The Second week in Australia
By Sisiter Cities
Published: Monday, August 16th, 2010
Hello my name is Tyler Yung, and I will be delivering week two of our experience in Australia. I still can not believe that we are already half way through our trip. In two more weeks, we’ll all be back home in blistering weather in California. It is sad to just to think about it. Also with the end of the second week, we must move to a new host family’s home. It is a real bitter-sweet moment. All of us don’t want to leave the family we grew to love so much, while at the same time, look forward to new experiences with a new family. Personally, I will be missing the Barrett’s, but I will still love my stay with the Smyth’s.
At the start of the week, I went shopping with my host family. I was able to find some souvenirs for my friends as well as some for my family. Being the cheap person I am, I didn’t buy much. Now, things got interesting when I went into this surf shop to help pick out a new backpack for Joel.
The owner of the shop was a very kind, goofy, caring man named Trevor. He was always joking with his employees and new many of the locals that came into his shop. Well, he came over to us since he knew the Barrett’s and immediately saw that I was an exchange student. We conversed for a little bit, and then suddenly said to me to go pick out a hat. In my mind, I am thinking of all the possible ways this could be a scam. I have grown up with the idea that if something sounds to good to be true, it probably is. So, I was extremely apprehensive in picking a hat, but I chose one nevertheless. The staff kept reassuring me that Trevor is just a really kind person, so I wasn’t as paranoid as before. However, I was still going to make sure that we don’t get caught in a scam. And at the very end, we didn’t pay a single cent on the cap. That totally broke the ice for me. Two thoughts jumped into my mind. Australian people can be very generous, and America is a true capitalist nation.
Sadly, on the following day, my thoughts about nice Australian people were crumpled up into a little ball, flattened, and then incinerated. Someone who is very close to me disappointed me greatly with a rude, negative attitude on a fun day at Kiama and the Illawara tree top walk. Both of these places were amazing and I had a good time with everyone with one exception. This person was totally rude to everyone throughout the whole day, and spoiled my experience to a small degree. I guess that people are people no matter where you go, and you will find similar characteristics in people across the globe.
I never thought I would say this, but school is a fun experience. I got to meet a lot of new people, and make many new friends. I experienced a selective, Australian school, and saw what it is really like in the classroom.
The school I attend, Penrith, is a selective school, where you must do well on this test in order to get in. It is a public school since the government is providing for them. It just has a selective group of students which is really weird coming from Temple City High where everyone in the area attends the high school no matter what grades you get. Penrith is known as the nerd’s school for obvious reasons, and to some extent, it is true. So far, I have not met one student who is a total jerk whereas in Temple City, there are some students who I stay clear of. I need to look harder. School is wonderful, but I must say that the excursions we go on with the Sister Cities Organization is even better.
Only a couple days after, the six of us made a two day trip to the Australian capital, Canberra, which is their version of our Washington D.C. It was amazing. This one area has so much meaning, history, and culture. We visited a multitude of places in the capital that gave us an idea about what kind of place Australia is and used to be. They included the war memorial, the national museum, and the parliament house. Going to each of these Australian monuments taught us something new about a country that was just another country not too long ago. The rich history and culture behind Canberra really shocked all of us. We had no idea that Australia was involved in so many wars, had so many famous people, and had such a unique history. The weather was definitely colder in Canberra than in the Hawkesbury, but at least it wasn’t gusty or foggy.
On the day before we left for Canberra, we made an excursion out to Bondi beach and planned to walk to Coogie beach on the trail. It was windy and cold to begin with, and then, it started to rain only a few minutes after we arrived at Bondi. We just drove the route we would have taken. I was glad we still got to see a lot of the scenery, but I’m sure it would have been even better if we had done the trail. Because we got done with that early, we had extra time for shopping in the Harbor side mall, and more time in the Sydney Aquarium.
Anyway, I have to say that museums are not the only places we went to. Museums and Historical center type of places were most of the things we went to, but there are two exceptions. We went to the parliament house which is the equivalent of the House of Representatives and Senate.
We also went to Questacon, the Australian science center. We still learned things, but also had a lot of fun at the same time. At the very end, we had to get back to our home, and get back into our normal routine.
I learned that Australia is a place that has many similarities and differences to the United States. We both speak English, have the same type of household, and similar morals that we follow. However, I see a school that is a world away from our own, a landscape no where close to looking like Los Angeles, and a choice of foods that I have never seen before. We are already two weeks into this trip, but I know that we still have a lot more to look forward to in the land of Oz.
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