Thursday, January 6, 2011

If it Were My Home: Australia

        Australia is a continent located in Oceania. This is in between the Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean. It is an arid country with a tropical north and the south has mild weather. Australia is a country that is "greener" than the United States in a few ways. Ifitweremyhome.com stated how Australia uses 29.48% less oil than the U.S. If we we were more careful about some of the trivial ways we used so much oil, the U.S. would already have a little bit better of an environment then we do now. Also, Australia uses 17.35% less electricity than the U.S. I think people in the United States are sometimes careless about trying to save electricity. I know that I occasionally forget to turn lights off or unplug chargers that I am not even using. I loved how the people in Australia were more concerned about their environment. It wasn't very hard fitting in because even though they have an accent, 92% of the country speaks English. The majority of the country is Catholic, so that was another thing I already had in common with the people in Australia. The main sports played in Australia were cricket, netball, field hockey, and rugby. I thought cricket was a very interesting sport. It was sort of reminded me of  baseball, but it was a little different in the way it was set up and how the game was played. Netball was very similar to basketball. There are two teams with defense and offense, there is a 10 foot hoop, and about the same size court. The rules that are different in netball are that their are seven people from each time on the court at once. Also, the court is separated into thirds and you have to stay in your section. Finally, there is not backboard on the hoop. It is just a hoop on a pole ten feet in the air.The best part of Australia was all of the animals! The country has 755 species of reptiles, this is the highest number of reptile species in the world! Marsupials are also very common animals in Australia. Some marsupials are kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, wombats, bandicoots, tasmanian devils,  and opossums. All of these mammals have pouches to hold their offspring. I wanted to go to the beautiful beaches everyday. The water was crystal clear blue and it had soft, white sand. At night, there was always a beautiful sunset on the beach. The house that I stayed in was very contemporary. It used many colors with black and white, and was very trendy. Australians and Americans eat roughly the same food. The Australians were very into their barbeque's and fresh produce or salads. One meal I had for breakfast was called lamington. It is sponge cake with melted chocolate on and powdered coconut on top. It was very good, especially because I love coconut! Overall, I loved Australia! From the weather to the animals to the food, everything was fantastic! I would be an exchange student there again any day! I would like to take a family vacation there too!


https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/as.html
http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/US/AU
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_kind_of_food_do_Australians_eat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsupial
http://www.nevisculturama.net/nevisnetball/whatis.htm

Image from: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/pacific/australia/

Image from: http://www.somalinet.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=261229

LAMINGTON
image from: http://www.ifood.tv/recipe/lamington_bars


image from: http://yeinjee.com/tag/bizarre-exotic-food/page/2/

image from: http://photos.igougo.com/pictures-photos-p301430-sunset_over_wollongong.html

Cricket
image from: http://www.topnews.in/sports/gilchrist-rates-australia039s-2004-series-victory-india-high-point-his-career-2268

Susan Pratley Susan Pratley of Australia in action during the World Netball series match between Australia and Jamaica at MEN Arena on October 9, 2009 in Manchester, England.Netball
image from: http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/bF7piaOeWiB/Australia+v+Jamaica+World+Netball+Series/LbGfYxGHT-Q/Susan+Pratley

image from: http://www.viahouse.com/home-architecture-tag/house-interior-design/

image from: http://www.tropicalhavens.com.au/

image from: http://www.outback-australia-travel-secrets.com/australian-wildlife.html

image from: http://www.immigration-consultants.gr/countries/australia/australia-animals.html

image from: http://www.edwardjkleinschmidt.com/animals.php

image from: http://www.roamingreptiles.com.au/schools.php

image from: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2008/04/019950.htm

image from: http://www.penrithcity.nsw.gov.au/index.asp?id=5586

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