Aloha Again!

Hey, everyone! Well, it's about time that I updated this old blog! So here goes. :) Since our Aussie Thanksgiving, we have gone on a really huge trip in Australia. We took a combined trip to both the Great Barrier Reef and the Australian Outback. Our first stop was at the Great Barrier Reef. We stayed on Hamilton Island for four days, enjoying for the first couple of days relaxation and access to a nice pool.

We also got a buggy in which to drive around the island.

And yes, I am an excellent driver. :) This island was amazing. Exotic birds like peacocks and cockatoos would just come right up and eat off your breakfast plate!

This peacock was right outside our hotel door! And so was this lizard... :[

It is probably about as long as my arm! Just a little scary to find coming home from doing your Christmas shopping... So, anyway, on our third day in Hamilton Island, we went to the Barrier Reef! We took a boat out to a section of the reef.

It was very windy up on the top deck. :) And so here we had our first looks at the Great Barrier Reef from above the water:

The light blue-turquoise color in the water is the Reef. :D

We put on our snorkelling gear and away we went!

This was, as you may imagine, the biggest fish that we saw all day! It is called a groper fish, and the people at the reef named him George the Groper. :) Mom and I got to touch him and watch them feed him small scraps left over from lunch! To give you an idea of his size, he is about three and a half feet long, which is more than half the size of me!

After we left the Great Barrier Reef, we headed out into the Outback. We were going to see Uluru (formerly known by Ayers Rock). I don't suppose that most of you know about Uluru (pronounced OO-loo-roo), so I will briefly fill you in. It is this giant rock, one single rock, a monolith in the center of Australia. It is about six miles around and about 1000 feet high. It now belongs to the native Anangu people as a sacred worship site. Another really strange and interesting fact about Uluru is that from the air, it is shaped just like a giant human heart, which is amazingly coincidental because of its location in the very center of the continent and it is also essential to the preservation of life in that part of the Outback. When rain does fall in that desert, it collects on top of Uluru, and Uluru's many waterfalls distribute water evenly throughout the land, and the people are able to collect it and live on it. So it is obviously quite a strange and magnificent landmark.

This was our first view of it from our tour bus. The rock is still quite far away from us, maybe half a mile. So you can see how really huge it is.

This is a very close up view. It is dry now, but if you look, you can see thick black marks and lines. These are dried up waterfalls. When they dry, they leave a black bacteria behind. Also, you can see that the waterfalls dont just run down the rock in straight lines. They come down slowly and settle in the holes on the sides of the rock. Then when those holes fill up, the water falls out of those into the next hole and so on, making a pattern that makes the waterfall look somewhat like a snake coming down the mountain, in and out.

We had an Anangu tour guide and an Australian interpreter on our tour of Uluru. In one of Uluru's several caves, our Anangu guide showed us the writings of her ancestors.

Another monolith just a few miles away from Uluru is Kata Tjuta (KA-ta JU-ta). This one is much, much larger than Uluru, several times in length and several meters higher. It is not as well known because it is not as sacred to the Anangu people as Uluru, but still amazingly fascinating. So we spent a few hours there.

It was an amazing trip. We'll keep you posted more frequently on our goings on if we can. Til the next post, see ya!

An Aussie Thanksgiving!! :D

What a lovely Aussie Thanksgiving we had!!! My family and I thought that coming to Australia meant missing Thanksgiving this year... But not a chance!! The McLeod family made a true holiday out of it! There was beautiful food, wonderful company, and an evening of music. A truly gorgeous night! A company of NINE for this Thanksgiving, you will see in the picture above (left to right): Mom, me, David McLeod, Jacqui Barr (who took care of all us kids one week!), Brendon McLeod, Nora, Dad, Jessica McLeod, and Sharynne McLeod was taking the photo. :D Beautiful!!!





Sharynne and Mom pose for a lovely picture :)



Look how empty my plate is already! This was only about five minutes into the dinner... :D



Brendon and Jessica entertained us with funny quizzes such as "Have you ever touched an electric fence that is clearly marked as such?" And of course the answer was "yes." :)




After dinner, we all retired to the livingroom, where we enjoyed musical performances from Jessica (piano and clarinet), Nora (violin), Brendon (trombone and piano), and I played the violin and French horn. While the soloists performed, everyone else joined in with instruments such as aboriginal maracas, an African finger piano (I think they are called...), and a digeridoo!! Haha, great fun!



Jessica played many lovely songs, including the ever-beautiful classic, Amazing Grace. :)



Nora played her lovely piece, Gossec Gavotte :)



Brendon chose an exciting excerpt from the Lion King, "I Just Can't Wait to be King." :)



La Folia was my piece.



