Symbio Excursion

Last Thursday our AMEP group went to an excursion to Symbio Wildlife Park. It was a great journey! I love animals and I try not to miss a chance to see them!

Early in the morning we all gathered in the Student Association room. There were a lot of people waiting for the bus to the zoo. Everybody seemed happy and excited about the forthcoming trip.

As there were more people than expected, Marion had organised one more bus for us. And we were lucky to get into the smaller additional bus. There was just our group and a driver Willie (who was very nice), so we arrived to the place safely and quickly.

The day was supposed to be gloomy and rainy, but in spite of the weather forecast, it was clear and sunny. A beautiful day for the zoo!

We started our excursion at the koala house. Koalas are such funny animals! It looks like they sleep all day long and nothing can bother them! They sit on trees cuddling a trunk or each other. And when you touch their fur, it feels like they are toys, not real animals.

Then we saw two little crocodiles, lying in a pond, having a sunbathe. And a peacock was so nice to us, that it opened its beautiful tail and was showing off to everybody. At first a wombat was hiding somewhere in its hole, but later it got out and started to run around, doing some exercises. It looked like a pig but covered with fur.

Then we saw dingoes, which were smaller than I thought. On our way to the kangaroo rest area we went past a tiger, a spider monkey and cattle. The kangaroos looked very relaxed lying on the grass. Some of them were sleeping, some were eating something from the grass. It's amazing what strange creatures they are! Their legs are so huge and their arms are so little and short.

We also watched a show where the keepers talked to us about some animals. They showed us a koala, a possum, and even a snake. Soon after lunch it was time for us to go back to school.

I enjoyed our journey! It was a great day!! Thanks to our teachers who had organised it.

Good Posture

Posture is the position of one's body while he/she stands, walks or sits. To have a good posture is very important if a person wants to be healthy and feel comfortable. A bad posture can lead to serious back problems, a bad backache and sometimes can not let you move properly.

Slouching means leaning forward and hunching over, when one doesn't keep his/her back straight. And if you do it all the time, the spine can tend to do this.

The posture of many children is getting worse now. One of the reasons is that nowadays kids are not taught enough to sit properly, to keep their back straight, there are no backstraighteners anymore. Another reason is the bad effect of modern technology. People spend too much time using computers, phones, playing video games. They don't care about they way they sit, but this may have a bad effect on their spine.

There is some advice for having a good posture. You should spend less time in front of the computer and watching TV. You should straighten your back often by being active, walking and/or playing sport. You should always watch your posture when you sit, when you walk, your back should be straight and head up. The key message is to limit the amount of time you spend hunched over a keyboard and be active as often as you can.

Phoebe's fire alarm.

The episode started late at night at the Phoebe's unit. Her fire alarm was making noises for no reason. She decided to disconnect it from the wall. Then she was sure the problem was solved and went back to bed. The fire alarm made another noise. Phoebe took the battery out of the alarm, but it continued making noises, which made Phoebe angry.

She explored it carefully, looked at all the wires, but suddenly, when she got confused, she just smashed it with her shoe. After that the alarm rang even stronger and more annoyingly.

Phoebe's next action was to wrap the alarm in a blanket and throw it into a rubbish chute.

After some time a knock at the door woke her up and she heard her alarm beeping. She wondered how her alarm could get back. But it turned out that the fireman had brought Phoebe's alarm back to her. She tried to lie that the alarm was not hers to get rid of it. But there was Phoebe's name in the blanket with the alarm. So, Phoebe asked a fireman how she can turn it off. The fireman said she only had to press a reset button on the plastic cover. Phoebe got happy! She looked for the reset button, but she found it lying on the floor separately from the alarm.

Australian Aborigines, their instruments, habits, culture.

The Aboriginal culture of Australia is one of the oldest and most mysterious of all cultures on Earth and stands in direct contrast to just over 200 years of European history. There are many places where one can learn about this culture and even though Aborigines make up only 1% of the population, they live in all areas of Australia including the cities.


