This is the Message Centre for Midnight Ice - the Daughter of a Cacophony of Chrysanthemums

Howdy, Midnight

Post 21

Midnight Ice - the Daughter of a Cacophony of Chrysanthemums

No, not boarding in Sydney... I'm in Melbourne. It's the capital city of Victoria, my state.
TigerUS - are you going to Israel too? Do you two know each other in real life?
Please excuse my naivety...smiley - blush


Howdy, Midnight

Post 22

Tigris, Keeper of the Gates.


smiley - erm well, yes.

If you can call this miserable shopping thing I'm doing a real life. We went to high school together...and were rejected by better finishing schools/colleges together, although she got the local college scholarship and I didn't. smiley - steam

Pity there's no smiley for breathing fire.








You know, I'm a Libra too. So much for balancing each other out...but then what can you expect with leo....


Howdy, Midnight

Post 23

Leo

Melbourne... hang on while I find my map of Astralia. I knew there was some reason I never threw it out. smiley - smiley
Yeah we do know each other. We'll be at the same college, actually. (So maybe I can just convince Tiger that she absolutely *has* to go whereever I'm going, so I can get her to pay for the taxi?) Oh smiley - bleep. I understand that you can get used to anything. Even the idea that this bus ride may be your last.


Howdy, Midnight

Post 24

Tigris, Keeper of the Gates.

Wait a seccond.

The point of taking two people in a taxi is to split the cost.



no WAY am I providing you with free transportation for ten months. I DID have to earn my pocket money myself, you know. I'm sure I'll find some other friends there.


Howdy, Midnight

Post 25

Leo

Midnight, do you really have school all year round?


Howdy, Midnight

Post 26

Tigris, Keeper of the Gates.

Isn't here anymore. We must have bored her to tears.


Howdy, Midnight

Post 27

Leo

Lunch break was probably over. G'nite Tiger. It's past my bedtime.


Howdy, Midnight

Post 28

Tigris, Keeper of the Gates.

G'nite


Howdy, Midnight

Post 29

Midnight Ice - the Daughter of a Cacophony of Chrysanthemums

Yeah, I guess you could say that we have school all year round. It begins at the end of January and ends halfway through December. In that time, we have four holiday breaks - three two-week ones and one six week one, which is from the middle of December through to the end of January - yes, you guessed it - our summer holiday, which includes Christmas and New Year and all that...smiley - biggrin


Howdy, Midnight

Post 30

Tigris, Keeper of the Gates.

I think everyone has that schedule except for us backward folk in the us.


Howdy, Midnight

Post 31

Leo


In the end, when you tally it all up, you the same amount of vacation we do, just in smaller segments. (Not so much smaller. we get 8 weeks as our longest, and you have 6.)

Gee, I guess your Christmas decor doesn't include snow covered fir trees... Or sleighs and ice skating.

Wonder what kind of school schedule they have in Europe, asia, and South America?


Howdy, Midnight

Post 32

Midnight Ice - the Daughter of a Cacophony of Chrysanthemums

Actually, a lot of Xmas decor here is Aus is actually snow-covered fir trees and rugged-up Santas. They sell spray-on snow and sticky snowflakes and everything - it's very backward...
I hope you guys are gonna be OK at your new school... why that school in particular?
And I hope there's a computer there so we can continue to correspond - this thread could get very lonely...


Howdy, Midnight

Post 33

Leo

Oh, I'd hate to leave you lonely.smiley - hug

There is a computer for email, I'm not sure about internet. Dunno what I'll do if I have to go a year without h2g2. smiley - smiley
Last resort I'll grab my laptop and find a free hotspot if I can.

Why this school? Well, I wanted to go abroad, to someplace where I could catch onto the language with less than alot of effort, preferably in a country where I have a relative to fall back on, and, as Tiger so gauchely mentioned, smiley - blush well, the other two colleges I applied to said that they'd "love to have" me "but..."

smiley - somersault pretty funny that you spray snow onto your christmas trees in the Summer... smiley - biggrinsmiley - wow

I've heard that in Europe they finish school by age 16 or 17. When do you graduate in Australia?


Howdy, Midnight

Post 34

Midnight Ice - the Daughter of a Cacophony of Chrysanthemums

In Australia we can leave school in year 10 (I think you guys call it sophomore year) if we want to, but it's strongly advised to complete years 11 and 12, which means unless you skipped a grade, you're probably going to graduate when you're 18.
Do you speak Arabic or is the school an English-speaking one?