And then David graced me with a French horn duet. :D



After the music, we played a trivia game. On your right you see the Pink Team (boo!) and to the left is the Blue Team (yay!!!). We learned a lot about Australia. In 1970, there were approximately 68 million sheep! (Or something like that... teehee) :D

Thanks so much to the McLeod family for giving us one of the most special (and oddly, most American...) Thanksgivings ever! :D

Nora's journal for Ms. McSpadden's Class and my friends to read

My trip to Hawaii and Australia

10-28-07

Well, my long journey started on October 28th. My family (dad and Ali): We had to get up extremely early. Luckily, I was the only one who wasn't tired. My Aunt Dianne drove us to the airport (TRI), and we flew to Cincinnati, then from Cincinnati to Los Angeles, and from LA to Honolulu. When we got to the airport in Honolulu, everyone was tired, because there, it was 8:00 PM, but in Tennessee where you are, it was 2:00 AM. The big surprise that mom got us was a huge, white limo. We all got to ride from the airport to the hotel in it. The limo took us to the Waikiki Wave Hotel. Mom was the only one who had adjusted to the time difference. Hawaii is six hours behind Tennessee. We watched some TV, and found some Ghost cookies from Verna, mom's friend. She felt sorry for us that we would miss Halloween. Then, we went right to sleep and had a good night's sleep.

10-29-07

This is my first full day here in Honolulu, Hawaii. My mom thought we wouldn't be awake very long because of jet lag. But we made it through the day!! One of the things we did was go to the beach. We were at the Pacific Ocean. My mom and I went far out, and we had lots of fun. We stood in the waves and let them knock us over; we saw crabs, black ones, that jumped from rock to rock; and my sister buried me in the sand. I laid in the shallow end of the ocean. I wouldn't move unless the waves moved me. Mom, Ali, and I went shopping. And I got some cute things. Mom took a picture of Ali and me with Duke, a statue of a famous Hawaiian surfer.

10-30-07

Today, I am back to traveling, taking an airplane from Honolulu to Sydney, Australia. The trip took 11 hours and 19 minutes. The flight attendant, a man, was so nice, because he gave us Halloween candy when we crossed the International Dateline, and it became October 31st in the air. He also gave us a pack of cards, and he smiled and said: "Hey, no smoking!" And then, "Look, a whale!"--as if it was outside the plane window. He was funny. He also gave us a DVD player, and we didn't even have to pay for it. I watched The Epic Movie. And he baked us fresh, oatmeal-raisin cookies in their very small oven. We landed in Sydney on November 1, because we lost a day crossing the International Dateline. With eight pieces of luggage, we felt like real Americans on a trip. WE'RE IN SYDNEY!!!

11-02-07

This is our first full day in Sydney. We went for a walk. It is springtime here, and a little rainy, but getting warm. The rain did not stop us. If you read my earlier posting, you will know that we went to see the Parliament in the state of New South Wales. In Australia, they have seven states, all of which are very, very big and beautiful. The seven states are: Queensland; New South Wales; Victoria; Northern Territory, where the Aborigines now have full control of their sacred land; Western Australia, South Australia; and Tasmania. Each state has its own government, like our state does too. And the national capitol is in Canberra, which is like our Washington, DC.

11-03-07

Today, we went to the Australian Museum. It was raining outside, and we bought a cool umbrella with the Museum logo on it. We got to see art and history related to Aborigine life. I am sending all of you a book soon that will tell you about some of it. I want to read it first with my mom. We also went to the Sydney Opera House; it is almost like a wonder of the world or something. It has three different tops that all look like sails in the wind. It has a huge room all made out of wood where the symphony plays. And sometimes, children from Australia come and play recorders there. Ali will have put up pictures of it by the time you read this.

11-04-07

We left Sydney today for Bathurst. It is a small town in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. It was the first settlement west of Sydney. It is about three and a half hours by train. We kept going up and up into the mountains, and along the way you could sometimes see a kangaroo or a wombat. When we got to Bathurst, we met the people we are staying with. They are named McLeod. The father is David; the mother is Sharynne; and the kids are Brenden, age 13, and Jessica, age 10, but she is in fourth grade too. We had baked goods with strawberries and lemon and chocolate for a celebration of our coming. We are staying in a Granny Flat, a little house, in the back of the McLeod's big house. Sometimes, we eat dinners together. And they let us use their house for some of the things we have to do. They are very nice and generous.

11-5-07 to 11-25-07

I am having to catch up a little bit. We had to get settled, and my mom and dad had to be gone for a week, doing a teaching in different parts of Australia. I stayed with Ali and Jacqui, and she did not have me journal each day. So this is kind of a report for the last two and a half weeks. I've had fun at the McLeod house. They have a yard with two trampolines next to a tennis court, which we haven't used yet, and a swimming pool!!! Jessica and I always stay in the pool a long time, and we are making up a water show. Yesterday, we were in for four hours. I have had a lot of fun here for the two weeks we have been settled here.

