My trip to Australia

Second day of travel to Australia, after a flight of fourteen hours in which we tried to sleep, we finally arrived to Melbourne at 5:10PM. The flight was really too long, every part of my body was hurting me and I though that my head was going to explode ! But here we are, we are in Australia ! I can't imagine that it is only 9:10AM in France, there is eight hours of time difference !

So as soon as we arrived at the airport, we took back our luggages and we went through the customs. Then we took a bus heading to Ballarat, the final destination at 7:25PM and we all slept during the travel. One hour an a half later we were in Ballarat. We stopped at the train station where all the host families were waiting for us. I was so excited to finally my penpal family ! And to see my penpal again - I already saw her in Paris when she was in France with school - but I was also exhausted by the travel which was very long ...

We took some group photos with everybody and left with our respective host families. That's how I met Lorraine, Ella's mother, she is such a nice person ! I already love her ! Before coming home, we stopped at Macdonald, called Maccas in Australia and ordered dinner to eat at home. After dinner, I took a relaxing and hot shower because it was freezing outside and to evacuate all the stress of the plane.

Before the trip, I bought gifts for my Australian family to thank them for welcoming me for a month so I offered them the little presents and they were really surprised but also really happy. I offered a perfume box to Lorraine and a mug about Paris and some beauty things to Ella. Their reactions were a relief because I did'nt know if they were going to like it !

As I was exhausted by the travel, I said goodnight and I went to bed at 10:30PM. When I entered in the bed, it was already hot so that surprised me and Lorraine told me that there was an electric blanket. That was so cool, I did'nt know it existed so that was the first Australian discovery of my trip !

photo de groupe de l'arrivée

I spent the most horrible night of my entire life ... Because of the time difference, I woke up five times during the night ... So I finally woke up at 1:30PM. As a breackfast, Ella prepared me toast with butter and Vegemite on it. Vegemite is an Australian food paste made from yeast extract. Ella was really surprised I liked it because this taste salty and strong, but I actually love it !

Today, after "breacky" time, we went to the swimming pool from 3PM to 5:30PM, we swam a lot but we also talked a lot ! I'm so happy that we get along so well, she is really nice and funny ! At home, we took a shower and chilled in Ella's bedroom.

Tonight, Lorraine cooked lamb with vegetables and French fries, it was excellent ! After dinner, we watched the movie "Spy" with Jude Law. It was hilarious. We went to bed at 11:50PM.

It has been only five days I'm in Australia and I am already in love with this country, I can't wait to discover more about it ! So today I woke up at 10:30AM and after getting ready, we took the car to go to the beach. We walked on the sand and ate an ice cream while walking - yes, I ate an ice cream in winter ! - It was beautiful, the sea was so clear, even in winter, it surprised me !

Then we ate at Macdonald and we went to shopping in RipCurl, Roxy, and I discovered an Australian shop called Ghanda, in which I bought a top. After shopping, we went home and I met Ella's bestfriend, named Brandon, who is really nice and funny, we laughed a lot ! We got prepared for a basketball game and a VIP dinner offered by Lorraine's boss for six persons.We met my friend Clémence and her penpal Chloe and we ate before watching the game. It was a professionnal basketball game between the Miners and the Rush. After the game, won by the Rush, unfortunately, I took a pictures with Chris Smith, a Miners' player, who is also Ella's coach at basketball. He was so tall that I felt like a minimoys next to him !

After the game, we went home and watched the tennis. I went to bed at 00:15AM.

This is the first day of school !!! I woke up at 7AM and I got ready, I putted my uniform made of a sweater and a jogging with the symbols of the school on it. I was excited and at the same time I was totally scared and stressed ... I had my usual breackfast : toasts with butter and vegemite and a vanilla latte. While I was eating, Lorraine prepared lunch and putted it in my lunchbox. It was new for me because we are not allowed to bring our lunch at my school, we have to eat at the cantine or outside of the school.

We took the bus at 8:30AM heading to Damascus college. This college is enormous compared to mine ! There are so many buildings and so many green area where students can sit or eat ! I was really impressed. As soon as we arrived, Ella took me to her locker and told me that it was the meeting point if I ever get lost. At 9AM, the bell rang and we went to TA, it's a time before class where the teacher in charge of the group informs the pupils about their day and if there is any change in their timetable. After TA, we went to the office and then to the meeting room where we met the headmaster and two French teachers. With all the student of the exchange, we listened to the welcome speech and we met Sofia, an Italian student here for a month as well as us. After that, we made our own timetables in which we could chose cooking, metal, art, PE, or wood. Then, we went to class with our penpals for the day.

