Phillip Island

With the pelicans at Phillip Island 

     This week in school went really well. I was with the "movement" teacher this week and she used to be a dancer so she teaches the kids dance along with sports for P.E. It was really interesting to see her lessons. We are having a festival in December where each grade will preform their little dances and the bands will play. After school on Thursday I was invited to play on the staff netball team. I had never heard of netball, but I decided I should play anyways. A coworker picked me up from my host family's house and we went to a gym in the next town over. Netball is a game like ultimate frisbee and basketball combined. We didn't have any subs, so I immediately was on the court running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I got the hang of it after awhile, but the first quarter, my game plan was to just run around and when people yelled at me, do what they say. At one point a player from the other team said to me, "You aren't supposed to go past that line... that is why the ref's keep calling you on it." Ohhh. . . I didn't even realize I was the person that was getting whistled at! It was so much fun and I enjoyed hanging out with my coworkers and learning a new game.

Feeding a Wallaby (in shock still) 

     Friday night I was invited to go out with Elise, host parents daughter. She is 19. I met a lot of her friends and we went to the pub. I didn't notice anythings dramatically different to the US with the bars there, except when you are a foreigner, everyone wants to talk to you and ask you about the gun laws and things. It was a good night. Elise's friends were very friendly and it was nice to hang out with a different group of people.
     Saturday I went on a day trip to Phillip Island with my host parents, Vic and Raelee. They have friends there so we went to visit them. We stopped on the way at a Fish and Chip place and ate near the beach. I saw pelicans up close. Then, we stopped at a Wildlife Center. There were all the native animals that are known to Australia. We saw some kangaroos and wallabies (which are like kangaroos only smaller). They gave you a bag of food at the door and you walked around the park and they would just hop up to you and you could feed them. It was fantastic. I loved seeing the kangaroos! I even saw a mama with a joey in her pouch! Afterwards we went to a chocolate factory before meeting Raelee and Vic's friend's at a winery.

Mama with her baby 

     Phillip Island is a great place that many people know of as the "place with the penguins." There are fairy penguins (which are now being called 'Little Penguins') that naturally live there. They hang out in the ocean and at dusk they all come out of the water at the same time and walk up the beach to their little burrows. Where they do that is a national park, so you have to pay to enter and there are bleachers you sit in, and you wait and watch them come up. It is actually a hilarious process. So I guess in nature, it is dangerous for penguins to walk up by themselves, so they "raft" on the edge of the water for awhile. Rafting just means they float around.

Picture of Fairy Penguins I
obviously got from the internet because
I wasn't allowed to take pictures. 

They wait for more and more penguins to come and then march across the beach together. It is hilarious because at the beginning you would see one or two penguins start to waddle, then they turn around and see that no one followed them, so they sprint back to the water. I was cracking up! Then, when a group goes, they slowly start their march. Then sometimes the last one will decide its a bad idea and he runs back to the water. Then another will follow and another and pretty soon the whole gang goes back. It is a big process. Eventually they all make it but it is so funny watching them decide to go. I had a great day with them and saw so many cool things! The best part about the penguins was that they were in their natural habitat. No one was keeping them there or forcing them to come up on the beach. They were just coming home to their nests. It was fantastic!

My host parents, Raelee and Vic all bundled up waiting for the
penguins