Christmas Day!

The day finally came! however i was woken up at 6am. :( but none the less it was a good day. The kerwin's relatives all came over for lunch. so we had a big feast for that. then in the evening the 5 of us were invited to go to the symons for dinner. So we all went there, and there were also their friends fran and gary and their kids. So there were 14 of us all together. It was great we got to go swimming on christmas! that was great! Even though we went swimming it wasn't as hot of a day as christmas normally was. it was about 70. normally its about 90. so when we were in the pool i kept jumping back and forth forth from the pool part to the hot tub part. since its joint and theres just a wall between it. That night i spent my first night at their house. The kerwins all went home but i had stayed and then the next day they came and picked me up.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve seemed like a normal day and seemed a lot like how it does in America. For me it always goes by so slowly until the night. We went to Christmas Eve service at the church and then we came home and watched the Christmas carols in Melbourne on the tv. my next host sister Alice was singing in it. she has sung in that choir for many many years now.

Candle Light Christmas Carols

Tonight at 9 the town had their annual candle light Christmas carols. basically the town gets together and sings christmas carols. and a few people sing. I was asked to sing, so i went and sand oh come all ye faithful. and they introduced me as the exchange kids from upstate NY, well a bit different then that but they mentioned that. The newspaper guy took a ton of photos when i was singing. then later on. zoe and i were laying singing the carols and using these glow candle things that we got as light. And the photographer came and got a photo. Susan said she think's well be front page of next weeks newspaper! :D we'll find out! It was amazing the fact that after the carols we got to see fireworks! its the 23rd of December and were seeing fireworks!!! and it was 90 degrees at 10:30at night still! thats insane!

Past Friday

So this past friday Zoe and i took the bus to shepparton where we shopped till we dropped. Literally. We shopped all day. got these matching robes, shorts, and flipflop slippers. It was great! we got ice-cream, tons of food, and we were in target and seriously we dropped. we saw a bench and just got there and sat there. were soooo buggered.

The Tarp is MELTING!!!!

So today Zoe, Kyra and i were on our way to subway. And when we crossed the street our shoes were getting stuck to the ground. we had to wait to get across the second half of the street. and we were stepping fast so we dont stick. then we ran across, since i was wearing thongs(flip fops) zoe was wearing sandals and kyra was wearing crocs, they all would stick easily. unfortunally subway was closed. so we had to go to the supermarket and get chocolate instead.

3rd Host Family

The time is coming, i cannot believe it either! but i'm moving to my 3rd host family in 2 weeks. There is a bit more time to send letters or whatever to this family, but in a week dont send it to this one, You'll need to send it to my 3rd family. Just ask for the address and i'll give it to you.

Holidays!

it feels so weird to be on summer break in December! but its kinda great! i get 2 months off of school! :D but i've been staying busy hanging out with the family, Friends. Etc.

Last weekend i went to my friends house for the night, and we had heaps of fun, then the following day we went to the tatura horse races. My first horse race! we got all dressed up and went and it was a blast. but it was very hot! and we were out all day! In the evening we went to my friends house and we went swimming the channel for a bit, then had tea at her house. It was a great weekend to start the holidays!

The following weekend i went to Shepparton to visit my friend Lisa who is an exchange student from Sweden . We had lots of fun went around the town, went swimming and just hung out. On that monday we meet up with Anja and Will who are two other exchange students. Anja is from switzerland and Will is a rebound who went to Denmark last year. But he is right now Anja's host family. We went bowling and i did terrible. Absolutely terrible but it was still good fun, and we went on a horse drawn carriage ride, and went shopping a bit. Just hung out. We ran into an outbound who is going to france so she later joined us and we all hung out. Sadly i had to go home, but it was a good weekend.

Kaikoura

Well as you may guess i'm not in Kaikoura any more, i haven't been for over 2 weeks now. but i've been very bad at getting time for my blog and so now i'm writing about it.

well when we were in Kaikoura the weather was terrible and since kaikoura is such an outdoor area, and everything is done outside, there wasn't all that much for us to do. Somehow we did manage to find enough for a days worth. We went on a tour of a cave, we went to a winery tour of a bruery that was built inside a cave. We went to this small house that was turned into a musume. We went shopping a bit in the town. went to a really good cafe! and both night we had dinner we went to this restruant which i cant remember the name, but it was really really yummy! that sunday we woke up early, packed up and went right to the airport. It was about a 2 hr drive to get there. And then when we checked in we had a bit of time so we went to the Qantas club lounge room again! it was great! lots of food and drinks and such. We got home safely, then drove home and by the time we got back it was a bit after 9.

Nelson

Right now were currently in Nelson. Nelson is nice place. much warmer than Christchurch and westport were. Well last few days have been busy. but yesterday we drove from Christchurch to greymouth. where we saw pancake rocks. It was very pretty, but a long drive. and the hills aren't always agreeing with my stomach. but after we stopped there we went to westport where we stayed the night. it was this nice little Bed and breakfast. We took this walk up to the lighthouse when we were there. and ate dinner at the local pub. really nice place where the town meets and gets together. we were there for quite a while and were very welcomed. Today we drove from westport to nelson, where we will be for a few days. we've got quite a few things planned, a few tours, and i'm not sure but a bunch of stuff. Across from where we are staying is a spa, and we went today and booked appointments. So i'm getting a manicure on thursday. then friday were driving to our next destination where we will ahve 2 night, then on sunday we drive from Kikoura to Christchurch then fly out, then drive back from Melbourne to Ky. long day. but should be a good 2nd half of the trip.

