We just posted our latest video, you can check it out, link down below – LJ

We just posted our latest video, you can check it out, link down below – LJ

We just posted our latest video, you can check it out, link down below – LJ

We just posted our latest video, you can check it out, link down below – LJ

We just posted our latest video, you can check it out, link down below – LJ

This was a essay I wrote at the end of 5th grade about our world trip. I hope you enjoy!

Have you ever taken a road trip in Morocco? Seen the great pyramids of Giza? The Roman Colosseum?

I believe in trying new things. And I feel really lucky that I have the opportunities I have.

When I was ten years old during the summer before 5th grade, my family and I decided we were going to take a trip around the world to learn about different cultures, and spend more time as a family. We had been saving and thinking about this for years, but it never expanded into reality until last year, the great year before corona.

We all had our doubts about it, but I think I had the most mixed feelings about the whole big idea. I didn’t want to leave my friends and life, because I had always loved Seattle. I was worried my friends would forget about me and life would never be the same when we got back.

I didn’t want to get out of my comfort zone, the things that I am used to in everyday life, like my house, school, and friends. I imagined the trip would be exactly opposite, having to constantly pack up and move, and living out of a suitcase.

Finally I realized that maybe I should do it because it would be a fun once in a lifetime experience. I wouldn’t say it was easy leaving. Since we were going to rent out our house while we were away, we had to remove everything from it and throw those things in a storage unit. And trust me, we have a lot of clutter.

We (99% my dad) removed furniture, trinkets, food, books, beds and more in only one week. During this, there was a lot of chaos, excitement, and franticness, while everything was both cluttered and organized in its own way. We were as busy as an army of bees. I was worried and psyched to leave, I really did not know what to think between the two. But finally, we got out of the house in a hurry, and flew to London for our first adventure.

We got to learn many new things by traveling the world. We learned that millions of people in South Africa are living in tiny shacks crammed together to this day. (Post apartheid millions of people are still living apart in poverty) We tried new delicious foods, learned about fascinating cultures, listened and inspected numerous animals on safari, and most of all just experienced doing stuff I had never thought of doing in my time.

Everybody always asks me “what was your favorite place?”, but I always respond that “I don’t know”. Ok, there were a lot of places we went to, but I’ll talk about one place that really made our travels come to life.

Atlas Studios is a film studio nestled deep in the deserts of Morocco, a place where a whole bunch of famous movies were filmed. When we toured here, we got to see a whole fake town, and a ginormous castle, filled with scaffolding. Even though the castle (used for the city of Meereen in the Game of Thrones) was all artificial, I liked it because we were allowed to walk and climb it unlike the precious old forts we saw elsewhere. I have always wanted to walk a towering fortress wall, or mock a gladiator fight in an arena all to my self. If I hadn’t got out of my comfort zone to go on the trip, I probably wouldn’t have been able to see and experience Atlas.

Our whole adventure was like a jumbled eight months of learning and trying new things, because it was totally something we had never experienced before. I am really amazed that the whole thing is now just in the past, and that it is over.

Now that I’m back from those eight months, I’ve had a lot of reflecting to do. Before we did it, I would’ve said that I was never going on a world trip, and that I always wanted to stay in Seattle at school with my friends. I used to value things like friendship, education in a real classroom, and recreation. But now, sitting here after, I’ve realized that it’s good to take on new things even if you don’t know what they hold.

I’ve also figured out that adventure, new friendship, and most of all, family are essential to me as well. Spending ten months with family has made me realize how important they are. Even that was a new experience for me that I wouldn’t have gone through if we hadn’t gone away on our adventure. (scratch that, everyone is spending more time with family in quarantine, we still would’ve had extra time together.)

There were the times when I was sad, wanted to go home, wanted to see my friends, or was frustrated with schoolwork or bored, but those times were very few. Overall we had a great trip, we learned, watched, felt, and tasted the world. This is why I strongly believe in trying new experiences, because even the things you doubt the most about them could turn into new exciting adventures.

To learn more about our trip:
– Blog posts: https://worldschool.travel.blog/
– YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/OnTheRoadWithLJ
– Video we made from Atlas Studios: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy5MpkkMbsc

Thanks so much for checking those out and reading my essay!

– Jack

We just posted our latest video, you can check it out, link down below – LJ

We just posted our latest video, you can check it out, link down below – LJ

Welcome back to another blog post!

