11 / 12

As unbelievable as it is, I've spend 11 months away from home today. Eleven.  Sounds crazy.  Haven't seen my friends, haven't been at home, haven't slept in my bed, haven't gotten Finnish food and haven't been to sauna in 11 months.

But oh so many things I HAVE done!

Eleven months is such a long time, but it has gone quickly.  I thinks it's partly because back home days, weeks and months wouldn't matter so much.  I would just go to school come home, go to school, come home and go to school again.  Here my life has been full of interesting things to experience one after another.  And another main thing is the fact that I have just one year. Sounds long, but it's still a limited time.  So managing time has definitely become a big part of my life.

Time flies.  Extremely fast.  Sometimes faster than I wish it did.  Less than three weeks and I'll be home, I'll be in Finland.  Crazy thought.

Time passes by,

Liisa

10 = 5 / 6

Ten months gone, unbelievable!!!  That's actually more than 5/6, as I'm leaving on the 8th instead of the 19th.  Sad.

I did this same kind of thing after 2 months, but as there are so many more things I've done so far I'll make a new list.  Here we go!

So far I've...

- been the only one cycling to school out of 900 people

- practiced eating with chopsticks

- learned what long distance means

- dived on the Barrier Reef

- tried Vegemite several times with same result, yuk

- soaked my camera and noticed it still works

- been polite longer than ever before

- tried chai latte which is a big thing here

- learned that time can actually fly

- sat in a bus over 10 hours in one day

- killed one deadly spider

- met people from more countries than I've been to

- had my first take away hot drink

- been to a mine three times

- had one argument with my host family

- ridden a horse 

- had 6 domestic flights

- tried surfing twice

- eaten home delivered pizza
- sat 22 hours in an airplane
- been to NSW, ACT, QLD, NT, SA and VIC, only WA and Tasmania to go

- drank more soft drinks than I did last year in total

- laughed at people when they say grain bread is dark

- had a frog, cockroach and a mouse in my room 

- met only one guy who surfs

- tried grilling marshmallows

- Climbed Uluru

- eaten kiwifruit, mango, paw paw and passion fruit

- had 7 host dogs- learned that some people eat yogurt on porridge 

- made friends to last 

- bought my first Ray-Bans

- built a gingerbread house and noticed it melts in Australia
- had more phones than in the past 8 years in total

- been the 2nd in a school carnival

- noticed that Australian berries are way worse than ours

- saved thousands of photos into my computer

- went to hairdressers once
- lived in five houses, still waiting for one

- gotten sisters, some which I'll keep in touch with when I get home

- drank hot chocolate with marshmallows

- been to the gym in the mornings
- put on way more weight I should have

- tried sushi three times

- made 175 new facebook friends

- had no big troubles with Aussie slang or accent

- mainly slept in a double bed

- spent the greatest three weeks travelling

- bought way too many pairs of shoes

- had my first kebab

- gotten more confident in public speaking

- wore thongs in +2
- said the letters L-I-I-S-A-E-L-O-R-A-N-T-A at least hundred times

- had visitors from home

- eaten peanut butter

- seen more Australia than many Australian people
- wore my school uniform correctly everyday
- noticed that the sun here is nice though dangerous

- seen two sunrises in one week

- seen kangaroos, echidnas, possums, koalas and emus
- eaten crumpets

- had too many mosquito-hunting-events in the middle of the night

- taught numerous Finnish words to different people

- sent more post cards than ever before

- lived in a tent for three weeks

- ordered junk food from drive-thru

- overslept twice on school mornings but still made it to school in time
- eaten pavlova
- met heaps of awesome people

- SURVIVED

So that's my 10 months, less than 50 day to go,

Liisa

P.S. So we're heading to the Blue Mountains early tomorrow morning, you'll see photos on Monday! (:

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 

7 / 12

Seven months, that's a good while.  I've loved my time here so far, but looks like the busy time hasn't even started until now.  No free weekends in months, no idea when will be the next full week in school.  Well, not complaining.

I skipped two days of school because of the Cockatoo Island, one last week for the the army museum lunch, four this week because of my family's visit, whole next week for same reason, one day the week after that because we're going to Blue Mountains, two days of the following week because of Rotary things...and the list goes on.  And just to mention the three week safari trip around Australia coming after that.  :P  So I guess I made my point clear; I'm busy.  And I actually really like it.  Finally people are offering me opportunities to do great things, what else could I ask for.

But then about my plans for this week and the following one.  So my family (yes the actual one) is coming to Australia to visit me.  They'll only stay for 12 days, but that's always better than nothing.  So after I meet them at the airport in Sydney on Tuesday morning (after I've woken up before three o'clock to get there on time, great!) we'll stay in Sydney for two nights.  On Thursday we'll drive back to Singleton and stay with this family.  On Friday I'll show them my school and all the awesome tourist attractions of Singleton.  That won't take too long.  And then we'll drive to Queensland and come back on the Saturday next week to stay with my first Australian family.  Sounds like a plan to me, couldn't be more excited!!! (:

So many things to look forward,

Liisa


P.S.  I saw a big red back spider today on the pool area!!!  And just to make it clear to non-Australian people; they are the ones that can kill you... heh.

6 / 12 = 1 / 2

HALF A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME ! ! !
HALF A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME ! ! !
HALF A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME ! ! !
HALF A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME ! ! !
HALF A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME ! ! !
HALF A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME ! ! !
HALF A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME ! ! !
HALF A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME ! ! !
HALF A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME ! ! !
HALF A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME ! ! !
HALF A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME ! ! !
HALF A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME ! ! !
HALF A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME ! ! !
HALF A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME ! ! !
HALF A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME ! ! !
HALF A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME ! ! !
HALF A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME ! ! !
HALF A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME ! ! !
HALF A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME ! ! !
HALF A YEAR AWAY FROM HOME ! ! !

that's a long time.

