Christmas times!

I’m SO sorry I’m so lazy! Honestly, you’d think me not posting forever just means I’ve been super busy but that is not the case. I’ve been pretty relaxed. However I was waiting for photos off Lisa’s computer to post but then it exploded so it looks like I’ll have to find some alternative photos.

So what have I been doing...well I sung and played with my percussion class at our schools Holiday Notes concert. The concert itself was good but my performance was certainly NOT a highlight. And yes yes I know thats what they all say but honestly...it was shameful. I was silly and went with a song our choir accompanist chose for me. I really liked the song but it was way out of my range and I could not get hang of the breathing. I think I sung better at my grade 5 talent contest. The start and the end of the song went rather well but the middle...oh the middle... I sounded somewhat like a shrieking harpy. Imagine a shrieking harpy ’singing’ the words THE JOY THE JOY THE JOY. Not very bloody joyful if you ask me. I wanted to rip my own ears off and it was coming out of MY mouth. BUT I’m putting it behind me, moving on, bouncing back and all that crap. It’s over now. Thank Oprah.

Moving on from my humiliation...

American Christmas was a blast. The day before Christmas eve, the family and I headed up to Kearney to the Ramada Hotel where we met up with Lisa’s entire family. Lisa is my host mum for those of you that don’t know. We had a wild night. Presents, food, games, the whole lot. Things got kinda crazy...ANYWAY. I’ll have to explain in person. There are things that I might get in trouble for posting.

Christmas eve was spent at Jeff’s parents house. We opened a few presents, took a few photos which I don’t think exist anymore, and we made some general chit chat. Lovely christmas. Having presents 4 days in a row was pretty flippin sweet. I say 4 days because on Christmas day we got prezzies from ‘Santa’ and on boxing day we exchanged all the gifts from each other! It was wonderful. My host family rules. Sadly, I did not get the white christmas I’d hoped for. I mean there was snow around....but it was all patchy and depressing. In fact, it was a little bit shit. Poor form snow. Get your act together.

I’m so ready for my 6 week break now. Sadly it’s only 2 weeks because America is crazy town. Right now it’s new years eve and my boy Adam decided to bugger off to New York and leave me in the pathetic snow in Nebraksa to run suicides with coach Ball Buster at 8 in the morning. Thanks pal. Times square is poo anyway! I didn’t even wanna go..so you can just....GET MUGGED! Ha! :D :D :D

I found some Christmas time photos!! I’m sick of talking to you people. All our conversations seems so one sided. Some participation would be nice. Gosh.

Nate, Lexie, Lacey and I

Jon, Nate, Lexie, Lacey, ME and Kaleigh

WHOLE FAMILY. Jeff has a lovely smile

I got hold of some binoculars... 

Flippin cold snow and flippin hard basketball.

Oh good grief it’s freezing. I do love the snow but I don’t love the cold. I do believe the coldest weather I’ve ever experienced in Australia would probably be around -5 degrees Celsius. Here I have experience NEGATIVE THIRTY DEGREES CELSIUS. Not a fun time. Luckily a big feathery coat came in the mail today from some domestic goddess, otherwise known as MUM. It’s not all bad news though. Playing in the snow it good fun. Especially when Lexie bends over to collect some snow to throw at me but she ends up splitting her jeans instead. Just split em. Right down the cheek. Brilliant. This is the kind of thing that happens when you mess with an Aussie.

So as you already know (I think you do anyway), I joined the school basketball team. And let me tell ya, it’s a bloody disaster. I’ve never in my life been in a constant state of confusion but in basketball...well thats pretty much it. SCREEN, PRESS, FALLOUT, OUTPUT, CUT KJDGNSJNDGKGNDFNG. I don’t have a clue, and they all make it look like common knowledge. I’m getting rather sick of feeling like the team bafoon. All I’m good for is getting a laugh out of the girls by saying things like ‘bugger’ and ‘you bloody champion’. You can’t say bloody hell though, or you’re in deep doo doo. My Basketball coach doesn’t even allow you to say ‘sucks’ or ‘stupid’. You have to say silly or she’ll make you run suicides. I had my first game the other day (we lost) and I honestly was not prepared for our big pre game prayer. Begging baby jesus to win the game and whatnot. Just another thing I’ll have to get used to :D

Americans do things very differently when it comes to sports. Everything is just like the movies. It’s do or die. Incredibly intense. You don’t get a drink until your told, you never question the coach and you NEVER complain. Whenever we run suicides every time we touch a line we have to say something encouraging like ‘we can do this!’ or ‘keep pushing!’. I felt kinda silly at first, because you’re CONSTANTLY cheering everyone on but after doing it for a while, I can’t imagine not being constantly cheered on. It’s the only thing that really gets you through the tough practices. Coach is just a nicer way of saying slave driver. Usually after we run seven thousand suicides I wish I had a diary just so I could write nasty things about that coach in there. 

