Reflections

The past two weeks have gone by faster than any two weeks I can remember. Two weekends ago we had a massive heat wave. We made the most of Saturday by heading out to Manly Beach, which is across the harbour from the Opera House. It took us almost two hours to get out there via bus and ferry, and once we did, it was incredibly crowded. It was a short walk from the ferry station out to the beach, and it was a beautiful stretch of sand against that amazing, definitively Australian color of blue that the ocean is down here. We laid out our towels and enjoyed a lovely beach day. I even went for a swim, but the waves were HUGE and the current was really strong. And there was lots of little bits of seaweed in the water, and lots of sand that got stuck EVERYWHERE. It was so nice to spend the day laying out in the sun, reading and listening to music. When the sun started dropping below the trees, we headed into town, where there was a street market that we walked through for awhile. It was a very nice day. The next day was so incredibly hot that we stayed inside as much as we could. However, the intensity of everyone blasting their A/C kept causing the power to go out, which was a pain in the butt. So we decided to escape the apartment by going to the movies at the mall across the street. The only problem with that plan - you think movies are expensive in America? The student price is $15 here!!! Outrageous. But we saw The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (which I think has yet to come out in the states). It's the movie Heath Ledger was in the middle of filming when he died. It was really good, we all liked it a lot. And it was nice and air conditioned in there.

At some point in the last few weeks (I can't remember exactly when) we had a big apartment-wide BBQ potluck up on our porch. It was really fun! My roommate Alli did all the grilling - we had steak and chicken, and corn on the cob. And the girls downstairs made a great salad, and there was a veggie platter, too. It was great to have us all together, too, and it was nice to know that we had put it together on our own. We shared stories about our placements and just took a break from lesson planning to enjoy some delicious food and good company.

This past week has been a good one as well, especially with Thanksgiving on Thursday. It did not, however, feel like Thanksgiving at all. First of all, last week was pretty warm. And secondly, we didn't get any time off. They had a big dinner for us Thursday night, though, which was really nice. It was strange to eat Thanksgiving dinner so late, and to have Thanksgiving Dinner after a day at school, but the food was delicious. The turkey was moist and really good, and the mashed potatoes were fantastic. There was also stuffing, which was ok, and corn and green beans that were pretty good, too. There was lots of wine and general merriment. The only bummer was that the dessert was not up to par. There was 'pumpkin pie' that did not taste like pumpkin at all. There was also apple pie, but it was kind of strange, too. The apple bits were really small cubes, and there was this frosting under the crust that tasted like cinnamon bun frosting. Interesting. They even had butcher paper up where we could write what we were thankful for. It was really nice to have the Thanksgiving dinner, but I missed real Thanksgiving. I missed playing flag football Thursday morning with our family friends, I missed watching the Macy's Day Parade, and most of all, watching football - which I've been missing for awhile now, but it really hit home on Thanksgiving. I missed the cold weather, even, despite how nice it is here. I think I'm actually ready to come home to winter. But missing all of those things reminded me of was how thankful I actually am to be here. I'm thankful for having the opportunity to spend a semester in Australia student teaching, I'm thankful for all the great people in my life, I'm thankful for having such great cooperating teachers who are making this experience so great, I'm thankful for having such a great support network back home and in Boston, and for international calling cards and internet that have allowed me to retain my sanity by keeping in touch with them. I'm thankful for all the amazing experiences I have had this semester, and for the fact that my parents are on a plane right now on their way to visit me! And much much more.

I'm also starting to get really excited for Christmas, although it feels weird to be getting ready for Christmas when the weather is getting hotter instead of colder. On Friday Sam and I went down to the Rocks Markets by Moonlight - every weekend there are these great markets down in the Rocks, and since November (since the weather has gotten nicer) they have started also having the markets on Friday nights. It was a beautiful night, and there was a live band that was awesome. Yellowtail wines were sponsoring the event, too, and had a free wine tasting booth. It was really nice, and I definitely plan on going back before I leave, probably with my parents when they're here. Then, on Saturday, Trinity had their Family Fiesta, an annual carnival-type event where there are rides, games, food, and more. It was incredible!! It was a really hot day, but we still headed over to school for a couple of hours. It was fun to see our students outside of class, and Sam even pied one of the other teachers in the face for a fundraiser. After the fiesta, I met Haley, Alli, and Jac downtown. We walked around a bit, grabbed some food, and did some window shopping. We then caught the ferry from Circular Quay out to Luna Park, which is Sydney's famous amusement park. I have to say we were a bit disappointed. It was pretty small, there were only a few rides, and it was SO expensive - $40 for an unlimited ride pass. Considering how few rides there were, we decided it wasn't worth it. But there was a great view of the city from Luna Park (it's across the harbour on the other side of the bridge), and we were glad to have gone and checked it out. We then took the ferry over to Darling Harbour, where they were having their tree lighting festival. We got gelato and just sat around the Harbour, enjoying the beautiful weather and waiting for them to light the tree. There was also a concert, but we were too far away to see it. Then, they finally lit the tree - it was a very strange tree. It wasn't actually a tree (I don't think), just a lighted structure that was shaped like a tree. It was also strangely colored - purple and green and blue, and it had little kangaroo shaped lights that lit up in a way that makes it look like a kangaroo is hopping up the tree. But then - there were these AMAZING fireworks!! At first, only a few went off. We had been sitting there for awhile waiting for them to light the tree, and it was a bit anti-climactic that there were only like 5 fireworks. So we kept waiting, hoping more would come. After another 20 minutes, I was ready to head home, but Alli suggested we wait another 5. I'm so glad we did. The fireworks started up again, this time choreographed to christmas carols. It was so incredibly well done and gorgeous. And there were so many fireworks!!! It was certainly one of the best fireworks shows I've ever seen. Absolutely phenomenal. And when I got home, I got to talk to my friend Kelly in London for an hour and a half, which was so great. She's also doing her student teaching, so we got to share stories and catch up, as it was the first time we'd really gotten to talk all semester. So all in all, a fantastic weekend.

And now, the time that, not so long ago, felt lightyears away has arrived. I'm in my last week of student teaching. How this happened, I cannot say. I remember, right before spring break, frantically trying to plan my units, thinking how many lessons I would need to plan between then and the end of the term. Between then and now. I only have two more lessons to plan, which is certainly exciting in it's own right - lesson planning hasn't been my favorite part of this experience. Though I will be glad to have an extended break from lesson planning (and yes, I do realize that lesson planning is inevitably my whole future), I will miss what lesson planning turns into - the actual lessons. Especially now that I have achieved a level of relative comfort in the classroom, and a real rapport with my students. Through my term of observing and teaching at Trinity, I have learned so much. It's been a rather challenging experience in many ways, but extremely rewarding. I am incredibly lucky to have been paired with such excellent, helpful, and nice cooperating teachers. They are committed to helping me learn and grow from my experiences, and have been so supportive throughout this whole term. I've taught quite a few things that were completely new to me - I've had to learn much more than I've had to teach. Though it was certainly challenging, I've learned so much. Not only about academic areas in which I had little or no knowledge (I am now a pro on vampire fiction) but also that I'm capable of creating a unit on a topic that I've had to quickly teach myself. It's the good kind of challenging that spits you out at the other end a more confident and capable person. After this experience, I really feel that I might be ready (or at least, a whole heck of a lot closer to ready) to be a real teacher. Being so involved in this school has made me want my own classroom and my own students so badly - I want to actually be a part of a school community. Trinity has been very welcoming, but at the same time, we know that we're only here for this term. I have a lot of thinking to do about what I want to do after I graduate - will I crave teaching and want to get a job straight away? Or would I rather go to grad school first, and get all my schooling out of the way? One thing this semester has done is solidify my desire to teach. I knew I wanted to teach, but now that I have taught, I know that I love it.

