My Christmas this year I was away from home, family and friends back in the states. But none of that bothered me from having an amazing time with some awesome family and friends here in my new home. <3
There is about around 20 people staying here at the Gardiner's house. Some brought their caravans and then the rest are just bunking wherever there is room. Christmas eve was pretty hot out, the temps were about in the 80s, we got the slipnslide out and all the kids went on that and that was a blast. Afterwards, we hit the pool. More family was still arriving till late, and Tony came home from his cancer treatment Christmas eve which surprised everyone. Was a good surprise for all though. He had been gone for five weeks. So all the family was together again. <3
Christmas eve night we went for a swim like around midnight and after that everyone was just up talking, Aunty Chrisy made a ginger bread house. There are three fridges completely FULL of food! So much food. So no one went hungry thats for sure. Then Christmas day everyone woke up early, like around eight and it was present time! I have never seen so many presents under one tree. Santa Clause comes to Australia too! In case you all didn't know that. Haha. Beer, milk, rum balls, and cookies were left out for Santa. Then we left out a carrot, for the reindeers which chewed it up and spit it out all over the floor in the morning.
Everyone made a big circle around the lounge room for present time, and one at a time we would open ours. I got way more than I asked for, I got a pandora charm bracelet with six charms, and then lip glosses, nail polishes, stuffed kangaroo, body wash, hair products, cd, chocolate, and an Aussie calendar. Opening presents was a good time. :)
Then afterwards after all the paper was cleaned up and everyone was done playing with their new toys and that, morning tea was had under the trees in the front yard. This was when we skyped my mom and Mark and introduced the whole Gardiner family to them. For morning tea there was like crackers, fruit, chocolate covered strawberries, dips and chips, and then champagne and apple juice.
After morning tea we kind of just sat around and talked and listened to music and the women were in the kitched getting ready for Christmas lunch. We had Christmas lunch at about 4pm, it was all cold foods. Like shrimp, cold meats, potato salad, veggies, beat root salad, normal salad, and then just a fruit punch for a drink.
Christmas lunch was very good, definately different from what I am used to. Something I will always remember though.
After lunch it was just a time for relaxing really. Some went in the pool, I went for a swim right before lunch. And after I went and crashed in my room. After my nap, then everyone was still in the pool so I went in again and that was so much fun.
Afterwards, everyone was just so tired so we just all layed in the lounge room and watched a comedian on tv, was a good laugh. Well that was pretty much my Aussie Christmas! :) Was absolutely wonderful! I hope to be back some day to celebrate it again. <3
Last night Ive started the packing process, I got pretty sad while I was taking pictures off my walls and emptying my cupards.. I just cant believe how fast six months went by. Will be so hard to leave. But it definately isnt a "Goodbye" it is simply a "See you later!". Over the past six months I have gathered so much stuff! I dont know how I am going to get it home. :O Lots of clothes, and beauty products. Two more days here, it is so scary to think about. Before I know it it will be time for me to come back to America..
On Wednesday at 2:30pm I am taking a bus from Dubbo to Maitland, six hour bus ride by myself. And my counselor will pick me up, to live with her and her family in Newcastle for three weeks.
My birthday is coming up soon too! Just 15 more days! Till I'm sweet sixteen! :) Yay.
This morning I showed everyone here the family calander, and they absolutely loved it. The January section was dedicated to me and Australia. A big smile was on my face when I saw that, it was cute. :)
Well today I think it is just a lazy day, all the famiy is still here, there is still tons of food to be eaten, and also Stevie is over cause this might be the last time I'll see her for a while.
So anyways, that was the update on life! MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS everyone! Thanks for reading. Love you all, will post photos soon. :)
Much love: Bailee Jo
Xoxo
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Life is good, enjoy every week, day, minute, moment... :)
Time has been going by so fast! This week has been gone in a blink of an eye. It's a bit scary to think that it has been half a year of me on the other side of the world. It by far has been the best six months of my life. The friends, memories, laughs, bonds made were life changing and I will never forget them. <3
Tuesday I had my farewell dinner at the Chinese place down the main street. :) It was a good night, about 20 people were there. Definately going to miss them. My experiance here has been that special due to the friendships I have made. :)
If I were to look back on myself six months ago I wouldnt be able to recognize me, I've changed that much. And a change for the better I reckon.
So anyways Tuesday was great, was so good to spend time with all my friends. Then I had Stevie, Kaitlyn and Emily over to stay the night. We thought the ghost was back in my room haunting us, haha so we ran into Cam's room and slept there cause we were all that scared. Was sorta funny though. Then Wednesday it was a girls day in Dubbo. Was a good time, lots of laughs. :)
We were going through the car wash and I declared a competition of who could keep their window down the longest without chickening out and rolling it up against Stevie. Haha the water was coming towards us and Stevie went out right away and rolled hers up, but then mine was halfway up and Vikki accidentially locked it on me, as soon as she did I just freaked cause the water was getting so close to my window that was halfway down, then I just screamed in terror. I guess the look on my face was priceless cause everyone in the car had tears rolling down their eyes from laughing so much. :P
Hahaha. Was a good day. Then came home and packed and was going to head out to Emily's to go rooing, but then it really started to storm bad and it was too wet to go out so I just went over to hers anyways to stay the night. Was a good night too, many more laughs. :) Man I am going to miss all these people. <3
And then got back today, family have started to come over to celebrate Chrissie. We have the slipnslide all set up with lots of soap to go with that, the pools all clean and ready to go, I helped with the ice cream cakes and the next few days will be family filled fun. :) This sure is going to be a Christmas I wont forget. <3
Life is so good, just everything seems to be going perfect at the moment. Don't want it to end. But hey, all good things come to an end at some point, right?
Well anyways that's all I have to write about now. I wish you all the best holiday season, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! :)
Best wishes, Bailee Jo :)
Xoxox
Love you all, and missing you all during this holiday season, your all in my thoughts. <3
Tuesday I had my farewell dinner at the Chinese place down the main street. :) It was a good night, about 20 people were there. Definately going to miss them. My experiance here has been that special due to the friendships I have made. :)
If I were to look back on myself six months ago I wouldnt be able to recognize me, I've changed that much. And a change for the better I reckon.
So anyways Tuesday was great, was so good to spend time with all my friends. Then I had Stevie, Kaitlyn and Emily over to stay the night. We thought the ghost was back in my room haunting us, haha so we ran into Cam's room and slept there cause we were all that scared. Was sorta funny though. Then Wednesday it was a girls day in Dubbo. Was a good time, lots of laughs. :)
We were going through the car wash and I declared a competition of who could keep their window down the longest without chickening out and rolling it up against Stevie. Haha the water was coming towards us and Stevie went out right away and rolled hers up, but then mine was halfway up and Vikki accidentially locked it on me, as soon as she did I just freaked cause the water was getting so close to my window that was halfway down, then I just screamed in terror. I guess the look on my face was priceless cause everyone in the car had tears rolling down their eyes from laughing so much. :P
Hahaha. Was a good day. Then came home and packed and was going to head out to Emily's to go rooing, but then it really started to storm bad and it was too wet to go out so I just went over to hers anyways to stay the night. Was a good night too, many more laughs. :) Man I am going to miss all these people. <3
And then got back today, family have started to come over to celebrate Chrissie. We have the slipnslide all set up with lots of soap to go with that, the pools all clean and ready to go, I helped with the ice cream cakes and the next few days will be family filled fun. :) This sure is going to be a Christmas I wont forget. <3
Life is so good, just everything seems to be going perfect at the moment. Don't want it to end. But hey, all good things come to an end at some point, right?
Well anyways that's all I have to write about now. I wish you all the best holiday season, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! :)
Best wishes, Bailee Jo :)
Xoxox
Love you all, and missing you all during this holiday season, your all in my thoughts. <3
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Sydney weekend.
Well last weekend we went to Sydney to visit family and that. Was pretty fun, we got to go shopping at Penrith. The mall was huge! Almost as big as mall of america! I didnt buy that much though, trying to save up my money. One of the day we went to Sydney downtown and got photos with the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We watched this one light show that light up a whole cathedral, it was so amazing! The ride home was really long but we came home on Tuesday. Then I had two daays of school left, today was my last day ever as a Gilgandra High School student. Bit sad, its crazy how fast time has flown. Feels like it was just yesterday when it was my first day of school and I walked through those doors and everyone was crowding me staring like I was some sort of alien. Haha.
Only two weeks left here so Im trying hard to squeeze in everything I can! Then next week sometime Ill have my bitter sweet sixteen/farewell party. All we are doing is going out for Chinese and having some girlfriends over afterwards.
The 28th I leave for Newcastle to live there for a month with my counselor and one week with my Canadian friend Claire. Then the 21st of January I will be moving on the Nelson Bay. No more school now untill February, were on summer vacation! Woohooo! :)
Well going to a party tomorrow night, hanging with friends tomorrow arvo, and hopefully the same for Saturday and Sunday. Spend a few days with Stevie next week. Christmas here with all the family. Then soon Ill be off. Have had such an amazing time here!