In Australia, if you don’t like what the coach is having you do, you tell them. Well at least on my soccer team we did. We didn’t call our coaches ‘coach’ either. You just call them by their first name. You can muck about, have a laugh, go get a drink when you want, swear, and not take anything too seriously. I asked to get a drink in practice here the other day and coach gave me a look as to say ‘you’re kidding me, right?’. It’s TOUGH. My boys soccer team would NEVER be able to do what Broken Bows girls basketball team does. It’s mental. As tough as practice is, I always have the support of the girls though, which is nice. More than nice actually. Even when I pass, shoot, and dribble like an absolute retard they still have my back and tell me I’m doing a good job. 

On completely different note, weird American things I’ve noticed recently:

1- Americans don’t have Honeycomb

2- They never say ‘reckon’ when they mean think like we do

3- I told Lexie I had a parcel from Mum coming in the mail and she laughed for a really long time before asking ‘whats a parcel?’

4- When you say you got absolutely flogged in a game or in practice, that means jack over here. Woopsie daisy!

5- Trying to explain to an American what Hedgehog is, is REALLY hard. I mean, how do you explain it? “Umm...it’s like a chocolate slice with biscuit and icing.” They don’t say slice, biscuit, OR icing. So what the good gravy do you say!? Don’t know. 

Thats it for now then I spose. Ciao! 

Americanny things

Friends! Romans! Countrymen! Lend me your ears! Well, eyes...

Behold! My first and last AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL PHOTO! Gonna be in the year book and everything. Americanny, right? I know. 

Moving on....I think I officially failed Thanks-giving. The idea of this holiday is to stuff yourself silly with potatoes and turkey until you pass out and die. I did not do this. I had a speck of turkey and some tato but thats it. I didn’t completely fail however, as I DID stay up long enough to go BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING. Black friday is the day after thanks giving where from 12am to 12pm EVERYTHING is on a super sale. People everywhere pull all-nighters and hit the mall to get some amazing bargains. I learned that the last place I ever want to be ever is at Walmart at 12am on black friday. Horrible. Lines just to check out were curving round the block so you can’t even imagine what it’s like inside! In the end we decided we were NOT going to wait 4 hours in checkout so we just hid all our little bits and bobs around the store and agreed we’d come back at 5am when the crowds had died down to collect them. IT WORKED. Emily stashed her big George Forman grill in one of the compost bins (not a used one, one for sale) and we were stashing DVD’S behind paint cans, it was great! It was pretty calm by 5 so our plan was a total success. The only thing I bought from Walmart was about 11 kilos worth of M&M’s and a bag of Jolly Ranchers for Rachel. Fun times.

I still don’t really know EXACTLY what thanks-giving is about. I think pilgrims sat down with indians and ate turkey and they made a holiday from it. Something like that! Oooh the Macey’s thanks-giving parade in New York is also fantastic! I only saw it on telly but it was still good. So thats thanks giving.

Today is the last day of thanks-giving break then it’s back to a whole lotta school, basketball, dance, piano and one act. Speaking of one act, for those of you that care for some reason, last week we performed at Conference which is kinda like a little judged practice round so we know what we need to work on. It didn’t go so hot in my opinion. We had some technical difficulties working in the new space (Conference was in Gothenburg) and my acting was a bit crap. It’s all good though because I still won an outstanding actor award. It’s the accent that does it. I could probably say anything and it’d be an inspiring piece of art (just trickin). We have districts this week on Friday and if we place in first there we go to state. We’ll see how that goes!!!

Good-bye.

P.S having your “ass in the air” does not mean literally having your ass up in the air. An embarrassing mistake to make.

Jacqueer and Lester Cornflake

This blog update is simply to tell you all about my wonderful host sister LEXIE! Otherwise known as Lester, Lekerson, Lester Cornflake, Sisser, Lettuce, or just Lekker. Last week we went up to lincoln and had a jolly old time at the Settle Inn. After shopping we spent most of our time in the Hotel pool doing all the usual things; hanstand competitions, synchronised swimming, and doing bombs of the edge of the pool. Funnest of times. The best bit was when she was doing the butterfly stroke and she cracked me in the jaw has her powerful fists came down to once again propel her that little bit further. My fault really. I was in the way. 

