Business as Usual

Except for Friday this week was pretty much a normal school week, so don't expect anything too exciting for this post and I haven't really taken any photos either. On Monday I had to be picked up at school early to go to the orthodontist, because I'd bitten off a bracket which had to be repaired. Instead of just glueing the bracket back on, the orthodontist decided to redo my entire mouth and torture me for one whole hour… No just kidding, she actually only added two extra brackets, but I must say it wasn't the most pleasant hour of my week.

After my not-so-enjoyable beginning of the afternoon, I decided to go for a run. Bella didn’t go with me this time, because she had to do some homework. I doubt she’d actually done something by the time I got back but oh well, I had an enjoyable run regardless.

 

Tuesday was just another school day. I had two spares during which I worked a bit on my blog, and unfortunately we didn’t have a practical hospitality lesson either, so that was quite a bummer. The day ended with Chapel, which was a completely new experience for me. All the Year 11 and 12’s went to a little church at the campus, said prayers and sang religious songs. A priest led the entire ceremony, talking about all sorts of religion-related subjects and occasionally reading out extracts from the Bible. It was interesting to experience something like this, because I’m not from a religious background or school so I don’t often attend church ceremonies. I do have to say that I was a bit drowsy after sitting there for an hour, but I reckon I was doing a pretty good job since some others seemed like they'd already fallen asleep.

 

In the afternoon, I had to go to the orthodontist again, because the retainer I’d taken with me from Holland didn’t fit anymore due to the new brackets. I had to get it adjusted but I was only in there for 10 minutes or something, so it wasn’t as bad as the appointment the day before. When we got home, Bella and I talked for a bit while she was doing some homework, and at night I just sat outside with Kaia and Hans (Bella's parents) and chatted with them.

 

Wednesday was a bit of a boring day at school, nothing really interesting happened. After school Bella and I caught the bus to Sorrento, where we had some sushi and then went home because I had to study for my Latin test. However, I didn’t have a lot of concentration so I ended up doing everything except for studying, which left me with heaps to do at night…

 

Thursday was Valentines Day and this also meant Free Dress Day at school! Of course, this wasn't something really special for us Dutchies as our school back home is free dress as well, but some girls here were very excited about it and clearly put a lot of effort into choosing their clothes! In the morning I had touch again, which meant my alarm went off at 5:45 am, and as some of you might know, studying till late and then getting up early is not the best combination for my mood. Especially not when we also start the day with an hour of Chapel. Note that I usually doze off during Chapel on a normal day, imagine what it was like when I was tired. Not so great indeed, so you could say I wasn’t in my best mood in the morning. However, after my Latin test it got better because it went really well! In the afternoon, Do came over to my house so we just chilled until dinner, and after dinner she got picked up by Nay’s dad. We have also arranged for Do to come with us to Melbourne next weekend, so that’s really exciting!!

 

BANKSIA! ARE YOU READY? 
ARE WE EVER!

RED WHITE RED

BANAWARA, BANAWARA, BARRABEE-HOO

ARACATA, ARACATA, ARRACOOPANOO

ILLAWARRA, MITTAGONG, YARRABEE-HA

BANKSIA, BANKSIA, YA YA YA!

 

Now you're probably wondering what on earth you just read, aren't you? Imagine these words being repeated over and over again, shouted out by a few hundred girls, all wearing red shirts, and you get the idea of my very first Inter-House Swimming Carnaval! Yes, Friday was in every aspect different to all other school days so far: no class, school uniforms or anything else you usually do at school. Just three houses competing against each other in swimming races all day: Banksia (BEST HOUSE!!!), Melaleuca (Do and Nay’s house) and Karragaroo (I know that sounds like someone misspelled Kangaroo, but no, I double-checked and it’s really spelled this way).

 

At 8:45 am sharp, every house had gathered on the oval (sports field) and started off the day in good house spirit by boisterously shouting out their war cries for the first time (and believe me, many more times followed). After some pictures, everyone moved to the swimming pool and took place in their stands, which were divided in three: one for each house. The rest of the day consisted of watching races, getting food and lots and lots of cheering. There were some really good girls who swim 9 times a week and participated in lots of races, and some girls who don't swim at all but participated in the daygirl vs. boarders race or participation race. Overall it was a really fun and eventful day, and the most exciting part was that my house won the swimming competition!!!



