The first week of LC OZ '19

I'm writing this from New Zealand on February 2nd.  More about New Zealand later.  As you can see, I'm having trouble keeping up with this blog.  We are busy with lectures and excursions and bush walks, etc, which is awesome, but it means I'm behind.  I had a grand dream to take photos, post them on fb and in google albums and digitally scrapbook them into 2 albums (using Forever).  I also planned to write my blog and create a journal/scrapbook in my "Happy Album" using my Sprocket to print the photos.  My dreams may have been a bit ambitious!  Oh well, I'm keeping up with about 1/2 of my goals.

Our first week consisted of 3 days of lectures in the mornings with a film or two in the evenings.  Our lectures are held in a new building, Abercrombie, on the University of Sydney campus.  Nat, with Global Education Design, coordinates the lecturers.  They are all great and I wish I could share all the things we learn.  It's quite fascinating learning about the culture, politics, biology, peoples, etc.  Here are a few of the lecture topics this week:  Plate Tectonics, Cultural diversity amongst Indigenous Australians, and European settlement of Australia.   We had an interesting tour of the Hyde Park Barracks too.

 Gorgeous cliffs at the beach in Cronulla, NSW.

                      Echidna at the Taronga Zoo, see how their back feet are backwards, better for digging the dirt and pushing it back away from you!

  Erik's trying on one of the convict women's outfits, but got stuck!

 One of our lecturers came to the International House.

 Hyde Park Barracks with our guide Scott.  He's also showing us the bedrooms/hammocks.

 Erik, Carla and Faye at Jeff's special tree.  We miss you, Jeff!

                                                                 Cronulla Beach

                                               Mira and Carla on the way to the zoo and Justin too.

                                                     Jackson, above and Bilbys, below.

We had Thursday as a study day, etc and Erik and I went to visit Faye Robinson.  We ate lunch at the cafe in her nearby park and took a drive to Cronulla.  Faye's husband, Jeff, went to Graceland with Tore and Marge and we stayed with them 10 years ago.  It was wonderful to see Faye again and we enjoyed our afternoon.

Friday we took the Ferry to Taronga Zoo, where we had a very wonderful and hands-on lecture by the zoo staff in their brand new Education building.  We even got to see Bilbys, which was a treat.  Then we had the afternoon to explore the rest of the zoo.  I was most happy to see 2 Platypus swimming and swimming.  They are so much littler than you'd think and so unique.  What a treat.  I also loved the fairy penguins.  Erik loved seeing the Echidnas and Koalas.  It's a great zoo and in a gorgeous location.

What a great first week.  All the students are on time to every event and so interested in learning and ask great questions!  A great start!