The first two hours, I went to litterature and I met Ally, one of Ella's friend. In litterature we studied Hamlet of Shakespeare. Then, after the fifteen minutes break, where I met all the group of friends of Ella, we went to art. I met Ella's art teachers, Mrs ..., and she immediatly asked me a lot of questions aabout France, my school, my family, myself ... She is really nice and so funny ! She offered me a lot of options of works I could do and I chose "Human body and culture". She was so friendly with me and with the rest of the class, taht surprised me because in France we are not that close to the teachers, it's really different. Moreover, students can eat and drink in class, they are talking all the time, using their phones, they are also not rising their hands to answer or to ask a question, thta's totally different from French system.

Then we had lunch, I ate with my friends because it was the first day of school and everybody had a lot to tell about the college and their families ! We sitted in the room called "the cantine", where poeple can by food and drinks. After lunch break I went to history for two hours as well. I am usually bored in history because I don't really like it but today it was great ! The teacher was so captivating ! We worked on Yalta's and Potsdam's conferences during the second world war.

At 3:18PM the bell rang and we took the bus to come home. At home we had a snack and we did our homeworks. Then we watched TV while Lorraine was cooking chicken with vegetables and French fries. I took a shower and I went to bed because I was exhausted by this first day of school !

It seems like I am supposed to have French everyday ...Is that a joke ? I am in Australia to speak English, that was the purpose of this exchange but apparently they don't think like us ... It's starting to bother me since I can't improve my English level if I am always talking in french ...

Anyway, today I had French with year 12 so we did exactly as yesterday : translation ... But I made new friends so that's kind of cool ! Then I went to Wood, and for this first class, the teacher wanted to know us a little and told us that in only one hour we couldn't do anything interesting so we talked and we laughed too, he is really nice ! Moreover we were with Sofia so we got to know her better and she is so kind, although she is really shy.

After the breack, with Clément, we went to art and did theory about an article by Rianne Groen MA dealing with the Ethics working with living animals in comtemporary art. It was really boring but we learned after the lesson that we were not in the right room so it's "normal" that we didn't understand a lot of the lesson. Then we went to PE but that was not like PE in France, it was in a room and we talked about nutrition and we did fitness like balance, coating, ... and we had to time us, we were in pairs - I was with Clément - At coating, Clément did four minutes and beat everyone in the group and I did two minutes ! That is my record ! I was really proud of me.

After lunch, I had metal with Clément, Margaux and Lauranne. The teacher was really funny and taught us how to file a piece of metal to give it a shape and turn it into an animal or something we wanted to do. I chose to make a biscuit with the word "YUM" written on the middle of it. Then we went to French with year 11, so with my penpal and we did exactly what we did with year 12 ... Well I think you saw that I really don't like French lessons here ...

We went back home and got prepared for basketball, I was so excited ! We were only four to train so I was kind of surprise because it's sad when everybody is not here ... But that was great, we did passing, shooting and a lot of little games, and the coach told me that I was really good at it so I was really happy !

Then we came home and went to bed.

Today was really hard to handle ... In fact, I had three hours of French today ! So with year 12 we did the same as usual, reading and translation, and after the break, with year 11, we did translation too, so it was a boring morning. Then we had art, this time with year 10 and it was really cool, the teacher, Miss Bird was so nice and gave us a really funny work to do so we were glad ! We had to draw a portrait but to turn it into a psychodelic thing, draw big eyes, nature, animals, and everything we want to make it as weird as possible.

Then we had lunch and we went to the cantine, I took an iced coffee and pastas. I ate with Ella and her friends. After lunch break I went to wood with Sofia, Isis and Clément and we started to make our rolling pin. The teacher told us how to use the machines, that was really impressive because we don't have this in France ! As we were cutting the wood, there was a lot of chips of wood everywhere, we were kind of becoming wood because we had so much chips of wood on us !

Then we took the bus and went to the city center to eat Macdonald with Ella's friend. It was a nice moment. And after we went shopping, it was great ! The city center is so typical, it's like we were in the 50's ! I love this type of architecture, it's amazing !

