I was lucky enough to chaperone another skorkeling trip out to Julian Rocks in the bay on Wednesday. One of my students took some very nice underwater photos and she was nice enough to share them with me! Unfortunately this time the water wasn't as visible as last time, there was quick a lot of suspended materials in the water. I did get so see some great stuff like a some sea turtles, more leopard sharks, tons of fish and as we got out of the water we saw a 6 foot manta ray! Despite the less than ideal water conditions it was an absolutely beautiful day and I felt very alive. The sun made the Bay and the distant mountains seem surreal and it was really something else, I don't think the pictures do this place any justice!
Tuesday was an eventful day at Byron Bay High School. Steve showed me some exciting local animals. The first was the bearded dragon. It thought that it was camouflaged so well that it didn't even acknowledge us until Steve poked it with a stick. I have a great video of it turning and looking to check Steve out, but I can't upload it to Weebly because I'd have to pay for my subscription... Anyways I'll try to find a way to upload that to Facebook at some point. The other interesting animal we say is a type of owl called a Tawny Fogmouth. The first time Steve pointed one out to me a couple of weeks ago I couldn't even pick it out from the tree bark because it was camouflaged so well, but this time it was sitting out on the branch and very easy to spot. Steve said likely would stay there all day and night even if people walked very close to the tree. Tuesday evening was the first parent-teacher interview night (there is another Thursday) and since prac teachers typically don't sit in for the interviews Zach and I helped out by running the barbie. The school sponsors teachers at Orphanage in Cambodia and all of the proceeds from the sausage sizzle went to those teachers. Apparently the teachers only earn about $150 USD per month in Cambodia, and over the two hours of selling sausages and kebabs we raised enough to pay for one month for one teacher. It was a fun time because we got to meet some of the parents of our students and serve up some delicious grub at the same time! So Jacqui took Zach and I up to Brisbane (about 2 hours North from where I'm staying) to watch her son play Rugby and show us around. I've attached all of the photos we took in the beautiful city! We went to the Brisbane Museum first and checked out all of the exhibits. There was cool stuff about the marine life as well as some of the awesome paleontology finds in Australia. After the quick trip through the museum we went to the rugby game. Jacqui's son Jake plays Rugby Union, which is one of 3 kinds of rugby (or football) played in Australia. The game was really fun to watch, although I had to turn to Jacqui and ask questions every time the ref blew the whistle. Rugby Union and Rugby League are played all over the world, and are basically what you think of when you think of rugby. The third is called Australian Rules Football, or just "footie", and it is exclusive to Australia (I think New Zealand might have a team or two). I won't bother trying to explain how that game works, but it is my favorite from what I've watched so far. Union is a good game as well, but I think Aussie Rules Footie is top-notch and it a very Aussie sport. Anyway after the game we walked through Brisbane and checked out some of the buildings in different parts of the city. We also went into the Brisbane City Hall where they had another museum about Brisbane on the 3rd floor. The Brisbane river (which the city is named after) has been crucial to commerce and daily life in Brisbane for over 150 years and so the museum highlighted the different important features of the river. We learned that Brisbane flood quite often, the most recent in 2011, and some of the floods have been up to the second story of the buildings. After walking through town we walked through the shops and markets on South Bank. We finally wrapped up our evening in the Valley (or Chinatown) with some delicious Chinese food. Overall is was a great time in Brisbane and it was nice to get to know Jacqui a little bit better in the process. I'm looking forward to checking out Australia's other major cities later during my stay here! |