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!

Basketball Trials

Hi everyone. This week has been pretty uneventful for me. Just a lot of homework!

Today, I tried out for basketball. At Emma, we have 5 days of two-hour try-outs, but St. Margaret's only has one day of one hour try outs (YES). We did a few drills and games, which were fun and simple. I think I was in the middle of the pack talent-wise, so I think that I will probably be put on Senior A or B (A is kind of between V and JV, and B is around JV). I hope I get put on B because my friends who tried out have been on B for the past few years and plan on staying there, so I'd be with friends. If I'm put on A, it won't be the end of the world. It could definitely be fun, I just want to be with Bethany, Becky, and Josie! We'll get the results by the end of the weekend. I'll update the post then! Wish me luck.

SYDNEY TRIP (2/7/14-2/9/14)

The radio silence is over! I've been getting several complaints from subscribers (*coughcough* MOM) that Charlotte and I aren't posting as frequently as we should. We apologize. We are diving straight into St. Margaret's life, and sometimes we (mostly me) forget about posting. So here I go. This'll be a long one, so be prepared!

FRIDAY

Charlotte, Sarah, Olivia, Mrs. Dunning, Mrs. Toohey and I headed out from St. Margaret's at lunchtime and drove straight to Brisbane Airport for our flight down to Sydney. We landed and took the subway right to our hotel at Bondi Junction, a few stops away from the heart of the city. We unpacked, and then hopped right back on the subway! We ended up at Circular Quay, and walked around for a little while, admiring the harbour. We ate dinner at the Searock Grill, a seafood restaurant looking out to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We ordered a bunch of dishes and shared them all. The most notable for me were the garlic prawns, crab and avocado tower, and the delicious oysters I ate. Apparently, no one else but Charlotte enjoys oysters. They were creamy and briny, and absolutely perfect. Sarah, Olivia, Charlotte and I walked around the Opera House to walk off our dinner (a bit). It turns out that The National was playing a concert on the steps of the House, so we got to hear some of their music for free! We walked back to Martin Place to catch the subway back to Bondi Junction, and stayed up late, hanging out on our balcony that overlooked the harbour. 

SATURDAY

We left the hotel around 11am on Saturday morning and we rode the subway to the next station. The town was called Double Bay, and it had beautiful shops. Sarah and Olivia went Semi-Formal dress shopping (the Semi is the biggest event for year 11 girls) and Charlotte and I tagged along. We had an amazing lunch at this cafe called Indigo. I had an open-faced Tasmanian smoked salmon sandwich with kipfler potatoes, lettuce, caper berries (which were large and tasted like old olives...blech) and goat cheese. It was like a bagel, but SO much better. We then caught the ferry into Circular Quay, and the route took us right past the Opera House.

We decided to divide and conquer. Olivia, Sarah, and Mrs. Toohey went to continue the search for Semi dresses, while Charlotte, Mrs. Dunning, and I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art, which had a feature on Yoko Ono's work. It was a very interesting museum, and a wonderful exhibit on Ono's art. We met outside the museum and headed up the Rocks, the oldest part of Sydney, for afternoon tea. I remembered the French patisserie that I ate at when I was in Sydney for my first week, so I took Charlotte and Mrs. Dunning up there. I had a jasmine green tea macaron and a dark chocolate macaron. Charlotte had a chocolate eclair and Mrs. Dunning had a milles feuilles. It was a lovely afternoon. After tea, Charlotte and I ran to the other side of the Quay to the Opera House to pick our tickets for a tour the next day. We then headed up into the city, looking for Mr. Wong. Which is a restaurant, by the way. The food there was SUBLIME! We had aromatic duck spring rolls, steamed fish in a delicious savoury broth, and my personal favorite, Balmain bugs in a spicy noodle stirfry. Bugs are actually a type of shellfish similar to a lobster. They're sweet, juicy, and tender, and perfect in the hot pot they were served in! 

After dinner, Sarah, Olivia, Charlotte and I boarded a ferry at Circular Quay for Luna Park, one of Sydney's most iconic landmarks! It is a very small, retro amusement park, virtually untouched since the time Mrs. Toohey went as a girl! 

