First pictures...

How happy am I making mom right now? Over the next week and a half to two weeks I will be doing three separate picture posts. This one is of some year 11 camp photos and the school spec. Next will be Earth Enviro camp and finally will be some Naamaroo pictures. Then no one can bug me for the picture posts for a while, though my new computer surely goes a lot faster than my old one. This also serves a double purpose as I am not sure when my mom saw a picture of me last. She can rest easy at my lack of visible tattoos and piercings.
















Me and Ed on camp. I really like this picture as we both look equally attractive to the other (as that's what our friendship is based on, isn't it ed?)
















This is from the school spec during the Aussie section. If anyone in Australia has a DVD recorder and is willing to record it for me (the ABC on December 10th) my mom would be forever grateful.
















Erin and myself on camp. This is the girl that I definitely want to go clubbing with. Alas she doesn't turn 18 before I go.
















Finale to the school spec. Everyone comes on stage. That's over 3000 performers.
















Simon doing Ed's hair at camp. I love this picture, he looks like he's concentrating so hard.

Just a quick update for all those verbal learners. Rob gets here in about two and a half weeks. This past week has been quite eventful. We had a movie night at school last night. It was quite a bit of fun. Then today was the best extension we've had in a while. We just watched "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" I do however have a problem with the fact that the teachers went on strike for the one day we didn't have English this week. Tonight I went to my counsellor's house for supper. His brother from Canada is visiting and he brought over "Corner Gas" We watched 4 epidsodes. Oh how I missed that show.

Therefore today's quote comes from "Corner Gas" and it's main purpose is to confuse the Aussies. "I'm going to skip my own rink in this year's bonspiel."... Figure that one out. (No help from the Canadians please)

More pictures coming eventually.
E(Liz)abeth

Earth Enviro Camp, School Spec, and Naamaroo...

Hey y'all everbody. This will be long. I'm sorry but I've had an exciting past five days. I will try to turn it into short paragraphs for easier reading. Pictures will follow soon (I hope)

On Wednesday Carlo's Earth Envrio class, geography class, and Northholm Grammar School's geography class left for our excersion to Newcastle (2 hours North of Sydney) We visited a winery, climbed Tomaroo Head (on a really hot day), played on some sand dunes, and visited the wetlands. Some educational stuff took place during these activities, and they were spaced over the three days. However, that's the boring stuff.

This excersion was better than year 11 camp because there was only about 25 of us. The teachers were way more lax. We also got heaps more free time, whereas year 11 camp was activities all the time. Wednesday night we had free time from 500 on. Seventeen of us sprawled out in Nick, Braydon, and Leo's room and watched "Dodgeball". Then we all migrated to mine and Smitty's room and watched "Spicks and Specks" Then we just played cards until curfew. Then Mel, Firthy, Smitty and I were passing notes back and forth with Ross, Simon, and Knoxie's room after curfew. Guess who was the one to get caught doing the passing? I gotta say, it's terrifiying to turn around and just have Nesbitt standing at the end of the hall. The guys were just killing themselves laughing when they heard Nesbitt catch me.

Thursday night we went 10 pin bowling. Let's just say my skills at 10 pin aren't nearly as good as my skills at 5 pin. However I did manage to pull out a win in the first game and Leo won the second one so we exchangies did alright for ourselves. The best (and funniest) thing was in the first game. Leo's all lined up, he starts going and Nick screamed "WAIT!!!!" so Leo tried to stop himself and basically just dropped the ball. People were actually crying with laughter at that one. Then when we got back to the hotel we played more cards. Miss Davidson (Davo) played Cheat with us until 1130 even though curfew was 1030. Good ol' teachers breaking curfew.

Friday we actually made contact with the Northholm kids. Adam and Rory joined Firthy, Mel, and I. And you know what, they weren't bad guys. Oh and a special mention goes out to Nick for taking pictures. I have over 200 pictures from this camp. Not bad considering I only have 7 from year 11 camp. (That sentence had nothing to do with the other but the paragraph was too short)

Then Friday night the Booth's took me to the school spectacular at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. It's a concert open to all kids in any NSW public school, but you have to audition for it and then they put you into a performance. It was SO amazing!! In the Aussie section the national anthem was played (obviously) and I seriously felt proud, like I was a real Aussie or something! Then the Booth's dropped me of at Naamaroo.

Naamaroo is outbound orientationin district 9680. Saturday evening was the best. After supper me, Morritz and Rebekka (germany) and Mike and Penny (outbound to Germany and Finland) sat around coming up with random English phrases that they would then translate into German. Then we did a concert for the counsellors. We Canadians did our "traditional" dances (like the lawn mower, the sprinkler, and of course the football) Johnny and Ermo (two inbounds) got up there with a snare drum and a french horn and said they were going to play a traditional funeral march... then they started playing "Advance Australia Fair" (that's the national anthem) It was hilarious.