Christchurch day 2

So today we got up at about 8. no actually we met for breakfast at 8. I got up at 7:50. haha. but anyways, we had breakfast at the hotel, then we went around the city for a bit of a walk, then went on a tram that gave us a tour of christchurch. after that we went to the market for a bit, then went to the art musume. took a tour there. Then we went to the Gondala and rode up to the top, took lots of photos. but it wasn't a clear day and was raining so we didnt get to see the mountains and such as well as we'd hope. but it was still pretty cool. then we took this super long drive up this other mountain and then on the way down my ears went funny. Having a host father who's an audiologist he knows all about what to do to make them pop, so i used his tricks and it worked! after that we went to whi wildlife place and saw lots of animals, and then we went to this show called Ko Tane. it was about the Maouri people, and at the begining they asked the audiance if one of the males wanted to be the "cheif" and lead our "tribe" to meet the other one. No one raised their hands, and the lady running the first part, asked Lindsay (host dad) if he wanted to be it, he didnt really want to, but he did it anyways. so he had to the the ritual greatings of the other tribe. And it was all really cool. were walking in the bush (forest) and then they pop out and scare us, and it was really cool. then we got speical seats since he was the "cheif" and then in the audiance participation, of course they asked us to be in it. so we got up and learned some dances and such. which was all really cool. then afterwards we went on a Kiwi tour and saw a few kiwi's. After that we drove back into Christchurch, then had dinner at an Indian restruant, and now i'm here typing this. Its been a busy day, and we've been gone all day, but lots of fun. I have tons of photos already! and its only the 2nd day! i'm at 250 already!!!

Christchurch day 1

So today has been a long long day! but its been good, woke up at 5, got to the melbourne airport by 6. then we hung around in the Quantas club, finally we took off, and the flght was about 3 hours. but when we got here since the time difference we lost 2 hours. After Customs and Immigration it was about 3ish. We went to the International Antartica Center place which was really cool, and we saw all these penguines and went on this little tour thing in these weird cars that they use in Antartica. After that we came to the hotel, and we checked in then walked around the city to find dinner. We ate at this Thai restruant and it was really good! Then walked around a bit more and found not one starbucks, but 2! i was very excited. Christchurch is such a pretty city. Its really nice walking and its just really nice. We'll do some more exploring tomorrow, and such, just today were all a bit tired from flying and such, so we didnt do all that much. But it's been a pretty good day!

Melbourne Airport

So I'm currently in the Melbourne airport right now been here for a bit over an hour right now. Leaving in about an hour. But were in the Quantas Club Lounge area. Its so cool! they have a really nice breakfast, and they have computers and its all fancy and awsome! but i'm excited to finally get on that plane and go. I'm very tired and would enjoy a sleep. But i'll be on it soon enough. Enjoying this amazing travel style as i can. Wont get it again most likely.

Wednesday

Well today is wendesday, and of course on wednesdays i have rotary meeting to attend. so in about an hour i will go get ready for the meeting. But today isn't just any meeting, its international night. your suppose to bring someone that wasn't born in Australia. So i'm being brought and i'm bringing my exchange friend lisa. There's suppose to be a lot of people so it should be a fun night. or well as fun as a rotary meeting can get. haha.

I need to start getting ready because on friday i'm leaving for Melbourne and i'm not to sure what were doing in the day but apparently something is planned, and then on saturday morning we fly out for christchurch! i'll have so many photos! i cannot wait! i'm actually bringing my laptop with me so i know for sure i have plenty of room for everything.

Another just life

Well its middle of november, just about, and its SERIOUSLY! HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i cant stress just how hot it is right now. and its not even summer. its suppose to get up to 107.5 F this weekend! in celcius if it gets above 42 they cancel school, and 107.5 is 42. So hopefully it stays hot like that next week and we get no school! :D except its exam week and so they probably wont cancel it, so in that case lets not have it be hot! but luckily the week after next i'm going to New Zealand where it'll be cooler! i'm so exicted!! We fly from Melbourne, to Christchurch. were there for a few days, then over to Westport.. then to Nelson, then to Kaikoura, then back to Christchurch then back to Melbourne. the entire trip is 9 days in NZ plus the day were in Melb before the flights on the saturday. I seriously cannot wait! I got an itinerary with all the hotels and everything! it looks so much fun! and sounds it!

Melbourne Cup Day!

So today was Melbourne cup day! and we get the day off of school for a race that lasts about 4 mins. no joke! and the race starts almost when school ends. haha, and so the kerwins gave us each money to bet on horses. and my horse almost won! he was in first for so long, and then at the very end he got caught around a bend, and then went to the back, but i would have gotten 200 for it!

Video of Ky

So today, my host sisters and i started to make a video of Kyabram, so everyone can see really what its like! it'll be a while until were done, but we did most of the main street, walking up and down with a video camera. we went into the super market, and were at different shelves taping it was funny, but we thought it'd be fun, and everyone can see what its like. Also we were a bit bored and didnt know what else to do. So at one point we'll have it finished and you all can see what it, but it'll be a bit until were completely done.

The Weather!

So right now its getting colder and colder in NY, and many people aren't happy about that. We'll i'd like to let you know that you should be happy! Right now its getting hotter and hotter by the day. seriously! yes it is nice the fact that i wear shorts and a t-shirt everyday! but at the same time its only spring! and its this hot! right now its 86 degrees. which is alright, but the sun is just so bright that it feels so much worse!

