Weekends' program

In this post I'll tell a bit more what we did during the weekend.  The program was:

FRIDAY

18.30  We were dropped off to the place where we stayed

19.00  Chicken burgers for dinner

19.30-  Free time

00.00  Finally bed time!

SATURDAY

6.30  Wake up

7.00  Breakfast

8.00  Transport to Yacht club

9.00-  Sailing in lake Macquarie

12.00  Transport to adventure park, lunch

17.00  Return to the place where we stayed

18.00  BBQ dinner (= meat dinner :D) with our districts rotary people  

19.30  'Reptile man'

20.00  Free time

00.00 Again: FINALLY bed time.  The day was awesome, but after climbing 4½ hours in trees It was nice feeling to go to bed. :D

SUNDAY

6.30  Wake up (this time with lights... I guess we were hard group to wake up, especially in the second morning :DD)

7.00  Breakfast and packing

7.50  Travel to club Macquarie, waiting (read: sharing pins and taking heaps of photos)

9.15 Introduction

9.45  Speech about health, homesickness and personal safety

10.30  Morning tea and maybe best muffins I've ever eaten 

11.00  Presentations and speeches about expectations, insurance (I've heard quite a few speeches about this topic :D) and Capricorn ramble 2012. Capricorn ramble is three-week-long safari around Australia, and our district does it in April.  It would be great to be part of that amazing trip and see Great barrier reaf, Ayers rock etc.  Only bad thing is the price; it costs more than 3000 AUD, so we'll see what happens with it. :/

12.50  Lunch; only meat sandwiches and meat wraps.  (For people who doesn't already know it, I don't eat red meat and that's why I'm telling these kind of stupid things :D)

13.30  Advises how to make a good speech, and preparing a three minute one

14.00  Speeches.  I don't really like public speaking, and when you have only 15 minutes to write your speech without using your own language; Phew!

After this we headed to our homes.  The weekend was great (especially Saturday... :D), and I'm looking forward to meet this group again!

I have few more pictures, so I'll put them below:

Sometimes the obstacles were a bit hard :D

And one picture from our official Sunday...

All pictures above by George Koncz

My blazer after the weekend:

xo from Australia,

Liisa

Orientation weekend

You may thought that I've forgotten you, but that's not true.  I have been really busy with school assessments and things, and I spent my whole weekend with other exchange students.

Saturday was an amazing day.  We woke up early and headed to yacht club.  I have never been sailing, so that was nice experience.

After that we went to tree top adventure park in Minmi.  It' wasn't allowed to take cameras into the park and that's why I don't have any pictures from there.  I'll put the link here, so you can see the place, and get more information about it.  There's also pictures in their website, so you can get a little bit of an idea how it was like:

http://www.treetopadventurepark.com.au/home.php

When we finally got back, a man with reptiles came to the house.

I'm afraid of snakes and high places, so the weekend was quite challenging.  I still liked it, and the best part was to get to know people all around the world, people who are in same situation as I am.

Super tired,

Liisa

Day in Sydney

We spent the whole Sunday in Sydney and these are the results; lots of new experiences and COUPLE new photos taken... :D

After meeting the aboriginals we went to aquarium.  

My host family also took me to the Chinese part of Sydney, so below you can see my first try to eat with chopsticks...  Believe me, it is HARD! :D

After lunch we took a drive back to where our car was.  

That day was great, and I have to admit; I really like Sydney.  

Had an amazing weekend,

Liisa

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It has been a whole month since I left my home, so ONE MONTH BEHIND, ELEVEN MORE TO GO!  :))  In this post there's no good theme or topic, I just write random things because I want to make a 'I've survived one month' -post... :D

So, sounds really weird, but I can honestly say that I'm not feeling homesick.  I'm really close with my family and I have a lot of good friends back in Finland, so that's pretty odd.  But on the other hand it's really good, because it's easier for me to be here when I'm not thinking my 'old life' all the time.  Hardest thing is to listen my favorite songs, because usually they are strongly connected to someone or some situation.  When I remember those nice memories again - that's when I miss my home most.

I have been a bit sick last few days, and this is one thing I'd like to do in my own country, in my own home and in my own bed.  It's so easy when I'm in home and I say to my mom that I'm sick and I have the same kind of flu as always; she knows what I mean.  And if I say that I'm feeling sick, she knows that I'm really feeling sick because I don't say that without a reason. When I'm here and ask for handkerchiefs because I have a flu , people just make jokes about that.  I can tell you that in that situation you don't find them really funny...

And it's different when you are in home and you know where can you find items you need.  Here it's different because you have to ask a permission to use their blow drier; you can't just lock the toilets door and dry your hair. Or if you need some personal things, it's way harder to ask those in different language from strange people, than ask them from people who you know, or just go to shop by yourself and buy them.

For me life here hasn't been super hard, I mean everything has worked pretty well.  I don't know if I'm really good in English, but I haven't had big problems in speaking it.  I've said couple really stupid things, but nothing serious.  Like when we were in shops last weekend I said that 'Now I'll go and watch the shoes.'  My host mum just laughed and asked me what are the shoes doing.  And as you can guess, during this week I've heard couple of times jokes about watching things... :D

Greetings from rainy Australia,

Liisa

Sports uniform

I got my sports uniform yesterday, so today was the first day I wore it. There are just two quite ugly shirts and pair of normal track pants, but after that winter uniform it feels like the best clothing ever.  With those, I should wear white joggers or other shoes with I can run with, but today I just used my normal shoes. 

There are also shorts in sports uniform, but now it's too cold for me to use them.  When it gets warmer, I'll send you a picture about those as well. :)

Feeling a bit sick,

Liisa