March 30, 2016
Another great month I'd say! When is it not a great month, though? I have had a few more experiences to share with y'all.
First
off, in school I tried out for the SEISA (varsity) Softball team. We
have been competing against others schools all month and we went
undefeated. We made it to the Grand Finals and with a close game we
WON!!! This means at our weekly monday school assembly I get to be
presented next to my team in front of the whole school with an
Australian certificate.
In my school every
student is split into four different, what they call, houses. Its like
Harry Potter. Throughout the year we all participate in activities and
events earning points for our houses to get an overall winner at the end
of the year. This past month was House Athletics Competition. We all
signed up to represent our house while competing in events such as
throwing, jumping and track. I gave a go to Javelin and, haha, failed
miserably. Out of my three throws only one actually counted. At least i
made it onto the board. I did a bit better in my track competitions. I
have not had much of a running background. At least not much track but i
had to run the 500m. Its a whole lap around the oval and can be a bit
of a funny run because technically your supposed to be sprinting but its
way to far to sprint. I came 7/8 and had NO breath left. I felt i could
do much better with a 200m or 100m sprint. So i went and asked if any
of my house members that were signed up for the 100m did not want to do
it. I replaced one girl and was excited to try it out until i realised i
was in the 100m A not the 100m B this meant i was racing against super
fast girls. Way out of my league! I came 8/8. I was glad i got to try
though.
Raping up the 1st Term was school
photos. I got a school photo in my school uniform! Also because it was
so close to Easter the school gave us all Hot Cross Buns. This a Very
Australian traditional Easter food. Everyone has them! Other than that
Easter isn't very big. Again Australians are not very religious so a
holiday that is surrounded by religion is only really celebrated for the
chocolate. Not to say that there are not some religious Aussies out
there but for the Australians i was with it just seemed like another
regular day. Although another thing Easter means is NO SCHOOL. It is the
end of Term 1 so we are now on school Holidays for two weeks!
My
second host family, the Davies, went to go visit family friends for
Easter in Perth and invited me to go with them! I have been to
Adelaide, Melbourne , Sydney and out of all of them Perth is my
favourite! It is the perfect city for me
because it is small and spread out. Its not huge and crowded with people
and buildings and cars. The roads are wide and the footpaths are wide.
There is so much space! Perth is the cleanest city and is in one of the
warmest (all year round) places. It felt especially warm because we are
now in the fall season and Victoria, where i live, has the worst
and rainiest weather. Perth has heaps of green parks and
one specifically called Kings Park that over looks the whole city. Next
to the city is a nice lake which is confusingly called Swan River. Perth
sure loves their black swans.
While
in Perth we took a ferry over to a nearby island called Rotness Island.
Its not very big but sure is beautiful. My family and i started on a
bike ride around the island. Its only 22K around the whole thing. After
about 5 - 10k my sister, chloe, and my mum, Linda, decided they had
enough with the ups and downs. Did i mention it started raining as well?
Well my host dad, rick, and i decided to ride on around the whole
island. It was tough, haha, but it was so much fun!
There
is an animal on Rotness Island called, well, Rots,haha. People used to
think they were big rats but discovered they weren't so they called
them Rots. I think the Rots look like baby kangaroos. They are so used
to people that they will actually walk up to you and they love to be
pet! When we started to pet them they nearly looked like it was going to
fall asleep.
Anyway i was glad to have been able to visit yet another Beautiful part of Australia!!
Its
hard to believe that i only have another term left!! Some exchange
students are already counting down but i don't want to do that!
Thank you all so much!!
Cheers,
Torri
Pic 1- Beautiful Perth City
Pic 2- My sis chloe petting one of the rots that walked up to us
Pic 3- Family selfie in Kings Park with the city behind us
