Day 48

Hey there! 5 days left Gold Coast! TGI FRIDAY! I am so tired from all the week! So, today was pretty normal day...Instead of PC class we had House Meetings in which the students from Y11 who wanted to have a leadership position,(vice-house captain or vice-sports captain) gave speeches and we voted online. (Check out the screenshots I took from my phone of the voting procedure! I thought it was really cool! After lunch the seniors put music in the Langford Theatre and free style danced, which was pretty cool! We had music today and we played the piano and also sang along to a couple song in the piano and the guitar! I love being surrounded by people who love music as much as I do! After school we went to Montana's touch game and came back home at 6! Talk to you later! :)

Day 47

Hey there! So...today was a bit weird. It was quite a big difference without the Canadians here :( However, it was a pretty normal day...After school Montana had a dentist appointment and I went shopping and got some pressies! :)
Talk to you later!

Day 46

Hey there! Today is the last day of the Canadians, which is really sad. I am going to miss them so much, especially Meg. She is like a best friend to me and we became really close after all of these weeks together sharing Music, Drama, CLD, lunch, morning tea, theme parks together. I hope she had an amazing time here and I am really glad I got to meet somebody like her! She is the funniest person, I am really gonna miss her when she leaves, but I guess that feeling will be around me all of the 8 days I have left with all of the goodbyes that I still have to say... 

Presents from St. Hilda's

Today we also had morning tea with Mr. Peter Crawley. He invited the exchanges from Canada and me to talk about our experience, it is really nice of him! They gave us a bag with some St.Hilda's stuff and I asked if I could get their annual magazine to take back to school so that everybody can see what it looks like! 
There's not much left to talk about today...I am really gonna miss Meg and I really hope I get to see her again someday :)
Talk to you later! 

Day 45

Hey everybody! Today is Tuesday 25th, and from today I have around 9 days left in Australia which is kind of sad. Anyway, I must admit I am pretty homesick...I miss my family, my friends, my boyfriend, my bedroom...Luckily I brought Dulce de Leche with me because otherwise I'd be starting to eat Vegemite! (Vegemite is a dark brown Australian food paste made from 
leftover brewers' yeast extract with various vegetable and spice 
additives ) I have a theory about Vegemite, which is that only Australians like it, and I am pretty sure than less than 5% of people of other parts of the world do too. 




Back to my morning, today I had music, physics, english, CLD and modern history. On the last period we had a Whole School Assembly. Its theme was about what yourself. Mr. Peter Crawley, the Head of School, gave a speech about rumors, expressing that you have to chose who to believe and who not to. Also you have to learn to listen to others, but mainly to yourself. It is very important to be conscious about what one thinks about himself. He showed two clips while giving his speech(both posted above in the order mentioned).  The first one was about people being pranked about an elevator working as a time machine. The second one was one we saw at school about how one sees themselves and how others see you. It was an ad by Dove 
He concluded with the reflection that we don't want to be fooled like the ones in the video about rumours, but you also need to be aware of what your own opinion about yourself is. It was a very nice speech and it was followed by the prize giving of the Swimming Carnival, with all sorts of cups. 
Montana had Physics tutorials, so I waited for her until 5 pm and then we went back home. We had wraps for dinner and after that everybody headed off to do their homework. Instead I read and blogged haha. 
Before I leave, in case you haven't noticed, I added a gadget that you will find in the right hand side of the blog with the days, hours, minutes and seconds I have left here. 
Talk to you later! 

Whole School Assembly

Day 44

Drama cabins

And the countdown begins! 10 days to leave :( Unfortunately I am starting to saying goodbye to everybody...Montana is planning a farewell party for me this Saturday with the boys from TSS and the girls from St. Hilda's, which is going to be fun so stay tuned for that!
I am starting to get used to writing every single day, even school days so I might just start writing without no real purpose, but there is always something to write about here!
My first period was English, which is in the drama cabins. (Photos below)

Front (modern h. library classroom)

 These are quite far away from the school main buildings. To give you an idea there is a complete field in between of the main buildings and the drama cabins, it is quite far away. The cabins have around 4 classrooms which are used for English and CSP English, CLD (Character Leadership Development or R.E (Religious Education).

Left side(modern h. library classroom)

The second period was Modern History, which was good. Today we were at a classroom at the library. These are one of my favourite ones.
I will make sure to post photos of this one below (front, right and left side). 

