Our Nation's Capital

This time Flat Emma's travels took her to Washington, D.C.  Regular Emma was born in Virginia and lived just outside of DC until she was almost two years old.  Flat Emma was sent to visit two people who love Regular Emma very much.  They took her to see some amazing things!  Here is the letter she came home with:  

Dear Emma - 

I am sending you some information about the photos I took with Flat Emma.  Hopefully you enjoyed them!  

Flat Emma visited me in the Washington, D.C. area and Northern Virginia.  Flat Emma got to see your first house in Arlington, Virginia, and got to visit some of the sights around Washington, D.C.  

Regular Emma's first home in Arlington, Virginia

  
Gilbert, AZ is roughly 2,300 from Washington, D.C.  Right now here, it is fall and all of the leaves are changing into beautiful colors.  It is a little cold right now, too.  Flat Emma needs a jacket!  But during the summer, it gets hot and humid here – very different from the weather in Arizona! 

Washington Monument

People speak ALL kinds of languages here and are from all different countries and backgrounds.  Though the main language is English, I work at an elementary school where 52 different languages are spoken!  Washington, D.C is our nation’s capital (see the picture in front of the Capitol).   There are many monuments there.  Flat Emma had her picture taken in front of the Washington, Jefferson, and Martin Luther King, Jr. monuments.  

Thomas Jefferson Memorial and the Tidal Basin

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial

The White House, where the president lives, is also there and also many museums, which you can see in the picture on the Mall.  

President Flat Emma at the White House!

U.S. Capitol

It is also very expensive to live here and the traffic is the worst in the nation.   (I included those facts for your parents.)  

I am sending Emma on to visit some of my relatives in San Antonio, Texas.  Hopefully she will have a nice visit there.  She will be visiting three of my nieces and their parents.

Good luck with your project.  I hope Flat Emma gets to see many places!  I also hope that I will get to see Real Emma very soon!!

Love, 
Agatha and Mark - your "aunt and uncle" in Virginia

Meandering in Malaga near the Mediterranean with some Missionaries

Hola!  This week we received photos and letters from Emma in Spain.  She was visiting Regular Emma's great-aunt and great-uncle on a mission in Malaga, in southern Spain on the Mediterranean Sea.

Here is the letter Flat Emma sent home from Espana:

Hi everyone!  Here is the story of my adventures in Spain.

The day I arrived, I saw a cool fountain which is in the middle of Fuengirola .  That is the name of the city where Uncle Rod and Aunt Jeanene are working during their mission in Spain.  It is on the coast near Malaga.  In the photo you can see a sign with the name of the city behind the fountain.  The fountain has sea men and sea women and sea horses around an obelisk.  The fountain is in the middle of a ‘roundabout’.  They use them instead of traffic lights most of the time, and they often have statues or art in the middle.

The next day we walked for 10 minutes down to the sea shore so I could play in the sand and see the beautiful blue water. 

Considering a swim in the Mediterranean Sea

 The weather is almost always warm and sunny here in Spain.  Many people used to earn their living with fishing here.  Now tourists have mostly taken the place of fishing as an important industry. People come from all over Europe to enjoy the sun and the sea.

Then I rode a sea gull!  Well really I just sat on another fountain.  It had rocks and sea gulls and was easy to get close to.

Near a fountain in Fuengirola

The rest of the week I rested up for our trip to Merida.  We drove 4 hours toward the middle of Spain to get there.  This city is filled with very old ruins of buildings built by the Romans!

 Roman ruins

First, I walked on an old Roman road.  Then we saw the coliseum.  The Romans used their coliseums for entertainment.  Instead of sports, they had fights.  I stood next to a picture of one of the gladiators.  The hole in the middle of the arena was sometimes filled with water and used for mock sea battles. The rest of the time it was covered up.  The coliseum is huge!  Some parts have been rebuilt so we can see how it must have looked long ago.  This one was started about 100 years after Christ.  (100AD) I made friends with a very small lion.  Lions were sometimes part of the fighting long ago.

Next we walked to the Theater.  This is the best preserved Roman theater in Spain, maybe in the world.  It is right next door to the Coliseum.  It is still used for lots of plays and other events.  Can you find me?

 

I tried out many different places.  I pretended to be in a play.   Do you like my acting?  I was standing next to the statue of an emperor at the back of the stage.  One of the statues lost his head.  Later, I held hands with the statue of a lady.  I couldn’t tell if she was sad or had a head ache.  There were beautiful gardens and interesting columns too.

