Merry Christmas
 I cant believe that we have been gone from NZ now for 8 months.
Over this time I have
 Been homeschooled
 Climbed the Eiffel Tower
visited a French school for a couple of days
 Joined a new gym club and competed in the Georgian Champs
 Meet lots of new people
 Spoken different languages
Started a new school
Traveled to Italy
Eaten many different foods
Made new friends
Watched Georgia Rugby play live
Had friends from New Zealand visit

 And driven Mum crazy

 Thank you to everyone who has been following my blog. I hope that over your summer holidays you will continue to check in and leave me a comment.

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A weekend of fun

SUNDAY, 18 NOVEMBER 2012

A weekend of fun

Our friend Tana has been staying with us and helping Dad coach the Georgian team. We went to watch Georgia play Japan in the weekend at the big stadium there was about 25,000 people there so it was very crazy. we did lots of cheering and waving our flags for Dads team, but they lost 22-26 in the last five minutes which was really sad.

Singing the Georgian National Anthem

Waving and cheering

Hello room 10 at Bellevue School from Ruebe Kiwi and Tana

Crazy photo time

On Saturday we went to our friend Bachos new Restaurant called Sin Bin. It has lots of signed rugby jerseys on the wall from all over the world even an All Blacks one which is signed by Tana Umanga. Ruebe Kiwi came and Mum took lots of crazy photos of us.

Catching Up

Sorry I haven't been updating my blog.  Been really busy at school and gymnastics training is five days a week.

Loving my new school and friends.  My teachers name is Ms Lisa and my friends name is Iia.  Iia is from Ukraine.  Anyway, school is much different than my school back at home.  We have a schedule and so we have to be on time for every single class. We have a different teacher for almost every subject.  We have a cafeteria and have lunch served for us in there, they also provide an afternoon snack.  We catch the bus to school in the morning and we can stay after school for after school activities.  I stay after school on Thursdays and do destination imagination.  Its a sort of program where a team of seven people do activities/different challenges through out the year and then near the end of the school year, they pick one activity to do for a competition against other schools, its all about working as a team and solving problems together.

Last weekend, I had a gymnastics competition in Batumi.  Thats a city in Georgia down by the Black Sea, it was a 5 hour drive.  The competition was the Georgian National Championships and it was a two day competition.  I got came second in my division.

Georgian Champs

Batumi At Night

Happy Birthdays to my buddies Maddy and Lucy.

Ruebe Kiwis Holiday

Ruebe Kiwi and the Ruebe-Haigs had an amazing holiday in you guessed it ITALY
We ate loads of yummy pizza and tried just about every gelato flavour.
We visited  Rome and went to the Trevi Fountain and the Colosseum
We visited Florence and went across the famous Ponte Vecchio Bridge
We visited Venice and walked around the floating city
We visited Pisa and went to the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Last Clue

Another Clue

 

Where in the World is Ruebe Kiwi

Can you guess which country Ruebe Kiwi is in?

Tbilisi Doll Museum

Today we went to the dolls museum and saw lots of old dolls, puppets, paintings, drawings/sketches and things that belonged to the doll's sets like tea party sets made out of china.

 The dolls that we saw were made out of lots of different things like ivory, clay, cement, metal/wire, old news paper, wood, lace, glass, paint, material and musical instruments.




The countries that the dolls and other exhibits belonged to were French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Canadian and American Indian.

All of the dolls that were there are all so beautiful and it must of taken them months even years to make them. My favourite dolls were the women with the dove of peace, the piano player Eliso, the ruins of Ikalto acadamy, the man in the boat, Desdemona, the satin lady and the conventionalised Georgian dolls.







I had a great experience learning about ancient dolls.  

The Mountains

2 weeks ago we went to the mountains with Bacho and George friends of  Dad's from rugby. It was a 6 hour drive from where we live in Tbilisi. It was hard for Georges 4 wheel drive to get over the skinny rocky roads, that were on the sides of the mountains. There was fresh water coming down on the side of the roads so when we came up to it we got a car wash. Dad called it the mountain car wash.

Drinking from the fresh water spring on the side of the road.

When we got to the mountain's, we saw that what we were staying in was not a hotel. It was a big old wooden shack that looked like it was about to fall down on top of us! But when we got inside it wasn't as bad as the outside. The old lady (Bacho told us to call here granny) was starting to make the beds in the room that we chose. So while she was making the beds, Lily and I started to unpack our things. We put all our drawing stuff in a cupboard and went outside to play. Mum and Dad told us to come around the back for lunch. Granny was already making lunch inside a little old wooden cabin. Mum and Dad were sitting down at a big long table eating some hot bread. Granddad came out and started making something. When he had finished, we saw that it was a little swing. Lunch was meat, soup, salad and kachapuri. After lunch, Lily and I went inside to do some drawing and then played gymnastics outside. That night for dinner, everybody was at the table underneath the wooden awning. There was lots and lots of beer, wine and cha cha.   We watched a movie when Mum and Dad were still eating dinner. When the storm came everybody went back to their cabins or rooms. That was my first day in the mountains!

