Last Night in Oz!

Tonight was our final night in Australia! It was really a really great night, actually. The Dunning family took me and Elizabeth out to a Queensland Reds rugby game, and a great dinner. I think it was an appropriate finale for a wonderful exchange.

The game was really close! One of the biggest players on the team had his birthday today, so many people were really rooting on the Reds. However, they lost by 3 points! It was a bit of a disappointing ending, but since it was so close, the game was super exciting! The poor guy who's birthday it was had the final kick which could've evened the score, but he missed. Then he just sad in the middle of the field and looked sad. SO SAD.

After the game, we went to South Bank for dinner. The restaurant was called Jetty, and it was REALLY nice. I had a garden pea risotto with mint and marscapone, as well as one fresh oyster. The risotto was really creamy and rich, but also light! It was so good! And the oyster...so creamy and briny, it was near perfection!

After the awesome dinner, we took a few pictures (with Miranda's phone, so I don't have them, sadly) in front of the city, and then walked a bit farther down to Nitrogenie for ice cream. For those of you unfamiliar with Nitrogenie, they take ice cream mix and pour liquid nitrogen into it while a machine stirs. It makes the ice cream really smooth, but also made me feel like I was eating poison...weird. It was really yummy, though! Both Elizabeth and I had Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee, a vanilla ice cream with flambeed praline on top. It was good, but the blowtorch nearly melted my ice cream all the way!

It was a really wonderful night, and a really great way to end this great exchange!  I'm so excited to be going home, but so sad to be leaving, too! Overall, I've had such a positive experience here, and I want to come back as soon as I can! Love you, BRISBANE!

Going-Away Party!

Yesterday afternoon, Charlotte and I walked down to Oriel Park with most of our friends for a farewell picnic. Issy and Mercedes organized it, and they brought cookies. Everyone else went to either Sirianni's (a grocery store) or Vanilla Pod (a bakery) to buy something to share. I bought a big slice of caramel coconut cheesecake from Vanilla Pod, and it was SOOO good! We had cookies, chips, soda, ice cream, cupcakes, pretty much any sweet imaginable! We also bought a can of whipped cream to make "Spiders", the Australian equivalent of an soda float. I also covered Felmo in it...haha! It was a really nice afternoon, and I'm incredibly sad to leave all of these girls. 

Tour of St. Margaret's

Hi everyone! I've had a few requests for a visual tour of St. Margaret's, so here it is! 

The Boarding House

The Boarding House is the main part of boarder's lives here at St. Margaret's (obviously). The entry pictured is called the Breezeway, and it leads to the inner "courtyard" of the Boarding House. Both the Health Center and Garden Room are located in the Boarding House, as well as the Dining Hall, Eton kitchen, and Eton Hall. 

The Dining Hall

The Dining Hall is underneath the Year 12 hall and faces into the courtyard of the Boarding House. They serve breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner. Only boarders are allowed in. They serve very nice food (although a bit lacking in green veggies). 

Avoca

Avoca is the main classroom building at St. Margaret's. It has three levels, and each year level has their own level for lockers. Instead of being just for a few subjects, almost all of the subjects are taught here, except for science. Its interior looks a bit like a public school, and classes are all taught at desks. It is definitely a different style of learning environment than Emma Willard. I have enjoyed all of my classes here, though!

Chapel and Garden

Boarders have Chapel every Monday night. The services range in formality and content, but most of them have been about Lent this term. The garden was just finished a few weeks ago. It has a purgula walkway, water feature, and putt-putt course. It's really easy to walk from Avoca to Eunice now, instead of having to walk around the Boarding House!

Eunice Library

The Eunice Science and Resource Center is named after Mother Eunice, the head nun. The upstairs part of the building is the Library and Independent Learning Center (or ILC for short). The downstairs part houses the science labs and the walkway down to the pool. Charlotte and I spent all of our spares either in the ILC or by the giant picture window at the back of the library. It has one of the best views of Brisbane!

Arts Center

The Arts Center is one of my favorite buildings on campus! It's where we rehearse for Elevarsi and have events. I just really like it because it gets great natural light! The top level, called the Arts Center Foyer,is mainly used for events or staff meetings. The levels below that are all art classrooms. The AC and Eunice connect through one hallway underground. Very cool.

