We have told the kids that to be city slickers one must walk a lot. The past couple of days we have put them to the test and they are doing extraordinarily well.

Charles is excited that all this walking will give him a strong body. After a summer of developing soccer skills, he highly values speed and desires to be an even faster runner.

When Daniel gets tired we simply spur him on with a math problem. His mind gets going so fast he forgets about the walking. I wonder where this trait came from....

The other night we walked home to save a few dollars on the subway fare. It was about 10pm (Mom and Dad, don't worry, it was safe.) and we had been out all day. That is to say, we were exhausted. Daniel kept asking, "How many miles left?" Since miles aren't used in Spain, this led to a discussion on the conversion between miles and kilometers. Daniel was told there are approximately one and a half kilometers per mile. With amazing speed, he would say things like, "Well, that means 1/6 of a mile is a quarter of a kilometer." and "3/4 of a kilometer is half a mile." After a few moments (he was tired after all) Duane would say, "Yes, Daniel, that's correct." Nearing home, Daniel declared, "Math is my favorite topic to talk about."