The Broken- Up Car

This afternoon, my family was driving into a parking garage, to buy some groceries. Right as we were going in my mom hit the curb  (spelled kerb here, by the way) and popped what I thought was ONE tire. We drove all the way into a parking spot next to the exit, and took a look at the damage. There was not only one tire that was flat, but TWO. As you can imagine, we only had one spare tire, so we called roadside assistance, which sent us a guy that would blow up our tires. He came over like half an hour later (after we had bought groceries and that my mom spent waiting in the parking lot), just to give us the news that our tires had holes in them. The guy called a tow truck (which came 45 minutes later) that took like ten minutes to load the car on. By then my sisters and I had eaten a whole bag of individual bags of potato chips, but were still hungry. But the waiting had not stopped. We had to call a special taxi (because there are five of us and can't fit in a normal taxi with the driver), which took longer than a normal taxi because there are less of them. Another 15 minutes. In all, we were in that parking lot for about two hours. And we just FINALLY had dinner. Vocabulary: Trolley, as in cart. Thongs, as in flip-flops. Ring instead of call.

Sounds

Two nights ago I woke up to a weird sound: It sounded like snoring. But the weird thing about this snoring was that it was very fast, and very rhythmical, and a little hissy. I listened to the sound for a while before I decided to stop it, since I thought it was my sister that was on that side of the house. So I got up and then came over to her room... when  I realized that it was coming from the other side of that wall. I freaked and woke up my parents, but right when they woke up the noise stopped. My parents believed me though, because they had heard it the previous night: my dad had thought that it was the water running (it IS very noisy) and my mom thought that it was ME snoring. I wasn't able to sleep after that because fifteen minutes after I went to bed again this weird bird started singing this incredibly repetitive tune, until it finally went to another house when the sun rose. My parents and I asked around and found out that the weird animal making that noise was probably a possum. Last night it did not wake me up, but I still think that its there, doing creepy things. Yesterday we were house- hunting all day, as in driving around in a car across the whole city of Melbourne all day. I saw another Magpie yesterday, and there was this weird dog that chased us all the way to our house when we took a walk, and even lied on our doorstep for like fifteen minutes before it left. Vocabulary: Chook, as in chicken. Lemonade, as in sprite. Lemonade, as in lemonade. Stubbie, as in beer bottle. Dummy, as in pacifier. Margarita, as in cheese and tomato pizza. Marinara, as in seafood pizza. Rocket, as in arugula. Nappies, as in diapers.

Another Day

I believe that summer break starts in about a week, at least for my school. My parents are thinking about letting me go there for half  a day to see how it goes, or just to let me see what it is like. I saw my new teacher this year, and he looks funky because his hair is all weird. After going to the school my family went to this fancy coffee place where we had these pastries that were really good and some hot chocolate. Then we went to my mom's office. It was boring because I was not alerted that we were going to go there and had nothing to do. In the end I drew a giant horse on a whiteboard in the middle of a hall, where everyone can see it. I hope they appreciate it. Today I was researching Christmas presents too, and guess what I found: Australian girl dolls. My parents and I were joking on the way here that there would be australian girl dolls, but they actually exist! A link to prove its existence: http://www.australiangirldoll.com.au/. I find this extremely funny, considering.  No new vocabulary words.

The School

Today I went to my future school to see an art show (there wasn't an impressive amount, but there was some art). Be reminded that there is no middle school here, so I'm going to be in elementary school again. By the way, in February I'm going back to school  again... summer break is going to start in a short time.  I met some girls that seemed pretty nice, and that toured me around the school (it is very small). The school has a huge sandbox in the playground, so I'm looking forward to recess.  After the school event we went to this place called Naked for Satan. They are a pretty cool restaurant (despite the name) because they sell pinxos. Pinxos are really good spanish sandwiches that I've only seen in Spain so far. I had tons of them. Going back in time, in the morning my dad, sisters, and I went to the center of Melbourne (the city, as Australians call it) and saw some cool little story in the window of the Australian Macy's (its called Myer's, I believe) which was singing the song "You Better Watch Out" the whole time. It was showing pictures of elves and santa and carolers. It was pretty cool. Vocabulary Words: Pants, meaning underpants. Trousers, meaning pants. Playtime, meaning recess. Mate, meaning friend or just general person. Barbie, meaning barbecue. G'Day meaning good day.

