The most unique and amaaaaaazingly yummy queso ever!!!!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Mexican Fiesta!
Hola! This weekend we were all feeling so homesick for Mexican food that we tracked down a little place called "Baja Cantina" and chowed down! The owner is from Seal Beach, CA so it had a very similar feel to the Mexican food at home. All the waitresses were American as well and they had such a great time catching up with fellow Americans that they gave us a discount and some sangria on the house! I think the photos below pretty accurately show our enthusiasm about eating something that reminded us of home:
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Tasmanian Devils
It took awhile to upload this video but it is living proof that Tasmanian Devils really do spin in circles! This little guy lives at the Featherdale Wildlife Park in the Blue Mountains near Sydney. They have some pretty sharp teeth but other than that they are very cute!
Tasmanian Devils are actually in danger of dying out due to a new, quickly-mutating cancer that can easily be passed between Tasy Devils with a simple scratch or bite during territorial or food disputes. There is also very little genetic diversity between Devils so the cancer is mutating faster than the Devils can breed and vary their own genetics.
Internship Placement
Hello world! I am finally writing to tell you all about my internship placement. I will be working at a before and after school care program based out of a public primary school. I will be involved with lesson planning, classroom setup, and tutoring during after-school care. It has a structure and curriculum and I will keep you posted as I go. Wish me luck!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
KOALAS KOALAS KOALAS!
Hello again!
I decided in my last post there was simply too much to write for one post so I have moved on to a second one. A few things I forgot to mention before: our trip to Featherdale Wildlife Park, our exploration of the botanical gardens, and our visit to the Sydney Olympic Park!
First up is the Sydney Olympic Park where we saw the main stadium where the opening and closing ceremonies were held. Take a gander at it!
Wombat!
That one is for you, Allie!
I decided in my last post there was simply too much to write for one post so I have moved on to a second one. A few things I forgot to mention before: our trip to Featherdale Wildlife Park, our exploration of the botanical gardens, and our visit to the Sydney Olympic Park!
First up is the Sydney Olympic Park where we saw the main stadium where the opening and closing ceremonies were held. Take a gander at it!
Next, and I apologize for not having more pictures but I will try to get some soon, we walked through the city and found the Royal Botanical Gardens. Australia seems so independent that it is easy to forget that it is technically under the rule of the Queen still. This means that everything has funny English names! FUN! We also ventured over to the Australian Catholic University as we will be using their classrooms for our political science classes.
Last, I must tell you all about the trip to Featherdale Wildlife Park!!!!!
WE SAW KOALAS!!!!!! We also got to pet and feed kangaroos and wallabies, watch a dingo eat baby birds, see penguins splash, tease crocodiles and cassowaries and laugh at fat little wombats! I have not made it to the Sydney Zoo yet so I haven't seen the pygmy hippos but that will happen asap!
I think this is the best picture of the trip so far!
Koalas spend all day eating eucalyptus leaves or sleeping
We fed the wallabies and kangaroos (I am with a roo in this picture) ice cream cones full of food and straw. They were very tame and clearly used to being over fed by human visitors...I have heard they are much more aggressive in the wild.
The pelicans here put our pelicans to shame. They are around 4 feet tall standing up and absolutely massive!!! I would be frightened to run into one of these on the beach.
I am in love with these little penguins!
This dingo spent a good while rubbing it's meal (dead baby birds) around in the eucalyptus leaves before finally deciding to rip it to pieces.
EMUS! Emus are even bigger than Cassowaries and, with their heads straight up, seems to be at least 6 feet tall. These guys have serious talons so watch out!
Albino roo!
What this means is that Kangaroo is fair game...literally! Kangaroo is sold in the market right alongside the beef and chicken! We had kangaroo on pizza in our second day here and I really enjoyed it. It is surprisingly not all that gamey but rather more like a super rich beef. I may try cooking it for myself if I can find a good recipe...and if I can afford it. Food is easily twice as expensive as it is in the US (and that's before we lose out on the exchange rate!). I am watching the news every morning to see how the markets are and what the exchange rate is that day so I can get the best deal possible.
Yummy! Looks like dinner!
It basically looks like a hairy little pig/koala hybrid
A little Echidna!
Cassowary: Stands around 5.5 feet tall!
Exploring Sydney!
Hello friends and family!
It has only taken me two weeks to successfully post but it's finally up! The first two weeks in Sydney have been a whirlwind of mastering public transportation, taking classes in leadership and political science, and adjusting to my teaching internship. We are living in the suburb of Waterloo in fairly nice apartments so the moving transition wasn't too difficult. I am about 15 minutes from the main train station so I hop on a bus to get there and from there I am free to explore Sydney. My internship is in a suburb called Newtown, a very chic/grunge city filled with students from Sydney Uni and lots of artists. So far I have been solo teaching in a combined 3-6 grade classroom (it is simply exhausting!). The kids are wonderful though and I am planning a lesson for them on the difference between the Australian and US holidays and their historical origins.
