Friday
I woke up this morning ready to begin my packing. I got up and went for an hour and a half walk around the beach and a park. When I got back, I made myself buttermilk pancakes and had a leisurely breakfast. Around 10:30AM, I went down to the beach and ended up staying there for about three hours. Needless to say, I got a little burnt. I came home, made a quick lunch and began my packing and cleaning. I wanted to leave the house especially clean for Len and Heather since they are away on a holiday right now. I got quite a bit done, when Kit (their son) said, “How about some afternoon goodbye cocktails?” So, we ended up having a drink while he did some work and I packed.
We had invited John and Hazel over for dinner, so they came around seven. We had a wonderful pasta meal and a couple glasses of wine. Around 10PM we headed for the airport. My flight left at 12:45 at night. I was actually able to sleep through the night on the plane. I’m now in Sydney’s international airport awaiting my flight across the world to Los Angeles. Making the trek from the domestic airport to the international one was not too much fun with about 100 lbs of luggage.
Saturday, April 11
The day that just wouldn’t end. I started the day on the plane from Perth to Sydney. When I got to Sydney I had a huge hassle with checking in, but I eventually made it. After sitting in the Sydney airport for nearly seven hours, I’d had just about enough airport to last me for a while. Then came the 13.5-hour fight to Los Angeles. I was able to sleep most of the flight, but it was still a long time to be cooped up in a window seat. When the plane landed in LA, I only had about forty minutes to get my luggage, go through customs, and find my new gate in one of the domestic terminals. I ended up jogging through the airport and getting to my departing flight as they were making the last call. That flight was about two hours long and it took me to Denver. Once in Denver, I had a layover for about two hours and then I boarded my last flight home. The final leg of my journey was about three hours long and took me back into Columbus. I got in around 10PM, and the whole family was there to greet me! I was awfully tired, but I was back at home at last.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
The Last Day of School
Wednesday
I started packing up some things at school today. I had a lot to carry out with presents from the kids. They had a “surprise” party for me today at lunch. The boys brought in savory foods, and the girls brought in sweets. We had a really nice spread of food, and it was all very good. Because of the party, the whole day was chaotic. The students also brought in their technology & enterprise projects in today. They built one ride or attraction from their theme park, so we had a show and tell today.
Tonight, the staff had a going-away party for me at Jimmy Dean’s restaurant. It was really nice. We all had a couple glasses of wine and a good meal. There were some other parties there who were celebrating birthdays. After the third birthday celebration, the staff thought it would be funny to tell the server that it was my birthday. They played a “happy birthday” song for me and gave me an ice cream sundae. Ashleigh and Simon were there, as well as Brett and Bobbie, Rob, Jen, Gavin & Christine, and about ten others. Kit took me and picked me up so that I didn’t have to worry about what I drank.
Thursday
Today was the last day of school. It’s really hard to believe that it’s all over, and it certainly doesn’t feel like I’ve been here for three months. We had a very relaxed day at school with very little planned for the day. They had an A.N.Z.A.C. Day ceremony at the end of school (it’s kind of their Memorial Day). We just finished up some odds and ends and played a few games with the kids. They played Capture the Flag in the afternoon, which they all love to play.
Some of the girls had a hard time at the end of the day with me leaving. It’s funny how much they get attached to their teachers. They really didn’t want me to go and were crying quite a lot. I got loads of chocolates today—too bad I can’t eat them all before I have to go. At the end of the day, we had a couple beers in the staff room. I had to say goodbye to everyone. It didn’t hit me as hard today as on Tuesday morning, but it is very sad to think that I’ll never see them again. Several staff members and students got me gifts, which were all very nice. I’m the new owner of quite a few new stuffed animals.
On the way home today, I stopped in at a bottle shop and bought Len and Heather a couple bottles of nice wine for my parting gift. Since I’ve been home, I just have been resting and packing for tomorrow. It’s surprising how much crap I’ve accumulated since I’ve been here. One sleep left!
I started packing up some things at school today. I had a lot to carry out with presents from the kids. They had a “surprise” party for me today at lunch. The boys brought in savory foods, and the girls brought in sweets. We had a really nice spread of food, and it was all very good. Because of the party, the whole day was chaotic. The students also brought in their technology & enterprise projects in today. They built one ride or attraction from their theme park, so we had a show and tell today.
Tonight, the staff had a going-away party for me at Jimmy Dean’s restaurant. It was really nice. We all had a couple glasses of wine and a good meal. There were some other parties there who were celebrating birthdays. After the third birthday celebration, the staff thought it would be funny to tell the server that it was my birthday. They played a “happy birthday” song for me and gave me an ice cream sundae. Ashleigh and Simon were there, as well as Brett and Bobbie, Rob, Jen, Gavin & Christine, and about ten others. Kit took me and picked me up so that I didn’t have to worry about what I drank.
Thursday
Today was the last day of school. It’s really hard to believe that it’s all over, and it certainly doesn’t feel like I’ve been here for three months. We had a very relaxed day at school with very little planned for the day. They had an A.N.Z.A.C. Day ceremony at the end of school (it’s kind of their Memorial Day). We just finished up some odds and ends and played a few games with the kids. They played Capture the Flag in the afternoon, which they all love to play.
Some of the girls had a hard time at the end of the day with me leaving. It’s funny how much they get attached to their teachers. They really didn’t want me to go and were crying quite a lot. I got loads of chocolates today—too bad I can’t eat them all before I have to go. At the end of the day, we had a couple beers in the staff room. I had to say goodbye to everyone. It didn’t hit me as hard today as on Tuesday morning, but it is very sad to think that I’ll never see them again. Several staff members and students got me gifts, which were all very nice. I’m the new owner of quite a few new stuffed animals.
On the way home today, I stopped in at a bottle shop and bought Len and Heather a couple bottles of nice wine for my parting gift. Since I’ve been home, I just have been resting and packing for tomorrow. It’s surprising how much crap I’ve accumulated since I’ve been here. One sleep left!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
The Beginning of the End
Monday, April 6th
Well, today marked the beginning of the end. It was my last Monday at school. The kids worked well all day. We went to “buddies”, which happens every Monday and Friday. My students have year one buddies. My students had made them an Easter basket as a math activity, and Frank got them tiny chocolate eggs to put in the basket. Every buddy partner group worked perfectly except one. Robbie decided to eat his buddy’s eggs out of his basket. That really made me mad, so he got a good talking to when I got a hold of him.
After school today, I flew off to get changed and meet Katy. We hopped in the car and headed down to Freo. We just walked around the shops for a little while. Freo is kind of like an upscale, hippie town. We headed back for home around 6, and Mel had dinner for us at Katy’s house at 6:30. Tonight was Katy’s last night here; she flies out tomorrow. We had a really nice, long dinner with a couple glasses of wine. Johno unexpectedly showed up with some souvenirs and stayed for a while to chat. I ended up spending the night with Katy. It was good to spend time with her host family one last time.
Tuesday
I woke up this morning and Mel made us mango smoothies for brekky. I also had some of Katy’s gooey butter cake (apparently it’s a St. Louis thing). I said all of my goodbyes and headed off to school. I’ve only been here a short time, but it’s surprising how close that I’ve gotten with Katy and her family. It was really sad to think that it’s all over. I got to school and had a fairly good day.
Since it is the end of the term, we are basically just having the kids finish up whatever projects that they have. They have a big project due tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see what the kids come up with to turn in. After school today, I headed straight to the beach. I changed at the restrooms at the beach enjoyed the sunshine for an hour or so this afternoon. I came home and baked cookies for a couple hours. I made chocolate chip cookies and no-bakes for everyone at school. I made some into thank you gifts and some to share with my students. I also packed as much as I could after doing my laundry tonight—the bags are getting awfully heavy! Three days left!
Well, today marked the beginning of the end. It was my last Monday at school. The kids worked well all day. We went to “buddies”, which happens every Monday and Friday. My students have year one buddies. My students had made them an Easter basket as a math activity, and Frank got them tiny chocolate eggs to put in the basket. Every buddy partner group worked perfectly except one. Robbie decided to eat his buddy’s eggs out of his basket. That really made me mad, so he got a good talking to when I got a hold of him.
After school today, I flew off to get changed and meet Katy. We hopped in the car and headed down to Freo. We just walked around the shops for a little while. Freo is kind of like an upscale, hippie town. We headed back for home around 6, and Mel had dinner for us at Katy’s house at 6:30. Tonight was Katy’s last night here; she flies out tomorrow. We had a really nice, long dinner with a couple glasses of wine. Johno unexpectedly showed up with some souvenirs and stayed for a while to chat. I ended up spending the night with Katy. It was good to spend time with her host family one last time.
Tuesday
I woke up this morning and Mel made us mango smoothies for brekky. I also had some of Katy’s gooey butter cake (apparently it’s a St. Louis thing). I said all of my goodbyes and headed off to school. I’ve only been here a short time, but it’s surprising how close that I’ve gotten with Katy and her family. It was really sad to think that it’s all over. I got to school and had a fairly good day.
Since it is the end of the term, we are basically just having the kids finish up whatever projects that they have. They have a big project due tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see what the kids come up with to turn in. After school today, I headed straight to the beach. I changed at the restrooms at the beach enjoyed the sunshine for an hour or so this afternoon. I came home and baked cookies for a couple hours. I made chocolate chip cookies and no-bakes for everyone at school. I made some into thank you gifts and some to share with my students. I also packed as much as I could after doing my laundry tonight—the bags are getting awfully heavy! Three days left!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Last Weekend
Thursday
I skipped my run this morning to get a few odds and ins done. Heather took me to school again. Not much happened today except that I brought pumpkin pie and whipped cream in for some of the teachers for morning tea. They really enjoyed it.
I came home and went for a short walk after school. I ended up watching a few hours of TV (something that I haven’t done much of) and relaxing. At 8:30PM, Katy and I headed to Warwick to the movies. We saw Confessions of a Shopaholic, which was good, but still very predictable.
Friday
I had my run this morning, but after my run, I felt very sick. I’m not sure if it was my asthma or something else, but my lungs/stomach felt funny. My stomach continued to hurt all day even throughout the evening. Today was the best day at school yet. We had seven kids away including two of the lowest/worst behaving children. We got loads of work accomplished, so we let the kids finish watching Remember the Titans in the afternoon. For sport today, I was in charge of volleyball, and lets just say that it was far from normal volleyball. There are about ten kids on each team, and they really don’t have a clue on how to play properly. We did have a lot of fun though.
After school, we stayed around for a couple drinks with the staff, and Brett took me home. I took a nap out by the pool when I got home. Tonight was the barbeque at John’s house. Heather and Len got home late, but we made it to John’s by 7ish. It was wonderful! We just laughed and talked about all sorts of things for over three hours! The other two COST students were there (both from Ohio) with their host families. I still felt really sick throughout dinner and even before bed. I was possibly going to go out with Katy and the boys after the dinner, but I just felt awful.
Tomorrow is my last Saturday! Len and I are going to go shopping, and the in the evening, Heather, Len and I are going to Kit’s play.
Saturday
I woke up this morning with the same pains in my stomach as yesterday. It was horrible. We were going to have pancakes for brekky, but I just couldn’t stomach them. Around 8:30AM, Len and I headed out for the shops. We shopped (strictly grocery shopped) until three o’clock. We went all over the area to about four towns. Len mainly only shops at small specialty gourmet shops, so he has a route set out every Saturday. We had lots of fun and took our time to enjoy some coffee and cakes throughout the day. When we were at a coffee shop, I saw my very first eyewitness motorcycle crash. Everyone turned out to be alright, but it was shocking. A car turned out in front of a motorcycle at a car park entrance. The motorcycle smashed right into the passenger side door of the car. It’s a good thing that the motorcycle wasn’t going very fast, or I’m afraid that it would not have ended so nicely.
When we got home, we just did some odds and ends around the house until dinner. We had eggplant Parmesan, which was delicious, but was bad news for my stomach. I became very nauseous right after I ate and almost didn’t go to the play. We did eventually head out to Kit’s play, Frankenstein, though. It was an interesting play with only four actors who all played multiple parts. I was so miserable sitting through it with my stomach pains, that I really don’t remember much of it at all. After the play, we came straight home. Len and Heather had some small cakes that we got at the French Patisserie, so I tried one as well—still not a good idea, my stomach was still very upset. I felt so bad that I just went to bed.
Sunday
This morning was wonderful! I woke up with very few stomach pains. We were going to do a bbq on the beach, but we changed our plans. We ended up on deciding that we were going to have pancakes, but Heather and I would still go feed the birds. So, Heather and I hopped in the car and went off to the market. We bought some fruits and veggies, but most importantly, we bout sunflower seeds. We then drove to a park with a big lake near the city of Joondalup. We held some bird seed out in our hands, and the parrots came down out of the trees, sat on our arms and ate the sunflower seeds! Yes, I had wild parrots sitting on my arms eating sunflower seeds out of my hands. I had the twenty-eights and the galahs—two of each. I also saw a black swan and huge white duck down by the lake.
After we did that, we came home to coconut pancakes with bananas and passionfruit syrup. I did some grading of homework while Len and Heather packed. Kit and I dropped them off at the airport. They left for England today to go visit Len’s brother for his 60th birthday. After Kit and I took them to the airport, we went to their friend, Neval’s, home. We had a light lunch and then walked to the footy game. The West Coast Eagles played Port Adelaide today. The game was so interesting. It’s ‘Australian Rules Football’ and is a cross between soccer, rugby and football. I had Ben Cousin’s ticket, which is the best player in the league. His father sells his member tickets to Len every year. The Eagles won!
I’ve just been relaxing and baking since we got back home. I’m going over to Katy’s host family’s house tomorrow, and I’m going to take them some cookies—which meant that I had to bake them tonight.
I skipped my run this morning to get a few odds and ins done. Heather took me to school again. Not much happened today except that I brought pumpkin pie and whipped cream in for some of the teachers for morning tea. They really enjoyed it.
I came home and went for a short walk after school. I ended up watching a few hours of TV (something that I haven’t done much of) and relaxing. At 8:30PM, Katy and I headed to Warwick to the movies. We saw Confessions of a Shopaholic, which was good, but still very predictable.
Friday
I had my run this morning, but after my run, I felt very sick. I’m not sure if it was my asthma or something else, but my lungs/stomach felt funny. My stomach continued to hurt all day even throughout the evening. Today was the best day at school yet. We had seven kids away including two of the lowest/worst behaving children. We got loads of work accomplished, so we let the kids finish watching Remember the Titans in the afternoon. For sport today, I was in charge of volleyball, and lets just say that it was far from normal volleyball. There are about ten kids on each team, and they really don’t have a clue on how to play properly. We did have a lot of fun though.
After school, we stayed around for a couple drinks with the staff, and Brett took me home. I took a nap out by the pool when I got home. Tonight was the barbeque at John’s house. Heather and Len got home late, but we made it to John’s by 7ish. It was wonderful! We just laughed and talked about all sorts of things for over three hours! The other two COST students were there (both from Ohio) with their host families. I still felt really sick throughout dinner and even before bed. I was possibly going to go out with Katy and the boys after the dinner, but I just felt awful.
Tomorrow is my last Saturday! Len and I are going to go shopping, and the in the evening, Heather, Len and I are going to Kit’s play.
Saturday
I woke up this morning with the same pains in my stomach as yesterday. It was horrible. We were going to have pancakes for brekky, but I just couldn’t stomach them. Around 8:30AM, Len and I headed out for the shops. We shopped (strictly grocery shopped) until three o’clock. We went all over the area to about four towns. Len mainly only shops at small specialty gourmet shops, so he has a route set out every Saturday. We had lots of fun and took our time to enjoy some coffee and cakes throughout the day. When we were at a coffee shop, I saw my very first eyewitness motorcycle crash. Everyone turned out to be alright, but it was shocking. A car turned out in front of a motorcycle at a car park entrance. The motorcycle smashed right into the passenger side door of the car. It’s a good thing that the motorcycle wasn’t going very fast, or I’m afraid that it would not have ended so nicely.
When we got home, we just did some odds and ends around the house until dinner. We had eggplant Parmesan, which was delicious, but was bad news for my stomach. I became very nauseous right after I ate and almost didn’t go to the play. We did eventually head out to Kit’s play, Frankenstein, though. It was an interesting play with only four actors who all played multiple parts. I was so miserable sitting through it with my stomach pains, that I really don’t remember much of it at all. After the play, we came straight home. Len and Heather had some small cakes that we got at the French Patisserie, so I tried one as well—still not a good idea, my stomach was still very upset. I felt so bad that I just went to bed.
Sunday
This morning was wonderful! I woke up with very few stomach pains. We were going to do a bbq on the beach, but we changed our plans. We ended up on deciding that we were going to have pancakes, but Heather and I would still go feed the birds. So, Heather and I hopped in the car and went off to the market. We bought some fruits and veggies, but most importantly, we bout sunflower seeds. We then drove to a park with a big lake near the city of Joondalup. We held some bird seed out in our hands, and the parrots came down out of the trees, sat on our arms and ate the sunflower seeds! Yes, I had wild parrots sitting on my arms eating sunflower seeds out of my hands. I had the twenty-eights and the galahs—two of each. I also saw a black swan and huge white duck down by the lake.
After we did that, we came home to coconut pancakes with bananas and passionfruit syrup. I did some grading of homework while Len and Heather packed. Kit and I dropped them off at the airport. They left for England today to go visit Len’s brother for his 60th birthday. After Kit and I took them to the airport, we went to their friend, Neval’s, home. We had a light lunch and then walked to the footy game. The West Coast Eagles played Port Adelaide today. The game was so interesting. It’s ‘Australian Rules Football’ and is a cross between soccer, rugby and football. I had Ben Cousin’s ticket, which is the best player in the league. His father sells his member tickets to Len every year. The Eagles won!
I’ve just been relaxing and baking since we got back home. I’m going over to Katy’s host family’s house tomorrow, and I’m going to take them some cookies—which meant that I had to bake them tonight.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Week 9
Monday
The students had another bad start to the week. I’m not sure what it is, but Mondays are awful in our classroom. Students become very loud and unruly. We did have fun in science today though. I had brought some pennies, nickels and dimes with me to give to my students. We took pennies and tried making them shinny again by using different liquids (lemon juice, milk, coke, apple juice and water). The students loved doing the experiment and were extremely excited about getting to keep the money.
Heather had let me drive to school today so that I could run to the shops after school. On Wednesday, my students and I are going to make ice cream as another science project, so I needed to pick up the ingredients. I need the ingredients for some cookies too, because I’m giving cookies as most of my thank you gifts. I am also going to cook dinner for Len and Heather on Wednesday as a thank you celebration before I go. I headed straight to Woolworths after school. I ended up coming out only $130 poorer than when I went in.
Tonight, I just stayed at home. Len, Heather, Kit, Hannah and I had a really nice dinner together. I had a wonderful evening relaxing at home and trying to get a few things in order for the trip home.
Tuesday
Today flew by. The students worked very well today, and we got a lot accomplished. We finished off the penny activity from yesterday and started our write up of our ice cream lab. We’ll hopefully be making ice cream tomorrow afternoon. Brett had a meeting until five today, so I decided to catch the bus home. When I got home, I took a walk down to Hillary’s harbor. It’s an area along the beach with shops and cafes. After a stroll down there, I walked home again.
