Australia Study Tour

For this tour you will need a decent digital camera. A small pocket sized point and shoot type is fine, but a cell phone camera will be unacceptable. If you have any questions about this, please contact Mr. Show.

Also, don't worry about filling up your memory card. Mr. Show will be bringing his laptop computer and plenty of CDs so that every evening you will have the opportunity to download your memory card onto CD.

Some have asked if this tour is just for fun or if it will be academic in nature. Let me be clear, this is a study tour. Our focus will be on Australian Biology (plants and animals), Australian culture and history, and photography. I plan to finalize the details this weekend, but you should expect to do the following:

• Keep a journal of your experiences
  
• Make a scrap book to 'tell the story' of your trip
  
• Write two short reports
  
• Take lots of pictures
  

We expect to give 5 units of elective credit for this tour.

In our last entry I accidentally said that we would return on April 20. That of course is impossible because that would be before we left! We will return on April 30.

Mr. Show and Ms. Ke just finished meeting with the travel agents who are helping to arrange the details. They are making some revisions to our itinerary and will get back to us on the final cost. Due to limited options on flights from Taipei to Sydney, our trip is going to be 9 days. We will leave on Sunday April 22 and return Monday April 20.

We are estimating at this point the total cost per student will be about NT 70,000. This sounds like allot but, it includes ALL expenses (meals, hotel, transportation, tours, etc.). That means that the only extra money a student will need is spending money for shopping.

As soon as we have the final cost, we'll post it here.

Welcome to the blog for TAPA's Australia study tour! Mr. Show and Miss Ke are working hard to make this an educational and fun tour.

Here's what we know right now (keep checking back for updates because any of this information can change):

• We will leave on Sunday April 22, 2007

• We will return on Sunday April 29, 2007

• Our focus will be Sydney Australia with a day trip to the Blue Mountains

• Places we plan visit include: Sydney opera house, Sydney tower, Taronga Zoo, Sydney Aquarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Australian Museum, and much more!

• Academically we will focus on three areas: Biology, Australian history and culture, and photography

• We plan to have this trip approved for 5 credits toward your diploma

• The cost will be NT 65,000 - 75,000. We hope to keep it under NT 70,000.