Adelaide Or Bust!

So I've been living in a town called Naracoorte South Australia for the last 9 months. A place that's a 6 hour drive from Melbourne, 16 hours from Sydney, a bloody world away from Cairns, a different land mass than Tasmania and a mere 4 hours drive to Adelaide. Yet, I've been to Sydney twice, Melbourne more times than I can count, made it down to Tassie and up to Cairns before visiting Adelaide. The capital of my own state. This pretty much makes me pathetic. . .wouldn't ya say? I've spent more time in Victoria than I have in South Australia. And to anyone living in South Australia, they would recognize this as a great Betrayal. Victorians are the dirty Mexicans of Australia. They live south of the (NSW) border :) But no, not this time. I was determined to show some South Australia pride. I spent 5 days in Adeliade doin the Tourist thang with my thrid Host Family, the Agnew's.

First we went to the Monarto Zoo. Now look at that word 'Monarto'. It is pronounced monato. That, like the word 'arse', is the Australian accent in a nutshell. They put useless, meaningless R's in the middle of words just to make themselves different. Bloody hopeless I'd say. Oh, and get this! They do it with U's too!! Colour? Flavour? Labour? What is this country doing to me!!?!?!? Anyways. . .back to the Zoo :) It's a massive chunk of land that was meant to be used to expand the city of Adelaide but because the soil is hopeless for growing crops and no one ever got around to building any hospitals or schools, it's a zoo. With animals mostly imported from South Africa and the USA. There were Bison, Zebras, Giraffes, African painted dogs, lot's of African deer and antelope of some kind or another and Lions. This photo is of Leroy. The king of the Pride. Looks pretty scary. . . RRRAAAWWRRRR!

And the Zebra's. Which is pronounced Z-eh-bra, none of this Z-eeeee-bra hoopla.

Oh, now this is exciting. Well, more exciting than the grammar lesson I've been giving you :) I went to the Footy on Friday night right. Aussie Rules is just about the only sport I can sit down and watch. Cricket is hopelessly boring and Grid Iron is incredibly confusing. Footy just makes sense. It was a St Kilda (My Team) V.S. Port Power match. The Saints creamed Power. Beating them 106 to 32. GO SAINTS!! There was a members thing after the match and my host Dad is a member so I got to meet some of the players and got an autograph on my scarf. To bad I have no idea who this bloke is, let alone what position he plays. . .I'll have to google that one and get back to you on it :) I only know that he was nearly 7 feet tall and is pratically bent in half for this photo. . .WOW.

And then there was ANZAC Day (April 25). Australia and New Zealand Army Corps Day. A day to celebrate and thank all of the men and women who have put their lives on the line for Australia's Freedom, Peace and Safety. There was Dawn Service which I attended. I now have a new respect for the soldiers or a country. I would never do such a thing, but those who do are Heros in my eyes. The ceremony was beautiful. It's to bad we don't do anything like this for the Hero's of the USA.

"Yankees Invade Oz"

A family of three traveled all the way across the world to see me. Yes, I am that important. :) I mean, they stopped at a few places along the way. . .places like Sydney, Cairns and Melbourne. But their sole reason for being in Australia was to see me. That would be my family. The yankees who invaded Oz. My mum, twin sister Hayely and older sister Autumn. I met them in Sydney where we did a bridge climb, rode on the ferry to Manly at night (which is SOOO pretty)and went to a play at the Opera House. Mum even got herself on the news!! There was a massive blackout in the CBD the night we were meant to go to the Opera House to see our play, the camera man interviewed mum and *SNAP* she was on the National News. Just like magic.

Left to right we have Autumn, Hayely and me at the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Pretty amazing feeling that is.

This is my mum on the Ferry to Manly. People say she looks like me. . .?

We also went to the Blue Mountains on a Bus trip. We went to a wildlife park and then drove up and tried to see the Three sisters. Problem was, it was foggy as and we couldn't see a thing. So here, have a photo of four smiling super tourists who even went so far as to have their photo posed with a Koala :)

(L to R) Autumn, me, Mum and Hayley.
And here's another irrelevant photo. We then went up to Cairns and spent two nights staying on Green Island. Which is an island made out of Coral sediment stuff. It's millions of years old and has a thriving rain Forest living on it. We spent three days snorkeling and got our backs horribly burnt. And seeing as snorkeling requires that you be in the water, I never took my digital camera down and got a photo of us. So here's one of some complete strangers :) The Coral was very pretty and, the farther out you went, the more diversity there was. Me and my sisters also went for a short Scuba Diving adventure in the Outer Reef. That was really good. You would expect the colours to be brighter but the water, it dulls the colour. But it's still well worth the trip.

We also went up to the Tropical Rain Forest near Cairns and did Sky Rail. Which was BEAUTIFUL!!! It's so green up there! Everything here is either brown, a crisp yellow color or well.. .brown.

Then we were off to Melbourne. After the four hour plane flight we got off expecting there to be an hour time difference. When the captain announced that there wasn't one. We were all SOO confused. Then someone came to their senses and remembered that that wonderful thing called daylight savings must have ended and everyone was happy again :) That night we went over to the Cole's house and had Tea. Then we got on Public Transport and headed for the City. We did the Queen Victoria Markets and looked at some of the touristy things in Melbourne.




L to R we have Autumn, Mum, me, Hayley and Britt Cole who tagged along as our tour guide :)

Things like this awesome Graffiti Alley where it's just full of art.

(Hayley and Mum)

Then we made our way over to a place called Halls Gap in the Grampians. Real Australia. Out of the cities and into the country, my land. Where there is nothing but gum trees. I love it. This is Borken Falls near Mckenzie falls on the other side of the mountains from Halls Gap. Here we went out for tea with my Country Contact with Rotary, Sue Williams and her husband Allan.

(Hayley, mum and Autumn)

The next day we made our way over to Naracoorte. Where I made them stay a night in Kyby, my first host family lives there. It's literally two shacks and a footy oval, TINY. Then we went to the caves and pretty much did nothing else aside from meeting my people cause that's all that's worth seeing here in Naracoorte. A town NOT meant for tourists, one that was totally unprepared for this yankee invasion.

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. . .