Summer Holiday's

So far i have been on my summer Holidays for just over a week now. It is very strange because the weather still isn't "hot". Of course when compared to what the people in Canada are dealing with it is tropical here but for me, not so much.
Since being off school i had a chance to go to Melbourne with two of the other exchange students. After getting the train into the city we went to go the see the Myers Christmas Windows. Basically Myers is like a high end Sears or the Bay, it just has everything in it for a decent price. During the Christmas season each year they set up a display of about 8 windows, this year being the Nut Cracker. It was actually amazing, all these tiny little sculptures, and the even moved. Also, while walking along there was a story that was being played, so if you got in line at just the right time you could listen to the story rather than reading it on the wall each time.
After glancing at the windows we headed to the Vic Market- a market unlike any that i have seen. It was absolutely massive, there was everything that you could think of too, from fresh meats to fruits to bags, clothes, licence plates, stickers, everything!!! While there we each got two things, one being a flag so that we could all sign it on the safari next March, and the other being a jumper. But this was not just any jumper, it is bright yellow, and green, Aussie colours. It is something that i will only wear at home to school on spirit days (as aldershot colours are green and gold/yellow) but it is perfect for what we wanted. We need to take one sweater along with us on safari and now the three of us have one that will top the rest simply because it says AUSTRALIA on it!!
After finishing up at the market we got a bite to eat and then headed off to the Aquarium. I was so excited, going to the aquarium was something that i had been wanting to do fro months and as i walked up to the building i could feel my heart racing with excitement and anxiousness. Going through was amazing, there were penguins, tons of different tropical fish, sharks, sting rays and there was even a man in the tank dressed as Santa feeding the fish- though it was for the little kids, i thought that it was awesome...
Sunday the 12th of December i moved into my new family. There are two other kids, Alex and James, so it has been very different living here. It is really close to town, about a 5 minute walk, and so it makes it easy to find things to do. Also, now i get to run along the bay rather than through the streets. My "sister" and i have also been hanging out, she took me along with her to two parties and it was a little awkward at first not knowing anyone, barely even Alex, but after a while it was not so bad.
So far everything is going really well and now i have Christmas to look forward to and so many other things!
I hope everything is going well at home- and it's not too cold!

xo

Last Day of School!

Currently i am sitting in my last English lesson for 2010 and with just today left in school i am very excited to be done. I have all my holiday homework and surprised at the limited amount that i got, i thought that for sure there would be more, not that i am complaining one bit!
This past week i have had a friend staying at the house, she too in an exchange student in my district and living about an hour and a half away in a small town called Cobden. She comes from a city that is larger then Melbourne in Brazil so she found it hard to be in the little country town but is now very happy there. She has been with us since last Thursday and I've been at school for 3 of those days so she has had to find other things to do but once i get home we hangout! It has been nice to have someone my age around the house to be with.
Yesterday morning i went to a work out boot camp with my host dad at 6am. It was an hour long before school and we did skipping, running, boxing, core work, leg work..... lots of work! and needless to say i was exhausted by the end and wanted nothing more but to be able to go back to sleep but i knew i had to go to school.
I only have a couple more days with my family left here but that short time is full of things to do. Tomorrow i am baking rice crispies with Julia (the Brazilian) because she, nor my host parents, know what they are! Thursday we are all going to Melbourne to the market and the aquarium and i am SO excited to go! Friday and Saturday there are two barbeque's that i am going to and then on Sunday i am moving, so yes, i am very very busy!!!
I hope that the shoveling of snow is going well at home, shoveling sand at the beach here sure is! haha

Half Way Done

With just five more days left of school before i start my summer vacation, i am nothing but excited for the next few months. I have finished my exams, half way done my year 12 orientation and moving in a week and a half so needless to say there is lots going on around me and i am staying busy.With this being my last week of school i can now announce that my school year here is half done, that's right, time has gone by so fast that i can already say that it is half way over. This thought it just a little bit taunting to me.
This past week i have been to both my rotary clubs meeting and my host dads club and both meetings were just as interesting as the previous ones i have been to. Though there isn't anything particularly interesting to report on i am happy with how my exchange is going.
I have been trying to run everyday now, i go around a block which is about a 5 and a half to 6 k run which isn't too bad i don't think! Rotary did warn us about gaining weight and of course i thought "nope, not me!!" ... but sadly... yes that is me. so now i am desperately trying to get active and so far so good!
Oh, the rain isn't giving up here, the weather has been dreadful and this is supposed to be summer!!! (today is the first day)
Well, that is all for now, hope you're all going well!!!
xoxo

