USA Tour 2016

Monday 14th December 2016

Sarah 

Today was the day that we had to say goodbye to our Ursuline sisters in New Rochelle, and unfortunately today marked our last day in the USA. In the morning, a lovely breakfast for the host families and us all was held in the library. After mingling with each other, we presented bits and pieces of our presentation as we didn't have a lot of time. We sang 'Mary had a baby/Joyful Joyful', 'In time of silver rain', and 'I still call Australia home'. For our finishing act, we sang 'For Good' from the hit Broadway musical Wicked, which brought some people to tears. After our presentation, we said our final goodbyes to our host parents, as most of them were leaving for work straight away. It was a little emotional, but we all kept most of the tears in. 

After the breakfast, we went down to the gym (Sports hall) and sat with the rest of the school as we watched a presentation from a psychiatrist/actor. His presentation was about people who were different to everyone else in their lives, and were discriminated against because of their difference. He told us their stories, and his as well, and his presentation brought up some tears because of how real it was. The rest of the day went smoothly and mainly involved us going to our host sisters' classes. At 12:00pm, the retail shop was open for us to buy jumpers and shorts and even pyjama pants! We then headed down to the theatre to get changed and check our bags one more time. Lunch included most of us chilling in the cafeteria, eating and waiting to head down to the theatre for our final goodbyes. All host sisters were called down so they could say goodbye to us, but it didn't really feel like a goodbye. More of a "See you soon!", as most of our host sisters are to come to us next year in April. So we finally, but with much difficulty, hopped on our buses and waved goodbye as we were driven away. 

Genevieve had already left with her mum to extend their holiday visiting family so she didn't join us as we left for the airport. After an hour or so of driving to the JFK Airport, we arrived and checked in our luggage. We then had an hour and a half to chill and look at the shops that were around our boarding gate. Most of us, for food, decided to go to Macca's (McDonald's), as we hadn't had it in so long! So that was good, but we were all excited to finally board the plane that would take us to our next stopover, Los Angeles. 

The flight was about five hours and forty-five minutes, but for most of us we found it quite quick. Some of us decided to sleep, including Ursie. She was snuggled up with Maggie, with a blanket over her to top it all off. It was quite cute! After settling down in our new destination, we all just had a wonder around. This is also where we had to leave Michaela, as she was being picked up by her Aunt for a holiday in LA.  We were ready to board, but the plane was delayed.  After an hour we were up in the air again for a thirteen hour flight to Brisbane.

The flight, to me, felt really quick. Most of us, including the teachers, slept most of the way, Bridget and Chloe sleeping nearly all of the flight! When it came time to an hour left of flying, we were all eager to land back home. When we did land, we all were saying "We're finally home, yay!". I know I definitely couldn't keep the smile off of my face as we walked off the plane. 

Some of the girls were picked up at the airport by some very happy parents, the rest of us took the bus back home with the teachers. The bus ride didn't feel too long; one minute we were in Brisbane, the next we were entering Rome St in Toowoomba. On arrival, we were greeted by big hugs and some tears from our families, and we were so happy to finally be home again. The past two and a half weeks have been life-changing experiences that all of us will carry with us wherever we go. We made many new friends and became part of many new families while we were over there, and we shall never forget them. Being one of the youngest on tour, I have definitely learnt knew things that I can bring back to our school community for the next two years. The girls and I can't wait until our New Rochelle sisters come over next year, and I hope the exchange with Dallas keeps happening. I wish the next lot of girls on the tour all the best, as it is a wonderful experience that they'll never get again.

USA Tour 2016

Monday 14th December 2016

New Rochelle

The Ursuline School - Presentation and Farewells

On Monday morning the USA Tour girls and staff joined with their host families and staff from TUS in a farewell breakfast.  The girls gave their final presentation and sang beautifully.  

We presented The Ursuline School President, Mrs Eileen Davidson with an Angela tile in recognition of our visit.

Final photos of the tour and with their host sisters.