Then we went to see the hippodrome or the Roman Circus.  It was a race track for chariot races.  

Roman ruins near Merida

You should see the movie Ben Hur. It shows chariot races. My Uncle pretended to race some other Senior Missionaries that went with us.

On your mark, get set... go!

On the way home we stopped and took a photo of some olive trees with olives on them.  

Olive Garden with Elder Uncle Rod

I was amazed by how many olive trees there are.  They were planted as far as you could see along the freeway going for over an hour.  There must be millions of trees.  Most of those olives are used to make olive oil.  Spanish people eat LOTS of olives and olive oil.  Do you like olives?

The next day we went to church.  I made a new friend named Melissa.  She is 10 years old and lives in Fuengirola too.  She is very nice.  She speaks Spanish of course.

Tomorrow I want to try on a gypsy dress.  Women wear them to dance.  They also use beautiful fans to keep cool.  

There are some elephants I want to ride, too.  Then I will be ready to go on my next adventure.  

Riding Spanish elephants!

Aunt Jeanene and Uncle Rod and I really had a good time together.

Thanks to my great-tia and great-tio for this wonderful tour of Spain!
You can read more about all the activities of Elder y Hermana Castillo on their mission blog: http://rodcastillo.blogspot.com/.

В России, г. Екатеринбург

Can't read the title?  That's because it's in Russian!  It says, "In Russia, city of Yekaterinburg."

Flat Emma traveled in Russia!  She visited Andrey, Tatyana, and Erik in their home city.  

Yekaterinburg is a large city on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains, where the continents of Europe and Asia meet.  Flat Emma visited in the fall so she wasn't too cold, but if she was there much later she would have been very chilly!  

Here is the letter we got from Flat Emma's friends in Yekaterinburg.

Привет Shane, 

Flat Emma was visiting us in Ekaterinburg.
Flat Emma walked with us in the center of the city and saw the river Iset, a movie theater "Cosmos", the Palace of Sports, Museum of the History of Architecture and Industrial Technology Urals, a monument to the founders of V.N.Tatischev and B.I.de Gennin, City pond dam on the Iset River (dam was built in 1723( when  was based Ekaterinburg)It was rebuilt many times).
The distance between our city and the home of Flat Emma in Gilbert, Arizona, United States, about 10,000 km.
If the Flat Emma will visit us again, it will need in the summer: dress, skirt, shirt, t-shirt, jacket, sandals or shoes, umbrella; fall: a jacket, a warm dress, skirt or jeans, shoes or boots, umbrella; winter: more warm boots, warm coat, warm hat, mittens, scarf, sweater; in spring: need clothes is the same as in the fall. In Yekaterinburg, most people speak in Russian.
Ekaterinburg was founded in 1723.Ekaterinburg the big city and the administrative center. It is located on the banks of the river Iset, within the city there are four ponds. In Yekaterinburg changeable weather and well-marked seasons.

Плоская Эмма гостила у нас в городе Екатеринбурге.
Плоская Эмма гуляла с нами в центре города и видела реку Исеть, кинотеатр" Космос", Дворец игровых видов спорта, музей истории архитектуры и промышленной техники Урала, памятник основателям города В. Н. Татищеву и В. И. де Геннину, Плотину Городского пруда на реке Исеть ( плотина была построена в 1723 году, когда был основан город, она много раз перестраивалась).
Расстояние между нашим городом и домом Плоской Эммы в Гилберт, штат Аризона, США, около 10000 км.
Если Плоская Эмма посетит нас снова, ей надо будет летом: платья, юбки, рубашки, футболки, куртка, сандалии или туфли, зонтик; осенью: куртка, теплые платья, юбки или джинсы, туфли или ботинки или сапоги , зонтик; зимой: более тёплая обувь, тёплое пальто, тёплая шапка, варежки, шарф, свитер; весной: нужна одежда такая же как осенью.
В Екатеринбурге большинство людей говорит по-русски.
Екатеринбург основан в 1723 году. Екатеринбург большой город, административный центр. Он расположен по берегам реки Исеть, в пределах города есть четыре пруда. В Екатеринбурге изменчивая погода, хорошо выражены сезоны года.                                                                                                                      
С любовью, Таня