Mooloomburram

I really hope that I spelled that right! Mooloomburram is the main administrative building on campus. Ms. Curtis and Ms. Cohen (the principal and deputy principal) both have offices there, as well as the schedulers and assistants. The building is called a Queenslander, a style of house that is meant to keep the house cool in the oppressive Brissy heat!

Supply Shop/Laundry

Last, but not least....the Supply Shop and the Laundry! The Supply Shop is where we get our uniforms, as well as notebooks, textbooks, Panamas, and pins from! The women who work in there are incredibly nice, and were really dedicated to making sure that Charlotte and I had everything we needed! The Laundry is right around the corner from the Dining Hall. It has little metal chutes in the wall so that we can sort our laundry correctly. After about two days, your whole load is ready for you to pick up! Each girl gets her own cubby and hanger space for her fresh clothes. The big blue bins are for Sheet Day (every Thursday), where we strip our beds and then get clean linens. Sometimes, it's a drag to have to wait a few days for laundry, but overall, I'm glad that we have the service!

Tomorrow is our last day here at St. Margaret's. It's been one wild ride of experiences after another, but even thought it's been really tough sometimes, I'm so glad that I came here. I'm spending the last few days at the Palmer's house, and we fly out on Sunday! I'm so excited to be going home, but very sad to leave. And I think that's good.

Weekend at Bethany's

Hello again, blog viewers! Long time, no post...oops! With just over a week left, I've been trying to do as much as I can to experience Australia before I leave. I'm really sad to go.

Anyways, I spent all of last week at Bethany's house! For those of you who don't remember who she is, Bethany is the girl who came with me to the zoo. After our loss on Friday to St. Aidan's basketball team, we grabbed my bag and headed over to Bethany's house. Her dad made some AMAZING burgers for dinner, adn then we talked all about dresses and shoes and what shops are the best in the city. I showed Mrs. Hold my prom dress (which I now CAN'T WEAR because Prom was cancelled...) and we basically just annoyed the crap out of Mr. Hold. Then, Bethany and I played Sims 3. For several hours.

The next morning, we headed up the Sunshine Coast to Eumundi, a town just outside of Noosa. We went to the Eumundi Markets, which is an outdoor collection of stalls that sell anything from dresses to momos, a type of Tibetan dumpling. Bethany and I wandered around for a bit. She bought a sweater, and we shared a chip cone. We then went to a super cool restaurant for lunch, where we got a "pizza"...it was more like a super salty flatbread. Then we got a charicature drawn of us! It's actually really nice.

The next morning, we got up kind of late and went into the city. We spend a few hours walking around, and I got some gifts for my family. We went to some really nice shops, and had sushi for lunch. We went back to Bethany's house after, and hung out for a bit. Then I returned to the boarding house! It was a really fun weekend.

Australia Zoo!

On Sunday, Bethany and I headed up to the Sunshine Coast (again!) to Beerwah. It was time, FINALLY, for the AUSTRALIA ZOO!!! 

Penny was kind enough to book us a tour on a caddie (golf-cart type vehicle) with our own private guide. Her name was Caitlyn, and she was really nice! We walked around the entrance of the zoo, and on our way to the cart, got to meet Fatty the echidna! Not joking...that was his name. 

We learned all about the different Australian animals, like koalas, dingoes, kangaroos, wallabies, broglas, and Tassie devils. I also got to hold a koala named Diesel!

 

All of these animals were adorable! It is a wonderful zoo. All the animals were super happy and friendly! But the best part of the day was the wombat encounter. 

Our tour ended at 2:30, when Caitlyn dropped us off at the wombat enclosure. We were quickly briefed on the safety procedures of being around wombats (don't stand in front because they might charge, don't get to close to their face because they might bite you, etc). The we were let into the enclosure. Each wombat got a plate of pellets and veggies, and set to their task of chowing down. We sat down next to a wombat and got to pet them. I started out with Meggles, and Bethany with Minibus. Mini wasn't interested in her food or Bethany, and began to lumber around the outside of the habitat. Megs took over Mini's plate, and both Bethany and I moved on to Milo, the baby. He is a year and a half old, and CRAZY ADORABLE! We had a zoo photographer with us who took really nice pictures of us with Milo (but the quality looks bad because the scanner here in the Garden Room didn't work very well). It was a great experience! Totally the highlight of the trip to the zoo! After the encounter, we printed out our photos and got free magnets with the photo of our choice in it. Bethany and I bought matching stuffed Common wombats, the same breed as Minibus and Milo. It was a GREAT day, and I'm so glad that I got to go!

