Australian Adventure: Let Me Catch You Up!

I have been up to quite a bit since the last time I wrote and because of that I haven't been able to update this very often.

Let me catch you up...

On July 23rd I headed out to the Hyde Park Barracks where convicts were first taken when they arrived here many years ago. The building has since been partially restored but you can still see the original signs on doorways and the floor boards - even where the rats used to live! There were lots of artifacts that they have restored and put on display such as pipes, clothes and parts of books. They are still to this day finding things in and under the building to put up on display. It did a great job of telling the history of the convicts here and around the world.

Inside Hyde Park Barracks where the convicts slept

The Original Hyde Park Barracks building

The same day I also went to a show at the Opera House called Classical Mystery Tour. There were four men who looked and sang just like The Beatles. They sang with a full symphony back up. AMAZING! I have never heard music so grand. The four men did a fantastic job, they were really amazing singers and they even dressed up in different costumes for the different songs. They sang all The Beatles songs exactly as they were written! It was a sold out show for 3 nights running.

On July 24th a friend and I went to Manly Beach. We took a ferry (about 45 minutes) over and sat and watched all the surfers surfing. It was quite entertaining! The weather was warm and sunny.

July 25th my friend AJ and I went down to The Rocks, it is a market here on the weekend where craftsman from Australia sell their arts and crafts. It is the best market I have been to! I found some really awesome things to bring back. AJ hadn't been across the Harbor Bridge yet so we walked across it and found ourselves at another market. We then headed down to Luna Park. It is an old carnival type park that has been in Sydney under the Harbor Bridge for over 100 years. You have to walk under this clown face to get into it. It is quite creepy. We only spent about an hour inside as the rides were extremely expensive and there was no way I was getting on any of them.

Creepy clown entrance

One of my favorite photos I've taken here. The Ferris Wheel at Luna Park. Look at that blue sky!

School started back up on July 28th and I wasn't quite ready to go back. I was excited to see my students again, but not so thrilled to get up at 7am when I was used to going to bed around 4am. The first day back was pretty relaxing as the kids wanted to tell us everything they had done.

I ended up going to another show at the Sydney Opera House called Pericles. It was a Shakespeare play and I honestly couldn't tell you what is was about. Even though it was really hard to understand I found parts of it entertaining and was overall happy to have visted yet another theater inside the Opera House. I was able to spend some time with friends as well, which is always a good thing.

The second day back to school was a sports carnival day. This meant that every student and teacher walked about a mile away to an oval (field) and participated in track events. For the day, every student from kindie to year 5 participated in the 100, 200, 400 and 800 sprints as well as long jump. They all did a great job and it was quite fun to see them all participate! They were very tired the next day which made it easy to teach them.

This is the entire school in their respected houses (teams) before they started their carnival day.

The students are also creating an art project to auction off as a fundraiser during one of the parent nights coming up. Each classroom is in charge of creating an art project and my class is doinig a Phoenix (from the constellations) and it is turning out well!

This is the art project we are doing. Where those little circles are, stars are going to go. There are enough for each student to paint one. The young woman in the red is my mentor teacher, Miss Tuite. She is AWESOME!

Some of my students working on gluing down the feathers

Friday night I was able to meet up with my cousin Shaylene from my Dad's side. Her, her husband and I met up at a place called Blackbird Cafe at Darling Harbor. It was good to see her again and sit down and have a meal.

This last Saturday was the last Saturday everyone will be together before they start taking off so we decided to go out. We went to a few places and had a great time and finished the night at Pancakes on the Rocks which is a lot like Denny's or Shari's but SO much better! I have been told that you haven't truly experienced Sydney until you've eaten there, so we went. Apparently people start lining up hours before it opens to eat there. Good thing they are open 24 hours a day!