Firebrazer

Back in the DK!

2009-12-16T22:33:00.003+09:00

So, back in Denmark at last. Had a great couple of weeks with my parents. We were in Hervey Bay (well... duh), Airlie Beach (loooooooong drive from Hervey Bay), Cairns (just as long from Airlie Beach to Cairns as from Hervey Bay to Airlie Beach) and then Sydney (flew from Cairns, too long to drive).

Seen lots of stuff, done lots of things. Still wondering whether I should upload pictures or not, I'm not sure yet.

Flew home this sunday/monday. One 10 hour flight, one 11 hour flight, and one 30min flight, plus a couple of hours of waiting between the flights. Two very long days. Traveled home with Jesper and his family, as my family had some other tickets so we wouldn't be flying together. The first flight (10h, Sydney-Bangkok), we were seated pretty far apart, but we had personal screens so we watched movies all the way. Second flight (11h, Bangkok-Copenhagen), we were seated next to each other, but we had no personal screen and no way to watch movies. Was a REALLY long flight, even though we slept some of the way.

The last flight (30min Copenhagen-Aarhus)was kinda lame... flying for 30min after two massive flights is kinda weird. What was even weirder, was that everybody was suddenly talking Danish again! That's gonna take a while to get used to. Was kinda confused when the stewardess talked to me in Danish. Still not used to people talking Danish in the streets either. Sounds funny.

Oh, and it's bloody cold! I'm freezing constantly, and the heat never reaches my room :(
Gonna have to figure something out...

So, now that I'm home, I need new stuff. I need a new desk, I need a new computer, I need a new chair and I need somewhere to put all my books (I have a lot of books. A LOT!) Gonna be quite a challenge. Now if My room had just been 5sqm larger...
I'll manage though, gonna be... interesting.
Having trouble with the computer as well. The price of most of the hardware has gone up (and some of it has somehow disappeared from the site I was gonna order it at), so I'm gonna wait till after Christmas, and hope for a sale or something. Some new stuff will be out soon anyway, that might drop prices as well.

Anyway, till next time /wave

Gold Coast Part 3 and Cairns!

2009-12-07T10:21:00.006+09:00

Sorry 'bout the delay everybody (if you're still reading it^^). So time for all the pictures I have from Gold Coast!

I was too lazy to compress them all, so they're all full size.

Now, that's not ALL the pictures I have from Gold Coast, but only the ones I decided to upload, it does take a while to upload pictures after all...
The very last picture, was also taken in Gold Coast. Unfortunately, my budget was almost in red, so I couldn't really afford to rent the outfits, which is why I'm not in the picture. I regret that now... oh well

So, the 4th of December, my birthday! About time I turned 18. Great day. Went for a cruise to Michaelmas Cay, which is a small... well, not really an island, just a bunch of sand, grass and birds in the middle of the ocean.'

Went with a ship called Ocean Spirit I (or maybe II, I forgot). Michaelmas Cay is a part of Great Barrier Reef, so naturally we'd be going snorkeling and scuba diving! I had forgotten both my PADI license AND my logbook, but I had a talk with one of the guides/Dive Masters, and he agreed on letting me dive without my license, for the certified diver price (a certified dive, with equipment and guide costs 65$ for the first dive, $100 for the second, $110 for an introduction dive).

Apparently I was the only certified diver who was going scuba diving (the other guy got too seasick :P), so I had the guide all to myself, yay! Her name was Lani. Not sure where she was from, except somewhere in Asia. She didn't look particular Japanese or Chinese. Saw lots of stuff, and it's gotta be my best dive so far, probably also because it wasn't a big group this time.

Spent 45 minutes on around 7-10m. Took about 210 pictures. Not all of them are good, but some are great, if I may say so myself^^

Anyway, it was a great day. We're leaving Cairns for Sydney tomorrow (really looking forward to it). Been doing lots of other stuff in Cairns. Awesome stuff like the Michaelmas Cay and Tully River Rafting (for 5 hours yesterday), and less interesting stuff like Kuranda Skyrail (started out with a sloooow train ride, then a couple of hours in a village, then almost 2 hours on a skilift thingie over the rainforest).

Sydney's gonna be great though^^
And today... 1 week till I'm back in Denmark! Can't wait.
Till next time, see ya /wave!

Gold Coast Part 2

2009-11-25T19:59:00.003+09:00

Thought I'd better get this updated again. Won't be long till I leave Hervey Bay after all. Only two more school days left.

Right. There isn't actually a lot to tell from the rest of the trip. We didn't do THAT much besides staying on the beach. There was Wet'n'Wild one day, and Dreamworld/White Water World the very last day. In between that... beach, relaxing and stuff like that. To be honest, I forgot which days most of it happened. It doesn't really matter, though, as long as I still actually remember what happened.

So, we went to Wet'n'Wild. It is, as the name suggests, a waterworld. Actually the biggest I've ever been to. We took the bus at around 8 o'clock or something (maybe even 7) as we wanted to be there in time. They opened up at 10, but there's always A LOT of people in those places.

The bus ride took... an hour or so, I think. Probably a little less, always hard to tell the time when you haven't got a watch. I think the busdriver was pretty mad at us. Almost all of us (I think we were 15) paid with $20 notes. Actually, the busdriver can refuse to let you on, if you don't have correct fare. But yea, all of us got on the bus anyway.

When we got to Wet'n'Wild, there was a huge line, just as expected. We had to wait outside the shaded area and DAMN it was warm. Not even the faintest breeze. We waited for an hour or so. The line actually moved pretty fast. As soon as we got in, we got a locker, locked away everything but our boardies(had to wear something) and we ran to the first ride.

We tried every single ride in the park. We stayed there until the park closed at 17. Lots of stuff to do actually, but the food was pretty damn expensive. We weren't allowed to bring our own food in there, so we were forced to buy the stuff the sold in there. All fastfood of course. They did have some sandwiches, but that was mainly those vacuum wrapped sandwiches that probably wasn't all that much healthier.

Out of the park again, it was starting to get dark, and there was actually a lot of wind. We waited for the bus to come. And waited, and waited some more. When it finally showed up... it drove right past us. There were a lot of people waiting outside Wet'n'Wild.

We called the bus central several times (so did all of the different groups waiting outside the park). They couldn't tell us why he hadn't stopped, they wouldn't send us any taxis (like they would have back in Denmark, I might add). Someone mentioned going to MovieWorld, which was about 1km further ahead.

Went there, waited for the bus (another half an hour). MovieWorld looked AWESOME! We kinda regretted that we didn't go there (still do).

We weren't home till about 20, as far as I remember.

Another day, back at the resort, we played volleyball. A lot of volleyball actually. It was damn warm in the sun. But fun! We sucked at it, but it was fun anyway.

That's it for another couple of days at Goldcoast. Will be making one update with all the pictures from Goldcoast, instead of adding them separately.
Until next time, see ya /wave

Gold Coast

2009-11-22T13:23:00.004+09:00

Finally. Been busy and lazy lately. Been looking up stuff 'bout fitness and stuff. Seems like I've become a fitness freak D: Oh well. The Goldcoast will probably only last for a couple of updates. Not an update for each day. Can't be bothered to do that, as there isn't much to tell anyway.

I forgot when exactly we left (the day that is, the time was around 10, from Centro), but I know that it was at the end of the month (September). So, started out with bus from Centro in Hervey Bay. From Hervey Bay to the train station in Maryborough. Waited there for about half an hour, and then we were off to... some... place... that I actually forgot the name of... it had a metro station though! Not that it helps at all...

Anyway, in the Metro, Niklas and I went for one cabin, and then noticed all the others had gone to another. And... apparently it took quite a long time for them to notice we were actually gone. Thought we might've gotten off early.

Had to stand up the entire ride, as there wasn't enough seats, and you had to get up to make room for parents with kids, elders and pregnant women. Everybody does that in Australia. People hardly do that in Denmark...
Once we reached the end of our trip, we got of the metro (naturally...), and found out, that this wasn't our final destination.

The place we were gonna be living had a courtesy bus which we were told would come pick us up. Unfortunately, the place we got off the metro was one of the places, they didn't pick people up from. So we had to wait for a bus to show up, pay the $2.90 for the ride. We went all the way to Surfers Paradise where we could finally be picked up and go to the resort.

The courtesy bus was small. Really small, so it had to come twice. I was in the second group, which meant I was one of the last persons to check in (actually I was the last...). I got the key to the same a partment as Bas and Maria. And it seems that the 4th person in that apartment had already moved somewhere else. So I decided I would to. Wouldn't be any fun living in that place, with just those two. Would be... weird.

Instead I moved in with Morten, Emil Oxbøll, Kasper Madsen og Jens. It turned out that Johan and Mark would pretty much be living with us as well (they didn't actually pay for a room, as they were planning on sleeping in the car. That lasted one day, then they slept on the couch). There was always people from other rooms in our room. It was fun!
Didn't do much for the rest of that day, just went for some breakfast for the next day, and just kinda checked out the area.

The next day... we went to the beach! Of course! You have to go to the beach at Surfers Paradise when you're in Goldcoast. We spend quite a while there. Also went off the beach and into the streets to check out the surroundings. Pretty much all we did the entire day.

Until next time, take care! /wave

Graduation!

2009-11-17T21:36:00.003+09:00

So, today was graduation day. It was just a formal graduation for my class, as we will actually still be going to school until November 27th. We just graduated with the other Year 12 students anyway. Took a loooooooooooong time. Didn't get home til 21.30. Lots of diplomas, certificates, speeches and awards. I was the only non-Australian to win an award! The Carol Charles Award!