Mrs Wendy Collins, Mrs Maria Barton, Ms Karen Ralph, Mrs Eileen Davidson (President TUS), Mr Jim Dwan and Mrs Carol Killebrew (Principal) following the presentation.

The girls are very excited to welcome their host sisters to Australia when TUS visits St Ursula's College in April!

The USA Tour has been a wonderful success cementing our Ursuline connections with Ursuline Academy Dallas, The Ursuline School New Rochelle and the Academy of Mt St Ursula Bronx.

Long lasting friendships were made with host families and some very excited USA students are keen to visit Australia!

The hospitality shown to the tour in each location was incredible.  We felt very welcomed by staff, students and host families.  We would like to thank Mrs Gretchen Kane (President UA Dallas), Dr Andrea Shurley (Principal UA Dallas), Ms Cecilia Nipp & Mrs Kathy Ross (Global Connections UA Dallas), Mrs Eileen Davidson (President TUS), Mrs Carol Killebrew (Principal TUS), Mrs Maria Barton (Global Connections TUS), Sr Jean Humphries (Principal AMSU Bronx), Sr Pat Schifini and the many staff who welcomed us. 

In particular we would like to thank the many host families who took the girls into their homes and hearts and provided them with so many opportunities to visit places the girls had only dreamed of.

  

France Tour 2016

Saturday 10th December 2016

Vannes to Paris

The France tour girls said goodbye to their host families and departed for Paris.

A quick overnight stopover in Paris before they depart for home.  The girls were sad to leave their host families but now are looking forward to going home and sharing their adventures with family and friends.

USA Tour 2016 - New Rochelle

Friday 9th December 2016

Radio City Music Hall

This morning the USA Tour girls boarded the school buses for the journey into the 'Big Apple" to attend the Rockettes Christmas Show at Radio City Music Hall.  

We took a different route into the city today, passing many well known sites along the way including Columbus Circle, the restaurant featured in Seinfeld, and the Juilliard School.  The line into Radio City was the length of the block, but fortunately it didn't take long to make our way into the theatre.  

The show was amazing with everything from 3D scenes, amazing dancers, fireworks, snow and a beautiful nativity scene with real animals!

We departed the theatre after the show and battled our way through the dense holiday crowds lining the streets and arrived at the Rockefeller Christmas Tree and Ice Skating.

Just a short walk from the Rockefeller Centre, we visited St Patricks Cathedral.  A beautifully restored cathedral in the heart of NYC.

The girls did a little souvenir shopping on the way to Grand Central Station for lunch and to catch the train back to The Ursuline School.

The girls will enjoy a weekend with their host families. There is much excitement in the air as possible snow has been predicted! 

France Tour 2016

Friday 9th December 2016

Vannes

Lycée Notre Dame le Ménimur Chief d'establishment, Monsieur Manual Krzyzosiak hosted a wonderful lunch to farewell the staff of St Ursula's College.  Gifts were exchanged and plans discussed for future visits.  

A cold, foggy day for our last full day in Vannes that does not mirror the warmth of the welcome and the hospitality we have received from the staff, host parents and students of Lycée Notre Dame le Ménimur.  Tomorrow we travel back to Paris in readiness for the trip home on Sunday.

_____________________________________________

The hospitality from staff, students and host families has been outstanding.  We look forward to repaying their kindness and generosity when they visit St Ursula's in February next year.  A special thanks to Monsieur Manual Krzyzosiak Chief d'establishment and Madame Véronique Gobin, Directrice adjointe for the organisation of our visit and the planning for student timetables and staff activities and homes stay for both staff and students.  Tomorrow we travel from Vannes to Paris to prepare for our flight home on Sunday.  I am sure the girls are not looking forward to the long flight, but they will be looking forward to seeing their families and sharing with them their many adventures.  Many thanks to Madame Amanda Brown and her superb organisation of this inaugural French language tour to Paris and Vannes.  Her wealth of knowledge of the sites we visited in Paris, Vannes, Nantes, Mont St Michel and Carnac certainly enhanced the enjoyment and understanding of the significance of the sites we visited.  Thank you to both Amanda and Natalie Holden for the care and support they gave our students and their assistance with the Principal and her lack of French language skills!  The student group were wonderful ambassadors for St Ursula's  and their families.  They were always co-operative, polite, and understanding of the cultural differences of travelling in a foreign country and attending a new school.  Their enthusiasm for their classes (in many cases even completing homework for Maths and Science classes and often helping their host sisters with English) was most impressive.  