Lexie is a nutter really. Tonight she tried to get me to eat a combination of white rice, cool whip, sugar, and cinnamon. She’s always eating strange new concoctions that even people around here haven’t heard of. And she’ll try ANYTHING...except Vegemite...she smelled it and ran for the hills. She says, and I quote “That shit smells like a cats ass!”. When we were having supper in Lincoln she decided that she was going to order the fried pickle. Sounds revolting right? Well it pains me to say that they were rather delicious. I felt so gross after eating them though. She really is a powerhouse when it comes to food. The girl can eat more in one sitting than my burley father can all day. It’s pretty amazing to witness. And she still has a gorgeous bod! Legs that go on forever, seriously. HOW DOES SHE DO IT? I don’t know but I hate her a little bit for it.

Nutritious AND delicious

Now the her volleyball season is over we’re both kickin arse in basketball! And when I say we’re both kickin arse, I mean just her...I suck. Royally. OH WELL. At least I’m having fun, right? I’ve been to 2 practices. First practice I ran myself ragged and I suddenly became very aware of my appalling fitness level. Lex killed it like it was nothing though. Blasted Americans, can eat and eat and still run a marathon like it’s nobody’s business. Hardly fair. 

Lester really is a sweety poo. In fact the other day I was out somewhere I can’t recall but I knew Adam was coming over and my room was a disgrace. I messaged Lexie and asked her if she would mind throwing whatever was on the floor in my washing basket. I came home and was FREAKING OUT about the state of my room, because there was a lot more wrong with it than just the amount of clothes on the floor. I anxiously open my door and there it is...a perfectly clean room. Clothes put away, bed made, EVERYTHING. “Lisa did you clean my room?” “No...” “LEXIE YOU DID THIS!?!??!”  I flipped out. She is #1. I owe her big now. 

Anyhoodle, thats pretty much it for now. I didn’t really have much to say so I just thought a little insight into a piece of my family might fill you guys up. So that’ll be all. 

Love and miss you all terribly, well the people I know that is. Not you strangers. I’m sure you’re all nice people though. 

BYE.

Technical difficulties and HALLOWEEN!

Good day to you all! I’m so so sorry to hear my videos wont work. If you have any idea of how I can fix it let me know, it’s really giving me the sh*ts. Hopefully by the end of this blogging adventure, we’ll all be good enough friends that you’ll be able to come on over to my house and we’ll watch them on my laptop. This offer will not be available to any creepers.

ANYWAY, today is November first which means last night (on a monday...bleh) was HALLOWEEN!!! Oooh!!! Now I was a slacker and did not really put together the extravagant costume I should have. Oh well. I still got loads of candy. My lovely friends Emmalea and Ashley took me on a trick or treating extravaganza! We only got around to one house but that house just happened to belong to Christine. Christine is my glamorous, fun, bubbly, and enthusiastic piano teacher. She gave my friends and I about 10 houses worth of goodies. She forced us to take a plate of food to go too. She’s fantastic. Her husband also used to be a pro soccer player so after all my piano lessons I’ll go have a kick with him and their kids Daisy and Miko. It’s a fun time. She even gave me a pumpkin AND carving kit. What a woman.

After my trick or treating adventures were over I headed over to the wonderful Adam’s house to carve my first pumpkin. It’s a lot messier than I thought. First you have to cut the top of so it has a lid, then you have a scoop out all the innards. It was slimy and yucky, aka, bundles of fun. We went with the classic look, you know, triangle eyes, crooked teeth etc. But it needed at least one distinguishing FREAKTURE bahaha get it? Like FEATURE but FREAKTURE because it’s Halloween!! Am I right fellas?!! Nope...right. Well anyway, we gave it a Harry Potter scar for poops and giggles as Adam would say. Then the final touch was to put the candle inside and watch it glow. It was the most bootiful pumpkin the country had ever seen. I was very proud.

All in all Halloween was a great success. Thats pretty much all I have for this update. One Act has it’s first performance next friday so next week will probably be the next time I update. Catchall then I spose.

Shalom!

The final march

Extraordinary girl/American idiot

Holiday

Hey friends! So last night was our football teams playoff game which means that the BRILLIANT Broken Bow High marching band got to field march at half time. Dance team also performed before the game. The reason this post is called the final march is because we got absolutely creamed in the playoff game which means no playoffs for us because we’re a bit dodgy. Plus all our starting players have broken legs or concussion or something, I dunno. I’m going to show you crazy kids the film that was taken of our final march. The quality is a bit crap so its hard to make out whats actually going on but the sound is the important thing! Last night we played 3 Greenday songs. American Idiot, Holiday and Wake me up when september ends. I don’t have all of september ends but you’ll get  the gist. I’m the one with the massive bass drum hanging of my chest.