Then Lorraine picked us up, we came home and Ella got prepared for her basketball game. Ella's team was playing against the lowest team of the championship so they won easily. After the game we went to order KFC and we ate at home, in front of criminal minds!

I went to bed at 11:30PM.

Today I woke up at 9AM - which is earlier than usal - for a good reason : today, we are going to Melbourne ! So after having taken breackfast we took the car heading to Melbourne ! It's really close to Ballarat since it's only one hour and a half long to get there !

When we arrived, we went to Victoria Market, the biggest market of Melbourne. There was clothes, souvenirs, games for children and also food ! It was really impressive. I bought some shirts for my brother and my best friend and also little koala cuddly toys for my sisters. After having visted the entire market we went to eat at the casino. This place is so beautiful, even the walls and the ground were fancy ! There were also a lot of restaurants, so Lorraine took sushis, Ella took Chinese food and I took pastas, just because I love pastas.

After lunch, we went out of the casino and visied Melbourne. We were walking along the river when we saw a show in the street. There was a group of men who were dancing and singing, it was really good ! And after this show, we went to Eureka building, the highest building of Melbourne in order to see an amazing view of this big city and we went to Skydeck 88, the floor where you can admire the view. At this floor, there is also something called the Edge, this is a glass room which is going out of the building so we can see the groud from the 88 floor !

The view was amazing ! With Ella, we went into the Edge, and at first it was scary because there were visual effects to scare people but when we were out of the buillding, it was amazing. It was like we were flying ... I loved it !

Then we came home. I went to bed at 9PM because we have got school tomorrow ! I really enjoyed today and Melbourne is such a great city, I think that if I have to live in a foreign country later I will choose Australia and particularly the city of Melbourne.

I don't know how to say it ... Well, it was the longest day of the trip ... Today, I had four hours of French ... I am having an overdose of French, really, it's exhausting ! I don't see the point of telling you what happened in French because it's excatly the same as usual ...

Luckily, I also had art in period three ! So I continued my portrait and I found a lot of psychodelic papers to add in my portrait, I was really proud of what I was doing because it was exactly just what the teacher wanted !

And then, before lunch, we had an assembly. everybody sitted on the ground and the teachers were calling the rewarded students on the stage to give them their prizes. They could be rewarded for grades, or for being the nicer students in the class ... It was to encourage them to keep doing things right and to work hard.

After lunch I had French and then we came home.

Today, I began with double English with Mrs Myers. We had to read a text in English and then to answer question about this text. It was dealing with the Australian history and the confilcts between settlers and aborigines. It was really interresting and we learned a lot about what happened to the aborigines, who were treated like slaves, who were hunted and killed by the settlers and how those massacres were ignored by the settlers. It was hard to hear because I can't imagine some persons can be that bad with others ... Anyway, it was really interesting and I learnt a lot !

Then I had double art with Miss Bird and she helped us to make a collage on the computers. It was funny because we could do everything we wanted, like adding an unicorn on the top of a blue mushroom, draw eyes on tentacles ... It was awesome !

And then, after lunch, I had double French with year 11. We wrote an article about our stay in Australia to encourage Australian students to welcome French students in the future. I thought it was a good thing to do because everybody have to experience a trip like this one, this is really incredible and I wish to everyone to live that once in their lives.

Second day in Melbourne ! I am so glad to come back here ! This time we chose to go to a really big shopping center.

So as soon as we arrived, we went to the restaurants floor and we ate chinese. I took a soup with noodles and it was delicious ! Then we started shopping ! This shopping center is so big, and there are so many shops, there are luxury shops, food shops, clothes shops, art shops, and even pets shops ! We went into the pets shop and in this shop, we can hold the puppies ! They were so cute, I hold one who was always licking at my face, it was really funny !

Then we went through a lot of clothes shops and I bought a scarf and some shirts. We also went to a shop in which they sell funny things, so I bought gifts for my brother, my sisters and my mother.

At 4PM, we took a snack. We took frozen yoghurt and we could add every topping we wanted on it, there were fruits, candies, chocolates, sauces, ... It was awesome and delicious !

We spent the whole day on the shopping center and I loved it ! I love shopping and Lorraine and Ella too so we were in our element, we had a lot of fun !

This is the third time I am going to Melbourne and I am still excited about it ! So today we went to school earlier to take the bus to Melbourne, it was a really enjoyable trip because everyone was laughing and singing!