Teaching on my own isn't the only thing I've done for the first time this semester. Being abroad has been one of the most freeing and inspiring experiences of my life. That sounds so empty and cliche, but it truly has. The list of firsts for me here is growing longer by the day... and I've learned how to do things on my own. I've always been socially dependent on others. I just crave the company of others, and would typically choose to do something with a pal over going it alone. But I've learned to be more comfortable flying solo. Since I've been in Oz, I went scuba diving for the first time, tried new foods, learned how to surf, chopped off my hair, learned how to make paper cranes, and much much more. I've had to try to bake in a microwave, pick up all sorts of strange slang terms, and survive a semester with only 5 TV channels (gasp!) and crazy spastic internet. It's been an amazing past 3 months - and I'm unbelievably glad I decided to come abroad this semester. But I'm ready to come home. As exciting as it will be to come home to my family, friends, the food network, and unlimited internet (that almost always works), I'll miss a lot of things about this country, too. I'll miss the accents, and all those silly slang terms I was talking about. I'll miss the beautiful beaches and the softest sand I've ever felt in my life. I'll miss the weekend markets, and the crazy thunderstorms. I'll miss the Tim Tams, of course, although I hear they have made their way to the US - I'll certainly be on the lookout for them. I'll miss my students (well, some of them), and the other teachers at Trinity who have been so friendly and welcoming to Sam and me.

But my adventures don't end here. So maybe the next few years won't include crazy weekend trips to the Outback, or 2 day cruises on the Great Barrier Reef. But they will include one last semester at BU, graduating from college (yikes!), going out into the real world, getting my first job, graduating from grad school (double yikes!) and who knows what else. I'm looking forward to the holidays, and getting to be with my family again, and to returning to Boston in January to see my friends that I have missed so much while I've been here. I'm ready to go back and make the most of my last semester, so that when graduation comes, I will feel about college the way I feel now about this semester - that the experience has been incredible and indescribable, and I definitely want to come back some day, but for now, I'm ready to come home.

Works of Art

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post! The past two weeks have absolutely flown by. Yesterday was the one month mark - I fly back to the US on December 14, and I can't believe that's now less than a month away. I still feel like there are so many things I want to do before I leave - go to Luna Park, go back to Olympic Park and really check it out, walk around Bondi Junction, go to Manly beach, go to Paddington Market... and the list goes on. But I still have four weeks, so if I manage my time wisely, that's all still possible. Teaching is still going well. I feel most confident with my year 8 class - they're a good group of boys, and I feel like they are actually learning something from me, which is a great feeling. My year 11 class, on the other hand, are giving me a bit more trouble. But it's certainly developing my classroom management skills, which were nonexistent when I first started teaching, so I guess that's a good thing. But with only three more weeks in the classroom, the end is in sight, which is a very strange feeling, because I still kind of feel like I just started.

Last weekend, my roommates and I went out to Bondi to see Sculpture by the Sea, an annual exhibit of public art that is displayed along the cliff walk between Bondi and Tamarama Beaches. It was awesome. We went on a beautiful day, which made it that much better. The art itself was really cool, but the most amazing part was seeing it with the ocean and beaches as a backdrop. There were also so many sculptures! We walked around them for about an hour or so, and then laid out on the beach for awhile. The next day Maria and I went to the Newtown festival (Newtown is the neighborhood next to ours) for a little while, which was also really cool. The only bummer was the weather - though Saturday had been gorgeous, Sunday was misty and rainy - not the best weather for walking around an outdoor festival. There were SO many booths with crafts and clothes and hats and art and food... it was very cool. On the way there, Maria got me thinking about cutting my hair: you're abroad, you're returning to Boston in the spring for your last semester, you're starting new... don't you want a new look? But I loved my long hair, it was one of my favorite things about myself, and I tried every excuse in the book - even that I couldn't just cut my hair because I'm a teacher and I have students. Maria of course countered that by telling me that was the lamest argument she'd ever heard (which I knew, it was lame). But I couldn't wrap my mind around cutting off all my hair. Until I thought about donating it to Locks of Love. And then I started actually thinking about it. I had had my hair long for such a long time. And it had been so long since I'd gotten it cut that the split ends were everywhere. So I decided to do it. All of this past week I tried to picture myself without my long hair, enjoying the last of its beauty. And Friday, when I got home from school, I did it. I spent a bit of time looking online for cheap places to get my haircut - if I haven't blogged enough about this, everything is SO expensive here! The cheapest haircut at a good salon was $60! We finally found the Australian equivalent of SuperCuts - Just Cuts, and it was in the mall across the street from our apartment to boot! So my roommate and I headed over, me with ziplock bag in tow, to get our haircuts. The girl who cut my hair didn't seem very nice, at first, which made me nervous. She actually kind of looked like the girl in Love Actually who is the secretary to Alan Rickman... but she turned out to be fine. She gathered my hair into a ponytail, and used a razor to make the first cut - my roommate Alli who was getting her haircut a couple of seats over waited to start her cut until she'd seen me through that first step. But it actually wasn't that bad. It was as if I was expecting it to hurt or something. But then it was gone, and that was that. I put the ponytail into the ziplock bag and let her cut the rest of it. It ended up being a good deal shorter than I thought it was going to be, but she did a great job. It was exactly what I wanted (the style, if not the length), and I love it. My head feels so much lighter (and I'm definitely going to save a lot of money on conditioner!) It's like the inverse of the Samson and Delilah story - cutting off my hair, though it was long and beautiful and I loved it - was something I needed to do, to boost my confidence and to teach myself that change is good. My roommates love it - they say they like it better than my long hair. I'm not ready to say that yet, though I do like it, and I know that it will grow on me as time goes on. I washed it this morning, and it dries beautifully all by itself, which is great, because i was nervous that I would have to blowdry it with a round brush to get it to look the way it did when I first got it cut. And I'm excited to figure out things I can do with it - since I can't really get it into a ponytail. As Jane said, I can make a punytail. I have a feeling that bobby pins are going to become my new best friends - not that they weren't already, but even more so. Though I'm starting to get used to it, I still freak out a tiny bit when I see myself in a mirror - but in a good way. I'm nervous about going to school - I wonder if my students will even notice? I mean, they are boys... But so far, everyone has proclaimed to love it, which is good, because I do too :)

Yesterday a group of us went to see an all female cast put on The Taming of the Shrew at the Opera House Playhouse, which was great. And today was the Glebe Street Fair, another festival similar to the Newtown festival we went to last weekend. There was all sorts of cool stuff, and we spent a couple of hours this morning walking around and checking stuff out. And we just had our whole apartment complex over for a potluck barbeque - we went all out and got steaks and everything. It was really nice! We sat outside on our porch, and even though it almost started to rain, it was a great time. Now for the penultimate episode of Australian Idol...

Some photos from the Sculptures by the Sea exhibit, and a couple shots of my new haircut :)

Update

And another week has come and gone! Time goes by so quickly here! This week at school was great; a bit more of a challenge than last week, but I think that's a good thing. I had a few lessons this week that weren't great, but I did also have a couple of gems. But with every lesson that is less than ideal, I learn a lot; unfortunately for my students, it's good for me to make some mistakes. I still need to work on slowing down, of course - that's my main goal for this week. I've been keeping a journal, in which I write after every lesson I teach, reflecting on what went well, what didn't work, what I need to work on in the future, and the pointers my teachers gave me. I was also observed this week, both by Mark, and by Professor White. They both said good things about my lessons (and I do have to admit, they probably saw a couple of the better lessons of the week), and Professor White gave me a lot of great tips that will help me immensely in the future. On Monday, I introduced "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe to my year 8 class, which, in all honesty, is probably a bit above their ability level. But I didn't do the best job of introducing it, and I felt that the lesson fell a bit flat. I was a little disheartened. But for our next lesson, I tried to update it a little bit, and I showed them several YouTube videos of readings by James Earl Jones and Christopher Walken, and the Simpsons episode in which they did "The Raven." That seemed to get them more into it, and I think they really understood, which was great. When we were talking about the themes of the poem, I gave them a couple of minutes to discuss with their neighbors what they thought some of the themes might be, and then I asked for students to raise their hands and tell me what they came up with. Almost every student raised their hand - it felt like a real accomplishment. And they all had great answers. That was definitely a high point in my week. And this was also the lesson that Professor White observed, and he told me that he thought the videos went over really well, and I have to agree. Any time you can get a visual or audio supplement with text, especially with boys, is a huge help. I'm going to be doing some old English poetry with my year 11s this week, and I'm going to show them some YouTube readings of the poems as well. It'll keep them engaged and give them a break from hearing my voice. And I finally figured out which sport I am going to be involved with at school - it's not basketball, like I originally thought, but rather swimming, which is great! It's school swimming, so it's kind of like PE, as opposed to competitive swimming - although Trinity did win the CAS swimming competition this year (that's their conference). But I am glad to be doing something that I'm a bit more familiar with. It'll be a good way to get to know the boys outside of class, as well. And I guess they were kind of short handed during the periods that I'm going to help, so they were very grateful for my participation. And it's always a good thing to feel appreciated.

