For the last two summers, I’ve had the fortune of traveling the world with students from my area of Ohio. Last year I traveled to 6 countries in Europe (which I had done three times before with students from the schools at which I taught), and this summer I am traveling to Australia! There were 4 other leaders (all teachers) and one medical aide (a mother traveling with her daughter with major food allergies) from 3 different states. 20 of us left from Columbus and were met in Dallas by the 3 other groups traveling with us. In total it was a 27 hour trip, which included two layovers, one of which was 5 hours long, and all this with 38 middle school aged kids. I was actually feeling very grateful for my motion sickness, which allowed me to take Dramamine, which makes one drowsy and allowed me to sleep the majority of the time in the plane.
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| My traveling group on our way to Australia |
We arrived in Australia two days later, completely skipping Saturday because of the international date line. Once landed I was still in my oh-so-attractive leader uniform of polo and khakis, no makeup, but thank goodness I had brushed my teeth because when I got in the front of the line for customers I was greeted by a ruggedly handsome Aussie, scruffy beard just like I like them. Usually in my experience the customs officials are meant to be very austere and no-nonsense, asking serious questions about one’s intentions in the country, but not so with my customs man. “Is your husband or boyfriend also a leader?”, he asked me.
“No,” I replied, “I don’t have one”.
“Surprising”, he responded, all the while giving me a grin. He proceeded to ask me about the trip and where I came from, and when I responded Ohio he said “I need to visit Ohio now perhaps”. Oh goodness, I hate that I can’t control my blush, because I could feel it coming on.
“Enjoy Australia Katie” he said to me, though my passport and paperwork says Katherine.
“Thanks Matt”, I responded and went through, with a huge stupid grin on my face.
Down the stairs I went, waiting for my students to come though, and after my first student met me she told me “Katie, the customs man told me to tell you that he thought you were quite nice. He said ‘no really, make sure you tell her how nice she was'”. Welcome to Australia- I’m gonna like it here!
We gathered all the children and continued through security, even encountering a drug/bomb sniffing dog (who discovered that one of the delegates had an apple in her bag- how scandalous!) and met with our delegation manager, a petite blond girl named Cassie. We headed into Sydney and our first stop was the SCG- the Sydney Cricket Ground- where we got a demonstration and learned the rules of Cricket.
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| At the Sydney Cricket Grounds |
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| Showing their cricket moves |
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| There are girls in the boys locker room! |
Afterwards, we headed to the Darling Harbor and had some free time to walk around the shop. It was raining but my group decided that it wouldn’t stop us from exploring and walked around outside, getting drenched but having a great time despite the weather. After our hour of free time we took a Sydney Harbor cruise, where we got our first glimpse of the Sydney Opera house. It was still very rainy, but we all stood outside to take in the sites, though eventually the water got so choppy that we had to go in, for fear that some delegates would go overboard.
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| Darling Harbour |
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| Rain wouldn’t stop my group! |
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| The Sydney Opera House |
We ended the evening with a meal at a restaurant with an outdoors, covered patio, luckily with heaters that we all crowded around, warming our hands. We were still in our clothes from when we left the states two days before, and most of us soaking wet, but everyone got to try their first taste of kangaroo. I, being vegetarian, didn’t try it, but those who did try it liked it a lot. Then to the hotel we went, and it was a lovely hotel on the harbor, where I was blessed to have my own room, seeing as there are three female leaders on this trip.
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| Enjoying some kangaroo |
The next day we boarded the bus to go into the Blue Mountains, a two hour bus drive. We were met there by a company called ‘Full On’, a group from New Zealand. The Full On company organizes adventures, but also focuses on team-building and positivity. The first thing our group did was talk about how if you put your mind on something, you can accomplish your goals, in this case it was the idea that you can break a board with your hands. So that’s exactly what we did; I watched all the delegates go and I was so proud of them, but all the while I was hiding in the back. I was the last to go, and when it was my turn to try, I was nervous, but the kids started chanting my name, and it made me so confident. So I lifted my hand and slammed it down and….didn’t break it. Second try went the same, though I realized that I was trying to break the board with my fingertips and not with my palms. I had one more chance, so I lifted my hand, hoping everyone wasn’t noticing how badly my hand was shaking (particularly the cute instructor) and…smashed that board in half! I’m sure you aren’t surprised, you all know I tough I am, but breaking that board was truly invigorating, I felt like I truly could accomplish anything, and I was happy that the students could experience that, especially so early into the trip, knowing that we had a lot of adventurous challenges ahead of us.
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| That’s right- I broke this board with my bare hand! |
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| Doesn’t that look like a group of strong, positive people?! |
After some more team-building, it was time for our true mission of the day- rappelling! Since we are a junior-high group we only were going to rappel 60 feet, which sounds like nothing. I went with the first group, after we were outfitted with helmets and harnesses, and I hung towards the back so that I could give moral support to all the kids. There were a few who went to the edge, but couldn’t go over because they were scared, and when it was my turn, I understood why. That first step over was definitely the hardest, worrying that you would fall all the way, even though there were two sets of rope, one that the instructor had a hold of, and the one that you control to lower yourself. The steps for rappeling were 1) wide stance, 2) “thumb to bum” to stop yourself and 3) let out rope by extending your arm behind you to let yourself down.
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| Waiting to rappell |
As luck would have it, I had the cute instructor again, and just as I was about to go down (or chicken out) the second group arrived and again chanted my name. I’m not sure I would’ve had the courage to go without their support, but I did it. Marc, the cute instructor, shouted encouragement the whole way down, even suggested that I make some jumps (though I didn’t) and I made my way down. I got passed by two people on either side of me while I descended, and Marc later joked that I was the slowest person down, but I made it! And when I finally reached the ground I was excited, though as I stood at the bottom watching the delegates descend (much quicker that I and doing a lot more tricks) and helping them out of the ropes, I wished that I could do it all again. We ended the day with a dinner and dance party before returning to the hotel- definitely a great start to our Australian Adventure!
