Just a quick note for now! I got in to Melbourne early this morning (and had a bit of an adventure meeting up with Jen, but more on that another day). It is cold and rainy here and a lot different from Sydney! Tomorrow morning Jen and I and Jen's new friend Tarra are heading out for Tasmania, where we will be travelling for the next week. So I get to celebrate my birthday by getting up at 4am to get to the airport on time. Ugh.
I have no idea what sort of internet access I'll have in Tasmania, so if you don't hear from me, don't panic. I will definitely be back to report on all our adventures next Sunday!
Ciao!
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Australian Reptile Park
Yesterday was my last day of touring in the Sydney area. I went with Bill, Ruth's husband, up to the Australian Reptile Park, about an hour north of Sydney. To get there we had to cross the entire city (although we didn't get to go over the Harbour Bridge) and then drive into the rugged hills on the north side. The drive was beautiful the whole way. I have been really enjoying the architecture of the buildings in this city, and the natural areas outside the city are all so stunning!
I know it's a little ironic that the photos I've posted today don't have any reptiles in them, but that's because (1) these are cool photos and (2) the reptiles were really hard to photograph! The snakes were all behind glass in darkened rooms and so didn't show up well when I tried to photograph them. The saltwater crocodile (over 5m in length and GRUMPY) spent the entire time at the bottom of his pool. The american alligators were cool but too far away to snap a good picture. And so on and so forth.
The Reptile Park was an interesting place. They suffered a devastating fire in 2000 which wiped out most of their property and their animal collection. When they rebuilt the exhibit buildings, they decided to give the place a whimsical atmosphere. So the indoor reptile exhibits were done up as an ancient Egyptian temple, complete with a temple god and altar stone and more. They also have a big spider exhibit called "Spider World", where they bust arachnid myths, poke fun at the song "Incy Wincy Spider", and let the visitors get up close and personal with some of Australia's deadliest spiders, like the giant, animatronic funnel-web spider shown here. To be honest I found the buildings more than a little tacky, although I could certainly appreciate the work that went into the displays. On the other hand, the Reptile Park is one of the few facilities in Australia that milks venomous spiders and snakes, so that anti-venoms can be produced. It is thanks to the work done at this facility that people no longer die from Sydney Funnel-Web spider bites, among other things. So I guess a little tackiness in their display areas is ok. :-)
The outdoor displays were pretty good. There's a big pond with alligators in it, smaller enclosures with Galapagos tortoises, Tasmanian devils, cassowaries and flying foxes. Their big draw is their new saltwater crocodile, who actually just arrived at the Park on Wednesday following the death of their original croc. Their new croc was just over 5m long, and since this was his first day out on display, he wasn't too happy about the whole thing. He spent the entire day at the bottom of the pool in his enclosure. Bill and I chatted with his keeper for a bit as she was casually scooping dead leaves out of the crocodile's pool using a pool skimmer. I was thinking to myself there's NO WAY you'd find me that close to such a big croc! Granted, she was standing on the far side of the safety fence from the croc, but still. We were treated to a display of exactly how fast a croc can move; he had remained completely motionless as the keeper cleaned his pool, but at one point she brushed the skimmer over the top of his head and he LUNGED, mouth agape, about six feet forward and upward in half a second. Let me tell you, the keeper got her net out of the way fast! Before we knew it, the croc was back at the bottom of the pool, completely motionless once more, and if you hadn't seen him move you'd have thought he was made of stone. Yikes.
The other neat thing this place had were the free ranging kangaroos. The picnic area was
all fenced in, and there was a whole group of grey and red kangaroos who were free to roam throughout this zone. When we first arrived, the kangaroos were all surrounded by hordes of other tourists, being poked, petted, and having a zillion pictures snapped. I felt rather sorry for the 'roos. Then one big fella broke away from his gaggle of admiring tourists, bounded past me, and off into a corner of the picnic area. Intrigued, I followed the kangaroo to see where he was going. Turned out that the kangaroos had an area all to themselves, that was fenced off from the rest of the picnic zone. The 'roos could enter and exit this area at will and the tourists couldn't follow them. This made me feel a lot better, knowing that the animals could choose whether or not they wanted to be surrounded by a sea of flashing cameras and prodding hands. Once most of the other tourists had wandered away, I did go over and pet a 'roo myself. I mean, come ON - when will I have that opportunity again?
Today I spent doing laundry and packing up. I finally sewed the Canadian flag patches on all my luggage - I had a bit of a scare when I picked up my luggage in Sydney two weeks ago when I realized that someone else had an identical green suitcase to mine! I wanted to make sure that my suitcases stand out. Let me tell you, sewing patches onto a suitcase is a LOT harder than sewing a badge onto a campfire blanket. I actually managed to snap a sewing needle while trying to push it through the fabric! I am going to have pinpricks and bruises on the ends of my fingers for a while. Thank goodness I eventually found myself a thimble!
My flight to Melbourne leaves at 7am tomorrow morning, which means I need to be up at 5am in order to get to the airport on time (groan). I'm looking forward to meeting up with Jen at last - it feels like it's been forever since I last saw her in August! She'll meet me at the airport and take me across town to where we're living for the next three months. I won't have long to settle in though, since first thing on Monday morning we've got to get up early and head back to the airport, for a week-long adventure to Tasmania. I can't wait! Even if it does mean the first thing I get to do on my birthday is wake up at an ungodly early hour. :-)
I know it's a little ironic that the photos I've posted today don't have any reptiles in them, but that's because (1) these are cool photos and (2) the reptiles were really hard to photograph! The snakes were all behind glass in darkened rooms and so didn't show up well when I tried to photograph them. The saltwater crocodile (over 5m in length and GRUMPY) spent the entire time at the bottom of his pool. The american alligators were cool but too far away to snap a good picture. And so on and so forth.
The Reptile Park was an interesting place. They suffered a devastating fire in 2000 which wiped out most of their property and their animal collection. When they rebuilt the exhibit buildings, they decided to give the place a whimsical atmosphere. So the indoor reptile exhibits were done up as an ancient Egyptian temple, complete with a temple god and altar stone and more. They also have a big spider exhibit called "Spider World", where they bust arachnid myths, poke fun at the song "Incy Wincy Spider", and let the visitors get up close and personal with some of Australia's deadliest spiders, like the giant, animatronic funnel-web spider shown here. To be honest I found the buildings more than a little tacky, although I could certainly appreciate the work that went into the displays. On the other hand, the Reptile Park is one of the few facilities in Australia that milks venomous spiders and snakes, so that anti-venoms can be produced. It is thanks to the work done at this facility that people no longer die from Sydney Funnel-Web spider bites, among other things. So I guess a little tackiness in their display areas is ok. :-)The outdoor displays were pretty good. There's a big pond with alligators in it, smaller enclosures with Galapagos tortoises, Tasmanian devils, cassowaries and flying foxes. Their big draw is their new saltwater crocodile, who actually just arrived at the Park on Wednesday following the death of their original croc. Their new croc was just over 5m long, and since this was his first day out on display, he wasn't too happy about the whole thing. He spent the entire day at the bottom of the pool in his enclosure. Bill and I chatted with his keeper for a bit as she was casually scooping dead leaves out of the crocodile's pool using a pool skimmer. I was thinking to myself there's NO WAY you'd find me that close to such a big croc! Granted, she was standing on the far side of the safety fence from the croc, but still. We were treated to a display of exactly how fast a croc can move; he had remained completely motionless as the keeper cleaned his pool, but at one point she brushed the skimmer over the top of his head and he LUNGED, mouth agape, about six feet forward and upward in half a second. Let me tell you, the keeper got her net out of the way fast! Before we knew it, the croc was back at the bottom of the pool, completely motionless once more, and if you hadn't seen him move you'd have thought he was made of stone. Yikes.
The other neat thing this place had were the free ranging kangaroos. The picnic area wasall fenced in, and there was a whole group of grey and red kangaroos who were free to roam throughout this zone. When we first arrived, the kangaroos were all surrounded by hordes of other tourists, being poked, petted, and having a zillion pictures snapped. I felt rather sorry for the 'roos. Then one big fella broke away from his gaggle of admiring tourists, bounded past me, and off into a corner of the picnic area. Intrigued, I followed the kangaroo to see where he was going. Turned out that the kangaroos had an area all to themselves, that was fenced off from the rest of the picnic zone. The 'roos could enter and exit this area at will and the tourists couldn't follow them. This made me feel a lot better, knowing that the animals could choose whether or not they wanted to be surrounded by a sea of flashing cameras and prodding hands. Once most of the other tourists had wandered away, I did go over and pet a 'roo myself. I mean, come ON - when will I have that opportunity again?
Today I spent doing laundry and packing up. I finally sewed the Canadian flag patches on all my luggage - I had a bit of a scare when I picked up my luggage in Sydney two weeks ago when I realized that someone else had an identical green suitcase to mine! I wanted to make sure that my suitcases stand out. Let me tell you, sewing patches onto a suitcase is a LOT harder than sewing a badge onto a campfire blanket. I actually managed to snap a sewing needle while trying to push it through the fabric! I am going to have pinpricks and bruises on the ends of my fingers for a while. Thank goodness I eventually found myself a thimble!
My flight to Melbourne leaves at 7am tomorrow morning, which means I need to be up at 5am in order to get to the airport on time (groan). I'm looking forward to meeting up with Jen at last - it feels like it's been forever since I last saw her in August! She'll meet me at the airport and take me across town to where we're living for the next three months. I won't have long to settle in though, since first thing on Monday morning we've got to get up early and head back to the airport, for a week-long adventure to Tasmania. I can't wait! Even if it does mean the first thing I get to do on my birthday is wake up at an ungodly early hour. :-)
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Working with the 2/3's
Today was my last day working with my friend Ruth's class. I walked around the schoolyard before the kids arrived this morning and snapped a few photos of the grounds, so you can get an idea of what her school looks like. This is fairly typical of the schools here in Sydney.
Like many teachers back home, Ruth teaches in a portable. However, when I saw this portable, my first, second, and third thoughts were all WOW! There's a storage room. And a sink. And the large windows that you see here are repeated on the back side of the portable too. The windows open hugely and let in a great breeze. There are two ceiling fans to help circulate air. And there is also an air conditioner. The strange looking grates in front of the windows are to shield some of the sun's rays. Today was the warmest day I've experienced here so far, and it went up to 27C. Now I know that back at my school, at that sort of temperature we'd all be sweating and uncomfortable and generally grouchy. But with the windows open and the fans going, it was more than comfortable in her room. When it gets really hot, Ruth can turn the air conditioner on. I know that Sydney gets a lot hotter for a lot more of the school year than Toronto does, but still. I'd just kill to have those wonderful windows!
