stephanie cogno wants her name in here somewhere

well it has been a few days since i have updated this. on friday a few friends (amalie and mikayla) came over and emily and i along with them went to the ocean again. it wasn't as nice of a day because the sun wasn't really shining very much, but it was still a lot of fun. saturday was the school fair. there were lots of rides and food stands and tents with things for sale... for anyone from wolfeboro it was exactly like the huggins hospital fair. we stayed for a little while and i tried pavlova for the first time. pavlova is a popular dessert here that is basically just a meringue pie/cake type thing named after a ballet dancer. it was really, really good...



then emily, amalie, and i went to the mall straight from there. it is a quick train ride away. amalie had to leave for work but emily and i shopped for a long time. i bought a leather jacket, suede ankle boots, a dress, a rugby (for an actual rugby team, the australia wallabies), and some surprise gifts for friends. it was nice to finally spend some money because i have been saving for so long! things here seem to be quite a bit more expensive, though. clothes especially. most of the casual dresses i saw were at least $60 AUD, which is about $55 US. some were over $100 AUD. the rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing. school this week has been normal. yesterday during food tech i made chocolate and coffee custard and i got to try it today. i am turning into a decent cook!!! it was really good. that is definitely my favorite class. i also did pretty well on my biology test that i got back today which is good because i hadn't learned half of what was on it... tomorrow we have a half day of school because our three week break starts! we call it a holiday here. right after school tomorrow we are leaving for the grampians, a mountain range/national park in victoria, australia. first we are spending a night at emily's dad's family's farm. i am so excited because i will finally get to see kangaroos and koalas. here is a picture i stole from google of the grampians (i plan on taking lots of my own pictures):


hopefully i will have internet during the trip, but if not, i will be back on tuesday. after we get back, we have a week of break spent here, then we go to queensland for a week... i am SO excited for queensland. tropical climate, great barrier reef... i can't wait!

last night emily's grandparents came over to meet me/visit with the family. they were so nice! it was great to meet them. we had hot cross buns, which i had never had before and are excellent, and tea. as it turns out, the verralls now love harney tea. they really like paris, which is my favorite flavor too!

i will keep updating if i have internet in victoria, if not, i will update on tuesday!


P.S. i would just like to say that everyone here has much better taste in music than the USA. top 40 is not all crappy rap and hip hop, it's a lot of indie rock and brand new bands. i've recently become obsessed with angus & julia stone, mumford & sons, and the temper trap. angus & julia stone and the temper trap are both aussie bands. oh and their version of MTV, just called V--get this-- ACTUALLY plays music videos. who would have thought...

"what does laxer mean?"

today during psychology i had an interesting conversation with two girls sitting next to me. we were talking about america and they confessed that they expected me to be different. they thought all americans think that the united states is the best country in the world and don't know anything about other countries. that's embarrassing. also embarrassing is the fact that australians watch a lot of american television, and by that i mean jersey shore and other nonsense. great. i had to explain to emily what a guido is.

then during english we were talking about colloquialisms and i was asked to make a list of american colloquialisms. here's a sampling of what i have so far...

legit, bro, laxer, tool, daps, y'all, chola, gangsta, street cred, dude, bangs, homey, hipster, pop, owned...

i hadn't realized how different the language is here compared to america. dinner is tea, facecloths are flannels, candy is lollies, mosquitoes are mozzies, bangs are fringe, flip flops are thongs, etc. language here is also different in that swear words are not taken as seriously.
another thing i find funny is that the boys all wear extremely short shorts and spend hours on their hair...

anyway, when we got back from school, emily and i went to the beach which is a really quick walk from the house. it is beautiful out, about 90 degrees. we tanned and walked all along the shore under the jetty and talked about life. the water was incredibly warm.



it's pretty much the most amazing place ever.