Meggles and Minibus

Me and Bethany with Milo!

Music Camp/Noosa Field Trip

Hi everyone! Long time, no post...I know, sorry! A lot has happened, and I haven't had time to post because of all the activities we've been doing! I'm going to try and kill two birds with one stone by posting about both the places I've been on the Sunshine Coast in the past two weeks!

Two weekends ago, Charlotte, Lia, Elizabeth, Felicity and I headed down to Mt. Coolum on the Sunshine Coast for music camp. All the different ensembles practiced there for the weekend. Charlotte, Elizabeth and I were in choir, Lia was in Wind Ensemble, and Felicity was in Strings. We all had bunks in the same corner of the cabin, though! On the one full day that we were there, we had 7.5 hours of practice, and we were all super tired afterwards. It was really nice, though. The camp was on a mountain RIGHT next to the beach, so we also got to go down and play cricket on the beach. Charlotte, Felicity and I built a sandcastle. After dinner, the whole camp got together and we watched Pitch Perfect (of course). Even though I didn't like the idea of giving up a WHOLE WEEKEND to go sing, it was actually really fun!

On the 6th, all of the Year 11 Geography classes headed up to the Sunshine Coast to Noosa, so we could experience the environment that we'd been studying all term. Noosa is really beautiful. It is a unique beach in Australia because it is the only north-facing beach in Queensland, and also because it is almost completely man-made. Sounds weird. I know. The people of Noosa wanted to protect their shops and homes from the Noosa River, which was right at the tip of Hastings Street, so they moved the mouth to another spot along Main Beach. But because they moved the mouth, the sand from Main Beach was eroding faster than it could be replaced naturally, and the eroded sand was being swept into the mouth of the river, clogging it up. So, they put in a system to dredge all the sand from the pile ups in the mouth and put it on Main Beach. Also, because the mouth was moved, they could build other beaches along the edges of the river, and smaller beaches like Doggy Beach were formed. It was a really interesting trip! I spent the day with Candy, Issy, Mercedes, Chelsea, Madi, Ellie, and Elizabeth. It was great to see another part of Queensland! 

View of Noosa River and Doggy Beach from Noosa Spit

Mercedes in blue, Issy in tie-dye

Barbecue!

It's been a long time! Sorry everyone. We've been really busy with school and activities!

Yesterday, the 21st, was the one month mark here in Australia! So far, this experience here has been great! We've made some great friends, and have been to some amazing places! 7 weeks left!

Last night, I went to a barbecue at Elizabeth's house. I was picked up at 3:30, and spend most of the afternoon helping Mrs. Palmer (Penny) prep all the food. I learned how to de-vein shrimp (or prawns as they're known here), and marinated them in garlic, parsley, pepper, salt, and olive oil. They were REALLY good! We also had couscous salad and several types of cheese (Elizabeth and I were in charge of making the cheese platters). It was the goodbye barbecue for Sunny, the Palmer's friend from Iceland. She is a really nice girl, and came to Australia for a year to learn English. She made two cakes for the party; a carrot cake and a blueberry cheesecake. Someone else also brought a lemon cake. Elizabeth and I spent a lot of time with her younger sister, sister's friend, and cousin down in the basement. We watched part of The Parent Trap (the little girls were confused as to how they found two Lindsay Lohans) and part of The Lorax. It was a great night! I was really happy to be out of the boarding house. It can be kind of lonely sometimes.

Today, I'm going into the city with Mercedes. We're going to shop and watch a few movies! It should be really fun! Charlotte is with Lia and Issy at Soundwave, a rock festival. She'll post about that later! I hope everyone is enjoying the snow in New York! It's so humid and hot here, it feels like a sauna 24/7!