Come Mon, 18 Nov, it was a normal day at school, and I played basketball with Will in the afternoon, which was fun, but annoying with the sun directly in my eyes for half of it! Tuesday, at Cadets, I got my black ceremonial belt, and prepared some more for March Out. Wednesday was a relaxing day and I got into town a littler earlier than usual and just explored. At the running club, I was doing well until I got to the hill, then it just didn't work for me and I finished with a time of 20:36. Rotary was interesting as the Area Police Commander was speaking. :) Then came the weekend, where I had another relaxing day Saturday, when I should've done this, before going down to Bega with the Whitings an early Sunday for a Christmas dinner! :)
At school on Monday, we had an excursion for Society and Culture about our PIPs (Personal Interest Project), which is basically a hige research project that is a part of their HSC (High School Certificate) mark. I decided to do mine on Gun Control and its effect on culture. I still have yet to narrow down the topic to a specific question. Anyway, it was fun day and I got out of class! I even met someone from Arizona who attends another school! However they seem to think Australia is much better... Don't get me wrong, Australia is awesome, and amazing, yet I think it would be best to put them equal if not the US just a bit higher up on the scale. ('Cause we're obese as a country, get it? tehe)
Tuesday, I was blessed by my hospitality class to hold a Thanksgiving dinner with them. We are learning cross-cultural things at the time so it worked perfectly. It was awesome for them to do that for me, though, and I really enjoyed it! Thanks guys! :D We even had an extra turkey which I got to take home. :) Then come Thursday, which is actually Thanksgiving, my awesome host family gave me a Thanksgiving dinner as well! So, Tuesday, I made 2 apple pies from my family's awesome recipe, which everybody loves, of course! Thursday I went to school and came home to the house smelling of Turkey, as Julie had kindly started the cooking. She really did most, nearly all, of the cooking herself, and did an amazing job! For her first turkey, it was delicious, as well as the other food we had! We also invited my first host-family, my counselor's family, and another friend. It was just amazing! I really enjoyed it and am so thankful for all the wonderful people I have here to call my family! :D Thank you guys!
Friday morning I video chatted with my family as it was then Thanksgiving back home and it was really nice to see everyone that I haven't seen in several months. That afternoon, the Whitings took me up to the Rotary orientation meeting for us exchange students. Friday night we went into Canberra and saw Catching Fire, which was amzingly good. I even got a hat with dangly things that should keep the flies away from my face when I go out to the outback. :) Saturday morning came with a ride to the Rotary meeting and a morning of boring, yet necessary I guess, workshop things with the inbounds and outbounds. In the afternoon though, the other inbounds and I got to head off to a local fair, which was interesting and fun to go to. I won a little blue hedgehog which I called Sonic after paying $5 for a carnival game. :) I also got a pacman tattoo after we all decided to get tattoos together. It was a good time, followed by spending a half hour at the local pool. :) I must say it was my first time I've ever lost a contact! I guess thats why your not supposed to where them in the pool. That night the outbounds got presented with their jackets in a nice ceremony, followed by a mini-party that got shut down around 11. So, of course, we all piled into one room and preceded to stay up past 2am. Most of us did end up going to sleep at some stage, yet a couple did pull an all-nighter. It was a fun night. :) Sunday was more boring things until noon, when we all went off in our own directions. It was a little sad that this was the last time we would see the outbounds before they leave. It was a fun weekend all together and I can't wait to meet up with the other exchange students again!
