Science Inquirer
  • Home
  • Student Resources
  • MY BLOG: Australia
  • 2015 Trip to Costa Rica
  • Student Spotlight
  • 7th Grade Science Vocabulary
  • Science in the News
  • Science Links
  • Contact Me
  • About Me
    • Travel
    • Pictures
  • Teacher
    • Emergency Lesson Plans
    • Lesson Plan
    • Archive
    • Behavior Log

Jet Lagged and Australia Day

1/26/2012

0 Comments

 
**Written on 1/26

Well, after 24 hours of continuous travel, I finally landed in the beautiful city of Melbourne, Australia! 

The flight from Cincinnati to Los Angeles was turbulent but all in all it was an easy trip; we managed to land about half an hour early.  Once I was able to get off the plane, I took my time getting to the shuttle bus to take me to the Virgin Airlines terminal, which happened to be on the opposite side of the airport.  No big deal since I had a little over 4 hours to kill during my layover.

I hesitated to just sit and read my book for the long wait but it was well worth my time.  My book, The Greatest Show on Earth written by my favorite living scientist Richard Dawkins, kept me interested but the people watching was the greatest distraction.   The highlight was watching a young child, she couldn’t have been more than 4, steal a woman’s purse and flaunting her felonious act by running with it around the terminal.  Just imagine sitting quietly reading your book, only to look up for a second to give your eyes a break and conveniently staring right at a little child stealing a purse.  Thankfully her mother was not oblivious and quickly returned the purse to the unaware woman.

After getting through a lot of my book, getting something to eat, buying a travel pillow, and playing a few games on my phone, it was finally time to board.  Like many airline procedures, Virgin’s was especially hectic.  Why can’t people understand that they are not supposed to line up to board until their seat section is called?  What is the point of forming a mosh pit right in front of the gate?  Trust me ladies and gentlemen, you WILL get on the plane!  After pushing my way through the impatient passengers and hurdling oversized carry-ons, I was able to go on board.  Thankfully there was room in the overhead bin for my one bag and plenty of room under the seat in front of me for my backpack.  Each seat was equipped with a personal television with a detachable remote that doubled as a game controller; at least I would have something to do during the nearly 15-hour flight.  We took off as soon as a sick passenger was escorted from the plane and was reassured that their luggage was removed from storage. 

Four episodes of The Big Bang Theory passed before dinner was served.  By this time it was a little after 1 in the morning Los Angeles time; way passed my bedtime!  After, I slept for a few hours before waking up to my own snoring.  How embarrassing!  I really hope I was the only one to awake to this.  Back to the on demand television until we landed.  Having only seen Aussie Rules Football a few times, I was pleased to find a few matches that were recorded for my viewing pleasure.  Sadly, I had no idea what the hell was going on.  There was kicking, punching, tackling, referees tossing the ball, and thousands of hooligans in the stands.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t put it all together to figure out how in the world they knew what to do.  AFL was very interesting and fun to watch regardless.

A few minutes before touchdown, I had the opportunity to look over a few laps to see the Australian terrain.  It was so much different from what I was used to back in the States.  It reminded me of Africa’s barren, dusty, rocky environment scattered with a few green trees and shrubs.  Not much longer after landing, I got off the plane and raced my way to the front of the immigration line.  I know from passed experiences not to get behind large families and people who don’t have their documents out ready to give to the officers.  I was asked about my intentions during my stay in Australia, my passport was stamped, the drug dogs sniffed my bags and I was given a green light to head down the ramp to the luggage carousel.  Of course, my bags came out last but at least I received them.  The customs officer looked over my customs form and allowed me to pass with no problem.  Unlike many passengers, I wasn’t tempted to buy copious amounts of alcohol and tobacco in the L.A. duty free shops, and I didn’t bring any food, so customs was easy and painless.

I walked around the corner to the hotel and now find myself writing this entry without Internet and cricket on the television.  How better to spend the rest of Australia Day than in my room catching up on some sleep and watching cricket!  Tomorrow I will meet with Rod who is in charge of my student teaching experience while I am here.  I will also meet with my host family whom I have been keeping in contact with over the past month.  I can’t wait to get this all started and meet my students! 

After the adventurous few days and skipping the 25th entirely while crossing the dateline, I am off to bed.  That reminds me, time travel isn’t as awesome as it’s made out to be.  Thanks Einstein!