In our first few days here we managed to see a lot of Sydney. We took a ferry around the Sydney Harbour on a ferry and spent some time in Darling Harbour at the Sydney Aquarium. Pictures from the ferry ride and the aquarium are below:
We also went on a hiking trip with everyone from the program (around 50 students, most of whom are from the University of Minnesota) to the Blue Mountains. Fun Fact: The Blue Mountains aren't actually mountains but rather plateaus. It is a lush area with gorgeous waterfalls and a long aboriginal history. The three peaks in the picture below are of the "Three Sisters". The aboriginal story says that there were once two tribes in the Jamison Valley between the mountains and that they were constantly feuding. In order to stop the constant feuding the chief of one tribe agreed to marry the three beautiful sisters of his tribe to three brothers from the other tribe. The three brothers were awful, cruel men and the sisters did not want to marry them. On the day of the wedding the father of the three girls felt sorry for them and said that he would rather have his daughters turned to stone than force them to marry the three mean brothers. Thus the father turned his daughters to stone and they have been there ever since. Once we had hiked to the bottom of the Jamison Valley we were told we would be getting a ride back up. We all had the idea that we would be taking the gondola ride....which would have been scary enough for me since I'm afraid of heights....but instead we went, facing backwards with a small net for safety, on the steepest railway in the world. I actually believe that my heart stopped for a moment during the ride.
We haven't been to an opera yet but I have seen the opera house up close and personal. There is a lights festival going on right now and at night the opera house is illuminated with really funky light projections! Here are a few pictures from the festival:
This weekend we went out to the pubs.....there is a HUGE pub culture here and our professors plan to hold class at the pubs. Most of the pubs are called Hotels, for example "The Strawberry Hills Hotel", is one of the ones we ventured to this weekend. This is because there used to be a law in Sydney that in order to serve libations they had to provide a bed as well. Despite the huge pub culture they also have very strict laws on drinking so we are staying safe down under! We also went out to Manly Beach on the ferry this Saturday but just as we arrived the clouds rolled in. There was a food and wine festival going on with lots of people and great music.
It has only taken me two weeks to successfully post but it's finally up! The first two weeks in Sydney have been a whirlwind of mastering public transportation, taking classes in leadership and political science, and adjusting to my teaching internship. We are living in the suburb of Waterloo in fairly nice apartments so the moving transition wasn't too difficult. I am about 15 minutes from the main train station so I hop on a bus to get there and from there I am free to explore Sydney. My internship is in a suburb called Newtown, a very chic/grunge city filled with students from Sydney Uni and lots of artists. So far I have been solo teaching in a combined 3-6 grade classroom (it is simply exhausting!). The kids are wonderful though and I am planning a lesson for them on the difference between the Australian and US holidays and their historical origins.
In our first few days here we managed to see a lot of Sydney. We took a ferry around the Sydney Harbour on a ferry and spent some time in Darling Harbour at the Sydney Aquarium. Pictures from the ferry ride and the aquarium are below:
SHARKS!
PENGUINS!
I FOUND NEMO!!!
We also went on a hiking trip with everyone from the program (around 50 students, most of whom are from the University of Minnesota) to the Blue Mountains. Fun Fact: The Blue Mountains aren't actually mountains but rather plateaus. It is a lush area with gorgeous waterfalls and a long aboriginal history. The three peaks in the picture below are of the "Three Sisters". The aboriginal story says that there were once two tribes in the Jamison Valley between the mountains and that they were constantly feuding. In order to stop the constant feuding the chief of one tribe agreed to marry the three beautiful sisters of his tribe to three brothers from the other tribe. The three brothers were awful, cruel men and the sisters did not want to marry them. On the day of the wedding the father of the three girls felt sorry for them and said that he would rather have his daughters turned to stone than force them to marry the three mean brothers. Thus the father turned his daughters to stone and they have been there ever since. Once we had hiked to the bottom of the Jamison Valley we were told we would be getting a ride back up. We all had the idea that we would be taking the gondola ride....which would have been scary enough for me since I'm afraid of heights....but instead we went, facing backwards with a small net for safety, on the steepest railway in the world. I actually believe that my heart stopped for a moment during the ride.
Here is a video of the frightening adventure!
We haven't been to an opera yet but I have seen the opera house up close and personal. There is a lights festival going on right now and at night the opera house is illuminated with really funky light projections! Here are a few pictures from the festival:
This weekend we went out to the pubs.....there is a HUGE pub culture here and our professors plan to hold class at the pubs. Most of the pubs are called Hotels, for example "The Strawberry Hills Hotel", is one of the ones we ventured to this weekend. This is because there used to be a law in Sydney that in order to serve libations they had to provide a bed as well. Despite the huge pub culture they also have very strict laws on drinking so we are staying safe down under! We also went out to Manly Beach on the ferry this Saturday but just as we arrived the clouds rolled in. There was a food and wine festival going on with lots of people and great music.
I will write more very soon.....seriously this time!
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