Right side(modern h. library classroom)

Later we had PC (pastoral care) in which we discussed on a little farewell class for me next Monday with lots of food :) hahaha. After that we had morning tea and drama. In drama we read a very cool play called "Love child"by Joanna Murray-Smith. Finally we had CLD, in which I talked to Imogen a lot (exchange student from Holland) and signed her flag. We also showed each other our schools and talked about their differences, for example, she doesn't have to wear a uniform! Our last class today was Physics in which we did a couple experiments on reflection. 
The day is ending now and I read all day a book I got in Kindle since I got from school called 'Hopeless'. We had dinner with all of the family, including Montana's grandpa who lives in a house right next to us (just in case I hadn't mentioned it yet). 
Hope everybody had a really nice day!
Talk to you later! 

Day 43

MOVIE WORLD

Hey! Today we woke up and left to Movie World! This is a theme park which was AMAZING. I absolutely loved it. It reminded me of Universal Studios in U.S.A for anybody who was been there already, since it is as if you were inside of a movie. You'll travel past Indian reservations, ghost towns, geysers and wagon trains to put you right in the middle of a western movie set. 

We went to the most amazing rides I have ever been to. I used to be really scared of them, so I can't actually believe that I did all of this today. I am going to be posting 3 videos of three rides which were amazing (Superman, Arkham Asylum and The Green Lantern). Fun fact? The superman ride goes from 0 to 100km per hour in two seconds. TWO SECONDS. How amazing is that? It was seriously the fastest ride.  (It is the second video and play it from 0:44 because that's were the actual ride starts). I also attached the one of the Green Lantern (first video)which was the first ride we went to when we got here and it has the steepest inverted drop in the Southern Hemisphere. The Arkham Asylum was amazing too, actually it is the first of its kind in the world! There is also a video for you too see guys! (third one). In this one your feet are hanging. You can see the people in a little square down at the bottom right of the video, and you'll see it, it makes it even scarier.

I absolutely loved this day! Talk to you later! 

 

Day 42

BRISBANE

Softball game

Hey there! Today we went to Brisbane! We woke up around 6:45 and at 7  we left to see  Montana's softball game, which was in Brisbane. Unfortunately, they lost but it was a fun game to watch! Later we went shopping and I bought some make up and gifts for home!
When we got back I had a nice nap haha and later around 5 we had dinner while watching Pretty Little Liars.
Talk to you later!

Day 41

HOSPITAL - E.R

As you might be able to tell by the title today was a pretty dramatic day. I woke up to go to school and as I got changed I started feeling dizzy. All I remember is that. When I woke up I was on the ground and felt completely confused. Anyway I got dressed up and went to the

kitchen since it was already 7:30 and we usually leave to school at that time. However I made sure to tell Donna and Walter that I  had fainted, and they made me stay home. After they both got back from dropping Montana and Tyler at school they both came to check on me and I wasn't feeling okay so they decided to take me to the Robina Hospital. We got there about 11 and around 2:30 they called me to go in. When I got in there I had my blood pressure tested, blood tests, urine tests and x-rays. Everything was okay but the blood tests made my pressure go even lower so I had to stay there until I was alright. Now I am at home, healthy and resting...I must admit it was a pretty scary day, but everything is alright now. 

Talk to you later! 

Day 40

Hey there! School again today...The day started with music, but it was only for 20 minutes because today is photo day! In St. Hilda's (Australia) they have a yearbook which is just like ours, but it has everybody's photos every year in it as well as the form photo. In year 11 there are more than 130 students, which is quite a lot compared to our year 11, which only has less than 30! Everybody got their individual photo and finally their form photo.
The students who did Modern History had a 2 - 3 hour lecture on history. I am now in Physics and I noticed that the lecture started and that I forgot about it! So yeah...I was actually really excited for it because they were going to talk about Nazism and terrorism. Specially for Nazism since we studied it last year in IGCSE History and I really enjoyed it, so I am quite disappointed for not getting the time of the lecture right...
Later on we had a house meeting. All of the houses had them and we got congratulated for the swimming competition and some swimmers got spirit badges! (great idea that we could add to out school!) In the end of the assembly we played a game which was about guessing the song (the one who did gor a chocolate) and finally did the house war cry! It was lots of fun! 
I'll talk to you later!

