Just got back from a LONG but great day in the city. Just threw in some laundry (aren't you proud Mom!), and now I'm going to try to bang out a paper before I got to bed. We leave at 7:45 AM for the Great Ocean Road trip which should be awesome. The one problem I have is that I've been putting my dirty clothes in my Nike duffel bag because that seemed so smart and space-saving. False. Now the bag that I need to take on this trip REEKS of high school locker room. Great.
Today was pretty amazing as the weather was awesome (upper 60s and sunny) and we got to see some great stuff in Baltimore. Also I was the only guy that went, aka like 15:1 girl to guy ratio. Winner = Me. Anyways, we got up at 10 and took the train to the city where we met one of our teachers for our Australian history class. This wasn't a mandatory trip, but it sounded fun. We took a tram to the WWII memorial and it was awesome. It reminded me A LOT of Washington and being on the mall for some reason, probably because there were a lot of runners and it was pretty peaceful. We went into the memorial where they have a big plaque on the ground that says "Greater Love Hath No Man," and the sun beams down on the word "love." There was a balcony on the top of the building that we went to and you could see the whole city and I think the ocean (I don't know what one it is though).
We then walked over to the Botanical Gardens and went on a tour of Aboriginal history. Our leaders were these two crazy guys who were of Aboriginal decent and had some crazy stories. The one guy Brian was taken from his family at 2, and basically has had a hard and difficult life ever since. He was addicted to drugs and alcohol and after 30 years finally found his sister and brother. Him, his mother and his siblings don't get along, so he basically has no family connections. He was a real interesting and great guy though. They took us through a miniature version of what would be "the bush." We ate plants, hugged trees, and drank tea made from plant leaves, and used the land like the Aboriginals do. The land is considered very sacred and the walk was somewhat spiritual as well. One guy was chosen to be our "spiritual leader" and two girls were chosen to bang on sticks to let the Gods know we were there. The pictures I took (which are again very manly, poorly taken photos) don't do this place justice. It was beautiful and all the different trees and plants were amazing.
After the walk we went to a cafe to get some food and then headed home. Overall a success day I think. I've finally spiced up this poor-lookin' blog by putting a few pics on here, but the rest are at www.australianadventure2.shutterfly.com. I'll have pictures and stories from this weekend when I get back!
No comments:
Post a Comment