HI there all it’s Chloe! We’re currently sitting in the terminal waiting for our flight to lovely LAX. Matt and Jon are teaching Mah Euchre while Claire is sleeping and I am eating Red Mango with Lexy. We’re all slowly getting food while Brian is showing Mah his “meme”, which is a picture of Mr. Mah with any variety of “mah” puns. For example: “This meme is MAH-some”. We’re quite a tech savvy group, much more to come from that I believe. Gotta love concert choir J

 

Hi its Kate. Charlie is sitting next to me eating pizza that smells pretty awful and I’m listening to mah talk about something that I haven’t exactly caught on to :p oh! It’s about skip to my lou. We won’t go there. 

HEY FAMILY AND FRIENDS! It’s Sean  Gies from Auckland, and we’re all about to board our flight to Sydney…but  it’s 830 our time on Sunday the 25^th, but apparently it’s like 130 your time on Saturday…. Hmm… BUT HI ERRYBODY

Hi! It’s Jill Lurie and Matt Smith from Auckland New Zealand… Woah it’s beautiful here. Everything is soo green and lush; it’s pretty unbelievable.  Our last flight was 12.5 hours. It was a long one, but everyone is fine and the food was… tolerable. We only have three and half more hours and then we will finally be in Sydney.  Right now everyone is waiting by the gate and very tired. Hopefully we’ll be able to sleep some more on this next flight J Cheers! 

Hey parents and friends! It’s Claire Revord and Zontae Brady. We just got off the plane at Auckland and a lot of us went to change into shorts and t-shirts in anticipation of the (hopefully) warm weather soon to come. I’m not sure what the plan is for today, but everyone here is so excited to finally land in Australia! The flight here, let me be the first to say, was spectacular. I’ve never been on such a huge plane before, and I didn’t even want to sleep because there were so many things to do. Listen to music, watch movies, play videogames…I was overwhelmed. I eventually watched Shawshank Redemption and Bridesmaids and occasionally went to the back of the plane to chat with Zontae. We’re all so excited for this week!! 

Hi Its Laura T, Lindsey V and Megan K! We had a fantastic flight from Los Angeles to Auckland, NZ. The chairs had foot rests and the TV’s had games, movies and you could make your own music playlist. We watched the sunrise this morning and saw stars at night. The information airplane video was hilarious and included Richard Simmons dancing.We are exicted to go to Sydney!

Hey it’s Kenneth and I slept about 3 hours on the 14  hour flight. They had cool stuff on the plane, and Lindsey V and Laura T kept climbing over me to use the bathroom. In other news, I was checked for explosives at the airport in New Zealand.

G’DAY AMERICA!

It’s Chloe! What a lovely night we had. Our host family is awesome and they tried teaching us how to surf. Emma and I got up on our knees but Allegra owned us all and got all the way up on her feet! We had a lovely dinner off the “Barbie” (no shrimp though lol). Its so gorgeous here and our family’s house looks right over the ocean. They have chickens and turkeys and ducks and its seriously the coolest thing ever. I love it here, I never wanna leave. We’re headed to the beach now, about to have some fun!

HI! It’s Matt Smith and Jon Wren. We are headed right now to Manly Beach for some more tourist things and then later today we have rehearsals and a performance at a local high school. Our host family is great and very very kind. They have two parrots and chicken coop and wild turkey cleans there yard…that’s not a joke…. Last night we had fried cheese that was sooo good and chicken and sausage. Neither of us can get over how beautiful it is here; the diversity of trees and plants are unbelievable. Driving on the left side of the road is kinda freaky, especially at 80km/hr when another car is coming right at you on the right hand side.  There are no stop signs here, just lots of roundabouts and yields signs, which they call “give way”- that doesn’t help either. G’day china. 

Heeyy! Its kate! Were on the bus right now but oh my golly yesterday was so much fun! We got with our host families and Mrs. Lawsons daughter Emma, whos 18 and goes to Uni, was there. She took us to the beach and then later we watched half of white chicks because we kept falling asleep. I have a new favorite food tho! Its called musley! Mrs. Lawson made it for us for breakfast this morning. Its oats that soaked in apple juice overnight and then you add yogurt and little slices of apple and almonds in the morning. It tastes amaaazing and im definitely going to make it when I get home. The one thing that freaks me out here is the driving and how it’s all backwards. I’ve had a few heart attacks. The round-abouts especially are the scariest. So yup! It’ll take some getting used to.

