First School Day

Yesterday was my first day at school and i must say, I'm impressed. From the very gate of the school all the way to the gym halls and Chemistry labs, everything is new, renovated and intuitive. The school offers great sport arrangements, including football fields, tennis courts and even an indoor swimming pool! For those that are interested in arts and music, there are really awesome art and music departments available full of various resources available to students. Don't even get me started on the library, it's 2 floors high and contains a brad variety of textbooks, novels and other forms of literature. However, there are some small apparent differences from a typical dutch school such as the prohibition of bags in class, the appointment of a 'House' with a house master, the fashion to start the lesson ager about 10 minutes of discussing with the teacher and classmates, the use of laptops at any lesson and the prohibition of technology during lunch breaks. Another interesting matter, is how focused and centralised the school is on sports. I can recall my Physics teacher asking the class for the name of, I quote, 'the one who is a really good swimmer in year 12'. The school has its technology areas, great sports facilities, a wide array of language and mathematics and an interesting technology section. Something that Newington college does have but dutch schools often miss, is the integration of technology into the school's basic education ideologies. As such, Newington College disposes computers and iPads to students that need them in all years. However, the teachers and staff know how to make sure that these facilities and luxuries are maintained and use properly and responsibly. The school also teaches its students how to to grow up and be real men and respect others not only inside school, but also further in life. Overall, i have very much enjoyed my experience at Newington so far and am looking forward to attending school on Sydney.

Australia Day

I had the greatest time yesterday, on Australia day. I started off the day by grouping up with Scott, Jonno, Tim and some other Aussie mates and making our way to Bondi beach by bus and the Sydney tube. Upon our arrival at Bondi however, we immediately regretted our choice due to the lack of sun and abundance in grey clouds. We were all really disappointed but decided that it wasn't worth our money to just turn around and go back, so we threw down our bags and had a swim. We only managed to swim for about an hour before 3 helicopters started circling the beach due to a shark that had been spotted in the water. Tired of being pushed around, we all decided to head over to Marcus' place and just take the day off, relaxing in his pool and listening to music. Me and Scott also went by the aboriginal festival in town that included a band playing some songs and a couple of shops in the park. Once at Marcus', we played some table tennis and relaxed on the grass while listening to music, followed by a long evening of watching movies and playing games. Overall Australia Day wasn't too bad, and i really did have a good time despite the fact that the weather wasn't ideal during our trip to Bondi. Below: A picture of the Aboriginal Festival in Sydney.

