Bridges to the Dreamtime

What we learned! From Schultz Elementary School

2008-03-21T16:28:00.000-07:00

Reflections After Coming Home

2008-01-30T15:33:00.000-08:00

Well, this has been quite the adventure! Australia has been like a dream to me personally, and now that I'm back to "reality", it's just nice to reflect on the whole experience. Now that I am home, I notice a lot of differences between Australia and the US. The Aussies were very hospitable to us and so polite. Once we arrived in Los Angeles though, it was like coming back to a "rude America", where a lot of people are pushy and impatient. It made me wonder why Americans are always in a rush. Then I remembered that in Australia we learned that the Aussies work to live, not live to work. Think about that for a moment. It made me appreciate life a lot more, and to take the time to notice beauty in every small thing. With all the sights we witnessed, of course it was amazing to us, because everything was in a new territory, but to people who see it everyday, it's just something familiar. For example, take a kangaroo. To all of us it was like, wow!, that's a wild kangaroo that we just saw. But for the Australians, kangaroos are like deer here in Wisconsin, an everyday, ordinary thing.
I hope you all get a chance to travel outside of the US someday. It doesn't even have to be Australia, just anywhere, any chance you get. I took the chance going to another country for the first time in my life, and it turned out to be absolutely breathtaking. I hope you all enjoyed the pictures and our stories.
Peace be with you and your journeys.
Holly

Return Trip Home

2008-01-29T08:10:00.000-08:00

Hello class! We made it home safely and arrived back in Wisconsin on January 27th. It was along day of traveling and everyone was exhausted. In total, we had about 17 hours of flying on 3 different airplanes. Although some people were excited to be home, others wished they were in Australia. I personally, miss Australia. I miss the warm weather, the atmosphere, and the people we got to know and became close with. I'm sure people will be updating the blog daily seeing more people have access to computers. We want you to learn everything you can from our experience and hopefully this has made you want to travel in the future. Take advantage of every opportunity you have!

Moore Park Beach

2008-01-25T05:44:00.000-08:00

Hi!

We have just returned from our week-long conservation project through Conservation Volunteers of Australia. Our group was split up into two teams and each team was sent to a different location. The team that I was on went to Moore Park Beach which is about 5 hours north of Brisbane. Our task for the week was to restore the sand dunes on the east coast so that the sea turtles could lay their eggs. The bank is eroding rapidly and when the turtles are ready to lay theirs eggs they can't get up the cliff so they turn around and go back into the ocean and drop the eggs. That is the main reason why the turtle population is rapidly decreasing and in the last 30 years the turtle population has decreased by nearly 90%. Each year over 300 turtles nest along the coast which makes it the most popular turtle area in all of Australia. At Moore Park Beach there are three species of turtles that nest there each season and the Loggerhead is the most predominant. At Moore Park Beach there is a turtle monitoring group that is made up of trained volunteers that assist the turtles that nest there each year. We were lucky enough to get the chance to take a night walk along the coast with some of the turtle group members. We walked along the beach and checked the turtle nests, some which were relocated and some that were natural. The hatchlings were due to start hatching any day and it happens at night. These people were so amazing and I learned so much about sea turtles. Unfortunately we didn't see any hatchlings that night but the experience was something I will never forget. The turtles lay eggs every 3-4 years and they lay around four batches of 100+ eggs each. Out of those 100+ eggs only about 3% hatchlings make it back to the ocean safely. They hatch and then walk to the ocean. Once they reach the water they swim for 3 days straight until they reach the ocean currents and then they rest with their mouths open. It is an amazing process. Yesterday we got the chance to visit Mon Repos Conservation Park which is a really nice turtle conservation center. Our job on the beach was to pull the invasive weeds that take over the trees. We planted several trees with huge root systems that will hold the soil together better to prevent the erosion. This morning when we left, some people from the town cooked us brekky (breakfast) and gave us letters of appreciation. It was a wonderful experience! We hope things are going well back in Wisconsin:)

Indigenous Australian Artwork

2008-01-22T09:02:00.000-08:00

Report from 5th Grade at O.H. Schultz:

This week we have started work on our indigenous Australian art projects with Mrs. LeClair, our art teacher. We are learning so much about Australia from all of the information you have posted so far. The pictures are stunning! And we appreciate the chance to see every one of them! Great work! And the videos have given us a chance to see the rainforest and hear it too!

