{me on my last day of high school - Nov 2001}

Australia

I'm going to take you on a little journey through my time in Australia.

I moved there when I was 15 with my mom, step-dad and two little sisters.

We started school at John Paul College, an ecumenical (accepting all religions) private school, only two weeks later.

We had some intense uniforms, and the school rules were pretty strict.

Girls got in trouble every day for not having their knee socks pulled up all the way, for missing the pins on their ties, for letting stray hairs fall around their faces, for not wearing a maroon bow over their hairbands, or for wearing make-up or jewelry.

We had to stand and greet faculty and staff with a "Hello, sir/ma'am" and a nod whenever we saw them. We said The Lord's Prayer and sang baptist-like hymns at our weekly assemblies. When students accepted awards at said assemblies, they had to do a cursty/bow for the principal before accepting the award. It was a regular Hogwart's, but without the fun of wizardry.

Sounds crazy, I know. But it was such a cool, unique experience and I came to love that school and the friends I made there.

{below: my senior prefect class - kind of like America's home rooms. This photo refused to rotate so you can click on it to see it better.}{below: JPC buddies} {below: I was such a rebel. First, I taught the Australians the meaning of the word "sluff." Really! Then I switched uniforms with my best guy friend Josh one day in the locker rooms - oh what they would have done if they found out!}

One day out of every term, we had Free Dress Day. We got to wear whatever we wanted. And we could wear our hair down! People got so worked-up over it because we so rarely saw each other in normal clothes.

More about Australia next week :)

{below: Free Dress Day - Sophomore Year}