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Australia
Well I am in my last week of classes. Things are winding down. I am starting my final papers and planning out trips. Two weekends ago I stayed in Melbourne. You'll see some pictures from the rugby game that my Australian Sport and Education class went to. The teams were Melbourne Uni (blue and white) versus Gelong (black). Geelong is a town about 1 hour from here. School sports are different here- teams don't compete against other universities because there aren't that many. Instead they compete against clubs and there are people of all ages. Rugby is intense! You can see some scrums (where they all huddle/push together to scramble for the ball), throw ins (they actually lift people up in the air to catch the ball), and some great tackles- and they don't wear any pads- crazy! This past weekend I also had another trip with my Australian Sport and Education class as part of our study of indeginous sport. We went to Sheppardton which is about 2.5 hours north of Melbourne. The first day we visited the local high school to talk with the principal. It was pretty interesting to see how schools are set up in Australia. The high school that we visited is a government (public) schools. There are four in Sheppardton and students get to pick which one they want to go to by application. Everyone wears uniforms except kids in year 12. After talking to the principal we visited the Rumbalara football and netball club. This club was created and is run by the Aboriginal community. Anyone can join. Boys play aussie rules football and girls play netball, which is sort of like basketball without dribbling. They club is really interesting because of how it combines sport with education. It attracts youth through the sport programs it provides and teaches them and their families about issues such as healthy eating, suicide prevention, and leadership training. We spent the night at a hostel in the middle of a nursery- they even had a hedge maze. The next day we visited the club again to watch the kids play. They had different age groups and it was great to watch. Some of the kids even played basketball with some of the American students from my class. It was a good trip. When I got back to Melbourne I was off to Ballarat (2hours away) for a conference with my local church. It was really cool because there were people of all different ages there and I got to play with little kids. The speaker, music, and food was really good too. I got to meet a yellow lab named Scotty who was training to be a guide dog. He was very cute.
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