New York, USA; Midhurst, Ontario, Canada; Alliston, Ontario, Canada; Tarascon, France.

From Greg and Flat Mrs Coxhill [made by Addison] in New York, USA

 Hi Addison, A lot of people where we live in Manhattan don’t have cars because it’s easier and quicker to get around using the public transport system (and you don’t have to worry about finding a car park on the street). So when we’re showing Mrs Coxhill around the city we just use the subway train system – it goes to most places and is quite cheap (and free for kids!). However it does get a bit crowded when people are going to and from work or school. Some of the trains go on lines that are above the ground and they have turned one of those lines that is not used any more into a park called the Highline. It’s a cool place to visit and go for a nice walk without having to worry about the traffic and it gives a nice view of the city from up a bit higher. 

 One of the main streets in Manhattan is called Broadway – it goes from the bottom of the island right up to the top and into the Bronx. It follows the original hunting trail that the Native Americans used before European people arrived. Trinity Church has been at the bottom of Broadway on the corner of Wall Street since 1698. The original church was burned down in 1776 when a big fire started in a nearby pub and destroyed most of the buildings in that area. It was rebuilt twice after that and the current church has been there since 1839. It was actually the tallest building in Manhattan back then but now the area around Wall Street is known as the Financial District so the church sits in amongst lots of very tall buildings. When you look up Wall Street from the Hudson River you can see the church sitting at the end. In the Midtown part of Manhattan Broadway goes through Times Square. This is called the Theatre District and it’s always very busy with a lot of people around. This is a big entertainment area where most of the cities shows are based and it is also where a lot of the tourist hotels are. There are so many bright billboards and advertisements all around there that it almost seems like it is daytime even during the night.

 During New Year’s Eve there is always a big party and concert in Times Square which lots of people go to. I usually try and avoid it at that time because there are so many people that you can hardly move and I’m worried that I might get squished. Further up Broadway goes through Lincoln Square which was the setting for a musical show called the West Side Story. Since then they redeveloped that area and now it is home to the Metropolitan Opera House, the New York Symphony Orchestra and the New York Ballet. Do you do ballet – perhaps you will dance here one day!

                                                                   

In your letter you mentioned the MCG sports stadium - one day I would like visit it and go to see a game there. In the United States people don’t play AFL or cricket and they don’t really understand them. The main sports here are American football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey and New York has some of the biggest teams for those sports. The New York Yankees play baseball at Yankee Stadium and are sometimes known as the Bronx Bombers because Yankee Stadium is in the Bronx, while the New York Mets also play baseball but they are based in Queens. Do you recognize the NY logo in the photo of the stadium? A lot of people all over the world wear baseball caps with that logo on them – it is from the New York Yankees

The biggest indoor stadium in Manhattan is the MSG (almost like the MCG!) which is where the New York Knicks play basketball and the New York Rangers play ice hockey. They use the same court for both sports but just lay down the ice for the hockey games on top of the basketball court. My favorite sport here is basketball and we often go to games in Brooklyn where the Brooklyn Nets play. I hope you liked hearing a little bit more about New York! 

Kind regards, Greg & Anne-Marie 

From Mirella and Flat Emily in Ontario, Canada

Hello everyone,

I hope that you all had a lovely break! I am so happy to be a part of this project!  I apologize for my delay, but I have been busy taking care of my grandson, Toby, all summer. Toby is 3 years old.  He normally goes to daycare, but since Covid appeared here in March, his daycare was closed and I was lucky enough to be able to watch him over the summer...until now.  

We spent a lot of time in our backyard. Toby enjoyed his swing set, running in the yard, swimming in the pool, and going for walks. He also enjoyed spending lots of time with our Corgi, Ginny. Many things were closed so we couldn't venture out much.  

I am writing to you from Midhurst, Ontario, Canada.  Midhurst is a small community about 2 hours north of Toronto, Ontario's capital.  We are just 5 minutes from the city of Barrie. Midhurst's population is about 3.000 people. Our community has a lot of greenery, as well as many trees and streams.  We are lucky to have a stream just down the street from us, where we spend a lot of time in the summer and fall.  I will include many pictures of our various adventures in a few following emails. 

