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.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
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!
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