Year 11 Individual photos

Year 11 Form photo

House meeting at Langford Theatre

Day 39

WET N' WILD

Today we decided to take the day off and visit one of the theme parks Wet n' Wild! It was better going on a weekday because if not these get really busy.  Montana and I went together with the exchanges from Canada, Megan and Hannah. We went to amazing slides, we got a tan, and we had heaps of fun! I didn't take many photos of the park since I just left my phone in my bag because I wouldn't have liked it to get it wet.  The park wasn't very crowded and we went on every single slide or ride. We had the best time today and it was sunny and a very clear day. It was really hot, however, so it was a good choice coming to Wet n' Wild today. I am going to go to Movie World too, (another theme park) but maybe someday that it isn't that hot, so I am looking forward to that! When we got here the first thing we did was going to every slide that we saw.  Around 12 we had a very nice lunch and later went to a couple more slides that we were missing and then we waited with the exchanges to get picked up while we tanned by the wave pool. We went to a ride (the only one there was in this park) which you can see in the photo below. It is like a curve which simulates a wave. Its called the Surfrider Ride. I am going to post a picture below with what the ride looks like and a video that I found on Youtube too, this might have been the scariest ride that I have been to today. Basically it is a surfboard that glides up and down a 30 meter wave while spinning. The best slide we went to was the Tornado! I am going to post a Youtube video so that you all can see what it looks like! 

Around 4 pm we got picked up and went back home. We had dinner around 5:30 and Montana left for her Touch match. It is really hot so I am having trouble sleeping...I'll guess I will try again. 

Talk to you later! 

Wave pool

Surfrider Ride

Day 38

Lunch time with Kate!

Today after I woke up and was putting my contacts on I noticed that one was missing, so apparently I lost one and I will have to get new ones, which wasn't quite a nice start of the day I must say. However, today was a nice day of school. Each day is getting even hotter and hotter that it is unbearable. Luckily all classrooms count with air con, if not I would've completely melted by this time. I am writing on a school day again since today we had chapel. Chapel today was in the multi purpose center and its theme was 'Valentine's Day'. There were some funny clips, a video made by students asking what this festivity meant to some teachers, a speech, and the reflection. The stage was all decorated with love hearts and in the end of chapel after singing all together Elvis Presley's 'I can't help falling in love with you' hit, we did a fun quiz. There were questions such as 'who is cupid?' or 'In "The Notebook", how many letters does Noah write to Ally?'. The student who picked her hand up first got the microphone and if she got the answer write she was given a lolly or a chocolate. It was a really nice chapel and it was really interesting. 

Where I am currently sitting in the Horton Library

I am now waiting for Montana who is at her English tutorials. These tutorials are of a certain subject each day and teachers stay from 3:25 to 5:00 pm to help students who have trouble with a certain assignment or even the whole subject so as to get better at it, which I think is a great idea.

Today I took some more photos of the school. They will be posted here and explained with a caption below. 

CSP Classroom

• 

  Part of the playground 

Langford Theatre (Drama classroom)

Langford Theatre (Drama classroom).

Day 37

Meg (Canada exchange) and me at lunch

Today we had a normal school day. We are all pretty tired since it's Monday, but today was fun! It was a really hot day today...We had a really interesting drama class in which we learnt about Stanivlasky's circle of attention. We did a very fun activity for this, but before we all laid on the floor, closed our eyes and imagined what our teacher told us too and got really relaxed. Once we were done with that part of the class we all got something to write on and sat in a circle. There was a black cloth in the middle and underneath there was a tray full of objects. We had 60 seconds to observe all the details we could see about the objects that layed on the tray. Later we had another 60 seconds but to write down every single object we remembered. When we all finished we were given 60 extra seconds to look at the tray again and look for even more details to describe the objects. Finally we had 60 seconds to write that information down and we put everything in common.  It was surprising to see how much details people can observe and how many different ways that people use to remember all of them! 

Drama activity tray

I also had music today and I talked a lot with Peta, one of my music classmates. We were playing the piano together and we found out to have the same music taste, which led to a really interesting conversation! I loved getting to know her better! This week is Non Nobis Solum Week! This means that all the houses make something to give to others and raise funds for charity! For example, the Melaleucans did bracelets with the words that represent the school (Grace, love, compassion, forgiveness and hope). They cost two dollars and all the money went to charity. The people from Banksia did some hearts to put on boards to write nice messages to others and post them, and I am not sure about what the people from Karragaroo are going to do! 
We are now waiting at the school library to get picked up! 

Talk to you later! 