Her school is currently being reconstructed, so hopefully at the start of the next school year in January she'll be able to move back into one of the buildings. That's right - Sydney schools are made up of multiple buildings! This is a picture of the primary wing and playground, where the kindergarten and grade one classes are housed. The grade 2's and the 2/3 are housed in portables. Her school is a little unusual in that their campus is split across a roadway - so the buildings housing grades 3-6, the office, and the assembly hall (sort of like a gym but much smaller than ours - I mean really, they do almost all their sport outside) are found across the road. They have the ability to erect car barriers across the road during school hours, so children can cross back and forth all day without worry of being hit by a car.
Ruth and her colleagues found it very strange how much time we spend inside during the school day! There is much more of an emphasis on being outside here. The kids eat lunch in the school yard, supervised by teachers. Class activities often move onto the shaded porches or into the yard - like yesterday, when I helped the 2/3's with a measurement activity involving trundle wheels. There's no point in worrying about being too noisy and disturbing the class next door, when there is so much space between the classrooms and buildings! Also, there is no PA system and no phones in the classroom - so all communication between teachers needs to be done by student runners.
Because there's no PA, the morning announcements and attendance are done differently too. When the morning bell goes, all the children assemble - in class lines - and SILENTLY - behind the rec hall. The teachers assemble too, to gather their classes and take attendance. One of the VP's addresses everyone from the porch of the rec hall using a portable speaker and microphone. I am very impressed with the emphasis put on politeness at this school. At the morning assemblies, the kids were practically silent, all standing at attention, facing the speaker. He would call out anyone who was misbehaving and the behaviour generally changed immediately. With no snickering or comments from the other kids. Wow.
The school system also runs very differently here. The school year is split up into four terms, starting at the end of January, and ending the following December. Typically there are two-week breaks between each of the terms, with a 5-week break between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea of having Christmas break in the middle of the summer! Report cards go home only twice a year, in terms two and four. Also, instead of "recess", they have "fruit break". Means the same thing, but with the change of title, the obvious meaning is that the students are expected to eat a piece of fruit or something else equally healthy as their snack before going out to play.
Over the last two days I've had the chance to help out with a number of lessons, including language, math, art, and even an Italian class! This afternoon I got to teach the 3's a science lesson - they've only had limited experience with doing experiments, so I did an experiment with them. We worked to answer the question "which combination of materials will cause a chemical reaction?" (for anyone who was on the Muppet camp with me last winter, it was the same deal - just without the Dr. Honeydew craziness.)
The kids had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed experimenting to find out what combinations worked and what didn't. The only downside was that at the start of the afternoon, when I was setting out all the materials, the bottle of cream soda I was opening exploded all over me - and my brand new pants! Wah!
Like many teachers back home, Ruth teaches in a portable. However, when I saw this portable, my first, second, and third thoughts were all WOW! There's a storage room. And a sink. And the large windows that you see here are repeated on the back side of the portable too. The windows open hugely and let in a great breeze. There are two ceiling fans to help circulate air. And there is also an air conditioner. The strange looking grates in front of the windows are to shield some of the sun's rays. Today was the warmest day I've experienced here so far, and it went up to 27C. Now I know that back at my school, at that sort of temperature we'd all be sweating and uncomfortable and generally grouchy. But with the windows open and the fans going, it was more than comfortable in her room. When it gets really hot, Ruth can turn the air conditioner on. I know that Sydney gets a lot hotter for a lot more of the school year than Toronto does, but still. I'd just kill to have those wonderful windows!
Her school is currently being reconstructed, so hopefully at the start of the next school year in January she'll be able to move back into one of the buildings. That's right - Sydney schools are made up of multiple buildings! This is a picture of the primary wing and playground, where the kindergarten and grade one classes are housed. The grade 2's and the 2/3 are housed in portables. Her school is a little unusual in that their campus is split across a roadway - so the buildings housing grades 3-6, the office, and the assembly hall (sort of like a gym but much smaller than ours - I mean really, they do almost all their sport outside) are found across the road. They have the ability to erect car barriers across the road during school hours, so children can cross back and forth all day without worry of being hit by a car.Ruth and her colleagues found it very strange how much time we spend inside during the school day! There is much more of an emphasis on being outside here. The kids eat lunch in the school yard, supervised by teachers. Class activities often move onto the shaded porches or into the yard - like yesterday, when I helped the 2/3's with a measurement activity involving trundle wheels. There's no point in worrying about being too noisy and disturbing the class next door, when there is so much space between the classrooms and buildings! Also, there is no PA system and no phones in the classroom - so all communication between teachers needs to be done by student runners.
Because there's no PA, the morning announcements and attendance are done differently too. When the morning bell goes, all the children assemble - in class lines - and SILENTLY - behind the rec hall. The teachers assemble too, to gather their classes and take attendance. One of the VP's addresses everyone from the porch of the rec hall using a portable speaker and microphone. I am very impressed with the emphasis put on politeness at this school. At the morning assemblies, the kids were practically silent, all standing at attention, facing the speaker. He would call out anyone who was misbehaving and the behaviour generally changed immediately. With no snickering or comments from the other kids. Wow.
The school system also runs very differently here. The school year is split up into four terms, starting at the end of January, and ending the following December. Typically there are two-week breaks between each of the terms, with a 5-week break between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea of having Christmas break in the middle of the summer! Report cards go home only twice a year, in terms two and four. Also, instead of "recess", they have "fruit break". Means the same thing, but with the change of title, the obvious meaning is that the students are expected to eat a piece of fruit or something else equally healthy as their snack before going out to play.
Over the last two days I've had the chance to help out with a number of lessons, including language, math, art, and even an Italian class! This afternoon I got to teach the 3's a science lesson - they've only had limited experience with doing experiments, so I did an experiment with them. We worked to answer the question "which combination of materials will cause a chemical reaction?" (for anyone who was on the Muppet camp with me last winter, it was the same deal - just without the Dr. Honeydew craziness.)
The kids had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed experimenting to find out what combinations worked and what didn't. The only downside was that at the start of the afternoon, when I was setting out all the materials, the bottle of cream soda I was opening exploded all over me - and my brand new pants! Wah!
Nutsy finally goes home
Today I went to school with Ruth and joined her 2/3 class as a volunteer. The schools here are in some ways quite similar to ours, but in other aspects very different. However I'll talk more about school tomorrow, since I'm going back to play there again.
This evening, I finally got to visit the 2nd Menai Guides, who sent me the koala Nutsy back in July. As many of you already know, I toured Nutsy around for the rest of the summer, taking photos of her adventures at every opportunity. So today I finally returned her home to her unit!
I shared the journal that I'd written to document Nutsy's adventures, including her trip through Algonquin Park, her day at Canada's Wonderland, her tours through Toronto and Ottawa and Upper Canada Village. I also took Woolsey crests, maple sugar candy, and Canada stickers to share. These are the same girls I went canoeing with on the weekend so they'd already met me, and we'd had some chance to ask and answer questions about each others' countries.
Not surprisingly, I talked way longer than I'd originally planned, so we only had time to play one game at the end of the evening. I taught them how to play the Invisible Obstacle Course, a long-time favourite of mine. The Guiders gave me some crests from their unit to add to my own swap bag.
This is one of the reasons I love Guiding. Here I am, about as far away from my home that I can get on this planet, and yet all I need to do is tap into the local Guiding community to find other women and girls who share in this great sisterhood. I am looking forward to meeting more Australian Girl Guides as I travel throughout the country!
This evening, I finally got to visit the 2nd Menai Guides, who sent me the koala Nutsy back in July. As many of you already know, I toured Nutsy around for the rest of the summer, taking photos of her adventures at every opportunity. So today I finally returned her home to her unit!I shared the journal that I'd written to document Nutsy's adventures, including her trip through Algonquin Park, her day at Canada's Wonderland, her tours through Toronto and Ottawa and Upper Canada Village. I also took Woolsey crests, maple sugar candy, and Canada stickers to share. These are the same girls I went canoeing with on the weekend so they'd already met me, and we'd had some chance to ask and answer questions about each others' countries.
Not surprisingly, I talked way longer than I'd originally planned, so we only had time to play one game at the end of the evening. I taught them how to play the Invisible Obstacle Course, a long-time favourite of mine. The Guiders gave me some crests from their unit to add to my own swap bag.
This is one of the reasons I love Guiding. Here I am, about as far away from my home that I can get on this planet, and yet all I need to do is tap into the local Guiding community to find other women and girls who share in this great sisterhood. I am looking forward to meeting more Australian Girl Guides as I travel throughout the country!
Monday, September 24, 2007
The Australian Museum, more Girl Guide fun, and some well-earned time off
OK, so I was a bad girl yesterday and didn't update my blog like I'd promised myself I would. But to be fair, I'd had a long, long day (more on that in a mo) and I'm very tired. I'm finally taking a day off (enjoying the irony of taking a day off from my holidays!), sleeping in (all the way to 8:30), doing the laundry, catching up on ordinary stuff like paperwork and banking, and all that gunk.
So. Back to yesterday. I had bought myself a train/bus/ferry pass that was good for a week, and yesterday was the last day I could use it. I tried to make the most out of it! I caught the train early in the morning to head back into the city, and headed for the Australian Museum. I got downtown before the museum even opened, so I wandered through Hyde Park (named after its counterpart in London) and just enjoyed the fine weather.
I quite enjoyed the museum once I got inside. It isn't a huge place as far as these things go (I think about the size of the AGO, but certainly not the ROM) but it had some excellent displays on a variety of topics. As you can see from today's pic, I really liked the skeleton gallery. They had cases with skeletons from all the groups of vertebrates, but I especially liked the displays with human bones. There was this one, entitled "domestic bliss" (there's also the skeleton of a cat catching the skeleton of a mouse in here, but they're hidden behind the chair), a human on a stationary bike (you could sit in a bike just outside the display and pedal, and watch what your bones do when they move) and also a man astride a rearing horse. Very cool. They had some excellent explanations about the differences in the skeletons of the different groups of vertebrates. For example, I didn't know that marsupials, as a rule, don't have knee caps! They also have extra bones down near the pelvis to support the pouch and its precious contents.
