Homestay

Ok. My family is AWESOME. I’ve got two brothers, Tommy and Sam. Sam is 11 and super athletic. Tommy is 13, sulky and very much a 7th grader. Last night Tom was reluctant to show me anything, to talk with me, or generally connect in any way. I went to a debate that his school (k-12) was in with another school. They are rivals. I have never seen anyone get so heated over a debate. Every grade 8+ was debating, with two or three different teams per grade. I watched his friends debate (he’s on the team but wasn’t debating that night) and they were quite articulate for 12-13 year olds. They didn’t really synch their ideas together that well, but they were articulate and presented some complex ideas for kids that age. The subject of their debate was: “Would we be better off as a society without reality television?” It was funny to hear pre-pubescent 12 year olds talking, in grown up language but incredibly childlike voices, about what the youth of Australia should and shouldn’t be exposed to. One kid who was 4’9’’ at best was infuriated that television would expose such levels of drugs and sex to the countries youth. Despicable I believe he called it.

The senior debate was crazy. It was in, I kid you not, “The Great Hall” which was a medium chapel-sized hall. It held about 300 people, and about 500 managed to pack in and around it. The pre-game ceremonies included flag-waving, war cries, chanting, stomping an all around ruckus. I can deal with that on a soccer pitch, but if I had to get up and talk in front of people after that I would probably piss myself on stage.

Tommy continued to sulk throughout the night, but in the morning we began to bond. I started giving him a hard time, and I sat and farted on Sam after breakfast. Tom thought that was great fun. P.S., Sam and I bonded immediately. He’s a live wire with a foul mouth and an incredibly mischievous smile.

Tom then unveiled his talents to me. He can build anything. Well, anything that blows up or destroys stuff. He created a marble-launching gun out of a 20 oz coke bottle, a meter of pvc pipe, a bike pump, and a metal tube with a lever that opens and closes it. Pictures will come later. We shot shit. For about an hour and a half we just destroyed boxes and trees and whatever we could shoot without Matthew and Donna or the neighbors hearing. It was great. He also made a crossbow out of Knex. It will give you a giant welt if you get hit by it and it can puncture a cardboard box.

I took the bus downtown (about 3 miles from my homestay) and did a dry run to the GED office. It’s a 20 minute busride and about a 30 minute walk (the GED office is only a mile away from my bus stop, but it’s across a busy part of town so 15 of those minutes are spent waiting at traffic lights).

I went to the city market/shopping centers (they closed an old street and just lined it with shops), and bought myself a new pair of shorts as well as a couple souvenirs for people. I came back home for dinner at five, and then I went down to the Rugby stadium with Matthew (my dad) to buy tickets for me a Sam for the night’s match (Matt and Tom have season tickets). I was going to sit with same, but Tommy wanted to sit with me when we got there, a point of pride for me. So we sat and talked about life an such for 20 min or so, then I grabbed a beer and Tom grabbed some fries, and we snuck into the 70 dollar seats next to Sam and Matthew. I had three beers for 6.30 each (a good deal in Australia, and even better at a stadium) and got drunk and watched rugby. It was another good night.

I feel a lot better now that I am with a homestay. Donna and Matt are both very nice people, and I think they appreciate my level of independence (I told them I would figure out the buses and such on my own, and I do my own dishes) but also appreciate how much I interact with the kids.

P.S. they own an xbox and have a giant-ass flatscreen plasma. How could I not interact with the kids?

Whew. I think that is a pretty good update of my travels so far. I will upload pictures/video when I can. There are some really good ones.