-- Mrs Ann Marie Pawsey

France Tour 2016

Thursday 8th December 2016

Carnac

On Thursday the France Tour took a bus tour to Carnac.  Carnac is renowned for its Carnac Stones, an exceptionally dense collection of megalithic sites around the village of Carnac in Brittany.

Emma had the task today of sharing some information about this amazing place.

We were told that more than 3000 prehistoric standing stones were hewn from local brick and form the largest such collection in the world.  The stones were erected at some stage during the Neolithic period, probably around 3300BC, but may date as early as 4500BC.

We also had the opportunity of visiting the Musée de Préhistoire giving us another opportunity to step back into prehistoric times and find out more about these mysterious stone alignments.

USA Tour 2016

Thursday 8th December 2016

TUS Immaculate Conception Mass & The Academy of Mount St Ursula (The Bronx)

At The Ursuline School this morning the girls attended the first class before proceeding to the Gym which had been converted into a space for Mass.  The girls from Ursula's Voices joined with the students from the TUS Liturgical Choir to sing the hyms for the Mass.  After the Mass all St Ursula's girls were invited to perform 3 pieces of music for the full school assembly which included our College song "Serviam".  The songs were received with rousing applause and Serviam may well become the school song of The Ursuline School also!

The girls and their host sisters were gathered together at the front gate for photos before a quick lunch and boarding the buses to The Bronx where we visited The Academy of Mount St Ursula.  There was much excitement in the air upon our arrival with students peeking around corners, smiling and waiving.  The student representative council from all year levels joined with the USA Tour girls for a New York Pizza lunch and some social interaction.  The girls from both schools introduced themselves to the group.  This was followed by a very brief performance with both schools singing their own College song.  St Ursula's performed a number of songs to a very enthusiastic crowd. Friendships were formed immediately through their Global Ursuline connection.  

The slice of New York Pizza is as big as Ursie!

AMSU kindly opened their bookstore for the girls to purchase a sweatshirt.  These were sought after items!  There was much sadness as we had to leave and return to TUS.  The girls will spend this evening with their host families.

USA Tour 2016 - New Rochelle

Wednesday 7th December 2016

New York City - Empire State Building & 9/11 Museum

Hollie & Amelia

Today we arrived at school with our host sisters. The weather is still fairly cold but today we added fog to the equation.

To begin the day we attended the global concern class for an hour contributing to the students’ projects on third world countries. We then boarded a yellow school but for our trip into Manhattan, arriving at the Empire State Building, looking smart in our uniforms ready to perform on the 80th floor. We were greeted by a friendly face, Mrs Carrigan, and her son Dominique. We made our way up to The 80th floor elevator was the fastest one we had been in - 57 second to the 80th floor. Once we arrived we performed eight songs for all the tourists and visitors going through the building, to a rousing applause. The view wasn't great as it was quite foggy but it was still amazing to sing on the top of the Empire State Building.

After that we hit up the gift shop then boarded the yellow bus ready to fight the traffic. We all had to pull a quick change out of our uniform and into casual clothes so we could head to get lunch at Eataly - an Italian marketplace and eatery in a building on Liberty Street.

After lunch we headed to the '9/11 Museum'. The first thing we saw was the enormous reflection pool that was placed as a memorial of where the first tower stood. After spending some time taking it all in we went into the museum that is built from the area of where the second tower stood. The experience within the museum is indescribable - it is something you have to experience for yourself at least once in your life. It was a very sombre an extremely emotional experience.