Upstairs the museum had galleries showing the birds and invertebrates of Australia, mostly done in the old-fashioned diorama style which I personally love but which can be boring for young kids. And there were lots of kids at the museum on field trips from their various schools. All the school kids here wear uniforms - regardless of whether they go to a public school or a private one - so it's really easy to spot them when they're out in public. There's also an excellent gallery on the rocks and minerals of Australia, including a cast of the largest gold nugget ever found. I don't remember how much it weighed but it was easily the size of a large school backpack. Holy cow! Apparently Australia is rather famous for its gold nuggets. Much like Canada, Australia is rich in mineral and metal deposits, but most of them are found in the remote outback and are difficult to extract.
I wandered around the museum until lunchtime, then went back to Hyde Park to enjoy my sandwiches in the shade of a huge old fig tree. Having made no other plans for the afternoon, I decided to head back out to Bondi Beach, which we had passed in the car the day before but weren't able to stop at. Bondi was an easy train/bus ride from downtown, and within 45 minutes I was on the beach. Sydney has a whole bunch of excellent ocean-side beaches that are within the city limits, of which Bondi is the most famous. You know you're entering surfing territory when the mall stores you pass on the bus sell surf boards! I decided I'd earned myself an ice cream, so after getting off the bus I zeroed in on the nearest ice cream stand, bought an excellent "chocolate ecstasy" ice cream, and headed for the beach.
I enjoyed a bit of a low-key afternoon. I watched the waves, watched the surfers, and watched the other people on the beach. The surf was pretty high and I decided that today was not the day to go wandering along the edge of the water - there was a good chance I'd get more than just my feet wet! I enjoyed the fact that the lifeguards patrolling the beach were using an SUV with surfboards attached to the sides.
On the way back to Ruth's on the train, we got stuck with signaling problems for probably half an hour or so, so I didn't have time to do more than change into my Guiding uniform before we headed out the door again for Guides. On the roster for the evening was playing games (courtesy of me), handing out various badges and awards, and practicing square lashing for the upcoming Borree Regatta, where the girls compete in a raft building competition. In the end, her Guides taught ME a new game, which will be going up on my website at some point in the future! Square lashing practice was a bit of a challenge but good fun, and I taught lots of girls how to do a clove hitch for the first time.
So in the end, after cleaning up from Guides and dropping Ruth's assistant Guider off at home, we didn't get back to our place until almost 9pm! We had a late (but YUMMY) dinner and then it was off to bed!
My knees have been really aching these last few days, I guess from all the walking on sidewalks and other hard surfaces over the last week or so. Add to that the fact that Ruth seems to have given me her head cold, and I'm pooped. So here I am today, enjoying a quiet day off at Ruth's house. I got to sleep in, I've done my laundry, I've read and responded to a ton of emails, and am generally getting caught up with the rest of the world. Please - if you haven't done so recently, drop me a line to let me know how you're doing. Every once in a while I remember how far away Australia is from everywhere else I know!
So. Back to yesterday. I had bought myself a train/bus/ferry pass that was good for a week, and yesterday was the last day I could use it. I tried to make the most out of it! I caught the train early in the morning to head back into the city, and headed for the Australian Museum. I got downtown before the museum even opened, so I wandered through Hyde Park (named after its counterpart in London) and just enjoyed the fine weather.I quite enjoyed the museum once I got inside. It isn't a huge place as far as these things go (I think about the size of the AGO, but certainly not the ROM) but it had some excellent displays on a variety of topics. As you can see from today's pic, I really liked the skeleton gallery. They had cases with skeletons from all the groups of vertebrates, but I especially liked the displays with human bones. There was this one, entitled "domestic bliss" (there's also the skeleton of a cat catching the skeleton of a mouse in here, but they're hidden behind the chair), a human on a stationary bike (you could sit in a bike just outside the display and pedal, and watch what your bones do when they move) and also a man astride a rearing horse. Very cool. They had some excellent explanations about the differences in the skeletons of the different groups of vertebrates. For example, I didn't know that marsupials, as a rule, don't have knee caps! They also have extra bones down near the pelvis to support the pouch and its precious contents.
Upstairs the museum had galleries showing the birds and invertebrates of Australia, mostly done in the old-fashioned diorama style which I personally love but which can be boring for young kids. And there were lots of kids at the museum on field trips from their various schools. All the school kids here wear uniforms - regardless of whether they go to a public school or a private one - so it's really easy to spot them when they're out in public. There's also an excellent gallery on the rocks and minerals of Australia, including a cast of the largest gold nugget ever found. I don't remember how much it weighed but it was easily the size of a large school backpack. Holy cow! Apparently Australia is rather famous for its gold nuggets. Much like Canada, Australia is rich in mineral and metal deposits, but most of them are found in the remote outback and are difficult to extract.
I wandered around the museum until lunchtime, then went back to Hyde Park to enjoy my sandwiches in the shade of a huge old fig tree. Having made no other plans for the afternoon, I decided to head back out to Bondi Beach, which we had passed in the car the day before but weren't able to stop at. Bondi was an easy train/bus ride from downtown, and within 45 minutes I was on the beach. Sydney has a whole bunch of excellent ocean-side beaches that are within the city limits, of which Bondi is the most famous. You know you're entering surfing territory when the mall stores you pass on the bus sell surf boards! I decided I'd earned myself an ice cream, so after getting off the bus I zeroed in on the nearest ice cream stand, bought an excellent "chocolate ecstasy" ice cream, and headed for the beach.
I enjoyed a bit of a low-key afternoon. I watched the waves, watched the surfers, and watched the other people on the beach. The surf was pretty high and I decided that today was not the day to go wandering along the edge of the water - there was a good chance I'd get more than just my feet wet! I enjoyed the fact that the lifeguards patrolling the beach were using an SUV with surfboards attached to the sides.
On the way back to Ruth's on the train, we got stuck with signaling problems for probably half an hour or so, so I didn't have time to do more than change into my Guiding uniform before we headed out the door again for Guides. On the roster for the evening was playing games (courtesy of me), handing out various badges and awards, and practicing square lashing for the upcoming Borree Regatta, where the girls compete in a raft building competition. In the end, her Guides taught ME a new game, which will be going up on my website at some point in the future! Square lashing practice was a bit of a challenge but good fun, and I taught lots of girls how to do a clove hitch for the first time.
So in the end, after cleaning up from Guides and dropping Ruth's assistant Guider off at home, we didn't get back to our place until almost 9pm! We had a late (but YUMMY) dinner and then it was off to bed!
My knees have been really aching these last few days, I guess from all the walking on sidewalks and other hard surfaces over the last week or so. Add to that the fact that Ruth seems to have given me her head cold, and I'm pooped. So here I am today, enjoying a quiet day off at Ruth's house. I got to sleep in, I've done my laundry, I've read and responded to a ton of emails, and am generally getting caught up with the rest of the world. Please - if you haven't done so recently, drop me a line to let me know how you're doing. Every once in a while I remember how far away Australia is from everywhere else I know!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
A day spent wandering around Sydney
Today Ruth, Carroll and I kinda wandered all over the city. It was actually the first time that the three of us had been able to spend a whole day together since I arrived! First we headed downtown to Darling Harbour, where there was a Brazilian cultural festival going on. We listened to some great drumming and other musical acts, ate roasted chicken on a stick, tried some Brazilian cola and munched on Brazilian donuts. The donuts reminded me very much of beavertails, except that they were rolled into a banana-shaped/sized tube and filled with chocolate. Mmmm.
Then we wandered over to Paddy's Market, a place I'd been meaning to get to all week. Turns out that this is a huge flea market type place, actually one of the biggest ones I've ever been in. We checked out some of the stalls but the market was really crowded and noisy, so we soon left. We took a short break at a local coffee bar before continuing on with the day.
We still had a good portion of the afternoon to kill, so Carroll decided to take us on a bit of a driving tour around Sydney and its suburbs. We went out to The Gap, which is located on the south head of the Sydney Harbour. Both the northern and southern ends of the opening to the Harbour are protected by huge cliffs, but there are some really good lookout spots on the southern head. I think I am still psyching myself up for the abseiling I will be doing in November/December... I kept looking over the edge of the cliffs and thinking that I will at some point in the near future be climbing DOWN something even deeper than these on a rope. Yikes!
(On the other hand, I spent the month leading up to my whitewater canoeing trip earlier this year doing much the same thing... worrying over whether or not I'd be able to do it... and I survived that adventure just fine!)
We finished off the afternoon taking the scenic route back to Caringbah, along all these windey roads that hugged the coastline. It seemed to me that around every corner was another beautiful vista full of palm trees, blue ocean surf, and beachfront. On the other hand, the roads right along the coast are narrow, often on steep hills, and with lots of sharp turns! I was sure glad it was Carroll driving and not me. But in a week's time Jen and I will be in Tasmania with a rental car, so I'll have to give it a try sooner or later!
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Paddling with the 2nd Menai Girl Guides
This morning I went kayaking/canoeing (I did a bit of both) with the 2nd Menai Guides. Menai is the next suburb over from Caringbah, where I am currently hanging out. It was the Menai Guides who sent me the koala Nutsy, who travelled with me through most of this past summer. I'll be visiting their unit later this week to return the koala to them and share all the pictures I took. But in the meantime, canoeing!
Earlier in my blog, I'd commented on how impressed I am with the fact that the Australian Guide units own their own halls, and therefore own their own spaces to hold their meetings. Well, they own and operate a number of other facilities as well, including the water activities facility I visited today at Bindaree. I didn't take my camera (didn't want it to get wet), but you can see some pictures of the place here http://www.ssrguides.org/properties.php?&sub=bindaree. The facility is essentially a stand-alone boating garage near the shore of the Woronora River. There are a couple of Guiders who oversee the management of the building and boats, and groups can book their services as instructors to take their girls out paddling.
We had seven girls and four leaders on today's adventure. These were older Guides (I'm pretty sure most of them were as old as our Pathfinders) and were obviously experienced paddlers. Barbara, the leader who was in charge of the event, gave the girls the choice between using canoes or kayaks. Most of the girls chose to use kayaks. So we got all the gear out, took it all down to the water's edge, and away we went!
I was very impressed with the facility and equipment available to the girls. They've got a lot more kayaks than what are shown in the pictures on their webpage; some were so new they'd only been delivered the day before! They had proper paddling PFD's in all sorts of sizes and a variety of different aluminum canoe and kayak paddles. They also had a collection of water shoes (aqua socks) for the girls to use! The only thing I didn't see (although they could have been stored away somewhere) were spray skirts for the kayaks. In any case, we didn't use them.
