Ollie's+Blog

We then walked to the Shrine of Remberrance; as soon as I saw it I was amazed. It was the most magnificent building I had ever seen, it was like a picture. My favourite room was the Crypt; the WWII statue made me think of my Grandfather, whose life was greatly affected by it I loved every second I was in the shrine and wish we had more time. On our way out we were given a red poppy; the first flower to grow on the war fields in France. After a twenty minute lunch of Subway we walked to the Baptist church on Collins Street to learn about what Urban Seed does for homeless people. Urban Seed is a charity organization that is owned by the church. Urban Seed try to break down the barriers that separate homeless people and everyone else; they do this by hosting a free lunch most days of the week out of their own café that anyone is welcome to come to and playing a game called alleyway cricket. Both of these activities allows all the classes of the city to come together and realise that there is no difference between themselves and the people around them.
 * Day 1:** Today I woke up and took the most uncomfortable train ride into the city I have ever had. Half of it was spent standing up and there was a very creepy man you got on the train for three stops who would not stop staring at one of the people I was on the train with. When we finally got to Flinders Street Station we had some time to kill, so we went to McDonalds and bought some breakfast. We then browsed some stores along the busy street and made our way back to Federation Square to meet up with the rest of Dunlop; only having to wait over ten minutes for three of the other class’s students to arrive.

We had an hour for lunch this time, so we and a few others went to Melbourne Central and bought a chocolate pizza from Max Brenner, it was the most amazing pizza I’ve had in my entire life. We went back to Federation Square and sat down in McDonalds for the rest of our time. After lunch we were scheduled to be exploring the street art lane ways of the city but as a result of bad weather we were taken into ACMI and were allowed to see all the different exhibits and presentations. Those who had permission from parents were dismissed from there so a few friends and I went back to Melbourne Central and kicked back.
 * Day 2:** When we arrived at Federation Square we were put into groups of four and handed a worksheet and a map. We were told that we were doing a scavenger hunt around the city! It sounded great! But as we got further along with the questions the cold and the wet started to have a huge impact; at one point, our group got on a tram that we thought would take us to the next place we had to be but instead we ended up off the map and in the parkland. We did not manage to complete a lot of the questions and I think I should have done a better job.


 * Day 3:** Instead of catching the train into the city like I have always done, I walked to school like it was any other day, only we were allowed to have our own choice of what we wore. It was a small bit nice change. When the bell rang for period one, we all met at the theatrette for a self-defence class. As soon as we got inside, Mr Bellis asked me to run some keys to another teacher; so I did. I came back to find that the door had locked behind me; I spent the next three minutes pounding on the door until he finally heard me. I came in to see people doing the warm up which was trying to do a push-up and at the top of the push, touch your chest and then after 5 of those you had to do the same thing except you had to touch your hips. So I walked from the door over to the corner and laughed at Steven and Kian as they tried to do the push-ups. We then had a very ‘interesting’ class in which we learnt the **legal** way to defend yourself against someone with an order of seven things you must do: **No. 1:** Use your voice to tell them to stop or negotiate. **No. 2:** Use your feet (walk or run away). **No. 3:** Use your hands or feet to push them away. **No. 4:** Wrestle them. **No. 5:** You can hit or strike them with your hands. **No. 6:** Use your feet to kick them. **No. 7:** **You can only do this if all other options have failed!!!** Use a weapon. To practise different skills using different scenarios, I was paired up with Kosta; which as I said before was ‘interesting’. When the class finished, we walked up to the uniting church near Strathmore Station to meet the girls there (who had just finished their own adjusted self-defence class) to be educated by two police officers on the very serious problem of sexting. We watched several short clips on what sexting is, a true situation of it happening, the effects it has and legal consequences. To be honest, they felt like the longest clips I’ve ever seen. When the police left the teachers brought no less than 10 pizzas. They were AMAZING! After that we talked about sexuality and individuality and then got dismissed from the church hall. A productive day but not the most fun I’ve ever had.

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