I still wish to update my blog and get caught up, but don't hold me to it...At this point, I'm not sure when, or if I'll ever get it done.
Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving! This year, I am very thankful for everything great and fantastic in my life, especially for my amazing year in Australia! This past July, I had to, after many tears, return home to Connecticut. I returned home, yet I did not return home. I came back to see many great friends, but I left many great friends behind. Many great people, some I'm glad to call family, I have encountered while in Australia, including some individuals that hail from all across the globe. With these people, my exchange entailed many experiences that will take a lifetime to tell, including some stories that will never be told to their true significance. For these experiences that I will hold in my heart for the rest of my life and beyond, I must thank Rotary, my host families, friends, and many others who were involved in making my 11 months in Moruya an impeccable time. This Thanksgiving, I'm very thankful to be able to call two places my home: North Haven, Connecticut, and Moruya, New South Wales. I can not thank some individuals enough for my time abroad. Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!
I've also made a short 18 minute video as a quick photo/video summary of my exchange. Feel free to check it out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGET-Bo7oj4
27 November 2014
05 October 2014
Post Exchange
I recognise that I am extremely behind on this blog, but while I will write a much nicer thank you later on, I just wanted to say a big thanks to everyone who made my year in Australia such a great success! I had the time of my life and can't thank everyone enough for that!
Ooh, and I finally updated the pictures tab so it goes up until landing in Dallas on my way home. So until I get the written portion up to date, have fun looking at my beautiful photography! (Just a reminder: click on the "Pictures" tab above, then go to "Post Safari Escapades!" and scroll down to the bottom for the most recent photos!)
Ooh, and I finally updated the pictures tab so it goes up until landing in Dallas on my way home. So until I get the written portion up to date, have fun looking at my beautiful photography! (Just a reminder: click on the "Pictures" tab above, then go to "Post Safari Escapades!" and scroll down to the bottom for the most recent photos!)
18 June 2014
Post Safari Fun!
3 weeks. That's how long I have left in this beautiful land called Australia! There aren't many words I can think of to describe how I feel about this event in my life, other than saying I have very mixed emotions. It all just seems very unreal that my year is coming to an end, and I have very little time left in my second home. That said, I'm not wasting any bit of it, with my weekends basically all booked up until I depart and almost no 'down time' since my Safari!
I got back to Moruya, after Safari, on a Tuesday afternoon, only to move into my last host family that evening. My counsellor, Carol, and her daughter moved my stuff for me while I was touring Australia, so I just had to get picked up by my new family, Chris and Jude. The next two days were spent unpacking and moving in while my host parents were at work. The third day, however, was a car trip out West to Deniliquin, NSW, in the middle of nowhere! This was Easter Weekend, in the middle of the 2 week school holidays, so my family thought to go out there! Now, this wasn't just a trip out west, Deniliquin was hosting the Deni Blues and Roots Festival! This was a 2 day music festival featuring artists such as the Doobie Brothers, Elvis Costello, and John Mayer! The drive is a whole 8 hrs one way, so, the long drive there and back, combined with the 2 days there provided a great opportunity to get to know my family and have some great fun with them in the process. Of the 26 acts who played over the weekend, I only missed 3 due to going to Church on Easter morning. The church was a bit sad, I found, as it was only half full on Easter weekend, with the majority of people being visitors for the festival. Other than that, it was a great service, and very enjoyable, I just hope the parish can be revived. Overall, I loved the festival, and even saw some artists I didn't recognize until I heard some songs I listen to quite often on my phone!
The following week was highlighted with yet another music festival, and ANZAC Day! Anzac Day is very similar to Memorial Day in the United States, and is on 25 April every year. ANZAC, standing for Australia New Zealand Army Corps, is the greatest military tradition in Australia, getting its start during WWI. With the local Australian Army Cadets, I got the honour of marching in 2 local Anzac Day Parades, carrying the Australian Flag in the first and the Australian Navy's flag in the second. This was a great opportunity that I was given and it was really cool. During the first ceremony, they even mentioned my name as a visitor from the Marine Cadets of America! This was an awesome experience to have and through it I found a new respect for the Australian military and for the US military.
Continuing the fun, a few friends and I drove up to Canberra for the weekend. The main event was Groovin The Moo, which is a regional music festival, but we also made an educational stop to a mosque in the city. This excursion was connected to our Society and Culture class in school, but our 2 hour stop was very interesting. We even got to see what one of their daily 5 prayers looks like and what they do during it. The next morning, we caught the bus to the music festival which went from 11am - 11pm and was a very fun twelve hours. I went with friends from Moruya, but met up with exchange students from my district and some who I met on Safari! It was fantastic to hang out with these great people again and dance away to some great music as well! :D
The very next weekend we went up to Sydney! The Saturday was spent with just Chris and I taking a walk through the Botanical Gardens up to the Opera House and Circular Quay, from which we got a ferry to Manly Beach! Here, even though it was only 18 Celcius out, I decided it was ripe enough for a swim which was beautiful because the water was around 22. At least it was enjoyable until I had to get out into the cold wind... We had fish and chips for lunch on the boardwalk before getting the ferry back. That night I met the family at a small gathering and had a decent time. It was nice to meet my host family's family. :) The next day we left for Moruya midday but didn't get home until very late at night thanks to an accident which closed the highway completely for 2 hours! It was a good bonding experience though.
The next Saturday was the only time post-safari that I have not been doing much of anything, so Saturday was very relaxed, and Sunday I went for a surf out in Broulee in the morning, letting my host mum sleep in on Mother's Day. :) After surprising my parents in the US with a call to wish my mom Happy Mother's Day and my father a Happy Birthday, I went to bed late. :)
17 years I've been alive now, and it was fantastic to celebrate this birthday here in Australia! My birthday this year was very prolonged thanks to a lot of love from a lot of people. :D The night before my birthday, my family took me out to the movies and dinner, and also gifted me with a cool shirt with the names of all the surf spots along the South Coast! Then, my actual birthday became one of my best ever thanks to my fellow classmates and my brother, Will! Will had organised the entire class to throw me a little surprise party during lunch at school, which had me so stoked! Everyone did a fantastic job with not letting it on to me and it put a huge smile on my face. One of my classmates even baked a very delicious cake! :D Thank you to Will and everyone who was involved with doing that! I loved it! :D My amazing birthday continued at cadets that night when they did a very similar thing for me! The surprise wasn't quite as good because they expressed intent to do something for my birthday and they told me not to go near one of the rooms though the night, but I still loved it. :) The next Sunday, my counsellor was awesome and got [almost] all of my host families together in the afternoon for a little suprise party! This even continued more than a week after my birthday at the Rotary meeting. The Moruya Club gave me a book with panoramic pictures of Australia, which they had all signed! :) My actual birthday, thanks to some amazing friends, was probably one of the best, if not the best birthday I've ever had, and then combined with all the other festivities over the week and a half, it was astounding!
Now, skip back a little bit to the weekend immediately following my birthday, and I'll tell you about my little trip to the top of Australia! That Friday, my family drove up to a little town called Dalgetty on the banks of the Snowy River and we stayed in a pub there for the night. The next morning, we were up early to drive over to Jindabyne for breakfast and coffee before heading up the mountain. We parked at Charlotte's Pass, which is about 8km (5 miles) from the summit of My Kosciuszko, Australia highest mountain. There, we unloaded our bicycles and started pedaling up, and up, and up, for several kilometres, until finally, we went down to cross the Snowy River, but then, back up. This time the up was 2 or 3 times as steep with a headwind coming at us around 50 km/h, making that portion the slowest 500m of the trip! Once the three of us were finally up at the top, we stopped inside a little hut for morning tea and a quick warm up since it was only 8 Celcius outside. Afterward, we continued going up before my parents left their bikes at a toilet stop before the final ascent. I, however, decided to continue riding the next 500m to the summit, which gave me a much bigger sense of achievement than walking would have done! Now that I sound amazing, biking up Australia's tallest mountain and all, I'll let you know what the mountain actually is... haha. Mt. Kosciuszko is only 2200m (7300 ft) and it doesn't really have much of a peak, so to most of the world, it would be more of a large hill, and with no peak, it definitely looks like one. Anyways, It was a very fun day with a lot of exercise and adventure. We had lunch at the top, despite the wind, and even enjoyed Tim Tams! Despite just wanting the ride to end when we were riding up, once at the top, I kinda felt like I wanted the mountain to be higher so I could keep riding...I kinda liked it. Anyway, we had to ride down, and back to the car, which for something that took 2 and a half hours to go up, only took 25 min to go down! That afternoon, we felt we didn't get enough bike riding in, so when we went back to Jindabyne, we went for another 5km ride around the lake before packing up and driving back down to Moruya.
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I'll post more a bit later, but for now, its time to watch some football, or soccer, or whatever you call it! Go Socceroos! Go Australia!
I got back to Moruya, after Safari, on a Tuesday afternoon, only to move into my last host family that evening. My counsellor, Carol, and her daughter moved my stuff for me while I was touring Australia, so I just had to get picked up by my new family, Chris and Jude. The next two days were spent unpacking and moving in while my host parents were at work. The third day, however, was a car trip out West to Deniliquin, NSW, in the middle of nowhere! This was Easter Weekend, in the middle of the 2 week school holidays, so my family thought to go out there! Now, this wasn't just a trip out west, Deniliquin was hosting the Deni Blues and Roots Festival! This was a 2 day music festival featuring artists such as the Doobie Brothers, Elvis Costello, and John Mayer! The drive is a whole 8 hrs one way, so, the long drive there and back, combined with the 2 days there provided a great opportunity to get to know my family and have some great fun with them in the process. Of the 26 acts who played over the weekend, I only missed 3 due to going to Church on Easter morning. The church was a bit sad, I found, as it was only half full on Easter weekend, with the majority of people being visitors for the festival. Other than that, it was a great service, and very enjoyable, I just hope the parish can be revived. Overall, I loved the festival, and even saw some artists I didn't recognize until I heard some songs I listen to quite often on my phone!
