Koala Photo

This is a photo of me with my friend Lauren at the Wildlife Currumbin Sanctuary in Brisbane, Australia. In addition to getting to hold a koala, I got to feed lorikeets (and get pooped on by them), hold a snake, and also a baby croc. Holding the koala was definitely the highlight of my trip!

xoxo

Jane

Christmas in Australia

For our last Christmas in Asia and my last trip before returning home, we decided to head to Australia for Christmas. It was a trip we were all looking forward to and it did not disappoint. It is not a short trip to Sydney - the flight is over 7 hours. Sydney is also 3 hours ahead of Singapore (and therefore currently 17 hours ahead of Newburyport).

We flew overnight and arrived in Sydney in the late morning on the 22nd. We immediately went out to the Blue Mountains, which are about 90 minutes from Sydney. We stayed in a cute little town called Katoomba in a backpacker type boarding house. We spent the first afternoon exploring Katoomba including taking a ride on a the steepest railway in Australia (maybe the world?) and seeing the beautiful mountains and the "Three Sisters". The Three Sisters are a trio of rock formations that Aussie native legend has were once three beautiful maidens. The second day in Katoomba we spent on an all-day "canyoning" adventure. We were driven out to the wilderness and hiked into a canyon where we donned wet suits and traveled down a river running at the bottom of the canyon. There were natural rock slides ending in very cool pools of water. There were also jumps of maybe 6-12 feet into pools of water. It was good fun, but unfortunately Lauren sprained her ankle and had to rest while we completed the second canyon. Otherwise we all survived and headed back to Katoomba and then took the trip into Sydney.

We spent the rest of our trip in Sydney and explored this beautiful city which is highlighted by the huge harbor and the landmarks of the Sydney bridge and opera house. The transport system was easy - trains, buses and my favorite - the public ferries. It was nice to be on the water and also in cooler weather than Singapore. In fact, even though it is Sydney's summer, the weather was unusually cool. Boxing day was their coolest in 120 years. Still, we did not mind, although those who wanted to spend the time sunning at the beach were disappointed.

On Christmas eve, we took the ferry to Watson's Bay and enjoyed some fish and chips for lunch at the famous Doyle's on the Beach. We later returned in time to explore the Rock's area of Sydney and to climb the Sydney bridge. This structure was completed in the early 30's and is amazing. The climb was a bit scary, especially because it was very windy, but we all made it. We went up in the daylight and came down in the night with all the city lights on. It really was quite spectacular.

On Christmas day, the girls and I went to the zoo which is on a hill next to the water and was quite beautiful. Leah took many pictures and hopefully will post some. Lauren and Evan stayed behind to relax. That night we had Christmas dinner at the Intercontinental Hotel where they had a great buffet. We all ate until they had to roll us out of there.

On Boxing day we explored the Sydney Fish Market which is one of the largest in the world. We enjoyed lunch there where the seafood is certainly as fresh as you can get. That night we saw the musical "Wicked" in the restored Capital Theater which is a beautiful old theater. It was my first time seeing this musical, but the others were still excited to see it again - especially Leah.

On Sunday, we met Lauren's friend Brooke, who lives in Singapore, but was in Australia for Christmas as she is married to an Aussie. We met her at the famous Bondi beach and walked along the cliffs and other beaches all the way to Coogee beach where Brooke and her husband were staying. The weather was cool which made for a more comfortable walk. It also did not keep the surfers from enjoying their craft (in wet suits). After the walk we enjoyed lunch with Brooke and her husband at a local "kebab" stand. David and I then went to the pub to watch some cricket while the girls did some shopping.

Monday was the worst day for weather as it was raining pretty consistently. We saw Avatar and made the best of it. Finally on our last day we went to Manley beach and had the best weather day. We enjoyed the water (especially Leah and I) and also had a nice lunch. We returned to our hotel to make our way to the airport and return to Singapore - except Jane! Jane flew up to Brisbane to join her school friend and her family for another week. She is still there and I am sure she is having a great time. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Happy New Year!
Jed, Lauren, Evan, Jane and Leah

More Sydney pictures

More Sydney pictures

Tea at Four Seasons

Jane and I enjoyed a Christmas tea at the Four Seasons in Singapore. Lauren and Leah were suppose to join but both of them were feeling under the weather when a quick bug worked its way through our family. Fortunately for Jane and I we had already recovered and were able to enjoy the lovely tea. It was nice to spend some one on one time with her.