After school Bella had a life drawing class, so Do and I took the bus to Sorrento and were picked up by Kaia from there. At home we just relaxed and watched some series. At night we went out for dinner to Cardamom Pod (same restaurant we went to the first day I got here) with Bella, Gracey, Hayley, Sophia and Laura. I hadn't met Hayley, Sophia and Laura yet because they go to different schools but it was nice to get to know them and find out a bit about other schools than St Hildas as well. After dinner we got some ice cream at Cold Rock (Bella used to work here) and afterwards Do spent the night at our place.

First Week of School: Hospitality and Art Excursion

This week was just a regular school week, except for yesterday (Thursday) when I went on an art excursion to Brisbane. I'm getting quite used to school life at St Hildas now, and I don't really feel like a complete outsider anymore. Even though everyone was very welcoming in the beginning, I still didn't feel like I was actually part of the school. I've made quite a lot of friends already, I'm used to getting up early and, believe it or not, I can sort of find my way around the school at this point. That's right, clapping is in order.

 

On Monday, Bella and I were driven to school separately, because she had touch trials at 6:30 am. I'm also planning on playing touch, but the Sports Coordinator told me there was no point in going to the trials, because they'd see if I could join a team after they'd all been formed. Before class, I went to the Senior School Centre to choose my subjects and they told me to follow Bella's classes until they'd emailed me my timetable. Do and I then went to the IT centre to connect our laptops to the St Hildas network, and chilled in the library till the start of the second period. During Morning Tea, Do and I had a meeting with the Head of Year 11 and all the new girls to talk about our first few days at St Hildas and if any problems had arisen. 

During lunch, everyone here spreads out around the school and I usually sit with Bella and her friends at a particular table near the Reeves building. Oh, something funny I forgot to mention as well is that most people take eskis (cooling boxes) with them to school to keep their lunch nice and fresh. That's something I'd never seen before since at the RLW everyone just takes their sandwiches in little plastic bags. They also have a tuck shop here, which offers a much wider variety of foods than our canteen at the RLW.
 

Tuesday was just a normal school day, nothing very interesting happened. I had English and Maths with Bella since I still didn't have my own timetable and I was quite surprised by the content of the maths class. I reckon there's quite a big difference between the level of maths here and back home; some girls didn't even know what factorizing was, which is something we learned over 2 years ago. In English we analyzed a poem called 'The Man From Snowy River', which was actually quite interesting. We talked about binary opposition, intertextuality and juxtaposition, which I'd never heard of before. The teacher is very enthusiastic and knows how to make the lesson interesting and gain the pupils' attention. To be honest, this is something I can't say about a lot of teachers at the RLW...

Wednesday started off great! Do and I had hospitality (cooking) and we made some incredible bruschetta, legitimately the best I've ever tasted (see picture). There is a big cooking room with 8 units which you can work at. Each unit has cupboards and drawers with everything you could possibly need to prepare a dish. At the back of the room are all sorts of blenders and serving plates and there are also two huge fridges with the ingredients needed every day. We have 4 hours of hospitality a week, 2 of which are theoretical and 2 practical. The theory you learn differs every lesson. So far we've learned about all different kinds of knives and ways to cut, and health and safety regulations in the kitchen. I really enjoy hospitality and I think it's a pity we don't have something like that at the RLW.


Yesterday (Thursday), I went on an excursion to Brisbane with Bella's art class. I couldn't do art as a subject because it was already full, but Kaia had arranged for me to go with them on the excursion, which was really kind of her. We first drove up to Brisbane, which took us about an hour, and had Morning Tea in front of the UQ (University of Queensland) Art Museum. The university campus was really nice, everything was neat and tidy and it wasn't too busy either. In the UQ Art Museum we saw an exhibition by an artist called Linde Ivimey. It was really interesting to see all the different sculptures made of skin, chicken bones, fabric, hair, teeth, gemstones, etc.

Afterwards, we got onto the bus again to go to the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA). We had lunch on the grass field in front of it and chilled in the sun for a bit. I didn't like this museum as much as the other one, because we mostly saw paintings, which I'm not a big fan of (especially not when they belong to the any-five-year-old-could-do-this category of paintings). We had 2,5 hours to walk around the museum, but after an hour we figured we'd seen pretty much everything so Bella, Libby, Abby, Caitlin, Zara and I just chilled in the children's area till it was time to leave.