The following week was highlighted with yet another music festival, and ANZAC Day! Anzac Day is very similar to Memorial Day in the United States, and is on 25 April every year. ANZAC, standing for Australia New Zealand Army Corps, is the greatest military tradition in Australia, getting its start during WWI. With the local Australian Army Cadets, I got the honour of marching in 2 local Anzac Day Parades, carrying the Australian Flag in the first and the Australian Navy's flag in the second. This was a great opportunity that I was given and it was really cool. During the first ceremony, they even mentioned my name as a visitor from the Marine Cadets of America! This was an awesome experience to have and through it I found a new respect for the Australian military and for the US military.
Continuing the fun, a few friends and I drove up to Canberra for the weekend. The main event was Groovin The Moo, which is a regional music festival, but we also made an educational stop to a mosque in the city. This excursion was connected to our Society and Culture class in school, but our 2 hour stop was very interesting. We even got to see what one of their daily 5 prayers looks like and what they do during it. The next morning, we caught the bus to the music festival which went from 11am - 11pm and was a very fun twelve hours. I went with friends from Moruya, but met up with exchange students from my district and some who I met on Safari! It was fantastic to hang out with these great people again and dance away to some great music as well! :D
The very next weekend we went up to Sydney! The Saturday was spent with just Chris and I taking a walk through the Botanical Gardens up to the Opera House and Circular Quay, from which we got a ferry to Manly Beach! Here, even though it was only 18 Celcius out, I decided it was ripe enough for a swim which was beautiful because the water was around 22. At least it was enjoyable until I had to get out into the cold wind... We had fish and chips for lunch on the boardwalk before getting the ferry back. That night I met the family at a small gathering and had a decent time. It was nice to meet my host family's family. :) The next day we left for Moruya midday but didn't get home until very late at night thanks to an accident which closed the highway completely for 2 hours! It was a good bonding experience though.
The next Saturday was the only time post-safari that I have not been doing much of anything, so Saturday was very relaxed, and Sunday I went for a surf out in Broulee in the morning, letting my host mum sleep in on Mother's Day. :) After surprising my parents in the US with a call to wish my mom Happy Mother's Day and my father a Happy Birthday, I went to bed late. :)
17 years I've been alive now, and it was fantastic to celebrate this birthday here in Australia! My birthday this year was very prolonged thanks to a lot of love from a lot of people. :D The night before my birthday, my family took me out to the movies and dinner, and also gifted me with a cool shirt with the names of all the surf spots along the South Coast! Then, my actual birthday became one of my best ever thanks to my fellow classmates and my brother, Will! Will had organised the entire class to throw me a little surprise party during lunch at school, which had me so stoked! Everyone did a fantastic job with not letting it on to me and it put a huge smile on my face. One of my classmates even baked a very delicious cake! :D Thank you to Will and everyone who was involved with doing that! I loved it! :D My amazing birthday continued at cadets that night when they did a very similar thing for me! The surprise wasn't quite as good because they expressed intent to do something for my birthday and they told me not to go near one of the rooms though the night, but I still loved it. :) The next Sunday, my counsellor was awesome and got [almost] all of my host families together in the afternoon for a little suprise party! This even continued more than a week after my birthday at the Rotary meeting. The Moruya Club gave me a book with panoramic pictures of Australia, which they had all signed! :) My actual birthday, thanks to some amazing friends, was probably one of the best, if not the best birthday I've ever had, and then combined with all the other festivities over the week and a half, it was astounding!
Now, skip back a little bit to the weekend immediately following my birthday, and I'll tell you about my little trip to the top of Australia! That Friday, my family drove up to a little town called Dalgetty on the banks of the Snowy River and we stayed in a pub there for the night. The next morning, we were up early to drive over to Jindabyne for breakfast and coffee before heading up the mountain. We parked at Charlotte's Pass, which is about 8km (5 miles) from the summit of My Kosciuszko, Australia highest mountain. There, we unloaded our bicycles and started pedaling up, and up, and up, for several kilometres, until finally, we went down to cross the Snowy River, but then, back up. This time the up was 2 or 3 times as steep with a headwind coming at us around 50 km/h, making that portion the slowest 500m of the trip! Once the three of us were finally up at the top, we stopped inside a little hut for morning tea and a quick warm up since it was only 8 Celcius outside. Afterward, we continued going up before my parents left their bikes at a toilet stop before the final ascent. I, however, decided to continue riding the next 500m to the summit, which gave me a much bigger sense of achievement than walking would have done! Now that I sound amazing, biking up Australia's tallest mountain and all, I'll let you know what the mountain actually is... haha. Mt. Kosciuszko is only 2200m (7300 ft) and it doesn't really have much of a peak, so to most of the world, it would be more of a large hill, and with no peak, it definitely looks like one. Anyways, It was a very fun day with a lot of exercise and adventure. We had lunch at the top, despite the wind, and even enjoyed Tim Tams! Despite just wanting the ride to end when we were riding up, once at the top, I kinda felt like I wanted the mountain to be higher so I could keep riding...I kinda liked it. Anyway, we had to ride down, and back to the car, which for something that took 2 and a half hours to go up, only took 25 min to go down! That afternoon, we felt we didn't get enough bike riding in, so when we went back to Jindabyne, we went for another 5km ride around the lake before packing up and driving back down to Moruya.
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I'll post more a bit later, but for now, its time to watch some football, or soccer, or whatever you call it! Go Socceroos! Go Australia!
28 May 2014
SAFARI!
Safari. The biggest and bestest trip of the entire exchange, and what I have been looking forward to since my plane first landed in this magnificent land. It finally arrived what seemed like only a couple days ago, but come to think of it, it was already 2 months ago that it started! For those three weeks, I travelled around in a bus over 7000km with 37 other fantastic exchange students who made those many miles some of the best I may ever cover in my life!
It started on a cold windy afternoon, where everyone from my district met up in the capital, Canberra, followed by a bus, carrying the exchange students from two other districts joining us. That night was filled with a lot of socialising and being told the rules, etc for the trip. We also finally got our safari hoodies, complete with everyone's names!
The next day wasn't too exciting as far as the activities we did, but it was still a very fun ride (despite 8hrs on a bus) because everyone was still getting to know each other. We were also introduced to our 'morning song.' Our amazing bus driver had a morning song which he said we would listen to every morning when we got on the bus. This song was Sunscreen by Baz Luhrmann and we were told that if we memorised the lyrics we would be able to choose the morning song for the rest of the trip. So myself, and a couple others started working on it, and about halfway through the trip, I managed to get it in my head! However by that time, we all learned to love the song so it remained the same. (Don't forget to wear sunscreen! haha)
Day 3 consisted of roaming Melbourne! In the morning we were given a brief tour and outline of the city, then let loose at the Queen Victoria Markets. The main thing I wanted to do was go up to the Eureka Skydeck, which is the tallest viewing platform in the Southern Hemisphere! So, I went straight there with a few others, this was followed by exploring the city and a little shopping, with lunch in Chinatown. We went back to camp for dinner, before returning to see the QV Markets since they were closed that day. These markets are the largest 'under cover' markets in the southern hemisphere, and were pretty cool. Although not much there caught my eye, it was still a cool place.
Day 4: GREAT OCEAN ROAD! This day we embarked on the Great Ocean Road on our way to Warrnambool, Victoria after packing up and leaving Melbourne in the rain. Our first stop on the road was the Twelve Apostles, which are are spectacular columns of stone rising out of the cruel Southern Ocean. On our journey along the coast, we weren't lucky enough to have a clear day and it was overcast and foggy, but what we could see was still amazing and our excitement on the bus remained high and it was practically a party bus at times! When we to Warrnambool, we set up camp within two hundred metres of the beach. The night consisted of dinner (of course!) and a sound and light show displaying the history of the local coast, as it is known as the Shipwreck Coast! The show was, honestly, a bit corny, but near the end they had a cool water projection and it was an enjoyable night. :)
This next day was meant to be a morning of driving and an afternoon of relaxing and hiking, but not everything can work out the way its meant to! We had an interesting little, unplanned adventure through the town of Mt Gambier. As we were driving along, we unexpectedly stopped 7 km outside of the town because, guess what; the bus broke down! We then walked 3 km to a roadhouse where we sat for an hour or two before walking another 4 km to McDonald's where we stayed for another 3 or 4 hrs. Finally, we were able to figure out the bus couldn't be fixed quickly and we got a local charter to take us to our next stop in Naracoorte, South Australia. In the late afternoon some of us went on short hikes through the national park before we had a tour of a fossil cave that night!
Day 6 was a trip to gaol (jail)! No, I didn't do anything wrong (as far as the police know ;) haha), but in Gladstone, SA, they have an old haunted gaol, where we had a ghost tour followed by sleeping in the cells. :) I believe in ghosts, but the tour was funny at times as the gaol keepers over played it a couple times, I think. However, the next morning, I got up early for a shower, and I swear I heard sounds that didn't quite belong.
Now, we made our way up into the centre of Australia as the dirt started getting to that red that Australia is o known for. Next stop: Coober Pedy, the opal capital of the world! We arrived mid-afternoon following a stop in Woomera, where the Australian government tests long range missiles through a joint operation between the UK and Australia with support from the US. Once in Coober Pedy, we received a tour of the town, the underground Church, and a retired mine. Interestingly, the town's first tree ever was made from scrap metal and welded together! That night, coincidence brought us together with another group of Rotary Exchange students and a high school group, both from Melbourne!
We were all up early the next morning, and our bus pulled out from Coober Pedy at 0455, upon which we all fell asleep immediately, only to be woken up again in an hour, still in the car park for the underground hotel... The bus was having a 'hiccup' again! So we went back to sleep inside for a few hours to wake, and explore the town a bit more. :) Finally we left at 11, to start our long bus ride to Kings Canyon, Northern Territory! However, by now, the lack of sleep at night was starting to catch up to us, and while we had moments of fun and games, moments of silence started to become a bit more common on the bus, even if we weren't sleeping. Arriving to our destination after sunset and a time change because NT doesn't observe DST, we set up camp with our flashlights. The night gave us good fun, though, as we built a fire and danced / sung around it for a couple hours until we got yelled at!