Canoe Trip

So this past week, i went on the Outdoor Ed canoe trip. we paddled for about 70 kilometers. and i haven't figured what that is in miles yet, but i'll do that at one point. but its a lot of miles and it was a lot of fun. but very tiring. and a lot of hard work. Everyday we would wake up, pack up everything, eat breakfast, canoe ALL day, get to the campsite by the evening, then we'd set up our tarps to make a tent like thing. we had to dig a toilet, and start a fire. then we would cook dinner, and by then it'd be pretty late in the night, after that we would go to bed and wake up do it all again. During they day we took some breaks, and had lunch and such, because it was just hot and tiring we could NEVER make it all the way through no breaks. especially on the days we did 20 or so ks. but overall it was a lot of fun. It was 5 days, and we couldn't shower for those days so that was the longest i've ever gone without a shower! but as soon as i got home i got to shower! :D

so i converted the kilometers to miles and 70ks is 43.49 miles.

Next week

So next week i'm going on a week long canoe trip with my outdoor ed class. and we are seiously going on the outdoors. we have to carry EVERYHING we bring with us! were not allowed to burn any rubbish or anything because that's not very outdoorsy of us! and were in outdoor ed class. so we must bring all rubbish with us. we have to bring all the water we'll drink, and use for teeth brushing and cleaning our plates etc. for a week with us. so were suppose to bring 20litres of water. we have to bring all the food we'll bring with us. were only sleeping on tarps. and everything we bring must fit into the canoe. also its not just one persons stuff in the canoe. its 2 or 3 peoples stuff in one canoe. we dont get to shower for the entire WEEK!!!!! ahh!!! its seriously the outdoors. every day we get to the campsite area. build a fire. put up out tarps. and then cook dinner. it should be a lot of fun! but very different then anything i've ever done!!!

also seriously you'd never believe australia was in a drought if you came down here and saw all the rain that's been pouring down! seriously its insane! its been just rain constantly!!!! its been the first time in over 10yrs that they've had this much rain. last year they didnt have one drop of rain in september and october. and this year there's been heaps and heaps of rain!!!!

Tatura

On saturday all the inbound and outbound exchange students meet up in tatura (which is a town thats about 20 mins away from me.) it was basically a time to get together and have fun, so we all put on a talent show, and hung out. talked, basically just had lots of fun because we like it. But it was a great weekend! any rotary weekend is a good weekend!

Albury

So this past weekend i went up to Albury to visit my friend Adrian. He's the outbound exchange student going to upstate N.Y. we just found out he's going to Oneonta. Albury is a town thats about 3ish hours away. i didnt sleep like the entire weekend. which made the sunday when i got home a long day, also with moving and everything i was beyond tired when night came around. But it was a pretty good weekend. i got to see around albury and that was a lot of fun. And hung out with exchange kids which is always a good time. So overall great weekend!

I'm loving living at the kerwins. its so much fun! i'm busy all the time, and the days and nights go by so fast. It's insane.

Living at the Kerwins

I have officially moved into the kerwins house toady. and when i mean oficially i mean oficially i have my stuff all unpacked. my rooms set how i like it. i have my bathroom all set with my shampoo's,conditioners and such. It's great! i have only been here a few hours but i love it already!

I've got Mail

well i made the title i've got mail, because its about mail to me, but just writing mail as a title is boring. anyways. this sunday i'm moving to my2nd family. meaning anything anyone writes or send or something send to my 2nd host family address. If you dont have it, contact either my mom or myself and i'll give it to you.

Grand Final Weekend

So on thursday i went down to melbourne with the symons, and we did so much. the list is:
Grand final parade
melbourne aquarium
walked everywhere
ate a lot
watched grand final
pompeii exhibit
and a bunch of other places

it was a great weekend, geelong won the grand final! it was so close, it was neck and neck and at points we thought that saint kilda had it, but at the last like 2 mins they pulled it off. and one. it was insanely stressful. but a lot of fun! whoo!!! and now i can go to the rotary meeting this week and gloat about how geelong won!

more about the weekend

So the symons have an apartment in the city which is amazing! its a great location on swatson street which is basically the main street in melbourne. u can walk anywhere from their place basically, its right next to a subway. and its like a really nice building. their apartment is all set really fancy, with their kitchen, dining area, living room. 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. and its really cool. i love it! i'm going back there tomorrow for a week, and it should be a lot of fun! their showers in the apartment are seriously the coolest showers in the world. in the one bathroom the water comes from like the celing. and its like a water fall feeling and its soo nice. and the other one is like this walk in shower. like there's glass and then on the other side is the shower and all. so basically you walk around the glass and into the shower. its hard to explain but its really really nice. alright so i have to let everyone know abuot my search for starbucks. so at first i was really disapointed since i couldnt find one. but in the end i found 3! it was great! and 2 of them are even on swatsons street! yay!!!! so i was very excited when i saw it, took a picture. and then went in and got one. alright. i might not be on for a while, so i'll let you all know how the week was when i get back.

Geelong Game!!!

so this past weekend i went to melbourne. which was loads of fun, and saw the geelong game! it was amazing. the stadium holds 100,000. and it was about 95,000 full. it was so much fun.t he game is just amazing, your at the edge of your seat the whole time. and even better Geelong won! big time! they just kept getting goal after goal. by the end of the game the collingwood fans were leaving, there was no hope! it was great!!! i got all dressed up, in a geelong hat, scarf,socks, jumper, i had clackers, we went all out, and i'll upload photos at a later time. but it was a great weekend!

Netball

So today was my first netball game which was loads of fun! Its sorta like basket ball, but u cant dribble at all, and when u get the ball you have to throw it to someone else. It's a lot of fun though. i was Wing Defense. and to many of you, if i said i was goal attack it'd all be the same thing to you. So basically what i did, was i was defending our net, and i was following Wing Attack around. but we won 20 to 11!!! so that was a lot of fun!