I decided to make my pumpkin pies for tomorrow’s dinner. Well… I should have waited until tomorrow. It was a complete and utter disaster. First off, I don’t think Australia has a single can of cooked pumpkin; therefore, I had to make the pumpkin pie by first cooking down and mashing the pumpkin. This normally wouldn’t be too hard, but I decided to use the processor to mash it up. I didn’t get the lid on tight enough, so I ended up with pumpkin exploding all over the kitchen and me. After I had changed clothes and mopped the floor, counter and walls, I was able to pour the pie batter into the shells. The only shells that the store had were flan shells. Little did I know, but this must mean that the shells leak, so I ended up with mix, once again, all over the kitchen. I got two pies into the oven, but when I pushed the tray in, the pies splattered all over the tray. Now, I have burnt pie filling on the oven tray, which is going to be a blast to clean up. Let’s just say that what should have taken two hours took about four, and I ended up with pumpkin pies that look like puffy egg casseroles.
Wednesday, April 1
Today was extremely fun! Before school, I put the roast in the crock-pot and started it cooking. At school, we had a wonderful morning. The students worked great before recess. After recess, Brett and Ashleigh took the year 7s to talk to them about their NAPLAN testing (their standardized testing). I took Ashleigh’s year 6s, and we designed new covers for their class novels. After lunch, I zipped off to the store (Heather graciously let me take their car!) to the petrol station. I had to get some bags of ice, because this afternoon all of the year seven students made ice cream with me as a science project. It was wonderful! The students really enjoyed it, and after I talked about what happened, they seemed to have actually learned something from it.
Tonight was the night for my dinner. I had everything ready to go when Heather got home from work. It all turned out well, except for the potatoes, which could have used a little more cooking. They loved it. AND… my pumpkin pies actually turned out pretty good! They weren’t the best in the world, but most definitely edible. I’m just finishing ups some schoolwork and heading to bed for the night. I feel a little tired after today’s events.
The students had another bad start to the week. I’m not sure what it is, but Mondays are awful in our classroom. Students become very loud and unruly. We did have fun in science today though. I had brought some pennies, nickels and dimes with me to give to my students. We took pennies and tried making them shinny again by using different liquids (lemon juice, milk, coke, apple juice and water). The students loved doing the experiment and were extremely excited about getting to keep the money.
Heather had let me drive to school today so that I could run to the shops after school. On Wednesday, my students and I are going to make ice cream as another science project, so I needed to pick up the ingredients. I need the ingredients for some cookies too, because I’m giving cookies as most of my thank you gifts. I am also going to cook dinner for Len and Heather on Wednesday as a thank you celebration before I go. I headed straight to Woolworths after school. I ended up coming out only $130 poorer than when I went in.
Tonight, I just stayed at home. Len, Heather, Kit, Hannah and I had a really nice dinner together. I had a wonderful evening relaxing at home and trying to get a few things in order for the trip home.
Tuesday
Today flew by. The students worked very well today, and we got a lot accomplished. We finished off the penny activity from yesterday and started our write up of our ice cream lab. We’ll hopefully be making ice cream tomorrow afternoon. Brett had a meeting until five today, so I decided to catch the bus home. When I got home, I took a walk down to Hillary’s harbor. It’s an area along the beach with shops and cafes. After a stroll down there, I walked home again.
I decided to make my pumpkin pies for tomorrow’s dinner. Well… I should have waited until tomorrow. It was a complete and utter disaster. First off, I don’t think Australia has a single can of cooked pumpkin; therefore, I had to make the pumpkin pie by first cooking down and mashing the pumpkin. This normally wouldn’t be too hard, but I decided to use the processor to mash it up. I didn’t get the lid on tight enough, so I ended up with pumpkin exploding all over the kitchen and me. After I had changed clothes and mopped the floor, counter and walls, I was able to pour the pie batter into the shells. The only shells that the store had were flan shells. Little did I know, but this must mean that the shells leak, so I ended up with mix, once again, all over the kitchen. I got two pies into the oven, but when I pushed the tray in, the pies splattered all over the tray. Now, I have burnt pie filling on the oven tray, which is going to be a blast to clean up. Let’s just say that what should have taken two hours took about four, and I ended up with pumpkin pies that look like puffy egg casseroles.
Wednesday, April 1
Today was extremely fun! Before school, I put the roast in the crock-pot and started it cooking. At school, we had a wonderful morning. The students worked great before recess. After recess, Brett and Ashleigh took the year 7s to talk to them about their NAPLAN testing (their standardized testing). I took Ashleigh’s year 6s, and we designed new covers for their class novels. After lunch, I zipped off to the store (Heather graciously let me take their car!) to the petrol station. I had to get some bags of ice, because this afternoon all of the year seven students made ice cream with me as a science project. It was wonderful! The students really enjoyed it, and after I talked about what happened, they seemed to have actually learned something from it.
Tonight was the night for my dinner. I had everything ready to go when Heather got home from work. It all turned out well, except for the potatoes, which could have used a little more cooking. They loved it. AND… my pumpkin pies actually turned out pretty good! They weren’t the best in the world, but most definitely edible. I’m just finishing ups some schoolwork and heading to bed for the night. I feel a little tired after today’s events.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Week 8/Margaret River
Tuesday
I woke up this morning and had a run. It’s very dark out, but it won’t be for long. They change their clocks for daylight savings time this coming weekend. My day at school was remarkably better than yesterday. The students were well behaved and got right to work when I asked them. They are so confusing, because they have really awful days like yesterday, and then they have great days like today. Tonight, I came home, had a snack and watched some TV. It’s probably the first night that I haven’t had something to do for school or college. It was very relaxing. We’ll have dinner tonight, and I think that I’ll try to do some job searching for when I get back into the States.
Wednesday
Went for a run this morning, which was really nice. The stars were still out in full force. I headed off to school as usual. Today was especially nice, because Brett finally told me that I could do whatever science that I wanted and take as much time as I want to devote to it. I can’t wait! I’ve been doing things that he strongly suggests, so now I actually get to plan from scratch. The kids had a ‘bike to school’ day, which threw everything off. They were in and out of the room all day. We continued watching Remember the Titans today, which we will try to finish by the end of the week with ten minutes here or there. It’s a great movie for the kids to watch at this age. They love it. The kids are finishing their designs on their theme parks and brochures, and some are really, really nice.
Tonight, Heather and I took a drive. She picked me up from school, and we met the husband of one of her colleagues. They live in the Perth Hills. I hadn’t seen the hills yet, so Heather said that she’d take me. We drove out (about an hour), and he met us at a park. We went to the Mundaring Weir (which is a big dam and reservoir). It is the start of a pipeline that is 650 km long and stretches all the way to Kalgoorlie. It was the first and longest pipeline of it’s kind for over 100 years. It’s really the only way that people can live inland in the mining communities, because there is almost no water that far inland.
We climbed up the weir and walked across the top. It was gorgeous! It was like being in the middle of a huge lake and on top of the world at the same time. We then went for a hike in the bush to get to the lookout. We hiked for about three hours round trip. We found the lookout, which overlooked the weir and reservoir, and then made our way back to the car. The scenery was fantastic. We ended up going to her friend’s home for dinner. After a glass of wine and a leisurely spaghetti dinner, Heather and I headed home at about 11PM. Therefore, it was a pretty late evening.
Thursday
After my run, it was off to school again. We had a great day today. The kids were happy and on track all day long. They worked on their advertisements, theme park brochures, and we started looking at writing expositions. Since Brett gave me the ok about teaching science, I decided to do some major planning today.
I came home and did a little planning for my upcoming science lessons and put together a few experiments. Tonight was the opening game of the footy (Australian Football League-AFL) season. Katy and I went to Johno’s house to watch the game with his friends and have pizza and beer. He picked me up at 7:30PM, and we had food on the back patio with his family and friends. The game started at 9, and lasted until almost midnight. It’s crazy! It’s like our football and rugby mixed, and the players don’t wear padding! I don’t know how they survive more than one game. It was really nice though to sit and watch the game. Footy is HUGE over here, so I felt like a real local.
Friday
Heather took me to work extra early, because she had to get ready for something that she had to do today. I was able to get most of my planning done for the rest of the term, so that I won’t have to spend time after school and on weekends doing it. The kids were great this morning up until lunch. Straightaway after lunch, they had their year 7 vaccinations. Talk about drama! They had tetanus and hepatitis shots. The girls, and some boys, all came back crying and complaining that their arms were hurting. Well, I was smart enough to realize that I wasn’t going to get any work out of them. We played a strategic game called Assassin, where the kids have to use their heads to narrow-down who the assassin in the group is. They loved it. We played that until sport, where I had to do basketball again. I am so sick of basketball. Anyway, we had a beer after work, and then Brett took me home.
We left for the Margaret River area down south tonight. Len and Heather are taking us for the weekend. We picked Katy up on the way and headed south. It was about a four-hour drive to get to the winery we were staying at. We stayed in a Japanese Tea Room Chalet on the Wise Wines Winery. It was rustic-no TV, radio, phone, or Internet (tragic, I know), but we had an incredibly nice time. The place was really big and in the middle of the bush. We just got to the cabin and went to sleep after a glass of complimentary wine.
Saturday
We woke up around 7:30AM, and Katy and I took off on a run. The brochure said that the beach was only a 20-minute walk from the chalet. Well, we obviously took the wrong path, because after a hard 15-minute run, we saw signs of the beach. We stopped and walked along the beach for about twenty minutes and then ran home. We saw some kangaroos on the way! After our run and a delicious brekky, cooked by Len, we headed out. We had to first stop at the Wise Wines Winery to pay our bill, but we ended up tasting all of their wines as well. They weren’t the best wines of the day though. We then headed off to Dunsborough, where we stopped and got a cup of coffee. The next stop were too Ugg boots stores (Uggs are made in Australia)-but I’m going to wait until next weekend to buy my Uggs at the outlet stores ☺ (Grandma, you should be proud).
Our next stop was the Bootleg Brewery, where we tasted seven types of beer including the Raging Bull. And at 7.15 alcohol, it was pretty raging. We stopped off for lunch at the Providore Café, which surprisingly enough, had a wine tasting spot. So, we, of course, had to taste their wines. We stopped at two more wineries, Cape Mentelle and Rockfield Estate. These are two of Len’s favorite wineries, and I can see why. They were small wineries and had really delicious wines. It’s a good thing that I can’t bring much wine back with me, or I would probably be broke. After the last two wineries, we headed to the grocery story to get supplies to cook dinner. We went back to the chalet, and Len made a fantastic pumpkin risotto. We drank some of the wine that we bought, and headed to bed or extremely full stomachs.
Sunday
Last night was daylight savings night here. We woke up an hour early, and Katy and I went for another run. We found the shorter way to the beach today though. We ran down the coastal walkway and back through the bush again. We packed up the car and headed out for the day. We went to the Yallingup Beach. It is one of the best surfing beaches in the world. In fact, there is a world surfing competition there tomorrow. Our second and third stops today were unplanned. We had intended to go down the coast, but decided to stop at two wineries first. We stopped at the two oldest wineries in Western Australia, Cullen Wines and Vasse Felix. There we tasted about twenty different wines, all before lunch!
For lunch, we stopped in Prevelly Park and ate at a fish and chips restaurant. We also walked along the beach at Prevelly Park. It’s where the Margaret River ends into the ocean. However, the river is so dry right now that it actually stopped about fifty meters before it reached the ocean. We ended our trip by going all the way south to Cape Leeuwin, which is the most southwesterly point in Australia. We could actually see where the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean come together. The waves actually went in opposite directions. It was extremely windy though. Well, that was the end of our trip, so we just drove straight home on the freeway. We got back in at about 8:30, thanks to daylight savings time, so now we’ve just got to put everything back in it’s place and get ready for another week.
I woke up this morning and had a run. It’s very dark out, but it won’t be for long. They change their clocks for daylight savings time this coming weekend. My day at school was remarkably better than yesterday. The students were well behaved and got right to work when I asked them. They are so confusing, because they have really awful days like yesterday, and then they have great days like today. Tonight, I came home, had a snack and watched some TV. It’s probably the first night that I haven’t had something to do for school or college. It was very relaxing. We’ll have dinner tonight, and I think that I’ll try to do some job searching for when I get back into the States.
Wednesday
Went for a run this morning, which was really nice. The stars were still out in full force. I headed off to school as usual. Today was especially nice, because Brett finally told me that I could do whatever science that I wanted and take as much time as I want to devote to it. I can’t wait! I’ve been doing things that he strongly suggests, so now I actually get to plan from scratch. The kids had a ‘bike to school’ day, which threw everything off. They were in and out of the room all day. We continued watching Remember the Titans today, which we will try to finish by the end of the week with ten minutes here or there. It’s a great movie for the kids to watch at this age. They love it. The kids are finishing their designs on their theme parks and brochures, and some are really, really nice.
Tonight, Heather and I took a drive. She picked me up from school, and we met the husband of one of her colleagues. They live in the Perth Hills. I hadn’t seen the hills yet, so Heather said that she’d take me. We drove out (about an hour), and he met us at a park. We went to the Mundaring Weir (which is a big dam and reservoir). It is the start of a pipeline that is 650 km long and stretches all the way to Kalgoorlie. It was the first and longest pipeline of it’s kind for over 100 years. It’s really the only way that people can live inland in the mining communities, because there is almost no water that far inland.
We climbed up the weir and walked across the top. It was gorgeous! It was like being in the middle of a huge lake and on top of the world at the same time. We then went for a hike in the bush to get to the lookout. We hiked for about three hours round trip. We found the lookout, which overlooked the weir and reservoir, and then made our way back to the car. The scenery was fantastic. We ended up going to her friend’s home for dinner. After a glass of wine and a leisurely spaghetti dinner, Heather and I headed home at about 11PM. Therefore, it was a pretty late evening.
Thursday
After my run, it was off to school again. We had a great day today. The kids were happy and on track all day long. They worked on their advertisements, theme park brochures, and we started looking at writing expositions. Since Brett gave me the ok about teaching science, I decided to do some major planning today.
I came home and did a little planning for my upcoming science lessons and put together a few experiments. Tonight was the opening game of the footy (Australian Football League-AFL) season. Katy and I went to Johno’s house to watch the game with his friends and have pizza and beer. He picked me up at 7:30PM, and we had food on the back patio with his family and friends. The game started at 9, and lasted until almost midnight. It’s crazy! It’s like our football and rugby mixed, and the players don’t wear padding! I don’t know how they survive more than one game. It was really nice though to sit and watch the game. Footy is HUGE over here, so I felt like a real local.
Friday
Heather took me to work extra early, because she had to get ready for something that she had to do today. I was able to get most of my planning done for the rest of the term, so that I won’t have to spend time after school and on weekends doing it. The kids were great this morning up until lunch. Straightaway after lunch, they had their year 7 vaccinations. Talk about drama! They had tetanus and hepatitis shots. The girls, and some boys, all came back crying and complaining that their arms were hurting. Well, I was smart enough to realize that I wasn’t going to get any work out of them. We played a strategic game called Assassin, where the kids have to use their heads to narrow-down who the assassin in the group is. They loved it. We played that until sport, where I had to do basketball again. I am so sick of basketball. Anyway, we had a beer after work, and then Brett took me home.
We left for the Margaret River area down south tonight. Len and Heather are taking us for the weekend. We picked Katy up on the way and headed south. It was about a four-hour drive to get to the winery we were staying at. We stayed in a Japanese Tea Room Chalet on the Wise Wines Winery. It was rustic-no TV, radio, phone, or Internet (tragic, I know), but we had an incredibly nice time. The place was really big and in the middle of the bush. We just got to the cabin and went to sleep after a glass of complimentary wine.
Saturday
We woke up around 7:30AM, and Katy and I took off on a run. The brochure said that the beach was only a 20-minute walk from the chalet. Well, we obviously took the wrong path, because after a hard 15-minute run, we saw signs of the beach. We stopped and walked along the beach for about twenty minutes and then ran home. We saw some kangaroos on the way! After our run and a delicious brekky, cooked by Len, we headed out. We had to first stop at the Wise Wines Winery to pay our bill, but we ended up tasting all of their wines as well. They weren’t the best wines of the day though. We then headed off to Dunsborough, where we stopped and got a cup of coffee. The next stop were too Ugg boots stores (Uggs are made in Australia)-but I’m going to wait until next weekend to buy my Uggs at the outlet stores ☺ (Grandma, you should be proud).
Our next stop was the Bootleg Brewery, where we tasted seven types of beer including the Raging Bull. And at 7.15 alcohol, it was pretty raging. We stopped off for lunch at the Providore Café, which surprisingly enough, had a wine tasting spot. So, we, of course, had to taste their wines. We stopped at two more wineries, Cape Mentelle and Rockfield Estate. These are two of Len’s favorite wineries, and I can see why. They were small wineries and had really delicious wines. It’s a good thing that I can’t bring much wine back with me, or I would probably be broke. After the last two wineries, we headed to the grocery story to get supplies to cook dinner. We went back to the chalet, and Len made a fantastic pumpkin risotto. We drank some of the wine that we bought, and headed to bed or extremely full stomachs.
Sunday
Last night was daylight savings night here. We woke up an hour early, and Katy and I went for another run. We found the shorter way to the beach today though. We ran down the coastal walkway and back through the bush again. We packed up the car and headed out for the day. We went to the Yallingup Beach. It is one of the best surfing beaches in the world. In fact, there is a world surfing competition there tomorrow. Our second and third stops today were unplanned. We had intended to go down the coast, but decided to stop at two wineries first. We stopped at the two oldest wineries in Western Australia, Cullen Wines and Vasse Felix. There we tasted about twenty different wines, all before lunch!
For lunch, we stopped in Prevelly Park and ate at a fish and chips restaurant. We also walked along the beach at Prevelly Park. It’s where the Margaret River ends into the ocean. However, the river is so dry right now that it actually stopped about fifty meters before it reached the ocean. We ended our trip by going all the way south to Cape Leeuwin, which is the most southwesterly point in Australia. We could actually see where the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean come together. The waves actually went in opposite directions. It was extremely windy though. Well, that was the end of our trip, so we just drove straight home on the freeway. We got back in at about 8:30, thanks to daylight savings time, so now we’ve just got to put everything back in it’s place and get ready for another week.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Rottnest Island--March 19th-23rd
Thursday
The adventure to school today was quite interesting. Heather took me to school in the ’87 Camry, but we had to stop at the petrol station to figure out what type of gas to put into the car. We ended up figuring it out, and I even managed to make it to school on time. The kids are starting to push my limits as to what behaviors I’ll allow. It’s becoming frustrating. We did a latitude/longitude final assessment today, which was an utter failure. I think only about three children passed with an acceptable grade. I’m at a loss, because the students just aren’t putting much effort into their work.
After school, I came home and rested for a little bit. I then went to Len and Heather’s Thursday night wine tasting at the Thai restaurant in Subiaco. It was delicious. Len added it up, and we had at least $600 of wine on the table and the food was only about $150 for eight people. We went for coffee afterwards, and I had an AMAZING piece of carrot cake.
Tomorrow is Rotto! We’ll leave right after school so that we can be sure to catch the ferry.
Friday, Feb 20
I woke up this morning and made sure that I was all packed up for Rotto. When I got to school, the whirlwind began. The morning flew by and then chaos began. Our autistic boy was playing a game at lunch with some other boys (involving dirt). He came into the room covered in black dirt, so I sent him back out to shake off. The next thing I know, I look out the windows and see kids in a circle yelling, “Get off him!” Brett and I ran outside to find another boy in our class about to pound the crap out of the autistic boy. Brett diffused the situation, but it was still a shock. In the end, the story was that the autistic boy threw dirt down the back of the other boy’s shirt. The other boy has major anger issues and just retaliated by whacking him back. It was the talk of the class for the rest of the day.