Thats all I have for now. Will write soon. Love and miss you all! But dont want to think of coming home.
Plans to stay in Australia forever..
1.) Win the lottery!
2.) Accidentally set fire to my passport. ;)
3. Marry an Aussie! ;)
One of those should do itttt! <3
Love you all. Bye, Xoxo
- Bailee Jo
Only two weeks left here so Im trying hard to squeeze in everything I can! Then next week sometime Ill have my bitter sweet sixteen/farewell party. All we are doing is going out for Chinese and having some girlfriends over afterwards.
The 28th I leave for Newcastle to live there for a month with my counselor and one week with my Canadian friend Claire. Then the 21st of January I will be moving on the Nelson Bay. No more school now untill February, were on summer vacation! Woohooo! :)
Well going to a party tomorrow night, hanging with friends tomorrow arvo, and hopefully the same for Saturday and Sunday. Spend a few days with Stevie next week. Christmas here with all the family. Then soon Ill be off. Have had such an amazing time here!
Thats all I have for now. Will write soon. Love and miss you all! But dont want to think of coming home.
Plans to stay in Australia forever..
1.) Win the lottery!
2.) Accidentally set fire to my passport. ;)
3. Marry an Aussie! ;)
One of those should do itttt! <3
Love you all. Bye, Xoxo
- Bailee Jo
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Rotary Weekend at Tocal.
This past weekend I traveled about five hours east to Tocal, a town close to the coast for a required Rotary weekend together to prep the outbounds and hang out with the inbounds.
We left on Friday, I rode with a Rotarian and another exchange student from Poland. We left around three and got there about nine at night. We stayed at some motel thing, and Karoline had a pretty quite night, we shared the same room. Was'nt the same without Annick, but she will be back in January. :)
Then we had to wake up super early and head over to the Tocal Ag college, where the Rotary weekend was held.
We had quite a bit of seat time, where we would just talk and brief the outbounds going out. Then we had a game of cricket with the rest of the inbounds, I ended up being pretty good at it. Most likely from all my years of softball. It was actually alot of fun. Afterwards we got to head down to the pool and we had a game of water polo. The pool was really nice with a great view of mountains in the background. Saturday night instead of a bush dance this time we had a trivia night with everyone and won lollies and prizes. Then we stayed up till about five in the morning just hanging out and talking. I was so exhausted when I woke up, I could barely function. Haha.
Sunday morning we had chapel at eight, then we had more seat time and played some space game, then there was a speaker and lunch and then hit the road again.
I was a really good weekend with all the students, I love hanging out with them, were like a big Rotary family. :)
The ride home went by very quick because I slept five hours. Got back to Dubbo around six, drove home to Gil, unpacked, swam some laps, and then went off to bed after watching a little bit of shark week.
This week Ill still be in year eleven, and on Thursday we will have our year ten dinner and get all dressed up, then we leave for Sydney shortly after. Then just one more week of school after this one, and holiday break! Wooo hooo!
For holiday break I am just going to be hanging out with friends, Christmas with the Gardiners, then soon after head over to Newcastle and live with my couselor for a while, come back to Gil for my birthday by bus, then back to the coast to live with an exchange student from Canada, and shortly after moving to Nelson Bay to start my second half of my exchange. :) Busy busy! But it's good to keep busy.
Well thats about all I have to write about, having a good time still. :)
Leave your addresses, or email them to me, Im writing Christmas cards and hopefully will get them sent off soon!
Love you all. Thanks for reading. :)
I'll write next week after we go to Sydney to tell all about it.
Xoxo
We left on Friday, I rode with a Rotarian and another exchange student from Poland. We left around three and got there about nine at night. We stayed at some motel thing, and Karoline had a pretty quite night, we shared the same room. Was'nt the same without Annick, but she will be back in January. :)
Then we had to wake up super early and head over to the Tocal Ag college, where the Rotary weekend was held.
We had quite a bit of seat time, where we would just talk and brief the outbounds going out. Then we had a game of cricket with the rest of the inbounds, I ended up being pretty good at it. Most likely from all my years of softball. It was actually alot of fun. Afterwards we got to head down to the pool and we had a game of water polo. The pool was really nice with a great view of mountains in the background. Saturday night instead of a bush dance this time we had a trivia night with everyone and won lollies and prizes. Then we stayed up till about five in the morning just hanging out and talking. I was so exhausted when I woke up, I could barely function. Haha.
Sunday morning we had chapel at eight, then we had more seat time and played some space game, then there was a speaker and lunch and then hit the road again.
I was a really good weekend with all the students, I love hanging out with them, were like a big Rotary family. :)
The ride home went by very quick because I slept five hours. Got back to Dubbo around six, drove home to Gil, unpacked, swam some laps, and then went off to bed after watching a little bit of shark week.
This week Ill still be in year eleven, and on Thursday we will have our year ten dinner and get all dressed up, then we leave for Sydney shortly after. Then just one more week of school after this one, and holiday break! Wooo hooo!
For holiday break I am just going to be hanging out with friends, Christmas with the Gardiners, then soon after head over to Newcastle and live with my couselor for a while, come back to Gil for my birthday by bus, then back to the coast to live with an exchange student from Canada, and shortly after moving to Nelson Bay to start my second half of my exchange. :) Busy busy! But it's good to keep busy.
Well thats about all I have to write about, having a good time still. :)
Leave your addresses, or email them to me, Im writing Christmas cards and hopefully will get them sent off soon!
Love you all. Thanks for reading. :)
I'll write next week after we go to Sydney to tell all about it.
Xoxo
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
WORK EXPERIANCE! :)
Well I have had thee best two days at the Dentist in Narromine for work experiance! It's been so cool!
So what I do there is, yesterday I learned how to do the cleaning up after every single patient and how we wipe down the chair and the equiptment and I learned how to set everything back up again. But also whenever a teenager would come in for a teen check I got to do the flouride treatment. :D That was where I would fill these mouthgaurd things with the flouride foam and put them in the patients mouths, then use the suction straw equiptment to get all the saliva out and would have to have my fingers in their mouths to help it move around. Haha I was always so excited when a teenager would walk in! I watched alot of different procedures and learned how to deal with children that are apprehensive about the dentist and picked up some really good tips, asked so many questions, and helped as much as I could. Im just so curious about it all! And then today I got to do alot more, on top of the cleaning and the flouride treatments I got to be the dental assistant. So I would hand her stuff and then got to help put fillings in and use this special light to harden the fillings and use a different suction thing also when cleaning the teeth. I was awesome and Cate (the dentist) said I did a very good job and was proud of me. :)
When I go back home it would be really sweet if I could maybe get some sort of trainee ship just to learn more about dental and the works. Because it would give me a huge benefit for when I head off to college. So.... if your reading this and your from the dentist in PR, just keep an open mind! ;) I would absolutely love it, even if I didn't get paid. :) The experiance would be awesome.
I have had such a good time, I know for sure that is what I want to do now. Since I was five I've had this dream, and this has given me an edge on it.
Sadly I dont have work experiance tomorrow, but Thursday I do and I can not wait!
Friday I head over to Tocal, for a Rotary weekend! Keen as for that!
This past weekend was very busy also, it was a great weekend! Saturday we went shopping and I got my dress for the dinner. :) We came home and headed down to the river to do some fishing. I went for a motor bike ride with a friend which was really fun too. :) Then we all went swimming. There was me, Brent and Cam, Adrian, Joe, Brendan, and George all kids from school. The only girl. :/ Haha, nah it was all good. After we all went swimming we decided to give golf fishing a go and we got a bunch, I video tapped it too so Ill have to figure out how to put that up. :) We got home very late from the river, had tea, skyped a friend, and then was exhausted.
Sunday I hung out with my friend Mallo. we chilled at the pool and went to the park and had some hot chips. Was fun, but got sunburnt, by accident. :/ Then came home, we put up the tree, and then went for a walk and to bed cause work was the next day.
So all is going amazing here! :)
Loving life at the moment! <3
Just a little something for you all... smile; cause life is so good, you only get to live it once, dont take a single thing for granted. Make every day an adventure, time goes by with the blink of an eye.
Thats why Im taking in as much as I can, living up my 'Aussie Adventure'. :) Life couldnt get any better.
Love you all. <3
Best wishes,
Bailee Jo
Xoxo
So what I do there is, yesterday I learned how to do the cleaning up after every single patient and how we wipe down the chair and the equiptment and I learned how to set everything back up again. But also whenever a teenager would come in for a teen check I got to do the flouride treatment. :D That was where I would fill these mouthgaurd things with the flouride foam and put them in the patients mouths, then use the suction straw equiptment to get all the saliva out and would have to have my fingers in their mouths to help it move around. Haha I was always so excited when a teenager would walk in! I watched alot of different procedures and learned how to deal with children that are apprehensive about the dentist and picked up some really good tips, asked so many questions, and helped as much as I could. Im just so curious about it all! And then today I got to do alot more, on top of the cleaning and the flouride treatments I got to be the dental assistant. So I would hand her stuff and then got to help put fillings in and use this special light to harden the fillings and use a different suction thing also when cleaning the teeth. I was awesome and Cate (the dentist) said I did a very good job and was proud of me. :)
When I go back home it would be really sweet if I could maybe get some sort of trainee ship just to learn more about dental and the works. Because it would give me a huge benefit for when I head off to college. So.... if your reading this and your from the dentist in PR, just keep an open mind! ;) I would absolutely love it, even if I didn't get paid. :) The experiance would be awesome.
