Jessica's blog

The first place we stopped in Italy was Venice. You know the city with water streets? At least when we were there I didn’t have to be worried about getting hit by a car. It’s basically a walking city, oh and boats. 🙂 They even have water taxis if your to lazy to walk to your destination. Other than of water streets  to our surprise pretty much every store had a collection of masks. So we found out why they were so many , it was because back in the 17^th century everyone in the city were suppose to wear masks in public. So Drew and I decided that we wanted to buy one, you know for Halloween sake. Drew bought a V for Vendetta mask ( looks like V’s mask from the movie) and I bought this pink feathery, fancy traditional one. 😀 After Venice we decided to take a day trip to Pisa. The first thing we did when we arrived in Pisa, was visiting the famous leaning tower of Pisa and took the famous picture of “trying to hold it up” or pretending to lean on it as if your making it lean. So we have over a billion pictures of us doing that. After the tower we got tickets to go into this baptizing church. It was nice but weird that they had a church just for baptizing! Suddenly, when we were upstairs, people started to sing and we had no idea what it was. So dad thought it was just music playing so he mimicked them. And it turned out that it was a choir singing!!! So Dad kinda got in trouble, the guards shushed him. And I was trying so hard to laugh!!!! After that experience we were going to our hotel in Florence. When we got in Florence we were so hungry so we went into the streets to search for a restaurant. And like they say, Italians have the best food. Every meal in Italy was so so so good. :] The next morning we were off to Naples to see the deserted city of Pompeii. The story of Pompeii is so interesting and could be researched for months!! The only thing about the set up, it wasn’t a set up for people that don’t know anything about that lost city. Their were no signs that indicated what this room was or how old it is or nothing!!! But hopefully in the next couple of years the Italians will understand that they really need to post up signs. It was really sketchy when we saw the molds of the people because you could actually see what the kids/babies and the adults looked like. It definitely gave you a knot in your stomach. So all and all it was very interesting. After Pompeii we actually went to visit Naples this time round. Well  actually we visited this little fishing village called Mergellina.And loads of people were coming off there boats with buckets of fish/squids and ext.  And old mans were fishing of the shore with their banana hammock speedos on. 😐 And personally I thought Naples was pretty scary and especially when I saw what  our hotel looked like. We definitely locked the door and had a little alarm set if the door was ever opened. The next day we were finally going to Rome!!!! Yayy! I really liked Rome. The first event that we did when we got there was visiting the Colosseum. That was also very interesting. Like, Once the games were cancelled people of the city Rome started using pieces of the Colosseum for there houses/gardens and stuff. After the 2 hours tour of the Colosseum we started looking at all the othe old monuments around the Collosseum. Wow I’m saying Colloseum a lot. Colloseum Colloseum Colloseum Coloseum!!!!!!! 🙂  Anyways. We had our first attempt to a pickpocketer, which was a fail. I was the first one to realize Because once we stopped to look at something he just started kicking his feet in place. So I kinda gave mom the look. And then she gave Dad he look and we all knew except Drew…..So what we did we tested him to see if he was really following then Dad told us to stop. And Drew asked “ Why?!” and Dad said “ Because this guy right here is following us!!!!” And he said it really loud so the man could hear. And the he realized he was caught and went off.  But that whole time my stomach was twisting.  Since we arrived in Rome pretty late all we really had time for that night was the Colloseum. The next day in Rome,  we went to the Vathican. You know where the Pope lives? Yeah, well we were lucky enough that when we arrived there, a service was going on!!! And we heard the Pope gave us a speech and he blessed every single one of us!!! So I thought that was pretty exciting.But it was really hot out so it was kinda  drag standing in line to get in. So mom volunteered to stand in line because Drew and I had to wait for Dad. Why did we have to wait? Well he didn’t think of covering his shoulders. So he was wearing a muscle shirt and the gurads said he couldn’t get in so we were first in line and by the time he came back we were almost last. 😦 But things like that happens. After the Vathican we went to the famous fountain called The fountain of Trevi. So the traditon is that you have to throw 2 coins inside the fountain. The first one grants you a wish and the second means that you WILL back to Rome. So I guess I’ll be back in Rome! Well those are the main things we saw and we saw a lot of little old buidings and stuff. 🙂 Okay, so that’s all for Italy. See you in the French Riviera!

