Monday, 1 October

After dropping off our luggage, we walked a few blocks to Paddy's Market - very similar to the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne, but a bit smaller I think.

There, we finally got Melissa to start buying things like souvenirs, etc. Yay!

After a bit over an hour there, we dropped our purchases off in our locker and headed down Pitt Street, which took us straight to Circular Guay, home of Captain Cook Cruises, street musicians, performers on the rocks, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and, of course, the Opera House.

On the way to the quay, though, we passed an awesome band playing in an arcade. Would you believe I actually bought their cd? Hh! After listening for a bit we continued on. We made it to the ticket booth for our cruise about a minute too late for the earliest, so we had to wait a half hour. We went on a lunch hunt and walked around. 

The cruise we got on was a hop-on, hop-off cruise all around Sydney Harbour. It stopped at Fort Denison, Shark Island, Watson's Bay, Taronga Zoo, Luna Park, and Darling Harbour. The first time we decided to get off was Watson's bay - a little peninsula so skinny you could stand in one spot, look to your right and have a full view of the ocean (first picture), and then look to the left and have a full view of the harbour including the bridge, opera house, ferries, and sailboats (bottom picture). 

Super Cool!

We wandered back to the wharf to catch the next boat to Taronga Zoo - a very cool zoo built right into the hillside. We got there pretty late, so we had just barely two hours, but we got a discount - pretty cool!

We didn't get to see everything, but we did get to see some highlights like: elephants, gorillas, chimps, wallabies, lizards, and a peacock!

There were two high points to the zoo. One, Melissa had never seen a peacock in real life before, so she went absolutely nuts! It was so funny to watch and I think she got some good pictures. And two, there was a toddler gorilla that would not let up. He was in the enclosure with a male, two females and two adolescents (I think) and he was really wanting to play. He was moving so quickly the others were getting annoyed. So periodically one of the other gorillas would have to just pick him up and move him away. It's hard to explain, but it was awesome!

Anyway; although the night was late and we didn't have a lot of time it was good and we're quite glad we did go. When we got back to Circular Quay we got some wonderful Ice Cream and walked our way back, stopping at Coles to pick up some dinner to make in the communal kitchen. The communal kitchen is something that's very interesting to me. There are all utensils; pots and pans, dishes, stovetops, etc. so we made a spectacular spaghetti dinner, and then wandered our way up to an early night.

Kylen left at five am for the airport shuttle to go back to Melbourne for one day and then head back to the U.S.!

Melissa and I decided to have a slow exploration day on Tuesday, and we started going up Pitt Street toward the Quay, and just ducking into any store we found interesting. On the way we found an Aboriginal Cultural Centre that we decided to investigate since we're both in love with traditional aboriginal painting styles and art. We spent a while there, where the guy tried to sell me some $400 + paintings. I got a few little treasures there, but I could have spent a lot more time and money.

Next we continued toward Circular Quay and decided to check out several things 1) the Harbour Bridge, 2) the Rocks, 3) the random pirate ships we saw floating in the harbour and 4) the Royal Botanical Gardens.

First, we headed to the rocks to stumble into the Museum of Modern Art. Free admission, so we said, "Sure!".

The art was cool and interesting for a while, but we both got over it pretty quickly, and headed up to the top floor to check out the view of the harbour from above - it was magic! I got some great shots of the opera house (below) as well as some of the Harbour bridge, ferries and sailboats.

Next, we found our way to a little arcade with some antiques and artwork. There we got a lecture, and then were given a map of the Rocks, and some ideas.

So, our next stop was Harbour Bridge. It's a really momentous sight, but a lot of stairs. We accidentally took the wrong stairs and went up some extra flights, too. There are some pretty misleading signs....

Eventually, we made it up and enjoyed the views and the spectacular sights. It really is huge!

Heading down the bridge, we moved toward the botanical gardens, which was quite a walk.

After finally finding an entrance, we moved through the very green gardens, taking pictures of trees, birds, and flowers. After about twenty minutes, though, we started looking for a way out. It was much harder than it should be, and we were stuck for another about thirty minutes hunting for an exit. Finally, we found it!

We did a celebratory high five, and started toward the beautiful Art Museum. The woman at the store had told us the museum was open until nine on Wednesdays so I was thinking we had all evening. We only had just gotten in when Melissa informed me it was only Tuesday! Which meant they would be closing in fifteen minutes! Damn!

Vacations almost always muss up my understanding/recognition of the days of the week.

We decided to look for a few minutes as there was no entry fee. It was actually pretty cool - especially when I found a painting of a woman that could be my cousin. Wow. I even took a picture of the painting.

After they closed up, we moved back toward the city centre, past St. Mary's spectacular cathedral, a park, and the setup for the SYdney International Food Festival before we got to the base of the Sydney Tower Eye. We decided to go up and take a look at the price. $25 wasn't bad, so we decided to go on up. Aside from the tiny, smelly elevator, the view was pretty cool - itjust so happened as well that is was sunset! The colours were brilliant sna dif there weren't 400 people crammed up against the windows who weren't even looking out, it would have been very pleasant!

We headed back down a bit later and had a magical chef salad dinner to finish off our lettuce, marinara sauce and salad dressing we bought the day before. Played cards for a while and then headed to bed.

Wednesday, 3 October

On Tuesday morning we had booked a tour for Wednesday of the Blue Mountains. We did have to get up quite early and meet the bus across the street at 7:10 am.

It was a fifty minute ride (ish) to the Featherdale Wildlife Park, and our guide, Graham, was quite awesome. He says, "'ello!" the same way Bruce the shark does in Finding Nemo, which endeared him to me immediately.

The Featherdale Park is a bit of a sanctuary for animals who have been hurt - they are all more or less running amok for guests to intermingle with. There are, however, animal sanctuary areas for the animals to go to get away from the people.

And I FINALLY got to see a wombat that was AWAKE! Winner! I petted one, even though the sign said, "We bite!"

I held a beautiful owl with only part of his wings, and petted a Kookaburra with only one eye.

And then, the highlight of Sydney, especially for Melissa, was that we got to pet some Koalas!! Yay! At feeding time you can come by and take a picture with them. Melissa was so excited she nearly had a cow. It was hilarious and adorable. Also, the Koalas were adorable. Did you know they have two thumbs?? That's what I'm figuring out in this picture...

After that, we hopped back on the bus and headed to Leura, a cute little mountain village with a killer candy shop. At the Woolworths we got some food for lunch and spent a while in the candy store. 

Hopping back on the bus we headed for a short walk near Katoomba Falls before going to lunch.

It turns out lunch was at a golf club, and you could have purchased a buffet (that we didn't know about, but looked delicious), so we ate out on the terrace in the beautiful sunshine.

Then, we headed to 'Scenic World', where the Blue Mountains stuff really actually happens. We took the 'Skyway' (crazy high cable car) across the valley, and another one down into it. We went on a long walk through the temperate rainforset at the bottom and enjoyed seeing some awesome trees, greenery, and actual vines!