We had dinner with everyone at this very cute Vietnamese restaurant near the GoMA and I had some delicious Hokkien noodles with beef. I sat at a table with the same girls I just mentioned and we tried to plan a Valentines party for next weekend but we kept drifting off topic so it didn't really succeed. After a very long but enjoyable day, we got home at around 8:30 pm and I was pretty exhausted so I went to bed early.

Today (Friday) was just an ordinary school day, nothing too exciting. We did have a really nice hospitality lesson. Every group of 4 people made a dish and then everyone sat around a table and shared all the dishes. 

 

After school Bella and I chilled in the sun for a bit, and afterwards we got changed and went for a run through Surfers (actually called Surfers Paradise, which is the neighbourhood Bella lives in). It was really nice to run along the beautiful clear blue sea. Luckily, it wasn't too hot either, so we didn't die of the heat. When we got back home we both took a long shower and then Craig came over so we just chilled with him for the rest of the night. Right now, I'm about to go to bed and I'm really excited for tomorrow because we'll be going to Jess and Kate's (the twins) farm with some people!

Sydney: an Unsuccessful Harbour Bridge Climb and Sensational Views

It's Sunday night, and I'm back from a lovely weekend in Sydney! Our plane took off at 10 am on Friday and we had brekkie (breakfast) at Gold Coast airport. We were lucky, because Bella and her parents have Virgin Gold Cards, which give you access to a lovely buffet in the business lounge.

Due to the fact that Sydney has daylight savings, we'd lost an extra hour. When we arrived at the hotel, we quickly checked in, put on good walking shoes and took a cab to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Before we could actually climb the bridge, we first had to fill out some forms concerning health problems and received some necessary equipment. This included a big one-piece, rainproof pants, a harness and a headset through which you could hear the instructor. Once we'd put everything on, our harnesses were attached to the railing and we could start the bridge climb. Unfortunately, it already started drizzling after a few minutes, and after a while the drizzling turned into normal rain, which turned into a downpour. Mother Nature was, once again, conspiring against me...

We sought shelter at the nearest tower, and by this point we hadn't even started the actual climb yet. After having waited there for about 20 minutes, with no visible improvement regarding the weather, we were given the choice to a) go back and get a refund, or b) wait for another 20 minutes to see if the sky would clear up. Since we'd already made dinner reservations we decided to go back, and thus our bridge climb came to an end without setting foot on the steps of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  

We went back to the hotel, got changed and had some tapas at a little tapas bar nearby. We had a few small dishes including olives, prosciutto and baguette with green beans and goat cheese. Afterwards, we walked (in the rain...) to the restaurant where we'd made reservations, and had dinner there. While I was enjoying my delightful lamb dish with zucchini and potatoes, I had a lovely view over the harbour and the Opera House. Well actually, that was after an enormous cruise ship (which had been blocking my view for half an hour) had finally left. After dinner we walked back to the hotel and went to bed early.

The following morning we got up quite early, had breakfast at the hotel and took a cab to a shopping street. Bella tried on some dresses for her Formal, but I didn't buy anything because everything there was very expensive. Bella, Kaia and I then took another cab to a shopping mall called Westfield, and I bought a long black dress (see photo) and two tops. We had lunch at the shopping mall and spent the rest of the afternoon there. We also bought some presents for family friends where we'd have dinner that night. When we got tired of shopping, we headed back to the hotel, had a shower and got dressed for dinner at the Screncis (family friends). Paula, the mum, is Dutch but moved to Australia when she was 23. It was nice talking Dutch again to someone besides Do, but at the same time a bit weird because she had such an Australian accent. We'd also invited Colette (another Dutch exchange) and her host Caitlin over for dinner and it was really good catching up with them. We had a lovely night and the view from the terrace was truly astonishing.

Today, we slept in till about 11 am and then rushed to the harbour to be in time for the ferry. On our way there, we quickly grabbed breakfast at Starbucks (very Australian, not...) The ferry took us all around the Sydney Harbour, and of course, being a typical tourist, I took some photos with the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge in the background. We also came across Luna Park, a very old and famous amusement park in Sydney. When we got off the ferry, Bella's parents went back to the hotel and Bella and I just walked around for a bit and took some more photos. 

