On Monday, I woke up at 7:10, and got ready. Amy and I had to get up earlyish, because we drove George into work on our way out of Charlottesville. He works in the rare books department of the University of Virginia, so he showed us some of the things that they have. He went into the vault to get some things to show us, because we were not allowed to go in the vault. He first showed us some religious text that was written before the invention of the printing press. It was published around 1450 and was all hand written on sheep or goat skin that had been pulled very tight and thin to dry, since they also didn't have paper where that text was published. There were light red lines marking the margins, and small clear text was displayed all over the pages. There were also very detailed pictures outside the margins. In some of the pictures, there was gold, thinly plastered in specific parts of the drawings/paintings. Then, he showed us one of the leafs of the original Guttenberg Bible. It was a huge page, so he said the Bible itself was also really big. I can't really remember the order of everything else he showed us, but he also showed us Shakespeare's play, King Lear, which was printed as a single work, as would have been used for a script, unlike the large collections usually printed. We also saw the original vote of succession for Virginia, it wasn't a blow out, by the way, 80 something to 50 something was the vote. Then he showed us some of Mark Twain's books. The Jumping Frog was one of them. So, apparently, Mark Twain really didn't like the French. They made a translation of his "The Jumping Frog," and then he retranslated it into English just to make fun of their crude translation. He then made a book which had the English and French versions side by side. The original text that was hand written, of the retranslated version was at the Library. They also had the only copy of Robert Frost's first publication. It was called Twilight. He had given one copy to his girl friend and had one for himself, but after a fight with his girlfriend, he ripped up his copy, so hers was the only remaining version. They also have many of Thomas Jefferson's architectural drawings and journals. He was the founder of the University, so many of his works were left to the University. We saw the architectural plans for the Rotunda, a large old building on campus. The graph paper was apparently hand made by some slaves or prisoners in Europe. We had a great time seeing all of the old things, but after he had to leave to a meeting, we left to drive to Norfolk.
The driving is a lot different where there are many cars. You just kind of get sucked with the flow, so I was speeding by 5 or 10 mph almost all the time, because everyone else was. Still though, I was only driving 75 or 80. At one point, I drove on a 6 laned interstate! We made it safely to Norfolk, after stopping at Taco Bell for my birthday:) It was a really delicious meal and I enjoyed it a lot! We then used google earth, which I had pre loaded on my computer, to get to their house. We unloaded our things and were greeted by Rachel and Anna. They are 5 year old twins and are very cute, along with everyone else in their family... We played Princess memory for a while, with the little flip over cards, and then played on the trampoline for a while. Also, when I arrived, they gave me a package that my mom had sent to their house, so I could have something to open on my Birthday. Monday was my birthday, by the way. Abigail and Adam woke up from their naps, and we played for a while outside drawing with sidewalk chalk. Abigail is 2, and can talk some, but seems pretty shy, and Adam is zero as his sisters said. Then, spencer got home from school, and we drew some more pictures on the sidewalk. Terra made me a cake, and I didn't see it until dinner, so the kids were keeping it a secret, what it was like. For dinner, we had some really good potato and bacon soup in bread bowls:) Afterwards, we did something they called Family Home Evening, where the children and Zach would lead different things and they would just be together. It was fun, and then, for one of the activities we had a birthday party for me:) We had some really delicious cake. There was a white cake with whip cream and strawberries and bananas in the three different layers. It was really good!
The Meal was Really good!
Ok, so after eating lots of cake and ice cream, I opened the box from my parents. I got some things to use with the children, like some more sidewalk chalk, and some candy and origami paper. I also got an "Are you smarter than a fifth grader" game book with an invisible ink pen and a BLUETOOTH HEADSET:) Now, I can talk while riding my scooter without a cord. I had been thinking of getting one of those for a while, so I was really glad when I got it:) After dinner, all of the little children got ready for bed, and I tried to do a little homework. Amy and I watched an NCIS episode with Terra and Zach on their computer after the kids had gone to bed. Then, I went to bed too.
Speaking of bed, I think I will head there now. I will finish my adventures tomorrow as a homework break:)
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