Mrs H - Last Day

A fairly early start by all in order to get our cases packed and rooms ready for teacher inspection.  Not wanting to single any room in particular out Shanice and Lulu’s was a disgrace!!!!!!!!  Sweetie wrappers everywhere and bins overflowing with rubbish, they had to be told to have another go at it.  All had passports, money and flight bags ready in good time so it was off to breakfast for a final time at Naggy’s.  Such a lovely place to eat and catered really well for a group of 20.

Breakfast over and we headed off down Glebe Point Road for our feedback session in the local park.  Again the weather was extremely kind and we split into our two schools.  Initially we asked the students to reflect on what they had learned from their leadership days and to come up with two highlights and why.  It was a pleasure to hear that among other things they had learned the importance of being prepared, that they could see that leadership was about more than being bossy and that having a partner was a support.  The key highlights were the Harbour Bridge walk for its entertainment (Mr Reed), challenges and spectacular views and then the school visit where they were treated like celebrities – although it was here that they overcame their nerves spectacularly in their presentation.  We then gave individual feedback on strengths and areas to develop.  The response of the students to this was extremely positive and it was clear that they had learned much from their experiences – they will tell you about this themselves as it was privately done! We finished off the feedback session by giving special awards for the particular qualities each had shown.   We then joined QEGS who decided to give Mr Reed an award for being the ‘most selfless’ among the group.  Naturally he thought this no more than his due despite the laughter that accompanied the pinning on of the badge.

A quick march took us back to the hotel, some farewell pictures with local shopkeepers and then the taxis arrived.  We loaded up and headed off for the airport.  Time seemed to move quickly then and we were at the boarding gate before too long.  Nobody was keen on the length of journey ahead but all very keen on getting home.

A flight of 7 and a half hours brought us to Singapore for a couple of hours.  Not many slept on the plane for this part of the journey but were pretty tired by the end. Some drinks and last minute spending of the Australian currency.  The final flight was to be 13 and half hours long and most did sleep for at least some time.  Mr Reed did enquire if anyone would shift and allow him space to lie down falt, no takers though!  By the time we had only 4 hours left it was clear that most had had enough and were longing for the flight to end.  It was great to hit British soil, a short wait and we made it on to the coach.  An easy ride with little traffic meant we arrived ahead of schedule at 10am.  A quick farewell to our QEGS partners and then lots of hugs and smiles as we were reunited with our families.  Fabulous, the trip and experience of a lifetime!!

Blue Mountains - Jack

Well to start the day I had to get up earlier than usual but I didn’t want to. Got ready to go downstairs to make sure everyone else was ready to get breakfast. There was a little trouble with the money but I sorted everything out. Off we went for the bus where we had a short wait. We got the bus down to circular quay and people wanted to go shopping so we gave people an hour to go shopping.  Kieran, Shanice, Lulu and I went together for a walk round The Rocks market.

After an hour of walking we went to the meeting place at the train station.  Once everyone had got back to the train station Declan and I had to get the tickets to go to Katoomba.  We were dreading for the two hour train journey down there but we all got together played some games to make the time go faster. Once we got to Katoomba it was clear that people were hungry.  We walked down the main street where there were a lot of little cafes and bakeries.  We ate on the move and walked the long road to the Blue Mountains, this was road had its own hills!

We reached the main starting point – Echo Point - of the Blue Mountains looked at the magnificent view from the edge of the cliff.  We could see the blue mist hovering.  It is just beautiful there and that is the best word to describe it.   Off we set to try and get to the Three Sisters -  these are three shapes coming out of the mountains that seem to have faces.  From there we talked about going down the ‘Giant stairway’ but Mr Reed was having none of it, so we made our way back up to Echo Point.   

I then took the lead and Mrs Hextall and I were at the front talking about which way to go.  We both wondered if it we should go down some steep steps but we carried on to the next corner.  It didn’t feel right but we weren’t sure where to go either back up or continue down the big hill. We decided to go back to the steps but that wasn’t the best of ideas because it just went to a dead end.  Half of us had walked down and couldn’t believe we had to go back up - it didn’t go down too well.  After that we continued downhill, found a place to sit and I went to find out where we had to go. I found out where to go and we carried on down the road followed it round until we found the correct path.  This wasn’t great because it was muddy and everybody’s shoes got dirty.  

