Merry Christmas/13 Days!!

First off, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Season’s Greetings, Happy Holidays to all you lovely people reading this, hope you all got some great gifts and are enjoying your holidays!

   I’m not sure what your religion or nationality is, but where I live, in Australia, the only thing that’s really big is Christmas. In my family, we always put up a artificial Christmas tree, the decorate it with tinsel, lights and assorted hanging decorations, e.g. baubles, glass teardrops etc. Then put the wrapped up presents under the tree. Also, we put lights up outside our house, (I’ll take pictures tonight of my house and the others in my street and post them tomorrow) and then, about one a week, or fortnightly, we’ll drive around my area and look at other peoples Christmas lights J

     Christmas Day, we’ll get up and do presents, perhaps have breakfast, but not usually, then at noon, we’ll have a massive lunch, (I’ll post a picture of my family’s typical lunch tomorrow aswell). We’ll crack Christmas bon bons, and then when we’re full and everything is cleaned up, we’ll either go for a swim in the pool in my back yard, or just sit and chat.

      We don’t have dinner as lunch is always massive, but if we’re hungry, we’ll just go cut some of the leftover Christmas meat or have a piece of fruit.

Onto Exchange!

So it’s only 13 days until I leave.

    Am I excited? Oh yeah.

Am I nervous? Hell yes.

   In fact, this time in thirteen days, I’ll be in the sky, heading to LA, all on my lonesome.

Actually, the more I think about it, the scarier it is. I won’t see my family or friends for six months, I won’t get to snuggle up with my pets for six months, I won’t see, or do a lot of things for six months actually. And it really is a scary thought. And who knows, something drastic might happen, and may never see my friends or family again.

    Like the chances of it happening is pretty slim, but the chance is still there, because who knows, you could die on exchange, or a family member may, or a friend could. You just never know. But moving on from the depressing stuff.

    I haven’t even started to pack yet. I haven’t even got my new suitcase yet.  

Yep.

    That’s right.

Thirteen days and I don’t even have my suitcase.

    I know what I want to pack and all, and I have a vague idea of what I’ll take in my hand luggage, but I just haven’t got it yet. One of the girls I’m going with, is already packed and everything, and she’s going a week later than me. Talk about organized.

    I haven’t gotten my E-Ticket yet either, EF was supposed to send it to me in the mail about a week or two ago, but I haven’t received it yet. :/ Then, just to add to everything, the SIM Card EF gave me, won’t activate. But I suppose these are minor problems compared to all that’s wrong in the world, including the four kids who haven’t even gotten their families yet.

   Yes. Some kids don’t have a family yet and it’s less than three weeks for the majority of us. I feel so sorry for them, I really do. Everyone else has theirs, including some kids who are going in July/August, and they don’t. It really sucks for them.

  

That’s about all really. I’ll post the pictures tomorrow and I’m eve thinking of attempting the Vlog I promised a few months back...

Chao x

Less Than One Month!!!

Less Than One Month!!!

As you can tell, I'm a tad excited ;) Yesterday it was exactly one month until I left for Nebraska!!

  I have all my flight details now, leaving Sydney Airport on the 10^th Jan, then a lovely 20 hour flight to LA, chill there for a few hours, catch a plane to Minnesota, chill there for another few hours, then down to Iowa on another plane where I’ll meet my host family, and drive for another hour to my house! All together it’s like, 31 and a half hours of travel. -.-

   Hoping the plane has good movies and the airports have some alright shops. Also hoping that I’ll be travelling with someone, because at the moment, I'm not :/ Reeeeaaalllllyyyyy hoping I am, there's only so much time I can go without talking, and talking to myself may make me seem like a nutter.

Anyway.

So yesterday I had my final game of cricket, which, we won! Yay! (Absolutely smashed them :P) then all the teams had a picnic type thing, which was pretty cool, and mine and Claire’s going away party! Woo!

    There was about 25 of us at my house, talking, eating, drinking non-alcoholic stuff, dancing like idiots, taking hundreds of pictures, swimming, pushing each other into the pool, laughing like maniac’s and being our normal teenage selves.

    A few of my friends got me going away gifts which was really nice, all of them were amazing, and some hilarious cards aswell.

    My sister also made us a Pavlova, which, or those of you that don’t know what it is: It’s just loads of sugar, egg whites, cornflour and a bit of milk, all mixed up with electric beaters to make a really fluffy mixture. Then, you pop it on baking tray that’s lined with baking paper for a while, then when it’s ready take it out, and serve it with cream and fruit. It’s a but like a meringue. So Jess – My sister, decorated it freaking amazingly, one side was done with white, red, & blue fruits (Strawberry, Banana & Blueberry), for America, while the other side was Yellow and Green fruits, (Mango and Kiwi Fruit). Then the border of it was done in the opposite colours, so the Strawberry, Banana & Blueberry side had Mango and Kiwi Fruit on it, while the Mango and Kiwi Fruit side had the Strawberry, Banana and Blueberry on it!

    Late-ish we went for a Christmas light walk, because my street is amazing when it comes to putting up lights for Christmas. Like truly amazing. If I remember I’ll take a few pictures later this week of the houses at night and post them on here.

    At about 10 some people left, having to work the next day, lived further away than others, or parents wanted them home earlier than midnight. At about 11 some others left, just before we took more hot food out of the oven for the remaining girls.

    At about 11:45 myself, and another girl walked my friend home who lived at the bottom of the street, then went back to my house, where we attempted to watch a Lunar Eclipse through the clouds covering the moon.

    As you probably guessed, it wasn’t successful.

So after that, the remaining five or six girls and myself, were just chatting about different things, eating the pies and sausage rolls that weren’t quite gone yet, while some parents came and picked their kids up.

    By the end it was just Claire and I left, we helped clean up everything, not that there was a massive mess or anything, then went upstairs, made up the beds, talked for a bit and then fell asleep.

    In the morning we had a bottle of Creaming Soda for brekkie, (Healthy, I know :P ) and then decided to make Pancakes, and feeling inspired by two Youtubers we both watch, made Delia Smith pancakes.

    (On a side note, normal pancakes taste much better)

The first batch were only half a fail, not cooking them properly, still taste good, but didn’t have ‘Crispy edges’ like the recipe suggested they should have.

    So we made a second batch, dancing to Disney songs while we did, cooked them, and did some fabulous flipping, and that was that.

Completely off topic now.

But yes, less than a month until I'm in America for six months!! Woooo!!

   Going to miss everyone so much! Especially my family.

And now this is two and a bit pages long, so I’ll leave off here!

Cya x