Finally, Australia

Well, I'm in Australia. It finally feels like reality. I realized that on the way to the airport in Hawaii.I felt really scared there too because I thought that I might not see my friends again, which is kind of true. I hope that I will male good friends here too. My mom already started work yesterday, the day after we arrived from the plane. She works on a college campus, and school is already out. She claims that it is silent and empty. For your information, yes, it is really summer. The problem wth it is that its really cold in the morning, hot in the mid-day, and then cold again in the evening, so it is still too cold at times to be summer in my mind. When we flew over here we took two planes over here. First, one to New Zealand. Next, to Melbourne, or Melbin as the Australians pronounce it. Here french fries are chips, and ketchup is tomato sauce. Then what is pasta sauce, you ask? It is pasta sauce! The potato chips are also chips. Yesterday, while I was eating lunch, I realized something:birds are not shy here, not even pigeons. I had finished my lunch, and left some crumbs. I was talking with some friends of my mom's when my sisters told me to turn around,to the edge of the bench. There were maybe five pigeons sitting right there, coming closer to me. I got really freaked out and then my sisters started hitting and screaming at them with paper cups. Now,next time you got to Australia watch out for the pigeons under the table, because with the slightest movement of your feet, they will go flying. They scared me like ten times doing that, because they always brushed my legs in the process. We were also eating at an open-air mcdonalds (there waas NO other place to get ice-cream, believe it ornot) when like two birds flew in, barely touching my head. I also saw a magpie, the ones that peck at the highest point of your body, but when I asked about holding an umbrella over my head like my parents did in Sydney (they lived there for a year), everybody told me not to worry. Also, the crows are huge, like as big as the magpies. There's one living on our roof which is really loud. The birds here are really loud. Another funny thing that I found was a map: it was intentionally up- side down. I had a map like that in fifth grade too, but I never really payed any attention to the fact that Australia was at the top of the map... but I did this time. It was really funny. Also, my first impression of Australia was trees. There are lots and lots of them.  I think it's a very nice and busy place, Melbourne, and hope that I have a good life here. By the way, it's 19 days till Christmas here, not 20.

(Most of this post written on my nook)

Leaving Hawaii

Today is my last day in Hawaii. My family is leaving for the airport at 6:30, I believe 9:30 in Denver time. Today we went to the beach again... and I stepped on a sea urchin. It really hurt and I can't really put full weight on that foot yet, but I think I'll survive. The good news is that when we asked the life guard about it he said that it was minor, so it could have been worse. The bad news is that the spikes will stay there until about a week, maybe two if I'm unlucky. Right now I'm looking at my foot. There are four black dots there, along with several little ones that I'm not really worried about. It's kind of sad, considering that its my last day in Hawaii. I've had a great time here, and I'm sad that I'm going away. Hopefully Australia will be alright.

Hawaii! (continued)

Everyday we've been going to the beach, and a man- made lagoon next to it. The swimming pool is really boring because they don't let you do anything fun, such as jump off the edge. The lagoon is my favorite because it isn't as good as the beach in terms of waves, but it didn't have tons of rocks you have to step on to get to deeper spots. Yesterday my family went to the Polynesian Culture Center, which was really cool. The culture center represents different cultures of different islands in the Pacific Ocean, such as Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Fiji, Hawai'i, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga, and Aotearoa (New Zealand). My family went to four islands: Tonga, New Zealand, Hawai'i, and Samoa. Tonga was my favorite, because the "natives" pulled three men out of the crowd to play with them. One guy, from Missouri, was really good. Another guy from New Jersey couldn't really follow what the guy was doing, so started singing "Who Let the Dogs Out!" and got one of the drummers really mad. The last guy, a Japanese guy, couldn't understand anything. The drummer asked him to say "Are you ready?" in Japanese, but the guy didn't understand what he meant and just copied the way he said it. It was really funny, and the guys got crowns in the end, which were really weird because there was a little tuft at the top that the drummer guy pulled up to full length. After the drummers we went to have a canoe ride. It made my arms really tired, but it was pretty cool. Later we went to dinner in the Aloha Luau. There were my deserts than options in the main course, so it was pretty cool. There were also Hawaiian dancers dancing almost the whole time, and music. After that we went to this show called Ha, The Breath of Life. It was awesome, especially because there were these fire dancers that had sticks that looked like knives and had fire on both ends. They twirled them around, threw them, had two at a time, they did everything with them! There was also a part where they had a big bonfire and all the men were walking through the fire and sitting on it with these funny giant skirts. The show is amazing, and there is no other way to describe it. The people in it really had talent. They knew how to dance like natives and all. After the show we all got on a bus and drove back to the hotel (a little more than an hour away from the center). It was a very exciting day.