I have had such a good time, I know for sure that is what I want to do now. Since I was five I've had this dream, and this has given me an edge on it.
Sadly I dont have work experiance tomorrow, but Thursday I do and I can not wait!
Friday I head over to Tocal, for a Rotary weekend! Keen as for that!
This past weekend was very busy also, it was a great weekend! Saturday we went shopping and I got my dress for the dinner. :) We came home and headed down to the river to do some fishing. I went for a motor bike ride with a friend which was really fun too. :) Then we all went swimming. There was me, Brent and Cam, Adrian, Joe, Brendan, and George all kids from school. The only girl. :/ Haha, nah it was all good. After we all went swimming we decided to give golf fishing a go and we got a bunch, I video tapped it too so Ill have to figure out how to put that up. :) We got home very late from the river, had tea, skyped a friend, and then was exhausted.
Sunday I hung out with my friend Mallo. we chilled at the pool and went to the park and had some hot chips. Was fun, but got sunburnt, by accident. :/ Then came home, we put up the tree, and then went for a walk and to bed cause work was the next day.
So all is going amazing here! :)
Loving life at the moment! <3
Just a little something for you all... smile; cause life is so good, you only get to live it once, dont take a single thing for granted. Make every day an adventure, time goes by with the blink of an eye.
Thats why Im taking in as much as I can, living up my 'Aussie Adventure'. :) Life couldnt get any better.
Love you all. <3
Best wishes,
Bailee Jo
Xoxo
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone :)
I dont have much to write about, this week has been pretty good. Its been going on for ages it seems though. Im now in eleventh grade, but doing twelfth grade work. I miss being with my old classmates, but being with new ones is good too. :) Haha theyve taught alot of the Aussie ways and more slang. Theyre lots of fun to hang out with. Next week Ill be job shadowing a dentist, so excited. This weekend me, Stevie, and mumma Vik are going shopping in Dubbo. I need to get a dress for our year ten formal dinner which is next weekend and I also need to get some outfit for work experiance. Havent seen Stevie all week so Im excited to hang out with her. :)
They dont celebrate Thanksgiving here. So today Im sort of missing my family, and missing the traditional Thanksgiving, but mostly the treasured family time.. <3 I made Mark's (my step dad) famous chicken wild rice soup instead and we will have that and fresh baked bread for Thanksgiving dinner tonight so that should be good too!
Time has been going by so fast, its crazy, just like a few more weeks and my stay will be near halfway over. :(
Next weekend I go to Tocal with all the exchange students and we have another fun weekend there! Im so excited! But a bit sad because my bestfriend Annick wont be there, shes from Belgium and had to go home recently for some family dilemas. :/ But still keen! :)
The weather here has been so weird lately, like last week it was just blazing hot and I was dying! And now this week Im wearing my jumper and scarf to school cause its so chilly. And its been really rainy too. I sort of like this weather, at least Im not dying of heat.
Well anyways, the Aussie Christmas cards will be coming out soon! :)
Ill write soon.
Love you all, hope you have an amazing Thanksgiving. Theres lots to be thankful for. :)
Im thankful for my family back home for supporting me, and loving me, and being there for me no matter what. Also all my friends, from America and from here, without them I would be so lost! Im thankfull for Rotary giving me this amazing opportunity, thankful for my Aussie family, they always make me smile and do so much for me. Im a pretty lucky girl to have a life like this I would say. :)
Missing you guys! Thanks for reading. :) HAPPY THANKSGIVING! <3
Xoxo.
P.s. Rotary Club I hope you got my letter! Thanks again for everything, I dont think I could say thanks enough. :)
They dont celebrate Thanksgiving here. So today Im sort of missing my family, and missing the traditional Thanksgiving, but mostly the treasured family time.. <3 I made Mark's (my step dad) famous chicken wild rice soup instead and we will have that and fresh baked bread for Thanksgiving dinner tonight so that should be good too!
Time has been going by so fast, its crazy, just like a few more weeks and my stay will be near halfway over. :(
Next weekend I go to Tocal with all the exchange students and we have another fun weekend there! Im so excited! But a bit sad because my bestfriend Annick wont be there, shes from Belgium and had to go home recently for some family dilemas. :/ But still keen! :)
The weather here has been so weird lately, like last week it was just blazing hot and I was dying! And now this week Im wearing my jumper and scarf to school cause its so chilly. And its been really rainy too. I sort of like this weather, at least Im not dying of heat.
Well anyways, the Aussie Christmas cards will be coming out soon! :)
Ill write soon.
Love you all, hope you have an amazing Thanksgiving. Theres lots to be thankful for. :)
Im thankful for my family back home for supporting me, and loving me, and being there for me no matter what. Also all my friends, from America and from here, without them I would be so lost! Im thankfull for Rotary giving me this amazing opportunity, thankful for my Aussie family, they always make me smile and do so much for me. Im a pretty lucky girl to have a life like this I would say. :)
Missing you guys! Thanks for reading. :) HAPPY THANKSGIVING! <3
Xoxo.
P.s. Rotary Club I hope you got my letter! Thanks again for everything, I dont think I could say thanks enough. :)
Friday, November 18, 2011
Update!
Sorry I havent wrote in a while, I sort of just forgot to. Well last weekend we went to the Warrumbungle Mountains for the Crooken Mountain concert. It was alot of fun, We went camping and so we got there on Friday night and set up the caravan and I had my own little tent and the boys had swags which are like sleepingbags and a tent in one. So we just had dinner and then hung out with some other kids that were there and just kind of ran around the camp ground it was alot of fun. Then Saturday was when I got my first sunburn in Australia, the concert wasn't until four so we just chilled at the camp site and I got water poured on me haha so I changed into my swimmers and in about three hours I was crazy red. :P I now wear sunscreen, I did learn my lesson. So then we all got ready for the concert and we were with a big group of people from Gilgandra so we got to the concert and layed our blankets on the ground, our spot was right up front so it was good. And the music was good too, some people went to the front of the stage to dance. I went up for the last song and that was fun. So then it was sort of late when we got back. But it was a fun night hanging out with friends. And then Sunday we packed up kind of early and came home and slept almost all day everyone was so tired. But was a good weekend thats for sure, :)
School has been going great, I actually like going to school to hangout with friends. Ive made some really close friends which is good. All the tenth graders are now done with school for a few weeks so Ill be going into eleventh grade to finish out the school year, I enjoy year eleven also. :) It is good to be around different people and make more friends.
On Tuesday Vik, Cam, and I went to Wellington for a Rotary presentation. Wellington was about an hour and a half away. But it was worth it, they appreciated my presentation very much. My counselor said it was the best one I had given. :) And the dinner was really good so it was a nice night. When it was time to leave a Rotarian came up to me and told me that I was amazing and was an inspiration for being so young and being such a role model for my country. That probably made my day. :) But anyways they all really really enjoyed it. I also gave the presentation to year ten in English yesterday. All the kids and the teacher liked it. I found out it is alot harder giving a presentation to a room of people that you know and are close to than a bunch of random Rotarians. But anyways I got through that and it went well. :)
This past week the boys, a mate, and I went down to the river to go "golf fishing". It was so much fun! What golf fishing is, is where you take gold clubs and go down to the river and smack fish that swim through. We only hit carp because they are a big pest to everyone here and there is no limit onto how many you can kill. Plus the water doesnt get to deep so its pretty easy too. I think we got a total of twenty for the two days we went out. Its a pretty crazy site, seeing four kids sprinting after these fish swimming so fast and then belting them with golf clubs. Haha. It was a good time. :)
Tonight we are going to go ten pin bowling in Dubbo so that should be good too.
This past week I have experianced a little bit of homesickness but I will get over that. :) Just part of being an exchange student.
Christmas is coming up! I cant wait. Im going to send home a box to my family so its been fun getting presents. :)
I dont for sure have a next host family, they were talking about me living in Nelsons Bay instead of Newcastle. Not one hundred percent sure of what is to happen, but whatever does happen I know it will be an amazing experiance. :)
Well I guess that is about all I have to talk about.
Ill try and update soon!
Love you all! Thanks for reading! :)
Xoxo.
School has been going great, I actually like going to school to hangout with friends. Ive made some really close friends which is good. All the tenth graders are now done with school for a few weeks so Ill be going into eleventh grade to finish out the school year, I enjoy year eleven also. :) It is good to be around different people and make more friends.
