Seven places that I want to go before I die

Do you have a place (or two, or three, or ten) you want to visit before you die, but you just haven't had a chance to go?  Maybe it's close to you, or maybe it's far away. It could be an amusement park, or another country. You can tell me where you want to go in the comment box. 

Here are my choices (not in order):

1. Maine. It just sounds so wonderful--blueberries, seafood, the ocean, lots of white Christmases...ah.

2. Italy. I want to see the Colosseum, go up the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and swim in the Mediterranean Sea.

3. California. California has a JELLY BEAN FACTORY THAT YOU CAN TOUR, good playgrounds, and awesome skateparks. All of which I want to go to.

4. Greece. I've only had a kind-of gyro. I'd like to get an authentic one, from Greece.

5. Alaska. For the midnight sun in the summer, or in the winter, the Aurora Borealis.

6. Sweden. Lovely meatballs, lingonberry juice, scrumptious cured salmon...I guess my taste buds really want to go.

7. Hawaii. The gorgeous Pacific Ocean, leis made of REAL FLOWERS, great skateparks, shave ice.

 

Quiz

Hello! Would you rather take this quiz with or without a friend? I'm doing a Would you rather quiz...and the theme is food! (My specialty.) Now, would you rather keep reading the introduction or start the quiz? I thought so!

Would you rather...

Put mustard on a taco OR salsa on a burger?
 
Eat a life-size chocolate Santa OR a life-size marshmallow bunny?

Try mixed-vegetable Jell-O OR a peanut-butter-bacon Pop-Tart?

Have a dozen jelly donuts OR a dozen Boston Creams?
  
Eat half a cherry pie OR half a key lime?

Try Skittles that taste like turnips OR like carrots and ranch dressing?

Discover you turned orange from eating too many oranges OR turned pink from eating too many rutabagas?

I hope you enjoyed this quiz! Tell me your answers in the comment box. --Taryn 

P.S. Sorry there aren't a lot of questions. I was stumped. 

Hello...

...or konichiwa! Guess what? I am going to Japan in October! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No, not just my taste buds. Me entirely! And Kayla! And in my fantasy world, Flu, who can't come because Mommy thinks he'll pick up tons of germs with his soft plushy fur, and I'm only allowed to bring one toy on international trips anyway. And Kayla always goes.

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!! I'll see the Golden Temple of Kyoto, the Harajuku neighborhood, find out if you can order shumai on the street, (see this post), maybe get an authentic Hello Kitty plushy, and...and...who cares! I'm going to Japan! Whoo-hoo!!!!!!!!!!

My Time at Girl Scout Camp

Hello readers! Nothing really exciting here. I just have to write this because it's part of my schoolwork, and also I haven't posted for a while. Seriously. Go ahead and stop reading this. I don't really blame you. Oh wait! Wonderful Mommy is about to give me a writing prompt. Here it is: I can either write about what the Greeks did to people who talked about irrational numbers in public (weird, that's a subject for another post), the different snows I experienced this year (boring, also, what the heck does that mean??) or my favorite part of summer camp. Which one would you choose? Me too!

My favorite part of summer camp is just BEING there. The only camps I've been to are nature camps and sleepaway Girl Scout camp. Which one would you rather hear about? I can't read your minds, however, and I also don't remember everything about nature camp, so you'll have to settle for sleepaway.

So the Girl Scout camp I went to was the only one in our state with flush toilets. (Don't ask. Latrines--non-flushing toilets--stink like you cannot imagine.) I went with my friend Zelda, and we had the time of out lives. Or at least, I did. Here's how to have the best time at Girl Scout camp:

Wednesday: Arrive at camp. Check in, find living unit, set up bed, say good-bye to mom, start bandana-coloring craft, introduce yourself, and learn names of counselors and bunkmates/people in living unit. Play game after dinner. Go to sleep happy, with a mosquito net over you.

Thursday: Wake up at 7:00 a.m. Head down to playing field and watch flag ceremony. Eat breakfast, walk down to pool while singing songs, take swim test, ace swim test, do swimnastics (underwater flips and handstands), jump into deep end on pool noodles. When finished, play Twister at another living unit, and visit ADORABLE/cool animals at the animal habitat. Then, go canoeing or kayaking. Feel undersides of lily pads, which are super slimy. Later, receive care package containing white bear that everyone signs.

Friday: Last day. Wake up early and stay in bed while playing Mad Libs with bunkmates. Giggle so loudly, counselor has to come tell you to be quiet, which just makes you laugh harder. When 7:00 a.m. rolls around, your living unit conducts flag ceremony. After breakfast, go to pool again. Pretend pool noodle is a car. Much later, pack up and play games to pass the time while waiting for dad to pick you up. When he comes, bid farewell to counselors and friends. Vow to come back next summer. 

 
  

Let's mess around with the font! It'll be fun! Come on!

Since I have no idea what to write about, I am going to mess around with the font a bit. Sorry if this page gets hard to read.

Let's start with font sizes. Like this one. It's so tiny!

OK, this one is a little bigger, but not much.

Now we're talking...sort of.

Ooh, here's the one I usually type with.

Slightly too big! Slightly too big for me!

How about...typefaces. I think that's what they're called. You know, stuff like bold and italics and underline and strikethrough.  

That was fun. On to colors! Like this bright red.

Orange, orange, nothing really rhymes with you.

This yellow is so bright, it's almost invisible.

Taryn's Travels is not responsible for any medical things that occurred while reading this sentence. 

Wow. What IS it with computers and neon?

Ah, this is better. Wonderful, calming indigo. 

Peter picked plenty purple plums and peppers. Or something like that.

Neon again. AGAIN!

