TahliaD

Hello! :) Okay hopefully this goes okay, but who knows...I may just suck at blogging. Today was the first day of Realise Group 2! It was pretty awesome. We got here, after a seemingly short bus ride....(although I was reading the entire time), and once here, unpacked the bus, and ate food. We took a tour of the camp, and found the composts completly ridden with flies. I really don't like flies. :( Anyway, after a tour, we went to the class room for the first time, and listened to the rules and what we were to do while on Realise. After an incredibly long time we finally found out what Wardli we were in. I am with Aliy, Amelia, Mary, Leah and Lauren. We are in number three (the one with the skeleton animal head thing outside :S) but its totally awesome :D We have three to a bedroom with one to spare. We all moved in; packed and organised, relaxed for a bit, then met again at 5 for chill out time. We found a spot on the premises, and sat there for an hour, either reflecting on life or whatever after we all filled out a sheet. Being me-I drew. :) There are some reeeallly pretty landscapes to draw so...hopefully my sketchbook will be that more full when I get back. After, we had a barbeque, and cleaned out Wardlis out, and did the dishes. Now we are blogging for the first time....hopefully it goes okay :) Tomorrow we are going shopping and we are all hoping that we buy enough food for the whole week. Fingers crossed! We are all getting a day to cook, which should be super fun. :) Am missing people already :) xxxxxxxxxxxx Tahlia

Okay so today was day two!! Woooo! After waking up to a blaring alarm (that Aliy managed to sleep through...no idea how!!) we woke up and prepared for exercise. :( am so unfit, it really isn't funny. after playing some games...like castles, red rover and base 50-50, we went to eat breakfast. Still having no food, we scabbed food from the teachers. :) hehehe. Showers are hard-only three minutes to wash my hair. But possible!!! Yes! We met in the classroom at 8:45 ish, then planned our shopping list. Then shopped, always wondering if it was sustainable, organic, cheap, australian produced and grown, and tasty. Never been so worried about having a budget in my whole life! Eating lunch was amazing-food at that point was. Then the beach was awesome. I swear that the beach calls to me-but that would be weird because the beach can't talk :S.....anyway....going swimming and playing beach cricket on a beautiful day is so much better than schoolwork. :) We started to bake in our own time....but only got so far....preparing the batter. Chill out was stressful, trying to convince a magpie that my hair WASN'T food, and that it SHOULDN'T eat me. It didn't work in my favour. So I ran away. Completely rational. :) A new chill out spot for me I think....dinner was great. Making dinner for the first time was good, even if it was kinda really tomatoey.... anyway. Warm brownies are good too. :) Miss people already but have to go and do ICT!!! :) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Okay the third day was technically yesterday...but i'm going to blog today and pretend it was yesterday! Okay so today was the third day. It was good; running was haaarrrd!!!!!!!!! Ahhhhh.....Aliy kept making me actually run. >:( After having breakfast, and piling on to the bus, then we drove a looooong way to Moonta, to see the Agriculture museum, for our history/art assignment. We ate at lovely park (of which I was paranoid that a magpie was going to swoop me....) then went back to our little houses, and to our classroom to start the assignment. Yay! I finished! :) very random story-but finished. :) In chill out, found a lovely new spot, near about half a dozen people, but distinctly magpie-free. Started my 'Wicked' book. Which is so different from the musical but oh well. :) We cooked tacos for dinner, which was realllly yummy! We went for a walk, on which we were informed that we (wardli 3 & maddy) would be sleeping outside in 'Hotel Hilton,' for having someone in our wardli. So packing our bags in 5 minutes, and piling all of our stuff outside....we slept outside. In the cold. And the rain. During a thunderstorm. I am not making this up. I think I have pnemonia. Oh well-it's over and done with. Not doing that again. So uncomfortable. :( xxxxxxxxxx

