More animals...and downtime

After a week of camping I really needed some downtime to catch up on sleep, however when I returned Friday I got a phone call from Amanda inviting me with her host family to healsville sanctuary on Saturday, and I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to see more koalas!

At the sanctuary I got to see all the native animals of Australia, including ones I missed in Kyagra. I got to pet a wombat, and I found some super photogenic Wallabies so I have tons of pictures of them. They are so cute and look like miniature kangaroos. I also got to of course see more koalas (though they were sleeping), dingos, snakes, lizards, tons of birds, an albino kookabura (makes me miss our albino squirrel), and more kangaroos. We ate lunch at the park and got to see a show on birds of prey and how to throw boomerangs. They make it look so easy, but I'm guessing I still couldn't make it return to me. That night I returned to my family to get dressed up for a Halloween Barbie (BBQ). Halloween is not really celebrated here so it was great to attend some sort of Halloween function. They people there were super nice, delicious food, and I even ran into some students there.

Sunday was fantastic because I finally got to go to church! I found a church in walking distance from my house. So I walked there and was so amazed to find that it was was almost exactly like church back home, except of course for the funny accents :) It was great to finally meet new people and share in this celebration with others! It seems much of this community is atheist or agnostic, but I found two teachers at my school who are Catholic, and one has volunteered to take me on a tour of Catholic churches around Melbourne. I cannot wait to go to mass at the Cathedral! How cool! After church I walked around the Eltham Market, did some grocery shopping, headed to Mcdonald's for writing some postcards, did laundry and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Monday started another week at school. I am still observing, but am meeting with my co-op today to see when and in what subjects I can take over. I really love the school here. Everything is so activity based, whereas the teacher often steps back and lets the kids do projects, or little activities on their own. I just watched some fantastic presentations on the Australian gold rush. I didn't realize this, but after the 1849 gold rush in the U.S., there was an 1854 gold rush in Australian. Tomorrow I am actually headed to an old gold rush village with student from Green Hills Primary. I heard a lot about it and it sounds like tons of fun and a great experience.

Also, maybe many of you have heard about the terrorist raid in Melbourne. Everything is ok here. Most people don't even talk about it, and it really hasn't been too high in the news here, surprisingly. I will keep you updated, but I am perfectly safe here.

This weekend I am headed to Phillip Island (yey for the ocean!) to see penguins! I cannot wait. I still cannot believe that three weeks are just above over. The time is really flying! Feel free to leave comments or shoot me an e-mail! Talk to you soon!