. Anyway when we got onto the boat it was really cool. It was really grand. We were almost attacked with people with hand sanitizer and everyone was very nice. Then we were told where to go to get to our room and there we put down our bags and then we went to lunch. After a delicious buffet lunch we explored the ships for a little while and then went back to the room to get on our bathing suits to go swimming. After that we watched the embarkation at about 6:00. There is a kids club and a teens club on the ship. The kid club (called club HAL; Holland America Line) had a meeting and so Hannah went to that for a few minutes while mom, Oma and I went to go eat. We learned that I was one of two teenagers on the ship and Hannah was one of about ten or so kids. We were going to try to eat at the nice restaurant but the line was so long that it just wasn’t worth it. We went to the buffet instead. After we had eaten we went up to pick up Hannah. One of the leaders of the club informed us that I was actually the only teenager on he ship. The other “teenager” turned out to be 67 not 17. Someone had made a typo. Anyway Hannah came down to have dinner and then we went back to the room to go to bed.

Hannah

Can you believe it? Tomorrow is the BIG day! We are going on our cruise tomorrow around noon. (Maybe before.) Anyway… Today was the last minute shopping time. Such as Target, Walgreens and  CVS/Farmacy (that is the southern Walgreens.) Today wasn’t very interesting, but I’ll tell you, in 7-9 days, there will be LOTS of news. Well maybe tomorrow will be interesting. Why? Because I will probably tell everyone about and what’s on the boat. It will be VERY exciting. Well I gotta go to bed now, see ya’ll later!

Hannah

Today was VERY tiring. We had to get up at 3:00 in the morning!! We were VERY lucky to have a driver drive us to the airport. The flight was basically uneventful, except the landing was a little rough. We expected sunny skies, crowded beaches, and fun in the sun. But instead, it looks like monsoon season! Or maybe even a hurricane! The rain is pouring cats and dogs, and the wind in howling like a wolf on a full moon. We didn’t do much today. Just hung out, and got a few other necessities. Tomorrow is VERY exciting. Oma (my grandma and my moms mom) is coming to Fort Lauderdale. (That is where we are staying before the cruise.) AHHH!!! Did you know that Wednesday is when we are leaving for the cruise! I can’t wait! See you all later!

Hi everyone, in just a few days (starting on April 30th) Basher Academy will be going on another long field trip in which we will be seeing many of the things that we are learning about in World History.

We will be going on a trans-Atlantic cruise to Europe. While in Europe we will be going to many different countries and seeing many interesting things from Portugal to Greece, Rome to Dubrovnik in Croatia, Athens to Corinth. All of these places we will be seeing history right before our eyes. Just going to Rome is a journey through history but going to Athens, Corinth, Barcelona, and other cities will give us a taste of the cultures of many different countries.

Sumner

OK now I will tell you what I thought of the trip since that’s the number one question that you ask people when they come back from a vacation. It was great, I was able to see the lives of many different people groups, from the Dao (pronounced: Zow) in Sapa to the Cham in the Mekong River Delta. I got to see rice being harvested, planted and rice fields that were already harvested. One of the sad things that I noticed was that much of Vietnamese culture is based on Buddism. Well I have thouroly enjoyed being able to share this wounderful, rich culture in this blog. I hope that one day I can go back to Vietnam to see my wonderful homeland once again. I’ll be sure to keep a blog that trip too.

Sumner

It was about a for hour trip to Shaghai and then we had an eight hour layover. It was long and hard. We ate a meal and shoped and bored ourselfs to death. Finally the gate opened and we checked our bags and went to the plane. It was a ten and a half hour flight to San Fransisco. I slept and worked on my blog for most of it. We had thought that all the movies that they were playing were going to be bad. One of the ones that they showed was Ramona and Besis. I would have watched it but I thought that it was another of those bad movies and nobody told me that I could watch it. We made it to San Fran and had a three hour layover. Then we had another three hour flight to Denver. We bussed out to our car and were a little worried that our car wouldn’t start. It did and we drove to our house. Hannah slept all the way and mom and I dosed off for a minute or so. Dad luckily didn’t dose off and we made it home safe.

Hannah

So, we are back safe in Saigon. No problems on the plane, but the transportation to our hotel was aweful. I guess the guy who was supposed to pick us up, was wrong on the timing, so we waited for about 1 hour, till mom decided to call the guy. After waiting another half hour, the guy FINALLY showed up. He said, wait for 10 minutes, and I will get your ride. But of all things, another guy,( the guy who picked us up at the airport last time,) showed up and said to come with us. So we loaded up the luggage in the taxi, and ALMOST started out agoin, but then, the first guy said to wait another 10 minutes, and he would load us up into a “big” van, the van was the size of the other car, but we FINALLY succeded in getting to our hotel. We got a warm welcome, so that is all to tell you what we did this after noon.