The next morning we arrived to Kings Canyon and begun our walk after our driver and a couple of us had to carry extra water because the park rangers wouldn't let us go without 3 L/person, so, our driver, Martin, carried 40 kg (88 lbs) of water! It was a great walk with beautiful views! While it doesn't compare to the Grand Canyon, it was still very lovely. We even made a stop to the 'Garden of Eden,' which is a little oasis filled with water hidden in the canyon, and despite our leaders advising us not to, most of us went for a quick swim! After descending from the rim of the canyon, back to the car park, though, our bus decided not to start for us... It was fixed by mere luck and a nice bus driver whom we met at the border crossing into the NT. Yet, it caused us to arrive to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) late and miss the sunset....
The day at Uluru consisted of watching the sunrise over the rock from our campsite several kms away, before leaving to go to the rock itself! On the way, we even saw wild camels! At Uluru, we had a talk from the visitor centre about the area and the Anangu, the local Aboriginal tribe. This was followed by a short 1km hike around part of the rock and a description of some of the stories connected to it. We went back to our camp for lunch before going out the Kata Tjuta (Olgas) which is about 40 km away from Uluru. We had a walk and short geography lesson there before heading back to Uluru for the sunset. Sadly, it was overcast, so there wasn't a colour change, but it was still cool. It's just another reason to come back! :) I even met someone from Manhattan while watching the sunset! I didn't realize how nice it was to hear a familiar accent and talk to someone from [almost] home. That night, staying at the same camp as us were the exchange students we met in Coober Pedy!
Day 11 of Safari included driving to Alice Springs, which is a town that, while a prominent spot on the map, has only 20,000 people! On the way, we stopped at a place to ride camels, followed by a lunch of camel burgers! In Alice that night, we were visited at our camp by a reptile man who let us interact with two blue tongue lizards, a frill neck and a python similar to the one seen in this article! He also showed us a taipan, which is the world's most venomous! We were also educated on how to prevent and treat their bites, which differs from snakes in most other parts of the world as all native snakes in Australia don't have fangs long enough to get into the bloodstream. Pretty much, a decent pair of jeans is thick enough to prevent a snake bite from breaking the skin!
The next morning we explored the town for a little bit before heading to the airport for our flight to Cairns! We arrived early evening and went to our resort after ordering pizza for dinner. The next day we were brought out onto the Atherton Tablelands into the rainforest! The day was very adventurous with a stop at a giant fig tree not unlike the one in the film Avatar, a swim at a crater lake, a waterfall, and a natural rock slide! The day was full of fun and games!
Day 2 in Cairns brought us to the Great Barrier Reef! We had both breakfast and lunch on the boat and were allowed to snorkel whenever the boat was parked. I also went SCUBA diving in two sessions making a total of about an hour underwater! :) The Reef was amazing! Upon returning to Cairns, nine of us went to a restaurant where we shared 5 plates of kangaroo, emu, crocodile, buffalo, and barramundi!
Day 15 of Safari was almost entirely driving to Airlie Beach, a town very well named, as there is no natural beach in the area! In the morning, we boarded speed boats and took off into high winds and 2m waves on our way to the Whitsunday Islands. We had an hour to snorkel at a great spot with so many beautiful fish before we headed to Whitehaven Beach! This beach is one of the whitest in the world and we got to have lunch there before heading back to the mainland.
From Airlie, we left the tropics passing through Rockhampton, where, while trying to find a park for lunch, our bus broke down for the fourth and final time! However, it probably looked a bit weird to people passing by as our bus was stuck in the middle of an intersection and we ate lunch on the side of the road. O.o Sadly, this was the last time we saw our bus driver because they replaced bus and he couldn't continue with us... This was a huge disappointment because we almost had the same relationship with him as we did with each other. That night we stayed at an old homestead and had a 'Priscilla' night based on the film, "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert." The night consisted of everyone cross dressing and I looked pretty hot, if I do say so myself! haha, a bit slutty looking though... We also had karaoke which led to me embarrassing myself for a good portion of the night!
From here, we continued south to Noosa, and then on to Byron Bay, which is known for its surfing culture and for being the Eastern most point on mainland Australia! That night, a few of us had a moonlit swim in the mighty Pacific before dinner. The next day was a good sleep in before we had surf lessons! The surf wasn't that great this day and it was very crowded but still fun! :) I explored the town with some friends before heading back to camp. The next day was spent on the bus on our way to Sydney!
We arrived into Sydney just before sunset and drove over the bridge! After settling in to our hostel and getting dinner, a few of us took the train to Circular Quay and walked to the first pylon on the Sydney Harbour Bridge which offered a spectacular view of the Opera House and surrounding area. The next day we got a bus tour of the city and got an hour at Bondi Beach! About 5 of us went for a swim, while the others complained it was too 'cold' for a swim, even though the water was a lot warmer than the air. However, I'd have to say it was probably the first time I walked onto a beach with a jumper (sweatshirt) with the intention of swimming. A few of us, later, got Japanese for lunch before visiting the Queen Victoria Building (not to confused with the markets in Melbourne) before exploring a little bit and eventually heading to the harbour. We spent a little while in the Contemporary Art Museum before my friend, Yu (yes, his named was a source of confusion throughout the Safari! haha), and I took a ferry around to Darling Harbour and back from Circular Quay, which definitely became a higlight of the trip. It was just spectacular seeing the city from water, especially as the second half of our journey was after sunset! We walked back to the hostel to spend our last night of Safari with everyone. We all signed each other's flag and made our goodbyes before eventually heading off to bed late. :( The next morning, we all boarded busses and trains to went home...
Safari was some of the best weeks of my life and I loved it! Even with the bus breaking down, it couldn't have been much better than it was! :D We even raised over $100 for the Royal Flying Doctor Service which flies doctors to remote areas of Australia for emergency medical attention. We did this through a system of 'fines' similar to that which some Rotary clubs have. Basically, whenever someone did something embarrassing or funny, we would 'fine' them for it! At first this wasn't received too happy by the group, but after I took control of it for the remainder for the journey, people began to like it and would even tell me themselves when they did something worth a fine!
I loved that time, and I will truly miss the great friendships I've made on those long bus rides. Thank you to everyone who helped make my Safari and my exchange happen! Thank you so much!!! :D
It started on a cold windy afternoon, where everyone from my district met up in the capital, Canberra, followed by a bus, carrying the exchange students from two other districts joining us. That night was filled with a lot of socialising and being told the rules, etc for the trip. We also finally got our safari hoodies, complete with everyone's names!
The next day wasn't too exciting as far as the activities we did, but it was still a very fun ride (despite 8hrs on a bus) because everyone was still getting to know each other. We were also introduced to our 'morning song.' Our amazing bus driver had a morning song which he said we would listen to every morning when we got on the bus. This song was Sunscreen by Baz Luhrmann and we were told that if we memorised the lyrics we would be able to choose the morning song for the rest of the trip. So myself, and a couple others started working on it, and about halfway through the trip, I managed to get it in my head! However by that time, we all learned to love the song so it remained the same. (Don't forget to wear sunscreen! haha)
Day 3 consisted of roaming Melbourne! In the morning we were given a brief tour and outline of the city, then let loose at the Queen Victoria Markets. The main thing I wanted to do was go up to the Eureka Skydeck, which is the tallest viewing platform in the Southern Hemisphere! So, I went straight there with a few others, this was followed by exploring the city and a little shopping, with lunch in Chinatown. We went back to camp for dinner, before returning to see the QV Markets since they were closed that day. These markets are the largest 'under cover' markets in the southern hemisphere, and were pretty cool. Although not much there caught my eye, it was still a cool place.
Day 4: GREAT OCEAN ROAD! This day we embarked on the Great Ocean Road on our way to Warrnambool, Victoria after packing up and leaving Melbourne in the rain. Our first stop on the road was the Twelve Apostles, which are are spectacular columns of stone rising out of the cruel Southern Ocean. On our journey along the coast, we weren't lucky enough to have a clear day and it was overcast and foggy, but what we could see was still amazing and our excitement on the bus remained high and it was practically a party bus at times! When we to Warrnambool, we set up camp within two hundred metres of the beach. The night consisted of dinner (of course!) and a sound and light show displaying the history of the local coast, as it is known as the Shipwreck Coast! The show was, honestly, a bit corny, but near the end they had a cool water projection and it was an enjoyable night. :)
This next day was meant to be a morning of driving and an afternoon of relaxing and hiking, but not everything can work out the way its meant to! We had an interesting little, unplanned adventure through the town of Mt Gambier. As we were driving along, we unexpectedly stopped 7 km outside of the town because, guess what; the bus broke down! We then walked 3 km to a roadhouse where we sat for an hour or two before walking another 4 km to McDonald's where we stayed for another 3 or 4 hrs. Finally, we were able to figure out the bus couldn't be fixed quickly and we got a local charter to take us to our next stop in Naracoorte, South Australia. In the late afternoon some of us went on short hikes through the national park before we had a tour of a fossil cave that night!
Day 6 was a trip to gaol (jail)! No, I didn't do anything wrong (as far as the police know ;) haha), but in Gladstone, SA, they have an old haunted gaol, where we had a ghost tour followed by sleeping in the cells. :) I believe in ghosts, but the tour was funny at times as the gaol keepers over played it a couple times, I think. However, the next morning, I got up early for a shower, and I swear I heard sounds that didn't quite belong.
Now, we made our way up into the centre of Australia as the dirt started getting to that red that Australia is o known for. Next stop: Coober Pedy, the opal capital of the world! We arrived mid-afternoon following a stop in Woomera, where the Australian government tests long range missiles through a joint operation between the UK and Australia with support from the US. Once in Coober Pedy, we received a tour of the town, the underground Church, and a retired mine. Interestingly, the town's first tree ever was made from scrap metal and welded together! That night, coincidence brought us together with another group of Rotary Exchange students and a high school group, both from Melbourne!
