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.