It was a cool and very windy day, and I found myself marvelling at how lightly most of the girls were dressed. Most members of our group wore t-shirts and shorts under their PFD's - whereas I, the northern girl, was wearing my quickdry pants, wool hiking socks, a long sleeved shirt, and my windbreaker - and I was still cold! (I'm convinced my body is not adjusting so well to the weather here). We decided to head downriver, with the wind - knowing that we were going against the tide, and that we would be paddling with the tide (but against the wind) on the way back. Most of the girls were skilled kayakers and had no problems paddling. One girl was not comfortable in a kayak and travelled with one of the other leaders in a canoe.
The wind was CRAZY strong. It's been a number of years since I kayaked, but I quickly found that if I had my boat pointed in exactly the right direction, I could basically surf down the river with the wind at my back. I knew we were going to have an interesting time of it getting back to the boating shed once we turned around, and I was right! When we had to paddle back upriver, it was a real fight just to keep oriented, let alone make any progress. For the return trip, I switched places with the leader in the canoe, so she could coach some of the girls who were struggling in the wind. This put me in with the girl who wasn't so comfortable paddling. One of the leaders had taken me aside at our snack break and let me know that this girl has some special needs, so it wasn't surprising that she had such a hard time paddling. So essentially I solo paddled the two of us back upriver, in this roaring wind. (Vicky - remember the wind on the last day of the Pet? It was like that. But in an insanely tippy boat. With no keel. Hooray.)
What was interesting about the return trip was how I paddled the boat. The leader who'd paddled down in the canoe hadn't taken a canoe paddle, she'd taken a kayak paddle. I asked her why and she said that she found it much easier to use the kayak paddle when she knew that her bow paddler couldn't help out. So when I paddled back in the canoe, I had no choice but to use the kayak paddle too. It was way easier than I thought it was going to be - and in fact, using the kayak paddle is probably the only thing that allowed me to keep the boat moving in the right direction in that wicked wind! Something for us Woolsey-ites to think about for future years. The only downside was that I dripped water into my lap at each paddle stroke... so by the time we got back to the boating shed, I was more than a little wet.
Once we had all safely landed, the girls helped us pull the boats up and put everything away. Again I was really impressed with how all the girls helped out and seemed to know exactly what needed to be done. And here's something else for us Woolsey-ites to think about - they have the girls wash and dry all the boats - inside and out - after every event. So the boats always go back into their boatshed clean and dry and ready for the next group. They had a set of those puzzle piece foam mats which were brought out and set up on the grass just outside the boat shed, so the boats could be washed on the mats without getting all dirty again on the sand. Maybe we need to be looking at doing the same for our canoe camps?
At any rate, it was a great morning, even though I did come home covered in salt and feeling crusty. Hooray for tidal rivers!
Earlier in my blog, I'd commented on how impressed I am with the fact that the Australian Guide units own their own halls, and therefore own their own spaces to hold their meetings. Well, they own and operate a number of other facilities as well, including the water activities facility I visited today at Bindaree. I didn't take my camera (didn't want it to get wet), but you can see some pictures of the place here http://www.ssrguides.org/properties.php?&sub=bindaree. The facility is essentially a stand-alone boating garage near the shore of the Woronora River. There are a couple of Guiders who oversee the management of the building and boats, and groups can book their services as instructors to take their girls out paddling.
We had seven girls and four leaders on today's adventure. These were older Guides (I'm pretty sure most of them were as old as our Pathfinders) and were obviously experienced paddlers. Barbara, the leader who was in charge of the event, gave the girls the choice between using canoes or kayaks. Most of the girls chose to use kayaks. So we got all the gear out, took it all down to the water's edge, and away we went!
I was very impressed with the facility and equipment available to the girls. They've got a lot more kayaks than what are shown in the pictures on their webpage; some were so new they'd only been delivered the day before! They had proper paddling PFD's in all sorts of sizes and a variety of different aluminum canoe and kayak paddles. They also had a collection of water shoes (aqua socks) for the girls to use! The only thing I didn't see (although they could have been stored away somewhere) were spray skirts for the kayaks. In any case, we didn't use them.
It was a cool and very windy day, and I found myself marvelling at how lightly most of the girls were dressed. Most members of our group wore t-shirts and shorts under their PFD's - whereas I, the northern girl, was wearing my quickdry pants, wool hiking socks, a long sleeved shirt, and my windbreaker - and I was still cold! (I'm convinced my body is not adjusting so well to the weather here). We decided to head downriver, with the wind - knowing that we were going against the tide, and that we would be paddling with the tide (but against the wind) on the way back. Most of the girls were skilled kayakers and had no problems paddling. One girl was not comfortable in a kayak and travelled with one of the other leaders in a canoe.
The wind was CRAZY strong. It's been a number of years since I kayaked, but I quickly found that if I had my boat pointed in exactly the right direction, I could basically surf down the river with the wind at my back. I knew we were going to have an interesting time of it getting back to the boating shed once we turned around, and I was right! When we had to paddle back upriver, it was a real fight just to keep oriented, let alone make any progress. For the return trip, I switched places with the leader in the canoe, so she could coach some of the girls who were struggling in the wind. This put me in with the girl who wasn't so comfortable paddling. One of the leaders had taken me aside at our snack break and let me know that this girl has some special needs, so it wasn't surprising that she had such a hard time paddling. So essentially I solo paddled the two of us back upriver, in this roaring wind. (Vicky - remember the wind on the last day of the Pet? It was like that. But in an insanely tippy boat. With no keel. Hooray.)
What was interesting about the return trip was how I paddled the boat. The leader who'd paddled down in the canoe hadn't taken a canoe paddle, she'd taken a kayak paddle. I asked her why and she said that she found it much easier to use the kayak paddle when she knew that her bow paddler couldn't help out. So when I paddled back in the canoe, I had no choice but to use the kayak paddle too. It was way easier than I thought it was going to be - and in fact, using the kayak paddle is probably the only thing that allowed me to keep the boat moving in the right direction in that wicked wind! Something for us Woolsey-ites to think about for future years. The only downside was that I dripped water into my lap at each paddle stroke... so by the time we got back to the boating shed, I was more than a little wet.
Once we had all safely landed, the girls helped us pull the boats up and put everything away. Again I was really impressed with how all the girls helped out and seemed to know exactly what needed to be done. And here's something else for us Woolsey-ites to think about - they have the girls wash and dry all the boats - inside and out - after every event. So the boats always go back into their boatshed clean and dry and ready for the next group. They had a set of those puzzle piece foam mats which were brought out and set up on the grass just outside the boat shed, so the boats could be washed on the mats without getting all dirty again on the sand. Maybe we need to be looking at doing the same for our canoe camps?
At any rate, it was a great morning, even though I did come home covered in salt and feeling crusty. Hooray for tidal rivers!
Friday, September 21, 2007
Art Gallery of New South Wales and Manly Beach
I wandered all over the place today. I was heading for the art gallery but I had to cross through the Botanical Gardens to get there, so I got distracted for a couple of hours in the Gardens - again. The place is HUGE. I still haven't explored it completely. Today I went through the succulent gardens, the rare and endangered species garden, and the First Farm garden, which commemorates the plants which the ships of the First Fleet brought with them when the colonized Australia. I seriously could have wandered around the Gardens for the rest of the day, but I had other places I needed to go. Besides, right about the time I'd sat down on a park bench to eat my lunch I was approached by a rather scruffy looking character who was looking for some cigarettes. Definitely time to change the scenery! Don't worry mom and dad, everything is fine. :-)
The Art Gallery is also huge (this appears to be a bit of a theme in Sydney) and it's free. There are galleries displaying Australian art from the 1700's all the way to the present, as well as European artists and of course Aboriginal art as well. I don't think I was quite in the right frame of mind to spend the day in the gallery... I kept finding myself wandering aimlessly through each room, staring at two or three paintings and then moving on. When I was in the contemporary art section, once again I found that most of the artwork I just didn't understand - and the little blurbs beside each piece weren't all that helpful. I think I need to spend some time at a gallery with someone who actually understands this stuff and can explain it to me. I mean, I can admire a piece for its use of colour, texture, or whatever, or see how the artist has captured motion or mood, but when it comes to symbolism...? I'm totally lost.
So the long and the short of it is I left the gallery about 1:30, much earlier than I'd expected, and wasn't sure what to do with myself for the rest of the afternoon. I caught a train and found myself back at Circular Quay, where all the ferries depart for various points around Sydney Harbour. On a whim I got on the Manly ferry, mostly because my tour book said that the Manly beach was great. Once again the book did not disappoint! Manly is located at the mouth of the Harbour, so it was about a 30min ride on the ferry to get there. As we approached the ocean, there were ocean swells, so even though we were on a pretty big ship, we sure were rocking! The weather was absolutely perfect for sitting out on the outdoors deck to take in the scenery.
Once I'd disembarked at the Manly wharf, I just kind of followed the crowd through the uber-touristy section of Manly and before I knew it I was standing on the beach, with an unobstructed view of the beautiful Pacific Ocean. Beach stretched as far as the eye could see off to my left, and to my right the beach ended in a headland which marked the entrance to the Harbour. The breakers were just gently rolling in and lots of folks were boogie boarding and surfing. So I wandered down the beach a little ways, plunked myself down on the sand, and enjoyed people-watching for probably a good 45 minutes.
However, I'd managed to forget how long it would take me to get back to Bill and Ruth's house - so I was almost late for dinner!
I have been enjoying all this wandering I've done on my own, but am looking forward to doing some touring with others. Somehow it's not the same when you aren't able to share that sense of discovery with other people. Tomorrow I'm going canoeing with some of the local Girl Guides, and hopefully on Sunday Ruth and Carroll and I will get to do a bit of hiking. Then it's only one more short week before I meet up with Jen!
The Art Gallery is also huge (this appears to be a bit of a theme in Sydney) and it's free. There are galleries displaying Australian art from the 1700's all the way to the present, as well as European artists and of course Aboriginal art as well. I don't think I was quite in the right frame of mind to spend the day in the gallery... I kept finding myself wandering aimlessly through each room, staring at two or three paintings and then moving on. When I was in the contemporary art section, once again I found that most of the artwork I just didn't understand - and the little blurbs beside each piece weren't all that helpful. I think I need to spend some time at a gallery with someone who actually understands this stuff and can explain it to me. I mean, I can admire a piece for its use of colour, texture, or whatever, or see how the artist has captured motion or mood, but when it comes to symbolism...? I'm totally lost.
