The best holiday

By Supree Vikan

M. 403 No. 43

On 6 - 27 October 2009 ,I had the wonderful holidays in Melbourne Australia. That was my first time going out of the country for 3 weeks. At first I thought it was a normal trip but it wasn?t. It was a great surprise! I?ve just seen another different side of the world (life) during this trip which is very precious for me.

In the first day I was very excited to visit new places that I haven?t know and seen before. I went to Melbourne city with 5 other students (I, Nicky, P? Keht, Nice, First, and Palm) and a teacher (Master Aoy). It was a small group, so the people in the group became very close to each other. We?d travel by planes from Chiang Mai to Melbourne and change plane in Singapore where we transit for 9 hours.

The first thing we experience in Melbourne is the very cold weather which is very different from the weather in Thailand. Then we went to Ringwood Secondary School to meet our hosts by car. In the car everybody has to sit with seat belts and along the way to the school I saw clean roads, no traffic jams, the different style of houses and a lot of things that we don?t have in Thailand. When we arrived at Ringwood Secondary School the students and teachers were waiting for us. They are very friendly and lovely, especially Mrs. Cody who is the main organizer teacher for this trip whom create activities for us while we were there. She is very kind and pretty. I did a lot of activities in Melbourne such as travel to the city aquarium , shopping at Victoria Market, went to the beach with host my family, visited Eureka Tower which is the highest building of Melbourne, traveled from Sorrento to Queenscliff by Ferry, fed beautiful and colorful birds in Dandenong Mountain ,took a tour in the city town, saw Australian animals in Wildlife Park, went to Puffing Billy where we took the train on con hang legs out of the train windows, went to William Ricketts Sanctuary with my host father and went to a lot of other beautiful places . That all made me enjoy this trip very much. My favorite places in Melbourne are the Dark Zone and Wildlife Park because in the Dark Zone it was the first time that I played Laser Quest, which is a great fun, with Elle , my host, Nicky and Michael (Nicky?s host). Laser Quest was a very exciting game. We don?t have here in Thailand. If you go to Melbourne, you should try it and I am sure that you won?t be disappointed with this game.

At the Wildlife Park I saw Kangaroos, Koala and Australian animals, I fed and touched real Kangaroos, too. The food in Australia is very different form the Thai food but it has its own style which is very delicious for me. I met a lot of new friends who study in year 8 to year 11, they are lovely, we exchanged our experiences to each other.

In Australia people speak English, so we have to speak English too. That was good for me because I could improve my skills on the English language.

The most important thing for me during this trip was my host family. When I lived there I stayed with the lovely Pine?s family. They have 4 people in their family (Tony my host father, Hilary my host mother, Elle and Kandrick my friends). They were very kind to me, they made me feel like I was one of their family. They took care of me preparing many everything. We shared many happy moments together by laughing. They?ve never left me alone. This contact with my host family was the best thing that happened to me during this trip.

At Ringwood Secondary School I studied English with Mrs. Maloney, she is a very cheerful woman. I learned a lot of things from her. I really liked the welcome party and the farewell party too because I met new people and all of them were so sweet and friendly. So I am impressed in all things that I met in Melbourne especially the Aussies.

Even if a short time in Melbourne I got only good things that made me want to live in that city. I think this trip was the best trip so far, I?ve joined so much. I did a lot of things that I?ve never done before. I got a lot of new experience, beautiful friendships, lovely friends and love from everybody in Melbourne. I consider myself very lucky that I went to Melbourne because many students wanted to join the trip but they didn?t have the chance and I got that chance. I can?t describe all the things that I experienced and all of my feelings. It seemed to be fulfilled of my empty world into a perfect world. Although I lived in Melbourne only 3 weeks and I had to leave, I will keep the memory of the lovely people I met in my heart forever. I promise that I will never forget this experience and I will go back to Melbourne again someday. You will never know if you don?t experience yourself. I miss everything in Melbourne!