Harbour Town

In the early morning Ida and I ate breakfast outside. And thank god I randomly brought my camera with me 'cause out of the blue a very significant parrot came across and sat down in a tree in the garden. Afterwards we googled it - the bird is called Pale-headed Rosella.

Today Ida planned to go visiting her boyfriend, Anton, at his home stay. So I invited Kana (Japanese student) to come with Helena, Kirstine and I to Harbour Town.










Harbour Town is a huge place with outlet stores, fruit markets and eating places - such a lovely place to hang out and go shopping for good prices on brands like Nike and Tommy Hilfiger.










When finishing lunch and having seen it all we went to Harbour Town's cinema. We saw the new movie with Leonardo DiCaprio called The Wolf of Wall Street - amazing film but it has a very heavy use of swearing, sex and drugs all of the time.

A movie ticket in Australia only costs about $8 - it is nearly DKK 40! Compared to Denmark that is a very good price - almost half the price we pay in DK.

When we all got home in the evening, Peggy and Don were about to go out with some friends for dinner. So we girls had the whole house to ourselves and therefore secretly invited all our friends over for party and alcohol - no of course we didn't... We cooked our own dinner, played card and just listened to some music. But it was nice just walking around the house without the "parents" being home ;-)

Dinner - Meat pies, boiled eggs, scraps of chicken left from yesterday and salad

Wet 'n' Wild

Today I was going to one of Australia's 3 most popular themed parks called "Wet 'n' Wild" - as the title may tell it is a water world with lots of rides. Helena's host dad was so kind to drive us all to the theme park - it only took him 8 minutes, whereas taking the public transport would take 1 1/2 hour...








Surprisingly 23 people showed up at the time we had planned to meet (11 am) - so as we were more than 20 people we could get Group Booking Discount on the VIP Pass (the VIP Pass gives you access to all 3 theme parks for free in 6 month). Normally you give $110 (550 DKK), but we were only to pay $80 (400 DKK) :-))

Wet 'n' Wild was absolutely crazy. It simply had all water rides and exotic surroundings. We stayed there until it closed at 5 pm and I did not get sunburned at all, though the sun was really hot today!


On the way home Don came to pick us up - it almost feels like having private taxis ;-))


Dinner: BBQ - Chicken, beef, roasted rices with eggs, spring rolls, sweet onions and salad

BBQ at the beach

After school we decided to go to a local mall, Westfield, or to BBQ on Southport beach again depending on the weather. At the time we were in school it was all cloudy and cold, but as we got off at 3.20 the sun suddenly appeared – so we went to Southport beach again!

After finishing the barbeque, a man in a golf car was driving up to us and checked if we were drinking – as sweet angels as we all are we did not have any alcohol and he was driving down to the next table with people in the park. Obviously I learned that no matter age you are not allowed to bring or drink alcohol at any public places in order to keep a nice atmosphere and keep the public parks clean. Maybe it is a little bit too bad that people cannot even enjoy a beer at the beach, but generally I think it is a good rule.

When the clock reached 8 pm, we were heading for a cap – would take a long time to get home after 8 with the bus. When we got home Don and Peggy asked us to call them if we had troubles getting home – that is really kind. Also Peggy wants us to call when we get to last the bus stop when coming home so she can follow us home – that I think is a bit overreacting as it only takes 2 minutes and there is light on the streets.

Tonight at 11 pm Kirstine arrived at her home stay, where Helena is also staying. She was completely exhausted like we were the first day too. She will probably wake up at 4 am because of the jet lag.  

Dinner: BBQ at Southport Beach Park

Activity day: culture walk

Activity day at school with focus on Australian culture. First we got a speech from Lara Murray, admin manager social media at Griffith

Talked about how to promote yourself through social media in relation to starting your career and recommended us to sign up for LinkedIn and how to present yourself in the right way.

In the second module before lunch break we went to the dance hall to see Aboriginal dancers performing their Aboriginal ritual dances. Their dances and dressing kind of reminded me of Indians.

Bus trip to different sights in gold coast relating to the aboriginal people. Unfortunately we did not see anything as it was cloudy and raining heavily outside - so nobody would get off the bus at the sights. Worst was that we had to do the trip and stop at the sights for 10 minutes each because the School already paid for the bus. So it was a really long and boring trip to be honest…

  

Dinner: pie with pork, leftovers of pizza slices with ham and cheese, mashed potatoes, few boiled carrots and green beans

BBQ after school

Normal school day. We made an agreements with the teachers so instead of having lunch break for 1 hour and 20 minutes, then we will cut off the 20 min and get off 15.20 instead of 15.40 - that actually means a lot, it feels like we have time do much more after school

After School today we all spontaneously went to Southport Beach Park and made barbeque there. Surprisingly the barbeques available in the park had also gas paid by the government. We bought kangaroo steaks to try it for the first time. The taste of it was very sweet and hard to chew, but anyway it was okay and has a lot of protein and vitamins in it.

Today Ida and I also clearly found out that our host family is addicted to Coca Cola Zero – since we got here we have got Cola Zero to every meal and the freezer is full of them. But who doesn’t like Cola – Ida and I are blessed by their addiction - plus it costs about 3$ (15 DKK) for 1,5 liter in the supermarket!

 

I am really starting to miss boiled eggs, skyr and rye bread – all that I used to get every day in Denmark. But on the other hand I can eat watermelon and strawberries, as I would not normally do in my everyday life at home- so yummy.  

Dinner: BBQ at Southport Beach Park

Running and pool bathing

Normal day at school. I’m beginning to be able to sleep for longer than 6 am. I am still very tired in the evening though. The subjects and teachers in school are very similar to the way of teaching in Denmark, where the teachers do dialogues and withdraw the students all the time instead of just talking. Also the modules are of 100 minutes each like at home. That I find super motivating and the best way of learning.

After school the girls and I went to Australian Fair, the nearest shopping mall, to get some basic stuff and recharge the bus card. We finally found some bread in the supermarket that is as close to rye bread as you can come here. Afterwards Ida and I took a run around the golf course near our house (see photo to the left). Surprisingly two kangaroos jumped across the walking path right in front of us. When we got home we jumped directly in the pool to cool down – that is just how life should be. 

Dinner: Barbeque – steak, sausages, baked potatoes, rice with egg, grilled unions, salad 

Don and Kana making BBQ