Another RCI resort a waits us. I love RCI. It was a really nice little apartment that reminded me of the cottage. For me the big highlight of Germany was definitely October fest, in Munich. Drew and I rode on pretty much every ride there. Mom and dad only went on a couple because they wanted to spend their money on the 8$ beers. The rides were crazy!! There was this one ride that scared the living daylight out of me. I’ve never been so thrilled and scared on a ride in me own life!!! 😛 The ladies in the beer tents were carrying up to 3-10 beers all together just by hand to trays or nothing, the most I saw someone carry was 12!! That’s when the party was going, everyone was dancing on the tables smiling for my camera and some people were trying to get me to dance with them!!! Haha, I was scared cause they didn’t really asked me they just grabbed me and expected me to Dance with them. I didn’t I was scared. 🙂  And I told Mom&Dad that I’ll be back when I’m at a legal drinking age. 😉 It seemed like in Germany we did a lot of rides and stuff because we went to another amusement park thing, They had a giant zip line, which was scary again. And these cart things that you went down a hill on. One of them was on tracks and the other was just on a road sort thing, and you got to control how fast you went. Of course Drew and I just hold the throttle (to make you go fast) all the way and we were one of the fastest ones on the track. Which was close to our apartment we also went to a castle called Neuschwanstein. The Neusch——– castle is what Disney land & world based their castles on. So obviously it was pretty extravagant. But just like everything, they were still doing construction on it. Which kind of ruined our pictures but we saw the post cards. So that pretty much covers Germany, and I think I will be back sometime when I fell like a party!!! Bye for now!!!

So as you all know, Amsterdam is the city with the most prostitutes. And that was definitely an experience of a lifetime. : P I think the funniest part is Drew’s reactions.  He’s such a little gentleman. Obviously, he would like to stare because some of them were really pretty, but a little underdressed. 😐 So drew would just take a quick glance and look away right away so he wouldn’t offend them or something. And it was also weird because the streets were kind of in sectors. The old folks down one road. Heavy girls down the other. And a good road (as Drew said). Dad said “ talk about window shopping”. Haha. Another thing that is legal in Amsterdam, is smoking weed. I didn’t smoke any but still got a taste. You can smell Marijuana everywhere!!! And they sell the machines or whatever you call them in stores to buy. Amsterdam was just like San Francisco (the store), like you know those corners with all the uhm… well you know, if you don’t well I won’t explain. But they did have sweet T-shirts everywhere!! I didn’t buy any though. 😦 I’m on a budget.

Belgium was absolutely delicious!! Every Pastries/Chocolate store always had a free sample.  But we figured that out after we bought 8-euro worth of chocolate, which finally melted all together while we were traveling in the car. But the mixture of all of them together I must say was quite good. 🙂 We didn’t spend much time in Belgium, we mostly saw the chocolate and that’s all. We went to the chocolate museum. Which was actually very interesting, in fact sometime I might make some sort of project on chocolate just to learn a bit more.  So by the time we left Belgium or bellies were quite full. 😀