In Canada, we started our lockdown on March 13.  Schools and daycares were closed down completely and many people were asked to work from home if that was possible.  Of course, hospitals, grocery stores, and necessary services were able to remain open with new safety precautions put in place.  We have since reopened most services and businesses. School begins next week for the first time since lockdown in March.  

Our school year runs from September to June.  We have Christmas break (2 weeks), March break (1 week), and some other sporadic holidays off (Thanksgiving, Easter, Family Day, to name a few).  Our summer break runs from the beginning of July to the end of August, which gives everyone 2 months of summer vacation.  

We have 4 seasons in Canada: winter, spring, summer and fall.  Each season is relatively 3 months; however, winter is our longest season, as we get snow and cold weather from early October to late March—sometimes winter even stays until April!  The fall officially begins on September 22, but the leaves on the trees are already changing colours. Fall is my favourite season!  We call it sweater weather.  How many seasons do you have in Australia?

Canada is the second-largest country in the world with regard to landmass, with Russia being the largest. We have a population of 37.59 million people and our official languages are English and French. 

We are known for our love of hockey and maple syrup. You can see hockey nets on the streets all year long.  Kids and adults alike love to play hockey on the streets and yell "CAR!" when they see that someone is coming. Many kids play on hockey teams all year long as well. Those games are played on the ice with ice skates.  We are lucky to have basketball courts in our local park, which is converted into an ice rink over the winter for the whole town to enjoy! I will include a picture in my following emails of Mrs. Izzard on a hockey net.   

This week, school reopens for the first time since March 13. I am a grade 1 teacher, so I return to work tomorrow. I am very excited to go back to school, just like most of our students are excited to see their friends at school again.  

I will include some pictures in my following emails of our walk to the stream and our adventures in my backyard.  I hope you enjoy them!

Mrs. Savoia   

 

 

From Linda and Flat Brodie in Alliston, Ontario, Canada

Hey Brodie. 

I hear that Flat Brodie and Flat Host is almost over. I didn’t know it would be over so soon. I would like to give you some more information about where I live
I live in Alliston (population 19,243) Ontario (population 14,745,000) Canada (population 37,971,020). We have had some pretty hot weather here in our summer June - Sept. We start our school year now - actually today and it is actually pretty cool 14 degrees which is cool for this time of year
I am sending you pics of you and me at the dentist and you and I golfing and you and I in Collingwood.  I wanted to go to Collingwood as they have big ski runs and in the wintertime, we have a lot of skiers going down these hills. Hope you can imagine them with snow all over them cause skiers need lots of snow to go fast down these hills
I sent you pictures of my grandson Jeremy in his baseball uniform. Now baseball is over for the summer but now the kids are trying out for the better teams like AAA and AA and select teams. Jeremy wants to try out for the select teams as he thinks those are the most fun
I think this is a really fun project that your teacher got you to do. I hope I gave you enough information If you would like more information about anything please feel free to contact me
There is one more picture of snow I want to show you - it's the snow around our house. 
I will be sending you a parcel but it will probably take quite a while to go from Canada to Australia so you have to be patient.

Your Flat Host Linda Randell

 

 

 

 

Linda wanted to share this video of polar bears that can be found in northern Canada. They are very cute. 

From Flat Mrs McCann [sent by Ella] and Sophie and Pierre in Tarascon, France. 

September 27: We are pleased to tell you that Flat miss McCann arrived in France a couple days ago, a bit late, but in good condition.

We have attached a few pics from our city Tarascon where Flat Miss McCann took a tour.

We hope that all is fine for you there in the Yarra Valley.

Here, unfortunately we have to fight again against the Covid-19 and some cities have to reduce the human interaction severely in order to stop the virus progression.

Not good for the economy, even worse for the morale. Still we remain optimistic and think that this will soon only be a bad memory.

 

Take care of you all.

Kisses from France.

Pierre & Sophie.

