what we've been up to: mini construction

Back around Christmas, my sister found this model building kit that allowed you to assemble a miniature version of Big Ben (or, Elizabeth Tower- yes, that's what it's actually called... Big Ben is the bell within the tower). My parents wound up buying it for her as a Christmas gift, and her and I had a whole lot of fun putting it together.

Things got a little out of hand after that.

Over our winter break, we also managed to complete Tower Bridge, the Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral, and the Empire State building. More recently, we followed it up with the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the CN Tower, all proudly sitting on display by our TV. We also have the Taj Mahal and the Eiffel Tower in boxes, ready to be built.

You could say we're obsessed.

In fact, our obsession with the Dragon Blok Architecture series is almost complete. We're only missing one last kit from our collection- the Great Pyramids. That particular kit has proven a little bit more challenging to for us to find- it's like the unicorn of our collection. Rumours of the existence of this kit can be found online, but we've yet to see it in person (or find a place to buy it online).

It's hard to explain why we like them so much. We've definitely gotten into more than a few spats during the construction phase. We've had a couple of close calls where we (read: my sister) have nearly toppled towers. Pieces have gone flying, but thankfully always been found, and we've had a blast doing all of it.

Putting these models together is hard work sometimes. Some of the pieces are super tiny, and snapping them together has hurt our fingers on the odd occasion. But at the end of all of it, seeing the completed product is more than worth it. Though there have been fights, we always end up fondly talking about the build. It's cool to be able to say we've built all of them. I've also always been obsessed with the idea of travelling to distant places, and these models are like having a little iconic piece of another country in our own living room.

I'm not sure which one is my favourite. Maybe they all are, on some level. I've actually only ever seen (and been inside!) two of them in real life: the CN tower and the Empire State Building. But I'm optimistic I'll get to the others (especially the UK ones) sometime in the hopefully not-so-distant future. In the meantime though, it's nice to feel connected to tourist destinations and to have something to do with my sister while we're all cooped up indoors.