Stanley in Sydney - Sat 27th Feb

Today was a very exciting day for Stanley, because he was in Sydney. In the morning, first Elissa, and then Adam went to the LDS Temple whilst the rest of the family were in the motel. After leaving the motel, the family showed Stanley around the Temple grounds - Jewel liked showing him some of the pretty flowers.

After lunch, the family drove into the centre of Sydney to go to Luna Park. We explained that Luna Park is sort of like an American fairground or theme park. It is in North Sydney, right next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and opposite the Sydney Opera House. After driving in to North Sydney, we took a photo of Stanley in front of the Sydney Opera House.

We then walked under the Sydney Habour Bridge. Stanley thought it was really, really tall. Adam explained that it is about 440 feet high. That's as tall as two Salt Lake City Temples on top of each other. It's a really big bridge! The family all then went to Luna Park and had fun on the rides. Adam's favorite rides were the dodgem cars. Jewel went on some of the smaller rides, whilst Elissa, Jayde and Seth went on some of the bigger, faster rides. Stanly went up in a very tall Ferris Wheel with everyone, and got to look out over Sydney Harbour. He tried looking to see if he could see Nemo, but he couldn't see him in the water anywhere. Luna Park was a lot of fun, but very tiring.

After Luna Park, the East family had to go to an Engagement Party on the other side of Sydney. This meant that Stanley not only got to see the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but was in the car as we drove on it as well.  The family only spent a short time at the Engagement party, as they still had to drive back to Canberra that night. It had been a long and busy day - but very fun. It was so busy, Stanley slept for a lot of the drive back home to Canberra. That was good, because the family didn't get back to Canberra until 11 o'clock at night!

Stanley & the Big Merino - Fri 26th Feb

Stanley's stay at school overnight wasn't that scarey, and he got to listen to what the class was learning about. The class was learning about words starting with the letter M. He noticed that all of the kids were wearing blue and red clothes - that's the color of the school uniform that the children wear. As a treat, the kids got to have lunch at the canteen today - normally they bring in their lunch from home.

After school, Elissa picked up Stanley and the kids from school, then Adam from his work, and then drove up to Sydney. Luckily the Easts have a big car, because it was a long (3.5 hour) drive. The East's car also has a DVD player, which means that he and the children could put on headphones and watch movies while they drove. They got to watch the movie Garfield, a tv show about a man who travels in time called Doctor Who, and some Micheal Jackson music videos - Jayde is a big Michael Jackson fan. One was for a song called Thriller - that was bit scarey for Stanley - it had monsters called zombies in it. He and Jewel were both abit scared of that one.

Along the way they stopped at a town called Goulburn - about an hour away from Canberra. In Goulburn they have a building that looks like a giant sheep - called the Big Merino. A merino is a type of sheep. The building is designed for tourists to find out about how important wool is to that part of Australia - there are a lot of sheep stations (farms for sheep) in Australia. Jayde, Jewel and Stanley had a photo outside the front of the Big Merino. It is so big, you can hardly see the girls holding Stanley in the photo.

When they got up to Sydney, the family stopped at Adam's brother's house. There, they had a delicous barbecue dinner with Jon, his wife Glenda, daughter Natasha and grandson Joshua. After dinner, it was time to go to the motel to sleep, as it was going to be a busy day tomorrow.

Stuck in a School Bag - Thurs 25th Feb

Stanley went off to school with Jewel today ... but the teacher forgot about him - oh no! He's staying at the school overnight and hopefully will have a bit more of a fun day tomorrow.

Even more exciting for him is that after school tomorrow, he'll be taking a trip up to Sydney for a couple of days. Sydney is a very big city - it has about 5 million people, and it's very busy, with lots of cars and tall buildings. He'll get the chance to see the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House, and hopefully do a bunch of fun things. It will probably be a couple of days until we get to read about his trip.

Sydney is a 3.5 hour drive from Canberra - I hope he doesn't get car sick!

Stanley tastes Vegemite - Wed 24th Feb

For breakfast, Stanley had a special Australian food called Vegemite. It is a spread/paste made from plants. It looks like a chocolate spread, but it isn't sweet, it is very salty. Australians sometimes eat Vegemite on toast for breakfast. Stanley got to try it - but it tasted too salty for him.

During the day, Stanley went to work with Elissa. Elissa works at Old Parliament House. Her job is to teach school children how Governments are elected, and how to vote. The building Elissa works in used to be the Australian Parliament. This is where the Australian Prime Minister (similar to the American President) and other politicians would meet to make laws. In 1988, the government made a new Parliament House, which was much bigger, and Old Parliament House is now used as the Museum of Australian Democracy. Stanley got to learn about different types of governments around the world and how people vote in Australia.

