Cairns, Kuranda and the Great Barrier Reef!

Before I tell tales of the fantastic weekend, I thought I'd share a picture from the World Gymnastics Championships. This is Monette Russo on beam, the Australian who placed third in the all-around.

Friday night we flew out to Cairns. The flight was quite rough, but we eventually arrived after midnight and checked into the hotel. The next morning we wokr early to ensure a spot on a snorkeling boat. We found one that had snorkeling and also a semi-submerged boat so we could enjoy the reef from inside the reef as well. Here is me on the cruise boat we took out.

These are the fish we were able to see from inside the boat...and I also got to swim with them.

This shot is from me being in the water with the fish.

All in all the experience was a dream come true. I loved swimming with all the fishies, minus the jelly fish stinging. But it was also cool to swim amongst sharks and turtles. Unfortunatly the stabilizer on the boat was broken so I got a little seasick...but it was well worth it! That night we stayed around town and walked for some Chinese food...yum!

The next morning, again an early one, we caught a scenic railtrain up the mountains to a little aboriginal village called Kuranda. The ride was spectacular, passing through tunnels, over bridges and past waterfalls.

When we arrived at the village we headed staright to the koalas, and since we were in a new state, Queensland, we could hold koalas! I got myself some pictures of me holding a koala...how cute! At this animal park we also were able to feed and pet wallabies, and for the first time saw some crocodiles.

We shopped around the village for a while, but had to head back pretty quickly, and this time caught the skyrail back. This was the view from the skyrail, near the bottom.

That night we went to Tjapukai, an aboriginal culture park, for a sort if dinner theatre. We enjoyed dinner and performances by the aboriginals. Here is a picture of the aboriginals making fire.

Here is a picture of a piece of aboriginal artwork...its sideways, I apologize. (I also bought some) :)

Last but not least, in my dorkiness, I had to take a picture of the floor at the dinner because it just goes to show that math is really everywhere :) Look...tesselations! Too cool!

The flight home went smoothly, and now I am in for another week of teaching, all week, full time

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! I enjoyed a nice turkey dinner this evening, complete with pumpkin pie, but of course it will never feel the same without family and being in such warm weather (and without football). Teacher's at school had found out it was Thanksgiving and made sure to come and wish me a happy Thanksgiving, which was very sweet of them. The Thanksgiving lessons for the day have gone fantastic, but the kids were stuck on the fact that we got days off of school to celebrate this holiday, so they wish they had it too. The only thing they really didn't like about it was that some people would eat such a thing as pumpkin pie. Just the thought disgusted them, but I tried to explain how its actually quite sweet and that they might actually enjoy it.

Yesterday I enjoyed the evening in the city at the World Gymnastics championships. We only were there for the preliminaries, but it was still fantastic to watch. The two U.S. girls were in first and second place, but Australia had high hopes for one of their gymnasts. Being in Australia I cheered for her to do well, but hoping she would just be a little bad to keep the U.S. gals ahead. She ended up placing third in the prelims. :) But she scored the highest an Australian had ever scored in the all around.

I have been teaching full time for two days now and I am still enjoying it and so are the students. They love the maths lessons, which is good because it seems like the most difficult subject to get students to like.

Tomorrow night I head of to the Cairns for snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef so check for updates with pictures early next week.

New family!

The weekend was absolutely wonderful. Really for no reason in particular, it just went well. Saturday night I stayed in with my host mom and watched a movie I never thought I would ever watch, but alas I watched Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Not too bad... but it was interesting to watch and listen especially as they changed some of the language to make it more Australian...changing accents, calling people "mates" instead of friends, and so on. I suppose it was kind of boring for a Saturday night but it gave me time to catch up on lessons and just relax for once!

Sunday was fabulous as I got a teacher to take me to Church with her, so I had someone to go with this time, and then we headed to the Eltham festival where there was a market, and rides, and all sorts of booths advertising food, and wine and different companies and such. We then went to lunch with her family. By the time I got back to my house the host family was just leaving for a gathering for afternoon tea, so I headed to that, and later that evening moved in with my new host family. Things are absolutely wonderful there! It is quite different, now living with a true Australian family so things are much more relaxed and laid back.

Today, for the first time, I got to experience Cricket. I actually had to Ref and score the games...funny considering I've never played or even seen a game. The game is similar to baseball, but quite a bit boring as their games last anywhere from 9 hours to 5 days! However, since these were just little practice games with 5th and 6th graders we kept them down to an hour. It was pretty fun, but again I became to realize how hot the Australian sun is...

Well, we just finished staff meeting at the school, so I'd thought I'd catch up on this and give you some more pictures to enjoy!

Here is Sovereign Hill, the old Gold Rush town in Ballarat

Here is the first view of the ocean I enjoyed on Phillip Island

Another view of the ocean I enjoyed while on a hike one morning on the Island

I really enjoyed the view of the city atop the tallest building in Australia

Here's a picture of the school I teach at...it's really long so I can't really get the whole school in one picture, but I teach in temporary classrooms off to the right of this picture

And last, but not least, a picture of the Christmas Tree in downtown Melbourne...Sadly its too hot for a real tree... :(

Well, hope you enjoyed!

Christmas is on its way!

Well the first week of teaching really went well. No complaints on my end, and only positive feedback from my co-op! Other teachers have heard about some lessons I planned on doing and they were hoping to see if I could get in their classrooms as well! How cool! If there's time I'd love to work in other grades, but we'll have to wait and see...