Earlier today, rotary was having a barbecue on the main street selling sausages on bread ( VERY Australian! its like what they have at barbies) but anyways. i got to get out of school, i walked down to the main street and helped serving food! it was fun, and then in the end i got free sausages from it! pretty good deal to me! :). I got back to school and there was about 40mins until we had an assembly which was kind of boring, but it beats having 100min classes all day. especially on a thursday!

is there really a need to always have a title?

Well no i dont think there's always a need, because this one i cant think of a title. its just life. just what all is going on, and how things are. so anyways. its a monday afternoon after school, and i have a load of homework to do, which i'll do probably after i finish this, but not keen on doing it. this weekend is the start of holidays! whoo! and i'm so pumped for the geelong game! you have no idea! it should be so much fun! and then spending a week in melbourne. i'm determine to find a starbucks that hasnt closed in melbourne!!! and my list of things to do in melbourne contains a lot of shopping. haha. but shoppings good fun! so its worth it, and then there's a bunch of other touristy places like the melbourne zoo, aquarium, eurka skybox thing, and other places. so i should have a lot of photos from that. hopefully i'll finally break 1000 photos. i'm so close to it, but haven't. i dont take nearly enough photos, but there hasnt been all that much to take of, there will be at later times. yup so basically nothing new, i have this week then break and then i switch families, and everything is very routine now. which is kinda dissapointing, i really loved when i got here, and everything was new and exciting. things are still new and exciting but its just not the same.

....no topic...just life

so its a friday afternoon right now, got home from school, kinda tired, which i'm not sure why since i slept a lot last night, but anyways. Last night i stayed at the kerwins house, because carmen and steve(my host parents) had to go like 3 hrs away to go pick up my host sister from boarding school, so i was there. and my host brother went to his friends hosue. but the kerwins was fun, i went into town with zoe (she's 11) and then when we got back kyra (9yrs) was back from drama class so we all hung out. So kyra looks Exactly like abigail breslin! i saw this photo of her on the fridge and i was like
V: steve, did u know that your daughter looks just like abigail breslin?
S: and he's like oh really? what's she in?
( i'm listing some movie's)
S: then he's like is she in little miss sunshine by any chance?
V: and i'm like oh ya she is!
S: then he tells me how they were at some place and this one family was like, its little miss sunshine!

and they were confused so they rented the movie to see, and then they realized she really does look like her. its insane! they are like so alike!

other than that not much is new, i have 1 week until holidays!!! which will be so much fun! going to a geelong game!!! that's aussie footy. and then i'm spending like 10days in melboure, and going to bendigo, and hanging with friends, and then its moving day. so that will be a busy 2 weeks! but i'm excited should be fun!

weekend number 6

So this was my 6th weekend in Australia. i sort of cant believe its been 6 weeks. its going by so fast, but when i think of all the things I've done already it doesn't seem possible to do it all in 6 weeks and that i should have been here for at least 3 months. but i'm glad its been going so well. I actually cant believe that i have 2 weeks until my first holiday. and over holidays i'm extremly busy and going to be in melbourne for a week, then staying at friends in moroopna and banella for a bit, so i'll basically be home a few days. and then at the end of break is moving day. its insane that end of this month i'm onto my 2nd family. But anyways this past weekend i stayed over at my friends steph and laura coynes. and then on saturday i stayed over at my friend serena's and our friend ebony also came. so those were both a lot of fun. movie nights! and lots of junk food! good times. and playing mario kart wii at like 3am. always good times. but now i'm a bit tired, but oh well i've got a week of school a head of me.
This week is my rotary presentation, which hopefuly i dont mess up too badly. It should be alright though :).

ski weekend

Well i've been bad at keeping up to date on this lately. sorry, but anyways. the rotary ski weekend was a lot of fun. on Saturday we had the worst weather possible! it was so cold! and then it started raining and hailing. it was terrible. we got there around 9:45ish. (its a long bus ride there) and then we got there i took a class with some friends, then the class was over it was time for lunch. we got back to the bus for lunch and the rotarians said that we were leaving. since all the ski lifts were closed and stuff, that we just had to go. So we drove abuot an hour, and then they were able to cook us our lunch and then we got to spend some time in some town, i forgot which one it was though. And then we went back and hung out, which was loads of fun. At night, the power went out for a bit, but that was fun because we played a massive game of sardines. we had 4 buildings to play in and it was so much fun. on sunday we had better weather and could ski, it was just like 100% colder and the wind was very harsh so that was hard, but it was still fun. so overall it was a good weekend. I cannot believe i've been here for over 5 weeks now. its kinda crazy! and its flying by fast. but its starting to slow down. which i actually liked it going fast, i was busy and having loads of fun. but its abuot 2 1/2 weeks till holidays( its just break but they call it holidays) and i'm going to be awfully busy during that! and then i'm moving to my next family, so it should be a fun break. and i'm very excited for it! spending some time in melbourne with my 3rd host family's daughters. and going to my friends in Mooroopna, Banella, and other towns, so it should be fun!

The weekend

so tomorrow is friday, and its a sports day, which i'm not exactly sure what that means. but i know that all the kids in the school get divided into houses and you wear as much of the color house you in as you have. i'm in green. which is good because i have lots of green! so hopefully its good fun! well tomorrow right after school, i'm getting picked up and i'm running home to get my bag, and then i'm going to Mertylferd for a rotary ski weekend! i'm so excited! i cannot wait! Rotary weekends are always the best!! so much fun! so that's basically my big excitement this weekend i'll write more about how it was when i get back.

Girls Footy!!!