Brett and I raced out of class at the end of the day, so that I could get to Rottnest and he could get to his footy game. As soon as I got home, I packed a picnic dinner and snacks to take over to the island. We were to Katy’s house by 4:45PM, so that we could get the bikes on the car. We mounted the bike rack and bikes and headed off for Fremantle. Of course, right when we got to the jetty, it poured down rain. We eventually got on the boat, but were fairly soaked by this time. At the island, we had to check in and bike to our hostel—in the rain. Rottnest Island was originally established as an Aboriginal prison. During the wars, it became a place for the Australian Army to keep a base. We stayed in the old Army Barracks. They were nothing fancy, but it was nice enough. After biking to the hostel, Katy and I decided that we should have dinner and go into the pub. As we were having dinner, a quokka (a cross between a rat and a kangaroo) got into the lounge, so we had to shoo him out. The quokkas are only found on Rottnest Island. At the pub, there was a great little band playing live music, so we stayed for a while and watched them. We ended up staying out fairly late and having a glass of wine on the beach. We ended up biking back to our hostel and calling it a night.
Saturday
Summary of the day: my butt hurts… a lot. We got up this morning and rode into the little town (and by town I mean a bakery, about 3 shops, a grocery, a café, a pub and a museum) to stop for breakfast. We had brought some food with us, so we just sat at a picnic table and chowed down. Our first trek for the day was to the lighthouse in the middle of the island. Oh, by the way, there are no cars on the island, so we had to bike everywhere we went. The lighthouse was about a five km ride (about 20 min). It was amazing, because we could see the whole island and all of the coves from that point. It was an extremely hilly ride, and I wouldn’t want to take someone on it who had many health conditions. We then hopped back on our bikes and headed for the opposite end of the island. We stopped at a few bays along the way, but we did make it to the westernmost point. It was about an hours’ ride. We then had to turn around and ride back, but we came back a slightly different way. In the end, we biked about 3.5 hours this morning. We stopped for lunch at Red Rooster (one of the shops), which is like a McDonalds with only chicken.
After lunch, we were back on our bikes. We biked for about another hour this afternoon, stopping along the way at the different coves and beaches. They were fantastic with very pretty sand and beautiful cliffs. We stopped at Little Parakeet Bay and Fays Bay for quite a while. We eventually made it back into town and bought a few groceries at the general store—one being a frozen pizza, which we cooked for dinner. It was aweful! Before dinner though, Katy and I walked out to the beach that was nearest our hostel. We ended up running into some guys that were really great. We stayed at the beach and kicked a rugby ball around and talked with them for about half an hour. After dinner, we rode back into town for a beer at the pub and to listen to the band again.
We met some girls from Ireland who had traveled through most of Australia and New Zealand, so they gave Katy some pointers on what to do during her travels. The coolest part of the evening was on the trip into the pub. Katy and I stopped halfway into town and laid down on the ground. The sky was clear and there were thousands of stars in the sky. We actually saw the Milky Way! It was just like all of the pictures with the smoky, wispy sky. It was like a strip right down the middle of the sky. It was one of those moments that I’ll never forget.
Sunday
Katy and I woke up at 7AM this morning so that we could see the sunrise. We got up and out to the beach by 7:15, which was perfect because the sunrise happened at about 7:20AM. It was great, because the sun came up over the skyline of Perth. We were really cold, but we put on bathers and headed into town regardless. (Biking really wasn’t too much fun today—it was way too painful.) We had brekky at the bakery and explored much of the historical part of the island. Some of the original We went around the south side of the island where we were told about the excellent snorkeling. We first stopped at Henrietta Rocks where there was a sunken ship that crashed in the 1800s. We tried to snorkel out to it, but the waves were just too choppy. We did get to see some of the ship though.
After that, we headed to Little Salmon Bay. When we got there, we discovered a snorkel trail. We snorkeled here, which was neat. They had underwater plaques that we could read along the way to point out some interesting facts about the life under water. The current was very strong though towards the end, so we really had to swim hard in order not to be pulled out into the ocean. After that spot, we went up the road to Salmon Bay—a large bay that has good coral.
We snorkeled here and it was definitely the best spot that we ended up going to for snorkeling. After snorkeling and just laying on the beach, we had part of our lunch and kept moving. We made it back to town in time to see the museum and have another little snack. After the museum, we hopped back on our bikes to go to the beaches again. We went to Parakeet Bay and tried to snorkel, but it was mainly just seaweed. Then, we ended up at the Basin (another beach) where we spend the last of our time laying on the beach. We came back into town once more to get a quick dinner at Red Rooster and then we were off to the jetty to catch the ferry. As usual, Katy and I had to also have an ice cream for desert.
Heather picked us up from the ferry in Fremantle, and then we took Katy home. The weekend worked out perfectly. The rain on Friday wasn’t so good, but the rest of the weekend was absolutely perfect.
Monday
It was back to reality once again for me. The kids are designing Easter baskets as a math project for Frank, which is really neat to watch on Monday mornings. Most of the kids worked great, but there are still the same ones who are really starting to push my buttons. The whole class is being rude and inconsiderate during lessons.
We started the digestive system today in health, which I though went well, until I graded their work. The students had to stay in for about 10 minutes of lunch and work because they had been so rude during the lesson. They scored very poorly, which I’m not sure if they did because they were just trying to finish it, or if they really didn’t understand it. We also caught bugs, drew them, and then researched them on the Internet for science. The kids had fun, but they were off-task and walking headaches all day long.
After school, I went to the Whitford's shoppoing center. I had to get a new voucher for my phone and see how much it would be to mail a box of stuff home.. Tonight, I went for a long walk along the beach and through a park that I just happened upon. We had a wonderful dinner at the house, and I just am now sitting around relaxing and catching up on some writing.
The adventure to school today was quite interesting. Heather took me to school in the ’87 Camry, but we had to stop at the petrol station to figure out what type of gas to put into the car. We ended up figuring it out, and I even managed to make it to school on time. The kids are starting to push my limits as to what behaviors I’ll allow. It’s becoming frustrating. We did a latitude/longitude final assessment today, which was an utter failure. I think only about three children passed with an acceptable grade. I’m at a loss, because the students just aren’t putting much effort into their work.
After school, I came home and rested for a little bit. I then went to Len and Heather’s Thursday night wine tasting at the Thai restaurant in Subiaco. It was delicious. Len added it up, and we had at least $600 of wine on the table and the food was only about $150 for eight people. We went for coffee afterwards, and I had an AMAZING piece of carrot cake.
Tomorrow is Rotto! We’ll leave right after school so that we can be sure to catch the ferry.
Friday, Feb 20
I woke up this morning and made sure that I was all packed up for Rotto. When I got to school, the whirlwind began. The morning flew by and then chaos began. Our autistic boy was playing a game at lunch with some other boys (involving dirt). He came into the room covered in black dirt, so I sent him back out to shake off. The next thing I know, I look out the windows and see kids in a circle yelling, “Get off him!” Brett and I ran outside to find another boy in our class about to pound the crap out of the autistic boy. Brett diffused the situation, but it was still a shock. In the end, the story was that the autistic boy threw dirt down the back of the other boy’s shirt. The other boy has major anger issues and just retaliated by whacking him back. It was the talk of the class for the rest of the day.
Brett and I raced out of class at the end of the day, so that I could get to Rottnest and he could get to his footy game. As soon as I got home, I packed a picnic dinner and snacks to take over to the island. We were to Katy’s house by 4:45PM, so that we could get the bikes on the car. We mounted the bike rack and bikes and headed off for Fremantle. Of course, right when we got to the jetty, it poured down rain. We eventually got on the boat, but were fairly soaked by this time. At the island, we had to check in and bike to our hostel—in the rain. Rottnest Island was originally established as an Aboriginal prison. During the wars, it became a place for the Australian Army to keep a base. We stayed in the old Army Barracks. They were nothing fancy, but it was nice enough. After biking to the hostel, Katy and I decided that we should have dinner and go into the pub. As we were having dinner, a quokka (a cross between a rat and a kangaroo) got into the lounge, so we had to shoo him out. The quokkas are only found on Rottnest Island. At the pub, there was a great little band playing live music, so we stayed for a while and watched them. We ended up staying out fairly late and having a glass of wine on the beach. We ended up biking back to our hostel and calling it a night.
Saturday
Summary of the day: my butt hurts… a lot. We got up this morning and rode into the little town (and by town I mean a bakery, about 3 shops, a grocery, a café, a pub and a museum) to stop for breakfast. We had brought some food with us, so we just sat at a picnic table and chowed down. Our first trek for the day was to the lighthouse in the middle of the island. Oh, by the way, there are no cars on the island, so we had to bike everywhere we went. The lighthouse was about a five km ride (about 20 min). It was amazing, because we could see the whole island and all of the coves from that point. It was an extremely hilly ride, and I wouldn’t want to take someone on it who had many health conditions. We then hopped back on our bikes and headed for the opposite end of the island. We stopped at a few bays along the way, but we did make it to the westernmost point. It was about an hours’ ride. We then had to turn around and ride back, but we came back a slightly different way. In the end, we biked about 3.5 hours this morning. We stopped for lunch at Red Rooster (one of the shops), which is like a McDonalds with only chicken.
After lunch, we were back on our bikes. We biked for about another hour this afternoon, stopping along the way at the different coves and beaches. They were fantastic with very pretty sand and beautiful cliffs. We stopped at Little Parakeet Bay and Fays Bay for quite a while. We eventually made it back into town and bought a few groceries at the general store—one being a frozen pizza, which we cooked for dinner. It was aweful! Before dinner though, Katy and I walked out to the beach that was nearest our hostel. We ended up running into some guys that were really great. We stayed at the beach and kicked a rugby ball around and talked with them for about half an hour. After dinner, we rode back into town for a beer at the pub and to listen to the band again.
We met some girls from Ireland who had traveled through most of Australia and New Zealand, so they gave Katy some pointers on what to do during her travels. The coolest part of the evening was on the trip into the pub. Katy and I stopped halfway into town and laid down on the ground. The sky was clear and there were thousands of stars in the sky. We actually saw the Milky Way! It was just like all of the pictures with the smoky, wispy sky. It was like a strip right down the middle of the sky. It was one of those moments that I’ll never forget.
Sunday
Katy and I woke up at 7AM this morning so that we could see the sunrise. We got up and out to the beach by 7:15, which was perfect because the sunrise happened at about 7:20AM. It was great, because the sun came up over the skyline of Perth. We were really cold, but we put on bathers and headed into town regardless. (Biking really wasn’t too much fun today—it was way too painful.) We had brekky at the bakery and explored much of the historical part of the island. Some of the original We went around the south side of the island where we were told about the excellent snorkeling. We first stopped at Henrietta Rocks where there was a sunken ship that crashed in the 1800s. We tried to snorkel out to it, but the waves were just too choppy. We did get to see some of the ship though.
After that, we headed to Little Salmon Bay. When we got there, we discovered a snorkel trail. We snorkeled here, which was neat. They had underwater plaques that we could read along the way to point out some interesting facts about the life under water. The current was very strong though towards the end, so we really had to swim hard in order not to be pulled out into the ocean. After that spot, we went up the road to Salmon Bay—a large bay that has good coral.
We snorkeled here and it was definitely the best spot that we ended up going to for snorkeling. After snorkeling and just laying on the beach, we had part of our lunch and kept moving. We made it back to town in time to see the museum and have another little snack. After the museum, we hopped back on our bikes to go to the beaches again. We went to Parakeet Bay and tried to snorkel, but it was mainly just seaweed. Then, we ended up at the Basin (another beach) where we spend the last of our time laying on the beach. We came back into town once more to get a quick dinner at Red Rooster and then we were off to the jetty to catch the ferry. As usual, Katy and I had to also have an ice cream for desert.
Heather picked us up from the ferry in Fremantle, and then we took Katy home. The weekend worked out perfectly. The rain on Friday wasn’t so good, but the rest of the weekend was absolutely perfect.
Monday
It was back to reality once again for me. The kids are designing Easter baskets as a math project for Frank, which is really neat to watch on Monday mornings. Most of the kids worked great, but there are still the same ones who are really starting to push my buttons. The whole class is being rude and inconsiderate during lessons.
We started the digestive system today in health, which I though went well, until I graded their work. The students had to stay in for about 10 minutes of lunch and work because they had been so rude during the lesson. They scored very poorly, which I’m not sure if they did because they were just trying to finish it, or if they really didn’t understand it. We also caught bugs, drew them, and then researched them on the Internet for science. The kids had fun, but they were off-task and walking headaches all day long.
After school, I went to the Whitford's shoppoing center. I had to get a new voucher for my phone and see how much it would be to mail a box of stuff home.. Tonight, I went for a long walk along the beach and through a park that I just happened upon. We had a wonderful dinner at the house, and I just am now sitting around relaxing and catching up on some writing.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Week 7
Monday
Frank was back in the classroom today. The kids are designing their own Easter baskets and making a net of the basket and then writing directions so that someone can build it. The kids love it, and I think it’s a great project. Frank is also great with incorporating computers into his assignments. He is very creative with what he asks kids to do. Tonight, I did some planning for both my classes and social life. I had to finish off some of my papers, which are all due on Thursday. Heather was also able to get our trip to the Margaret River area booked. The weekend of March 20th, we will be staying in a Japanese Tea Room Chalet. It’s on a winery and is just a short walk to the beach. I guess it’s pretty rustic—no TV, phone, or Internet, but I think I can manage for one weekend. There is supposed to be a lot of wildlife, which makes me super excited.
I went for a long walk tonight exploring some different streets. It was wonderful.
Tuesday
Well… let’s just say that I had the worst lesson of my life today. Gavin, my principal, came in to evaluate a math lesson today. Brett was trying to make sure that I was prepared, but all he did was make me nervous. The lesson was the epitome of disaster. I was trying to teach the students about percentages (a year seven topic). The students were confused right off the bat. I flopped the explanation, but even after I basically started over explaining step by step in detail, over half of the class just looked at me like I was speaking Chinese.
Basically, long story short, the students are extremely weak in their tables. They don’t know their basic facts, which makes turning percentages into fractions and simplifying those fractions nearly impossible. Gavin was nice in his report to me, but I was frustrated all day at how the lesson went. I’m basically going to have to go back and teach the students what equivalent fractions are and what simplifying fractions means. Overall… today was the worst day at school so far.
Tonight was fun. Being that it’s St. Patty’s Day, Katy and I went out. We went to J.B. O’Reily’s Pub in West Leederville. It was really crowded, so crowded that we waited in line for over an hour just to get in. We had an Irish Cider while we were there. We met a few people and listened to an Irish band play for a couple hours. Eventually, we headed home being the responsible teachers that we are. I drove there and back in Fatty’s car. It’s an ’89 Camry that is just about to fall apart. It doesn’t matter though; it accomplished its mission.
Wednesday
Today was normal again. Brett started out by trying to reteach some fraction stuff. I think we still have over the class though who are completely lost when concerning fractions. The whole schedule was messed up today, but it still went much smoother than yesterday. The kids are designing their own theme park. They have to make a map, make a promotional brochure, and build a model of a ride as a technology and enterprise assignment. They really seem to be enjoying this project, so this afternoon was fun for everyone, because they just worked on that for an hour.
After school, we went to a Smartboard training session for about an hour. It was great, because it really got me thinking about how I want to use the Smartboard. Tonight, I just stayed in and finished off all of my assignments and did a little more planning. I planned a lesson for tomorrow on equivalent fractions using the SmartBoard; so hopefully, it’ll help the students understand the concept.
Frank was back in the classroom today. The kids are designing their own Easter baskets and making a net of the basket and then writing directions so that someone can build it. The kids love it, and I think it’s a great project. Frank is also great with incorporating computers into his assignments. He is very creative with what he asks kids to do. Tonight, I did some planning for both my classes and social life. I had to finish off some of my papers, which are all due on Thursday. Heather was also able to get our trip to the Margaret River area booked. The weekend of March 20th, we will be staying in a Japanese Tea Room Chalet. It’s on a winery and is just a short walk to the beach. I guess it’s pretty rustic—no TV, phone, or Internet, but I think I can manage for one weekend. There is supposed to be a lot of wildlife, which makes me super excited.
I went for a long walk tonight exploring some different streets. It was wonderful.
Tuesday
Well… let’s just say that I had the worst lesson of my life today. Gavin, my principal, came in to evaluate a math lesson today. Brett was trying to make sure that I was prepared, but all he did was make me nervous. The lesson was the epitome of disaster. I was trying to teach the students about percentages (a year seven topic). The students were confused right off the bat. I flopped the explanation, but even after I basically started over explaining step by step in detail, over half of the class just looked at me like I was speaking Chinese.
Basically, long story short, the students are extremely weak in their tables. They don’t know their basic facts, which makes turning percentages into fractions and simplifying those fractions nearly impossible. Gavin was nice in his report to me, but I was frustrated all day at how the lesson went. I’m basically going to have to go back and teach the students what equivalent fractions are and what simplifying fractions means. Overall… today was the worst day at school so far.
Tonight was fun. Being that it’s St. Patty’s Day, Katy and I went out. We went to J.B. O’Reily’s Pub in West Leederville. It was really crowded, so crowded that we waited in line for over an hour just to get in. We had an Irish Cider while we were there. We met a few people and listened to an Irish band play for a couple hours. Eventually, we headed home being the responsible teachers that we are. I drove there and back in Fatty’s car. It’s an ’89 Camry that is just about to fall apart. It doesn’t matter though; it accomplished its mission.
Wednesday
Today was normal again. Brett started out by trying to reteach some fraction stuff. I think we still have over the class though who are completely lost when concerning fractions. The whole schedule was messed up today, but it still went much smoother than yesterday. The kids are designing their own theme park. They have to make a map, make a promotional brochure, and build a model of a ride as a technology and enterprise assignment. They really seem to be enjoying this project, so this afternoon was fun for everyone, because they just worked on that for an hour.
After school, we went to a Smartboard training session for about an hour. It was great, because it really got me thinking about how I want to use the Smartboard. Tonight, I just stayed in and finished off all of my assignments and did a little more planning. I planned a lesson for tomorrow on equivalent fractions using the SmartBoard; so hopefully, it’ll help the students understand the concept.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Australian Farm/Pinnacles
Tuesday & Wednesday
School was good today and yesterday. We didn’t have any major problems, except some frustrations with our autistic boy. He is still getting back to proper behavior after basically having two weeks off. Mr. Bovill was a nice man, but he was not firm with our autistic boy and just let him get on computer games whenever he wanted. The only other problem we are having is with students turning in their work on time. Students are consistently lazy and behind in their assignments. We gave them the afternoon on Tuesday to get everything completed… and it still didn’t happen for some students.
Tuesday night, I didn’t do much but exercise and relax. Wednesday night, Len, Heather, Katy and I went to Cottesloe Beach. There are nearly 60 sculptures on the beach or in the water as a part of their annual festival. The sculptures are made by a number of different people and are all quite remarkable. My favorite was a huge storage container that would be used on a ship, which was strategically placed at an angle that looked like it was half buried in the sand. After we went to the sculptures, Len and Heather took us down to Freo for dinner. We ate at Gino’s; one of the restaurants that is local to Fremantle.
Thursday
Today, I had an expensive evening. I haven’t mentioned it, but my throat has been sore since before I left for Bali. It is getting worse, and it really hurts to swallow. The glands in my neck are all swollen as well. With all of that in consideration, I ended up going to the doctor to have it checked out. Nearly $85 later, I was diagnosed with tonsillitis. I was given a prescription, which should take care of the infection. That little adventure took up most of the evening, so I ended up staying home and getting some papers written.
