From Australia_Term 2 Another Report_St. Andrew’s CC_May 3rd_2016

Otsuma Nakano has been extremely proud to have an outstanding relationship with St. Andrew’s Catholic College, Redlynch, Australia.  The exchange student for Term 2, 2016, Emily Ishii is now having a fantastic experience at St. Andrew’s.  Emily is now much impressed to study there and living in Cairns.  Here comes her updated report. I hope you will enjoy it.

Hello there!

It's hard to believe that it has already been whole three weeks here!  I am having so much fun and I am always astonished by each place I go.

On my 2nd weekend, my host family took me to Goomboora, which is basically like a natural park. When we went there, I was able to climb humongous trees and felt relaxed on top of it with a great view. There was also a creek, but since we weren't ready for swimming we just walked through it.  Before coming here, I never knew what a creek was, but apparently it's something like a stream and many people here like to play in it. Around the water were very beautiful coloured natural greenery, and also a playground, which we also played in afterwards.

The 3rd weekend was a long weekend because Monday was Anzac day and so it was a public holiday. Since not everyone went to celebrate Anzac day on Monday, we had an assembly with the whole school on Friday to celebrate.

On Saturday, we went to another creek called Crystal Cascades, which looked even larger than the one we went to on the week before. It was basically a repeat of there being a flat area where you can swim, which becomes a place where the water falls. It was amazing how for some of the places it was just a normal water fall, but for the others there was a little path naturally made by the water pressure, so that the water can go through. We slid down those water paths, and it was like a water slide made by nature, which I thought was the coolest thing ever!  The fact except for the roads and stairs leading to the creek, everything is just made naturally made me realise how amazing the power of nature is.

On Sunday, I went to see a great big water fall called Barron Falls and then went to a market afterwards. Also, my friends from school took me for dinner and we went to the night markets as well and I had so much fun!

I have a great time in school as well! I'm getting used to my life in school and also, we had an excursion for our religion class. We went to a Buddhist temple where we heard stories and learned about their ways from a Buddhist person which was pretty cool. I have also learnt some Australian abbreviations which are very interesting for me. For example, many people here say "Mackers" instead of "McDonald's".

I am definitely learning many things that you cannot learn at a desk in school and things that can only be learnt through experience. I am very glad I came and hope to make the best out of this trip.

All the best,

Emily Ishii,

ケアンズに来て早々と３週間も経ってしまいました。どこへ行っても圧倒されるものがあってとても楽しいです！

 ２週目の週末にはケアンズセントラルに行ったり、 Goombooraという公園のようなところへホストファミリーに連れていってもらいました。Goombooraでは大変大きくて立派な木を登ったりできて、良い景色も見ることができました。木の他にもそこにはクリークに入ったり遊具で遊んだりしました。ここに来るまでクリークは何かよく分からなかったのですが、クリークは川のようなものでした。その日は泳ぐ準備をしてなかったのでその中を歩きました。回りの緑もとても綺麗だったので、癒されました。

３週目の週末にはCrystal Cascadesっていうまたさらに大きなクリークに連れていってもらいました。そこはほぼずっと、平らな泳げるところがあって、それから水が落ちてまた平らなところの繰り返しでした。私がそこで一番感心したのは水が落ちるところです。滝のようにそのまま落ちるところもあれば、自然と水の水圧によって道が作られているところもあったことです。その作られた道で滑ったりできて、自然によって作られたウォータースライドのような感じになっていて、面白かったです。その同じ週末に、Barron Fallsというとても迫力のある滝を見に行って、そのあとにマーケットにも行きました。また、夜ご飯は学校の友達と食べに行きました。ナイトマーケットにも行って良いお土産が沢山あって、アジアのお店もいっぱいありました。

 学校では、宗教の授業で遠足に行きました。仏教の勉強として、仏教のお寺のようなところに行ってお話を聞いたり、お祈りなどのやり方を実際に見せてもらったりしました。また、オーストラリアでよく使われる略語なども知ることができて面白いです。例えば、ここでは"マクドナルド"のことを"マッカーズ"ってほとんどの人が呼んだりしています。

 今回の留学では、学校の机では学ぶことのできない多くのことを学ぶことができています。このまま充実した時間を過ごしたいと思います。