Okay...now I can write about the fourth day :) SO today, after waking up with a back and neck ache from the stupid hard ground, and feeling INCREDIBLY cold, we ambled towards the games for the morning, still in our pyjamas because the Wardli was locked. But pretty comfy anyway. After that, we wolfed down breakfast, and prepared for snorkling. We were all clad in really tight wetsuits as we climbed upon the bus, our arms bursting with reefwalkers, flippers, head sock things, and masky things too. After a long bus ride, we arrived at the place, and stepped into the cold. :( But snorkling was fun when there was a snorkle that actually fit me and I didn't drown in when I took a breath in. It was good :) apart from the cold and the hunger, it was a good morning. We also visited a wind farm, but we were all too cold to really notice.....well I was. :S anyway...we got back for some lunch and showers, then went to the classroom to start on science. After it was free time, and aliy and I gathered ingredients to make brownies AGAIN. we just love brownies :) Chill out was good; reading again. Trying to pace myself so that I have enough books for the whole Realise. We began to cook, but went disasterous soon, and after having lovely, encouraging nannas, we finally got the food on the tables at 7:10 ish...20 minutes before we had to go.... :S whoops. But the Schnitzles were nice... I hope...I made and cooked them :) Now we are blogging, and about to watch a movie. Realise is fun; but I do miss home. Two weeks and one day left! :) xxxxxx missing all of my friends and family.... xxxxxxxxxx

Day 5! It was so long ago-so i just have to speed blog about the past couple of days :) day five....was friday? we started out with a run, which is quite painful..but is getting better, so yay! We had breakfast, ...wow i cant remember....thats odd. We did a sort of free choice...lesson thing, so i caught up on my art, and my fibs and fabs, then we did a scavenger hunt! all around point turton!! Ahhhhh!!!!! did so much walking and running! it was like....20 billion km!!! argh! :S we didn't win but made a 'solid effort..' hehehe :P anyway, afterwards we made our pizza dough for the pizzas that night, and I cant really remember what we did that afternoon, and i don't have time to reminisce so...anyway...moving on. Pizzas were GREAT!! :) yum. i like pizza, its really nice. and yummy. :) cant really remember what we did that evening...maybe just some work? dunno..... :S anyway, was a good day :)

Day 6 was good, I think. We had to wake up early, which is kinda sucky for a weekend, but, eh what are you going to do??? We played some games, did some stuff, i think it was gaelic football? lots of running, and accidently kicking the ball into another girls face (sorry Yin Yin!!!), had breakfast, planned our food for the week and went food shopping. Constantly worrying about the prices of the food and everything, I swear, I am going to die from. But my caution was not needed. We were a whole 120 (or so...) dollars under budget....now we just have to make sure that we have enough food for the entire week....but well cross that bridge when we come to it.... :) we bought stuff for the bakeoff that evening, and as soon as we got back, got to baking 24 cupcakes. We decided to make a vegie patch, our story being about the sustainability and how much we've learnt on realise so far...and something to do with the Realise rabbit. :S we made vegies out of fondant, and made the dirt out of oreos (Thanks Lily-even though you aren't here, you're still goiving us ideas!!! :D) and we TOTALLY WON!!!!! the other competeors were a couch, a jetty, and a nosebleed.... but yay! we finally won something :) we won the couch which was great! its suppper comfy. :) everyone liked it so !!!!woooo!!!!! Afterwards we did some work...i think...am not to sure...the effect of winning was just great! And went to bed. It was a great day- pretty funky really. :) Oh and we went snorkling again, but by choice, so Sara was my buddie, and apart from having to dodge jellyfish, have crippled feet, have a faulty snorkle, swallow a ton of salt water, and seeing a shark type thing eyeing us off, and sprint swimming the rest of the way, it was fun :) xxxx

Day seven (yesterday) was pretty groovy, but I am talking more and more like Aliy everyday... :S that is something to be worried about... :) (love you Aliy!) Okay...so day seven....we got to SLEEP IN. Until 8! But i got up early, and being the lovely person that I am, cooked breakfast for everyone. :) The pancakes were good... i think :) I liked them. BUt we had to rush so much...because we went snorkeling...well everyone else did. I wasn't feeling well :( But I got a great drawing done of the cove thing that we were in :) everyone said it was rocky and scary because the tide came in early, so i'm glad i didn't go in...because i would have been terrified. We went to two places, then went back for a late lunchy time. We had free time; then classroom, then chill out, which was freeeeezing, then had dinner. I made burgers which were yummy! :) yum. back to the classrroom, watched finding Nemo, then back to bed. xxxxx Day eight, finallly up to today! Okay so today, we started out our day by running. So many people would be proud of me! Aliy and I cut ten minute off of our times! I t was great! We were no where near being last! Yay!!!! AHHHHH!!! breakfast was the same as usual of course...then we gathered our stuff and went to Hardwicke bay to do some weeding in the cold for a bit. But it was for a good cause-to help the elderly- so im okay. I was pretty toasty in my twenty billion layers though! :) We had lunch there, and I ate a curried egg sandwich for the first ever time!! WOOOHOOO!!welll realise is about making experiences and memories!! :) we had some groovy icecream, sat for a bit, did some more weeding, then made our way back to wambana. It was great. We went to the classroom, and did some work- I was catching up on some stuff. :) Then free time...which we had a wardli meeting which went well :) It was great. We had chill out in the classroom because it was too cold outside, and the heater made me sleepy! We had nachos for dinner-it was the first night I didn't have to cook! :) Have to go now!! :) missing everyone!!!! :)xxxxxxxxxxxx( times infinity!)