It seems like we haven’t taken a plane in such a long time!! So we took the ferry from Dover (where the cliffs of Dover are) just to Calais France. Once in Calais, we already rented a car so it was already to go. After we unpacked everything, of course, we had to go eat something. Someone wanted to go eat by the water but surprisingly there were barely any little restaurants!! They were al Fancy Shmancy. So we had a hamburger and a big old bowl of fries. 😀 It was so windy out that we couldn’t even eat outside on less we wanted sand all in our food and the seagulls were crazy they we all over you. ;). So we were in the car and feeding the seagulls fries out the window. Our stomachs were all happy but we still had left over fries…. Hmmm… what shall we do with them? I know maybe we should throw them out the window and watch the beastly seagulls savagely fight over them!!! 😀 WHAT A PLAN!!! So of course Drew was the one to throw the load of fries out the window…. but the wind pick them up and all the fries landed by the road and on the road. And one pour little seagull didn’t make her, while a car zoomed by and killed it. :l I screamed, Drew laughed, Dad smiled, and Mom said “ Oh no”. But we got over it when Drew and I saw this splendid Zip line. 😀 Not going to lie, that was probably one of the funniest moments of my life. And it was one just in a park, so we when up and down on it all night. At the end of the zip line it had this HUGE spring thingies so once you hit the end you practically went upside down, the got whiplash. 🙂 Fun times, fun times. Even father tried it, and yeah, he didn’t like the spring. When mom went on she jumped of right before the spring, bahaha, it was quite funny just to see their reactions. XD. Then after Calais we were off to Paris. YAYY!!! Paris was unbelievable, everything was just so exciting!! The first night in Paris we went to go see the Eiffel tower at night. And I got to say that I really do prefer it at night. But the Eiffel was just so extraordinary; that we decided that the next night we would go right to the top. But before all that we went to La Louvre where a couple of famous paintings/Sculptors. Such as The Mona Lisa, and The statue of Venus. Which was really good. And we also went to L’arc to triumph, which was…uhm… interesting.  Well, this is what happened, Mom met some people, as friendly as she is. 😉 Some soldiers because there was a remembrance for althea soldiers that lost their lives. So after talking to them for uhm, about 20 minutes the celebration was starting and one of the old soldiers ask us if we would like to participate in the marching parade. Well of course we didn’t have time to change from our Nike shoes and Sporting wear to something a little more casual but we did it anyways. Haha and we definitely stood out. We even signed the Gold’s book!!! It was weird but sweet at the same time, I don’t know, funny feeling I guess. And now, this is the night we went up. So they build elevators on every corner of the Eiffel. And the elevators do not go up, so you know who has a phobia of heights (Dad). Didn’t really enjoy the angle thing and windows on every wall. But once we were at the top he was all right. Well kind of. From up there you could see, EuroDisney, L’Arc du Triumph and much more. After that long day it was time to hit the hay. The next day we went back to the Tower because I really wanted to get a portrait done. So we found a man that seemed to be really, good at drawing, and he was asking quite a bit and I brought the price down by quite a bit. It took about him 20 minutes to draw me. And every one said it turned out so good. I think it looks pretty much like me. 🙂 After my satisfaction with my picture we had to do a little shopping in Paris. Maybe not buy anything but we still had to. I thought the Louis Vuitton in New York was huge. Not compared to the one in Paris. It was 5 stories tall!!!! Just letting you know that there is probably 2 million or even more dollars worth of product in there. I obviously didn’t buy anything, Louis Vuitton is way over my budget, I prefer knock offs. 🙂 Finally it was time to say bah-bye to Paris and off to Normandy, where WW2 ended, Juno beach.  It was hard to believe that I was standing right where all this commotion started. Everything there was so emotional. In the Museum they had old boots and helmets that were found on Juno beach. Old letter that failed to send. Poems that the Young Soldiers wrote before they died. Pictures of the soldiers and their lovers and young ones.  Just to think that that picture was probably the last time they ever saw their family. I have way more respect for soldiers these days. After the tour of Juno beach, since we were already at a beach we decided why not make it a beach day. And that was such a good decision. It was over 30º!! So we all got a little sun. 😉 Dad was a little burned and I tanned pretty goods did Mom. Drew didn’t want to get burned so he just loaded up on the sunscreen. Everyday, so far, was just great!!! : D Sorry this is so long but we just did so much in France I’m just going on a rant now. We went to Mont St. Michel, which is this Huge Castle/Church/ Town that every 2 days it’s surrounded by water. When we were there the tied was low but it was still sweet. Well just search it up and you’ll see it’s pretty amazing. Well I think I covered pretty much everything. If I missed something, Mom will talk to me about it. 😉  I’ll keep you posted with Switzerland sooner or later. BYE!