We headed back up to the 'Scenic Railway'. It's the steepest railway in the world at fifty-two degrees. For future reference, that's TOO STEEP.

And, little did we know, you go through a tunnel. A tunnel that is so small you would have to duck to go through it if it weren't for the cage around the top that keeps you from falling out. 

As we were surprised by the tunnel (going up through it backwards, by the way), and grabbed Melissa's arm, hard, and I may or may not have left some grip marks. :/ Sorry, Melissa!

Unfortunately, we had to wait in a really long line to get onto the railway, and so Graham had to come and find us. He guided us the quickest way back to the bus, and everyone there heaved a sigh of relief. 

Back on the bus, we headed out to Echo Point, a pretty lookout with an Aboriginal Cultural Centre!

Both Melissa and I really enjoy traditional Aboriginal Art, so we had a lot of fun looking at the work. They also had a wall available and paint, and a guide of which symbols mean what, so you could paint! I did some fabulous work about a campsite/waterhole, a river/fire, Kangaroo tracks and some Men/women:

I also dress a non-traditional tree, and some of the traditional paint got on my pants. Melissa says it's magic paint and won't come off ever. Ugh.

We hopped back on the bus and went on the hour long drive back to Olympic Park, where we would be catching a cruise home. We were on the cruise at sunset and it was absolutely gorgeous!

We also met a guy from San Fransisco! He had just gotten to Sydney the day before, so we chatted a bit about what we enjoyed doing, etc. The cruise pulled in at Circular Quay so we started walking down the now familiar path back to the hostel; stopping only long enough to get pizza from Pizza Hut for dinner. our new roommates when we got back were Melbournites, who actually live about ten minutes from me in Melbourne. Hah!

Thursday morning we woke up slowly, got our things ready and headed down to check out. We locked up our big bags in a luggage locker and headed to St. Paddy's Market to burn a few hours before our 12:05 airport shuttle. 

I hate Sydney. Full stop. We got to the airport relatively quickly because our shuttle was completely full, so we didn't have to make anymore stops. We got off at the domestic terminal because we aren't leaving the country.

We tried to check-in at a Kiosk, but the Kiosk said, "No, eff you!". It told us to go to the service desk.

The service desk people told us we were at the wrong terminal. Apparently our flight was an international flight. So, in addition to the $12 we payed for the shuttle that we could have ridden all the we to the international terminal, we had to pay a $5 ticket to get to the international terminal. This also meant that we had to go through customs and border crap and intense security.

I have no idea how long it's going to take to get out the other side...blurgh. In all, we had to ride a train, go on two lifts, and up and down eight escalators, then walk to the very end of the terminal. Literally, the next gate is the actual end. Now we wait for two hours. 

Let me reiterate: I hate Sydney.

The flight was relatively quick (other than the fact that my seat AND tray table were broken), so we landed and pulled up to the jetway. We were all standing in the aisles as people do on airplanes, and waiting to squish out through the bottle-neck door, and finally, the captain comes onto the intercom and says, "Sorry for the delay, but they are having a problem with the jetway. They had to call for help. Thank you for your patience."

I wasn't patient - and I had to pee! And we didn't know how many customs, etc, we would have to deal with coming through the gates. Thank god we didn't check any bags. We ended up landing early - by six minutes, but sat on the plane for THIRTY. Holy crap. Thank goodness Bob and Archie were there to rescue us after the horrid Sydney-itis. 

Back to Melbourne, a comfortable and wonderful place:)

Wednesday, 26 September

The bus ride from Brisbane was nice and scenic and gave us a chance to relax before getting to the beachtown, baby!
Bus pulled into Noosa transit at about 9:30 or 10:00 am. Oh! But on the bus ride, there was actually a singer called Nadia Colbourn! She grew up in the area and told us she give us some hints and ideas about what to do if I mentioned her on my blog. Hah. So, go to youtube, and check out Nadia Colbourn and the song 'Shooting Star'. She gave us lots of recommendations, but most of them required a rental car:(. She was really great, though!
Anyway - we got to the Noosa Transit Center, which is at the bottom of an enormous hill, and by the beach. Unfortunately, our hostel was on the other side of the hill. So whenever we wanted to go to the beach or into town, we go up and back down. It's steep enough that it takes us about five minutes to go down, but 15 minutes to go back up. We spent the day wandering and orienting, and although it was quite overcast, I still got  bit of a sunburn. Crazy Queensland.

Anyway, that evening when we got back to our room, we met the other three girls staying with us - and they were, get this, Canadian Teachers! They were on a year long exchange teaching in Melbourne! So funny - they had been to Noosa for a few days, and only two weeks in Melbourne. They gave us Noosa ideas, and we gave them Melbourne ideas. We then had an early night. 

Thursday, 27 September

Thursday, however, was glorious! While Melissa and Kelsey took a surfing lesson, Kylen and I are using our serious vacation skills on the beach. Who knows what's next!

The whole day Thursday was beautiful and relaxed and vacation-y. We stopped by the grocery store and bought the makings of cheese quasedillas for dinner. It was so delicious, and awesome to spend such a small amount of money for dinner. After dinner in the kitchen, we headed back to our room to chill for a while. We were slowly getting more and more tired...

we...were...drifting...

off...

I got up, deciding not to go to sleep at 8:00 pm, and decided to go up to the 'Kamel Bar' that's attached to our hostel. I persuaded Kelsey to get up and join me. When we got there, though, it was really, really dead. We got a drink, and headed to a table. After standing for a few minutes, a couple of guys tapped me on the shoulder and introduced themselves - Callum and Stuart. Callum is from Kent (in the UK) and Stuart is from Manchester. They were prety cool - that night was their first night in Noosa, so we traded some ideas of what to do and started chatting. 

Pretty soon, the DJ came up and asked if we wanted to play Killer ool. Free to enter, you get threee shots to make, and earn a voucher to the bar. First shot was normal, second shot was with a backward pool cue, third shot you had to spin 10 times and then shoot as quickly as you could. He gave everyone another shot - behind the back. Those of us who made two of the shots got to compete in a speed roung. I was totally one of them! You got one minute to drop as many shots as you could. The first guy got 8! Ridiculous. Second guy, 2, Me, 5!! Other girl, 4. It was pretty awesome. I was pretty awesome. Hah.

Around then, eight different guys came in with matching singlets on. On the front they said, "Drink it like you stole it". On the back it said, "Lads on Tour" and a nickname.

I was boggled, so I approached them and asked what it was for. After trying to convince us they all worked in the mines, they eventually shared that they have been working in schools in Sydney for about three months. Five of them were Irish, and three were British. They were a pretty hilarious bunch, and we kept bumping into them all week. So, between all of our friends from across the pond and us, we had a great time dancing the night away!

