Wednesday we visited the Wamuran school near the QUT campus and it was great to see a day in the life of an Australian school. The schools themselves are waaay different than those in America. First, every classroom is almost in it's own separate building, if not sharing with one other. The "hallways" are completely outside with only a roof to cover in case of weather. Students also eat lunch outside and they get about 2-3 "tea" times during the day. There's almost more eating and playing going on than time spent in the classroom! I had a wonderful teacher to observe for the day and I quite enjoyed it. Their school is represented by a pineapple, so we all got one as a welcoming gift :)

Thursday we went to the AUSTRALIAN ZOO!!!! :) Even though we might see koalas and kangaroos in the wild, I was so excited to see them up close. The zoo was absolutely wonderful. We saw the show at the Crocoseum and the birds fly directly over your head. Awesome. As a group, we spent the majority of our time in Kangaroo Heaven :) The animals are free to roam wherever and I probably befriended about 20 or so :) Such cool animals. I also held a koala and got my picture with it which was something I really wanted to do when I'm here. The koala was soft as expected, but stunk quite a bit. I think I smelled like koala the rest of the day.

Friday we just met with our supervising teachers and mine is soooo great. Saturday we had a 'barbie' on Bribie Island which is a bit farther north than we had gone before. Let me just say this... THE ISLAND IS GORGEOUS. We had the picnic on the non-surf side with the other homestay families and it was great visiting and playing (or in my case watching) cricket! A few of us also went down the beach for a stroll and out into the water on a sandbar, which was a bit deeper than anticipated so I had wet jeans the rest of the day. My homestay brought me over to the surf side (where you can actually see the span of the Pacific) and that beach tops ANY I've been to. And of course, my camera battery was dead the second I took it out so I don't have pictures of the beach. I also sat down with my family, had a coffee, and just took in the beautiful view :) Saturday night was my FIRST time seeing Brisbane while not being jet lagged! It's become my new favorite place :) Kelly, Emily and I ate dinner at the Plough Inn, went on the Brisbane Wheel and just drank in the awesomeness of Brisbane night life! It reminds me a lot of New York City. But classier? If that makes sense. All the shops close super early but we did hit up a few tourist shops :)

All in all, a very successful week :)

written by  Sara Sickels on August 21, 2010 from Brisbane, Australia
from the travel blog: Australia!!
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Thanks for the wonderful 'update' Sara. We are all very envious of your opportunity but just keep us updated and enjoy every minute of your travels!! Love you...Grandma Carol

written by  Carol on August 22, 2010

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