Eight Things I've Learned on This Trip (by Maggie)

1.  There are so many more mopeds than cars in Asia because some families can't afford cars since cars are more expensive and the gas would be too expensive. And who needs cars when you can fit your whole family on a moped. The most I've seen is 5 people on one!!

2. Sometimes I would try to imagine what places would look like, but when we got there, they were not what I was expecting.  For example, in the Black H'mong village, I thought that the houses would all be in a row, like the blocks we have at home.  Instead, they had houses spread out all over the mountains. I found that very surprising.

3. The kids have a lot more freedom in some places than America.  Two examples are 1) In Japan, we saw little kids younger than me taking the subway home all by themselves and 2) In the H'mong village, there were children under the age of 6 running up and down hills back from school by themselves! I thought it was really funny that they let the kids run home although there was a big cliff!

4. Overnight trains. Before this trip, I had no idea there was such thing as an overnight train.In the train there are little boxes with 4 beds called sleeper cars.I know you might think that sounds miserable but it isn't that bad we usually just sit around relax and sleep. The one part that i don't like about the trains is that the beds aren't that big and it is usually a pretty bumpy ride(especially on the Vietnamese trains).

5.  Traveling.  Traveling is hard stuff when you have two bags,  one big one on the back and a small but heavy one on the front.  Whether it is walking a few blocks or rushing to catch a train or something  crazy like that, I often ask my mom" why didn't we bring rolling suitcases?"

6.  Family.  Sometimes it is hard to only have two boys to play with, no friends, no cousins.  I think we get along most of the time.  Now that we have been gone for three months I am getting use to two boys to play with only but sometimes I wish that I had a girl to play with.

7. Americas history. Most of the places that we are going to are allies with the United states. Although  a lot of the places that we have been to talk about what America has done in the past for example drop bombs on Hiroshima or the vietnam war. I don't now if I was upset with America but looking at the pictures made me a little upset.

8. Poverty. I never realized how lucky I am that I get to go to school. Right now I am in Cambodia and there are so many kids trying to sell us stuff out on the streets. A lot of them don't even have the money for food, for school, or for shoes. We learned not to buy from the kids because the kids should be in school learning, and if we buy from them, their parents will think "ok, people are buying stuff from them, lets keep having them sell instead of going to school." Some families don't even have enough money to buy clothes for their babies.