After the concert we went swimming... and by that I mean some peope had their swimmers on. I, however, was just sitting by the pool, fully clothed, talking to Rebekka (who was also fully clothed) and we got pulled in. Luckily they gave me enough time to pull my mobile out of my pocket.

Today I finally got back home.

It was such a good week but I am so tired! I definitely won't be doing my King Lear speech tomorrow.

Today's quote comes from a guy named who's Simon outbound to Sweden "If you're not willing to take off your clothes then you're not ready to go on an exchange." Oh, that was a gooder.

Sorry for any typing errors, I didn't proofread this one.
E(Liz)abeth

There is seriously nothing going on...

There is really nothing happening here. I mean sure, there are things going down, but not one of them is exciting. I have 2 English assessment tasks coming up (Lear is a slow death), we're running around for Entertainment stuff, the dance and drama night is coming up on the 5th (in "Away" thank you very much), and the Earth Enviro camp and Namaroo are coming up, but none of this is noteworthy (aside from the fact that I just noted it)
There is a depressing air hovering around Carlo right now because we keep thinking of the fact that Leo only has 2 more months to go. I don't know what I'll do without my brazilian. Not to mention I'm OK until Leo leaves, but once he leaves I'll just be thinking "I'm next"
I was rather ecstatic to get my yearbook, though it did remind me of some people that I would've rather forgotten about (possibly with the initials BL)
I did have an excellent time at Ellie's on the weekend. C'mon, when there's chocolate mousse involved how could the day go wrong? Not to mention I got to watch our year's year 10 grad video. It was rather hilarious!
So to sum up nothing exciting is going on but I'm still happy. Monday was a good day for example, mainly because I couldn't stop laughing (you know, between beaver musk and feeling up Ed after an innocent hug) So yes, Australia isn't a constant party, but I'm constantly happy (my God, I took a corny route on that one)
Today's quote is from a video at Ellie's house: "Need help? Get an STD!" (Super tall dude, you gutter minds)
I shall post after Namaroo since I don't forsee anything noteworthy taking place between now and then.

E(Liz)abeth :)

Two Camp Pictures...

OK I tried to tell you people, I just didn't take pictures on camp. These two are from the school intranet. I tried to upload the one more that Braydon sent to me, but it didn't work. So here they are people. Please enjoy and remember, when I say I don't have pictures I really don't.
















Group 9, a rather attractive group if I do say so myself.




















Me on the vertical cluster. They really are attractive helmets.

Since it's a post (though really one in protest) today's quote is from Frank Woodley "Behind this thin veneer of a happy, smiling face is a man who is shitting himself." Gotta love Thank God You're Hear

E(Liz)abeth

Camp...

Sorry mom, no photos with this one. I wasn't very camera happy at camp. So basically Carlo people, you should send mom photos from camp. She'd love you forever.
It was really fun! It was cold nearly the entire time, but we still had a good time. We discovered the echo-y room very early on which acted as a good room for Take two, 500, and *cough* Avacado. We even got Nesbitt and Miss Reynolds in on *cough* Avacado. Our score board for 500 is probably still up on the whiteboard in that room, along with many fine scribblings and drawings.
The disco had really crap music but it was heaps of fun, especially after almost everyone left. Let me just say Carlo teachers are so much more willing to dance than Weyburn teachers... and they dressed up.
Trivia night wasn't bad, but it really did not meet my high hopes. Mel and I rocked at Wordles. Then with the speed stacking, let's just say it wasn't speed stacking so much as physical exertion with some cups getting in the way. Luckily Sam and I dodged that bullet.
The activities were lots of fun, but I'm mad that I didn't get to do the giant swing. Still, I did do the Leap of Faith. I have some bruises from Vertical Cluster. Survivor was quite cool, plus we totally had the best tribe name, though I don't know the English equivalent of it. Mission Impossible was the best one. We totally defused the bomb with only 2 seconds left.
All in all it was an excellent camp. Memories include listening to Ed ("Baby cow or chicken?!"), beating Simon on several occasions (we all know I came out ahead in our fights), Erin's dancing (I so want to go clubbing with her), doing the lawn mower and the football dance, impromptu quizzes, Ed's "Best hair of the century", Ellie's mP3 player, and so many mobiles going off (at ungodly hours)
And today's quote comes from camp Sam. Two words: "Trublic pantsport"

Next camp is in two weeks!
E(Liz)abeth

Second host family....