The rides were very cool. The best ride for me was called the Tango Train, which raced around in circles (both backwards and forwards) to REALLY loud music. At Luna Park, they also have a small rollercoaster which has two-person cars. The dips in the track are very small, but the track itsself is elevated, so I didn't go on that. The cotton candy that we had was larger than my head (by a lot!), and all of the arcade machines were from the 60s and 70s. Another fun ride was two concentric rings of wood that spin. The riders gather in a center of the beveled center circle, and try to hang on to the perfectly smooth surface. Since it was around 9:50pm, Charlotte, a small girl and I were the only riders. Charlotte fell off first every time, but the person running in the ride gave her two other turns...needless to say, she rolled off first EVERY time, no matter how many retries she got. We caught the ferry back to Circular Quay at 10:30pm, and saw the Sydney Opera House lit up at night, which was BEAUTIFUL! We headed back to Bondi Junction, and fell asleep almost immediately!

SUNDAY

On Sunday, we got up early and hopped on a bus to nearby Bondi Beach, one of Australia's most celebrated beaches. It was truly a sight to behold, with its sparkling aqua blue water and buttery yellow sand.

 We walked around the town, and stopped at a cafe called Trio for lunch. I had a delicious smoked tomato cheeseburger with the best sweet potato fries I've had in my LIFE! We headed to a open-air market in and around an old factory building. I bought a babydoll style vintage rose-patterned dress, which is so light and comfortable, I want to wear it every day! It is perfect for walking around in the heat. The only problem is that the fabric is SO light that when there is even the smallest gust of wind, well...yeah.

Charlotte and I then swam at the Icebergs, a beautiful pool that is filled with salt water from the waves at high tide. After a quick swim, we raced to catch the bus to the Opera House for a tour. We learned all about the way the House was built, about the little theaters located beneath the main hall, the acoustics of  the Joan Sutherland Theatre, and why the tiles are actually multiple colours! 

It was a beautiful place, and if I ever have the opportunity to see a performance there, I will take it in a flash! I actually prefer the interior of the main hall to the one of the (GASP) Metropolitan Opera! After our tour, we hopped straight into a cab and sped to the airport, where we met the Dunnings and Tooheys. We flew back to Brizzy and stopped at Grill'd for dinner, and got back to St. Margaret's just in time for second prep. 

The weekend was AMAZING, and truly a cultural experience. Both Charlotte and I are extremely grateful to the Dunning and Toohey families for taking us down. Sydney is a very special city, unlike any other that I've experienced, and I hope to return sometime soon!

New Sport!

I wanted to try a sport that I had never played before and that was not offered at Emma. I considered my options over and over, finally choosing the one that I had always wanted to play, cricket!

I had my first practice on Tuesday. St. Margaret's playing fields are about 15 minutes away from the campus and on the whole bus ride there I was petrified. But my fear was for nothing, it turned out that I was one of a number of girls who had never played cricket before and we spent a really great first practice learning the basics and having fun.

On Wednesday, after only one practice, we had our first game. It was chaos, half of us didn't know where to go and our ball catching and hitting skills left something to be desired. But it didn't matter, we all had a great time! We lost the game but no one cared because it had been so much fun.

I am really, really glad that I joined the cricket team, I've made friends, started to learn how to play a new sport, and enjoyed every minute.

Wet 'n' Wild

On Sunday all the boarders traveled to Wet 'n' Wild, a huge water park on the Gold Coast. We spent the whole day there and I think I speak for both of us when I say it was a lot of fun! There were a lot of really great rides but my favorite had to be a ride called Surfrider where you go up and down on a U shaped track while spinning in a circle at the same time. Going to the water park was a great end to a challenging yet fun first week at St. Margaret's.

Pizza party

Yesterday, Charlotte and I were invited to our friend Elizabeth's house for making pizza! We each made an individual pizza with whatever we wanted on top. Mine was with mozzarella, feta, sliced chicken, and onions. VERY good. We then walked down Racecourse Road to Milany, which according to everyone in the boarding house, has the best gelato in Brisbane. I think that might be true! It was SO GOOD. I had a scoop of pistachio and a scoop of mascorpino, vanilla with soft fudge on the inside and on top. AMAZING! It was a super fun night, and we had a lot of fun with Elizabeth and Georgie!

From left: Elizabeth, me, Charlotte, Penny (Elizabeth's mom), and Georgie