Pylons and Monsoons!

July 19th

Today was the second day of class and there was one particular speaker that I really enjoyed. He was a principal in a primary school and I thought that some of the stuff his school does for the kids was awesome! There are a group of kids with behavioral problems in his school that they take sailing! The purpose of this is to get them to relax and get rid of some of their anxiety, along with getting them alone with one on one time to talk to them about anything they would like. Apparently after starting this program the student's suspension track record decreased a lot! They also took a group of Aboriginal students to the beach...which apparently they had never seen before! They were very curious and as they walked in they eventually immersed themselves and began rolling around in it, wondering where it came from! I thought it was great that this school had programs were able to do such things with their students! I also found it great that a lot of this was funded by the Government, I feel like this would never happen here. They also pay their teachers a lot more here. Apparently if i wanted to move here after I became certified, I could come here for a year and earn about $70,000! If only that were the same case here!

After class a group of us headed off to the Sydney Harbor Bridge to climb the Pylon. We got to walk across the bridge to get there and then up about 250 stairs to get to the top. I wanted to pay the small amount of money to do this, before I decided to pay the expenses to actually climb it! I must say that the sight from here was quite amazing and at first I wasn't quite convinced I should do the real thing, but actually seeing a group climbing it while I was up there was a bit more convincing.

We really didn't stay in the city long since we were planning on going out and meeting some people later, plus we wanted to get to the mall to get cheaper food before it closed. The mall here closes pretty early (about 5-5:30) which is very inconvenient lol! Once we found something to eat we went to a store to get a drink called "Passion Pop" which was like a berry flavored champagne I think? We came back to the dorms to get ready then headed out to the Shangri La hotel; which has a bar and the top that apparently has a better view than the top of the Sydney Tower. At this point in the night it is absolutely pouring outside, so when we finally got to the hotel we were completlely soaked! I was a bit bummed to find however that once we got to the elevator, all of the people we were meeting there were getting off! Apparently since it was raining so hard you couldn't really see out the windows, and the cheapest drink was like $10. Then it was off to a place called Scruffy Murphy's, and more walking in the rain...my feet were quite soggy at this point.

This place was nothing special but they had a live band so I was definitely happy :) Plus I was just glad to have a roof over my head! I tried a drink called a "Snake Bite" (was suggested to me) and I must say it was pretty tasty! However; I am not really sure what was in it lol, I think beer and something raspberry?  Megan and I decided not to stay too long though since we had class in the morning and wanted to make sure we caught the last train back to our dorm. I'm just glad we have space heaters in our rooms to help dry shoes and clothes at the end of the day!