They called my name, I walked up on stage, posed a bit (^^) took the plate/award thingie and went back to my seat. Now... if there had been an award for most applause... I'd have won that as well, thanks to my classmates^^

We'll be getting our grades next week, I believe. Still have a few assessments left. So far I'm the only one who's completely done with Mathematics, which includes the optional worksheets, yay!
ITAC assessment for Thursday, had it postponed, as Johnathan realized that we had a lot to do. So... Chemistry Oral tomorrow (if we get through the people leftover from last Friday, that we didn't have time to do), English Presentation sometime this week. Maths test Monday, Marine Studies test Monday, ITAC test Tuesday... maybe some other stuff I forgot. Unless I'm far behind on the ITAC assessment tomorrow, I'll post the first Goldcoast update.

See ya /wave

Delays...

2009-11-12T19:17:00.001+09:00

Sorry about the lack of updates lately. Been insanely busy with homework and assessments and stuff... updates should be coming soon, provided I have time. If not this weekend, then the beginning of next week.
Sorry
/wave

Whitsundays Part 4, the last one!

2009-11-07T10:25:00.004+09:00

Actually, this part takes place over two days, but the last part would've been pretty short, so instead, I'm merging them.

So, no drinking the night before, as we were going scuba diving again today. We were going on a "3 Island Cruise" with a ship/boat called Voyager. The three islands we were going to; Hook Island, White Haven Beach and Daydream Island, in that order. Not exactly up early, around 8 o'clock. Breakfast, and off (by bus) to the Shuttle Harbour where our boat awaited us.

As we boarded, we noticed that some of the people on the boat were the same that had been on the last cruise we had been on (the one to the pontoon). The divemasters/instructors were the same, which meant that we'd be diving with those guys again, yay!

The Voyager wasn't as big as the last one we'd been on, but there was still a fair amount of people on it. We stopped shortly at Daydream Island to pick up some more people, still plenty of room on the boat though.

Took us a couple of hours to reach the first island, Hook Island. While we sailed, us with PADI certificate signed up for a dive. Only $55 this time, or maybe it was even cheaper... (damn it! My budget was on my laptop, and is now lost...) anyway, it was a lot cheaper than at the pontoon.

We were briefed, and told what we could expect. The water would be murkier than at Knuckle Reef, we wouldn't go as far down as at Knuckle Reef. This time we'd be in bigger groups, only two groups. Six persons in each, with 2 instructors/divemasters in each. We were told that as we swam out, it would get deeper very quickly, and if we got out too far, we'd be pulled straight to the bottom, due to currents. And at the bottom... sharks! And not lame Wobbegong Sharks, no, Tiger Sharks! Probably the most aggressive sharks in the world, and they're pretty huge. If we got within 5m of them, they were likely to attack. And guess what the visibility was that day...? 5m!

We were taught the signals if a tiger shark was spotted. It was exciting and scary as hell at the same time (but mostly exciting). They told us that if we were (un?)lucky we'd see tiger sharks, but that it wasn't very likely, as they were further out than we were.

I was in the second team to go out, so I didn't really have to hurry when we got to Hook Island. I did anyway. Watched the other get their gear on. When they swam off, I went snorkeling with some of the others. The first team were gone for around 45 minutes. A little longer than we are usually gone. Normally it's around half an hour, as we haven't got much air left by then.

And then it was our turn! The water was warm, much warmer than in Hervey Bay, so we didn't actually have to wear wetsuits. They didn't actually have any full-body suits. They didn't have one that actually fit Thore (guy from my class), so he swam in his t-shirt. This time, Niklas was my buddy. And that actually went a lot better than with Mathis, as we managed to keep an eye on each other the entire time.

Anyway, off we went. And the water really was quite a bit murkier than at Knuckle Reef. There was still a lot of corals though. Not a lot of fish, but that was most likely because they managed to swim away before we got close to them. There was a pretty strong current as well, so it took a little effort to stay on course. I was always either in the front of the group, or in the middle. Usually in the front, with Niklas either beside me, or slightly in front.

It was a great dive, alas, no tiger sharks :( We did see a sea turtle though, hiding amongst the corals on on the bottom. I got pretty annoyed with Birk ('nother guy from my class) by the way... he kept signaling stuff to me, and pushing me out of his way. He was behind me. For the record, it's the guy in the backs responsibility to NOT hit the guy on front, and to not be hit by the fins of the guy in front. The person in front has no idea what's behind him, therefore he can't help it, if somebody is hit by his fins, unless he does it on purpose of course...

Anyway, we got up after 45-50min as well. We all had lots of air left though. Seems I finally got my breathing under control as well. About time:P
Unfortunately there's no pictures from the dive. The water was simply too murky. The camera wouldn't have been able to show anything, due to the particles in the water. It was fairly easy to see, but the camera... no.

After the dive, it was straight back to the Voyager, and off to Whitehaven Beach. Whitehaven Beach is a beach (surprise!) made completely of silica, which means that it's very heat resistant. It barely gets warm at all, and the sand was an incredibly white colour! Best beach I've been on.

There was a photographer on the Voyager as well, just as there had been on one the Knuckle Reef cruise. She took a lot of pictures of our group. Particular the group of boys I was in. There were some pretty good pictures among them, but unfortunately they were expensive. Very expensive. And we couldn't even get discount if we bought all the pictures of us... oh well. We had to make do with the pictures the other people from our class had taken.

On Whitehaven Beach we pretty much just chilled on the beach or messed around in the water. And posed for pictures of course. I think we were on Whitehaven Beach for one and a half hour or so. Possibly more. There was not shadow whatsoever on the beach. No shops either. No pier. The ships actually sailed in so far that they hit the beach, and then we would walk off.

After Whitehaven, Daydream Island. Daydream Island pretty much consists of a huge resort. Lots of souvenir stores, fastfood, restaurants, pools. There was jetski and stuff as well. And a huge artificial reef thingie. Spent the time on Daydream either in the pool, or at the pool.

Then back to Club Croc, and relax/drink for the rest of day.

The last day of Whitsunday, we went sea-kayaking. Not much to say about that day really. I was on the early team, so I wouldn't have to sit on the sea around noon, with the sun frying me. That meant I had to get up around 6 o'clock. Wasn't so bad actually. Patrick was my kayak buddy. And we actually managed pretty well, as long as I kept saying one-two. We sailed to a small island (pretty much just a huge rock), waited there a while, and then went back again. There was a lot of waves, and the tide was coming, and it was hard to steer. I was sitting in the back, so I had to steer. We managed pretty well though, and were pretty fast. If we didn't have to wait for the others, we would've been up long before they got back.

I forgot my hat at the place we went kayaking... I told Jesper to bring it back home, when he went. He was on the second team. He found my hat and brought it back to me :D
The rest of the day went pretty much like the other days.

The next day, it was time to go home again. By bus. Another 12 hour ride. Very tiring, but we got home, had a couple of days off (probably some of the most boring days of my life...) and then it was off to Goldcoast.

So, next update will be about the Goldcoast! See ya then /wave

Whitsundays Part 3!

2009-10-30T17:25:00.009+09:00

(This update was planned for last Friday, however, due to internet problems, I lost half of what I wrote, didn't feel like starting over again so soon, and decided to do homework instead)
Yay, time for part 3! Two more updates for Whitsundays after this (or maybe only one, it depends). And then Goldcoast! Wonder if I even have time to do these posts... I guess I have to update more often, only have 30 days till I leave Hervey Bay, and I wanna be done before that.

The third day in Airlie Beach. Luckily we didn't have to get up that early that day. Think we got up around 8 for breakfast (they had awesome breakfast at the hotel), and then left. Today was jetski/speedboat/para-sailing! Was looking forward to all of that, but para-sailing the most. Unfortunately... I barely have any pictures from that day... oh well. Been asking the others, but only a few brought their cameras that day.

We actually had to walk pretty far to get to the pier, where we'd be doing the above mentioned stuff, but it didn't matter. The weather was nice, and not too warm. Some thought so, though, they forgot to bring shoes that day, and quickly regretted that. I believe everybody has tried walking on asphalt or the like, on a warm day? It hurts like hell, if it's in the sun.
Time went pretty fast, though, and soon we reached a hotel, went inside, through the hotel, out the other side, and onto the pier right outside. At the end of the pier was... a shed, I think. Apparently that place had won some kind of award for extreme sport, for 3 years in a row. Personally I don't find any of the above stuff extreme...

Anyway, were were split into four groups. One group of 7, and three groups of 8. I was in the group of 7. We were to be the first group on the jetski. The instructor gave us a short briefing, telling us what to do and what not to do, in case we fell off or the jetski tipped and stuff like that. Nothing important.
The jetski were for two persons, so unfortunately we couldn't get one each. One guy from our group got one all to himself though... I was with Anders Papsø (Papsoe for the non-Danish:P). Nice guy. Knows quite a bit about cars and computers. He started out in front, I sat behind him and held on to some handles in the seat. It didn't take me long to realize, that holding those handles was a bad idea...

I don't know if any of you have ever been on a jetski before, but they're pretty darn fast and the ocean isn't exactly flat. So... as soon as we got out of the harbour, where we could speed up, I almost fell off. I tried to hold on as much as possible, and tried to get in touch with Anders. Unfortunately it's pretty hard to hear anything the guy in the back says, when you're in front and doing full speed. Finally I made him stop, so I could grab a hold on him instead. I was still thrown around in the backseat, but at least I had a better hold, and if I fell off, so would he, and then the jetski would stop.
Luckily, I didn't fall off (!), nobody actually did, which was quite disappointing...

Just before we went out on the jetski, another group had gone out in the speedboat (it's just what it sounds like, a boat that goes fast (really fast)), but when we came back, they weren't back yet.
And they didn't come back for a loooooooong time. It seems that the boat had broken down, so they were stuck out there and had to get help. The help: the jetski instructor! On a jetski. He pulled the boat back on that little thing... I'm surprised he could actually do it, even if they are pretty powerful. It took a long time though, and after that they had to fix it (obviously), before another team could get a ride.