Friday
I was silly today. Len told me that it was going to be 37 Celcius today, well it turned out to be only about 27 Celsius. I was cold all day long, mainly contributed by the fact that I wore shorts and a t-shirt. I had to referee basketball again—I like basketball, but I don’t like playing it with 5—7th graders. We stayed after work today for a couple of beers, but I just had a Diet Coke. I’ve decided to stay in tonight and watch the footy on TV. Collingwood and Gelong are playing and it’s a really good game. I like this type of football, it’s much faster than ours and is played without padding. Tomorrow is the big day with my principal and the Pinnacles.
Saturday
I woke up early this morning, went for a run and got myself ready. Len and I went to pick up Katy at 7:30AM, so that we could be back home by 8:30 for Gavin, my principal, to pick us up. He and his wife, Christine, were there a little late, but ready to go. We jumped in the car and took off going north. After about an hour of driving, we stopped in a town called New Norcia. It’s a monastery. The monastery used to be a thriving place with two schools where students would board and be taught by the Nuns and Monks. It appeared to be absolutely abandoned. The schools are no longer being used, and it’s all set up to be a tourist trap. However, there are still quite a few monks there who bake bread, which is sold locally. We got a drink at the petrol station there, and Christine had made brownies, so we had those for brekky.
After about an hour and a half more of driving, we arrived at their friends farm. This farm was exactly like the movies pictured it. We just kept driving and driving, and driving to get to their house. Once we were on their driveway, we had to drive for about ten minutes just to get to the house. The house was incredible. It was like an oasis in the middle of dry boring land. They have an irrigation system, so there was green grass and lots of flowers around their house. They also have a pool. The really neat part of the house though was the inside. Wes and ML, had done a lot of work to make the place nice. It had lovely stained-glass windows, and hand carved wooden designs in the walkways and doors. For being in the middle of a huge farm, it was incredibly nice. They have two little kids, who will have to go to boarding school starting in grade 8, simply because there are no high schools close enough for them to stay at home. I think it would be extremely hard to let your kids go at that young of an age. We had a lovely lunch, with homemade breads, fruits, etc.
After a leisurely lunch, we drove across their farm to the house that they are going to be moving into. The new house is actually the house that Wes grew up in, and his parents just moved out of. It’s nice because it’s about 15 min closer to town and saves that much time off of the kid’s commute everyday to school. The machinery is also all at the new place. Wes and ML crop about 5,200 acres of wheat per year. They also have sheep, but not all that many. They actually own about 6,000 acres, but some of that land isn’t good for farming. When we were driving to the new house, ML rode with us, and showed us their farm. It basically was as far as one could see for about 15 minutes of driving. The real downfall of their life is that they have no neighbors. The closest people would be about a 20-minute drive away. The town was really small, with a primary school, shop, hardware, and a few small businesses. The school from year K to year 7 only had about 50 students in it, which is actually quite a large school for being a farm country.
Wes had a huge harvester, a CASE International, and a huge John Deer tractor with a seeder. All he farms is wheat, so that’s pretty much all he needs. I’m not sure how wide the seeder was, but the header for the harvester was 45 feet wide. It was massive.
After we left the farm, we headed towards the coast to the town of Cervantes. Our hotel was here, so we checked in quickly and headed back out again. We went to the Pinnacles. These are the most incredible natural landform I’ve ever seen. They are large rocks pointing straight up out of the ground, which have been around for 30, 000 years. They were remarkable. And it wasn’t like there were only ten of them, there were thousands! They stretched at least a good 9 square km area. We were there at dusk, which was nice because they started getting really long shadows.
We ended up back at the hotel for dinner, probably the only place in the area that even served dinner. It was very nice. We had some sparkling red wine and some brownies for dessert.
Sunday
Katy and I woke up today around 8AM. Gavin and Christine went for a walk, and we got ourselves ready. After breakfast in the room, which was melted cheese on toast and grapes, we headed back towards Perth. We traveled straight back and arrived home around 2PM. I went to the beach for a couple hours. It was especially nice today, because it was over 100 degrees F and there was music playing from the lifeguard’s building. I came back around 5PM and was so hot from the walk that I jumped in the pool and then took a shower. I just had to watch The Magic School Bus and create questions about it, because my students are going to watch it tomorrow in health.
I think tonight is just going to be some paper writing and prep work time. I have to have all of my papers done by Thursday, because my coordinator has to turn in my grades. If all goes well, I”LL GRADUATE ON FRIDAY!!!! WHOO HOOO!!
School was good today and yesterday. We didn’t have any major problems, except some frustrations with our autistic boy. He is still getting back to proper behavior after basically having two weeks off. Mr. Bovill was a nice man, but he was not firm with our autistic boy and just let him get on computer games whenever he wanted. The only other problem we are having is with students turning in their work on time. Students are consistently lazy and behind in their assignments. We gave them the afternoon on Tuesday to get everything completed… and it still didn’t happen for some students.
Tuesday night, I didn’t do much but exercise and relax. Wednesday night, Len, Heather, Katy and I went to Cottesloe Beach. There are nearly 60 sculptures on the beach or in the water as a part of their annual festival. The sculptures are made by a number of different people and are all quite remarkable. My favorite was a huge storage container that would be used on a ship, which was strategically placed at an angle that looked like it was half buried in the sand. After we went to the sculptures, Len and Heather took us down to Freo for dinner. We ate at Gino’s; one of the restaurants that is local to Fremantle.
Thursday
Today, I had an expensive evening. I haven’t mentioned it, but my throat has been sore since before I left for Bali. It is getting worse, and it really hurts to swallow. The glands in my neck are all swollen as well. With all of that in consideration, I ended up going to the doctor to have it checked out. Nearly $85 later, I was diagnosed with tonsillitis. I was given a prescription, which should take care of the infection. That little adventure took up most of the evening, so I ended up staying home and getting some papers written.
Friday
I was silly today. Len told me that it was going to be 37 Celcius today, well it turned out to be only about 27 Celsius. I was cold all day long, mainly contributed by the fact that I wore shorts and a t-shirt. I had to referee basketball again—I like basketball, but I don’t like playing it with 5—7th graders. We stayed after work today for a couple of beers, but I just had a Diet Coke. I’ve decided to stay in tonight and watch the footy on TV. Collingwood and Gelong are playing and it’s a really good game. I like this type of football, it’s much faster than ours and is played without padding. Tomorrow is the big day with my principal and the Pinnacles.
Saturday
I woke up early this morning, went for a run and got myself ready. Len and I went to pick up Katy at 7:30AM, so that we could be back home by 8:30 for Gavin, my principal, to pick us up. He and his wife, Christine, were there a little late, but ready to go. We jumped in the car and took off going north. After about an hour of driving, we stopped in a town called New Norcia. It’s a monastery. The monastery used to be a thriving place with two schools where students would board and be taught by the Nuns and Monks. It appeared to be absolutely abandoned. The schools are no longer being used, and it’s all set up to be a tourist trap. However, there are still quite a few monks there who bake bread, which is sold locally. We got a drink at the petrol station there, and Christine had made brownies, so we had those for brekky.
After about an hour and a half more of driving, we arrived at their friends farm. This farm was exactly like the movies pictured it. We just kept driving and driving, and driving to get to their house. Once we were on their driveway, we had to drive for about ten minutes just to get to the house. The house was incredible. It was like an oasis in the middle of dry boring land. They have an irrigation system, so there was green grass and lots of flowers around their house. They also have a pool. The really neat part of the house though was the inside. Wes and ML, had done a lot of work to make the place nice. It had lovely stained-glass windows, and hand carved wooden designs in the walkways and doors. For being in the middle of a huge farm, it was incredibly nice. They have two little kids, who will have to go to boarding school starting in grade 8, simply because there are no high schools close enough for them to stay at home. I think it would be extremely hard to let your kids go at that young of an age. We had a lovely lunch, with homemade breads, fruits, etc.
After a leisurely lunch, we drove across their farm to the house that they are going to be moving into. The new house is actually the house that Wes grew up in, and his parents just moved out of. It’s nice because it’s about 15 min closer to town and saves that much time off of the kid’s commute everyday to school. The machinery is also all at the new place. Wes and ML crop about 5,200 acres of wheat per year. They also have sheep, but not all that many. They actually own about 6,000 acres, but some of that land isn’t good for farming. When we were driving to the new house, ML rode with us, and showed us their farm. It basically was as far as one could see for about 15 minutes of driving. The real downfall of their life is that they have no neighbors. The closest people would be about a 20-minute drive away. The town was really small, with a primary school, shop, hardware, and a few small businesses. The school from year K to year 7 only had about 50 students in it, which is actually quite a large school for being a farm country.
Wes had a huge harvester, a CASE International, and a huge John Deer tractor with a seeder. All he farms is wheat, so that’s pretty much all he needs. I’m not sure how wide the seeder was, but the header for the harvester was 45 feet wide. It was massive.
After we left the farm, we headed towards the coast to the town of Cervantes. Our hotel was here, so we checked in quickly and headed back out again. We went to the Pinnacles. These are the most incredible natural landform I’ve ever seen. They are large rocks pointing straight up out of the ground, which have been around for 30, 000 years. They were remarkable. And it wasn’t like there were only ten of them, there were thousands! They stretched at least a good 9 square km area. We were there at dusk, which was nice because they started getting really long shadows.
We ended up back at the hotel for dinner, probably the only place in the area that even served dinner. It was very nice. We had some sparkling red wine and some brownies for dessert.
Sunday
Katy and I woke up today around 8AM. Gavin and Christine went for a walk, and we got ourselves ready. After breakfast in the room, which was melted cheese on toast and grapes, we headed back towards Perth. We traveled straight back and arrived home around 2PM. I went to the beach for a couple hours. It was especially nice today, because it was over 100 degrees F and there was music playing from the lifeguard’s building. I came back around 5PM and was so hot from the walk that I jumped in the pool and then took a shower. I just had to watch The Magic School Bus and create questions about it, because my students are going to watch it tomorrow in health.
I think tonight is just going to be some paper writing and prep work time. I have to have all of my papers done by Thursday, because my coordinator has to turn in my grades. If all goes well, I”LL GRADUATE ON FRIDAY!!!! WHOO HOOO!!
Monday, March 9, 2009
Week 5/6
Thursday
I took the bus to school this morning, because Heather had already gone for her walk, and I didn’t know if she was going to be able to take me or not. It was fine though, because I was able to get some work done before others came into school. It was Rob’s last day today as the substitute, which is good and bad. He is a great teacher, but his classroom structure and atmosphere is much different than Brett’s, so I think it’ll be nice to have Brett back. The kids did their celebrity interviews this afternoon (they dressed up like celebrities and interviewers and created interview scripts to perform for the class). Most of them were very good. We went out for a game the last part of the day. I think Rob wanted to give them a little treat to say bye.
I went down to the beach for a couple hours this afternoon and took a nap. It was great. Katy and I went to the movies at 9PM. We saw New In Town, which was good. It reminded me of home actually with a small town in the middle of winter. Katy’s host mom had free tickets, so since we got in free, we splurged on some candy!
Friday
I got to school this morning and opened up my email. I HAVE GREAT NEWS!!! I got accepted as the teaching fellow for grad school! It’s one of two positions for College of Education Master’s students. So, I’ll be teaching 9th grade math ½ days and taking grad classes the other half. I will finish my Master’s in reading education by next June. The best part is that grad school will be free, and I’ll get a stipend for teaching. This was positively the best way to start my day. I couldn’t have been happier.
School went well, but Brett did have another blow-up with our Autistic boy. I felt really awkward, but there wasn’t a lot that I could do. This afternoon was quite hot. I was put to supervise basketball for the last hour of the day, which was even hotter because of the pavement on the courts.
This afternoon, I came home, got ready, and headed to Katy’s. Katy and I went out with Johno and Pete. We met up with some of his friends and went to several different pubs and clubs. One stop we made was at the Army base. Johno is in the Army Reserves and had a friend who was having a toga party. It was surprisingly fun. (And no, I didn’t wear a toga.)
Saturday
I spent the night at Katy’s on Friday after we’d been out together. I woke up and had a run. Mark, Katy’s host dad, made us a huge breakfast on the barbie. It was fantastic. We left for Mandurah at around noon. We went to Mandurah to stay with Stacy and Scott, two of their friends, for the crab festival. The house that we stayed in was incredible. It was worth at least 3 million dollars. I was afraid to touch anything! They live right on a canal that eventually leads to the ocean. After we sat around for a couple drinks, and a swim in their infinity pool, we got on their boat. We packed dinner with us, and started cruising for town. We docked up and had a look around the crab festival for a few hours, but it really wasn’t anything special. We got back on the boat, had dinner, and cruised around until the fireworks started. They were a pretty good set of fireworks. After the fireworks, we cruised back to the house and had some more wine. After all that we drank on the boat and then back at home, I can definitely say that I’d had too much. It was really nice to sit back and relax though over good conversation.
Sunday
Today, everyone had a slow start. I woke up and sat out on one of the deck chairs for a couple hours planning my life. I decided that I have two options. 1. Marry a millionaire or 2. Figure out a way to become a millionaire (They are the only two reasonable options in life.) I went for a swim, and when Katy woke up, we took the Jet Ski out down the canals and the larger waterway. That was awesome. I’m also convinced that I have to live near the water and own a boat and Jet Ski. Around 12, we headed back towards home. We were exhausted, but stopped for food along the way, because we were also starving. At Katy’s we laid around and then went to the beach for just a little bit.
Johno and Dean picked us up for church. We went to dinner at a food hall. (A food court without the shops—its just food in the building) That was good, but we were really late to church. Johno and Dean didn’t care, but I felt really awkward. Church was good-a more contemporary service. I got home and had mud cake and ice cream, which was fantastic.
Monday
Today was good. Frank does a lot of the teaching. He really likes to run things his own way, which is just fine with me. I like watching him teach, because it’s yet again another style to learn from. The kids were good, but we are having a lot of drama with boyfriends and girlfriends to the point that is disrupting schoolwork. I had to have a little chat with the boys today, and this is after Brett had a talk with the girls on Friday.
This afternoon before coming home, stopped in at the Whitford City shops for a few things. Because of that, I didn’t get home until about 5PM. I worked out for a long while, laid by the pool, had dinner with Len, Heather and Fatty and went for a run. It’s been good to recoup from the weekend.
This next weekend, I’ll be going with my principal, Gavin, his wife, Christine and Katy to the Pinnacles, which are natural sand dunes and rocks that are supposed to be remarkable.
I took the bus to school this morning, because Heather had already gone for her walk, and I didn’t know if she was going to be able to take me or not. It was fine though, because I was able to get some work done before others came into school. It was Rob’s last day today as the substitute, which is good and bad. He is a great teacher, but his classroom structure and atmosphere is much different than Brett’s, so I think it’ll be nice to have Brett back. The kids did their celebrity interviews this afternoon (they dressed up like celebrities and interviewers and created interview scripts to perform for the class). Most of them were very good. We went out for a game the last part of the day. I think Rob wanted to give them a little treat to say bye.
I went down to the beach for a couple hours this afternoon and took a nap. It was great. Katy and I went to the movies at 9PM. We saw New In Town, which was good. It reminded me of home actually with a small town in the middle of winter. Katy’s host mom had free tickets, so since we got in free, we splurged on some candy!
Friday
I got to school this morning and opened up my email. I HAVE GREAT NEWS!!! I got accepted as the teaching fellow for grad school! It’s one of two positions for College of Education Master’s students. So, I’ll be teaching 9th grade math ½ days and taking grad classes the other half. I will finish my Master’s in reading education by next June. The best part is that grad school will be free, and I’ll get a stipend for teaching. This was positively the best way to start my day. I couldn’t have been happier.
School went well, but Brett did have another blow-up with our Autistic boy. I felt really awkward, but there wasn’t a lot that I could do. This afternoon was quite hot. I was put to supervise basketball for the last hour of the day, which was even hotter because of the pavement on the courts.
This afternoon, I came home, got ready, and headed to Katy’s. Katy and I went out with Johno and Pete. We met up with some of his friends and went to several different pubs and clubs. One stop we made was at the Army base. Johno is in the Army Reserves and had a friend who was having a toga party. It was surprisingly fun. (And no, I didn’t wear a toga.)
Saturday
I spent the night at Katy’s on Friday after we’d been out together. I woke up and had a run. Mark, Katy’s host dad, made us a huge breakfast on the barbie. It was fantastic. We left for Mandurah at around noon. We went to Mandurah to stay with Stacy and Scott, two of their friends, for the crab festival. The house that we stayed in was incredible. It was worth at least 3 million dollars. I was afraid to touch anything! They live right on a canal that eventually leads to the ocean. After we sat around for a couple drinks, and a swim in their infinity pool, we got on their boat. We packed dinner with us, and started cruising for town. We docked up and had a look around the crab festival for a few hours, but it really wasn’t anything special. We got back on the boat, had dinner, and cruised around until the fireworks started. They were a pretty good set of fireworks. After the fireworks, we cruised back to the house and had some more wine. After all that we drank on the boat and then back at home, I can definitely say that I’d had too much. It was really nice to sit back and relax though over good conversation.
Sunday
Today, everyone had a slow start. I woke up and sat out on one of the deck chairs for a couple hours planning my life. I decided that I have two options. 1. Marry a millionaire or 2. Figure out a way to become a millionaire (They are the only two reasonable options in life.) I went for a swim, and when Katy woke up, we took the Jet Ski out down the canals and the larger waterway. That was awesome. I’m also convinced that I have to live near the water and own a boat and Jet Ski. Around 12, we headed back towards home. We were exhausted, but stopped for food along the way, because we were also starving. At Katy’s we laid around and then went to the beach for just a little bit.
Johno and Dean picked us up for church. We went to dinner at a food hall. (A food court without the shops—its just food in the building) That was good, but we were really late to church. Johno and Dean didn’t care, but I felt really awkward. Church was good-a more contemporary service. I got home and had mud cake and ice cream, which was fantastic.
Monday
Today was good. Frank does a lot of the teaching. He really likes to run things his own way, which is just fine with me. I like watching him teach, because it’s yet again another style to learn from. The kids were good, but we are having a lot of drama with boyfriends and girlfriends to the point that is disrupting schoolwork. I had to have a little chat with the boys today, and this is after Brett had a talk with the girls on Friday.
This afternoon before coming home, stopped in at the Whitford City shops for a few things. Because of that, I didn’t get home until about 5PM. I worked out for a long while, laid by the pool, had dinner with Len, Heather and Fatty and went for a run. It’s been good to recoup from the weekend.
This next weekend, I’ll be going with my principal, Gavin, his wife, Christine and Katy to the Pinnacles, which are natural sand dunes and rocks that are supposed to be remarkable.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Bali, Indonesia
Bali—Friday (Quite possibly the longest day ever)
I got up at 5AM this morning, so that I could get my bag ready and Skype with my sister all before heading to school at 7:30. I felt super organized as I headed out the door, which, for me, is well worth the extra time I had to be awake. School was just fine. I didn’t do a lot of the teaching today. Rob had most of the lessons, which was fine with me. I was able to get all of my grading done by 2PM, so I didn’t have to take home any work. My supervisor, John, came and picked me up at 2. We picked up my bag and collected Katy from her school and her bag from her house, and then we were off to the airport. It was the smallest international airport, with only 5 gates. Katy and I bought a bottle of Malibu rum at one of the duty-free shops.