"do you have coke in america?"

i just got home from my third day of school. so far it's going really well! biology is good because we are learning right now where i left off in my anatomy class at hotchkiss (except my teacher is a psycho). food tech and hospitality is awesome. westminster has a few classrooms that are kind of like science labs but are actually fully equipped kitchens. we made raspberry iced mousse yesterday and then learned how to plate them (for a 5 star restaurant, it has to look trendy) and ate them today. sooo good. my psychology class is good so far and some of it is kind of tying into what i learned in neuro this year. accounting is probably my favorite class so far. i really like the teacher and i picked up on it pretty quickly. math is okay, i borrowed emily's book and taught myself what everyone's been learning and i am even taking a test tomorrow (although the teacher is allowing me to use the textbook). english looks like it might be a small issue only because there is a big essay due coming up (not sure if i am expected to write it or not at this point) and the essays here are quite different from what i am used to regarding format and expectations. so that will be interesting. i have some really nice people in all of my classes too.
the campus is really nice. everything is outside and really open and there are a lot of breezeways. we eat lunch everyday under a big pagoda. i have a pb&j everyday which is apparently "sooo american." a funny thing is during recess (snack) and lunch everyone has to wear hats. they are funny little bucket hats and you arent not allowed to be outside without them, to protect from the sun i guess.
right now since it is warm everyone wears the summer uniform. for girls it is a collared dress that goes down a little past the knees, socks, and black lace up shoes. hideous. we also have to wear our hair up every day. once we get back from break (which starts in a week and a half) it is the winter uniform, which is a looong kilt, knee socks, black lace up shoes, a collared shirt, sweater, tie, and blazer. the homework here is not so bad either and i really haven't had that much. kids here aren't as competitive with classes and grades and the emphasis is more on what you want to do when you graduate (although many don't graduate, which here is completely normal) and a lot of kids don't go to college if they don't want a career that depends on college educations. it's more practical.

drop bears will kill you

yesterday was so nice. i woke up and read/tanned by the pool, then drove to the airport to get my luggage. its nice to have my things again. we also took a quick look around sportsgirl on the way back, which is a really popular store for clothes. it kind of reminded me of H&M. thank god i saved up money. we stopped at a bakery and got some things for lunch and i tried a finger bun... it was really good but the only way i can think to describe it is bread with frosting on it. i also tried vegemite yesterday which is one of the grossest things i've ever put in my mouth. it was kind of soy-ish but eew. emily's cousin georgia came over for a bit and we walked down to the beach. the ocean was so warm but they said it was really cold. ha. georgia left then another georgia came over so we could take the train into downtown adelaide for the northern lights, which is this thing they do every year where they project images onto buildings in the city. it looks real! like this:



we also got some gelato... it was sooo good. the city was amazing. it's really trendy. we are going to go back later so we can go shopping. when we got home i crashed but i can't believe that i am not more jet lagged than i actually am!!

i survived the flight!

ok so basically this is the coolest place ever and i am going to live here. there are PALM TREES and we are ON THE OCEAN and everyone at westminster's SOOO NICE.

the flight was really not too bad at all. i had an empty seat next to me from boston to los angeles and we passed over the rockies as the sun was setting. it was like flying over cotton candy. flight to sydney was looong but i must have slept most of it because it didn't seem as long as i expected. i sat next to this wonderful couple from long island who were going to visit their daughter who lives outside of sydney. they were going to meet one of their grandchildren for the first time. the cool part however was that the sun was rising right as we were going into sydney... i can't even describe how pretty it was... orange and red and green and blue. sydney airport was kind of a nightmare because i was confused and lost and didn't understand anybody. hahaha. customs was kind of a joke but still confusing. then i found out that while i had originally thought that my checked bags were checked all the way through to adelaide, they were not in fact checked through to adelaide. i was supposed to pick them up in sydney. WHOOPS. however we think that they never even made it to sydney because we are still waiting for them, in which case i would have stood around the airport and probably missed my connection to adelaide. i was picked up in adelaide by emily's mom and mr. stewart. i went back to the verrall home to freshen up then we went to westminster for sports day and got my uniform. i will post pictures of it. everything's so matchy, everyone even has to have the same backpack. i met everyone who emily had been telling me about for so long. i can't believe how nice everyone is!!! it is so different from hotchkiss. there is amazing school spirit. i got hugs all around (australians are apparently quite touchy feely). also it turns out that american skittles taste completely different from australian skittles. people have been trying to get me to believe that koalas are evil and fall out of trees onto your heads and kill you.

it's so weird, i have been here for 6 hours, and i already feel like i've lived here a long time, like i completely belong. emily's brothers are hilarious and everyone gets along so well. this is amazing.