We waited, and waited, and waited. Eventually people got pretty tired of waiting. It was a damn hot day, so some guy decided they'd jump off the pier (we pretended we didn't see the huge "NO JUMPING OFF THE PIER" sign...). I didn't jump, even though I wish I had. At last the boat was fixed, and we could get a ride.

It wasn't for nothing they called it a "speedboat". That thing was bloody fast. Nothing more to say about that, really...

So, as mentioned we should have been parasailing that day as well. But, the boat they used for that was broken. It had broken down yesterday, and they hadn't been able to fix it. So instead of all three things, we only did the two. He told us we'd get some of our money back, I haven't seen any of that money yet though...

Most of us left after that. There was still a group on the speedboat, but we might as well go. We went to the centre of Airlie Beach. Got some food, checked out souvenir shops, clothes, lots of shops. Jesper finally bought some sunglasses (been pinching other people's sunglasses, and complaining he couldn't find any that fit him), and Lars and I bought a has(!), not the same hat of course, but in the same shop. RipCurl. Then, we took a taxi back to the hotel (got a taxi-bon from Vicky, so it was free), and just chilled for the rest of the day.

(I told you there wasn't a lot of pictures...)

Next update should be sometime this week, as I kinda failed last time...
Until next time, see ya /wave!
P.S. 24 days till I leave Hervey Bay, 40 days till I'm back in Denmark and... 30 days till my 18th birthday!!!

Pictures!

2009-10-24T12:42:00.002+09:00

Yus! Picture time. The pictures are from what I've told about so far (except the bus trip). Just click the pictures for bigger versions.

That's it for this time. Third Whitsunday update coming soon. Until next time, see ya /wave!

Whitsunday Islands part 2

2009-10-22T21:34:00.005+09:00

Figured it didn't make any sense to keep naming the posts after the dates when that's not what they're about...
Anyway, unfortunately no pictures today, as I promised. For some reason I can't upload pictures, so I'll be adding the pictures tomorrow, sorry guys.

So, last update was Friday and Saturday, naturally this update will be... Sunday! (/cheer)
Anyway, our first morning at the hotel. We didn't know exactly when breakfast is on, so we got up at 6.00, to get to breakfast at 6.30 (we found out the next day, that we didn't have to get up that early... breakfast ended at 9.00 or something).
Anyway, after breakfast we had a little while to get ready for todays trip: Knuckle Reef Lagoon!

All right... so there are a FEW pictures, but none I took. All from Cruise Whitsundays own website

No, I wasn't in the helicopter (they didn't actually have any out there that day), and no... the food didn't actually look that good... oh well, that was to be expected. Anyway, the place looked absolutely awesome, in the brochures AND in real life.

Back on track. We left from the hotel around 8 or so, I think. Been so long I can't remember anything anymore... horrible. At the habour, we waited for 15 minutes or so, till we could all board the boat, Cruise Whitsundays (great name, eh...?) The boat was pretty big, but there were a lot of people on it. The people on the boat (or ferry... maybe?) were the only people that were gonna be on the pontoon.

As soon as we started sailing, some guy gave us a short briefing. It was pretty funny. I forgot why, but he made a lot of jokes about Irish people. He was Irish himself, I think. It was fun anyway. He told us, that after the briefing, the dive-masters would come around and talk to the people who wanted to do scuba diving at the reef. The prices, $100 for a certified dive, $50 for second dive, and $110 for an introduction dive, which required no previous scuba diving experience. All ten of us, who had a certificate, wanted to dive of course. So, we filled out the forms, paid the $100, and went upstairs to get briefed.

The dive-masters were all pretty cool, probably around... 25 years or so. At least that's what they looked like. There were other people who wanted to dive as well, but we were split into groups of three, so only one group got with a non-Dane. I was with Mathis and Patrick. We had heard from our scuba diver instructor, that the visibility could be up to 40m+. Unfortunately, the day before, it had been very windy, so the visibility was only around 15m. Pretty disappointing really... the dive was great anyway!

We were told, that we had to be the first in the water, but everybody else was told the same:P We were pretty fast in the water though. Onto the pontoon as fast as possible, get a wetsuit on, get to the gear, and they pretty much put the gear on you, damn it was fast. Then down a staircase under the pontoon, get with your group, and time to swim off. The water was great, except for the relatively low visibility. There were a lot of corals everywhere. They weren't as colourful as what you see on TV, but we didn't bring any light down there, and the water was, as mentioned before, a little murky. We went down to about 15m, I think and we stayed down for around 45minutes. I had enough air for another 15minutes, but we had to get up anyway. Apparently Birk, another guy from the class, had run completely out of air... and blamed it on him having to keep and eye on the rest of his group all the time...

Anyway, I have a lot of pictures from the dive, that I got from Patrick, who brought a camera. They're pretty okay, I guess, but due to the particles floating in the water, he couldn't use the flash without getting even murkier pictures. Oh well. The rest of the time on the pontoon was spent relaxing, snorkeling, riding the water-slide, going on trips in the semi-sub and the glass bottom boats.

I would loved to have gone snorkeling, but after the dive, I had some problems with my ears. They were kinda hurting, like when you can't equalize properly. I'm guessing it was because of my little accident (or walkabout, as most classmates might call it:P). We were floating above some corals, looking at him picking stuff up, and handing it to us. I had established neutral buoyancy (I floated, did not have to keep swimming to get up or down), but suddenly, without touching the BCD or my weights, I began rising to the surface. Pretty quickly even (which can be pretty dangerous). I tried emptying the BCD, but it didn't slow me down enough, so my head broke the surface of the water. Having emptied the BCD, I got down again pretty quickly as well (though I filled it up a bit on the day down, to avoid going too fast), which can also be dangerous! I think that's what might've caused my ears to hurt... I spend most of the remainder of the day on the top of the boat, just talking with people. Was pretty damn warm that day, so I tried to find a place in the shade, though that was pretty hard...

We were back at the harbour at around 5-5.30, I believe, so back at the hotel, we had a little time in the pool/spa, and then time for dinner again. I got pasta again... people cheated... and sorbet for desert again! Oh well...

So, with no scuba diving the day after, I could drink without the risk of dying the day after... just beer, though it was kinda expensive. Oh well, it was good. VB is now my 2nd favourite beer!

Until next time (tomorrow...) see ya /wave!

New updates tonight!

2009-10-22T16:03:00.003+09:00

Yus! Time for new updates again. Will be doing part two of the Whitsunday update, adding pictures, and linking to a slideshow of some pictures from downunder, that most of you probably havent't seen.

Oh, and TAFE wouldn't lend me a computer... apparently they have to reconfigure it. So the laptops are only for staff. Too bad. Gonna have to use Dulcies laptop

Whitsundays Part 1

2009-10-18T18:58:00.004+09:00

Well, guess I'd better start doing those Whitsunday/Goldcoast updates. I still don't have my pictures, but the ones are I have, are pretty similar to those most of you will be able to see on Facebook. I'm starting to forget some of the details, so I'm writing it all down, before I forget it.

Whitsunday Holiday, part 1
We left Friday 18th September, at 20.30 (I think), from TAFE. All 27 students, 1 teacher, her husband, her son and the bus driver, so 31 people total. We probably didn't leave till around 20.50, took time for everybody to show up, get the bus packed, check that everybody was there and such. Finally we got going... we had a 10-11h ride ahead of us.

Fortunately for everybody, there was a TV in the bus, and a DVD player. We had been told that beforehand, so some people had brought DVD's. There were actually some pretty nice ones between them. The one most people wanted to watch, though, was Mama Mia! I had never seen the movie before, and ABBA music is decent, I guess. The movie was okay as well, but not really my kind of movie. I forgot what other movies we watched... it's not really important either:P

Our first stop was in North Rockhampton, or maybe just Rockhampton, at around 01.00. Don't think I slept much before that, maybe a couple of minutes. Even though I had two seats to myself, they weren't exactly comfortable... I always forget to bring a pillow. I've gotta learn sometime... anyway, I guess bus rides are supposed to be like that, at least when it comes to school trips.

The bus was pretty cold as well, so it was actually nice to get out of the bus in Rockhampton. It was much warmer outside, than it was inside the bus. Of course, I had also forgotten to bring a jacket. I asked the bus driver to turn up the heat, and he did. It didn't help much though, was still pretty cold where I sat. The stop in Rockhampton was 30minutes, so we only had time to go to the bathroom, buy some stuff in shop and have a breather outside, before it was back on the road again.

I've already forgotten where the next stop was, but I think it was about 04.00. The place we stopped this time was a lot smaller, and the bathroom a lot smellier. Think we stayed there for... 20minutes or so. My head was a little fuzzy, I was pretty damn sleepy, cold, and my back hurt. The rest of the way to Airlie Beach, I kinda just... dozed off every now and then, and woke up again almost immediatly, which made me even more tired.

We finally reached Airlie Beach at around 08.00 or so. We couldn't get into the hotel that early, so the bus driver (he's called Mike btw) took us a little further, down to the shops and such, so we could get some breakfest. Most of us ate at a little cafe. I bought a yoghurt and a cappuccino... tasted great. We spent a little while at the cafe, just chatting, and waiting for the bus to go back to the hotel.

Once we got back to the hotel, we dumped our luggage in a room, and jumped in the pool/spa. We spend the time, until we could get our rooms, in the pool. When we got our rooms (I lived with Jesper and Magnus), we threw our stuff inside, and went back to the pools. Spend most of the day there, until dinner time. 3 times dinner at the hotel was included in the price we paid before we came, and the first night was one of them. Main court: pasta (the pasta was horrible) or Steak. We couldn't choose what we wanted. Everybody wanted steaks, and nobody would admit that they had even voted for the pasta... lame. The desert was nice though. Sorbet or mud cake (I never got to taste the mud cake... greedy basterds eating it 3 times in a row). The sorbet was great.