From the lovely Jessica

Thank you Alison!!! We all had a great time in England because we got to meet and see and again our long distance cousins, We met Alison in Regina but we also met her daughters when we arrived there, Clare and Sarah McClelland. Alison just finished reinventing her house, so of course and everything was all fresh and new. 😀 Clare realized that I’m kinda into clothing and stuff, so they brought me to a store that they thought I would like, Primark. And hell yes they were right!! Everything was so cheap!! And I bought k=quite a bit of things all for 13 some pounds! It always seems like the shopping is better anywhere else other then home. We visited London only for one day, but it was surely long enough. WE saw the tower bridge of London, Windsor castle The London bridge, Big ben, Tower of London. Tower of London was definitely the best, our guide for the first part was so good, he explained everything so well but didn’t make it boring for everyone. After the tour we were on our own to look and tour around. We saw the Queen and past kings crowns. And holy sweet mother of Jesus, those jewels were, uhm, HUGE! It was hard to believe that they were even real!!! Also what was very interesting, there was a part of the museum type of thing that was all about Henry the 8^th, it had all of his armors throughout his lifetime, the history and all that. Windsor Castle was also very good, what excited me the most that the queen was there!! Was kinda hoping I could meet her but somehow highly doubted that :p. But what made my day is that somehow we got a guard to laugh, not really laugh but chuckle sort of. And I’m not even really sure how we did it. But we did. We got to see the royal kids dolls house, pfft some doll house it was the size of our cottage!!! TINY!!! The dolls had more things then I do. It’s actually so amazing!!! We also did the London bridge experience wich  is a scary but yet educational tour under the London bridge. So what you do is you walk threw an amout of rooms and the actors played the part of the year that they were in and told us what was happening. In some room there were corps (not real of course) So after the tour they asked our group if we would like to visit the graves and whoever does not go threw through that exit and blah blah blah. Of course we stayed >:). So the scary part was just to make the most of it and I have to admit at parts I definitely felt like I should have chosen the exit. And some of them came right up to your face!!! One guy scared me so bad I had my fist up and just about kicked him in the you know what. But I held myself back, so if one of you ever scare so damn good be aware that pain could be inflincted to your body. :[ After London we went back to Alison’s and just relaxed like usual . Fun times fun times. Buh-Bye!!

Love Jessica

Hewo!!! Jessica speaking here. How are you guys all doing???

Scotland, was alot like Ireland rain, rain and more rain. But the scenery is truly amazing!!! We landed in Glasgow the fist day, but personally I was kinda expecting more from Glasgow. And since any of us weren’t felling Glasgow, we took off and went to Edinburgh. Now that was nice, it wsa just like a little town in Saskatchewan!! Except for the castles and stuff. 😛 We walked around a bit got a delicious pastry and were on the hunt for Tattoo tickets. Tatto is world ide military marching band competetion. My favourite band was the Chinese presentation. And also really enjoyed the….wel I forget the name of it, but it was about 20 men on snares(drums) and the were exactly together with every hit of the drum. Well you’lll have to see it, we’re going to upload the video for you to see it. 😀 The after Edinburgh we took the bus to Loch Ness. You know? We’re the Loch Ness monster supposidly lives. And no for all the people who are going to be posting ” Did you see him?” I am so verry sorry I did not. 😥 But I did learn so much about him,herm, her? And it sounds like it dosn’t even exist, everyone is doubting her. The from Loch ness we went back to Glasgow to take the bus to England. 🙂 YAY!! So when we got to the bus depot, we found out that we still had 4 hours to wait till our all nighter bus arrives. 😮 So we had no idea what to do!!! Oh no!!! So someone came up with the genius  idea of going to a movie. And with our McClelland luck, the biggest moivie cinema in the Uk was only a block away!!!! And and and Glasgow used to be the city of movies theatres. Now thats what you call luck!! 🙂 So we decided after a while of debating that we were going to see the new G-I- Joe , and we had to go up to the 4 flour!!!  That movie theatre was huge, you could definitely get lost in there somehow. With more of the McClelland luck, that movie was…..SO SO SO good! But then it was time for the dreadful part…. the over night bus ride. WE only had about 2 hours slepp all night. You wanna know why?? Oh maybe because there was a baby crying every 15 minuts that was sitting right infrount of us!! Yes, we knew that the luck wouldnt last that long. 😦  At the end of everything that happened we were ready to chillax with our long distance cousins. 😀 Talk to you sometime soon!!!

