Mood:
happy-Or Chinese New Year, anyway. We are celebrating it tomorrow in Canberra's China Town. Also tomorrow is the Australian National Kung Fu Championships, in which they will determine who will represent Australia in the next Olympics.
This morning we went to a different fruit and vegatable market which is supposed to be even better than Fyshwich market (where we usually go). It was okay. Probably fresher stuff. Prices were probably a little cheaper. It was a LOT more crowded and harder to get around.
Later today is the Pacific Island Showcase and the Indonesia Showcase, both taking place downtown. Between those two events is the U.S. Embassy celebration of Mardi Gras as the Marine House. It's more about the BBQ than the beads... :)
Last week in school we started two units. One was MADO, or Management of the Australian Defence Course, and the other was Command, Leadership, and Ethics (CLE). We did more MADO than CLE. Next week is more CLE than MADO.
MADO has been all about the governance and accountability of the Australian Defence Force. We've learned about their capability developement process and acquisitions, how their government interacts with the military (accountability), the changes in their defence force structure, and the like. It has been interesting, particularly when looking at how vastly different our military does these things.
We have an Adventure Race coming up! In preperation, we went mountain biking last Wednesday, which was a tremendous amount of fun. -And also I'm not good at it! I spent about an hour stumbling along the trails, falling off the bike, running into rocks, or just not being able to negotiate the hairpin turns of the trail. There is a degree of skill required that I just don't have. Yet. But the race is next weekend, and while they don't post the route or specific details about what we will have to do (sort of the point of the "Adventure"), they have released what we all need to be prepared to do. It includes a 24km mountain bike ride, a 9km bush run (cross country), 3km kayake, and a mystery 300m, that my team is guessing will be a lake crossing, since they made a strong point of telling us that we need to waterproof our gear. The race is expected to take between 4-5 hours to complete. It'll be a fun day!
Yesterday, Kimberly and I went on a tour of the Old Parliment House. Jacoby didn't want to go. Anyway, Old Parliment House was built as a temporary fit for their Parliment back in 1927. After the war, they just couldn't afford to build the one they had planned, so they built this one until they could. It stayed in use until the 1980's, when they finally completed and openned the new one, which you have already sen in pictures. It was a neat tour, followed by snacks in the Old Parliment Cafe. The snacks were great anmd we met some really nice people that we talked to for about an hour before we had to leave for our next event.
Immediately following, we had a dinner at the college. It was a social dinner, so there were no speeches or formal presentations. It was merely a chance for our Guidance Groups to get together with our spouses, meet everyone, and just enjoy each other's company. We stayed for a few hours and again, met and conversed with some really great people.
That about sums up last week. Next week is more CLE and MADO, and then the Adventure Race on Saturday. Sunday I leave for a ten-day ADF Capability Tour, in which we will travel around Australia's military bases to see what they've got. I'll have much more on this, later.
- Ryan