Whew, I never thought I'd be more thankful to see black. I could use all the font colors, but that would take a LONG time.  Oh, I know! I'll do the highlighters next. Yup, you guessed it. I'm starting with red.

Ok...what should I do for orange?

Yellow time! Hey, this one isn't almost invisible.

You know, I think the black makes the colors seem darker. What about you?

I knew it! Whoo-hoo! No more headache-inducing neon!

Man, this is hard to read. The black font definitely makes it darker.

Well, maybe not that hard. I dunno.

Great. This one is just like the orange:can't figure out what to type.

Again, I could use all the colors, but that would take up to much space. Thank you for reading this special edition of Taryn's Travels.



  
 

 

Adventures of Kayla and Flu, #2: WE WANT COOKIES!

Hello readers! Pssst, this is Kayla and Flu using Taryn's computer. Don't tell her! Enjoy the story!

Flu: Hey Kayla, is there something to eat? I'm hungry. 
Kayla: Flu, you're always hungry. You were in our last story. In fact, our two adventures have started with you saying something like, "Kayla, I'm hungry".
Flu: No, that was you. 
Kayla: It doesn't matter. Let's go get a snack.
Flu: What will we eat?

Kayla: Cookies!

Flu: Must...have...cookies...

Kayla: I'll get them.

Flu: Hey Kayla, wait for me! We can have a great cookie hunt!
Kayla: Fine.

 Kayla: No cookies here.

 Flu: Or here.

 Flu: Hey, this spins!

Flu: Whee!

 Flu: Uh-oh. Dark. I don't like the dark. Oh no. HOW DO YOU STOP THIS THING?!?!?!?!?!

Flu: Help! Kayla! Somebody! I hate the dark! And spiders! And boiled spinach! Although that's not in here.
[calms down for a second, then freaks out even more] I ALWAYS KNEW I'D DIE THIS WAY!

Kayla: [finally hears Flu] Flu? Is that you? I'm coming!

Kayla [grunts]: Oof!

Flu: Thanks for rescuing me, Kayla. 
Kayla: No problem. How did you get in that cabinet anyway?
Flu: Well, I was looking for cookies, and--

Narrator: Hey, what are you guys doing?
Kayla: We wanted cookies.
Narrator: They're up on top of the fridge.

Narrator: You can always ask me for help, you know. I'll get the cookies.

Kayla: Thanks, Narrator!
Flu: Yeah. Flu...must...have...cooooooookies...

Kayla: Let's go eat.

 

 Kayla: Here cookies! Come to Kayla!
Flu: And flu!
Kayla: Right. Here cookies! Come to Kayla and Flu!

 Kayla: Ah-ha! Found 'em!

Flu: Aw, they're all broken. [sad face]
Kayla: Don't worry, Flu. It's not like the flavor fell out.

Flu: You're right. Yay for broken cookies!

School

I don't know if I've said this before, but Kathy and I are homeschooled. 

We are smart. We have lots of friends. We do not stay at home all day, and we don't do whatever we want at home. We get in trouble for not doing work, and we are supposed to be in bed by 10:00. (That sounds late, but I come from a family of sort-of-night-owls, and Kathy and I still have to wake up by 9. Ok, maybe that sounds late too.)

My subjects are:  

• Math 
• Touch-typing
• French
• Creative writing (blogging)
• Computer science
• Reading (but this is something I'd do anyway)  
• Japanese

It might not sound like a lot, and since most of the time I usually don't do all of it because we're busy, I do it every day, including the weekends. And some holidays, like Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. We don't get things like winter break, either.

Kathy's subjects are:

• Math
• Touch-typing
• French
• Spelling
• Writing
• Computer science 
• Reading (but she loves this, so it's not something Mommy has to make her do)
• Japanese

What I love about being homeschooled is that I can do my work at home, with my mom and the cats in my pjs. On winter days, we light a log in the fireplace, turn on Christmas music, and eat breakfast and do schoolwork down in the living room in front of the fire. I can choose my own subjects (most of the time, math is essential) and work at my own pace. I can eat fresh grilled cheese for lunch and I don't have to ask to go to the bathroom. It's really wonderful being homeschooled. 

I am not criticizing public schools. I just want everyone to know that I am homeschooled, and I am proud of it. Taryn

Thank you

I've said it in the title, and I'll say it again: thank you.

 Thank you for reading this blog. Thank you, Mommy, for helping me set up this site.

Thank you, Di, for the inspiration for the fish tank.

Thank you, Miss Dawn, (and Mommy again!) for encouraging me to keep blogging.

Thank you, aunts and uncles and grandparents, for following me on here.

Thank you, people who checked our passports at the Istanbul airport, you gave me my first story.

 Thank you, parents, for traveling all over the world with me and Kathy. 

Thank you, Santa, for giving me Kayla for Christmas, and also for giving me Flu the Microbe.

Thank you, everyone who has helped contribute to this blog: the employees at American Girl Place in NY, Miss Inhae Lee, who gave me the Kayla-and-Flu's-adventures idea, New Moon Girls magazine, who inspired me to start making smiles (and blog about it), and anyone who I haven't mentioned because the list would be too long. 

I also yell out a big THANKS! to all my readers who are overseas, for, well reading this. 

You have all helped in one way or another, and I wanted to make sure you know I appreciate it. You guys rock.

Taryn

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Ok, I know it's a little late to write this, knowing that 2014 officially started two days, thirteen hours, and about eighteen minutes ago. But anyway, happy new year, people!

So many great things will happen in 2014! For starters:

• I will turn eleven on Feb. 2 (yes, groundhog day)
• The Winter Olympics will be held this year (in Russia)
• On April 29, the annual solar eclipse will occur.

Ok... this is kind of a short post. Do you have something exciting happening? Tell me all about it in the comment box.

By the way, did I say happy new year? Taryn