Brain Farts and Koalas

Well, as most of you probably don't know, a brain fart is as mind blank. Only because I'm one of those strange american kids, I say "brain fart". . .bloody yankee education system. . .My english teacher actually used that to try to make me feel better about a low mark I got on an english essay today "you are american and therefore you use a different way of writing" Agreed, but I thought I'd give her hell and call her racist a few times :) Any who, I couldn't think of something amazing to call this post but it's about Koalas, makes sense doesn't it? Well, it does to me :) And as far as I'm concerned that's the only opinion that matters. The other day, I relized how screwed I'm gonna be when I go back to Druango. Pretty much everything I just said is CHALK FULL of sarcasm. . .americans don't even know what that means. . .my mum thinks its a way to express anger, boy is she in for a shock when she rocks up here!! EVERYONE is sarcastic. And to us, its just a way to joke about something. Okay, enough rambeling. The other week I went over to Zoe's place, that's her and me in the photo, and released some koalas. Kangaroo Island, just off the coast near Adelaide, is overpopulated with Kangaroos and Koalas so instead of just killing them, they bring them to the mainland and let them free here. Zoe lives on a big property out near the bush, so they release Koalas there.

This is just one of them climbing up the tree as fast as they bloody can. They have just been de-sexed, held in capitivity, flown 800 Kilometers, then shaken out of a cage and stared at by a large crowd of baffeled Australian's (or austraicans (australian/american)).

I got to release the mother and baby koala. How bloody cool is that!! So I got to touch the baby, but mind you it was only a touch. These things have claws of death. But who's life goal isn't to touch a baby Koala??

On a slightly different note, a couple weeks ago, I went to a Rotary meeting in Mount Gambier. There was a GSE (Group Study Exchange) team from Canada/Washington state. The girl that is from Washington grew up in Aztec, 30 minutes from Durango, then lived in Durango for some time. Her brother is Dale Egal (not 100% sure on the first name) and he owns a recording studio that I have been to with Steve Dejka and I have actually met her brother. She's the tallest one in the photo. *singing* It's a small world after all. . .It's a small world after all. . .It's a small! Small! World!

And this, this is my shool photo. It's pretty bloody magical wouldn't ya say?? And the polo, ya gotta love the polo :) P.S. I'm growing my hair out. . .so I no longer have the fro

And finally, last Sunday, we had a fundraiser down in the town square for the Victorian Bushfires. I made doughnuts with my Rotary club for 7 bloody hours. Damn having a big heart :) Here we have Lorane (back, making up dough) and Murray (front, rolling finished doughnuts in cinnamon sugar) and me (middle, slaving away over the hot oil) :)

My 15 Minutes of Fame, extended

So this is the second time I've been in the Naracoorte Herold in the last 7 months. Pretty impressive record as far as I'm concerned :) This time it was for the Lions Youth of the Year competition. Go me! haha

This is just something one of my mates emailed to me, I fell in love with it.

1. I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you..

2. No man or woman is worth your tears, & the one who is, won't make you cry.

3. Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.

4. A true friend is someone who reaches for your hand & touches your heart.

5. The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside them knowing you can' t have them

6. Never frown, even when you are sad, because you never know who is falling in love with your smile.

7. To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.

8. Don't waste your time on someone, who isn't willing to waste their time on you.

9. Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one, so that when we finally meet the person, we will know how to be grateful.

10. Don't cry because it is over, smile because it happened.

11. There's always going to be people that hurt you so what you have to do is keep on trusting & just be more careful about who you trust next time around..

12. Make yourself a better person & know who you are before you try & know someone else & expect them to know you.

13. Don't try so hard, the best things come when you least expect them to.

Lions, Tigers and Bears. OH MY!!