I’ve been reading these books by a writer named Rick Riordan and I got really interested in some of the Greek myths included. So after reading and doing so much research, I wanted to share some of these myths with you…

Short Story of the Greek Deities

So it all started with the creator god Chaos, who cast down Mother Earth and Father Sky. Earth was called Gaea, and the sky was called Uranus- yeah, the planet was named after him! Anyways, these two presences developed human appearances and eventually had kids called the Titans.

The Titans: Kronos, Iapetos, Hiperion, Koios, Coeus, Thea, Rhea, and Okoanos (pronounced Oceanus, and the sea was named after him!)

As Gaea and Uranus had more children, Uranus started to hate most of them, tossing them into the underworld, which the creator Chaos had also cast down after Mother Earth. That is, except for the Titans. Gaea eventually ordered the Titans to kill Uranus, but nobody would do it. The youngest named Cronus finally agreed because Gaea promised him to be be king of the cosmos if he did it. A few of the Titan brothers helped bring down Uranus with the first weapon, a scythe, which Gaea had created earlier. To kill the original sky lord, the Titan brothers would hold down their father as Cronus sliced and diced him with the scythe. After father Uranus was killed, the Titans started to rule, Cronus being king, as he was the one to kill their cruel father.

But then Cronus had kids with Rhea, the Titan goddess of motherhood, comfort, and fertility. The children where named Hestia, Poseidon, Hades, Zeus, Hera, Demeter, and Cheiron (a centaur, or half man half horse). Cronus heard form a prophecy, that one of his children would over overthrow him as king. So he literally started swallowing them whole one after the other. I bet you can already tell that Cronus was a bad king, and father. But Crocuses wife, Rhea, hid the youngest child, named Zeus, On an island of the coast of Greece, called Crete. Zeus eventually overthrew Cronus and the rest of the Titans (after a childhood on Crete) with the help of his siblings. You thought they where swallowed! But no, because Zeus made Cronus cough them up with some poison. Then he married Hera and had children, including Ares the god of war, and Hephaestus god of craftsmanship. Hephaestus married Aphrodite though Hephaestus was ugly and Aphrodite was the most beautiful of the gods- being the goddess of love. Zeus also had the twins Apollo and Artemis with Leto, one of the Titans. The immortal gods ruled over the world, created humans, who had an empire in Ancient, Greece. Yes, these are the Greek gods and titans we’ve been talking about this whole time! Now we will explore the names and powers of some of these main gods…

The 12 Olympians

The Greeks invented so many gods, that they had to create a council of 12. And so these deities were the main, and most often worshiped gods for the Greeks.

The gods originally just had Greek names, but when the Romans invaded Greece, they changed most of them. So I am going to list these gods with a Greek name, and then add their Roman names too.

The Council of 12, the 12 Olympians:

1. Zeus: King of the gods, lord of the sky, married to Hera, wielder of lightning, Brother of Hades and Poseidon. Roman form: Jupiter (yes, the planet was named after him!)

2. Hera: Queen of the gods, married to Zeus, goddess of marriage. Roman form: Juno.

3. Apollo: Son of Zeus and Lito, lord of the sun, god of music, poetry, archery, brother of Artemis. Roman form: Apollo.

4. Artemis: Daughter of Zeus and Lito, sister of Apollo, a goddess of the wild, the hunt, the moon. Roman form: Diana

5. Aphrodite: One of the most ancient of the gods, goddess of love, mother of Cupid, wife of Hephaestus. Roman form: Venus

6. Aries: god of war, son of Zeus and Hera. Roman form: Mars

7. Athena: goddess of wisdom and battle, daughter of Zeus, protector of Athens. Roman form: Minerva

8. Poseidon: Lord of the seas, earthquakes, brother of Hades and Zeus. Roman form: Neptune

9. Hephaestus: God of blacksmiths, lord of fire, married to Aphrodite, son of Hera, he had no dad. Roman form: Vulcan

10. Hermes: Messenger of the gods, god of merchants, travelers, and thieves. Weirder of the spear caduceus (usually winged and with two snakes coiled around, now know as the symbol of medicine). Roman form: Mercury

11. Dionysius: god and lord of wine. Roman form: Bacchus

11. Hestia: goddess of the central hearth and family. Roman form: Vesta

12 Demeter: goddess of farming and crops, mother of the famous Persephone. Roman form: Ceres

The reason I put Dionysius and Hestia together on number 11, is because I can’t figure out which really is an Olympian. The myth maybe goes that Hestia was originally the 11th Olympian, but then gave up her throne for the newcomer, Dionysius. So I could say Dionysius is the Olympian here, But Hestia was the originally deity! Should Hestia or Dionysius be the 11th Olympian? Give your opinion in the comment section below ⬇️

Other gods

Hades: Lord of the underworld, Brother of Zeus and Poseidon. Roman form: Pluto

Why is Hades not an Olympian?

