Claymation and more

Dear Family and Friends,

               We are happy to say that the fires are over and it has rained so we can breathe now.  

Above on left is our friend David's house that I mentioned in the last blog and on right is the woods that burned.  Below is what most of the Blue Mountains look like now.  The fire fighters did an amazing job, as there were houses surrounded by forest on three sides that didn't burn.

               Two weeks ago we went hiking (again?!). On the hike there were many cicadas, which were very annoying because they were loud. We found out later that cicadas can get up 120 decibels. The trail was flat for about 1 mile and then we went down 900 feet in a matter of about 700 feet. It was very steep, and we were hiking on a small ledge so it was quite scary (see photo). We got to see a waterfall from the top and a view of the Blue Mountains and then we hiked down to the bottom of the waterfall. It was like mist once we got to the bottom.

Wentworth Falls (original photo copyright Robert James, our approximate path added in red by Karen)

Photo of some of the many stairs we walked down.  Copyright Tripadvisor - no, we weren't taking pictures while walking down here.

We survived.

One of the many lizards I spotted.

                Last week we did Claymation on Monday in my class. It sounded really hard, but it was really easy. At the beginning we had to make our characters/set. I made a James Bond movie. The hardest part was making a jet for my James Bond. Then the person who came had some cameras that didn’t move so all I had to do was move the scene a little bit and take another picture. The man also brought computers that put the pictures together for us. Then we had to add sounds, which was a little harder since you couldn’t control how long they ran. But overall it was one of the most fun things I’ve done in school in Australia. Here is a link to my Claymation video on YouTube. Remember to give it a like. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSum6m0dfkM

               

                Last Sunday we took the train to Sydney, which takes about 1.5 hours each way. We went to the National Museum of Australia where we saw lots stuff associated with Australian history. My favorite thing was an Aboriginal artist who had made an emu out of barbed wire and rebar.  Barbed wire kills them a lot of the time. My other favorite thing there was a wooden snake that was 4 feet long, also made by an Aboriginal artist. It was quite amazing. I also saw some stunning photos of bugs. They had photos of them hanging upside down and there was a photo of a bee buzz pollinating plants where you could see the pollen. After going to the National Museum of Australia we went and saw Grease, the musical version.  

               Travis