Back at the hotel, we packed our bags, checked out and took a cab to the airport. Our flight was scheduled for 16:00, but we arrived at the airport at 14:15 so we managed to get on to an earlier flight and left at 15:00. The rest of the day was a bit uneventful, I just unpacked my bag, watched some series and right now I'm about to publish this blog update. I'm quite tired as well so I think I'm going to bed early today and have a lovely long sleep. Night! X

School: a Massive Maze

As I said in my previous blogpost, Wednesday was Orientation Day. First time I'd see the school and I was so excited! Bella had to wear her uniform, which I will tell you more about later, but I was allowed to wear my own clothes. We were dropped off at school by Bella's father Hans and, because we were a bit early, Bella showed me around the school. First thing I noticed: THE SCHOOL IS GIGANTIC. I am going to get so lost, that's for sure.

It consists of lots of seperate buildings, which serve as blocks of classrooms for different kinds of subjects, rather than one connected building like my own school. This means there are different buildings for maths, science, art, french, etc. However, St Hildas has many more facilities than merely classrooms, such as a swimming pool, a sports field (the oval), a multipurpose centre and a chapel. That's one of the main differences I noticed between St Hildas and the RLW. Besides actual classes, the girls here also have periods in their timetable for assemblies, chapel, house meetings, and so on. These, in turn, each take place in different buildings as well...

Also, they have a rather strange way of naming their classrooms. On your timetable it might say English R10, which apparently stands for Reeves 10, but if you don't know where the Reeves building is, you have a serious problem. The campus is so big that you might spend half an hour walking around to different buildings, trying to find Reeves, which obviously results in you being late for class. When you're finally familiar with the location of the Reeves building, your next period might be in OS4, T1 or H1: impossible to find. So after a few unsuccessful attempts to find my classroom (resulting in very awkward sorry-I'm-late-because-I-couldn't-find-my-classroom-situations), I simply gave up trying and followed people who were in the same classes as me.

 

Anyways, back to Orientation Day. After my pre-tour of the school, Bella and I joined a group of new students, listened to a talk of the Head of Year 11 (comparable with our Year 5), who's name I already forgot, and got another tour around the school. Have you ever heard that if fish swim around in their fish bowl and go past one of those little decoration castles, they think they pass a new castle each time they see it after having swum another round? Well, that's exactly how I felt each time we got to another building during my second tour around the school. All the buildings and paths just seemed so similar and, well, I think you get the idea of how big the school campus is.
 

Afterwards, the school had provided lunch for us, including Subway sandwiches and Subway chocolate chip cookies (HEAVEN). During lunchtime Bella and I joined some of her friends and just chatted for a bit. Then the Head of Year 11 gave another (long) speech, which was quite irrelevant for me.

Oh right, there's something major I haven't mentioned yet. St Hildas is an all girls school. This is (obviously) very different to my co-ed school back home. On the one hand, I like it, but on the other hand, not so much. It's good because you don't have to worry about what you look like in front of boys. It might sound strange, because it's not like I really try to impress boys, but subconsciously, I think most people do pay more attention to their physical appearance on co-ed schools. So I like the fact that I can sleep a little longer, not worrying about what I'm wearing each day (my uniform). On the other hand, however, I think it's a bit of a pity that you don't spend any time with boys throughout your schoolweek. Most girls here, except for the ones who have boyfriends, only hang out with boys on the weekend.

 

After Orientation Day, Bella's mum picked us up at school. We did some grocery shopping at a supermarket nearby and I had a lovely strawberry smoothie. We then went to her father's radio station (right next to school), because Bella had an appointment with a teacher an hour later. It would take about half an hour to get from and to school, so there was no point in going home. After Bella's appointment we got picked up by her father and drove home.

THURSDAY: MY VERY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

It's 6:30 am, my alarm goes off and I get out of bed. Before deciding what I want to wear on my first day of school, I have a quick shower. I stand in front of my closet, unsure of what would be appropriate to wear, since apparently the teachers are quite strict regarding clothing. Do and I didn't have to wear a uniform the first day, so that teachers and other girls would know we're exchange students and not just new girls.