We were all up early the next morning, and our bus pulled out from Coober Pedy at 0455, upon which we all fell asleep immediately, only to be woken up again in an hour, still in the car park for the underground hotel... The bus was having a 'hiccup' again! So we went back to sleep inside for a few hours to wake, and explore the town a bit more. :) Finally we left at 11, to start our long bus ride to Kings Canyon, Northern Territory! However, by now, the lack of sleep at night was starting to catch up to us, and while we had moments of fun and games, moments of silence started to become a bit more common on the bus, even if we weren't sleeping. Arriving to our destination after sunset and a time change because NT doesn't observe DST, we set up camp with our flashlights. The night gave us good fun, though, as we built a fire and danced / sung around it for a couple hours until we got yelled at!
The next morning we arrived to Kings Canyon and begun our walk after our driver and a couple of us had to carry extra water because the park rangers wouldn't let us go without 3 L/person, so, our driver, Martin, carried 40 kg (88 lbs) of water! It was a great walk with beautiful views! While it doesn't compare to the Grand Canyon, it was still very lovely. We even made a stop to the 'Garden of Eden,' which is a little oasis filled with water hidden in the canyon, and despite our leaders advising us not to, most of us went for a quick swim! After descending from the rim of the canyon, back to the car park, though, our bus decided not to start for us... It was fixed by mere luck and a nice bus driver whom we met at the border crossing into the NT. Yet, it caused us to arrive to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) late and miss the sunset....
The day at Uluru consisted of watching the sunrise over the rock from our campsite several kms away, before leaving to go to the rock itself! On the way, we even saw wild camels! At Uluru, we had a talk from the visitor centre about the area and the Anangu, the local Aboriginal tribe. This was followed by a short 1km hike around part of the rock and a description of some of the stories connected to it. We went back to our camp for lunch before going out the Kata Tjuta (Olgas) which is about 40 km away from Uluru. We had a walk and short geography lesson there before heading back to Uluru for the sunset. Sadly, it was overcast, so there wasn't a colour change, but it was still cool. It's just another reason to come back! :) I even met someone from Manhattan while watching the sunset! I didn't realize how nice it was to hear a familiar accent and talk to someone from [almost] home. That night, staying at the same camp as us were the exchange students we met in Coober Pedy!
Day 11 of Safari included driving to Alice Springs, which is a town that, while a prominent spot on the map, has only 20,000 people! On the way, we stopped at a place to ride camels, followed by a lunch of camel burgers! In Alice that night, we were visited at our camp by a reptile man who let us interact with two blue tongue lizards, a frill neck and a python similar to the one seen in this article! He also showed us a taipan, which is the world's most venomous! We were also educated on how to prevent and treat their bites, which differs from snakes in most other parts of the world as all native snakes in Australia don't have fangs long enough to get into the bloodstream. Pretty much, a decent pair of jeans is thick enough to prevent a snake bite from breaking the skin!
The next morning we explored the town for a little bit before heading to the airport for our flight to Cairns! We arrived early evening and went to our resort after ordering pizza for dinner. The next day we were brought out onto the Atherton Tablelands into the rainforest! The day was very adventurous with a stop at a giant fig tree not unlike the one in the film Avatar, a swim at a crater lake, a waterfall, and a natural rock slide! The day was full of fun and games!
Day 2 in Cairns brought us to the Great Barrier Reef! We had both breakfast and lunch on the boat and were allowed to snorkel whenever the boat was parked. I also went SCUBA diving in two sessions making a total of about an hour underwater! :) The Reef was amazing! Upon returning to Cairns, nine of us went to a restaurant where we shared 5 plates of kangaroo, emu, crocodile, buffalo, and barramundi!
Day 15 of Safari was almost entirely driving to Airlie Beach, a town very well named, as there is no natural beach in the area! In the morning, we boarded speed boats and took off into high winds and 2m waves on our way to the Whitsunday Islands. We had an hour to snorkel at a great spot with so many beautiful fish before we headed to Whitehaven Beach! This beach is one of the whitest in the world and we got to have lunch there before heading back to the mainland.
From Airlie, we left the tropics passing through Rockhampton, where, while trying to find a park for lunch, our bus broke down for the fourth and final time! However, it probably looked a bit weird to people passing by as our bus was stuck in the middle of an intersection and we ate lunch on the side of the road. O.o Sadly, this was the last time we saw our bus driver because they replaced bus and he couldn't continue with us... This was a huge disappointment because we almost had the same relationship with him as we did with each other. That night we stayed at an old homestead and had a 'Priscilla' night based on the film, "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert." The night consisted of everyone cross dressing and I looked pretty hot, if I do say so myself! haha, a bit slutty looking though... We also had karaoke which led to me embarrassing myself for a good portion of the night!
From here, we continued south to Noosa, and then on to Byron Bay, which is known for its surfing culture and for being the Eastern most point on mainland Australia! That night, a few of us had a moonlit swim in the mighty Pacific before dinner. The next day was a good sleep in before we had surf lessons! The surf wasn't that great this day and it was very crowded but still fun! :) I explored the town with some friends before heading back to camp. The next day was spent on the bus on our way to Sydney!
We arrived into Sydney just before sunset and drove over the bridge! After settling in to our hostel and getting dinner, a few of us took the train to Circular Quay and walked to the first pylon on the Sydney Harbour Bridge which offered a spectacular view of the Opera House and surrounding area. The next day we got a bus tour of the city and got an hour at Bondi Beach! About 5 of us went for a swim, while the others complained it was too 'cold' for a swim, even though the water was a lot warmer than the air. However, I'd have to say it was probably the first time I walked onto a beach with a jumper (sweatshirt) with the intention of swimming. A few of us, later, got Japanese for lunch before visiting the Queen Victoria Building (not to confused with the markets in Melbourne) before exploring a little bit and eventually heading to the harbour. We spent a little while in the Contemporary Art Museum before my friend, Yu (yes, his named was a source of confusion throughout the Safari! haha), and I took a ferry around to Darling Harbour and back from Circular Quay, which definitely became a higlight of the trip. It was just spectacular seeing the city from water, especially as the second half of our journey was after sunset! We walked back to the hostel to spend our last night of Safari with everyone. We all signed each other's flag and made our goodbyes before eventually heading off to bed late. :( The next morning, we all boarded busses and trains to went home...
Safari was some of the best weeks of my life and I loved it! Even with the bus breaking down, it couldn't have been much better than it was! :D We even raised over $100 for the Royal Flying Doctor Service which flies doctors to remote areas of Australia for emergency medical attention. We did this through a system of 'fines' similar to that which some Rotary clubs have. Basically, whenever someone did something embarrassing or funny, we would 'fine' them for it! At first this wasn't received too happy by the group, but after I took control of it for the remainder for the journey, people began to like it and would even tell me themselves when they did something worth a fine!
I loved that time, and I will truly miss the great friendships I've made on those long bus rides. Thank you to everyone who helped make my Safari and my exchange happen! Thank you so much!!! :D
20 May 2014
Ya...Actually, I did kinda forget about my blog...
Its probably about time I actually catch up on this blog thing. I believe my pictures are also a bit behind, so after they finish backing up, I'll add them for your viewing pleasure! Now to what my Australian life has included, I think pre-safari, will do best for this post.
Back at the beginning of March, the second of the month actually, I had a totally unplanned but fantastic day! Since I didn't have any plans, I decided I might as well go to church, which was nice, being the second time I've gone while in Australia. Yet, afterward, when I was meeting my host parents to bring me home, I ran into a rotarian who offered to take me along with him for the day, which turned out to be awesome! I helped him move a trailer before we went out for lunch with his family, a very pleasant experience. To take me home, he then offered me a ride on his motorbike! However, as we rode pass the airport, without telling me what he was doing, he just pulled in and brought me inside to his plane. This was followed by a great half hour or so plane ride around the area, where I got to fly (with the exception of takeoff and landing)! It was great to see my home (away from home) from the air and to pilot the plane. I've always wanted to fly, to this was amazing! :D
With the Australian Army Cadets during this time, we had the normal drill nights, but then some extra things. One of the nights was a swim test, so we all met at the town pool. The test consisted of a 50m swim followed by a 2min wade, which was easily done. THe rest of the night was great fun, just hanging out, playing soccer and footy. The following Saturday, we had a one day biv (bivouac), which consisted of some games, and practicing the flags for Anzac Day. THe following week, while continuing practice, we came up with a new drill movement, which we like to call the morf!
The month came to end with Safari, yet the weekend before, I had to get in a couple more great things! My host brother let me know about a UN Youth Conference up in Canberra, where I decided to join him. We left school early to go up to Canberra for the event which started that afternoon. Friday night consisted mainly of ice breakers and fun games. Saturday was an early start to the day before several workshops with discussions on things such as world order, and what that means. We also had a game called Interactive Problem Solving (IPS) based on current affairs and issues throughout the world. For this one, we were divided into several groups, each playing a different party in the affair. My group was the Secular Opposition while the issue was the ousting of the Egyptian dictator. We had to act is if we were this group, trying to represent their opinions based on the information we were given, while trying to forget everything we knew about the event from the news. The day also consisted of a guest speaker from CARE Australia, who spoke to us on what the organisation did and how they accomplished it. The Sunday consisted of another IPS, this time on something even more current. My group was representing the European Union, while the other groups represented the USA, Russia, and Ukraine. In this, as you may have guessed, we were trying to solve the Crimean Crisis. I have to say that for my group, this seemed to go really well and we were great politicians! haha We managed to avoid any major disasters and were beginning to take control of all parties though different negotiations. We had Russia and almost the US under our grasp while at the end we convinced Ukraine to join the EU! However this is how it ended since we only had an hour and a half to complete the activity, which definitely isn't enough time to solve all of Ukraine's problems! ;) Afterward, we also had a MUN, or Model United Nations, in which everyone represented a country; I was assigned to Senegal. This was followed by two resolutions being proposed and debated as these nations. Sadly though, with about 100 different people and countries, it was hard to get a position to speak within the time constraints of an hour per resolution, especially when my country didn't have strong positions on either resolution. But it was still fun!
