Maria's+Blog

=// Year 9 City Experience: Through Maria's Eyes //=

Day 1 of City Experience
Well, today was the first day of city experience and I was super excited about what we were going to do today.Arriving at flinders st station with my friends we went and bought ourselves a nice, warm hot chocolate to start the day.Then we met up with D2 and the teachers at federation square and then altogether walked to the shrine. Once inside, we split up into our classes and had a tour guide (Bernie) take us into a room and he spoke to us about World War 1 and all about the shrine.He showed us and told us things about the soldiers who fought there in general and even made Will a model for 10 mins modelling the uniform that the soldiers had to wear during the war. He also spoke about World War 2 for a little bit but not much because it was more the first world war that the shrine commemorated. It was quite sad listening to Bernie talk about the soldiers and just the fighting and war in general. When men signed up for the war they thought it would be some great thing and that they would just kill people and it would be all over but they got it all wrong. Most men who did survive WW1 were traumatised by the horrific thing of the war and I really felt for them and there families. I know that i wouldn't want to have lived in that time of the past. We had a guided tour of the building. In the main room there was a plark in the centre that the sun shines onto on remembrance day at 11:00am. Because it wasn't that day, we had our own ceremony with a fake light shiny across it. I felt that I learnt a lot about the shrine and WW1 so i'm hoping when I do, do it with mrs manning i'll be ready and will at least not go in blindfolded.



We then had 20 minutes as our lunch break so we ran to subway and had lunch then met back at federation square. From there we walked to the Baptist church on collins st start our session at urban seed. We had a guide who was an ex student from our school and she was really nice. We started off our session by talking about the city and the type of people who live there and their attitudes towards other people in the city from all different classes such as the homeless. I found out that most people who become homeless are teenagers and they normally become homeless because of abuse in their household and they hypothetically get kicked out. After our discussion our guide took us to a couple of lane ways and then spoke to us about the things that have taken place in those lane ways. She also told us about how urban seed helps the homeless. I found it really sad for those people who don't get to live life like the rest of us

After urban seed carly, katherine and i walked around the city a bit and then caught the train home. I'm looking forward to tomorrow. So pumped for the scavenger hunt!!!!

Day 2 of City Experience
Today I was extremely excited and so pumped for this scavenger hunt we were going to do today. I thought it would be a bit like the amazing race where you run around to different countries and have to go to a particular place where they give you a clue to go find another place in that country, like a big adventure! Yeah....well it didn't quite go like that..... Firstly, meeting at federation square at 9:00 in the pouring rain this morning was a great start to the day and then realising, 'wait...we have to do the scavenger hunt in this weather....damn!'. At that point I didn't care whether it was hailing or raining, I just wanted to re live my own amazing race and win it!! WOO HOO!!! :D I knew who I was going to have on my team my besties Carly, Katherine, and Julia. Mrs Manning handed us a map and our questionnaire we were off! We went to sooo many different places in the rain and cold. Now i don't think i can name all of them because there are just too many.So, we went to Parliament house, China town, flinders st, flagstaff gardens, melbourne central, the royal arcade and the old treasury building...phew. Parliament house Inside the royal arcade The gold vault rooms in the old treasury building

At some of these places we had to take photos of them with at least one person from your team inside the photo proving that you were actually there.With all of the sights we had to find out information about it and write it down on the sheet so that meant a lot of tram rides and intense running. When we came to the old treasury building we asked the woman behind the desk for some information on the building and she tokld us to go downstairs so we did and we found the gold vaults rooms and as you can see in the picture, it was freaky!! We got out of there straight away and on the way out was handed many pamphlets about the building. we had to be back at our meeting place at 12:00 so we just made it to the state library which was where we were supposed to meet if you started at fed square so we arrived there just on 12:00 and no one was there. I rang the school phone and Mr Ballis said to just take our lunch break which we did.We popped in to melbourne central with an hour to kill and had lunch there. Then we went to take the train back but realised that there weren't any so we took the tram which made us 10 mins late to fed square. Arriving there we realised we were the only ones who had finished the the sheet and found out all the info YAY MY TEAM!!!!! The teachers canceled our tour of the street art in melbourne and instead payed a visit to acmi thanks to Mr Reynolds & Ballis for getting us inside for free! There was a lot of interactive things in the television and moving image section and that was really fun because i do like interactive things at exhibitions. Here is one that Carly and I went into and it took many photos and put them together so it kind of looks like a slow motion matrix type thing we were doing. http://www.acmi.net.au/timeslice/Timeslice.htm?file=ts-20120808-736f8b43bb624f0fb963829efcf3ed34.flv

After this we were dismissed early and instead of going staraight on the train Carly, Katherine and I had an even better idea: The Lindt Cafe. Oh Yeah! Once we were there I bought a hot chocolate which was AMAZING and Carly and Katherine had milkshakes which i'm sure were very nice. I think out of the 2 days today was the best by far!

Day 3 of City Experience
Today we met at the United Church in Strathmore and Carly and I thought we started at 9 but then found out that it was actually at 9:30. In the morning for period 1 & 2 we had self defence training. The girls were in the church and the boys had their class at the school.

Our trainer's name was Gabby she was really nice and funny. She spoke to us about all the abuses towards woman and how we can defend ourselves against attackers. We learnt about different abuses and tactics that she knew that could be quite useful one day. I enjoyed learning the groin kick that was really fun. For periods 3 & 4 the boys arrived from the school and so had a couple of police officers. They spoke to us about sexting and showed us a video of a real life scenario. After that we discussed the things that teenagers do and the consequences a bit like a pep talk. We were sitting on the hard floor during their visit and my bum was hurting by the end of it.Next it was lunch time and the teachers had ordered pizza which tasted quite good. Last 2 periods we were doing some activities on respecting one and other and each other's differences. Then about sexuality, sex and gender talking about real life situations and helping resolve them. then also spoke about genders and stereotypes like being really girly. I feel like i'm not that girly cause i'm into nerdy sci fi stuff and not shopping and fashion but i don't really care what other people think of me because I am never going to change.

Today was unfortunately the last day of city experience and it was a good day. I really enjoyed all three days of city experience and I think we should have excursions like this frequently. I really liked the fact that the teachers trusted us and would let us go off into the city, i really appreciated that. City Experience was a highlight of this year so far...