*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
I was dreaming a fantastic dream. I was in the Beijing Olympics, swimming for the gold! I was doing the backstroke. Everyone was cheering for me! Go Inky! All of a sudden, I heard a loud rumbling. It was thunder! Tons of thunder! The Water Cube building was filling up with water. Oh no! Stinkbugs!
Then I woke up. No more Olympics, stinkbugs! But the knocking was still going on. That was weird.
It was the door! Someone had come into my room! I rubbed my eyes. Who could it be? I hadn't cleaned my room in ages, oh no!
It was Violence! My best friend! Awesome socks!
“Inky! Why didn't you answer the door? I was knocking and knocking!”
Violence ran right up to me and gave me a big hug. I was so happy! Violence and I usually get to see each other only once every year; I'd already been to visit her in Utah in the springtime. But there she was! I sang part of our favorite song to make sure it was really her, and not some crazy doll. “А-ах, крокодилы, бегемоты!” I sang. Violet sang right back “А-ах, обезьяны, кашалоты, А-ах, и зеленый попугай!” It was really her! Score!
Apparently, everyone but me knew that Violence was coming. Iris was away at violin camp, so she had cleaned out her bed, dresser, and nightstand for Violence. There was a bag from Macy's with presents for Violet. One of them was an Ugly Doll- Abima! Awesome! “Ice Bat still rules!” I told Violet. “Agreed,” she said. “But Abima will rule Utah!”
We had so much to catch up on! Since my trip in May, I've been to eight states- and Violet's been pretty busy too. She was especially excited to see my new room, because I moved to New York City after her visit last year. She also had to meet my new pets- Mulder (the chihuahua) and Chaika (the Russian Blue kitty). We made coconut cupcakes and stayed up late talking and talking.
The next morning, we had to get up early and pack. Look at all our stuff! We went to Cape Cod to camp and have fun. You can check out our album from that trip separately- we took so many pictures!
When we came back, what did we do? Watch the Olympics of course! We decided that if we had to compete together, we would do synchronized diving., since it looked pretty easy. Wrong! When we went to practice, it was super hard! Good thing we aren't old enough to be Olympians yet. Plus, we're from two different countries!
What better place to explore international friendship than the United Nations Headquarters? The next day, Violence and I took a trip all by ourselves into Manhattan! We rode the train and the bus entirely by ourselves. We even went through security alone. We held hands when we went through the scanner in a bin.
The United Nations Headquarters was awesome! The very first thing you see inside is Sputnik! Violence thought it was probably on display because the 50th anniversary of its launch (Sputnik was the first manmade satellite in orbit) was a few months ago. Doesn't it look shiny? Violence and I always disagree over whose country won the Space Race, but since we were in a place of peace, we decided not to hash it out again.
The UN was full of really neat art exhibits. There were three by children. One was children's drawings of the Olympics. They were really good! The next exhibit was of drawing's of the environment. Awesome! Violence and I picked out several places we'd love to visit someday. The last exhibit was really sad- it had drawings done by children who live in war zones. We were feeling a little bit sad when we walked to the next part- a series of portraits of the Secretaries General of the UN. We asked a nice lady with kids to take our photo. I don't think either one of us remembered to look at the camera. Oops! The portrait above us is Kofi Annan- he is one of our big heroes.
The last thing we did was look around the gift shops. Violet bought me a little UN flag as a joke, because the only flag I had to put on our sandcastle at Cape Cod was Kazakhstan! I got Violet a little pin of the UN logo. Once we got back, we had to pack overnight bags again! We were going to Philadelphia for the weekend. Since Violet and I are proud to be Junior Rangers for the National Park Service, we picked another NPS site to visit- Edgar Allan Poe's home!
Me with Violence in the “Black Cat” false chimney. “The Black Cat” is a really scary story that Edgar Poe wrote. You should check it out, to see why it's so creepy that Violence and I are sitting in it!