Bella and I had a quick breakkie (breakfast) with avocado and egg on toast, and were dropped off at school. After a lovely first week of holidays and relaxing, my school life as an exchange student would really begin now. Since I hadn't chosen my subjects yet, I didn't have a timetable so I went to all of Bella's classes. It was a lot busier than it was at Orientation Day, and it was quite impressing to see all the girls perfectly dressed up in their uniforms. I think I didn't mention this in my previous post, but the classes here all go for one hour instead of 45 minutes. Frankly, every class feels like it goes for ages, but I hope I'll get used to it over time.

Today, we had Form (comparable with mentor lesson in Holland), Economics, CSP (Core Skills Practice) and something called the Presentation and Induction of the Seniors and Prefects of 2013. This was a 2 hour (yes, that's a hundred and twenty minutes...) assembly with the entire Middle and Senior School, in which each and every Year 12 student (there's about 120 of them) walked up the stage, received a badge and shook the principal's hand. Imagine watching this for two hours when it's 30 degrees outside. Yes, indeed, many people (including me) were having much trouble staying awake and were constantly dozing off. Occasionally, we had to stand up and sing the School Song, the School Hymn, the School Prayer or some other religious song. Of course, I didn't know the words, so I just pretended like I was singing along without actually making a sound. It got even worse, because when the Year 11's had to stand up to face the school and say a prayer, everyone was staring at Do and me because we were the only ones not wearing a uniform...

After school Bella and I took the school bus to TSS (St Hilda's brother school), and from there we took another bus to Sorrento (a little shopping centre), where we had some sushi. Then Rory came to pick us up and drive us home. Right now, I'm in my room and I'm about to pack my bag, because tomorrow we're going to Sydney! I'm really looking forward to it, and I'll tell you all about my weekend when I'm back home on Sunday evening!

Wacky Weather and Australia Day

I’m back! Excited to continue reading? I hope so, because I’ll now tell you how the rest of my first week here has been. You don’t have to keep reading though, unless of course you’re my IB teacher…

So where did we leave off? Right, on Friday, my second day here in the land of the Aussies. I slept in till quite late because I was still tired of travelling the day before and I wasn’t really over my jetlag either. 

 

After a yummy first breakfast with eggs and avocado on toast, Craig (Bella’s boyfriend) and his friend Jack came to pick us up to go to Sea World. We saw some shows, went on rides, petted stingrays and saw all kinds of animals like sharks, polar bears, dolphins, etc. Unfortunately, the day remained mainly overcast with a little rain from time to time. EVEN SO (you won’t believe it but it truly happened), I GOT SUNBURNT!!! When we got back from Sea World we went over to Jack’s house for a bit, and afterwards we had dinner with the four of us at Bella’s house.

Saturday was Australia Day! This is a public holiday held each year in Australia on the 26^th of January. They celebrate that the First Fleet arrived at Sydney Cove. Reason enough for a little party, don’t you agree? Dressed up in our shorts, Australia tattoos and other Australia gear, we were dropped off at Craig’s house. He’d invited some people over to chill by the pool. Only one problem: it was raining again. So instead, we just chilled inside, listened to some music, etc. When we got back home around 11 pm, Rory (Bella’s brother) was still partying with some friends, so Bella and I decided to join them and spent the rest of the night with them. All in all I had a great Australia Day!

The following day Bella and I slept in till late, since we were really tired of partying the day before. Also, the gentle rain and overcast sky had turned into a tropical cyclone! This, and the fact that we couldn’t really be bothered to move anyway, resulted into a lazy day in bed, watching series with a cup of tea and Tim Tams. In case you don’t know what Tim Tams are, I assure you your life hasn’t been complete up till now. They are legitimately the BEST cookies ever. I don’t think I’d be able to live without them anymore.

On Monday, more than a metre of rain had fallen in the 24 hours to 9 am, and according to Bella’s parents, out to sea waves with a height of 10 m had been recorded!!! Bella, Rory, Kaia (Bella’s mum) and I went to this place called Burleigh to watch the sea and the waves there, and it was just unbelievable. There was so much foam on the path and the wind was so strong that we were covered in dirt and foam up to our hips by the time we got back in the car. On our way back home we grabbed a coffee and did some grocery shopping. I noticed that the cashier already put all our food in plastic bags for us, which I found funny because back home you usually have to get plastic bags to do it yourself.