Granny and Granddads cabin and kitchen on the
the right,  dining cabin on the left

1.   Bread dough
2.  Granny rolling out bread
3.  Bread all in a row
4.  Shaping bread dough
5.  One bread in the Georgian oven
6.  Lily patting on her bread into hot oven
7.  Granny getting cooked bread
8.  Lily holding her hot bread
9.  The bread cooking shack

GO NEW ZEALAND

 

Good luck to all the athletes competing, we will be watching. GO NEW ZEALAND .

 

 

The Sleep Over - with our new friends

The Sleep Over

 

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Laguna Vere.

Yesterday we went to The Laguna Vere.   It used to be an old pool, but now it's a bran new pool were people go to tan themselves and have a swim.  We go there after gymnastics and have a swim.  There was waterside but it's not working now.  The pool is really warm, so we don't have to listen to Lily moaning that it's cold. Daddy and I are so tanned Mummy said we look like locals!  We stay at the Laguna pools for about 4 to 5 hours.  There is a little cafe called The Bungalow Cafe and they make the yummiest ice-creams.  You can have chocolate, caramel or strawberry syrup on your ice-cream. I like caramel the best. So does Daddy. Lily and I do flips when Daddy throws us in the air. Lily has just learnt to do front flips and I can do front and backward flips.  The Laguna pools are the best!

Gymnastics at the pool

Flying orange

Yesterday, my ballet teacher from gymnastics was in a dance concert. She did lots of solo acts and 1 group act. The costumes that she got to wear were amazing! The dances that she did must of taken weeks to remember. My whole entire team (including some girls from another city), my coaches and some other people from the gym, went to see the dance too. At the end of Sophies first dance (that's my ballet teachers name), one of the girls from my team called Taco, went up on the stage to give her some flowers. Lots of people up on the stage got flowers after they had finished  a dance. I hope everybody enjoyed the dance concert because I know I did!

Peace Bridge.

Last friday we went to Peace Bridge to meet some new freinds. We were there a bit to early. Mummy, Lily and I were supposed to be there at 4:15, but we were there at 3:30. Lily and I went over to the fountain to dip our feet in. Lily fell over and ended up gettig wet! When our friends came, (their names are Emily, Sophie and Shaun. They are Irish and have been living in Oman) We all followed the little stream to a much colder fountain. It had rocks in it, every body was making signs. We all made a big heart. When we were going back through the stream, we all slipped. We were wet! But it was very refreshing because it was a very hot day. After that we went up to the playground and had a play and then we snuck some lollies. We were exhausted when we got home.

The Big Game.

Last saturday, Georgia played Ukraine at Avechala Stadium. We got a ride from Elia up to the stadium. We met the team and then went to find Dad, who was wandering around trying to find us! We got to sit in the VIP seats and watch the game. In the end, Georgia won 33 to 3 and they won a big sheild. After the game , Lily went into the changing room to get some T-shirts signed. When we got home, Dad packed some things that he might need on his trip to America. We were exhausted after the big game.

Turtle Lake

This is an article that I wrote after visiting Turtle Lake.

Hey, if your looking for a place to chill out this summer, then head on down to Turtle Lake. It is up in the mountain, a short drive from the city and surrounded by bush. There are quiet bush-walks and tracks with lush green trees. Lively music fills the air and it's fun for the kids . Loads of activities, volleyball, soccer, zorbs, bungy-jumping, canoeing, pedallcars, swimming and much much more! Stop for a bite to eat at the many bars, restaurants and cafe's through out Turtle Lake.

So head on down to Turtle Lake with there amazing and fantastic facilities!!

Flower Power

There are lots of flower markets here and you can by beautiful flowers. We bought some the other day and they were in a big bunch. When we bought them home, mummy put them in a big vase. Then she picked some of so we could sketch them in the classroom. We ended up painting them too.

Independence day

The streets were packed with people getting of trains to see the festival. It was independence day here last weekend. There were Georgian dancers dressed up in there cultural clothes and tents with lots of little souvenirs in them. We watched the Georgian dancers do dances that were related to the culture. There were people making pots and spinning them on a machine to get them in the right shape.