Hades is the lord of the underworld, and he already has a palace and kingdom in the underworld. Also, Zeus does not want his dark, gloomy character at Mount Olympus. So that’s why Hades is usually not allowed at Mount Olympus, or considered an Olympian.

Janus: Double headed god of doorways, passages, endings, and time.

Hercules/Heracles: Son of Zeus and princess Alcmene, raised by Amphitryon the Greek general, and Alcmene.

Who is Hercules and why is he so famous?

Heracles is his real name, since that was his Greek original name until the Romans changed it to Hercules. So basically, Amphitryon the general and princess Alcmene where married, until Zeus came down from Olympus, and had a kid with Alcmene. So Zeus kinda cheated with Alcmene, but he eventually left Alcmene to deal with the baby. Yep you guessed it! Hercules was this baby. How did Alcmene’s real husband Amphitryon feel about this, I don’t know. Amphitryon and Alcmene did have another child though, so Hercules had a stepbrother. Hercules is really famous and many movies were made about him. That’s ‘cause he’s slayed the most monsters, and fought the most wars (Like fighting against the giants, sons of Gaea and Uranus, who emerged from Uranus’s blood when Cronus killed him). Also, Hercules murdered his family, but the Greeks mostly blamed it on the goddess Hera, who hated Hercules. Hercules was originally half god half human. But after being killed from poison, Zeus took pity on him, and made him a immortal- though not an Olympian deity. He became a minor Greek god.

Britomartis: Also known as Diktynna, lady of nets, and sometimes traps.

Cupid: god of love, supposedly the son of Aphrodite, husband of the hero Sike

Cupid’s real name was Eros, before the Romans changed it to Cupid. He has two wings like angels, and holds a bow which has the power to make people fall in love, if they are shot by one of his arrows. He is depicted as a baby with wings and an bow, but he didn’t originally actually look like that.

Persephone: Daughter of Demeter and Zeus, goddess of flora, and of spring, queen of the underworld part time.

This myth is the most famous, I think, other than Hercules. While picking flowers one day, Persephone was abducted by Hades because she was so beautiful. And because of eating a third of a pomegranate in Hades’s realm, a curse was inflicted on Persephone. She started having to stay 1/3rd of the year in the underworld. When Persephone is away in the underworld, her mother, Demeter gets angry for her being there, and so forces crops not to grow, creating winter. When Persephone is in the over-world, Demeter is no longer mad, making the world warm again to form summer. Now that is the Ancient Greek way of thinking about the seasons.

Nike: The winged goddess of victory, daughter of the Titan Pallas and the goddess Styx.

Thanks for reading the blog, there is so much more to say, but I’m not going to make this blog 1,000 pages long! But if you want more, there is a really funny and awesome book where you can learn more about the Greek gods, by pressing this link you can find it: Rick Riordan explains it a thousand times better than me.

To find our YouTube channel, click here

To see the last blog post, click here instead.

Thank you for reading, follow us, comment if you have something to ask or say about the post, make sure to give your opinion on the 11th Olympian thing, and get ready for the next post!

• Jack

What is this blog post?

Well, in this one I’m obviously going to be talking about a place we went to on the world trip. But this one is different. Okay, every post is different, but this one is the first in Asia! Yep, we were traveling through Asia a few weeks ago and now that we’re in Argentina, I’m writing a post about what we learned in one of the two countries of our Asia tour. So today, I’m going to be teaching you about a Buddhist country that exports 10 million tons of rice a year, with over 40,000 temples, in Southeast Asia, called Thailand.

Bangkok

Bangkok has been the capital of Thailand since 1782. The population is over 9 million! It’s really big, one of biggest cities I’ve ever seen! There are 7 million cars here – even though public transportation is good. That’s 7 million cars, only 2 million less than the people! We went on the subway many times, and Bangkok really does seem to organize these well. The weird thing was, the subway was always clean! The reason I say that is because the last time we went in subways was in Athens and London- the subway… not always so clean there! While driving cars, Thai people don’t honk their horns (in Bali they do all the time). Rush hour (usually a time when most people are going or coming home from work) always has so much traffic.