Well, not really. . .There were lions, camels and penguins. . .but the first one sounds better. . .That and I just got home from school, which means I just got off my AMAZING push bike that makes me feel like I'm in the Wizard of Oz. It's ancient and squeaky and you sit upright with a straight back when you're riding it so I feel like the evil witch that's come to steel Toto from Dorothy in the black and white bit of the Wizard of Oz. . .hence the "Lions, Tigers and Bears. OH MY!" that's like my favorite line out of that movie. . .anywho. . .getting down to business. Last Monday I participated in a little competition called Lions Youth of The Year. It is a competition put on by Lions Clubs all across Australia and you go to the Lions meeting where you read out a five minute prepared speech as well as answer two impromptu questions with two minute answers. I felt as if I did extremely well, but as I am an exchange student and it is a quest for Australia's youth of the year, I went in to it knowing I couldn't really win. And I didn't. My mate Lucy did. Here's my speech. I was rather proud of it so, yes, you have to read it :)

Rotary and Lions have long maintained that some of the best ambassadors can be found among the youth, a belief that is validated every year by 7,000 Rotary Youth Exchange Students who promote the cause of world peace in 80 countries around the world.

The Rotary Youth Exchange program, like others of its kind such as Loins Youth Exchange, is about learning, understanding and accepting a foreign culture. But it also provides a window to one’s own culture through the presence and actions of youth exchange students in their host counties. Exchange students help to put a name, face and personality to the people of a country. Essentially, one-on-one exchanges help people on all sides to separate the people of a country from the government of a country. As a result, these exchanges create bridges between the people of the world, promoting world understanding and peace.

I am proud to be one of these global peace agents.

I have spent the last 6 and a half months living in Australia representing the United States of America as a Rotary Youth Exchange student. I am 16, and thus far I have lived with two host families and am attending an Australian High School. I have been lucky that English is a common language between the USA and Australia. It has made immersing myself in this new culture so much easier. Though, at times, I feel I am missing out on a large chunk of the youth exchange experience by not learning a new language. However, over the last 6 and half months, I have seen myself grow and change in ways that I never could have imagined. I feel as if who I am here and now is who I’ve always wanted to be.

Living away from home in a foreign culture at a young age is a transformative and challenging experience, one that I will never forget. There is a nothing like it, it is arguable that once a person is of a certain age, the opportunity for such an experience is lost for ever. Young people are fresh, and the world still holds some magic for us. I believe that the inexperience and naivety of youth is their greatest asset, because it makes them daring and fearless. This may drive parents crazy, but it is this spirit that makes the students fully embrace the experience of youth exchange.

Globalization has become quite a buzzword. Youth Exchange is globalization at its best. For it allows youth to reach into the heart and soul of other people and other cultures, insisting that there is a way to understand, or at least set aside, the differences that separate us as human beings and as nations. The result is an underlying notion that suggests we must make the entire earth our home and that is globalization. Both the Rotary Youth Exchange and the Lions Youth Exchange programs give young people a chance to experience the breadth of the world at a time when they will feel it most deeply and embrace that feeling personally.

Once you have lived and actively participated in a foreign culture, it is no longer just a far-away place. Every time I turn on the T.V., I don’t see the news reports with the same degree of detachment that I used to before I made friends in all corners of the globe. The gap closes between the television and me; I remain personally involved as well as globally connected.

Australia is going to change me forever. It already has. For you in the audience who don’t know me, this statement certainly lacks power. But think back, if you will, to a time that, for whatever reason, affected you so deeply that even now it springs clearly to mind. Think of a dozen of those significant times and of the people who embodied them. Think back to the images in your mind and the memories in your heart. You can quickly see how it is impossible to imagine who you would be if all that hadn’t happened to you. It is impossible for me to know who I would have been if I were not here, experiencing and immersing myself in this new culture. Australia has altered the course of my life and will forever change how I perceive the world.

Before I left the States, the world was so big. Going anywhere seemed like a huge task that would be near impossible to achieve. Now that I have been so far from home and met so many people from so many places, I realize how small the world truly is. My friends in Germany are only a plane flight away and Brazil is practically my neighbor. Coming on this exchange has made me want to join the Peace Corps, something I would never have even considered before I left. There are so many people who are less fortunate than me in this world, and I have realized that it would take so little for me to help them.

