Submitted by Nicole Latino on the 2012 summer session program in Australia sponsored by the School of Education…
5:20 AM: Beep, Beep, Beep. (My attempt at an alarm clock) Yes, Tuesday started off early, but I did not even mind the early start because I knew a new city awaited me. We left our Melbourne hotel around 6:45ish and headed to the Melbourne airport for our flight to TASMANIA! Or Tassie as all the Aussies like to say. We arrived to our hotel around 11ish, and soon headed out to explore this new city and grab some food. Everyone warned us that Hobart was going to be cold, but I thought they were just overreacting. Well, I can definitely tell you: Hobart is chilly!! Tuesday night we had class, and afterwards I worked on a project with my group.
We had another early start in Melbourne for Wednesday, because our group went on a tour to Port Arthur and a Tassie Sanctuary. Port Arthur is an old penitentiary port and community. As a history dork, I was really excited to hear the tales of this old jail. We were given a guided tour leading us through the decaying jail, commandants’ house, church, the island of Point Pole (the juvenile facility.), the separate prison (for the worst of the worst) , the hospital and many other buildings. Most of the buildings were left untouched, naturally decayed, which made the tour very authentic and helped you feel more in tune with the history. The tour was very interactive and interesting, because the guides knew specific stories of convicts from the jail. When you walk into Port Arthur, you receive a card which assigns you to a specific convict. I thought that the “card game” was really fun. The concept behind this prison dating back to the 19th century reflected ethos of reform rather than straight punishment, which is a concept found in most prisons today. After Port Arthur, we head to a Tasmania Devil Sanctuary. The Sanctuary was beautiful, the owners kept it very natural; like we were outside in the woods rather than in a zoo type place. We saw Tassie Devils, various birds, including a very cool bird show, feed Kangroos and Wallabies, and saw many other furry critters. I personally liked this sanctuary much more then I liked the one from Phillips Island, because the animals seemed livelier, the habitats looked more natural, and the head veterinary was very passionate about his animals. Any day with history and animals is a good day in my book, so Wednesday was a perfect day in Tasmania.
On Thursday, we visted Landsdown Crescent Primary School in Hobart, Tasmania. We walked to the school not realizing that the school was located on top of a very steep incline. We were a tad bit exhausted when we finally reached the school. Even though it was a bit of a hike to the school, I absolutely loved this school. It was the first public school that actually seemed like a school. The layout of the school was very open, and since the school was on top of a mountain the views of the city were breathtaking. The atmosphere of the school was wonderful, students seemed to love their school and the teachers actually seemed to like their students. Thursday marked our last day in Tasmania, so I went out with some of my friends to a restaurant for a farewell dinner.
