Food Glorious Food! (By Li Han)

So it is our second day of the Perth Trip. We had breakfast at the hotel. We had fried egg, sausages, noodle and hash brown. I love the hash brown a lot because it tasted like the McDonalds one. The rest of the food was also nice. We also had subway at the Perth Hills Aboriginal Programme which was yummy as it came with a lovely cookie. The sandwich has lots of vegetables and most of the girls took most of the vegetables out and thus I feel that they are picky eaters and does not have a habit of what is given to them.

In the evening, we had yummy Chinese food at a Chinese restaurant! There were fish, toufu, vegetables. It was lovely to have such a wonderful meal. I had sweet and sour fish, roasted chicken and corn food, just to name a few. We were so full and played table games until it was all too noisy before we proceeded back to the hotel. We were so full and felt very satisfied after the meal.

 What do we have stuck on our tongues?!

 Delicious prawn crackers!

 Breakfast at GoodEarth Hotel

Subway chicken sandwich at Perth Hills!

GoodEarth hotel accommodation ( by Ethan Ng)

We checked in GoodEarth Hotel at night. It was freezing outside, yet tolerable for me. We took a while to look at the surrounding of the hotel. When we got into the room, I got a shock. It felt like a real home! There was a washing machine, a stove (which we cannot use), a kettle to boil water, three armchairs, four beds, a cabinet and several drawers! I rushed to one bed and lay there for a while. I was sharing the room with Jerry and  Kay Yong. The beds are comfortable and I slept like a log on the first night.

Perth Hills Programme - Water Catchment (By Chua Rui Ming)

The second half of the trip we learnt about the water cycle and some other stuff of the forest. After lunch, our guide, Mr C, showed us a poster of the catchments of Perth. A catchment is kind of like a drain, which drains water to a common place where the water is collected. Then, we went on a hiking trail to a gigantic, realistic and 3D model on all the catchments of Perth. It was really cool! Mr C then passed to each of us a shaker bottle filled with water and told us to sprinkler on the model. Mr C told us that a run off mainly occurs when intense rain occurs and that is why storms are important to the forest.

After that, we went to see the dam which all the water from the catchments are collected. It was a sight to behold! However, the dam was only lesser than half-filled with water, and that means to conserve the water. The dam in Perth is somewhat like the Marina Barrage.

In conclusion, we should conserve water, and cherish the amount of water we have now, because one day, we will all run out of water. 

Perth Hills Programme - Discovering Invertebrates (By Jerry Choo)

It is another exciting day in Perth again! When the bus off to Perth Hills, everyone was discussing about what we were going to do today. Our friendly guide, Mr C, took us into the deep forest to look for many types of invertebrates. Invertebrates are organisms that do not have backbone. Spiders, cockroaches, millipedes, centipedes, earthworms, ants, crickets and termites are example of invertebrates. Mr C told us to go into the forest where humans planted the long and tall tree in there in many rows. We threw a yellow round hoop on an area of soil and used a shovel to remove the twigs to search for invertebrates. I found out that the most common type of invertebrates are spiders, ants and millipedes. Spiders have eight legs, ants have six legs and millipedes have many legs.

I managed to catch six centipedes. Some were long and some were short. Next, we set off to the natural forest where the trees are naturally grown. There were more crickets there as compared to the first forest we visited. Crickets can hop from one place to another place to another at a very fast speed. I had much difficulty catching a cricket. But at last, we did not just capture the invertebrates to keep them, we released them back in the bushes again as there were very important to the environment. They help in the seed dispersal, pollination and many other important matters. I learnt a valuable and unforgettable experience during this programme.

Aboriginal Cultural walk (by Khar Wa Than)

Today we got to go to Perth Hills Discovery Centre to learn about the native people in Australia. We learnt mostly about survival in the bushes and we also learnt about different types of trees and plants. Mr Zak, our guide, was very active and made us walk until our legs hurt. We were allowed to go all the way down to the bush, which is also believed to be the dragon's hair. We were tricked by the fake snake, kangaroo and baby toys. We thought they were real! The trail was very long but none of us was tired AT ALL!