Horton Library

Day 36

Hey there! So today was a very chilled day. I woke up about 8 am and went to talk to Walter for a while. While talking to him I started feeling really dizzy and heat started to run through my body. My sight was also getting quite blurry and there were flashes of color everywhere. A black curtain started emerging upwards and it was as if it was limiting my sight. Before I knew it I had lost complete sight and had fainted. I was laying on the ground and when I woke up found everything very confusing. Questions from where I was to why I was there started emerging. Some minutes later I decided to stand up once I was feeling better and had some lemonade to get some sugar in my body. The whole thing was quite scary but we guess it was the hear and the lack of sleep since I have been having a hard time falling asleep lately.
The rest of the day was really calm since I tried to rest today. I went in the pool, sunbathed for a while, and drank lots of water. Around 6:30 pm we left to the movies and saw 'Endless Love', a really girly movie haha...Now I'm about to go to bed.
Talk to you later! 

Day 35

Today we woke up and Montana went to softball while I went to Surfer's Paradise with Donna and Walter. We had a really nice morning and I got to buy some presents for home. We also got to see a sand sculpture competition in action, which was really interesting! There were all sorts of things and you could vote by putting money into a box beside their sculpture! The sculptures as you can see in the pictures were really nice and the people doing them were amazingly talented.

Beach at Surfers Paradise

When we got back we had lunch and went to Chloe's, who is a St. Hilda's student. We spent the afternoon there and got ready to go to Bella's sweet sixteen, one of my music classmates.  The party had a theme and it was pijamas, so we all went in our pijamas to the party! We had lots of fun and around 11 pm we went home!
I will keep on posting more tomorrow! Talk to you later! 

Day 34

Together with the students from Holland!

  Swimming Carnival! 

Karragaroo house

Melaleuca House

Today was so much fun! The swimming carnival is a complete celebration here! Everybody dresses up with clothes of the color of their house and it looks amazing! They use paint, tutus, ribbons, costumes, onesies, flippers, anything you can imagine! There were more than 70 races today including backstroke, breastsroke, butterfly, front crawl, medleys and relays! There was also a very interesting race which was borders vs day girls! As I have told you before, St.Hilda's is also a boarding school and there is a special race between them and day girls. This race is a really fun race. It is a relay race and students are supposed to  swim in different ways with body boards, also they swim holding another swimmers' hand and they have to work as a team to get to the other side, etc. (check photo below)

Banksia house

The St. Hilda's pool is a 50m pool with around 9 lanes. The competition lasted all day (Friday 14) in which students didn't go to class and everybody was expected to be there cheering for their house. Also the swimming carnival has a "participation race" in which anybody can swim in freestyle and only by getting to the other side they get a point for their house, which is really good because it gets everybody involved. 
What I would like to highlight the most of today is the house spirit that there is. I was blown away by the houses and all of their energy supporting each other! They have songs that they sing, cheers, school war cries, house war cries, etc.

Valentine's day lollypops

The School War Cry :
Chinika Chinika, Jumbah hoo
Sara waka tom tom Sara waka hoo
Simi dimi ha ha Simi dimi ha
St. Hilda's St. Hilda's Ya Ya Ya

House War Cry: (Banksia)
Banksia! Are you ready?
Are we ever!
Red White Red
Banawara Banawara Barrabee-hoo
Aracata Aracata Arracoopanoo
Illawarra Mittagong Yarrabee-ha
Banksia Banksia Ya Ya Ya                                     

House War Cry: (Karragaroo)
Karragaroo! Are you ready?
Are we ever!
Gold Black Gold
Wagga-Parra,Wagga-Parra Oomparee
Boomerachi Boomerachi Wallawaree
Yanki-tara Yanki-tay Dandi-garra-hoo
Karriton Karritah Karragaroo!

House War Cry: (Melaleuca)
Melaleuca! Are you ready? 
Are we ever!
Blue White Blue
Hocka-tika Hocka-tika Karra-jarra Hah
Boomericka Bositicka Loo Doo Hoo
Melaleuca Melaleuca Blue White Blue

Today was also Valentine's day so I hope everybody had a really nice day surrounded by the people they love! To celebrate there were students who were selling lollypops, chocolates, etc to raise money for charity which was really nice of them! 

The school has different House events: 

• Inter-House Swimming Carnival
• Inter-House Athletics Carnival
• Inter-House Cross Country
• Inter-House Musical
•  Inter-House Drama
• Inter-House Debating
• House Chapel and Dinner
• House Fundraising

Talk to you later!

Border VS Day Girl Race

Swimming pool