Sydney!

This past weekend we visited Sydney! It was amazing! We saw everything from the Sydney Opera House to the Sydney Harbour Bridge! Everyone had lots of fun!!!

Here is the Sydney Opera House at night!



The Sydney Harbour Bridge!



An Aborigine and I!



Inside the Sydney Opera House!



Group picture on the Sydney Opera House tour! It was sooo cool!



Sydney was such an awesome city!

More Great Barrier Reef!

The Great Barrier Reef was such an awesome place! I wanted to post a few more awesome photos! Craig snapped the underwater pictures while Jessica shot the picture from the air!

This is the picture of the GBR from the air as we were leaving to come back to Lennox Head for another exciting week of school!



Here is a cool picture of the coral and all the fish that call it home!



Here is a cool giant blue clam we discovered on one of our dives!



Yellow Fishies and some GBR Coral!



Here is a leopard sponge complete w/ all his guts hanging out! Our instructor stuck all the white guts on our hands and it was hard for us to get them off! On the third dive, some of the divers played football with a sea scritter similiar to this guy!

A Little Town Called Nimbin....

Nimbin was quite the interesting town. Nimbin is know for it's alternative lifestyle. Many hippies call Nimbin home and a good majority of them smoke pot. When you are walking the streets of Nimbin you get asked if you want to buy cookies (which have pot in them) and you see lots of people smoking outside their stores. Although marijuana is still illegial in Nimbin, police have come to accept the fact that they can't take over the entire town of hippies and stop them from smoking or doing other illegial stuff. Thus, Nimbin continues to bring in tourists who want a taste of an alternative society. The entire experience was a culture shock for me!


Welcome to Nimbin!




Our wonderful bus.......Jim's Alternative Tours!




Downtown Nimbin!




Our favorite hippie!




Australia and the USA Flag......Resident of Nimbin strongly dislike America (and our current president) so I thought this would be an appropriate picture to end my Nimbin post with!

New Zealand Beauty

New Zealand is known for its beautiful scenery! Between the long 6 1/2 hour hike and driving through the North Island we saw lots of scenery! Here are some of the awesome pictures!!

Beautiful Scenery on our Hike....



Sulfur Springs near the end of our hike....



River rushing through the jungle of New Zealand....



The sunset over New Zealand the night we were leaving....



New Zealand Waterfalls and Rapids......Jess, Angie, Luke (our director's son), and I...

The Great Barrier Reef!!

This past weekend we traveled up to Caines, Australia and went scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef! The reef was pretty amazing! Lots of coral and fishies! I completed 2 dives and took 1 snorkeling trip over the reef!

Here is my favorite picture from the Great Barrier Reef! Our boat docked directly in front of this coral reef spot!



Sea Turtle feeding on the GBR!



JD scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef!



Nemo's relative swimming on the reef!



This is a really good group picture of everyone at the pub on St. Patricks Day!

Skydiving in New Zealand!

2 weeks ago we went Skydiving in New Zealand! Everything has been really busy lately and I haven't had time to get some of these skydiving pictures up here on the blog! Basically, skydiving was the rush of a lifetime! I jumped from 12,000 ft. up in the air and I was sooooo nervous! I jumped tandum so I had an instructor take care of everything for me. I'm glad he was there when the airplane door swung open 12,000 ft. in the air and all you could see were clouds! My instructor scooted me up to the door of the plane and gave me a second to look out. Then he threw us out and we did a backflip before freefalling for a good 30+ seconds. I sucked in some clouds and tried to take the awesome experience in! Finally, my instructor pulled the parachute and we started to glide down to earth! We could see Lake Taupo and all kinds of beautiful scenery! We did some flips in the air and I enjoyed every minute of it! I would recommend skydiving to eveyone reading this! A thrill of a lifetime!

This is a picture of my instructor and I before we boarded our plane! He has been skydiving over 11,000 times!



Master Skydiver!



Here is what it looked liked after the door swung open! I think my life flashed before my eyes!



Free Fall! This and the next picture are of actual people from the Ball State group! Just pretend that its me because it's exactly what I looked like skydiving!



Flip out of the plane! AHHHHH!

Jay County

Supporting Good Ole Jay County Half Way Around the World!



Go Jay!

New Zealand Fun #1: White Water Rafting!

-White Water Rafting-

On Sunday everyone went WhiteWater Rafting! It was an awesome experience! We went over all kinds of rapids, dodged low tree limbs, and devoured huge waterfalls! It was alot of fun! I got stuck in the front seat of the raft for the entire trip because they thought I could help them row....boy were they wrong!

This first picture is all of us getting ready for our 1st set of rapids! This is one of my favorite pictures! The scenery is beautiful!



Row Forward! Preparing for the 1st waterfall!



AHHHHH!!! Over the 1st waterfall we go!!!



Here is a picture of us starting to go over the largest commercial waterfall in New Zealand! 21 ft. of rushing water! It was a little scary! Thank goodness we didn't tip like the group before us!



Here is the group shot of us after we survived the giant 21 ft. waterfall!



White Water Rafting was a blast!

Elementary School in Australia

Every Tuesday afternoon I have the opportunity to visit the local elementary school, observe the students, and help as a teacher's aide. I am helping out in a 1st grade classroom and am having alot of fun! I usually help with reading and spelling right when I get to school. The students have a 45 minutes break for lunch and recess and then the teacher or I usually read them books until P.E. time. Last Tuesday, I made a powerpoint presentation about the USA for the students. They had lots of good questions for me and were amazed about the snow! So far volunteering in the schools has been an amazing opportunity!

Here is the front of the classroom where I am volunteering.



Here is the back wall with all the student's art displayed on it!



Here is the school "hallways". Everything is outside!



This is a picture of some of my 1st graders actively listening to the P.E. teacher, Mr. Cook!



Here are four of my students showing off their awesome hula hooping skills during P.E. class!



Everything is soooo laid back in the Australian schools. I might just have to teach over here someday??!

New Zealand Trip

Tomorrow the group is traveling to New Zealand for a 10 day "Spring Break". We will be white water rafting, hiking, sky diving, and all kinds of other fun activities! Unfortunately, I will most likely be unable to post pictures for awhile. I will take lots of photos in New Zealand though and will get some of them up here on the blog ASAP.
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Fun in the Pool

This evening Jessica, Angie, Craig, Tracy and I all went swimming in the pool! We decided to use Craig's underwater camera and get some cool pictures! Here are some of the best.....

Tracy and I take a nice underwater picture!



Jessica and I give the underwater photography a try! but have to be held down by Angie's legs....



Angie and I try not to laugh under water!



What a good lookin group of Aussies!



Taking pictures in the pool was alot of fun!

Australia from the Past

Believe it or not, this weekend has been devoted to classes and homework! I know...its hard to comprehend! Anyway....we haven't been taking pictures so I've found some random photos from the first few weeks in Australia.

This is me after just arriving here in Australia. I must have been amazed at the serenity of the lake.



This is a group of Aborigines in Byron Bay.



Here is the group at a restaurant in Byron Bay called "The Balcony". It was a little pricey...won't go back there again.



Here is an action shot from the beach at Byron Bay. I was playing Frisbee with Mike and Craig!



And finally, a creative picture from the Byron Bay beach.....Take a Look Into My Eyes!



One more week until we leave for a 10 day trip to New Zealand!!! Can't wait!