So the long and the short of it is I left the gallery about 1:30, much earlier than I'd expected, and wasn't sure what to do with myself for the rest of the afternoon. I caught a train and found myself back at Circular Quay, where all the ferries depart for various points around Sydney Harbour. On a whim I got on the Manly ferry, mostly because my tour book said that the Manly beach was great. Once again the book did not disappoint! Manly is located at the mouth of the Harbour, so it was about a 30min ride on the ferry to get there. As we approached the ocean, there were ocean swells, so even though we were on a pretty big ship, we sure were rocking! The weather was absolutely perfect for sitting out on the outdoors deck to take in the scenery.
Once I'd disembarked at the Manly wharf, I just kind of followed the crowd through the uber-touristy section of Manly and before I knew it I was standing on the beach, with an unobstructed view of the beautiful Pacific Ocean. Beach stretched as far as the eye could see off to my left, and to my right the beach ended in a headland which marked the entrance to the Harbour. The breakers were just gently rolling in and lots of folks were boogie boarding and surfing. So I wandered down the beach a little ways, plunked myself down on the sand, and enjoyed people-watching for probably a good 45 minutes.
However, I'd managed to forget how long it would take me to get back to Bill and Ruth's house - so I was almost late for dinner!
I have been enjoying all this wandering I've done on my own, but am looking forward to doing some touring with others. Somehow it's not the same when you aren't able to share that sense of discovery with other people. Tomorrow I'm going canoeing with some of the local Girl Guides, and hopefully on Sunday Ruth and Carroll and I will get to do a bit of hiking. Then it's only one more short week before I meet up with Jen!
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Univeristy of Sydney and the Royal Botanical Gardens
This morning I got up early and went in to work with my friend Carroll. She's the Faculty Manager for the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Sydney. I explored the university campus for a good chunk of the morning, part of it accompanied by Carroll, partly accompanied by Carroll's assistant Claire, and part of it on my own. U of S is a "sandstone university", which is the Australian equivalent of an Ivy League school. The older buildings on campus are made of sandstone and are done in Gothic style, so they're wonderful to look at. Unfortunately it was pouring rain for a good part of the morning, so I didn't take any pictures.
The coolest surprise of the morning was stumbling in to the Macleay Museum, on the university campus. This museum has been maintained in the old Victorian style, so it's in a great vaulted room full of wooden "curiosity cabinets", and houses a huge variety of animals, insects, birds, scientific instruments, aboriginal artworks, and much more. Check it out here at http://www.usyd.edu.au/museums/about/macleay.shtml. I had only expected to be here for about an hour but ended up spending a good long time there!
Once I left the university campus, I took a bus across town to the Botanical Gardens. The weather was still pretty crummy so I was planning on going to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, which is located in the Botanical Gardens. But when I got to the Gardens, I pretty much got sidetracked immediately by all the neat trees; the Gardens houses tree species from all over the South Pacific. That, and the Gardens are HUGE! I spent at least three hours wandering around and I don't think I even saw half of the place.
What really got me sidetracked were the flying foxes! The Botanical Gardens is home to a colony of these large fruit bats - something like 11,000 bats in total. These critters are probably a little larger than our grey squirrels (not counting wings, of course) - so 11,000 of them take up a LOT of space in the tree tops! They were way up high so this is about the best shot I managed to get - on maximum zoom on the camera. Flying foxes are a protected species in Australia - they play a key role in the forests, dispersing plant seeds and pollinating flowers. But in the city they're pests, much in the same way that we have problems with Canada Geese. They damage the trees that they roost in (the branches in the tree here should be covered with leaves). But since they're protected, there's very little anyone can do about them.
Anyhow, before I knew it, the afternoon was mostly gone, I had walked about a zillion miles away from the centre of the city and had to trudge a long way back in order to find myself a train station. After all the walking of the past few days my knees are killing me - but I'll be back downtown tomorrow too, 'cause I need to finish exploring the Gardens and finally get into the Art Gallery. The best part is, both these attractions are free. Hooray for living a penny-less existence!
The coolest surprise of the morning was stumbling in to the Macleay Museum, on the university campus. This museum has been maintained in the old Victorian style, so it's in a great vaulted room full of wooden "curiosity cabinets", and houses a huge variety of animals, insects, birds, scientific instruments, aboriginal artworks, and much more. Check it out here at http://www.usyd.edu.au/museums/about/macleay.shtml. I had only expected to be here for about an hour but ended up spending a good long time there!
Once I left the university campus, I took a bus across town to the Botanical Gardens. The weather was still pretty crummy so I was planning on going to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, which is located in the Botanical Gardens. But when I got to the Gardens, I pretty much got sidetracked immediately by all the neat trees; the Gardens houses tree species from all over the South Pacific. That, and the Gardens are HUGE! I spent at least three hours wandering around and I don't think I even saw half of the place.
What really got me sidetracked were the flying foxes! The Botanical Gardens is home to a colony of these large fruit bats - something like 11,000 bats in total. These critters are probably a little larger than our grey squirrels (not counting wings, of course) - so 11,000 of them take up a LOT of space in the tree tops! They were way up high so this is about the best shot I managed to get - on maximum zoom on the camera. Flying foxes are a protected species in Australia - they play a key role in the forests, dispersing plant seeds and pollinating flowers. But in the city they're pests, much in the same way that we have problems with Canada Geese. They damage the trees that they roost in (the branches in the tree here should be covered with leaves). But since they're protected, there's very little anyone can do about them.Anyhow, before I knew it, the afternoon was mostly gone, I had walked about a zillion miles away from the centre of the city and had to trudge a long way back in order to find myself a train station. After all the walking of the past few days my knees are killing me - but I'll be back downtown tomorrow too, 'cause I need to finish exploring the Gardens and finally get into the Art Gallery. The best part is, both these attractions are free. Hooray for living a penny-less existence!
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
More from Darling Harbour
So I took a bit of a break from the touring this morning to do some much-needed laundry. I didn't bring all that much to wear for cooler weather, and since it's still spring here, I've been wearing the same Woolsey sweatshirt over and over and over. But once that was dealt with, I headed back into town to do some more exploring around Darling Harbour, where the aquarium is.
My first stop - completely by accident - was the Aboriginal Cultural Centre. They have lots of great, authentic Aboriginal artwork on sale, but they also have a stage where they do free didgeridoo performances several times a day. As luck would have it, I walked in 15 minutes before the show was supposed to start - so I stuck around. The performer not only played a number of pieces on the didgeridoo, he also explained how the sounds are made and the significance of the instrument. I learned that the didgeridoo is from the rainforests of northern Australia, and it was actually introduced to Aborigines in other parts of the country by the European settlers! He also explained how you have to do 'circular breathing' while playing - so basically you use your diaphragm, throat and lips to push air out of the instrument while sucking air in through your nose at the same time. Not easy! Finally, I learned that the didgeridoo is traditionally used to support storytelling and dancing, and not played just on its own. So the performer played the didgeridoo while using his free hand to tell the story of how the dingo hunts the kangaroo - and used the didgeridoo to make the sounds of each animal as part of the story. Very, very, very cool.
My actual goal for the day was to get to Sydney Wildlife World, which is a new attraction just beside the aquarium. I got talked into buying a ticket for it yesterday but let me tell you, it was definitely worth my money and time! They have a whole wide variety of displays on Australia's wildlife, covering a bunch of different habitats all across the country. Not surprisingly, I really liked their "Spineless Wonders" display, all about invertebrates, of course. Some of the displays were built quite cleverly, so that there were viewing windows at adult height and a second set of windows at kid height. Also, throughout the Wildlife World, they had big signs/displays about all the dangerous/venomous animals in their collection. I saw the Sydney funnel web, the deadliest spider on earth, and also some of the most venomous snakes in the world.
All of the big enclosures were glassed in - there were no cages or fencing of any sort. So this picture of a cassowary, the deadliest bird on earth, looks like I was right nose-to-beak with the bird, and basically I was! There was only a slim piece of glass between us. This attraction is only just a year old, so they don't quite have all the kinks worked out yet, but it was still a great place. Up on the top level, there is a rooftop garden with koalas - and no glass at all! There's just a chained off area to keep the public from actually touching the animals, and then a set of artificial trees where the koalas hang out (literally) all day. Twice a day the workers bring the koalas fresh eucalyptus leaves, and I was there during feeding time. So I learned another new fact - the reason why koalas are so sleepy/dopey is because their food is so poisonous! It takes all their energy to digest their food, so they can't be all that active - it would literally kill them.
In the end I lingered at Wildlife World a lot longer than I'd originally planned, so I didn't get out to the Botanical Gardens at all. Hopefully I'll be able to do that tomorrow, although the weather's not supposed to be all that good. I really want to see the flying foxes though!
(See? No matter how I try, all my touring ends up being focused around animals!)
My first stop - completely by accident - was the Aboriginal Cultural Centre. They have lots of great, authentic Aboriginal artwork on sale, but they also have a stage where they do free didgeridoo performances several times a day. As luck would have it, I walked in 15 minutes before the show was supposed to start - so I stuck around. The performer not only played a number of pieces on the didgeridoo, he also explained how the sounds are made and the significance of the instrument. I learned that the didgeridoo is from the rainforests of northern Australia, and it was actually introduced to Aborigines in other parts of the country by the European settlers! He also explained how you have to do 'circular breathing' while playing - so basically you use your diaphragm, throat and lips to push air out of the instrument while sucking air in through your nose at the same time. Not easy! Finally, I learned that the didgeridoo is traditionally used to support storytelling and dancing, and not played just on its own. So the performer played the didgeridoo while using his free hand to tell the story of how the dingo hunts the kangaroo - and used the didgeridoo to make the sounds of each animal as part of the story. Very, very, very cool.
My actual goal for the day was to get to Sydney Wildlife World, which is a new attraction just beside the aquarium. I got talked into buying a ticket for it yesterday but let me tell you, it was definitely worth my money and time! They have a whole wide variety of displays on Australia's wildlife, covering a bunch of different habitats all across the country. Not surprisingly, I really liked their "Spineless Wonders" display, all about invertebrates, of course. Some of the displays were built quite cleverly, so that there were viewing windows at adult height and a second set of windows at kid height. Also, throughout the Wildlife World, they had big signs/displays about all the dangerous/venomous animals in their collection. I saw the Sydney funnel web, the deadliest spider on earth, and also some of the most venomous snakes in the world.