Jed

Let the Shirts Speak for Themselves!

Hello Everyone...

So I guess the shirts really do say it all. Evan has been accepted to Syracuse and is planning to begin there in fall of 2010. So that is very exciting news!

And much less exciting news is that I am officially a certified Lifeguard. Just thought I'd post that since I had a shirt and I think Evan would be even more upset with me if I only posted his news. I guess this means that next summer our backyard pool will become almost as good as the YWCA - complete with the lifeguard and everything.

Evan and I finished school yesterday (we've had midterm exams all week), and Leah has her last day today (not sure she'll make it through all of her Christmas parties and Christmas assembly - the last day is always so tough!). We will be leaving Monday to head to Australia. I'm sure we'll have some good pictures after out trip for all of you.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

xoxo

Jane

Thanksgiving in Cebu

Happy December Everyone! I can't believe that last month of the year is already here.

As you could tell from the photos, I was not in Singapore with my family over Thanksgiving. I went on a short trip to Cebu in the Philippines. It was my second visit to the same place - I also went to Cebu last year on Interim Semester in February. This time I went with a club I'm part of at school that helps the barrio of Maravillia.

I was SO excited to get to go back. I loved every minute of my first trip there. I was not expecting to get to go on this trip as a sophomore, but when a teacher dropped out of the trip at the last minute, a good friend of mine (a Junior who was going on the trip) asked the teacher if I could go. I was so thankful to get to go, as I will not be here in the next two years.

We took a midnight flight to Cebu, and then it was a 2 hour van ride to the house we stayed at. I got a total of an hour and a half of sleep, and then that first day was up until 10. Needless to say I was exhausted. The first day we spent delivering care packages (t-shirts, toothbrushes, etc.) to another nearby barrio. We returned to the house for lunch. There were 2 other friends of mine from my trip in February there, and we were all anxious to see the kids. We asked the teacher if we could go to the school (about a 3 minute walk down the beach) since it was their lunch break. She let us go, so we were able to see some of the kids we met last year. That afternoon we returned to the elementary school to do activities with the kids there. My friend and I were in charge of the arts and craft station. The SAS kids organizing the trip were supposed to have prepared the craft, but didn't really have anything except for a stack of paper, so Kat and I decided to make paper airplanes and have a contest. It didn't really matter what we did - the kids would have loved it no matter what.

The second day we went the the high school to teach. Their high school is really grade 7-10. So I would be a senior there. I much prefer to teach/play with the little kids, as I find high school a bit awkward to teach. But my partner and I ran spelling bees in the classes (about 30 minutes long). The kids had a lot of fun with it, and we ended up having a lot of fun, too.

The third day was the one I looked forward to most, as we were teaching at the elementary school. My partner and I were teaching 3rd grade - with 56 students! I would normally like even younger kids, but we were given the biggest class because we had both been there before. Also, I taught 2nd grade in February, so I had many of the same students, which was really fun, and they were all very cute. My partner, Dineth, is very good with kids. So I wasn't too worried about the number of students between the two of us. Unfortunately, a sickness was going around amongst the SAS students, and Dineth got sick the day we were set to teach. He came anyway, and helped as much as he could. I was able to control the students through most of the lesson. The trouble came when it was time to watch performances. I had a straight line of 56 kids, and was supposed to keep them quiet (since Dineth began to throw up about 2 minutes before the prayer, speeches, and performances began). It case you hadn't guessed, the back of the 3rd grade was giggling throughout the prayer - that may have only been a minute, but seemed to last forever. Nonetheless, the kids were adorable. After school that day many of them were out on the beach, and wanted to play their favorite games - Duck Duck Goose and Red Rover. What that means for me is being continuously getting up and down and running from side to side. Every turn, they always choose 'Teacher Jane'.

The worst part of the trip was that my camera broke! On the first day there it got sand in the lens. So then it wouldn't open. After a while it began to open but not focus. So I hardly got any photos this time. There was another student there who took over 2,000 photos, so hopefully I'll get copies of some of them soon. I'll post them if and when I get them.

I better head off to bed. Busy week coming up.

Miss you all. Hope you're having a great December. Have you had any good snowstorms yet?

xoxo

Jane