Friday, 28 Setpember

Noosa National Forest

On Friday morning we headed out and took a walk through the Noosa National Forest - which was absolutely beautiful! Aside from the beautiful scenery,

awesome beaches and sand and rocks,

we also got to see several whales and a HUGE pod of dolphins! Now that I uploaded pictures, I think there were about 20 dolphins in the pod, and I got some cool pictures:)

If you look very closely in the first one, you can see a baby dolphin swimming right along next to his mum:) Pretty cute.

I caught sight of the dolphins, and in order to get the shots I wanted I climbed out probably too far on the cliff at Hell's Gates (our destination on the walk) but got the good photos I was hoping for.

After meandering our way back we got smoothies (which were magnificent) and headed to the beach for our last chance to lay in the Noosa sun. It was quite windy, however, and sand was getting everywhere (more than usual). The other girls packed up and headed out while I stayed to play in the a surf a bit and watch the footy game on the beach.

Because it was so windy, the water felt whole degrees warmer and I was enjoying myself in the huge waves.

However, I soon decided it probably wasn't prudent to swim in the ocean on a windy day by myself, so I packed up my stuff and headed toward the park where the other girls were. Cute little beach on the cove (with no real waves) but still sand, sun, and a bit of water.

At about 5:30 we toodled our was back to the Hostel (climbing the epic hill for the last time) I took a shower, we had some nachos with the leftover food we had, and I put in some laundry. It was a lazy hour or so, until we headed to subway for dinner where I was very disappointed by a pizza sub - Australian subway is definitely inferior to American Subway. Lame.

When we got to the KB, things got fun. Or at least funny.After we had gotten a free drink (for filling out a survey), we settled in a spot to stand. Almost immediately, a guy came on the microphone and started calling people to come to the dance floor in pairs for a game. I knew none of my girls would do it, so when the guy asked Ky and I if we were playing, I just said yes. Kylen's face was hilarious. He explained the game; pretty simple: In a jumble of people, find your partner and get in whatever position the caller calls; piggy backl, cradle hold, sitting on a knee, etc. The slowest pair gets kicked our. We didn't know the prize we were playing for, but we totally won! It was awesome! Unfortunately, the prize was a free three day, 2 night trip to Fraser Island (usually $275 per person). We were leaving the following morning for Sydney though, first thing! I told the guy who, incidentally was from Oakland, California! He was super excited to meet more Americans and Alyssa, if you're reading this, he knows about ORKILA! THe guy he knows is Dave Emery - do you know him? Ha. He worked at YMCA camps in California! So funny. Anyway, since we were leaving in the morning, he brought us a free jug of beer (totally comparable to a $550 Island tour). But Alas - shouldn't have planned things so carefully! Being organized has come back to bite me - probably not for the first time, either. 

Anyway, the rest of the night we danced away with the Lads on Tour, and a variety of other international and national travellers.

We headed to bed at midnight, when KBs closed, and we had to get up early. It was a good last day in Noosa.

Just another Manic Saturday....

This day of travel has been carefully orchestrated so A) we can catch our flight this evening in Brisbane and B) We can watch the grand final.

The plan:

@7:00 wake up

@7:15, Megan checks out of hostel

@7:30, We walk down the huge hill to catch the 8:13 Greyhound

@11:15 Arrive in Brisbane, find a cafe for brunch, find a sports bar where we can watch the game

@2:00 watch the grand final

@6:00 grab a taxi to the airport

@8:30 Take off for Sydney

By 8:15 there were two major hitches in the plan. I brought our sheets and towels and keys to the front desk only to find they were not open yet. Seriously? Ugh. At about 7:25 I began to hear noises inside and assumed that maybe they would open at 8. I quickly ran through the scenario in my head in which I sent the other girls down with my stuff and at 8:05, after checkout, I would run down the huge hill to meet them. Fortunately, the doors did open at 7:30, and I was able to check us out very quickly and we headed down the hill nearly on time.

 We got to the bus stop about 7:45, which was right on time! It was going well until 8:11, when a Greyhound going to Brisbane went straight past our stop and headed up that hill. This was where panic set in. I pull out our ticket to verify we're in the right place and look for a customer service number. Kylen and Kelsey look for a street sign or anything that might indicate where we should be. No luck. I'm starting to get pissed, because the girl at the front desk told us to get on at this stop. I call customer service, and I'm prepared for an idiot. 

Fortunately, I talked to Caroline. We talked for a minute before I found out a) we were indeed in the wrong place, b) the tickets are non-refundable and c) the next bus doesn't leave until 12:15.  Some unkind words were running through my head about then, when Caroline tells me we can upgrade our tickets for $42 to be on the 12:15 bus. Whew. Thank you Caroline! We still have four hours to use up, and we miss the beginning of the game, but at least we'll make our flight. Just as I finish giving the credit card number to her, our bus pulls up! Don't know how they knew or why, but all he said was, "Can I see your ticket?" and Pointed out where it said where we should have been.

We said thank you about 100 times and thankfully found our seats. Caroline says we still have $42 credit to use for a greyhound bus, but we'll see how it goes. For now, we're back on schedule. Yes!

Once we pulled into the transit station we mosied downstairs and out to Roma Street. We walked along Roma for a bit, looking for a snack, and then somewhere to watch the Grand Final.

We got a snakc at Pie Face, and then found a place to watch the game attached to another backpacker's hostel. It was a really great game, a nailbiter all the way through, and the Swans won it in an amazing comeback! It was really fun, and only a couple of Irish guys were begging for our numbers. Ha. Irish guys are friendly...

After the game we hopped in a taxi and came straight to the airport with two hours until our flight boarding. It's a lot quicker to get through Australian Airport security than American.

I wrote this bit at the Brisbane airport:

"Now I'm sitting in front of a computer where I wasted my money on a computer that's too slow to even open google. I hate public computers. Nice to know I just burned up some cash sitting in front of a screen trying to open Internet *&^$ing Explorer. 

Also, all hot keys are disabled. Screw you internet."

At that point, I was getting pretty frustrated. 

The flight from Brisbane to Sydney was quite uneventful. Ridiculously short, (an hour and a half), and we actually goot into Sydney a bit early! We grabbed a taxi and he took us to the Elephant Backpackers Hostel where we were booked.

We walked in (at 11:00 pm) and it was loud. The building was old, but most building in that area are, so we brushed it off.

Our first clue should have been when he handed us our pillows and sheets, because they don't leave thme in the rooms. Our second clue was the two feet of cigarette smoke floating everywhere. Our third clue was the sound the elevator made. Our fourth clue was the smell upstairs. Our fifth clue was that when I put the key in, I turned the handled and pushed - after a second, the rest of the door came up to meet the handle, but not before it had almost completely separated from it. Next clue: smell in the room; definitely boys. Stuff ALL OVER. Definitely boys. We asked for a girls' dorm. Next, the cigarette butts everywhere, then, the available beds all spread out and one of them not even having a sheet or cover over the nasty yellow mattress.

