Hip hip hurray for the holidays!
(I'm writing this after the holidays and I need those two weeks again.)
The first Monday of the holidays was my guest brother Max's birthday, so to celebrate we went climbing in the morning and then to the Hijinx hotel and the arcade in the evening. The climbing was fun, even though my hands hurt afterwards - since I don't have gym at school here, I exercise even less than in the Czech Republic, if that's even possible.
Happy 17th Birthday Lenka!!!
For some reason, I don't have a fear of heights in my self-concept, but whenever I'm somewhere high and look down, I start to shake; on the other hand, when it's a place where I have to jump (like when climbing), it takes me a minute or two, but I find the courage to jump, so maybe it's not so much a fear of heights as healthy self-preservation.
Hijinx Hotel has a pretty interesting concept. When they explained it to me, they described it as an "escape game", but we didn't solve nearly enough problems for that; we weren't even in the same room. It was a series of "hotel" rooms and in each there was an activity/game, we did it for a few minutes, got a score for it and moved on.After the Hijinx Hotel, we spent some time at the arcade; in the end, I didn't manage to spend all the money on the game card and had to give it to the others while I finished my own game, because the arcade has been exclusively reserved for people 18+ since a certain time? I don't understand and don't understand.
Since most of the games were either shooters, go-karts, or ball-throwing games, none of which I'm good at or enjoy, I was limited to rhythm/dance games, which I'm not good at either, but at least they're fun. Some of those games were taken the whole time, and when I wanted to play a Piano Keys game that no one was playing, it kicked me out after 3 games, saying I had "too many consecutive plays". When one dance game finally became available - Dance Dance Revolution, which I'd heard a lot about in international media but had never played - I accidentally took 3 games, or 9 songs, due to the extremely imprecise instructions on the game.
The first 6 songs went well, but during the third round I was joined by a very cool lady who, if I understood what the screen was telling her, plays DDR at an international level, and, as previously mentioned, I'm terrible at the game (in my defense, this was my first time playing DDR specifically), so she's next to me full-combing on difficulty 50 extremes while I'm next to her on difficulty 3 baby and still (sorry, but this is the only expression that describes it correctly) shit. After we finished she asked me (not unkindly) if it was my first time playing the game. So there you go.
After I had a little fun, I played a drum rhythm game, which I also didn't like at all and was so intense that I literally sweated during it, but it was really fun. In the end, I couldn't play it any further because of the aforementioned 18+ time.
On Thursday we went to see a professional basketball game. Since it was literally the first basketball game I had ever seen, I had no idea what was going on, but the good, enthusiastic atmosphere was contagious.Friday was a public holiday because it was football. I was already on holiday so it didn't affect me at all, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
On Saturday we went to the pub to watch the football grand final. Here in Australia they have a tradition that from the first kick to the first goal there are free drinks, which normally takes about a minute, but this particular football match lasted a full ten. Another interesting fact is that this match only lasted about five minutes before first blood was drawn. A very safe sport! 1!! (<- intentional satire by the way. On my keyboard the 1 and the exclamation point are too far apart.)
On Sunday a gym opened nearby so the host family stopped by to check it out and then we went to the Melbourne show. I had heard very mixed things about the Melbourne show, anywhere from “it’s stupid and a waste of money” to “it’s very important that you check it out. Vital Melbourne experience”. Having been there I can say it’s both.
I saw a blacksmithing demonstration and stroked the goats. Then we went on various rollercoasters and similar attractions. Overall it was fun but I honestly don’t have much more to say about it.
I was sick the second week of the holidays, which was extra bad because my 17th birthday was on October 2nd. I didn't really have a
party, partly because of the aforementioned illness and partly because I'm just not used to them?
party, partly because of the aforementioned illness and partly because I'm just not used to them?I feel like I haven't had a birthday party since I was about twelve. But I did have ice cream cake (which is apparently typical of Australia/at least for my host family; I have to say that a proper chocolate cake is better, but since everyone in this family has their birthdays crammed into about 3 months, I'm not surprised they don't want to bake that often).
