Hey guys.
I promised you a thorough report of my week, so here we go. (I'll include the first days so it's actually a week and a half report this time.)
So after something like 23 hours of flight (felt like forever though, but, hey, at least I watched great movies,
Intouchables for example) we landed at Sydney Airport. We passed through security, without great difficulty (I actually sweated a little when they made us fill that ESTA-like thingy and that I saw "I carry more than 2250 ml of alcohol YES NO" and I thought about that wine in my luggage but everything went well.) and we waited in the hall for other students.
After picking them up, we took the bus and went to the camp, in a suburb of Sydney. At the camp, we had all sorts of activities, some fun, some less (the redux version of all the things we've been told all the time about rules, regulation, etc. But the true fun lied in exploration.
Like I already said, there is some sort of reserve next to the camp, with so many hidden paths and a river. So every time we had a spare moment, I and some friends explored, and went everywhere: up to the waterfalls and rocks to climb, or down following the river, and so many more rocks to climb and jump and doing parkour. And as I love jumping and climbing on rocks, that's what I loved the most. We even saw wallabies and lyrebird on the way. And the sunrise from the top of the waterfall was quite the show.
On the second night, there was a talent show, for the people that wanted to show something, and although I didn't want to at first, after being literally pulled onto the stage, we pulled off our sleeve an interpretation of
Aux Champs Elysées, and we had quite a success, so, it was fun, ultimately.
Then came a trip to Sydney where we had fun discovering the city, and, when we arrived, we found that there was a French Festival. We found some nice shops, including one named "France at home", whose keeper was French, and we exchanged some words, it was a surprise but so nice.
Then the initiation camp was over, and we headed off to our respective family, and we headed for the airport. That day, I was the luckier of all the poor guys that went with me. We were separated into groups, one of whose had to get up at 3 AM, and the others later. I woke up later. Unfortunately for all those who woke up later, almost all the flights to Melbourne were cancelled. Of course, almost all national flights had to go through Melbourne. Let's all have a little thought to the poor guys that spent 13 hours on a bus from Sydney to Melbourne.
My flight was luckily still programmed, so off we go. What was weird enough is that I got controlled because of my compass in my pencil case, while there was no problem in other airports. Funny.
Once arrived at Melbourne, I had three hours of wait, but thanks to Stephen, I had access to the Qantas voyager lounge, and that is so cool. Free, limitless food and drinks, showers, big information screens, that's some luxury. There, I met two brothers from Mildura, apparently quite known, some national motocross champions. I even had a picture with them, I'll try to get it.
Then, the second flight to Mildura, and it was that famous plane, the DeHavilland dash 8-400 turboprop, A.K.A the little plane with helices. Well, it must have been the smoother flight I've ever had, cause I slept all the way. That or I didn't want to see my next seat neighbour, cause that guy was like thrice my weight and literally took a place and a half into the already little plane.
Then I met my family, and that was the most thrilling moment. I literally jumped on them, we had fun at the airport and everybody was happy. Then we went home, had some pizzas, went for a night walk, and I went to bed.
Sunday was a beautiful day, I had an adaptation day, learned the rules, tried my uniform, went for a walk, and had fun. Then, Monday, real things started... School.
Guys, the school in Australia is the best. Everybody, from the headmaster to the teachers and the students are so nice, the ambiance is so friendly, all the hierarchy is involved to the point that even the headmaster come to dance lesson with the students. Among the new subjects that I study, we can find "Fine arts" which is an upgraded version of our arts in France and include drawing, painting, and photography; "Food and Hospitality", which is basically cooking, Italian (sorry Elora :P) and ID, in which we currently design a new playground for the school.
The school passed quite quickly, and there's not much to talk about yet, but I made myself some good friends.
Which lead to yesterday night. Because that's the question that burns all of your lips, I know it. Where was I yesterday night, when almost all the family was at the debutante ball and Amelia home alone? Well, like they say, a picture is better than one thousand words, so here we go!
A birthday party! My very first birthday party in Australia, I was so thrilled when I got invited! It was so fun, we had some good laugh, some good laser sniping, and so much money spilled (not mine) on that stupid plushie grab machine that never works, and a beautiful night. That's my crew now.
I hope you liked that first recap and with this,
Timothée, Over.