On Tuesday Vik, Cam, and I went to Wellington for a Rotary presentation. Wellington was about an hour and a half away. But it was worth it, they appreciated my presentation very much. My counselor said it was the best one I had given. :) And the dinner was really good so it was a nice night. When it was time to leave a Rotarian came up to me and told me that I was amazing and was an inspiration for being so young and being such a role model for my country. That probably made my day. :) But anyways they all really really enjoyed it. I also gave the presentation to year ten in English yesterday. All the kids and the teacher liked it. I found out it is alot harder giving a presentation to a room of people that you know and are close to than a bunch of random Rotarians. But anyways I got through that and it went well. :)
This past week the boys, a mate, and I went down to the river to go "golf fishing". It was so much fun! What golf fishing is, is where you take gold clubs and go down to the river and smack fish that swim through. We only hit carp because they are a big pest to everyone here and there is no limit onto how many you can kill. Plus the water doesnt get to deep so its pretty easy too. I think we got a total of twenty for the two days we went out. Its a pretty crazy site, seeing four kids sprinting after these fish swimming so fast and then belting them with golf clubs. Haha. It was a good time. :)
Tonight we are going to go ten pin bowling in Dubbo so that should be good too.
This past week I have experianced a little bit of homesickness but I will get over that. :) Just part of being an exchange student.
Christmas is coming up! I cant wait. Im going to send home a box to my family so its been fun getting presents. :)
I dont for sure have a next host family, they were talking about me living in Nelsons Bay instead of Newcastle. Not one hundred percent sure of what is to happen, but whatever does happen I know it will be an amazing experiance. :)
Well I guess that is about all I have to talk about.
Ill try and update soon!
Love you all! Thanks for reading! :)
Xoxo.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
If you have never been an exchange student..
"How do you know what is a dream if you never accomplished one? How do you know what is an adventure if you never took part in one? How do you know what is anguish if you never said goodbye to your family and friends with your eyes full of tears? How do you know what is being desperate, if you never arrived in a place alone and could not understand a word of what everyone else was saying? How do ...you know what is diversity if you never lived under the same roof with people from all over the world? How do you know what is tolerance, if you never had to get used to something different even if you didn’t like it. How do you know what is autonomy, if you never had the chance to decide something by yourself? How do you know what it means to grow up, if you never stopped being a child to start a new course? How do you know what is to be helpless, if you never wanted to hug someone and had a computer screen to prevent you from doing it? How do you know what is distance, if you never, looking at a map, said “I am so far away”? How do you know what is a language, if you never had to learn one to make friends? How do you know what is patriotism, if you never shouted “ I love my country” holding a flag in your hands? How do you know what is the true reality, if you never had the chance to see a lot of them to make one. How do you know what is an opportunity, if you never caught one? How do you know what is pride, if you never experienced it for yourself at realizing how much you have accomplished? How do you know what is to seize the day, if you never saw the time running so fast? How do you know what is a friend, if the circumstances never showed you the true ones. How do you know what is a family, if you never had one that supported you unconditionally? How do you know what are borders, if you never crossed yours, to see what there was on the other side? How do you know what is imagination, if you never thought about the moment when you would go back home?
How do you know the world, if you have never been an exchange student?"
How do you know the world, if you have never been an exchange student?"
Sunday, October 30, 2011
My update.. on life. :)
Well this past week went by so fast! It was a little crazy at school with some drama so glad that's over. I got my package from home and that was one of the highlights of my week. :) I was so excited! The smile on my face couldnt have been bigger when I was opening that package! :) Thanks again for that mom! This weekend we went to go see Paranormal Activity as a family plus Stevie, and Jonah (friends from school) . :) That was pretty good, except for all the girly screams from row of girls behind us. Kinda ruined the movie, but anyways it was a real good night. :) Then Saturday I had a nice sleep in and then went and did some softball pitching at the brick wall in our tennis court, then we got the pool area all cleaned up and ready for summer. The brothers, Stevie, and I went for a swim. Felt good. Then I made dinner. And we just watched movies all night. Sunday was another relaxing day. Slept in and then we decided to go to Hickeys Falls for a swim. It is really beautiful there. And then we came home and I went for a run had tea and now Im here writing in my blog, really tired I think Ill be off to bed in a little bit. This will be my last week of tenth grade. Its crazy to think about because my tenth grade was so short, just under a term. Haha. But its kinda cool. Next week because everyone here will be taking state exams and that theyre moving me up a year. And then it will be work experiance pretty soon. Im really excited for that.
Got to skype the family earlier today. :) That was good, they seem to be doing well. Was nice to see them all. Last night I was skyping with a friend living in Germany for a year and we started talking about how much an exchange changes a person. It truly is amazing, like if I would look back on myself three months ago I wouldnt even recognize that Bailee. Ive become so different. An exchange makes you so much more independent, more social, more open to different things. Im more adventurous and love meeting new people. My shyness has slowly dwindled down, which is a good thing! Im eager to learn, I actually like school and get excited to do little projects and stuff. My sense of humour has become so different too. Ive got the full Aussie humour. :) I love it. Haha. Its alot of fun. As my host mum would say, I am very cheeky. Which means like I am sassy. Haha. But yeah anyways Ive just been becoming a new person and I am a little excited to see what I become when this whole experiance is over. I know that it will change me for life. :)
Making the decision to do Rotary Youth Exchange has been thee best choice I have ever made in my life. Its just undescribable. I cant even describe my feelings, its just that great. Ive had to complete Aussie experiance and its just been so good here in Gilgandra. Its going to be so hard to depart when late January comes around.. Saying goodbye to friends, family, Gilgandra.. it will be hard. But will also make me that much stronger. This has been the ultimate Aussie Adventure. <3
Thanks for keeping up to date on my blog! Good to know people appreciate me blogging. :) Hope all is well! As you can see Im doing great.
So thats all for now. I will blog when I feel like it next. :P
Love you all! :)
-Bailee Jo
xxxx
Got to skype the family earlier today. :) That was good, they seem to be doing well. Was nice to see them all. Last night I was skyping with a friend living in Germany for a year and we started talking about how much an exchange changes a person. It truly is amazing, like if I would look back on myself three months ago I wouldnt even recognize that Bailee. Ive become so different. An exchange makes you so much more independent, more social, more open to different things. Im more adventurous and love meeting new people. My shyness has slowly dwindled down, which is a good thing! Im eager to learn, I actually like school and get excited to do little projects and stuff. My sense of humour has become so different too. Ive got the full Aussie humour. :) I love it. Haha. Its alot of fun. As my host mum would say, I am very cheeky. Which means like I am sassy. Haha. But yeah anyways Ive just been becoming a new person and I am a little excited to see what I become when this whole experiance is over. I know that it will change me for life. :)
Making the decision to do Rotary Youth Exchange has been thee best choice I have ever made in my life. Its just undescribable. I cant even describe my feelings, its just that great. Ive had to complete Aussie experiance and its just been so good here in Gilgandra. Its going to be so hard to depart when late January comes around.. Saying goodbye to friends, family, Gilgandra.. it will be hard. But will also make me that much stronger. This has been the ultimate Aussie Adventure. <3
Thanks for keeping up to date on my blog! Good to know people appreciate me blogging. :) Hope all is well! As you can see Im doing great.
So thats all for now. I will blog when I feel like it next. :P
Love you all! :)
-Bailee Jo
xxxx
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Sydney Excursion!
Sydney was amazing! We all had such a good time. We left Wednesday morning and had a six hour bus ride to Sydney. It was year ten that went for a geography/history teaching thing. On Wednesday when we got to the hostel we changed clothes and went to the beach for like a mile walk on this walkway path. It was beautiful! The ocean and the beaches were just breath taking! We got alot of photos. Then after that we had about an hour to get dinner at Bondi Beach. Some friends and I had fish and chips then some Cold Rock ice cream. :) That was good. On the ride back to the hostel we stopped at some park to get photos of the Sydney Opera House and The Sydney Harbour Bridge all lit up, it was really cool. Then it was time to go back to the hostel and around 10:30 we were supposed to be in our beds... But everyone was still awake and we hung out till like 4 in the morning. It was so fun! Lots of memories were made. :) Then we had to wake up at six, have brekky, and then we were off to Sydney Harbour for the geography part. We had some worksheets to fill out and we went on a ferry and this tour guide just talked to us for ages. It was really boring, but then around three in the afternoon we went back to where we were staying and were allowed a few hours to shop on our own. :) That was great. After shopping we went to Manly Beach for dinner and so we got to hang out there for a few hours. Then it was back to the hostel cause we had to wake up early again, but this time it wasnt that late of a night everyone was exhausted. Friday morning we went to a museum and got to look at some ship, which was part of the history bit, it was actually pretty cool. We got to grab lunch and do a little more shopping at Sydney Harbour. And a long seven hour bus ride back. So yeah the excursion was just a blast! But I have to admit it felt pretty good to be back in Gil. This weekend didnt do too much, had Jonah over and so we went swimming in our pool and watched movies, was a really good day. :) And today the family and I just hung out at home, went swimming, did a few chores, and now tomorrow we have school again.
So thats an update on my Aussie Adventures. Im still loving life, its so good that sometimes I just wake up and am in disbelief that Im in another continent having the time of my life. Almost been here for two and a half months. Has been the best two in a half months of my life! I love Australia! :)
Well thats all.
Love you all.