Mostly happy,

Liisa

5 / 12

FIVE MONTHS, FIVE MONTHS!  I haven't decided yet if this is a good thing or not.  I'm really happy that I've survived almost half of my year and I'm going home in seven months, but mainly I'm just sad.  I've met such an amazing people, and unlike my family and friends back home, I might never see them again.  I try not to count the days, but you can't really help it.  

We were meant to go to the Gardens tonight, because they have a huge Christmas light thing there, but because of the rain (yes, again...) we didn't.  I hope it's not going to rain tomorrow so we could go, I'd really like to.

I guess I don't have anything else to say.  Just wait my 100th post! :)

So thankful for the lovely people I've been privileged to meet,

Liisa

4 / 12 = 1 / 3

Today has been the biggest day so far, because:

- I've been away for four months

- I've spent one third of my year

- I moved to my second family

And besides all that, in Finland there's a thing called name day, and today is mine.  In calender there's names for every single day, and when it's the day with your name it's called your name day, and it's like a little celebration.  Anyway, that wasn't the biggest thing today so I'm moving on... :D

After having a nice lunch with my second host family, we came to my new home.  They have been showing to me where everything is, and I'm just unpacking my bags (the most ridiculous thing to do, is to spend two days packing everything and then unpacking them all the next day = heaps of work).  This house is about 10 km from downtown, and my room is super nice (I'm going to send pictures about it tomorrow).

There's definitely nothing wrong with this family or especially with this house, it's just really confusing to think that I'm not just visiting, I'll live here for these three months.  These are not just new strange people, they will be my family for a while.  And that I can actually unpack my bags, because this is where I'll stay; my room, my bed, my closet.

I like it when I get to know new people all the time, but it's not always that easy; I bet it's almost impossible for other people to understand the feeling when you go to live into a strange place, and when you finally get to know the family you live with and the way they do things, you move away.  And you have to start everything again, straight from the beginning. I wrote it like it would be really bad thing, it's not, I'm just trying to make you get the feeling I'm having at the moment.

Now I'm really tempted by my super soft double bed, so I'll write more tomorrow.

Good night, 

Liisa 

3 / 12 = 1 / 4

Quarter of my year: gone.  Seriuosly.  A QUARTER!

That means I only have nine months left, and also that I only have one more month with my current family :'(  Obviously I will see them sometimes because we live in a small city, and they've already promised that we can still do things together even when I live somewhere else.  Anyway, I'm not looking forward moving to the next family, and I can't stop myself counting days to that.  How funny is that; I don't miss my own family yet, but I miss the one I'm living with.  Great.

I sound so depressed and that wasn't my point.  I'm just so happy with this family, and moving to the next means I have to start everything again.  I have to give a good first impression, explain why I don't eat meat, adopt all different rules and habits, get to know my "family", tell the story of my life, and last but not least; move all my stuff there... Phew.

I guess that didn't make me sound happier so now I stop complaining. 

I thought that the weekend to come is free, but no; I'm having a Rotary weekend from Friday to Sunday.  It's different than the last ones, because it's not for exchange students.  There will be about 30 people from my Rotary club, so not many people in my age.  We are going to Wellington, which is well known because of the phosphate mine and huge caves.  I'm actually kinda looking forward that; I just know that I'll be really tired on Sunday night when we are coming back, and there's whole school week coming, and Rotary weekend again and another school week to live through... But if I forget the fact that I have to sleep sometimes, yay!  My whole host family number two is going too, so I hope to get to know them better and find out that they are nice.

After this week I'll know everything about mining, because tomorrow there's a Rotary trip to Singleton mines.  That'll be really interresting, and it's good to know more about the mines because they are a huge business here.

Quarter done, three more to go,

Liisa

2 / 12 = 1 / 6

TWO MONTHS OF MY AUSSIE YEAR ARE GONE!!!  Time flies so quickly that it's almost sad.

So far I've:

- eaten with chopsticks

- tried Vegemite

- skipped one school day just because I was feeling tired

- stood next to a horse

- had 32 mosquito bites in my body at the same time
- fallen in love with body pump, zumba, boxing and body balance

- eaten home delivered pizza, twice
- sat 22 hours in airplane
- bought one pair of really good earphones

- drank more soft drinks than I did last year in total

- met only one guy who surfs

- eaten kiwifruit, mango and passion fruit
- drawn a huge black & white picture of myself

- bought my third fake Ray-Bans
- read a really thick book in English 

- noticed that Australian berries are way worse than ours

- saved 2309 photos into my computer
- done quite a few gym classes

- drank hot chocolate with marshmallows
- put on way more weight I should have

- tried sushi

- made 99 new facebook friends

- had no big troubles with Aussie slang or accent

- bought one pair of glittery shoes

- given three speeches
- said the letters L-I-I-S-A-E-L-O-R-A-N-T-A approx. one hundred times

- learnt that you can eat kiwifruit with the skin

- fallen in love with my squeaky double bed
- eaten peanut butter

- used half of my gym membership time
- wore my school uniform correctly everyday
- been told more than enough scare stories about Australian summer

- seen eight kangaroos, echidna and possum, three koalas and few emus
- eaten crumpets

- had too many mosquito-hunting-events in the middle of the night

- taught numbers 1-10 in Finnish twice

- ordered junk food from drive-thru

- overslept twice on school mornings but still made it to school in time
- eaten pavlova
- met heaps of awesome people

= HAD GREAT TIME!!!

Enjoying Australia,

Liisa

1 / 12

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