From Australia_Report on St. Andrew’s CC_June 2nd_2016

Updated Report on June 1st from St. Andrew’s Catholic College, Australia

The following is the updated report on St. Andrew’s Catholic College, Cairns, Australia by Emily Ishii, a 11^th year student of Otsuma Nakano High School, who is enrolling at this college as a term 2 current exchange student.

Hello! This is Emily Ishii and I'm an exchange student at St. Andrew’s Catholic College.  These weeks have been going past so quick, it's incredible! As for the weather, it was starting to get cooler a few days ago, but now it has become hot again.

On the weekend, it was my host sister’s birthday and so she had a birthday party with her friends at Crystal Cascades, which is the creek that I went to a few weeks ago. The water was nice and cold that day and it felt really good. We went on the natural water slide, which is basically a waterfall on a slope, where we played in the water and jumped into the water from some rocks. We also had some snacks and a cake and I had an awesome time! I would say that this is one of my favourite places in Cairns.

On another weekend, my host family took me to a Ski Park. Unfortunately, since it was raining a little, we couldn't do the water ski, but there was a large course of floating slides and a trampoline and many more of those equipment, so we played on them instead. (It may not seem like much on the picture, but it is actually quite big in reality). To slide down a slide we have to climb up a lot, so my arm muscles really hurt on the next day, but it was all worth it!

Since my host family is thinking of moving, I sometimes go and look at houses with them. I enjoy looking at houses especially since the ones here are so different from the ones where I live. What I love about the houses here is that quite a couple of houses here have their own pool and a lot of the houses seem very spacious. I have also noticed that in a lot of areas, the houses only have one floor.

On Friday year 11^th students had an exam in the morning, so Marin, the other exchange student, and I went to the middle school Japanese classes to help out. We did a presentation on our life in Japan in English. At first I was afraid that everyone would be bored and not listen much but to my surprise, most of them listened quite well and seemed interested. Watching their reactions was pretty interesting and they got excited when we introduced Round1 to them.

Now the longer I'm being here, the more fun my life here has become than it ever was. I love being able to walk to the beach especially since the one near my host family’s house is so beautiful.  Thanks to my wonderful host family, I'm also really comfortable and I have fun at home as well as at school.

Kind regards,

Emily Ishii

もう７週間も経ってしまいました。最近は一週間が早すぎて驚いています。こちらの天気の方は、だんだん涼しくなっていたのですが、また暑くなってしまいました。

この前の週末は、ホストシスターの誕生日だったので、友達を呼んで誕生日パーティーをしました。パーティーは前に行った Crystal Cascades というクリークでやりました。その日は水が冷たくてとても気持ちよかったです。そこでは、自然によってできたウォータスライドに乗ったり、岩から飛び込んだり、水の中で遊んだりしました。お菓子やケーキも食べたりしてとても楽しい時間を過ごすことができました。 Crystal Cascades はケアンズのなかで最も好きな場所の1つです。

別の週末にはホストファミリーにスキーパークに連れて行ってもらいました。残念ながら少し雨が降っていたのでウォータースキーをすることはできませんでしたが、池の上に大きな滑り台やトランポリンなどの遊具が浮いていたのでそこで遊びました。滑り台を滑るのに登らなければいけなくて、それが案外大変だったので次の日皆筋肉痛になりましたが、とても楽しかったです。

私のホストファミリーは引っ越すことを考えているので、私もときどき家を一緒に見に行ったりしています。こっちの家は私が普段見るような家とは変わっているので見ていてとても面白いです。多くの家は広々としていて、プールが付いているのでとても羨ましいです。１つ気がついたことは、地域によって何階建てにしていいか決まっていて、１階建ての家が多いです。

金曜日の午前に11年生はテストがあったため、私ともう一人の交換留学生の中村さんは中学の日本語の授業の手伝いをしました。そこで私たちは日本での生活についての発表を英語でやりました。初めはすぐ飽きてしまって聞いてくれないかと不安でしたが、思いの外ちゃんと聞いていてくれて、しかもすごく興味を持ってくれる子が沢山いたので、発表していて楽しかったです。とくに、ROUND1やディズニーランドを紹介したときは盛り上がりました。

ここにいる時間が長ければ長いほどどんどん楽しくなってきています。また、毎日海に行く事ができるのが幸せです。素晴らしいホストファミリーのお陰でとても心地良いし、学校ではもちろん家でも楽しい時間を過ごすことができています。