Day Three in Boise Idaho

Today I went and visited three schools.  The first one was in Homedale.  It was a small town with a single street main road, a bit like Heathcote.  The school was very interesting.  Sport and Gridion are a major part of the culture and that is evident in the schools.  Homedale had the Trojans as their football team. The schools seem a lot poorer than ours.  There were not many computers and those that were there were much older than anything we would have in Australian schools.  The students were very nice. 

Homedale

The next stop was Cossa school in Wilder.  It was a brand new school and very nice.  It was a technical school and was only built 2 months ago.  The students do things such as building trades and nursing.  The students build a house everyy year which they sell.  A house sells for $40-50,000 dollars and blocks of land for @$5000!  The beginning teachers wage is $30,000 and tops out at $50,000!  We went for lunch at a place aclled Parma which was very empoverished and looked rundown. 

Cossa School

Fancy Number plates!

The next school was Nosta school which was also very interesting.  the whole school has a pirate theme to fit in with their football team!

Typical School Bus

A Pirate seat!

I went to Wal-Mart which is like Big W and Safeway combined.  Prices were not that cheap though.  The sporting goods had an amazing array of things in it.

I went for a walk when I got back and took some more photos of the Capital Building.

Day two in Boise.

Today I got up early to watch the sune rise over the Rockies.  I was up at 6.00 and there were people scraping the ice  off their windscreens.  It was very chilly!  I went for a bit of a wander and saw the government house building which is really quite imposing.  The sun didnt rise until around 7.30! I also saw some A-10 army warplanes flying over town.  Apparently they come from the air base in the mountains and is a pretty common occurance.  I am still getting used to the people driving on the wrong side of the road and having the steering wheel on the opposite side.  Their money is hard to manage and tipping is pretty hard to work out.  Breakfast was a high fat, high sugar occasion.  Fruit Loop and waffles are pretty normal apparently.  I had an omlette which was nice.  I didnt touch the sausage gravy though.  that looked really yuck! We went to Idaho Virtual Learning Academyand I presented there.  It was very interesting.  Then we came home and went vout for dinner.  It is cold and rainy right now and the forecast is for snow overnight, which will be exciting tommorow if it happens.  Tommorow we are going to visit three schools.  I hope to get a phot of a school bus, which look exactly like they do in the movies! Below are some photos from my day.

Early Morning Boise

Government House

A streetscape

Another Streetscape

Just before sunrise (Rocky mountains in the background)

Me presenting at the IVLA

The Virtual Learning Academy.  - we went for a ride in those vans!

Video Clip featuring the Journey Over!

I am sitting here in the motel foyer in Boise by the window watching the traffic go by.  it is taking a while to upload the video

In America at last!

Checking in at Melbourne

The plane we caught to sydney




My view of San Fransisco- from the airport!



Boise Idaho- the Rockies are in the background



The Boise Motel





It has taken three flights and 25 hours, but at last I have made it  to Boise in Idaho.  It is 7 degrees and sunny.  Here are some pictures from the trip. The flight was long and very cramped. The security checks were extensive.  I got swiped and frisked twice in Australia and in San Francisco, I had to remove my shoes and belt before going into the x-ray machine. The United Airlines plane from San Francisco was a United Airline plane and very rough inside.  Boise is an interesting town.  There doesn't seem to be many people around the streets even though the population is @ 400,000!   The locals find it difficult to undersand our accents, but are very nice and friendly.  The meals are very cheap and very big.  A meal that would cost abuout $25 in Australia is about $10 here.The locals tell us that the economic downturn is hurting buisiness and people are not spending their money.  Maybe that is why it is so quiet. The town is very flat and much of it looks very new.  There is a lovely old domed building that I hope to look at in the next few days.  Appaently there isn't too much to do in the way of tourist attractions, apart from travel around in the mountains.  Ski season is a major feature here.  American Gridiron seems to be very popular.  Every building I have been in to seems to have it on the television.  It doen't seem to be a very multicultural town, it reminds be a bit if Bendigo in that respect. The airport is very large, much bigger than expected.  Tommorow we are going to the Virtual Learning Academy to see how it runs and also to talk to them about the Ultranet.  I should sleep well tonight!

Saturday - thinking about packing!

Here is one item that I won't be taking!

We take off from Bendigo at 7.10 a.m.  Let's hope that the recent Qantas mechanical failures don't hold us up.