Australia

Wow!!! Australia!!! I've been here for almost a month now and I finally have time to write!
We left a cold, snowy Boulder, Colorado on Wednesday, January 9 and got to Melbourne, Australia on Friday the 11th. We flew from Denver to Los Angeles, then a 15 hour flight over the pacific ocean to Auckland, New Zealand and from there to Melbourne. The long flight on New Zealand Air was really nice. You had your own TV and you could play games and watch movies and TV shows from a giant list for free. I watched Ratatouille, High School Musical 2, and the Simpsons Movie, and some Simpsons tv shows. I only slept 3 hrs the whole time! An hour before we landed in New Zealand, the horizon was rainbow colors for a little strip, but when we landed, it was still dark. We had a 3 hr lay over. Debbie Brady was at the Melbourne Airport ready to take us to her house. We were sooooo excited to see Anna and Alice again and we had some bonding time in their new pool. In the afternoon Ben drove my parents, anna, and me down to Brighton to see what our apartment looks like (from the outside cuz we didn't have a key). It is quite nice especially because it is a 7 min. walk to the beach. When we were driving back to the Brady's I saw my first rainbow lorakeet at a traffic light. I was soooo excited, but soon discovered that they are everywhere, and I see them every day. By the time we got back to the Brady's it was time for dinner. I retired around 8:00 cuz i was soooooooooo tired!!!!
The following day we went to the Brady's holiday house, which is just an hour away by a beautiful beach and away from the city. We spent about a week there. While we were there the dad's and us kids got to take a surfing lesson at a beach called crunchies. It was so much fun (even if i only stood up 4 times)! The waves were perfect, and it was warm enough for me! After that I saw some roselas (red parrots) and galahs (pink and gray cokatoos). I also saw a mama and baby koala on a walk with my mom!!!
When we got back to Melbourne we established our apartment. Poor Leah was really homesick and sick, but she was happier when she made some friends at school. The Brady's got alot of furniture for us, so now the apartment looks pretty nice. Leah and I share a room and i guess its ok. The main street, Church Street, is just a five minute walk away. There are some pretty good stores like Smiggle (the stationary store) and Sports Girl. There are even two supermarkets, Safeway and Coles! The beach is really nice, and there are cool tidal pools with sea anenomes and starfish when the tide is down. There are also pretty nice sea shells, but my dad doesn't want us to collect anymore because we already have so many!
The weekend before school started we went down to Somers again. It is a really nice home away from home! Then on Tuesday the 29th, school started. It is soooo different! We have to wear uniforms, and they are sooo ugly (we even have to wear fancy man-shoes!)! I am going to Korowa Anglican Girls School, which means there aren't any boys! I thought things would be really boring without guys, but they arent! Everyone is pretty close, like sisters, and there aren't any clicks! The plus side is that we each get our own laptops! Mine is a new one complete with a webcam! it is sooo awesome! I have already been to the mall with some of my new friends! Everyone is sooo nice, I feel really welcome (and they are all interested in "the new girl from America"). I really love it here!

Miami pictures

Last day in Florida :(waaa! :(

Yay! Finally some Florida weather: 80 degrees, sunny, warm, humid!!!! Leah and Mom got up early to go kayaking. Then after breakfast we went to the admirals cove pool and hung out there for a couple hours. At lunch, when we were hanging out in the back patio, we saw an osprey carrying a fish! There are quite a few osprey around. After lunch we went to the Juno beach again. This time we walked away from the pier, and there were a lot more sea shells. There were also (we think) chunks of harmless clear jelly jellyfish and Leah and I had a good time collecting them and naming them. They're very squishy and fun to play with. When we turned around we actually saw one of the squishy jellies that had just washed up. They're bigger than Opi's hand, and they don't look like they have tentacles. Just to be safe I scooped up the jelly with sand and chucked it back into the ocean. The ocean was very pretty (like Miami) today. Right before we got back to the car, Omi joined us. Leah was going to swim, but I didn't want to (too cold and wavy), so she didn't want to swim by herself. Leah and I really wanted to swim, so we convinced Mom to let us go to the pool. We jumped in really fast and we only went for five minutes, but it was still fun.I forgot to write a couple things yesterday: somebody stepped on my nano, so now the screen is messed up (darn). Also, Leah and I were being maniacs because we decided to jump into Omi and Opi's backyard pool. It is only 60 degrees because of the cool weather, so we jumped in quick. The air felt really hot after we went in!
I've had an awesome time here (even if it's been a little chilly) and I can't wait till next year!!!!!! :)