All of the big enclosures were glassed in - there were no cages or fencing of any sort. So this picture of a cassowary, the deadliest bird on earth, looks like I was right nose-to-beak with the bird, and basically I was! There was only a slim piece of glass between us. This attraction is only just a year old, so they don't quite have all the kinks worked out yet, but it was still a great place. Up on the top level, there is a rooftop garden with koalas - and no glass at all! There's just a chained off area to keep the public from actually touching the animals, and then a set of artificial trees where the koalas hang out (literally) all day. Twice a day the workers bring the koalas fresh eucalyptus leaves, and I was there during feeding time. So I learned another new fact - the reason why koalas are so sleepy/dopey is because their food is so poisonous! It takes all their energy to digest their food, so they can't be all that active - it would literally kill them.In the end I lingered at Wildlife World a lot longer than I'd originally planned, so I didn't get out to the Botanical Gardens at all. Hopefully I'll be able to do that tomorrow, although the weather's not supposed to be all that good. I really want to see the flying foxes though!
(See? No matter how I try, all my touring ends up being focused around animals!)
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Sydney Aquarium and Maritime Museum
I should probably start today's entry with a warning:
BABOO - you might not want to read this. :-)
So today I went to the Sydney Aquarium, and certainly wasn't disappointed! They have exhibits on a wide variety of aquatic life found in Australia, including platypus, saltwater crocodiles, fairy penguins, and of course the Great Barrier Reef and tons of sharks. The first half of the aquarium was pretty standard - a variety of large and small tanks with different fish and invertebrate species. But what makes this aquarium special are the three habitats they have installed in the harbor. In the sea lion and open ocean habitats, there are tunnels that you walk through so the animals are swimming beside you and over your heads. Very cool. And for the grand finale, the Great Barrier Reef exhibit, there's actually a segment where you walk through a glass tunnel that also has a glass floor - so you're surrounded on all sides by the fish, turtles and sharks. It was very, very, very awesome. Unfortunately, my skills at taking pictures inside aquariums is limited, and I don't have any which are good enough to post here. So you'll just have to take my word for it - the experience was worth it.
There were about forty million school kids at the aquarium today, so I didn't stay for as long as I had originally hoped. There is only so much I can take, after all! What I thought was really funny is that all through the aquarium they have posters about the movie "Finding Nemo", listing the different species of fish from the movie that are on display in the tanks, and encouraging kids to find them. So I spent most of my morning surrounded by little kids yelling "Hi Nemo!" and "I see Dory!" at the top of their lungs. :-)
On the invert side of things, they had these incredible anemones on display which were almost a metre across their disk! And cuttlefish, which I love watching because of their ability to change colour. I also liked the rock lobsters, some of which were truly enormous.
After the aquarium, I wandered around the perimeter of Darling Harbor to the Maritime Museum. This turned out to also be a terrific museum - and it was free! I wandered around inside for over an hour, guided by a very nice elderly volunteer from the museum who was only to happy to show me his favorite displays in the museum. Considering it was free, I was surprised at how empty it was. But anyone who's interested in ships, exploration, and naval history definitely needs to come and visit this museum. There were also several ships anchored in the harbor which belong to the museum, but it cots extra to tour them so I gave that a pass.
I had a bit of an adventure trying to find my way back home at the end of the afternoon. I was pooped so decided that I'd catch the monorail back to the train station - but after climbing the eight zillion steps up to the monorail platform, I discovered that my transit pass doesn't include the monorail! Groan. So I trudged (slowly) back to the train station and caught the train back to Caringbah. When I got up to street level at Caringbah station, I took a wrong turn and ended up completely disoriented - and I couldn't find a bus stop to save my life! I eventually flagged down a bus and told the driver which street I was looking for, and as luck would have it, his bus was going right past my street! Unfortunately, the driver and I got to chatting and we completely missed my stop. I had to sit on the bus as it completed its loop and the driver finally dropped me off near my street on his way back to the train station. All in all it took me an hour longer than I'd planned to get back to Ruth's house. I'm now wondering whether I'd be able to survive on a show like the Amazing Race, considering how many times I've managed to get lost/disoriented in Sydney these past few days!
BABOO - you might not want to read this. :-)
So today I went to the Sydney Aquarium, and certainly wasn't disappointed! They have exhibits on a wide variety of aquatic life found in Australia, including platypus, saltwater crocodiles, fairy penguins, and of course the Great Barrier Reef and tons of sharks. The first half of the aquarium was pretty standard - a variety of large and small tanks with different fish and invertebrate species. But what makes this aquarium special are the three habitats they have installed in the harbor. In the sea lion and open ocean habitats, there are tunnels that you walk through so the animals are swimming beside you and over your heads. Very cool. And for the grand finale, the Great Barrier Reef exhibit, there's actually a segment where you walk through a glass tunnel that also has a glass floor - so you're surrounded on all sides by the fish, turtles and sharks. It was very, very, very awesome. Unfortunately, my skills at taking pictures inside aquariums is limited, and I don't have any which are good enough to post here. So you'll just have to take my word for it - the experience was worth it.
There were about forty million school kids at the aquarium today, so I didn't stay for as long as I had originally hoped. There is only so much I can take, after all! What I thought was really funny is that all through the aquarium they have posters about the movie "Finding Nemo", listing the different species of fish from the movie that are on display in the tanks, and encouraging kids to find them. So I spent most of my morning surrounded by little kids yelling "Hi Nemo!" and "I see Dory!" at the top of their lungs. :-)
On the invert side of things, they had these incredible anemones on display which were almost a metre across their disk! And cuttlefish, which I love watching because of their ability to change colour. I also liked the rock lobsters, some of which were truly enormous.
After the aquarium, I wandered around the perimeter of Darling Harbor to the Maritime Museum. This turned out to also be a terrific museum - and it was free! I wandered around inside for over an hour, guided by a very nice elderly volunteer from the museum who was only to happy to show me his favorite displays in the museum. Considering it was free, I was surprised at how empty it was. But anyone who's interested in ships, exploration, and naval history definitely needs to come and visit this museum. There were also several ships anchored in the harbor which belong to the museum, but it cots extra to tour them so I gave that a pass.
I had a bit of an adventure trying to find my way back home at the end of the afternoon. I was pooped so decided that I'd catch the monorail back to the train station - but after climbing the eight zillion steps up to the monorail platform, I discovered that my transit pass doesn't include the monorail! Groan. So I trudged (slowly) back to the train station and caught the train back to Caringbah. When I got up to street level at Caringbah station, I took a wrong turn and ended up completely disoriented - and I couldn't find a bus stop to save my life! I eventually flagged down a bus and told the driver which street I was looking for, and as luck would have it, his bus was going right past my street! Unfortunately, the driver and I got to chatting and we completely missed my stop. I had to sit on the bus as it completed its loop and the driver finally dropped me off near my street on his way back to the train station. All in all it took me an hour longer than I'd planned to get back to Ruth's house. I'm now wondering whether I'd be able to survive on a show like the Amazing Race, considering how many times I've managed to get lost/disoriented in Sydney these past few days!
Monday, September 17, 2007
Sydney Harbor Bridge and Opera House, and a Guide Meeting too!
OK.
So maybe I'm having a hard time of it, doing all this writing. I'm enjoying the irony that as a teacher I expect my students to be able to do a recount at the drop of a hat, but here I am with all this information to share and I don't even know where to start! Every day of this trip is full of new sights, new sounds, new smells - everything. There's so much to take in it really does feel like sensory overload sometimes.
So. Let's begin at the beginning.
My friend Cat will probably laugh at this, but I know that she at least will understand me when I say: you know you've traveled a LOOOONG way from home when even the seagulls are different! And they are. Today I explored around Circular Quay and The Rocks in downtown Sydney, and for the first time on this trip I encountered gulls in large numbers. They don't appear to be in the suburbs the way I'm used to at home - the cockatoos appear to have taken over that particular niche. Anyway, the gulls in Sydney Harbor look very much like the gulls at home except that their beaks and feet are BRIGHT orange. For those of you reading this who are long-time Woolsey-ites, think orange mac-tac and that's about the right colour. Their calls are completely different too. So I looked them up in Carroll's bird book and learned that these are Silver Gulls. Who knew?
I only had a few hours in downtown Sydney in which to explore ('cause I spent the morning getting myself a cell phone, a bank account, and other useful things) so I decided I'd see if I could get a close up view of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. There's a lookout platform and museum housed in the southeast pylon, so that's where I headed. The trip up to the viewing platform cost me $9.50 but was definitely worth it - the view was spectacular! The museum did a nice job of explaining the bridge's history and how it was built. This bridge is considered to be the greatest single-arch bridge in the world. It is known locally as "the old coat-hanger". No idea why - that wasn't explained! My favourite fact about the bridge is that, back at the turn of the last century, there was a cattery on top of one of the pylons, and a whole slew of white cats just hung out at the top of the bridge. All year round!
If I had so desired, I could have paid something like $250 to climb to the very top of the arch on the bridge. They send you up in climbing gear, attached to a safety cable, and with a pair of instructors. NO THANK YOU. I think there are probably about a zillion better ways for me to spend my money!
After finishing at the bridge, I decided to explore The Rocks. This is the district directly below the bridge on the southern shore of the harbour. When Sydney was first established, The Rocks was a rough neighbourhood filled with all sorts of unsavoury characters. Now it's full of classy shops and very expensive cafes - I couldn't afford to eat lunch there at all! So I wandered back towards Circular Quay and out the other side to the Sydney Opera House, so I could say that I had officially been to both of Sydney's classic landmarks.
The Opera House is, well, HUGE. And a lot more solid-looking up close than I thought it was going to be. I had always pictured the roofs of the Opera House to be made of fabric of some sort, or at least to be airy and thin. In reality the roof is made up of what looks like tiles and concrete, and is much thicker than I was expecting. There must be eight kajillion broad steps that lead up to the Opera House, and while I was climbing them all I could think of was that I was really glad it never snows here and that nobody would ever have to shovel off the steps! (I must be Canadian.) There are guided tours of the Opera House, of course, but by the time I got around to thinking about joining one it was time for me to head home - so back I went again to Circular Quay and jumped on the train and headed back to Bill and Ruth's house in Caringbah.
(Before I go any further with today's adventures, let us enjoy the irony that the Opera House picture was taken from the top of the Harbor Bridge, and the Bridge picture was taken from the deck of the Opera House.) :-)
This evening I joined my friends/hosts, Ruth and Carroll, at their Brownie Guide meeting. For all the Canadian Girl Guides who may read this, listen closely. We have a lot to learn from our Australian counterparts. First off, they own the halls they meet in! That's right, throughout Sydney there are Guide Halls, owned (I believe) by the equivalent of the local Districts. Typically each hall would have one unit of each level - Gumnuts, Brownies, Guides, Ranger Guides - that operates out of it. They decide which nights each unit will use the hall for meetings. In the hall I visited, there was a nice sized room for running the actual meeting (big enough to play running games in, too!), a storage locker for camping equipment, a full service kitchen, bathroom, a separate meeting room suitable for Ranger Guides to meet in (or, in this case, the Parent Support Group - more on that in a minute) and storage cupboards for each unit's stuff. So NO UNIT STUFF is stored at Guiders' houses! WHAT A CONCEPT!