Colorado, USA; Switzerland; Ontario, Canada; London, England

From Janice and Flat Miss Minton [made by Harper] in Colorado, USA 

Dear Friends of Flat Harper,

I am so sorry that it has taken so long. Colorado is a wonderful place, but like you had fires earlier in the year, we are having some now. Not as bad, but still bad. Because of that Flat Harper and I have not been able to go to my beautiful mountains, but I thought I would include a picture of that too.

 

We have lakes and ponds and beautiful Rocky Mountains.  We are a land locked state – which means we are not near the oceans, we are surrounded by other states.  So, I do not live near beaches.

Although we could not see the mountains, Flat Harper and I have been on a search for all the local animals.  We don’t usually see bears or cougars because they do not like humans, but we did find lots of deer, bison herds, and prairie dogs all of which are adorable but not something you can pet.  Harper could not get close to them, but you can see her head in the picture.  Prairie dogs are smaller animals. 

 

You have to look closely behind Flat Harper under the tree – you can just see the heads of the deer with their big antlers.  I did a close up, they are trying to camouflage in the shade.  It was 100 degrees Fahrenheit today in Colorado as our summer is coming to an end.  100 F = which is almost 38 C.  I know they say Melbourne experiences dramatic weather – but today it is 100F and on Tuesday (2 days later it will be snowing here and be 35F = 2C).  But don’t worry, it won’t stay long. 

I also too Flat Harper to the grocery store.  I know in Australia you have Woolies, but that it is really a Safeway.  We just have Safeway here.  Getting yummy food to cook for dinner.  

 I know you will be finishing up this term.  In the United States summer is over and we have just started Term 1.  Where I live in Colorado I am working remotely and the students are learning from home too.

I will try and get you a few more pictures this week before you leave for the term. 

Again, sorry this has taken so long, but Flat Harper is having fun and learning all kinds of new things she hopes to share soon.

Cheers from Colorado, United States,

Flat Harper and Janice Carrel :o)

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 12

Flat Harper and Janice Carrel in Colorado

Flat Harper has been very busy in the last few days. The weather got really cold and we had snow here. Not normal for this time of year, but the beauty of Colorado is that snow melts quickly here. I’m glad it came when it did, because it helped put out or slow some of the different fires around our state. We didn’t have time to make a snowman and it was cold so staying inside was a good plan.

While I am currently working remotely, some school districts are not, so Flat Harper tried to get on the school bus in the morning to go to school.

Then I realized I could not find Flat Harper at my school, so we went back today and you can see that all the snow is gone. This is my school - Skyview Elementary, Thornton Colorado.

From Janice and Flat Harper.

From Flat Billy H and Heidi in Switzerland

Greetings from Flat Billy from Zurich (Switzerland) 

Hi all Last weekend, I got to explore Zurich for a bit and then Heidi took me to an outing with some friends. I’ve got to say, living in Switzerland feels like living in a postcard, especially when the weather is so nice like it was. Autumn days are starting cool in the morning but then it gets glorious! We took a short stroll around Zurich and I managed to sneak into a picture of the townhall. It was built between 1694 and 1698 and these days, the cantonal parliament still holds its meetings there. A canton in Switzerland is similar to a state in Australia. Switzerland has 26 cantons, I think that’s quite a lot for such a small place!

That’s me with the townhall in the background. And yes, it’s partially built on water. This river is called “Limmat”.

For the weekend, we went to Appenzell. This is a small canton (actually only a “half-canton” but that’s a story for another day) in the north-east of Switzerland. We spent some time wandering around the old center of town which is really pretty. Traditionally, the people from Appenzell are very good at crafts like wood carving, embroidery and of course cheese making. These days, farming is still a big part of life but they also have more “modern” types of work and enjoy a lot of tourists. Appenzell is famous for its colourful painted houses which usually tell the story of the building. For example, the pharmacy has different herbs painted on its outside because back in the day, they used those herbs to make medicine.

 

 That’s the townhall of Appenzell. It was built from 1561-1563, so it’s about 130 years older than the one in Zurich. I think this one looks prettier though.