We got out of there. With the hostel itself, our only qualm was that it wasn't a girls dorm, but Kelsey was so very uncomfortable with it, and so were the rest of us - and it really didn't appear to  be a safe place to be. We came downstairs to talk to the guy at the front about it. He was nice, although he was french. I spent about ten minutes talking them into giving us a full refund if they couldn't supply the room we reserved. While I was doing that, Kelsey went out to call her dad to see if he could find a hostel/hotel room for us. No luck. I began talking to my dad - no luck. We called about eight places to find out they were all all booked up. We called and texted and paced around in a panic. Suddenly, when I was on the phone with my dad I heard a shrill screech and all three of the other girls started yelling about a rat. Keep in mind, this was about 11 pm on Saturday. My dad started talking to us about some hotels/hostels in one direction, so we began walking. We continued calling places - I would estimate I called around 20 different lodgings by that time, whether wwe got the number from my dad or Kelsey's dad. While walking through Kings Cross (a very sketchy suburb) we spotted a Holiday Inn in the distance and we headed there. Unfortunately, it looked to be a mirage, because we walked for about fifteen minutes to no avail. Eventually, as if angels were singing, we came around the corner and saw the glowing green lights. Yes!

We headed in, but had to wait until someone with a key card was going in because the doors were locked for the night.

I went up to the guy at the desk and asked if he had any rooms available at all and he said no. We were so freaking exhausted it was ridiculous. I begged the guy to let us sit in the lobby for a few minutes to warm up. Our only real option, we decided, was to go to the damn airport, because airports are always open. So we could sit down, and warm up, and maybe even nap so we could be refreshed to figure out what to do.

Now, what had occurred to us about halfway through this process was three things:

1) it's the school holidays - right in the middle

2) It's Labor day in NSW

3) its' the Grand Final weekend - footy on Saturday (tonight) and Rugby on Sunday.

This forced us to concede that there wasn't a god damn room or bed available in the city, and we would go to the airport.

We called a taxi to pick us up from the Holiday Inn (thank goodness, because I think they were not happy with our presence) to take us to the airport.

Awkward, rude cab driver that rushed our tired, deplete little souls to the car and didn't say a single word the whole way. This has been super common for drivers, so we really only noticed the rude.

So, driver drops us off and pulls away. As we head over to the entrance, we notice a person curled up in the vestibule between inner and outer automatic doors.

The airport is closed.

Freaking Sydney international airport was closed until 4 am - three hours away.

So, with no other choice, we curled up in the vestibule too. We froze, and chatted back and forth, trying to keep our brains from going nutso.

(Sidenote: this next part was written when I was absolutely exhausted, before I had had a chance to sleep after this whole debacle)

*People kept showing up in our letter was the girl reading the books and trying not move so badly, because if the sensor on the door would pick up the sensor and that all would open the door and they left what mom's say....*

Anyway....after a couple of minutes, two other girls showed up - they had a flight at six. They didn't know that the freaking airport was closed either. Weird stuff. Anyway, throughout the night things got less and less funny and people got more and more (and more annoying). The worst part was the motion sensors on the doors: set to open when someone moved. The majority of our time was spent telling people to stop moving and flattening ourselves against the back wall. When there were about twnety people in there, 4 o'clock struck and the freaking doors were opened. We all filed in - unfortunately, we were the ones who didn't have anywhere to go after we got in.

A couple of hours previous (about two or three am) my dad had found a bed and breakfast kind of place to try calling. I checked online to find that they had a room available for that night - Sunday night. YES!!!

In the meantime, Kelsey had taken an earlier flight back to Melbourne (since she already saw Sydney with her sister). I was desperate to find somewhere for us to sleep that night, even though it was only five am. I asked Kylen and Melissa, and we decided to book it, because it really was the only room available in the city, and it was even really in the city. It was in Manly - a very far out Eastern Beach Subarb, but it was a room with beds. At seven or eight we caught a taxi out to Manly (the driver screwed us over, by the way) and didn't even drop us close to the place. We ended up walking across town anyway.

We made it to Manly Oceanside Accomodation eventually, but far before we could check in. The family let us store our stuff in a back room until check-in time.

It was such a beautiful day, we took a short walk to the beach and realized we wanted our baths and towels. We got all set up and almost immediately fell asleep on the beach. At this point we hadn't slept for around 26 hours.

We slept for about a half hour in the sunshine, and then decided to explore a little bit. We walked down the beach to find the 'Manly Jazz Festival' complete with music, stalls, booths, and sno-cones! I was elated!

Unfortunately, this was the first time I noticed the rash on my arms. My hands had been unbearably dry for a few days now, so they felt pretty rough. But what I noticed that it went onto my arms with dry, red bumps with no itch or sting. I decided to ignore it unless it got worse. The damn thing dogged me pretty much until we got back to Melbourne. 

Anyway - on our way back from the festival we stopped by Coles to get some lunch. We took it back, checked in, ate it. Then we all took a nap that lasted for fifteen hours. Whew.

We woke up on Monday morning feeling quite refreshed and ready to go! We dawdled around slowly waking up and getting up and headed out from Manly back into the city by taxi.

This taxi driver, as luck would have it, was the first one who talked to us! He just moved here a few months ago - he was telling us all these great things to do, his impressions of Australians in general, he was absolutely hilarious! Very funny guy. 

He brought us into the city and parked right in front of our hostel (another Nomads one - which we like) and helped us unload our stuff. We knew it was far too early to check in, but they told me they had a luggage room. So, we toted our stuff downstairs to find some huge lockers to rent that fit all of our stuff in.

To be continued...

The Beginning...

Tuesday, 25 September

The rest of Monday and Tuesday were mostly spent preparing for and wasting time before our holiday trip! It's really boring, so I'll leave it at that.

The ever obliging Blake took us to the airport. Our flight wasn't until 8:00, so our plan was to leave the house at 5:30. This turned out to be a gross over-estimate of the amount of time it would take to get through security. I had checked us in the night before, and we weren't checking any bags, which cut off almost an hour from the time we needed. We literally walked straight through security - pausing only long enough for Kylen to get randomly searched. Friendly Australian security people are wonderful!
Unfortunately, the speed with which we got through meant that by the time we got to the gates our flight hadn't even showed up on the departures board yet. We found seats and waited for about an hour. After a while, I got up to have a look around and see if our flight was up on the board yet.
Nothing.
Wait a bit longer.
Play Egyptian Rat Screw, got my butt handed to me by Melissa, and then we all got up to walk around, toting our suitcases. We got about halfway down the terminal before we found our flight would be leaving from the gate at which we had just been waiting for an hour.
Go figure...
Anyway, the flight was relatively uneventful, save for the awesome girl sitting next to me reading "Clash of Kings" (second game of thrones book). We talked for a bit about how incredibly depressing and addictive they are nd how George R.R. Martin is probably a sociopath who just is doing a mass psychological experiment to see how many people will waste hours of their lives reading depressing stuff - just as long as it has some boobies in it.

