Our first weekend in Australia, a majority of our group decided to travel to Sydney for sightseeing. The first place we visited was the art gallery, one of our classmates had an uncle who contributed an art piece that we got to see. After visiting the art gallery, we found a small market that had shops that were selling unique things like crafted candles, fine jewelry, and clothes. While we were walking, we stopped by a photo festival and saw pictures of people and their stories of growing up and working in mines for numerous years. Once we got back to the hotel, we decided to go out to dinner at a haunted restaurant, our waitress told us stories of how they would put away furniture for the night and come back in the morning, only to find out that all the furniture had been mysteriously rearranged. A few members of our group decided to walk along the Sydney Harbor Bridge and got a beautiful view of the Sydney Opera house along the way.
In the morning we went to a pancake house for breakfast, the pancakes were big and delicious! After breakfast, we went to the Royal Botanic Gardens; this place had beautiful flowers and breath-taking views of buildings and a water fountain. The gardens also was a place where we saw beautiful cockatoos fly around. We made our way to the wishing fountain and each of us circled the fountain 3 times to the left and right and made a wish. We then went to Bondi beach and did a little shopping at a gift shop; we also walked on the beach and saw a beautiful rainbow on the ocean. This trip to Sydney was another great experience for us to have and hope to treasure every moment that we were there.
We had Monday as an extra day off and went to the Sea Life (Melbourne aquarium). We saw a lot of exotic fish; there were stingrays, an enormous alligator, and lots of sharks. The last section of the aquarium, we saw penguins.
On Tuesday, we went to an Agency called The Foundation House. The agency provides services to people of refugee backgrounds in Victoria. This was a very eye-opening experience and interactive session. Wednesday, we went to the University of Melbourne and experienced a classroom setting and talked about biases and how we need to handle them in the social work field. Thursday, we went to another agency called Anglicare. They focus on protecting Victorians for example, children suffering from abuse, a homeless young person, a woman escaping domestic violence, etc.
Friday and Saturday, we visited the Great Ocean Road and got an amazing view of the coastal drive. We saw the Twelve Apostles that had a beautiful view of the ocean. On our way to our destination, we saw the countryside where we saw cows, wallabies, and koalas. Our group stayed at a hostel for the night which was interesting because it was set up like a dorm and everyone shared a room.
The overall experience that our group had was unforgettable!
~ Ashley White & Leobelize Perdomo