Back from RYLA island

Hey!

I spent the last week on "RYLA Island”. It was a Rotary program where young adults could learn about leadership. To be honest: during the first couple of days, I never though I would make it through the rest of the week. So many things have happened throughout the last three months, and I think my mind at this stage had reached a point where it was full, if that makes sense. In Norwegian we would say: "Det var den siste dråpen som fikk glasset til å renne over!" In the end I'm glad that I finished the course. I have got a new point of view on many opinions, learned a lot about myself and made many new friends. Thanks a lot to my sponsoring Rotary club!

Just a quick overview:

We had to listen to a lot of different guest speakers, had a self defence course, but we also spent a day at Mayona Bay where we did some climbing ++. 

We had to organise different activities like the Mini-Olympics, RYLA's got talent (concert night) and of course the Graduation Dinner on Thursday night. 

We had a bush dance evening where I also learned the Nutbush, obviously the Australian version of Macarena, and how to crack an Australian wood whip! :D

The holidays have now come to an end, and I have to go back to school tomorrow. Aaaand *drum-roll* I'm no longer in year 11, but in 12! I'm also looking forward to meet my schoolmates again! :D

I went to Newcastle with Adrian today where we had an amazing lunch at ----. We had a huge fishplate, which originally was meant for one person. It was definitely enough for two. I had my life's second oyster, and hopefully it was the last one (a). We also went to the movies and watched "Crazy, stupid, love." Not a bad movie actually!

- Beccy

Something about time

My holidays have been really great, and something I definitely needed! The time here in Australia kind of stands still, but at the same time the time goes so so fast! I didn't do anything on monday, and it was sooo nice! The weather isn't that good, but on the only really nice day, tuesday, I went to Newcastle beach together with some of the exchange students. I also met my school friends there, something I really persuaded. We drove down to Sydney at 6 am wednesday morning. The truck was packed with all the stuff for PNG, and we dropped it off at "Donations in Kind". I also went to the doctor and found out that I have to take 4 different injections for PNG. I am looking forward to the trip sooooo much!

I met some of the exchange students at Charlestown (a big shopping sentre) on thursday, and after some time, we decided to stay at Joackim's place. Again it was the Scandinavian countries who ended up together - suprisesuprise!

Previous students say that the "Big trip" is the highlight of the year. And finally we got the program for our trip. Just amazing! The Australian trip is called the Capricorn Ramble, and covers 10 000 km all around Australia. We will leave the 18th of April and visit all states besides Eastern Australia. Our district is going to travel with two other districts from Sydney, so we will be about 40 together in one bus.

I'm going on a kind of camp tomorrow, so I will be away the whole next week. We are also going to set the time an our ahead, so the time difference from Norway to Australia will be 9 hours, and when you set the time an hour back in Norway it obviously will be 10 hours.

 Cya in a week! Beccy

The year of our lives!

I'm not sure if I should say that I already or just have been in Australia 10 weeks and 3 days. I have had such a great time, met so many new and lovely folks, and probably also learned heaps of new things! Some of you may wonder why I am writing in English. Well, first of all since I went on a orientation camp with the other exchange students this weekend and some of them wanted to read this, and secondly since I have started to fail in Norwegian. 

Something unique with the Rotary Youth Exchange Program is that they try to get the students together as often as possible. Both, inbounds (visitors in the country) and outbounds (leaving the country). Therefore we all got together this weekend. It seems like everyone has a wonderful time since we all rated our experience between 8 and 9 out of 10. 

Inbound students

As mentioned, we got to meet the outbound students, and could tell them something about the countries they will visit.Those who are going to Scandinavia are really exited about snow, and wondered if they should buy winter clothes here or wait. We all told them not to buy them here since the Australian winter clothes would be like "late-summer-clothes" in Norway/Sweden/Finland. In the evening a local band played, and we got kind of a "Bush Dance lesson". It was a lot of fun, but we all were quite tired after three hours of dancing! Sarah, a rotex student (returned exchange student), went to Norway last year, and her norwegian was still really good! It actually scared me that I had problems with speaking norwegian myself O.o

My blazer so far

We didn't get much sleep, but as we were told: Exchange students sleep during the day, and not at night! And for those of you who haven’t learned the 4 improved D-rules yet: No driving, drinking, drugs or dating. Do it. Do it right. Don't get caught. Do it again

My last week: I finally finished year 11, which also means that I survived all my exams. After the last one on wednesday, I went to the beach in Newcastle together with Joackim, Will, Luc and Richard. We also had a look in a few shops, and believe it or not, they actually have 11XL sizes here. They look like tents, and you could mostly use them as it too.

How nice to find this on my seat at school

I went to a concert of Bryan Adams in Newcastle on Thursday.We couldn't take any pictures though, but it was an amazing concert! On friday, my school friends got together to celebrate their last day in year 11, and I was invited too. It was such a great evening!

- Beccy

Ps. Bananas are getting cheaper again. Just 8.90 $ a kilo!