[font="times new roman"]During the summer of 2005 I went to Australia for twenty one days. This was an unimaginable experience. I had to raise a total of $5,000 to pay for the trip and a little extra cash for souvenirs. This trip was held through a program called People To People Student Ambassadors and they want to help create world peace by going to different countries and understanding the different cultures.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]I first had to figure out how I was going to pay for this trip because we didn’t just have $5,000 laying around. I applied for a fundraising magazine for ideas. I sold candles to everyone I knew, went to all of the businesses, told them why I was selling candles and I made quite a lot of money off of this. Then I wrote letters to all of the businesses in town and to all of the clubs and sent them information on the program and what they were all about and after a few weeks I started seeing checks in the mail. I also told family members about my trip and they helped pay for it also. Another fundraiser I performed was a raffle. I asked the local businesses if they would donate a couple movies or toys for my raffle. I sold raffle tickets $1 a chance and my high school made the tickets for my raffle for a computer class assignment.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"] I made a lot of friends on the trip with the other students and even some Australians. I stayed with a host family and we had so much fun together even though it was only two days. Another student stayed with my host family also because we both thought it would be a little awkward staying with a family by ourselves. With my host family we went to the market place where they have all kinds of vendors selling everything you can imagine. Both of us students got a henna tattoo which stays on for about two weeks then peels off. Staying with this host family really showed me how Australians live in daily life. I tried to convince my mom that I got a real tattoo but, I guess she knows me better than that. [/font]
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[font="times new roman"]We visited the Aborigines, which are a people in Australia who live off of the land. They kill and cook their own food and make their own houses. They have a technique to light a fire without lighters or lighter fluid. The Aborigines’ make their own spears and boomerangs to kill their food. It is amazing how two very different cultures live in the same country. Just like the Indians’, the Aborigines’ are getting kicked off of their land and being forced to live “normal” lives. This is a terrible thing that is happening all over the world, making people give up their culture to conform to the main concept in that country. I am happy they were willing to give up part of their day to show us how they live. The Aborigines’ had an awesome way of living life and they did speak a different language than English, but also knew how to speak English.[/font]
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[font="times new roman"]While on my trip, I learned that everyone around the world influences each other because there was a Starbucks on almost every corner in the cities. A lot of the Australians listened to American music and didn’t really eat anything way out of the ordinary. This altered my previous concepts because I thought it would be a whole new world and completely different from living in the U.S. The main difference was how they talked, there were a few words that meant something else than in American English but, they just had a little accent. Living with a host family for two days was an awesome experience we got to see how Australians’ live and what they do on a day to day basis, rather than just hear about it. [/font]
[font="times new roman"]I had so much fun on my People To People trip and I think it is a wonderful adventure everyone should go on. It lets you know that everyone across the world influences others and we’re more alike then anyone realizes. I hope someday we won’t have as many wars as we’re seeing today and I think that The People To People Program will help achieve this goal. [/font]