Adelaide

I love Adelaide!!! The city isn't full of mad tourists like Sydney. It's pretty friendly and cleary- arranged. I spent there 4 beautiful days. I had perfect weather and it wasn't so hot. Actually it was cold for me. Adelaide has so many nice churches and the people have an accent which reminds like the British one. I was at the seaside for one afternoon to see the sunset and the beach. The beach was so awesome! The sand was white and soft! On another day I went to Hahndorf. Many people recommended me that place because I'm German. Hahndorf was first settled by a German family back in 1839. The cozy city has still the German style and atmosphere. So cool!!! The place itself looked like a little village somewhere in south Germany. I like it.


 On the way to Adelaide... Australia is so big!

City Centre

 

The seaside

 

  

 

The Heart of Australia

Well, I decided to go to the outback because I really wanted to see the Uluru and red sand. So I took the Greyhound bus and travelled for about 12 hours to Mount Isa where I had to change into another bus. I haven't done the half way so I wasn't pretty keen for another 14 hours on the bus. It was so super boring because it was night time and I couldn't look out of the window. Suddenly a tall man hopped in the bus. He took a seat right behind me. I pretended to sleep, but I couldn't hold after a while. Then he said "hello" to me and I was like:"What should I do, what should I do?!". I said:"Hello." back. I was hopeing that it was the end of the conversation. Wrong! He talked 7 hours about world peace and other stuff. I felt really uncomfortable. Fortunately I had to change into another bus in Tennant Creek and he stayed on that bus to get to Darwin. That was my weirdest experience ever!!!
I arrived in the morning in Alice Springs. I noticed that it was a totally different atmosphere than in Townsville or somewhere else in Australia. There was no tourist except of me. The residents watched me getting out of the bus. It was so weird. I decided to go straight to my accommodation. I spent a couple of days in Alice Springs. I didn't like the city itself at all. It was somehow scary. Especially when it's getting dark and I really hurried up to get as fast as possible back to my hostel.
The backpackers who stayed in my hostel were quite funny. Most of them stucked there because they had no money to move on.
On my second last day I did a bus tour to see the Uluru and Kata Tjuta. I was so amazed of the nature. The money I spent for that was worth it. It is still the best I've seen here in Australia... But it was so hot though!!

Having a break.

A dried river in the middle of nowhere.

My hostel in Alice Springs.

On the way to Uluru.

Kata Tjuta

Me and the Uluru.

Airlie Beach

I spent an awesome weekend in Airlie Beach. I absolutely love this place and it even that far a away from where I live. It only takes 4 hours by car. The town of Airlie Beach is the ideal location to stay in order to experience what the entire Whitsunday region has to offer. Being the focal point of activity on the mainland and the gateway to The Great Barrier Reef and Whitsunday Islands, Airlie Beach is the perfect place to enjoy a holiday in paradise. For some reasons I expected something different of the city. I thought that it'd be a really nice beach. But there wasn't. Only a really small one. Nevermind. It was still a really good trip!!!

This is the paradise. The Whitehaven Beach. No photoshop- nothing. It really looks like that!!

Kirwan State High School

Kirwan High is a great school, as well a good place to be and it is so freaking huge!! It has more than 2000 students and 120 teachers and hence, the biggest school in Queensland. Kirwan is a large school with excellent facilities, excellent programs and an excellent relationship with its community. So every student get the great opportunity to do the best in what they are good at which leads then to a successful career in the future. The school calls itself a "World Class School" because they believe that they're the best. I think they are really an outstanding school- especially in Queensland. They get so many great achievements e.g. in sports and science. The whole school community are working together as a team. They help each other and try to get involve every student in many activities as much as possible. That's the reason why Kirwan High is an awesome school. Yes, and I love getting involved in competitions and represent my school. I am proud to be a Kirwan High student like pretty much everyone else who goes there to school.
 
