!Yo Diggity!

Stanley’s here!!!

For those of you who are not familiar with Flat Stanley, here is the scoop: one day, I received a letter in the mail. Inside the envelop, there was a note:

Dear Jessie,
My second grade class at Converse Elementary just finished reading the story Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. This story is about a little boy who becomes flat because he is smashed by a bulletin board. His parents are able to mail him in an envelope to visit his friend in California because he is flat. He also discovers many things he can now do because he is flat. Everyone in my class is sending their own Flat Stanley to someone and I chose you. I would really appreciate it, if you would mail my Flat Stanley back to school using the address on the back of the page. if you would like you can include a note and or pictures of what Stanley did when he was with you. My class will love hearing about his adventures. My class and I are ging to use a map to locate where each Stanley went and figure out how far each one traveled. We hope they all make it back to our classroom safely.
Thanks for your help,
Shaye

Shaye is my dear, sweet, friend Debbie’s (from Indiana) third child. Quite a special one at that as her name is Shaye Jessie Martin. Isn’t that a COOL middle name?? Yeah, I think so too. She’s a cool kid too - takes after her namesake I think! heehee

So, I thought hmm… what can Stanley and I do? I thought well, even though he’s come a long way all the way over here to Budapest, Hungary, maybe he’d like to go with me for the weekend to Vienna, Austria? I needed to go pick up the tickets from the train station. So we took the tram to the station.

The next day, we got on the train and rode 2.5 hours to Vienna. Did you know that Vienna is the home of world’s first zoo, Mozart became famous first in Vienna and is buried there and it is the home of Schönbrunn Palace.

Here are Stanley and I standing next to this Austrian man who was playing music on this funny-looking machine right outside the Christmas market. Was really lovely music!

We had a lovely day in Vienna wandering around, eating their famous wienerschnitzel, sausages, and these big donut-looking things. It was no day for a diet, that’s for sure - but it sure was delicious!! I traveled there with my dear friends the Seely family. We were celebrating Trent’s birthday. I think Stanley had fun too!

BACK IN BUDAPEST

I needed to go to the post office so I thought Stanely could come with me.

Stanley taught me something new there… you are not allowed to take pictures in the posta. Whoops. So this is a rare photo op with Stanley and me!

Finally, my flat-mate Tahran and I walked just a few blocks towards the river (the Danube) and took a picture by the Parliment. This is Hungary’s government building and one of the most famous landmarks in Budapest. Isn’t it pretty?

So Stanely and I had a very good time while he was here in Europe. Unfortuntely, it is time for him to depart and return to Amboy, Indiana. Bye Stanley! Maybe I’ll be over to see you soon!!