Today I’m off the Kansas to do something...I don’t really know what, but I’ll be there!! This week has not been extremely eventful. It’s getting COLD. Frosty frosty frosty! We’re already scraping ice off the car. Yesterday morning I had NEVER been so cold. I thought my lungs were going to turn into icicles inside my chest, shatter, and kill me. AND APPARENTLY IT GETS FAR FAR WORSE. Hasn’t even started snowing yet! Good grief. 

Harmony and Homecoming!

WELL! This week has been a busy one. I’ll start back last saturday when our school band headed to grand island to march in the Harvest of Harmony parade. That certainly was a site to see. There were marching bands there from all over Nebraska. I thought our band was huge. I was SO wrong. Basically all these bands showed up and we all marched through the streets of Grand Island doing their thang while a bunch of flag girls danced around behind them. Our school played Safety Dance. I also thought our uniforms were cool but they’re NOTHING compared to what some of these schools had. I saw schools with cummerbunds, tail coats, ruffled shirts, gold lined pants...you name it! Our modest uniforms still looked pretty sharp though. I had a really fun day. It was an awesome experience, I loved every second of it.

<<Thats me!

About to march

Good ol’ Mr Rikert

Moving on. So the week that has just past was Homecoming Week, or Spirit Week. Each school day during spirit week there was a theme for dressing up. I tried to dress up every day. I did everyday but wednesday. Wednesday was lame. Every year Friday is always ‘red and white’ day. Friday is also the day of the big homecoming football game and a little tradition at Broken Bow is that all the girls have to wear a boys’ football jersey. I was not planning on taking part in this tradition. I’m not particularly good friends with any of the football players and the ones I am friends with had already promised their Jersey to another girl. I was planning on wearing a cross country jersey for the lols. So spirit week rolls around and I am informed that as a member of dance team I am obliged to wear a football jersey. By this point all the jerseys are pretty much gone. I ended up wearing the jersey of 5 foot freshman Tyrel. He is the football coaches son. It was a tight fit but it worked alright. So thats how that went down. 

Anyway here is how my costumes went down. 

Monday: Pj day. (Thats ma buddy Evan)

Tuesday: Super heroes and Villains (Bobby as Robin and myself as Catwoman)

Wednesday was ‘colour war’. Each grade has a colour and the grade wearing the most of their colour wins. Ours was ‘camo’. Lame. I did not take part. 

Thursday: Blast from the past (80’s me, 70’s Adam)

Friday: Red and white day! (Karly, myself, Sydney)

My english class on red and white day

Quarterback of our football team Marcus and myself. It took

a lot of convincing to get him to let me take this photo.

My pal Aaron and I

So later that day everyone headed to the town square for our big pep rally. The band performed and so did cheerleaders, flag team and dance team. We watched our Assistant principal kiss a goat, heard some presentations and a bunch of other stuff. Then we got some free food and went home to get ready for the big game! Woohoo! We played the Gothenburg Swedes. And I played I mean we lost to the Gothenburg Swedes. Not a nice feeling losing your own homecoming game. The boys were pretty cut. After the most depressing game ever the homecoming king and queen candidates came out. They crowned prince and princess then after much anticipation the king and queen were announced! My buddy Patrick (patches) got King! Was quite the surprise but we were all very happy about it. 

Homecoming candidates

The anticipation is killing them!

Nice blurry photo of the King and Queen

After the game there was the homecoming dance. Adam and I quickly nipped off to his house for a bite to eat before the dance. They said it finished at 12:30. We had plenty of time, right? Wrong. We rocked up around 11:50 and they said ‘once you leave you can’t come back in!’ we pleaded with them saying we hadn’t even been in yet. They thought we were full of rubbish and wouldn’t let us in. Oh well. 

So thats what I’ve been up to this week! I might throw some more photos down the bottom for your enjoyment. Having a wonderful time. Love and miss everyone. Bye bye! 

DANCE TEAM

Lexie, Krisha, baby and I

Bitta this bitta that

Good day everyone! Just thought I’d put you all out of your misery and let you know I GOT A PART IN ONE ACT! I play Debbie. It’s a short play about the dangers of drunk driving. It’s not too bad actually. The school is also putting on a bit of a variety show and hopefully I’ll get to perform a little song in that. I’m thinking of doing ‘someone like you’ by adele. We’ll see how that goes.

FUN FACT: American seasons start mid month! What the deuce?