Jessica

week of august 11-16

Hey!!! Long time no speak!!

New York was amazing but tiring, you know how sometimes when you get real hot you have a seizure just to get your sweater off? Yeah well that’s how I was all week.  I can’t believe how much we got done in that amount of time!! With all the museums, tours, shopping… god I was sure played out. So anywho, you know Ben Stiller? No, I did not meet him but I met the co-star of Night at the museum…..ready for this? I met Dum-dum. Hell yes! Proud moment of my life right there. Not going to lie but when I went to the Mets museum that was probably the highlight. 😛  And for all the family members that are saying “ That was highlight!!??!!”. Yes it was, but but but I learned sutff to about things. :] Speaking of celebrities and such we the  McCleland’s went to Madame Trussauds wax museum.  And holy cats and dogs they look damn good, uhm not as like hot and sexy but as in they look real but some of them did look “good” ;).  Such as my man, Brad Pitt but of course he  had to be with Anjolie, she ruined the picture so I got one solo with Brad ;). Jackie Robinson was also there and for those who do not know he was indeed the first black race to ever play in a professional baseball league (for you Shelby). J And of course, The Beatles (Lennon, MCcartney, Harrison and Ringo), Micheal Jackson had his own little room with pictures from way back when. And yeah won’t go on cause you may just as well see the pictures! J  Acutally we went to 4 museums but oh well. The Ripleys believe it or not museum was pretty sweet, I think I enjoyed that museum because we were aloud to touch the junk in it :P. All the other museums you would get in shiet if you dare take a picture will flash >:(. Haha, I got yelled at a couple of times, Chuck my camera  against the wall. Hell no. Perssonaly, I think New York has more light downtown then Vegas!! It was the law that all the stores in Time scare had to be flashy. And all the huge stores are in New york, the M and M store was 3 stories high! Like come on! In Regina usually at a brand name store it’s all mixed up but in New York each brand name had there own store! Yeah, crazy Ehh? Well actually everything is crazy in NYC especially the tall buildings such as top of the rock and the Empire stait building, I laughed so hard at my dad, bahaha, lets just say he swore more then once that day. 😛  If you ever go to NewYork I must say that top of the rock was better sight seeing then Empire it  was more excting. Actually bring food on top of  the buidlings, pigeons are hilarious to watch! We gave one that was on top of the empire. God that must of took a lot of effort to get up there, anyways he was trying to gulp the whole pop corn in one bit, he was praticly chocking himself. Then he tried a different technique and the poor pigeons, his food fell of the empire. 😦 And he just watched it fall all the way down. 😥 Hahahahahaahha. Told ya we did a lot!! And that not even everything! But just chilax I’m not going to tell you every single thing!! But quite a bit :P. I still have to tell you about the statue of Liberty 😮 We didn’t exactly go to the island itself we took a ferry and drove by it, the ride was all right lots of people so we couldn’t really sit down. But then we took a speed boat!! >:) Now that was fun. WE sat  in the middle of the boat cause my parents didn’t want to get wet or jump to much, so I was kinda disappointed but then the driver did a tight turn and we got drenched!!! YAY!!!!! Hehe. But I got so wet that everything turned see threw and I had no spair clothing. L But it dried off reall quickly with the heat. And finally the last day of our stay in New York was our power shopping day! WE only had 3 hours to shop in New York!!!! But we did it I could have gone for another couple hours or so. But I’ll be back!!! Nice talking talking to yall!! Miss all of you so much! Talk to you soon.