Summer's Around The Corner

Well it seems as though i have been slacking on updating my blog lately. I think that it is due to the fact that normally i would update it during class at school and i haven't been at school for the past two weeks other than for writing exams. Speaking of which, i have finished all my six exams, and i am so happy about that. None of them were very hard, maybe my phys ed exam, but other than that i didn't do too bad actually. I'm back at school now for a week and a half to start year (grade) twelve before the summer holidays begin!
The weather has been getting nicer, proving that summer is just around the corner. Currently it is supposed to be 29 out today, and sure feels like it is! Yesterday at 6 at night it was still 33 out so to say that it doesn't get hot here would be a lie.
The classes that i am taking now are media, photography, English, history and international studies, again all things that i want to take "for fun".
Over the past weekend (November 20-22) it was a weekend with all the inbound and outbound exchange students. We went to Ballart, which was only about an hours drive from Geelong and we stayed at other Rotarians in the area's houses. The weekend over all was fun, i loved seeing everyone again but what we had to do was so boring. At home before i left (Canada) we had to sit through a weekend and go over everything for the exchange from dealing with homesickness to insurance and everything in between. It was a two day thing in Canada and another two days in Aussie, so i pretty much know everything backwards and forwards now because I've sat through it twice. All and all it was a good weekend and i was extremely happy to get together with everyone for the weekend.
Since living with this host family i have been doing a lot of volunteering and yesterday (Tuesday) i went and help sell 950 sausages at an event to raise awareness about stopping violence against women. At one point about 50 teenage boys came all at once and i don't think that i have ever moved so quickly trying to hand out these sausages, and to make matters worse they were free... Teenage boys plus free food equals CRAZINESS!!!
That is all i have really been up to lately, hope the cold weather is treating you nice.. the 25+ weather is not to bad over here!!n

xoxoxoxo

Exam Time!

Sorry i have not gotten on to my blog, i have been busy and haven't been as school so there wasn't really a chance for me to get on here.

This sounds hypocritical, but nothing too much has been happening. I have been biking around a lot, trying to get my bearings around this new part of geelong that i am living in. I also have been running to try and get a little bit more fit before the summer, it sure is a slow process though!

This week i went to Rotary twice, once to my club and once to my host dads club to see everyone. Turns out that my host dads club is sending a girl to France this coming January and she goes to my school! Ill go to the meeting on Monday night to meet here and let her in on some of the exchange news.

Oh, i have been writing exams all week. Although they count for nothing i still have to write them unfortunately but i don't have to study so it is not too bad... they are actually pretty easy considering i didn't do any review. Shh...!!

This week i had a couple of sad days where i really missed home but i talked to some people from home and they helped me out and i'm feeling a lot better now!!

Sorry this is a quick update but i miss everyone, and oh i miss the seasons! The weather hasn't changed much since i've been here and its been 127 days (as of November 13)

Another Move, Another Adventure!

This past sunday i had to say goodbye to Pam and Fred and say hello to Laurie and Lynn. I had been with my second host family for 6 weeks so it was time that i had to go to another. I was in some ways disappointed because i love living with the Le Deuxs but in other ways i was so excited to start another part of my journey here. On Sunday morning we left Barwon heads and came back into Geelong so that i could pack up my things. This time thankfully i didn't find it as hard to get everything packed, i was definitely way more organized! We went to the Hills(my new host family) and they served myself and Pam and Fred some dinner and we talked about all sorts of things from stuff about history that i had no idea about- and honestly didn't really care for- to things about rotary where i was very curious to hear about everything!

I have now been in the house for a couple days and everything seems to be going great! I am really happy here and guess what, they are my youngest host family yet, 61 and 62 i believe..! haha i guess it should be something i should have expected more when coming here, getting older people for host parents i mean. But you know what, i like it, these people said that they have had about 15 exchange students now so they understand how it all works which is extremely helpful.

I also started mandatory sport this week. I decided to play softball although i really wished i could go into tennis they said that it was too late so ill have to do that next year i suppose. The team seems alright though, nice enough girls and it ranges from years 12 to 8 - there are a few girls from the prep school that joined us. We have our first game this Saturday morning so ill let you all know how that goes!

Nothing else too interesting happening i don't think, exams next week, year 12 in TWO WEEKS! and summer in 4 weeks! so i guess you could say there are a couple things happening..

Well im off to finish some work for my English class, keep well!

Oh, and thanks to everyone who is reading this.. i hope that it isn't for nothing!

xo

Laid Back Week

This week has been pretty laid back. Because there are exams in just over a week a lot of the students at school are all studying as well as in class all we are doing is review so for me it has been pretty boring. I am lucky and happy to not have to worry about exams. Although i have to do them they don't count towards anything so thankfully i can just relax!
Apart from school i have not been doing too much, after gaining what i think was half my body weight, i proudly can tell you that i now go one runs everyday and so far so good! It has been hard dealing with the weight gain here but the way that i think about it is that "every" exchange student gains this weight and than loses it once they get home!
I have been staying in the town Barwon Heads and really loving it here, its my favourite town!!
Oh! Tomorrow is moving day! Im going to host family 3, i still cannot believe that it is already 1/3 of the way through my exchange!!!
Today i also spoke to my dad, it was great seeing him after so long. Anyone, feel free to let me know if you ever want to skype, i'd be happy to share my adventures with anyone willing to listen!
Well, ill let you know how the move goes.
I hope that the weather isn't too cold for you guys, it was a beautiful 28 degrees here yesterday! Woohooo!!!

xoxo