So yesterday...well Monday for me.... was the girls footy match. Which was soooooo much fun! girls cant play footy so once a year a few schools get together, and the girls can play footy and its just all for fun. but we all get pretty into it. Which makes it 100% more fun. So the teams were Kyabram, Echuca and Rochy. Each team played each other, and sadly ky lost! big time! however we still were playing pretty decent. I would like to proudly say that i took down many people. I took down at least 2 on each team. and it was so much fun! I played full forward, wing, and i forgot the name, but it was at the 50mark line. i dont know why they put me as full forward because usually the full forwards are the 2nd tallest group of people on the team. There's the rocker who hits the ball, and starts the game off. and its one from each team. and that person is the tallest person. But it was still all good fun. however i woke up today and was in a lot of pain. We were all in pain today! we were like i tried to walk...and it didnt work. haha. But i'd do it over and over again because its so much fun. Australian football is way way way better than american...sry to say. but its so much more intense. and fun!

Fauna Park

Wow i just realized that i forgot all about the highlights of my weekend when i was doing my post! anyways. this past weekend on saturday, i went to the fauna park. its this park with all these australian animals. Its the ONE thing that kyabram actually does have and most places doesn't! whoo!! but the fauna park was awesome! For one thing i sat next to a kangaroo. i actualy pet it...sorta. i pet it. then it moved and scared the living daylights out of me. so than i jumped. but i stil got to sit next to a kangaroo! i ssaw 40 something kangaroos that day! There were a TON! At this zoo there are a few animals that can walk around freely. such as kangaroos, emu's and a few others. However the emu's aren't always nice and they are scary scary birds. We went into the reptile cage saw a crocadial and then walked out. and spotted an emu. of course will decideds to call the emu over. he says you might wanna run. and of course i did run! i dont like birds. especially ones that size!!! so lisa and will got the emu to follow them and it was kinda cool. however emu's follow people when they see something they want, and then they try to get it.not always a good thing! Well we also saw dingos,wombats, koalas, snakes, these other birds that stole our map! and scared me BIG time!, and lot of other ones. I'll have to put up pics when i get a chance. but between the 3 of us, we took quite a few pics on our cameras.

Weekend

Well this past weekend was a lot of fun. i had two of my friends (lisa and will) over which was quite fun. we of course played poker, however will forgot the chips so we played with swedish fish. no one really won because we sorta ate all our 'chips.' but it was still a lot of fun. we played a ton of games. We started talking about footy, and talked about how i have a girls footy match on monday. The girls footy match is a match where we play against a couple schools around the area. Well anyways. people that usually play footy are very tall! so i needed to learn how to tackle. Which i'm absolutely terrible at!!! It was hilarious since i would try on lis and will and they're both really tall. So i'd run attempt to take them down, and then i couldnt. instead they'd flip me over and i'd be the one on the ground instead of them. I pulled a muscle and still hurting a bit but i'm really hoping that tomorrow i dont break a bone or soemthing. I have to be able to ski at the rotary ski weekend next weekend! anyways. its been exactly 4 weeks since i left home. which is kinda exciting!

New Zealand!

My third host family asked me today if i'd like to go to New Zealand with them in November. and of course i said i'd love to! Actually it was sort of a surprise, because rotary all knew my 2nd host family who i'll be staying with at that time knew and it was all set and so they asked me today and i was so excited! They said that they're taking me as if i'm their own daughter and that all i need to bring is clothes and spending money! i'm so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Benalla

So yesterday i went to Benalla with Lisa since one of our friends Will lives there. Lisa's from Sweden and Will is a rebound student. Anyways, Benalla was so much fun. I tried Kangaroo for the first time. If you dont think about it being kangaroo it tastes great! tastes sorta like steak. However if you think of it being kangaroo then it was hard for me to get down, but it wasn't too bad. i kept thinking oh its some good steak. and it wasn't bad at all! We also went possum hunting. Which really isn't hunting or anything like that. it's just finding possum's and taking pictures of them. So we saw a lot of them, it was sorta hard to find, but will knows what they sound like since you can hear their call. and so we found a lot of them. The pictures didnt turn out great, but we didnt want to take to many pictures or you can make them mad, and they have very very sharp claws. we also went to Kids Town. It was great for about 20ish mins. haha we went down the slide, and went on the playground and then by then we were quite bored. But we made it a lot of fun. Also we went to see Ned Kelly, who's the most well known person in australian's history. I still need to read the phaamflets. but i'll write more later when i know more about him. but its this tourist place where you see a statue of Ned Kelly and see other things about him. Kinda a cool place we wern't there all that long but it was still fun. I also learned to play poker! We didn't play for any money, however i did win! i won big time. and will and lisa aren't too bad at the game themselves. So i was pretty excited! but they think its just because they are good teachers. But now i'm prepared to play for rotary weekends!

You know your in the country

So, Ky is basically the closest thing to the country i've ever lived too. It's crazy its sorta just in the middle of two larger cities. well larger meaning 30,000. not that large, but this is about 6,000. so its a lot! smaller. but seriously you know that when you see a person walking their pony on the side walk that your in the country. i was going to school. and look there's a pony on the street. the guy was just taking it for a stroll. strange! and then we were on a highway, well it was about 80 i beleive and thats km but still its pretty fast. and theres one of those GIANT tractors just driving on the road. taking its dandy old time. its kinda funny but so strange.

well it has been now 2 weeks and 2 days. crazy! i can't believe it. it seriously have been going by so fast. i've been so busy. and my weekends even though i'm staying in ky, i havent really been in ky much. first weekend, i went to mount buller for snowboarding, 2nd went to dookie for rotary weekend, and this weekend i'm going to Banella with lisa and were going to one of our friends house. A few of the exchange students are getting together, and so were all staying in banella! whoo. next weekend they're coming to ky. which well there's not all that much to do, but were going to go to the fauna park,which is this park where you can go and pet the kangaroos, there's koalas, dingos, wombats, emu's and many other animals. so that'll be interesting, attempting to host people in ky. its harder than it sounds. and the weekend after that is a 'official' rotary weekend and its the rotary ski trip, so were all going skiing. Its in sane that for the next 4 weeks i have my weekends planned. and it all just happened in like 2 days.