I got a camera as a gift; or rather, I ordered it from an Australian retailer myself and then my parents sent me the money because the website wouldn’t let them visit it (???). I thought it would arrive late for my birthday because it was predicted on the ‘shipping’ page, but the host’s mom Carla found out about it from her mom, called them, and in some mysterious (probably magical) way, she made sure it arrived on time. So I was somehow surprised by my birthday present, even though I ordered it myself.
Then that evening we went to the store to buy an SD card and a case for the camera, because they weren’t included in the package, and went to teppanyaki. For those who don’t know (and I didn’t know either), teppanyaki is a fried Asian cuisine where the food is prepared right in front of you by a real chef. There was a bit too much food and at the end they threw an egg omelette at me (supposedly normal), but it tasted great.
On the last day of the holidays, I went with my host parents to a French Impressionist exhibition because I got tickets from the Rotary Club and other exchange students who were supposed to go with me couldn't make it (one of them because she was in Sydney.
I know I shouldn't compare my exchange to others' exchanges, but I'm really the only one from our district who hasn't been to Sydney yet. (<- whine. sigh.)). The Impressionists were great.
In short, the whole holiday went by much faster than I wanted or planned, so this is also a universal phenomenon. Otherwise, that's all from me. Bye for now!
On Saturday w
e went to St Kilda for dinner – it’s a part of Melbourne with a typical beach (no, we didn’t swim; it’s still too cold), local tourism and lots of bars, and we went there to walk around and have fish and chips, which were surprisingly delicious. I also brought my new fancy camera, so I have some nice photos.
e went to St Kilda for dinner – it’s a part of Melbourne with a typical beach (no, we didn’t swim; it’s still too cold), local tourism and lots of bars, and we went there to walk around and have fish and chips, which were surprisingly delicious. I also brought my new fancy camera, so I have some nice photos. As we finished eating, it started to drizzle, so I can honestly say that every time I've been to the beach in Australia, it's rained.
I also have some photos from a park near where I live {JJ Holland Park} here's another lesson on Australian birds combined with a show-off of some of the better photos.
Noisy miner! Literal translation loud miner.
It is, unsurprisingly, loud. There are also extremely many of them in the park, so I have a lot of photos; I am quite proud of these ones.
On a very different topic, people here keep warning me about how aggressive the magpies are here, that they are dangerous and that I should stay away from them to be safe, because they make raids, but all the magpies I have encountered have been at least civil if not friendly, while noisy miners have tried to raid me several times. I understand that they are just trying to protect their territory, but realistically, if they decide that the sidewalk in the park is part of their territory, then that is their problem.
It is, unsurprisingly, loud. There are also extremely many of them in the park, so I have a lot of photos; I am quite proud of these ones.
On a very different topic, people here keep warning me about how aggressive the magpies are here, that they are dangerous and that I should stay away from them to be safe, because they make raids, but all the magpies I have encountered have been at least civil if not friendly, while noisy miners have tried to raid me several times. I understand that they are just trying to protect their territory, but realistically, if they decide that the sidewalk in the park is part of their territory, then that is their problem.
Speaking of magpies, Look how polite they are. Could this creature be cruel? Absolutely not. Seeing locals on bikes with spiked helmets to deter air raids is definitely a coincidence.
We went to Phillip Island on Sunday, which was a surprise to me. My host parents say they talked about it on Friday night, and I honestly believe them, but I just didn’t notice, so I planned to finish up the things I had missed on Saturday on Sunday, and instead we set off not long after I woke up, returning at eleven at night. (Which was even more fun, of course, because I was already missing school for the reasons mentioned above.)
It’s about a 3-hour drive to Phillip Island. It’s, unsurprisingly, an island, but there’s a bridge to it, so there was no boat trip. In the afternoon we played mini golf on Phillip Island (of course I didn't like it.
When did I like any physical activity?), walked through a kind of "museum of illusions", and then went to a lookout (we saw a wild echidna there; apparently "ježura" in Czech - The penguins were beautiful.