Ugh! So I was in subway and the time came where I had to tell the employee what I wanted in my sandwich. I say ‘Lettuce...’ she puts in the lettuce. I say ‘tomato...’ I get a blank stare. ‘Tomato...’ still nothing ‘TOMATO!’ “I’m sorry what did you say?” I had to turn to Lexie and say ‘tell her what I want!” then Lexie says “Tom ay to!” and FINALLY the silly woman puts the tomato in my sandwich. I mean honestly, I speak perfect english. Sheesh.

Homecoming is coming up! We have a week during homecoming called ‘spirit week’. Everyday of spirit week has a different theme and you dress up accordingly. One of the themes is superheroes. All my friends and I are coming as batman characters. We had planned to do this for halloween and now we’re just going to do it for both :D Adam is Batman, Austin R is Robin, Austin Z is Harvey Dent ,CJ is Alfred and I’m Catwoman. Should be a lot o fun. I still don’t really get what homecoming is. It’s like the most important football game of the season or something so everyone celebrates that or something. There  is a homecoming dance too and yep. I’m also singing the star spangled banner at the homecoming game with 2 seniors. I better not mess up the words...

Oh my goodness! I found out that around christmas time here they do the candy cane thing like in mean girls. I’m going to send 4 to Glenn Coco.

Thats pretty much it for now. I’ll be sure to tell ya’ll about Lincoln which is where I’m going this weekend. Fun fun fun.

Toodles.

Adam and I having goofy fun times.

The Jac goes marching one by one HOORAH HOORAH!

Hello hello hello! 

Now I’d like to start by thanking Gretchin Weiners father for inventing toaster strudel. Yum yum. 

Moving on...SO on Friday we had a home football game, Broken Bow vs. Ogalalla. We got absolutely bitch slapped by Ogalalla. 28-0. There were tears. Not from me obviously because I couldn’t really care less but from the players, a river was cried. Thats not the point though, the point IS that I got to wear my marching band uniform for the first time and play a whole bunch of great songs lookin like a total boss. IT WAS AWESOME. Everyone here thinks the uniforms are really lame and uncomfortable but I disagree. I think I look like a pimpin pimp in it and I can’t wait to wear it again. What I DON’T like to wear is my big bass drum on my chest. It weighs about 9 thousand pounds which roughly converts into 28 kilograms. Doesn’t sound so heavy but after marching with it for 60 miles (2 km) it starts to hurt yo shoulders a bit. 

Also this week we had dance team tryouts! This is the first year Broken Bow is doing dance so it’s not being sponsored by the school until we can prove how great it is, which wont take long. I was very excited when I found out my host sister and I both made the team! It’ll be so much fun for us to do something like that together. I’m excited for practice to start. They say practice here not ‘training’ like us aussies do. This week I also tried out for ‘one act’. It’s a kind like ‘BAD’ for those of you from Brauer College reading this. Basically you audition for a part in a play and hope you get in. Almost 20 girls tried out and there are only 4 girl parts in the whole play. 12 got callbacks, I’m one of them. Tuesday at 7pm I’ll go in for my callback and hopefully I get in!

FUN FACT: Americans don’t use a knife and fork when eating dinner (supper). They will only use a fork. The kinda turn the fork on it’s side and chop through stuff. Weird weird weird. 

I have had a WONDERFUL week! I can tell it’s only going to start getting better from here. Miss all my buddies from Australia and New York. 

 

Hasta Luego :D

Me and ma big ol’ bass drum

Flag girl Morgan and myself :D

Band teacher Mr Rikert. My FAVOURITE teacher at school!

A tad boring.

Sorry everyone! I haven’t got around to writing a post lately simply because I’ve been doing bugger all. Well apart from everything you already know like school etc. This week has been a bumpy one...exchange is hard yo! Getting through it though and I do see a pot of gold at the end of this crap grey rainbow.

That was a good first paragraph. Hope you all enjoyed it. Anyway moving on...one of the things on my list of things to do here was get a black friend. Sadly the black population in Broken Bow is small so it’s been a tough road. After weeks of searching I eventually just decided that my friend Lexie’s mum Lisa would be my black friend because her skin is super super super sun tanned. It was the best I could do. BUT DON’T STRESS EVERYONE! I went with Lexie to watch her play volleyball with the freshman team in St Paul and on her team was....drum roll........JASMIN! A half black girl! Success for me. I’ve concluded that I will have a full black friend by the end of the year with this luck! First I get a kinda black but not really friend, then a half black friend, so it’s only a matter of time! I don’t know what my black obsession is about. I just wish I was black is all. Maybe one day.