Byron Bay

2008-01-19T05:00:00.000-08:00

Today we had the opportunity to go to Byron Bay!! The weather was absolutely beautiful! First we took a walk by a light house on the shore of the coast. We than decided to get some lunch and get a few souvenirs. The best part was when we went to the beach. The waves were huge and everyone was jumping into them and trying to body surf. Of course the sun was extremely hot and after being outside for about 5 hours we decided to go back to Lismore. Unfortinately, tonight is our last night here at Southern Cross University in Lismore and we will be heading back to Brisbane tomorrow at 11:00 am. We will than get the opportunity to help restore the land by either repairing sand dunes or planting trees.

Nightcap National Park Rainforest

2008-01-17T03:03:00.000-08:00

This is a quick video that I took after we had walked through the rainforest for about a half an hour. The next video shows Protestor Falls where all of the water flows from.

Protestors Falls

2008-01-17T02:12:00.000-08:00

We've spent time in a couple rainforests here - it's hard not to really - any park you go to is a rainforest. Australia only has 40% of it's original rainforests left. Logging has destroyed much of the beautiful trees - many times loggers take trees that are over 200 years old! The rich wood sells for about $3,000 a square meter! People buy the wood for cabinets, etc. But sometimes the wood is just made into paper. But this is destroying the rainforests - once a rainforest is torn apart it doesn't regenerate itself or re-grow.

Today we went to Protestors Falls in Nightcap National Forest near Lismore. Learn more about it here. There was a large protest - a month long - in the 70s over logging that was being done that would ruin the forest. The protestors camped out - kids and everyone - for a month to save the trees. Many of these trees were over 200 years old! The protestors won with non violence!

There as a huge waterfall there - and most everyone went to climb behind it - but I was too scared. But then I decided to - which is crazy for me! I was scared out of my mind the whole time! It's just huge rocks - slippery ones too - and it was so scarey - but I actually did it (a huge feat for me). We couldn't jump into the water though because of the engangered species - all of our perfumes/shampoos/sunblocks/bug spray would contaminate the water. Most of the time we walked barefoot through the forest - boy do I have soft feet, the rocks hurt! - and I had to pull 3 leeches off! While we were doing this my friend Shay and I were laughing about how "Our moms would never let us do this!"

See more photos from the Nightcap Rainforest here.

Environment

2008-01-15T21:34:00.000-08:00

So I'm sure you have all had a great time reading all of the posts so far! It seems like everyone is really interested in the Koala's and other animals. Today a few of us walked down to the Koala hospital and we actually got to see a Koala with her Joey in their natural environment!

We also had an amazing lecture with Noah Nielson about the environment. We got to talk about how we are helping the environment. Little things such as taking shorter showers, walking more places or taking your bicycle, shutting off your electricty, and recycling can really help save the environment. He also mentioned he actually built his own house!! How many people can say they have done that?

Rocky Creek Dam

2008-01-15T04:38:00.000-08:00

Great Barrier Reef Adventure

2008-01-15T04:14:00.001-08:00

Hi!