Florida 1-6-08

I woke up at 9:30am and got my mom movin' so we could go in the sit-on-top kayak on the inter-coastal. We saw some great blue herons, pelicans, cormorans, and seagulls. We also saw a fish that looked like he was trying to fly: he jumped out of the water 5 or 6 times in a line. I think he may have been chased by a bigger, hungrier fish. Then we went to the Blowing Rocks Nature Conservancy, except it was low tide, so we didn't walk by the blowing rocks. It was really lovely when we got there, but after awhile a big squall came and we got soaking wet. It cleared up a little, but we got rained on a couple more times. Right before we turned around we found a 4 foot long dead shark. I dunno why he died. The water was such a pretty turquoise color by the beach, and darker further out. It was sooo pretty with the stormy clouds on the horizon. After dinner we went for a walk to the Admirals Cove pool to check the temperature. It is much warmer and more humid since we first got here. I hope I have time to swim in the pool tomorrow.

Florida 1-5-08

Once again I tried to get my lazy butt up earlier (8am vs. 9), but it didn't work. Mom abandoned us to take a swim, and Omi and I abandoned Leah and Opi to ride in the golf cart. Omi let me drive (weeeeeee!!!) for about half an hour or more! I LOVE driving the golf cart!!!! It's so much fun!!! When we got back Opi took us to Busch Wildlife Sanctuary in Jupiter. They have a bunch of native animals (snakes, birds of prey, foxes, skunks, raccoons, bobcats, Florida panthers, etc.) that can't go back to the wild because they are sick/injured or were pets. After that we came home, ate lunch, then went to the Juno Beach. Because it was a lot warmer today (70s) I got excited to swim in the ocean. Too bad for me though, because the ocean was too rough and there were blue bottle (man of war) jellies. Oh well, I think we'll have better luck in Aussie Land. Now I'm very tired (Leah and I had sleep kick wars) so I've got to go to bed.

Florida 1-4-07

Today I woke up to the sound of pouring rain. It sprinkled on and off all day, but luckily the rain brought warmer (upper 60s) weather. We got to go to Miami to visit Aunt Yoly and Uncle Joe on "there own turf."They live in an apartment on the fifth floor, and you get pretty good views of the city. We walked to the Miami Beach, which is only a block away. Crazy Leah decided to go in the aquamarine ocean. Although it may look a beautiful hue of color, it was very wavy and not particularly warm with the wind coming from the north. I just decided to stay safe (and warm) and play tag with the waves! Hee hee!!! Then we walked to the Miami version of the Pearl Street Mall. We ate a late 4pm lunch at a Cuban restaurant. After that we walked around some more, then turned around when Mom realized she lost her prescription sun glasses. Of course she blamed Leah and me (we kept getting clothing out of the pack), so we turned around to look. They ended up being at the restaurant. Then we walked back down the mall to a wonderful gelatto place. I got a scoop of (mmmm) coconut and a scoop of dark chocolate (mmmm). Yummmy!!! We walked a while longer, then had to get back before 7:30pm because Uncle Joe had to catch a flight to New York. And now I'm very tired, so I gotta go to bed!!!!!! Yay!! I think It's getting warmer this week!!!

Florida 1/3/08

Today felt even colder in the morning because it was cloudy and breezy. I got up at 8:30am and didn't do anything except watch T.V. until 11:00. We were going to take a tenis lesson, but it was too cold so we went shopping with Omi instead. We didn't get back until 2pm. I lazied around some more until Mom and I went for a walk to the pool (not to go swimming brrr, but to check the temperature). It rained on us when we were walking around on the marina and back to the house. The pool is pretty warm, so maybe I'll go swimming to try out my new swim suits. Today is Opi's birthday, so we're going out to the fancy "Jean Pierre" like we do every year. I have to go there right now!