2013-01-05

【Aiden in English】

        The wheels on the bus went round and round as the air filled with the sound of the sunny morning chirps of birds. Buenos Aires blew out "Good Airs" or "Fair Winds." They eclectically blended their contemporary vitality and old-world languor on the west

2013-01-05

【To A Cat】

Jorge Luis Borges (1899—1986)

         Mirrors are not more silent

         nor the creeping dawn more secretive;

         in the moonlight, you are that panther

         we catch sight of from afar.

2013-01-04

【Aiden in English】

        Two weeks flew by on the cruise, and before I noticed, Mom and I were leaving the ship in the "Paris of the South"—Buenos Aires for good. We booked a day tour to La Recoleta Cemetery in the metropolitan center and the Argentine Estancia in the countryside.

2013-01-03

【Aiden in English】

        As I came to my senses from waking out of deep sleep, the smell of muffins wafted toward me. With an unappetizing breakfast, I hurried down to meet our group. I headed for Uruguay, the second-smallest country in South America, and its oldest town, the Historic Quarter of

2013-01-02

【Aiden in English】

        Hooray! I was cruising at sea today.

        My whole morning was spent in tangles of dreams, wrapped in a small, cozy bed with a new punching bag and a teddy bear. I put the bear to sub-mission before falling into a deep sleep, and I'm pretty sure

2013-01-01 New Year's Day

【Aiden in English】

        Puerto Madryn, a Welsh town in the Atlantic Ocean, was dominated by a vast smelter that produced aluminum from bauxite ore shipped from Australia, Suriname, and other countries. The production of ceramic tiles made it the biggest supplier in the na

2012-12-31 New Year's Eve

【Aiden in English】

        It's New Year's Eve today, and we were cruising at sea again.

        I yawned widely as I got up in the morning. As I checked the clock, I toppled out of bed. It was 10:30 am. I was still in pajamas a

2012-12-30

【Aiden in English】

        The islands we bound for had two different names in the Atlantic Ocean. It depended upon whom we spoke with and what we talked about. Concerning the Argentine, the Islas Malvinas became a matter of national sovereignty. To the English, the Falkland Islands are a British O

2012-12-29

【Aiden in English】

        Cape Horn in Chile is located at a latitude of 55 degrees 58 minutes 47 seconds south and a longitude of 67 degrees 16 minutes 18 seconds west. It is the southernmost point on Earth, other than Antarctica. It covers the two most significant bodies of water, the Pacific an

2012-12-28

【Aiden in English】

        By December, a hot summer had come to the south. However, the cold still numbed my teeth as we waited on the sun deck for the glaciers and sheer mountains to appear over the horizon in the Strait of Magellan, which separates the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. 

2012-12-27

【Aiden in English】

        Antarctica is the Earth's southernmost continent, encompassing the South Pole, as described in geographic textbooks. It's the fifth-largest continent after Asia, Africa, North America, and South America. Approximately 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice that avera

2012-12-26

【Aiden in English】

        So, there I was with my mom, standing on the balcony of Star Princess at the crack of dawn to see the Amalia Glacier in the central part of the Chilean Southern Patagonian Ice Fields. The glacier descended from the Andes Mountains and sat like a frozen river above the sea

2012-12-25 Christmas Day

【Aiden in English】

        "Merry Christmas!" shouted the Star Princess Captain loud enough to be heard miles away in the morning. "Merry Christmas to All." I didn't think my mom set a wake-up call, but our captain set the mood for the day. As I dressed, h

2012-12-24 Christmas Eve

【Aiden in English】

        As I learned along the way, Chile is nicknamed "the Shoestring Country" for good reason; 24 times longer than its average width and in no place wider than 150 miles/241 kilometers, it stretches nearly 2,700 miles/4,345 kilometers, a span of latitud

2012-12-23

【Aiden in English】

        Today, our ship was cruising at sea, and it was my first day on board in the Youth Center for ages 8-12.

        This morning at breakfast, I could barely sit still and wait till 9 O'clock because I was going to take the Youth Program. The omelet I

2012-12-22

【Aiden in English】

        I woke this morning to the sound of people coming from the streets. I stepped onto our private balcony outside the hotel room in Valparaiso, the largest port city in Chile. At a glance, the spectacular hillsides were dotted with a variety of colorful houses. A series of p