After the flight, we verified where we needed to meet our morning bus before grabbing a taxi to go to bunk backpackers in Brisbane. The ride was the normal amount of awkward including a quiet cab driver and long, awkward silences punctuated by someone (usually me) making a comment about the flight or scenery.

Made it to the hostel where we were greeted by the "DOON-CHA, DOON-CHA, DOON-CHA" of the attached bar. It looked like it was hoppin', but we had a early bus in the morning.
The very busy front desk attendant was fabulously sweet and impressive. One of those people helping five people at once and everyone feels like they're getting her full attention. Thank god she was smart, too, because it turns out the airhead on the phone I talked to to reserve the room didn't actually reserve it. They had no record of my name or reservation.
Panic.
It was 11:00pm, we were in the middle of Brisbane, we had a bus leaving from the airport in 8 hours time, and had just spent $40 on a cab to get here.
She must have noticed the panic on our faces because she said it sounded like it was their fault, and she would see what she could do.
After a few more minutes of silent panic - she rescued us! She gave us a four person room for the eight person room rate on the condition we only stayed one night.
Saved!
We made our way up to room 404. Spacious, two bunk beds and individual showers and toilet. Sweet!
Finally getting over the adrenaline rush we headed to bed for an early morning.

Wednesday, 26 September

Alarm at 6:30 am. I just went to bed! Stumble for toilet, contacts, and teeth brushing.
We stripped the sheets off of our beds and headed downstairs (choosing to avoid the questionable elevator we had taken up the night before), hopped in a cab, and made it to the Sun-Air bus with enough time to get some breakfast at a cafe inside the airport.

Saturday & Sunday, Phillip Island!

Saturday, 22 September

Woke up at six, right back to sleep, woke up at eight, couldn't get back to sleep. Also, late night + sinus pressure in my inner ear = absolutely zero balance. Thank you!
In the morning, though, we got up and got ready to go to Phillip Island with Andy and the boys. Yay!\
I didn't know this, but apparently Phillip Island is a collection of three-four parks all over the actual island.
Anyway, Andy and the boys picked us up around 1:30 and we headed down south to a tiny little almost-a-town where Jo's sister and her family live.
They live on a beautiful dairy farm with a lot of acreage and a herd of 100 cows!
After arriving and meeting the family, Dave and Andy took us on an awesome drive through the valley and to a gourmet ice cream, wine, and cheese shop. We only had ice cream, and wow it was amazing! The views were pretty too, but the ice cream ...Yum!
We headed back and got introduced to the four-day-old, two-week-old, 2 month old, and four month old calves on the farm. They are super cute, but our conclusion is that cows are just weird. Full stop.
We walked around the land a bit, and were looking out over the valley right at sunset. It was absolutely gorgeous! And when I finally find the time to plug in and edit all these pictures I'll add some here. But for right now, just trust me.
After watching the footy (Adelaide v Hawthorne) - which was a qualifying match for the grand final (Adelaide fought back hard, but Hawthorne came out on top), we had an early night. Thank goodness.

Sunday, 23 September

The next morning we headed to the actual island.
Our first stop was the Koala Conservatory - so many of them! Andy is the best spotter ever, much to the boys' (who were keeping score) dismay.
We also got a really close-up view of a Kookaburra - such awesome birds. I wish he had laughed when I was that close, though.
After the Koalas, we headed out to lunch at a town called Cows. Haha. Delicious paninis and chips and then off to the nobbies!
The nobbies are a national park with a beautiful view of some huge rocks in the distance in the shape of knobs (like on a stove). Again, it'll be more clear when I upload some pictures.
The nobbies is where you go to see seals on Phillip Island. Unfortunately, we didn't see any seals, but it was a beautiful day, if a bit windy, and we some a couple of Cape Bering Geese and Goslings - so cute! (Again - photos later). I got tons of great pictures of the Nobbies and the Ocean.
Next we headed to the Penguin Parade! Before we saw the penguins, Andy and Jo booked us an Eco-Tour with a ranger talking about the history of the penguin parade, which was super cool! On the way back to the center, too, we saw the most amazing double rainbow! (It went all the way across the sky).
When we got back to the centre, we had a few minutes to burn before we should start heading down to get seats, so we bummed around and bought some ponchos to sit on. We had some snacks and mosied on down to find some seats.
After getting settled in our spots Sven (the guide guy for the actual parade) comes on and chats with us for a few minutes, telling us not to make loud noises, throw things, or take pictures.
The light slowly started to go down and we saw some wallabies on top of the hill - pretty cool to see them in the wild!
Anyway, we slowly began hearing interesting noises; splashes, squeaks, and grunts. We weren't supposed to stand up in the bleachers, so we craned our necks around to see what we could see.
Eventually, we started to see some movement in the dusk light!\
We started to see some penguins waddling their way up!!!! They were so freaking cute and funny it was insane. And the amount of self-control I exhibited to NOT take pictures was seriously impressive. Ask anyone who knows me.
Seriously, youtube, 'fairy penguins', 'little penguins' or 'blue penguins' - these are all names used for the smallest of the 17 known species of penguin in the world. Anyway; it was awesome and I can't explain.
Oh! Also on the way back up to the centre (after watching the penguins), we saw two penguins laying down...one on top of the other...gettin' busy. We stopped for a second, incredulous, and the ranger said quietly, "Well, they're going to have more than two eggs this year!"
Awesome.

Wednesday

Dessert Story; it was in. SANE!

I don't have any of the pictures from the place, but it was pretty crazy awesome. And also ridiculous. Pictures later.

Thursday

Thursday morning started out really slow, and I got to school probably the latest I ever have gotten to school. I came in about halfway through the staff meeting. The meeting was totally normal and fine, until the end, when both Blake AND my principal said, 'You should be afraid for the assembly tomorrow.'
Based on the comments I've gotten over the course of the term, I'm assuming I'll get my first taste of Vegemite on toast probably in front of the whole school. Ugh. But bearable.

Thursday at noon, our kids headed out with us to the Forest Hill Footy oval, where we would be meeting with the other small school with whom we will be going on camp. The walk was relatively long, but certainly bearable. Once we got to the oval, we waited for the other school. Then, we got to head out to play and mingle! We played some footy and some frisbee and some soccer and some gymnastics - it was great fun! After having some time with the other kids to mingle was really great, especially before spending a lot of time with them on camp:) That was fun and a nice difference to the day:)Thursday after school, I don't think anything happened...

Friday

Friday morning was very exciting, because we took all the grade fours to a Transition Fun day at a Secondary College. Jenny and I took all our grade fours to hop on the bus with the other small school (same school from yesterday) and we headed to the college.

