Working at Starbucks

I like working at Starbucks. I found out that Starbucks Headquarters is in Seattle. So working at a store in the area was really fun.

Working on Halloween was fun. Customers would come in dressed up in costumes, as well as my fellow baristas. Here I am with Laural who was dressed as an escaped mental patient costume. At least she said it was a costume.



I think Jonathan is mad at me because Jasmine likes me better than him. I think that's only because of the accent. American Girls like foreign accents.




I got to helping out Jennifer at the cash register. My job was to keep track of the paper cups. It's hard for me to write cups for the drinks because the pens are as big as me. I think my favorite part of working there was the fun atmosphere and talking with customers.




Becasue im still in training, sometimes I get in trouble and I blush. Hey it takes a little bit of time to get the hang of being a barista. I've got it down now. Will that be a Triple Venti 2/3 decaf Sugar-free Carmel Nonfat with whip Mocha?

Trip to Boston

October 23-24 I went with my friend Rick to Boston. Rick had a business meeting and it gave us a chance to do some sightseeing in this city which was such an important part of the birth of the United States.

It was a pretty long flight - more than 5 hours. Looking out the window I got to see a lot of the United States. There's a lot more space between cities and towns in the U.S. than I'm used to seeing when I fly around in Europe. Looking at a map I was surprised to see that we'd crossed the whole country.


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Before the United States was a country it was inhabited by Native Americans who are believed to have come over from Asia through Russia to Alaska at the time of the Ice Age. Before 1700 the huge continent of North America was very sparsely settled. Explorers from Europe came to North America and were followed in the 1700's by settlers from Great Britain, Spain and other countries. The settlers that founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony (the Boston area) were from Great Britain.

In 1773 Boston was a trading town with its port on the Atlantic Ocean. The settlers began to rebel against "taxation without representation" and protested with a famous episode in which they dumped tea off of the British merchant ships into the Boston Harbor. It became known as the Boston Tea Party. The area around Boston was where many battles of the revolutionary war took place in which the United States broke away from Great Britain to become an independent country.

Boston is one of the oldest cities in the United States, though not nearly as old as many cities in Europe.

There are a lot of historical places to see in Boston. We took a tour and I collected a bunch of stuff to put in my scrapbook when I get home. My favorite places were the Quincy Market and the Boston Common.

Quincy Market is a really energetic place with indoor and outdoor shops. Lots of people of all ages. Lots of music and good food.

Here I am at Faneuil Hall and the Quincy Market.

From Boston

From Boston

Here's a link to more information about:
Faneuil Hall
Quincy Market

The Boston Common is a large park in the middle of the city. Nicki and Joni wrote in a letter they sent with me about how much I like to lay down in the sun in a park - well, this was a great park for me. Here are a couple pictures and a link to some more information about the Boston Common.

From Boston

From Boston

From Boston

Here's a link to some more information about the Boston Common.

Also check out the album of pictures from my Boston Trip.

A very long drive - Fresno to Seattle

On Sunday, October 20 I rode with Rick as he drove almost 1000 miles in two days from Fresno, California to Sammamish, Washington (not far from Seattle). On the trip we went from the state of California north through the state of Oregon and finally into the state of Washington. Each of these states has its own state government and different laws about things like speed limits on the highway. Each state has its own police force. But all states are part of the United States of America and also share many laws and have the same president.

For the first few hours we drove along Highway 99 through the heart of California's agriculture region. This farming area produces huge quantities of all kinds of food.

In Sacramento, the capital city of California, we got onto a major highway called Interstate 5 (most people here call it I-5). It runs all the way from the border with Mexico to the south of the United State into Canada to the north. From Sacramento on to Seattle we stayed on I-5 the whole way.

Most of the way we could see a mountain range on our right to the east of us. In California the mountains are called the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In the states of Oregon and Washington the mountain range is called the Cascades. Many of the mountains are volcanoes. Some, like Mt. St Helens in Washington state are pretty active.

We stayed the night in Redding and drove on the next day into Oregon and Washington. Here is a map that shows our route.


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There is an photo album in my Google Photos section (Picasa) which includes pictures of some of the places of interest along the way.



There were so many amazing things to see. Here's a map with some of the places of interest marked.

You can click back and forth from the Map button to the "Sat" button. Sat is short for Satellite - which are photographs from the air. You can zoom in and out to see the mountains and even the buildings I've marked.

When you click on something I've marked a bubble will open to show you something I've written about it. Sometimes there are links which you can click to get more information and see other cool stuff - like exploding volcanoes and sinking or collapsing bridges (you gotta see these). To keep the map open, you can click the right mouse button and open the link in a new window or tab.


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Birthday Party

Also on my first day I was invited to go along to the birthday party for Joni's great uncle Eugene who was celebrating his 82nd birthday. We went to a Mexican restaurant. I had a blast with Matthew and his sisters, Aarika and Zoe.

I met a beautiful Mexican girl who let me take a picture with her. I hope I can see her again sometime.

My first day - and haircut

Today I landed in Fresno, California in the United States of America. I met several of Joni's relatives that he visited when he traveled here with his family a couple months ago. It's sunny and warm here and there is a lot of farmland all around the city.

One of my new friends, Matthew, convinced me to get a haircut with him. First we got a mohawk haircut where our heads were shaved except for a narrow band of hair that went from the middle of our foreheads straight back and down to our necks. Matthew tells me that this hair style got its name from a tribe of native people who lived in North American when settlers from Europe first came here. It's also a hairstyle that I've been told was a favorite of the "punk rock" era. Anyway, after we tried it out we decided to shave our heads the whole way which feels pretty cool except that everyone wants to rub our heads.

Here's how we looked before the haircuts, with our mohawks and after our heads were fully shaved.