Plans for the weekend

Just letting you know what is going to happen this weekend.  So I'm going to take a bus to Maitland in about an hour, and a train from there to Newcastle.  I have no clue why there are no trains from Singleton today, but this should hopefully work as well.  In Newcastle I'm going to catch up with my Scandinavian friends, and we'll stay the night at one of them's place.  Tomorrow morning we'll have to meet at the train station with all the other exchange students from my district.  From there we're going to take a train to Sydney, because our safari briefing is held there.  It'll only take couple of hours, so I should be back to Newcastle tomorrow evening, where from my lovely host family offered to pick me up because there are no trains again.

Something I'd call relaxing, quiet weekend...,

Liisa

100 DAYS

ONLY 100 DAYS LEFT ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !  Time goes so quickly that it's actually really scary!  It is unbelievable that it was that long ago I arrived.  

I just realized how busy I am when I was trying to arrange a skype date, and ended up saying that next time I'll be available is mid May.  Seriously...

Oh well, at least I'm having fun and enjoying it at the moment!  Tomorrow Newy, Sydney on Sunday, couple more days of school, holidays, Queensland, our big Rotary trip around Australia, school camp...  I'm quite convinced that it can't possibly get any better than this!!

Having the best time in my life,

Liisa

Update

I just thought to write a bit, though nothing much has happenend.  I'm having a bit troubles with my blog at the moment as it says I can't add anymore photos, but I'm sure I'll sort that out soon. 

Today we had a cross country carnival; same kind of thing as our swimming carnival, just a bit smaller and obviously running instead of swimming.  And I actually jogged even though not many people in my year did.  So a very good start for a day. (:

I keep telling how I'm so busy, just this is a list of things I'm getting up to soon:

- This weekend is a free one (only one in a good while), so I'll spend it with my host mum and we might also go to the movies with some people from my year.  There's a Rotary group study team from Denmark and Lithuania coming to visit Singleton, and one person from the group will stay at my place till midweek.  Should be interesting!

- The following Sunday after that I'll have to go to a briefing in Sydney.  It's for all the exchage students in the three districts going on the safari together.  Not that I mind Sydney, not at all, but it's only for couple of hours and therefore requires quite a bit of organizing.  Especially when I'm in Singleton and no trains come here the afternoon.

- The weekend after is Easter, and I'm flying to Townsville which is in Queensland.  There I'll meet my host mum's parents and see the place she's been living in.  My host dad works in a mine up in Queensland so after Townsville I'll fly there.  We'll fly back on the Friday, so I have one packing weekend before the safari.

- And the following Wednesday will be the start of our three week trip around the country yay!!!

Hopefully you'll see photos soon,

Liisa

8 / 12 = 2 / 3

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight months done.

Today, I have less than one third to go, less than four months and I'll be home.  When you think of one year beforehand it seems to be a really long time, but at the moment looks like it's going waaaaay too fast!  I just came and I'll be going so soon, makes me a bit sad.   

Time DOES fly,

Liisa 

Weekend away

I'm leaving tomorrow at 9.30 to go to Warren where we are having our Rotary district conference.  Warren is a tiny little place hours drive away, but I'll tell you more details when I get back on Sunday night.  All of our exchange students will be coming, so it'll be a great opportunity for us to catch up before starting the safari (which will be just over a month away!!!!!!)

Have a great weekend,

Liisa

Dinner night

In some Rotary clubs there's a tradition that once a week or once a month the exchange student has a dinner with one of the Rotary members and their family.  I haven't been doing that before, but yesterday I had a terrific start; great dinner with great people in a house as great as this!! (:

'

Had an awesome night,

Liisa

Laurieton

Last place within our tour, Laurieton! (If you'd like to see what this is all about; be my quest and read all the way from the beginning. :) )

So from Armidale we headed to the coast, over the hills and different views.

After three nights of walking on the beach and just relaxing we headed back to Singleton to meet my first family.  So that was the story of our trip.  "And everyone lived happily ever after" :P

Was good to see my original family,

Liisa

Armidale

You might want to get to the beginning of this little 'series' about our holidays, most welcome to do it by pressing this.  If not, then just keep reading! (:

We came back from Brisbane via inland, just to see a bit different part of the country before stopping in Armidale.

One more place to go,

Liisa

Brisbane

To the beginning of this travelling story from here.  So this stop is Brisbane. Just to be perfectly correct; we stayed in Windsor which is just outside of Brisbane, as we thought that wouldn't be ridiculously expensive and would save us driving in a big city (as, in the matter of fact, after Sydney no one was really eager either driving the car or sitting in it in those conditions. haha).  So first in the morning we took the train downtown and had a nice morning coffee, then took a tourist 'hop on - hop off' kinda bus which took us to the gardens and to a great look out.  After that we went to the art gallery (which was really great in aboriginal art; one more box to tick in terms of the wishes and expectations for this holiday), and just to finish up, we took a ferry up the river.  Phew, busy day! (:

If wondering about the differences amongst these photos, some of them are taken with a different camera which belongs to my brother.  And about the rest of them he took with my camera... so can't really take any credit for the whole post, awkward.  :D 

That was a full day,

Liisa

Brunswick Heads

The next stop on the list was Brunswick Heads.  The only meaning of this photo (besides that it's pretty much the only one I have from there) is to tell that it was first and foremost a family holiday; some days we spent driving like crazy, others in art galleries and some days just laying on the beach.  Four people, four desires and four different expectations for the holiday; I think, at the end, we did quite well with that.

