Flat Stanley e-mailed us a journal entry...
G’day!
After a very long
trip around the world, I arrived in Perth, Western Australia in October 2012.
Perth is the
sunniest capital city of Australia –it gets 3,000 hours of sun every year and
the weather is very hot in summer. One
day when I was visiting it was 108 degrees!
Perth has lots of
beautiful beaches and very interesting flowers and insects. It also has really cool animals like
kangaroos, black swans and pelicans. The
kangaroos are wild, not in a zoo, and sometimes they are tricky to find. We got
lucky though and found some right near the city. I even got to pose with one for some pictures!
The seasons in
Australia are opposite to America because Australia is in the southern
hemisphere. When Pittsburgh has winter,
Perth has summer. Being in the southern
hemisphere also means the water in the drain swirls the opposite way too, which
was neat to see. The time is also
opposite in Australia. When it’s morning in Pittsburgh, I was going to bed in
Perth! Another opposite thing is the car.
The steering wheels in Australian cars are where the passenger sits in America,
and the cars drive on the other side of the road too! I had to make sure I
looked twice before crossing the street.
Since the weather
in Perth is so nice almost all year round, the best things to do are
outdoors. People in Perth love to go
surfing, kayaking, running, play sports, swim, go diving, snorkelling and have
picnics in the parks. People also go
fishing a lot. One day we drove a few hours south of the city to a town called
Busselton. We tried to catch squid off of the jetty, but we didn’t manage to
catch anything so we had to eat leftovers for dinner.
In December, I
went to Melbourne to celebrate the holidays. Melbourne is on the opposite side
of the country, so I flew on an airplane. Melbourne is a much bigger city than
Perth.
Christmas was
really strange…it was hot! Instead of snow, it was around 90-100 degrees. For
Christmas dinner we ate some salad, fish and cold meats. It was way too hot to bake cookies in the
oven!
One day in
Melbourne a Yellow-Crested Cockatoo came to the backyard to visit. My photo with this bird is my favourite
picture from the trip – it looks like the cockatoo is smiling at me! The birds
here are really big, very colourful and make really funny noises.
The other cool
thing about Australia is all of the different words they use. Everyone speaks English, but sunglasses are
called ‘sunnies,’ bathing suits are called ‘bathers,’ cookies are called
‘biscuits’ and people always says ‘g’day’ for hello and use the phrase ‘no
worries’ a lot. They also spell a few things differently too - like ‘colour’
for color and ‘tyre’ for tire. Confusing!
Overall I had a great time in Australia - It’s definitely a very interesting place. I’ve included lots of photos from my trip, I hope you enjoy!
Sincerely,
Flat Stanley
Thank you again, April, for showing such wonderful hospitality to Flat Stanley! Australia is a beautiful continent & we hope we can visit some day!
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