Hey it’s Claire! Australia is AMAZING. The birds are so different here, and it’s so lovely to hear all the different kinds when waking up in the morning. The plants and trees are incredible, as are the beaches. The sand is an orange-gold color, and so soft. The waves are huge (at least compared to Lake Michigan) but my host Emma said they were little when we went yesterday. The cliffs over the beach are amazing; so many huge houses look right over the water. My favorite treat here so far has been musley: this is a dish similar to oatmeal with greek yougurt, oats, apples, and walnuts. We had some this morning for breakfast alongside poached eggs-delicious! Right now we’re riding a bus to one of the beaches here and later we’re heading to a local high school for a rehearsal and concert. We are all still in shock to be here. In many ways, it’s similar to the US, but in a lot it is very different. Everyone is SOO much more relaxed than on the North Shore: you can walk into a store, bank, or shop in only your swimsuit and no one even bats an eye! That’s what we did last night at the movie store. There’s no curfew either; Emma told us when she was in fifth grade her and her friends often stayed out some nights until one just playing in the streets. How fun! The weather is kind of drizzly today but everything still looks great! I love Australia. 

Hey everyone! It’s Anna! I still can’t believe I’m in Australia! It seems unreal. Everything and everyone is amazing. We landed in Sydney around 10.30 am and we got to Pittwater around 12.30pm. Then we got to meet our host families. My host family’s daughter, Grace, came to pick me and my roommate Nikki with her grandmother. They are both so nice. Later we got to meet her parents who are both so awesome and nice. We had a snack of tea and cookies when we got there. Later we went to the beach for a walk. It was so nice. The coast is so beautiful! On the way to the beach, we went through the center of Newport, the town where I’m staying. The cliffs are incredible! We had a really nice family dinner that evening around 8pm. We got to bed around 10pm. Today, we woke up around 7am, but didn’t get out of bed until 7.30am! We took the public school bus to school and got there around 8.20am. Now we are on the bus on the way to Manly Beach. The weather is a little blah. Cloudy, kind of rainy, but it should get better. Almost at the beach! Australia is GORGEOUS!

 

Hey it’s Lindsey (Vorhees)! My stay has been lovely so far. MY house is located on Envina bay. My host family has a boat to access their house which is very outdoorsy. Elvina Bay is part on a National Park so, there are trails and we walked over to a waterfall yesterday. Since it is located in a National Park all the houses run on rainwater (very eco-friendly!). You actually don’t see too many animals out during the day which surprised me. Though my family still has to watch out for their chickens, as some of the wild animals can harm them.  The chickens also receive any leftover food so, they are essentially a compost bin. That’s all for now. Loving Australia. 

Hey there- it’s Laura T. here! I’ve been having an absolute blast and my homestay family is reaaally musically gifted- we had a music jam last night with about 12 kids and it was incredible- I filmed it so everyone could see. We just took pics at the Sydney Harbor and my new nickname is ‘Laura-keet’ according to Lindsey and Kenny because there’s a bird here called a lorikeet. I love those guys- they were amazing to sit with on the plane. Everyone here is incredibly nice and I’ve had a blast here so far. Now we’re off to the beach in our ‘swimming costumes’ and ‘cozzys’. They call flip flops ‘thongs’ here and McDonalds ‘Mackys’. Haha, I love this place- everthing here’s incredible. Alright- signing off now, byeee! 

Hello it’s KTowns (previously mentioned as Kenneth) and my experience has been awesome so far. My host family lives about 1 ½ blocks away from Pittwater school, so we walk to school. Yesterday, we had a tour of the neighborhood, and then went over to Palm Beach for some water-filled fun. We jumped off some rocks into the ocean and it was really awesome (though swimming back through a forest of seaweed wasn’t my idea of fun). Afterwords it was really nice to take a shower, and we jumped on the trampoline and played ping-pong, and then had a nice home-cooked Australian dinner – it was amazing! After a good nights sleep, I feel well-rested and ready for an action-packed day in Australia!

Hey- it’s Laura T. and Lindsey V. yet again- we just got back from swimming at Manly Beach and we shopped as well! We had a blast- but we’re not so used to the salt water, so that was icky to get in your mouth! We found an inflatable ‘thong’ (flip flop) and were laughing because they call flip flops thongs here. Alright- signing off! G’day!

