Today our Happy Student at Lexis Byron Bay is Sina!
Tell us a little about yourself Sina:
My name is Sina, I’m from Switzerland and I’m 21 years old. Before I came to Byron Bay I was working as a carpenter. I want to learn English because I like to travel and then you have to speak English. I have been in Byron for four weeks.
Why did you choose Byron Bay?
I chose Byron Bay because I was shown photos of the school and Byron and I wanted to go. It’s also the opposite to Switzerland, this is another reason why I wanted to go. It’s easy going and chill.
What were your weaknesses in English before you came to Australia? Tell me more about your teachers and your classes.
Some things in English were hard. My weakness would be grammer, and the use of present or past tense. I had a good teacher and funny class. Michelle is funny and so nice. How she explains everything was very good.
What was your favourite activity?
Jewellery making I think was my favourite. I liked boomerang painting too, though the skill of jewellery making is one that I can do every day.
Tell me about your accomodation/homestay…
I was staying in Suffolk Park and had a very good house mother. She is a very good cook, and would read over my essays and help me with my English. I would also ride my bike to school, it was good and I can get the money back when I sell it.
What are your favourite things to do in Byron?
I love to watch the sunrise in Byron, and I like to do the lighthouse walk.What is your most magical moment in Byron?
I think the sunrise.
What did you like the most about Lexis Byron?
Well, it’s like school. A relaxing school.What is your advice for people who are thinking about enrolling at Lexis Byron Bay?
You should go! It’s a good place to make lots of friends from everywhere.
Learn English in Byron Bay. Lexis English students study General English, IELTS, FCE, CAE and English plus Surfing and Yoga in a friendly and professional school right in the heart of Byron Bay and only 15 minutes from the beach.
Yesterday afternoon’s activity involved our favourite native Australian marsupial, excessive amounts of sugar and a whole lot of creativity!!
It was Koala Cupcake day!! 🙂
Unfortunately I missed out on the fun and deliciousness as I was away sick, but thankfully the wonderful and clever Kristy was able to step up and help out!
The end results looked great, well done!
Kristy mentioned that to get the perfect shade of grey for the icing, it helped first mixing the food colouring into a smaller bowl and then adding it to the rest of the icing mixture to prevent it from turning out too dark. A very helpful tip to remember in the future. Thanks Kristy.
After baking the cupcakes, it is important that they cool down before taking on their transformation into Koala’s. Here the students are fanning their cupcakes. 😀 After this technique proved to be too much work, they went into the fridge for a few more minutes, just to be sure they were cool enough.
Then it was time to get creative..
They look so cute and delicious! Next time we will find an alternative to the licorice bullet’s that we used for noses as apparently nobody really liked the taste of them. 🙂 But all in all I am very impressed! I hope you enjoyed eating them as much as you did making them!
~
Learn English in Byron Bay. Lexis English students study General English, IELTS, FCE, CAE and English plus Surfing or Yoga in a friendly and professional school right in the heart of Byron Bay and only 15 minutes from the beach.
We started by baking delicious chocolate almond cupcakes……..
Then while we waited for these to bake we played scattergories and some Table Tennis doubles to pass the time!
Once the cupcakes had cooled we added our butter cream icing we had earlier prepared and made grey by mixing green, red and blue food colouring!
The last step was to decorate them to look like Australia’s native animal, the cute koala!
I think the students done a great job!!!
If you’d like to give it a try yourself here’s how!
Koala Cupcakes Recipe
INGREDIENTS:
For the choc-almond cupcakes:
1 cup self-raising flour
½ cup plain flour
1 cup raw sugar
4 Tbsp cocoa
½ tsp bicarb soda
Pinch of salt
65g butter, melted
1 cup almond milk
½ tsp vanilla essence
For the buttercream icing:
200g butter, softened
2½ cups icing sugar
Grey food colouring:
5 drops blue + 5 drops red + 2 drops green
1 Tbsp almond milk, as needed
For the koala decoration:
Desiccated coconut
Pink marshmallows
Licorice
Choc chips
DIRECTIONS:
For the choc-almond cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius and line cupcake tray with cupcake papers.
In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients and mix well. Mix in melted butter. Combine milk and vanilla together, then add to dry ingredients and mix well.
Spoon the mixture evenly between prepared cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle of the cupcake comes out clean. Allow to cool on a wire rack for 15-20 minutes.
For the buttercream icing:
Using a fork, beat the butter until it is pale and fluffy.