-Bailee Jo
xxx
So thats an update on my Aussie Adventures. Im still loving life, its so good that sometimes I just wake up and am in disbelief that Im in another continent having the time of my life. Almost been here for two and a half months. Has been the best two in a half months of my life! I love Australia! :)
Well thats all.
Love you all.
-Bailee Jo
xxx
Monday, October 10, 2011
Not much new, still love life. :)
Well as I type this I am on my laptop, music playing, texting, with my swimmers on laying on a towel in the front yard. Can you see why I love my life? :) Haha. But anyways all is good. School started back up for term four on Monday. Back to good ol' year ten. Not going to lie, I was actually a little excited to get back to school to see friends. But the downside is that we have heaps of exams coming up. But next week is the Sydney Year Ten Geography Excursion! :D I cant wait! Well leave Wednesday and get back Friday, stay at a hotel, do the school project thing, and then shop! Yay. :) I cant wait.
Ive already been here for eight weeks exactly. Vikki counted that up today. :/ Its a scary thought that Ive been here for so long, but then again it went by so fast, making it even scarier! No doubt its been the best two months of my life. <3 I want the time here to go by as slow as possible!
Ive started music class at school instead of cooking. Glad I made that change, even though I have no musical talent. Haha. My Rotary counselor said I should know real soon who my family in Newcastle will be. I requested that the family have kids, so thats a good thing. But still a little nervous about moving. I would love to stay in Gilgandra, but just figured it would be better for me to get a whole new experiance. Saying goodbye to everyone here is going to be so hard, so Im just trying not to think of that. :) Tonight Im making taco salad for tea (dinner). They've never had it, so hopefully I dont screw it up. Haha. Well theres the update on life. Love you all. xx
Take care!
-Bailee Jo
Ive already been here for eight weeks exactly. Vikki counted that up today. :/ Its a scary thought that Ive been here for so long, but then again it went by so fast, making it even scarier! No doubt its been the best two months of my life. <3 I want the time here to go by as slow as possible!
Ive started music class at school instead of cooking. Glad I made that change, even though I have no musical talent. Haha. My Rotary counselor said I should know real soon who my family in Newcastle will be. I requested that the family have kids, so thats a good thing. But still a little nervous about moving. I would love to stay in Gilgandra, but just figured it would be better for me to get a whole new experiance. Saying goodbye to everyone here is going to be so hard, so Im just trying not to think of that. :) Tonight Im making taco salad for tea (dinner). They've never had it, so hopefully I dont screw it up. Haha. Well theres the update on life. Love you all. xx
Take care!
-Bailee Jo
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Holiday break!
Well hey everyone, Im still doing great. Loving life. Making memories. Taking photos. Taking in everything that I can. :)
Friday my mum and brothers plus I went to Dubbo to go shopping! Spent an hour in Supre, Brent was my personal assistant, haha he held all the clothes while I shopped. God bless him for being the only straight guy in the shop. Lol. So anyways bought some new clothes so I was excited about that. And Saturday was just a chill day a day to relax and so the family all cuddled up in the lounge room and we watched a couple movies after going to the Cooee festival/ parade going on in Gil. It was some festival thing where there was music and little tents with stuff set up to buy and food and what not. The weather was really crappy and it started downpouring so then that was when we went home and had the movie marathon. :) Sunday Cam and I had some friends over so that was good too, the friends were guys so we ended up playing a fair bit of video games. :P Haha like xbox or wii. And then we watched movies again, the weather that day was a bit rainy too. We watched the new Smurfs movie, I suggest you watch it! Its the cutest movie ever!
Monday we headed to Gunnaduh to a koala park with the whole family plus Stevie. It was about a two hour drive but so worth it. We packed a picnic for after the park. I love koalas! Theyre adorable, and the man let us in the cage with them and we took heaps of photos and got to pet them or feed them leaves. It was great I didnt wanna leave. I wanted to take one home with me! Wish I could of. Haha. But we did see other animals too, like emu, wallaby, kangaroos, tons of birds, ostriches, wombats, all that. :) Was really cool!
Yesterday was just another chill day, Brent and I played catch for a bit, I went for a run, then took my blanket out in the front yard with my laptop and sunnies and threw on my swim suit working on that summer tan. It was pretty hot out. I felt good to relax after a busy week. :) I think were going to the rodeo next weekend, and during this week were just going to have a bonfire and have some friends over. Should be good. Will update.
Love you all! xx If you have facebook you can add me, my name on there is Bailee Jo Jerger and I have seven albums of life in Australia that I reckon youd enjoy! :) Having a blast, and loving sharing all this. Take care all!
-Bailee
xx
To the Rotary Club: Hope you liked the postcard! :)
Friday my mum and brothers plus I went to Dubbo to go shopping! Spent an hour in Supre, Brent was my personal assistant, haha he held all the clothes while I shopped. God bless him for being the only straight guy in the shop. Lol. So anyways bought some new clothes so I was excited about that. And Saturday was just a chill day a day to relax and so the family all cuddled up in the lounge room and we watched a couple movies after going to the Cooee festival/ parade going on in Gil. It was some festival thing where there was music and little tents with stuff set up to buy and food and what not. The weather was really crappy and it started downpouring so then that was when we went home and had the movie marathon. :) Sunday Cam and I had some friends over so that was good too, the friends were guys so we ended up playing a fair bit of video games. :P Haha like xbox or wii. And then we watched movies again, the weather that day was a bit rainy too. We watched the new Smurfs movie, I suggest you watch it! Its the cutest movie ever!
Monday we headed to Gunnaduh to a koala park with the whole family plus Stevie. It was about a two hour drive but so worth it. We packed a picnic for after the park. I love koalas! Theyre adorable, and the man let us in the cage with them and we took heaps of photos and got to pet them or feed them leaves. It was great I didnt wanna leave. I wanted to take one home with me! Wish I could of. Haha. But we did see other animals too, like emu, wallaby, kangaroos, tons of birds, ostriches, wombats, all that. :) Was really cool!
Yesterday was just another chill day, Brent and I played catch for a bit, I went for a run, then took my blanket out in the front yard with my laptop and sunnies and threw on my swim suit working on that summer tan. It was pretty hot out. I felt good to relax after a busy week. :) I think were going to the rodeo next weekend, and during this week were just going to have a bonfire and have some friends over. Should be good. Will update.
Love you all! xx If you have facebook you can add me, my name on there is Bailee Jo Jerger and I have seven albums of life in Australia that I reckon youd enjoy! :) Having a blast, and loving sharing all this. Take care all!
-Bailee
xx
To the Rotary Club: Hope you liked the postcard! :)
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Outback adventures!
For the past few days we spent in Nymagee, NSW. Nymagee is a little shanty town out in the middle of nowhere. It was so different to Gilgandra. There was lots of red dust, lots of animals. We saw many different wild animals like goats, sheep, kangaroos, emus, deer, lizards, and yabbies. On Tuesday we went yabbying for a couple hours. Yabbies are like out crawfish. We went out to a damn and set our traps with using rabbit and kangaroo meat as bait. We spent about four hours there and had a picnic and the boys and I went out exploring. It was really cool, took lots of photos and we caught about eighty yabbies. We kept them and ate them the next day for lunch. And another fun thing we did was go exploring on the push bikes. Nymagee is like a ghost town, it used to be bigger and more people but now there are deserted houses and rundown buildings that are really cool to look in. Nymagee is a town of twentyfive people. There was a pub there and thats about it. It rained hard there on Wednesday so the boys and I went mudding and we came back absolutely soaked and full of dust and we were just filthy! It was so much fun! And well yeah the outback life is definately different, but it was a good experiance. Also I got like two feet away from a wild kangaroo that was trying to hop the fence and I was on the pushbike, it was amazing. So over all my holidays have been good so far. This past weekend I had the Rotary weekend and it was great. :)
So still loving life. Enjoying holiday break. Looking forward to go see koalas Monday.
Life is good. :)
Ill write soon!
Love:Bailee
xx
So still loving life. Enjoying holiday break. Looking forward to go see koalas Monday.
Life is good. :)
Ill write soon!
Love:Bailee
xx
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Australia continued.. :)
Well gee, havent wrote for a while. Sorry! Been real busy. :) So last week was the Big Exo Day. It was SO MUCH FUN! Exo day is a huge Christian concert in Sydney. A bunch of kids from school went, we took two big buses. Six hours both ways worth of driving, but it was totally worth it. There was lots of different music spots, a skatepark thing, rides, tons of food, little shops. a big stage for the concert, and tents set up with djs and tons of crazy dancing people. It was great! We ended up getting home at five in the morning on Sunday, everyone was sleep deprived but it was absolutely worth it.
So then school has been real good, still enjoying it alot. :) Its been good. And actually the other day I got a letter home from the school saying that I got some maths award for doing well and trying. So thats a plus! Hoping all these classes Im taking will transfer over.
Were now on holiday break for two weeks. :) For school here we go to school for ten weeks at a time with a two week break. Its real nice.
