DARK-MONTH 2 : THE ROUTINE

I have already spent a month in Sidney and sometimes I can’t remember how it was my life like before. When my mum phoned me last time, she told me I had a strange accent. I speak English all the day, it’s obvious that I could have difficulty in speaking Russian in a span of a few moments! Before coming here I thought I was good at English but now I am in a new world. I understand that I have still a lot to learn, but I’m sure I’ll do it . My life is very different now. I get up at half past seven, while in Russia I got up an hour earlier because the school was very far from my house. Instead here I comfortably have breakfast with my host family and after that I catch the school bus…a yellow school bus that looks like the ones in the TV series! Also school is different. Here there are more laboratories and subjects like cookery, carpentry, communication, also the canteen is not like the one I was accustomed to . Here there are more dishes and people that can’t eat certain foods because of their religion always find something to eat very easily. I have eaten more meat since I have been here. I didn’t use to like it very much, but in Australia they cook a lot of grilled meat. I’ve even tried crocodile and emu meat, even if my favourite Australian dish is the “Pavlova”, an appetizing dessert with meringues, whipped cream and fresh fruit. On the same yellow school bus I met Jennifer and my host brothers and we got back home together. In Russia I was always alone at home.

Here we have dinner at seven p.m. and we are always together: we speak about what we have done during the day, the strange things happened to us. On Friday night we usually eat at a pizzeria and we play bowling. Unfortunately I won’t be able to play bowling for some time. Last Wednesday I wanted to replace the bulb of the light in my bedroom, so I got on a chair, when a terrible bee came into my bedroom. I saw it and I started screaming .The chair wobbled and I fell off! Jennifer immediately came to see what was had happened…she was really scared, but she saw I was ok, except for my wrist. She brought me to the hospital where they told me my wrist was broken and they plastered it. I will have to keep the cast for three weeks, luckily I can write with both hands, so it’s not a very big problem! The real annoyance is Mark! He doesn’t give up with teasing me about breaking my wrist because I was afraid of a bee, that wasn’t a real bee but was only a wasp!

ASTOU SECK

KIMBERLEY - Month 1: routine

                                                                       July 18^th , 10.30 p.m.

Dear Diary,

Have you seen today's  date? One month ago I arrived here in Melbourne, and  I  met my host family. Now I feel like if I have been living  here  forever; I miss my parents and my English friends, of course, but the people that I've met here are really nice, so I don’t feel lonely.

After an entire month I have got used to the Australian routine. Every day I get  up at half past seven, I have breakfast with tea and bread with vegemite. I like breakfasts here more than in Britain, because  my parents leave earlier so I used to eat all alone in the kitchen. On the contrary here I have breakfast with Eliza, Holly and Brendon.  We share our dreams: it’s funny! 

Then Eliza drives us to school. After classes I have lunch at the school canteen with my classmates.

 In the afternoon I play lacrosse twice a week with the school team, as I used to do in England. 

I usually do my homework with Nerissa or with my Australian brothers, so we can help each other. Then sometimes I go shopping with some friends, or I go out with Holly. For example last week we went to see Brendon’s football match.

In the evening  we often go to the cinema, or we watch TV together: Eliza love films, like me. Sometimes in the evening Brendon and I play the piano together; he’s really good at it and I've realized that playing with someone is much more amazing than playing on my own.

Now I’m starting to feel more like a native Australian, I even like the bug, a really tasty little crab that at the beginning I didn’t like very much.

Yesterday my host family and I  went  surfing. I was excited and a bit scared, too, because it was the first time I had tried surfing and because of the  cold, but Eliza reassured me about it. There I rented a diving suit and a surf board. Actually the water wasn’t too cold and the waves were perfect for a beginner like me.  Adam and the brothers helped me and taught me a lot of things. It was amazing, but also difficult. When I was coming back to the car carrying my  surf board, I slipped on a banana skin and, like in the cartoons, I fell flat on my face. Two fingers of my left hand got hurt; it was a minor injury, but I had to go to the hospital. I was a bit scared, but fortunately it was not too serious. Adam took me to the hospital and a doctor put a surgical dressing onto my fingers. Even if it still hurts pretty bad, it’s hard to be upset because every time I think of how it happened , I start  laughing. Despite that, I am happy I have tried surfing. I hope I will surf again when I get well.

Elena Berizzi

IN BETWEEN-WEEK 6

Dear Diary,

This is my sixth week in Australia and even if today it’s Monday I am at home. This weekend it was the Australia Day and so I had a longer weekend from Friday to Monday and I didn’t go to school. Unfortunately I had a lot of homework to do, although it was the national holiday my teachers didn’t mind about it!

On Saturday my Australian family and I went to Keira’s house where her parents had organised a barbecue with the neighbours. At the party there also some of my schoolmates Neah, Kate and Nerissa. I knew that Nerissa was going to be there, but I was surprised that she came with her brother Ben. He was so cute with his new sunglasses! Ben and I talked a lot and finally he proposed we go surfing together.

This barbecue made me think about Bank Holiday in England. Just two months ago I had a wonderful barbecue in my garden with my parents and all my friends. I thought about this for the whole Sunday and in the end I started to feel homesick. In the evening my mother called me up and I cried on the phone, but she tried to cheer me up. After the phone call I turned on my computer and I saw Amy’s e-mail in which there was a video with her and all my friends from England.

