Melbourne

The final 4 days of my trip was spent in Melbourne, Australia. The purpoe was to attend the Geography Teachers of Victoria's annual conference. I find this a really stimulating conference and have attended for the last 3 years. Just as well I had been flying with United (this the only good point - well no the flights were uneventful another good point) and was allowed two bags otherwise I would have had a lot of excess luggage given all the free material I collected - some of which now adorns my classroom wall.

I stayed with friends and on Saturday we went for a very pleasant bike ride that helped the jet lag and I warmed up. There is a big difference between San Deigo and Melbourne especially eperiencing a frost again after weeks in the high 30's. Melbourne has turned a number of former train tracks into walking/cycling/horse trails. We rode from Lilydale to Warburton-about 22 kms stopping for lunch in Warburton. Forgot my camera so no photos of me cycling along.

I arrived home safely 11.55 on Monday night and made it to school on Tuesday - the first lesson involved watching a DVD - a good piece of forethought on my part and I am glad the reliever hadn't used it. Several lessons have featured a DVD I bought of the SW USA - it is amazing how everything can be linked together and made to relate to the actual topics.