I don't remember what we did for the rest of the day, but I don't think we did much. I know we didn't drink (some did, but I didn't), 'cause we were going to a huge pontoon the day after, and some of us were going scuba diving.

So, that's the end of the first part. The second part will come pretty soon, so stay tuned!

Oh btw, GW guys, I'll try to get online as soon as possible. If I can't, I'll have Jonas or my brother do it. My computer isn't gonna get fixed, I'm currently using Dulcie's (my homestay) laptop, and tomorrow in school, I'm gonna talk to Angie about lending a TAFE PC. They don't usually lend them out, but they might make an exception this time.

See ya /wave

PSP!!!

2009-10-12T08:51:00.000+09:00

So... my laptop is still broken. Took it to a shop last Friday, they couldn't fix it 'cause it is a laptop. They told me to contact HP, unfortunatly the warranty has expired, so it will most likely be pretty darn expensive. I haven't contacted them yet. I ordered a new one though. A netbook this time, HP mini 5something. Costs $235.45 + $21 for shipping. Pretty cheap. Ordered it yesterday, so it will probably show up late this week or early next week. In the mean time I'll use the school pc's and my psp

Broken laptop

2009-10-07T09:46:00.002+09:00

Yea, my laptop broke. It's a hardware error, most likely. When I turn it on, the screen turns on, but doesn't show anything. Going to take my laptop to a shop this Friday, as this is pretty much the only day I have time. Gonna ask how much I'd cost to make them check what the error is (personally, I'm guessing the graphics card, as I've been having trouble with that lately). Not gonna tell them to repair/replace it, before I find out how much it costs. If it costs too much... I'll probably buy a netbook instead, and figure out a way to connect my old harddrives to it, to transfer the stuff.

Unfortunatly, having no laptop means that I won't be on msn much, won't be on GW at all, and that the Whitsunday/Goldcoast updates have been postponed, until I know more. It sucks, big time. And I just found out that I haver less money on my account than I thought! Damn Visa... Whitsunday and Goldcoast was expensive. Anyway, maybe I'll see you on msn, maybe not. I'll be checking Facebook every now and then anyway, so that will most likely be the best option of getting in contact with me.
Sorry

Delay D:

2009-10-05T22:09:00.002+09:00

Sorry 'bout the delay everybody. Been busy with Whitsunday and Goldcoast lately. I'll be updating with pictures tomorrow. Just got back from a more than 5 hours long bus ride.

September 15th, 2009

2009-09-15T21:11:00.002+09:00

A day late with the update it seems. I either forgot, or was too lazy yesterday, you pick:P

Anyway, this time, I've got a few pictures from the Whale Watching trip. Not pictures I've taken myself, but pictures taken by a classmate, Kasper Madsen. My mobile/camera ran out of power, so couldn't really take any pictures. I'll see if I can get hold of some more later. So, here're the pictures:

These pictures aren't really that great (sorry Kasper, even if I know you're not reading this^^), but at least they show a couple of whales. So, yea, the whale watching trip was pretty good. Except the fact that we had to get up pretty early, but at least got some food on the ship. I can't remember the exact time that we left, but we were home at about 14. We saw lots of whales, even if we had to go pretty far out to see them. We saw whales chasing each other, swimming under the boat, waving, "jumping", smashing their tails into the water, and we even saw a small group of whales with a calf as well. The captain told us we were lucky... I guess they say that to all groups they take whale watching. A few people got seasick as well. Even some of those that had taken pills. I felt fine though. Never had trouble with seasickness, sailing is fun:P
So, as everybody who goes on whale watching has been told, and as most people who's heard of whale watching knows, you're supposed to wave/jump/yell/whatever when whales are close, to keep them interested. I guess it's to make them do tricks... when you look at all those people on the boat waving and yelling at the whales... I'm not sure who's making who do tricks. It worked though. Our boat yelled the loudest, so we drew a group of whales from another whale watching boat, to our own boat. It still seems ridiculous to me, but heck, it was fun anyway.
I don't really know what there's left to tell you about the whale watching. It was a pretty cool experience, but it was kind of what I expected, and nothing spectacular really happened, but whale watching is one of the things you have to do if you're in Hervey Bay in the whale season

Next topic, scuba diving.
It's awesome. As I mentioned last time, we finally got in touch with Steve and got our Open Water Dives planned last week. So, last weekend we went diving. We were split in two teams. One that went diving early both days, and one that went late both days. The first day the early team started at Boat Harbour at 0600, which meant we had to get up at around 0500... on a Saturday... and yea, I was on that team. I chose it myself, though. I wanted to get it over with, 'cause to be honest... I was pretty nervous. I've never really liked being that far down in water, I generally hate being in open water with the bottom far below me, and further to the beach. So yea, I wanted to get it over with. It wasn't what I expected though. It was awesome. Simply awesome.
So, 6.00 at Boat Harbour, Steve shows up half an hour later. We were quite bummed, 'cause that meant we could have slept another 30 minutes. 30 minutes mean a lot at that time of the day. We went out in a both with Steve, his wife, and (I guess) a friend of his. His wife would stay in the boat, to keep an eye on everything, and the rest would get in the water. Two instructors, 6 students. Getting the gear on went pretty smoothly. We were a little slow, but it didn't matter that much. Steve told us what we were going to do at the bottom, then we paired up and did our buddy checks, and then we jumped in the water.
Surface temperature was 22°C, so the water wasn't so bad, and we wore wetsuits anyway. Mathis and I were the first under. We pulled ourselves down by the anchor, equalized every meter or so, as we'd been taught. Now, the water in Hervey Bay isn't exactly clear (we had about 10m vision, which is pretty okay I guess), but we were still able to see a ton of fish and corals. They weren't exactly colourful, but that was because of the depth (at 13m the colour red is pretty hard to see). The place for our first two dives was called The Goori. It's a shipwreck. I'm not sure how close/far away from Boat Harbour it is, and it doesn't really matter. We were at the bottom for about 30min. Then we had to get back up, change tanks, and get back down again (we really need to work on our breathing (read: me), ad we use up waaaay too much air). Both times we were at the bottom that day, we did some of the stuff we had done in the pool as well. Most of it was a lot easier in the ocean than in the pool. Mostly 'cause you had a lot more room to do whatever you needed to do. We also spent some time just swimming around the wreck, and we did some stuff at the surface as well, before we got out of the water. So yea, it was awesome^^
One thing annoyed me a bit though. We were supposed to bring passport photos (for our certificate). I had already given him mine, when we were doing the Closed Water Dive. The last theory lesson, he told me that he didn't have my photos (last theory lesson, after CWD before OWD), so the day before our OWD, I went to the post office and bought some new ones. $12.50. When I wanted to give them to him after our dive... he said he found mine in a folder... the old ones. So I just wasted another $12.50 on passport photos that I have absolutely now use for. I can't even use them back in Denmark, as I had to take my glasses off...
The 3rd and 4th OWD's were at a different place. A place called "3 Ships". You can probably guess what it was. The first dive that day, we did some stuff again. "Full mask removal" at the bottom (17 meters this time), "establish neutral buoyancy" and "compass navigation". The compass navigation was the hardest, I'm having a hard time just looking at the compass, and not looking up all the time. I completed it though. The second dive, we just swam around the three shipwrecks, looking at everything. There was a pretty nasty current in some places, and my weightbelt was messing up, so I kept losing my balance in the water, so I had to use my arms to stabilize myself, which use up a lot of energy, and therefore, a lot of air. I had 10 bar(10 bar is probably the lowest the needle will go, before hitting 0) left when we got up, or something.
We also lost two people down there. Mathis, and Anders Papsø. Mathis was playing with the sand on the bottom, and didn't notice that we swam away. He stayed where he was, and we eventually got back to him. Papsø got lost when we were swimming through a hole in a wreck. When he got through, we were gone. He kept cool, though. Checked his air reserve, and then his compass, remembered where the anchor was, and waited for us at the anchor. Respect. Most of us would probably have gone straight to the surface, after the one minute you're supposed to look for you buddy. It seems Steve was pretty impressed as well. Especially that he was actually able to find the anchor again. Those things are pretty damn hard to find...
Anyway, we all got out of the water together, and got our gear off. Still semi-slow, but it wasn't so bad. After that 4th dive... we were scuba divers. We just needed our license. Of course, those things takes ages to show up, and we needed it for Whitsunday, so we got a temporary license instead. Awesome! Steve said we did great, and that we were a great bunch. And that we definitely was the A-team. The other team hadn't done too well, apparently (we had that explained the following Monday in school xD).

Scuba diving is awesome, can only recommend it! Quite expensive, even if we got it cheaper than most others. Now I'm really looking forward to the Whitsunday trip. Can't wait! I want to go scuba diving at Great Barrier Reef!

Oh, and there was one downside about scuba diving... I mentioned that I used my hands a lot. Using your hands a lot, means a lot of scrapes on your hands. I hit the wrecks and corals several times, which can actually be quite dangerous, but I was lucky. As we swam through a hole in a wreck, I also hit the top of the hole with my head, back, arm and cylinder. Got a pretty big scrape on my left arm now. Doesn't hurt too bad though. The worst thing is the bruise I got from the BCD and the wetsuit. I guess they weren't tight enough.

Now THAT hurts. Pretty damn sore, even after a couple of days. I need some kind of shirt when we're going diving in Whitsunday.
No pictures from the dives, unfortunately. Nobody on our team had a camera to use underwater. One person from the other team did though, so I'm hoping I can steal some pictures from him. Would be great.

Anyway, that's it for now. Will probably update again before Whitsunday (leaving this Friday), if I remember it of course.

