2nd Week

I may miss some things now that I haven't posted in over a week, but here we go:

Last weekend I moved in with my first host family, the Whitings! Geoff, Kathryn, and Hannah were all very nice and welcoming and only a week later, I feel right at home as part of the family. They even have a cat, Winnie, that reminds me of my own cat back home. I still don't feel like I adjusted quite fully yet because I've had a very full, yet fun-filled week, but I imagine that it won't be long.

This week at school, the kids in my year were back from their snow-trip so now I met everyone in my classes and was able to see how to school functions on a normal day. Its a bit smaller school so most of the classes are a bit smaller as well, but I like it. Because I'm in year 11 and don't take the extension courses, I get to take Wednesday off from school, which is really nice to only have school 4 days a week, although this week I only had 3 days due to MUNA (Model United Nations Assembly), which I will get to later in this post. Also, the school buses here are much different from the buses back home. Here they use basically coach buses with bench seats instead of individual seats, and are pretty nice compared to ours back home.

Tuesday night, I officially joined the local Australian Army Cadets (AAC) and received most of my uniform. The people there are a very welcoming and it is a bit more relaxed than I am used to, but the change is why I am on exchange, so this should be good. It's fun to go crawl around in the bush for a couple hours!

Wednesday, since I don't go to school, my host-father, Geoff, took me up to Batemans Bay so I could get an adapter for my laptop charger since the one I brought over here, I realized, wasn't grounded. So we got that, had coffee/ hot chocolate, and head back home. It was a nice drive and a good start to the day. When we got back, I ate lunch then head off to school to practice for MUNA because we scheduled a practice debate with 2 other schools in the area to help us prepare. At the practice, we realized that we really needed to do A LOT more work to prepare for the weekend, which we did, and it worked out. After, I took the bus home, and prepared for MUNA. In the evening, it was then time for the weekly Rotary meeting, which is nice to go to because its good food and is usually interesting.

Thursday was more preparation for MUNA after school got out and I was up till almost 2 just doing my research. Then Friday morning, my group, consisting of myself; a friend, Sam; and my future host brother, Will; representing Malaysia, set out from our school to Australia's capital, Canberra, along with a nearby school, representing France. We stopped for lunch along the way, where I tried my first meat pie! I don't remember having them before, but it tasted oddly familiar... Once in Canberra, well just outside the ACT (Australian Capital Territory), where we were staying, we checked in and relaxed for a little while, socializing with other teams that arrived from other areas of Australia, such as Victoria, Queensland, and Tasmania. Then, we were off to Canberra for a tour of ANU (Australian National University) since they are the major sponsor for the event. We came back to the lodge, had dinner, then got a very interesting talk from someone, who's name escapes me right now, who has had 42 years experience in foreign affairs. Then, we voted for the resolution we would debate over the weekend. The order was set for the resolutions: the Sovereignty of Palestine, Renewable Energy, Conflicts in Africa, and LARs to be debated on Saturday, with "The Situation in Syria," and Nuclear Disarmament on Sunday. Saturday, our group, spoke for the later three resolutions, letting the first give us the idea of how the process of debating worked. We had a designated spot as the Second For Renewable Energy and Sam took the reigns to debate that topic. I feel she did well supporting the resolution and in the end the resolution passed without much against it. Will spoke for the resolution on Africa, speaking very well, and I spoke against the resolution on LARs (Lethal Autonomous Robotics). At the end of the day, all of the resolutions were passed, mostly without much opposition, even with much debate. That night, there was a nice formal dinner at Bruce Hall in ANU. Present at the dinner were many Rotarians and sponsors of the event, as well as some diplomats who made time to come support the program and the kids representing those nations. It was a nice meal, and a professor at ANU spoke on NGOs, and was very interesting and I enjoyed it, other than him delaying dessert. At the end of the night, we went back to the lodge and had an okay night of sleep. Wake-up was at 0630 so that we had plenty of time to shower, dress, and clean up the rooms after the weekend before breakfast at 0730. After breakfast, we went back to the Old Parliament House, where we were debating, and began our fifth session, this one being on the Situation in Syria. Speaking as Malaysia, I took the reigns from team to debate in favor of this resolution and, in my opinion and that of some others, debated very well. In the end the resolution was passed 13-7 (with 3 abstentions). After, we had a short recess then returned to debate the final and most popular resolution, Nuclear Disarmament. Will did the most work on this resolution so he was in charge of the debating this one. He did very well and even used a "Point of Information," which was the first for our team. This was again passed through, though with 12-9 (with 2 abstentions). It was close, but successful as we noticed that there were some teams that did actually change their minds during the debate. These last two sessions were the most controversial and therefore, the most lively. This made these the most fun, and the most popular. On both of these resolutions, the second more so, some people didn't get the chance to say everything that they wanted/intended to due to the popularity and nature of these resolutions. Overall this was a great, fun-filled, mind-testing weekend where I met many great people who made the weekend all the better. I wish I able to do stuff like that more often.