Last friday, eight of us from the group decided to take a trip to Cairns to see the Great Barrier Reef. Cairns is located in northern Australia which was a 2 hour flight from Brisbane. When we arrived, we were really surprised at what a different climate it was there. We were in the tropics and the temperature was near 90 degrees and very, very humid! We rode a double-decker boat out into the ocean and enjoyed the scenery on the way there.....the ocean is beautiful! Once we arrived at the reef we were given instructions as to what to watch out for in the water and how to use our snorkel gear. We had to wear full body sting suits to be sure we didn't get stung by any jellyfish. We all plunged in and started swimming around. We were absolutely amazed at all of the beautiful fish and colorful coral that we saw. We were swimming next to fish that were almost the same size as us! We saw sea turtles, tropical fish, starfish, sea cucumbers, coral and so much more. It was an AMAZING experience for all of us and I really hope you can one day get the chance to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef!!

G'day Mates!

2008-01-15T02:33:00.001-08:00

Hi there everyone! How have you guys been? We have been super busy here, but we've been having a lot of fun too! I'm sure everyone's already told you how we got to talk around barefoot all day. It was fun and very interesting. Tule (the Aboriginal that showed us around) told us some of his native stories and told us a lot about the land where we are. He also told us about his culture and related it back to stuff that we are used to back in the states. You know how totems are used by the Native Americans as a spirit guide for them? Well for his tribe, those are called juelveels. He was very interesting and taught us a lot about the world around us and the people in it.
Well guys, that's it for now! I hope you're having fun back in Wisconsin! Keep asking any questions that you can think of. We love to hear from you!

What's Up All!!

2008-01-14T23:41:00.000-08:00

What's going on there guys?? I hope that you guys are having some fun in Wisconsin cause I know that we are having a blast here. We get to see all of these cool things, and today we got to go walking around in the mud without our shoes or socks on. I think that it was the most messy I have gotten in a long time. We got to see these three really big rocks that were sticking out of the ground. Now I know that doesn't sound to exciting right away, BUT they were HUGE rocks, I mean they were probably 10 stories high. (that is really big haha). We got to go see some cool zoo animals, and I think that you already saw pictures of the Kangaroo's that we got to go and pet earlier this week. Well there guys I hope that you are having a good time up there, and I will talk with you soon.

Josh

Nimbin Rocks

2008-01-14T22:54:00.001-08:00

Hey Mates!

2008-01-14T22:52:00.000-08:00

Hello guys!

I hope that you are enjoying all of the pictures and posts that we are putting on the Internet. I really enjoyed today's field trip we took. It was quite the adventure. We got to climb a mountain to get to some sacred rocks that the Aborigines call the grandmothers. We had to take our shoes off because it was really wet and muddy. But we were walking around like they did when they lived on the mountains many years ago. Yesterday we also took another field trip to a part of the Rainforest and walked around. We got to try some of the seeds grown in the rainforest that were red and tasted a little like some type of fruit but they were really small. Keep asking questions we would love to hear from you! Hope you are enjoying the snow! It is raining and 85 degrees here!

Have a good day mates.
~Leslie

Aborigine

2008-01-14T21:26:00.000-08:00

Today we had the opportunity to have a lecture presented by Aborigines. Their names were Noel 'Bilyana' Blomeley and Anthony 'Tule' Gordon. Bilyana and Tule are their Aboriginal names. It was an interesting lecture because we got to learn how two different Aboriginal people can live different lives. Bilyana has spent 20 months traveling to different Aborignal Communities and has seen many parts of the world. He also had the chance to go to Harvard University in Boston. On the other hand, Tule is very proud of his culture and does not want to leave the country. His intentions are to protect his native land. Finally, Tule took us to part of his native land and we had the chance to see where he used to live. The view was incredible with large hills, beautiful trees, and large rocks. Seeing it has been raining the past few days, the groud was incredibly muddy and most of us walked up this hill barefoot! I'm sure everyone will have tons of pictures they can upload to show you! I hope the weather has been good in Wisconsin!