See ya! /wave

(Oh, and before you ask, YES we saw sharks^^)

September 7th, 2009

2009-09-07T19:04:00.003+09:00

Time for another update. Seems it's every Monday at the moment. Guess that's fine. I wonder how many people are still reading this, it's not like it's extremely exciting at the moment. Haven't really been doing a lot lately, the usual really. School, gym, homework (tons of that), eating, being with friends, chatting. I know I promised pictures this time but... next time, I promise! Not as many assessments left to hand in before the spring break. Finished 1 Chemistry report, 1 English essay, 1 International Technology & Culture presentation, 1 English presentation, 1 Marine Studies presentation. So one Chemistry assignment left, History of Technology report/presentation and another English essay. At least I don't have to stress anymore

The next couple of weeks will be expensive, but the spring-break is gonna be awesome. We haven't ordered anything yet, as we still need to be 100% sure who wants to come. People are lazy though, expecting everything to arranged for them. So far 16 or so have signed up, and we know there are more who're planning to come.We're gonna be discussing it in Mentor class tomorrow.

FINALLY we're getting somewhere with our scuba diving. Been weeks since the last dive, and we still haven't done our Open Water Dive. We actually need more than one of those, but we've only got one weekend left before Whitsunday, and we need our license before that. Wouldn't really be any point in getting a PADI license if we can't use it at the Great Barrier Reef, would there...?
So anyway we (not me personally) discussed it with him, and he decided that we'd do 4 dives this coming weekend. I think we'll be split in two groups, so each group will do a dive each day. 4 dives in a weekend is more than we're allowed to. It'll be great to finally do the Open Water Dive. Even if we had been invited to a party that weekend... but no alcohol the days before a dive! Won't be able to equalize, and it's much more likely you'd get decompression sickness, and we can't have any of that. There'll be plenty of that in Whitsunday and Goldcoast anyway^^

Was at a party this Saturday as well. At a girl named Brooke's place. Never saw much of her, really, she mainly stayed in her room with a few friends... was fun though. Not putting any details on the blog though:P
Started with some taste testing (tasted some juice/energy drink called Mona Vie or something), and then moved to another house. We were home pretty early, actually. Apparently they have to stop the parties early down here. Some of the others went to clubs and such instead, I couldn't, as I'm not 18, so we were home at about 00.30.

Guess that's about it for this time, I'd better get back to doing maths. It's getting easier and easier... /sigh

Anyway, see ya /wave

August 31st, 2009

2009-08-31T14:52:00.001+09:00

Been a week since the last update, so though I'd better update it today.

Been busy with homework the last couple of days. Lots of assignments to do.
English essay for Tuesday
History of Technology report for Friday
Marine Studies presentation and report for sometime this week
2*Chemistry report for Friday
So plenty of stuff to do, even if I'm not particularly interested in actually doing it... I guess they're giving us all these assignments because the September break is coming up soon (2½ week, 18th of September), just like back home. Always before the holidays...
The entire class will be going to Whitsunday Islands in the September break. It's something the school has arranged, and they're paying $500, we'll be paying the remaining $390. It seems we've gotten a much better deal than the class that went last year. Included in the $390 we have to pay is:
Jet-Skiing
Para-Gliding
Some other stuff I don't remember
Lots of food!
Really looking forward to it. After the Whitsunday trip is over, we still have 10 days left of the holiday. I think most of us are planning to go to the Gold Coast. Would be fun if we all went. We can get some group discount, so the trip down there, which will most likely be by bus, probably won't be all that expensive. Also, we're going to Dreamworld straight after the holiday, the first Monday after. It so happens that Dreamworld is situated in the Gold Coast, so we've been thinking that we could stay till Monday, go to Dreamworld with the school, and then go back home. I don't know if that last part will come true, I actually don't think it is, but oh well.

Had been invited to an Aussie party this Saturday, but I didn't really feel like going, the homework I had been doing (the English essay, damn that thing, probably one of the most annoying essays ever. Took me 2 hours to write the first 200 words) had exhausted me, so I decided to stay home. I think Mathis was glad, he didn't really want to go either. But next time, I'll go.

So, today we went whale watching. Had to get up at 5.30 to get ready, and be at Boat Harbour by 7. I think some of the others had to get up earlier though, as most of them had to be at the school at 6.45, and then a bus would take them to Boat Harbour. So for once, we didn't have to get up earlier than anybody else for some school arrangement.

Oh, and haircuts are pretty cheap down here. I got a haircut for $20 last Friday, and apparently I could have gotten it for $16 if I had just flash my student ID. Oh well, $4 isn't that much, but I'll have to remember it next time. I had originally planned on getting the haircut at the school, but you had to make an appointment for that, and I couldn't really find time in my schedule.

Anyway, till next time... see ya! /wave
Oh, will add pictures from the Whale Watching trip some time later this week

August 24th, 2009

2009-08-24T19:13:00.003+09:00

Update!

The entire class was at Scrub Hill today. It's an aboriginal community farm, not far from the school. They had... 80 acres of land, I believe, and it was all filled with plants. And some pretty rare plants among them. It was pretty interesting, but nothing I couldn't have lived without. We weren't there for very long anyway. After school, my group stayed in the classroom and worked on an International Technology and Culture assignment. We finished off about... 15.30, I think. When the gym opened at 16, I went down there to workout, and try my new program for the first time.
The first program I had, was made the very first time we got down there. I guess the program was okay, it just didn't fit me, so therefore I kept adding stuff to it, trying to make it harder. That didn't really work. So, last Wednesday, I had a new program made (my old one had somehow gone missing anyway). A student called Elliot made it for me. I told him the old one hadn't really fit me, and that I wanted to focus on my leg/ankle instead of just an overall workout. So he made up a new program for me, that I made on my computer, and uploaded here. I made the program from memory, so it might not be entirely accurate (I'm 100% sure it's not accurate, I forgot the numbers on most of the machines down there, and I might have forgotten to ad something. Oh, and the sit-ups aren't really on my program, but I do them anyway) The exercises are in no specific order, as the order depends on which machines are free, and what I feel like doing.
Anyway, the new program is awesome, much harder and much better than the old one. Think it took my about 1 hour and 15 minutes to go through all of it today. Now I just have to work on finding the best possible order of the exercises.

Other stuff going on the past week... not much. BBQ at the school Sunday. For all the international students and their homestay parents. International students included the Asian student, who also study in the W-block. So, we played football (soccer). Had a tournament. 4 teams. The all-danish team won it all^^ the other teams were mixed Danes/Aussies/Asians. Afterwards, food! Sausages, burgers, chips, dip, lots of stuff. Was pretty fun, but didn't take very long. We got there at 10, and were back on at about 14, I think

Haven't done much else this week... oh! Besides being at a netcafe Thursday. Some guys started talking about hosting a lan-party Thursday in school, and they discussed possible locations for it. Couldn't really come up with anything legal, with enough space. Then they thought of a netcafe. So, they asked in class how many of us were up for it, and pretty much all the boys were. They went to the netcafe and talked to them, they had enough room, and the price was $20 for a lock-down, i.e. an entire night. So, that's what we did. An entire night at M.I.A Gaming. Was awesome. Played lots of Call of Duty 2 (which was actually the most fun, had some pretty close matches), Warcraft 3 (of course) and some other games. And, of course, I watched the Guild Wars 2 trailer. It was, simply, awesome. It can be found at the official Guild Wars 2 site (here), for anybody that might want to see it. And yeah, we had school the day after, and yeah, all of us were tired. All 21 boys. 23 boys in class and 4 girls, so quite a few showed up. None of the girls though. It was all worth it though.

Not much left to tell for this week, I guess. Oh, one thing left. We finally decided on a design for our jersey. It's a jersey everybody in class will be getting. With their name or something on the back. First picture is the design (obviously) and the second one is with the names for the backs of the jersey. Most of them are for our class, but some of the teachers get one each year as well. $60 each, so I guess it's not so bad...

Anyway, see ya next time!
/wave

August 18th, 2009

2009-08-18T18:34:00.002+09:00

I actually tried updating a couple of days ago, but after I wrote it all down, it all crashed... Usually Blogger saves the posts, in case it should crash, but it didn't this time, so I lost quite a bit... I pretty much have to update my blog today, been almost a week. Or maybe it has been a week... anyway. GW2 info has been released today, so my post might not be as awesome as it usually is :D GWG post here GW2 website here. Really excited about this, there should be some more info later this week, so I'll probably be refreshing the GW2 site and Mike O'Brien 's Wiki page all week long, and following Gamescom very closely.

So... haven't been doing a lot the last couple of days, aside from the usual. Played poker last Friday. Went to where Niklas and Birk lives. Their homestay parents were out for the weekend, and the son in the house, Anthony, had arranged a poker game with some of his mates, and Niklas invited me and some other Danes to join. $10 entry fee. 13 people played, probably a little more Danes than Aussies, some of them showed up too late (a couple of Danes did as well). Winner gets $100 and 2nd gets $30. We started at two tables, and when we were four left at each table, we moved to one. I ended up as #5. I could probably have gone further, had a pretty good hand, went all-in, but the opponent had a better hand. Oh well. I ended up as dealer for the last three instead. The last three being Jesper, Niklas and an Aussie called Iceman, or Ice. The game lasted pretty long, think just those three sat at the table for an hour or two. They then decided, that whoever came first and second would split the money, to avoid staying there all night (which Mathis and I did anyway). Niklas then lost shortly after, so Ice and Jesper each won $65, so they earned $55 that night, pretty nice, eh?
Anyway, it was fun, even though it lasted forever. Afterwards, we just talked, listened to music and stuff. Went to bed at around 3 o'clock, slept there. Was back home at about 10 the next day.

