January 18

Probably the only thing we've done that would be of interest to anyone is the two week youth conference we taught at recently. Week one was ages 14-15, Dave taught that one. Week 2 was ages 16-18, I taught that one. Ages 16-18 was pretty much the age I taught when I was working, so it was like old-home week for me; I loved it! Actually, Self-Reliance principles are pretty applicable for kids this age, so things went well. I had to teach 50 minute workshops and I was a little worried about holding the attention of teenagers while speaking about something as practical as being self-reliant, but like I said, the principles lend themselves to kids their age, especially if you present them geared to teenagers. I was surprised at the level of participation; it was fun to be back in 'teacher' mode! The conference was held at a private boy's school, grades 7-12, here in Sydney. It was really an outstanding complex, there's no private schools like this in all of Idaho, so I had fun doing a little exploring before and after class. Here's a link to the school in case you want to check out what a school can offer your child for only $39,720 a year tuition (for those who want their kids to sleep at home, it's $27,780 if you are a day student and don't board!) http://www.joeys.org/about-us/ As cool as everything is at this school, I can't say much for whomever it was who chose the blazers they wear, really not very boyish in my opinion:-) Since it's summer vacation down here, I don't have any live examples of students wearing them; you'll have to look at the website.

This building is the main hall where administrative offices and dining rooms are.

The swimming pool is Olympic size... they take their PE classes seriously here!

Lockers are in outside hallways (the other side of the 'hall' is open to the outdoors). This janitor was wiring the lockers closed for the summer break to keep the possums out!

I took this picture for the chart (that you can't actually read) because it has listed the teams competing in the Grammar Regatta. I was so impressed that this school actually had students who competed in grammar competitions... however, when I looked at the whole display case overall, I noticed that it was dedicated to the rowing teams. Upon closer inspection I realized the Grammar Regatta was actually for the 7th graders competing against other grammar school age teams. Apparently, teaching English warps your mind to the point that 'grammar' can only have one meaning.

The whole 'Headmaster' thing at school brings back Harry Potter memories to me. I have to wonder how many students have looked at this sign while quaking in their boots:)

This is one of the courtyards separating the Administration building with the classrooms. /too bad the main fountains had been turned off for the summer. This area was beautiful.

This is how you know you're in a boys' school, these urinals service a lot of people at once when you consider this thing is two sided! The only reason I was privy to seeing this at all is that half the bathrooms had to be converted to Women's for the conference. Since I'm not used to being in men's bathrooms, it took me a while to figure out what these were!

This is one of the main hallways in the administration building. Note the artwork hanging on the walls, they appear to be original paintings.

This is the front entrance through the main doors.

One example of the artwork in the hallways. Most all of the sculptures and art are religious, because after all, this is a Catholic school. I loved walking the hallways, it was almost like being in a museum.

An example of one of the dining rooms. This one was the grade 10 dining room.

I wish I'd thought of giving my reading assignments via a poster in the hallway!

Closer view of the administration building.

Grandkids:

Grandpa and I went out with another missionary couple on our P-day and rode camels!!

The sand dunes/beach area we rode the camels was called 40 Mile beach. It got that name because this beach truly is 40 miles long!!  There's big sand dunes all along the 40 mile stretch so people go 4-wheeling here and also go sand surfing here and you can also rent camels to ride.  There's lots of swimming and surfing in the ocean here too!

This was the camel Grandpa and I rode. His name was Ginger. Check out the saddle; it was very uncomfortable.  The humps on the camels make it so they have to have funny shaped saddles.

This was the camel behind us on our ride. His name was Moose. He hadn't finished shedding his winter hair yet, so he was very hairy.  He did not like to stay in line either; he kept coming up along the side of Grandpa and me instead of staying behind us. See the big dent in his head? His eye is just below it (under the hairy eyelashes). The camel man said the dent is part of his eye socket.

These are Moose's teeth. Grandpa says he has an overbite. Camels don't have upper front teeth, but their lower front teeth are pretty impressive. I was glad Moose didn't have upper teeth,-- just in case he decided to bite me!

The camel trip went out into the sand dunes. We all had to wear helmets; I guess they do that so if you accidentally fall off you won't hurt your head. I have to say, the saddles we rode in were very uncomfortable. I can see why in most desert journeys they loaded up the camels and used them as pack animals and the people walked. You wouldn't want to ride in these saddles for very long everyday.

We even got to go out in the ocean! Camels can drink the ocean salt water, but people can't; it makes us sick, but camels do just fine with it!

Here's a video of the camel ride: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AET5vXf4sZY&feature=youtu.be

This was our guide. Notice he is walking around in the hot sand barefoot. It was a very hot day and the sand would have been burning hot, but somehow it didn't seem to bother him. He must have very tough feet!

After the camel rides we drove farther up the coast. You can see how many little peninsulas there are in this area.

We were splashing around out in the water on this beach trying to get cooled down after our hot camel ride. A man came up to us who had been up on the lookout tower at the top of the  hill you can see on the left of this picture. He and his daughter were going along on the beach and telling everyone to get out of the water, they had been watching a big Great White Shark swimming along the shoreline. The man said it was the biggest Great White he'd ever seen, well what he said was, "it was the biggest ever, fair dinkum" Fair dinkum is Australian for 'it's the truth'.  

Lots of people were fishing today and this is the table on the beach that fishermen can come and clean their fish. These pelicans are waiting for the fishermen to throw them the guts!!

This pelican and seagull are just hanging out together hoping for scraps from the people eating at the restaurant we had lunch at.