My Exchange to Australia

Posted on March 30, 2012 by admin

I am very proud to say that I had the opportunity to spend six weeks in Melbourne, Australia. This was a great experience. I was welcomed into a very hospitable family who took very good care of me. During my stay, I had the chance of visiting many tourist attractions such as Australia’s Great Ocean Road, Eureka Towers and Victoria Market.

School
I absolutely loved my six weeks at Carey Baptist Grammar School. Carey is a school with very accommodating students and professors. During my stay, I was able to attend classes that are not even available at LCC.. Carey is a school where students can choose the courses they want to do starting at 8th grade. Courses that are required are: English, math, physical education, ethics and religion, science, history (only mandatory for 1 semester) and health. The students are to choose a language and three other courses of these choices: food, media, technology, fashion, economics, woodwork, metal work, French, Mandarin, Spanish, German, Indonesian, theatre, music, arts etc. … At this school there are four semesters and at the end of each term, students have the choice to change their course selections. I think the idea ofletting students choose their courses is a great idea. Students will be much more motivated to do well because they will choose courses that they like. Another thing I liked about this school, is that as soon as you leave a class, you are in the fresh air of the outdoors.

Eureka Tower
Eureka Tower is the tallest building in Melbourne and the second largest in Australia, measuring 297.3 meters. This building includes 556 apartments and is 52.000 square meters of windows. A total of 92 floor which is divided into 3680 stairs, a basement, a 9-story parking area, 84 floors of apartments (some are on the same floor as the parking lot) and an observation deck. It weighs a total of 200,000 tons. I had the chance to get to the 88th floor where there is an observation area. There are glass windows that gave me a spectacular view of the city of Melbourne. On this level, there is an area that is entirely outdoors in the open. It was fantastic. I even had the courage to enter a glass cube which is a kind of elevator that brought me three feet outside of the building. All this was worth doing for the spectacular view of Melbourne.

AFL Match
The Australian Football League is a crucial part of Australian culture. Every Australian boy or girl has a favorite team in this league. Australian football is the most important sport in the opinion of most Australians. This sport is similar to rugby, though they still have their differences. At every football game, there are about 36,000 people attending. Australian football is played in an oval of 171m by 146 m, including 18 players from each team are on the ground at once. I saw a pre-season game between : The Kangaroos North Melbourne, Hawthorn Hawks and the Richmond Tigers. The Kangaroos defeated the Tigers, Hawks beat the Kangaroos and the Tigers beat the Hawks. Each team finished the evening with a victory, which made my experience very interesting.

Melbourne Aquarium
The Melbourne Aquarium is home to over 10,000 animals. And there are many different creatures in the water such as: sharks, penguins, shrimps and even octopus. I really enjoyed seeing all sorts of creatures that I did not even know existed. One can find sea snakes, sea spiders, crabs and all kinds of fish at the aquarium. One part of it that I loved the most was a water tank of 2.2 million liters which had: sharks, jellyfish, crabs and all kinds of rare fish. This is the largest water tank in an aquarium in the world. I literally saw the creatures swimming around me. It was an unforgettable experience.

Melbourne Zoo
The Melbourne Zoo is where I finally saw a kangaroo, a koala and many other animals. The Melbourne Zoo is one of the finest zoos in Australia. It contains over 320 species and about 5,120 animals from Australia and all around the world. I especially liked my visit to the zoo because everything was very well decorated. The scenery was so realistic that you would thing that you were in the jungle by visiting the animals. When I was younger, I used to watch “Phineas and Ferb.” In the show, Phineas had a pet platypus. When I watched this show, I did not even know that a platypus is a real animal. Some years ago I realized that the platypus existed, so I really enjoyed seeing one for the first time in my life.

Vic Market
The Victoria Market is a major attraction in the city of Melbourne. It is also the largest open market in the southern hemisphere measuring a total of 17 acres. This market is named after Queen Victoria who ordered the British Empire from 1837 to 1901. This market is one of the three major markets of Melbourne which is still in place. The other two, the east market and the west market were open before the Victoria market, but closed in the 1960s. At the Victoria market almost anything can be bought: fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, clothing, jewelry, candy, etc.. I can honestly say that being in this market was one of my favorite moments of my trip. First, the atmosphere was incredible, there were many vendors shouting words such as: $3 watermelon, come buy jewelery, best quality clothing, etc. .. Secondly I really appreciated the fact that you could buy everything and at good prices. For this reason, this is where I bought most of the gifts for my family!

Great Ocean Road
The Great Ocean Road is an Australian national heritage that is 243 km long, in southern Australia between the towns of Torquay and Warnambool. This road was built between 1919 and 1932 by soldiers of WWI. This is the largest memorial of WWI. I had the chance to spend three nights and four days there. During my stay, I surfed, I visited a lighthouse and saw the Erskine falls. I liked surfing the most, of all things I did during my stay. Lorne is known for its excellent surfing conditions and I can tell you first hand that the surfing conditions really are great. The Great Ocean Road is by the Indian Ocean, which is very very cold. Therefore, we had to wear wetsuits. My exchange student and I were able to get up several times on the board. Having finished surfing, we jumped in the car and headed for the Erskine falls. The Erskine falls is a 30 m waterfall, in the woods. The falls and the surrounding landscape was really spectacular. When I learned that it had fresh water, I immediately tasted the water. The water was cold and tasted like bottled water, it was quite refreshing. At the end of the day, we were completely exhausted, but most certainly had fun. –Matthew Kaspy ’14

Duke of Ed Gold Trip 2012: Peru Expedition Update

Posted on March 8, 2012 by admin

March 8, 2012

Upon my return to Peru, I did not know what to expect. I would soon find out that, although many landmarks were familiar to me, I was seeing everything in a completely new light. I was wiser and the shantytowns of Lima didn’t shock me. Rather they incited me to want to get to work immediately!