Sunday was Seafood Festival. Mathis and I met with Jesper at the Boat Club, very close to where the festival was. Not as much seafood as I thought, lots of other food as well. Stevns (Anders Stevns, classmate) and his homestay had a pancake stand, so we went to get some. DAMN they were good. After that we just walked around, checking it all out, and then we got lunch, seafood for me and Mathis, Jesper got a... Super Bacon and Cheese Burger... and they weren't kidding 'bout the bacon. More bacon than I've ever seen in a burger...

Anyway, I guess that's it for today. Gonna get a haircut this Thursday, at the school... by students... for free! Wonder how that'll go:P
See ya! /wave

August 11th, 2009

2009-08-11T21:18:00.009+09:00

Ah... sorry 'bout that everybody. I promised the pictures would be up yesterday, but they weren't. I had trouble uploading them to my Photobucket account (the imagehost that lets me post my pictures here). I could only upload one picture at a time, and it simply took me too long. Wasn't done by midnight yesterday, so I decided to wait for today. Still took quite a while to upload the pictures today. Even the compressed versions. By the way, if you want me to upload higher resolution of any of the pictures, just tell me, and I'll do so^^

Some of you might already have seen the pictures that my classmates have uploaded to FaceBook, and to those of you, these probably won't be a lot of new pictures, we've all been the same places, and seen almost the same stuff. You might also notice that the pictures on FaceBook, is better quality, or most of them at least. Quite a few people brought some pretty awesome cameras. But as far as I'm concerned, we'll all be sharing pictures when we get back anyway. I believe that's what they did last year.

So! The pictures: (clicking the thumbnails won't make them bigger, that's the size of the pictures, I compressed them quite a bit:P)

The trip to Fraser, by Barge

Random pictures taken after leaving the barge

Lake McKenzie

(the teachers and some of the students at the beach of the lake)

From the first camp in the forest

(a goanna! There were actually a few of them, but I decided to just upload one. There were a few at the second camp as well)(clicking this one WILL make it bigger... I forgot to compress it)

The walk to Pine Valley

Lake Wabby Sandblown

I recorded some videos there as well, on a classmate's camera, just waiting to get them^^

Middle Rocks

(Indian Head visible, the big cliff)

From Indian Head

(Wabby Point, out there)

(from up Indian Head, not actually allowed to go that close, but we did anyway)

Sandblown near 2nd camp

(obligatory sunset picture, was a little too late actually, but that was because of my little walkabout^^)

(Unfortunately I couldn't get a proper picture up there. The three guys in the picture (from left: Kasper, Emil and Johan) and I were the only four people to go up there. The view was incredible. The hillside behind those three was almost vertical, and below was a lot of trees, simply awesome)

Waiting for the boat

(Blue Soldier Crab, I believe, there were a ton of them at the beach in Kingfisher Bay. When you walked out (low tide) the entire beach moved)

Last shot for this time. Not a lot, I guess, but the others aren't much different. Unfortunately, I am, once again, out of time. Midnight here and yet another school day tomorrow. And gym. Will tell about some of the other stuff tomorrow, of if I have problems again, sometime later. I have other stuff to do after all:P

So, see ya
/wave

August 9th, 2009

2009-08-09T18:52:00.005+09:00

So... people have been telling me to upload pictures of the trip to Fraser Island... and I will put them up! Just not today... not really in the mood, it's been a slooooow weekend, so the pictures will be up tomorrow, unless I'm too tired after training (not likely). I can tell you about the trip though. It was awesome.

Got up at 5 Tuesday morning, packed the last things and stuff like that, and was at the school at around 6. Not a lot of people had shown up when Mathis and I got there. We helped the teachers pack the trailer and other stuff. Once everybody showed up and had their stuff packed on top of the 4wd's (four-wheel-drives just in case anybody didn't know), we left for the barge that was supposed to take us over. Back the way Mathis and I had just come, strangely enough, oh well.

The barge was slow. Very slow, don't know when we got to Fraser, but not before 9.30, I think. Anyway, once we got there, it looked pretty decent, nothing special. We arrived at Kingfisher Bay by the way. I liked the way they'd hidden the entire resort, though. Was almost impossible to see it from the sea, they had actually left a lot of trees. Kingfisher Bay Resort looked awesome, but unfortunately, that wasn't the place we were staying... we had about 15 minutes around the resort, to buy stuff, look around and such. I bought a dessert bowl and knife/spoon/fork as I forgot to bring any. Was fairly expensive, but I guess that's to be expected from a place like that.

Anyway, off we go again. Oh by the way, Mathis and I were in Doc's car. 11 people in our car. 8 students in the back, 2 students in the front, and one driver. Not much room in there, but it was awesome nonetheless. Driving in a normal car will never be fun again. The roads on Fraser were simply awesome! Only a few places with asphalt, on of them being the Kingfisher Bay Resort, the rest of it was sand. And not the kind of sand we have on the beaches in Denmark, this sand was WAY finer than what we have back home, therefore, much more fun to drive in. As said, I was in Doc's car, and I'm glad. We were the last in the "convoy", and Doc kept falling behind, and the catching up again, awesome. Only one car got stuck, that was Terri, our Marine Studies teacher. Only reason he got stuck, was 'cause of the trailer behind his 4wd. Doc had to pull him free.

The first day, we stopped at Lake McKenzie. Quote from here: "It is a 'perched' lake, which means it contains only rainwater, no groundwater, is not fed by streams and does not flow to the ocean. The sand and organic matter at the base of the lake form an impervious layer, preventing rainwater from draining away." So, yea. That's some pretty damn clean water. So clean, actually, that it can't sustain any life. Took quite a few pictures of the lake, it's damn awesome. I kinda want to go there again.

Not sure how long we spent at the lake, but the next stop was Central Station, where we were going to camp for the night. In the middle of the rainforest actually. Once the tents and all that were up, we had to go for a walk. We went to Pine Valley. Not really sure what was so special about Pine Valley, but at least the walk was nice. Except the last stretch... most of us were pretty exhausted by then. And not just the students.

Had dinner when we got back to the camp. BBQ! Chicken and potatoes and... peas and corn. Was decent. After that, not much to do but play cards. It gets dark really fast here. Especially in the rainforest. We started out with some Piggy (don't ask me about that game, not about to explain it, and I sucked at it). Then Mark and I decided we wanted to play 4-man Whist (I think that's what it's called in English, and Mark is a classmate), so we taught Mathis and Stevns (Anders Stevns, another classmate), and then Emil and Marianne (guess what? More classmates!) showed up, and wanted to learn to play the game too. None of them were really great, but Emil was probably the best of them. We played a couple of games, until it was 9 o'clock, and then Terri had to turn the lights off... damn 9 pm curfew...

Quite a few of my classmates were sick, actually, including the two that slept in the same tent as me (Lars and Jesper). Both of them were asleep when I got in bed...

I slept horribly. I always do when I camp. I could have the greatest tent and air bed in the world, and I'd still sleep horribly. So, that was the first day of the trip on Fraser.

Seems this post has a fair length. I wasn't really in the mood for this today, but I did it anyway^^ Will be posting pictures tomorrow, and telling about the last couple of days. Don't miss out on the next episode! Including spiders, snakes, me going on walkabout and going loco!

/wave

August 3rd, 2009

2009-08-03T20:04:00.002+09:00

Update!

Got myself some running shoes last Friday. A pair of ASICS. Cost me $160, not so bad, would've been $200 back in Denmark. They're great to walk in, and I guess I can't really say how good they are to run in, till I've been doing a little more running. Also bought some supplies for the Fraser trip. Licorice, chips and fudge! Damn cheap at Sam's Warehouse:P

Saturday we had our first Confined Water Dive. Met at the pool at 8, went home again at around 15-16, I think. Spent 6 hours in the water. Even with wetsuits on in a heated pool, it gets a little chilly in the end. Had to do lots of stuff in the water, and had to set up our equipment 3 times before we could even take it on. Most of the stuff we had to do was pretty simple, but some of the other stuff was kinda hard. Especially considering that the max depth of the pool was 1.5m.

It was fun, though. Next dive will be the weekend after the next. According to the book, we're supposed to have 3-4 Confined Water Dives (i.e. in the pool), but due to the depth of the pool, we'll have to do an Open Water Dive much sooner. Which will then be... the weekend after the next. We'll be staying above 12 meters for the next two Open Water Dives, and we'll be going down to 18m in the last one. Looking forward to it, but also a lil' nervous:P

Was pretty exhausted afterwards... therefore, I didn't do much Sunday.

Monday, went to the gym, ran for the first time in years! The speed was too low, though, so I couldn't run properly. Have to remember that for next time, but it was great to actually run again. Took some determination to actually run, after I've been telling myself for ages that I couldn't run. Ah well, next time I'll set the speed higher^^

Have to go to bed early today, gotta get up at 5 tomorrow. The entire class is leaving for Fraser Island, where we'll be spending the days from Tuesday-Friday, gonna be awesome. I'll try to take lots of pictures, but I can't promise I won't forget sometimes^^

I'll see ya Friday I guess

/wave

July 30th, 2009

2009-07-30T21:54:00.003+09:00

Another update!

No pictures this time, but will add some next week, once I get back from Fraser Island. Leaving Tuesday and back again Friday. Should have brought the big backpack we have back in Denmark, but of course I had to forget it... oh well, one of our teachers mentioned the possibility of being able to use a bag, that the school owned. Can't be bothered to bring my suitcase. Would be too much trouble.