Isn’t it pathetic that that pretty much all I have to say? I think so. Hmm well let me think what I did this week...I got 99% on my Spanish test. I’m pretty great. I got 70% on my Algebra test. Not so great. Who cares anyway. Algebra is for suckers. What else did I do...I brought tim tams to study hall! The whole class thought they were pretty great so that was good. I’m mainly just writing this for my Daddy because he like my blog.

I gotta learn about what kind of trucks people drive in Australia...and what crops we grow....I wasn’t expecting to be asked about that as much as I have been....

I’m done now. I hope you all enjoyed this terrible update. LOVE YOU DADDIO!

Ta ta

This photo has nothing to do with anything. It’s just me driving. Because I can do that now :-D

Curses!

When you’re in the small town of Broken Bow saying the words ‘damn’ and ‘hell’ is incredibly unacceptable. I know this. I haven’t know it for long, but I do. So you’d think I’d be smart enough to not shout ‘DAMN IT!’ loudly in Spanish class when I got the answer wrong. You’d THINK that, but you’d be wrong. So after a few moments of awkward silence I got to play the confused little exchange student card. It goes a little something like this ‘Oh my goodness I’m sorry I keep forgetting thats a bad word here. I’m so sorry miss’. You’d be shocked to know I have to play this card a few times a day. No doubt the teachers will soon catch on. But in all honesty I did NOT mean to say a naughty word. It just slipped out of my mouth like pudding from a lipless man. My Spanish teacher just sorta stood there speechless for a second until she said ‘I can’t believe what I just heard’. Good way to start my Monday.

Today is Monday. On SUNDAY I strolled on over to Grand Island to experience the Nebraska state fair. Activities at the fair include: The Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show, Hedricks Racing Pigs, Texaco Country Showdown, witnessing Nebraska’s largest pig, Pigeon Show, visiting the sheep barn and the best attraction of them all...AUSSIE KINGDOM! I however did not get around to seeing any of these things. I spent all day trying on the rides. I did manage to catch the Broken Bow marching band though. They are off the chain. Best marching band at the fair by far. The played Greenday’s Holiday and When September ends as well as Safety dance! They were wonderful. I’m going to see if they need a triangle and or tambourine player. They also had some pretty rad flag girls doing their thing in the back too.

This week has not been overly eventful apart from that...I got removed from my Algebra class because the teacher thought I was a silly duffer. She was correct. I learned to ride the 4 wheeler...that was fun. Oh oh oh! I helped round up a bunch of dumb cows! It took about 34 hours but we got them into that pasture in the end! :D It was a good family effort. Sorry this post is a short one but thats all I got for now.

Aaaaadios!

Flag girls!Wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man!

Broken Bow Band!

I’m super cool

Schooools OUT for SUMMER! But not really I just started...

Righto chico’s and chica’s! Oh yeah, you better believe I take spanish now. I’m almost fluent and it’s only been 2 days. Okie dokie so yesterday I started SCHOOL. I hopped on that crap yellow school bus and headed to BBHS. I don’t think I opened my own locker once the whole day but on the plus side the 7 people that had to help me open it know my combination incase I forget. Excellente’! Whad I tellz ya? Fluent. I started the day in Mr. Kujaths office waiting to get my classes sorted and my locker and stuff. That was ok I guess but the real fun started when I got to go to class! EVERYONE wants to talk to the australian girl. Like I said before, they have a whole lot of questions and I’m their answer. Sometimes people make fun of the way I talk but I love that. It’s hilarious listening to them all trying to do my accent. Even when I walked into Algebra Ms. Stamp actually encouraged people to come up to me and say 'g’day mate’. I think one kid said and heard how ridiculous he sounded and he hasn’t done it since. Some of the freshman guys still say it to me but once again, it just makes me laugh.

I’m taking Spanish, Consumer Ed, English, Algebra, Choir, Biology, American studies and then I have a period of study hall at the end of the day. Biology is my favourite, simply because Mr. Altig makes me go into laughing fits. He likes hearing about Australia, everyone does. It’s great. In study hall today the first 20 minutes was spent looking up pictures of Warrnambool! It’s especially hilarious watching them try pronounce Warrnambool. ‘Wannie Boo? Warro boll? Wambool?’. Hehehe. I love being the Aussie. It’s good fun.

I have to get up super early because my bus arrives at 7:30! Ewwies. There is only 1 lunch break and it’s not until later in the day. I really like my American school but the food it god awful. I’d say it’s awful as hell but you get in loads of trouble for saying hell over there. It naturally just falls out of my mouth when I’m talking and I don’t really think much of it. It wasn’t until my friend Austin said ‘Man you cuss a lot’ that I realised I was saying something offensive. WoOpSiE DaIsY! Anyway back to the food, it’s dreadful. It’s like some guy was in charge of cleaning the school and every piece of gunk and muck he found on the floor he decided he wouldn’t waste and he made the school hamburgers out of it. I think they buy their broccoli from Madras Rubber Factory.