Since last week Eliza has been saying she wants to buy a cat. This morning Eliza, Holly and I went to the pet shop to choose a kitten. Holly fell in love with a red cat and we bought it. They asked me to choose its name…I saw its red hair and I didn’t have any doubts, I called it Prince Harry.

When we went back home, I got a text from Ben. He asked me if I wanted go out with him this afternoon. I am excited about it and I don’t know what to put on.

I can’t stop thinking about him.

Giorgia Signoretto

NINA - Week 3: The Natural Disaster

                                                                        October 14^th, 10 p.m.                             

Dear Claire,

            I’m here, in my bedroom. I really need to tell you something sad that happened three days ago, here in Vicenza.

That morning I woke up, I got dressed and then I went to the kitchen to have breakfast like every morning and Lucia, immediately, told me that the school was cancelled. I was so happy about this because I could relax listening to music or going shopping along Corso Palladio, Vicenza’s main street. My host mum, however,  told me that I wasn’t going to school because a violent earthquake was expected. The Bianchis had been informed by the town authorities the evening before.

At those words, I was so frightened that my legs were shaking, but Lucia hugged me as my mother did when I was in Barcelona. During the morning my host family and I tried to keep ourselves busy playing on the Wii, we had a lot of fun and we forgot what was going to happen for a while.

At around midday we were having lunch. We had left the TV was on to see if there was any news when we felt the first sign of the earthquake. The earth kept shaking like this for two long hours, then the final shake was the most violent one: we ran out of the house screaming with fear, everybody was crying and the children didn’t realize what was happening. Some houses were falling down as if were made of paper. This terrible scene lasted ten minutes. After that  we entered the house again and we were quite happy because the earthquake did little damage that could be repaired soon. We turned on the TV; the natural disaster was in all the news. We got to know that a lot of people had died and the rescue teams were working to help the casualties and the survivors.

After that, the Bianchis’  telephone rang  for three hours: my family and my relatives were all worried because they heard the news on the TV. Instead, my friends sent me e-mails. They asked me if I was okay and what was the situation like. I reassured them saying that I was feeling well even if I was a little scared, that several houses had been destroyed because of the quakes, but I told them that the worst was over. They also asked me how was my host family and what I had been doing these past three weeks. They were so happy to know that I’m feeling well with the Bianchis and in this fabulous city that they almost forgot the reasons why they had called me. I was happy, too, because I could talk with my family after a long time.

            This week there was Andrea’s birthday, too. That day everything was perfect: the place where the party was held, the cake, the candles, also the guests. I didn’t expect. In fact when he asked me if I would go to his party I was very excited: it was my first Italian birthday party and I wanted to see what an Italian boy did.

 We arrived in a kind of disco. All Andrea’s friends were there. He introduced me to the other guests. We danced, we had a few drinks , we had a lot of fun and when I returned home I was satisfied with myself, happy because the Bianchi family considered me as a member of the family.

Sorry Claire, but I’m going to bed now, I’m very tired. See you.

Gessica Zarantonello                               

                                                                                           

DARK-WEEK 3: THE DISASTER

Yesterday I was glancing through a magazine when some words from the television in the kitchen drew my attention: On Tuesday- schools-closed. I tried to hold back my happiness, first of all I had heard well.  I ran to the TV and  I understood why the following day I was not supposed to go to school. All the images from the TV news were about water, but they were not at all postcard pictures of the beautiful   Australian Ocean . That was water mixed with mud, it was the water that had destroyed cities and killed more than one hundred people. In fact, because of the heavy rain of the past few days, rivers have swollen and there have been floods  all over New South Wales. 

Now I’m not so happy about this unexpected vacation. I have been watching for hours desperate people who have lost their relatives and their properties in the flood  This is the only news on TV and the country is with bathed breath. Volunteers from all over the country are arriving to help  shovel the mud.

As soon as she saw the news , Jennifer started crying  . She grew up in Bourke, one of the cities that has been destroyed, so she’s really sad. She saw part of her life, the streets where she  used to played as  a child, completely swept off by the flood. She’s also worried about her friends who live there: she hopes they have been rescued.

I’m going to make a Krovrizka, a Russian cake, to cheer her  up and I’m sure she’ll love it.

The news has done the tour of the world. My parents immediately called me asking if everything was ok and if I had more detailed  news. When they heard about the floods in New South Wales,  they got frightened. They phoned when here it was five a.m. because Aleksandr couldn’t wait to know if I was fine (what a sweet brother I have!). I reassured them,  and also my friends,  who had been sending  worried mails to me.

 Luckily there isn't bad news only.  At school we’ve started an group.activity  Each group has beek asked to create a country with its physical geography, type of society and economy. After presenting their  work to the class, the groups will start to trade with the others countries and to have diplomatic relations with them. When we were proposed  the  project,  I thought it would be boring, but I was wrong. We are having fun, that’s incredible! There are four of us: Judith, who I had never noticed  because she looks (but only looks) very quiet and shy. When she’s with her friends she’s full of life like a volcano. Then there's Oliver, a brilliant boy , very good at sports; Paul, a bookworm that knows everything about history, and myself.

Our “invented”country is  called Daisland, a place where natural resources  only are employed  without polluting the world, in other  words the country where I wish I could live! It’s the first time that I have looked  forward to doing  a school project and it’s also my chance to make new friends…I can’t waste it!

Marina Picardi