Tuesday was an interesting day at school, as there was a teacher's strike so no classes were held until 11am, which just gave me a bunch of time to waste in the morning. Which I did so unproductively! Due to the strike, the school was pretty empty as kids didn't bother coming to school. It was nice, though. That evening was March Out at Cadets, which is the last parade night of the year where we invite parents and people to come watch a small ceremony where we march onto the parade ground, have awards, and then change over those in charge of the unit. It was a nice ceremony and I enjoyed it. :) I even got to meet a Major in the Australian Army. Wednesday at Rotary was interesting as it was a geologist speaking and telling the local history of the land, which was fascinating. Also, apparently, there is a point only 5 km from me that is an international hotspot for geologists! The Moruya granite, that built the Sydney Harbour Bridge, even has a special name, which I cannot remember at this time. Friday was nice and relaxed and I played cricket for the first time with Will! Its pretty cool and I think almost as good as baseball. :)
The weekend was fun filled with a biv with Cadets at a local property. We arrived in the morning, followed by splitting the unit into two groups and then heading off into the bush to create bunkers for the teams. THis consumed the morning, besides setting up the CP of course. In the avo, after lunch, we played capture the flag between the two teams, and the senior rank (of which I'm included) operated as a renegade force. It was a fun time, followed by teaching the newbies about the rations packs, before heading off to dinner. Once back we had a little down time and let people modify their hoochies as rain was possible, before heading back out in the dark to play capture the flag again until 10pm. The unit even has 1 pair of night vision goggles, of which I got to play with for the night! :) Finally, we stayed up around the fire until 1ish after sending everyone else to bed around 11 after having some awesome bbq chicken cooked in the camp oven. Sunday was more war games in which the two teams had to capture a FOB that us senior ranks set up and then acquire an intel package which we had hidden. It took them about 30min to get the four of us, even with them respawning, and another 30 to find the package. We then headed back to CP, where we broke everything down and then sent the teams back to play capture the flag again if they so wished while we waited for rides to show up. It was a pretty fun weekend that I wished could've lasted longer. Sunday avo I met Will's dad, who seems like a nice bloke from my interaction with him, and we played a short game of cricket with the family!
Come this past week, not too much has happened. I've spent most of it trying to catch up on assessments that I have procrastinated until then. My run at the running club wednesday was poor. I was doing great up until the halfway mark, where after turning around I got a huge stitch (cramp) in my back followed by not being able to breath well, causing me to have to walk to catch my breath. I still came in at 23 min but for me, that is just horrible... I feel a lot better now, and have gotten more into a better running routine lately. :)
Friday was Presentation Day at school which is basically when we have a ceremony (2hrs about) where the school gives out awards to the best students, mostly those who came 1st in a subject, and some athletes who excelled. There were also a couple small talks relating to various things. Such as Will, my host brother, gave a talk on culture relating to the school over the past year, so of course that led me to talk to the school since I am from another culture! It was good though, I basically just told them who I was and a little about myself, and highlighted a little bit of the cultural differences between the US and Aus. It was a good talk I felt and I barely even looked at my notes! Afterward, just because our year advisor felt they needed to give me an award, he gave me a Parents and Citizens award really just for being me! haha Although with the awards they gave out $30 vouchers for the local bookstore and newsstore, etc for education, which seems as a pretty good incentive to try to place high in your class. One person received almost $200 in vouchers! It was good though and I enjoyed it. However, since I was out of class the whole day to prepare for it (was supposed to practice but just sat there...) afterward it felt like it should've been the last day of school...
The weekend came and went pretty quickly. Saturday was filled with writing postcards to various people. I think I sent out about 8 or so. This consumed about 3 hours of my day, followed by homework! WOOOH!
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So, I set out the paper excitedly and grabbed my special black pen that received at Presentation Day, and began to work... I worked effectively and efficiently with great zeal! This was the case though only until my hand began to cramp up unexpectedly, yet nothing was going to stop me! I ran to the kitchen with fright, got myself a tall cool glass of Milo, and raced back to my seat! I gulped down the Milo as quick as humanly possible; the milk was gone within a minute. Then I was at it again! I hit the papers with my pen ad fury flew out as I wrote an amazing several thousand words!
*****
So, really, it was just a boring day, yet surprisingly it didn't bother me to do homework all day and I was very productive. This continued Sunday and before dinnertime Sunday, I was finished with all my assessments and it felt sooo great to be done!
Additionally on Sunday, Julie, Peter, Will and I set out to our camping site down the coast to set up early, so it was all done, and our spot is reserved! Its actually a pretty good site and we have a great setup, especially since we may have been a little greedy grabbing our spots. But it will be nice when we go down there on Thursday and camp until the New Year! Yesterday, Mon 16 Dec, was an alright day at school, I did one last bit of school work that I had to finish and the only class that we actually did work in was English and Modern History. :) It helped that my teacher wasn't here for 2 of the classes. It was the same today, although they didn't ring the bells so I was pretty much halfway late to history, but it was all good. :) In hospitality, the two of us, plus another who came just for the ice cream, ate some fresh mango ice cream that we prepared yesterday. It was delicious. :D The afternoon consisted of running errands such as mailing those post-cards ($2.50 each!) and finally paying off my safari trip! I also got a new pair of running shoes for only $90 which was great! For the shoes I got, I may have paid that back home. It was a good day and its great that school's over until 2014! Until February actually!
Now I am finally caught up, I believe! I doubt I will get in another post until 2014 so MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HOLIDAYS, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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