Life Down Under
Brisbane 2011 - Living the Aussie Life
by Amandine
When I discovered that I was actually going to Australia, I was so excited. I could already imagine myself having the time of my life on the other side of the world. It was better.
When I first arrived at the airport, although I was quite tired since the journey had been a bit rough, I was also very worried about meeting the people with which I would be spending the next month, Gillian, John, Ali and of course Tori Larkin-Grant. It turns out they were lovely and I had tons of fun living with them. That night we had a BBQ with Clara Loizeau’s exchange family, the Nolans, which was great fun and then they explained that we would be going to Cairns for 4 days with the Nolans and we would go on the Great Barrier Reef then we would go to Sydney with my family for 4 days. It seemed like it was going to be amazing!! And it really was.
At the Great Barrier Reef, we got to swim with these huge fishes, then a man gave me a huge sea cucumber and I got to take a photo with it!! The only down side was that we had to wear wetsuits and Tori, who didn’t wear her hoodie, got stung by a bluebottle jellyfish. In Sydney, we ate delicious food and we went to all the famous landmarks including the Sydney Tower, the Opera House, Harbour Bridge and of course, Bondi! I learnt that Bondi was a very famous beach in Australia because that is where they filmed Bondi Rescue which is apparently a very popular TV show.
Back in Brisbane, I got to go to my first day ever of school in Australia. We got fitted into our uniforms with the other french exchange students and some very nice german exchange students and then we were off to class. I must say I didn’t understand very much of Tori’s classes but I still got to do some exciting things like watch a film called « The Piano » and spray some bread with water ( I should add that this was for a biology experiment)!! I also went to the Gold Coast with Clara Loizeau, Heloise Dedurand, Maelle Renault and Emilie Gubbay which was a lot of fun and on another occasion we all walked around South Bank. There was also a day when I went to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary with Gillian, my aussie mum, and got to hold a koala!
The exchange made it possible for me to do so many things that otherwise I could never have done as a simple tourist. For example, Tori took me to the midnight session of Harry Potter 7 Part 2 which was amazing. I also got to make friends with the lovely students of Somerville House. On one night, I even went to my australian mum’s birthday which was very fun and among all things I got to be late for school in Australia which doesn’t happen to everyone!!
Suddenly it was time to go home which made me very sad because it seemed only yesterday that I had arrived but you know what they say: Time flies when you’re having fun! On my last assembly, I was presented with a pennant of Somerville House which was very touching although slightly embarassing as I had to stand up in front of the whole school! Saying goodbye to all my friends and my family was very hard but of course, the hardest was saying goodbye to Tori even though I knew that she would be coming to France in December.
I would like to thank Catherine Delcour again for organising this wonderful trip, for without her I could never have participated in this wonderful experience. I would also like to thank Somerville House for greeting us so warmly and making us feel confortable. In addition, I want to thank my australian family for making me feel so welcome on the other side of the world and for taking me on all these wonderful trips. Finally, I would lie to thank Tori of course because of all the fun times we had together that I will always remember and cherish!
Dernière modification le 23-02-12 par