We even got to touch weapons (eg boomerang, spears). We learnt about responsibility, how we should respect everyone, even the earth. He told us enriching and meaningful stories about him when he was our age. He made us understand how fortunate we were as we do not need to hunt for our survival. He treated us like his brothers and sisters, took care of us like parents, and made us have the most absolute best trail ever. It was really upsetting that it was over so soon, but I still hope we could go back on a fun journey and have a great guide like Mr Zak!

Sawyers Valley Primary School (By See Toh Grace and Eunice Tan)

By See Toh Grace
After breakfast this morning, we visited Sawyers Valley Primary School. When we walked past their classroom, we saw some 8-10 years old pupils sitting in groups waving to us. The teacher, Mrs Addison, brought us in and partnered us with our buddies. We learnt that their school has no canteen! They just sat together and ate the food that they brought to school. I learnt about the different states and places of interest in Australia, some of which I have never heard before. I observed that the Australian pupils are also very agile as we played with them at their school playground.

My buddy's name was Rachel. She was very friendly and shared with me many things. Their school building has only one level. The pathways leading to the classrooms are very confusing. I feel that I should learn English from them as they speak proper English without any flaws.

When we were leaving, we ran around their field together with our buddy once. What a fun time we had! We took a group photo before we bade goodbye to the school and the new friends whom we met. We left for Perth Hills for the Aborginal Cultural learning journey.


By Eunice Tan
We had some time to chat and know each other before the teacher set up the project for our friends to present to them. After that, my buddy and I went for the cooking club to make chocolate balls. Then we had recess, followed by a partner work activity at room 7.

I think that it was difficult to communicate with my buddy, Elise because sometimes I did not understand what she was saying and she had to repeat herself a few times. The club that I went was cooking and we interacted with the older students of the school. I thought that she was very friendly and we got along quite well.  During recess, I saw many primary one pupils. They were very brave. They did things which we could not do. We were amazed at what they could do. It was very fun and I enjoyed myself.

Night shopping (Ashlyn Cheong)

After a magnificent view of Perth and King's Park, we set off to do Perth version of  "night shopping". I know you are imagining big malls with LED lights on walls, places so packed and jammed leaving you with no places to sit. However, night shopping in Perth is a totally different experience. Try thinking about a quiet mall that takes half an hour to get from King's Park. Perth night shopping cannot be compared to Singapore's.

The mall was not crowded, which was good for our group. First, we went to the food court to fill our rumbling stomach! I had a scrumptious dinner of a subway sandwich made up of ham, cheese, lettuce and honey mustard. After that, we headed to buy our groceries from Woolsworth. My group spent the remaining cash back ($14) to buy snacks for ourselves.

We learnt to take care of one another. Though tired, we thoroughly enjoyed our first day being independent.

*photos to be uploaded when we return to Singapore*

King's Park ( by Harishita)

After checking into our hotel (GoodEarth Hotel), we headed towards King's Park to have our picnic lunch! Our lunch was scrumptious. The park was spacious and green. Some of my friends wanted to play catching as it was the perfect weather and place to do that! Next, we went for a walk in King's Park. We saw different kinds of plants. We saw a beautiful pond. There were a lot of ducks and a beautiful fountain. We took pictures of them. Later, we all heard something strange. We turned our heads. To our surprise, it was a black and white bird. It made a beautiful sound. All of us were amazed. We took photographs of the bird. We also saw some fungi. As we walked along, we saw various types of plants.

We took a photographs of the plants. Next, we walked up a bridge to go back to where we started. Just then, something caught everyone's eyes. We saw a magnificent view. It was so beautiful that nobody could take their eyes off it.

At 5pm, we left the park and headed for our late night shopping. We had an enjoyable day.