Posts

That Bittersweet Feeling

Afbeelding
Hi everyone, How are you guys doing? I am a bit in my feelings. The end of my exchange is near and honestly all the emotions are a bit overwhelming. I just finished my last diner and I had to cry. The girls gave a speech for me and gave me a card on which they had all written a nice message for me. I am a sensitive person so when I thanked them I just couldn’t help but cry.  During the last exchange meeting before we left, our exchange coordinator Ms. Haasnoot and we were kind of joking with each other; she ended a sentence with the words, “when you come back” and then asked, “you are coming back, right?”. We laughed, of course we were. However, now I have decided to stay in Australia. No I am joking but for real, I just don’t want to come back.  I love living in a boarding-house, I love being a boarder, I love the girls in the boarding-house, I love having a roommate, I love the sunshine, I love the Aussies, I love their fashion style, I love being tanned, I love...

a Special Zoo, Taronga Zoo

Afbeelding
Hi everyone,  How are you guys doing today? Saturday the 9 th of February Alyssa, Melanie (Alyssa’s friend), Phoebe and I went to the zoo. And not just any zoo, no we went to Taronga Zoo! Taronga Zoo is the biggest and most famous zoo in Sydney. Let me take you on an adventure with us!  Saturday morning, I got picked up really early (In contrast too my Australia Day post, now I am for real; I got picked up at 6:00 am) by Alyssa, Alyssa’s father and Phoebe from the boarding-house. Another girl from the boarding-house called Mackenzie also got picked up by them. We headed to the baseball match that the girls had to play. The only thing I can really remember from the match is that I had a nice breakfast; an egg/bacon sandwich and a coffee in which I put a lot of sugar to hype myself up for the day. After the baseball match we dropped Mackenzie off at the boarding-house again and we headed home. Once we arrived at Alyssa’s place, we ate a quick lunch and then we headed to ...

Walking over the Sydney Harbour Bridge & the Art Gallery of NSW

Afbeelding
Hi everyone,  In my blogpost before I talked about the fun excursions with Mrs White and today I want to tell you about one of them.  On Thursday the 7 th of February we had an amazing day! We started the day at school in library. Mrs White, two Japanese exchange students, Phoebe and I gathered together in the library. We were going to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. To prepare ourselves, Mrs White thought it might be a nice idea to look at some famous Australian artists and their paintings so we looked at some art books.  After we had had a look in the library we travelled by train to the city. When we arrived, we walked for a little while through one of the oldest parts of Sydney and then we arrived at Millers Point. Apparently, some scenes of the Australian show “Dance Academy” have been recorded at this place and a lot of weddings are held here. We walked some more and then we arrived at the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We walked over it and Mrs. White tol...

PLC Sydney as my Exchange School

Afbeelding
Hi everyone,  Ya girl is really on that blog grind (sorry if that made you cringe) and back with a new post today! Like my last post about the boarding-house, this one also has to do with my school life in Australia. Today I am talking about the school itself that I am attending while I am here in Sydney. The school is called Presbyterian Ladies’ College, better known as PLC Sydney. I want to tell you about my experiences at the school as an exchange student. Let me start with stating that this school is ultimate goals. The atmosphere at the school is great and the campus is really aesthetically pleasing. All the beige buildings surrounded by palm trees and other plants/flowers look very pretty together. Unlike my own school at home, PLC consists of different buildings. For example, you have a science building, an art building, a language building, etc. Between periods you have to walk outside from one building to another. It is not very widespread so it takes you abo...

The Boarding-House

Afbeelding
Hi everyone,  How are you guys doing? I am doing fine! Well…I have had a sore throat and an ugly cough for more than two weeks now, so that’s not super-duper chill… but hey I am experiencing a typical Australian illness, another exchange experience right? ;-) Today I want to talk about the boarding-house with you. Since Wednesday the 30 th of January I am attending boarding-house of PLC (the school) instead of staying with a host family. I love the boarding-house! Here are a few things I really like about my boarding life.  The girls The first thing that is definitely my favourite of all things is living with so many amazing girls. They are true angels. They are all so nice to me. They call me Freddie, some even Frankie (not sure if I’m too happy with that, but they say I look like a Frankie so I just let it be hahaha) and seriously they help Freddie out with a lot of stuff. Some examples: Freddie uses the toaster during lunch time without knowing she’s not all...

The Blue Mountains

Afbeelding
Hi everyone,  As I’ve promised I am writing about my visit to the Blue Mountains today. Together with Phoebe, Alyssa and Alyssa’s father Justin we went there Tuesday the 29 th of January.  We first drove for one and a half hour. Our first stop at the Blue Mountains National Park was the Jellybean Pool. Unfortunately, there aren’t any jellybeans in this pool and it isn’t named after Jughead’s little sister either. The name derives from the pool’s shape. It was a really nice and calm swimming spot. There were a few families and friends in the water but it wasn’t too crowded. At first sight, the water seems a bit dirty. However, it gets its discolouration from the native gums that lines both sides of the river and the water is in fact very clean because it is located in a national park so there isn’t any litter from households in the water. There is one pretty big rock in the water (around 5 m high) which we jumped off. After our swim, we ate some fresh fruits and we co...

Australia Day!

Afbeelding
Hi everyone,  Ya girl from Down Under is back with a brand new post! Today I want to talk about Australia Day. This day might have been my favourite one of the entire exchange program so far. I hope that after such a huge statement I have your full attention. So let’s don’t make this intro any longer and time travel back to exactly thirteen days ago... Saturday the 26 th of January, we woke up early. With early I don't mean "let's go to school the first hour" early but "we woke up at eight on a vacation day" early. Phoebe and I showered, made a delicious smoothie, grabbed our bags and together with Alyssa's family (including her cousin Yasmine who had been sleeping over at "our" place after we spent the Friday at Bondi beach with her) we headed off to the south of Sydney.  There, we were welcomed by Alyssa's grandfather and her Chinese step-grandmother. They had a beautiful and modern house. However, we didn't spend the day at...