Hey there, parents and teachers!

As you can probably tell by the fact that this email is being sent to you, all of us have arrived safe and sound in Vietnam.  We are currently at the Nam Long Hotel (which may also be the Saigon Sports 5 Hotel, it says all kinds of different things on the window!), where we first touched base yesterday.

Here's a brief outline of our intrepid adventures so far:

Team One: Day 1 in VIETNAM

After prizegiving, we congregated in the canteen until it was time for us to leave for the airport. We divvied up the group equipment (which included smoke alarms, throw ropes, and emergency foil blankets), ordered pizza for dinner - our last Western food for a while! - and talked further about our group roles. We also met Alan Haslip (our expedition leader) for the first time in person.

We were all too tired to notice much of the 10-hour plane flight, so before we knew it, we had landed in Singapore Airport. We met up with Team 2 (the other expedition team, of course) and said our goodbyes to them. We had to board our connecting flight to Vietnam pretty quickly, but they had a five-hour stopover at the airport before their flight to Cambodia took off.

The Singapore-Vietnam flight was notably shorter - only 2 hours - but we were fully awake for this, and spent most of the flight talking. Thanks to a copy of OK! Magazine, the boys learnt how to perfect their 'faux glow' (fake tans), and the girls discovered that Kim Kardashian is no use as a style model! :)

Even on that flight, some of us were still a little disbelieving about the fact that this was actually happening - that a group of 15 to 18-year-old high school students were setting out to backpack around Vietnam and Cambodia for 21 days. But we are, evidently... where else would we find lizards just outside our hotel?

After leaving the airport in Vietnam, we had our first taste of driving and road rules in such a country:
1) The majority of the population gets from A to B on scooters or motorbikes.
2) As pedestrians, we walk when we want to and cross the road where we please - the drivers just weave in and out of us.
3) Cars are quite rare, but buses and taxi-vans are common enough.
4) Can I just emphasize the fact that there are SO MANY SCOOTERS in this country?!! They're everywhere!
5) There is no obvious 'middle' of the road, but there IS a fine line between 'this way' and 'that way'.
6) You can carry anything you like on your scooter, including fridges (I actually have video evidence of this).

Our hotel has a Christmas tree up, as well as various decorations around the place. Even the planes we took had Christmas decorations between the windows! Everyone here seems to be getting into the festive mood, so we're not missing out on any of the festive cheer. The temperature here is about 30 degrees Centigrade, so there's no chance of us freezing - melting is more likely!

Wednesday's dinner was quite unusual - for one, we ate at around 4pm Vietnam time, and secondly... it wasn't at all what we're used to. The rice was pretty standard, but the frog and sparrow definitely weren't. We all agreed, however, that it tasted delicious! After some of us had tried chillis (bad idea!), we headed off to a park where our in-country agent Khoa told us some important things about the country and trip.

We had a 'second dinner' much later, at around 7pm, because most of us were still peckish. We were also going to visit the night markets, but our level of fatigue outweighed our level of excitement at last, and we all trudged back to our hotel and fell asleep as soon as we hit the beds.

See our Day 2 in Vietnam

Thirty-two students and four teachers are undertaking a World Challenge expedition to Vietnam and Cambodia for three weeks these holidays. The group are divided into two teams, with Team One travelling to Vietnam first and then into Cambodia and Team Two beginning their expedition in Cambodia before travelling to Vietnam. Join us as we follow their journey. 


Team Two: First Day in CAMBODIA

Just arrived in Cambodia Siem Reap - pretty hot! We had a 7 hour stop-over in Singapore airport. We just had dinner at the place we are staying.

Some gheckos fell on our head. Tomorrow we are having a "planning day" where we plan our trip to Angkor Wat which is the next day!! Today we saved $140 because we are amazing budgeters ;)

It's 9.00 at night and it's 30 degrees still. Everyone's knackered so we better go crash.

G''night, love and miss you all.

It’s that time of year again, when everybody comes together to help raise money and awareness for the Breast Cancer foundation. ACG Strathallan has once again celebrated this worthy cause by putting on a Pink Breakfast.

The Pink Breakfast has now become a tradition at Strathallan. It has been running for over 5 years and Strathallan students, teachers and parents come along wearing all shades of pink. This event was also combined with a mufti day for Strathallan students, and over $1000 was raised in both events. We were also  entertained by musical performances from college and primary school students, which were a huge success.

Year 9 student, Aimee Bebbington entered the 2012 ICAS Writing Competition and achieved a High Distinction. Here is her submission:

She sat by the glass portal of her window, the world cascading by before her eyes, much like her shattered life. Her hands, so fragile and cold, like the fingers of the first frost that winter sends out over the land. Elbow pressed against the chilled metal shell of the bus, the woman hid her troubled soul behind the mask of a faint smile- a face that deceived. Memories, odious and somber, slid like shadows over the pale grey flowers of her eyes. They were sly, quick-footed thoughts, pressing in from all around, until she no longer heard the thunderous roll of the bus, nor the sonorous words of the man across the aisle. To the world she was deaf.
The woman's hair was tied back neatly, in stark contrast with her unthoughtful and wayward dress: dark cotton trousers and a shirt that threatened to smother her frail figure.
Now the memories were coursing through her with all the speed of the bus inside which she was jailed; she could no longer control her destination. The shadow of a smile fixed to her countenance faltered. Her lips quivered. A lone tear trickled from her eye, marring the smooth canvas of her skin. The wounds of the past were raw in her heart. The arm that held her face to the clouds shook violently, then collapsed. The woman's head fell to her chest, and sobs wracked her body.
What was to become of her?

By Aimee Bebbington

Mary Laing: Winner of the ACG Strathallan 2012 Talent Quest, Mary LaingThe highly anticipated Talent Quest finals this year proved to be huge success. The high calibre of performances during the heats throughout the week made it a very difficult task for the judges to choose the finalists that would perform on Friday in the final. Needless to say, everyone was delighted to have shorter class periods to make time for the show and by the time lunch time came everyone flooded into the gym to get the best seats in the house.