As I already mentioned, it is also common for each unit to also have a Parent Support Group, made up of parents of girls from that unit. This group of helpers does fundraising to maintain the hall, helps to organize unit events, and does tons of other useful things too. Again - WHY don't we have this in Canada?
The girls were a pleasure to be with. All the Brownies came to the meeting in their full uniform and they looked really sharp. I played a slide show from Woolsey for them, to show them a little bit about Guide camping in Canada. They were extremely polite and attentive the whole time - not once did one of their leaders have to call on a girl for poor behaviour. I played a couple of games with them and sang a couple of songs and they had a blast - and listened attentively and talked politely the whole time. I couldn't help but wish that I could bring these girls home for my own students to see!
Then all too quickly the evening was over, it was time to pack up and head home. I will be going back next week to help them build rafts - they're going to a regatta in a couple of weeks where they'll be building and floating rafts of their own design. We're talking rafts big enough to hold people, not model rafts. How cool is that? Remember - these are Brownies! They've got skills that I wish our Guides and Pathfinders had! I think I'll be learning a lot from them next Monday.
And that's all for now. If all goes well, I'll be at the aquarium tomorrow - at long last!
So maybe I'm having a hard time of it, doing all this writing. I'm enjoying the irony that as a teacher I expect my students to be able to do a recount at the drop of a hat, but here I am with all this information to share and I don't even know where to start! Every day of this trip is full of new sights, new sounds, new smells - everything. There's so much to take in it really does feel like sensory overload sometimes.
So. Let's begin at the beginning.
My friend Cat will probably laugh at this, but I know that she at least will understand me when I say: you know you've traveled a LOOOONG way from home when even the seagulls are different! And they are. Today I explored around Circular Quay and The Rocks in downtown Sydney, and for the first time on this trip I encountered gulls in large numbers. They don't appear to be in the suburbs the way I'm used to at home - the cockatoos appear to have taken over that particular niche. Anyway, the gulls in Sydney Harbor look very much like the gulls at home except that their beaks and feet are BRIGHT orange. For those of you reading this who are long-time Woolsey-ites, think orange mac-tac and that's about the right colour. Their calls are completely different too. So I looked them up in Carroll's bird book and learned that these are Silver Gulls. Who knew?
I only had a few hours in downtown Sydney in which to explore ('cause I spent the morning getting myself a cell phone, a bank account, and other useful things) so I decided I'd see if I could get a close up view of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. There's a lookout platform and museum housed in the southeast pylon, so that's where I headed. The trip up to the viewing platform cost me $9.50 but was definitely worth it - the view was spectacular! The museum did a nice job of explaining the bridge's history and how it was built. This bridge is considered to be the greatest single-arch bridge in the world. It is known locally as "the old coat-hanger". No idea why - that wasn't explained! My favourite fact about the bridge is that, back at the turn of the last century, there was a cattery on top of one of the pylons, and a whole slew of white cats just hung out at the top of the bridge. All year round!If I had so desired, I could have paid something like $250 to climb to the very top of the arch on the bridge. They send you up in climbing gear, attached to a safety cable, and with a pair of instructors. NO THANK YOU. I think there are probably about a zillion better ways for me to spend my money!
After finishing at the bridge, I decided to explore The Rocks. This is the district directly below the bridge on the southern shore of the harbour. When Sydney was first established, The Rocks was a rough neighbourhood filled with all sorts of unsavoury characters. Now it's full of classy shops and very expensive cafes - I couldn't afford to eat lunch there at all! So I wandered back towards Circular Quay and out the other side to the Sydney Opera House, so I could say that I had officially been to both of Sydney's classic landmarks.
The Opera House is, well, HUGE. And a lot more solid-looking up close than I thought it was going to be. I had always pictured the roofs of the Opera House to be made of fabric of some sort, or at least to be airy and thin. In reality the roof is made up of what looks like tiles and concrete, and is much thicker than I was expecting. There must be eight kajillion broad steps that lead up to the Opera House, and while I was climbing them all I could think of was that I was really glad it never snows here and that nobody would ever have to shovel off the steps! (I must be Canadian.) There are guided tours of the Opera House, of course, but by the time I got around to thinking about joining one it was time for me to head home - so back I went again to Circular Quay and jumped on the train and headed back to Bill and Ruth's house in Caringbah.(Before I go any further with today's adventures, let us enjoy the irony that the Opera House picture was taken from the top of the Harbor Bridge, and the Bridge picture was taken from the deck of the Opera House.) :-)
This evening I joined my friends/hosts, Ruth and Carroll, at their Brownie Guide meeting. For all the Canadian Girl Guides who may read this, listen closely. We have a lot to learn from our Australian counterparts. First off, they own the halls they meet in! That's right, throughout Sydney there are Guide Halls, owned (I believe) by the equivalent of the local Districts. Typically each hall would have one unit of each level - Gumnuts, Brownies, Guides, Ranger Guides - that operates out of it. They decide which nights each unit will use the hall for meetings. In the hall I visited, there was a nice sized room for running the actual meeting (big enough to play running games in, too!), a storage locker for camping equipment, a full service kitchen, bathroom, a separate meeting room suitable for Ranger Guides to meet in (or, in this case, the Parent Support Group - more on that in a minute) and storage cupboards for each unit's stuff. So NO UNIT STUFF is stored at Guiders' houses! WHAT A CONCEPT!
As I already mentioned, it is also common for each unit to also have a Parent Support Group, made up of parents of girls from that unit. This group of helpers does fundraising to maintain the hall, helps to organize unit events, and does tons of other useful things too. Again - WHY don't we have this in Canada?
The girls were a pleasure to be with. All the Brownies came to the meeting in their full uniform and they looked really sharp. I played a slide show from Woolsey for them, to show them a little bit about Guide camping in Canada. They were extremely polite and attentive the whole time - not once did one of their leaders have to call on a girl for poor behaviour. I played a couple of games with them and sang a couple of songs and they had a blast - and listened attentively and talked politely the whole time. I couldn't help but wish that I could bring these girls home for my own students to see!
Then all too quickly the evening was over, it was time to pack up and head home. I will be going back next week to help them build rafts - they're going to a regatta in a couple of weeks where they'll be building and floating rafts of their own design. We're talking rafts big enough to hold people, not model rafts. How cool is that? Remember - these are Brownies! They've got skills that I wish our Guides and Pathfinders had! I think I'll be learning a lot from them next Monday.
And that's all for now. If all goes well, I'll be at the aquarium tomorrow - at long last!
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Katoomba and the Blue Mountains
Today Carroll took me to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, about a 2-hour drive outside of Sydney. They're called the Blue Mountains because the eucalyptus trees, which make up most of the forest, let off an oil into the air which, when seen from a distance, creates a blue haze. Most of the drive up into the mountains reminded me much of northern Ontario, around Lake Superior, with huge rolling hills and vistas. Along the way I found myself thinking, "OK, this is pretty and all, but is it really worth this drive?" Well, yes, yes it was - because when we got to Echo Point, this is the vista that I saw!There really are no words to describe how tremendous the view is from this point. This is an awesome canyon, spreading as far as the eye can see in all directions. It is hugely deep - my estimate was that the bottom of the canyon was over 1000m down! The Three Sisters rock formation shown in the first photo here is enormous. There is a very steep staircase (called the Giant's Staircase for obvious reasons) that lets you walk out and
stand at the base of the closest Sister. The second picture I've included shows the view from this point. The Giant's Staircase continues all the way down to the bottom of the valley, but, after descending for another 100feet or so, I realized that if I continued all the way down that there was no way I'd be able to make it back to the top again! As it was, it was challenging enough to climb back up to the top lookout and back to the car.Carroll also took me to a couple of other lookout points further down the valley, where I was treated to equally spectacular views. Later on in November, Jen and I have been invited to come back up to Sydney and go abseiling with Ruth and Carroll - and this is where we'll be doing it! Eeep! For those of you who have no idea what abseiling is, this is where you descend over the side of a cliff in a climbing harness, using ropes and a descender, to make your way to the bottom of the cliff. Yikes! Carroll has assured me that we will do some practice on some smaller cliffs first before we tackle one of these big ones. I promise that when we get to the abseiling, I will get my friends to take lots of pictures - 'cause much like whitewater canoeing, it's gonna be a challenge to convince myself I can do it!
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Road trip down the coast
Today, Carroll took me on a drive down the coast south of Sydney. We travelled past Royal National Park to a place called Sublime Lookout, where I snapped this picture. These are lilies which were at the lookout. You can't really tell how huge they are from the picture, but the leaves of these plants are taller than me, and the spike with the flowers on it towers waaaaay over my head. I can't for the life of me remember what they're called - I've had so many names and facts crammed into my head these past couple of days that I think my brain might burst. Fortunately, Carroll lent me some of her nature books, so I can brush up on the native flora and fauna.
The built up area you can see in the background of the picture are the towns of Thurrol and Wollongong. We took a hairpin turn road down the side of the cliffs and into Thurrol for lunch, where we enjoyed our chicken wraps while sitting on the local beach and watching the surfers. After lunch, we drove back towards Sydney, passing right through the heart of Royal National Park and into an isolated town called Bundeena. We met up with Sue, another Guide leader, who took us on a walk down the beach. We scrambled over these awesome rock formations and I picked up a ton of shells. I can see that shell collecting is going to become and obsession of mine again... I came home with a bag full! I just hope I can get at least some of them back to Canada in one piece.
And that's pretty much all I did today! Much of the day's trip was spent driving, with me drinking in the scenery all along the way. The Pacific Ocean here is the most incredible blue - and I've been assured by my hosts that I will find it much the same all over Australia. Oh - and I discovered one of the reasons why I'm having such a hard time orienting myself here... the sun is literally in the wrong place in the sky! Carroll, one of my hosts here in Sydney, lived in Toronto for two years. She reminded me that since I'm in the southern hemisphere, the sun arcs to the north as it transits the sky, instead of arcing to the south like it does at home. No wonder I can't even figure out what direction we're travelling in most of the time!
