31 May 2011

I was hoping to post this sooner but after traveling for two weeks, it was not easy getting back in to school. (: School has been really busy lately! I just had lots of assignments due these last couple weeks and now everyone is studying for our block exams which start in a week! 

We had two weeks of vacation after our first term, starting in the middle of April and finishing at the end of the month. To start the break off, all of the exchange students that go to school with me and I got the opportunity to go on the overnight scuba diving trip I mentioned in my last blog! It was absolutely amazing. We all woke up very early and drove about an hour and a half North from Townsville up to a town called Ingham. From there we got on the scuba diving boat and heading over to an island called Pelorus Island. We all unpacked the boat and began to set up camp on the island, but not for long. From there we set out on the first of our five dives! At the beginning of each of our dives we would have to show the dive instructors a few skills that we learned during our pool dive sessions then after that, we were free to dive! Our dives would last about fourty minutes and we got to dive in 5 different spots. Both days were so great, but we seemed to have better visibility on our second day! I saw three turtles, tons of clown fish and other fish, sea anemones, giant clams and so many other things! The coral was so big it was truly amazing! There would be pieces of coral easily taller than twenty feet , and larger in diameter! The whole experience was absolutely unbelievable, and one that I really can’t even begin to describe. It was by far the most amazing thing I have ever done and definitely an experience I will never forget! By the end of our trip we all got our scuba diving licenses, which is something we will all be able to use forever. 

After scuba diving I came home for one day and then left again for my ten day outback safari trip. I didn’t know anyone before the trip but by the end of I had made 45 more friends. Many of them were from Germany, some from Switzerland, others from Brazil, a few from Austria, one from Mexico, and then there was me--the only American. (: The trip was so great! I flew from Townsville to Cairns and then from there to Alice Springs, in Northern Territory. We stayed there for a few days and then began to move south through Northern Territory, stopping at Kings Canyon and Uluru for a few days! We then made it to South Australia where we stopped in the capital, Adelaide, and Coober Pedy; where almost the whole town is built underground because of how hot it gets there in the summer time. We got to spend our last day in Melbourne which is in Victoria. So within ten days we had traveled from Queensland, down through all of Northern Territory, South Australia, and ended in Victoria--which is a lot of traveling when looking at the size of Australia! Although we had no choice but to have a few long bus rides, we always found ways to entertain ourselves! We had a few misadventures of course, including a day where we spent 5 hours stopped on the highway in South Australia because of a car accident. We played cards, laid out in the sun, took pictures with the truckers, ate lots of food, had dance parties and  played the same game multiple times until we finally got to get moving again! The outback is really so beautiful! Ayers Rock and all of that is truly amazing, and I can also officially now say that I have been to the middle of nowhere. (: I took tons of pictures, which you can see in the video! 

I only have three weeks left in Townsville and then I head down to the Gold Coast and Sydney for my last week. I can’t wait! This next weekend I am traveling up to Cairns, a place about 5 hours north of Townsville, to visit some of my friends from the outback trip! I haven’t had the chance to make it up to Cairns yet, so I am looking forward to my trip up there very much! After Cairns I will be back in Townsvillle for my last two weeks, which is crazy to think! These last five months have truly flown by, but I am very excited about my last couple weeks here because I am going to have the opportunity to see even more of Australia!
Here is the link to the video I made of the scuba diving trip and the outback trip:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=2100673837530

9 April 2011

This blog post is very overdue! But that just means I have been really busy, which means I have lots of stories to catch all of you up on! :)
Given the fact my last blog post was on February 22, and it is now April, instead of making you all read a really long post, here is a video of my pictures from my last month in Australia:

(Here is the link to the video, if this video clip is to small: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NysxBPVk8-Y)