This weekend was Halloween, of course, although it's not the same here as it is in the US. Kids don't trick or treat, really... at least not most of them. And there's no candy corn or caramel apples or foliage because it's not fall here. Which is a bit weird. But the BU Sydney Program had a Halloween Party for us, which was really fun. There was trivia, and a costume contest, and a few appetizers. My roommates and I dressed up as the Sea Princesses, which is a cartoon we stumbled upon last weekend when we were flipping channels. After doing some research, it turns out it's actually a Brazilian TV show that has been translated into English and airs here in Australia. Most people at the party didn't know who we were, but we still had fun. On the show, there are lots of sea princesses that each identify with a different sea creature, but the three of us were the three main girls - an octopus, a shark, and a starfish. I was the starfish. Our costumes turned out to be great, and though we won neither trivia nor the costume contest, it was still a fun party. We then went out to the Argyle, one of the clubs down in the rocks, where lots of people were dressed up. It was a pretty fun night, although it wasn't much compared to the scale of an American Halloween.

I absolutely cannot believe it's November already. It's crazy. And in Australia, that means its time for Christmas decorations. Which is even more nuts because it's finally starting to get hotter. I think one of the girls in the internship program said we have something like 40 days left, which just seems insane. Though I do feel comfortable here now (I mean, I've been here for two full months), I still kind of feel like I just got here, and I can't believe we only have 6 weeks left. Oh, and they don't call McDonald's Mackers, like I said before, but rather Macca's. That was just my inability to understand their accents. I finally saw it written out in a TV ad and was blown away. Hopefully next weekend we can make it out to the beach - there's a big sculpture festival along the cliff walk between Bondi and Tamarama Beaches until November 15, and I would love to see that. On the docket tonight: making dinner and watching Australian Idol - they're down to the last 5 now! One of the contestants is a teacher, so we're really rooting for him. He's quite good, too. I miss you all very very much!

First Week of Teaching!

My first week of student teaching is complete!! And it went pretty well! I didn't end up teaching on Monday, which was great, because I got to observe my teachers with their classes before I stepped in. So Tuesday was my first day, and I've taught every day since then and will be teaching every day from now on until the end of term! My first lesson went pretty well, except that there was a slight technology dysfunction as my USB flash drive wasn't working, so I couldn't put my outlines up on the projector like I had planned. It was fine, I worked around it by writing them on the board, but I think it would have been a more effective lesson if I had them on the projector like I wanted. Having to write on the board detracted from the outline itself because I didn't want to take the time to write the whole thing out, and it also detracted from my lecturing, because I had to write on the board while I was talking. But it turned out fine, and my teacher said it went well. He's been giving me lots of pointers about classroom management, which is the part that I need to work on the most. It's also the part I was most nervous about, so I'm not so surprised that it needs the most work. However, my teacher did say that I was good at explaining things, and that he can tell that I have a mastery of the subject of English. After my last lesson, he said that he can tell that the students respect me as a teacher, and that they can tell they're in good hands, since I know the material so well. So that was very comforting to hear. But I need to focus on slowing down (of course, and especially with my accent), and pausing at times to make sure everyone is with me. But every time my teacher gives me hints about classroom management, he prefaces it by saying that by no means was my lesson bad, but here are just some ways it could be better. So that's good. So far, no bad lessons. With my year 8s, we're doing narrative poetry, so for my first lesson I wrote a poem about myself and had them analyze it for poetic techniques like similes and metaphors. Then they had to write their own poems, so I'm excited to collect and read those tomorrow. And with my year 11 advanced class, they have a big standardized test coming up in a few weeks, so we've mostly been prepping for that. It's not the most exciting thing to teach, but it's good to learn how to teach it. I've really had to push myself to come up with interesting ways to teach multiple choice strategies and in-class worksheets without being too tedious or boring. But each lesson I teach gets better, and I'm becoming more confident in the classroom, which will help my classroom management as well. I realized on Thursday that I feel about learning to teach the way I felt about learning to drive back when I was 15 - I don't want to go through the learning process, I just want to know how! But I know that the learning process is important, and that these next few weeks will probably shape who I will be as a teacher for the rest of my life. My students are really good, for the most part; I have a few that are rather talkative, but that's just something I have to learn how to deal with. I have also been really productive at school; I only teach about 3 periods a day, sometimes only two, so I have a lot of time at school where I can just sit at my desk and do work. I've been getting a lot done, doing almost all of my lesson planning during my off periods, so I don't have to bring my work home with me, which is nice. When I get back from school I can just relax and wind down, which is really great. I'm also starting to get to know the other teachers in the English department, and they're all really nice. One of them is teaching To Kill A Mockingbird, and she asked if I would come into her class one day and talk about the American aspect of it. And I am hopefully going to start getting involved in sports next week - maybe coaching basketball or something. I also get a wee bit of a break this coming week, because the Year 11s are at camp on Monday and Tuesday, and since two of my classes are Year 11, I only have to teach my Year 8s on Monday and Tuesday this week. So that will give me a lot of time to get ahead in my lesson planning, which is great. It will also allow me some time to work on marking (grading) some work I've collected, with my teacher, of course.

This weekend has been nice and relaxing. Friday night, my roommate Yenting and I went down to the Noodle Markets in Hyde Park - it's good food month here in Sydney, so all this past week, a lot of the asian restaurants in the city have had booths down in Hyde Park and had cheaper versions of their noodle dishes. So we finally made it down on Friday, and oh my goodness it was PACKED! There were so many people!! And so many different restaurants to choose from! We ended up picking the one with the shortest line, but the food was really good! We also got gelato, too, which was delicious as well. I had coconut lychee. It was very refreshing. It was a beautiful night, too, so it was nice to be out and about, even if it was just for a bit. We then headed back home for a night of relaxing and watching TV - they show really funny old movies on Friday nights on the free TV channels, so it's pretty entertaining. We watched the end of Election, a 1999 movie with Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick. It was pretty bad. But also pretty funny. Saturday, I slept in a little (well, slept in for me), and then caught up on Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice. Then Yenting and I headed out to the Chippendale Food For the Future festival (Chippendale is the neighborhood we live in). It was pretty small, but they had some cool stuff - a lot of booths with information about sustainability - and we got some really good sausages for lunch. Then we headed over to the Glebe markets, which are right around the corner from our apartment. They happen every Saturday, and I keep missing them, so I was really excited that we got to go. They have so much cool stuff there! They have these awesome wind chimes that are made from old teapots with spoons and forks as the chimes, and there were these great big wooden frames, that had spots for lots of pictures. Neither of those explanations really seem to do them justice (so maybe I'm only good at explaining things when they are English terms...), but they were awesome. There's also a ton of really cool jewelry - I got a really cute ring, and some cool earrings, and Yenting got a really cute dress, too. After the Glebe markets, we went down to Paddy's Market for some fresh fruit and veg for the week. I got some apples to bring to school, and veggies to make stir fry later this week, and some fresh tomatoes and basil - yum. Then for dinner last night, I went out to an Indian restaurant called Posh Spice out in Newtown, which is another of Sydney's neighborhoods, for one of the girls in the internship program's birthday. I have to admit, I was a little nervous to try Indian food, especially since I know I don't like curry, but it was actually delicious!! They also had bollywood dancing there, and Meggie, the birthday girl, got to go up and dance with them. It was very entertaining. We then went out to a club in Kings Cross to go dancing. It was really fun! And today my roommates and I were going to go down to the Chinese Gardens in Darling Harbour, because they're free today, but there's actually a massive thunderstorm on, so we've decided to stay in. It'll be a good opportunity to get a jump on my lesson plans for next week, and to prepare for the lessons I have this week. This coming week, Professor White from BU is here to observe us, which means free dinners on Monday and Friday with him and Mark! Tomorrow we're doing something low key, but Friday night is more "upmarket," as Mark said, so that should be fun and exciting! I'm also excited to see Charlie, as we call Professor White. He's a pretty cool guy. Though I am nervous to be observed, hopefully everything will go well.

