From Flat Annabel and Nathan, in Alsace, France.
Hello, I am Nathan, I am 8 years old and I live in Jungholtz, a small village in the north-east of France, in a region called Alsace.
I have a brother (12 years old) and a sister (10 years). I play handball in a club like my brother and I learn to play the guitar. My guitar teacher is a very funny : he loves playing the guitar and singing. He plays in a band with his friends.
Alsace (my region) is a region with a particular history due to its geographical situation : wedged between Germany and France. In fact, the names of the city and villages sound more like German names. Alsace has its own atmosphere and even its own language (dialect) : the Alsatian (which sounds more like German), but today less and less people speak this language (mainly old people in small villages). I don’t speak Alsatian, but I speak fluently Polish, since my mother comes from Poland.
Alsace is mainly a flat area (plain) between 2 medium-high mountains : the Vosges (France) and the Schwartzwald (Germany). The border between France and Germany is a river called “Rhin”. So we live close to 2 other countries : Germany (30 km) and Swiss (50 km). Regarding the weather, we have a continental climate, but we are really lucky, we have a microclimate due to the mountains on both side of our plain : we have less rain and a lot of sun.
Our village is small, but we have 3 restaurants, a bar a small shop, but the most interesting is the nature : we live already at the foot of the Vosges (remember, the mountain!) and we have vines producing (according to my dad) high quality white wines such as Gewürztraminer, Pinot Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Gris (thanks to the microclimate!)… So we walk a lot in the area, in the vines, the hoods and the mountains. During our walk we can meet a lot of horses in big prairies, cows, and other animals.
From our house we see two interesting mounts : the Grand Ballon (the highest mount of the Vosges with 1424 m) and the Hartmannswiller Kopf. Hartmannswiller Kopf is a famous place linked with the first world war. Here, a few kilometers from our house there was a trench warfare, and there are still bunkers, a cemetery and a museum to remind us this part of the history.
Regarding food… In France we have really various food and we can speak about food during hours. In Alsace we have some traditional dishes such as choucroute or flammeküche. I personnaly love flammeküche ! Miam, Miam. We have a traditional oven in the garden to prepare those flammeküche and pizzas and I love when we have friends coming to our house for eating together.
Regarding school, I am going to a school in my village. Now I just began last week the new school year and I have a new teacher named Catherine. Before I had a teacher called Michèle. She is a very good teacher, she used to prepare some additional activities such as cooking, preparing jams (from her own fruits from her orchard). Miam, Miam. I hope my new teacher will also surprise me in the right way !
Next time, I can describe you my holidays in Poland where I spent 2 weeks. I will add some pictures!
From Flat Miss Hartrick and Patrick in Dublin, Ireland
•Have you ever seen a bear in the wild? We haven’t, but our Mum and Dad did. They saw a small Brown Bear up high in a tree during a holiday in Canada. They didn’t stay too long in case the Mama bear turned up! • What native animals are there in your country? All of Ireland’s native animals crossed the land bridge from Europe after the end of the last Ice Age, but before the rising sea levels turned it into an island. Ireland had one of the largest animals ever, the Giant Irish Elk. You can see photos of their skeletons and drawings of them online, and there’s a real skeleton of one in the National Museum.
• Do you go skiing in winter? What is winter like? We don’t get enough snow in Ireland to ski. It only snows properly every two or three years, and we get barely enough snow to make a proper snowman and have a snowball fight. But we live beside the sea, so the salt air stops the snow from settling. In the mountains nearby they get a bit more snow. Winter is normally cold and wet, but around Christmas we often get bright and sunny days. We like to go for long walks in the mountains or on a beach in our coats, hats & scarves, before going home for a nice hot chocolate. •Where do you go for holidays? Our Mum is French, so every summer we visit our Grandparents in the south of France. It’s really hot there, but they have a pool we can swim in. Very few people in Ireland have a swimming pool! The food in France is yummy, but the mosquitoes in France think that we’re yummy food. We always get bitten like crazy. •Do you have many beaches? We are lucky to live near a lot of beaches. Dublin is on the east coast of Ireland, and there are more than a dozen beaches in the city. Some are enormous and full of people, others are small secret beaches. Our favourite beach, and favourite Irish holiday is to visit our Granny. She lives in a seaside tourist resort called Tramore, on the south coast of Ireland. ‘Trá Mór’ in Irish means ‘Big Strand’ or ‘Big Beach’. The beach there is three miles long, with sand dunes at the end of it. It’s really beautiful. There is an amusement park there too, and lots of arcades. We always buy fish and chips there and bring them back to Granny’s house for dinner together
Bonjour
Bhargav,
Did you know that bonjour is French for hello? Canada is a bilingual country… both French
and English are spoken here. I am
writing to share our trip to Whistler, British Columbia. You may have heard of this place. It is quite famous in Australia and there are
many Australians living there. We must
say it is GORGEOUS! Mrs. Donnelly sends
her regrets. Her travels to Canada made
her delayed.