The service on the plane was fantastic. They gave us dinner and all the drinks we wanted, including alcoholic drinks, for free. When we got off the plane, we had to go through all of the checks, but once we got outside, there was a Balinese man waiting with our names on a card ready to take us to our hotel. We got to the hotel, put our stuff down and did a quick change and headed out. We went to Paddy’s Club, which was a rather nice bar. We had our first Bintang—Balinese beer. It was a very good, pilsner beer. We then headed next door to the Bounty, which was not as nice as the first place. We stayed there for a while though, because we just kept meeting people over and over (lots from Holland). We eventually called it a night and headed back to the hotel.
Saturday
Well, since we stayed out extremely late, we had a slow start. We went to brekky at the hotel. It was included in our stay. We had a huge meal (it was a buffet), because we only had cheese and crackers for lunch. After brekky, we went back to sleep for a couple of hours. Around 11:30, we headed out. We went down to the hotel’s massage room, because we had a coupon for a free 30-minute foot reflexology massage. It was nice, but surprisingly painful. It hurt right in the middle of my foot, which apparently means that I have stomach problems. It was surprisingly accurate, because I have been having some stomach problems.
After that, we headed out towards the beach. We looked at a few shops along the way, but basically went straight there. We got there and had the shock of our lives. First, the beach was very trashy. There were wrappers and bottles thrown everywhere. The instant that we walked onto the beach we were “attacked.” The local women swarmed us. We ONLY wanted a massage and our nails painted, so we made a deal with two ladies for 100,000 rupiah each-one for the massage and one for the nails. (11,000 Rupiah = 1 US dollar) It was rather hard to get used to the money thing. Thank goodness that Katy had a calculator, which we used about every two hours. Anyway, I had my nails started and Katy had the massage started, and then we were swarmed. About ten more ladies came and started braiding our hair, massaging our hands and feet, and trying to sell us things. It was an awful experience. I felt trapped and uncomfortable. Katy and I made our move to get up to leave, when the two ladies that we’d made the deal with shooed away everyone else. Once the extra women left, it was nice—but I don’t want to go through that again.
After the beach, we walked down the beach to the large shopping mall, where we looked around for about an hour. We stopped in and got an ice cream at A&W and then made our way back to the hotel by the way of some markets. I bought a silver ring with a turquoise stone for $7 and two sarongs for $5 each. We picked up some water and had cheese and crackers for lunch. (We couldn’t drink the water, or we’d have gotten “Bali Belly.”) We then laid by the pool for an hour or two.
We showered and got ready to go back out. We went down the street in the opposite direction, shopping along the way. After awhile, we had dinner at a café, pizza and pasta, and a large Bintang beer. The Bintang is Bali’s main beer and quite good. We shopped some more after dinner and had an early night back at the hotel. I bought twenty-eight DVDs for a total of $20 and a couple items of clothing. I spent almost 1,000,000 Rupiah today, which is only about $90.
Sunday
We woke up at 9 this morning, showered, and headed off to our buffet breakfast. We headed straight to the entrance of the hotel where we met our tour guide for the day. We spend the day traveling around the countryside. For $30 AUD each, we had a driver and tour guide to take us anywhere we wanted to go for the entire day. Our first stop was about thirty minutes away and was a batik fabric factory. The women showed us the process of making batik cloth, and it’s an incredibly detailed and long process. It includes dying, waxing, painting, waving etc. After we spent our money there, we got back on the road.
The second stop was at a typical Balinese home compound. It was shocking. It really “hit home” that I was in a third-world country. The place looked like something the pilgrims would have had in the late 1700s, with dirt floors, no doors, a fire pit as the kitchen, and outhouse, and three or four houses. All of the houses shared one temple in their compound. (They are Hindu.) After the house compound, we went to two silver makers. The silver is imported and handmade into jewelry. I, again, ended up buying a silver ring, but it was only $20 where it would be well over $120 at home.
We then went to the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary. We walked through the rainforest and saw loads of monkeys. We sat down on a stone railing and the monkeys came over and sat on our laps! It was really cool. There was a temple in the forest, which was one of the three temples for that community. All villages have three temples and each home compound has one. Once we finished our photo shoot with the monkeys, we headed to a woodcarver’s store. The wooden carvings are all done by hand and were absolutely fabulous. Then we headed to the Safari and Marine Park. It was $25 to get in and was nothing more than a glorified zoo. We rode around on a bus through an area that had different safari animals, all separated by what looked like natural barriers. We rode a few rides—mainly a jungle cruise and the most awful, painful, spinning ride imaginable. We took pictures with a lion and then headed back towards home.
Once we got back to the hotel we took showers and got ready for dinner. We went about thirty minutes away to a restaurant right on the beach. We had our toes in the sand and a front row view of the beach. We had a couple of drinks and a nice dinner. We even had a quartet come around to the table and sing a song. We eventually headed back to our hotel, and then out again to a bar along Kuta Beach for a drink.
Monday
Today we started again at 9AM with a buffet breakfast at the hotel. We did a little bit of shopping and made our way to a massage place. We had an hour massage for $5. It was, by far, the best way that I’ve ever spent $5. We did some more shopping and had lunch back at the hotel. We braved some Indonesian food, which was actually quite good.
After lunch we spent a couple hours relaxing by the pool. Eventually, we got dressed and went back towards the beach to watch the sunset. We ended up having a beer at a picnic table and then having the all-American McDonalds for dinner. It was back to the hotel once again after dinner, where we packed up for the flight home. We went out one more time for another massage, but the place was busy, so we went to a bar with a live band instead. We then went to the pool one last time to have a drink at the swim-up bar and then got ready for the trip back. We flew home through the night and got into Perth around 7AM. John picked us up and took us to our houses.
It was extremely nice to be back to normal life. It was a completely different world in Indonesia. It was also nice to be out of the humidity. When we were in Bali, if we were not in air con, we were sweating—and that’s not an exaggeration. I will say that this trip was a major wake up call. People say that we take things for granted, but until someone sees first-hand how people in a third-world country live, I don’t think we understand the true meaning of that saying. I can say this, because I know what I saw, and I’ll be forever changed.
Tuesday
I did a few things when I got home from the airport, and then headed straightaway to bed. I slept until 1:30PM and then met up with Katy and the newest COST student, Laura, to go to the beach. We stayed out on the beach until about 5PM, and then we each went to our homes. I went for a long walk and then had dinner with Len and heather. I was able to talk to some friends and family online and just relax tonight.
Wednesday
Well, it was back to reality for me today. Len took me to school, and life began again. The kids were fairly good today. A year 2 student did, however, go stomping past our class yelling obscenities. Turns out, he has MAJOR anger problems. I’m taking the bus home right now, but this evening should be fairly relaxing. Len and Heather are out with friends, so I should have the house to myself! I plan on lying around and watching TV.
Pictures coming soon!
I got up at 5AM this morning, so that I could get my bag ready and Skype with my sister all before heading to school at 7:30. I felt super organized as I headed out the door, which, for me, is well worth the extra time I had to be awake. School was just fine. I didn’t do a lot of the teaching today. Rob had most of the lessons, which was fine with me. I was able to get all of my grading done by 2PM, so I didn’t have to take home any work. My supervisor, John, came and picked me up at 2. We picked up my bag and collected Katy from her school and her bag from her house, and then we were off to the airport. It was the smallest international airport, with only 5 gates. Katy and I bought a bottle of Malibu rum at one of the duty-free shops.
The service on the plane was fantastic. They gave us dinner and all the drinks we wanted, including alcoholic drinks, for free. When we got off the plane, we had to go through all of the checks, but once we got outside, there was a Balinese man waiting with our names on a card ready to take us to our hotel. We got to the hotel, put our stuff down and did a quick change and headed out. We went to Paddy’s Club, which was a rather nice bar. We had our first Bintang—Balinese beer. It was a very good, pilsner beer. We then headed next door to the Bounty, which was not as nice as the first place. We stayed there for a while though, because we just kept meeting people over and over (lots from Holland). We eventually called it a night and headed back to the hotel.
Saturday
Well, since we stayed out extremely late, we had a slow start. We went to brekky at the hotel. It was included in our stay. We had a huge meal (it was a buffet), because we only had cheese and crackers for lunch. After brekky, we went back to sleep for a couple of hours. Around 11:30, we headed out. We went down to the hotel’s massage room, because we had a coupon for a free 30-minute foot reflexology massage. It was nice, but surprisingly painful. It hurt right in the middle of my foot, which apparently means that I have stomach problems. It was surprisingly accurate, because I have been having some stomach problems.
After that, we headed out towards the beach. We looked at a few shops along the way, but basically went straight there. We got there and had the shock of our lives. First, the beach was very trashy. There were wrappers and bottles thrown everywhere. The instant that we walked onto the beach we were “attacked.” The local women swarmed us. We ONLY wanted a massage and our nails painted, so we made a deal with two ladies for 100,000 rupiah each-one for the massage and one for the nails. (11,000 Rupiah = 1 US dollar) It was rather hard to get used to the money thing. Thank goodness that Katy had a calculator, which we used about every two hours. Anyway, I had my nails started and Katy had the massage started, and then we were swarmed. About ten more ladies came and started braiding our hair, massaging our hands and feet, and trying to sell us things. It was an awful experience. I felt trapped and uncomfortable. Katy and I made our move to get up to leave, when the two ladies that we’d made the deal with shooed away everyone else. Once the extra women left, it was nice—but I don’t want to go through that again.
After the beach, we walked down the beach to the large shopping mall, where we looked around for about an hour. We stopped in and got an ice cream at A&W and then made our way back to the hotel by the way of some markets. I bought a silver ring with a turquoise stone for $7 and two sarongs for $5 each. We picked up some water and had cheese and crackers for lunch. (We couldn’t drink the water, or we’d have gotten “Bali Belly.”) We then laid by the pool for an hour or two.
We showered and got ready to go back out. We went down the street in the opposite direction, shopping along the way. After awhile, we had dinner at a café, pizza and pasta, and a large Bintang beer. The Bintang is Bali’s main beer and quite good. We shopped some more after dinner and had an early night back at the hotel. I bought twenty-eight DVDs for a total of $20 and a couple items of clothing. I spent almost 1,000,000 Rupiah today, which is only about $90.
Sunday
We woke up at 9 this morning, showered, and headed off to our buffet breakfast. We headed straight to the entrance of the hotel where we met our tour guide for the day. We spend the day traveling around the countryside. For $30 AUD each, we had a driver and tour guide to take us anywhere we wanted to go for the entire day. Our first stop was about thirty minutes away and was a batik fabric factory. The women showed us the process of making batik cloth, and it’s an incredibly detailed and long process. It includes dying, waxing, painting, waving etc. After we spent our money there, we got back on the road.
The second stop was at a typical Balinese home compound. It was shocking. It really “hit home” that I was in a third-world country. The place looked like something the pilgrims would have had in the late 1700s, with dirt floors, no doors, a fire pit as the kitchen, and outhouse, and three or four houses. All of the houses shared one temple in their compound. (They are Hindu.) After the house compound, we went to two silver makers. The silver is imported and handmade into jewelry. I, again, ended up buying a silver ring, but it was only $20 where it would be well over $120 at home.
We then went to the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary. We walked through the rainforest and saw loads of monkeys. We sat down on a stone railing and the monkeys came over and sat on our laps! It was really cool. There was a temple in the forest, which was one of the three temples for that community. All villages have three temples and each home compound has one. Once we finished our photo shoot with the monkeys, we headed to a woodcarver’s store. The wooden carvings are all done by hand and were absolutely fabulous. Then we headed to the Safari and Marine Park. It was $25 to get in and was nothing more than a glorified zoo. We rode around on a bus through an area that had different safari animals, all separated by what looked like natural barriers. We rode a few rides—mainly a jungle cruise and the most awful, painful, spinning ride imaginable. We took pictures with a lion and then headed back towards home.
Once we got back to the hotel we took showers and got ready for dinner. We went about thirty minutes away to a restaurant right on the beach. We had our toes in the sand and a front row view of the beach. We had a couple of drinks and a nice dinner. We even had a quartet come around to the table and sing a song. We eventually headed back to our hotel, and then out again to a bar along Kuta Beach for a drink.
Monday
Today we started again at 9AM with a buffet breakfast at the hotel. We did a little bit of shopping and made our way to a massage place. We had an hour massage for $5. It was, by far, the best way that I’ve ever spent $5. We did some more shopping and had lunch back at the hotel. We braved some Indonesian food, which was actually quite good.
After lunch we spent a couple hours relaxing by the pool. Eventually, we got dressed and went back towards the beach to watch the sunset. We ended up having a beer at a picnic table and then having the all-American McDonalds for dinner. It was back to the hotel once again after dinner, where we packed up for the flight home. We went out one more time for another massage, but the place was busy, so we went to a bar with a live band instead. We then went to the pool one last time to have a drink at the swim-up bar and then got ready for the trip back. We flew home through the night and got into Perth around 7AM. John picked us up and took us to our houses.
It was extremely nice to be back to normal life. It was a completely different world in Indonesia. It was also nice to be out of the humidity. When we were in Bali, if we were not in air con, we were sweating—and that’s not an exaggeration. I will say that this trip was a major wake up call. People say that we take things for granted, but until someone sees first-hand how people in a third-world country live, I don’t think we understand the true meaning of that saying. I can say this, because I know what I saw, and I’ll be forever changed.
Tuesday
I did a few things when I got home from the airport, and then headed straightaway to bed. I slept until 1:30PM and then met up with Katy and the newest COST student, Laura, to go to the beach. We stayed out on the beach until about 5PM, and then we each went to our homes. I went for a long walk and then had dinner with Len and heather. I was able to talk to some friends and family online and just relax tonight.
Wednesday
Well, it was back to reality for me today. Len took me to school, and life began again. The kids were fairly good today. A year 2 student did, however, go stomping past our class yelling obscenities. Turns out, he has MAJOR anger problems. I’m taking the bus home right now, but this evening should be fairly relaxing. Len and Heather are out with friends, so I should have the house to myself! I plan on lying around and watching TV.
Pictures coming soon!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Monday, Feb 23
Today was a pretty basic day at school. I taught most of the day. However, in the afternoon, I went over to Scott’s class and taught science with him. He is a great teacher, and I really enjoyed the students. We made paper helicopters and learned how to create an experiment. After school, I caught the bus home. I then went for a run/walk and had dinner with the family. We watched a hilarious British TV show called Top Gear. We laughed for an hour and a half.
Tuesday
Rob started his subbing for Brett today. He is an incredible teacher, and has a good relationship with the kids. He is a retired teacher, but has had many of the kids in the past. I’m probably not going to be teaching as much as I have been for these next two weeks because he really wants to take some lessons, since he only gets to be here a short time. That’s fine with me, because that lets me work with individual students a little more. We had a good day and really got along well.
Tonight was fantastic! Hazel got tickets for John and her, Heather, Katy and I for the movie at Kings’ Park. We went to see Slum Dog Millionaire. The movie played on a huge, outdoor screen in front of a huge lawn. We took a picnic dinner and a couple bottles of wine to enjoy before the movie started. It was fantastic; I certainly know why it cleaned-up at the Oscars. Katy and I decided to celebrate Fat Tuesday by buying M&Ms and a Crunchie bar to eat during the movie.
Wednesday
We had an interesting day. After dodgeball this morning (morning fitness), some boys decided that it would be funny to hit Ashleigh and I in the backs with their balls; therefore, we told everyone that they will no longer be playing dodge and will be running timed laps around the oval on Friday morning. The students got a little naughty again right before lunch. I ended up raising my voice to a level that I didn’t even know I could reach and told them to all sit down. Let me say that this was only after me saying “sit down” five times at a normal volume before this. The little buggers looked like I'd killed someone, and miraculously straightened right up! We had a good afternoon though.
IT RAINED TODAY! (I suspect the reason for the chaos.) Just around lunchtime today, I looked outside and it was just pouring. Today is the first day that it has rained since I’ve been here. It was also about 60 degrees, and I was in a skirt and sleeveless top. Let’s just said that I was fairly cold and covered in goose-bumps all day. I’m now sitting at home, in bed, drinking a cup of hot chocolate.
Since today is Ash Wednesday, Katy and I are going to try to go to church. We have to figure out the ride/driving situation. That is one thing that I severely miss about home—being able to drive anywhere and anytime I want. Here, I have to rely on people to take me somewhere or to catch the buses. Two sleeps until Bali!
Thursday
So, about that Ash Wednesday Service... let's just say it was an experience. Katy and I pulled into the parking lot and looked at each other and said, "Uhhh... do you still want to go?" We walked in quite possibly the smallest church in Australia. It was Wembley Downs Uniting Church. The people were great, but it was so small. The average age of the members was about 65, and everyone else had at least 40 years on Katy and I. The service was nice, but it was different. The Call to Worship and sung responses were prerecorded on a tape player and played on two little speakers. We ended up going for a coffee after the service at the Dome, which was really nice. We caught up on some stories from each of our schools.
Today, we did lots of seat work in the morning. In the afternoon, students performed their celebrity interviews. Most of them were fantastic--until a boy farted in the middle of his, and the whole class burst out in chaos. (It was pretty funny.) I caught the bus to the shops tonight after school and grabbed some supplies for the trip to Bali tomorrow. I've just been home packing and relaxing this evening. Tomorrow is going to be a long day, and I certainly don't want to be exhausted when we get into Bali at 10PM tomorrow night. One sleep!
Today was a pretty basic day at school. I taught most of the day. However, in the afternoon, I went over to Scott’s class and taught science with him. He is a great teacher, and I really enjoyed the students. We made paper helicopters and learned how to create an experiment. After school, I caught the bus home. I then went for a run/walk and had dinner with the family. We watched a hilarious British TV show called Top Gear. We laughed for an hour and a half.
Tuesday
Rob started his subbing for Brett today. He is an incredible teacher, and has a good relationship with the kids. He is a retired teacher, but has had many of the kids in the past. I’m probably not going to be teaching as much as I have been for these next two weeks because he really wants to take some lessons, since he only gets to be here a short time. That’s fine with me, because that lets me work with individual students a little more. We had a good day and really got along well.
Tonight was fantastic! Hazel got tickets for John and her, Heather, Katy and I for the movie at Kings’ Park. We went to see Slum Dog Millionaire. The movie played on a huge, outdoor screen in front of a huge lawn. We took a picnic dinner and a couple bottles of wine to enjoy before the movie started. It was fantastic; I certainly know why it cleaned-up at the Oscars. Katy and I decided to celebrate Fat Tuesday by buying M&Ms and a Crunchie bar to eat during the movie.
Wednesday
We had an interesting day. After dodgeball this morning (morning fitness), some boys decided that it would be funny to hit Ashleigh and I in the backs with their balls; therefore, we told everyone that they will no longer be playing dodge and will be running timed laps around the oval on Friday morning. The students got a little naughty again right before lunch. I ended up raising my voice to a level that I didn’t even know I could reach and told them to all sit down. Let me say that this was only after me saying “sit down” five times at a normal volume before this. The little buggers looked like I'd killed someone, and miraculously straightened right up! We had a good afternoon though.
IT RAINED TODAY! (I suspect the reason for the chaos.) Just around lunchtime today, I looked outside and it was just pouring. Today is the first day that it has rained since I’ve been here. It was also about 60 degrees, and I was in a skirt and sleeveless top. Let’s just said that I was fairly cold and covered in goose-bumps all day. I’m now sitting at home, in bed, drinking a cup of hot chocolate.
