The Southport School (TSS) 2019

Week 1: Upon arrival in Gold Coast, we went to Surfers Paradise to see what the Pacific had to offer. We walked around and explored the city and the beach and attempted to catch some waves. We unloaded our bags in our home for the next 4 weeks in the McKinley house and were immediately greeted by the boarders.
It was a different experience for us both, but we adapted very easily and made friends quickly.
The first week, we went to school and witnessed high school education outside of the US.
On the weekend and we watched the first GPS rugby match against TSS rival, Nudgee.

   

AA Boeing 787-9 LAX--> SYD

Surfers Paradise                                                                              Landing in Sydney

House shirts TSS Clock Tower

Rugby vs Nudgee

Week 2: During the second week, we took time off of school to visit our host family’s farm in Beaudesert. Feeding cows and horses, we experienced the country life of rural Queensland. We spent another day at Surfers Paradise soaking in the amazing view and swimming in the rather cold ocean. We obviously could not get enough of the water, so our host families took us out on their boats to go tubing on the Nerang River and also jet skiing. Later that evening we experienced a Gold Coast Suns AFL match.

AFL Match Baeudesert

Will(left) Richie(right)

Boating trip on the Nerang River McKinley House

Week 3: We were able to experience what TSS classes had to offer this week and were able to orient ourselves around the school. We got closer to the natives and made many friends we spent time with for the rest of our stay both in and out of the boarding house. With Richie’s birthday this week, we celebrated at Movie World and Sea World where we rode massive roller coasters and at a restaurant called Betty’s Burgers with the host families. The next night we went to Top Golf for some fun golfing with the boys. The last weekend, we traveled to Byron Bay in New South Wales to witness the hippie lifestyle and shop in the stores along the beach. 

Betty's Burgers

Byron Bay Beach

                                   Light House (Byron Bay)






Light house (Byron Bay)

Sea World

Movie World



















Week 4: For our final week, we met with the TSS headmaster to recap our experience at the school. Having Will’s birthday that week, we celebrated by going to the Hard Rock Cafe. We could not leave Australia without seeing and petting a Kangaroo and Koala, so we went down to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary and carried Koalas and chilled with the kangaroos. During our last day of classes we had our heartfelt goodbyes and Richie had his Australian flag signed by many of his closest friends at TSS. Friday morning, we left for Coolangatta airport and prepared ourselves to leave paradise. We would like to thank the Warner family for providing the funds for this journey, Mr. Gioia for selecting us, and Ms. Scholer for organizing literally everything. This was a trip of a lifetime. Thank you TSS!

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary

Last night dinner with the best mates.