Daily journal #10 top ten

10: Red wood forest/ Hangi diner. This was a great day because we could just jam out in the woods and have a great time without caring what people said. The Hangi diner was a ton of fun because everyone got to learn about Maori culture. Tat culture is amazing and makes me want to be closer to our culture.
9: Free time to roam. We always have a ton of fun with that because we could go where ever we wanted and have fun not caring about anyone else or any other drama. Some of my favorite memories are from the times we can go anywhere for diner.

8: Bonding with friends. I like this for the same reason as #9. Also because I love hearing peoples crazy life stories and the hilarious moments Lexa, Megan, and I had in our room.
7: Lugging. I loved Lugging because I had to go way out of my comfort zone in order to try it and it ended up being one of the best moments. And, I went twice!
6: The sunrise. This was so pretty over the mountain in Rotoroua with the steam from the sulfur deposits and it is something that we cannot see here in the USA
5: Bondi Beach. I loved this time because again i stretched my comfort zone by going in the water even though it was chilly out. I also like it because I could bond with my friends.
4: Sydney Bridge Climb. The sight was breath taking; there is no way to really explain the beauty of the climb. If I am ever back in Sydney I will need to make a point of doing it again. The wind was strong up there but it didn’t matter because it was so cool.
3: GBR. The reef was amazing and flowing with life. I loved all the amazing things there that you cannot find anywhere except the reef. The thing that is really sad is that the coral is dying and you can see the significant amount of dead coral.
2: Holding a Koala. THEY WERE SO CUTE. Chipy (the koala I held) was so chill and when I held her she gripped onto my arm. I bought a picture of me holding her and we all agreed that we all looked super happy because all of our smiles were genuine.
1: Rangitoto College. I love people! They were so cool and I learned a ton of things from each other. I love Lucy because she was so cute and thought she was the coolest kid which is pretty much like me. All the people represented their high school perfectly and their Haka was AWESOME!! I loved and I never wanted to leave.
Today we went to the rain forest and it was super fun, more bonding and i held a koala!

Daily journal #9 reflect about reef

Today was another amazing day! To start off we got to sleep in until 7:00! It was so great and I felt so refreshed. We ate breakfast and after that we got on the bus to the reef at 9:00am in amazing 75 degree weather. We drove a little way to a peer where we got on a fast boat. On the boat we watched a safety instruction while feeling the warming sun. Once the boat started moving we talked and felt the wind and salt water on our faces after a presentation about snorkeling. Once we finally got to the reef the water was amazingly clear and blue. The water ended up being super cold but the fish and coral were too pretty to miss. At first i was having trouble breathing out of my snorkel because it was so awkward to breathe through but i got used to it soon. Then one time I forgot to keep breathing and i tried to breathe through my nose but it didn’t work but then i breathed through my mouth when I remembered I could breathe out of my snorkel...awkward. As we were swimming about i saw a ton of fish; a bunch of little ones, a huge one, and even an eel. I wanted to see more coral but i soon found myself about a foot above some and started to worry and so I tried my best not to touch them and i didn’t, success. Then I swam right through a school of fish, it was amazing! I stayed there for a while because I liked them so much but apparently i thought they were prettier then Lexa and Bridgette thought and they accidentally ditched me. When i looked up and didn’t see them I found the closest group and swam with them. Kathryn and I went back to the school of fish and at one point they were jumping all over me and it was kind of scary but funny too. After that we got out to get lunch and i was hungrier then i thought because I got food a few times and I didn’t expect that. I stayed out of the water for the rest of the time because the tide had gone down and I didn’t want to touch any of it. So instead i hung out with people and had a ton of fun, it seems that i have a lot of fun in life especially with my friends :). Later, I touched a sea cucumber! it was really slimy and if you poke it feels like it is full of air and nothing else. Then the last thing i did at the reef was go on a glass bottom boat and look at the coral. A sea turtle ended up passing under our boat but i was the only one who didn’t see it. On the way back the sun was setting and we sang songs, took pictures and enjoyed the sun. Overall, the GBR was spectacular!

Daily journal #8

Today was a very chill day that we needed a little bit. We flew three and a half hours from Sydney to Cairns and then hung out at the pool that day. It was nice to just hangout for the day because of all of the stuff we did, especially in Sydney we needed to rest a little. Tonight we got three hours to walk around the boardwalk and look at the cute little shops they had in Cairns. We ate at this cute pizza place that had amazing pizza and they cooked it fresh there and rolled out the dough and everything. Then for desert we had gelato...best thing ever! I think it’s the best ice cream type thing there is, then smoothies, but that’s not really ice cream. Anyway I loved today because we could bond more with people and the last three days I spent in Australia I loved because of the people we hung out with, they were silly and super go with the flow no stress kind of people. I loved it, I definitely want to get together with them again :).

Daily journal #7 are you a good traveler?

Am I a good traveler? No. I would never be able to go somewhere by myself have a good time and not get lost. I have absolutely no sense of direction and i can’t really read a map very well. I think, maybe if I was forced into a new country or city I would be able to survive using maps and locals but i do not think it would be fun. I think that the good parts about traveling by myself would be that I could be 100% chill and do whatever i wanted to do with no restrictions that other people provide. Also with traveling by myself I wouldn’t spend as much money on other people because I would have payed for my own trip. Since my parents payed for my trip, I would buy them more cost efficient gifts if they didn’t pay for it. I think the thing I would be most afraid of would be getting lost by myself of losing my luggage. Getting lost is a totally different story when you are by yourself because instead of it being an adventure it is scarier because you never know what could happen. If you lose your luggage you have to buy all new clothes where if you had friends too you could borrow clothes as well as buy them to save money then to get your clothes back home you have to buy new luggage.
Overall, I wouldn’t be a good traveler because of my fears and inefficient of direction.
Today I climbed the Sydney Bridge and it was AMAZING because the higher you went up the bridge the prettier the city got. After we went on the bridge we went to a light show where they light up the opera house and it was really cool.