So on Friday I had to leave school a bit early to drive to Dubbo, and from Dubbo me and two other exchange students rode with Rotarians to Tocal... five hours away about. The drive was heaps fun actually, ate tons of Belgium candy till we were sick. Haha. Friday night Annick, Karolina, and I stayed in our own motel room and stayed up way later than we should have. That night was so fun, my abbs hurt so bad from laughing too much. Definately memories I will remember.
Then in the morning we had to wake up super early have tea and then go to the Tocal college where the Rotary weekend was being held. We each got our own dorm rooms which was pretty cool. My Rotary jacket is getting really full! Its awesome! It weighs like eight pounds!
So yeah we met all the outbounds which was nice, and we hung out and had briefing and more stuff like that to help prepare the outbounds and then we played a fun game of footie, and after dinner we had an Aussie Bush Dance. Haha its almost like square dancing with a partner. Everyone had a blast we were all exhausted after that was over. And then Annick and I were getting ready for bed and I locked my key in my room. :/ Haha, so we had to walk around for like a half hour in the dark looking for some one to open it. We got that all solved thank god! Then Sunday we had more briefing and hanging out with students and then the weekend was over, no one wanted it to end. We are all like a family. :) A Rotary family. :) So then I had another five hours back to Dubbo and then an hour from Dubbo to Gilgandra.
Since its holidays were going to the outback tomorrow! :) I cant wait! Go along on some rooing, and yabbying, and go on the pushbikes see the outback, explore, visit family, take a million more photos. :) Cant wait. Then we will get home on Thursday. Will let you know how the outback goes!
Will write again soon.
Bailee Jo
xx
P.s. Ive been here for just over a month and Ive already taken over 2000 photos! Thats crazy! But yeah having a wonderful time, love it here so much, love my family here, love my friends here, love my town. Couldnt ask for anything more! :) Thanks so much Rotary!
So then school has been real good, still enjoying it alot. :) Its been good. And actually the other day I got a letter home from the school saying that I got some maths award for doing well and trying. So thats a plus! Hoping all these classes Im taking will transfer over.
Were now on holiday break for two weeks. :) For school here we go to school for ten weeks at a time with a two week break. Its real nice.
So on Friday I had to leave school a bit early to drive to Dubbo, and from Dubbo me and two other exchange students rode with Rotarians to Tocal... five hours away about. The drive was heaps fun actually, ate tons of Belgium candy till we were sick. Haha. Friday night Annick, Karolina, and I stayed in our own motel room and stayed up way later than we should have. That night was so fun, my abbs hurt so bad from laughing too much. Definately memories I will remember.
Then in the morning we had to wake up super early have tea and then go to the Tocal college where the Rotary weekend was being held. We each got our own dorm rooms which was pretty cool. My Rotary jacket is getting really full! Its awesome! It weighs like eight pounds!
So yeah we met all the outbounds which was nice, and we hung out and had briefing and more stuff like that to help prepare the outbounds and then we played a fun game of footie, and after dinner we had an Aussie Bush Dance. Haha its almost like square dancing with a partner. Everyone had a blast we were all exhausted after that was over. And then Annick and I were getting ready for bed and I locked my key in my room. :/ Haha, so we had to walk around for like a half hour in the dark looking for some one to open it. We got that all solved thank god! Then Sunday we had more briefing and hanging out with students and then the weekend was over, no one wanted it to end. We are all like a family. :) A Rotary family. :) So then I had another five hours back to Dubbo and then an hour from Dubbo to Gilgandra.
Since its holidays were going to the outback tomorrow! :) I cant wait! Go along on some rooing, and yabbying, and go on the pushbikes see the outback, explore, visit family, take a million more photos. :) Cant wait. Then we will get home on Thursday. Will let you know how the outback goes!
Will write again soon.
Bailee Jo
xx
P.s. Ive been here for just over a month and Ive already taken over 2000 photos! Thats crazy! But yeah having a wonderful time, love it here so much, love my family here, love my friends here, love my town. Couldnt ask for anything more! :) Thanks so much Rotary!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Its official... one month. :)
This past month Ive had the time of my life. I absolutely love it here and its just been so great. Best month of my life Id reckon. :) Its great.
Last weekend had my first Australian bonfire with family friends at our place. It was a good time, we had sausages, and potato bake, and I introduced the family to smores. These are the smores that travel thousands of miles with me to Australia. Haha. But they all liked them alot.
I absolutely love the style of clothes here and so yesterday Stevie, Annick, and my host mum went shopping in Dubbo. It was alot of fun. I bought alot of stuff and my mom would be proud of me I got most of the clothes on sale. Haha. But yeah I really like the clothes. :) Tuesday I had my presentation in Narromine, it lasted about fifteen minutes and I think the Rotarians liked it. I just have a few minor changes to make to the presentation. But anyways school is going good, Im still enjoying it. Everyone is really nice and I think Im getting more comfortable around school friends and more of my personality is showing, which is a good thing. The other day in cooking class my teacher got real mad at me cause i was holding my fork wrong while we were eating the pizza we made. Haha that was embarassing, but kinda just didnt pay too much attention to it. I realized how Americans barely ever use knives, and here they use them with every meal. So Im slowly trying to get used to that. Tonight there is a dance at school so Im pretty excited for that. And on Saturday Im going to The Big Exo Day in Sydney, its like a big concert thing thats all day and we go to hang out and listen to christian music and such. Very keen for that. :) I went to the gym monday and Im still sore from it! I went with Stevie and Jess and we did this big boxing circuit workout which actually was quite fun! I was up late last night editing my drama movie with Brenton, I think everyone liked it so thats a plus. :) Well thats just an update on life in Australia. Enjoying it alot.
Never coming home. :P
So thats all! Will write soon!
Love you all. <3
xx
Last weekend had my first Australian bonfire with family friends at our place. It was a good time, we had sausages, and potato bake, and I introduced the family to smores. These are the smores that travel thousands of miles with me to Australia. Haha. But they all liked them alot.
I absolutely love the style of clothes here and so yesterday Stevie, Annick, and my host mum went shopping in Dubbo. It was alot of fun. I bought alot of stuff and my mom would be proud of me I got most of the clothes on sale. Haha. But yeah I really like the clothes. :) Tuesday I had my presentation in Narromine, it lasted about fifteen minutes and I think the Rotarians liked it. I just have a few minor changes to make to the presentation. But anyways school is going good, Im still enjoying it. Everyone is really nice and I think Im getting more comfortable around school friends and more of my personality is showing, which is a good thing. The other day in cooking class my teacher got real mad at me cause i was holding my fork wrong while we were eating the pizza we made. Haha that was embarassing, but kinda just didnt pay too much attention to it. I realized how Americans barely ever use knives, and here they use them with every meal. So Im slowly trying to get used to that. Tonight there is a dance at school so Im pretty excited for that. And on Saturday Im going to The Big Exo Day in Sydney, its like a big concert thing thats all day and we go to hang out and listen to christian music and such. Very keen for that. :) I went to the gym monday and Im still sore from it! I went with Stevie and Jess and we did this big boxing circuit workout which actually was quite fun! I was up late last night editing my drama movie with Brenton, I think everyone liked it so thats a plus. :) Well thats just an update on life in Australia. Enjoying it alot.
Never coming home. :P
So thats all! Will write soon!
Love you all. <3
xx
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Time is flying by!
Ive been in Australia for about two and a half weeks now. :) Still all is well, Im having a blast. School is well ya know, school. On Tuesday we had softball for gym and that was a lot of fun, the school is actually starting up a softball team cause im there. Ill be their pitcher. :) Ive been pretty excited about that. Last weekend was the Rotary weeked in Newcastle, that was good too. We went on a yacht and went through and adventure park where we went on ziplines and stuff. :) It was great. But what is weird is that last weekend i got homesick a little for the first time. Not homesick for america, but homesick for gilgandra and the gardiners. <3 Thats the only homesickness ive had so far. Also last weekend i had to do a speech, it was a three minute speech and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. It was in front of Rotarians and host families. On our way back from Newcastle, which was like a 5 hour drive we stopped in Singleton to get a bit to eat and they wanted to show me the park. At the park I saw TONS of bats in the trees! They were so gross and all just hanging up in the trees. :/ I was running back to the car fast cause i didnt want to get pooped on and Brenton trips me! I went down hard, they were laughing their butts off. Haha. And then i had bat crap all over my arm! It was so gross! :/ But now its pretty funny to think of. Wednesday we left school a little early ( I got to skip lawnbowls! :) Haha ) and we went shopping in Dubbo. That was good. And Ive still been running every week night. Sometimes I do abb workouts, and Vikki just laughs at me. Friday night i helped out at the Grease play that Gilgandra community put on. The play was really good. And today i woke up and showered, had Stevie over last night, but anyways got a call from Annick and her host parents. Shes from Belgium. They asked if i wanted to come on a picnic and see kangaroos, cows, sheep, lizards, etc. :) It was alot of fun. Now Im really tired and have a big maths assignment to do. :/ Well thats all that happened this week! Cant believe ive already only been here for two weeks. Time is going by way too fast! But Im definately enjoying every second of it.
