Adrianna

So Wednesday, we could say the most important day of our trip and it was led by my QEGS partner Lizzie and myself.  Haven High started the day really early. We had booked the mini bus at 7:30 but before that we had to go to the bakery round the corner to grab roll or something else for a breakfast and be ready to set off to Sutherland Shire Christian School for a visit to see what an Australian school, lessons and pupils are like. We were also to give them a presentation about our school and Boston. But more about this is in a moment. 

Our journey to this school took us about 45 minutes which for me seem like hours, because I was still half a sleep and really nervous about the presentation. As soon as we got to the school, everyone was looking at us as if we was from another planet, but the lady that was in charge of organising it was really nice to us. She split us to 4 groups of 2 (boy and girl) and we all had a different lessons with different years groups.  For Christian, Lulu, Kieran and me the first lesson was English with Year 11 (for us it would be Year 12). On the first lesson we got introduced to whole class and as soon as teacher said that we from England everyone went “Wow! Really? That’s so cool!”  All of the students and teachers were extremely friendly and helpful in this school. I think whole school knew that we were there because we just felt like some sort of celebrities, everyone was like hi!, OMG, I love your accent, wish I could live in England. All I can say is all the girls are just totally obsessed with One Direction, they just kept going on and on about them – the even asked if we knew them. 

We got quite a few pictures with the students and Keiran was given 3 phone numbers from girls!  Mr Reed was upset about this, because it wasn’t all about him this time and he wasn’t that popular like us. I actually have to say that I loved this feeling how everyone was just asking questions and they were all interested in everything that we were saying.  We all were so scared about the presentation bit, because we knew that we were representing our school so we wanted everything to go well, and it did. Mr Reed was really proud which made us very happy. 

After spending the whole day at Sutherland Shire Christian School it was a time to come back to our hotel to get changed and get on with our school work.   Off we went to get to the train station and I had to lead the group and find the bus stop, at the beginning I couldn’t find it, but after asking the lovely lady with the lollipop who pointed me in a right direction we got to the right place. The bus that we got on was a school bus, and a really busy one. There was literally no space to move.  From the bus I took the group to the train station with a little bit of help from Mrs Hextall. I bought the train tickets to take us back into the zone one, and we got on the train. When we got into Central station we made our way to the way out to catch a bus to the hotel.   Once out of the train station, Mr Reed was trying to take over the leading role, but Mrs Hextall didn’t allow him to do that, because it was my leadership today. From the bus we came to the hotel and some of us went to the shop opposite hotel for crisps or in Keiran’s case conditioner, because he said his hair was like straw.  We all did plenty of school work.   

After this we had a bit of free time. Keiran, Joe, Jack and Christian decided to swim in the hotel’s cold swimming pool while we were waiting for QEGS, to be honest I wouldn’t do it. At 7.45 we all went downstairs to start walking to the restaurant; however Lizzie and I decided that we should go on a bus there.  Of course some of the people forgot their travel passes so we had to run with them to the hotel to get them and made it back just in time for a bus. 

When we got to the restaurant Lizzie and I decided that we should write down everything people ordered and how much they will have to pay to us so we can pay for the bill all together. When we finished eating people started giving us money for the meal and everyone paid notes and waiting for coin change was really chaotic.  I ended up having $7 change in 20 cents coin and yes, my purse didn’t want to close.

We planned to come back to the hotel by bus, but weren’t sure if the buses were still going.  As soon we left the restaurant Lizzie spotted our bus on the other side of the busy road.  We missed the nearest stop so ran to the next bus stop just in time to get on the bus!  For me it was a really nervous but on the other hand crazy and funny day.  I think everyone enjoyed this day as much as I did. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s surfing lesson and the posh fish and chips if that makes any sense.