When we got there we split up into three groups with schools mixed together. When I stood up and held my hand up to show the group number I was in charge of (all eight boys), the boys all said, "Yesss!!!" It was a nice little boost:) hah.
Our group first headed outside to go on a scavenger hunt throughout the school. It was pretty well put together requiring kids to go through each of the different areas of the school, as well as take pictures with mascots/house colours. After going through the scavenger hunt, we went to a craft area where each kid got to make their own door hanger. This is where something interesting happened (interesting/inappropriate). My group (all boys) were sitting around a table with a variety of stickers (some which may be deemed 'girly'). Our guide picked up a mermaid sticker and said, teasingly, "I'm sure you all really wanted this meeeermaid on your door hangers, right?"

The boys all shook their heads and said, "No!" vehemently. I said, "I dunno, guys, she's pretty cuuuuute..." 

One of my boys (with some behavioural struggles), immediately looks up at me and says, "Are you a lesbian?"

My immediate reaction was to laugh, although I knew that would probably be inappropriate:) Hah!
I said, "No, I'm not gay, my fiance is a boy, but that is not really very appropriate to just ask someone."

He immediately felt bad, "Oh, I didn't mean it to be rude or inappropriate!" 

Altogether, it was pretty funny:)

Later, we got back to school and head lunch. Our kids had some time to play after lunch. When we got back in line to go back into the classroom, the kids were pretty fiesty, and wouldn't get on the wall. When I had the kids get into the classroom, one of my girls screams at the top of her lungs, "GET A LIFE!" to another student.

That was quite a disruption. The kids all freaked out and we ended up having a big discussion about respect and solving things like adults. After losing the time we were going to spend playing outside on my last day, we walked over to the assembly, to find two of my kids teasing the single sweetest, most harmless girl in the class and sending her to tears. I was so ticked I nearly pulled him out of the assembly and made him sit in the other room on his own. 

The assembly started and we went straight into the Students of the week. The first surprise was when I was called up as a student of the week! It was pretty fun :)

We spent a while during the assembly talking about end of the term, when Blake heads up to the front, grabs the mic and says, "I'm not used to sharing the spotlight, but I'm willing to give a few minutes over to my student teacher." 

Before I knew it, I was sitting at the front of the room, draped in an Australian flag, and being handed presents to unwrap.
I was super spoiled.
The first thing they brought me was a Parkmore t-shirt and awesome hat - both of which they made me put on. Next, I got a set of four fairly cornerstone Aussie Children's books including: Possum Magic, Are we there yet?, and two others I can't remember right now because I'm on vacation.
I also received a Parkmore mug for hot chocolate, a small aussie flag, a footy, a netball (which all of the staff signed), a card from each student in my class that they made in Art on Wednesday, and the most amazing scrapbook ever put together by the wonderful Lorraine!
There were at least two pages per class in the scrapbook, and students in each class said something to/about me/America. One of my favourite pages are the preps quotes, some of which include:
"American people are old."
"They eat Pork"
"America is in New York"
and
"They wear ripped up towels and stuff."
...interesting.

Anyway, after some really embarassing attention, the assembly ended and I got an absolute flurry of hugs from kids all over my school.
One of the best things about a small school is that even after being here for only a term, I can confidently name about 90% of the school. Pretty proud of that:)

Immediately after the kids left, the staff headed to Jake's room to watch a slideshow of the ridiculous pictures from the cocktail party. They were both awesome and embarassing.
Next stop was T.G.I. Fridays where, aside from Blake telling them it was Jake's birthday, things went smoothly. After T.G.I.'s we headed to Tor's house for some dress up:) We made our way to Jake's for some footy and cards before heading out. When we eventually made our way out, we went to a club called the Manhattan - which is in Vermont (which I gather after talking to Jo and Andy and Sharon and Dave) has a rich history of live bands, dentist chairs, and spinning dance floors. Although only the live bands are around now, it was still a pretty fun time. Awesome night out with awesome people!

Thursday to Monday

Thursday, 13 September 2012

All right, so, Thursdays are tricky days, and easy days because our kids are out of the classroom for a large portion of the day. Unfortunately, we have a pretty awkward schedule, having the kids for half hour blurbs that aren't long enough to do anything, but are too long to just give the kids finish off time. It's tricky. The kids did well, though, and although we didn't really have any big issues for most of the day, the single issue was a big one.

Student A (who often has trouble with anger and violence issues) asked students B and C to stop talking during a bit of free time. B and C continue talking, and A continues telling them to stop (probably not in the nicest way). All of the sudden, A stands up, runs around to the other side of the desk, and grabs B by the hair. He got three or four punches in before I crossed to the other side of the room to step in the way of the hits. Obviously, I'm terrified of getting too involved, but I was the only teacher that saw it, so I had to do something to stop B from getting beat on! Literally, punched in the head over and over again. It was so freaking terrifying, I was nervous that I had made such a huge mistake by getting involved. However, after talking to my principal and several of the teachers at school, they reassured me that I made the right decisions. Thank goodness.

The rest of the day passed relatively without incident, not including the restorative chat with Adrienne, the three boys, and myself.

I got home and absolutely collapsed after Thursday.

Friday, 14 September 2012

Friday was about a million times smoother than Thursday (mostly due to Student A being in school suspension for the day). At the end of the day, the students had the chance to play some games (the drawing the name cards out of the jar turned out absolutely brilliantly - kids were so excited about the drawing and everything. It was a lot of fun, and nice to know that it worked out well.

Saturday, 15 September 2012

Saturday was quite a busy day! I got to wake up slowly and get ready at a pretty leisurely pace. The wonderful Gretchen dropped me off at the train station at 9:15 ish, and I caught the train to Boronia in order for Rachel to pick me up around 10:00. Rachel had a netball game in Boronia at 10:40, and I wanted to go (so I could see what an actual netball game looks like, as opposed to our team). All the girls on Rachel's team are quick and smart, and watching them play really showed me what it's supposed to look like. It's weird because it seems as if they all know where their teammates are without seeing them. It appears to be a sixth sense that I don't possess. Blurgh. Maybe it's an Australian thing. 

Immediately after the netball game, Rach and I headed back to her house, but she dropped me off at a little shopping center with a Lolly Shop that has American candy! I almost peed when I saw that they had...
WHOPPERS! I was so excited! Unfortunately, I didn't have any cash, so I had to buy more candy in order to reach the $10 check card limit. In addition to Whoppers, I got Hershey's Cookies'n'Cream Chocolate, Bubblicious Bubble Gum (Watermelon) - but only because they didn't have Original Hubba Bubba Bubble Tape, and I got a tootsie roll! It turns out that Australians don't appreciate any of these things except maybe the Hershey's. Silly Australians.

