9-11 Ceremony

11 Sep - Jamie participated in a ceremony at the Fairfax Government Center.  She and other Girl and Boy Scouts led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance.  After the ceremony, Sara met some important people.  Sara took the time to tell them she was an exchange student from Spain and thanked them for their support of the exchange programs.

Sara and US Congressman Gerry Connelly.  He is a member of the US House of Representatives.

Sara with Ms Bulova, Chairwoman of the Fairfax Board of Supervisors and Mr Bulova who is a Delegate to the Virginia House of Delegates representing Fairfaxand Son of Ms Bulova.  He is a graduate of Robinson where Sara attends school.

Sara with Mr Cook.  He is the represenative on the Fairfax County board of Supervisors.

Jamie is in the group in front to the left....the TALL one :)

First Day of School

6 Sep - Jamie and Sara had their first day of school.  Sara was very surprised at how many students there are at the school when they are all in the hallways!!!  Sara is adjusting well to school starting at 7:20am and then being out by 2pm.  Also, having lunch at school is new to Sara.  In Spain, and alot of European countries, they don't have lunch at school.

Football Game and Labor Day Weekend

Click on the photos below to make them bigger.........

Monday and Tuesday (29-30 Aug) Sara did normal stuff.  James and Sara went for a short run of only 1.5 miles.  Jamie and Sara played some volleyballin the backyard.  Sara got alot of bug bites on her legs... They ate at Church's Fried Chicken.

On Wed (31 Aug), Jamie, Sara and James went for a run.  Jamie turned around pretty quick and Sara and James went for about 2.75 miles.  Sara tripped and fell and tore some skin off the palm of her hand.  She has a nice scab but she is OK.  It hurts but she is doing well.

Later on Wed, Sara went Robinson school and receive her schedule and locker.  She will be taking:

IB Philosophy
Human Anatomy
Pre-Calculus
Gourmet Foods
US and Virginia History
English 11
Guitar I

It will be a tough schedule for her but she is a very smart young lady and we will ensure that she does well!!  She met some of her teachers and likes them. 

Thursday (1 Sep), she went back for her New Student Orientation.  Later that night, Sara went to her first American high school football game.  Robinson was ranked #17 in Virginia and Stone Bridge was ranked #2.  It was a very good game but Robinson lost 0-3 in the last minute.  Sara saw the High School band perform at halftime.  It was a very interesting first High School event. 

Robinson Football Game - Robinson is in Blue and Gold!!!  GO RAMS!!

Robinson Marching Band performing at Halftime

To read about the game - go to this link

http://www.robinsonathletics.com/index.cfm?action=main.teamarticle&articleID=227403&id=26622

On Friday afternoon 2 Sep, we departed Fairfax for Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park.  We stayed at Skyland Lodge.  http://www.nps.gov/shen/planyourvisit/driving-skyline-drive.htm

On Saturday 3 Sep, we got up early and drove to Lexington, Virginia to go thru the drive thru safari.  This is a zoo you can drive through in your car and freed the animals.  They also have a small petting zoo and some animals in fenced areas.  Sara was a little scared at first to feed the animals but later felt comfortable.  They fed llamas, osterich, Emu, Elk, deer, and a few others.  The car got feed all over it and the paint on the rear passengar door is scratched from elk antlers.  http://www.virginiasafaripark.com/geninfo.html

Feeding a Llama

Feeding TWO llama's

After the zoo, we drove to Staunton for lunch at Wrights Drive In.  It was too hot to eat outside so we ate inside - typical hamburger and hotdogs.  Then we went to the Shakespeare Theater to see a performance of Hamlet.  It was very good especially the actors that played Hamlet and Ophelia. 
http://www.americanshakespearecenter.com/

After the performance we went to dinner at Mill St Restaurant.  It was a very nice restaurant and I recommend it.  We drove back to the lodge.  There is no air conditioner and it was quite warm and muggy night.    http://millstreetgrill.com/

