August/Ágúst/Agosto in Australia/Ástralía

August, August, August, the month that has been my favourite month by far, this month I celebrated half a year in this amazing country, my home. Life at school has became more enjoyable and pleasant. I think because of the fact people and myself realise that I've been in this country for long, and rather than being  just an exchange student, I am Nelson.

I've done plenty of things this month, it's been even busier than Safari months (March & April). Because I changed families I've had the opportunity to travel more, due to the better weather.

The family I moved into is incredible! I just have a Host Mum called Pia, she is a Doctor and an amazing mother. I have 5 siblings, yes, 5!!, 2 Girls, and 3 boys. My eldest sister is 24, she is called Blær, then comes Shannan, she is 20 and goes to University in Canberra. Then comes Connor, he is 18 and goes to Wagga High with me, he is at Year 12, Callum Is the the next, he is 15 and currently at year 10 in my school as well. Last but not least, Padraig, or how everyone calls him, Paddy. He is 11 so he attends Elementary school in Wagga. My house is on a farm, it has about 15 000 hectares, and plenty of sheep and cattle. It is located about 25 km from town.

For my "welcome home" activity Mum organised a bonfire for me, I met the neighbours and their kids, it is amazing the fellowship that exists, I think I've learned to like that. Even though people over here knows everything about you it is incredible, and the fact of just driving on the road greeting and being greeted is so nice. It makes you feel really welcomed.

The next day, we went back to work, and guess what it was? Lamb marking! The moment when mum said, we are doing lamb marking made me think, mierda. But, because is probably the only time I do that, I decided to do it, and I have no regrets, it was incredible, really exhausting, but fun, I started Vaccinating the lambs, then I switched to the ears, we started at 7 o'clock and finished at 5, straight after we finished we released the sheep and seeing them going across the hill with the blue sky and the aura of the sunset coming was just amazing, finishing something makes you so good, it was just nice.

The next weekend I had an Outbound orientation, I met my Newbies (The new exchange students), it was nice to see how they started, and rewind some months and see how I was back then. We are 8, Fiona from Austria (Wagga Wagga), Stephanie from Germany (Yenda), Lukas from Denmark (Forbes), Mickael from Sweden (Young), Laura from Finland (Blayney), Yu from Japan (Leeton), Ricardo from Brazil (Orange) and me. We went to some revision of rules and some advices from us the oldies and the District comittee. It was just for a day so we didn't talk much with each other, but it was great to meet them and introduce themselves. 

The next Friday was the time to say, JUST ONE YEAR MORE!! That means I turned 17, and I can say, by far, the best birthday I have had, EVER. The day before I had dinner with my family, we ate some delicious Hindi food. The day of my birthday my friends at school brought cake and sang Happy Birthday. The afternoon I went with the other exchange student Fiona from Austria and my coordinators to Sydney, we arrived at night and saw the amazing skyline .  We had dinner at a restaurant in front of the harbour and enjoyed some nice fish&chips delicious. The dinner finitud and we went for a walk around Sydney harbour was amazing, I took amazing photos of the opera house and the harbour bridge when we were there. It was beautiful!

The next day we woke up early and went to one of my favourite parts, Yum Cha, as I explained in one of my past post is a Chinese breakfast were the waitress pass with trolleys offering you different Chinese plate, and you choose what you want. It was delicious we had breakfast there for like 3 hours. After that we went walking around Chinatown and took some photos, along with a quick visit to Paddys Market, a market that has practically everything you can imagine, fruit and veg, meat, jewellery, clothing, souvenirs and more! We went for a walk around darling harbour and it was time to go to the Zoo for the first time in Australia. I went to the zoo in a complex along with Madame Tussaud's and the aquarium, I didn't have the opportunity to go to Madame Tussaud's though, both of them were amazing I really enjoyed it, my first time on an actual big zoo, I saw some kangaroos and koalas around, just impressive! The aquarium was nice, so I barrier reef, dolphins, crocodiles and sharks.

After that I went to the most exciting thing, the Rugby union Match, New Zealand (All Blacks) vs Australia (The Wallabies) these two countries have a bit of a rivalry in spite of sports. Or everything probably, but a friendly rivalry! It was really nice, they explained me everything I needed to know and it was really exciting.

The next day we had an early morning because the exciting part was coming! Sightseeing! We went to places like Bondi Beach and Parks were we had an amazing view of Sydney and the beach, I took some amazing photos of Sydney and Fiona took some great of me as well! We went to the Sydney heads, that looks like an entry to Sydney harbour, really impressive, turquoise sea colour and beautiful rock formations. We stayed there for a while and it was time to go home, but that was not all, I went to The Royal Botanic Gardens for an incredible view of the harbour, including the skyline, the opera house and the bridge, just amazing!

Next week was nice as well, it was the time for my first visit to the capital of the country, Canberra, and no, it is not Sydney and it never was. My host sister Shannan studies there so we went for a visit. Canberra is a big country city with about 300 000 people, it is a planned city and a few months ago was its 100 years anniversary. It is really clean and organised, really impressive because is surrounded by bush, and mixes through it. I went to the War memorial, Parliament House, the Main Street, Telstra tower, were I had an amazing view of Canberra. Canberra is a big country town rather than a city, and most of Australians say it's a hole and not worth to see, but I think it is a nice city, the War memorial, parliament house, museums and perfectly organised streets makes Canberra nice and unique.