While mom and dad were gone, Jacqui took us to the Fossil and Mineral Museum here in Bathurst. I watched a video that said that each time you press a button on a computer keyboard, some gold is in the electrical line to help the machine work. Gold is in things you would never expect it to be in!!! They also had a book there that an Australian explorer used in the 1600s. The biggest thing was the GIANT T-Rex!!! Ali took a picture of me with my hand pretending to be eaten by this fossilized T-Rex. I will ask her to put it up on the Blog soon.

One of the other cool things I saw there was Amber. It is this kind of clear goo that goes around things and later hardens, leaving the thing complete inside the amber--so the things get stuck. The one I was interested in was the gecko in Amber. The rocks also had flowers, tics, flies, cockroaches, and the gecko!!!

After that, Ali, Jacqui, and I went to Mount Panorama. That's where race car drivers race. They go up a mountain, and around it, and then back down, and they do that 160 times. It is out in the open, different than the Bristol Motor Speedway that is like an oval. You probably didn't see this on American TV (but it was on there), but a kangaroo jumped on the race track and raced too. No one was hurt, but the racers had to slam on their brakes!!!

There's a park here that has a replica of the Eiffel Tower. It's much smaller than the real thing, but it's about 30 feet tall. I've climbed to the very, very top!!!

My dad went to Adelaide, a town in South Australia, about ten hours from here by car. He attended a workshop for some training. He came back with hat with a net over it. It looks like a bee-keeper's hat--even though it is not. He wears it because the flies are really thick here, and they are always buzzing you when you walk. Everyone makes fun of my dad though. He looks funny in it.

On Monday (that will be Sunday after Thanksgiving for you), I'm going to a music workshop all day!!! And I'll learn to play an percussion instrument. Then, I'll be able to play three instruments. I play the violin and the Celtic harp too, and so later, I will tell you the results of the music workshop.

I wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving!!! Bye!!!

Nora

It's Been a While!

Wow, it's been a while! I meant to put up another post after Week One, but the software was down or something! So I'll do it now. :) Well, We got into Honolulu, Hawaii late on a Monday, I believe. Mom had been there for over a week, but Dad, Nora, and I only got to spend a day there. It was a nice, relaxing day, and we went to the beach, went shopping, and all that jazz. :)

I buried Nora. :)

Mom fell asleep on her mat after a long week of workshops. -.- zzz.

... and I bought a dress. :D

Then we flew for eleven hours into Sydney, Australia! In crossing the International Date Line, we lost Halloween, though. So our flight attendent walked up and down the aisles with a candy dish!

We have been here in Australia for almost two weeks! We got into Sydney last Wednesday and stayed there for a couple of days, sightseeing and such. We got around to a lot in those two days! The first day, we visited the New South Wales Parliament House. We went in for the grand tour of the Houses and learned the basics of Australian politics. Basically, there are two Houses: Upper and Lower. The delegates in the Lower House are then split into the political parties they represent. The party that got the most votes sits on the left side of the room, and they are called the Government. The minority party sits opposite the Government and are called the Opposition. Here is a picture:

The Government runs the state of New South Wales, but the Opposition is allowed at certain special meetings to challenge the decisions of the Government.

Then there is the Upper House. This is where bills are amended and passed. There is no real seating arrangement in this House like there is in the Lower House. Here is a picture of the Upper House:

The next day, we went to see the Sydney Opera House! It was amazing! It's right across from the Harbour Bridge, too, so we got to see both and get some really fantastic photos.

Here are Mom and Nora in front of the Harbour Bridge. This is one of the best views of it you can get. :)

And here is the first view we had of the famous Sydney Opera House! It is the view from Hyde Park, I believe.

Dad waving Hello. :)

This is really about the only real theater we were allowed to take pictures of, and it was definitely the most breathtakingly beautiful. It is the Symphony Room. Down at the bottom is where the orchestra plays. If you look closely in the middle of the picture up at the top... Can you see it? That is a pipe organ! And the place where the organist sits is right in the middle of all the pipes!!

Sydney was a truly fascinating city. After our second day there, we caught a train to the city of Bathurst, just four hours away. It was a very beautiful ride through the country. There were all these beautiful grass fields that were covered in purple flowers that looked like lavender (but are actually called Patterson's Curse). They made the whole field look as if it had been dusted with purple mist or something lovely like that. :) I wasn't able to get any pictures of these fields on that trip because my camera was too low on battery, which is a terrible shame. But I will leave these fields to the imagination until I am able to procure a decent photograph of them. :)

When we arrived in Bathurst, we were picked up at the train station by the McLeod family, who we are staying with until around the fourteenth of December. They have been so kind as to let us stay with them in a cottage (or granny flat) behind their house... at no cost! And when we had unloaded our things, we found that they had stocked the house with groceries and candies and a Monopoly game! That first day, we got the grand tour of their town and were taken out to ice cream to boot!!