I’m back! It’s Anna! Just finished hanging out in/on Manly Beach. We had a nice lunch at this burger place. Australian Burgers are reaaally good. Really good. We got our food and ate on the beach. We did a little souvenir shopping. It was nice. We had ice cream at a place called Copenhagen. It made me laugh because I have a cousin who lives in Copenhagen! The water at the beach was actually pretty cold! And it was really windy!! I thought my stuff would fly away! Now we’re on the way to our rehearsal for the concert tonight! Laterz.

Jon W. and Matt S. again…. MANLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can’t explain what this place is like, but it’s manly, real manly.       

                                

Hi! It’s Elisabeth, Rong, Hannah, and Barbara! We just got back from a visit to Curl-Curl Beach with Manly High School students and are now eating a barbecue dinner at the school! Everyone is so nice and welcoming!! It’s a really nice school, but what we like best in Manly are the names: Manly Creative Hair, Manly Paradise Motel and Apartments, Manly Dance, and especially Manly Beach!  Bye!!

Wassup, John and Allison here! We just had our first concert of Australia with Manly High School Choir at Manly High School!!! Their choir was so great, and they were only in 8^th and 9^th grade. It was really cool to see them perform, and to perform for them, after hanging out with them all day.  To sum up the day, we hung at the beach, did some shopping, hung with some cool Aussies, and had an awesome concert! Now time to get some sleep. If only counting to 50 didn’t take so long…G’night! P.S Allison says hi Mom and Dad

Heyo, it’s Emma. We’re on the bus back from our concert with Manley High School. We sounded great but we still have a lot of work to do before we can feel really confident going into our performance at the Sydney Opera House. The kids at Manley sounded wonderful, especially considering how young most of their choir is. It was super fun to get a chance to listen to and hang out with all of them at the beach and at their school. This country rocks. The end.

What in God’s Name is a fricking BUSH TURKEY???????!!!!!- A tenor & a bass. I love you mom.

G’evening! It’s Delphine and Jill. It’s 8ish at night right now and we are on the bus home to Pittwater. Today was very busy and fun! We spent the day in Manly and are incredibly tired and a bit sunburnt. Sorry moms L. Our concert was really fun and we loved bonding with all the Manly students- they were all extremely friendly and hospitable. More coming soon from Sydney – D and J

Hey its Anna and Kinsley. We had an incredible concert except wekindofsuckedatJ’entendslemoulin! The students at Manly selective were very nice. We went to the beach with them. WE got a lot of sand in our pants.The lunch/dinner was really nice. Right now we are on the way to Pittweater. Its only 8;25 and my family isn’t picking me up till 9. We can’t wait for tomrrows 2 hour rehersal and concert. Starting right in the morning! Yay! There were supposed to be 2 concerts, but one got cut. So yay! Oh by the way the weather was gorgeous later in the day!!

March 26, 2012

We are sitting outside Pittwater high school, listening to the symphony orchestra rehearse. We were just given a mini-tour of the hospitality classroom. It is like a cooking class. The facility here is really nice. The hospitality teacher was very friendly. A bell just rang and now a bunch of students are outside. I think it is their recess or lunch time. We are going to try and mingle with the students now. They look very friendly. Signing off,

Jesse Gamoran

Australia is amazing! The ocean has the biggest waves we’ve ever seen and their winter is basically our summer. Both of our host families are fantastic and they have the best food! Barbies on the grill! The lifestyle here is so relaxed and chill. It’s not uncommon to see people walking around barefoot around town or in the grocery store. Tomorrow is our big night at the Sydney Opera House; can’t believe it’s finally here! It looks even more amazing than it does in Finding Nemo! (42 Wallaby Way, Sydney)

Right now we’re at Pittwater High School waiting to go to the beach. Both the band and orchestra had rehearsals this morning and we have a concert tonight. Everyone has been welcoming and we’ve gotten a lot of attention because of our accents! Especially for the word “water.” “Apparently we say it strangely. We’re adjusted to the time change fairly well. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be; 31 hours of travel time gives you plenty of time to rest. But for now we’re making some awesome new Australian friends and trying to pick up some Aussie lingo.

See you soon Chicago!

Cristina Foschi and Sarah Davidson