Just over a week went by...Whoops!

Monday through Thursday

Last week was a pretty typical week. Blake and I did a lot of planning for the next two weeks, because today I begin taking full control of the classroom on Monday the third. 

Friday

Friday was the day we had our staff part after school! The theme was Around the World, and everyone had to get dressed up as a different country, and bring food from another country. So, naturally, I decided to dress up as an American! Me, Kylen, and Melissa all decided to be American. Kelsey's host parents have hooked her on Hawthorne, so with her jersey (and hidden socks) she was an Australian! With several weeks of hunting, we eventually came up with the following:

It was a ton of fun! I'm again forced to concede that I have a really super awesome staff at my school, and am super glad I was placed where I am! We stayed the night at Rach's house, and helped her clean up quite a huge mess in the morning. :)

Saturday

Saturday was a pretty slow day, as we were all quite tired from the night before. It was an absolutely beautiful day outside, but Kylen, Melissa and I were all so exhausted we spent a while vegging out on the couch watching movies. I eventually convinced Kylen and Melissa to get out of the house and come for a walk with me and we headed to a primary school down the road so that I could play basketball, basically. We just had a nice relaxing day:)

Sunday

Sunday was an absolutely great day! At about 11:00, Bob and Judy came to pick us up for a father's day barbecue! We went out to Ringwood Lake Park to have a great time! Got to see Bob and Judy, Andy and Jo, and meet some of the other family members that I haven't met before:)

It was beautiful out there! It was a fabulous day, they got there pretty early, so we had a great spot in the grass in the shade and sunshine near the bbqs! You'll notice that Bob has quite a nice friend in his pocket.

We also found an interesting..... 'sign' (I'm using the term loosely)....which was only the tiniest bit terrifying...

Probably completely unrelated, there were some curious bubbles in the pond directly to the side.

hmm...

After our walk (where we found the crocodiles), I learned how to play Cricket, and Footy! It was so much fun! I'm told that my bowling is illegal by a 9-year-old, but everyone else seemed to support me!

A few hours later, Kylen, Melissa and I headed over to the Ringwood train station to go into the city for a bit (Melissa had never seen the Queen Vic Market). By this time it was about 2:00 pm, and the market closes at 4:00 on Sundays, so we hurried!

When Bob dropped us off at the station, we saw our train coming around the bend....so we started running!! We 'touched on' with our Myki passes (which basically just tells the system we're getting on the train). We got through, and realized that we had to cross the barrier and go back over the overpass to get to our train!!!! It was slowing down now, so we really sped up and were running across the overpass (only looking a tiny bit silly). We got down to the end and Kylen quickly touched on to get on the train (again, letting them know she's getting on the train).
Melissa and I touch on. However, the gate doesn't open. Meanwhile, Kylen is walking onto the train. Melissa and I switch turnstiles and try again. And then again. And then again. We can see Kylen through the window of the train, and she has found us three seats together. Meanwhile, Melissa and I are still trying to get through the darn gate!!! Slowly (like in slow motion) the doors close, and the train starts to move. With Kylen on it, and Melissa and I are still on the other side of the gate. It was definitely in slow motion that Kylen looks around, very confused, and watches us slide away on the train station, as her train pulls out of the station.
Melissa and I stood stock still for a while, until we busted up laughing, standing in the gate (I'm sure frustrating the guys working and the other people trying to come the opposite direction).
We laughed for a solid five minutes, thinking we may in fact be in a sitcom of some kind. The guys working double checked our cards, and the gate wouldn't let us through because we were already touched on on the other side. I quickly got a text from Kylen, and she got off at the next station to wait for us. Fortunately, the next train was only about eight minutes later. It was a pretty hilarious eight minutes, for sure. Also, for the rest of the day, anytime my mind wandered back a few minutes a got a great laugh:).

Anyway; we eventually made it to the Vic Market, and I found some great stuff just as the booths were closing up:) Although Melissa didn't get to see the market at its fullest (we'll be going back), but she really enjoyed it, and can't wait to go back! :)
After the market we headed back toward the station, wandering around, taking some silly pictures. It was fantastic. We actually found a variety of....elephants. After meeting a couple of guys who (what looked like) were doing a photo scavenger hunt and taking pictures of these....elephants. And here they are:

Sorry - can't turn the darn picture on here...

Taa-daa!! Freaking Elephants! Everywhere! It was so funny, and so much fun! Haha!

We also took a couple of extra shots that were pretty fantastic such as:

Taa-daa!!!! This is my BLOG!!!!

This is Kylen planking on a bike rack. Thank goodness she didn't drive away without us this time...

Monday

Sport!!! I finally got to take my softball team to play!! We played two games, lost one and won one! The other coach was really great and understanding, and his team was about the same level of understanding of the game as my kids. Hah! Thank goodness!! :)

Today I also introduced a really really really cool introductory lesson on angles. We started out talking about the difference between 'angles' and 'angels'. My other host teacher and I also collaborated to develop an angle-practicer. I will be putting a picture of it on here, but I don't have it with me right now. It was a real success, and I'm so excited about it! More on that later...

Tuesday

Hoop time!!! Today we took both level three classrooms to a basketball centre for a whole day of basketball fun for all of the kids. Three other teachers and I each took one time of 8-9 students and played 5-6 games throughout the day. ALL of our kids had SUCH an awesome time, and we didn't have a single behavior problem ALL day. We had a large number of wins and a fewer number of losses overall, I think, and everyone had fun, coaches included:)
My team, called the Panthers, were 1 and 4 throughout the day. However, they all kept their heads high and smiles on their faces. It's amazing how supportive our kids can be in a team situation when they are pitted against other teams. This is a mentality that we have been hugely pushing for all the kids before they all go to camp at the beginning of next term. Unfortunately, I miss the camp date by only one week! My kids have been begging me to stay longer, and it's heartbreaking! Because watching everyone plan it makes me want to go and be a part of it SO badly!! Bah!!

That's all for now, folks. Tomorrow I'll be going into the city for a protest! We will also be going to the aquarium (hopefully) after the fact. I'll let you know how it goes! Thanks for listening:)
-Megan