School's going great! i'm loving my classes, and i can get around the school without getting lost! I'm kinda just one of the aussie's now, except i still have my accent. A few days ago, my P.E. class went to shepparton (about 30mins away) for bowling. and i actually won, sadly i won with a 94. With bumpers. i know its pathetic, but it was still a lot of fun. My gym teacher is so much fun, he likes to take us on trips and such, so there's all these trips being planned. sadly i'm going to join outdoors ed class next week. which i am very excited about, but i'd like to go on the trips with my P.E class. Outdoors ed is even better though. they go on a couple trips a year, and you go for a week. and the next trip i'll go on, is a canoeing trip, and we go camping and do all this outdoors stuff for a week. Next year after summer break, we will go to the beach i believe, and i know that the kids get to learn to surf. so i'm excited for that!

Well i learned about the rock to reef trip which is the trip around australia with rotary. Its only 19 days, and it use to be 21. however those 2 days that we dont have, in previous years were spent driving on a bus. What we do is we go to down to Melbourne, then west towards and go to a few cities, then we go to the rock (hense the name rock to reef.) for the past many years what would happen is from the rock you'd take a 3 day drive to Canis. NO you would not stop at hotels or anything! its 3 days in a bus. different drivers taking over. you'd have food and bathroom breaks. that's all! however this year. were not doing that, were flying from the rock to canis! which i'm very happy for. and we all are. because seriously even though its a bus ride with all your friends, the desert is only fun for so long. But i cannot wait for that trip! everyone says its the best part of their exchange and i just cannot wait!!!

Melbourne!

So yesterday i went to melbourne with school and we went to the arts center. This is the place where all the shows are held well many of them are, and it was amazing! When the building was built it took 3 million dollars to build, if you were to rebuild it today it would cost 3 billion dollars. The place was so pretty. the architect died and apparently he's some famous guy that got all these awards. The sad thing about going to the building is that in most places of it you cannot take pictures. so i wasn't able to get all that many pictures of the place. but anyways. The building had an absolute ton of marble. all the floors were covered in this certain type of marble. and the guy who created it tried to do a whole australian theme, with the colors and being all in the desert and stuff. very neat. anyways. we went to see this show called "Cranked" it was a bit strange and hard to explain, but it was really good. its more of a story you have to explain in person. So i didnt get to go see all that much in Melbourne, but i'll have many more chances, so thats not a problem.

going to Melbourne

so tomorrow i'm going to melbourne with my school to go see a show. i believe its called crank. i dont really know what its about, but i know i'm going. so i'm excited it should be good!

Dookie!!!!

So i just got back from Dookie, which is a college in Australia. It's where rotary district 9790 has their rotary weekends which are sooo much fun! I am beyond tired but if i sleep now i'll never be able to tonight, so i'm doing my best to stay awake. However i have gone 31 hours without sleep. There were only like 4 people i think who actually made the whole time. there were a bunch more who snoozed on and off for a tiny bit, but it doesnt count. i mean we were 100% in it. at 5 am we decided to start dancing to the macarina and the chicken dance, and many other things. oh and the hooky pookie! australia does the hooky pookie wrong! big big debate on it, and we finally agreed that we were equally wrong, however america was closer on that one and got a point. It's kinda this inside joke between australia and america. Its this on going thing about how you pronounce words, and spell it, and many other little differences. But its just between america and australia. Great fun! but this weekend i meet all the other inbound students and the outbound and it was so weird being an inbound. i'm so use to be calling an outbound that its sometimes still strange to be called the inbounds. But the inbounds have more fun, so its better! Anyways, overall those days were great! still feels like a saturday, and i have to admit that during the presentations this morning the 4 of us were falling asleep on and off. well not completely because there were rotarians watching. however many other people were complaining about being tired, but they didnt hold the record for the night so they dont count. During the middle of the night at about 1:30am we all started to get very hungry, we were having an hour by hour countdown to when breakfast was happening. then comes around breakfast and were all in a conversation and were having so much fun that we forgot about it. Then one kid is like, WAIT! the time?! and were like ten till 8!!! and we all jumped up and ran down the hill to the dinning area. When we got there all the doors were locked, so we just started to bang on the doors. we finally got in, and ate sooo much food. Even though it was only 30 some hours, we did a lot of work within that, and so we were just soo tired by the morning. cannot wait for dookie in november!

Difference of Australia and USA

Well there's many differences however one big one is the way the cars drive. I am getting pretty use to looking the right way now, but i dont know if i can even count how many times i've almost got ran into by a car. I also still sometimes get in the car on the right, and then i remember that, that is also opposite. Well another big difference is they have breakfast, lunch and tea. Which is very strange when you first hear it, because i was invited to go with my friend to this restruant, and my host mum was saying that i was going out to tea with sophie and her family. i was like okay sweet! and then i went there and then later was confused as to why there was no tea. Tea doesn't mean having tea, it means dinner. so if your asked have you had tea? they're really asking if you've had dinner yet. They have these things called chips, which aren't really chips, they're fries. however they also have fries like you can get at mcdonalds (called macca's here.) So chips are fries but they have a chicken flavored salt on them. They are SOOO good, the best fries EVER!!! no joke!