Moreover, they have an excellent International Student Program. Many girls and boys from different countries are coming over every 6th month to make a high school experience. I think it is great because I've been here since 10 months and I already met over 25 International Students who were from another nation like Brazil or Italy. So I can get to know different cultures which is really interesting and that's pretty cool.

All pupils are very kind and open- minded at Kirwan. It isn't hard to make some new friends. I really love them all and as well the teachers who are always very helpful!!! In general, Australians are the coolest people on the whole world!

That's it so far... I really recommend this school if you are thinking about to go for an exchange to Townsville. This school offers a lot and the coordinator, Mrs Duve, is so amazing!!!

This is their website: www.kirwanshs.eq.edu.au

This is Kirwan High

Dressed up for the Swimming Carnival

Josh and I ready for the Swimming Carnival

The Swimming Carnival

My friend and I in school uniform

The Big Review II

I'm gonna write this post about Townsville the cosy city where I live here in Australia. To be honest: I really thought that this city is gonna be the death for me when I just got here. I looked out of the car window and I thought the whole time:"oh my god, oh my god, oh my god... that looks so boring and not cool at all here..." Yes, that's what I thought. Especially in the first 2 months when I used to live in another host family and I had no friends. So life was terrible for me. It was boring where I used to live and I really wasn’t happy that's why I decided to move in another host family and restarted. Yes, it was a good decision and I still love my host family as much as my own family. They are so awesome!! Then, I started to notice that Townsville isn't that bad as I thought. I had to deal with it that it isn't a big town like Brisbane or Melbourne. Though, it isn't even bigger than my hometown in Germany (Hildesheim). Well, I love the city more and more from day to day. This place has something magic and unique. I can't really describe it, but the environment is always stunning and I really love walking home at sunset. It's just amazing and makes me smile. Moreover, this city leads me into deep thoughts about myself what I couldn't do in Germany because I was so incredibly busy and here I can take the time and rethink about my whole life and who I really am. I still hear people saying: "This city sucks!" I think they are wrong because they don't really rate it. I really wanna live here, too. It isn't that bad. I think this little spot in Australia is perfect!!!

Kelso area

My view when I go back from school in the afternoon..

Cannon Park

Harbour

Casino

Harbour. I really love this picture!!

The Big Review I

It depresses me to know that my journey will end here in 20 days, but to be honest I can still remember all bits and pieces how I got here, what happened so far and in which mood I was- that's crazy!! The 6th of July 2011 was a really special day. Not only for me; for everyone! It was the day where I made the first step towards the independance. To be honest I wasn't quite sure whether I was mature enough to leave home for such a long time. I was really nervous, but I pretended to be super cool and tried to make a relaxed impression of myself. Not sure whether I was successful in that. So my Dad and I went to Frankfurt Airport early in the morning. I still remember that I couldn't sleep very well the last night because it made me insane knowing that the next day's gonna change my life. I was really tired at the airport. My Dad and I we spent together my last couple of hours there. We drunk a lot of coffee and I could enjoy German buns with fresh cold meat for only once. I couldn't imagine living without my German bread at that time that's why I bought a baking book, but I've never used it so far. Then it was time to say "Goodbye" and our farewell was sort of sad. I could see my Dad's eyes were getting a bit wet and I had no idea how to react in that moment because so many different emotions of sadness, excitement and happiness were crushing together in me. Thus, I decided to be emotionless outside of me. I think it was the best for me and especially for me Dad.

So yeah, here we go. I entered in a new chaptor of my life...

... a new CHANCE to start all over again and to do the best...

 

 "The use of traveling is to   regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are."  –  Samuel Johnson

The Beginning

Hello Guys!!

As you can see I am brand new here and the only reason why I signed up here is because I have so many wonderful pictures of my amazing exchange year here in Australia and I am pretty sure that there's gonna be more and more amazing years with awesome and memorable photos to share with the world. Eventhough, I'll have to turn back to Germany pretty soon! So yeah, I hope you enjoy checking out this here! So yeah, let's go!