Since today is Ash Wednesday, Katy and I are going to try to go to church. We have to figure out the ride/driving situation. That is one thing that I severely miss about home—being able to drive anywhere and anytime I want. Here, I have to rely on people to take me somewhere or to catch the buses. Two sleeps until Bali!
Thursday
So, about that Ash Wednesday Service... let's just say it was an experience. Katy and I pulled into the parking lot and looked at each other and said, "Uhhh... do you still want to go?" We walked in quite possibly the smallest church in Australia. It was Wembley Downs Uniting Church. The people were great, but it was so small. The average age of the members was about 65, and everyone else had at least 40 years on Katy and I. The service was nice, but it was different. The Call to Worship and sung responses were prerecorded on a tape player and played on two little speakers. We ended up going for a coffee after the service at the Dome, which was really nice. We caught up on some stories from each of our schools.
Today, we did lots of seat work in the morning. In the afternoon, students performed their celebrity interviews. Most of them were fantastic--until a boy farted in the middle of his, and the whole class burst out in chaos. (It was pretty funny.) I caught the bus to the shops tonight after school and grabbed some supplies for the trip to Bali tomorrow. I've just been home packing and relaxing this evening. Tomorrow is going to be a long day, and I certainly don't want to be exhausted when we get into Bali at 10PM tomorrow night. One sleep!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Surfing/Catamaraning/Swan Valley
Saturday
It was another one of those “best days ever.” I woke up at 6:30AM… I know, it was not fun getting up that early on a Saturday morning. Johno picked me up at 7:00AM and already had Katy. We headed for Trigg Beach. The surf wasn’t fantastic, but it was a good size to learn on. Johno is very tall, so his board was quite long. Katy and I both took turns surfing and body surfing. It was the most thrilling experiences of a lifetime. I know why people are addicted to surfing. The rush of the waves and riding them was awesome. I only got up on my feet about once, but I got up on my knees several times.
After surfing, we had breakfast at a local café. It was a little expensive, but very good. (They put scrambled eggs on toast over here… not with toast, on toast!) Johno dropped us off at Katy’s house after brekky. We had lunch and went back to the beach with her host family. They have two little boys 7 and 10 yrs old. We took surfboards and boogie boards with us. We stayed out for about two hours and came back home. Johno picked us up after a while and took us to the Swan River with some of his friends in the city. We hired and took out catamarans for an hour. It was my first experience sailing a boat entirely on my own. I could do that all day, everyday; it’s incredibly fun and relaxing.
After catamaraning, Johno dropped us each off at our houses. I went for a run, had dinner and took a shower. I got dropped off at Katy’s, and we ended up deciding to go out. We went to Subiaco, where we walked around to find a good place to go out. We ended up at the Subiaco Hotel, where there was a live band. We really wanted ice cream, but since we couldn’t find an ice cream shop still open, we just bought a pint from a convenience store. We also got peanut butter and Oreos. When we got back to Katy’s, we pigged-out like the Americans that we are. I then spent the night.
Sunday
We had a leisurely morning, getting up without setting an alarm. I woke up and helped on of the boys on the computer for a while. When everyone was up, we drove into Subiaco and had a Boost Juice smoothie. We also went to the supermarket (where I bought chocolate chips, because I’m going through withdrawal and NEED chocolate chip cookies!) We then went back home and got ready for the afternoon.
Katy drove us to my place, where Len and Heather were ready to take us on a tour of the Swan Valley. The Swan Valley is an area full of vineyards, a chocolate factory, and breweries. First, we stopped on the side of the road at a farmer’s pick-up truck to get a watermelon and honeydew melon. We then went to the chocolate factory, which was no more than a glorified, tourist trap, chocolate store. It wasn’t particularly exciting. What was exciting though, was our next stop. We went to the John Kosovich winery. We met the winemaker, Jason, John’s son, who led us through the wine tasting and told us all about the wine. We tasted down in the bottom of a cellar, where there were stacks of wine barrels. We then headed to the Faber Vineyard, where the winemaker, John Griffiths, led us through the tasting of his wines. I ended up purchasing two bottles of wine. It was just fantastic to sit with two wine makers and really hear about the differences in wines and what goes into making them. I certainly have a newfound appreciation for wine. We went to a little Italian couple’s house after that and purchased quite a bit of produce, including cantaloupes, tomatoes, grapes, eggs, garlic and figs. On the way home, I fell asleep.
We had a very nice dinner tonight, as Heather and Len’s friends came over. I’m tired, but I’ve got a big week ahead. I leave for Bali on Friday night, so I’ve got to catch up on sleep before then!
It was another one of those “best days ever.” I woke up at 6:30AM… I know, it was not fun getting up that early on a Saturday morning. Johno picked me up at 7:00AM and already had Katy. We headed for Trigg Beach. The surf wasn’t fantastic, but it was a good size to learn on. Johno is very tall, so his board was quite long. Katy and I both took turns surfing and body surfing. It was the most thrilling experiences of a lifetime. I know why people are addicted to surfing. The rush of the waves and riding them was awesome. I only got up on my feet about once, but I got up on my knees several times.
After surfing, we had breakfast at a local café. It was a little expensive, but very good. (They put scrambled eggs on toast over here… not with toast, on toast!) Johno dropped us off at Katy’s house after brekky. We had lunch and went back to the beach with her host family. They have two little boys 7 and 10 yrs old. We took surfboards and boogie boards with us. We stayed out for about two hours and came back home. Johno picked us up after a while and took us to the Swan River with some of his friends in the city. We hired and took out catamarans for an hour. It was my first experience sailing a boat entirely on my own. I could do that all day, everyday; it’s incredibly fun and relaxing.
After catamaraning, Johno dropped us each off at our houses. I went for a run, had dinner and took a shower. I got dropped off at Katy’s, and we ended up deciding to go out. We went to Subiaco, where we walked around to find a good place to go out. We ended up at the Subiaco Hotel, where there was a live band. We really wanted ice cream, but since we couldn’t find an ice cream shop still open, we just bought a pint from a convenience store. We also got peanut butter and Oreos. When we got back to Katy’s, we pigged-out like the Americans that we are. I then spent the night.
Sunday
We had a leisurely morning, getting up without setting an alarm. I woke up and helped on of the boys on the computer for a while. When everyone was up, we drove into Subiaco and had a Boost Juice smoothie. We also went to the supermarket (where I bought chocolate chips, because I’m going through withdrawal and NEED chocolate chip cookies!) We then went back home and got ready for the afternoon.
Katy drove us to my place, where Len and Heather were ready to take us on a tour of the Swan Valley. The Swan Valley is an area full of vineyards, a chocolate factory, and breweries. First, we stopped on the side of the road at a farmer’s pick-up truck to get a watermelon and honeydew melon. We then went to the chocolate factory, which was no more than a glorified, tourist trap, chocolate store. It wasn’t particularly exciting. What was exciting though, was our next stop. We went to the John Kosovich winery. We met the winemaker, Jason, John’s son, who led us through the wine tasting and told us all about the wine. We tasted down in the bottom of a cellar, where there were stacks of wine barrels. We then headed to the Faber Vineyard, where the winemaker, John Griffiths, led us through the tasting of his wines. I ended up purchasing two bottles of wine. It was just fantastic to sit with two wine makers and really hear about the differences in wines and what goes into making them. I certainly have a newfound appreciation for wine. We went to a little Italian couple’s house after that and purchased quite a bit of produce, including cantaloupes, tomatoes, grapes, eggs, garlic and figs. On the way home, I fell asleep.
We had a very nice dinner tonight, as Heather and Len’s friends came over. I’m tired, but I’ve got a big week ahead. I leave for Bali on Friday night, so I’ve got to catch up on sleep before then!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Monday, Feb 16—
Today was the second day without Brett. It went relatively well, but it’s just different. Frank taught most of the day, while I floated around to those who were struggling. I did teach a science lesson and a health lesson. I was really worried about science, because of the poor behavior that the students have showed the last couple of days, but it all went smoothly. They made circuits with wire, a battery and a light bulb. It was great, they become involved and loved the hands-on activity. We ran out of time, as usual, but at least the lesson went well. After science, I taught health. We talked about prejudice today. I guess it went well, but as we were talking about the reasons someone is prejudice, I was upset by some of the things that the kids were saying. They laughed every time I mentioned a gay or lesbian person. It really bothered me, because I was trying to teach them about not being prejudice, and they were sitting there laughing at gay and lesbian people. I told them that I didn’t know what was so funny, and they said that the just weren’t used to a teacher using those words. I just wasn’t thrilled in their discussion about being prejudice.
Tonight, I just stayed home and had a nice dinner with the family. Heather made a wonderful chocolate mouse that was heavenly! We also had tim-tams, which are a type of chocolate cookie.
Tuesday
Today was a big day for me. I started off the day teaching like normal, but then my supervisor showed up. I was evaluated one out of the two times for the term. It went well, and my supervisor was very pleased with how the class was being run. It was a little stressful knowing that I was being evaluated, but honestly, I forgot he was there for part of the lesson. After he left, we had lunch, and Brett and I discussed some lessons. The principal, Gavin, came in and said that he needed to talk to me. An hour and a half later, when I came out of his office, I was exhausted. He wanted to chat about my placement, see my lesson plans, check my evaluations, etc. So, basically I had an entire day full of evaluations. Now, I won’t be evaluated until the end of the quarter. Gavin and I did talk briefly about non-school activities. He offered to take Katy and I to the Pinnacles, which is an area up north that has natural sand dunes and a much different landscape from Perth.
Tonight, we had our parents’ meeting. They have a meeting at the beginning of the year with the classroom teacher to communicate the rules and expectations for the year. The parents were great, and nearly all of them showed up. (Of course, the parents whom we really needed to speak to didn’t bother to come.) After the meeting, Ashleigh, Brett and I went out for Thai food. We bought a bottle of wine and had delicious, prawn, chicken, and tofu, Thai food.
Wednesday
We had a good day at school today. We are still having trouble with students turning in work on time, so we ended up cutting out a lesson to give the students more class time to work. I taught most of the day, with the exception of reading. I got a horrible headache this morning, and that’s very strange for me. I haven’t gotten a true headache in several years, but today’s was pretty awful.
After school today, I came home and went for a quick swim in the pool. My teacher’s sister came to pick me up at around 5:45PM, because it was my teacher’s wife’s 50th birthday party tonight. We had fish and chips, salad, and three wonderful types of birthday cake. The people were all fabulous and very welcoming. Brett’s whole family as well as his wife’s was there. We just sat out back, had a glass of wine, and enjoyed good conversation. I graded some papers when I got home from the dinner party, and now am of to bed. This weekend we decided not to go to Rottnest Island, but to go to Swan Valley, which is a nice area full of vineyards about and hour outside of Perth.
Thursday
School was a little crazy today, but still mostly enjoyable. I taught math, spelling, writing, speech and drama, and mapping. It was really fun, and the kids were on-task most of the day. After last night’s party, I was a little exhausted today, but not quite as tired as Brett. Brett completed his midterm evaluation of me today. That was a little nerve-racking. However, he marked me as mostly 4s and 5s on a 5 pt scale. It made me feel like I was actually doing something right! It’s not quite halfway, but I’ve got to get the evals in early, because I’ll technically graduate before I get back into the States. Brett took me home once again.
I laid by the pool for a little while this evening. When Len and Heather got home, we went to pick up Katy and head off to their wine-tasting club. It was fabulous! We tasted about eight wines, worth over $400 total. It’s a bit funny, because they go to a cheap Thai restaurant, yet have hundreds of dollars of expensive wine at the table! They keep the wine covered, while the owner asks questions about the wine, where it’s from, who made it, what type is it, etc, etc. It was remarkable what they could tell about a wine from just smelling it and tasting a bit of it. After dinner, we walked over to a coffee shop and had a coffee and cake. Delicious once again.
Friday
Today was a little nuts. Brett ended up yelling at the autistic boy in our class, because he just reached the end of his tolerance and snapped. It was fine in the end, and the boy probably needed a wake up call, but it disrupted the class for a good while. Then, we had a boy not do his homework, so Brett didn’t let him have a snack from the canteen at recess, so he ended up hiding and crying. After a meeting with the boy’s mom and the boy, it was settled reasonably. This afternoon was better though, we canceled sport because it was just too hot to make the kids run around outside, so we watched Sister Act II instead! Sitting in the A/C watching a movie sounded like a much better way to end the whopper of a day that we had. After we had a drink after school, we headed home.
I had a nice nap by the pool when I got home. I ended up going for a run and taking the evening at a relaxing pace. Katy is coming over to spend the night tonight, because Johno, one of the guys we met, is going to teach us how to SURF in the morning! We have to be ready by 7AM, because the best time to surf is early in the morning. Then, I think we might go around to the shops with Len or possibly to the AQWA aquarium later in the day.
Today was the second day without Brett. It went relatively well, but it’s just different. Frank taught most of the day, while I floated around to those who were struggling. I did teach a science lesson and a health lesson. I was really worried about science, because of the poor behavior that the students have showed the last couple of days, but it all went smoothly. They made circuits with wire, a battery and a light bulb. It was great, they become involved and loved the hands-on activity. We ran out of time, as usual, but at least the lesson went well. After science, I taught health. We talked about prejudice today. I guess it went well, but as we were talking about the reasons someone is prejudice, I was upset by some of the things that the kids were saying. They laughed every time I mentioned a gay or lesbian person. It really bothered me, because I was trying to teach them about not being prejudice, and they were sitting there laughing at gay and lesbian people. I told them that I didn’t know what was so funny, and they said that the just weren’t used to a teacher using those words. I just wasn’t thrilled in their discussion about being prejudice.
Tonight, I just stayed home and had a nice dinner with the family. Heather made a wonderful chocolate mouse that was heavenly! We also had tim-tams, which are a type of chocolate cookie.
Tuesday
Today was a big day for me. I started off the day teaching like normal, but then my supervisor showed up. I was evaluated one out of the two times for the term. It went well, and my supervisor was very pleased with how the class was being run. It was a little stressful knowing that I was being evaluated, but honestly, I forgot he was there for part of the lesson. After he left, we had lunch, and Brett and I discussed some lessons. The principal, Gavin, came in and said that he needed to talk to me. An hour and a half later, when I came out of his office, I was exhausted. He wanted to chat about my placement, see my lesson plans, check my evaluations, etc. So, basically I had an entire day full of evaluations. Now, I won’t be evaluated until the end of the quarter. Gavin and I did talk briefly about non-school activities. He offered to take Katy and I to the Pinnacles, which is an area up north that has natural sand dunes and a much different landscape from Perth.
Tonight, we had our parents’ meeting. They have a meeting at the beginning of the year with the classroom teacher to communicate the rules and expectations for the year. The parents were great, and nearly all of them showed up. (Of course, the parents whom we really needed to speak to didn’t bother to come.) After the meeting, Ashleigh, Brett and I went out for Thai food. We bought a bottle of wine and had delicious, prawn, chicken, and tofu, Thai food.
Wednesday
We had a good day at school today. We are still having trouble with students turning in work on time, so we ended up cutting out a lesson to give the students more class time to work. I taught most of the day, with the exception of reading. I got a horrible headache this morning, and that’s very strange for me. I haven’t gotten a true headache in several years, but today’s was pretty awful.
After school today, I came home and went for a quick swim in the pool. My teacher’s sister came to pick me up at around 5:45PM, because it was my teacher’s wife’s 50th birthday party tonight. We had fish and chips, salad, and three wonderful types of birthday cake. The people were all fabulous and very welcoming. Brett’s whole family as well as his wife’s was there. We just sat out back, had a glass of wine, and enjoyed good conversation. I graded some papers when I got home from the dinner party, and now am of to bed. This weekend we decided not to go to Rottnest Island, but to go to Swan Valley, which is a nice area full of vineyards about and hour outside of Perth.
Thursday
School was a little crazy today, but still mostly enjoyable. I taught math, spelling, writing, speech and drama, and mapping. It was really fun, and the kids were on-task most of the day. After last night’s party, I was a little exhausted today, but not quite as tired as Brett. Brett completed his midterm evaluation of me today. That was a little nerve-racking. However, he marked me as mostly 4s and 5s on a 5 pt scale. It made me feel like I was actually doing something right! It’s not quite halfway, but I’ve got to get the evals in early, because I’ll technically graduate before I get back into the States. Brett took me home once again.
I laid by the pool for a little while this evening. When Len and Heather got home, we went to pick up Katy and head off to their wine-tasting club. It was fabulous! We tasted about eight wines, worth over $400 total. It’s a bit funny, because they go to a cheap Thai restaurant, yet have hundreds of dollars of expensive wine at the table! They keep the wine covered, while the owner asks questions about the wine, where it’s from, who made it, what type is it, etc, etc. It was remarkable what they could tell about a wine from just smelling it and tasting a bit of it. After dinner, we walked over to a coffee shop and had a coffee and cake. Delicious once again.
Friday
Today was a little nuts. Brett ended up yelling at the autistic boy in our class, because he just reached the end of his tolerance and snapped. It was fine in the end, and the boy probably needed a wake up call, but it disrupted the class for a good while. Then, we had a boy not do his homework, so Brett didn’t let him have a snack from the canteen at recess, so he ended up hiding and crying. After a meeting with the boy’s mom and the boy, it was settled reasonably. This afternoon was better though, we canceled sport because it was just too hot to make the kids run around outside, so we watched Sister Act II instead! Sitting in the A/C watching a movie sounded like a much better way to end the whopper of a day that we had. After we had a drink after school, we headed home.
I had a nice nap by the pool when I got home. I ended up going for a run and taking the evening at a relaxing pace. Katy is coming over to spend the night tonight, because Johno, one of the guys we met, is going to teach us how to SURF in the morning! We have to be ready by 7AM, because the best time to surf is early in the morning. Then, I think we might go around to the shops with Len or possibly to the AQWA aquarium later in the day.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Tuesday, Feb. 10th
Today was a relatively easy day at school. Brett still taught math, and I taught just about everything else. We are working on many different things with one being a peer biography. The students are actually surprisingly low in their skills. For some reason, in about every subject, they are behind. It’s really quite a concern, because we have to get them ready for high school by this time next year. About a third of the class are over a year ahead of where they should be, about one third on track, and about another third well below a year behind. It makes teaching quite difficult. There are so many individualized assignments because of this, which all have to be graded according to each student’s ability level.
I hadn’t realized how much my failed science lesson had gotten to me, but it really bugged me. I was able to talk it through with Brett today, and we worked out a new way to attempt it. The students just aren’t quite ready to work in cooperative groups yet; they’ve got some maturing to do. The frustrations of being a teacher are alive and well now that I’m into my second week. Students don’t do what they are specifically directed to do, they don’t turn in quality work, some simply don’t care, and others are never going to get it as much as I explain it. One little boy has an IQ of about 70, and just missed the level of receiving assistance. Keeping him on track, while trying to keep another student, who is more advanced than me in math, challenged at the same time; it’s just really difficult and draining. Thank goodness Brett is there to help some of the lower students while I’m handling the rest of the class.
Tonight, I went to dinner at Carine with Heather, Len and Kit and John, Hazel and Renee for Hazel’s birthday. Dinner was delightful! After dinner, I did some prep work for school and headed to bed.
Oh yeah, THE AIR CONDITIONING WAS FIXED AT SCHOOL TODAY!!!!
Wednesday
It was awfully hard to get up this morning. I felt like I weighed about 1000 lbs and was just exhausted. I got up anyway and went for a run. When I got to school, my day was already looking up, because the air con was working. It would have been torture teaching with no AC today. It was over 100 degrees again.