There's so many more differences that i cant really think of off the top of my head but i'll post them up when i think of them.

Well this weekend is my first rotary weekend, and i'm so excited! i get to meet all the other inbound students that i'll be going on the ski trip, and many other trips with. Which includes the Rock to reef, or whatever its called, but the trip around australia. Which i cannot wait for!

School Social

So yesterday night was the school social. Which is basically a school dance just they call it a social, and the theme for the dance was hollywood. so my friends and i went as the hollywood billboard sign, i was the letter w :). Anyways it was a lot of fun, i meet a bunch of kids that are going to be in some of my classes that i haven't started yet, but i'm so excited to start. and overall the dance was so much fun! This weekend is the first rotary weekend, and i'm so excited for it! i cannot wait!

So the school busses here are the coolest things ever! they are like shaffer busses. just not all of the busses have tv's. but they are soo cool! They are soo fancy!!!
Well i have almost got ran over by a car about 10 times. I am still looking the wrong way all the time. Slowly getting better, but its so confusing!

Names

So i'm just normally terrible at names, but seriously i never knew exactly how bad! I've met so many people and everyone wearing the same thing makes it even harder to remember who's who. I feel so bad because people will be like i'm in your photography, and your PE and all these other classes and i'm just like... you are? But i'm getting better, i have quite a few down but its been only 3 days. So i guess its understandbul to not remember everyone yet. But when i meet people its usually in a large group and someone will be like okay this is... and then name everyone. sorta hard to get them all in when its like that. so hopefully i'll get better really soon. That's basically the hardest thing right now and i feel so bad. they all understand is like no no its okay, you have so many names to remember. and its not like i'm meeting just one grade. i've meet most of year 9 and year 10. So thats like 150 people to remember in 3 days. not easy! Other than that, schools great! i love it!

elly is rad.

^ elly wrote that

The town

So ky is like the smallest town ever! actually it really isnt but its still small. its about 6000 people. and its kinda as if everyone knows everyone. and stuff. they have no street lights. the nearest street light is in the next town over which is about 30ish mins away. Its sorta like in gilmore girls how you walk everywhere. if you live in town you can basically get anywhere in like 10mins. and if you live at the edge of town, you can drive to the main road. park and then just walk up and down the street. Most of the stores are locally owned stores so many of my friends parents own a lot of them.

On friday i learned that you never ask where is the bathroom. i was at school and this was the first time trying to get somewhere on my own. i tried to find the bathroom asked a kid where it was. they gave me a strange look. when they think bathroom they mean room with a shower in it. you ask for the toilet or the loo. and then i tried to get back from the "loo" and then got lost again. had to get some more directions. This school is a bit confusing!

So today i went snowboarding. well. i tried. At the end i could make it about at least 30ish or so feet without falling flat on my face. however at first i couldnt even walk with one of my foot in the boot thing. and then when they had us put both of them in, i couldnt get help. we took a class and the instructor had to help me up.. but later i finally could get up on my own. i learned that one pretty quickly after falling so many times. I have never been so clutzy then i was during that. seriously snow boarding is soo hard! but it wasn't too too bad in the end.

Went to sheep farm

So today i after school i went over to my friends house. they live on a sheep farm which was soooooo cool. They have about 1000 sheep but they have 2 farms so they aren't all on that farm. And about 2,000 acres of land. I posted some pictures on facebook but its so much fun living on a farm. or looks like it. they drive motor bikes. which is basically 4 wheelers around and they have dogs that heard the sheep.

First Day of School

Well my first day of school was today, which was a lot of fun. its VERY different from ours. in many ways. but for one thing their uniform. its not too bad of one, and people always try to break it by wearing sneakers instead of black shoes and stuff. but the teachers dont really mind all that much. So one big difference is they have 3 classes a day. each class is 100 mins long. So today i went to Gym, math and History. tomorrow i think its French english and maybe science i'm not sure exactly yet. but it changes depending on the day. But the school day is from 9-3:30. Their gym is a lot of fun though. we had croquet today, and we walked about 20ish mins to the croquet place and then they broke us off into groups and we played. which was really entertaining. doesnt sound it, but it was actually fun. i know... croquet being fun. weird. but everyone seems to be pretty nice there. the school is much more relaxed then school is in the states. just as a whole, homework really doesn't exist all that much. and its no where as intense and such. I also got asked a lot today by practically everyone if we have cafeteria's in my school. They dont have them at their school and they think its basically the coolest thing ever. They eat wherever they like on campus because everyone has lunch at the same time, so you just eat wherever. They have a place where you can get food but its not the same. They all said they'd like to be able to get a tray, go up to the lunch ladies and tell them what they'd like and then go sit down at tables and such. also the fact that we dont have school uniforms were an amazment to them too. All the school's have uniforms and the fact you can go to school in sweatpants and a tshirt is just awesome to them. Mostly they asked questions based on what they know from the movies and stuff and i had to explain that its not really all like that. somethings are but many aren't. Anyways first day was pretty good, i knew one girl before i went today so she showed me the ropes and stuff and then tomorrow i have plans with another girl that i met, and next week since my host family has to go out of town i was going to stay with a rotarian but i think i'm staying with one of my friends for the week. So everythings going pretty smoothly so far.

first rotary meeting

well today's been a long day, but a good one. I survived the 3 min shower rule. since australia is in such a drought all throught australia you can only take a 3-5 min shower. which sounds hard but its really not too bad. but you never waste water! you get it in a cup, you drink it! So anyways i went to my first rotary meeting. it was good we eat dinner we talk they have a guest speaker and that's basically it. i'm the guest speaker in about a month since there is all these functions for the rotary meetings for the next few weeks. But i'm a pernament guest in their book so i guess thats fun. I have my first rotary weekends with the other students next weekend so i'm really excited about that. my host parents said to find out where the kids live and that either i could have them here for a weekend or i could go there for a weekend since its nice to be with other exchange students especially since they're going thru the same thing as you are.

