The Kangaroo Sanctuary

After touring Alice Springs, we ended the day with a sunset visit to the Kangaroo Sanctuary, a 188-acre preserve dedicated to the rescue of orphaned baby kangaroos and their rehabilitation back into the wild.  Many kangaroos are killed by traffic though the outback but, if a kangaroo has a joey in her pouch, it often survives.  Brolga, as he is known, began rescuing the joeys from their dead mothers in 2005 and eventually built the sanctuary to protect them.  Brolga took us on a tour and showed us his newest joey, Madeleine.

As we were walking through the sanctuary we came upon Johanssen, one of the older joeys, and Brolga looked at me and said, "You want to feed him, don't you?"  I got to feed a baby kangaroo!

You can tell that I don't feed babies very often!  Look how awkwardly I am holding the bottle!  I'm such a dork but it was one of the coolest things I have ever done!  We continued wandering around the sanctuary and got to see lots of the kangaroos in action.

I loved how they would use their tails to balance themselves on two legs!

The sunsets in the outback were spectacular!  The visit to the Kangaroo Sanctuary was definitely one of the highlights of my Australia trip!

Note:  Go here to find out more about the Kangaroo Sanctuary and how to donate to this wonderful cause!

Beyond

There are quite a few movies on my must-see list that were released when I was in Australia and New Zealand!  I'm so behind!  Last night I made a start at getting caught up by seeing Star Trek Beyond.  I loved it!  I have been a huge fan of the reboot of this beloved series and I think this one might be the best one yet!  The USS Enterprise and its crew are three years into their five year mission to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no man has gone before.  The mission has become monotonous and both Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) are contemplating other assignments as they dock at the USS Yorktown, an elaborate new space station, for supplies.  Soon, the Enterprise is sent to rescue a ship in distress but it is attacked by an unknown swarm.  The ship is destroyed and most of the crew is captured, including Sulu (John Cho) and Uhura (Zoe Saldana).  Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban) and an injured Spock escape to a nearby planet together (and their banter provides much comic relief), Chekov (Anton Yelchin) and Kirk escape together, and Scott (Simon Pegg) escapes separately but encounters Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), a scavenger abandoned on the planet, and enlists her help.  The crew discovers that an alien known as Krall (Idris Elba), who controls the swarm, has attacked their ship for an artifact discovered during their mission capable of mass destruction and that he intends to use it to destroy the USS Yorktown.  Can Kirk save his crew, get the USS Franklin, an old Starfleet vessel, in the air, stop the swarm from destroying the Yorktown (a great scene involving the Beastie Boys' song "Sabotage", also known as "classical music"), and face Krall in an epic showdown?  The answers make for an action-packed and highly entertaining film.  Most people have probably already seen it (although my screening was packed), but I highly recommend it to those of you who haven't!

Friday Night Lights

A big crowd at Ed Mayne Stadium for Wolverine Football!

School started this week so I am back to my normal (read: insanely busy) schedule.  I am still suffering a little bit from jet lag so I didn't feel as prepared to start the school year as I normally do but the kids still showed up at my door any way!  The good news is that I seemed to muddle through just fine and I have enjoyed getting to know my students.  The officers, of course, have hit the ground running and I am very proud of all of their hard work.  We had our Welcome Assembly yesterday and I think it went really well, especially considering that we had three days to prepare!

The spirit can made an appearance at the assembly.

Now that school is in session, I will be spending many of my Friday nights at football games.  Last night was our first game of the season against the American Fork Cavemen.  The Wolverines seemed to struggle a little bit because many of our stars from last season graduated and players are settling into new roles.  At one point, American Fork was up 17-0 and then Hunter came alive scoring three unanswered touchdowns.  However, American Fork scored twice in the fourth quarter to win the game 31-21.

The spirit can made an appearance at the game, too!

Even though we lost this game, it was still a lot of fun!  The officers made banners and used the spirit can to keep the crowd cheering.  Being at the game makes for a really long day but it is so fun to see the students outside of the classroom and I had a group around me most of the time.  Now that football season is here I want it to be fall!

Ben-Hur

Last night my family and I went to see an early screening of Ben-Hur.  I thought it was exciting, to say the least, and I really enjoyed it despite what many critics have said.  Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston) is a wealthy prince in Roman-occupied Jerusalem and Messala (Toby Kebbell) is a Roman orphan who has been adopted into the Ben-Hur household.  While the two brothers are extremely close, they are divided by religion and Messala feels that he will never be a part of the family after a romance with Judah's sister is frowned upon.  Messala joins the Roman legion and, after a number of years, returns to Jerusalem as an officer trying to quell the zealots.  Eventually, Messala accuses Judah of treason for harboring a zealot and condemns him as a galley slave.  Judah escapes (in an epic battle scene) and encounters Iderim (Morgan Freeman), an African trader who becomes his mentor.  Judah longs for revenge and Iderim convinces him to race a chariot against Messala.  A parallel story involves the ministry of Jesus Christ (Rodrigo Santoro) and the conversion of the brothers to Christianity after the race.  The story of revenge and forgiveness is very compelling, but I think that the revenge took too long to set up and the forgiveness happened too quickly.  In between, however, the action sequences are absolutely incredible.  The aforementioned naval battle between Greece and Rome is amazing because it is shown entirely from the perspective of the slaves below deck and Judah's escape is incredibly suspenseful because he is chained to the other slaves who are being dragged into the water.  The chariot race is brutal, but tremendously exciting to watch!  Microphones were placed on the legs of the horses to capture the thundering sounds of their hooves on the track and GoPro cameras were buried in the sand to give the feeling of being in the middle of the race.  Much of the scene involved practical stunts rather than CGI and it was intense!  I found myself having to look away at times, especially when chariot drivers were trampled!  I have to admit that I have not seen the William Wyler classic staring Charlton Heston (to which this adaptation is being compared unfavorably) but I can't imagine that chariot race being better than this one!  This movie has flaws, but as a late summer blockbuster, it certainly delivers the thrills!

Alice Springs

After we left Melbourne we flew to the outback for a visit to Alice Springs, a remote town in the middle of the Northern Territory.

Our first visit was to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.  Because the outback is so incredibly vast, sheep stations can be hundreds of kilometers from the nearest doctor.  This service was established by the Reverend John Flynn in 1928 to provide emergency and primary health care services to rural areas of Australia.  Nurses and doctors were dispatched by plane to areas all over rural Australia and the service is still used today.

We also visited the School of the Air which is how children in these rural areas get their schooling.  It began with lessons broadcast over the wireless radio with students sending their work to the teachers through the Royal Flying Doctor Service but now it relies heavily on the internet.  Prince Charles and Princess Diana visited the School of the Air and their pictures and signatures are framed on the wall.

Our final stop was to the Alice Springs Telegraph Station.  This was a repeater station on the Overland Telegraph Line which linked Adelaide to Darwin and Great Britain.  This site was chosen because of a waterhole on the normally dry Todd River.  It was, erroneously, thought to be a permanent spring and was named after the wife of the Postmaster General of South Australia.  This telegraph station opened Alice Springs for European settlement.  I thought it was very interesting.