Back home we made the most amazing hamburger sandwiches with mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, baked onions and ketchup and they were just SO yummy, I don’t even know how to describe it. Afterwards, Craig came over and drove us to Jess and Kate’s house (they are twins), where we just chilled for a while and played with Kate’s new kitten Benji. Then Craig, Bella and I went to a chocolate bar called Max Brenner’s with Hayden (a friend of Craig) and his girlfriend Remie. We shared a chocolate fondue and banana split waffle sundae, and again, it was so amazing. Ok I take back my words; You haven’t lived yet if you haven’t tasted Tim Tams AND Max Brenner's yet.

(By the way, I’m starting to feel like I’m talking about food all the time. Believe me, I do other things here than eating. The food here is just so delicious that I get really excited talking about it. Haha okay that sounds retarded, but the food here really is amazing.)

Almost done guys, bare with me for a few more minutes. On Tuesday, Do and Nay came over and I actually saw the sun for the first time since I’d been here. We first made strawberries dipped in chocolate. Then we tanned for a while and went canoeing (Bella lives in a house by a canal). For lunch, we had some very tasty sandwiches (there we go again…), and the chocolate strawberries for dessert. The rest of the day we just chilled by the pool and Do and Nay also stayed for dinner.

 

School doesn’t start until Thursday, but tomorrow is Orientation Day. This means all the new girls come to school to get a tour and information and stuff, but since Do and I are exchanges we also have to be there. I’m actually really excited to see the school and how everything works here, but I’ll tell you all about it later!

I'm Still Alive!

So, it's no news flash that this is my first post from Australia. Now you're probably wondering why I didn't start this post with an overload of smiley faces and a capitalized description of my excited feelings, aren’t you? Well, that's because I've already been here for quite a few days, so the I'm-so-super-duper-excited-to-finally-be-here-feeling has slightly faded away. That does not mean at all though, that I'm not enjoying myself so far. I just don't really know how to describe how I felt after I arrived.

As a matter of fact, the past few days have been ABSOLUTELY GREAT (there you go, capital letters). It's actually been so busy and fun that I just couldn't find the time to update my blog. But here we go, a detailed description of what I've been up to since the moment I set foot on Australian soil.

 

After a long and tiring flight and another not-so-great-plane-meal, we landed around 7 am. We got off the plane, and instantly forgot our tiredness as we observed some typical Australian surfers (you know, the ones you always see in movies). Unfortunately, it took a while before we actually met up with our host families, because Australia is, well let's say not the easiest country concerning customs, goods to declare, you know the whole caboodle. With hindsight, maybe it wasn't such a good idea that Do bought orchids in Singapore as a gift for her host family. It took the lady at customs at least TWENTY MINUTES (if not more), to check whether the orchids, brought by two lovely young Dutch girls, were allowed to enter the country or not. However, the worst thing was that we especially bought the sealed packet to avoid having to wait this long at Brisbane Airport...

 

Unaware of the fact that Nay's dad was running late for a business meeting, Do and I figured we might as well take 10 more minutes to freshen ourselves up a bit so that our host families wouldn't have been waiting so long to subsequently find themselves embracing two sticky, smelly, gross looking exchanges. When we finally did meet them, it was awesome. They were standing in the arrival hall, still holding their banner (after they'd already been waiting for 40 minutes), dressed all nicely and wearing Australia hairbands (which they then gave to us as you can see in the picture), and it was just great to finally see them again after having spent 6 weeks apart.

After saying hello to everyone and hugging our exchanges, we left for the parking lot and split up. The trip from Brisbane to Gold Coast took us about an hour. In the car, Bella and I chatted away and I could barely come to term with the fact that I had actually arrived. The very first thing that struck me was the fact that in Australia, they drive on the left side of the road. It was quite confusing at first, but I guess it's not that bad if you don't actually drive the car yourself. I also noticed the grass is a lot browner here compared to back home. It obviously makes sense, because Holland gets a lot more rain than Australia does, but I hadn't actually thought about it before. (Also, I finally get why all the exchanges took so many pictures of our vegetation while they were in Holland). There was one major disappointment though: IT WAS RAINING. Yes, you read that right. It was raining. In Australia. Where it's supposed to be sunny and 25 degrees all year round. Mother Nature conspires against me.