Anyway, Rachel picked me up from the shopping center and we headed to our school's Open House Fun Day, which really was awesome! There were dozens of stalls set up in around and on school grounds. We had popcorn, parades, slushies, souvlaki (sp?), pick a stick, face painting, photo booths, and a huge blow up slide! I'm sure I've forgotten things, but that's fine. I worked in the pick-a-stick and raffle hamper (basket) stalls, which were pretty fun. The REAL awesome-ness came when Fleur (another student teacher) and I got to go around and have some awesome going on. First, we got our faces painted, then took a walk around at all the stalls.

Next thing, got my face painted! Fleur had a rainforest butterfly, and I had a rainbow butterfly! Here's us strutting our stuff:

Also, it's just going to have to be upside down, because I can't figure out how to make the blog realize I have turned it right side up. We also bought these fabulous fairy wands from one of the stands by one of my students' moms. She is absolutely wonderful, and made a variety of these  fantastic arts and crafts. I also got another beautiful item from her for Jory Ann, so I won't share what it is on here! The beautiful thing has a wonderful story - it was sold in order to generate money to support my school, and it's absolutely perfect for you! :) I'm excited!

Next thing was the HUGE bouncy slide! It was four dollars to go into the slide for five minutes, and it was SO fun. We had to climb up to the top of the slide and then make these epic leaps down! After going down a few times, the guy working the slide told us to try to do a summersault at the top of the slide and then go down. It was absolutely AWESOME. We took spectacular flips and had such a great time! It was hilarious!

After getting our faces painted, we decided to head to the photo booth! The pictures were absolutely hilarious, and I'll take a picture of the pictures to enter them in. 

Fleur and I also each took a photo using our magic wands to find the best sticks in the pick-a-stick booth (where we were working). Yellow sticks got us a small chocolate, and purple sticks got us a big candy. Unfortunately, we both earned eight yellow sticks, and no purple. So, if you go to a pick-a-stick booth, don't do this...

Not effective.

Anyone, after the fair I headed over to Tor's netball game, to see some more of the actual netball game. Tor's game was a lot of fun to watch as well!

Saturday night, Tor, Cathy, and I were planning on going out to dinner, but we were all exhausted, so Tor and I went out to pick up take-away, then immediately came back to their house to flop on the couch and watched quite a bit of The Big Bang Theory! It was a lot of fun, even if we all were really exhausted by the end there. Hah! The wonderful Tor drove me home and I collapsed into bed.

Sunday, 15 September 2012

Sunday morning I took a few minutes to sleep in and slowly wake up and get ready. When I finally did get my lazy bum out of bed, I caught a bus to the train station, and took a train into the city. My first stop on Sunday was the Old Melbourne Gaol. The gaol didn't actually have a tour, so you just walk through and spend your own time reading and learning the information. It was absolutely freaking incredible and terrifying! 

This picture also makes it look like it's a lot brighter in the gaol than it actually was. It was absolutely terrifying! Not only was it dark and small, but within each of these tiny little cells was a freaking DEATH MASK of the criminals who lived in each of those cells. Creepy stuff!!

Death Masks are creepy.

After bumming around at the jail and scary the holy living crap out of myself, I went through the gift shop and talked to the woman at the shop. The next tour of the WatchTower was still a half hour away. So I mosied on down the street to the State Library, which is the most spectacular building ever! It was so beautiful, and it looked like the beast's library in Beauty and the Beast. Most of it was closed off because it was Sunday:( I did get to see the outside of the library and the basic internal structure, which was similar to the Treasury - where I went later in the day.

I headed back to the Gaol to go on the Watchman's Tour. The Watchtower was closed in '93 or '94, so  it was a pretty recent setup. The whole tour was conducted as if we were criminals in the watchtower in the early 90s. My character that I was playing had been arrested for growing illegal plants (I said that I was just watering my dad's garden). Anyway, we were taken in through processing, fake 'frisked', and then led into the waiting cells. There were three different kinds of cells (not including sizes). Because the watchtower is just your station while you're waiting for the magistrate to rule on your case, there were very minimal comforts. Each of the standard cells had wooden floors, with a wooden bench around the outside of the pentagonal room.The 'warden' locked us in each of the cells (men in one, women in another) and turned off the lights - it definitely was scary, but all the girls in the cell were pretty good. 

The outside of the men's cell was:

Hahaha. It was hilarious!

Other cells included cells with no wood on the floor, cement floors that slant down to a drain. The warden called these the 'drunk cells', because drunk people are messy. haha.

We also found some actual padded cells - creepy, but cool:

I also got a mugshot taken - I was definitely the cutest criminal there...hah!

Taa-daa!

Next, I headed to the Old Melbourne Treasury. The amount of history in this building is absolutely incredible. I wanted to go to the Treasury for two reasons. 1) the architect who designed the building was only 19 when he designed it, and when on to contribute to the designs of dozens if not hundreds of buildings throughout Melbourne and 2) down below the ground floor of the building was an exhibition on the gold rush. I had kind of mediocre expectations for the exhibit on the architect, but I was SUPER excited for the gold rush exhibit. The actual exhibits were completely the opposite. The exhibition on the architect was actually incredible! The Exhibit on the gold rush turned out to be quite a huge disappointment. The only part of the gold rush things that I was impressed with was the replicas of the largest gold nuggets ever found! The largest one was called the 'Welcome, Stranger', and the next largest nugget; the 'Welcome Nugget'. 

This was the only demonstration of the incredible size of the nuggets. These were underneath the ground!!

That was pretty much it for the treasury, and although it was pretty cool to read about the history, I'm glad that the Treasury Building Tour was free:-D

Next Stop: Immigration Museum

It was absolutely spectacular! The first floor was a pretty traditional summary of what you would expect to be in an immigration museum; timelines, reasons why people immigrate, periods of heavy immigration, etc. The top floor was this incredible demonstration of stereotypes, assumptions, physical appearance, ability, and other things that make us judge the people around us. There were a variety of interactive pieces that allowed you to determine what kind of prejudices you might have, and what you can do to combat them. It covered everything from skin colour, face shape, clothing, job, and all about how those things can affect your opinion of someone. It also went into a variety of groups and teams that relate community; these things also included specific aspects of someone's personality that were incredibly unique/beautiful/amazing that you probably wouldn't know about them until you got to know them more deeply.
There was also an interactive scene in which you watched  four people on a tram in the city. two are bystanders, one is a young aboriginal man (talking on the phone in a language other than English), and the other is a middle-aged white man in a suit carrying a briefcase. He is incredibly rude and disrespectful to the younger man. After watching the scene, you are given the choice to 'hear' what one of the people in the scene may have been thinking at the time. It talks about the assumptions made by the older man, the hurt felt by the young man, the uselessness felt by the two bystanders, and the need to do something about it. It was pretty intense, and I felt, very accurate.
Also on the top floor (right toward the end of the exhibits) were two stations that looked like they belonged on the Bridge of the Enterprise:

In the small white square you place one hand. The pad scans your hand (not your hand print, just the outline/shape of your hand). It then asks you to write something pertaining to prejudice, connections, community, trust, assumptions, etc. It gives you prompts such as, "I'm glad to live in this country because...", or "Sometimes I wish I could change how people think when...". I wrote something about being welcomed as a member of the country rather than cut off as an outsider. It was more profound than that, though.
Last but not least at the immigration museum was a huge tree, and beneath it was an enormous tub of recycling materials; bottles, cardboard, fabric, aluminum foil, etc. In the 'tree' (and all around the room), were hundreds of airplanes made by people who had come through the museum.