 This is the “Hauptgasse”, the main road. Obviously, there are bigger roads now but they all lead around the center of town.

The area in Appenzell is quite hilly – and you guessed it: you can go hiking for ages. Or until the cows come home. We were lucky that on that weekend, the cows did come home from their summer pastures up in the mountains. 

 The cows are coming home. This is still a big thing in most agricultural areas in Switzerland. They wear bells and their herders often sing traditional songs while walking down from the mountains after spending summer there.

It was a really eventful weekend and Heidi & I were tired by the time we came home on Sunday. I hope we get to explore some more while I’m still here! There is so much to see and to do for such a small country. I hope you are all doing well. 

Big hug

Flat Billy and Heidi

From Bianca and Flat Mrs Cornwall [made by Ria] in Ontario, Canada

Hi Ria, 

Sorry for not writing to you much during August. It’s summer in Canada and I have taken a lot of time off work to go on MANY camping trips. So… now it’s time for me to catch you up ! During your very first weekend in Canada, Mrs. Cornwall and I went on a canoe camping trip with some of the girls from my sports teams (dragon boat, ball hockey and ice hockey)! We went to Big Gull Lake in North Frontenac, a region in the province of Ontario with quite literally THOUSANDS of lakes! Below is a screenshot of a small section of the area. All the small blue patches are individual lakes! 

 Canoe camping is a type of “backcountry camping,” where you load up all your food and camping gear into a canoe and paddle to an individual campsite on the shore of a lake (sometimes an island, like on this trip). It’s a very popular summer activity in Canada, and it is also a very safe way to camp during covidtimes because you only camp with your “bubble” of people and have no contact with any other groups because they are sometimes several kilometers away! Mrs. Cornwall, our gang and I launched at Kirk Cove and paddled 5 km to site #15 on Big Gull Lake (see the two dots on the map above). Here is Mrs. Cornwall all set with my hiking pack at Kirk Cove, loaded into a boat ready to paddle.

 As a small group of sports friends, we go to site #15 on Big Gull Lake together at least once every year. It’s a beautiful spot perched on a rocky outcrop, with almost 360-degree views of the lake. This is Mrs. Cornwall’s canine friend, River, as well as her enjoying the sunset and a campfire

 This year, we had a bit of a different experience: we were camped when a tornado warning came in. With that, came sheets of rain and gale forced winds which ripped tents out of the ground and ripped holes in our tarps. We’ve had a record number or tornadoes in Ontario this year… but lived to tell the tale, even though it was very scary indeed!

From Melissa and Flat Emily in London, England

I hope you and your classmates and teaches have been keeping well and busy during your online learning, I am sorry for the delay with my update, as I mentioned last time Schools have finally re-open covered here in the UK so it has been a very busy time.  First of all, I was really lucky to get away for a long weekend with my netball team, We travelled 5 hours by car to the Yorkshire dales which is in the North of the UK. We had a wonderful weekend of long countryside walks, board games and we even visited the local creamery for some Cheese! I took the wrong pair of shoes, so a lovely teammate piggybacked me through the big puddles. 

As you will have noticed, my real Flat Emily has not yet arrived, but I have snuck you into our selfies ;) 

Apart from working a lot, I also went out a day and explored a bit of central London, I caught the "Tube" which is our underground rail system where there are about 270 underground stations across London (in the UK you must wear a face mask on all public transport) . I went and saw Tower Bridge which is my favourite bridge in London so many beautiful colours, it even pops up when big ships come through although I am yet to see this happen. I then ended my day in the walky-talky Building at the sky garden where we had brilliant views of London and the sun setting. 

I know you asked questions about Christmas, but I have not yet spent a Christmas here in London, I do know that it is very cold, and Christmas Jumpers are a big thing!  along with Christmas markets and spending time with family!

I wish I had some more time to take some photos but that will have to do, for now, When my actual Flat Emily arrives I might take her out and about and send through a late update. 

Enjoy your school upcoming school holidays and I hope that you will get to return to the classroom really soon!

Melissa