This is a picture of us on the first day. The McLeods also had another family staying with them, and they are in the tree too. :) So this is Ben, Emma, Alys, Jessica Mcleod, Brendon McLeod, Nora, and me. :)

I have just realized that I have no photos of the McLeod parents. Must make a mental note to do that so I can show you all of them!

So since that first day, we have settled in, Nora and I have started home-school, I have had my first French Horn lesson, and Brendon McLeod turned 13 two days ago! We have been busy as bees, and have enjoyed every second of it. Until next time, g'day mates!

Another Note to Ms. McSpadden's Class from Nora

Hi! I really miss you all!! Well, I'm here in Bathurst, Australia!! We're stayin' with some of my mom and dad's friends. They have two children too! Brendon, he just had his 13 birthday yesterday. And Jessica! She's 10. My mom told me that she had not seen Sharynne (their mom) in two years!! But, we're staying in their GRANNY FLAT. It's like a cottage and Ali, my sister, sleeps on this sofa, and I sleep on this blow up mattress on the floor. They have three pets, a kitten named, Mozart; a bunny, named Twinkle Toes; and a bird named Harriet. You know, I'm holding Mozart right now!!!! Here in Bathurst, it's only maybe a bit past two, or very close to three!!! But, it's Thursday!!!! Australia is one day and 15 hours ahead of you all!!! I hope you guys liked the bottled note FRESH FROM HAWAII!!!!!!!!
Well, I gotta' go!!!
Bye!! And, everyone says Hi!!!
Love, Nora!!

P.S. Ms.McSpadden, I went into the National History Museum of Australia where they had a lot of aboriginy history, art, music, and pictures of how sad their lives were, because of how they were treated. There was a replica of a police lockup where an aboriginy man may be locked up for a tiny, tiny crime, like stealing something that doesn't even matter. It said that 115 people in Australia had died in there from starvation and being beaten. We saw a picture of aboriginy convicts who had chains around their necks and arms. We also saw paintings of aboriginy children who were taken away as young as two weeks old to be made into white people, but really they were slaves. And on the happy side, I went to a parliament in Sydney, Australia, and learned about how it operated and its history. In the lower house, I got to sit in the most powerful seat in the lower house: The Premier's seat. We also went to the Sydney Opera House, and got to see the theaters. In the biggest theater where the symphany plays, there are big glass donuts hanging above the orchestra, because the sound, otherwise, would too slow in getting back to them. In the second biggest theater, the first three rows are below sea level. The Opera House floats on concrete, and the concrete floats on water. There is this huge organ that sits above the donuts and has huge pipes that would blast anyone away. Some of the pipes were over thirty feet high. There is one person playing five keyboards at different times, eight foot pedels, 115 stops to pull in and out, and the most help the person gets is someone to turn the pages for you.

So that is my report for now. I will ask Ali to post some pictures of at least the Opera House later. And I will have more to tell you in a week or so.

Nora

From Nora to Ms. McSpadden's Fourth Grade Class

Ok, here is a post from my sister, Nora, to her 4th grade class back in JC. :)

Hey guys! I'm having a great time here in Hawaii, but today is my last day. Then we are going to be on a plane to Australia for 11 hours! We are going to cross the International Dateline, so we lose a day. We leave on the 30th and get there on the 31st. I really miss you guys! I'll be one day ahead of you in Australia! I hope you enjoy my bottled note that I mailed you guys from here in Hawaii! Aloha!
~Nora

Packing and Going Away Parties

Ha ha, Mom decided to take the entire contents of Talbots with her...

...in this suitcase.

And then I took a look inside my closet, and found clothes I hadn't even thought about in like ten years. So, ... EEEEK!

Work really got to Dad, so he decided to pose for this lovely picture. :)

We were worn out from packing. So what did we do?

We threw ourselves a going away party at the Fender's Farm Corn Maize!!!

This is my sister, Nora, and her friend, Sydney. :)

Sydney on the left, Nora on the right. :D

It's like a giant Halloween creche!!

Sydney, Dad, and Nora on top of this really cool bridge that helps you cheat to find your way through the maize... ha ha :)

These are my two bestest friends in the ENTIRE world!!!!!!! Rebecca on the left, and on the right is Meghan. :D Love them!!!

The House of Pumpkins!!

Don't even ask, cuz I have no idea. :) ha ha



















Yeah, we are crazy. And that's just how we roll. Ha ha :)























This is Becca. And that's all I got to say about that. :)















I am going to miss you guys sooooooo much!!!!! I love all of you, and I will see you in January!!!