Monday: Wagga Wagga

Monday, I took a day off school to visit Wagga, one of the bigger towns in ’the neighbourhood’. We only drove for 2 hours and a half to get 200 km further and we were there. Too easy… I was amazed by the vastness of Australia and ‘we don’t even live in the middle of nowhere’. I absolutley loved gazing at the passing landscape with in the morning, fields endlessly filled with beautiful canola, and in the evening, the breathtaking sunset that made the sky look like it was on fire. It was wonderful!

This day is the birthday of my host dad’s sister. Every year they go to Wagga to visit her in the cemetery and celebrate her birthday with the rest of the family. It was amazing to meet some of these people I had heard so much about and it gave me a warm feeling. We ended the day with some limited sightseeing, but I had a good day.

Tuesday: Whitton

Tuesday, I took a last day off of school to end my long weekend with a visit to the cotton gin and malt house in Whitton. In the cotton gin, we got a tour in a group, which was very interesting. We got to see all the machinery in action and to feel the different stages of cotton. In this gin, they collect the bales from local farmers and process it untll they can ship it for production of all kinds of cotton products. I learned a lot here and I would definetly recommend it!

(M.I.A. = Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area)

In the malt house, we had lunch and took a walk in the park. It was very nice.

I got to see a small primary school for something like 180 kids, but they have a gigantic plot with lots of options. They even had chickens, guinea pigs and a goat! I think it is amazing how open a school can be, anything that can be outside, will be outside, like corridors, the refectory… Cool!

Wednesday

School

At school, during English, we were told to create an open space in the classroom by getting rid of al the tables, we would only need the chairs. A couple of minutes later, we were sitting on the Forum Romanum, listening to the great speeches of Brutus and Marc Antony about Caesar’s death according to Shakespeare. We, as the crowd, became of course naturally -totally not forced- very angry and stormed out of the classroom. It was a very fun lesson.

Also, one of my Aboriginal friends showed me his paint and lap lap, because he had performed an Indiginous dance and I also got to try some damper, which is a specific type of delicious Aboriginal bread. Very interesting!

Presentation

In the evening, I was asked to do another presentation and this time for Rotary. Their meeting was held in an Ex-Servicemen’s Club, which ment at 6 o’clock, stand up, be quiet and listen to the last post. ‘Lest we forget’. Here in Griffith, you see that quote almost everywhere.
This night had a different concept, because they have a meeting every Wednesday with a dinner included. It was fun and tasty and once again I met wonderful people who offered me even more wonderful experiences and opportunities. I loved it!

Thursday

School

In hospo, we did ‘cafe on poole’. That means cooking lunch for teachers! We made the same recipe as last week, quesedillas, so everyone knew what to do. The teacher split the tasks and I worked on the capsicum. It was more stressful than expected, because we needed to get everything grilled and peeled and sliced up before we even could start getting everything together and we had limited time. I had a lot of fun though, and we had enough to enjoy a good quesedilla ourselves as well.

The visitors

Thursday night there was a play in the Regional Theatre about the arrival of the British in Australia. Of course, we were very interested in seeing it and we enjoyed a wonderful play about how the Aboriginals would have reacted on something so unknown. It was very powerful.
Every play or assembly or whatever, starts here with a ‘welcome to country’ to acknowledge the land and the native people and I think that is important.

Friday

School

In English, we did another acting out lesson which was amazing. I got to be Brutus, who gave Caesar the final stab to death. Every each one of us got a ruler to stab the great emperor and it was so forced but still dramatic.
After that, we started to chase Cinna the poet and beat him to death as an angry crowd. This was also very powerful and so much fun.

Hermit’s Cave

After school, some friends and I went up to Hermit’s cave. It is a cave where some Italian guy lived for a while, because he liked it. He built it all himself and it’s quite impressive for one man.
The walk was beautiful. It is one of those walks my family and I would do when on a holiday. We climbed up the hill and enjoyed an amazing view. In the end, we were playing a memory game and that was way more fun than it sounds. We laughed so hard!

Saturday: Altina

Altina is a wildlife park at about 45 km away, where we rode a horse-drawn cart to see all the animals that they’ve got. It was absolutely amazing!