Anyway, Monday was workout day. Went great, no problems. Tuesday, my right foot/ankle hurt as hell. Mathis and some of the others went to the beach, I had to go home, as my foot had to get some rest, too bad... was in bed the rest of the day with my leg on a pillow. Wasn't so bad though, was over by Wednesday. Spent most of the night helping Jesper checking out new mobiles. He's been having trouble with his own, haven't been able to text on it. To begin with, he just wanted a simple, cheap one. He moved towards smart-phones/multimedia-phones now though, and the one we found (he actually found it, as the first one he had in mind, we just researched what the alternatives were) was the Nokia XpressMusic 5800. Pretty decent, really. Pretty good for playing music, and decent for videos as well, even if it can't play a lot of different types. Went to the gym Wednesday as well, didn't go nearly as well as Monday. Gonna have to change a few things on my program... annoying. Didn't do much else Wednesday. Except I (and a ton of other guys in my class) started playing Pokémon again. I have 18 Pokémon games on my computer, and we thought It'd be fun to play some of the old games. I also got an e-mail from my mother, who had forwarded it from my doctor back in Denmark, Ivan Hvid. I had asked my mom to ask Ivan (I don't have his e-mail), when I was allowed to start running again. And guess what, now I can! 1 km a day for starters, and I have to stop if I feel any pain in my leg, take a break, and then continue once the pain has faded. So now I'm gonna have to buy some running shoes tomorrow. Planning on using the treadmill in gym. Would probably be the best thing to start with.

Thursday, Marine Studies, went snorkeling. Only problem, they didn't have any fins in my size. Well, they did have one fin, but that's not really a lot of help... Trevor (our teacher in the practical version of Marine Studies) said they'd buy some for next time. Marianna and Simon needed some as well, they found some others that fit fairly well though. I had to swim all day without fins. Wasn't so bad though. Didn't have to swim as far as the others, but I can definitely feel a change from the first time we went to the pool... thinking about buying my own mask and snorkel. The ones the Hervey Bay Aquatic Center have that we can use, aren't exactly great. The snorkel is actually kinda sharp, so it hurts your mouth, if you can't keep it still. Steven (our PADI instructor) apparently used to own a diving shop or something, so he might still be able to get mask and snorkel cheap. Had an appointment with a doctor today as well. Everybody who's taking PADI classes has to get approved by a doctor. I was actually a little nervous whether I'd pass or not, due to my leg an all, but there were no problems at all. It took a little longer than it usually would, the test that is. I made it anyway. Two of my classmates failed the test, because they had asthma, even though it had been ages since they last had a seizure. They'll most likely be getting their money back. Sure hope so...

So tomorrow, shopping! And PADI lessons. Weekend: my first confined water dive! With all the scuba equipment on. Looking forward to that. Don't know if it will be Saturday or Sunday yet.

I'll probably update again Monday, the day before Fraser, and then again when we get back. Have to get up early Tuesday... have to be at TAFE at 6.15...

/wave

July 26th, 2009

2009-07-26T18:25:00.004+09:00

So, the pictures I promised. Not a lot, I guess, but there are a few. I'm in none of them, as I took all of them. With my mobile:P I guess I could grab some pictures some of my classmates took, and post them here as well, I didn't really take a lot of pictures from the flight downunder, but I know some people did. Not gonna be a long post today, pretty much just the links, and a thing or two:P

1st: the pictures:

My room 1 Pretty obvious, my room:P
My room 2
Urangan Pier 1 Pics of the Urangan Pier. As you can see, it's pretty darn long, and they're building it longer. Apparently it was used to bring stuff to and from the big ships bringing supplies, that couldn't get close to shore. The stuff was brought to and from the ship by train. Part of the pier was torn down years ago, so now they're rebuilding it.
Urangan Pier 2
Urangan Pier 3

Walk Home 1 The way we walk home every day. Have had better views, but I tend to either forget all about taking pics, or my mobile has run out of battery. We have around 1.5km from TAFE to Centro, where we get on a bus, and 1.5km from Boar Harbour to Wyuna Court 10. Quite a walk, but at least I'm getting some workout^^

Walk Home 2
Walk Home 3
Walk Home 4
TAFE 1 Pictures from TAFE. 1st picture: the W Block, Center For English Development or something. There are a few asian classes in W as well, but none of them are gonna stay as long as us. (the guy in the pic is a classmate)
TAFE 2 2nd: Classmates messing around. Throwing a football, tackling whoever catches it
TAFE 3 3rd: On the other side of the road. We usually eat over there, and the cantine is there as well. Pretty much everything in there has been fried... smells of grease.
PADI Stuff 1 So... apparently this is all you need to get a PADI liscence
PADI Stuff

Wyuna Court 10 This is where I live. Not the best pic. And yea, it is as small as it looks^^

Now, I realize the pictures are kinda small, but I decided to compress them, so it wouldn't take ages to upload them. You can all see the big pics later if ya want. Also, pictures aren't great, I know, but they're not of anything special anyway. Have more pics, but can't be bothered to upload them right now^^

/wave

Note: seems I forgot to compress one of the pictures... oh well

July 22nd, 2009

2009-07-22T21:00:00.005+09:00

Another update! Been a while since the last time it seems.

The last couple of days we've been looking for a guy called Michael, who's the gym manager. We needed to talk to him about paying for the gym. We were supposed to get a special price, 'cause we're international students, and will only be here for 5 months. Actually, it's been more than the last couple of days, it's been since we first heard of him, one of the first days. Mathis, Jesper and I actually had an appointment with him one day, but he didn't show up, so we had some other guy make our program. Nick, I think. Oh well, we met him today anyway. So the price for all 5 months will be $70, which is the price usual TAFE students pay for 3 months. Pretty cheap, think that's what it costs in Denmark, for 1 month or so...

Anyway, we've been talking to th PADI instructor as well, and quite a few people dropped out. Only 10 people left now, who're gonna get a PADI liscense. The instructor wanted to raise the price to $400, or so, but we made him keep it at $350. Most of the remaining would quit if the price was raised, and so would I.

Oh, and I mentioned a busy saturday, last time. It went pretty well. Swimming was easier this time, and I was actually able to swim<.<>

So, first training session today as well. Our program isn't that great, actually. Waaaay too focused on the arms, in my opinion. Not enough on chest/stomach/back. Legs are fine, quite a few exercises for those as well. Could do the entire program in a little more than an hour, so did an extra set of some of the exercises, and did some exercises that weren't on our program, and talked to some of the instructors. Nice guys. Marine Studies tomorrow, wonder how that will go, my arms are pretty tired at the moment. Oh well.

I believe I promised somebody to put up some pictures last weekend. I forgot. And... I don't really have any pictures on my computer to put up at the moment... will upload some this weekend though. Once I take some of the school, still haven't gotten around to that.

Anyway, guess I'll see ya next time then^^

Anything you wanna know, ask^^

/wave

Decided to add my timetable:P Just click on it for the full size. In case you can't see, the blue is Marine Studies. Mathis made this in Excel 2007, and apparently it messed up a little with dark background+dark text.

July 17th, 2009

2009-07-17T20:34:00.005+09:00

So, update time!

Had some trouble with the internet connection two days after the last update. Seems Dulcie turned off the router by accident<.<>

First week of school done. It's been interesting. Pretty easy to understand the teachers - as expected - probably much harder for the teachers to understand the Danish students - also as expected - even more as some of them keep speaking Danish in classes. The teachers seem pretty nice. I especially like our Physics teacher:P He came back from teaching at a university, just to teach us. The guy's crazy. Awesome, really. He makes jokes all the time, and he really seems to be into his stuff.

Our Maths' teacher, Haiyi Wu, is pretty cool as well. He's from China, which some of you could probably guess from the name, I've been told he's the best mathematician in Australia. We've only had him for two lessons, but he seems like a pretty good teacher. Gives us lots of notes, and example of how to solve the assignments he gives us. He asked us whether we wanted to be in a Math contest as well. All high level students on TAFE doesn't have a choice, and have to go, but we have a choice. Thinking about going. Even if I don't do so well on the test (:P) I'll get a diploma anyway. Might be a nice addition for applying to uni^^

So, Mathis and I started riding the bus from school everyday. We bought a ticket that allows us to ride any bus anywhere between Centro (a center arounr 1km from school) and Boat Harbour (a... boat harbour... around 1km from home, I think). Cost us $12AUD. Pretty cheap. A normal ticket is $2.40, but if just flash our student ID, we can get it for $1.80. A lot cheaper than back in Denmark... unfortunatly the last bus leaves at 18.09, and after that... we'll have to call a cab.

Today we also met some of the year 12 students from TAFE. They all seem pretty nice, I guess. Didn't talk to a lot of them. Some of the teachers had arranged some activities. Was pretty fun, but the guy I was paired with, Clinton, didn't talk much. Oh well.

Been to the gym as well. Thursday. Talked to some of the instructors, got an appointment at 16. Didn't have any clothes to work out it, so had to go to Centro to get some, Mathis needed some stuff as well. Then back to Tafe, get a tour on all of the machines, have our (was Mathis, Jesper and me, we were the first ones down there, the others couldn't get appointments) programs made, and just chill a bit. Then back to Centro, get the bus to Boat Harbour, and then walk all the way home... was pretty tired when I got home. Lots of walking, on top of working out and swimming(for the first time in at least 2½ year o.O)

Busy day tomorrow. Going swimming at Hervey Bay Aquatic Center at 11.00(Marine Studies made us all how terrible shape we're in, when it comes), BBQ at Lars' place (a friend of mine, in case I haven't mentioned him before, and it's his homestay family's place, I guess) at around 13. Then we're going to Centro to watch Harry Potter at 18 (we can get the tickets for $9 with our Danish student ID, $10 with our Australian:P)

See ya /wave

Note: Some pictures coming this weekend, if I remember it xD

July 13th, 2009

2009-07-13T17:26:00.003+09:00

Oh dear, another update.

So, first day of school today. Wasn't really school though, was mostly just information, rules and stuff.

Anyway, school started at 8, and we barely made it. Road work just infront of the school, slowed us down a bit. We weren't the last to show up though.