In Kyabram

Well i'm currently in Kyabram staying with the Luke's. They have 1 daughter and 1 son, but the daughter goes to boarding school. I have my own room which is pretty nice, and spacious. Their house is fairly big compared to the others i've seen around here. I dont know when i'm going to school but it will probably be in a few days. I get some days to sleep and such. Tomorrow is my first Rotary meeting so i'm planning on going there. So after i got picked up i was shown a bit of Melbourne. And first we saw 3 kangaroos and a joey. However when we got closer to Ky we saw a group of 30! it was cool we got closer to see them and they kept running and running away. At certain parks you can go pet them and such which they said i'll be able to do shortly. Anyways i'm in desperate need of sleep so i'll keep you posted on such. Bye

Sydney

In sydney airport onto melbourne next. gotta go flight is boarding now!!!! let you know when i get to melbourne. 

O'Hare

Just spent 5 dollars to use one of the computers because its not free wifi. it took 6 of the 15mins to actually get going. and i had a mini panic attack becasue i thought i lost my passport!ahhhhh. flight is delayed to LAX. so here for 2 more hours. okay my time is running out. but i have my cell so text/call me

NOT LEAVING TILL THE 26TH!!!!

So, as you all know i'm suppose to leave today, i'm actually suppose to be boarding the plane to LA as i type this, however change of plans. The plane i was suppose to take from Syracuse to Dulles decided to break down on the runway.It was in Vermont and coming to Syracuse was moving and getting ready to take off and then the engine broke and stopped. This plane was a brand new one and was just made 4 days ago. It wasn't in the air luckily so no one was hurt but i wasn't able to get onto any flight that would get me to LA in time for my flight to Australia. And we checked, albany, binghamton, scranton, new york city nothing. Not a seat. we tried different airlines too. But on everything i would have arrived to late for my last connection. So now i'm leaving tomorrow at 12:04pm

In Syracuse

So i'm in Syracuse with my family and maria, and were just waiting for my plane. Its less than an hour until i go thru security! still mind blowing! i know! umm ya so i'll be in Dulles at somepoint in the afternoon and wil give an update from there. Oh so when i tried to carry my suitecases they all fell down, and it was bad, i ran into some other lady's bag and knocked them down, and the security people were laughing at me. Kinda entertaining, and maria took a play by play by pictures so you can see how pathetically weak i am in those.

Leaving Day!

So its about 45 mins before i'm about to leave my house to drive to the airport, which still sounds extremely strange to me! I still cannot believe today is the day! i feel like it shouldn't be for another month. But it has finally arrived and i'm right now very excited, nervous, and a million other feelings but we'll see how i am when i'm actually on the plane. So 'm sorry now if there are quite a few posts from the airports, but i get very bored and this might be the only thing i can think of doing.

not ready to go yet, but its only hours

Well at about this time tomorrow, i will be driving to syracuse to catch my plane. Sorta crazy to think that a few days ago i had no idea when to leave and now its almost getting down to just the hours. I woke up freaking out this morning, i couldn't sleep i have so much still to do. and really i dont have any time. but i hope i'll be able to get some of it done. Anyways. the fedex guy came to the house maybe 2 mins ago, and i now have my visa, passport and everything!

oh p.s if i told you i come home on the 10th. sorry i was wrong. read the wrong spot. its june 17th. 2010. my bad.

Tomorrow is Last Night

So tomorrow is Friday, Friday is my last night home, meaning that if you would like to stop by in the evening around 7 or so, please do so. I will be hanging out for most of the night so come as you like. Also contact me if you need contact information for when I'm there if you don't already have it.

P.S. desert will be served.

Where I'm going

Well i'm obviously going to Australia but i'm going to the town of Kyabram which is in the state of Victoria. i'm told its about 3 hours from Melbourne. But i might be mistaken on that, so don't quote me on that one. Anyways. I know my first and second family, and will hear about my third at some point during the year. But apparently everyone knows everyone in that town since its so small that i might meet them before i know i'm staying with them. Its about 6,000 people in the entire town, my grade has about 50 kids. So i'll get to know everyone for the most part! I'm going to Kyabram Seconday College which i'm pretty excited for. i've looked on the schools website and it seems like a pretty nice school. The closest town to me is about 30 mins away, its Shepperton. One of my host sisters goes to school there, so they go to shepperton quite often. Many people will drive there for food and such. since their perception of far is nothing like it is here. Going on a day trip that's 300 or so miles is no big deal. Going 30 mins for milk is also no big deal, so i've been told i'll have to get use to taking long drives. Other than th at i'm been busy getting ready, i have a ton of stuff still yet to do. but if i dont have your email or anything please let me know it so i can have your contact information. So if i dont see some of you again before i come back. Bye! and see you in a year!

Finished Packing!!!

at about 1am i decided that i was ganna make margaret help me pack. It was an adventure in itself. I was first going to put everything into 2 checked suitcases. and 1 carry on suitcase. However with many switchings we finally got everything into the smaller size checked bag, and a duffel bag. as of now everything weighs about 50lbs. both bags together. i still have 50lbs left to pack, if needed. This was an very tiring activity we found out, and also found out that we are extremely weak when trying to pick up a 30lbs bag. haha. Well i'm packed, and now i just need to wait for the big day to come.