The day went well. The big event of the day though was this afternoon. One of the little boys wasn’t getting any work done. I kept checking on him, but I looked over, and he had just run out of the room. Our rooms go directly to the outside, and when I saw him, he was bent over puking in the bushes. Brett got him settled and the mess cleaned up, but that was quite the disruption for a seventh grade class. The poor little guy came back to class too and finished the day!
When I got home from school, Fatty was here. Fatty is a friend of Kit’s who will be staying with us for about a month. We chatted some and then I did some planning. After my evening dip in the pool, we had dinner. It was wonderful as always. It was a relatively uneventful day.
However, today has been monumental in my social life. Katy, the other COST student teacher, and I made some very large plans tonight. We have decided that we are going to go to swim with the dolphins this week at Rockingham, but then we are going to say and see Penguin Island and spend the night camping on the beach. We will get up the next morning and drive home through Fremantle, which is a bit of a hippie town, and go through the Fremantle Markets. We also made plans for the last weekend in Feb. We are going to BALI!! It’s going to cost us about $500 each to go to Bali for 3 nights and 3 days, so we’re just going to do it.
Thursday
Today was a good day. We were in the air conditioning, so it was relatively pleasant. I taught the whole day today, with Brett just jumping in where he needed to in order to fill in things that I forgot. It’s really nice to have an experienced teacher to help when I don’t know how to say something quite simply enough. We had lunch duty today. It was really easy, because the kids just go wherever they want. It’s really not too hard to look after them because they all go outside to run and play, so they are pretty well behaved.
I didn’t do much this evening. I went for a run down by the beach, but that was about it. Tomorrow will be the test for the students’ behavior in science. They know that if they blow it, we’ll not be doing anything fun. I’m not about to pull out wires, light bulbs, batteries, voltmeters, etc, when they are acting as if they haven’t got a brain in their head. So we’ll see…
Friday
The little buggers were naughty today. This morning was lovely, the students did a chance and data lesson with dice to find probability, which went wonderfully. HOWEVER, after lunch they were like a totally different group of kids. I had to yell a few times (which I really hate), and they just wouldn’t listen. I told people to turn in their homework, and 6 out of 31 turned it in. Therefore, on Monday, we are going to have a nice long chat about this. Brett and I are spending more time chasing kids around trying to get their work turned in than actually teaching. It’s ridiculous. I don’t know what kind of structure they have had in the past, but it certainly wasn’t how we are running things. The kids are fantastic and lovely to be around, but their work is just pathetic. There are about five kids who are on top of their work, and the rest of the class simply acts like they don’t care.
This afternoon, Brett and I had a quick beer with the rest of the staff after school and headed home. I had a bowl of ice cream! Everyone is pretty healthy here, but Heather just bought ice cream that she doesn’t like, so I told her that I would get rid of it for her. ☺ When Heather got home, she and I went for a little test drive. We were able to get insurance for me on her car, so I can take it this weekend. I needed to go to the store and get some food for the weekend. The drive went relatively well, I only hit the curb once, and managed not to hit any other cars. It was a bit weird; I constantly felt like I was going the wrong way.
I packed the gear into the car for our camping trip, because I’m going to have to leave at 5:30AM tomorrow to pick Katy up and be at the departure jetty at 7:30AM. We were able to get a camping spot, so we are going to take a tent and sleeping bags. After a long dinner, I went to bed.
Saturday
This could quite possibly be one of the most incredible days of my entire life (… and I know people say that all the time, but this really was one of those days). I was able to pick Katy up on time, and head toward the town of Rockingham. It’s about an hour and a half south of where we live. We got there relatively easy, because it was a Saturday morning, and not many people were on the road. We picked up a coffee before getting on the boat. On the boat, we had to go through the spiel about safety and liability information. After that, they passed out the snorkels and wetsuits. The wet suits were the kind that floats. Therefore, all we had to do in the water was lay out on our belly, so the dolphins could swim around us.
I can’t explain how cool the experience was. The dolphins literally swam three feet in front of my face. We were not allowed to touch them, because the oils in our hands are actually toxic to them. It was just fascinating to see them playing with each other and playing with our guides. We linked together to make a long chain of people, and our guides pulled us around with motorized swimming machines. We were able to go out about five different times. One time we didn’t actually see any, but we just got back to the boat and then went right back out as soon as the skipper found the dolphins again. We were able to see a couple moms and calves. One calf was only about 2 weeks old; it still had the folds in its skin from being inside of his mom. On the way back to the jetty, we kicked up a big wave because the boat was moving pretty fast. The dolphins love to play in the waves, and they were jumping out of the water and doing some little flips just like in the movies or at SeaWorld. They are really playful animals and quite entertaining.
After we got back, we went walking around the town, and then we drove to Penguin Island. There are real penguins here, and it’s a natural colony. We took the ferry over to the island and walked the whole island. We didn’t see any penguins, because they are nocturnal and were either hiding or all out in the ocean gathering food. There was a tank though in the middle of the island with a few penguins in it for demonstrations. The little island makes one feel as if he is miles away from anything else in the world.
We headed for the campsite after we left the island. We got there, set up our tent, (on about at 10x10 piece of ground) and headed out walking towards the beach. We walked along the beach for about an hour. It was not the softest beach in the world, but it was beautiful. We walked along in the water and soon realized that it was full of starfish!! They were everywhere. We had to be careful where we stepped, because they were being tossed around by the waves. We walked back to the campsite and put some chicken on the barbie. They had really nice, electric barbies at this particular caravan park. After dinner, we walked back to the beach to enjoy a beer and watch the sunset. We weren’t disappointed. It was a good way to enjoy Valentine’s Day… even if we were flying solo.
It was back to the campsite after sunset for S’MORES!! Do you know that Australia DOES NOT HAVE graham crackers, Hershey bars or regular marshmallows!?! We had to improvise. We used shortbread cookies, Cadbury chocolate, and raspberry flavored marshmallows. Since we only had an electric barbie, we also had to just melt everything rather than use a fire. Nonetheless, they were still a perfect way to end the day.
Sunday
We woke up today, took showers in the incredibly clean shower house, and then packed up our gear. We went to Fremantle, shortened to Freo, for the day. There are fabulous stores and markets in Freo. We went to a coffee shop, Ginos, for breaky, and then we went to the Fremantle Prison. The prison was the first one on the west coast, built for an by convicts from Europe. It was great, but quite eerie as well. The prison has only been closed for 15 years, and it was very run-down. By the looks of the pictures, it didn’t look much better when it was an actual prison. We went back towards the markets, and they were finally opened by 10AM. I ended up getting a few things, one being a sarong, which is basically a piece of rayon that people use as a bather cover-up.
After the markets, we went to the Shipwreck Galleries and some other historical spots around town. The Shipwreck Galleries were great, but we were starting to get tired. We decided to find lunch. We ended up eating at Cicero’s. It’s the best fish and chips shop in Freo, and it was definitely delicious! We also walked through a brewery. It was an unbelievable coincidence, because the brewery that we went through, was the maker of the beer that I happened to pick up for Friday night. It’s the only major brewery in the area, and all of the beer is made in that one location.
After lunch, we headed home so Katy could get to her little host-brother’s bowling, birthday party. I laid by the pool all afternoon and got my life back in order from the weekend. This week should be a good one. It’s got to be, because Brett leaves for Tasmania for two weeks starting this Friday, and I’m going to be the main teacher! Ahh!
You're a champ if you made it all the way to here! Whew, a lot happened this week.
Today was a relatively easy day at school. Brett still taught math, and I taught just about everything else. We are working on many different things with one being a peer biography. The students are actually surprisingly low in their skills. For some reason, in about every subject, they are behind. It’s really quite a concern, because we have to get them ready for high school by this time next year. About a third of the class are over a year ahead of where they should be, about one third on track, and about another third well below a year behind. It makes teaching quite difficult. There are so many individualized assignments because of this, which all have to be graded according to each student’s ability level.
I hadn’t realized how much my failed science lesson had gotten to me, but it really bugged me. I was able to talk it through with Brett today, and we worked out a new way to attempt it. The students just aren’t quite ready to work in cooperative groups yet; they’ve got some maturing to do. The frustrations of being a teacher are alive and well now that I’m into my second week. Students don’t do what they are specifically directed to do, they don’t turn in quality work, some simply don’t care, and others are never going to get it as much as I explain it. One little boy has an IQ of about 70, and just missed the level of receiving assistance. Keeping him on track, while trying to keep another student, who is more advanced than me in math, challenged at the same time; it’s just really difficult and draining. Thank goodness Brett is there to help some of the lower students while I’m handling the rest of the class.
Tonight, I went to dinner at Carine with Heather, Len and Kit and John, Hazel and Renee for Hazel’s birthday. Dinner was delightful! After dinner, I did some prep work for school and headed to bed.
Oh yeah, THE AIR CONDITIONING WAS FIXED AT SCHOOL TODAY!!!!
Wednesday
It was awfully hard to get up this morning. I felt like I weighed about 1000 lbs and was just exhausted. I got up anyway and went for a run. When I got to school, my day was already looking up, because the air con was working. It would have been torture teaching with no AC today. It was over 100 degrees again.
The day went well. The big event of the day though was this afternoon. One of the little boys wasn’t getting any work done. I kept checking on him, but I looked over, and he had just run out of the room. Our rooms go directly to the outside, and when I saw him, he was bent over puking in the bushes. Brett got him settled and the mess cleaned up, but that was quite the disruption for a seventh grade class. The poor little guy came back to class too and finished the day!
When I got home from school, Fatty was here. Fatty is a friend of Kit’s who will be staying with us for about a month. We chatted some and then I did some planning. After my evening dip in the pool, we had dinner. It was wonderful as always. It was a relatively uneventful day.
However, today has been monumental in my social life. Katy, the other COST student teacher, and I made some very large plans tonight. We have decided that we are going to go to swim with the dolphins this week at Rockingham, but then we are going to say and see Penguin Island and spend the night camping on the beach. We will get up the next morning and drive home through Fremantle, which is a bit of a hippie town, and go through the Fremantle Markets. We also made plans for the last weekend in Feb. We are going to BALI!! It’s going to cost us about $500 each to go to Bali for 3 nights and 3 days, so we’re just going to do it.
Thursday
Today was a good day. We were in the air conditioning, so it was relatively pleasant. I taught the whole day today, with Brett just jumping in where he needed to in order to fill in things that I forgot. It’s really nice to have an experienced teacher to help when I don’t know how to say something quite simply enough. We had lunch duty today. It was really easy, because the kids just go wherever they want. It’s really not too hard to look after them because they all go outside to run and play, so they are pretty well behaved.
I didn’t do much this evening. I went for a run down by the beach, but that was about it. Tomorrow will be the test for the students’ behavior in science. They know that if they blow it, we’ll not be doing anything fun. I’m not about to pull out wires, light bulbs, batteries, voltmeters, etc, when they are acting as if they haven’t got a brain in their head. So we’ll see…
Friday
The little buggers were naughty today. This morning was lovely, the students did a chance and data lesson with dice to find probability, which went wonderfully. HOWEVER, after lunch they were like a totally different group of kids. I had to yell a few times (which I really hate), and they just wouldn’t listen. I told people to turn in their homework, and 6 out of 31 turned it in. Therefore, on Monday, we are going to have a nice long chat about this. Brett and I are spending more time chasing kids around trying to get their work turned in than actually teaching. It’s ridiculous. I don’t know what kind of structure they have had in the past, but it certainly wasn’t how we are running things. The kids are fantastic and lovely to be around, but their work is just pathetic. There are about five kids who are on top of their work, and the rest of the class simply acts like they don’t care.
This afternoon, Brett and I had a quick beer with the rest of the staff after school and headed home. I had a bowl of ice cream! Everyone is pretty healthy here, but Heather just bought ice cream that she doesn’t like, so I told her that I would get rid of it for her. ☺ When Heather got home, she and I went for a little test drive. We were able to get insurance for me on her car, so I can take it this weekend. I needed to go to the store and get some food for the weekend. The drive went relatively well, I only hit the curb once, and managed not to hit any other cars. It was a bit weird; I constantly felt like I was going the wrong way.
I packed the gear into the car for our camping trip, because I’m going to have to leave at 5:30AM tomorrow to pick Katy up and be at the departure jetty at 7:30AM. We were able to get a camping spot, so we are going to take a tent and sleeping bags. After a long dinner, I went to bed.
Saturday
This could quite possibly be one of the most incredible days of my entire life (… and I know people say that all the time, but this really was one of those days). I was able to pick Katy up on time, and head toward the town of Rockingham. It’s about an hour and a half south of where we live. We got there relatively easy, because it was a Saturday morning, and not many people were on the road. We picked up a coffee before getting on the boat. On the boat, we had to go through the spiel about safety and liability information. After that, they passed out the snorkels and wetsuits. The wet suits were the kind that floats. Therefore, all we had to do in the water was lay out on our belly, so the dolphins could swim around us.
I can’t explain how cool the experience was. The dolphins literally swam three feet in front of my face. We were not allowed to touch them, because the oils in our hands are actually toxic to them. It was just fascinating to see them playing with each other and playing with our guides. We linked together to make a long chain of people, and our guides pulled us around with motorized swimming machines. We were able to go out about five different times. One time we didn’t actually see any, but we just got back to the boat and then went right back out as soon as the skipper found the dolphins again. We were able to see a couple moms and calves. One calf was only about 2 weeks old; it still had the folds in its skin from being inside of his mom. On the way back to the jetty, we kicked up a big wave because the boat was moving pretty fast. The dolphins love to play in the waves, and they were jumping out of the water and doing some little flips just like in the movies or at SeaWorld. They are really playful animals and quite entertaining.
After we got back, we went walking around the town, and then we drove to Penguin Island. There are real penguins here, and it’s a natural colony. We took the ferry over to the island and walked the whole island. We didn’t see any penguins, because they are nocturnal and were either hiding or all out in the ocean gathering food. There was a tank though in the middle of the island with a few penguins in it for demonstrations. The little island makes one feel as if he is miles away from anything else in the world.
We headed for the campsite after we left the island. We got there, set up our tent, (on about at 10x10 piece of ground) and headed out walking towards the beach. We walked along the beach for about an hour. It was not the softest beach in the world, but it was beautiful. We walked along in the water and soon realized that it was full of starfish!! They were everywhere. We had to be careful where we stepped, because they were being tossed around by the waves. We walked back to the campsite and put some chicken on the barbie. They had really nice, electric barbies at this particular caravan park. After dinner, we walked back to the beach to enjoy a beer and watch the sunset. We weren’t disappointed. It was a good way to enjoy Valentine’s Day… even if we were flying solo.
It was back to the campsite after sunset for S’MORES!! Do you know that Australia DOES NOT HAVE graham crackers, Hershey bars or regular marshmallows!?! We had to improvise. We used shortbread cookies, Cadbury chocolate, and raspberry flavored marshmallows. Since we only had an electric barbie, we also had to just melt everything rather than use a fire. Nonetheless, they were still a perfect way to end the day.
Sunday
We woke up today, took showers in the incredibly clean shower house, and then packed up our gear. We went to Fremantle, shortened to Freo, for the day. There are fabulous stores and markets in Freo. We went to a coffee shop, Ginos, for breaky, and then we went to the Fremantle Prison. The prison was the first one on the west coast, built for an by convicts from Europe. It was great, but quite eerie as well. The prison has only been closed for 15 years, and it was very run-down. By the looks of the pictures, it didn’t look much better when it was an actual prison. We went back towards the markets, and they were finally opened by 10AM. I ended up getting a few things, one being a sarong, which is basically a piece of rayon that people use as a bather cover-up.
After the markets, we went to the Shipwreck Galleries and some other historical spots around town. The Shipwreck Galleries were great, but we were starting to get tired. We decided to find lunch. We ended up eating at Cicero’s. It’s the best fish and chips shop in Freo, and it was definitely delicious! We also walked through a brewery. It was an unbelievable coincidence, because the brewery that we went through, was the maker of the beer that I happened to pick up for Friday night. It’s the only major brewery in the area, and all of the beer is made in that one location.
After lunch, we headed home so Katy could get to her little host-brother’s bowling, birthday party. I laid by the pool all afternoon and got my life back in order from the weekend. This week should be a good one. It’s got to be, because Brett leaves for Tasmania for two weeks starting this Friday, and I’m going to be the main teacher! Ahh!
You're a champ if you made it all the way to here! Whew, a lot happened this week.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
The End of Week One
Thursday and Friday—Well, the end of week 1 has come and gone. The students are getting used to the structure of the class and what is expected of them. It’s been a fairly smooth start to the year. They don’t quite see me as the teacher yet, but I think they will by mid next week. They are really good about doing what is asked of the; however, they are still testing us to see what they can get away with. I taught most of the day these past two days, but it was really like team teaching, because Brett just jumped in when he wanted to add something. He is just great to work with, our personalities get along wonderfully. He is giving me a lot of freedom that not a whole lot of teachers allow, so I am very thankful for that, and sincerely hope that I don’t blow it. We stayed after work for a little bit to get some work done on Thursday, and on Friday we stayed, but not to work. We had “beer o’clock.” I might have mentioned this before, but on every Friday, all of the teachers have couple of beers or glass of wine once the kids leave. It’s a great time to unwind and vent some frustrations with people who truly understand what you are talking about.
On Thursday evening, Katy and I went out. Katy is the COST student from the University of Georgia. We’ve been doing as much as we can together, and it’s been really fun so far. A teacher at Katy’s school has a son, Johno, who has offered a couple of times to take us out. Well, we went out with him and his friends on Thursday. We went to a nice restaurant that overlooked the ocean as the sun set, and then we went to the Claremont Hotel in Cotesloe for a drink. Aussies love to dance! It was very entertaining to watch.
On Friday evening, we met the newest COST student, Lauren. She is placed in Belmont, so she’s a bit further away from Katy and I. We ended up having dinner with our coordinator and his wife, as well as my host family, and then Katy and Lauren at my house. Len and Heather made a wonderful dinner, as usual, and we spent the evening chatting and drinking wine. I ended up going to Katy’s house for the night, so that I would be there for our wonderful weekend getaway to Mandurah!
Saturday—I woke up somewhat early, but the boys had already been up for a while. Tom, who is 10, and Will, who is 8, were up watching Saturday morning cartoons. Mel and Katie were up soon after I got up and we all had smoothies for breaky. We went to the market to pick up some groceries for the weekend, and then to a sushi shop to pick up some lunch. Yes, I ate sushi—my first sushi experience! I enjoyed it, but I couldn’t eat it everyday. When Mark got home, we packed up the car and headed out for Mandurah, which is a small beach city about an hour and a half south. It took us about 3 hours to get there though because we took the scenic route along the coast, going through Fremantle and Rockingham. That afternoon we just got to the beach house, and went for a drive around the town so we could see all of the canal system, and had a quick drink at one of the pubs in town. In the evening, we had dinner and watched some footy on TV.
Sunday-We got up fairly early and had breaky. We got the gear together, and took off for the water. We went to one of the inland waterways that was extremely shallow. I took the second round of crabbing, as it was pretty chilly when we got there. The first group caught about 6 crabs, and then I went back out with the boys. We actually caught a good amount, probably about 25, but they were all too short to keep. Mark put out the nets in the deeper water, but we still only caught one that was actually sized. We threw them all back and packed up around noon. It really was a blast though. We just walk along slowly with a scoop and a bucket tied to our waist, and try to step on the crabs lightly. If we felt them move then we pulled our foot back quickly and tried to scoop them up. On the way back to the beach house, we stopped at a local crab store and bought crabs for lunch.