Howdy, Midnight

Post 35

Leo

as far as I know, the native language of Israel is Hebrew. The Palestinians probably speak some strain of Arabic, but there are so many that its hardly worth learning. The school will probably be mostly Hebrew, with some English, (and anyway, whenever they need a new Hebrew word, they just hebracize the English version. Like, bibliography in Hebrew is "bibliographia".) I know passable Hebrew, (used to hang out in The Language Thing here on h2g2) and figure I'll learn more when I need to.

Which reminds me...

Why in the world do you know Japanese? smiley - huh


Howdy, Midnight

Post 36

Tigris, Keeper of the Gates.

Japan is not too far from Australia.


And you know hebrew alot better than me, and they all speak english in israel, anyway.

I'm going because my Mom insists I need more independence.

translation: I'll pay tuition, but you pay everything else. And Be carefull and don't get hurt, but meet new people and do new things too.


Oh, and don't come home if you gain a POUND!!!


well, that's my Mom for you.


Howdy, Midnight

Post 37

Midnight Ice - the Daughter of a Cacophony of Chrysanthemums

I know Japanese because I studied it at school. I've never actually been to Japan, but I really, really (times a thousand) want to go. And I love the language - it's so easy!
Nihongo wakarimasuka? Do you understand any of it?
Are you two both Jewish, or do you just know Hebrew because you're going to Israel?


Howdy, Midnight

Post 38

Leo

why doesn't the recorder count as an instrument?
and there's someone who claims to see a ghost in the "I'm gonna raise a massive theological debate: Is there a God" thread. (DONT ask smiley - winkeye)

Wish they offered us Japanese around here. The choice is pretty much spanish, french, hebrew, and some schools offer russian, so I've heard. smiley - erm No Japanese. I think Japanese people are very cool, and the way they talk- like they're talking around something in their mouth- is very cool, but I'm afraid I dont understand a word of it. smiley - sadface Wish I could. smiley - envy

Does "Nihongo wakarimasuka?" mean "Do you understand any of it?"

YOu should check out The Language Think on h2g2, I dont remember where it is or how I found it, (probably through a community page,) but it shouldn't be too hard to find. There's probably someone who speaks Japanese there.

Sorry if I'm getting too interested, but when you say that its 'easy' do you mean that the structure of the language is easy to learn? smiley - huh. Just wondering.

>>Are you two both Jewish, or do you just know Hebrew because you're going to Israel?<<

smiley - smiley a little of both. I got very eager to learn after I settled on Israel as my future destination.


Howdy, Midnight

Post 39

Midnight Ice - the Daughter of a Cacophony of Chrysanthemums

"Nihongo wakarimasuka?" means - "do you understand Japanese?"
Nihongo means "Japanese" and wakarimasu means "understand". The "ka" is just something they put on the end of sentences if they want to make it a question. If you leave the "ka" off the end, it makes the sentence a statement. smiley - biggrin
I think the structure of the language is easy, because all sentences follow the same pattern. The whole "politeness" thing and the polite language as opposed to the casual slang is more difficult to understand - there are certain things you have to say to your seniors or else they'll think you're very rude, and if you're too polite to your friends, you'll make them uncomfortable. But I love the language - I can teach you some, if you want. smiley - winkeye
At my school they offer Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, French, Latin and German. I think they used to do Russian here, ages ago, but they scrapped it because nobody was interested. Don't worry, you're not getting too interested - I don't mind talking about language because it's one of my favourite topics.
I don't think the recorder counts as an instrument because you can't really do much with it. It has a note span of about two octaves and the high notes never ever sound right - they're always squeaky. Plus, just about everybody I know, even the most unmusical of them, can play the recorder. I class it about twice as hard to learn as the kazoo.
Where's the "I'm gonna raise a massive theological debate: Is there a God" thread? Sounds interesting.
So you're Jewish? That's cool. I'm a Christian, but we had to study Judaism this year at school, so I know a little bit about it. smiley - smiley


Howdy, Midnight

Post 40

Tigris, Keeper of the Gates.


Whatever you've learned about us, you can forget about ninety percent. Ten percent is probably true, forty percent is probably completely false, ten percent is probably slanted, fifty percent is not presented with historical background or proper context, and fifty percent probably only applies to other factions.

I think that adds up to more than a hundred. Oh well, I have never been very good at math. And feel free to ask questions.


Hebrew is probably the easiest language of all. EVERYTHING makes sense. If words sound the same and have the same letters..it means the same, just in different form.


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