Overall, life has been really hectic these last few weeks! In school here, instead of grading you on your ongoing smaller homework assignments, you are handed one big assignment for each class. You have about three weeks or so to prepare for it and complete it. So I have been really busy with all of my school assignments lately, but I just turned in my last one on Friday! So I am now back to having some free time! Things are going well in school though, which is really good! For a while there I was worried I may not do well, just because their expectations in school here are so much different from at home.
Other than school assignments, I have been busy with trying to complete a divers course so I can get my scuba diving license! This past Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I spent everyday doing training. Monday I had a theory lesson, and Tuesday and Wednesday I had pool sessions; where we would run through different drills that you have to complete to get your license! I had a trouble on a few of the tests, but I am proud to say that even though it may have taken me a little longer than everyone else to get everything down, I finally completed all of the tests! :)  This upcoming wednesday and Thursday all the exchange students have the opportunity to go on a scuba-diving/camping trip! I am very, very excited for it! On Wednesday we are heading up North a bit, where from there we will head out to the Great Barrier Reef. We get to dive all day Wednesday and then we are camping on a small island out there for the night. Then we get to wake up Thursday and scuba dive all day and then we will head home that night!
The next day, Friday, there is no school because it is the beginning of our autumn break-remember it is autumn over here in Australia:)-so I will get some sleep and then pack for my next adventure! On Saturday, the 16th, I am flying up to Cairns and then from there to Alice Springs, which is in Northern Territory. There I will meet up with a group of exchange students and begin our ten day "Outback Safari"! We camp for ten days, starting in Northern Territory, heading south through the outback, to South Australia, which from there we will head over to Victory, which is where we will stay in Melbourne for our last two days!
I have a very exciting next couple weeks ahead of me, and I can't wait! I'm loving it here and time is flying by! I'm sorry it took me so long to put another blog post up, but I promise I will post another when I get back from my outback trip! :)

22 February 2011

I have already been here for over a month, which is so hard to believe! It has gone by so fast, I feel like I just got here last week. Last Friday we had no school because we had what they call the swimming carnival. The swimming carnival is a day where everyone from school goes to the local pool, dresses up in their house colors, and then all day it is a competition between all the houses through swim races, and what they call novelty events. Your house gets points for how well your swimmers do in their races, for how many people participate in the novelty events, and then at the end of the day one house wins the spirit award!

Here are some pictures from the swimming carnival:

The pool.

Jack, Candy, and I.

Penny and I after our first novelty event.

Mercedes and I before a novelty event.

The next day, on Saturday, Mercedes and I went with some friends from another school in town here, Kirwan State High School, to the Reef HQ. The Reef HQ is the aquarium in town, and then after that we spent the rest of the night at The Stand! Which is our main beach in town.

We stopped and got gelato and then stayed on the beach for a while!

Oh! And Kelvyn wants to make sure I don't forget to tell all of you about my story from yesterday, which he finds quite funny. haha  So yesterday I went to make my bed, before I left for school, and was standing on top of my bed to shake out my sheets. Why I choose to stand on my bed to do so, I'm not sure. But when I lifted my blanket to shake it out, I sliced my fingers on my fan. Which was on full speed. So after a lot of laughing, and then crying, and getting blood everywhere, Kelvyn got me all bandaged up. And just so you know, I did turn off my fan this morning before I went to make my bed. :)

This last week has been great, and this whole experience is going by so fast already! It's my birthday this weekend, and then next weekend we are heading up to Cairns with Pauline, Bill, and Gab. So we have a lot of exciting things going on in the upcoming weeks!

Here is the link to the movie I made so you can see a little bit of the swimming carnival and the rest of my weekend!

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1872899783321

11 February 2011

I should start by saying that I survived the cyclone! If you haven't heard much about it, Cyclone Yasi hit the coast of Queensland at about 11 PM on Wednesday night, February 2nd. To give you an idea of how big it was, they were comparing Cyclone Yasi to Hurricane Katrina. Saying Yasi was more powerful. It was known to be the worst cyclone to ever hit Australia.
Of course, for me, little Seattle girl, it was by far the scariest thing I have ever been through. It started raining hard early in the day on Wednesday, and then the winds started to pick up at about 9.00PM. We lost power at 9.30 that night and didn't get it back until about 9 this morning, February 8 So we went almost a week here with no power, cold showers and all that fun stuff! We played Sequence and Monopoly, and laid around complaining about how terrible it was having no air conditioning! But everything and everyone is okay, which is all that matters.

Here is some photos from around the house, once the cyclone was over:

Townsville is in better conditions than a lot of towns in North Queensland, but we were definitely affected by Yasi. Most of the power in town is finally back on, but some homes still have no power. Finding food around town, at the moment, is impossible. The days after the cyclone, the lines to the few open gas stations and few open fast food resteraunts were tremmendusly long. The Strand, the main street on the beach here in Townsville, is still closed due to the destruction. Trees are down all over the place, and the sand has been washed up on to the streets, but they are working to clean it up and are hoping to have it open by the weekend! Schools were closed starting last wednesday, and just started up again yesterday, Tuesday, February 8th. We were fortunate to only loose trees and parts of our fence. Many people in a town just north of us, Tully, came home from the evacuation centers to find their homes completely destroyed. There is a lot of rebuilding that is going to be happening in North Queensland over the next couple months, and a lot of it has already been started.
The cyclone has obviously been a big part of my last week in Australia, but I did get the opportunity to get out a couple days after the cyclone and drive around the town. Pauline, Bill, Gabriel and I went up to the top of Castle Hill, which is a hill here that looks over all of Townsville. It was still overcast when we went up that day because of the cyclone, but here are some pictures from the top!