I ate a crab, and I liked it, but I still have a long way to go before I can say that I would eat it often. We eventually packed up and heading back home. We all fell asleep on the way home. We were sunburn and tired from a long night and early morning.
When I got home, there was a crowd of people at my house. It was Heather’s, my host mom’s, birthday, so they were having friends around. They ate many courses over the day starting at 1:30PM and ending at about 8:00PM. I didn’t make it back until the wine and cheese course and the desert. I thought, “perfect timing!” I went for a run and tried to catch up on some work before heading to bed.
Monday—Today was my first day without Brett. Every Monday, I’ll be teaching with the deputy, (assistant principal), as my cooperating teacher. The day went well and relatively smoothly. There were no disasters, except for my science lesson. It was a royal nightmare. I put the students into cooperative learning groups, and they couldn’t handle it. They didn’t like whom they were working with, so they wouldn’t cooperate, and many of them simply didn’t do the activity. So, after lunch, I flat out told them that they would not be doing anything fun, like playing with light bulbs or chemicals until I could trust that they could work together. There was a silence after that, so I think they got the message that I was pretty ticked-off. Other than that little disaster, the day was very pleasant. I think it’s going to be nice to work with another teacher, because I’ll get to see how two people teach, not just one.
After school I tried to stay cool. I had to take the city bus system home, and got turned around, so I was pretty hot by the time I got home. It got up to about 98 degrees today, and in the sun, that’s hot. I went for a run in the evening and had dinner with the family after a quick dip in the pool to cool down. I am pretty tired, and still have a long week ahead.
On Thursday evening, Katy and I went out. Katy is the COST student from the University of Georgia. We’ve been doing as much as we can together, and it’s been really fun so far. A teacher at Katy’s school has a son, Johno, who has offered a couple of times to take us out. Well, we went out with him and his friends on Thursday. We went to a nice restaurant that overlooked the ocean as the sun set, and then we went to the Claremont Hotel in Cotesloe for a drink. Aussies love to dance! It was very entertaining to watch.
On Friday evening, we met the newest COST student, Lauren. She is placed in Belmont, so she’s a bit further away from Katy and I. We ended up having dinner with our coordinator and his wife, as well as my host family, and then Katy and Lauren at my house. Len and Heather made a wonderful dinner, as usual, and we spent the evening chatting and drinking wine. I ended up going to Katy’s house for the night, so that I would be there for our wonderful weekend getaway to Mandurah!
Saturday—I woke up somewhat early, but the boys had already been up for a while. Tom, who is 10, and Will, who is 8, were up watching Saturday morning cartoons. Mel and Katie were up soon after I got up and we all had smoothies for breaky. We went to the market to pick up some groceries for the weekend, and then to a sushi shop to pick up some lunch. Yes, I ate sushi—my first sushi experience! I enjoyed it, but I couldn’t eat it everyday. When Mark got home, we packed up the car and headed out for Mandurah, which is a small beach city about an hour and a half south. It took us about 3 hours to get there though because we took the scenic route along the coast, going through Fremantle and Rockingham. That afternoon we just got to the beach house, and went for a drive around the town so we could see all of the canal system, and had a quick drink at one of the pubs in town. In the evening, we had dinner and watched some footy on TV.
Sunday-We got up fairly early and had breaky. We got the gear together, and took off for the water. We went to one of the inland waterways that was extremely shallow. I took the second round of crabbing, as it was pretty chilly when we got there. The first group caught about 6 crabs, and then I went back out with the boys. We actually caught a good amount, probably about 25, but they were all too short to keep. Mark put out the nets in the deeper water, but we still only caught one that was actually sized. We threw them all back and packed up around noon. It really was a blast though. We just walk along slowly with a scoop and a bucket tied to our waist, and try to step on the crabs lightly. If we felt them move then we pulled our foot back quickly and tried to scoop them up. On the way back to the beach house, we stopped at a local crab store and bought crabs for lunch.
I ate a crab, and I liked it, but I still have a long way to go before I can say that I would eat it often. We eventually packed up and heading back home. We all fell asleep on the way home. We were sunburn and tired from a long night and early morning.
When I got home, there was a crowd of people at my house. It was Heather’s, my host mom’s, birthday, so they were having friends around. They ate many courses over the day starting at 1:30PM and ending at about 8:00PM. I didn’t make it back until the wine and cheese course and the desert. I thought, “perfect timing!” I went for a run and tried to catch up on some work before heading to bed.
Monday—Today was my first day without Brett. Every Monday, I’ll be teaching with the deputy, (assistant principal), as my cooperating teacher. The day went well and relatively smoothly. There were no disasters, except for my science lesson. It was a royal nightmare. I put the students into cooperative learning groups, and they couldn’t handle it. They didn’t like whom they were working with, so they wouldn’t cooperate, and many of them simply didn’t do the activity. So, after lunch, I flat out told them that they would not be doing anything fun, like playing with light bulbs or chemicals until I could trust that they could work together. There was a silence after that, so I think they got the message that I was pretty ticked-off. Other than that little disaster, the day was very pleasant. I think it’s going to be nice to work with another teacher, because I’ll get to see how two people teach, not just one.
After school I tried to stay cool. I had to take the city bus system home, and got turned around, so I was pretty hot by the time I got home. It got up to about 98 degrees today, and in the sun, that’s hot. I went for a run in the evening and had dinner with the family after a quick dip in the pool to cool down. I am pretty tired, and still have a long week ahead.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
First Days of School
Monday, Feb 2nd—Today was the first day of school, and Heather took me at about 8:00. WOW. I have 31 students in my class and 10 more that come over for math and reading. The day went really well with only minor challenges. The students all wear uniforms—all schools public and private wear them over here. That was a big shock when they all arrived in the morning; I hadn’t quite expected that. The day was a lot of expectation-setting and establishing the classroom atmosphere. The students are relatively well behaved and highly respect Brett, my cooperating teacher, so I don’t think we are going to have too many difficulties with discipline.
It was unbelieveably hot here though. It was about 110 degree and humid. Our classroom’s air conditioning is broken and has no windows that open. Therefore, by 2:00PM it was a heat box, so we just let the students sit down and watch a movie. One of their subjects is viewing, so part of the time we did actually analyze the camera shots used in the movie. We’ve got a smartboard in the room, which is absolutely fantastic. It was like a huge movie screen for the kids. (I know there are more academic ways to use it, but for today it was great!)
Brett took me home again at about 5:00. When I got home, I took a dip in the pool and then got ready for the evening. After a very nice dinner, Heather, Katie and I went to the Camelot cinemas, which is an outdoor movie theater. We saw Vicky Christina Barcelona while sitting under the stars and sharing a bottle of wine. It was incredible. That however did lead to a long night. We got home at about midnight, and then I had about and hour of planning to do, so that put me into bed at around 1AM.
Tuesday—For the second day of school and still being quite warm, the day was relatively good. The biggest struggle that I think we are going to have is an autistic boy in our class. He is defiant and hard to engage. His aid is fabulous, but she’s not in the room all the time, and of course, he seems to act up when she’s away for a while. I taught most of the day today, with the exception of math and art. I introduced the spelling unit,
Tonight, I just stayed around home. I ended up walking down to the beach right when Brett dropped me off, and I fell asleep for about 45 minutes. It was a wonderful nap. I walked home and lounged around until dinner. After dinner, Heather and I watched Muriel’s Wedding, which is a Western Australian movie. (She has a whole list of movies and books that I need to read while I’m here—although I don’t think I’m going to get them all done.)
Wednesday—Today at school, I was almost the main teacher. We do fitness every morning for 15 minutes, and today’s game was soccer. It’s a FABULOUS way to start the day, because Brett, Ashleigh and I just watch the games to make sure no one gets hurt. We then had the kids take their math test and work on some sudoku problems. The day was extremely productive. We had about an hour of uninterrupted time for planning. Therefore, tonight, I really don’t have a whole lot to do. Our DOTT time (duties other than teaching) started today, so we had an hour of time that we didn’t get the past two days. It was awfully nice.
I taught spelling, a unit about flags, and a unit about biographies and interviewing. Brett is trying to let me have the class completely by next week. Since the school deputy (like the assistant principal) will be filling in for Brett on Mondays, Brett would like me to be the full teacher before this coming Monday, so that the deputy will not have to do much for class.
Tonight, I just stayed home and got some work done. I watched two Australian soap operas, Neighbors and Home and Away. Both are typical soaps, but only 30 minutes long. Tomorrow will be another day, and I believe that I’m going to go out tomorrow evening.
It was unbelieveably hot here though. It was about 110 degree and humid. Our classroom’s air conditioning is broken and has no windows that open. Therefore, by 2:00PM it was a heat box, so we just let the students sit down and watch a movie. One of their subjects is viewing, so part of the time we did actually analyze the camera shots used in the movie. We’ve got a smartboard in the room, which is absolutely fantastic. It was like a huge movie screen for the kids. (I know there are more academic ways to use it, but for today it was great!)
Brett took me home again at about 5:00. When I got home, I took a dip in the pool and then got ready for the evening. After a very nice dinner, Heather, Katie and I went to the Camelot cinemas, which is an outdoor movie theater. We saw Vicky Christina Barcelona while sitting under the stars and sharing a bottle of wine. It was incredible. That however did lead to a long night. We got home at about midnight, and then I had about and hour of planning to do, so that put me into bed at around 1AM.
Tuesday—For the second day of school and still being quite warm, the day was relatively good. The biggest struggle that I think we are going to have is an autistic boy in our class. He is defiant and hard to engage. His aid is fabulous, but she’s not in the room all the time, and of course, he seems to act up when she’s away for a while. I taught most of the day today, with the exception of math and art. I introduced the spelling unit,
Tonight, I just stayed around home. I ended up walking down to the beach right when Brett dropped me off, and I fell asleep for about 45 minutes. It was a wonderful nap. I walked home and lounged around until dinner. After dinner, Heather and I watched Muriel’s Wedding, which is a Western Australian movie. (She has a whole list of movies and books that I need to read while I’m here—although I don’t think I’m going to get them all done.)
Wednesday—Today at school, I was almost the main teacher. We do fitness every morning for 15 minutes, and today’s game was soccer. It’s a FABULOUS way to start the day, because Brett, Ashleigh and I just watch the games to make sure no one gets hurt. We then had the kids take their math test and work on some sudoku problems. The day was extremely productive. We had about an hour of uninterrupted time for planning. Therefore, tonight, I really don’t have a whole lot to do. Our DOTT time (duties other than teaching) started today, so we had an hour of time that we didn’t get the past two days. It was awfully nice.
I taught spelling, a unit about flags, and a unit about biographies and interviewing. Brett is trying to let me have the class completely by next week. Since the school deputy (like the assistant principal) will be filling in for Brett on Mondays, Brett would like me to be the full teacher before this coming Monday, so that the deputy will not have to do much for class.
Tonight, I just stayed home and got some work done. I watched two Australian soap operas, Neighbors and Home and Away. Both are typical soaps, but only 30 minutes long. Tomorrow will be another day, and I believe that I’m going to go out tomorrow evening.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Thursday--Today was my first day at school. My cooperating teacher, Brett, picked me up and my life drastically changed. I can't just have fun now; it's actually time to work. So, we got to school and had a coffee, while Brett introduced me to most of the staff. We sat in meetings all morning. They were the kind where the Principal listed his expectations, and then teachers brainstormed, etc. We grabbed lunch at Subway (they are EVERYWHERE here). We had more meetings in the afternoon for about an hour, and then time to work in the classroom. Ha. Well, we were supposed to have time to work in the classroom. The last year’s teacher that taught in Brett’s room this year didn’t move any of his stuff out of his room due to surgery or something. SO, we got the honors of doing that. We stayed at school until about 5 and then Brett took me back home. He was very generous and offered to take me out to dinner with his family. It was fabulous! We went to an Italian restaurant—one where he is a regular. After dinner we all went to the movies and saw Grand Toreno (the one with Clint Eastwood). And yes, I would recommend it. That’s it for today, but tomorrow is the second teacher day, and I’m sure will be full of surprises.
Friday—Well, I was right about the surprises. We didn’t notice it too much yesterday, but we sure did today—and that is that our air conditioner in our classroom doesn’t work. Now, I know you all probably have no sympathy, but in 110 degree weather and no windows that open, it’s a nightmare. We spend the first two hours today in some more meetings. After that we were supposed to have planning time, and all of the other teachers in the school did, but Brett and I continued to move junk around all morning. Lunch was nice; the school had it catered. All afternoon we had some more meetings and then time in our classes. By 4:30PM, we had most of the room done, but still no plans for the first day of school on Monday. We called it quits and headed to the teachers lounge for a beer. It’s crazy here, all of the teachers have wine or beer every Friday as soon as the kids leave in the teachers lounge! There’s a fridge stocked, where people just pay for a bottle or glass when they want one. It’s was very nice after two days of unexpected difficulties.
Katy, the other COST student from the University of Georgia, and I met up with one of her teacher’s sons to go out. We ended up going to the Claremont Hotel, and then to a house warming party for the rest of the evening. We ended the night with a trip up to Kings’ Park. It’s a natural bush land area that is to never be developed an overlooks the whole city. It’s quite spectacular.
Saturday—I decided to take this weekend lightly, especially with the amount of writing and planning that I have to do to be ready for Monday. I decided to go for a long run today. So, I woke up and fiddled around until about 9:30AM (I know, some of you would think that’s early, but this culture really fits very nicely into my lifestyle, because as you probably know, I’m an early riser, and most households are up and doing things before 9AM—even on weekends). I went out for a run, after about 25 minutes, I decided to stop for a swim. I took a couple dips in the ocean. There’s a really calm area that’s great for swimming. And then once I dried off, went back out on the path. In all I was out about 2.5 hours. I was hot and sweaty after getting back home, so I took another dip—but this time in our pool at the house.
I showered and tried to get some work done, and then Heather, Len and I went shopping. I looked around at some neat shops, and then we got the groceries at the supermarket. (It’s strange, the supermarkets are in the malls!) When we got home, we all had an ice-cold beer and sat in the pool to cool down.
I ended up staying home tonight and had intended to watch an Australian movie, but I got carried away with other things. Len and Heather, especially Len, are gourmet cooks. I don’t think I’ve eaten a meal with less than 3 courses since I’ve been here! It’s absolutely fabulous. They are also wine connoisseurs and attend a wine club every week. So, I’m learning a lot about wine, and typically, we have a couple types to match the foods that they have planned for dinner. Heather was going to go to a movie tonight, but it was sold out so their friends just came here and had some wine and cheese and socialized a bit.
Sunday, Feb. 1st—You know how we were really behind on work and preparation last week? Well, guess what, that means we had to come in on a Sunday morning to get ready for tomorrow. Brett picked me up at 8:45 and we headed to a local coffee shop, the Dome, to meet Ashley and head to school. Ashley is the teacher next door to our room. She teaches 6/7 graders, and Brett and I have the rest of the 7th graders. There are 41 7th graders, and Brett and I have 31 of them, so we are leaving the movable doors open between the two classrooms, because much of the time, Brett and I will have all 41 of the 7th graders. It’ll be a unique experience, but I think it’s going to be really, really fun. (Except for the fact that our room isn’t air conditioned right now and neither is hers.)
We worked until about 12:30 and then Brett brought me back home. I spent the afternoon planning and swimming in the pool. It’s really stinkin’ hot—and my house doesn’t have air conditioning either. Len made toasted sandwiches for lunch, and Heather made about 6 different types of salads for dinner, which were all delicious! And that’s after we had ricotta pancakes, fruit and yogurt for breakfast. I’m going to plan some more this evening, because tomorrow is the first day of school, and I’ll be jumping right in there as a co-teacher. I’m hoping to take the class over as the lead teacher by the 2nd or third week, because Brett has to take a week off, and hopefully, I will be the main teacher by then.
Friday—Well, I was right about the surprises. We didn’t notice it too much yesterday, but we sure did today—and that is that our air conditioner in our classroom doesn’t work. Now, I know you all probably have no sympathy, but in 110 degree weather and no windows that open, it’s a nightmare. We spend the first two hours today in some more meetings. After that we were supposed to have planning time, and all of the other teachers in the school did, but Brett and I continued to move junk around all morning. Lunch was nice; the school had it catered. All afternoon we had some more meetings and then time in our classes. By 4:30PM, we had most of the room done, but still no plans for the first day of school on Monday. We called it quits and headed to the teachers lounge for a beer. It’s crazy here, all of the teachers have wine or beer every Friday as soon as the kids leave in the teachers lounge! There’s a fridge stocked, where people just pay for a bottle or glass when they want one. It’s was very nice after two days of unexpected difficulties.
Katy, the other COST student from the University of Georgia, and I met up with one of her teacher’s sons to go out. We ended up going to the Claremont Hotel, and then to a house warming party for the rest of the evening. We ended the night with a trip up to Kings’ Park. It’s a natural bush land area that is to never be developed an overlooks the whole city. It’s quite spectacular.
Saturday—I decided to take this weekend lightly, especially with the amount of writing and planning that I have to do to be ready for Monday. I decided to go for a long run today. So, I woke up and fiddled around until about 9:30AM (I know, some of you would think that’s early, but this culture really fits very nicely into my lifestyle, because as you probably know, I’m an early riser, and most households are up and doing things before 9AM—even on weekends). I went out for a run, after about 25 minutes, I decided to stop for a swim. I took a couple dips in the ocean. There’s a really calm area that’s great for swimming. And then once I dried off, went back out on the path. In all I was out about 2.5 hours. I was hot and sweaty after getting back home, so I took another dip—but this time in our pool at the house.
I showered and tried to get some work done, and then Heather, Len and I went shopping. I looked around at some neat shops, and then we got the groceries at the supermarket. (It’s strange, the supermarkets are in the malls!) When we got home, we all had an ice-cold beer and sat in the pool to cool down.
I ended up staying home tonight and had intended to watch an Australian movie, but I got carried away with other things. Len and Heather, especially Len, are gourmet cooks. I don’t think I’ve eaten a meal with less than 3 courses since I’ve been here! It’s absolutely fabulous. They are also wine connoisseurs and attend a wine club every week. So, I’m learning a lot about wine, and typically, we have a couple types to match the foods that they have planned for dinner. Heather was going to go to a movie tonight, but it was sold out so their friends just came here and had some wine and cheese and socialized a bit.
Sunday, Feb. 1st—You know how we were really behind on work and preparation last week? Well, guess what, that means we had to come in on a Sunday morning to get ready for tomorrow. Brett picked me up at 8:45 and we headed to a local coffee shop, the Dome, to meet Ashley and head to school. Ashley is the teacher next door to our room. She teaches 6/7 graders, and Brett and I have the rest of the 7th graders. There are 41 7th graders, and Brett and I have 31 of them, so we are leaving the movable doors open between the two classrooms, because much of the time, Brett and I will have all 41 of the 7th graders. It’ll be a unique experience, but I think it’s going to be really, really fun. (Except for the fact that our room isn’t air conditioned right now and neither is hers.)
We worked until about 12:30 and then Brett brought me back home. I spent the afternoon planning and swimming in the pool. It’s really stinkin’ hot—and my house doesn’t have air conditioning either. Len made toasted sandwiches for lunch, and Heather made about 6 different types of salads for dinner, which were all delicious! And that’s after we had ricotta pancakes, fruit and yogurt for breakfast. I’m going to plan some more this evening, because tomorrow is the first day of school, and I’ll be jumping right in there as a co-teacher. I’m hoping to take the class over as the lead teacher by the 2nd or third week, because Brett has to take a week off, and hopefully, I will be the main teacher by then.
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