My Five Senses at the Beach

By Joey grade 5

I see the huge ocean that stretches across the horizon. The crashing waves that wash onto the shore. I felt the ice cold water that sends a shiver through my spine. The salty sea that rushes in my nose. The water is so salty I can taste it with my mouth.
I see a dead seagull that looks rotten. I hear the wind blow sand on the dead bird, it sounds like thumps. I feel the rotten squishy skin on the seagull. I smell the rotten belly of the seagull. The wind blows the rotten smell into my mouth and I can taste.
I see a half open clam. I hear it close a bit. The bumpy outside of the clam. I smell some rotten body left in it. The saltiness and the rotten clam the wind blows it into my mouth.
I see a pyramid made of sand. The sand falls down it like an avalanche. I feel it and it is as smooth as glass. The salty sand that has so much salt in it you could sell. I taste all the salty sand.

Inspiration

I have been finding lately that inspiration has been harder to find. Everything on the media is boring, predictable, and doesn't have anything to say to me.
I have some classes this semester that are challenging the creative in me and asking me to unleash my brain and think in creative ways. It's a sweet release relearning to think in ways that came easily in grade 2 art class.
What would you say, do, show, create if there were no rules and the only requirement was to do something?
If you are sick of every song sounding the same, flipping through magazines and realizing that Kate Moss works for everyone, if you are tired of your clothes and the food in your fridge....Create, enjoy, reject the status quo.
Remember the status quo is the one who decided that "suuuuuiicccidal" should get played on the radio, not to mention "you'll be ugly like your mama".

This isn't an angry blog, just bored of the art being presented by the mainstream right now. (VMA anyone?)
my only solutions today are...
Watch Hairspray and smile all the way through
Do something creative while listening to this


Go to "Michaels" that craft store, I had to go to a ton this week for work and at everyone I find myself eyeing the paint brushes, candle-making kits, and ribbon with a desire to "do something"

I'll let you know if I find any more inspiration, if you know some please share.

Euro trip part one...Basel Switzerland

On August 13 Domi and I landed in Frankfurt Germany and took a train to see the "R" family in Basel Switzerland. Basel was great, the R's are the greatest hosts. Every morning we woke up to the most incredable cup of coffee. The kids took to Domi right away and we ended up calling him "Domi Daycare" because he had such a good time with them. This is how they would walk around town, one kid on each shoulder.
The R kids are fantastic, both exactly how you remember them but just a little older and wiser. This is E demonstrating how much he has grown.

Basel is basically the "perfect" little swiss city and the swiss people try hard to keep it that way. It is very clean and buildings are all kept in good repair. Many of the streets are walking traffic only and it mostly looks like this...
Here is us looking "sehr schick" in Basel (that is the online french-german traslation for "tres chic") German is a very strange language, more on that later.


They have public fountains everywhere with clean drinking water. K got a little hot one day and used a fountain to cool off.
Unfortunately she got a little too wet and I made her sit in the sun to dry off.
The swiss are into their "werst" (sausage)and beer, you could pretty much find this everywhere. We also had great Black Forest Cake, cheese, wine, espresso, croissants, and everything else Karlin made for us, oh and everyday lots and lots of swiss chocolate! I carried a bar around in my purse at all times :) We had a lot of great people watching at the local coffee shops. K and E have also embraced the coffee culture.
***names have been changed to protect the families privacy