That's it for now! I think I'm going to enjoy the thunderstorm by cuddling up and watching a vampire movie for research for my vampire fiction unit that I'm teaching. Miss you all very much!!!

Sping Break Photos

a bit out of order again, but here are some captions: haley, me, jane, and jac at the lookout point at whitehaven beach; jane eating haley and me (one of those perspective photos i was talking about in my last post); our boat group jumping for joy on whitehaven beach; jane, haley, jac, and i at sunset on our boat in the whitsundays; haley going through one of the underwater canyons; me scuba diving (yay!); the sunset from our boat; a couple of pictures of whitehaven beach; and jane reading by the lagoon in cairns

Spring Break!

And I'm back from another fabulous vacation!! After one very long shower, five loads of laundry, a good night's sleep, and an extensive trip to the grocery store, I'm ready to write all about it.

It all started with our final on Saturday - it was pretty easy, and I feel like I did well. We flew into Cairns Saturday afternoon and got picked up by our hostel. We checked in, left our stuff, and walked the 12 minutes into downtown Cairns to check it out. It's a very tourist-centered city - a few big casinos, lots of souvenir shops, tons of hostels and adventure planning agencies, and lots of places to eat. One thing that surprised us greatly (perhaps due to our lack of research) was that Cairns is actually not a beach town, in that there is no beach. There is, however, "the Lagoon," a man-made giant public pool, essentially, along the coastline. It is beautiful, and it does have the ocean as a backdrop, but that was still a wake-up call to us silly tourists who were hoping to be able to walk to the beach from our hostel. Saturday night we walked around town for a bit, checking it out and trying to decide where to eat. We ended up deciding on a Mexican restaurant that had a nice outdoor balcony. After diner, we decided to go sit out by the lagoon, which was very nice. There were tons of bats flying around - we walked under this one tree that was absolutely full of them. In the morning, when we walked back the same way, you could see all the bats hanging on the branches - they kind of looked like cocoons. Later that night, Jac, Haley and I went to check out the Woolshed, which is Cairns' famous backpacker's bar. The place was packed! I have never had as many drinks spilled on me as I did that night. But it was pretty fun, too! The next day, we slept in and walked downtown, where we had breakfast and talked about what excursions we wanted to plan for the next two days. Unfortunately, Sunday's weather wasn't fabulous, so we decided not to make the hike out to the beach, which was a 45 minute bus ride away. Instead, we decided to check out the lagoon - we found a patch of "sand" where we laid out our towels and sunbathed, read, and went for a dip in the lagoon. The sun did end up coming out, at least for a bit, and it turned out to be a very nice day.

Monday, we went on a cruise out to Oyster and Upolu Reefs to snorkel and dive. It was a beautiful day, and the boat ride was very nice - although it was very rocky - almost to the point of nausea. Getting in the water at Oyster Reef felt great though, we got to snorkel a bit before our intro dive, and we saw lots of cool fish and coral. We then had our first dive - we got all of our gear on, which includes a weight belt, to help you sink, and the dive kit - a backpack type contraption that holds your air tank and has a flotation device that you inflate and deflate when you want to float or sink. Our instructor was really nice, and after proving that we could do a few simple skills - replacing our regulators (the breathing devices) if they fall out, clearing our mask if water creeps in through the seal, etc - we descended down into the ocean. We were all linking arms, so we didn't even have to control ourselves. We just got to enjoy being underwater and being so close to the reef. We only went about 6 to 8 meters on this dive (about 20 -30 feet), but we definitely saw some cool stuff. We saw clown fish (like nemo!) snuggling in the anemone, which was really cool. We even saw a stingray! Our instructor brought us down to the ocean floor, too, where we saw a giant clam, and even got to touch the squishy part on the inside. It was awesome. I was pretty scared, going into it, but I ended up loving scuba diving. We got back on the boat for a smorgasboard lunch, which was delicious, and then we rode over to our next snorkel site, Upolu Reef. This site was a bit further from the boat - we had to swim out a bit to get there, but it was also cool. As we were coming back in to the boat, we saw a giant batfish just swimming right by the back of the boat. It was so cool! It swam right underneath us - it wasn't shy at all! We then rode back into Cairns, went home for a shower, and then hit the town for Alli's birthday! We went to dinner at this great Mediterranean restaurant, got sundaes at Baskin Robbins, and then did some bar hopping to celebrate. We started at Fabric, a nightclub that was absolutely empty. We got free entrance and a free drink because they were so desperate for customers, so we just hung out there for a little bit, played a game of pool, and moved on to the next bar. We stopped in at RhinoBar for a bit, and then made our way back to the Woolshed, where the rest of the BU Sydney program people were. Mondays at the Woolshed they have a Mr and Mrs Backpacker competition, and BU ended up taking home both prizes. The guys competition was hilarious - three of the BU guys participated, and because there were so many BU girls in the crowd, they easily made it to the final round. As for the Mrs Backpacker competition, we made Alli go up and compete because it was her birthday, and she actually ended up winning! What a birthday present! She won a full day rafting trip - an expensive prize! - and since she was planning on staying in Cairns for the rest of the week while Haley, Jane, Jac and I continued on to the Whitsundays, she actually got to use it - and had a great time!

Tuesday, Jac and Haley got up early to go skydiving, while Jane and I slept in and went down to sunbathe at the lagoon - neither of us could handle skydiving. We met up for lunch and a half day of white water rafting on the Barron river. Haley and Jac LOVED skydiving - they said it was the most amazing thing. Maybe I'll be brave enough to try it, someday... Rafting was really fun, though! We actually ended up having a raft just to ourselves - the four of us and our guide, that is. As far as the rafting itself, it was a pretty tame river - only a few rapids, and none of them too big. But we still had a good time. My favorite part was actually when we got to get out of the raft and float down the river a little bit. It was a nice hot day, and the river felt great! If I were to be in Cairns again, I would raft the Tully River - which is usually an all day trip, and typically a bit more expensive. But it has more rapids, and bigger ones, too. That night, we were a part of the Ultimate Party, a big pub crawl that included entry to 5 bars, a double decker party bus that drove us from bar to bar, and drink specials at each of the bars. Oh, and dinner. It was something that I have never done before and probably will never do again, but it was a great experience! There was also a US Navy boat docked in Cairns for the week, and a lot of the US Navy and Marine guys were actually on our party bus, and in the bus that brought us to the river for rafting. The bus itself was great. We sat up on the top level, which was out in the open, and though it felt a bit douchy to be cruising through Cairns on a giant bus that was blaring music, it was pretty fun, too. Everyone was dancing in their seats... the best part was how close all the bars were to each other - the bus was definitely superfluous, we totally could have walked. But I guess that just made it more fun. We met lots of interesting people, and did a lot of dancing, which was a blast.

