Wednesday, 5 September

Wednesday

Strike day! I got to get an inside perspective of the Australian teacher's union in Victoria. At 9:20 I caught the train into the city with Blake, some of his mates, and some others from school. We met at the Rod Laver Arena where we heard a variety of speakers including the president of the union, a variety of representatives from different sectors of the union, and the hilarious comedy/singing group Tripod. They were absolutely hilarious, by the way!

There were a lot of issues being tackled at this rally, including contract lengths, work weeks, allocated planning time and other benefits. 

There were several speakers that were so eloquent and passionate that you couldn't help but listen to what was happening! In the stadium there were 15,000 people...we were up in the nosebleed section...this is what we saw:

Holy crap!!! Also, after the ridiculously long speeches that, toward the end, were a little less eloquent, probably about 13,000 of those people began walking through the city. Because we were at risk of being trampled, I only really got one photo of the protesters...pretty impressive as it is, though:

It was awesome to see all of the people on sidewalks, in cars and buildings and everywhere supporting all the teachers: honking, yelling, cheering, etc. It was awesome!

After the march to parliament, we headed to a restaurant in Richmond (I can't remember what it's called) with fantastic cider called, 'Dirty Granny'. I saw the label and almost laughed out loud. 

Nature Plank Walk

On the way home from the train station, Kylen and I walked through a variety of parks and trails looking for good..planking areas. We were successful: Here's a sneak peek. The rest will be uploaded to facebook:

Kylen, terrified, planking on the 'Friends Bridge'

I also almost died. Going into the water head first almost.

Monday - Whoops, I forgot!

On Monday evening, Kylen and I also went out to see the movie 'The Sapphires'. I'm pleased to say it was a pleasantly surprisingly good movie! From the previews, we were expecting basically exactly the story of 'Dream Girls', but there were such awesome things going on that were deeper than the expected plotline. I would definitely go see it, especially if you LOVE sixties music:) At the end of the movie, Kylen and I were leaning in to each other, smacking the armrests and each other. It was awesome! And quite intense. Overall, I would give it a ... seven out of ten sapphires!!!! ;)