Gradually beat in icing sugar, half a cup at a time.
Add food colouring and mix through well. Add milk, if needed to thin the mixture.
For the koala decoration:
Sprinkle the icing with coconut then assemble the features of a koala face – use pink marshmallows for the ears, licorice slices for the nose and choc chips for the eyes.
~
Learn English in Byron Bay. Lexis English students study General English, IELTS, FCE, CAE and English plus Surfing and Yoga in a friendly and professional school right in the heart of Byron Bay and only 15 minutes from the beach.
Today we baked delicious chocolate almond cupcakes with buttercream icing and decorated them to look like koalas!!
If you’d like to make these at home here’s how:
Koala Cupcakes Recipe
INGREDIENTS:
For the choc-almond cupcakes:1 cup self-raising flour
½ cup plain flour
1 cup raw sugar
4 Tbsp cocoa
½ tsp bicarb soda
Pinch of salt
65g butter, melted
1 cup almond milk
½ tsp vanilla essence
For the buttercream icing:200g butter, softened
2½ cups icing sugar
Grey food colouring:
5 drops blue + 5 drops red + 2 drops green
1 Tbsp almond milk, as needed
For the koala decoration:
Desiccated coconut
Pink marshmallows
Licorice
Choc chips
DIRECTIONS:
For the choc-almond cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius and line cupcake tray with cupcake papers.
In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients and mix well. Mix in melted butter. Combine milk and vanilla together, then add to dry ingredients and mix well.
Spoon the mixture evenly between prepared cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle of the cupcake comes out clean. Allow to cool on a wire rack for 15-20 minutes.
For the buttercream icing:
Using a fork, beat the butter until it is pale and fluffy.
Gradually beat in icing sugar, half a cup at a time.
Add food colouring and mix through well. Add milk, if needed to thin the mixture.
For the koala decoration:
Sprinkle the icing with coconut then assemble the features of a koala face – use pink marshmallows for the ears, licorice slices for the nose and choc chips for the eyes.
~
Learn English in Byron Bay. Lexis English students study General English, IELTS, FCE, CAE and English plus Surfing and Yoga in a friendly and professional school right in the heart of Byron Bay and only 15 minutes from the beach.
Desiccated coconut
Pink marshmallows
Silver balls
Writing icing
Any other decorations you fancy! For the cookie dough:
Whisk together the coconut oil, rice syrup, sugar and vanilla, until it’s well combined and fluffy.
Mix in the almond flour, salt and baking soda.
Roll small pieces (about a teaspoon) of dough into balls and place on a tray lined with baking paper. Put them in the freezer for 10 minutes to firm up, which will make dipping them in the chocolate easier.
For the chocolate:
Melt all the ingredients in the microwave for 1-2 minutes and whisk together until smooth and well combined. Using a toothpick, dip each ball into the chocolate and then place back on the tray. (You can either leave the toothpick in or take it out after you’ve dipped it in chocolate).
For the Koala decorations:
Decorate the balls like Koalas! For example, cover the chocolate with coconut for the fur, use pink marshmallows for the ears, silver balls and/or writing icing for the eyes, nose and mouth. Or get creative and decorate however you like!
Put the koalas in the freezer until the chocolate is set, then eat them all!
~
Learn English in Byron Bay. Lexis English students study General English, IELTS, FCE, CAE and English plus Surfing in a friendly and professional school right in the heart of Byron Bay and only 15 minutes from the beach.
Richard and Vanessa are from Brazil and travelled to Australia together to study at Lexis Byron Bay. They have been here for nine weeks now and are enrolled to study with us for a total of 24 weeks. They then hope to extend their stay by continuing their studies at Lexis with a Business course later in the year.
At the famous Byron Bay Lighthouse
Enjoying the view and spotting some dolphins
On the boardwalk along the coastline
Richard has always dreamt of living in a different country and experiencing a different culture. When the two of them realised the importance of learning English to further their careers, they decided to study English in Australia. In Brazil, having a higher level of English often means better opportunities for jobs.
