Katerina's+Blog

= I'm a litte behind on this blog thing, but I'm sure I'll remember what it is that we did yesterday... = == Day 1: I was quite excited this morning, it was my first time going on a train by myself, but it turned out to be boring and squishy. After taking the train to the famous Flinders Street Station, we all met at Federation Square (with hot chocolates of course...!) to begin the days activities. == = =

== First up was the Shrine Of Remembrance, and I have to admit I wasn't too thrilled about that, but it actually turned out to be really interesting. (No sarcasm I swear.) The guide we had was excellent, he explained to us (in great detail) the story of all the young soldiers who were sent or volunteered for the first World War. It was in 1914 that the war began, and as Australia liked to follow Britain with whatever they had in mind, 415,000 young ordinary Australian men set out to what they thought was going to be a fun and simple adventure, (well they were spot on weren't they?). The troops were sent to Egypt to train and months later were sent off to the well known Turkish town of Gallipoli. They took boats to the shore and were slaughtered on the spot. Few made it to the hills and clung there until morn. The Rising Sun was their saviour, a new day to end the chaos and hell below them. Some of our Australian soldiers survived that day, but unfortunately weren't sent home just yet. Soon after came the battle of the Western Front (Western Europe). The men that survived that horrific event called Gallipoli a stroll in the park. == == I was captivated by the story; the horror of the battle in Gallipoli, the fear those young men must have faced and the bravery they showed sacrificing their lives for the good of our country, our people. I can't imagine what life would be like if we lost those battles. We would have been taken over by who-knows how many countries and Australia would be pretty messed up, not going to lie. I'm glad we showed our thanks to the memorial in the heart of the Shrine, and we all are proud to say that we're Australian, thanks to those soldiers. == = Lest We Forget. = ==

== The rest of our day was no where near as moving as the morning. After the quickest subway I've ever forced down, 9D1 (or the 'good dunlop class') set off to Urban Seed. It was a place that was quite indie, I must say, but intriguingly brought together different people from all classes. (It was strangely placed though, in amongst Channel, Mont Blanc, and other extremely renoun and priced stores). The lady there, a former Strathmore Girl (Chisolm, eugh) took us on a tour around Melbourne. She basically took us to all the places that I would be absolutely terrified to go to at night. Then she mentioned casually in the conversation,'when I used to take heroin', and all our jaws dropped open. I must admit I did not see that one coming. == = = == Day 2: I'll start off by saying that the weather was FANTASTIC!! Freezing cold rain, wind, and to top that off we were outside on a treasure hunt. Our group was only focus on one thing: winning. We were set on beating everyone else. We marched around the city, didn't sit down once and got strange looks from the locals. At least we were running so we didn't freeze too much! I was scared out of my wits at one point though. We were on the tram catching a lift up Latrobe Street when we stopped at our stop. I forgot to swipe off my myki card and being the genious I am, I jumped back on the tram and told the others to follow me. All I remember afterwards though was the doors closing, the tram taking off, and Eloise banging on the door trying to get in. I was completely freaked out when I saw the shock and fear on her face that rather than being rational, I just screamed like teenaged girl meeting Justin Bieber 'EXCUSE ME!!!' to the driver. Luckily someone pulled on one of the string brake things and the tram stopped. At the time Eloise and I were not thinking; I could've just gotten off at the next stop, a street down, but unfortunately I panicked and thought I was going to die. Now that I think back the other passengers must have gotten scared that Eloise's arm was stuck or something, and then realised that I was just a little girl that had no idea what she was doing. I'ts going to take a lot to convince me to do that again! ==

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== We were so intent on winning that we didn't even give ourselves time to eat or rest. We bought chocolate muffins and shoved them into our mouths when we were running through the rain. I can just imagine what we looked like: three teenagers soaking wet, limping, chocolate all over our faces and running like crazy. == == I think the best part of the day was running up and down the steps of Parliament House checking and re-checking that we had counted all the steps correctly. Primary school students were watching us as we did and probably hoped they didn't turn out like us one day. == == Later in the day we went to the ACMI centre (Australian Centre of the Moving Image) and went to the Screen Worlds exhibit, no one was really that excited but we were all happy to get out of the rain and into the warmth. It turned out to be quite interesting though, but there were so many students and not enough light. I'm quite sure I bumped into numerous poor people. ==

I learnt some very valuable things [during lunch] that day:
== 1. Do NOT under any circumstances leave your chocolate mouse at your table in a cafe. You might just turn around and see it attacked by seagulls and pigeons. (I thought chocolate made birds spontaneously combust..? Apparently not.) == == 2. It is vital that when crossing the street you check the 'green walking man' yourself, and not follow middle-aged Asian men when they decide to jay-walk. (It could be an assin - we almost died...again) ==

All in all, it was a great, grey day!!
== Day 3: Unfortunately we no longer needed to go to the city, or take the train, but we got to wear free dress! The group was split into boys and girls and we met in different places. I'm not sre what the boys did but the girls had lots of fun. In the morning we met at the Uniting Church in Strathmore, ready for a self-defence class with a martial arts insructor. == == Gabby, the instructor taught us so many things about protecting yourself from getting assaulted. It's shocking though how many young women get assaulted or attacked in todays society. We learnt some basic techniques to protect ourselves in case of an emergency. ==

The rest of the day wasn't as fun but we learnt very important things about alcohol, sexting, and just being different.
== The police talked to us about alcohol and said there is a $7000 fine for drinking alcohol without your parents. They also told us that if you send or receive a innapropriate picture of someone and store it, you would be charged with the conviction of child pornography. I don't think anyone would really be stupid enough to do something like that, but we were all scared so much there isn't even a chance. ==