For our second leg of the trip, we went to Australia for about two months. We lived in Waverton, in North Sydney, and I loved it there. It definitely wasn’t as adventurous Costa Rica, because we didn’t travel as much and didn’t do as many adventures. Also, we spoke the language and it was clean. In Australia, it was a lot about day-to-day life and schoolwork.

We lived with a woman named Beth, mum’s friend from college. Beth lived with us in Costa Rica for a month, so we knew her pretty well. She had a one-room apartment, so my brother and I slept on a spare mattress and on the couch. Beth’s apartment was so close to the train, all you had to do was cross street. We also lived very close to the Sydney Opera house, which was only four stops on the train away! There was no big supermarket near Beth’s apartment, so we ordered food off a website called Woolworths. Once or twice a week, a man would come by with the food we ordered and bring it right into our apartment. All the food was very fresh and tasty. The apartment building also had a pool and Xander and I used Beth’s spoons as dive toys.

On a typical day, I would wake up around 7:30, courtesy of mum, and make some breakfast. Because we had so much fresh fruit from Woolworths, we tried to eat healthy. We would eat, get dressed, and then I would brush my teeth and get ready to work for the day. We loved our neighborhood library, which was about a 20-minute walk away and had an outdoor café when we wanted a break. It had amazing free WiFi, and it was easy to talk to our teachers there because there were lots of private spaces. I would normally get a drink at the cafe in the library, and then work for two or three hours. We didn’t always go to the local library, though. Sometimes we would take the metro and be at the stop nearest the big State Library in about 10 minutes. On the way to the state library there was a cute little store called Daiso, which was a discount store filled with a ton of adorable items imported from Japan. The reason the State Library is so cool was because it has a room where you have to be quiet that had stained glass windows and two stories of books surrounding the tables that people were working at. We sometimes also worked at little local cafes a couple of times, there was one right next to our apartment building that was an outdoor café with multiple levels.

Out of all the places, our favorite was the local library. We walked there together every morning and then Xander and I would usually walk back to Beth’s apartment alone. It was really cool, because in Hookset we can’t walk places without an adult. When we would get home, we would relax for the rest of the day or go swimming in Beth’s pool. About once a week, we would do a little adventure and cut the library short. One time we went to a museum exhibit where you got to create your own Star Wars character, and it taught you about all the things that influence the shape of your life. We also went to a indoor water park a couple of times, where there was a lazy river that was titled “River Rapids” and was very fast, very rough, and very fun.

Maybe the biggest part of our Australian life was Anika. Anika is Beth’s three-year-old goddaughter. Every Friday, Beth would pick her up from her preschool at noon and bring her back to the house. Xander and I would spend the rest of the day playing with her and babysitting her. She is very adorable, and we got very close to her. Almost every week, Anika would do these three things: watch Madagascar 3, go swimming, and build a fort. She called it a “fork” and, really, Xander would build it. We didn’t just see her on Fridays, though. We celebrated Thanksgiving with Anika and her moms, watched Anika’s school performance, made chocolate chip pancakes, and went to Luna Park, an amusement park right by the Harbor Bridge. We can’t wait to see her again!