After visiting the gift shop we left the museum and headed back to meet the bus. On the way home we started ‘photo air drop mayhem’ between all our phones and singing some of our favourite old songs; a fun way to pass the time while sitting in New York City traffic.

That night we all had a get together with our host sisters at Mara's house to watch the live production of ‘Hairspray’ on TV and have a pizza dinner together. This was also a chance to get to know all of the girls hosting and was definitely a highlight of the day.

This morning the USA Tour girls attended home class and first lesson with the TUS students.  

Afterwards we all boarded the yellow school bus and headed to NYC for our performance at the Empire State Building.

The girls on the 80th Floor of the Empire State Building ready for their performance.

A sneak peek at their performance!  They sounded so beautiful and had people stopping to listen.

Afterwards we made our way to the 86th Floor Open Air Observation Deck.

Ursie was very excited to be up so high!

France Tour 2016

Wednesday 7th December 2016


Mont St Michel

Today the France Tour girls toured Mont St Michel.  Mrs Brown told them that this would be an absolutely "inoubliable" experience and from the time Mont St Michel appeared through the windows of the tour bus, it certainly lived up to expectations.  A very impressive backdrop for this photo of Stefanie, Tara and Kate.

Mont St Michel is an island community in Normandy about one kilometre off the country's north west coast, at the mouth of the Couesnon River. It is about 100 hectares in size. 

 Mrs Pawsey and the group begin the journey to the top of the stairs.

Time for a break...

And at last the view from the top!

This island has held strategic fortifications since ancient times and since the 8th Century has been the site of a monastery from which it draws it name.  The strategic composition of the town exemplifies feudal society - at the top God, the monastery and the abbey, below the great halls, then housing outside the walls for the fishermen and farmers.

Of course Ursie enjoyed it too!

USA Tour 2016 - New Rochelle

6th December 2016


New York City - The Big Apple!

Mrs Collins

It was a chilli morning to set out on our train ride into Manhattan. There were a lot of smiles and butterflies of excitement in anticipation of the Big Apple. After working out the ticketing machine at Crestwood Station, we all boarded the express into Grand Central. On arrival, all phones were immediately out to take photos of the beautiful building. We went downstairs and were told stand in opposite corners of a section of the hall, then spoke and could hear the other side as clear as they were standing next to us – the mystery ‘Whispering Wall’ of Grand Central Station was an unexpected surprise and just one of the hidden treasures of this fabulous city.

We exited the station – straight onto 42^nd Street! Walking towards Time Square, via Bryant Park and the ice skating rink, to validate our passes and catch the Hop-on-Hop-Off Bus, we had to pinch ourselves - we were actually in New York City, especially when we crossed Broadway! We trusted google and sought out where ‘Hamilton’ was being performed (at the Richard Rogers Theatre) and followed the map to 46^th Street. There may have been some tears shed and much singing in front of the doors of the theatre.

Our bus tour with added commentary took us all the way to the Battery Park, via famous landmarks – many found that iPhones definitely need a larger hard drive to hold all the photos and video! Before embarking our ferry to the Statue of Liberty, there were some very close encounters with squirrels in the park and some miserly bargaining of souvenir t-shirts with a sidewalk vendor. But the highlight was definitely seeing the Statue of Liberty up close plus learning about the history of the iconic landmark. Even Mr Dwan had his phone out to take photos – a rare occurrence, so we knew we were in the presence of something special.

After a trek back to the bus, suffering through New York traffic and walking a few kilometres back to Grand Central Station, we boarded the train back to arrive at Crestwood Station in the rain where some girls where picked up by host families and others to be generously transported by the cute yellow school buses of The Ursuline School back to campus. We look forward to singing at The Empire State Building tomorrow and are preparing ourselves for the emotional visit to the 9/11 Museum.