Flat Destini Roundup

Well, Flat Destini headed home to North Carolina today and we're going to miss the little gal.  As a tribute to her time with us, I'm publishing the letter she wrote about her time here to take back with her.

Dear Destini,

I’ve sure missed you, but I had a great time in Europe with my hosts Mara and The Swede. They live in a suburb of Stockholm, which is the capital of Sweden. They took me into the city to see Stadshuset, or the City Hall, which has 3 crowns on top. The 3 crowns are a Swedish symbol that goes so far back in history that nobody knows for sure what each crown represents.

I also got to see Sergels Torg, or Sergel's Square, another Stockholm landmark.

Here is a picture of me in front of part of the Stockholm skyline. As you can see from the buildings, it is a very old city that was founded around 1250. That means it is more than 700 years old!

I got to ride the tunnelbana, or subway, a couple of times too! The Swedish people care a lot about the environment so they use public transportation like trains and busses a lot. Many Swedes don’t even have cars at all!

I went on a skiing trip with Mara and The Swede and got to see some of the Swedish countryside as well.  Here I am in Sälen, one of the ski resorts in the mountains of northern Sweden. It was really cold and I wished I had packed my winter coat!

We even went to Norway for the weekend! It looked exactly like Sweden to me, but we took a picture at the border to prove we had been there.

Did you think I went to China too? No, this is just Dragon Gate, a business center for Chinese and Swedish businesspeople to meet.

My favorite thing about Sweden was the Dalahästar, or Dala horses. They are wooden horses painted in beautiful colors and patterns and they are one of the big symbols of Sweden. Have you heard of them? Usually they are pretty small – smaller than me even – but we visited the Dalahäst factory and got to see some huge ones that are big enough for even you or Ms. Kilcourse to ride if you wanted to!

I also got to go to Switzerland! It was much warmer there because it’s further south, so even in the mountains we could lounge outside.

Here’s a picture of my host Mara and me at the top of Titlis, one of the highest mountains in the Swiss Alps. It was beautiful but very windy and hard to breathe because the air is super thin that high in the sky.

Destini, I loved visiting Europe, but it’s nice to be back home again. I brought back a couple of gifts from Sweden – a moose notepad for taking notes in Ms. Kilcourse’s class because Sweden is famous for having lots of moose (even though I didn’t see any) and a Viking luggage tag for your suitcase so that next time I travel you can come too!

Sincerely, Flat Destini