That Saturday night, I left the conference while a Rotarian picked me up and then he dropped me back the next morning. This was so that I could go to a Brumbies game! The Brumbies are a team in Canberra who compete in Rugby Union, for those who don't know. It was a great game, and by the end of it, I got into the game almost as much as I would had it been a baseball game! THe Brumbies even won! It was great fun and I had a fantastic time. :)
THe rest of the month of March consisted of several parties, some small, some not, all of them fun. :) And of course, SURFING! Whenever I could I would be out on my board getting better and doing my best! Sometime during the beginning of the month, I even managed to stand up while at the top of the wave, as opposed to waiting til I slide to the bottom before standing up! I love surfing! :) Then came Safari, which I will talk about in the next post!
Back at the beginning of March, the second of the month actually, I had a totally unplanned but fantastic day! Since I didn't have any plans, I decided I might as well go to church, which was nice, being the second time I've gone while in Australia. Yet, afterward, when I was meeting my host parents to bring me home, I ran into a rotarian who offered to take me along with him for the day, which turned out to be awesome! I helped him move a trailer before we went out for lunch with his family, a very pleasant experience. To take me home, he then offered me a ride on his motorbike! However, as we rode pass the airport, without telling me what he was doing, he just pulled in and brought me inside to his plane. This was followed by a great half hour or so plane ride around the area, where I got to fly (with the exception of takeoff and landing)! It was great to see my home (away from home) from the air and to pilot the plane. I've always wanted to fly, to this was amazing! :D
With the Australian Army Cadets during this time, we had the normal drill nights, but then some extra things. One of the nights was a swim test, so we all met at the town pool. The test consisted of a 50m swim followed by a 2min wade, which was easily done. THe rest of the night was great fun, just hanging out, playing soccer and footy. The following Saturday, we had a one day biv (bivouac), which consisted of some games, and practicing the flags for Anzac Day. THe following week, while continuing practice, we came up with a new drill movement, which we like to call the morf!
The month came to end with Safari, yet the weekend before, I had to get in a couple more great things! My host brother let me know about a UN Youth Conference up in Canberra, where I decided to join him. We left school early to go up to Canberra for the event which started that afternoon. Friday night consisted mainly of ice breakers and fun games. Saturday was an early start to the day before several workshops with discussions on things such as world order, and what that means. We also had a game called Interactive Problem Solving (IPS) based on current affairs and issues throughout the world. For this one, we were divided into several groups, each playing a different party in the affair. My group was the Secular Opposition while the issue was the ousting of the Egyptian dictator. We had to act is if we were this group, trying to represent their opinions based on the information we were given, while trying to forget everything we knew about the event from the news. The day also consisted of a guest speaker from CARE Australia, who spoke to us on what the organisation did and how they accomplished it. The Sunday consisted of another IPS, this time on something even more current. My group was representing the European Union, while the other groups represented the USA, Russia, and Ukraine. In this, as you may have guessed, we were trying to solve the Crimean Crisis. I have to say that for my group, this seemed to go really well and we were great politicians! haha We managed to avoid any major disasters and were beginning to take control of all parties though different negotiations. We had Russia and almost the US under our grasp while at the end we convinced Ukraine to join the EU! However this is how it ended since we only had an hour and a half to complete the activity, which definitely isn't enough time to solve all of Ukraine's problems! ;) Afterward, we also had a MUN, or Model United Nations, in which everyone represented a country; I was assigned to Senegal. This was followed by two resolutions being proposed and debated as these nations. Sadly though, with about 100 different people and countries, it was hard to get a position to speak within the time constraints of an hour per resolution, especially when my country didn't have strong positions on either resolution. But it was still fun!
That Saturday night, I left the conference while a Rotarian picked me up and then he dropped me back the next morning. This was so that I could go to a Brumbies game! The Brumbies are a team in Canberra who compete in Rugby Union, for those who don't know. It was a great game, and by the end of it, I got into the game almost as much as I would had it been a baseball game! THe Brumbies even won! It was great fun and I had a fantastic time. :)
THe rest of the month of March consisted of several parties, some small, some not, all of them fun. :) And of course, SURFING! Whenever I could I would be out on my board getting better and doing my best! Sometime during the beginning of the month, I even managed to stand up while at the top of the wave, as opposed to waiting til I slide to the bottom before standing up! I love surfing! :) Then came Safari, which I will talk about in the next post!
29 April 2014
And you thought I forgot about my blog!
I realized the other day that its now been about 2 months since my last post, and thought that some people might want an update on what's going on with my life in Australia. So I'll try to catch you up in a series of posts in the coming days/ weeks. Now that my holiday just ended, and I've got weekend plans for the next few weeks, I don't know how much free time I'll have or if I'll want to spend it typing, but I'll try. Very briefly, my holidays consisted of 2 music festivals and before that, my Safari around 'Straya! I believe my last post left you a few weeks even earlier. In that time I had a few more interesting things of which I'll get into detail later, but before my story of Safari, because after that, it will sound boring, comparatively.
25 February 2014
Birdland!
I just realized that I had completely forgotten to let you know about my experience at Birdland! The Friday before the Rebounders weekend, my host mom took me and my sister to Birdland, which is an animal park featuring all Australian animals! I had a very lengthy and detailed conversation with a cockatoo that consisted of "hello" "hi" and "joey!" haha I also got to feed an emu, some wallabies and kangaroos, as well as a greddy deer who tried to steal the whole bag! We were there during the koalas' feeding time so we got a little demonstration with that before getting to hold a baby wombat! The people at Birdland were caring for some baby wombats and brought one out for us to hold and see up close. It was the cutest thing ever and wombats are awesome!
Continuing on...
Sooo... I guess its a good thing that I posted that last post when I did rather then waiting since its been another 2 weeks!
Well, since I finished my last post in relation to surfing, I might as well continue telling of some surfing adventures here in the great Broulee! Come Australia Day this year, 26 Jan (more on that later), a local surf school set out to break the world record for the most people surfing on a single wave! And I participated! The current record is 110 held by people in South Africa, but on this day we got 281 people participating to break that record. The rules specify that everyone has to be riding the wave for the same 5 seconds, that is, time doesn't start until everyone being counted is standing, and it finishes once one person who is being counted falls. That 5 sec is the difficult part--its a long time to ride a wave, especially if there isn't a good swell, such as on Aus Day. However, at the end of the event, preliminary views say that we there were 3 or 4 waves where we may have been very close if not actually beating the record. Due to the magnitude of the area and amount of people, it will take a couple months to review. [Recent reports say that the helicopter that was recording may have been too far away to clearly get everyone in one frame, which may disqualify our attempt, but it was still worth it and fun! And there is still not official word yet, anyway.]
While on the topic, I might as well tell my tale of this past weekend at the Surf Camp with the other exchange students! From Wednesday afternoon, we went up to where we should be to just hang out for the night and have some fun before an early morning of surfing from 830-1030 with world-renowned surfer Pam Burridge! The swell wasn't the best, but it was good for beginners and it was a blast! It's great to surf, and then throw in some fantastic exchange students, and it becomes the best thing in the world! :) The afternoon was spent roaming the town with a nice dinner at the golf club, before coming back to our accommodation to hang out some more and continue the fun! Friday, we continued the fun on the water in the early morning before heading up to Nowra in the afternoon for dinner and to get with our host families for the weekend. For Friday and Saturday nights, we were split up and divided among Rotarians in the area. Philipp from Germany and myself stayed with a Rebounder, Will, who went to Germany last year. It was a good time, and I enjoyed my stay with them, although I failed America at Madden... Philipp annihilated me without even understanding the game!
Saturday was met with a trip around Jervis Bay to explore and spend the avo with a barbecue at the beach! We even saw dolphins about 50m offshore, so Sondre, from Norway, and myself attempted to swim out to them and got about 10m from them! Sadly, though, a whale watching boat drove by and the dolphins followed before we could get there... The day was completed by going back to our host families homes for the night and I attempted to stay up to watch the Olympics. I wanted to watch the Bronze Medal hockey game between the USA and Finland at 2am and made it to the end of the first period, fell asleep till halfway through the 2nd, watched the end of the 2nd period, then fell asleep til my alarm went off at 730. Its probably best that I fell asleep, though, because although the beginning proved to be a great match, after the 2nd period, the US team collapsed and allowed Finland to win 5-0. Sunday came to be great fun! We got down to the river about 830 for a fun day of watersports including water skiing! I just started with an inflatable mat type thing that I would say was the most fun, but it took a lot from your shoulders to stay on. Afterward, I made my attempt at water skiing, and after practice run on a pull bar, I got towed from behind the boat and got up on my first go! That was really fun, and I was even able to jump a little! Near the end of our time, I tried some knee-boarding and got it on my 2nd try from the shore and my 2nd try in the water, although, when getting up in the water, I find it hard to really secure yourself, so I couldn't maneuver too much on it. We ended with a barbecue lunch before getting on the bus to come home. I went to bed shortly after dinner before 8, as a great end to the fun weekend! Today at school, I couldn't concentrate though as my head was still water skiing!
This awesome weekend was to come a month before Safari and 10 days after the Rebounders weekend! (rebounders are those who went on exchange and have now come back from it). For that weekend, all the rebounds who went on exchange in 2013, and all the current inbounds met up in Tuross so the rebounds could tell their stories and we inbounds got to hang out together. We didn't do too much, other than hang out at the beach and listen to some of the rebounds stories, and when we went to the beach, I couldn't do much due to my recovery from appendicitis, but it was a fun weekend!