Will write soon! :)
Love:Bailee
xxx
Will write soon! :)
Love:Bailee
xxx
Thursday, August 25, 2011
First full week. :)
Geez this week has gone by way too fast! It feels like yesterday i was at the bemidji airport getting on a plane to come here. But anyways its been a great first week! :)
My first day of school was Friday.School is going good, everyone here is so laid back so like the kids get two weeks to turn in an assignment. And the work is all real easy, its kinda like the stuff i learned last year. So school is no problem. One of my worries before i came here was that i wouldnt have any friends and i was crazy to be worried about that. Ive made some friends already. :) Everyone here is so nice! And not cliqued up at school, which i love. Everybody talks to everybody is so cool. Ah and about my classes i decided to take a drama class, PAS (like a detailed gym class) and cooking. Drama was today and were filming this play in a small group on a fairytale. We chose Goldy Locks and the Three Bears. Guess who got stuck with the Goldy Locks part... me. Haha. Which was the biggest part of our play and Ive so never acted before. That was way out of my comfort zone but it ended up being sorta fun and turned out good! :) I can definately already tell my shyness is going away which is a great thing. Also at school we have to pick a sport that we do every Wednesdays. I picked lawnbowls... I dont know why i picked that! It is thee most boring sport ive ever played! Haha. All we do is roll weighted balls to try and get close to a white ball... But yeah Ill only have a few more Wednesdays of that before holida break (2 weeks off) and then after that we pick new ones. Ive noticed the respect for teachers here is very poor. And Australians kind of swear alot, even at school and the teachers dont even care. Its so different! And like I only have four different classes a day and each day those classes change. Which is really nice and makes school not as boring. Plus we get alot of breaks! We get a recess after our first period and thats kind of like snack time. Then we have a period. A five minute break. A period. Lunch time, which is super long! Like an hour i think. And then we have the last period. School gets done at 3:45 and we start at 9. So yeah anyways school is great i love it! And the uniforms arent too bad either. It saves alot of time with the uniforms so i dont stand in my closet for half an hour trying to pick an outfit. :P All is good in the school department!
My host family is alot of fun. Im always laughing with them. And the Australian humor is like way deeper than Americans. Like Aussies joke around alot more and kind of like have more fun. :) I like it alot! Its just a blast. And they use alot of sarcasm too. Were always picking on eachother and lauging at eachother. :) Haha. Every day after school i come home, change clothes, and then go for a run. Usually about 2 mile runs. Its pretty much the only exercise i get all day so the runs are nice. The temperature around here is like in the 60s or 70s. Only 7 more days of winter here im pretty sure! Then its going to get warmer and warmer by the day.
The food here is basically the same, but not really. My favorite thing is tim tams! Theyre like a chocolate cookie with frosting in the middle and chocolate coating on the outside. Sooo good! Whenever I eat one i think to myself, "thats another quarter mile" Haha. Just making sure i dont get fat! But yeah those are good, but whats gross is vegemite. Yuck i cant even describe the flavor, my host dad put it on bread and butter for me and had me try it. I did take two big bites.. but no i wont again, it was nasty. Also yesterday Vikki came into my room with a piece of bread and something brown spread on it. I thought it was peanut butter and she told me she wasnt going to tell me what it was before i tried it. It was like fish guts! I ran immediately to the bin and spit it out. That had to of been the grossest thing ive ever tasted! I did try it though.
Some of the differences here are, well they drive on the opposite side of the road, you get your liscense at 17, we eat most of our meals in the lounge area while watching tv.. most families do it here. And there is orange, lemon, and lime trees here! I was amazed when i saw an orange tree. The light switches are smaller. The plug ins are different. They call ketchup tomato sauce, the toilets look different and also flush down the opposite way. Their money is worth alot more than our american money. I put in 500 american dollars and it was worth 447 austalian dollars. Their money is plastic and colorful with big coins. Oh and at school they dont give us like hot meals, theres a canteen where you can buy lunch and recess, or kids just pack a lunch. The pickups here look way different. And I know there was way more but just cant remember. Oh yeah their slang too is pretty sweet. Pretty soon ill be picking up on it! Haha. Sweet!
Well all is well, i really really like it here, everything is great! :) Just thought i would update you all.
Ill write in a week or so. :)
Love you!
xxx
My first day of school was Friday.School is going good, everyone here is so laid back so like the kids get two weeks to turn in an assignment. And the work is all real easy, its kinda like the stuff i learned last year. So school is no problem. One of my worries before i came here was that i wouldnt have any friends and i was crazy to be worried about that. Ive made some friends already. :) Everyone here is so nice! And not cliqued up at school, which i love. Everybody talks to everybody is so cool. Ah and about my classes i decided to take a drama class, PAS (like a detailed gym class) and cooking. Drama was today and were filming this play in a small group on a fairytale. We chose Goldy Locks and the Three Bears. Guess who got stuck with the Goldy Locks part... me. Haha. Which was the biggest part of our play and Ive so never acted before. That was way out of my comfort zone but it ended up being sorta fun and turned out good! :) I can definately already tell my shyness is going away which is a great thing. Also at school we have to pick a sport that we do every Wednesdays. I picked lawnbowls... I dont know why i picked that! It is thee most boring sport ive ever played! Haha. All we do is roll weighted balls to try and get close to a white ball... But yeah Ill only have a few more Wednesdays of that before holida break (2 weeks off) and then after that we pick new ones. Ive noticed the respect for teachers here is very poor. And Australians kind of swear alot, even at school and the teachers dont even care. Its so different! And like I only have four different classes a day and each day those classes change. Which is really nice and makes school not as boring. Plus we get alot of breaks! We get a recess after our first period and thats kind of like snack time. Then we have a period. A five minute break. A period. Lunch time, which is super long! Like an hour i think. And then we have the last period. School gets done at 3:45 and we start at 9. So yeah anyways school is great i love it! And the uniforms arent too bad either. It saves alot of time with the uniforms so i dont stand in my closet for half an hour trying to pick an outfit. :P All is good in the school department!
My host family is alot of fun. Im always laughing with them. And the Australian humor is like way deeper than Americans. Like Aussies joke around alot more and kind of like have more fun. :) I like it alot! Its just a blast. And they use alot of sarcasm too. Were always picking on eachother and lauging at eachother. :) Haha. Every day after school i come home, change clothes, and then go for a run. Usually about 2 mile runs. Its pretty much the only exercise i get all day so the runs are nice. The temperature around here is like in the 60s or 70s. Only 7 more days of winter here im pretty sure! Then its going to get warmer and warmer by the day.
The food here is basically the same, but not really. My favorite thing is tim tams! Theyre like a chocolate cookie with frosting in the middle and chocolate coating on the outside. Sooo good! Whenever I eat one i think to myself, "thats another quarter mile" Haha. Just making sure i dont get fat! But yeah those are good, but whats gross is vegemite. Yuck i cant even describe the flavor, my host dad put it on bread and butter for me and had me try it. I did take two big bites.. but no i wont again, it was nasty. Also yesterday Vikki came into my room with a piece of bread and something brown spread on it. I thought it was peanut butter and she told me she wasnt going to tell me what it was before i tried it. It was like fish guts! I ran immediately to the bin and spit it out. That had to of been the grossest thing ive ever tasted! I did try it though.
Some of the differences here are, well they drive on the opposite side of the road, you get your liscense at 17, we eat most of our meals in the lounge area while watching tv.. most families do it here. And there is orange, lemon, and lime trees here! I was amazed when i saw an orange tree. The light switches are smaller. The plug ins are different. They call ketchup tomato sauce, the toilets look different and also flush down the opposite way. Their money is worth alot more than our american money. I put in 500 american dollars and it was worth 447 austalian dollars. Their money is plastic and colorful with big coins. Oh and at school they dont give us like hot meals, theres a canteen where you can buy lunch and recess, or kids just pack a lunch. The pickups here look way different. And I know there was way more but just cant remember. Oh yeah their slang too is pretty sweet. Pretty soon ill be picking up on it! Haha. Sweet!
Well all is well, i really really like it here, everything is great! :) Just thought i would update you all.
Ill write in a week or so. :)
Love you!
xxx
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Living in the land down under.. and lovin' it!
Well I made it here safe and sound! The flight was very very long and tiring but I managed to survive. I did get a bit of motion sickness on my first two flights though, which wasnt fun, but i got over it in time for my long 15 hour flight. So anyways to pass the time on the planes i would listen to my ipod or watch movies or try to sleep, but that was a little difficult because it was so uncomfortable and i didnt want it to be awkward if my head was lying on the lady's shoulder next to me. Haha. But going through the airports were something else i tell ya. I was wearing my blazer because Rotary tells us to and you wouldne belive how many stares i got. It was pretty funny. But that jacket was annoying to wear when going through security. I had to carefully take it off like a billion times! Going through customs in Australia was stessing me out for a while because customs is very strict and well i had pretty much our whole pantry full of american food in my suitcase! Including wildrice... the look on my familys face when i brought it out of my bag was priceless. Haha they didnt think it was wildrice at first. They thought i had done something illegal. But no worries! It was just wild rice. Haha. And so i made it through customs with all my stuff and they didnt take anything. :)
When i arrived in sydney i had to go through security, exchange my money, (American money is worthless) go through security again, and then i met a Rotarian holding a little sign with my name on it. He was such a nice old man, without him i definately wouldnt have been able to get on my next flight because the airport was so huge and confusing! But once i did get to my gate i ringed my mom to tell her that i had made it safely and she told me she hadnt been able to sleep waiting for a text or a call.. haha whoops. :) So i did get on my flight to Dubbo, and thanked the Rotarian. He was such a nice man.
