- February 11, 2014 -

FACTS*:

~ Athens is the capital of Greece

~ Athens is the largest city in Greece

~ Athens has a recorded history of 3,500 years

~ it is the 39th richest city in the world

~ it is 77th most expensive city in the world

~ the city population was 796,442 in 2004 which is the last recorded census

~ the land area in Athens is 15 square miles

History of Ancient Athens

Ancient Athens was known for its intellectual superiority.  It is known for this because of its early engineers, inventors & philosophers.  For example, Achemedes who a was famous inventor.  Athenians are also known for war, ironically, after Athena godess of wisdom & war.  Athenians fought many wars against Sparta, a fellow Greek city-state (that's what they're called).  War is not just brute strength and numbers it is actually mostly wisdom.  Obviously Athenians were good with war considering they were wise and strong, but there was something Sparta had that Athens had much less of...dedication.  Spartans were so dedicated to war that children over the age of seven were taken to army barracks to be trained. 

Places to go in Athens

Here is a list of places in Athens that are crucial for your trip to Athens.  First on our list is the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, as this amazing museum is massive and has many amazing relics from ancient times.  Next up the is the Theater of Herodes Atticus where you may see ancient Greek drama.  Also, you can't miss Panathinaikon Stadium where the first modern olympics were held.  But of course, you couldn't miss the Acropolis which is not actually just in Athens it also includes Agros, Thebes, and Corinth.  Inside of the Acropolis, there is a large noticable building called the Parthenon in which the world's first democracy was held. 

Culture

Greek culture is a large part of your visit to Athens from food to languages...99% of all residents speak Greek, however there is more than one type of Greek including Cretan Greek, Cappadocian Greek, Cypriot Greek, Pontic Greek & Ancient Greek which is a dead language.

Sabrina's report can tell you more about the food.

*editor's note: Mom & Dad have not fact-checked this wonderful article!  Some of the facts might be out-of-date...please do your own research if you need precise info on Greece! : ) But he is now pretty excited to see some of the things he has read about.  We shall post pictures upon our return!  THANKS FOR READING!!!

Nov 16

It is very fun here & I have new friends that are different than my American friends because they originated from different places & speak different languages.  But they all like to do what I like to do which is Minecraft & programming.  I have not changed.  I have not shown Max or James programming but they would like to learn.  Today I downloaded Sprite so that I can program animation & write video games.  I just finished my first fully-completed map on Minecraft & I had Sabrina beta test it for problems & bugs before I sell it.  I was able to fix a few problems.  Now it is ready to sell.

When I am not on my computer, I am reading new books like Enders Game & Mark of Athena.  I have some new Dutch words I am learning & I do try them out on Dutch people sometimes.  I have gone to a few museums, like today my mom brought us to the Rijks Museum & I liked seeing the boat models.  They showed a lot of details like the head of the boat.  Most were from the Dutch military in the 1600's.

I am going to keep working on this new programming with Sprite now.  Have a good night!

Kai

We have Open Week at school this week and the parents can come & see what it is like in class.  My mom came today & she went to "topic" where we learned about the creation of sandy & shingle beaches through deposition that the waves and tides create over thousands of years.  My mom seemed to have fun & I had fun because she was in the class! 

Last weekend I went to a sleepover & played minecraft the whole time then slept.   It was fun.   And I was very tired.  

The other day... my mom & I went to the museum of contemporary art while my sister was at her friend's house.  When I saw some of the art, I liked some of it.  I asked a lot of questions but my mom said it matters more your interpretation of the art.  And she told me to read all the titles & description of the works...some of them didn't actually tell me anything.  Some just looked like blank canvas or black canvas.  We also walked on a ton of metal plates that they considered art. 

I have been eating a lot of kipling which is deep fried cod fish.  I also love bitterballen!

bye I have to read now.

Kai

Hi I'm Kai and thanks for reading my blog page. 

One day we were in class and my teacher, Miss Brady, asked me why I did not talk like this: "hey y'all!"  And I said, "that is more of a Southern thing."  So she said "Oh so you live in the West?" And I said "Yes".  So then she said, "Why don't you speak like this:   "Hey DUUUDE!"  and I told her that was more of a 80's thing in California.  And, for surfers that have no life & just surf all day.

I have three new friends named James, Max & Luca.   They're all British.  They also play Minecraft.  Of course.   Speaking of Minecraft, I have been playing on Minecraft 1.7 which is the new update.  It has new biomes like the Savannah, the Birch Forest, Stone Beach etc.  I have built two adventure maps and they are both based on a game called Portal.  I also have been coding on javascript using Khan Academy lately.  I have been trying to make a video game but I am still far from achieving it.  I am not sure how long it will take so I'm not sure when I can share it with everyone.  

This is a link for what my adventure maps are based on:

http://portal.wecreatestuff.com/

if you click on this you can see the game.  This isn't the actual game of Portal, but it is the free computer version that does not need a download.  Also if you want to try coding, try this link:

https://www.khanacademy.org/cs/new

I'm going back to my computer(s) now. Bye!

Kai