In the future I hope to return to Australia as well as see many other parts of the world. I also plan to host exchange students and become a member of the Rotary Organization. Not because I will have been asked to do so, but because I have a debt to pay for the incredible experience I have been given by Rotary. I want to continue to be involved in Rotary Youth Exchange to help future students to have a life-changing experience like only Youth Exchange, whether it is with Lions, Rotary, AFS or EFS, can offer, so that they too can open their hearts and minds to others around the world.

Long one eh?? :) That's where the Lion comes from, Lions Youth of the Year :) haha

This is a photo of my competitors, Left to Right we have; (top) club President..............., Tim (only male competitor) (bottom) Amy (best public speaker award), Lucy (overall winner), Me (Yankee exchange student), Gennaeve and Kat.

My next adventure is where the Camel come in. On Friday night, we went to a place called Victor Harbor. It's on the Fluerier Peninsula, about 2 hrs from Adelaide. It's a beach town with a nice coastal bit and and Island that you can walk to. This island is about 1.5 k's around and has the little Fairy Penguins living on it. Anywho, before walking across the causeway to the island, I rode a camel on the beach. It's now my life goal to ride a camel on EVERY continent. Wish me luck :)

This is a photo from Granite Island looking back at Victor Harbor. Absolutely gorgeous.

And this where the Penguins come in :) lol

Then, because Andrew is SOOOO amazing. . . Somehow, a four hour car drive took NINE hours. . We drove along the Coorong which is this MASSIVE, NEVER ENDING expanse of beach (literally stretches on for 100's of K's) We stopped once, which was good, cause by the end of it, i was ready to stab Andrew every time he went to turn off the main road. . .damn host parents trying to show the exchange student more of Oz. . . :)

I dare you

To turn your oven up to 114 (45 C) degrees Fahrenheit and stick your arm (or, if you're really game, as much as your body as you can, preferably including your head) in it. Really, go do it. I dared you. I'll even pause to give you time.

How does that feel? Well, for all of you who chickened out on me and didn't do it, it sucks. The last week has been between 107 (41 C) and 114 (45 C) degrees Fahrenheit. . . The first day sucks, the second isn't so bad, then by the third you're used to it. Apparently your blood thins out. . .but who believes that stuff??? I reckon it's just the fact that you've come to terms with the fact that you are NEVER going to escape the heat. Even when you enter an air conditioned building, it's still between 93 (32 C) and 98 (35 C) degrees Fahrenheit. . . but it feels SOOO good compared to outside. One day we decided to go to Jakarra's pool to escape the heat, Gabbs had this awesome underwater camera, we had some fun. . .Look at our faces :)

L to R we have Gabby, Kate, Zoe and me.

And this is the funniest photo ever. . . but brace yourself, it's not G rated :) For some reason my mates have a thing with randomly mooning the camera every time that we try to take group photos. Last time it was Lucy when we were doing those jump photos on the beach in Robe. This time it was Jakarra. And it was bloody brilliant. . .

L to R we have Gabby, Ashlee, me and Jakarra's bum (fanny, eh Lucy?? :) )

And this is just an extremely attractive photo of Kato (aussie nickname for Kate, they like to put an 'O' on the end of things. . . freaks)

And here's one of Lucy

Just so all you yankees know what kind of crowd I'm hangin with, hooligans who like to moon people :) and so I can complain about the heat :)

Dylan Agnew

Also known as Dylbrau, Dylbrauni, Dylba, Ranga, Armadlyo, The Dylmeister and Boris. Dylan is ridiculously tall, gangly, smart, horribly un-photogenic, and, sad to say, my next host brother :) He enjoys long walks on the beach :) sport, bushwalking, reading nerdy books and wishes he were a pirate AARRGGG ME MATEY!!! Most importantly, he wishes he had two heads because anyone crazy enough to want to live in Tassie MUST wish they had two heads. . . Happy Dylbrau? :)

**(Spoken fast like the side effects for some drug) This is more of an inside joke than anything, so for the rest of you, please ignore it. . . That and I have a slight concussion so I'm a bit delusional. . .

