My treasure

This time, I’d like to write about my trip to Australia. About six years ago, I was a
second-year student of KGU, and I belonged to the faculty of commerce. At that time, I
was twenty years old, and I was really interested in English. In addition, I had doubts
that various kinds of people really existed in the world, so I took advantage of the
summer vacation, and I decided to go to Australia. Before I went to Australia, to tell the
truth, I had the mistaken idea that Australia was a country of perpetual summer.


However, of course, the difference in temperature between daytime and nighttime was
great. In order to go to Australia, I had to save enough money to stay in that country,
and also persuade my parents. Convincing my parents to let me go abroad made me so
exhausted, but I managed to persuade them eventually. The place where I went abroad
was Gold Coast, Australia. When I arrived at the airport, my host mother came to pick
me up in front of the gate. Her name was Eileen and she got me in her car, and she
drove me to her home.


On the way home, we were introduced ourselves to each other, but I wasn’t able to
express myself well. After we reached her house, and as I set foot on foreign soil
(Correctly speaking, I had already set foot on it at the airport.), I was amazed at the
beautiful view. Her home was located in an area a little far from downtown, and maybe
thanks to this remote place, the house were surrounded by nature, and wrapped in
silence. The air was fresh, clean, and clear. She was so kind to me all the time, within
the first day, she showed me around the city, and taught me some rules of her house.


In that city, I got into a language school which was teaching English to foreigners.
There were a lot of students in the school, most of them were Chinese, Korean, Japanese,
Hispanic, and there were a few students from Western Europe. On the second day,
students were given placement tests. After the tests, we assigned to a class that was
suitable for our English abilities. In the school, we were forced to speak English, and if
the staff noticed that the students speaking in one’s native language, they warned us,
and we had to pay a dollar fine as a penalty (I think that KGU should be consider the
introduction of this system.).


As for the contents of the classes were almost the same as the classes conducted by KGU,
I think it is equivalent to freshmen’s classes. We usually studied grammar, vocabulary,
team activities, and so on. Most of the classes started at nine o’clock and finished
around two or three o’clock, so I often went to the beach or souvenir shops after the classes.


Few days after I entered the school, I made some friends, most of them were Japanese,
but there were some Koreans, Brazilians, and Germans. On the weekend, we usually
went to the beach, and we played Frisbee and got tanned. A week passed, we had tired
of going beach, so we finally decided to go sightseeing around the Gold Coast.


First of all, we applied for a sightseeing tour through a Japanese travel agency. It was
sightseeing some famous spots in Gold Coast. First, we went to “Q1 Tower” which is the
tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. We were able to see a 360-degree view of
the beautiful ocean and buildings. Then we rode an “Aqua Duck” which is an
amphibious vehicle, we went round and round in the city area, and after that, the
vehicle moved to near the beach, and plunged into the ocean.


To be honest, I was a little bit concerned for fear of drowning. Next, we went to
“Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary” which is a park located further from the downtown
area. We saw a variety of animals such as koala, huge alligators, and kangaroos. We fed
the kangaroos, if they noticed that we have food, they gathered around us, and we were
so excited. What’s more, we had a yellow snake around our necks, it was such an
unusual experience, and I will never do that again. All of our faces were drawn with
fear.


Then we experienced riding a water bike. We went to a secret beach, it was perfect
beautiful white sand there. The instructor had got us on the water bike, and we were
able to see a thornback in the water. Finally, we went to a night club for our farewell
party. So far, all of the students have never went to such a place, so everyone was really
excited and drunk, including me. The day after that party a lot of students were
hungover. It was only a month, and it is very short period vacation, but I really enjoyed
the summer vacation.

[841/1923]