Jenny

Botanical Gardens

2008-01-11T07:45:00.000-08:00

Today many of us went to the botanical gardens where we saw many different kinds of fun plants and trees. Everything was in bloom which made everything very colorful. Most of the trees were different from anything i have every seen, although there were many different kinds of palm trees there. It rained on and off throughout the day but the trees kept us pretty sheltered from the rain. My favorite kind of tree was called a banyan fig tree from India. It had a lot of crazy trunks that interwined together. It almost looked like a spidersweb made out of trunks. ~ Lara

Kangaroo

2008-01-10T03:34:00.001-08:00

We were able to get very close with the kangaroos at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary!

Here's a photo of Sam with a kangaroo. They were very tame and didn't really run away!

Can you find the Koala Bears in the Picture?

2008-01-10T03:18:00.000-08:00

Today, Thursday, we had a free day. Most of the group decided to go to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We had to take public transportation, a bus,to get there -about 40 minutes out of the city. It was very cool to be able to see more of the city during this drive too - Brisbane is a big place!

At the Koala Sanctuary we were able to see tons of animals native to Australia. Dingoos, koalas, crocodiles, bats, sheep, and kangaroos. You could even get your picture taken with a koala and hold it! And then we were able to go to the Kangaroo area where there were TONS of kangaroos in a fenced in area and we got to walk right up to them -pet them, feed them, get pictures taken with them, etc. It was an exciting chance that we probably won't get again -most zoos in the United States don't let you 'hang out' with the Kangaroos like this!

We learned a few things about Koala's too - that they are closer to a kangaroo than a bear and even have pouches like kangaroos where they carry their babies! Look for more pictures here. As soon as my computer is working again I'll try to post more photos. Do you know any facts about koala bears or kangaroos?

Queensland Art Museum

2008-01-10T02:59:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday the weather was rainy off and on - but it was still very humid! We went to our second lecture, a presentation by Austratrade, a group that helps businesses sell what they make to other countries, and bring items made in other countries into Australia.

Then several of us went to the Queensland Art Museum to see the Andy Warhol Exhibit. It was very fascinating and great to see! Andy Warhol is a famous artist from the 1960s and 1970s who painted "Pop Art." This meant that he took 'POPular' images seen in everyday life (the Campbell's soup can, a Coke bottle, etc.) and turned them into art. This hadn't been done before -so his art was very extraordinary. He even went on to do pictures/paintings of famous people- such as Elvis and Marilyn Monroe.

It was a very cool chance for us to see this show - so we were very excited! Brisbane, the city we're in, has 1.6 million people in it- so it's a BIG place to be. There's so much to do - it's hard to decide what to do first.

Do you have anymore questions about Australia for us - or what we've seen? I'm trying to upload pictures of the group to my Flickr account -me sure to look there for more! But I am having troubles with my computer, so I might have trouble getting some more up.

We're in Australia!

2008-01-07T14:17:00.000-08:00

Well - we made it to Australia safely!

After a several days traveling and a long plane ride to Australia (14 hours), we were happy to get to Brisbane, our first destination.

5 people from our team came a week early to spend time in Sydney, so we met up with them to.

We met up with Susan from Australearn (the organization here that arranges study abroad trips) and she gave us a quick orientation and we learned more about Australia. Then she took us to a Turkish Restaurant with a 4 course meal - most of us were full after the 2nd course!

So now it's morning here, and we're preparing to see the city a little before we have class this afternoon.

You can see more photos I've taken here.

I thought I'd leave you with some new Aussie lingo we learned.

G'Day - Hello
Mate - Friend or stranger - used to describe anyone!
It'll be right - It'll be alright
You right? - Are you alright?
Yank - American
Bloke - Man
Shella - Lady
Cuppa - Cup of coffee or tea
Bikkie - Cookie
Football - Soccer

Hello

2008-01-02T20:51:00.000-08:00

Hello Students-

I wanted to post on the website before I left. I am sorry that I could not make it to visit you all before Christmas . . but I will be visiting with you when I come back! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. I am looking forward to teaching you all about the culture in Australia. Take care and I will talk to you all soon!
~Leslie

5th Graders Say, "Go Oshkosh!"

2007-12-17T13:34:00.001-08:00

Here we are!

