Hello, Sydney!

We knew Sydney would be great, but we were surprised at the size and pace of this beautiful city. Our commute from the airport to the hotel turned out to be a little more complicated than we expected. After three train transfers with luggage in hand we finally arrived at our hotel and were thrilled with the location! Not only was the location great, but we were greeted by a very friendly staff, which we are quickly learning is the Australian way. We are a three- minute walk from Darling Harbor so we had to check it out right away. You wouldn’t believe all the restaurants along the harbor walk!

The locals suggested that we check out Paddy’s Market so we just had to do it. The market was filled
with all kinds of souvenirs and food. It made Soulard Market look very small. We both agreed that this would be a must-see for the girls and they would probably want to spend hours there. It was a beautiful, sunny, winter day so we decided to walk around the Chinese Garden. This was a nice relaxing break from the busy city life. We ended the day at St. Mary’s Cathedral for the evening youth Mass. We thought the girls might enjoy this.

We saw these bright red double decker buses
going around the city so we decided to do a little research. They were sight seeing buses that took tourists all over Sydney. We bought tickets and throughout the day we had easy transportation and great photo opps. This was also a great way for us to take inventory of all the attractions and decide what the girls might enjoy. One of the routes included an excursion to Bondi Beach. At this point we were willing to do anything to get warm! There was no doubt in our minds that the girls would enjoy watching the many surfers in the water. When our tour ended it was clear to us that it was really a RUSH hour as we noticed hundreds of people waiting to get on buses.

We knew our time here in Sydney was limited so we decided to split up for a little bit. While Mrs.
Mullen went on the Harbor Bridge climb, Mr. Smith had to entertain himself for three and a half hours. The bridge climb was a great experience and Mrs. Mullen was so glad that she did it. It was exhilarating to see the entire city from such heights. Mr. Smith decided to tour the Sydney Opera House, but sadly they weren’t holding any auditions. Once we met up once again it was time to eat and the server convinced us to try the local delicacy. And so we thought about the saying “When in Rome…” and we looked at each other and said “When in Australia…” And so….we ate kangaroo pizza. We agreed that we won’t be requesting it in the UA cafeteria, but it was a good local experience. Our night ended with great shopping.

As it turned out our trip on the big red bus included a second day that was a tour on the water. We
made several stops throughout Sydney Harbor, but the highlight was Watson’s Bay. Doyle’s Restaurant came highly recommended. If you like seafood, this is the place for you. You should have seen Mr. Smith’s face while Mrs. Mullen was peeling off the shrimp heads and enjoying every bite of it. Just when we thought we couldn’t take any more great pictures, we walked up a path to some beautiful views of the cliffs on the Ocean.



This trip has been better than we could have ever
imagined. Time and again we commented to each other about how friendly, hospitable and genuinely happy everyone seems here. We have some great ideas for activities with the students and enjoyed our visit with our new friends at St. Ursula’s college. We can’t wait to bring our students here next time. The Australians have taught us well. Our flight home is a bit delayed and we know there is a great deal of work to be done to start the school year on Monday, but both of us looked at each other and said, “No worries.”

-Mike Smith and Joni Mullen

Brazil 2015 Photo Slide Show

Enjoy a slide show of captured moments from the Brazil Trip 2015

Exploring the St. Louis - Ilheus Connection

Yesterday, we had a morning of presentations from all of the lower grade levels at Piedade. We were all very impressed and some of our students even remarked that we should do more at Ursuline to connect our two cultures and schools. I hope we do too!

Dancing the Samba

The preschool and kindergarten classes sang for us an invited us to dance the samba with them. As the song went, "When you hear the music playing, if you don't feel like dancing the samba you must be crazy or have a broken leg" (rough paraphrasing).

Next, we came out into the courtyard to watch capoeira, a type of fighting dance that originated in Brazil. Students and teachers demonstrated some of the moves and then invited our students to dance.

Gooey Butter Cake, recipe at left

After a short slide show of projects that students had completed comparing Ilheus to St. Louis and Buenos Aires, we were led to three different food stations that were serving foods from each of the three cities studied. The boards at each station included recipes in Portuguese and English. Any guess on what was chosen for St. Louis? Gooey Butter Cake was right! We were impressed with how well they did getting the recipe correct.

Abará, classic dish from Ilheus

For Ilheus the recipe chosen was Abará, made with ground black-eyed peas surrounding shrimp and steamed in banana leaves. What a treat!

Sydney and Cristina checking the St. Louis trivia facts.

In Math class, students had developed board games based on the three cities. From the games I was able to observe, they included plenty of trivia about St. Louis and the other cities. What a fun way to learn more about the sister cities!








Several class presentations from the Elementary school grades followed. They covered American food packaging; a comparison of our school to theirs; a comparison of our cities including photographs of very similar sites and landmarks in both; a comparison of the Mississippi to rivers in Brazil; a comparison of the native peoples in the St. Louis area to the native peoples of the Ilheus region; and finally an exploration of the Blues as an influence on Brazilian music and its origins in America. In every classroom there was an opportunity to taste, watch, listen and otherwise participate in the presentations.

1st graders after sharing a dance with us

Learning about St. Louis vs. Ilheus after enjoying fresh cocoa fruit

A spread of traditional native Brazilian foods, including root vegetables not found in the US and tapioca flour

After the presentations we broke for lunch. All of us needed some time for mental digestion as well. I am left very impressed with how well they had integrated St. Louis into so many of their classes. The focus on the two cities (three when you count Beunos Aires) instead of on whole countries was a great lens to explore a diversity of topics. The multi-sensory aspects of the projects encouraged engagement by both the Brazilian as well as American students. The language barrier was overcome largely through practical demonstration.

Artisan Craft Market

The afternoon was spent touring the city of Ilheus which ended at a trip to the marketplace. By evening our bags were full of souvenirs and our minds full of even more valuable mementos to carry back with us.