However, we continued and came to the Katoomba Cascades – a lovely view. Declan and I then chose another route to follow and everyone was up for it, yet again all wet and muddy.  This took us through the bush and we found ourselves on the other side and got one of the most stunning views ever  - this time with the sheer size of the Blue Mountains and the Katoomba Falls.  Mr Reed was not impressed though, he was fed up walking up and down hills only to be faced with massive heights which he hates.

After a few more little walks and more views the decision to eat. The choice was to eat as a whole group or as separate schools and I said ‘I think we should have one last dinner just the Haven High lot together’ and everyone agreed.  We had a look down the street and saw this little pizza place.  Well what can we say, what a find!  The food was mouth-watering and the owner was a right joker.  One of the jokes we didn’t know how to take was when he brought out some plastic mats, small rolling pins and some pizza dough.  He told us he wasn’t cooking it was too much like hard work and offered us $2.50 an hour to do it ourselves.  At first we were taken in and then we found it really funny.    

We were asked to make models of anything from the dough and then he would have it baked for us.  Minutes after we got our food he came up to us and took Kieran and Lulu’s plates saying ‘you got a train to catch haven’t you?’  Everyone laughed but Kieran and Lulu thought he was being serious and their faces made us laugh even harder.   After dinner we asked the owner and the waitress (who was our age and waited on us for the evening) if we could have our picture taken with them.

We made it to the train in good time for our two hour journey back to Glebe. Back at the hotel it was time to pack and get everything ready for the morning. Everyone was beginning to be excited about coming home.

Well that’s the end of my eventful day after getting lost and four hours on a train.  I think the day went well and by the end of the day we were all in good spirits. Everyone was having a laugh - Lulu was very hyper entertaining us, Kieran made us all laugh by thinking he had lost his head phones and searching his folders four times in his room before finding them. Just another 40 hours and then we are all home.

Saturday - Christian

Today was quite a day, woke up early to make sure I had everything planned for what was going to happen.  I checked to see what we were doing, we were all downstairs for 8:30 and went for breakfast. 

After breakfast we set off for the Australian Museum.  The Australian Museum was a great thing to do, we looked round the wildlife photography and also the Aboriginal art.  Lots of photos were taken in there! Once we had a good hour and a half in there we had a quick look round the Australian Museum shop before leaving for The Rocks Market to do some more shopping.  This was a great opportunity to be in charge of our money and in charge of how we spent it! Once all the souvenir shopping was done that was a weight of our minds, even though we do have tomorrow to do a little more shopping.

Once back at the hotel everyone was eager to get ready for the Opera, all in suits and dresses. We gave ourselves plenty of time to get ready so we all managed to fit in some school work. Once everyone was ready we all walked down to the bus stop, photos were already being taken by this point.  We did look a very handsome party and lots of people made comments.  We arrived at Circular Quay to then have our meal at the Opera Bar. It was already extremely busy so had to have a little bit of time searching for a table. Once we finished our meal we walked over to the opera house, and had photos outside of the opera house. Inside it was great.  The Magic Flute was an amazing show, good comedy but also good music. As we left there were fireworks going off in the harbour. We had a walk back round the Quay to the bus stop and got back to the hotel, I think everyone was exhausted but very excited.

Will was my partner for the day so when I needed help I knew I had support if I needed it.  We communicated well, and solved problems well.

Shanice Boyfield

Our breakfast table for 8.30am at ‘Naggys café’ was booked for all 20 of us by Rebecca and I. Breakfast worked out good and we had exactly the right amount of money… this is what panicked me, as maths isn’t my strong point. During breakfast Lulu had to leave with Mrs Hextall to get some allergy cream, we were going to catch the bus outside the chemist, But the bus didn’t stop and it was quite funny watching them wave to try and make it stop. We met back up with them near our ferry.

Even with everything that had happened we were on time for an earlier ferry than planned so we left Sydney harbour at 10.15. Our ferry ride was approximately 10 minutes which wasn’t too bad. Once we got into Taronaga zoo we had to catch the sky safari which I found awful especially with Lulu jumping and trying to make it shake.

The zoo as a whole was really good the sun was out and they had a hippopotamus which made my day! We went round to look at all the Australian animals (Kangaroos, wallabies, Possums, Emus etgc)  before splitting up for lunch and then re-meeting for the Koala talk.

We caught a train to take us to the basket ball match- Sydney kings vs Gold coast Blaze. It was amazing!!!!!! I really enjoyed the match and we were all chanting along to encourage the home side. Unfortunately it didn’t help - the score ended as Sydney Kings-72 Gold Coast Blaze-84.