Hi from your friends at UW Oshkosh

2007-12-07T10:55:00.000-08:00

Hi 5th Graders!
We hope you are staying warm with all the snow we are getting and that you are excited about the friendship we are establishing.
Thank you for the cards that you sent us. Mr. Thompson delivered them last week. We were all so excited when we opened them and saw your drawings and read your letters.
You are all great artists and we appreciate all of your questions. What a smart group of 5th graders! I know Mr. Thompson is very proud of each of you.
We are excited for our trip and we look forward to keeping in touch with you while we are in Australia.
Thank you for helping us learn about Australia with you and we hope you enjoy this experience. Like Brittany said, "This is amazing!"

Peace,
Courtney Bauder-Group Leader

Getting ready for the trip!

2007-11-29T10:37:00.000-08:00

We are all very excited about your journey! Here are a few comments from students here at O.H. Schultz Elementary School:

This is amazing! You are going a very long way. We are hoping you will see the Pacific Ocean and all the cool things that are living in Australia. - Brittany, Age 10

What will you do on the plane? I think you should bring some cards! - Joey, Age 1o

We will send you some pictures of us so know who we are! - Kaitlyn, Age 11

This is so cool! I think you will see many kangaroos. They don't bite. Be careful. - Samantha, Age 11

What will the weather be like when you get there? Hot? Cold? Do they have a cold winter there like we do? - Caleb, Age 11

Does Australia have lots of animals? - Derrick, Age 11

What kind of trees are in Australia? - Nicole, Age 11

What do you think you are going to see when you get there? Patrick, Age 11

What does the Great Barrier Reef look like? Are you going to be near it? Mason, Age 11

What kinds of plants are there in Australia? Are there any there that are only found in Australia? Weston, Age 11

We look forward to hearing more about your trip?

5th Graders

From the students at O.H. Schultz Elementary School...

2007-11-18T15:56:00.001-08:00

Hi Travelers!

We are thrilled to be part of this experience!

We would like to begin by thanking you all for helping us to learn more about Australia and the indigenous people who live there. We have been studying Native American culture during the last month.

While we have many questions about Australia, we realize that you guys will be very busy on your journey so we will be quite pleased if you are able to answer a few of them! While your group is traveling we will be working on an Australian art project of our own which we look forward to sharing with you when it is finished in January.

We will post comments and questions about Australia during the next few months. I'd like to start by asking one question related to indigenous Australian culture. We have learned that indigenous Americans developed many unique ways to use their environment to build dwellings, homes and lodges. We were wondering about pre-colonial indigenous Australian dwellings that existed prior to the 1700's. What were they like? Do they have special names?

Thanks again for helping us learn and we appreciate all of your efforts as you make plans for your bold and daring Australian adventure!

Cheers!

From the 5th Graders - Schultz Elementary School

Bridges

2007-11-07T15:22:00.000-08:00

The Dreaming

The traditions and lore of Australia's indigenous peoples belongs to what may be the oldest continuous culture on Earth (circa 50,000 years). Indigenous Australian peoples conceive of all things beginning with The Dreaming or Altjeringa (also called the Dreamtime), a sacred 'once upon a time' ^[1] time out of time in which ancestral Totemic Spirit Beings formed The Creation.

'Dreaming' is also often used to refer to an individual's or group's set of beliefs or spirituality. For instance, an Indigenous Australian might say that they have Kangaroo Dreaming, or Shark Dreaming, or Honey Ant Dreaming, or any combination of Dreamings pertinent to their 'country'. However, many Indigenous Australians also refer to the creation time as 'The Dreaming'. The Dreamtime laid down the patterns of life for the Aboriginal people. 'The Dreaming' was the time of creation (The Australian Aboriginal dreamtime : an account of its history, cosmogenesis, cosmology and ontology)

Welcome to Bridges to the Dreamtime!

2007-11-05T10:40:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Bridges to the Dreamtime!