After we took our exam and finished up our final two weeks in Byron, those of us leaving Byron prepared to head out for our five week long ISP projects. I flew down to Sydney with two of the other girls, stayed there for a night and then met up with one of the teachers from the centre I am working at. She is letting me live with her and her family for my ISP period. Which is so incredibly kind of them. My first week at the Royal National Park Environmental Education Centre was a great one. I did all sorts of activities-in doors and out. I went on a couple field excursions with primary (elementary) school students as well as some high school students. I also did some other tasks at the centre preparing for the next weeks video conferences. The picture just above to the left is one of the walls of the Centre and it has many of the native animals and birds. The other above to the right is the sign for the Centre. The video conferences are on Bin Busters-recycling, composting and rubbish-and Worm Organics-worm farming. The video conferences were with 1002 students from 21 different schools in New South Wales. It was such an interesting experience to be teaching to students through video cameras. It opens up so many doors for students out in the country who can't always go out on excursions and such.During the first week I took part in my very first Melbourne Cup Sweep-"betting" on horses for the race. I had 5 different horse and....one of them took second place and won me....$2.50!!! hahaha I'm a big winner :) It was pretty fun to take part in.The picture below shows my $2.50 winnings and the slip for the horse-Red Cadeaux that won me it.
My first weekend of ISP I went down to the south coast and saw some very awesome places. I saw a HUGE blow hole in the rocks (picture to the left) on the coast and drove over the sea cliff bridge-which makes you feel like you're driving in a sports car on a commercial, because the road is curvy and so scenic. The next day I went on a bushwalk on the Marley Track. We swam at Deer Pool (1st picture below)-a natural water hole with a small waterfall and then we continued on and walked down to the beach and swam at Marley Beach (2nd picture below). The water was the coldest I've experienced here so far. We also got to see some humpback whales just off the coast. They were having a ball jumping out of the water and I was having just as much fun watching them. There were a couple babies with them too that were adorable jumping out of the water too. On the walk back we swam in Deer Pool again because it was such a hot day we needed to keep cooling down by swimming. I saw heaps of different flowers and vegetation and luckily there was a guide book at hand to identify what they all were.
My second week of ISP was when all of the video conferences took place. This past weekend (weekend #2 of ISP), Emma-who is in Sydney for her project, came down to visit and we went to the beach at Cronulla and swam, laid around and walked around town a bit. It was a very nice and relaxing day. The water felt great and the sun was shining! Then the next day I hung our at the house during the day-did some work on my paper for ISP, watched some movies and just relaxed.
So as you can see I am continuing to have a fantastic time. I am really enjoying my internship as well as the area and people around me.