Wednesday was our last day in Cairns. We packed up, checked out of our hostel, and headed downtown to catch our bus to Airlie Beach, where our Whitsunday Cruise took off from. It was an 11 hour bus ride, which seemed like it was going to be miserable - but it wasn't so bad. We watched a few movies on the bus, which made the time fly by. We also stopped a couple of times for food - the first place we stopped had an internet cafe, so I got to briefly check my email, which was really nice. I also finished Dracula, which I was reading for school, and was able to continue reading Kavalier and Clay, which I started a few weeks ago. When we arrived in Airlie Beach, it was about 11 pm, so we had to check in at the bar next to our hostel since the reception desk was closed. It was also a long-ish walk from the bus to our hostel - it was probably only about 10 or 15 minutes, but with all our luggage, it felt longer. We checked in with the reluctant bar manager, who seemed peeved by having to deal with us, as if we were just lazy and didn't want to check in on time. We didn't have linens on our beds, because at this hostel, you had to rent them from the reception desk, and since it was closed, we didn't even get the option to rent them. So that was a bit of a bummer. But we were only staying there one night. Other than the lack of linens bit, and the fact that not all the lights worked, it was actually a nice room - quite big, and with a little kitchenette, too. Unfortunately, our morning in Airlie Beach wasn't much better than our night - we were misdirected to the marina, and spent about 15 minutes walking in the wrong direction before we realized we actually had to go back into town to check in at the boat company's office before getting on the boat. After checking in at the office, we learned that we were only allowed to bring one small soft bag each - and we all had a backpack and a duffel bag. So we had to condense our stuff for the next 3 days into one of our bags, and pay $5 to store the other at the office while we were on the boat. Then we were finally on our way to the boat - but the marina was another 15 to 20 minute walk away. We grabbed a quick breakfast from a coffee shop on the way and made it to the marina in time to check in and load onto Powerplay, our home for the next 2 days and nights. We met the crew - who were all really nice and awesome for the whole trip, and learned a bit about the boat and our schedule for the next two days - which was basically sailing from dive site to dive site and stopping to dive and snorkel. We were shown to our beds - Jane and I actually ended up getting a private "room" - by room I just mean that in addition to a bed, we had a small area at the foot of the bed in which we could stand and change, and a door, whereas the other beds just had a curtain at the foot. Our room was actually quite nice. I slept very well both nights we were on the boat. While the boat was in motion, there were lots of great places for us to sit and read or sunbathe - up on the bow of the boat, the water would splash on you as you lay out, which felt really good (but made it a bit difficult to read!) That first day, we sailed over to our first dive site, and Jane, Haley, Jac and I decided to dive again, since we loved it so much in Cairns. However, this time, we were on our own - instead of linking arms with our instructor, we just followed behind him. Though the reef was gorgeous, the water was super murky - when I asked our instructor why he said that it was probably due to the rain they had recently had. It made it pretty hard to see stuff under water, and also hard for us to keep track of our instructor and follow him. And since we were all so new to diving, we didn't really know how to control ourselves without holding on to our instructor, and scuba diving really limits your peripheral vision, so it was hard for us to see each other. We all got accidentally kicked by each other a couple of times, and overall, it just wasn't as great of an experience as we were expecting. After diving, our Hostee Cleo had a fabulous meal for us - barbeque chicken, pasta salad, potato bake, garlic bread, caesar salad, and I'm sure I've forgotten something... It was very impressive, especially considering the tiny kitchen on that boat! It was a pretty small boat -the craziest part was the tiny bathroom. It had a sink that doubled as a shower head! When you showed, you had to wet yourself down, turn off the water, soap up, and then rinse off - and that was it! There was only a limited amount of fresh water on the boat, so we had to really conserve. After dinner, they did a slideshow for us, starting with a map of the Whitsundays with which our skipper, Evya, showed us where we had been and where we were going. They also put up all the photos Cleo had been taking all day long, which was pretty fun. The dining area, or saloon, as they called it, was then turned into a couple of beds, and they put on this very interesting documentary about sharks and how people are illegally hunting them for their fins. After drugs, it's the second most lucrative illegal market. I had no idea.

The next morning, they got us up nice and early so that we could be the first people to get to Whitehaven Beach. Whitehaven Beach is the most famous beach in the Whitsundays, and it's also the 3rd most photographed spot in Australia, behind the Sydney Opera House and Uluru (check, check, and check - I guess I'm a very accomplished tourist!). It is absolutely GORGEOUS. THe sand is white - certainly the whitest sand I've ever seen - and it is so unbelievably soft!! It feels like heaven walking through it, and it actually feels even better right at the water's edge - I could have stood there with my feet in the water looking at the beautiful shades of blue in the water forever. The sand is so fine that at low tide, it creates these amazing swirls in the water - it is even capable of polishing silver! We got to spend a couple of hours on the beach, where we laid out, read, and splashed around in the water. It was just lovely. We then walked up to a lookout for a great view and some photos, and on the way up, we ran into the four Irish girls from our Outback trip! They were also doing a Whitsunday cruise, but on a different boat - what a small world, that we actually ran into them! The view from the lookout was spectacular. The water itself is just gorgeous, and the beach is so amazing looking. We then headed back to the boat so we could keep going on to our next dive and snorkel site. Dylan, our instructor, told us that this site was much better than the last one, and that it could potentially be a good place to see turtles - and my goal for the trip was to see a sea turtle with scuba diving, and swim with it. So I decided to try it again, even though our last dive was less than ideal. Jane, Jac, and Haley decided to just snorkel at this site, so I ended up basically getting a private lesson with Dylan, which was really cool. I was able to just kind of follow him around, and I got to touch a whole bunch of different corals, which felt really cool, and we did all these awesome swim-throughs, which is where you go through a coral tunnel or an underwater canyon. That was amazing. We got to get so close to the coral and the fishies - it was just awesome. I was so glad I decided to dive again, because it was just awesome. And I started to get more and more comfortable with myself underwater, too. I also learned how to do the "James Bond" roll off the side of the tender boat, where you basically do a backwards roll into the water. I didn't see any turtles on that dive, but Dylan did bring their underwater camera down with us, so we got some cool pictures of me scuba diving, and also of the cool stuff we saw under water. After that awesome dive, we had lunch on the boat, and then headed off to our second dive site of the day, Mackerel Bay. Evya claimed that this was his favorite dive site ever, and Haley and Jac decided to give diving another shot. We had another AWESOME dive - this one was definitely the best yet. There was a reef wall that we swam along, and lots of cool canyons and swim-throughs. And then, a turtle swam out underneath us!!!! I can't even explain how excited I was when I saw it. We actually followed him for awhile, and I was mesmerized watching him swim - the majestic pull of his arms and the way he glided through the water. It was fantastic! He led us over these gorgeous reefs, too, with lots of colorful coral! It made the whole week for me. We returned to the boat for another fabulous dinner - steak and sausages from the barby, more pasta salad, veggie bake, bread with sundried tomato pesto, and more. And delicious chocolate cake for dessert, too! There was a beautiful sunset Friday night, too, and we all went out to the bow of the boat to see it and take pictures. We then got another slideshow, with photos from the beach - Cleo was really good at taking perspective shots, so she posed us in all sorts of funny photos. Those were really fun to look at. We also got to see the photos and videos that we took underwater, which were awesome.

Our last day on the boat (and of our trip) started early as well - they had us in the water, snorkeling, by 6:30 am! We couldn't dive this time, because were flying that afternoon (and you can't dive within 18-24 hours of flying, as it's bad for your ears), so we just snorkeled, but it was still really cool. We saw another turtle, which was awesome again! We followed him around for awhile too, and the best part was when he started to eat - he was so cute! He was just nibbling away at the coral - chomp chomp. We then rocketed back to Airlie Beach so that we got in to port on time - and it was a rough ride back! Very bumpy, and again it almost made me feel nauseous. Though we had an amazing time on the boat, it was nice to be on solid ground again (although I still, even now, a full day later, feel like I'm on a boat!). We ate lunch at a cute cafe in Airlie Beach, caught our airport shuttle, and headed back to Sydney. And that's my spring break! It was very relaxing, and it was very nice to spend a week up in the warm weather! Amazingly, I didn't get sunburned - at least, nothing that lasted more than the rest of the day - although my friends tell me that I got more freckles, if that's even possible. I loved scuba diving, and even if I never get to do it again, I will never forget the experiences I had at the great barrier reef. I do hope that I can make it back out there at some point in my life - we didn't have time to make it up to Port Douglass or Cape Tribulation, where the rainforest is. But with only so much time to travel, I guess we can't make it everywhere. I'm very grateful for all the great adventures I have been lucky enough to have, and though they were very expensive, they've all been totally worth it.

Tomorrow starts the real reason that I'm here - my student teaching! I'm incredibly nervous, but also excited. I have a LOT of work ahead of me, but I know that it's going to be very rewarding, and I'm going to learn a lot. I have to go make my lunch and get ready for bed - I need all the rest I can get before my first day! I'll post pictures from my trip tomorrow, when the internet might be more cooperative.

Off to Cairns!