Gymnastics

Yay. We found a gym. I have been going for the last 3 weeks.
There are a million coaches everywhere. We do ballet at the start of every session which I really enjoy. They have a tumbling track instead of a proper floor as there are lots of trampolines.
I am doing lots of different things. Some are easy and some are really hard, but yesterday nailed a aerial on the floor and a round-off flick back tuck. So excited.

Gymnastics In Paris

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The Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower

On Wednesday we went to the Eiffel tower. We caught a boat and got off at the dock next to the tower. The Eiffel tower was bigger than I thought close up. I took lots of photos before climbing the stairs to the second floor. It had 680 stairs! We has a short rest and then took the elevator to the top. It was scary looking down as the elevator went higher and higher. Finally after all the bumps on the way up the doors opened. We all got out and had a look at the view you could see for miles. Around the top of the platform was a screen that had information about the tallest buildings in the world and compared them to the Eiffel Tower. It had a picture of each countries flag, countries name and the name of it's tallest building and how tall it is. It showed lots of different buildings and monuments ,it even had The Statue Of Liberety.
When we went outside to look at the view and take some photos, it was so windy that I had to put my jacket on. Daddy gave me €1 Euro and I put it in one of the telescopes. You could see the Lourve and lots of other places we had visited.

Khinkali

Khinkali is just one of the most famous foods in Georgia. It is a type of dumpling made of pasta on the outside and all sorts of things on the inside. On the way to a winery, we went to a place that does khachapuri, khinkali and all these other sorts of yummy Georgian food. There is 25 different flavours of khinkali including the different types of meat and cheese. To eat it, first you have bite it and suck all the juice out. Then you can eat it. But you can't eat the top otherwise you get this disgusting flavour in your mouth and it doesn't taste very nice. Instead you put it on the plate so you can count how many you have eaten. The top part of the khinkali is called the kudi (which means hat) or kuchi (which means belly button)
When I saw the khinkali's coming out on a big plate, my mouth watered. The smell was so delicious.
This is my sister Lily trying her first cheesy khinkali.

Walks in Georgia.

Yesterday we went for a walk to see the sights in Tbilisi(in case you don't already know, Tbilisi is the capital of Georgia.) There were old crumbling buildings that look
like they had just come out of world war 1. There are little fruit shops and dairys everywhere. As we walked past schools, we heard the sound of children playing. As we walked past the parliament building, we saw guards surrounding the building. I thought that the president of Georgia must be in there. Outside the building was a big water-fountain. We walked down some more and we saw entree (A little cafe we like to visit).

Freedom square

In 2005, Freedom square was the location where U.S president George W. Bush and Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili addressed a crowd of around 100,000 people in celebration of the 60th anniversary marking the end of World War 2.
During this event, Georgian-Armenian Vladimir Arutyunian threw what was thought to be a real grenade at president Bush while he was speaking, in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate him.
But it wasn't actually a real grenade, it was a fake. One of my Dads rugby players was at the event at the time. The fake grenade landed right next to his feet! He was to afraid to pick it up as there were people on the roof watching out for the presidents safety, looking like seagulls with their beady eyes.

Freedom square
looks like a big round-a-bout with a huge gold statue in the middle. It has lights all around it, so at night time, all of the lights are shining on it. The statue is made of bronze and is covered in real gold. It is 5.6 metres high. It is known as the St George statue.

In Freedom Square, there are no road lanes so people just drive like crazy. The first time Dad drove us through a tour, Mum covered her eyes and screamed.

The amazing food!

My first ever time trying khachapuri. It tastes just like cheesy pizza. khachapuri is a well known bread in Georgia. When I walk down the streets, I can see small windows open and the smell of something delicious fills the air. I walk up to the window and see a yummy looking bread that fills every shelf. I see a sign that I cannot read. But the price is usually under $1.00. Gamardjoba I say (which means hello). A lady says the same and then I point to what I want. She nods and hands me two pieces. Gmadlobth I say (which means thank-you)

This is what the city of Dubai looks like from the plane.

Dubai Facts

- 1.3 million people live in Dubai.
- There are no street addresses.
- Dubai is located in the United Arab Emirates

The Big Trip

Wow what a long trip ahead of us. We left the family standing at the departures and Lily, Mummy and I started out on our adventure. Our first flight was a short one to Sydney, then 13 hours to Dubai. On our flight to Dubai I watched 2 movies and played video games for hours we had our own tv. Lily and I didn't go to sleep until about 2.30 in the morning. It was very busy at Dubai airport and we had to wait 5 hours for our next flight. Mummy bought a new watch and we bought some chocolate for Daddy. On the plane again this time just a short flight to Doha. Doha is a city in the the desert. With a short wait in Doha we were finally on our last flight to Tbilisi. Ya whoo daddy was waiting..