Cátia Garcia’s blog

G’day, today it was time to catch some waves and try our best techniques “in the tubes” (as Mr Reed would say). I shared my leadership experience with Nicole from Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School. I am quite fortunate to get on well with my partner, so the planning out and the execution throughout the day just seemed to flow.

The day before we planned out all the correct times for the day and any specific instructions that we had to give out. We started with a lot of determination as we wanted to break history. Past years that this study tour has taken place, they have always been late for the ferry that gets to the beach and there has always been moderately bad weather. 

We asked everyone to get ready by 8.20am. People had to get their swimming costumes on, take a beach towel, hat, travel pass and a change of clothes. Breakfast was at 8.30. I tried out a new drink, a mango and passion fruit “frappe” (a slushy) and had the traditional but always a must ‘jam on wood fired toast’. I had to switch on my maths skills straight away in the morning as I had to collect everyone’s money for their breakfast, give them the correct change and pay for the bill. 

We finished breakfast in the designated time and then got the bus almost immediately to central quay. When we got to central quay, we realized that if we speeded up a little bit then we would be able to get on the ferry just before the one that we had planned on going on. So, we got the troops moving and doing the regular exercise that we have been doing in Sydney, (most people have even lost weight throughout our time in Australia). We managed to get the ferry just in time and very proudly, we DID break history! I found the ferry journey very relaxing as the sea was swaying so swiftly from side to side and making the most relaxing noises. 

We got to have the most privileged view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House and as the stereotypical tourists; of course we took a lot of pictures. As we got to Manly, Nicole and I made sure that no one was left in the ferry and made our way to Manly Beach, that only took us about 10 minutes (which my feet are very thankful for). We got to the beach and me and Nicole went on Factor 50 patrol as it was very hot and we didn’t want anyone to get badly burnt.

 At 11.30, it was time for our surfing lesson, some of us wore wet suits and others shorts. We divided into two groups (Qegs and Haven) and decided who was going to do body boarding first and who would do surfing instead. We decided that Haven would do body boarding first. This ended up being the best decision as none of us had ever tried surfing before so by trying body boarding first, we got to have a good idea of what it is to “catch waves”. Then, we swapped and we tried surfing. I didn’t really go very far as the surfing boards were really heavy for me to carry, but I did manage to get on the board and roll in the sea. 

When we finished our lesson, we went to get food near the beach. We all got different foods, and then we sat together eating. I got a mixed kebab which was the best kebab I have ever eaten! However, eating wasn’t all a good experience as we were surrounded by angry birds. While I was eating a chicken nugget that Keiran offered me, all of a sudden, a bird attacked me with its ninja skills and stole my chicken nugget and made me bump my face into my sunglasses. I couldn’t help but scream as it made me jump. After this incident, I (and Nicole) decided that we should walk around the bay where we saw some water dragons which was another opportunity to get our tourists’ cameras out. On our way, we saw a swimming pool near the rocks of the beach and decided to stop and relax for a bit. However, because most of us had got changed from our swimming costumes we didn’t have a swim. Some of us sat down and put our legs in the water, some walked around the rocks and others just near the swimming pool. After some relaxing time, it was time to get the ferry back which was at 4.15.

 We then walked to the bus stop and got on a bus to take us back to our hotel in Glebe. We gave everyone about an hour and a half to get glamorous for our posh meal in Waterfront at Circular Quay. We all got to the hotel’s reception when we finished getting ready and it smelt like we all had drenched ourselves with perfumes. But it was a very nice smell, not something you couldn’t deal with! Everyone looked lovely, but I got to say, the girls looked especially stunning! I am not going to lie, the boys also had their swag on… We had to take the bus to Circular Quay, where we received some weird looks as we all were dressed our best. As soon as we got to the restaurant, we confirmed our booking for that night and got everyone seated. Me and Nicole had chosen this restaurant as it had fish and chips in the menu (or as the upper class say: “Beer battered fish with chunky fries, lemon and tartar       sauce). As the leaders for the day, we decided to stick to the plan and both had the fish and chips. I then had a non-alcoholic cocktail called Tropicana as I had wished for one for quite a while. The main meal was to die for, everything was to perfection and the money that it cost was definitely worth it! After me and Nicole added up everyone’s bills and gave them the correct change, we got told about the desserts that they had. They all looked sounded very pleasant, but were  a bit to the expensive side and I wasn’t sure I was going to like it, so I decided to play it safe and not get one. However, after all the desserts arrived to everyone that ordered them, there was only me and someone else in my table that didn’t get them…so it was such torture for me looking at everyone’s satisfied faces while eating a ‘chocolate delight’ that I was basically forced to get one (not really, as the dessert looked nice as soon as I read it from the meals menu). We added the desserts to our calculations and had to get all the money sorted. 