Just a short update before I jet off on my next (and perhaps last) big adventure. Since posting my last update, I realized that I forgot to mention a few things - not so surprising when you consider how much that last post included. I forgot to mention that during our first bus ride, Miles had us "speed date" - he had everyone rotate seats for a few minutes so we could get to know each other. It was a little bit crazy - and rather awkard, but it was actually kind of fun! It broke the ice a little, although we didn't really start talking to people and getting to know them until later. Last night, however, Sammy and I actually went out to dinner with some people from our trip! The Canadians were on their way home, and their flight was from Sydney, so they were here for a night. And one of the German couples lives in Darlinghurst, which is about 20 minutes from here, walking. They both came over to our area after we got out of class, and we had dinner at the Landsdowne Hotel, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite places. They have $6 meals, and they're really good! It was so fun to catch up with them, even though it's been less than a week since we last saw them. I also forgot to mention the flies in the outback - which is kind of surprising, because they were so incredibly obnoxious. They really were miserable. There are hundreds and hundreds of them, and they land all over you. They love to fly right by your eyes, or, in my case, in my ears. And when you bat them away, they just come right back. Luckily, they didn't bother us too much while hiking, but there were certain times when we were standing around waiting or sitting at the campsite that they were absolutely unbearable. They would also follow us into the bus, so we really weren't safe anywhere. I guess the fact that I forgot to write about them just means that the trip was so amazing that I didn't even think of the negative aspects. Lastly, I forgot to mention that time difference to Alice Springs is a half hour behind Sydney - not an hour, but a half hour... Adelaide too. This really is one crazy country. Also, not all of the states do daylight savings - New South Wales does, so we lost an hour last weekend, but Queensland and the Northern Territory don't - it's quite confusing! And I have a new Aussie term for you - they call coolers eskies!

This week, I've finally been getting down to business. I spent all four days this week (after getting back on Monday) in the BU Sydney Center working on lesson plans and on my paper for class. Though it seemed like it took forever, I did get almost everything done. I still have a LOT of lesson planning to do - but that's going to continue for the rest of my time here, so I should just get used to that. I finished my paper today, and it actually wasn't as painful as I thought it was going to be. I just have one final (with two essays) standing between me and spring break! I'm just about packed, and so ready for one more week of relaxation before I start student teaching full time. It's supposed to be in the high 80s the whole time we are there - I can't wait! We're going to sit by the beach, go scuba diving, check out the jungle, and sail the Whitsunday islands - including snorkeling! See you again in a week, when I'll have lots more adventures to share!!

Melbourne and the Outback!

Brace yourselves - this is going to be a long one! I'm going to try to keep it all chronological so that I remember it all. Let's start by going back to my flight to Melbourne a week ago Sunday...

Our whole program went to Melbourne for a class field trip, so the bus picked us up from the UniLodge where the internship people live at 9:15 and we were off. I've never had an easier time getting into an airport. I didn't have to show my ID once (although that may have been because we were a part of a group, and they got our boarding passes for us), and I didn't even have to show my boarding pass to get through security. In Australia, you can still go into the terminal even if you're not flying - so you can meet people at the gates, like old times in the US. You can also bring liquids through - water bottles, shampoos, lotions. They don't care. It's great. And, i forgot to take my phone out of my pocket before walking through the metal detector - it didn't even beep. Such a different world over here. So, after breezing through security, we found our gate and had a little bit of time before boarding to relax. The flight to Melbourne is only about an hour - they brought us drinks and cookies, and before we knew it, we were landing in Melbourne. The bus brought us to the UniLodge Melbourne, where we stayed for our 3 nights there, and Pascal (one of our program directors) gave us a brief tour of the city. Melbourne is a great city, more European than Sydney, and the architecture is so cool!! There are so many awesome buildings, and they have these great trams, kind of like the streetcars in San Francisco that run along the Embarcadero. The city is based on a grid, which makes it really easy to find everything, and there are lots of hidden treasures in the laneways and alleyways off the main streets. After our tour, my roommates and I then did a bit of shopping - Sammy and I and three of the other few Jews in the program were planning on going to services for Yom Kippur Sunday night and Monday during the day and I stupidly only brought one temple outfit, despite knowing we were planning on going both days. So we set off with the goal of finding me something nice to wear to temple, and though we did have quite a few misses, we finally found this little store that looked rather sketchy but boasted cheap prices. So we decided to check it out - it was actually pretty cool! They did have a lot of crazy stuff, but they also had some really cute stuff, too, and for good prices. So I found a great dress to wear to temple (and a really cute skirt), and got home just in time to change and make it to our pre-fasting last meal. We went to an Italian restaurant called the Spaghetti Tree, which turned out to be really good! Our waitress was really funny and nice, which is just the norm here, as people don't tip in Australia. I had the lasagna, which was fantastic, and very filling. We finished just in time for sundown, and hopped on the tram to get to St. Kilda, one of Melbourne's suburbs, where the temple was. The temple we went to for Rosh Hashana recommended this temple to us, and it was great! At the end of Sunday night's services, the president of the congregation (an American, actually) went up to the Bima, saying that he heard there were Uni students from Boston in attendance, and asking us to come up to the bima to arrange someplace for us to break fast the next night. So we went up, and both the president and the founder of the synagogue offered to have us over - since there were 5 of us, we agreed to split up. We were so excited by their hospitality!! Perhaps the thought of a nice home-cooked break-fast meal made Monday's fast one of the easiest Yom Kippur fasts I've ever had. Monday morning, we got up and went to morning services, which were very nice. During the break between morning and afternoon services, four of us went to see the Dali exhibit at the National Gallery of Victoria, which was fantastic. We had to wait in line for 20 minutes to get in, and it was very very crowded while we were there. But the art was really cool, and they also showed "Destino," a short film made by Dali and Walt Disney - it was fantastic. We also found out that in one of his painting, Dali used an octopus to create texture on the canvas - very interesting. We made it back to temple for the last two hours of the service, and were very relieved to hear the final shofar blow, indicating the end of the fast! Right before that last shofar blast, however, they had a havdala ceremony where all the children walked up with multi-colored electronic candles - it was so cute! The synagogue had biscuits (or bikkies, as they say - it's what they call cookies) and soda water to break the fast, and then Sammy and I are our friend Ariel went with the president of the synagogue and his wife to their home for break fast. The whole evening was so nice. They had a beautiful home, and two very cute dogs. Their youngest daughter (though older than we are) joined us for Break Fast, and the food was delicious. We had homemade bread, vegetable soup, and blueberry blintzes. His wife also made an apple crisp for dessert, which she served with ice cream, of course. It was fantastic, and it was so nice to be in someone's home and eat a home-cooked meal. The conversation was great as well - they were all such nice people and it was just great to have somewhere to go and someone to be with on the holiday, a time when we are usually with family.

The next day, half our group went on a tour of the Great Ocean Road, which was fantastic. We found a great belgian waffle stand around the corner from the UniLodge for breakfast before we boarded the bus at 8 am - I got mine with strawberries and chocolate, and it was delicious. We had an awesome tour guide on our bus, Mac, who was hilarious and fun and gave us lots of great photo ops and advice on where to eat and what to do when we stopped. The great ocean road is quite like the Pacific Coast Highway - it's a stretch of highway right along the southeast coast of Australia, and it's absolutely gorgeous. Our tour was essentially a day long bus ride, but we were able to get out, walk around, and take pictures along the way. We got to walk along some gorgeous beaches, and the view was just stunning. We stopped for lunch in a cute beach town, where we got fish and chips made with shark, which was actually pretty good! The highlight of the trip were the 12 Apostles, which are sandstone formations that have become separated from the coast. They are absolutely breathtaking. There are no longer 12 of them, in fact, I don't think there actually ever were. But they are certainly a feat of nature - you can see the lines of where the sea level used to be, and the parts that are still eroding. I heard from someone that they actually might not be there in 10 years, although Mac didn't say anything about that, so that might just have been hearsay. We also saw some of the named formations, like London Bridge, a part of which, ironically, actually fell about 20 years ago. Mac also brought us to one of the formations that was off to beaten path - we had to go down a sketchy dirt road to get there. But it was so cool! It was called the Baker's Oven, because there was a hole in the rock in the shape of a semicircle - it kind of looked like a pizza oven. Mac said it was actually so big that a bus could fit in it! The coolest part was that the waves would crash right at the hole, causing the water to go through and form a waterfall on the other side. It was so awesome. We also stopped at Loch Ard Gorge, a beautiful little hollow cleared out over the years by the water, where the Loch Ard ship crashed in the late 1800s. There was this little cave off to the side that I didn't go in because the tide was coming up and the waves were HUGE, but the beach was gorgeous, and there were all these cool stalactites hanging down from the walls of the gorge. It was awesome. And we stopped at a tourist park that had koalas living in the trees - they were so cute! We also did a rainforest walk, which was awesome. I took a ton of pictures, but none of them seemed to do justice to the beautiful coastline. We didn't get back to Melbourne until ten pm, but it was our last night in Melbourne, so we decided to get out and try to see the nightlife. Being a Tuesday night, there wasn't too much going on. We went over to the Croft Institute, a sketchy bar down one of the many graffiti covered alleyways in Melbourne (although the graffiti in Melbourne is awesome and artful, as opposed to offensive and rude). Inside, the Croft Institute is decorated like a mental institution - with lab tables, beakers and test tubes on the wall, and they even serve shots in syringes - although we didn't stick around for that. The creepiest part was the bathroom - they had a hospital bed up in the bathroom, and it really creeped me out. It was a pretty cool place, but it was pretty much deserted when we were there - it would have been fun to see it on a weekend, when there were more people there. We didn't stay long, but it was cool to see. We ended up wandering across the street to another alley, where we found Eurotrash, a bar/club that played great music. We stayed there for awhile, dancing the night away, which was really fun.