Everyone's plane was different, and it's so cool to really just sit and look at the differences. The creativity that went into many of the planes. Materials used in new ways and by new people. It was absolutely awesome and deep. Especially for me, in my long day of deep deliberation and terrifying myself in 80-year-old gaol cells. Hah!

After finishing up at the immigration museum, I headed back to the train station, because I had to get home for...

Netball

We were absolutely clobbered. Afterwards we talked and decided that the third quarter was probably our best quarter all game. Unfortunately, that was the quarter that I sat out of the game. Hah! I think netball might be something you just have to grow up with...
Anyway, clobbered as usual, but thus beginneth my last week of teaching in Australia!!!!

Monday

Blake was back! It was really nice to have things back to normal...(Blake sitting in the back of the room while I teach instead of Cyn), and the kids were glad he was back in the room. After we got over the initial shock of Monday morning, the day progressed typically, allowing us to get through several maths and literacy rotations throughout the day. We also got to finish off our freetime, which the kids were really excited about. Here are a few games they play down here, and what their 'translations' are.

• Giant's Treasure - red light green light
• Tiggy - tag
• Scarecrow tiggy - freeze tag
• Chinese Whispers - Telephone
• 40/40 - Hide and Seek

Tuesday

Tuesday, I had my last observation with Kevin! The lesson went pretty well, although there were some logistical problems for which I was unprepared. For instance, when drawing fractions, I didn't expect drawing thirds to monopolize the better part of 45 minutes. However, Kevin saw that I coped well with a change in my lesson, and I responded to my students' feedback on how the lesson was going. We slowed down, and just gave the students more time to complete and understand their fraction circles. Because I was overplanned, but also didn't rush the students, instead spending time wandering around the whole classroom to get a feel for each students' understanding, and modifying the lesson on the spot to fit the needs of the kids was a great thing for Kevin to see that I am capable of doing. 

Pretty exciting! 

Also - we had a going away dinner for me at Persian Flavours - a fabulous middle-eastern restaurant near school. It was great!

Wednesday

Wednesday was footy day! Which means that everyone came to school wearing their team's colours/jerseys/scarves. I, unfortunately, don't have any Roo Gear (North Melbourne Kangaroos), so I was forced to wear a dirty little Adelaide Crows Jumper someone-who-can't-stop-buying-them-on-eBay let me borrow. Which was nice, but I still wish I had something Roo:( 

The day was good, and a really cool bit of it was that I got to spend time in several other classrooms throughout the day. Shockingly, it took me a full ten weeks to get across the hall and spend some time in the junior school! I spent the first hour with Rachel and her preps. I got to watch their morning reading groups which were great! I had a really good understanding of the tact Rach was using to improve their reading skills, and I would see each of those methods in progress. Also, the kids are delightful!

Next I went to Cathy's room to spend some time with the grades 1 and 2. They were also incredibly lovely. Incidentally, today (in Australia) was International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Fortunately, this tainted all of our activities during their reading groups including making hats, treasure maps, and a pop quiz game show about Pirates. The 1/2s were also absolute treasures! It was so great to see a couple of different classroom setups:)

Tonight, some of Kylen's friends from school took us out to a restaurant and dessert bar in Glen Waverly. I'll need to talk more about it and post some pictures, but it turns out I really need to go to bed, and I really need to post this finally. Good night all, see you next time!

-Megan

Monday and...Wednesday?

Monday

Not sure why exactly I skipped Monday on the last blog post. Oh, I remember - because I was trying to block it out. Monday was a really rough day, even though the CRT (casual relief teacher - sub) with me is the regular music teacher - and is super awesome - but our kids (on the spectrum and not) do not do well with change. Having their teacher gone for a week is a big change for these kids. There was a huge number of aggressive/openly defiant incidents, four timeouts, and a LOT of disrespect. In fact, we spent the last hour of the day (after lunch) in a deep conversation about respect, trust, and following directions. Cyn and I went home absolutely buggered, and tried to get enough sleep for a new day on Tuesday.

Tuesday

Tuesday was a better day. At the beginning of the day, we challenged the group to get no names on the board (a warning system for students who are disruptive/disrespectful/etc) throughout the whole day. Generally throughout the day we get 5-7 names including sometimes one or two in timeout. Monday, when Cathy asked the group if we could go a whole day with no names on the board, lots of the kids said no. Ugh. What wonderful faith they have in themselves and each other.

So, Tuesday, we decided to start a new positive reinforcement. If we can go a whole day without getting names on the board, we will get to have a huge game time on Friday afternoon. Throughout the day, we have been passing out small pieces of orange paper to students who are doing well, and having them write their names on the paper and put them in a jar. On Friday morning, we'll draw a name out, and that person gets to choose which game we play. So, obviously, the more orange cards they earn, the more likely they are to get to choose the games. It has been working well so far. Tuesday, Cyn and I passed out 81 cards. 

Wednesday

This morning, we challenged the kids to try to earn more than 81 cards as a class (we're really pushing this teamwork thing). After school, we counted them up, and they earned 117!! Wahoo! They will be excited to see/talk about this tomorrow, and our challenge tomorrow is for them to earn more than 117. If we follow this pattern, this will happen:-D Unfortunately, the kids spend a lot of time out of the classroom on Thursdays, so we may not see them enough for them to earn 117.

Also - I developed a really awesome spelling activity for my kids! This morning when I was talking to Sam, I was talking about that I needed to have a spelling activity for a short period of time today. I got an idea and implemented it today and it was a huge success! Spelling Theatre. Similar to Reader's Theatre, but the students write their own scripts using their spelling words. This requires the students to not only know their words, spell them correctly, know their definition, but also to be able to use them fluently in conversation! We didn't all finish today, but I have saved some time on Friday (and maybe tomorrow) for finishing the scripts up and practicing, so we can perform Friday afternoon before our game time. I can't wait to watch them! Some have a lot of personality (because my kids have a lot of personality) and even the kids who we really had to push to get moving got a lot done on them! So exciting! :-D 

Tomorrow should be interesting, as we don't have kids for very long, and I believe we have our last round robin sport! 

My group will be staying at our school to play along with several other sports teams and some of the teams will be bussing to a different primary school to play there. I hope my softball team does well tomorrow! More than anything, I hope I have all nine players tomorrow! Whew! I'll let you know how it goes in the afternoon!

Lots of love,

Megan