On Sunday morning (4 Sep), Jamie, James and Sara departed at 0730 for our 6 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail.  http://www.appalachiantrail.org/   100m into the hike we saw 4 deer and then about 12 wild turkeys.  It was really nice cool walk.  As we passed the horse stables, one of the horses made a loud sound.  I told the girls it was an Elk so I make the Elk sound that we made up in Washington St.  I went "EEEEEEEEEERRRRGHHHHKKKK!!  Then there was a very loud rustling in the big oak tree about 10 yards from us.  I immediately thought it was alot of turkey's leaving the tree but there were no turkeys.  Then I thought squirrels but it was too large.  Then I remembered that bears climb trees and must, at some point, come down.  Just then the large black face with black ears appeared from around the tree about 40 feet up and looked at us.  I told the girls to walk slowly backwards.  I did not know if it was a mother bear with cubs or not.  The bear came down the tree about 10m (30ft) from us and looked and ran away.  It stopped quick enough for a photo and went on.  We kept walking, ate breakfast about 1 hour into the hike, saw more deer and turkeys and right at the end a grey fox.  It was an exciting and fun hike.  It was hotter than in the past and there were not as many wild flowers.  We ate lunch and went back to the room for a shower!!  We spent the rest of the day playing Monopoly deal card game and had dinner.

Turkey's

One black bear

Sara with a deer

Silver Fox - Look int he opening in the middle of the right hand side


5 Sep Monday, we got up and had breakfast and went to Luray Caverns. http://www.luraycaverns.com/ The girls took a tour of the caves and then went through the maze.  They had a good time.  Weather cancelled the rest of the day so we headed back to Fairfax.  It was a very fun day and trip and we had a great time.

Getting Lost in the Maze

in Luray Caverns

New Foods

These are some photos of the new foods Sara has tried this month.

Quizno's Chicken Sandwich

Kim's Chicken Parmesan

Blackened (spicy) Chicken pasta

Bread Pudding

Petra's Raspberry Creme Torte

BLT - Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich

Mushroom stuffed with Shrimp in Iberian Ham - Spanish tapas

Jamie's Pancakes and bacon

James' Iberian Ham and Cheese Panini

Candied Carrots, rice, chicken, zuccini and corn on the cob

BBQ chicken, beans, boiled and fried okra and creamed cork, stewed zuccini, oven baked potatos

Meatloaf

Boiled Okra, Brussells Sprouts, zuccini, cucumbers

Rice Crispie Treats

Baked Cheese mascatti and garlic bread

Jamie's fried chicken



Chicken Burrito Bowl at Chipotle

Chocolate Chip Cookies

5 meat BBQ platter - Ribs, Sausage, Pork, Beef and Brisket, Slaw, Potato Fries and Cornbread

Mexican - Encheladas, rice, refried beans, quesadella



EXCITING WEEK!!!

Wow!!  What an exciting week of experiences.

20 Aug - Tour of the Library of Congress.  (Last Post)

Outside the US LIbrary of Congress - Jefferson Building

Sara also attend Jamie's church service with the teens.  The kids were younger than Sara and she said she enjoyed the church service with James and Kim better.

On Tuesday, the girls went to Leesburg to see some of our friends that just moved here from Germany.  While they were having lunch - EVERYTHING SHOOK for about 30 seconds. Yes, a 5.9 earthquake hit.  Everyone and everything is OK.  One glass broke at home but other than that, all is well.

On Wednesday - A group of students came to DC and we took Sara to her first baseball game.  The Washington Nationals played the Arizona Diamondbacks (a snake).  Sara met President George Washington, at her first hotdog.  Washington lost but Sara and the students had a great time.

Sisters at the stadium

With Numero Uno El Presidente George Washington

First Hotdog - very good but caliente (spicy)

Thursday - the girls went bowling with some of Jamie's friends.  Jamie won the first game but Sara finished 2nd.  In the second game, Sara finished 2nd as well and Jamie - not so good :)  That evening, Jamie and Sara made Chocolate chip cookies and a few other types - VERY GOOD.