Another 2 weeks before that, was AUSTRALIA DAY! Yes, thats a real thing! The holiday was first designed to celebrate the first landing of a British fleet in Australia, but has since evolved to just be a celebration of Australian national pride, and an excuse to party. It is very similar, in a way, to the 4th of July for Americans. Earlier I mentioned the world record attempt that morning, and then that afternoon, I went to my brother, Will's place for a small party with some great friends! We had a great time that I will never forget and I began a new tradition for 26 January! I'll have to stream Triple J's Hottest 100, which is an annual radio program that counts down the hottest 100 songs in Australia for the past year, from noon til 8pm.
Even earlier that week, to give a good end to the summer holidays, several friends and I went up to Nowra for an ice skating rink they set up in the local entertainment center. By US standards, it was a very poor rink, but for Australia it was good, and for a few friends, it was their first time skating! We had about 1 1/2 hours on the ice and had a great time! It was really fun, followed by lunch and the laser tag. We played two games and the first one, my team was beast! Out of the four people on our team, we had the top three players...however come the second game...when the teams changed, I was on the worst and I was the second worst player. O.o I'll blame the laser gun ;)
The weekend before this, I got the chance to go to Nowra to visit an Alpaca farm! There was a West Point graduate with an Ambassadorial scholarship from Rotary who just got a degree from ANU and was visiting the local club, so Rotary thought it'd be a good idea for me to come up since we were both American and had military interests. We met up at an alpaca farm in the area which was pretty cool, and amazing. This guy had 1700 alpacas on 3 farms, all of which get weighed once a month and shaved once a year! After leaving it was about time for dinner, so we went down to a local restaurant to enjoy some great alpaca burgers! They were delicious. :) For those wondering what alpaca is like, I can't say for sure because a burger is all ground up with different seasoning, but it was described to me as a midpoint between lamb and venison. (If you haven't tried venison, well, idk...) The next morning, we met up again at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, which is a museum showcasing the Australian Navy's air history. That was a cool thing to see and took up a good 2-3 hours. I found it funny that the museum is currently renting a plane from the US Navy for display, but since the museum is about Australia, they repainted it... That night I went to the Rotary meeting and got to hear a bit more about the West Point graduate. The next morning, I visited a small museum about the local history of the land before catching a bus back down the coast.
Other than these several adventures, most of my holidays was spent at the beach. I would often go down to the beach for a few hours to just read and relax, soaking in the vitamin D. I continued running with the Broulee Running Club on Wednesdays and found things to occupy my time, such as going to parties here and there. I now have 3 family members with their birthday on 10 Feb: my brother, host brother, and host mom. I was loving it over the holidays and wish it didn't have to end, but it did. Now I've been back at school for about a month, other than the week off from my trip to the hospital and from the surf camp last week. I can't get enough of Australia and now that I'm approaching the 7 month mark (17,811,420 seconds now), I only have another 4 months left and don't want it to end!
Well, since I finished my last post in relation to surfing, I might as well continue telling of some surfing adventures here in the great Broulee! Come Australia Day this year, 26 Jan (more on that later), a local surf school set out to break the world record for the most people surfing on a single wave! And I participated! The current record is 110 held by people in South Africa, but on this day we got 281 people participating to break that record. The rules specify that everyone has to be riding the wave for the same 5 seconds, that is, time doesn't start until everyone being counted is standing, and it finishes once one person who is being counted falls. That 5 sec is the difficult part--its a long time to ride a wave, especially if there isn't a good swell, such as on Aus Day. However, at the end of the event, preliminary views say that we there were 3 or 4 waves where we may have been very close if not actually beating the record. Due to the magnitude of the area and amount of people, it will take a couple months to review. [Recent reports say that the helicopter that was recording may have been too far away to clearly get everyone in one frame, which may disqualify our attempt, but it was still worth it and fun! And there is still not official word yet, anyway.]
While on the topic, I might as well tell my tale of this past weekend at the Surf Camp with the other exchange students! From Wednesday afternoon, we went up to where we should be to just hang out for the night and have some fun before an early morning of surfing from 830-1030 with world-renowned surfer Pam Burridge! The swell wasn't the best, but it was good for beginners and it was a blast! It's great to surf, and then throw in some fantastic exchange students, and it becomes the best thing in the world! :) The afternoon was spent roaming the town with a nice dinner at the golf club, before coming back to our accommodation to hang out some more and continue the fun! Friday, we continued the fun on the water in the early morning before heading up to Nowra in the afternoon for dinner and to get with our host families for the weekend. For Friday and Saturday nights, we were split up and divided among Rotarians in the area. Philipp from Germany and myself stayed with a Rebounder, Will, who went to Germany last year. It was a good time, and I enjoyed my stay with them, although I failed America at Madden... Philipp annihilated me without even understanding the game!
Saturday was met with a trip around Jervis Bay to explore and spend the avo with a barbecue at the beach! We even saw dolphins about 50m offshore, so Sondre, from Norway, and myself attempted to swim out to them and got about 10m from them! Sadly, though, a whale watching boat drove by and the dolphins followed before we could get there... The day was completed by going back to our host families homes for the night and I attempted to stay up to watch the Olympics. I wanted to watch the Bronze Medal hockey game between the USA and Finland at 2am and made it to the end of the first period, fell asleep till halfway through the 2nd, watched the end of the 2nd period, then fell asleep til my alarm went off at 730. Its probably best that I fell asleep, though, because although the beginning proved to be a great match, after the 2nd period, the US team collapsed and allowed Finland to win 5-0. Sunday came to be great fun! We got down to the river about 830 for a fun day of watersports including water skiing! I just started with an inflatable mat type thing that I would say was the most fun, but it took a lot from your shoulders to stay on. Afterward, I made my attempt at water skiing, and after practice run on a pull bar, I got towed from behind the boat and got up on my first go! That was really fun, and I was even able to jump a little! Near the end of our time, I tried some knee-boarding and got it on my 2nd try from the shore and my 2nd try in the water, although, when getting up in the water, I find it hard to really secure yourself, so I couldn't maneuver too much on it. We ended with a barbecue lunch before getting on the bus to come home. I went to bed shortly after dinner before 8, as a great end to the fun weekend! Today at school, I couldn't concentrate though as my head was still water skiing!
This awesome weekend was to come a month before Safari and 10 days after the Rebounders weekend! (rebounders are those who went on exchange and have now come back from it). For that weekend, all the rebounds who went on exchange in 2013, and all the current inbounds met up in Tuross so the rebounds could tell their stories and we inbounds got to hang out together. We didn't do too much, other than hang out at the beach and listen to some of the rebounds stories, and when we went to the beach, I couldn't do much due to my recovery from appendicitis, but it was a fun weekend!
Another 2 weeks before that, was AUSTRALIA DAY! Yes, thats a real thing! The holiday was first designed to celebrate the first landing of a British fleet in Australia, but has since evolved to just be a celebration of Australian national pride, and an excuse to party. It is very similar, in a way, to the 4th of July for Americans. Earlier I mentioned the world record attempt that morning, and then that afternoon, I went to my brother, Will's place for a small party with some great friends! We had a great time that I will never forget and I began a new tradition for 26 January! I'll have to stream Triple J's Hottest 100, which is an annual radio program that counts down the hottest 100 songs in Australia for the past year, from noon til 8pm.
Even earlier that week, to give a good end to the summer holidays, several friends and I went up to Nowra for an ice skating rink they set up in the local entertainment center. By US standards, it was a very poor rink, but for Australia it was good, and for a few friends, it was their first time skating! We had about 1 1/2 hours on the ice and had a great time! It was really fun, followed by lunch and the laser tag. We played two games and the first one, my team was beast! Out of the four people on our team, we had the top three players...however come the second game...when the teams changed, I was on the worst and I was the second worst player. O.o I'll blame the laser gun ;)
The weekend before this, I got the chance to go to Nowra to visit an Alpaca farm! There was a West Point graduate with an Ambassadorial scholarship from Rotary who just got a degree from ANU and was visiting the local club, so Rotary thought it'd be a good idea for me to come up since we were both American and had military interests. We met up at an alpaca farm in the area which was pretty cool, and amazing. This guy had 1700 alpacas on 3 farms, all of which get weighed once a month and shaved once a year! After leaving it was about time for dinner, so we went down to a local restaurant to enjoy some great alpaca burgers! They were delicious. :) For those wondering what alpaca is like, I can't say for sure because a burger is all ground up with different seasoning, but it was described to me as a midpoint between lamb and venison. (If you haven't tried venison, well, idk...) The next morning, we met up again at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, which is a museum showcasing the Australian Navy's air history. That was a cool thing to see and took up a good 2-3 hours. I found it funny that the museum is currently renting a plane from the US Navy for display, but since the museum is about Australia, they repainted it... That night I went to the Rotary meeting and got to hear a bit more about the West Point graduate. The next morning, I visited a small museum about the local history of the land before catching a bus back down the coast.
Other than these several adventures, most of my holidays was spent at the beach. I would often go down to the beach for a few hours to just read and relax, soaking in the vitamin D. I continued running with the Broulee Running Club on Wednesdays and found things to occupy my time, such as going to parties here and there. I now have 3 family members with their birthday on 10 Feb: my brother, host brother, and host mom. I was loving it over the holidays and wish it didn't have to end, but it did. Now I've been back at school for about a month, other than the week off from my trip to the hospital and from the surf camp last week. I can't get enough of Australia and now that I'm approaching the 7 month mark (17,811,420 seconds now), I only have another 4 months left and don't want it to end!
06 February 2014
6 MONTHS!!!!
I really need to start doing this more regularly... It just builds up since I haven't posted in a month and is now a bit overwhelming, so I may try to just breeze through it. If I end up not putting as much detail as you would like or something, well, umm... too bad. Get over it, haha.
I also don't think I'm going to go in chronological order this time. Its too easy.
