My Thanksgiving in Florida!

Hi Kids!

Guess where I am?  I am in Florida with Mrs. North and Dr. Appelgren and their family.  They invited me to spend Thanksgiving with them.  Isn't that nice?  I am having so much fun!    When you get this letter, you will be back in school after Thanksgiving vacation, so I hope that you had a great Thanksgiving with your families.  Did everyone eat lots of turkey?  I did!

Here is a picture of me at Thanksgiving dinner

 Yum yum!  Does my dinner look like yours did?  I bet that we had a lot of the same foods!  A lot of you asked me about if the foods and traditions are the same in Florida as in Rock Hill.  As you can see, the food is the same.  They also have the same cars, buildings, schools, stop signs, and trucks.  Have any of you been to Florida before?  Can you find it on the map?  When you find it, you can see that it is another state in our country.  There is only one state between South Carolina and Florida.  Do you know what it is?

Martavious wanted to know if I had fun in Kyrgyzstan.  Yes, I sure did!  But I had to fly on many planes to get there; it is a different country, far-away from us.  Florida is so close that you can drive there!  Since Florida is in the United States and it is close to South Carolina, many things here are the same as back home.  But, some things are different.

Cierra asks "Do they have a beach?"- When you look at the map, you can see that Florida must have a lot of beaches.  Some are on the Atlantic Ocean like the beaches in South Carolina, but some are on the Gulf of Mexico.  Can you find the Gulf of Mexico on the map?  I am in the middle of Florida so there is no beach here but there is a pretty lake!  Here, I will show you a picture:

 Maybe next time I come here we will go to the beach!

Anna asked "Do they have different animals than us?" - well, some animals are different.  Since there is so much water, they have a lot of animals and birds that like the water.  For example, sometimes in the lake they see alligators!!!  I didn't see one though- it would have scared me!  I did get a picture of a heron.  It is a kind of bird that gets its food from the marshes and lakes.

When I saw it, it was in a marsh and it caught a snake to eat!!!  They had a big fight- here is another picture:

Can you see that the snake wrapped itself around the bird's head???  The bird won, and eventually he ate the snake.

Logan asked about fake animals!  He asked "Do people put plastic flamingos in their yards?"  Not everyone, but I saw one and took a picture to show you!!

Amari and Sean want to know what Florida looks like and if the sights are different.  It is much warmer in Florida than in South Carolina.  It never even snows at all here!  So, the sorts of plants that they can grow are different.  There are a lot of palm trees and other tropical plants.  This morning, you might have had a kind of juice that came from fruit trees in Florida.  Can you guess what kind of fruit trees they have here?









That's right!  They have a lot of orange trees!!  I took a picture with one of them so you could see

Here is another one so you can see the whole thing:

Well that is about it!!  I hope that you enjoyed this letter.  I can hardly wait for my next trip!!

Your friend,
Flat Stanley

Time to go back home!!

Hi there kids!

I have had a long, wonderful trip to Kyrgyzstan, but now it is time to head back home.  Did Mrs. North show you the presents I sent?  Did you like them?

I want to answer a few more of your questions before I leave!
First, Carlee wants to know: Do you have the same stop sign?
Well, actually they don't!  They spell the word Stop in their own alphabet.  Here is an example:

Remember that they use a "c" for the S sound - also they have a different symbol for the P sound!  Can you find the stop sign in this picture?  Sometimes when you go to a different country even the everyday things look totally different!  It is fun to learn about other people's countries and cultures!

Next, Chloe wants to know: What do people like to eat there?
People here eat many of the same things that you probably eat in Rock Hill, like hamburgers and pizza.  But the places that they eat are different.  There is not even one McDonalds or any other American restaurants in the whole country!

Sometimes the food is the same but it looks different.  For example, people here like to eat bread but it is baked in a different way so the traditional bread looks like this:

You can see a cup of hot tea here too- people like to drink hot tea with every meal- I think that is because it is very cold here in the wintertime!

There are also traditional foods here that are special for the Kyrgyz culture.  Here is one traditional food called monty- it is a dumpling filled with onions and meat:

It was very tasty!  Does this look like anything you have tried before?  What are traditional foods that you like to eat in your family?

People here also shop for food in a different way.  In the big cities there are supermarkets like we have in Rock Hill, but many people still shop in traditional outdoor marketplaces called bazaars.  They are places where farmers and families come to sell their food.  Dr. Appelgren and I went to visit one.  Here is a picture:

How is it different from the place that you shop for food?
Do you see anything else interesting in this picture?

Finally, Sean wants to know: What animals can you see there?
There are so many animals!  Many of them are the same as animals in Rock Hill, like sheep, goats, cows, and horses.  It is also very common for people here to have donkeys.  When I was traveling I saw many kids about your age riding donkeys and taking care of animals for their families.  Here are some of the pictures I took of animals:

This family uses a horse and wagon instead of a car.  Many people do have cars, but people in the country often travel using animals.  They usually stay to the side of the road so that fast cars and trucks can get around them.

Mrs. North- I put a video at this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgzZFiJeFNk

In the mountains, the only roads were shared by trucks, cars and herds of animals!  Here is a video that we took when a herd of animals had to pass us on the road!