Daily journal #6 reflextion of top 3 things on this trip so far and how it changed me

My #3 thing on this whole adventure would have to be last night’s adventure. I had a ton of fun talking to people on our way back to the hotel and making sure none of us fell onto the wet pavement. The spur of the moment decisions is what makes the trip authentic, spontaneous, and a lot more memorable. Singing in the rain is pretty much what happens on this trip and it makes a gloomy situation so much fun. Some people chose to walk instead of talk the train back and complain about it which i think was counterproductive. With this said, there is always a slight chance that we were going to get lost. I think if they didn’t want to walk further then they had to they should have just took the train. Afterwards, my feet were a little sore from walking and being up 17 hours straight but Lexa, a few others and I were in high spirits despite our lack of energy we had a talk with the teachers and we decided to go walk and find some where to eat. Some of us went to eat Thai food. I had never had Thai before this and I decided to go out and try it. The thing that changed me was the conversation. Mr. Shagrin is a very insightful person and he gave us a lot to think about. we talked about how the trip mostly matters about the people and atmosphere you are in that makes the trip good and this diner is a perfect example of just that. My second top thing would be going to the beach today. I slept on the bus on the way there and was not in the mood to go on the beach especially since it was cold and raining. I ended up going and it was a ton of fun. At first i was just going to chill and take pictures but then lexa took her shoes off. I was debating on if I was going to take mine off too so I asked her to tell me how cold the water was. The water ended up being warmer then the air so I took my shoes off and rolled up my pants. We took a bunch of cute photos and we got soaked to midway up our thighs. We got super sandy and super wet and cold but it taught me to be spontaneous no matter if you are not in the mood. Even if you’re feeling tired you should do anything that looks remotely fun without a second thought. My number one thing that we have done so far would be going to Rangitoto College. They were the nicer most fun and outgoing people I know and they dint have the "popular kid air" to them. They didn’t try to be people who they are not and i really admire that. I will never forget them because they taught me to have an uplifting attitude and to be open to people no matter what because you never know when the next time you will see them again will be and the same thing goes for places.
Today we took a car tour around Sydney and stopped at places that we could take pictures of the water and other amazing sights. For lunch we saw the Opera house and walked around and then later went on a boat tour of the harbor. Both tours were amazing because the sights in Sydney are breath taking and there are so many different ways to look at them.

Daily journal #5 Compare and contrast Sydney to other cities

Today was another great day! Sydney is similar to Chicago in different ways, one of those ways is the Sydney tower. It is similar to the Willis tower. Both have a place where you can look from the top of the building and look down at the city. A difference with that though, there is much more city in Chicago but there are many more things to see in Sydney. The city, as i mentioned before, is smaller than Chicago. Tonight we walked home, from a fair type thing, in the rain and cold and ended up getting lost. All of us ended up getting drenched and were slipping all over the place. Instead of taking 10 minutes to walk to the hotel it took us about an hour! This is different because if we were tourists in Chicago and we didn’t know where we were; there would be a very slim chance to get back to your hotel unless it was on Michigan Ave because Chicago is so much bigger then Sydney. Other then that the fair type thing was like the taste of Chicago but with material items instead of food and in Sydney it runs every weekend instead of about a month in the summer.
Besides Chicago, Sydney is similar to New York City. The park that people go to is similar to central park. The people in both cities go to the park to have lunch, exercise and hang out with friends.
For diner we ventured out in the city and got Thai food. We go to talk to Mr. Shagrin and talk about our trip so far. Today and tonight was an awesome experience that I will never forget.

Daily blog #4 reflection of the day

Today was AMAZING!! i wish i never left but of course we have to keep going on our trip and eventually go back home. Although the morning was rainy and nobody was in the mood to walk around in the forest, singing Disney songs kept our spirits up and made the hike seem much shorter. It got our mind off the chilly rain and the boringness of the hike and made something that wouldn’t have been so fun really fun. I think this experience gave us time to bond more with some of the people on the trip. Personally I love the rain, I like to go outside when it is warm out and just chill in the rain but I haven’t been able to do that and it was refreshing although it was a little colder then I would have liked. The most amazing part of the day though was going to Rangitoto College! The students and the principle were SUPER nice and welcomed us to their school as family. My pen pal gave me a shirt and I gave her something’s that they don’t have in NZ. I hung out with a ton of people there and had a blast. I wish we could have stayed a lot longer! I loved the part where we could just walk around campus the most because it was cool to see how different their school was, not only by how the kids were and they classes were set up, but how the building its self was set up. I also really liked that we could just talk and see what is different in each country like what we say and how we act. For example, we say cool: they say mint; we say weird: they say buzzy. The people were so amazing and fun to be around. They represented themselves, their school, and NZ very well. I have changed because of this experience by becoming more comfortable being myself around new people. I cannot get over how amazing the people were there. Thank God for facebook!! If I didn’t have that in my life I think i would miss them all so much more because I would never be able to talk to them again. That, so far, was the highlight of my trip Down Under and I will absolutely never forget it, ever. The only thing I would wish for is more time with them. Maybe next year if you decide to go back to a school the students that go on the trip should spend a day at school with the kids like how the Spanish exchange students do at our school. Another idea would be to be hosted by their pen pals. That would be awesome. Well lastly I wanted to thank you, and my parents, for this wonderful opportunity, I loved it.