Friday, September 14, 2007
Field trip to Royal National Park
So... Jen's idea of conquering jet lag is to settle into the routine of the new country as soon as possible. In that spirit, today I joined Ruth's class on a field trip to Royal National Park, where the kids were learning about Aboriginal culture and the local wildlife. Ruth teaches a 2/3 split class (they call them combined classes here), but only her grade 2's were on the trip, along with a straight grade 2 class, for 47 kids in total.The park was about an hour away, so I spent the bus ride chatting with the other teachers and parent volunteers on the trip. Once we arrived, the park staff took the children into a classroom which reminded me very much of BORC - of course, with the exception that all the stuffed animals around the room were Australian! They entertained questions from the kids about all the different animals, where they were from, what they ate, etc. etc., and of course the most commonly asked question, "how did that animal die?". (Remember these are grade 2's.) Then we were split into two groups to go on a hike.
My group walked a little way into the woods and stopped for a while to hunt for insects. Remembering that there is a lot of Australian wildlife that can kill/hurt you, the kids were instructed to not touch any critters with their fingers, but to use a stick to gather them up and put them in the bug jars. Then, while we were in the middle of the bug hunt, I happened to see a pokey-moving animal about the size of a groundhog wandering across the trail a little ways up from us. I pointed it out to Wendy, our group leader - and it turns out I'd just spotted the local echidna! Echidnas look something like a huge hedgehog, with a long narrow snout like an anteater. They have spines like a hedgehog does, and when startled, they curl themselves into a large, spikey ball - which is what this one did, right beside the path! So we all got a good look and then left the poor thing alone. Echidnas are also one of only two mammals in the entire world that lay eggs - the other is the platypus. Definitely a highlight of the day!
After the bug hunt, we walked down the side of a big steep hill, stopping to look at various plants and animals along the way. We learned how the Aborigines used various plants for food and medicine. I especially liked the tree they showed us. Apparently this type of tree was used by the Aborigines to make boomerangs, bowls and other wooden objects. We stopped under a rock outcrop and learned how the Aborigines did their rock painting with ochre - and then we used some ochre to do colouring on patterned paper. Down at the bottom of the hill, we walked along the river bank and looked at a midden heap full of shells, also left behind by the Aborigines.
We ate lunch by the river, then tried our hand at dip netting aquatic critters from the water. But at that point, a huge black cloud rolled in, the thunder rolled, and the rain came down - and we all scrambled for the bus!
Ruth's students are very sweet and polite. I kept remarking to the parents and teachers with us that I wished my students were so well-behaved! I am looking forward to going back and working with her class again next week.
Tonight I am off to a campfire training with the local Girl Guide leaders... I already feel sorry for the poor girl who's running it! Apparently the leader who's running the training is doing so in order to complete some of her leadership qualifications... and Ruth and Carroll have been telling everyone that "THE" Becky Vincent is coming! That's right - just like back home in Canada, my website is very well-known here - and many folks are looking forward to meeting me. Hee hee hee! I hope I don't upstage the trainer!
Thursday, September 13, 2007
The Plane Ride and my first day in Sydney
I made it! I made it!
It is currently 6:30am local time here in Sydney and I am, not surprisingly, jet-lagged. The last two (three?) days or so have rushed by in a complete blurr and there's been so much to take in I'm not even sure where to start!
I got to Ottawa's International Airport around 6:30 on Tuesday morning. Check-in went just fine and I even got a seat number on my boarding pass - which apparently was a good thing, since I was flying standby. Had breakfast with my parents at Tim Horton's (gotta have a last few rounds of Tim's!), hugged them goodbye, and headed through security. The security guys didn't like the fact that I was carrying toothpaste - apparently it comes under the "no liquids" rule for carry-on luggage. The tube I was carrying wasn't full by any means, but since the tube would have originally carried over 100mls, I had to give it up. Grr.
The flight from Ottawa to Vancouver was uneventful, except that I was VERY aware that this was only the first leg of the journey - and up to now, I'd never traveled further than Vancouver! This was also the first time I'd been on a plane where every seat had its own entertainment centre... so I had way too much fun playing around with that.
Got off the plane in Vancouver and went to find my luggage, since I knew that I would have to carry it through US customs before getting on the next flight. Well, wouldn't you know it, my luggage didn't come off the carousel! Ack! (I have a bit of a track record for losing luggage in airports.) But when I went to the lost baggage counter, the guy told me that my bags would be already waiting for me at a special carousel just outside the US customs gate. PHEW! I now had six hours to kill before my next flight.
I've been through the Vancouver airport several times before, and really, there's not a lot to do there. I ate lunch at Tim Horton's (hee hee!), walked a couple of laps around the shops, and realized that so far I'd only managed to kill about 45 minutes of the 6 hours I had to go. So I wandered over to the international terminal to see what was there and find out where I had to sign in again. There I came across this rather famous statue called "The Spirit of Haida Gwa'ai", by Bill Reid. My students from last year should recognize it - we saw a replica at the Museum of Civilizations last year in Ottawa.
Six hours is a LONG time to have to wait. Needless to say, I was bored out of my skull by the time it was finally time to head through security again, go through US customs ('cause my plane was travelling through Hawai'i), and get back on board. Once I'd finally made it to the gate, I found out that there were only 16 empty seats on the plane - and 16 people in front of me in the standby list. Whoof. So I sat there, fingers crossed, for quite some time, hoping that someone would be late and miss the flight so I could get on. And I did!
The next leg of the flight was very tiring. It was already 10:30pm Ottawa time when we took off for Hawai'i. Five and a half hours later we touched down in Honolulu and let me tell you, I was really glad to get off the plane for an hour! We had to take all our carry-on luggage with us so the plane could be cleaned. And here was my second shock - the terminal in Honolulu is somewhat open to the air! The lounge just before the gate was air conditioned, but the walkways where the shops were was open. So I strolled up and down, up and down, enjoying the tropical midnight air, and watching my plane get refueled through a stand of palm trees. Unreal.
Then it was back on the plane again for the last leg of the journey. I had somehow miscalculated and thought I only had another five hours to go - so imagine my horror as I sat down and listened to the pilot tell us it was going to be just over 10 hours to Sydney! Yar! Starting to feel a little claustrophobic! But for the last part of the trip, I was lucky enough to have two seats all to myself, and a window to lean my pillow against, so it was all good. I will admit that there was a point about halfway through that last leg where I really, REALLY wanted to get off the airplane - I was so tired and felt like I'd been flying through the middle of the night forever. But then before I knew it, the sun had risen, the plane had landed, and I finally got to step foot on an entirely new continent!
Once I made it through customs and quarantine control (Australia has strict rules about what foods etc. you can bring into the country - they confiscated my apple and almost took my trail mix too), I was surpirsed to find my hosts, Ruth and Bill, waiting for me at the airport! The original plan had been for me to give them a call when I landed and then they'd drive out to meet me... but they just came on their own. I can't tell you how good it felt to be met by a couple of cheery, smiling faces.
So now it was about 8am Sydney time on Thursday. I had been in the air for something ridiculous like 22 hours, had lost an entire day due to the crossing of the international date line somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, and was completely exhausted. So what did I do on my first day? Bill took me back to their house, where I showered (sweet, blessed shower!), brushed my teeth for the first time in two days, then we had a cup of tea and he whisked me away on a driving tour around their neighbourhood! The rest of the day passed as a bit of a blur, mostly because I was so tired, but even so, my first impressions of Sydney were wonderful. Everything is new to me here.
Of course I spent a lot of time looking at the trees, birds and other wildlife we were passing. For example, cocaktoos fly around the city in big noisy flocks. There are other parrots here too. Every tree we passed was completely new to me, and I pestered poor Bill all afternoon about the names of different plants. This place is definitely a nature lover's paradise. Bill took me out to Botany Bay National Park, which marks the spot where Captain James Cook first landed when he discovered Australia. It is a beautiful spot and the colour of the water is an incredible turquoise blue. I picked up what I'm sure is only the first of many shells I will collect on this trip.
In the evening, when we had returned home, Ruth's friend Carroll joined us for dinner and conversation. It is actually through Carroll that I ended up staying here at Ruth's place. Both of these ladies are Girl Guide leaders here in Sydney - I will be going to play with their girls on Monday night. I stayed up as late as I could, but by 9pm, I was so tired I was seeing double and finally dragged myself off to bed.
And that was my first day! I'm leaving a lot out, but I'm sure the details will come through in later posts. It is definitely going to take me a lot of time to absorb/describe everything here.
Monday, September 10, 2007
My bags are packed...
So, here we are, about 12 hours before I leave for the biggest adventure of my life. My bags are packed, I've checked and re-checked my paperwork, my lists of stuff to bring, etc. etc. I've made contact with the Girl Guides in Sydney, who will be hosting me for the first couple of weeks as I get myself all oriented. So I guess I'm about as ready to go as I can possibly be!
My friends keep asking me if I'm excited yet about the trip. The truth is, I'm not sure I can answer either "yes" or "no" to that question. Of course I'm excited - I'm going to meet new people, learn new things, and go about as far away as you can possibly get from Canada! On the other hand, I am terribly nervous. What if I get lost? What if I get hurt? What if I have all my money stolen? Maybe it's because I am going SO far from home, these questions seem bigger than they usually do.
Well at any rate, the adventure officially begins tomorrow morning around 6am. I need to be at the airport by 7, and my flight to Vancouver departs at 8:40. The trick is, I'm flying standby, so I have no real idea whether or not I'm actually going to get on the plane.
So. Wish me luck. Send me your thoughts/questions/comments on the trip whenever you want - you can always comment on my blog entries. Whatever adventures this coming year brings, it will definitely be a learning experience. So again - wish me luck!
And know that, the next time I post something, I will hopefully be on the opposite end of the world!
My friends keep asking me if I'm excited yet about the trip. The truth is, I'm not sure I can answer either "yes" or "no" to that question. Of course I'm excited - I'm going to meet new people, learn new things, and go about as far away as you can possibly get from Canada! On the other hand, I am terribly nervous. What if I get lost? What if I get hurt? What if I have all my money stolen? Maybe it's because I am going SO far from home, these questions seem bigger than they usually do.
Well at any rate, the adventure officially begins tomorrow morning around 6am. I need to be at the airport by 7, and my flight to Vancouver departs at 8:40. The trick is, I'm flying standby, so I have no real idea whether or not I'm actually going to get on the plane.
So. Wish me luck. Send me your thoughts/questions/comments on the trip whenever you want - you can always comment on my blog entries. Whatever adventures this coming year brings, it will definitely be a learning experience. So again - wish me luck!
And know that, the next time I post something, I will hopefully be on the opposite end of the world!
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