Wednesday I had a field trip for class to the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which is where the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne were held. On the way over we passed the Rod Laver Arena, where the Australian Open is played. The arena is surrounded by tons of tennis courts - it was pretty cool. We got a very extensive tour of the MCG by one of the members of the Melbourne Cricket Club. We got to see the dressing rooms, go on the field, even go up into the broadcasting booth. At the top of the MCG was a great view of the city skyline, so it was really cool to be up there. Following the tour, we went down to the Sports Museum, which was awesome. We didn't have a lot of time to look around there, so I would love to go back sometime. After talking to Mom today, it seems that I might actually go back to Melbourne with them in December, which I would love. Especially with Yom Kippur taking over Monday, I felt like I didn't get anywhere near enough time in the city. After the sports tour, I went to lunch with our leader, David, who teaches the sports module of our Australian culture class, and one of the guys from the internship program at Stalactites, this great Greek diner. The food was delicious! They also had great Greek beer, which I really enjoyed. After lunch, we went to check out the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, or the ACMI, which was right around the corner from our dorm. It was SO COOL! They had lots of interactive exhibits, like a screen that would animate your silhouette, and a room where they had a rotating sculpture that, with the addition of strobelights, looked like it was animated. It was so awesome. And then, before we even knew it, it was time to go back to Sydney. Our flight was great - they gave us dinner, and complimentary wine or beer! On an hour long flight! I couldn't believe it! I fly from Boston to Oakland all the time, which is a 6 hour flight, and they only give us chips and soda. Go figure. Dinner was chicken and rice - not too shabby. And the wine was quite good, as well! We got home around ten, giving me just enough time to unpack and repack for the Outback, as our flight left the next morning at 6:30 am!

So, Sammy and I caught a taxi at 4:30 in the morning, right back to the airport, to begin our Outback adventure! We actually had a layover in Melbourne (go figure), so we walked through the terminal thinking, wow, we haven't been here in, oh, 12 hours... Though our flight to Melbourne was slightly delayed, so was our flight into Alice Springs, so it turned out to be ok, though we did rush about the airport a bit in a nervous frenzy. Nothing like a little stress to keep you on your toes. However, we made it into Alice Springs just fine, although the end of flight was very bumpy, and a bit nauseating. Coming into Alice Springs, however, was the definition of awesome. Looking out the window and seeing nothing but red sand and spinifex bushes as far as the eye can see is incredible. Even though English is a language with perhaps more superlative adjectives than any other language, I still feel like I'm running out of words with which to describe the things I am doing and seeing. We disembarked the plane right onto the tarmac - the airport was only one story and had only 9 gates, so they pulled the steps up to the plane and we walked on into the terminal. It was incredibly windy in Alice Springs on Thursday - which is probably why the flight was so bumpy. The hostel we were staying at Thursday night had free transportation from the airport, so we had to wait for the bus to fill with other travelers and we got into the hostel around 2. It was pretty nice - we checked in, and our room had 4 sets of bunk beds, and its own bathroom with a shower. We dropped our stuff off and decided to check out the town of Alice Springs, which was certainly an interesting afternoon. First off, Alice Springs is tiny. It's a grid city of about 4 blocks by 4 blocks, and it's not very busy at all. We were on a mission to get a couple of things for our trip: a flashlight (or torch, as they call them here) and water bottles. We walked through some of the malls and found the flashlight easily, and then stumbled upon a small REI type store called the Lone Dingo where we got our water bottles. We also walked up to the top of Anzac Hill, a small hill at the northernmost end of town that offers a great view of the city (town seems to be more fitting a term, as there are no skyscrapers, or any buildings taller than 2 or 3 stories) and the McDonnell mountain ranges - although being a Northern California girl, they weren't really mountains... Though they were pretty cool looking. It was only about a ten minute hike up the hill, but the view was pretty awesome. It started to get even windier as we were up there, though, so we headed back down and wandered the town a little bit more. We found a great Aboriginal Art gallery that we walked through for a while - the Aboriginal art is really cool, I like it a lot, but it's also really expensive. Alice Springs has a large aboriginal population as well, so it was interesting to see so many of them, since not many of them live in Sydney. Though it was certainly an experience walking around Alice Springs, I have to say it's definitely not my favorite Australian city... We grabbed dinner downtown and headed back to the hostel for an early night - our tour left Friday morning at 6:10 am!

After an early wake up call, we boarded our bus Friday morning and met our "family" for the next 3 days. Our tour had 24 people - Sammy and I, seven Germans, three Danes, two Canadians, three people from Hong Kong, four Irish girls, one British girl, two Aussies - and our tour guide, Miles. He was great - although he sure had a lot to say. He was only 22, which was actually younger than most of the people on the tour. He didn't look 22, but he sure acted like he was, which was pretty fun. Once we had all checked in, we piled onto the bus for our very long trek out to Uluru, or Ayers Rock. Our first stop was at a camel farm, where I got to ride a camel!!! It was only about a 5 minute ride, but it was really cool! The hardest part is when the camel gets up and gets down, because it's kind of jerky as they push up off their knees and stand up, and vice versa for sitting down. But it was actually a pretty smooth and comfy ride - and we even got to canter in the last bit - I was bouncing all over the place. It was really fun!! Our camel's name was Mona - she was great. Right before we got to ride, the local news team was actually doing a segment for their morning news, so we got to see the filming of that, which was pretty cool. The guy had an earpiece in and was talking to the main newsroom and everything. It was like a little behind the scenes look at how the news is filmed - how ironic that we got that on our way to the outback! The total drive from Alice Springs out to Uluru is 5 hours, so we made a few more stops in little "towns" that were really nothing more than a gas station, convenience store, and pub. When we finally got out to Uluru, we stopped by our campsite for lunch - sandwiches - and then headed out to hike Kata Tjuta, another rock formation near Uluru. Even though Uluru is the famous one - you've probably never heard of Kata Tjuta, unless you've been there yourself - Kata Tjuta was amazing. Its name means "many heads" - it's a collection of about 36 dome-like rocks, and in Anangu language (the aboriginal tribe that lives in this region of central Australia), their counting system went 1, 2, 3, many, since they had no need to have exact numbers for larger quantities - which is how the name "many heads" came about. We hiked up and around a few of the rocks, which was just mind blowing. The rocks themselves are brilliant - they each have so many different shades of that beautiful red rock, and they are in the coolest shapes. Especially against the incredible blueness of the Australia sky, they are an amazing sight to see. Miles talked to us about the geology of the region and how the rocks formed - the coolest part is that most of the rock is actually underground. After hiking Kata Tjuta, we drove back to Uluru to watch the sunset - I don't know that I've ever seen so many beautiful colors in the sky. The coolest part was seeing Uluru itself change from the bright red color when the sun was shining on it to the more muted orangey color it became once the sun went down. And the rainbow of colors the sunset created behind it were phenomenal as well. It was just gorgeous. We then headed back to camp for dinner (Miles made stir-fry, which was actually really good!) and hanging out around the campfire. We had the choice to either sleep in cabin-like tents or to "swag it" - sleep outside under the stars in a swag, which is a mattress encased in canvas that you put your sleeping bag in and sleep in. A lot of people in our group chose the tents, but I really wanted to try the swag, and Miles also called everyone wimps who were sleeping in the tents. So Sammy and I and about 5 others decided to "rough" it with the swags - it actually ended up being Sammy's favorite part of the trip! It was actually incredibly warm in there - the sleeping bags we rented from the tour company were really nice, too, which helped. But it was awesome to sleep under the stars - even though the moon was full and made it harder to see the stars, they were still amazing.