Here is where
we got to stay for the weekend. LUCKY US! Gayle’s friend has a house there and they go
every year, usually in August.We spent the weekend mostly in this house because of
Covid. Other years we spent time in the
Whistler Village. Gayle needed a coat,
so we spent a couple hours in the Village shopping. Here are the photos we were able to
take. We hope you enjoy!
Gayle took this photo
because the statue in the picture was built for the 2010 Winter Olympics. For the 2010
Winter Games, Whistler hosted Olympic and Paralympic
Alpine skiing, cross-country skiing and biathlon, as well as
Olympic Nordic combined, ski jumping, bobsleigh, luge and
skeleton. Olympic and Paralympic Villages and media facilities
were in Vancouver and Whistler.
I thought it might be good to have a picture of Gayle and I to share with you. Here we are posing with some butterflies in the Whistler village.
Gayle goes back to school on Tuesday. It has been school holidays since the
beginning of July. In Burnaby British
Columbia schools run from September to June with school holidays in December
(two weeks), March or April (two weeks) and July August (two months). Gayle’s school is a Kindergarten to Grade 7 one. After her students leave Grade 7 they go to
high schools… one for Grades 8 to 10,
the other for Grades 11 and 12.
Well Bhargav, I just wanted to let you know that it has
been a great pleasure and so much fun writing to you. I hope you have enjoyed our travels
together. Please send questions if you
have them. We would love to hear from
you!
Please enjoy the rest of your school year.
All the best and au revoir,
Flat Stanley and of course, Gayle sends you best
wishes as well!
From Victoria and Flat Holly in Lviv, Ukraine.
Hello Holly, My name is Victoria and I am very happy that I can help you get to know the world. I live in Ukraine, and more precisely in Lviv. Although I’ve lived here for only 6 years, I got to know the city well. I would like to show you the monuments of Lviv, its popular attractions and my favourite places which I like to visit. Firstly please let me show you the city centre. We will start our trip with the Lviv Opera, it is almost 135 years old!
Next to the Opera is a gallery where you can buy various glassware, precious stones, souvenirs and embroidered symbols of the Ukrainian nation, including embroidered clothes.
Another popular theatre in Lviv is the Maria Zankovetska Theatre, which is over 100 years old.
Not far from here is the Lviv Town Hall
But perhaps the most famous historical site in Lviv is the remains of the High Castle, built in 14th century on top of a tall hill called Castle Hill, from where you can see not only the old the city of Lviv, but also modern buildings of this beautiful city with such a rich history.
On the way back from the High Castle we are passing another monument - the Gunpowder Tower
This city was founded by King Daniel Halicki, who called the city Lviv, which translates Lion’s City, in honour of his son, whose name was Lion. Here is a monument to King Daniel Halicki
I would also like to show you other historic monuments: A monument dedicated to Bartosz Glowacki, an 18th century Polish national hero and freedom fighter
A monument dedicated to Adam Mickiewicz, a famous Polish-Lithuanian poet
A monument to Ivan Fedorov the first Russian printer
And other famous people:
Bernardine Church 
The City Arsenal, which now houses an armoury museum 
Defence walls of Lviv 
Ivan Franko National University 
Any many other interesting and historic places which Lviv is famous for
And I would like to end our trip at some more modern popular places: Victoria Gardens shopping center
The Forum shopping Centre
There are many McDonalds restaurants in Kiev, and recently KFC opened its firsts shop. The capital of Ukraine is Kiev, another beautiful and historic city which perhaps we will visit on your next trip.
Since 2018, Ukrainian school education has been extended from 11 to 12 years. It now includes four years of elementary education, five years of middle school education, and three years of upper secondary (specialized) education. Elementary education starts at the age of six. Many schools in Lviv are located in large and often old buildings
The school year starts at the end of summer, after nearly three months of the summer holidays. We have a school break for Christmas.
Thank you, I do hope you enjoyed your visit!
Best Regards. Vicki