Since I ended my last post in relation to prawns, or shrimp, I feel I'll begin this one in relation to those very same organisms. (I find it interesting how we kinda pronounce "sms" as "zims"... Just a little tangent, back to the prawns.) Since the last time I went prawning with my now previous host family (I'll get to that later) we did not get a very good result, we decided to go again on the next new moon, which happened to be this last Friday. This time we had a much better result! We tried at one place and it didn't look too promising so we went further down the coast to another spot where we spent 2 hours! By the end of the night we had over a 1 kilo (about 2lbs) of prawns! There weren't really too many big ones, but most were just big enough to eat, and they were delicious! It was a fantastic night!
Now to moving in with my next host family... It doesn't seem like a month has gone by! When moving day came I spent the last of it with my host family, at the beach in the morning and just hanging out in the avo, and they didn't want to let me go. <3 They had to, eventually, and I got to my next family in the early evening. We were introduced and since my host brother loves surfing, he had me out on a board before dinner! It was really fun and I got up a few times on a not too stable board! :) Surfing is a pretty d@#* awesome sport and I really enjoy it. I waited a couple days for a board more suited to me was usable, and then was out on the water again! I got up a few times again, but it only took one fall to end my day. One of these time, I lost my balance and ended up putting me knee into the board, damaging the fiberglass. Soooo... since then, until this past weekend, I have been without a board while it was getting repaired. Though now that its finally back, I can't wait to get back on it!
But..... I'm going to have a couple weeks. :/ For those who haven't heard, this past weekend I contracted appendicitis and had to get my appendix removed. That became an interesting little adventure to Moruya Hospital. Although I got to experience the Australian medical system and its better it happened here then in the US, I bet its probably 10x cheaper! haha Anyway, I had key-hole surgery so only 3 little scars, and I was out of the hospital the next morning. Now, that its Friday, (even though its its 1230am) I'm feeling a lot better and think I'll be back to normal before I know it! Not quite sure how I'm going to feel about this whole "no sports for 2 weeks" thing... I'll get trough it. :) I'll save you from the picture of my appendix. If you are that much interested, I can send you a copy, just ask! haha
Speaking of being about midnight, I think I should hit the sack, so I'll send this one off for you to see it and make another installment after I get some shut eye.
I also don't think I'm going to go in chronological order this time. Its too easy.
Since I ended my last post in relation to prawns, or shrimp, I feel I'll begin this one in relation to those very same organisms. (I find it interesting how we kinda pronounce "sms" as "zims"... Just a little tangent, back to the prawns.) Since the last time I went prawning with my now previous host family (I'll get to that later) we did not get a very good result, we decided to go again on the next new moon, which happened to be this last Friday. This time we had a much better result! We tried at one place and it didn't look too promising so we went further down the coast to another spot where we spent 2 hours! By the end of the night we had over a 1 kilo (about 2lbs) of prawns! There weren't really too many big ones, but most were just big enough to eat, and they were delicious! It was a fantastic night!
Now to moving in with my next host family... It doesn't seem like a month has gone by! When moving day came I spent the last of it with my host family, at the beach in the morning and just hanging out in the avo, and they didn't want to let me go. <3 They had to, eventually, and I got to my next family in the early evening. We were introduced and since my host brother loves surfing, he had me out on a board before dinner! It was really fun and I got up a few times on a not too stable board! :) Surfing is a pretty d@#* awesome sport and I really enjoy it. I waited a couple days for a board more suited to me was usable, and then was out on the water again! I got up a few times again, but it only took one fall to end my day. One of these time, I lost my balance and ended up putting me knee into the board, damaging the fiberglass. Soooo... since then, until this past weekend, I have been without a board while it was getting repaired. Though now that its finally back, I can't wait to get back on it!
But..... I'm going to have a couple weeks. :/ For those who haven't heard, this past weekend I contracted appendicitis and had to get my appendix removed. That became an interesting little adventure to Moruya Hospital. Although I got to experience the Australian medical system and its better it happened here then in the US, I bet its probably 10x cheaper! haha Anyway, I had key-hole surgery so only 3 little scars, and I was out of the hospital the next morning. Now, that its Friday, (even though its its 1230am) I'm feeling a lot better and think I'll be back to normal before I know it! Not quite sure how I'm going to feel about this whole "no sports for 2 weeks" thing... I'll get trough it. :) I'll save you from the picture of my appendix. If you are that much interested, I can send you a copy, just ask! haha
Speaking of being about midnight, I think I should hit the sack, so I'll send this one off for you to see it and make another installment after I get some shut eye.
02 January 2014
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Since the 18th of December, school has been out and we have summer holidays! To celebrate, a few friends and myself spent a good portion of the day at the beach and my friends house just having fun and hanging out. It was a good time, followed by going home to get ready for a Rotary Christmas Party, which was pretty good. The party was mostly just a Christmas themed meeting with small party aspects, but the company was great and I enjoyed it. Afterward, I went to a friend's 17th birthday party, which I think pretty much ended up being an end of the year party. It was pretty fun end to the school year.
The next day was time for camping! My host family and I went down to a mysterious bay (pun intended) to camp for the next week and a half. We got there mid afternoon, finished setting up and the day was pretty much gone by dinner. In the morning, it was an early (normal for camping) start at 0800. I went for a run to explore the camping area, came back and went to the beach with Will. Down there, I even taught him the art of Wiffle Ball before we threw ourselves into the surf. I had a try with the surf-ski, which is kinda like a kayak that you sit on top of, designed to catch waves. Its fun, yet can be pretty challenging to balance, especially with the waves pounding you, its similar to a bike in the way that the faster you go, the easier it is to balance. Back at the camp site, we collected firewood before having a family night playing Rummikub. This is pretty much how the camping went, with just some differences in what we did at the beach and what games we played. We played a lot of Rummikub and plenty of Speed Scrabble, and some trivia here and there.
Saturday, the four of us spent the better half of the morning fishing off of one of the cliffs, yet no one ended up getting anything other than a rock. ;) That afternoon, we played a good game of beach cricket, which was pretty fun, before cooling off in the great Pacific. However, for the first time in my life, as I remember, I ripped my swimmers while reaching for the ball during cricket! Of course, since it happened once, t can happen again, and come Christmas Day, while tossing the frisbee, I ripped my jeans... Sunday was a pleasant day and Will and I got to explore a cave structure near the beach which, other than the rocks hurting my feet, was pretty cool, if it wasn't so hard and dependant on the tides to get to, I wouldn't mind just hanging out in there. That night we had a fire and I introduced my family to the magic of S'MORES! They aren't the same because a) no graham crackers in Australia, and b) marshmallows are different, c) no Hershey's... Australian Cadbury is better, yet the different sized pieces make it harder to make the s'mores. Overall, they are good, but I don't think they quite hit the mark. That night, Will and I also played around with my camera and our flashlights to take some pretty cool photos which will be up soon.
Christmas Eve Eve consisted of an early morning to go to town and get ready to go fishing. The four of us rented a little tinny to go out on the lake for four hours of fishing. It was a good time and after a slow start for myself, I ended up catching 5 1/2 fish! They were all baby snappers so we had to release them but it was still good. The half of a fish was when I had a pretty big fish on the line and almost got him out of the water, but with only a couple feet left to go, he got himself off the line... Or a shark ate the other half of the fish, whatever you want to believe. ;)
Christmas Eve was a normal day of camping, and we had another fire that night before heading off to bed around 10. (Can't be up when Santa gets there!) Christmas morning was a pleasant one and a relaxing one. We woke up one by one, and once everyone was up and running, we opened up presents! I got a few things from my family, but I think the one I will cherish the most is a shirt Julie altered so say where I've been, including Moruya, Moruya Heads, and Congo on it! It was great to spend Christmas here in Australia with my host family, Julie, Pete, and Will! Afterward, we headed back to Moruya to have a Christmas lunch with Pete's family. Beforehand, though, my family was awesome and changed the plans slightly so that I could get to church for Christmas mass. As it goes with the Church, mass was pretty much the same, yet here, at this parish, they sung all of the responses, which was a bit different. But singing in praying twice, right? When we got to Pete's sister's place, we had a great lunch including, not shrimp, but prawns on the barbie! It was a good time, and it was then that while tossing the frisbee, I ripped my pants *insert Spongebob song here* for the second time that week. Eventually it came time to depart from there and head over to Will's uncle's place for Christmas dinner, which was equally as good. For dinner, we had various vegetables, next to wild boar and duck, which were both very delicious. Will and I spent the night with Will's dad before going home in the morning after a bacon and egg breakfast. This year's (or last year, now) Christmas was awesome! It was much different being that it was 80 degrees (fahrenheit, I don't think we would be alive if it was celsius), although apparently thats cold for Christmas in Australia; also because we were camping on Christmas morn. I don't know if it was that or the absence of family that it didn't really feel like Christmas at first, but I missed the cold Christmas back home... Everyone in my family and friends around me, though, held the holiday spirit and helped me feel that, making, in the end, one of the best Christmases ever! It was definitely different, but good. :D
The next day was Boxing Day! It was exciting to say "Happy Boxing Day!" haha We didn't get back down to Mystery Bay until the afternoon, but it was alright, we still got some good time at the beach before the weather turned. Of all times that it doesn't rain in Australia, it rained 3 of the 10 days there... It was still good though. :) Friday morning we spent the hours mostly at the beach and on the boogie board. It was a pretty good time and I caught a few great waves on the board. No surfing, though. :/ In the afternoon, after lunch, we went down to Merimbula to do a little shopping before Will and I went to a French exchange student's 18th birthday party! It was a pretty good party and I had a lot of fun, and pulled an all-nighter to watch the sunrise. The next morning, we had breakfast with eggs, delicious crêpes and the best bacon I've had since getting to Australia. Usually the bacon, here, isn't quite as good I think, but this bacon was great. :) We then hung around waiting to do something before getting picked up in the late morning by Pete and Julie who were generous enough to take the hour drive so Will and I could go to the party. We took the coastal route back to our camp site, stopping for lunch along the way, which was superb. When we got back, we decided to just pack up that night instead of the next day, so we packed up and headed back home to Congo. That night, I had a generous 13 hours sleep before getting up to help sort out the camping stuff, and clean/ fix the bikes. We even had some street art from the world-renowned artist, Will Scobie, after having to empty a bucket of paint and water that has been sitting for some months. (Pictures will be up soon)
This brought us to Monday, where we had a quiet day of the Hobbit! In the morning/ early afternoon, we watched The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey before going to the theater in the late afternoon to watch The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. They are both pretty good, but I have to say, I didn't enjoy An Unexpected Journey as much the second time watching it and in both, they got a little slow in the middle. Other than that, they are really good. :) Tuesday was finally New Year's Eve! It kinda crept up on us, and seem to be here too soon. My host family and I went mini-golfing! I was winning by one for the first 9, but come the end of the game, I was in 3rd, with everyone only 1 point apart from each other. I did, though, win in the number of hole-in-ones, with 2! :) It was a fun time! In the evening, Will and I went to a friend's place for a small get-together for New Years. We had a lot of fun that night leading up to 2014 and a pretty good start to the year in the early hours! It was kinda cool to spend New Years here, and watch the fireworks, even if just on tele, but it was great! I would put this as one of, if not the best New Years celebration in my life! After a few hours of sleep, we had pancakes for breakfast before heading down to the surf for a day at the beach. We even had tubes to float around in and ride the waves on, which was pretty close to being just as good as surfing!