I am excited to go home, but I am sorry that I didn't get the chance an answer everyone's questions.  For example, asking about the insides of houses and the insides of schools are very good questions, but I didn't get to go inside these places during my trip.  I hope that I can answer your questions on my next trip!

I can tell you a couple things that I learned on my trip.  First of all, I learned that it is a lot of fun to meet new people and learn about how their lives are different than mine.  Sometimes things seemed strange or funny to me, but then I realized that the things that make us different also make us special.  I am sure that some of the things that I have or do would seem funny to them!

Also I am very thankful for everything that we have in Rock Hill.  Here is a water pump in a village in the country:

The kids in this village have to go from their houses to this pump with buckets that they fill with water.  It must be very heavy to carry a bucket full of water all the way home!  They have to do this because there is no water in their houses.  Now when I use the sink to wash my hands I will remember that I am lucky because not all kids have water in their houses or schools!

Last, I made a lot of friends.  Here I am with Dr Appelgren and some new friends.

This is Ali and his dad.  Ali is about your age and he likes soccer, playing with his friends, and going to school!  He speaks two languages- Russian and Kyrgyz- like most of the kids here!  He likes to eat bread filled with potatoes and drink tea, like in this picture.  There are nice people to meet everywhere!

I can hardly wait to tell you about my next adventures!

Your friend,
Flat Stanley

Hello again!

Hi kids! 

How are you?  I hope you are learning a lot every day!

I am doing great!  Dr. Appelgren and I are seeing so many places all over Kyrgyzstan, and I want to tell you all about it! 

Do you remember when you looked at the map of Kyrgyzstan with Mrs. North?  Do you remember the big lake?  I got to visit it last week.  It is very pretty!  It is called lake Issyk Kul (you say it like "iss-ick cool").  It is up in the mountains, and all of the water comes from melted snow.  The water is very clear!  Let me show you some pictures:

Me at the lake!  It was very cold, but I went for a swim anyhow! :)

The water of the lake was very clean and clear!  Those are Dr. Appelgren's feet!!

OK, now I am going to open up my backpack and see what other questions you have.  Let's see....

Michael H. wants to know: Do you have the same clothes like us? 

Some people wear clothes just like the people in Rock Hill, but some people wear traditional clothes that people have been wearing here for many, many years.  One of the traditional things that men wear is a special kind of tall hat.  Some women wear scarves to cover their heads.  Here are some pictures to show you:

Here I am with some of my new friends!  They are wearing very traditional clothes.  I tried to ask them about their clothes, but they were very quiet.  I think they must be shy!

Here is a nice family that I met during my trip.  What are they wearing that is the same as what your family might wear?  What is different?

OK, I have time for one more question today.  Amari M. wants to know: Do you have alot of open land in Kyrgyzstan? 

This is a very beautiful country!  Yes- there is a lot of open land!  I will show you a picture from the area near Issyk-Kul lake:

There is a lot of land that has no buildings on it, so people can use this land for farming or for raising sheep and horses.  In the north part of the country, people grow hay, wheat, and potatoes.  In the south part, people grow cotton and sunflowers.  What things do people grow where you live?  Why do you think that people who live in different places might grow different things?

Well, I have a big day tomorrow so I need to get some rest!  Good-bye everybody!  I will send you another letter soon!

Your friend,

Flat Stanley

Hello from Kyrgyzstan!!

Hi Kids! 

How are you?  I hope that you are having fun and learning a lot in Rock Hill.  Thank you for sending me to Kyrgyzstan with my friend Dr. Appelgren.  We are having a great time here!

It takes a loooong time to get here on a plane - 2 whole days!  I was so tired!  We even have a different time here!  Since we are on the other side of the earth the sun rises at a different time.  For example, in Rock Hill right now it is 8:30am and you are probably starting your day at school.  Here in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, it is 6:30pm and I am almost ready for dinner!

Thank you for sending such good questions!  Let's see if I can answer some of them for you.  First, Cierra wants to know: do people speak English? 

Well, very few people do.  Most people speak Russian since Russia is close to here, and some also speak a local language called Kyrgyz (you say it like Keer-geez).  Some of the words sound like words in English, but most words sound very different.  They also use a different alphabet from ours.  It is called the Cyrillic Alphabet.  Some of the letters are the same, and some are different.  Some even look the same but make different sounds!  It is very confusing, but Dr. Appelgren and I are trying to learn.  Look at the picture above.  The first word is "cafe"- they use k instead of c to make the first sound because here a c sounds like an "s".  The funny circle with a line through it makes the f sound!  So now you can read the word cafe in Russian!

Next, Jamari wants to know:  Do they have the same cars as our country?

Well, what do you think??  I think that some things about cars are the same, and some are different.  What do you see in the picture that is the same or different?  Where do you think the cars are in this picture? 

By the way, look at the big white sign in the background with blue letters.  It has a funny symbol (looks sort of like a b) and then AHK.  Well, the funny symbol is how they write a "B" and the H sounds like "N."  Can you tell what the sign says??

Well, I'm off to have more adventures.  I'll take more pictures and write again soon!

Your friend,
Flat Stanley