Today was suuuuper fun!!!! :) We went to the Point Pearce Aboriginal School ( I think that it how you spell it!) and it was really fun. The kids began shy; but afterwards when they warmed up, it was fabulous!!! I played footy with the boys for a bit; made some great marks, and was congratulated on my kicking (thank you erin!), then we moved ot the bigger oval, but that didnt really work...so then after a bit we went back to the class room, and in a group we were matched up with one of the kids. Aliy, amelia and I had this little darling of a girl called Cherie (but everyone called her sissy :D), we made some bracelets and necklaces with her, and for her, made some scrapbooks, which she wrote in mine 'I like you'(actually 'I lik you....)then we went to lunch. She chose me to help her make her roll! I felt so special!! :) we ate some food; and played some games. It was super fun. We did some piggyback races-which I suck at because I have no body strength! She stuck to me like glue-which was really cute. :) at the end....we were taking photos, which before she had clung to me, and i was carrying her, then we were sitting down, and she told me that she loved me :) and kissed my cheek :) naaaaaawwww!! S2 she was super sweet, even if she did forget my name a couple times...oh well :) it was really nice. we spent some time in the classroom, discussing our previous views on aboriginals, and our present views, and I would have to say that my opinion has almost completly changed. :) our Wardli made banana cake muffin things! they are super taasty! :) yum yum yum! Chill out time was really cold! and dinner was great! i love cooking :) its fun! am blogging now....oh wait now am all caught up! :) okaaay bye!!! boi!!!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

okay...i think that day ten was the day that we went to Innes national park. :) it was...interesting.... we began our day....well can't remeber that far...but ill try... okay we started by weeding. I know....you're all jealous right? WEEDING!! woooohoooo! after an hour bus ride. got some pretty solid reading in then. We weeded bridals lace/veil stuff which is a massive PEST!! we had to dig it out of the ground, with marchflies buzzing around us, and sticking like leaches to us and trying to eat us (well thats what i thought..) and keeping a very cautious eye out for ticks, snakes, lizards, spiders, flies, bugs....well you get the idea. We stopped for lunch, in the almost blazing heat. (blazing in my twenty billion layers...) we ate...then were back to work...oh joy. :) haha. we weeded...actuallly aliy, amelia and i had a pretty good system. I was good at spotting the weed, aliy would dig it out, plopping down into the ground and sitting while she worked....throw the pods to me, i would chuck it into the bag, and Amelia would shave a random tree. Fun times.... :) Somehow we all lost three pickaxe looking things :S whoops. We got to camp grounds at the park at like 3-4 ish maybe??? um...then went for a walk to the amazing beach nearby. It was great! aliy and i indulged in some rock hopping, and we found the most amazing rock pool things, in an actual rock! like WOW!! so we sat for a bit, looked at patrick the (dead) starfish and carved stuff out of cuttlefish :) then we went back, set up camp, then went back to the beach for chill out :) it was cool. We had cooked dinner the previous night, so we just had to heat it up in the trangia. let me tell you this. NOTHING TASTES GOOD IN A TRANGIA! IT IS A GIVEN FACT! anyway, we washed some dishes, and called it an early night. Not really, we sat in our tent for a bit, me cracking up because aliy just HAD to cut her toenails, and amelia was screaming at her to get out because shes a feral...gotta love camping. We also had drop toilets. everytime...i reminded myself...its an experience....im trying something new. i missed flushing toilets soooo much. i nearly hugged it when we got back (not really-that would be weird) we slept, whilst being cold, and i was a heat leech in the middle. :) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