Doesn't Violence look a little nervous?
I was really brave.
Since we did our entire Junior Ranger books, we earned our Junior Ranger badges! This is the ranger who lead our tour. Doesn't she look nice? She was so good at telling Edgar Poe's stories- we were so scared we had shivers running up and down our spines!
Here we are sitting on the front porch of Edgar Allan Poe's house. The door is always locked, so you have to knock once with the heavy knocker for a ranger to let you in. So far, this was the scariest of all the National Parks we've been to! We decided to make sure the next one was not quite so creepy. What do you think we chose when we got back to Manhattan?
Here we are in front of the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site (whew! that was a mouthful!). Violence and I are champions of finding free, exciting things to do in New York City. The TRB-NHS is $3.00 for grown-ups but it's free for kids. We looked through a whole little museum about President Roosevelt's life. Violence and I decided that he was awesome because he was such a great friend to the National Parks.
Go National Parks! You know, I am really thinking of becoming a park ranger when I grow up. Violence wants to work for the UN and I think I will too- as a ranger for the UN's World Heritage Sites! Our world really is an amazing place. We still had lots of time left in the day, so we decided to visit a museum called The Tibet House.
Tibet is such an amazing place! It's called “The Roof of the World.” The tallest mountains in the whole world, the Himalayas, are there. We couldn't take photos in the museum itself, but I really recommend going. Everything we saw was so beautiful. Isn't the Tibetan flag awesome? Look at those lions!
Here we are with a painting of Lhasa, the capitol of Tibet. The big white building on top is the Potala, where the Dalai Lama lived until he had to leave because the Chinese were taking over. Doesn't it look beautiful?
Finally, here we are with a sculpture of the His Holiness Dalai Lama. He is the leader of Tibet and one of our heroes. The Dalai Lama's name, Tenzin Gyatso, means “Ocean of Wisdom.” His biggest message for the world is one of peace. And that is what we believe too! That's when Violence told me that her name isn't really pronounced “Violence,” it's really Violet! Like the Russian word “фиолетовый.” Oops! I decided I'll call her Violetka now, so I am not a warmonger.
Our next adventure was at a National Historic Site called Castle Clinton. It's an old fort in Battery Park. The fort never saw any combat, but the Ranger made sure Violet and I knew all about how to shoot a cannon- and what kinds of things you can shoot out of it! Violet and I decided that our favorite is “grape shot.”
Last Thursday, Violet went ona special day to Manhattan alone with Colette. She got her ears pierced!
Don't they look sparkly? I'm thinking about getting mine done when I get home from the hospital. I have to go there after Violetka leaves, because I got a weird rash from the shoes to my Gardening Outfit.
Friday, August 5th was our last day together. We had so much fun earning Junior Ranger badges together that we decided to check out one last National Park Service Site. In our opinion, we saved the best one for last. We visited the African Burial Ground National Monument.
We learned so much there. If you ever visit New York City, don't forget to stop at the Monument. Inky and I were proudest of all to earn our badges as Junior Rangers of the Network to Freedom (Underground Railroad). The memorial was beautiful and it reminded us of our goal for life- work to bring peace on earth!
After visiting the Burial Ground, we had a special appointment. While we waited, we hung out and read a book about how to French braid hair. It looks hard!
When we were done, we found out we had to wait AGAIN in order to pick up what we bought. Violetka and I decided to go wheelbooting!
Manhattan is a great place for wheelbooting, because there is so much pavement. Violet is especially good on rollerblades, because she takes ice skating lessons. She taught me some really cool tricks- like going backwards and doing jumps. Maybe I'll join roller derby!
Finally, we were ready to pick up our mystery item. A photo of us together with our American Girl dolls! Violetka and I are both homeschooled, so neither one of us gets school photos taken. We decided to have our portrait done instead. Don't we look fabulous? Now we have a photo to always remember our special month together on the East Coast.
