G’day from Adelaide, South Australia!
It has been 5 amazing weeks so far, and I only have one week left! I can’t believe how fast it has gone by!
After my last blog posting, my amazing host 
family took me to Sydney for a weekend. It was a pleasant surprise when my exchange, Cordelia, told me that we would be going to Sydney, because we live so far away. We arrived at the Sydney airport late on Friday night and headed straight to the little apartment we were would be staying. After getting settled in, it was too late to go do anything so we just went to sleep. On Saturday morning, however, we got an early start and had a huge breakfast at a chocolate café, which 
was delicious. The first thing we did after breakfast was take the ferry to the Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge, where I was able to take some beautiful pictures. Afterwards, we took the ferry to the zoo. It was really fun and we got to see both a seal show and a bird show! Cordelia got to be a volunteer at the bird show and got some really cool, close-up photos of an owl! After the zoo, we went back to the apartment and changed into warmer clothes and took the ferry to a really cute amusement park called Luna Park. At Luna Park we went on a lot of the rides. It 
was really cool because it was dark so all of the attractions were lit up in tons of lights. The weather in Sydney was gorgeous–I was even wearing a T-shirt! Then on Sunday, we got to sleep in before heading off to go shopping! It was really fun shopping with Cordelia. She took me to all of the popular shops in Australia which included Top Shop, T2, and Sports Girl. After our morning of shopping, we went to a wax museum; I have never been to a wax museum, so it was really great experiencing it with Cordelia. We took so many pictures with all of the statues! After the wax museum we had to catch our plane so we headed back to the airport.
Another fun experience I had was a before my Sydney trip: I taught my host family how to make s’mores! They had never had a s’more before! I was so surprised when Cordelia came up to me one night and asked, “have you ever had a more, so’more? I don’t really know what they’re called.” So we made s’mores one night. Well, we made modified s’mores, because they don’t have graham crackers or Hershey’s chocolate in Australia, so we had to use biscuits and really thick chocolate that didn’t melt. I promised Cordelia that when she comes to the U.S. we will make “real” s’mores with graham crackers and chocolate that is thin enough to melt. It was really funny when we tried to make them, but everyone had a good time making Australian s’mores.
This weekend is my last weekend in Australia and so Cordelia was super sweet and organized a goodbye bonfire party for me on Saturday. I am looking forward to it, as well as wishing that it wasn’t happening so soon!
Going on exchange has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience and it has been one adventure after another! I have experienced the Australian Outback, fed a kangaroo, spent an amazing weekend in Sydney, and had the incredible opportunity to hold a koala. These past 5 weeks have been some of the best I will ever have experienced and I don’t want to say goodbye so soon! Thanks for all the memories and good times! See ya later, Australia.
The Athenian School Exchange Blog 