day 11...we woke up at like 6:00!! because of the crows...but mainly LUCIA!! arrrrgh...that girl has got a set of lungs on her!! :( Aliy refuseed to go to the toilets with me..and rolled over to sleep again, but then had to roll over again because the tent was too cold to put her face against. we got up, then had some yummy, er cereal for breakfast. mmm wholesome.... then afterwards we packed up our tents and put it in the trailer, and we were early for once!! well half of our wardli was :) okay...then we drove to the beach, and picked up some rubbish, or like me, loitered in the water, loving every minute of it...maybe i am a dolphin...that would expalin so much. :) anyway, afterwards we had to look for the missing shovel things, and we found out that lucia had buried one because she broke it :S strange... then we did some more weeding, had some lunch, drove back to wambana, to drop off emily, then we went to lawn bowls instead of having a shower :( anyway...we did some yoga when we got back... :) that was fun, but i think that i fell asleep. we had dinner, a nice butter chickem, had showers. went to the classroom, informed that we had no internet, i think..... :( anyway have to go now... :) will blog more when i can :) xxxxxx am missing home in general.... :) but nearly done. it has gone relively quickly :) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

okay will be speed blogging again to make up for lost days :) ummmm......day 12.....friday. okay...what happened on friday......well i was like captain for the day with lily mcqueen ( who is awesome :D), and we had games in the morning, and we sort of played like softball but with kicking balls or throwing them...it was fun...i hope :) okay, then we had some breakfast, and afterwards we had to get some news,but we couldn't use the interenet because it was cut off becuase some people were irresponsible, then lily and i went to the teachers wardli, and for the first time in the whole of realise, we watched tv!! it was amazing, even if it was only the news. :) aahhhh! we went to the classroom at 8:45 and said our news and weather forecast thing, then it was the free choice sort of lesson thing. Chloe, mary, leah and I all did our fibs and fabs project (dying fabric in all natural dyes) which was successful, and that is all done!! YAY!!!! :) then we had breaks, then i think that i did some ICT, or french maybe? something else until lunch time. After lunch (which is when we had to make the pizza dough for the pizza night :D) then i can't really remember what happened next....anyway :) umm then....we cooked our pizzas, somehow lost my amazing pizza that i rolled and made :( how do you lose a pizza?? maybe its just me....if anyone could it would be me :) okaaaay...then.....um...we ate it and it was yummy...then we......urgh!!! am writing about only like 2 days ago..i should remeber....oh well..i can always edit it :)
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day 13...saturday...alrighty then...lets blog. :) saturday, we had to wake up early. I can't wait until we get back home, I can sleep in :) Getting up early is a force of habit though...and waking up Aliy(who doesn't get up) and Amelia(who does!). We also had a run then. Aliy and I are becoming quite skilled at running, and I would say that our fitness would be going up! We had high goals of running it, but now our goal is to finish before Amelia! Yay! and it was achieved. We can run at least half of it, so I am happy with the progress :) we had breakfast, then we came to the classroom, and researched unethical and ethical shopping food brands. Did you know that the Coke company murders, kidnaps and tortures union leaders? PLEASE BOYCOT THEM AND ALL OF THEIR PRODUCTS!!! IT IS REALLY BAD WHAT THEY DO!!!! ARHHH! anyway....then.....what happened next...oh we went shopping. Will that worry ever go away? if we are eating enough, or healthily, or if we have too much junk food!!! we then went to an awesome playground, and relived the kids in us. Even the teachers loved it :) we got back for lunch time, then we ate and unpacked the food. We went back to the classroom and did some homework for the rest of the time before going to free time. Aliy( the head baker) and I( the head cook :D) cooked some cookies a triple batch so that everyone in Wambana could have some :) EVERYONE loves us now :) oh and i started dinner early. we said goodbye to kim, and we wished her a happy holidays. Ms Dudley came. :) then....in chill out, finished one book, on to the next :)dinner time was good i hope. I cooked chicken lasagna, which everyone liked because everyone apart from aliy hadn't had it before. I love seeing peoples faces as they like something that I've made. It makes me proud of myself :) we finished relitlvly early. then we went to classroom, watched some simpsons episodes, and sanswered some questions about them. I'm honestly wondering about vegitarianism. hmmm..maybe i can convert my family to having one vegetarian meal a week maybe?? :) haha :) ill need luck for that :) BEST NEWS EVER!! you'll have to wait though.... :) xxxxxxxxx