0 Comments

Australia...Here I Come

1/23/2012

0 Comments

 
My first post!  I cannot explain how excited I am to leave tomorrow on my adventure to Australia! I am leaving Cincinnati on a 4 hour flight to Los Angeles where I will board a 15 hour flight to Melbourne, Australia.  Having been on plenty of flights in my lifetime, I'm sure nothing will have prepared me for this extremely long, nonstop journey across the dateline.  

This is something to think about.  I leave the United States on the 24th of January and will land in Australia on the 26th.  Will I be in existence for the 25th?  Will I just have to rip that page out of my journal?  Seems weird.  I will have to post later on my thoughts of time travel.

I have had a lot of time to think about what it is that I want to do whilst in Australia.  Of course, I am there firstly to gain teaching experiences that will propel me into my future career as a secondary life science educator, but what will I do while I am not in the classroom?  Cage diving with sharks, fencing with scorpions, charming the worlds most venomous creatures, learning how to play football all over, and learning to surf were just some of the few things that came to mind.  I wouldn't mind putting my newly acquired rescue diving license to use either!  I will just have to see when I get there!  Until next time...
0 Comments

    Author

    Welcome to the blog I wrote while student teaching at Bairnsdale Secondary College (BCS) in Bairnsdale, Victoria, Australia.

    Archives

    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012

    Categories

    All
    11 Biology
    Afl
    Algae
    Al Jazeera
    Animal Inside
    Aussie Sun
    Australia
    Australia Day
    Australia Rules Football
    Bairnsdale
    Bengals
    Ben Kingsley
    Biking
    Biology
    Blue Mountains
    Bones
    Boomerangs
    Bowls
    Brighton
    Bruthen
    Bsc
    Buchan Caves
    Cage Diving With Sharks
    Caledonian
    Camp
    Cape Conran
    Carlton
    Carlton Draught
    Casino
    Chloe
    Chuck Darwin
    Circular Quay
    Clontarf
    Coprophagy
    Cows
    Cricket
    Culture
    Current Affairs
    Dairy Farm
    Darling Harbour
    Den Of Nargun
    Didgeridoo
    Dissection
    Doclands
    Driving Australia
    Eagle Point
    East Gippsland
    Etihad Stadium
    Expensive Beer
    Farmer
    Farmer's Market
    Federation Square
    First Day
    First Full School Week
    First Lesson
    Fishing
    Fish Market
    Footy
    Formule 1
    Fortune Of War
    Friendly People
    Funny Accents
    Giants
    Gnocchi
    Great Dividing Range
    Great Ocean Road
    Great Students
    Great Weather
    Gridiron
    Happy Birthday
    Harbour Bridge
    Hero
    India
    Initiation
    Internet Issues
    Jet Lag
    Jim Stynes
    John Fogerty
    Kangaroo Steaks
    Katumba
    Kirribilli
    Koala
    Koalas
    Kookaburra
    Lake
    Lakes Entrance
    Language
    Laundry
    Legend
    Lindenow
    Little Penguins
    Luna Park
    Lunch Lady
    Magpies
    Main Hotel
    Main Hotel Bistro
    Manly
    Manly Beach
    Market
    Marlo Hotel
    Maths
    Melbourne
    Melbourne Zoo
    Memorization Isn
    Metung
    Mitchell River
    Mozzies
    New School Year
    North Beaches
    Oblivious Parents
    Observation
    Ohio State
    Omeo
    Paddy
    Palm Beach
    Parent-Teacher Conferences
    Parramatta
    Parrot
    Paynesville
    Penguin Parade
    Phillip Island
    Pizza
    Politics
    Port Fairy
    Priorities
    Project Learning Curve
    Pub
    Purple Carrots
    Qld
    Rain
    Raymond Island
    Richard Dawkins
    Ron Paul 2012
    Royal Botanical Garden
    Salmonids
    Santorum Is A Bloody Idiot
    Scenic World
    School Pictures
    Seals
    Shrimp
    Snoring
    Soccer
    Southbank
    Sri Lanka
    Stir-Fry
    St. Kilda
    St. Marys
    Student Teaching
    Swimming
    Sydney
    Sydney Fish Market
    Sydney Opera House
    The Godfather
    The Nature Of Science
    Three Sisters
    Time Travel
    Two-Horse Towns
    Vegemite
    Wagga
    Wagga Wagga
    Wak Wak
    Wallaby
    Waltzing Matilda
    Weebly
    Zac Efron

    RSS Feed

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.