Making Cookies

Friday - Sara and Jamie did 3 hours of volunteering at the Fair Oaks Hospital with Jamie's Girl Scout troop.  They were taken on a tour of the Emergency room afterwards.  They had fun.

Saturday - we stayed at home and rode out Hurricane Irene throughout Saturday night.  All we got was some high winds and rain.  Parts of Washington DC flooded a little and Maryland was hit really hard with flooding and power outages.  We lost power about 6 hours.  The girls slept until about 10am on Sunday so they never knew!!

Sunday - Sara and James went to a Professional Women's Basketball game.  Sara saw one of her favorite players - Diani Taurasi....  Phoenix won by 7 points.  Sara also had her first Chipotle Burrito bowl for lunch.

Sara's Room

Sara has made the room like she wants............we still owe her a good study chart for her desk :)  That is the desk she put together.

First Full Week

Well - it has been a full week for Sara!!  On last Saturday, we went to the farmer's market.  It was different than in Spain.  They don't have alot of open markets like this.  Also, you do not handle the food at the stands in Spain the way we do here. Sara also watched her first American football game with the Redskins.  She enjoyed it and asked alot of good questions.

On Sunday, we went to church.....MAN was it different!!  She had not seen anything like this before in Spain.  She liked the music but the English was alot :)

Sara also called her Favorite Spanish Mom to wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY - Feliz Cumpleanos!!

She took her English test for the county and passed!  of course she did!  We knew she would :)  She is also enrolled and registered for classes at Robinson Secondary School so she is OFFICIALLY a Robinson Ram!!  She will get her schedule on 1 Sep.

The girls also went shopping one day.

We bought Sara a desk for her room.  Sara had to help put it together.  It was ALOT of fun and pieces but it is together!  She wrote her name and date on the bottom so all her follow-on brothers and sisters knows it was her's FIRST :)  Sara and Jamie also rearranged her room and it is actually alot better!!

One night we made tapas - shrimp and ham in mushrooms

Sara, Kim and Jamie spent some good quality time this week.  Sara had some new cooking experiences:
making Chocolate Chip Cookies with Jamie, creaming corn withKim, learning to light a grill, cut a cantalope.

Sara also ate a few new things this week.  What she ate:
- okra - she said the boiled okra was OK but she really liked the fried okra
- tacos
- rice crispie treats
- meat loaf
- brussels sprouts
- candied carrots
- sweet tea with ICE!!
- pancakes with chocolate

- French Toast (at Smith and Klines)

- corn on the cob - good

- Jambalaya (rice dish from New Orleans)

- bread pudding from Brions Restaurant - very very good!!

- BLT ( Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato).  In Spain they normally eat sandwiches with a knife and fork but not here baby!!  HANDS...she did well :)

We also found out that she does not like the hamburger that is on American pizza's and does not like blue cheese.  Other than that, she is doing great on trying food :)  We also found out that our sweet hija favorita Espana (favorite Spanish Daughter) is a CHOCOHOLIC!!!!!!!!!  Man does she fit right into THIS family!!

Sara also likes the America's Top Model TV show :)

She is doing a great job helping around the house, cooking, putting away dishes and everything. VERY proud of her.

Today (20 Aug) we drove into Washington, DC and went to Eastern Market.  Sara said it was much more like markets in Spain - inside.  There was also a flea market outside with jewelry, clothes, art, fruit and vegetables. We took a tour of the Library of Congress ( http://www.loc.gov/index.html )  We looked through the exhibit - Exploring the Early America's ( http://myloc.gov/exhibitions/earlyamericas/Pages/default.aspx) where Spain played a HUGE role.  There was information about Cortez and others.  Very good exhibit. We will be back with the other students.



creaming corn

Sara putting her desk together!!  Great job.

Eating a BLT with her hands!! not better or worse - just different!!