I’m really enjoying my classes and I’m meeting some cool people. I signed up for the dance team yesterday. Weeew! Anyway thats just sorta my first 2 days of school in a nutshell. I lot of study and harassment. I’ll catch ya’ll on the flip side. Later Gators!

Jacqui

P.S In spanish we had to choose a Spanish name that our teacher will call us and that we’ll sign our work with and I chose Paloma, after the brilliant musical genius Paloma Faith. Yay!

Questions and cars.

I’d like to start of this post with a list of questions I’ve been asked since arriving here in Nebraska. Thanks.

-Do you celebrate birthdays in Australia?
-Do you all drive Jeeps?
-Do you have the same days and months in Australia?
-Do you have TV?
-Are there Lions in your backyard?
-Do you have Giraffes?
-Do you have Zebras?
-Are there drugs in Australia?
-Do you live in the outback?
-Are there killer snakes everywhere?
-Do people get eaten by sharks all the time?
-Do you have native indian tribes?
-Do you ride Kangaroos?
-Do you have Snickers?
-Do you have Lasagne in Australia?
-“What kind of food do you like Jacqui?” “I like indian food the best” “is that like our mexican food?”
-Do you have chinese food there?
-Do you have your own Australian language?
-Do you have Wii’s and Xbox’s there?
-Do you have sport in Australia?

I’m sure there is more but I can’t remember them all right now. Those are the few I remember.

Moving on...the night I was here I went with my host cousin Lexie to a football game. It was just a pre game thing before the season started but it was still loads of fun. They had cheerleaders and everything. It was brilliant. I could not understand a word they said. It was just like...bubbly screaming. I met a whole bunch of people from my school which was cool. Last night we went to Broken Bows annual car derby. I didn’t really know what I was in for when I went but I found out soon enough. It was LOUD. For those of you who don’t know what a car derby is, it’s a bunch of crap old cars in a sort of muddy arena, crashing into each other. Some of the cars even had pipes sticking out of the bonnet that shot out flames. It was crazy. After the first couple races I was kind of over it though haha. I spent most of the time chatting with a bunch of freshman’s and sophomore guys all wanting to know about Australia. This one guy went through every african animal and asked if we had them. “Do you have Lions?” “Africa.” “Elephants?” “Africa” “You gotta have Zebras! I know you have those!” “Dude! Africa!”.

Tomorrow I start school. I’m actually looking forward to it quite a bit. I have Spanish first. That will be fun. I’m excited about learning another language. Thats all thats really been happening at the momento. I’ll keep ya’ll posted. Ta ta..

Jacqui

Nebraska baby!

Hey all. I landed in North Platte Nebraska yesterday and met up with my host family at the airport. I had a lot of flights but I managed to get around ok. In chicago a woman who worked at the airport took me to my gate which was really nice because I never would have found it. Once I got to denver I was on my own though. I just kept looking for people in uniform and asking them questions. This one pilot told me I had to go down the escalators and catch a train to the A gates. I assumed ‘train’ was what they called those weird conveyor belt things people were walking along. I was a fool! I went down the escalators and there was an actual train. In the airport. A train. What. After I got on that and did a bit more asking, I made it to my gate alright. Then I had to catch a tiny little itty bitty plane to north platte. It was seriously small. Not much sitting between you and the clouds. There were only about 7 or 8 of us on the plane. Only a 45 minute flight though. Yay! Oh my goodness! I got off the plane and met a guy who worked in Washington D.C at the white house. He said he sees Obama all the time and they used to hang out before he became el presidente’! Best thing ever.

Moving on. Once I met my host family they took me for dinner at Arby’s. It was only about 12pm but they still call it dinner. They don’t say lunch. They go breakfast, dinner, supper. I found that a bit strange. Arby’s was alright actually. I liked what I had but some of the stuff on the menu looked a bit nasty. It was VERY hot. We popped over to wall mart and did some shopping, I got my school supplies then we went to the dairy queen. I had never been to a dairy queen before. It smells like frosting in there. Yummy yet sickening. I got a small strawberry sunday. Well thats what I asked for. What a got was a strawberry mountain in a cup. It was ginormica. Never again.

Today! I woke up and got ready to go into my school so I could get enrolled and get my classes sorted and stuff. That was all fine and dandy. They made me a sophomore and the principle showed me around the school which seems quite good. I’m taking US History, English, Algebra, Consumer Education, Biology, Spanish, Choir and I have a study hall period at the end of each day. Before I went to school we went and had dinner (lunch) at the Tumbleweed cafe. It was a classic american style diner and I actually really enjoyed my food. My plate was HUGE and there was a lot of food on it but I just ate what I wanted and it was above satisfactory.