youll only have to wait until now....we got to sleep into 10 ish!!! we had to be at the classroom at 10, but thats the longest!! it was the best!! ahhh!! :) thanks em!!! we then spoke about our decisions on specific topics, like types of rainforest clearing stuff, which was great, and had some lunch, the we started the mosiac. The other best thing ever started!!because I actually designed the whole thing!! It was the best feeling!! :) that realise is going to have something that I designed on it :) we started, and hopefully i can get pictures :) but it is the jetty, and so far it looks great!! am so proud of everyone!! :) its going great!! the time flew that we were doing the mosaic, and then we did some science until free time. in free time we got stuff for tomorrows communal dinner, because we are making pavlova!!! ahhh got to go!!! :) hahaha :) okay... missing everyone will finish this blog when i can :) xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

okay....day what....um 15? halloween? does that sound right? okay...so we woke up early and played some games...i think it was cops and robbers then touch footy. Touch footy isn't what i thought it was....its a whole lot more boring. :) anyway....breakfast....then we did homework/mosiac for the morning. we nearly finished the mosiac but we keep running out of tiles! anyway...moving on. ummmmm...lunch....then i think that we played some halloween games. It was fun-I just suck at it. We played a game like the egg and spoon race, but with a potato. :) ....we lost. Wardli 3 isn't the best at sport....and we also lost the wheelbarrow race, because it is HARD! i was the dirver thing, and it was painful! ahhhh! um...then we played the piggyback race, and it was amelia who carried me, and we WON! yeahhhh!!!! wooohooo good job amelia!! :) after that it was potato bobbing...i think that the teachers like potatoes or something... :) lost that one too, then it was apple bobbing, and we lost that too....but i think that we came third in the final game, the three legged race because amelia and daliy (our saviours) take mammoth strides!!!!!ahhhh!!!! but we lost overall, but we are really enthusiastiv...well most of the time.... :) umm...then it was free time, where we cleaned (again), and chill out. During dinner time, we began our butter chicken for the communal dinner, and started cutting up and mixing the decarations for the pavlova. Then we had to dress up as well. I was a black cat :) hehehe. I make a good black cat :) anyway...ummm....then we presented our meals; everyone liked them (i hope :D) but we didn't win. But i liked the pavlova, it really worked!! :) yay!then....what happened. OH! we went trick or treating. I got tricks...although others weren't so lucky. :) ehehehehe. was so tired.... so semi-early night. :) although Aliy has NO inside voice, so I must remind her continuously about that. :) xxxxxxx missing everyone, and marking the days left off of our calender. :) xxxxxx

day 16: hehehe :) okay that is today :) tuesday. gully's birthday. :) hmmmm....we woke up. ALIY AND I RAN THE WHOLE 3.6 KM!!!! I AM SO PROUD OF US!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOO!!!! AND WE BEAT SARAH TILLER (:D) BOTH OF MY GOALS HAVE BEEN ACHIEVED!!!! :) :) :) HEHEHHE...oh right...stop the caps. then after like collapsing of fatigue, then we...had some breakfast...yum....weetbix :) then we went to the classrooom and did some solid work for about like...2-3 hours? breaks, lunch, mosiacing. :) all very fun :) then after lunch, we went SURFING!!! woo! it took a while to get there, and to stand up, but I did, and we are going again tomorrow so its all good!!! :) okay have to go now....Chloe just nominated me and her to be leaders without consulting me. Gotta love her. But i do! S2 hehehe. xxxxxxx

okay....so....don't mean to brag or anything...but I am a pro surfer now. Yes....envy me...it is true...i've gone pro. I can stand up on a surfboard, and stay standing up while catching a wave..I wonder how many sponser are vying for my attention, or how many comps I'll have to do. I may just have to do some ads as well, because I'm a pro :) hehehe. Surfing is fun, and this is my last blog so I'm gonna skim around the last few days. It was darrens birthday (happy birthday!), and we skipped fitness (yes!) and after breakfast went out for a full day of surfing. It was fun; but im a werd cripple so I sat out after about 2 hours because of my retarded neck :S oh well. I got to read! WOOOOOO! umm.....then we left early, had lunch(wait. no the other way around) and had showers then watched blue crush (a surfing movie) or did homework. Movies alway win. :) we cooked our last meal together, Chicken parmigana, which was good(I think) okay....um surfing again today. yea...i've still got to do some homework..so i should probably do that. I miss home heaps, and everyone who is there. :( will see everyone TOMORROW!! OMG!!!!! AHH THAT FEELS SO GOOD TO SAY!!! :) :) :) alrighty then :) boooooooiiiiiiiiiii will see everyone tomorrow!! :) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx S2