Eloise's+Blog

** helloo, this is my blog of the three days I spent for the city experience (year 9 program). I'm trying to remember this from the past couple of days so lets hope i have a good memory!! :) **
===** Day 1: ** I was getting pretty excited for the following days we spend in the city. To start our journy I met up with Kat and Julia to catch the train into the city. We met the rest of Dunlop in Federation Square, of coarse with a hot chocolate in each of our hands. After waiting around Fed Square waching olympics on the big screen, we headed off to the Shrine of Rememberence which i had allready been to but it was good to re-visit it. ===

== We went into a little room in the shrine where Bearny, a really nice and oldish man, talked to us about world war 1 and the shrine of rememberence here in Melbourne. I always thought that war was horrific and not good at all but going in the shrine and the passionate opinions of Bearny gave me a different view of war. Going to a war will effect you, your family, your friends, heaps of people around you, no matter what happens. Even if you return safely with not one injury you will be scarred for life from what you had experienced and saw, which will effect friends and family. I used to think before this week if you survived you would come back feeling like a hero, obviously not. It really shook me that people are still being effected by the great war. Bearny kept on telling us over and over again that this shrine did not celebrate the war itself (who would want to celebrate heaps of people being murdered in a bloody feild) it celebrated the soldiers who through their life away for the country. I guess he told us so many times to get the message across that war is bad. So i found that interesting and am glad we visited the Shrine that morning! == === Our tour went a bit late so the time we got back to Federation Square we only had 20 minutes until we went to the next thing. So we were all running around the city driven by our starved stomachs looking for a good place to eat, lucky the sky was blue and not pouring with rain! === === After lunch we went to the Urban Seed place where a girl talked to us about homeless people and told us many storys. We started off by talking about a sterotypical homeless person who would have a beard, dirty stained clothes, smell of a bad odour, drink or takes drugs, live on the streets, just a lot of stuff like that. It turns out most homeless people dont fit these things. We talked about how homeless people feel and how others feel around them. Now that i think about it, i do generally avoid looking at or being near people who look like they are homeless. I guess i either feel threatened or dont want to see them there and feel sorry for them, if that makes sense. === === It was a coincedince that that this girl who talked to us and showed us around was from Strathmore Secondary college, we had disscussions about teachers and houses while we walked from destinations. The last place she took us to was a shelter where the urban Seed people serve free meals, mostly for the homeless. I am really glad tht there are people like this who care and do this for them but i must admit i felt a bit uncomfortable sitting in that room. It felt dirty and just simply didnt feel right to me, but i as i said its good to have it there. ===

=== We got dissmissed right there and then at 2:30, which was early!! Everyone left so quickly wanting to go out into the city. After being nagged the whole day by katerina we went to David Jones for food, it was gooood! We looked around the city for an hour or so then decided we had to go home before peak hour. The train was absolutely packed!! i could hardly move, i guess we didnt get there quick enough after all. Oh well, it was a good experience. The first day was super fun and interesting and i learnt a lot. Judging by my experiences that day,i found out im no good with direction!! ===

== Day 2: It was pretty much the same schedule for the morning, met up with people, caught a busy busy train, then crossed the road to Federation Square. I was super excited for the scavenger hunt this morning. But may i say, the wheather was FREEZING!! Cold, windy and raining. But i must admit, it was really fun running around in the park in the rain getting very strange looks from everyone around us. We didnt sit down once during the 2-3 hours we spent running around the city, i guess we kept warm though. At one point after getting off a tram katerina forgot to swipe off her myki so she got back on the tram..alone. The doors started shutting and she looked so scared!! At that point i thought how life would be without her so without thinking i started banging on the doors. The tram stopped and she got out safely, thank god! Afterwards we were just laughing at how stupid we were, definately the most funny part of the three days!! It was tireing but worth doing, i loved every minute. Im really eager to know how we went because we all really wanted to win!! == == This time we had an hour to get lunch so we calmly walked around, Katerina strangely videotaping our every move, looking for food. While eating the best mousse iv ever tasted at brunettes, a band played down the street. When we realised there was proffesional cameras filming it we imediantly jumped out of our seats hoping we get in the photage, keeping an eye on the seagull trying to eat our mousse! == == It was too wet to do our afternoon activities, i had kinda allready realised this because i was soaking wet. So instead of going to see the street art, we went to the acmi center. There was some really cool stuff in there that looked very techniqual. I think it was mostly about movie effects and video games. The ACMI centre kept us all entertained for an hour or two which was we went there for so i was happy. == == After getting permission from our parents, we were dissmissed at 1:30. Which means we get even more time to hang around the city, on our best behaviour of coarse! Today was the best day of the three, so much stuff happened!! I have proof from the 20, 15 minute videos left on Katerinas phone. I got back home safely once more, ready for the next day. == ==** Day 3: ** There was no more catching the train into the city for us, this time we met at the Strathmore Uniting Church. The girls and boy split up for this activity, we had heaps of fun at the church. Here a young instructor called Gabby taught us a few moves that could save our lives! The following things we were taught during the session: ==

- We learnt how to kick someone in the groinge and block punches to the temple.
== - I learnt that 86% of the time, you are attached by someone you know. These statistics are pretty scary and make me think about who i can trust. Obviously i dont need to worry about my dad but unfortunately it does happen. == == We learnt heaps more valuble information. And now if im walking by myself, in broad daylight even, i keep a watchful on every passing stranger prepared for an attach! To be honest, i really want to try my new moves on someone!! This session made me feel really aware and cautious, i now know anyone could be attached anywhere. This makes me scarred but at least il be prepared. == == After we had a break and waited for the boys the Police came to talk to us about sexting and alcohol laws. I learnt that sexting is actually illeagal which i think is a bit strange, but i guess its good because it will stop people from doing it. While they were talking about all this i just thought how stupid sexting and the people who do it are. If you would get upset if the person you sent the photo to sent it onwards then just dont send it, invite them over and show yourself to them in person..with no cameras. == == They also talked to us all about alcohol and the laws of it involving people our age. This is really useful to know because if we were to drink then we would no how to do it legally. Im really glad the police came to talk to us, i learnt some things worth knowing. ==

== Hey Eloise this is Kat, I'm writing a comment, we apparently had to for the criteria! Hahaha we won't ever forget these past few days huh? Haha the things we got up to... Ms Dowell is going to read this and wonder what we got up to... Well Miss, you don't want to know!! We almost got run over many times, and giggled for about 98% of the time. Come on, you've got to love teenaged girls!! ==