After this, we had the opportunity to take group photos against the famous Sydney’s landmarks, the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. However, about 1 minute later it started raining moderately so we all just started running to the nearest undercover place. We kept running (which was a bit tricky for the girls that were wearing dresses) and stopping till we got to the bus stop which by that time, the rain had stopped. We got the bus to the hotel and gave a nice big breath of relief that the day was successfully over!

Cátia Garcia

Adrianna

So Wednesday, we could say the most important day of our trip and it was led by my QEGS partner Lizzie and myself.  Haven High started the day really early. We had booked the mini bus at 7:30 but before that we had to go to the bakery round the corner to grab roll or something else for a breakfast and be ready to set off to Sutherland Shire Christian School for a visit to see what an Australian school, lessons and pupils are like. We were also to give them a presentation about our school and Boston. But more about this is in a moment. 

Our journey to this school took us about 45 minutes which for me seem like hours, because I was still half a sleep and really nervous about the presentation. As soon as we got to the school, everyone was looking at us as if we was from another planet, but the lady that was in charge of organising it was really nice to us. She split us to 4 groups of 2 (boy and girl) and we all had a different lessons with different years groups.  For Christian, Lulu, Kieran and me the first lesson was English with Year 11 (for us it would be Year 12). On the first lesson we got introduced to whole class and as soon as teacher said that we from England everyone went “Wow! Really? That’s so cool!”  All of the students and teachers were extremely friendly and helpful in this school. I think whole school knew that we were there because we just felt like some sort of celebrities, everyone was like hi!, OMG, I love your accent, wish I could live in England. All I can say is all the girls are just totally obsessed with One Direction, they just kept going on and on about them – the even asked if we knew them. 

We got quite a few pictures with the students and Keiran was given 3 phone numbers from girls!  Mr Reed was upset about this, because it wasn’t all about him this time and he wasn’t that popular like us. I actually have to say that I loved this feeling how everyone was just asking questions and they were all interested in everything that we were saying.  We all were so scared about the presentation bit, because we knew that we were representing our school so we wanted everything to go well, and it did. Mr Reed was really proud which made us very happy. 

After spending the whole day at Sutherland Shire Christian School it was a time to come back to our hotel to get changed and get on with our school work.   Off we went to get to the train station and I had to lead the group and find the bus stop, at the beginning I couldn’t find it, but after asking the lovely lady with the lollipop who pointed me in a right direction we got to the right place. The bus that we got on was a school bus, and a really busy one. There was literally no space to move.  From the bus I took the group to the train station with a little bit of help from Mrs Hextall. I bought the train tickets to take us back into the zone one, and we got on the train. When we got into Central station we made our way to the way out to catch a bus to the hotel.   Once out of the train station, Mr Reed was trying to take over the leading role, but Mrs Hextall didn’t allow him to do that, because it was my leadership today. From the bus we came to the hotel and some of us went to the shop opposite hotel for crisps or in Keiran’s case conditioner, because he said his hair was like straw.  We all did plenty of school work.   

After this we had a bit of free time. Keiran, Joe, Jack and Christian decided to swim in the hotel’s cold swimming pool while we were waiting for QEGS, to be honest I wouldn’t do it. At 7.45 we all went downstairs to start walking to the restaurant; however Lizzie and I decided that we should go on a bus there.  Of course some of the people forgot their travel passes so we had to run with them to the hotel to get them and made it back just in time for a bus. 

When we got to the restaurant Lizzie and I decided that we should write down everything people ordered and how much they will have to pay to us so we can pay for the bill all together. When we finished eating people started giving us money for the meal and everyone paid notes and waiting for coin change was really chaotic.  I ended up having $7 change in 20 cents coin and yes, my purse didn’t want to close.

We planned to come back to the hotel by bus, but weren’t sure if the buses were still going.  As soon we left the restaurant Lizzie spotted our bus on the other side of the busy road.  We missed the nearest stop so ran to the next bus stop just in time to get on the bus!  For me it was a really nervous but on the other hand crazy and funny day.  I think everyone enjoyed this day as much as I did. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s surfing lesson and the posh fish and chips if that makes any sense.