The Dubbo flight was about forty five minutes and when i walked off that plane walking through the door I saw my host mom Vikki in tears of relief and happiness, I saw my brothers Cameron and Brenton too. I had just the biggest smile on my face since I stepped off that plane. :) So we went out for lunch at Maccas (McDonalds) the portions are smaller here than they are in the states. But all was good. Ohh and when we were walking to the car with my suitcases and everything my host mom says get in the front love. What do I do? Walk to the right side of the car. Haha which was where the drivers seat was. They got a laugh out of that. Good first impression. :P Haha. Driving on the wrong side of the road is SO different! It feels like I could just push on the pedal myself when Im sitting in the front. Haha. So anyways after that we went to the mall to get some things for me like a pillow, school supplies, shampoo and all that. Then we were off for home. :) Which was like a forty five minute drive.
When we got home they showed me around the house. The house is really really big compared to many American houses. I got lost very easily that first day. My room is very nice i like it alot. So then i unpacked everything had the famiy pick out what gifts they wanted. And then we ran to town to get some groceries, Vikki made supper which was chicken and veggies. Here in Aus, they eat their meals in the loung room, which is like a living room. I was so exhausted by bed time. I sleep good that night.
Then yesterday i woke up around ten and had breakfast, and got ready to go sign up for classes and get my uniform at school. The school is very small it has about 300 kids in it. And everyone was just anxious for my arrival. When I walked in I got more stares again. Haha. And then people came and made almost like a circle around me. It was a bit overwhelming, everyone introducing themselves and whatnot. Oh and they all are almost like amazed by my accent. Which i though was kinda funny, because the American accents are like so boring. But anyways.. they like it. :) Sometimes it is really hard to understand the people here because they talk way faster than us americans and then add all the aussie slang on top of that. Haha i find myself saying "what?" alot. So that went very well and then my host mom and i went home to have lunch and then we had to pick up the boys and stevie ( a friend) from school to have afternoon tea. After that we came home, Stevie and I did our nails, Stevie is a girl by the way. And Stevie, Cam, and I just talked hung out listened to music. And then Vikki made lasagna for dinner, it was really good. :) And then off to bed i found myseld exhausted once more.
Today will be my first day of school! :) Will tell you all about it some other time!
Im loving it here, its so beautiful, the people are so nice, and my host family is great. :)
Ive already seen wallabys too! So cool!
Will write soon.
Bye. :)
xx
When i arrived in sydney i had to go through security, exchange my money, (American money is worthless) go through security again, and then i met a Rotarian holding a little sign with my name on it. He was such a nice old man, without him i definately wouldnt have been able to get on my next flight because the airport was so huge and confusing! But once i did get to my gate i ringed my mom to tell her that i had made it safely and she told me she hadnt been able to sleep waiting for a text or a call.. haha whoops. :) So i did get on my flight to Dubbo, and thanked the Rotarian. He was such a nice man.
The Dubbo flight was about forty five minutes and when i walked off that plane walking through the door I saw my host mom Vikki in tears of relief and happiness, I saw my brothers Cameron and Brenton too. I had just the biggest smile on my face since I stepped off that plane. :) So we went out for lunch at Maccas (McDonalds) the portions are smaller here than they are in the states. But all was good. Ohh and when we were walking to the car with my suitcases and everything my host mom says get in the front love. What do I do? Walk to the right side of the car. Haha which was where the drivers seat was. They got a laugh out of that. Good first impression. :P Haha. Driving on the wrong side of the road is SO different! It feels like I could just push on the pedal myself when Im sitting in the front. Haha. So anyways after that we went to the mall to get some things for me like a pillow, school supplies, shampoo and all that. Then we were off for home. :) Which was like a forty five minute drive.
When we got home they showed me around the house. The house is really really big compared to many American houses. I got lost very easily that first day. My room is very nice i like it alot. So then i unpacked everything had the famiy pick out what gifts they wanted. And then we ran to town to get some groceries, Vikki made supper which was chicken and veggies. Here in Aus, they eat their meals in the loung room, which is like a living room. I was so exhausted by bed time. I sleep good that night.
Then yesterday i woke up around ten and had breakfast, and got ready to go sign up for classes and get my uniform at school. The school is very small it has about 300 kids in it. And everyone was just anxious for my arrival. When I walked in I got more stares again. Haha. And then people came and made almost like a circle around me. It was a bit overwhelming, everyone introducing themselves and whatnot. Oh and they all are almost like amazed by my accent. Which i though was kinda funny, because the American accents are like so boring. But anyways.. they like it. :) Sometimes it is really hard to understand the people here because they talk way faster than us americans and then add all the aussie slang on top of that. Haha i find myself saying "what?" alot. So that went very well and then my host mom and i went home to have lunch and then we had to pick up the boys and stevie ( a friend) from school to have afternoon tea. After that we came home, Stevie and I did our nails, Stevie is a girl by the way. And Stevie, Cam, and I just talked hung out listened to music. And then Vikki made lasagna for dinner, it was really good. :) And then off to bed i found myseld exhausted once more.
Today will be my first day of school! :) Will tell you all about it some other time!
Im loving it here, its so beautiful, the people are so nice, and my host family is great. :)
Ive already seen wallabys too! So cool!
Will write soon.
Bye. :)
xx
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Almost there.
Well wow! It has been a long stressful, hectic month. My visa didnt come on time and so that put choas and waiting and waiting and waiting into our family for the past month. But today I got some amazing news! Actually I got more than news, I got my departure date, my visa, and my flight ticket all within two hours. I have three days left in the United States. On Monday at 4:56 pm I will depart from the Bemidji, Minnesota airport. Okay my flight schedule is crazy! Check this out... Bemidji, MN -> Mineapolis, MN -> LA, California -> Sydney, NSW, Australia -> Dubbo, NSW, Australia. Lots of fly time! I will arrive in Dubbo on Wednesday August 17 (Australian Wednesday). Oh, also I will meet up with another student in LA, so I am looking forward to the longest flight with an Rotary friend. :)
Right now if you were to ask me about my feelings... I probably could go on and on and on! Im so extremely excited, and then Im nervous, happy, scared, anxious, sad, and than excited again. Saying goodbye to my friends and family will be kind of tough, but I had my going away party a month ago so I think they feel its my time to go. :P Im definately ready for this new chapter of my life though. It will change everything, it will change me most importantly.
Well I better get going, Ill be packing all night probably until I get everything perfect!
Pray for a safe flight.
Love you all. <3
Next time I write I will be in a completely different continent! :) Crazy to think about, huh?
Right now if you were to ask me about my feelings... I probably could go on and on and on! Im so extremely excited, and then Im nervous, happy, scared, anxious, sad, and than excited again. Saying goodbye to my friends and family will be kind of tough, but I had my going away party a month ago so I think they feel its my time to go. :P Im definately ready for this new chapter of my life though. It will change everything, it will change me most importantly.
Well I better get going, Ill be packing all night probably until I get everything perfect!
Pray for a safe flight.
Love you all. <3
Next time I write I will be in a completely different continent! :) Crazy to think about, huh?
Monday, July 18, 2011
Anxiously awaiting the date...
I am starting to get a little nervous because... still no date! That's crazy but I'm sure its better this way so the goodbyes will be rushed and not as sad. Well I am still getting excited. :) Still trying to figure out this blogging thing also. :P But I'm getting it! I think. So anyways I'll make these last few days a good time with family and hopefully the next time I blog it will be when I am in the land down under!
Thursday, July 14, 2011
A week left in the States!
So today I got a letter from my travel agent, she informed us I will be getting on the plane sometime next week! I just cant believe it, I am really proud of myself for doing this. I dont know many people that would want to do an exchange for a year. But I am very excited, a bit nervous, anxious, but mainly excited! I will be on the plane for about 17 or 18 hours. And once I arrive in Sydney there will be a Rotarian greeting me and helping me get on my flight to Dubbo. Ohh by the way I am going to the state New South Wales. My first city is Gilgandra. Its a pretty small town with about 300ish kids in their highschool. Smaller than Park Rapids! But that should be fine. I have already been in contact with my host family. The Gardiners, they have two sons Cameron (16) and Brenton (14). My host mom is Vikki and my host dad is Tony. They are so excited to have me come! They tell me almost everyday how they cant wait. :) It makes me feel very welcomed and I havent even met them in person yet. Well anyways that is just a little starting information about my Aussie Adventure! I am already packed, I did that Tuesday. This is all getting so real and my departure date follows very soon! Well I hope to write again soon. <3
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