There are over 400 Buddhist temples in Bangkok, and here are the most famous ones: The Reclining Buddha (at the temples of Wat Pho), the Emerald Buddha (which can be found in the Grand Palace of Bangkok), Wat Suthat, and Wat Ratchanatdaram.

March to June are the hottest months in Bangkok. I would say, it can get pretty hot there! Well, only in the 80’s and 90’s Fahrenheit, but the sun shines hard.

Fun Fact: according to our tour guide in Bangkok, Sixty percent of Thai people are farmers and gardeners!

The neighboring nations of Thailand are: Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (formally know as Burma)

The wars with Burma

The Thai had 20 wars with Burma. The 2nd was called the “Burmese Siamese war” (as Thailand used to be called Siam), often known as the “white elephant war” because the war was over which country would get more white elephants. White elephants in Thailand are not literally elephants that are white, no, a white elephant just refers to a very strong and large elephant. Burmese king Bayinnaung wanted to take some white elephants from Thailand (or Siamese elephants, as that was their name at the time), but King Chakkraphat of the Siamese (Thailand) said no, and so Burma went to war with Ayutthaya, the former capital of Thailand.

Fun fact: The Princes of Burma and Siam had a chicken fight that led to a war where Siam’s prince won back their independence from Burma by an elephant duel.

A briefing about the capitals of Thailand

Fun fact: In the 20th century when there was not great technology, locals used to sneak into the Ayutthaya temples to steal the treasures there! Now there are cameras.

The lucky colors of the week

Each day of the week has a color, So the day of the week you were born on is your lucky color.

Fun fact: King Rammed the 10th and the 9th were born on Monday, their lucky color is yellow!

The kings of Thailand

Thailand has had 55 kings in its history. The present King of Thailand is King Rammed the 10th or, Vagiralongkorn. The first king was Rama 1, and there have been 10 kings since. It is thought that when a Thai king dies he reincarnates in heaven. The king is also sometimes thought of as a God if he is liked among his people.

King Rammed the Tenth: He became official King of Thailand in November 2016, 50 days after his father’s (Bhumibol) death on the 13th of October. King Rammed the 10th also has ten palaces!

There is also a law to protect the king, meaning that if you do or even say something bad about the king, you can be fined or imprisoned. The head of government is not the king, no, there is a prime minister who is given the job to manage the country’s government system. The new king is 67 years old and has married and divorced many times. Literally every person we met voluntarily told us that they did not like the king, true story. The current king’s father is still revered in Thailand. His name was Bhumibol. Bhumibol had many musical talents. He was a jazz musician, playing clarinet as well as saxophone and trumpet. King Rammed the 9th or “Bhumibol” died in 2016.

Fun fact: King Rammed the 10th loved his dog Fu-Fu so much that he gave it the position of “Air Chief Marshal Fu-Fu”!

The Grand Palace of Bangkok

Ok, so I haven’t really touched on the subject of a specific temple complex yet, so I think this is a good time to now. The Grand Palace of Bangkok has been a palace for the kings of Thailand (formerly known as Siam), but is mostly a temple complex and tourist mania today. It was built in 1782, at the order of King Phutthayotfa, or King Rama 1. The palace is 2,351,000 square feet and contains of over 100 buildings (wikipedia.com). One of these is super famous. It’s the temple of the Emerald Buddha, or Wat Phra Kaew. Inside, obviously it is a beautiful emerald Buddha with surrounding paintings and offerings. And then there are tourists. The temple is just crammed with tourists. Okay, now I’m going to fire up a bunch of questions and answer them. How long did the grand palace take to build? It was built for 150 years, but the Emerald Buddha temple only took 3 (culturetrip.com). Did any U.S. presidents come here? Yes, Bill Clinton, Johnson, Nixon, Bush, and even Barack Obama! Are there special things that happen here? Yes. On the full moon, a bell is rung. Many Buddhist festivals are celebrated here. Like the Royal Ploughing Ceremony coming up the 11th this May. That ceremony is celebrated in the Grand Palace and was made a public holiday on 1957. How many people come to the grand Palace every day? One estimate is 78,000. And in 2016, there was over 32 million people who visited the grand love of Bangkok that year! (https://thaiembdc.org/2016/06/27/grand-palace-among-worlds-50-most-visited-tourist-attractions/)!

What is Buddhism and how many Buddhists are there?