We went home in the late afternoon, and had dinner. To finish off the night, we watched The Man From Snowy River, which is an Australian classic based off an Australian poem about a mountain man. Both the poem and film are really good and I enjoyed it. :) Come today, we had a relaxing morning, which I spent reading and writing the majority of this post. In the avo, we went for a canoe ride up Congo Creek which was pretty fun and very enjoyable. Will and even stopped for a little while to go for a swim, jumping off a fallen tree. I even did some back flips and two failed front flips... It was a good time followed by going out for Mexican for dinner. :) I had the fajitas after we all had chips and guac. It was pretty good, although I found the guac a bit unsatisfying and the meal insufficient, but other than that, it was a great meal and a good time. I even taught my family paper football! Afterward, we went home to get changed shortly before heading down the road to the Creek for some prawning. We spent a good hour or so down there, and had about 6 or 7 prawns to show for it, although only 1 was of good size, really. It was still a great night and really fun. :D
HAPPY NEW YEAR! GOD BLESS!
The next day was time for camping! My host family and I went down to a mysterious bay (pun intended) to camp for the next week and a half. We got there mid afternoon, finished setting up and the day was pretty much gone by dinner. In the morning, it was an early (normal for camping) start at 0800. I went for a run to explore the camping area, came back and went to the beach with Will. Down there, I even taught him the art of Wiffle Ball before we threw ourselves into the surf. I had a try with the surf-ski, which is kinda like a kayak that you sit on top of, designed to catch waves. Its fun, yet can be pretty challenging to balance, especially with the waves pounding you, its similar to a bike in the way that the faster you go, the easier it is to balance. Back at the camp site, we collected firewood before having a family night playing Rummikub. This is pretty much how the camping went, with just some differences in what we did at the beach and what games we played. We played a lot of Rummikub and plenty of Speed Scrabble, and some trivia here and there.
Saturday, the four of us spent the better half of the morning fishing off of one of the cliffs, yet no one ended up getting anything other than a rock. ;) That afternoon, we played a good game of beach cricket, which was pretty fun, before cooling off in the great Pacific. However, for the first time in my life, as I remember, I ripped my swimmers while reaching for the ball during cricket! Of course, since it happened once, t can happen again, and come Christmas Day, while tossing the frisbee, I ripped my jeans... Sunday was a pleasant day and Will and I got to explore a cave structure near the beach which, other than the rocks hurting my feet, was pretty cool, if it wasn't so hard and dependant on the tides to get to, I wouldn't mind just hanging out in there. That night we had a fire and I introduced my family to the magic of S'MORES! They aren't the same because a) no graham crackers in Australia, and b) marshmallows are different, c) no Hershey's... Australian Cadbury is better, yet the different sized pieces make it harder to make the s'mores. Overall, they are good, but I don't think they quite hit the mark. That night, Will and I also played around with my camera and our flashlights to take some pretty cool photos which will be up soon.
Christmas Eve Eve consisted of an early morning to go to town and get ready to go fishing. The four of us rented a little tinny to go out on the lake for four hours of fishing. It was a good time and after a slow start for myself, I ended up catching 5 1/2 fish! They were all baby snappers so we had to release them but it was still good. The half of a fish was when I had a pretty big fish on the line and almost got him out of the water, but with only a couple feet left to go, he got himself off the line... Or a shark ate the other half of the fish, whatever you want to believe. ;)
Christmas Eve was a normal day of camping, and we had another fire that night before heading off to bed around 10. (Can't be up when Santa gets there!) Christmas morning was a pleasant one and a relaxing one. We woke up one by one, and once everyone was up and running, we opened up presents! I got a few things from my family, but I think the one I will cherish the most is a shirt Julie altered so say where I've been, including Moruya, Moruya Heads, and Congo on it! It was great to spend Christmas here in Australia with my host family, Julie, Pete, and Will! Afterward, we headed back to Moruya to have a Christmas lunch with Pete's family. Beforehand, though, my family was awesome and changed the plans slightly so that I could get to church for Christmas mass. As it goes with the Church, mass was pretty much the same, yet here, at this parish, they sung all of the responses, which was a bit different. But singing in praying twice, right? When we got to Pete's sister's place, we had a great lunch including, not shrimp, but prawns on the barbie! It was a good time, and it was then that while tossing the frisbee, I ripped my pants *insert Spongebob song here* for the second time that week. Eventually it came time to depart from there and head over to Will's uncle's place for Christmas dinner, which was equally as good. For dinner, we had various vegetables, next to wild boar and duck, which were both very delicious. Will and I spent the night with Will's dad before going home in the morning after a bacon and egg breakfast. This year's (or last year, now) Christmas was awesome! It was much different being that it was 80 degrees (fahrenheit, I don't think we would be alive if it was celsius), although apparently thats cold for Christmas in Australia; also because we were camping on Christmas morn. I don't know if it was that or the absence of family that it didn't really feel like Christmas at first, but I missed the cold Christmas back home... Everyone in my family and friends around me, though, held the holiday spirit and helped me feel that, making, in the end, one of the best Christmases ever! It was definitely different, but good. :D
The next day was Boxing Day! It was exciting to say "Happy Boxing Day!" haha We didn't get back down to Mystery Bay until the afternoon, but it was alright, we still got some good time at the beach before the weather turned. Of all times that it doesn't rain in Australia, it rained 3 of the 10 days there... It was still good though. :) Friday morning we spent the hours mostly at the beach and on the boogie board. It was a pretty good time and I caught a few great waves on the board. No surfing, though. :/ In the afternoon, after lunch, we went down to Merimbula to do a little shopping before Will and I went to a French exchange student's 18th birthday party! It was a pretty good party and I had a lot of fun, and pulled an all-nighter to watch the sunrise. The next morning, we had breakfast with eggs, delicious crêpes and the best bacon I've had since getting to Australia. Usually the bacon, here, isn't quite as good I think, but this bacon was great. :) We then hung around waiting to do something before getting picked up in the late morning by Pete and Julie who were generous enough to take the hour drive so Will and I could go to the party. We took the coastal route back to our camp site, stopping for lunch along the way, which was superb. When we got back, we decided to just pack up that night instead of the next day, so we packed up and headed back home to Congo. That night, I had a generous 13 hours sleep before getting up to help sort out the camping stuff, and clean/ fix the bikes. We even had some street art from the world-renowned artist, Will Scobie, after having to empty a bucket of paint and water that has been sitting for some months. (Pictures will be up soon)
This brought us to Monday, where we had a quiet day of the Hobbit! In the morning/ early afternoon, we watched The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey before going to the theater in the late afternoon to watch The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. They are both pretty good, but I have to say, I didn't enjoy An Unexpected Journey as much the second time watching it and in both, they got a little slow in the middle. Other than that, they are really good. :) Tuesday was finally New Year's Eve! It kinda crept up on us, and seem to be here too soon. My host family and I went mini-golfing! I was winning by one for the first 9, but come the end of the game, I was in 3rd, with everyone only 1 point apart from each other. I did, though, win in the number of hole-in-ones, with 2! :) It was a fun time! In the evening, Will and I went to a friend's place for a small get-together for New Years. We had a lot of fun that night leading up to 2014 and a pretty good start to the year in the early hours! It was kinda cool to spend New Years here, and watch the fireworks, even if just on tele, but it was great! I would put this as one of, if not the best New Years celebration in my life! After a few hours of sleep, we had pancakes for breakfast before heading down to the surf for a day at the beach. We even had tubes to float around in and ride the waves on, which was pretty close to being just as good as surfing!
We went home in the late afternoon, and had dinner. To finish off the night, we watched The Man From Snowy River, which is an Australian classic based off an Australian poem about a mountain man. Both the poem and film are really good and I enjoyed it. :) Come today, we had a relaxing morning, which I spent reading and writing the majority of this post. In the avo, we went for a canoe ride up Congo Creek which was pretty fun and very enjoyable. Will and even stopped for a little while to go for a swim, jumping off a fallen tree. I even did some back flips and two failed front flips... It was a good time followed by going out for Mexican for dinner. :) I had the fajitas after we all had chips and guac. It was pretty good, although I found the guac a bit unsatisfying and the meal insufficient, but other than that, it was a great meal and a good time. I even taught my family paper football! Afterward, we went home to get changed shortly before heading down the road to the Creek for some prawning. We spent a good hour or so down there, and had about 6 or 7 prawns to show for it, although only 1 was of good size, really. It was still a great night and really fun. :D
HAPPY NEW YEAR! GOD BLESS!
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