P2P JOURNALS
P2P
Journals
Day 12:
Farm Stay, Australia
7/4/04 HAPPY 4TH
OF JULY!!!!! Today was soooo cool. We got up and te a breakfast of pancakes, cereal, and toast. We went
outside, and separated into three groups. My group first went to do archery.
Archery is bow and arrow. I made some good shots. We next went to boomerang
throwing. I threw some boomerangs but none came back. After boomerang throwing,
we played with bull roars. Bullroars are wooden pieces that you spin around on
a string. They made a roaring sound when you spun them really
fast. Our group then went to whip cracking. We all got stock whips, and
first tried to flick it and make it crack. I cracked it a few times. Another
way to crack it was the lightning crack. My friend Kate
succeded with a huge crack. We then found out that a boy named Carson
had hit the bulls-eye in archery. After that, we went to the Sheep and Cattle
show. The sheep and cattle all found their right spots on the stage. The person
called some volunteers up, and I was called! I got to milk a cow! Just one squeeze though. Still, I have
always wanted to milk a cow! The show was very interesting. We ate lunch, and
then we had free time. At supper, we got and American supper to celebrate the 4th of July—hot dogs and hamburgers. We had
the bush dance next. The man in charge organized a couple of dances. The he
seperated the girls from the boys, and told the boys that they had to ask a
girl to dance in two minutes. He told the girls that we couldn’t
refuse. We were supposed to play four corners, waltzing style. Four corners is when music plays, and when it stops you have to pick a
corner. The man in charge then rolls a dice, and if the number is the same as
the corner that you’re on, you are out. We then did
the cha cha slide. It was late when we finally went to sleep after one of the
best days of the trip.
Day
13: Sydney, Australia
7/5/04
We
woke up this morning early to eat breakfast and board the coach. We had a four-
hour drive back to Sydney ahead of
us. When we arrived, we went for a quick tour of the Olympic Stadium. We then
went swimming in the 2000 Sydney
Olympic swimming pool. We got out and changed into our good clothes. We left
for the Sydney Opera House. We got a wonderful tour of the Sydney Opera House.
It wasn’t pure white, as it looked from a distance. It
was made from small tiles. It took 15 years to make,
and 102 million dollars were spent making it! The
Concert Hall was beautiful. There was red velvet everywhere and a huge pipe
organ in the middle of the back wall. It had hundreds of pipes on it. The tour
was interesting and so was the Sydney Opera House. What was unfortunete though, was that we couldn’t take pictures of the rooms for
copyright reasons. We ate dinner afterwards, and went
shopping. We finally came back to the hotel and settled in, going to
sleep.
Day
14: Sydney, Australia
7/6/04
This morning we woke up, and ate breakfast. We
boarded the coach and left for Sydney
Harbor. We got on a James Cook
cruise. A tape recording over the boat’s intercom told us the history of Australia.
The harbor was pretty, but the cruise was a bit dull. Next, we went to the
Rock’s Walking Tours, where the P2P group dressed up as convicts and got
identities of convicts. Our tour guide led us through the settlement of Australia.
My identity was Ann Dutton. I was sent to Australia
for stealing a looking glass with a frame. I remained a convict for 7 years. I
lived to be 50 years old. The tour was very fun and interesting. Afterwards, we
went and ate lunch. We then left for the National Opal Mine. We saw a movie on
the different types of opals. After that, we separated into two groups. My group
fist went and watched a cutting demonstration of boulder opals. Then, we went
and saw the museum and learned about how opals are formed and
connected with dinosaurs. We finally got to buy
opals, and shop in the street in the street mall afterwards. The P2P group left
for the hotel, rested for a few min. and left for the Hard Rock Cafe`. I
ordered a chicken sandwich. We had a lot of fun. Our group came back to the
hotel where Patrick held a goodbye party. The delegation leaders announced the
ambassadorial students. We then had a bad joke contest, the best expression
contest, and a dancing contest. It was late when we went to bed.
Day
15+16: Illinois, U.S.A 7/7/04
We went on to the airport in the morning.
Luckily, we hadn’t lost anyone. We really had a bad time getting to the planes
on time. Five people from our group was supposed to separate from us, but then
they missed there flight because we were delayed at an airport. Everything
worked out in the end. We arrived at the airport in Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, and said our
goodbyes to some of our friends. We had said goodbyes to the Illinois
group. Everyone that had not left in the airport went on a bus to Davenport,
Iowa. We said our hello’s to our parents,
and our goodbyes to our friends. Everyone was happy. I went home with my
parents to Illinois, knowing that
I would see my friends from my delegation again when we had our picture party.
This is my last journal entry for my Australia/
New Zealand P2P trip.