Buddhism is a religion based on a man named Siddhartha Gautama, who was born around 2,620 years ago. He was first a prince of India, but then started to realize that many people in the world were suffering. So he gave up his life as a prince and went out into the world and helped people. Finally, he became known in all the land, and before dying, gained enlightenment, or true eternal knowledge and peace.

After finding this enlightenment, Siddhartha was renamed “Buddha”, which means the awakened one. I think that makes a ton of sense, since Buddha just got enlightenment right? He just unlocked something really important in life, he awakened. Lots of humans in Asia wanted to be like him, helping others, and finding the meaning of life. Some Buddhists other than Buddha have gained enlightenment, as that is one of the main goals of a Buddhist. Now, 535 million people in the world are Buddhists. I know that does not sound like much compared to the 7 billion people on the globe, but at least we can say that there is a lot of the religion in Thailand, because 95% of Thai people are Buddhists! That leaves only 1% as Christians in the country, and Islam at less than 2.5%!

Buddhist monks

Buddhist monks can only eat breakfast, and lunch. Why no dinner? Yeah. They have to finish lunch at 12:00 pm then wait until the next morning at breakfast for their next meal (though they are be able to have water and tea during the whole day without question). It’s not only the men who are monks, but also there are female monks (though most monks are male). You don’t have to be a monk for your whole life as a Thai Buddhist. Many people in the country become a monk for a week, a few months, or even a year! Then the person decides if they want to become one forever or not. Actually, I said that wrong. Once you are a monk, you can retire! We had a tour guide named Tom who was formerly a monk but stopped because he wanted to have a relationship. This is one reason that monks retire. But after retiring, they will still get a job. This is because as a monk, you don’t get much money. You will have donations, but mostly monks just grow their own food. We learned about Thai Buddhist monks in Thailand.

The sacrifices of becoming a monk

• Monks can not drink any form of alcohol.
• Monks can not get married or have relationships.
• Monks can not play sports.
• Monks can not play music other than chanting in religious form.
• Male Monks can not touch women, and female monks can not touch men.

Tourists sometimes will learn about and practice Buddhism seriously.

If I was a monk…

No really, I could be a monk at 10 years old. Actually, every Buddhist man in Thailand has to be a monk before turning 20 years old. But I don’t mean being a monk for a long time, if I became a monk I might only do it for a few days! But from my perspective, I would decide to be a monk for like 3 weeks because that’s around the time the majority do it for. Now, to become a monk you have to undertake a few ceremonies. You also must shave your head and eyebrows. Wearing a robe is mandatory as well, and there are different color robes for different types of monks.

If I was a monk I would get on the train or subway, and if there was not a seat open, people would be expected to give up their seat for me. Even tourists would be expected to do this. We did not experience this on a train in Bangkok because there was almost always already a seat open when the monk would come in. One of the reasons families send their child to become a monk, is for money and savings. While the boy learns how to be a monk he will be away in the temples and will not need to be provided for by his parents. The family won’t have to pay for their son’s education. Or, the family might send their child to the temples to learn about life, maybe if they are selfish or vain. Being a monk can teach you life lessons and help you think in the present, not the past or future (that is one of the main points of Buddhism).

What is disrespecting the Buddha?

If you disrespect the Buddha, you can get fined or put in prison. But what is disrespecting Buddha? Well, we saw this sign at a temple called Wat Phra Singh (Gold Temple) and I wanted to show it to you:

Fun fact: In Bali (a few weeks later in Indonesia) we actually saw people selling Buddha on a stick, Buddha candles, and Buddha mini statues. All I was thinking was ‘that would not be allowed in Thailand!’

The clothing restrictions of visiting a Buddhist temple

No tank tops, no see-through clothing, no shorts, but t-shirts are allowed. They always let us wear our hats. If you do not follow the rules usually shown in the front of a religious place you’re visiting, then you will almost always be kicked out. Some temples and places have different rules, depending on how important they are. The alternative to wearing the wrong clothing is to get appropriate clothes. While visiting one of the summer palaces of the king, you could rent or buy elephant pants just in case you forgot to bring the right clothes.

So that’s it people!

Thanks for logging into the site or just reading this from email if you’re one of our followers. This took a lot of work, so please like it if you’d like. If you don’t like it, put a suggestion or comment so I know what to change in my next post. Or if you don’t understand, just ask a question!

Click here to find our YouTube channel: On the Road with LJ

Bye, and see you later!

Jack