Had some time to just talk to the others, though. Allan Perry (our Chemistry teachers and apparently he's head of the program) was late, 'cause his car had starting problems. Was great meeting my other classmates again. Sucks being so far from everything<.<

Seems everybody else had had a great weekend^^ When Allan showed up, he started telling us about some rules at school, stuff about bullying and harassment. Nothing special really

Angie (a kind of tutor) gave us lots of papers to fill out again. Once we had filled those, a guy from a nearby... diving school (not sure) came in and told us about the PADI certificate, about the things we could experience, prices, what the lessons would be like and then he showed us a video. Prices: PADI certificate - $380, $350 if more than 8 people are gonna get it, Medical Certificate (or something) - $50-$60. Pretty cheap in my opinion. Will definitely get one, and I'm sure quite a few of my classmates will as well.

After the PADI guy... we had our morning tea, I think. Or maybe that was just before... don't remember, doesn't matter anyway. Lots of cake, fruit and biscuits. And tea/coffee/juice. Unfortunatly, we probably won't get that every day. It was nice though. Then we had a police liaison show up. She told us about some laws in Hervey Bay. Knew all of it from home anyway; not allowed to drink unless you're 18+, no drinking in public AT ALL, never go alone after dark (apparently some lads think they're pretty tough when the sun goes down), never leave belongings or drinks unattended. Told us some stuff about what to do if we were assaulted/robbed. Gave us a folder as well. Not much different from Denmark, or any other country I think. We HAVE to wear a helmet when we're on a bike though. Pretty damn annoying... guess I just have to get used to that as well.

Dulcie drove us to school today, and picked us up as well. We'll be riding the bus home tomorrow though. Was a little annoying that we had to go when Dulcie picked us up. Some of our classmates went to get new sim-cards for their mobiles and after that, to the beach. Mathis and I couldn't really go, as Dulcie came and picked us up. Will be easier just to take the bus then. $1.5 pr. ticket, less if you buy them in a bulk. We might ride the bus to school as well, but we haven't decided yet.

Not sure what's left to say about today:P except... we had t-bone steaks for dinner!

July 11th, 2009

2009-07-11T20:00:00.006+09:00

Another post it seems!

2nd day in Hervey Bay, 3rd day in Australia. There's a big clock in my room... the ticking is pretty loud - and it's 3 hours early... - so I had trouble falling asleep. I guess it's just something I have to get used to:P

Porrigde for breakfast, tasted pretty good actually, dunno whether Matthis liked it, but I did. Got up at around 8. Didn't sleep too well, mostly 'cause of the clock. I think I'll get used to it though. She asked if I wanted it down, but I said no:P

The bathroom is kinda strange. It's split. The toilet is in a room at the end of a hallway, and the sink, the tub and the shower is in a room in the in the middle of the hallway, kinda strange, and slightly annoying.

She's using tank water down here, so all the water we drink has to be filtered. wAt least we just have to pull a tab on the sink in the kitchen, and the water gets filtered. Still kinda strange though.

After breakfast Matthis and I decided to go outside and take a look around. The homestay families has to give us some bikes down here, unfortunatly they're not exactly in good shape. They're both pretty old. Mine doesn't have any gears, and it's got footbreaks or whatever they're called. Matthis got gears, but they're pretty rusty so they might not work anyway. Almost no air in the tires, so we're gonna have to go get a pump tomorrow. We tried today, but we didn't get very far before we gave up. Decided we'd rather walk. We don't really know the area too well yet, so walking was a little easier:P

Anyway, we went down to the beach, and followed the beach to the Turist Terminal, through that, and to the beach again. They have some pretty nice beaches here, at least the ones we were at. Lots of corals and shells 'n' stuff as well.

We went pretty far, actually, along the esplanade. Not all the way, of course, way too long for that, especially when we don't really know the area. We went to the Urangan pier. Was pretty long actually. They're rebuilding it at the moment. Apparently some of it was torn down, and now they're rebuilding it. Part of a larger renovation of some parts of the city, I've heard. Lots of people fishing out there as well.

We were home about 13.40 or something, and Dulcie wasn't home, so we sat down outside, and waited. About half an hour later she returned, and with a friend of hers. Gwen, I think. Old lady, older than Dulcie.

Then we had lunch (she called it dinner), and Dulcie took us for a tour around city. Went through Urangan, Tourquay, Point Vernon and Eli Waters. Maybe some more, but those were the signs I saw. So pretty much along the water all the way, and all the way along the Esplanade. She gave us some good hints about restaurants and shops and stuff. Told us to stay off the bike trail after dark as well. They don't want a repeat of what happened last year, even though that didn't happen on the bike trail.

Talked to Jesper today as well. Seems he's gotten into a pretty nice homestay. They've been all over town today, looking at stuff. Says he's taken 134 pictures or something today. He lives pretty close to a lot of our classmates (lucky bastard), we live... well pretty far from evertbody. Probably around a 10min drive, in car...

Actually looking forward to school. The students who went to Hervey Bay last year, said the first weekend would be tough, and it sure has been so far... we'll be getting our new mobile numbers and such this monday, so I can actually get in touch with my classmates, without both of us being on the computer.

This episode turned out to be pretty long as well... oh well:P Might upload some pictures soon, but the wireless has a maximum of 5 gigabyte usage so...

Tune in next time!

/wave

Note: About the pets. I can't tell the difference between the two cats... but they both jump into my lap and my bed. One of the dogs, Spot, seems pretty damn hyperactive. She's a pretty small dog, a couple of years old, and annoying as hell. Wants to be near a person all the time, licks your finger, hand and face all the time. Ignoring her doesn't help, you have to push it away.

The 2nd dog, Beans (I think, maybe Beanso), I forgot what the race is called, but it's a small white dog with a lot of hair. Nicer than Spot, still a little too much of an attention-seeker for my taste.

The last dog is Jessie (or Jessy or whatever). She's my favourite:P She's 12 years old, and very shy. Dulcie told us it'd probably take some to win her to our side, but it didn't take so long^^ she came up to me and put her front paw on my leg today:P Jessie's a... well I dunno what race she is, but I guess she looks a litte like a VERY short german shephard. Forgot what that race is called.

July 10th, 2009

2009-07-10T17:30:00.001+09:00

So... yea... my blog. Well, these next couple of months, I'll be in Australia and this is the main reason I'm making this blog. So, a little about the trip downunder.

Got up at... 5.45 this wednesday, and got ready to leave for Tirstrup Airport at 6.45. Of course I had to forget something, so we had to go back and fetch "Kongens Fald", a book I have to read for Danish classes. We made it to the airport in time anyway. Said my goodbyes, and checked in. Had to wait an hour or so till we could board the plane, at about 10.

That flight lasted about 35min. When we reached Copenhagen, we had to wait 4 hours in the airport... of course everything had to be expensive, and we didn't really have anything to do.

At 14.45 or so, we boarded the plane to Bangkok. A Boeing 747 or something. That was the longest flight of my life... I was seated next to Jesper (a friend of mine). There were three seats in the row, but nobody sat in the middle, so we just used that seat as a storage. We sat right next to the "kitchen", and the smell was kinda bad... fortunatly we had a screen pretty close to us (weren't a lot of those in the plane), so we watched whetever they showed. The only good movie they showed was Monsters vs. Aliens.

The flight was about 9 hours and 45 mins. Tried to sleep on the way, but it was kinda hard. Not sure when we reached Bangkok, but we boarded the plane to Sydney at about 7.25 local time (about 2.30 GMT+1)

The flight to Sydney was much better. Not sure if it was another Boeing 747, or another plane, but we each had our own screen this time! Was actually a touch-screen, but the touch thing... didn't really work, so we used the remote instead. They had some pretty good movies we could watch, and there were games (single- and multiplayer), so most of us spent the time with those (I won in multiplayer Tetris! And I got the highscore in singleplayer:P).

Didn't plan on sleeping on that flight - to avoid jetlag, I'd rather sleep when we reached the hotel in Sydney - but I did anyway. We reached Sydney at... around 22, I think, got through security without trouble. Was raining in Sydney when we arrived, but it stopped pretty quickly. When we got to the hotel, it was straight to bed, everybody was pretty tired.

Got our wake-up call, at 6.50, ate breakfast, and then off to the airport, for our flight 9.55 to Hervey Bay. Took a couple of hours.

When we reached Hervey bay, David aka Doc gave us a small tour around some of the places in Hervey Bay, and drove us to the college we'll be attending. We got some lunch (sandwiches), and then we were taken for a tour around the college, and we got some information, and at around 15(local time), our homestay families came to pick us up.

The next 5 months I'll be living with Dulcie. Matthis (classmate) will be living at the same place as me. Not sure how old she is, I haven't asked. She's got 3 dogs and two cats, and one of the cats are lieing in my bed as I'm typing this:P

Matthis and I have each got our seperate rooms, Matthis gave me the biggest one, so I have a TV and a double sized bed or whatever it's called in English. The house is decent, I guess, but a little messy. Dulcie's got the biggest Samsung plasma TV I've seen by the way o.O

So, the first impressions were good, I guess. The weather's nice, it was very windy today though - Doc says it usually never gets this windy, even in winter - and around 20C.

I guess that was it for today, I'll probably be updating the blog once or twice a week, the first week I might update it more often, and some weeks I might not update it an all, have some holidays where we'll be going elsewhere, and I can't stay at the computer all the time^^

You shouldn't expect every update to be this long either, this will prolly be the only one of this length, 'cause it's the first.

I apologize on any spelling/grammar mistakes, but I can't be bothered to fix them right now.

See ya /wave

Note: The blog shout be readable and comment-able by everyone, but I would prefer if people signed in or created an account, so I can actually see who made what comment. I'll most likely be messing with the layout of the blog the next couple of days as well, so it doesn't look so generic. I might make a Danish version of the blog as well, for my family in Denmark^^

Aaaand... sorry 'bout the length of the first post<.<