2014, in fifteen small paragraphs.

Okay, so I have a lot of catching up to do. And let me just warn you in advance, this is going to be one very long entry.

My last entry was on June 2011, I had been making little entries here and there but hadn't posted them, I just kept them as drafts. I guess I just thought I was going to get around to posting them, which I never did.

So, I cant exactly remember or really recap the past 3 years, but what I can say is; that it was some very good years. Filled with highs and lows, just like any good year, filled with new friendships and some painful goodbyes.

Sadly, I am fast approaching a time in my life filled with goodbyes. I just finished Year 12, and I sat my last exam on the 17th of November. I have officially graduated High School; something I thought was going to be so far away has come by so fast.

Finishing high school can give you a bittersweet feeling. Of course there's the feeling of relief and joy that you've 'made it', and the wonderful realization that you dont have to sit a test or write an essay for the next 4 months. But you cant help but feel overwhelmed and scared about what's the next step.

For me, I'm still not entirely sure of what the next step is.

All I know is that I'm going to Australia early next year for university. I still dont know what university or what city in Australia.. I've applied everywhere, but it all depends in a score I will get on the 15th of December.

I'm very keen on going to Melbourne, simply because I fell in love with that city ever since I first visited it, back in 2012, which you would have known about if I had posted the entry talking about the trip. oops.

I fell in love with the Melbourne atmosphere, the city is big enough to feel overwhelmed but also small enough to feel like home. I love it there, the street art, the parks, the people, the culture; its all amazing!

This June/July holidays me and my class went on our first DIS international trip, to Melbourne! We went there to visit a school thats been in partnership with ours, called Haileybury. This school is the biggest private school in Australia, and it is awesome! That trip was definitely a memorable one.

This year, we had quite a few adventures.. We went on two school trips and made a bunch of new Melburnians friends. However, this was also a very tough year…

I didnt know if should have believed people when they told me that Year 12 "isnt that hard" or that "its the best year of your life". Now, I know, i shouldnt have had… Because Year 12 is tough. For the first time ever, I realized that there's no easy way to do some things, and that sometimes you just have to sit down and do them properly; in order to be rewarded for it. After so many years of 'putting things off' and 'relaxing' it was quite hard to take Year 12 with the seriousness that it deserved. And I admit, I should have tried harder. But, now, all I can do is hope that I've learned my lesson, and hope for a good grade…

Now, putting all the bad things of Year 12 aside, I can also see why people enjoy this year so much. It is full of new found freedom and a lot more responsibilities. I started driving to school this year, instead of taking the school bus, they gave us unsupervised 'study periods' instead of classes all the time at school, and teachers actually started seeing you as 'almost equals'. I loved these parts.

I can also safely say I've made some friends for life. As the end of the year approaches, and the sudden realization that I have to say goodbye to all my friends hits me, I can quickly separate my 'classmates' from my real friends.  I start to see how much these people mean to me and how much they've shaped and influenced my life. I cant even imagine how my next year is going to be without seeing them everyday at school, and cracking jokes, or talking about how class went. It is going to be so bizarre to walk into lecture rooms and not know everyone in them, or heading to lunch in a coffee shop instead of my familiar benches filled with my friends. I am honestly going to miss my small, crazy, and wonderfully weird school.

I am not going to recite my entire graduation speech, but the main part can pretty much be summarized into one simple sentence: Timor will, and always will be home, the friends I've made in DIS are family, and the memories and lessons I've gained from here will never be forgotten.

Leaving Timor is going to be one of the hardest things I'll have to do. I'm not only leaving my school, my friends, my family, my comfy room and my car behind; I'm leaving home. I'm leaving everything I have ever been familiar with. And I am so not ready for it. 

This year….

Wow, has it really been a whole year since i have made a post??? yeah, as you can see i have been a little (A LOT) sloppy about this. 
So, i will start by telling a few things about how this year has been. A lot of friends and family that i truly cared about have left. This i guess is one of the hardest part of living in a country with a lot of foreigners, they have to go back to their hometown. I am at the end of Year 9, i have to admit i am getting kind of anxious. Im not getting any younger, and every year that passes i know i am one step closer to university, pretty scary thought for someone who is 14. Yeah yeah, im pretty young and have plenty of time, but u know, 3 years can go by really quickly. 


Timor i am proud to say is getting better. 
Ladies and Gentleman… 
TIMOR-LESTE HAS OPENED A SHOPPING MALL! 
If you don't live in Timor u might not think it's a big deal,,, but IT IS! The mall is quite big, has air conditioning, is soon going to have a cinema and already has quite a few shops. And lucky me, it's down the road from my school!  *Major YAY! moment*  ;) 


Timor had improved a lot since 2004. The changes are unbelievable. I am really happy and hope the improvement doesn't stop. 


My school, well everything is quite the same… Some teachers are leaving, new ones are coming. 
Oh, yeah, this past year, i got a puppy! It's a female, her name is Phoebe! (yes, i have chosen that name from the series F.R.I.E.N.D.S, and as you can now probably tell, i am fanatic about it!) I got her from the furniture shop Rosco's. I am also fanatic about the series Vampire Diaries, it completely rocks, and dont worry, it's not like Twilight with the whole Edward sparkle thing. :P It is actually pretty cool, and looks real. Unfortunately the next episode to season 3 will only come out in January!!! *NOOOOO!!!* 


And yeah, that was all for the time being, post some more laterz!   ;D 

PIctures of Casa Vida Singing to us

Casa Vida singing 

That's Cafe Aroma's Chef dressed as Santa

Group Shot! :) 

Casa Vida and their beautiful surprise.