PS timtams are food from the heavens.... how did i live before i tasted them?

PPS i am only slightly sunburned.

one hour til i leave for the airport

i'm so excited! i'm completely packed and ready to go. i will update when i'm there.
in the meantime, please enjoy this video.

three days

my sister has informed me that i am conceited for having a blog... anyway...

three days until i leave. i can't believe it! it's actually five days until i arrive though... i depart from logan airport in boston at 5pm (we are hoping to maybe throw in a college visit to tufts in the morning if we leave early enough) and arrive in los angeles at 8:30pm. it's actually a 6 and a half hour flight. from there, after a two hour layover, its a 14 and a half hour flight to sydney, hour and a half layover, then two hours to adelaide. i arrive in adelaide on friday at 10am. total duration 26 hours and 30 minutes. i'm sure it will be well worth it though... i am staying until june 18! it's going to be pretty exhausting but i am throwing myself into things pretty fast: i will be hanging around westminster (my exchange school) during the day at their "sports day" and going to a birthday party that night. i don't waste time. i hope i don't collapse though.


i started packing today and i'm almost done. somehow (after probably six hours of unpacking and repacking) i managed to fit everything into a huge rolling suitcase (47.3 lbs... 50 lbs is the max), a carry on duffel, and my backpack. i know that i will forget something crucial but i've been saving up since the summer and i plan on buying LOTS of stuff while i am over there. in attempts to save room i packed only travel sizes of shampoo, conditioner, contact solution, lotion, etc and i will just buy those when i arrive.


P.S. so i counted and i have a list of 33 people to send postcards to. great.


UPDATE: the one checked bag thing is so not happening. two checked bags, a carry on bag, and my backpack.

ten days

this is getting more and more unreal. i can't believe that i have been waiting for this for over a year and it is almost time to go. i've been busy filling out tons of forms and picking classes... i've decided on these: regular english and math, biology, creative photography, outdoor & environmental education, and psychology. emily is taking some of the same classes so hopefully we will be in one together. i am especially excited about the outdoor education. it apparently involves being outdoors and exploring and hiking a lot. that will be perfect as i want to see as much of the outdoors as i can! i will, however, have to watch out for some of the wildlife... snakes, spiders, etc. i'm not so worried about that, though. i think apparently now i am a year 11, so i guess i am still a junior. i was excited to be a senior before everyone else but i'm not too upset. i will be a lot older than everyone in my classes which will be funny.

thirteen days

last day of upper mid year at hotchkiss was today and i am officially on spring break! i can't believe it is less than two weeks until i leave. it was pretty hard to say goodbye to some people because six months is a long time, but everything didn't really hit me until i was packing up my dorm room. i'm pretty disappointed also because i didn't get to say goodbye to a few people who i really wanted to.
i promised probably at least 30 people postcards so that will be interesting to see if i remember. i realize now that postage costs a lot more to send overseas but hopefully it won't be too expensive...
i ate lunch with mr. thompson and the other departing round square students the other day and we discussed our upcoming exchanges. i was struck by a few things that mr. thompson mentioned and one of my main goals now is to truly make the most out of my experience. i will only be there for three months. it sounds like a long time, but it's really not, and when will i ever have this opportunity again? i've started signing up for classes at westminster and going along with my new goal i have picked some interesting ones. westminster offers some really sweet classes like fashion & textiles, law, pyschology, food & hospitality, accounting, outdoor education... the list goes on and on. i'm having trouble deciding which ones to take but i've been in touch with the exchange coordinator, mr. stewart. i think i have been bumped down to a year 11 now but that could change again. i think i will be fine with either one... i am just happy to be going! i will also keep everyone updated on how tan i am getting. everyone will be jealous and i will be proving everyone who thinks i do not tan wrong.