Achievements and Adventures

Big news of the week – I finally went to Trinity! Sam and I finally made our introductory visit to the Trinity Grammar School today with Mark, the director of the program. We got to tour the school a bit – it’s gorgeous – and meet the teachers we will be working with. I'm going to be with two teachers actually, one of whom teaches seniors, and the other teaches year 8 and 9 - so I'll get to see a little of both levels of English. They both seem really nice and helpful, as does the head of the English department, who I met as well. It’s kind of a strange time for them, as they’re nearing the end of their term and are therefore in exams and such, but I’ll finally get to start my observing on Monday (although that is a week later than I was expecting to). We then get two weeks to observe four days a week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, with a field trip for our class on Australian culture and society on Wednesday), then the school is on break, and then we’re on break. And then I start teaching full time. While I’m very excited, I’m also starting to get rather nervous. I have a LOT of work ahead of me. But for now, I suppose I have the rest of the week to continue exploring the city, since I don’t have to be at school until Monday. And this weekend is surf camp! So that will be fun. Other recent news is that I’ve got my spring break all booked – finally. Three of the other school of education girls and I are going to fly up to Cairns right after our final exam for our class and spend a few days there trying out diving, hiking the rainforest, and enjoying the beach. From there, we take a bus down to Airlie Beach, from which we depart on a 2 day 2 night cruise of the Whitsunday Islands, just off the east coast of Australia. They are supposed to be gorgeous. Then we fly home and jump right into full time student teaching! But it should be an amazing trip and I’m very glad to have it all planned out. It was, however, very expensive. Travel is certainly not cheap here. But I figure I have to take advantage of the amazing opportunities that are offered to me while I’m here, because who knows when (and if!) I’ll be back in Australia again.

This past weekend included a bit of getting out and seeing the country as well. Friday night, we went over to Sydney Uni to see “Shakespeare Abridged,” which was being put on by the Sydney University Dramatic Society. It was very funny, and they did a really good job with it. Saturday we went out to the Hunter Valley for a wine tour, which was fantastic. We went with a tour company called Oz Experience, and we met them at 7:20 am, hopped on a bus, and headed out. There were around 20 people on our tour, from all over the world. We had a bunch of British girls who had had a little too much fun the night before (and perhaps were still feeling it) and were somewhat obnoxious, but also quite entertaining. We stopped along the way at Karingo National Park (I’m pretty sure I’m spelling that wrong). It was beautiful. There was a huge grove of mandrakes (if that’s the right termination) surrounding a river, and after a small hike, we found some aboriginal carvings, as well as a small hole in the rocks that they use to grind their food, and markings where they would sharpen their blades. It was very cool. We then stopped briefly at McDonalds so some people could get breakfast, and it was probably the nicest McDonalds I’ve ever seen. Actually, all of the McDonald’s here have a component called McCafe, and they have pastries, cakes, muffins, etc in addition to coffee. Very fancy looking. They also call them “Mackers,” which is pretty funny. After refueling, we got back in the bus for about an hour and then arrived at our first winery. They had several wines for us to taste, and they were all very good. Most of the wines were Semillons and shirazes, as those are the types of grapes they grow in that region of Australia. I learned a lot about wines, too, which was pretty cool. They then had lunches for us – delicious sandwiches, and we got to sit in their beautiful yard and eat them. They had a couple of really cute cats and a dog that we kept playing with, too. After that, we drove over to the second winery, where they had more wine to be tasted, and then finally made our way to our third and last winery, where the man who was helping us with the tasting was very helpful and taught us even more. We then had a 2 hour bus ride back to Sydney, and spent the night relaxing. It was a great day for being outside in the valley and we had a fun day overall. Sunday was great too, as we went out to Featherdale Animal Park, which is essentially a petting zoo, but with Australian animals! I got to pet koalas, kangaroos, and even an emu! It was so much fun. We also got to see a baby koala climbing around the eucalyptus trees, and hanging on to its mama’s back – so cute. When we got home, we had burrito night in our apartment, which was really fun, and then Jane and I went out to the Opera House to see Ben Folds! We went to the Opera Bar first, which is outside and overlooks the harbour – just stunning. And the show was fantastic! He didn’t have a set list; instead everyone wrote their requests on their way into the theatre, and he dumped all of the requests into a bucket on the stage and he just picked from there and played what was requested! It was very cool. He also told stories which were really funny, and made up a song or two on the spot. My only complaint was that it was too short! It started at 9 and was over by 10:30. But it was still a great experience, and the Opera House itself is just so incredibly beautiful. I hope I get a chance to go back and see something else there while I’m here.

On Monday, Sam and I went to go check out the Jewish Museum, which was also really cool (I feel like I’m saying that a lot, but, in general, everything here is pretty darn neat). We spent a good chunk of time there, looking around and reading about Jewish history. They had a big timeline of Jewish History that looped around in a circle and compared events in Jewish History with events around the world, and that was very cool to see. They also had a computer that had FAQs about the Jewish faith, so Sam and I read about why Jewish people have certain traditions and customs. We then went upstairs – the museum has 3 floors, and they kind of spiral up, creating a void in the center of the building. But instead of just being round, the void is shaped like a star of david, which is really cool looking, especially from the top floor where you can see it the best. They had a great exhibit on the holocaust, including a children’s memorial with names and photos of children who died in the concentration camps, along with a glass basin with water dropping into it, each drop of water representing one of the 1.5 million children who died in the holocaust. Above the basin there is a very touching quote from Elie Wiesel, as well. One of the coolest things that they had in the museum were old newspapers from the 1930s and 40s, with articles about World War II. They had the New York Times as well as Sydney newspapers, and it was very interesting to compare their articles from the same time period. It was also really cool to look at the ads that the newspapers ran back then. Mostly clothing, or, rather, coats and hats, but I actually found the old ads to be almost as cool as the articles themselves. And Monday night I ended up going out to Vinothek, a wine bar and restaurant, with one of my roommates and some of her friends, for a special event where we got a 3 course meal and a glass of house wine for $35. It was absolutely delicious. We started with a leek and potato soup, which was a bit heavy but still very tasty, had chicken or veal (I chose chicken) schnitzel as our main course, and the dessert was this incredible raspberry mousse topped with lemon foam and lemon zest, and there was a scoop of the creamiest, most delicious ice cream surrounded by butterscotch crumbs. It was heaven.

Last but not least, yesterday Sam and I went to the Great Synagogue, to complete our Jewish tour of Sydney. It was under very strict security – the gates didn’t open until 10 minutes before the tour, and they were very particular about what we brought in. “Tour” is also somewhat of an interesting term, as they had us all sit in the Synagogue and talked to us a bit about the foundations of Judaism in Australia (there were 12-16 Jewish convicts on the first fleet to land in Australia, so the Jewish population in Australia is the only one that we can definitively identify when it started) and then showed us a film about the Great Synagogue in general and Judaism as a whole. Though it was very interesting and a stunningly gorgeous Synagogue, the majority of people on our tour were not Jewish, and a lot of the “tour” was spent explaining what Judaism is, which I have to say was a bit of a bore for Sam and I. We did, however, know all the answers to his questions, which made us very popular.

And that brings us to today, finally! Tomorrow I have another day off, so perhaps I will go explore the markets around Sydney or maybe go back to Darling Harbour and see the Chinese Gardens or the Aquarium. Or maybe I’ll make sure I’m up to date on my readings for class, since we have a quiz tomorrow night. I’ll be back after surf camp with stories – and hopefully photos – of my experience learning how to surf. Until then, cheers mate!