Lucy Thorburn is back! Our Youth Exchange Student to Minnesota, USA, has returned from her one year sojourn to the colder regions of the USA. Well, it's not that Lucy didn't have a ton of confidence in herself already before she left. But most young people of her age would simply freak out when there was no working Audio/Visual to run her carefully prepared presentation! Not "our" Lucy: "just another day at the office"; she presented a brief run down of where, what, why and how, and then fielded question after question for the next 20 minutes. So, let's start 12 months ago:"When I arrived in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes, it was minus 28 degrees!" she opened up with. Yes, not just cold, that is freeeezing alright! But just to show that Aussie Kids are not just Vegemite Kids but also tough kids, she participated in the annual 'Polar Plunge'. Yes, it's just what you thought: one jumps into a frozen lake. [Yes, Henrietta, they do break a generously sized hole into the 20 cm thick ice first... ☺]. You can see a video of her doing this in the Download section on the right. Lucy attended the equivalent of a Year 8 class at the local High School. Ice Hockey in Winter, Badminton, hiking in Summer. Hiking? Yes, "the most stressful event ever!" she claimed. School Balls, singing in the choir, participating in a big musical, Thanksgiving Dinner. As they do here, she went with her fellow YE students on a big Safari, encompassing Chicago, Boston, Nashville, Washington and of course 'The big Apple', New York. "That was wild!" Lucy exclaimed. How are the locals in the US perceiving Australia? was one of the questions: "Well, I got asked questions such as 'What language do they speak there?' Are Kangaroos sort of like squirrels?'
Photo: Lucy and her mum Corrine at last Wednesday's meeting.