When the East family got home, they discovered that they had received a package in the mail from friends in Mexico. It was a box full of Mexican lollies (we explained that Australians use the word lolly instead of candy). Stanley and the rest of the family are looking forward to trying some of these yummy treats! We told him that we'll get some Australian lollies soon so that he can try them too.

Jayde has a part-time job of delivering the local newspaper. After dinner, Adam and Jayde went out to deliver the newspapers, and invited Stanley to come along too. He would have liked to help deliver them, but they were too big for him to carry. He got to sit in Jayde's pocket whilst they walked the streets, putting the newspapers in people's mailboxes. Stanley was excited to see some Rosellas in the trees iand flying around the streets. Rosellas are colourful red and blue birds that he might only normally see in a zoo back home. Adam explained to him that they quite often get galahs and cockatoos landing on the their house as well, so Stanley might get to see some more unusual Australian birds.

There was a bit of a scare whilst delivering the newspapers at one point - jayde realised that Stanley had fallen out of her pocket, and she had to go back and look for him. Luckily, she hadn't gone very far from where he'd fallen out, and he wasn't hurt by the fall.

Stanley Discovers Cricket - Tues 23rd Feb

Stanley got a tour of the East's home today. It's a three storey house on the side of a hill. Stanley really liked the view from the balcony - he could see the nearby Brindabella Mountain range. They're a lot smaller than the mountains back in Utah, but still nice to look at, espceially when the sun sets over them.

Elissa took Stanley to Curtin Primary School and introduced him to Jewel's teacher. Elissa thought it would be nice if Stanley got to a visit Jewel's Year 1 school class here in Canberra. Jewel's teacher said that Stanley could come in on Thursday, so he's looking forward to that.

In the evening, Adam and Seth introduced Stanley to cricket. Cricket is the most popular sport in Australia during summer, similar to how popular baseball is in the USA. Australia were playing the West Indies* in cricket, and the game was being shown on TV. Adam, Seth and Stanley sat down and watched the game on Television.

It was a special type of cricket game called Twenty20, which takes about as long to play as a baseball game. There are three different types of cricket - the longest, Test Cricket, can take 5 days to play a game! Stanley didn't understand all the rules of cricket, but there were lots of exciting catches and big hits that reminded him of home runs in baseball. Stanley also wasn't sure whether he should be barracking for Australia, or for the West Indies, because they're from near America.(Australians use the term barrack, not root, when they talk about supporting a sports team) In the end, Australia won, and he had fun watching the game with Adam and Seth. Seth even had a collection of cricket cards and they were able to try and find the cards of the cricket players when they were on TV.

Two minute video of Australia vs West Indies Twenty20 Cricket match

*About The West Indies
The West Indies isn't an actual country, but a collection of about 20 small countries near America, like Jamaica, Barbados, Dominica and Grenada. Most of these countries play cricket, and decided back in 1926, that because they were too small to do well by themselves, that they would work together and choose a cricket team from the best cricketers throughout all the different countries in the West Indies. Since then, the countries in the West Indies have joined together when playing cricket games. In the 1980s, the West Indies were the best cricket team in the world. This summer, it was the West Indies cricket team's turn to come and visit and play cricket in Australia for several months.

Flat Stanley Arrives in Canberra

Flat Stanley arrived at the East Family's house in Canberra yesterday. Flat Stanley is a friend of Gabrielle Northrup from Lehi, in Utah, in the USA. Gabrielle's class at school have just finished reading the book, Flat Stanley. Because Stanley is flat, he is able to travel by mail anywhere in the world.

Gabrielle's mum is a friend of Elissa East, the mum of the East Family, who live in Canberra in Australia. Gabrielle's Mum asked Elissa if Stanley could come and stay with us for a week, and we said yes.

We thought we'd provide a copy of Stanley's journal online so that Gabrielle and her class could see what he gets up to "Down Under".

Flat Stanley arrived by mail yesterday (Monday) afternoon. He was a bit jet lagged from the long trip - it took 13 days to get to Australia from the USA by mail. He was glad to get out of the envelope and have a stretch. He got introduced to the member's of the East Family. Adam, who is the Dad, Elissa who is the Mum (we pointed out that in Australia, we say Mum and not Mom)  and three children - Jayde, who is 9, Seth who is 7 and Jewel who is 5 years old. It's a shame Stanley is only here for a week, because Jayde and Jewel have their birthday's soon, and he'll miss out on their parties.

We pointed out that although Canberra is only a small city, of about 300,000 people, it is the Capital City of Australia. We also pointed out, that Stanley might get a bit warm here. Even though it is winter in the USA, it is summer here in Australia.