What's crack-a-lackin :)

Ya know what's amazing? Rotary. They do the most amazing job with Exchange students. There is so much support for us and they do so many great things around the world. We are actually doing bake sales and what not to earn money for TWO shelter box's. A shelter box is a box that is full of supplies for people that have recently been involved in a natural disaster or just a disaster of some kind. One box can house like 500 people or something amazing like that. Coming on this exchange has actually inspired me to join the Peace Core. Wow, I know. And they are all volunteers which makes it that much more impressive. During the last week, Rotary did another amazing thing, they exhausted 13 foreigners :) All of the exchange students in the district got together and went on a trip around the District called the Mini Safari. We drove down the Great Ocean Road and spent the nights with Host families in different towns. The whole thing started in Bordertown where Sego (France) lives. There they held and "International Dinner" where the exchange students cooked food from each country and served it to all that came. It was a huge success. It earned all the money we needed for the first Shelter Box and allowed us to start working towards a second. Then we spent two nights in Mount Gambier, one in Portland, four in Warrnambool and one in Geelong. However, I was in Tasmania for till the 17 and did not join till the 18, the second day in Mount Gambier. Each Rotary club having a million fun things planned for us along the way. By the end of it, we were sleep deprived but on a huge high. Spending time with Exchange students is one of the best things EVER.

On the day that I joined the Mini Safari, we went paint balling. Which is pretty much the best thing ever. It hurts like hell, but is fun as. You get to wear these awesome masks and these cameo jumpsuit. This is me and Luce (Germany) in our gear, well part of it. ..we didn't have the suits fully on cause it was WAY to hot. Today it's meant to get up to 41 degrees C (roughly 115 F). I'm gonna melt. I got hit a few times. Once on the inside of the thigh, that left a massive welt, and once on my other leg. The damage was not nearly so bad :) I had a blast. There's just something about sweating from places you didn't even know you could and shooting people. . . haha

That same day, we went out for tea at an Italian joint. I shared a pizza with Johanna (Germany) This is just a hilarious photo of Camila (Brazil) as she was waiting for her food. It came about five minutes after everyone else had finished eating their's. . . Good times :)

Our next stop was Portland. That was a good one. We went sand surfing. Which was pretty much the most awesome thing ever, except paint balling that is :) There was this massive sand dune that we all climbed up and just stood on the top of cause we knew that if we went back down, we weren't coming back up. We stayed up there for a few hours and sang songs, did the macerana, and just chilled looking at the ocean.

The next thing we did in Portland was go to the beach. The waves were a decent size and we attempted body surfing, but most of us just failed miserably. Then we went on a Seal tour. We saw heaps and heaps of seals. And riding in the boat was SOO much fun cause it bounced over the waves. CRAZY!! This is me and Sego (France). Thought the photo captured the moment perfectly :)

Our next stop would be Warrnambool (not sure how to spell that one. . .) We were to spent four days here. On the bus ride from Portland to Warrnambool, we stopped at this slide. We then gave the two Rotarians traveling with us all 13 cameras and posed for this amazing photograph. I love exchange students!!!

The next morning, we went shopping. Sego was VERY excited about this. She's French and got dumped in a town with 3000 people and not so much as a proper surf shop. . . .Poor thing :) Charolett (Sweden) and I went to the 2$ shop (that's a good example of the different costs here. USA has 1$ shops, AUS has 2$ shops) and bought these dorky head bands that said Aussie Aussie Aussie on them, cause that was our thing. Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi! :) Do you get the thing with Tassie now?? Anywho. . .

That same day was Camila's (Brazil) 18th Birthday. We went out for tea at a Pizza joint and got party hats. Then we went to the pictures and watched "Yes Man" with Jim Carry. I love him :)

Okay, so from left to right we have. . .Naoto (Japan), Sego (France), Meoko (Japan), Amanda (Brazil), Nick (Wyoming USA), Annie (Finnland), Luca (Germany), Johanna (Germany), Channie (Denmark), Camila (Brazil), Kevin (Switzerland), Charolett (Sweden) and Me (USA. . .duh).