I am hoping to make it up north soon to see how they have been affected up there, but I made a video so you all could see how Cyclone Yasi affected us here in Townsville.
This is the link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LimUhYx4sRo

Oh, and by the way, I would just like to say that I had kangaroo for dinner this week! How australian is that?! :)

01 February 2011

I finally have time for another blog post because of there being no school tomorrow. School has been canceled for tomorrow and Thursday so far, and might possibly be canceled on Friday also, due to Cyclone Yasi. Cyclone Yasi is expected to hit tomorrow night around 10.00PM, and is currently a Level 5 cyclone.
Here is a picture of the cyclone off the coast of north east Queensland:

 Don't worry though, everything will be okay! We have done our food shopping, cleaned up all the loose items around the house, and Kel has a generator for when we loose power. So everything is going to be okay:)

Other then the getting ready for the storm, we have done a lot in the last week! I got to celebrate Australia Day on the 26th of January. Kel, Bec, Alex, Pauline (Kel's mum), Bill (Pauline's husband), Tom and WIll (Kel's step brothers), Gabriel (Pauline and Bill's exchange student from Brazil), and I went to a creek for the day to have a barbie. After the barbie, we went back to Pauline and Bill's for a swim and dinner. 

These are some pictures from Australia day:

 

Alex (my host brother).

       

The Zook, one of Kel's cars.

I then started school the next day, the 27th. All the exchange students had an orientation that day, but started our classes the next day, on Friday. School is really different here. Every school here has uniforms. The uniforms I ordered still are not in yet, so I have been wearing a shirt too big for me with paint stains on it, that I am barrowing from the school councelor's son, and shorts that are too big for me also. But thats alright! No one knows me anyway right? :) But other than that, school has been good! 

On Friday night Bec and I went to a Croc's game! The Croc's are the Townsville professional basketball team. They were playing the Gold Coast which is the team from just south of us. The basketball game was exciting cause a trophy was on the line, and the Croc's won it back! 

On Saturday Pauline, Bill, and Will took Gabriel and I  to a beach in Townsville called Bushland Beach. The tide was really low so you could walk out really far on the beach. It was a beautiful day and from the beach you could see Magnetic Island!

These are some pictures from Bushland Beach:

Bill and their dog Reba.

Will and Reba.

The Beach with Magnetic Island in the back.

We were planning to go down to Airlie Beach for the weekend with Pauline and Bill, which is a beach a few hours south of here. But because of the storm, we won't be able to make it down there this week! 

Here is a link to a video from my last week in Australia!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixxLZxd-JFo

23 January 2011

After a long day of flying, I have finally made it to Townsville! When I arrived in LAX, I had five hours until my next plane left for Sydney. That may seem like a long time, but considering how long it took me to find my terminal, the time went by fast! Four other exchange students and I boarded a plane at 9:00PM to Sydney. The three other exchange students that I met, followed on the plane behind ours, leaving at 10:00. After 14 hours of being on the plane, which I thankfully slept through most of, we arrived in Sydney. After getting lost in that airport also, we finally made it to our gate with a little time to grab some food. We all learned that you don't have to take your shoes off when going through security in Australia, after we had already gone through security and had to ask the security officers why they were all laughing at us. After one last plane ride we arrived in Townsville, where we were greeted by our host families! Even though I slept on the plane to Sydney, I was still exhausted when I arrived in Townsville. I told myself I wouldn't go to sleep before dinner, but I finally gave in and took a nap.
Bec (my host mum) made pasta for dinner last night and pancakes, or what we would call crepes, this morning for breakfast! The food so far here has been great. Bec is a really good cook, so mom and dad, you might have to practice your cooking for when I come back home! You have some competition :)
I have caught on to some slang! Rubish is trash, Kelvyn (my host dad) referred to the shopping carts today as trolleys, a nappy is a diaper, and juice boxes are poppers. When the people here are talking fast, I can't understand them at all, but I'm starting to catch on slowly!

You can follow this link to see a video I made while we were traveling yesterday!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MygGDbh3lrY