When we arrived we directly came into the museum and we had a presentation of the life of a French Pinter called Degas who painted a lot. Then we went into the exhibition and we discovered his work. It was really interesting because I think that thanks to exhibitions we can really enter into the pinter's minds and it helps us to understand them.

After the exhibition, we went outside to eat. I took a Caesar salad and I ate with Sofia because everybody else wanted to buy gifts. After having eaten, we took some beautiful pictures of Melbourne with all the buildings and everything.

After that it was already time to go back to Ballarat so we took the bus and we came home.

Today was another day without school ! In fact, there was a journalism thing at Damascus so we had to stay at home. It was a nice day, we had a sleep in and at lunch we ate in a brunch restaurant, it was really good !

Then we visited Ballarat Art Gallery and we made a tour around the lake. We saw black and white swans and a lot of couloured birds. Ella explained me that it was here that she was doing rowing in summer and that it is a really nice place to read.

Then we came home and chilled out as usual.

This is my last day in Damascus today ... I am kind of sad because of it ...

We started the day with one hour of English, in which the headmaster told us that we were amazing French students and that we could come back anytime we wanted to. It was really nice and I was almost crying whe he delivered the speech ... 😦 Then we had a Mass to bless us on our way back to France, everybody said something and we prayed. It was really impressive because I am not used to go to church or anything like that.

Then we had one hour of French and we played games, like on the 14th of july, but this time the words were harder to translate but we still had a lot of fun ! After that, we went to art with Miss Bird and we finished our portrait. At the end of the lesson, she kissed us and thanked us for being nice students.

I had my last lunch with Ella's friends and I was so emotional ... I didn't want to leave them ...

After lunch we had our last wood lesson and we finally finished our rollin pin ! It was so funny ! And the teacher was really proud of our work ! Then I took the bus for the very last time ... and when I came out after having said goodbye to everyone, I cried, I was so sad because I knew that I was going to miss them ...

Then we came home and we got prepared for the party at Damascus and at Eleanora's house. We ate at Damascus, we took a lot of photos and some of us did speeches, I presented a PowerPoint to thank everyone and Julie made a very emotional speech which made everybody cry... Nobody wanted to leave Australia.

After dinner at Damascus, we went to Eleanora's house to party, it was so cool, we danced, we laughed, we took pictures, selfies and we made a lot of new friends ! It was the best party I ever did ... We leaved her house at 11PM and I said goodbye to everyone, and when I saw Sofia starting crying, I cried too, I was really going to miss her, she is a wonderful person and she is so nice... We promised to make an exchange one the next summer, she will come to my house and I will come to her house.

Then we came home with Abbey, Ella's bestfriend and she slept at our house. She was so sad to because she was really getting along with Margaux and she was so sad to leave her ...

This is my last day ... I woke up at 1AM and I finished packing my things ... Then I went to the kitchen to have lunch, my very last lunch ...

After that, Lorraine and Ella took me out to make a last ride in Ballarat, we went back to the lake and stopped at the tourism office to buy pictures of Ballarat in summer but we didn't find them nice so we leaved.

Then we stopped in an empty parking and Lorraine told me to take her seat and to learn how to drive an automatic car ! I was so stressed ! But I understood quickly and I had a lot of fun. Then we stopped at the house of Ella's father and I offered him a bottle of wine I forgot to give him last time. He wished me a nice travel back and I started to cry again ...

Then we came home and we putted my luggage in the car, heading for Ballarat train station. We are back at the starting point ... I don't want to leave ...

Everybody was almost here when we arrived and Julie was already crying ... We I saw Clément arriving with red eyes I started to cry too... It was the most difficult time of my life ... We took photos, and we finally said goodbye to our families ... Everybody was crying, and our families too ...

And finally it was time to enter in the bus to go to Melbourne's airport... When the bus leaved, everybody was still crying and it took me at least 40 minutes to stop crying ... I was so sad...

We arrived at the airport and passd all the customs, Then we entered on the plane and we came home, our real home this time ...

It was such an amazing travel and I won't ever forget it. Everybody was so nice and so welcoming, we got attached so quickly ... Now they are like my second family and I won't ever forget them and all the things they did for me, They are amazing people. It was the best holidays of my entire life and I wish I could go back to this wonderful country and see those amazing people again.