Earlier that same day we attended the Warrnambool Rotary Club meeting. Because it was Camila's Birthday, Amanda who is also from Brazil taught us all to sing "Happy Birthday" in Portuguese. So at the meeting we sang it to her in English and Portuguese. As the exchange students, we got to take over the meeting. I got to be President and run the meeting. Good Fun that was. Apparently I've gotten half decent at public speaking, I have confidence :) or so one of the members said. . .
The next day we were meant to go to a shooting range and shoot pistols and clay targets. BUT. . . it was a total fire ban day so we couldn't so much as moe our lawn. . .Instead we went fishing in the ocean. We went down to this really pretty rocky spot, where you stood on a submerged rock shelf and fished off that. It was windy like you would never believe and it actually ended up raining. . . on a total fire ban day. . . This is Channie (Denmark)

That night we had a pool party and watched "Happy Feet", which is Australian by the way :) This is me, Luca (Germany) and Charolett (Sweden).

The next day we went down the Great Ocean Road and went sight seeing. We spent a bit of time in Port Campbell before continuing on to the Twelve Apostles. This is the second time I've done the Great Ocean Road trip, but it was a completely different experience with the Exchange Students. We just have so much fun together. This is me and Charolett (who you should have learned by now is from Sweden) :)

That night we played Tennis and walked around this market thing. It was there that I was talking to this booth owner and he didn't believe me when I told him I was from the US of A. He thought I was an Aussie. I can sound very Australia if you catch me saying the right sentence :) This is me, Channie (Denmark), and Luca (Germany). Don't we look cool :)

So for this entire trip we had a song. We taught each other to words and every time we were together we would sing it. Sometimes 5 times a day. The words go "We are one, but we are many. And from all the lands on earth we come. We share a dream, and sing with one voice! I am, you are, we are Australian!!" Pretty much our group in a nut shell. And I had a video of some of us singing it on the beach, but I couldn't get it to load. . .

Yesterday was Australia Day. January 26th celebrates the day Australia was settled by the British. Australia is still a commonwealth under The Queen of England. I was surprised to learn that. I got up at 5:30 AM so I could go help my Rotary club serve Breakky. Mostly I just watched the ceremony thought. They had some local singers sing patriotic songs like "Home among the Gum Trees", "I am Australian" (that's the song I was talking about), and "Beneath the Southern Skies". Then we had a Flag Raising Ceremony while singing the National Anthem, "Advance Australia Fair", which I can actually sing most of now :) Then we had three people become Citizens. One from England, one from Thailand and one from Afghanistan. Very Australian. The Scouts rose the flag. I went to a Barbi at my mates place and spent the day hangin with them.

Oh, and as a side note. It was 41 degrees Celsius today, that's roughly 108 degrees Fahrenheit. And I'm not talking about it being 108 in the car park (parking lot) I mean on the grassy field (cept all the grass is dead. . .), the car park is about 111 :). Every time you step out of an air conditioned building it feels like you've stepped into an oven and closed the door behind you. You sweat from places you never thought you could, like the corners of your eyes. And all you can think about is how hot you are. You can feel the heat of the Bitumen through the soles of you shoes and are seriously concerned about them melting. It sucks. But it's all part of the Aussie experience. And now when someone says it's "hot" back home, well, they have no idea. . .and tomorrow it's meant to be 43 AKA 110 on the grassy field. . .

Tassie, Tassie, Tassie! Oy, Oy, Oy!

If you're an Aussie, you know the reference. Cept Tassie's different, down here, they've all got two heads. Or four arms. Or six eyes. So I suppose it isn't the same thing. . .Okay, I'll stop confusing all my American readers now. The mainlanders like to take the piss out of Tassie, apparently they're all mutants down here. So yes, I've been the lucky-ist exchange student in the world and I have spent the last 8 days with the Agnew family in Tassie, A.K.A. THIS

part of the pancake. Eh Britt :) To get here, we took the "Spirit of Tasmania". Which really has nothing to do with Tasmania cause it's BIG, Tassie is VERY VERY VERY small, it is also RED and Tassie is VERY VERY VERY GREEN, not to mention WET. Hence the reason I got so muddy when we went bushwalking. Yes, we spent the first four days in the bush. Got off that BIG, RED boat and headed straight for that GREEN bush :) Cheesy I know. . .Anywho, this is a map of Tasmania, you can't really see it cause there's some dumb Yank standing in front of it, but you get the gist.