Casa Vida is a very generous project. It keeps, takes care and gives a future to sexually abused young girls in Timor-Leste. I think now it has over 40 girls and around 10 of them are pregnant or already had their baby, Casa Vida also takes care of the babies. Casa Vida's money comes partly from it's owner Simone Assis but most of it comes from their restaurant Cafe Aroma and of course from the donations. Cafe Aroma serves delicious food and also traditional Brazilian food. The restaurant's profits are in benefit of Casa Vida. Cafe Aroma is also a place to coach the Casa Vida girls and to guarantee them a future with jobs. At the start, Cafe Aroma was in a very small place with a very little kitchen. But after some months of serving their delicious food and some very kind donations from other people, Simone was able to buy a much bigger place that could bring more customers in. The old Cafe Aroma is now the house of the Casa Vida girls. My mum and my friends have been working really hard to keep Cafe Aroma running smooth. It has been really good helping them and definitely hope to keep it going. 

But on Tuesday 14th December, my parents and i decided to visit our  friends in their houses at Lecidere. When we got there at around 8:30pm we were just having a chat with some coffee. But then we hear the sound a of a little bell outside. My friend thought it was her nephew pulling a prank so she opened the door quickly so she could scare him. Then we saw something that caught us completely of guard, it was Cafe Aroma's chef, dressed in a Santa costume, then when we look into the parking lot, we see all the 40 Casa Vida girls in lines all dresses up with little Santa hats singing Christmas songs in Portuguese, English and Tetun. They sang over 15 minutes, while my mum and my friend were were so happy the were crying non stop. After all the beautiful singing, one of the Casa Vida girls gave a very kind speech thanking us for all our help. They gave my mum and my friend a very beautiful necklace and a thank you card. Then Simone came and explained how all of the girls got there. They were originally going to my friend's house first then go to my house (which is about 30 minutes away from Casa Vida!) which was going to be a disaster because one of the cars taking them there broke down and they had to walk. So if we weren't there we would have missed that beautiful performance. I was in shock after the presentation. It was all just so beautiful and breath-taking! I don't think that ever happened in Timor before. And that's why we are so lucky to have that privilege. 

Now that's what Christmas is all about, Giving Thanking and Sharing! Thank You Casa Vida for the performance. Truly a day i'll never forget. :)  

Sunday's Memories

So, It has been nearly a month since i haven't wrote in here... well i've been really busy lately..  I've already had like 2 tests, i have this English task i had to do, and of course i've been going to my new house nearly twice a day. My family has spend 4 years in this very small house in Timor. It has only 2 small rooms, a living room / kitchen and 2 bathrooms... It has no garden, which makes my wanting a dog task even harder.. So we thought it was about time to move into a bigger house with a garden and a swimming pool... So as i said i didn't have much time to write. 


So back to the real subject and purpose of this post, today is sunday. Sundays are always very pleasant... I remember my sundays in 2006. We didn't have much to do, so we always went to the One dollar Beach (remember when i told u about it??). The one dollar beach is a very nice and clean beach. When i came to Timor the movie Finding Nemo had just come to Brazil, so i was amazed by the clown fish. When we went to the beach i remember i would see millions of them when the water was only up to my knees. I thought it was magical! I've saw 2 whales in the one dollar beach already. The first time i remember it was very funny. Me, my dad and  some of my adult friends were in the sand having a taste of my dad's delicious BBQ, while my mum was coming out of the water and coming to join us. She had her back to the water, so then me and my friends saw the whale's tail splashing in the water and then we yelled out "Look! it's a whale!" My mum started swearing and saying "You guys are not going to eat my dessert anymore!" that's when i said "Mum! turn around!" she did and we all rolled of laughter! It was amazing, i never thought i would see a whale so close like that. 


There was also the day that i saw 2 hurricanes in the water at the same time. One was kinda close it was about 200 meters from us and the other one was really far about 300 meters away from us. It was amazing and also frightening. We got it all in tape which was really cool. 


So there are much more stories to tell about th one dollar beach, but i'll get back to that latter.... :) 

My School in Timor

So as i said before, i study in Dili International School (D.I.S). I'm in the 7th grade. So i just came back to school from 2 weeks of holidays and i'm in this new much bigger classroom. My class has 3 teachers. One for Maths, Science and French. One for English and Arts and one for Social Studies, PE and Health. So in English me and my class are focussing on Shakespeare, his plays and his very well-known poems. I absolutely love English and Poetry, so i'm having quite a lot of fun. Everybody really likes our Math teacher, but it's just so hard seeing his good side while he is teaching such terrible subjects! Oh well i guess we all have to live with it..   :)  Our PE teacher is ok.. I mean she teaches one of everybody's favorite subject, PE! but we don't quite think the same thing when she is trying to teach us Social Studies. 

Timor's Opportunities.

My coming to Timor has opened many doors for me. When i came to Timor i had the great opportunity to explore Asia! I went to so many different and exotic places. Never in my life i would have dreamed of coming to China, Indonesia, Australia and even Timor. It was amazing! In Brasil i had like  nearly no holidays and when i had it, i would spend it at home. In here i spend my holidays in Indonesia and Australia. And coming to Timor also thought me many lessons, different cultures, different languages and many different religions. It was very over-welming. In ONLY my class there are over 11 nationalities (and there is only 15 students).