Love Me …Jessica….McClelland

Ireland was beautiful!!! The grass and the flowers and junk are always perfect. Wonder why eh? Maybe cause the rain but who knows, the Irish have their secrets ;). My dad has been calling mom Gerbil for quite a while :P. I don’t really know why, but I think it’s because when she’s always digging threw her stuff. And well she got used to it, we were in our rented car, and Dad was trying to jam things inside where Drew and I sit.
“We need to organize it back here” I said
Then mom just burst out “ You know me, I AM GERBEL! “ She said it in a robotic/terminator voice! Haha, she makes my day!! Even today she made me laugh real hard! Drew took one of those ladders, which the people use to get food or whatever that’s not in there reach. So he pressed the ladder against that back of her legs.
“Excuse me miss” Drew said in an English voice
She reacted so quickly, she said “ Oh my! I’m sorry!”. Drew of course bursted out laughing and Mom gave him a playful hit!!! Hehahhe! Silly Goose! Anyways enough about mother, we went to 2 castles while we were in Ireland, one that was restored and the other well that was dead. They were Killkenny( restored) Blarney(dead one). I, Jessica Dawn McClelland, personally liked the abandoned one, at parts it was kinda dangerous climbing those old stirs but we all made it threw!! Oh! And we kissed the Blarney stone, famous rock for some sort of thing, I know what the thing is I just don’t want to bored you. 🙂 But what you do is someone hangs you off the edge of the castle and you kiss the stone upside down.  I didn’t find it that scary but drew, hahaha, he’s so cute, he bent backwards and in a split second he was already standing on his feet. You could definitely tell he was scared and he said it to. But I’m not aloud to bug him about it anymore. And…oh.. we went to this old fort and it’s amazing that it’s still standing, but the highlight of the fort were all the sheep’s that live around it :P. Drew of course, chased them off , but I tried to pet one, classic Jessica hey? But after a while I got bored of sneaking up behind  them  and trying to catch them so I just went up to a herd and started to scream and un at them. 😀 Sounds cruel and all but it’s not like I was going to hurt them, I wouldn’t, never. Sometime during our little road trip we stopped for gas and found this little rock beach thing. You’d have to see the pictures once we figure out how to put them on. But anyways Drew and I both found a star fish, I let mine go and Drew 😥 dryed his. And for all the people that are wondering did I see a leprechaun, the answer would be no :(.Why do people have to rub it in??!! Haha just thought of a funny Drew McClelland moment, okay hold your horses and listen…..We were walking towards the castle, and Drew stopped at this old fashioned door, bahahaha, not done wait for it!! And he saw this old fashioned mail box, and I guess he just wanted to open it? Anyways once he opened it he called me over but during the time I was walking over, it gave time for a dog to walk over to us on the other side of the gate. I wasn’t quite there yet when a dog start growling and barking at Drew. Drew was so startled that he hit the door about 3 times, tried to run away but fell instead. HAHAHAHAHAH!! Maybe it’s a had to be there moment. But I laughed my petunias off!!! But anyways that’s how Ireland went down, loads of laughs,. Talk to yall shortly!!! ❤

From your dearest, most loyal, charming, and loving friend
Jessica c:

Well July is almost over and we’re moving into the month of August!!! Ahh!!! It’s scary because once I step into the plane towards New York city,  it’s good-bye to all my family, friends, school and social activities for 10 months!!! I’m definitely excited for New York because supposedly there is a HUGE outlet mall :D. But I have a feeling once we leave New York then off to Ireland it’s going to hit me that I won’t be back for a long time. 😐 The weirdest thing during this trip, i think is going to be how my mom is going to be my teacher and Drew will have to be my best friend for a year. Ok I just scared myself. :(. But during the trip we’ll have quite a bit of visitors meeting us all around the world, so I think I’ll survive the year, we all hope ;). The Past couple of months have been really hard saying good-bye to my family and my really close friends. So basically the ” Final Good-byes”.  But you can still keep in touch with me on MSN, Facebook, Skype( video chat/phone type of thing).  So you know it’s not like I’m never going to see anyone again… I’m not dying or anything :P. And plus it’s only 10 months, when i put it that way i doesn’t seem like that long now does it?  You gotsta let me know on all the updates that are happening while I’m gone, Such as dating ❤ ;), health(only good news please) :], Drama ANYTHING!!!! Just keep me updated.. please :]. K bye.

J*E*S*S*I*C*A