The next morning we got up at 4:30 so we could make it back to Uluru for the sunrise - and since it was so early, we got to wake up under the stars in addition to going to bed beneath them the night before, which was really cool. We had a quick breakfast of cereal and toast at camp, and piled back onto the bus to get to the sunrise viewing spot. It was packed with tons of other tour groups, as the sunset viewing spot was the night before. It was freezing - perhaps because it was 6 am in the desert, and at first it seemed like it was going to be rather anti-climactic, because it was already relatively bright out before the sun technically rose. But then, all of a sudden, it was like someone had turned the lights on - Uluru became that great red color again, and we knew the sun had risen. It was unreal. We then had the choice of either doing the Uluru base walk - a 10km walk around the whole rock - or the climb, in which you climb to the top. I would have loved to do the climb, however, the Anangu people request that visitors don't climb the rock. Not that that actually stops most people, but I felt it was important to respect their wishes. The base walk was incredibly cool anyways. About every 100 meters or so, the rock face changed, giving way to new formations and patterns, and a lot of the features of the rock had Anangu stories that went along with them, explaining how they got there. One of the coolest things we saw was one of the watering holes, and we happened to get there right as another tour guide was telling a story about Goss, the explorer who was the first European to see Uluru. He found the rock, named it Ayers after his boss, and named the watering hole he found Maggie Springs, after Ayers' daughter Maggie. He was hoping that naming the rock after Ayers would get him on Ayers' good side, and naming the most beautiful spot on the rock after his beautiful daughter would win his favor and would, in turn, win him Maggie's hand in marriage. Alas, when he returned, Maggie had been promised to an Englishman and was on a boat back to the motherland, and so they say Goss left his heart on the rock - right above the watering hole is a heart-shaped imprint in the rock. We really liked that story. But all of the shapes and different colors and such in the rock were absolutely amazing, and though it was a rather long walk, it was well worth it. Miles then took us on the cultural walk, in which we got to see some caves that the aboriginals used to use. One was the waiting cave, in which the elders would send young boys to teach them patience. They would send them there to wait until they returned for them, which could have been hours, days, or even weeks. Their mothers or sisters would bring them food, but they would have to just sit there and wait. The point was to teach them patience for when they are out hunting as men. There was also a cave that was more enclosed, and therefore a bit cooler than the air outside. On really hot days, they would use it as an infirmary for the elderly and sick. There was also a cave used for cooking, and one that they think was used for birthing, although that has not been confirmed. There are also several sacred sites around the rock, where we weren't allowed to take photos. All in all, it was incredible to learn all about the rock, and I think I got a lot more out of it by walking around the whole thing and seeing all the intimate features than I would have by climbing it, anyways. I learned a lot about the Anangu culture, too, which was awesome. After our morning at Uluru, we returned to camp for lunch (sandwiches again) and then headed off for our next leg of the trip, another 3-4 hour drive out to Kings Canyon. We stopped along the way for Milkshakes - although milkshakes in Australia mean flavored milk with a scoop of ice cream and whipped cream on top - Thickshakes are what they call what we think of as milkshakes. I got a coffee one, and it was good anyways. When we got to our Kings Canyon campground, we got settled at camp, and Sammy and I took showers, which felt amazing after 2 days of sitting in a bus and hiking all day. Miles made us spaghetti bolognese for dinner - with a few very interesting secret ingredients, including, if you can believe it, vegemite!! It was delicious though. We also got some time to sit around the fire and talk to the other people on our trip. Everyone was really cool!! Of the Germans, two of them were a couple that were living and working in Sydney (we shared a cab home with them from the airport yesterday), and they were really nice. Three of them were medical students, doing a program in Melbourne, and two of them are actually coming to Sydney next, and are even going to be living in the UniLodge, where the BU Sydney Internship people live! So we'll most likely be seeing them a good deal when they are here, too, which is great. To top that off, one of them is actually going to Boston in April to do a medical program with Harvard and Tufts! What a small world! She was super nice, too, and I look forward to seeing more of her, for sure. The other two Germans were girls who were studying in Melbourne. The three Danish people were a girl, her boyfriend, and his brother. I had never heard Danish spoken before - it's a very interesting language! It sounds kind of slurred, and like nothing I've ever heard before. The Canadians were also a couple, and have been traveling Australia and New Zealand since January! They were really nice, and we ended up spending a lot of time with them. The four Irish girls were awesome too - they'd also been in Australia for about 7 months and had been living and working in Melbourne. They were actually our hostel roommates our first night in Alice Springs. The two Aussies were a couple of girls who were also medical students, from Queensland, and were doing a 5 week program at the hospital in Alice Springs. The day after we got back they actually went out to Western Australia to do check ups for Aboriginal children. They were also really nice. And the British girl was a solo traveler, which I commend her for! I don't think I could ever handle traveling alone. But she was great, as well. And the three people from Hong Kong were super nice, too. One of them had this amazing camera, and was always taking photos, but they actually reflected the amazing things we saw, unlike my crappy little point and shoot. The best part was he had these little plastic m and m figurines that he would take pictures of at all the places he went - which I think is so clever! Basically, to sum that up, we had an awesome group, and we got to meet some awesome people. After our campfire time, we had another early night, in preparation of catching the sunrise on our way up Kings Canyon the next morning...

Sunday (which was the next day) we were out of camp by 5:30 again, and we started our hike up Kings Canyon with Heart Attack Hill - which was a really steep climb for about 1 km. It was really cool though. I was certainly winded by the time I got to the top, but the view was amazing. It was like we were on the edge of a cliff - and we weren't even at the canyon yet! Miles showed us a bunch of cool plants along the walk, and where to take the best pictures of the canyon. We also walked down into the gorge, where we saw the "Garden of Eden" - it's where all the trees and plants grow because they have access to water. We then walked down to a beautiful watering hole - Miles said it was his favorite place in Central Australia - and had some bikkies and just enjoyed the scenery for a bit. The different shades of red on the rocks, the green plants that thrived on the water from the watering hole, and the still pool of water sitting there, waiting for rain to flush it out. We then hiked back up to the top of the canyon. Surrounding the canyon are these incredible rock formations that kind of look like hundreds of beehives - red dome-like shapes that go on as far as the eye can see. So cool. We then got around to the other side of the canyon, from which the view was phenomenal! The hike back down to the car park (which is what Aussies call parking lots) was awesome, too. It was our last of three awesome hikes, and possibly my favorite. It's hard to decide, though, because they were all so cool! We then stopped back at the campsite for chicken burgers for lunch, and then it was time to drive back to Alice Springs - a 5 hour bus ride. I slept for most of it, which was nice, and got back to the hostel with just enough time to shower and change and meet everybody for dinner at another backpacker hostel down the road which had a $5 meal deal for the tour groups. We had one last meal with most of our group and Miles, which was great, and that was it! We flew back to Sydney the next day, which was mostly uneventful, except that I guess we just barely made it into Sydney, as most flights after ours were cancelled due to the wind and rain.

Phew! I commend anyone who read that whole thing. It feels great to have it all written out. I'm far too lazy to proofread it, so I apologize for any type-os or anything I forgot. Let me sum up by saying it was an incredible week, and going to the outback was perhaps my best decision so far on this trip. It was an unforgettable experience that, despite the hundreds of words you have just read about it, was indescribably amazing. Now that I'm back from gallivanting across Australia, I'm reminded that I'm here to teach and study, and I have to buckle down and get a lot of work done - lesson plans and a paper for my class. After my final on Saturday, however, we head off for our last big adventure - a week in Cairns and the Whitsunday islands! So here's to getting all my work done so I can enjoy my last week of relaxation before becoming a real teacher! Miss and love you all!!!

Photos: So... they are a bit out of order. But here's what they are: 1. Some of the twelve apostles 2. the coast along the great ocean road 3. london bridge 4. uluru (and the moon) at sunset 5. kata tjuta 6. our group photo during our hike at kata tjuta 7. sammy and I riding camels 8. alice springs 9. me at the top of king's canyon 10. sammy and I in our swags 11. me at the top of heart attack hill 12. a view of uluru as we walked around it 13. uluru just at sunrise 14. another view of the coast along the great ocean road and 15. me and kaelin at loch ard gorge