Back in Town

Alright, so i’m finally back in Sydney after a one week stay at Booti Booti. I had some great fun together with Timothy, Jonno, Scott, Penny and Robert. Here’s a quick run through of the events. Day 1: So today we headed out to a house reserved by Jonno’s parents thats surrounded by Booti Booti national park. We all bulked up in a car, put on some music and hit the road. At about half way we stopped for a quick snack and drink at a pie restaurant called Heatherbrae’s. I enjoyed a delicious quiche pie and half a carton of chocolate milk. After 3 and a half hours of driving, we finally arrived at Booti Booti. The place looked awesome and it instantly charmed me. I couldn’t believe how magical it was. Imagine a densely forested tropical forest next to a white sand beach at its edge surrounded by hills. Now place a small wooden house with one floor, no glass windows and more than enough beds right at the border between jungle and sand. This was Booti Booti. We had only started enjoying our stay at the place when Scott spotted an iguana! It was incredibly long and was clutching onto a tree trunk. This was truly a tropical paradise. As soon as we settled in, we grabbed our swimming gear and hit the waves. We walked over towards the water and i was perplexed by the beauty of the place, untouched by humans and preserved in its original state by nature. You wouldn’t even be able to notice that there was civilisation close by, it was just you and the ocean. After a quick swim, we headed back to the house and grabbed some tortillas and dips while we passed a frisbee around casually. We soon discovered a net and some badminton rackets and decided to play a game or two while we waited for dinner to be served. The badminton rally soon ended as we sat down to enjoy our lasagna. We then sat back and enjoyed a game of balderdash. Day 2: Ok, so today we did some swimming early on at beach Elizabeth, a much more calmer beach with better waves. After a couple of good swims we took a ride home by car and made some sandwiches. We then decided to check out Wallis Lake, a salt lake that is mainly created by the tidal movements, so i grabbed some gear and a backpack stuffed with towels and water bottles. We started off by walking down the beach towards a small connective path that joined the lakeside and the beach, over grown with wildlife. However, we were interrupted by a flock of dolphins that Scott had spotted in the waves. This was a once in a lifetime experience so we dropped our things on the spot and plunged right into the waves. After having swum with dolphins, we dried ourselves off and continued our journey towards the lake. We first arrived at a rather peculiar site, a church-like area created out of wood in order to replicate a spiritual location. This was right on the border of a dense wood and the lake, it was majestic. It was all so surreal to me, i was truly living a fantasy. Jonno then told us that the shores of the lake are about knee-deep until about 300m out, this being the case we decided to make our way through the water towards a small restaurant. On our way we saw some blacks swans, schools of fish and sea crustaceans. Do keep in mind that this lake is salty, extremely salty and hot due to its shallow waters and the great temperature outside. We arrived at the restaurant after a long hike across the shallow lake but to our disappointment discovered that the place was closed and that it only opens on Saturdays, Sundays and occasionally on Fridays. I didn't really feel like taking the long way home by going through the lake so we took the route that follows a main road back to our cottage, which was much faster than its alternative. I enjoyed a nice dinner and afterwards it was decided that we all play Pictionary, a game i was not familiar with but nevertheless managed to enjoy. Robert mentioned that there was an interesting feature to the sand down at the beach, the sand would glitter lightly wen rubbed due to the activation of phosphor contained within it. Within a couple of minutes we were down at the beach rubbing sand and chasing white crabs. To end the day, we finished off our game of dictionary and tucked in. Day 3: Its day 3 of the Booti Booti adventure and today we drove down to a neighbouring beach, beach Elizabeth, and caught some huge waves. After a good soak and swim, I did some tanning while Scott and Jonno played some cricket. In the meanwhile Tim was relaxing and reading his book in the shade. After a good 3 hours at the beach we decided to spend some time recovering and rebooting back at the cottage. Once we got a good relaxing afternoon behind us, we made our way to the beach for some boogie boarding fun. The waves were huge and we managed to catch some great glides over to the shore. I later got caught in a rift temporarily but managed to escape before it got too severe. Back at the cottage, we fixed up some dinner and I had a good read. Day 4: Today we wandered around Forster and checked out some of the local surfer shops and skater outlets. We didn't really buy anything but simply admired the surfer/sporty culture. However, we soon got hungry and decided to have some fish n chips for lunch. After we had finished our lunch, we headed over to the lake and started fishing. We didn't really catch anything big, just a couple of small fishes. It was a nice and hot day to be out fishing and i really enjoyed the relaxing sphere. A couple of small fish later, we got bored and searched for the nearest gelato shop. While searching, we popped into a couple of skate shops and had a chat with the staff, who were way too relaxed for our liking. In the end we grabbed some gelato and Penny drove us back home. We then grabbed our boogie boards and had a swim, followed by a relaxing dinner and an evening spent reading A Clash of Kings. Day 5: On our fifth day at Booti, we hired a boat and toured around Wallis lake, trying to find a nice fining spot but never really managed to catch anything better than seaweed. Robert then took us back home and we all just sat down and had a read while we waited for Chris to arrive. As soon as Chris arrived, he proposed we head out to the local golf course and check out some wallabies (baby kangaroos) and had a nice swim at sand bar beach.

Had a nice game of tennis at the local public courts together with Scott, Jonno and Tim a while back. Did some shopping today at Broadway (mall), got myself a pair of sunglasses and thongs(flip flops). We also found an arcade and had some fun on the machines! Earlier today, took a ride around the cove together with Chris on bikes and later managed to grab a smoothie and read the papers. I haven't even sleept in my bed yet, i fell asleep yesterday at 4 pm and woke up the next day at 6 am. Just had a great barbecue diner with Ice Cream to top it off, going to prepare for our trip to Booti Booti national park tomorrow.

First Day

I just had a great first day in Australia. Was greeted with enthusiasm by Scott, Jonno, Mr. Bennett as well as Robert and Chris. So far everything has been going smoothly, had a swim at Bondi beach, took a bus trip through Sydney and am now relaxing inside.

Singapore

Finally arrived at Changi airport in Singapore after a long 12 hour flight! Got some sleep during the flight and got around to watching some movies. Im currently sitting at the lounge and enjouying the tropical view and the incredible silence at this airport. Ill soon be taking off with Qantas onward to Sydney. 

Visa Finally Granted

Alright so i have finally received an email confirming my eVisitor Visa grant. It's official, i can legitimately pass Australian borders. I've been waiting for this for quiet some time, it is currently 00:55 and i decided to check the status of my application. To my greatest surprise i find that my visa application has been accepted and granted, this was only possible with the help of Mr. Packett and his efforts at the immigration offices in Sydney.

Mall Preps...

Going to hoed over to Decathlon in Eindhoven to buy some tennis gear. Its been a long time since I played tennis so I gotta get back in shape as soon as I land in Sydney.

Hello and welcome to my blog, i will try and keep you all posted with the latest news about my exchange to Australia. For starters, i thought you might like to know that this educational exchange will be organised by the schools Rijnland Lyceum Wassenaar (my school) and Newington College (in Sydney, NSW). I will be gone to Australia for 9 weeks, from the 15th of January to the 20th of March. So far i have only run into one problem, which is my eVisitor Visa. Apparently im more of a threat to Australian national integrity and security than i thought, because my visa application was followed by a series of questions and requests for further information. I guess it may also partly be the fact that I applied as a Dutch passport holder under a very Moldavian name :). I will be rounding up the last few things concerning my visa today and get started on packing my bags.