This trip has gone by very fast. I have already spent roughly four weeks here but it only seems like one!

This past week was my final week at Ballarat Grammar School because they have holidays. I went to the usual netball practice and training, we watched some movies and during the weekend we went to different landmarks in Australia. On Saturday we went to the wildlife park, where I saw kangaroos and koalas for the first time. Now I want to bring one home! I saw different kinds of crocodiles and snakes, even though I’m not a fan of reptiles. After that we headed to Sovereign Hill, which is like an isolated part of town where they have kept it as if it’s still in the 1800’s. You have to buy a ticket to get in and you get to go to different shops and houses to see what Australia’s history is like. We went to an old bowling alley, made some candles from scratch and then went to an old candy shop (or as they call it here, “lolly shop”) and got some different flavoured drops. Finally we went to an old mine tour to learn about a disaster that happened there in 1882, where 27 miners were trapped inside the mine. At night, we had a small gathering of Georgia’s friends and watched a couple of movies. On Sunday, we went down to Melbourne again with Georgia’s friends to go shopping. The Melbourne city is much more similar to Montreal then where Georga lives because everything is much closer together and city-like. I am now writing this on my last day of school in history class and I’m very sad to leave it all behind. I hope that my next 12 days here are as exciting as the past few weeks!–Arianna Galbraith ’15