Well I'm out in North Ryde now. So far so good. I have three host siblings; Graeme who's 20, Alisha who's 16, and Laura who's 9. I wonder if I'll get middle child complex... meh, I like having younger siblings. Laura is really cute, though I'll have to teach her to not go into my wallet without asking me. I've already learned to use chopsticks though I am doing it wrong. I refuse to do it right handed, even though that is the right way to do it. But I'm remaining strong, I won't turn my back on my left-handedness.
I'm also teaching myself to play guitar because Clara has a guitar in her room (Clara is the outbound girl, she's the reason I'm at her house and the reason I'm getting kicked out January 5th, because she's coming back from Japan and needs her bed) and an instructional booklet so I figure I might as well take a whack at it. The whole family is really musical. Laura and Alisha both play violin. Victor (dad) plays piano. Graeme plays piano and guitar. Clara plays flute and guitar. It's probably a good thing I played tenor sax once upon a yore so I fit in a little bit.
Tomorrow is camp, but the weather sucks so I don't know how awesome it will be. Actually, that's a lie. It will be fun just hanging out with everyone for three days and all that, but most of our activities that are planned are outdoors, so I'm not sure how it's going to work.
Today quote I learned from Simon "Q: What did the blind, deaf kid get for Christmas? A: A Bike (Answered censored for those who wouldn't find this funny... note: real answer is in my Earth Enviro book)

See you guys on the other side of camp (or at camp as the case might be for some)
E(Liz)abeth

Blazer shots, alcohol preparedness, and KD...

So it's been a while, but look how many comments I racked up!!! And you know that that just means this post will be so amazing you'll wonder how I could possibly top it! Not to mention this one includes pictures and we all know how happy that makes mom.












Picture from the 80s movie day. And, yes, I can say 80s movie day because we (we being myself, Simon, Ellie, Ed, and Sam) watched "The Breakfast Club" (quintessential 80s movie), "Labrynth" (featuring a windswept David Bowie... and it's one of those movies that is so bad it's good, unless you're watching it with S'toon because he ruins it), and "Rent" (which takes place during 1989/1990 so it is, technically, an 80s movie) I gave these dear Aussies Kraft Dinner to mixed reviews. This would be Ellie and Simon with their KD. I am not posting the picture of Ed and Sam out of the goodness of my heart. Now I just need to expose them to perogies and poutine (though I find the latter gross)
I also now have a beer mug from Mt. Kosciuszko (from S'toon) to go with my Australia shot glass(from Ellie... and I think Nick and Steve) I feel the Aussies are pushing me to alcoholism. Mom's so not gonna appreciate that guys.












Chris and Helen took me into the city on Sunday. I must stop going into the city because I always end up at the Rocks and I always end up spending money. It was a good day though. We took the big, red bus around Sydney (even into *gasp* King's Cross) and I bought heaps of pins for my blazer.

Which brings me too... NEW BLAZER PICTURES!!!
















The front of my blazer filling up nicely. The Koala clinging to my lapel and the bracelet on my right wrist have been Super Glued on and I sewed the Swanies bear on myself.















The back of my blazer. Thanks to Ed for the P plate (which, again, I sewed on myself) It might be a little too neat, but those patches are ironed on and not going anywhere.

I talked to Raeanne on Monday. A twenty-five minute international call on my mobile only cost me $7. She made my day by telling me I sound aussie when I say "really" and she made Ellie's day by saying "a-boot" Oh and a side note to Canadians, we really do say "a-boot".

I move to my second host family on Saturday. I'm excited, but I'm a little sad to be leaving Joy because she's been such an awesome host mom. I mean, c'mon, she let me have an 18th birthday party. That so could've gotten out of control (I'm actually lying, I'm a nerd and therefore there was no chance in hell of it being out of control, but she doesn't know that)

And we move out to camp on Monday. As far as I can figure it will kind of be like the band trips from the Comp but not. Then I have another camp in week 6 for Earth Enviro. Basically that camp is the 22nd-24th then I have an exchange student camp from the 24th to the 26th. How sleep deprived will I be?

I also don't know if I'll be able to keep up extension English. Getting up at 530 twice a week just takes it out of me too much, but I really love extension!! If I could just not go to my first period on Tuesday and Thursday I'd be golden, but alas, that is not a viable option.

Hmmm a week between posts makes for a long post. I HOPE YOU ALL ARE HAPPY ABOUT PRESSURING ME INTO POSTING!!!!! YOU HAD TO SIT THROUGH THIS!!!!

Today's quote comes from The Island (thanks Sam!!!!) "We're starving to death. Now is not the time for ridged adherance to theatrical conventions."

E(Liz)abeth :)