 

I wasn't all that upset about the weather though, because Bella's parents assured me it would get better soon. Plus, they were actually happy that it was finally raining, because they hadn't had any in a very long time. So I guess I was happy for them too.

 

When we got home, Bella showed me around the house. I have a lovely room with aircon (legitimately my new best friend), a double bed (so comfy), a desk, a tv, a walk-in closet (LOVE IT!!!) and my own bathroom. 

 

After I'd taken a quick shower to freshen up, Bella's mum dropped us off at a sushi train nearby. This was, again, different to what I'm used to, because back home we cycle basically everywhere. I’m not quite sure if I like to be driven around, because it makes me feel dependent on other people whenever you want to go somewhere. Bella, on the other hand, feels like it does give you independence, in a way that it would take so long to cycle to a friend's house if you live in Australia, that it’s just so much quicker and easier to be dropped off by your parents. Also, her parents are used to driving her around and they don’t mind it at all, so I think that makes you feel less bad for your parents as well.

 

We had some delicious sushi and chicken teriyaki, and walked to a shopping mall called Pac Fair afterwards. I bought new sandals and I got an Australian sim card for my phone.

 

Back home, Bella helped me unpack my suitcase and put my clothes on coat hangers (luckily for me, because I hate the job). Later, some of Bella’s friends came over and we just chilled at home for a bit, after which Kate, Jess, Bella and I were dropped off at a vegetarian restaurant called Cardamom Pod. We had dinner there with the four of us and Nay, Do and a friend of Nay called Emma.

 

Your eyes are probably tired now and so are my hands, so I decided to continue my post tomorrow and go to bed now. Don’t worry guys, I won’t take this long to describe every day of my exchange, I just had to catch up with the past few days. ;)

G'day Mate!

At this very moment you’re all probably either at school, working or doing something else, which cannot possibly be as exciting as what I’m doing: WRITING THIS BLOG ON MY WAY TO AUSTRALIA! Not nearly as exciting, was I right? 

So, I’m all settled: I’ve got my little pillow, my headphones on and just finished my let’s say not-too-delicious-dinner (yup, despite everything they try I can’t say the food has improved a lot, well basically, not at all), and I’m about to watch Taken 2, but before that I’ll give you a little introduction to my blog, since this will basically be a virtual diary of my exchange. I probs (Aussie slang, learnt from my exchange Bella) won’t write down everything in detail though, cause there’ll be teachers reading this too and we want them to keep thinking I’m a super hard-working, well behaving, model student, don’t we?

Anyways, so I’ll be telling you what I’ll be doing, for the most part, and things like the cultural differences I experience. As I already mentioned, my exchange is called Bella (her real name’s Isabella, but I actually think I’ve never even called her that), and she has already lived with my family and me for 9 weeks in fall/winter. During those 9 weeks we became really close, and we’re basically like sisters now, so I’m really looking forward to seeing her again and sharing stories about what we’ve been up to after she left. Bella lives in the Gold Coast, a city, obviously on the coast, beneath Brisbane. This is where I’ll be staying for the following 7,5 weeks. She has one brother, Rory, who’s 22 and goes to university in Brisbane. Her mum and dad own a restaurant/pub and her dad also works at a radio station right next to St Hildas, the school Bella goes to.

I actually left Holland a couple of days ago, because Dominique, her parents and I spent a couple of days in Singapore before Do and I went to Brisbane. Luckily, we’ve already had the longer flight (13 hours!!!), so we’ll only have to fly for another 8 hours to Australia now. We had a really good time in Singapore and the city was truly amazing! We went to universal studios, lots and lots of shopping malls, China town, Little India, we had a mani-pedi, went on a night safari and just walked around the city. I won’t go into too much detail though, because this blog is about Australia, plus, I don’t think you really care about what clothes I bought and what food I ate at which fancy restaurant, do you?

So here I am on the plane to Australia, about to see my exchange sissy again and finally experience what I’ve been looking forward to for ages (I think I even set my mind to going on exchange before I went to high school, which was about 4 years ago). Anyways, going to watch Taken 2 now, the next time I’ll post something I’ll be in the land of the Aussies!!!

Do and I at Schiphol

Some friends and I at the airport before I left for Singapore

Me at a shopping mall in Singapore

Tanning at the pool

Night safari with Do

Universal studios Singapore