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

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

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?