We spent four days in Las Palmas completing our community service project, which included a new set of stairs, a new fence, a fresh coat of paint and a new roof. By the fourth day, every student had mixed feelings about leaving Las Palmas. Although we may have been filled with excitement with the prospects of beginning the hike in Cusco, we would be leaving behind a community to which we had grown very close.– Emily Tiberi ’12

Five days ago, eighteen LCC students who would work on the service project in Las Palmas flew into the desert city, Lima. With last years experience doing the service project and the Salkantay Trek, I didn’t feel nervous. I was rather excited to see how things had changed over a year.

Every morning, when driving to Las Palmas, I noticed that the poverty levels hadn’t changed. The chaotic way of life and the number of shantytowns stacked on the desert was the same. It seemed as if I had not left Peru last March. When working at the community, the locals treated us with the same respect and warmth they had shown us in 2011. I remembered their names and faces and so did they. Under the scorching heat, we worked on the concrete roof until the very last minute. Today, we fly to Cusco. We are anxious about the hike, but at the same time, excited to walk the same path where Incas and adventurers explored.– Kenya Shatani (Pre-U ’12)

Biology: Rat Dissection

Posted on March 2, 2012 by admin

On Wednesday, February 29, we dissected a rat in Mr. Shefler’s Grade 10 biology class. At first, we were nervous and didn’t know what to expect. But, once we got going, we realized it was actually pretty cool. It was interesting to see such a complex digestive system in such a small body. Seeing the organs in person, instead of just inside a textbook enhanced our understanding of the bodily systems. We feel very privileged to go to a school that offers such dissections.
–Jacklyn Greenspoon ’13 and Lizzie McInnes ’13

Duke of Edinburgh: Gold Winter Trip

Posted on February 28, 2012 by admin

From February 16 – 19, ten grade 11 students attended the Winter Duke of Edinburgh Gold journey. It was definitely a challenge, hiking and snowshoeing 44 km and dog-sledding 70 km within such a short span of time, and yet it was all so rewarding.

The part of this journey that remains so vivid in my mind is having the opportunity to hike through the sunrise. On the third day, we had to wake up at 4:00 am in order to accomplish our hike to arrive at the dog-sledding on time. Walking with flashlights when we commenced our hike and then slowly but surely seeing the sunrise is not only a memorable but also a beautiful experience.

Perhaps waking up at that hour was not ideal, but accomplishing such a unique hike was definitely worthwhile. After all that hard work, we spent two incredible days with the dogs we were dog-sledding with. The entire journey was one I will never forget and I am so proud to have completed it.—Caroline Ballard ’12.

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Australia: New Experiences

Posted on February 28, 2012 by admin

For just over a week, I have been living like a true Australian. So far, I have had the opportunity to visit the CBD of Melbourne, attend a footy game and appreciate Australia’s outstanding nature.

Here I am at Carey Baptist Grammar School, a partly outdoor school in the middle of the summer, while back home there are temperatures of below zero degrees! I have learned many new things about a country that used to seem so foreign to me. I now feel like I belong, having done nearly everything that an Australian would do on a daily basis.

My host family did a very good job at giving me a warm welcome to this country. On the very first day, it was a pleasant discovery to taste Tim Tams, which are incredible Australian cookies! On my second day, I went to school and made many new friends. My teachers were extremely kind to me as well. After school, on my third day, I had the opportunity to experience some of the beautiful nature of this country. I went to Studley Park and enjoyed the view of massive and stunning trees as well as exotic flowers.

On the Friday of my first week, I had the chance to attend an Australian “footy game.” This sport is mainly played in Australia and is similar to rugby. However, in contrast to rugby, to pass the ball to a teammate, you are allowed to throw or kick it. In order to score a goal, you must throw or kick the ball through goal posts. It was my very first time even hearing about this sport, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching a game. The game I attended was a preseason game in which three teams played: the Hawthorn Hawks, the Richmond Tigers and the North Melbourne Kangaroos. That night, each team versed each other once. In the end, they each had one win and one loss. I loved this experience!

On the weekend, I visited the CBD, Central Business District, otherwise known as downtown Melbourne. While I was there, I went biking along the Yarra River. Just two days later, I went kayaking on the Yarra River! Both activities were very amusing and exciting. I found it quite interesting to travel to downtown Melbourne from the bike path and waterway as there were things that caught my attention from kayaking on the Yarra River that I had not noticed when I was biking along it.

All in all, this has been a most amusing week and I am keen to know that there is much more to come. I have yet to see a kangaroo or a koala, but by the end of my six weeks, I will surely have done it all!–Matthew Kaspy ’14