My Trips to Japan, England and "Schoolies Week"

My name is Kate Wiley, I’m almost 18, and I’m a first year student at Central Queensland University in Australia. I’m studying for a Bachelor of Communications, majoring in Journalism.

I don’t think that I’ve done too badly travel-wise considering my age. The fact that I have PKU has never stopped me going anywhere I want to. I’ve travelled overseas to England, Wales and Japan. Also, in Australia there is a ‘celebration’ called Schoolies Week for high school graduates. Most people go to the beach in this time, and a very popular place to go is the very well known, very hip Gold Coast. I graduated high school in 2000, and I went to the Gold Coast with 7 friends for a week.

Both my mother and father are English, so I’ve been there twice. I couldn’t believe how many food and drink products have aspartame in them! I had to be very, very careful with what I ate and drank – even bottled water had aspartame!

The only time though that there was any problem that was big was when I went to England the first time, when I was 10. I was very jet-lagged and I refused to eat. That was soon overcome.

I had a wonderful time when I was in England, and we went and did all the touristy things – watched the Changing of the Guards and Buckingham Palace, I went horse riding in Hyde Park, went shopping (or more like looking, it was so expensive!) in Harrods, and lots more too.

My experience in Japan was exactly that – an experience. I had a lot of difficulty understanding what was in food that I wanted to eat. I’m fortunate in that I do speak some Japanese, so I could understand a little bit. I was on a school trip, so I didn’t have my parents there to help me.

The Japanese eat a lot of fish and not so many vegetables, so I certainly found some difficulty there. We ate mostly traditional meals because we were staying in Youth Hostels, and they try to keep it traditional to give backpackers the experience of traditional Japanese meals. I ate mostly rice, in small portions, and when they were available, vegetables (which wasn’t very often). I also ate a lot of McDonald’s fries and hash browns in the bigger cities such as Tokyo and Kyoto because I got very sick of rice, and I know how much phe is in McDonald’s food. In Tokyo we walked past a Kudamono-ya (fruit shop) and there was a small watermelon for sale for $275! We all stopped and stared and took photos to prove it.

I stayed with a host family for a few days in a city called Fuji-shi. They were wonderful. They were already aware that I have PKU. As soon as they met me they took me to the supermarket (which was a rather big culture shock for me – I didn’t realise that a Japanese ‘suupaa’ would be so different from an Australian supermarket!). We walked around and I picked out foods that I could eat and then I showed my host mother how to cook them. Although it was difficult, it was an experience that I gained a lot from.

In November 2000 I went to the Gold Coast for a week-long celebration of the end of 12 long years of schooling. For schoolies week, which I’m sure a lot of you won’t know about, the Gold Coast is the place to be. They have huge street parties, dance parties on the main beach that go all night and a lot of the night clubs open up to people under the age of 18.

I stayed in a lovely hotel with 7 of my friends, none of whom have PKU. I thought that it would actually be easy for me, because there were 2 other vegetarians besides myself.

The vegetarians split from everyone else and we did our own shopping. We had a money limit, and whenever I picked something up that they didn’t like they’d say, "Do you really need that?" I usually did, because I couldn’t eat a lot of what they were buying (stuff that was still high in protein), but I was too scared to say so. One person in particular really had no understanding or tolerance for my diet. I tried to explain it to her, but I found it difficult because I didn’t know her well. In the end I went off and did some shopping by myself and bought stuff like mushrooms, carrots, tomatoes and some reasonably low pro biscuits for snacks. When everyone else ate the food that I bought because there was nothing else I could have I cracked up. The response I got was "Your special diet is just a made up attention-seeking ploy." That remark quite hurt me, and after that I spent a lot of time alone. I took walks along the beach, I went swimming and I took surfing lessons. At nights I went into Cavill Avenue (party central on schoolies) with the guys in the group, who were always really nice and understanding of my diet. I still had a great time on schoolies, and I hope to go again this year, even though I’m not a school leaver. This time though, I intend to go with friends who will understand my needs.

With all my travelling there was always cold water available, so I took tins of Maxamum and a shaker and took my formula after breakfast and after dinner.

Flying was never a problem, we found that the airlines were always willing to make up a special meal for me if they were told in advance, and the meals were usually pretty good, too.

I think that I’ve definitely been fortunate to have travelled as much as I have my almost 18 years. I intend to travel a lot more, which is partly reflected in my career choice as a journalist. When I graduate from university I would like to travel around USA and Europe.