There were more than 250 languages spoken by Australian Aboriginals prior to the arrival of Europeans. Now they use only about fifteen languages.

Aboriginal people traditionally adhered to animist spiritual frameworks. Their oral tradition and religious values are based upon reverence for the land and a belief in a Dreamtime. Major ancestral spirits include the Rainbow Serpent, Baiame, Dirawong and Bunjil.

The various Australian Aboriginal communities developed unique musical instruments and folk styles. The didgeridoo is one of the most famous musical instruments of Aboriginal people that we know. It was traditionally played by people of only the eastern Kimberley region and Arnhem Land, and then by only the men.  Clapping sticks are probably the more ubiquitous musical instrument, especially because they help maintain rhythm for songs.


Australia has a tradition of Aboriginal art which is thousands of years old, the best known forms being rock art and bark painting. Evidence of Aboriginal art in Australia can be traced back at least 30,000 years.


Woggabaliri is the oldest Aboriginal game. It was played mainly by the Wiradjuri people of central NSW before European arrival, Woggabaliri is a non-competitive "co-operative kicking volley game" played with a ball made of possum hide, using soccer type skills of teamwork and ball control.

I have found most of the information on a Wikipedia site, here is the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_Australians

Australia web quest answers.

2. Animals:
Dingoes are Australia's native dogs and have features in common with both wolves and modern dogs, and are regarded as more or less unchanged descendants of an early ancestor of modern dogs.

The Platypus is an aquatic, furred mammal with a bill like that of a duck.

The Emu is Australia's largest bird and is related to the Ostrich. Most native mammals.

Kangaroos have large, powerful hind legs, large feet adapted for leaping, a long muscular tail for balance, and a small head. Female kangaroos have a pouch in which their babies grow. They are marsupials.

Koalas are found in South Eastern Australia and have been described as "ash coloured pouched bears". But they are not bears they are mammals ( meaning they feed their young on Milk) and are Marsupial (meaning they carry their developing young mostly in a pouch).

3. The Didgeridoo is a long wooden flute, perhaps the oldest musical instrument on earth. It has been made and played by Aboriginal people for thousands of years now. The droning sound of the didgeridoo represents with as much accuracy as possible the essences of the sounds of the animals, birds and nature.

4. The most famous and representaitive building in Australia is The Opera House which is situated in Sydney. It was designed by Jorn Utzon.

5. Uluru also known as Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory. Uluru is notable for appearing to change colour as the different light strikes it at different times of the day and year, with sunset a particularly remarkable sight when it briefly glows red.

6. Kakadu is a National Park. It is situated in the Northern Territory of Australia, 171 km southeast of Darwin.

7. The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres. The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland. The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from space and is the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms. This reef supports a wide diversity of life, and was selected as a World Heritage Site in 1981.

My first post

Hello, my name is Katie and this is my first blog.

I don't usually do this because I'm a kind of a private person but in this case I have no choice)))) so we'll see how it's going to be.

I'm from Russia and I came to Australia about a month ago. I still feel new and a little uncomfortable here. My English is far from perfect but my goal for the nearest future is to improve it as much as I can and to make it close to perfect!! )))

Because my husband is Australian, I'm learning a new culture pretty quickly and I already know which is my favourite NRL team and why Shane Warne is so famous! By the way, I had never heard about the name Shane before I came to Australia. Since I came here, I've come across this name everywhere, so my first thought was - are all Australians called Shane?! )))

My plans for the future: I'm thinking of getting an Australian education when I know English pretty well and after to get a job that I'd like and be happy to do. (I haven't made up my mind about what I would like to do yet). So, I'll probably find an unqualified job which helps me to keep busy and to learn English better by talking to different people.

And the last one - why "kstovoblue", because Kstovo is my native town and blue is the colour I was wearing when my husband first saw me, so every time I wear blue now, he calls it "kstovo blue". )))