Now to shock and awe you with some of the scenery of the Cradle Mountain Lake St. Clair National Park in northern/Central Tasmania. This is a photo of one of the forest we walked through, Ryan (15 year old son) deemed it the Faghorn Forest, just like in the Lord of the Rings (NERD!) We walked roughly 10 k's (by my calculations, which are probably wrong, that's about 6 miles)into a hut where we stayed four nights. And when I say hut, by no means is it a shack, it's a big building with wooden bunks, picnic tables and counters for all of our bush cooking, it sleeps 60 when it needs to.


The second day we climbed Mount Ossa. It's the tallest mountain in Tasmania. I was bragging about this to Nic Crouch and all he said to me was "you're from Colorado and you're proud of climbing a mountain" He's right, it was a lame 5,000 feet. But it was a hell of a climb and because all the other mountains in Tasmania are even more pathetic, you could see EVERYTHING.



AND I was clever enough to use the panoramic setting on my camera so you folks back home could revel in it's beauty too :) Aren't so thoughtful?


The next day Di (Mum) and I were so sore (and it was kinda sorta snowing) we just spent the day sitting around the hut playing cards with another family. It's funny cause I've been in Australia for less than 6 months and I've seen it snow twice. Once driving through Ballarat (which has, on more than one occasion, been explained to me as a 'cold, miserable place' sorry Lachie) And then again on this bushwalking trip. This is Mount Ossa from a distance with snow on it, in January. A.K.A mid summer here in Oz. Yes, that's how far south Tasmania is.


This was another moment of genius, yay for panoramic photos!!! This was the view from the front porch of the hut. That is Mount Oakley, to climb this we would have had to wade through waste deep mud. So, being the brave soles that we are, we skipped that one :)



Okay, so after four days of hills that seemed they'd never end, 20 kilos on our backs, sleeping on wooden planks, mud mud and more mud, and eating Ryan's famous instant pudding, we headed for Hobart. The first day we went to the famous Salamanca Markets, they are similar to the Farmers markets in Durango except it's warm enough for it to happen all year round down here but only on Saturdays. I was very lucky in that our first day in Hobart happened to be a Saturday . . .Day number two, we headed up the top of Mount Wellington and took in the sights. See all that water down there? They call that a river. What a load of poppycock. As far as I'm concerned, it's a lake with open ends. But the view was marvelous.



Kay, never mind, you can't really see the water. But IF you could, you'd see that it was a large expanse of water with bits of land floating around in the middle of it and buildings on either side. AKA a lake. Or the outlet to the southern Ocean. . .what ever floats your boat :) Which, by the way, I went swimming in today. One of the most southern parts of Tasmania in fact, in the Southern Ocean where there's nothing between you and Antarctica. Yes, I live in Colorado and I'm proud of swimming in cold water :)


Yesterday we made a visit to Port Arthur, one of the best known convict sights in Australia. As you could probably guess, it's ancient and therefore slowly crumbling into the earth. But it was historical and I learned a lot. The idea behind these convict settlements was actually kind of decent. They intended to teach all the offenders trades and send them off to Hobart to become citizens. It was more of a 'correctional facility' than a prison. I also discovered that instead of flogging (whipping) they took to solitary confinement as a form of punishments. The men and women (yes, women were kept here too, as well as young boys) who misbehaved would be put into a singular cell, let out for one hour a day to exercise and forbidden to use their voices except to sing hymns in church. But even in Church, they were divided. There was a stall for each prisoner so all that they could see was the minister. I remember seeing this very room in an informational video I watched once upon a time and to actually be there was something different. That room was probably my favorite part. As you can tell by the enormous grin on my face, although I could hardly say you'd be that happy after 4 months of solitary confinement. . .