Wait for the next stop for more photos (which will be better, promise),

Liisa

Port Macquarie

This post is a continuation to my little holiday photo series.  If you want to actually read about the trip and find out where we were, be my guest, but now to the pictures! (:

Will be continued,

Liisa

Sydney

This post and couple of the following ones will be photos from our trip. One stop - One post.  If you want to read more about the actual trip, feel free, but now; lets get started with Sydney!  (If I look over excited, just blame the fact that I haven't seen my family for over 7 months. :P)

One day - One place - One post,

Liisa

Road trip

Finally, finally, finally ! ! !  Waiting for some evidence from our road trip? Here it comes!  :)  I might have already told you some things as I made super quick updates along the way, but this is meant to be a proper one covering the whole trip.

Just to get started and make it a bit easier for you to follow what I'm talking about: this is our route.  So as you can see; doable in 12 days, but still quite a bit of driving.  We started our little family holiday by spending two days in Sydney.  After coming back to Singleton on Thursday (and participating my Rotary club meeting), we left on Friday afternoon after visiting my school. My family flew back on the Sunday afternoon, so we came back the Saturday lunch time, just to have enough time to spend with my first family.

* By pressing these little stars after the names of the places we went to, you'll get into a post with photos from there.  Hope it's not too confusing!  (:

TUESDAY: My family flies in at 6.05, so I'll wake up at three o'clock and my counselor and I drive to Sydney.  After picking them up from the airport we go to the Sydney Harbor to have a little breakfast all together before my counselor leaves us to drive back.  My family and I discover Sydney* together the rest of the day (and go to bed really early as they suffer a bit of jet lag hehe :P).  And my mum and I, just because we are the only ones awake at that point of night, see fireworks over the Harbor, how great timing! (:

WEDNESDAY: Ferries, buses, trains, Harbour Bridge, NSW Art Gallery (+Picasso!), Bondi Beach, The old part of Sydney, and my favorite one; The Observatory hill on night time.  Couldn't have a better end for such a great day!  (:

THURSDAY: Leaving to the airport to pick our car at three o'clock, just on time to get to Singleton at six to the Rotary meeting (not).  After making my dad to drive with an odd car, automatic as he has never driven one before, on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road, we all giving tips without GPS or proper maps...great time...we finally arrive to Singleton and actually make it to the Rotary meeting.  Phew.

FRIDAY: Leaving Singleton after showing my family the school I go to.  We leave later than we were planning so we end up spending the night in Port Macquarie*; not a bad place to be!

SATURDAY: From Port Macquarie to Brunswick Heads*.  We were thinking of going to Byron Bay as it's a small beach place many people go for holidays, but because it was Saturday night there wasn't room anywhere and we ended up driving a bit more.  We stayed the night in Brunswick Heads and had the best Mexican food for dinner.  (:

SUNDAY: Heading to Brisbane!!  And when getting there driving around for god knows how many hours trying to find a place to stay at.  600 dollar suite...hmmm...NEXT!  Finally found a nice place to stay at, just a bit out of Brisbane*.  We had a nice night in Windsor and decided to stay another one in the same place.

MONDAY: Brisbane!!!  Sightseeing tour, look out over the whole city, Gardens, Art Gallery, River cat  up and down the river and a bit of shopping. What a day! (:

TUESDAY: Starting to head back to Singleton.  We decided to go inland as we went up on the coast. Staying the night in Armidale*.

WEDNESDAY: Lets keep going.  After a short drive getting to Laurieton*; nice place just below Port Macquarie.  We decide to stay all of our three remaining nights before the last night in my first family.  Couple of hundred meters from the sea, couple of meters from the swimming pool, not too bad!

THURSDAY: Time to relax in Laurieton.  Ocean and the swimming pool, that's all you need, right?

FRIDAY: Exploring Laurieton and souvenir shopping, wait to see my blazer after this week!

SATURDAY: Leaving Laurieton after a nice swim in the sea with my brother: six o'clock, grey landscape, cold, ridiculously windy and pouring rain, lets say it was a refreshing experience.  FUN! :D

SUNDAY: After a great time in my first family we'll head to the zoo as we couldn't go yesterday (not that we didn't try; it has been raining and it was flooding there, and as we have a normal little hire car there's no way getting over the 40cm water...).  My family leaves after our time in the zoo, see you in 4,5 months!! (:

In the next post I'll send all the photos.  Just to be nice and not to block the whole thing; soooo many photos. :)

Tired,

Liisa

Back in one piece

Just letting you know that we all came back from out little road trip safely and had a great last night with my first host family.  And after seeing koalas and feeding the kangaroos this morning, my family flew home (hopefully; haven't heard about them since).

I'm quite tired from the travelling, but just be patient and I'll update about our trip.  I promise; won't be long, and won't be too boring as I have million photos. :)

Grateful for all of my families,

Liisa