Tonight I went to a football game with Lexie (host mums niece). I had lots of fun. I got to see the cheerleaders and see everyone dressed in the school colours cheering everyone on. Lots of fun. I met some great girls too. We were laughing because I keep getting words wrong when I talk to people. I said maths instead of math, bin instead of trash and stuff like that. I can’t wait to go to more games.

Thats pretty much all thats happening at the moment. I’ll keep ya’ll posted. Hehe...ya’ll...

Jacqui

Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away...

Singing ‘Bevo’ with Josefine, Matteo, Pascal, and Martina in Times Square. Best place ever.

Yesterday was filled with anger and rage. But thats ok. I got to do other things as well as being furious. We woke up early in the morning, got out brekkie etc. and caught the bus to to subway. At this point I would like to let everyone know that subways are disgusting. They’re hot, stuffy and there are rats everywhere. Bleh! Anyway we caught the bus to times square. Getting off the subway I could have sworn my jaw hit the ground. It was the most amazing sight. This city has EVERYTHING! Flashy advertising everywhere, billboards, bright lights, guy selling Obama condoms (lol)  I don’t have time to write a 2000 word essay describing how genius it was so I’ll post some photos. We got to look around for 30 minutes before lunch which we ate at Planet Hollywood. Planet Hollywood is awesome! It’s just a big restaurant thats Hollywood themed. There are celebrity hand prints all over the walls and costumes from old movies etc. It’s pretty rad. I liked it. I’ll put up some photos of that too. Now comes the part with the fury and rage. 

Times Square with Kate, Belle and Emma

Real life jonas handprints guys!

“Wrap your willy!” “Don’t be a fool, protect your tool!"

After lunch we had a couple hours free time in Times Square to do whatever we wanted. Yay! But no. Terrible. I made a huge mistake. Some italians, and Pascal decided they wanted to go see a movie and I thought ‘oh yeah cool, I’ll come along’. FOOLISH. We got to the cinema and all the movies we wanted to see were rated R so we couldn’t get in. Buggery. So we were left with one choice...The Smurfs. I hated it. It was god awful. Smurfs can go die. See if I care. After this movie we still had an hour left which I wanted to use to shop and do fun things but instead someone decided we’d go to Rockafella which I was ok with because I wanted to see it to but THEN we ended up walking to central park! Ugh! We only walked past it and then we were out of time and had to race back to meet up with everyone else. I got back and everyone had been to M&M World and the wax statue museum. I COULD HAVE HAD A PHOTO WITH WAX OBAMA. ALL I HAVE EVER WANTED. The moral of the story is, Smurfs ruin everything. Totally wasted my last day in Manhattan. 

 Not all bad news though. After my anger started to settle we got to take a ferry ride all around 4 of the 5 boroughs of New York. It was really beautiful at night. We even got to see the statue of liberty up nice and close. Getting off the boat was better though because it meant we got to ride home in LIMOS! Weew! 14 friends all piled into 1 limo makes for a fun time. It was so cool. The whole inside was lit up in a bunch of different colours and there were wine glasses hanging opposite the seats (one of which we smashed. Shhh! ). We were screaming with excitement while we tried to find a good party music radio station. Sadly every station was spanish so we were trying to club dance to ‘la la lala moochacho...chica chica...grande...etc.!’ Not so good. We ended up singing ‘Bevo’ as loud as we could over the top of the spanish music all the way home. So much fun. Good way to end the night. 

Statue of liberty

Our lame tour guide and I

Out the front of the limo!

TODAY. Woke up, had breakfast and went straight to rehearsal with the rest of my team for our big show tonight. Don’t think I mentioned that all week we have been in teams and we had to come up with a show to perform for tonight that was funny, had singing, dancing, sex appeal and creativity. We’re going to rock it. So we rehearsed and packed up and stuff and now we’re just lying around. I’m going to be so sad tomorrow. I don’t want to leave the beautiful friends I have made because I honestly believe I’ll never see them again. It’s amazing how close you can get to people in just one short week. I love everyone. I just got back from saying good-bye to my friends. I’m writing this a few hours after I wrote everything else so sorry if it’s weird. I shed more than a few tears. I balled my eyes out. I’ve only had these people in my life for a week and now I don’t want to imagine my life without them. This is a sad sad day. I will see all of them again eventually though. I just need to get rich first. Probably wont take too long.

Love Jacqui