First day at school – Richard and Vanessa starting with five other new students
Both Vanessa and Richard are enjoying their time in Byron Bay. For Vanessa, one of her favourite parts of living here are the beautiful beaches. She said that even if you go to the same beach every day, each day is completely different – whether it be the water, the sky, or the sunset, it is a different place every day. She finds the beaches here very peaceful. She also loves the night sky in Byron Bay, with so many stars that can be seen so clearly, it is a beautiful night view. Richard is a big fan of the famous Byron Bay Lighthouse. He enjoys the walk through the National Park area, which always delivers close encounters with the local wildlife including wallabies, rabbits, whales, dolphins, parrots, bush turkeys, lizards and turtles. Richard has been impressed by the respect that Australians show for wildlife in this country, which he feels is a huge cultural difference between here and Brazil.
Vanessa playing in the Table Tennis Tournament
Richard learning to Skateboard
Richard and some of his teammates in the Soccer Challenge against another Byron Bay school
Having been studying for nine weeks already, both Richard and Vanessa feel that their English has greatly improved already. They both agreed that studying at Lexis has really helped them improve their grammar skills, and that meeting other students and people in Byron Bay has helped them improve their speaking skills as they use English in all their social situations. Vanessa has found all the people in Byron Bay to be very friendly and believes we live in a little piece of paradise. Richard would recommend others to study here as it is a unique experience and life is short! Both said that the staff at Lexis, both in the office and all the teachers, are all gentle, kind, helpful and friendly too. They have both learnt a lot from their teachers and find that each teacher helps them to understand English in new ways.
Baking some Aussie Cookies – Anzac Biscuits
Richard playing ‘Aussie Heads’ at Coffee Club
Vanessa and Richard painting Boomerangs
Richard, Vanessa and fellow Brazilian Paola with their finished Boomerangs
When they first arrived, Richard and Vanessa lived with a Homestay family for the first two months. They thoroughly enjoyed this experience, as they felt very at home with their host family who were very friendly and great cooks! Initially they found it a bit difficult to adapt to the cultural differences and different house rules compared to Brazil, but before long they had settled in and quickly felt as though they were part of the family. They have just moved into a rental property – right next door to their host family. They have been lucky enough to share their property with an Australia local too – a friendly koala who is living in a tree in their garden!
Vanessa and Richard enjoyed Coffee, TimTams and conversation at Coffee Club
After completing their current English course, Vanessa and Richard hope to continue studying here for an extra six months before travelling around Australia. They would like to visit Tasmania, Cairns, the Outback, Sydney, Melbourne and many other places across the country before returning to Brazil and to work.
We are very happy to have you both in the Lexis Family at Byron Bay and hope you continue to enjoy your time here at school, in Byron Bay and wherever your travels eventually take you! 🙂
~
Learn English in Byron Bay. Lexis English students study General English, IELTS, FCE, CAE and English plus Surfing in a friendly and professional school right in the heart of Byron Bay and only 15 minutes from the beach.
This afternoon we baked chocolate-almond cupcakes, covered them with a sweet buttercream icing, then decorated them to look like koalas!
They were fun to make and delicious to eat.
If you want to try them at home, check out the recipe below!
Koala Cupcakes Recipe
INGREDIENTS:
For the choc-almond cupcakes:
1 cup self-raising flour
½ cup plain flour
1 cup raw sugar
4 Tbsp cocoa
½ tsp bicarb soda
Pinch of salt
65g butter, melted
1 cup almond milk
½ tsp vanilla essence
For the buttercream icing:
200g butter, softened
2½ cups icing sugar
Grey food colouring:
5 drops blue + 5 drops red + 2 drops green
1 Tbsp almond milk, as needed
For the koala decoration:
Desiccated coconut
Pink marshmallows
Licorice
Choc chips
DIRECTIONS:
For the choc-almond cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius and line cupcake tray with cupcake papers.
In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients and mix well. Mix in melted butter. Combine milk and vanilla together, then add to dry ingredients and mix well.
Spoon the mixture evenly between prepared cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle of the cupcake comes out clean. Allow to cool on a wire rack for 15-20 minutes.
For the buttercream icing:
Using a fork, beat the butter until it is pale and fluffy.
Gradually beat in icing sugar, half a cup at a time.
Add food colouring and mix through well. Add milk, if needed to thin the mixture.
For the koala decoration:
Sprinkle the icing with coconut then assemble the features of a koala face – use pink marshmallows for the ears, licorice slices for the nose and choc chips for the eyes.
🙂
~
Learn English in Byron Bay. Lexis English students study General English, IELTS, FCE, CAE and English plus Surfing in a friendly and professional school right in the heart of Byron Bay and only 15 minutes from the beach.
What is your most magical moment in Byron?
What is your advice for people who are thinking about enrolling at Lexis Byron Bay?
