Tim Tams and School

Tim Tams are the most amazing Australian dessert you will ever eat. They are chocolate biscuts covered in Chocolate and they are the best!!! Never come to Oz without trying them. To bad they don't sell them anywhere else in the world. If you have a specialty Australian shop anywhere near you, go buy a packet NOW!!!!

This is me eating Tim Tam Cheese cake, I don't usually like cheese cake but Tim Tams are so magical, they made me love it.

This is just a photo of me in my school uniform. It's blue. . . and I have mad red eye. . .

Adelaide

This is the giant pink pony that I won at the games at the Royal Adelaide Show. The show is basically a giant county fair only it's a really really big deal.

I got to milk a cow at the show, I even got a badge!!! At the start, before you got to the actual cow, they had you squeeze a rubber glove full of water, to get the feel for it ya know?? :)

We went to Handorf the same weekend we were in Adelaide. Handorf is an old German Settlement in the Adelaide hills. I love the Adelaide hills. If I ever moved back to Oz, I think I'd live there. It's close enough to the beach and the city but it's still kind of seperate and quite. It's beautiful.

This is just a pretty photo from Kybybolite (the town I live in) on the outskirts of Naracoorte (where I go to school)

This is the show bag pavilion at the Royal Adelaide Show. This is where you buy a bag full of junk and keep it as a souvineer, I bought a wonka one and I got a funky hat to go with it!!! :) It's very bright and full of people.

These are the jesters that were wandering around to entertain the kids. hehehe :)

This is the cow that i was supposed to help out with at the show. I went with the School's Ag department. They get to rais cows for about 6 months and then they take them to the Adelaide show to have them judged. Then they get killed and sent off to a butcher. . . I don't think I've ever seen someone get so emotional about a cow. . .

We went to Glenelg on that same weekend. It was a beautiful day, 28 degrees celsius. Amazing!!! Nicola and I didn't have any bathers so we went for a swim fully clothed. It was heaps of fun!!! This is Nicola (my host sister age 14) and Marilyn (my host mom) on the Glenelg Pier.

This is Nicola's Tournament of the Minds team in full dress rehersal. It's kind of like Destination Imagination. They were heaps good, but not good enough to win :)

Photos!!!!

We went to an Aboriginal center in Halls Gap and I pretended to make a fire at the grass hut. Hehehe

I went to a wildlife Refuge in Halls Gap two weekends ago. I got to pet a Kangaroo!!! This is a photo of me and my host sister Fran. There was even an albino one. I also got to pet some wallabies and I saw as koala, a wombat, some emus and a few dingos. It was awesome. Hilarious too because there was this deer that kept following us around as we tried to feed the roos. It would bite the bag in out hands. It was hilarious.

On that same trip, we took a drive in the Grampians. These are a perfect example of Australian mountains. They aren't mountains, they're hill. I live at an elevation that's higher than their highest mountain. It makes me laugh. This is me and my host mom Marilyn.

On our way to Halls Gap we stopped off at the Giant Koala. It's hideous and totally not worth your time. But I got a photo. :)

During this same trip, we went to Horsham for a Rotary meeting. I got to meet all of the other exchange students in my district. There are about 13 or 14 or us. It was very exciting to meet all of them and I can't wait to see them again in November :)

School and what not

Well, long time no post. :) Alot has happened since the last time I posted. Well, not to much compared to my previous adventures around Oz. In the last month, I've moved in with my actual host family and started school. After my trip around australia with the Evans, I came back to Naracoorte. I moved in with the Bartoseks on the 17 of August and I started School the next day. The night I moved in, Marilyn ( my host mom) put on a family dinner for me. We had lots of food and a pavlova for dessert. It was amazing. Although, Tim Tams are still my favorite Aussie dessert. I fell for the drinking your tea through your tim tam joke. Yes, I'm that gullable.

School is so far so good. I really don't like the uniforms, simply because none of it fits right.Oh well. I do like my classes. I'm taking English, Australian Studies, Art, Outdoor Education and high Maths. The people are nice and I think I've made some friends. I've also met some really really stupid people. I have been talking to them and said I was from America then say that I was from the United States and this is the reaction that I get "wait, are those the same thing?? I don't study the map. . . " YES!!! It's common sense!!! It's annoying. I also have this group of year 8s that follow me around saying 'dude' cause apparently Americans say that alot. It kind of like being a celebirty. I'm popular without even having to try. Not many exciting thigs happen in Naracoorte, so my being here is VERY exciting. Many of the kids here have never even left the Naracoorte area. The farthest they've been is to Mt. Gambier. That's only an hour away. That's the most shocking thing. To be 16 years old and never have been more than 500 Kilometers from your backyard. It's amazing.

Now to talk about travel. I went to Halls Gap in the Grampians for a day and got to pet a Kangaroo and see a koala and a wombat. It was great fun. That same weekend, I went to Horsham to meet all of the exchange students. That was amazing. It's going to be great fun to get to know them. I have many travel plans for the future. I'm going to Adelaide this from the 9th to the 14th of September for the Adelaide show. That will be interseting, well as intersting as cows and goats can get. . .

Golfing and Footy

Last week sometime I learned how to Golf. You see, here in Australia, golfing is cheap. We spent about $20 and I learned how to golf. Apparently I do it rather well.

I went to my first Australian Rules Football game on Saturday night. We cheered for St. Kilder as that is the Evans family team. The colors are Red, Black and White. I even got my face painted.

Footy is a lot less confusing than American football and much more entertaining to watch seeing as it is a full contact sport. It is not at all uncommon for the players to break out into a fist fight in the middle of the game. It was great fun to go out and get all dressed up for this game.

More of Melbourne

These are the historical bathing houses on Brighton Beach, they are from the 1800's and are now al painted bright colors and are quite the sight.

This is Luna Park in Melbourne it is a historical theme park and the enterance is HUGE!!! If you can see me in the lower right cornor you will get an idea of how big it realy is.

This is the Cole family,well it's the kids anyways. Their parents are friends with Andrew so we had dinner with them twice. The one in the green next to me is Ellie. She is giong to the Disabled Olympics and is likely to win a sliver medal in swimming and I have her autograph!!!

Melbourne

Today Lea and had a walk around Melbourne we found this great little ally with Graffiti all around the walls. Someone had locked up their bike so we dicided to 'ride' it(me on the seat, Lea on the handle bars). It was very funny and I was rather fond of the photo.

Anyways. . . Since my last post, I've been to the famouse Bondi beach in Sydney and (put me feet in there too, unforunatly I got very wet this time. . .) We also went to Canberra and saw the Parliment house after having breaky at a cafe in the center of town. We then spent 9 and a half hours in a car an arrieved in Melbourne at 3 am. . . We have only been here for a day but Lea and I have done alot. We went to the old Jail where Ned Kelly was hung and this Graffiti ally as well as the harbor and the state library. Jaqulyn came slong with us this morning to the Queen Victoria Markets. We like Markets. I also sent off my first batch of post cards/letters. It was a costly affair. . .but I think I sent off about 10 post cards as well as two packages. It's been good. I'm dreading the return to Naracoorte and, worst of all, school. Uuugggg. . .