Friday night I headed to downtown Melbourne by myself to check out the Christmas Tree Lighting extravaganza. I heard about it, and really had no other plans, so I took the train into the city and had a look for myself. I am glad that I did! It was a two hour show of music, dancing, a stunt orchestra (makes me miss my violin...But it was so cool), bands, The Rugrats, and of course Santa! All the festivities led to the lighting of the tree at 9:15. It was great to hear the old Christmas favorites, but funny to hear them sing White Christmas when many of them haven't even seen snow. The idea of Christmas being so close is crazy, but the evening made me realize how glad I am to know that I will be home for Christmas. It really made me realize all those people that I have been and continue to miss. I am glad that I came to Australia, but I think, at least in particular on this night, it felt as though to travel such a long distance for a long time, I should have traveled with someone. It's hard to be in a city so full of people, not one knowing who you are, where you're from, or even knowing that you are here all alone in a place far away from the comforts of home. Don't get me wrong, I do love it here, but there are moments you can just feel so alone. All in all the evening was fantastic and I survived the train rides by myself and the walk home from the station. I am happy I went.

Saturday morning we headed to St. Andrews market, which I think can be described as a market for hippies. It was a little weird, but cool at the same time. The place smelled of incense, and there was music playing. People were selling Indian clothes, tie dye, fresh grown vegetables and baked goods, tons of jewelry, and a variety of odds and ends. After that we grabbed some Thai food and headed to visit my new host family to make sure they'd be ready for me tomorrow!

I am a little excited to move to another house, but at the same time I have to start all over. It's like I'm just getting comfortable here and then its time to pick up and move. This new family has a 20 year old daughter, which I think will be good for getting me out of the house and into the city more. But really, who knows what this new family will be like.

Tomorrow I get to go to church with another teacher from the school I'm at, and then there is the local market and a fair in town tomorrow. Then moving time! Monday at school I'm on a field trip all day watching the kids play cricket, but I should be able to get pictures up on Tuesday!

Literacy and more!

This week I officially started teaching, and took over literacy. The kids were excited to discover that I was teaching them, I think just looking for a change in scenery. Their school year is over in just a few short weeks, so they are a little hyper and know that summer is on its way. I had them work in small groups on four different literacy avtivities. Two involved readings on Chicago and the U.S. as they were eager and excited to learn about America. They ask so many questions about it, like about our schools, and pop culture, and how things are the same and different. They are quite curious and love to hear about it. The lessons so far have gone well, although there are two more days in the rotation, the only complaints I really have is that they are a little chatty, but really not too bad for 5th and 6th graders. Next week I get to take over maths and am really excited to throw some science labs in there since they really don't do science very much here. Of course, I will be taking all of my teaching time next Thursday to introduce Thanksgiving to them, and why it is important in the American culture and traditions

This morning I just bought some tickets for the World Gymnastics Championships (since its in Melbourne and its something to do!) Tomorrow night I hope to be heading into downtown for the lighting of the Christmas tree! I cannot believe Christmas is just around the corner, especially with tempuratures in the 80's almost everyday. Other than that, I decided to splurge and bought plane tickets to head to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef for a weekend. I thought about it for a while and I really think I would regret coming to Australia and not going snorkeling at the reef, so I am going! I am so looking forward to this, which will be the weekend after Thanksgiving...wow only a week away!

I really feel as though I have been non-stop since I ahve been here, which I suppose is true, so I'm guessing a nap is in order for this afternoon. I switch families this weekend (after church and the local market on Sunday) and I will let you all know where I will be. I really cannot believe I am halfway through this adventure! The time really flies... I will hopefully getting some pictures up tomorrow, but in the meantime I hope you enjoy my teaching ramblings!

Phillips Island...and the City!

This weekend was fabulous! Friday night was family movie night so we watched Scooby Doo the Movie. I have actually never seen it, but it was fun. Saturday the real adventures started. We headed out to Phillips Island, which is about a two hour drive. On the way there we stopped for lunch at a bay, and then walked around the beach. I cannot tell you how many Jellyfish I ran into on the shore...of course careful not to step on them. WE continuted to Phillip Island to check into our house for the weekend, and then went to the Nobbies, which is a nesting place for seagulls. I saw literally thousands of seagulls and their babies. So cute! That night we headed into town for some ice cream, and a few of us went to an Irish pub (funny my first pub in Australia and its an Irish one). We then stayed up and did puzzles. Simple, but fun times!

Sunday we headed out early for a ocean hike. It was about 6km, but it went by so quickly as I love the ocean. There were tons of surfers and even a Jamaican band (playing since the night before!) We had a bite to eat at the beach and then went to a Koala conservation centre. There were about 20 koalas, but sad for us they were way up in the trees. We left pretty quickly and just bummed around town until dinner time. That night we went to the Penguin Parade. It was absolutly amazing. Hundreds of penguins coming ashore, in rafts, at sunset to get back to their homes and find their babies. Unfortunatly no pictures are allowed, but it was amazing!

The next day we started to head home, and on the way stopped for a beach hike and lunch. This was a longer walk than expected, with flies and hills and heat. It wasn't very pleasant, but the end result, the beach, was much worth it. Then we headed home and ordered Thai food.

Tuesday was a stop work day across all of Australia in protest of new labor laws. All the teachers here took the day off, most of which went to the city to join the protests. I don't know what the new laws are, but the principal asked me to join them, just for the experience, so I did. There were over 100,000 people gathered in Melbourne, and this was in 200 cities across Australia! I stayed and listened to the speeches, but when the march started headed off on my own in the city. I bought my first opals! yey! Then of course headed to the aquarium :) and went up the Rialto Towers to observe the city. Gorgeous! They had a postcard there of all the tallest buildings around the world and I was shocked to find the John Hancock on it but not the Sears Tower. Hmmm... Anyway, after that I headed home on the train, alone, and did some grocery shopping on my walk home from the station.

All in all a great weekend! I will get some pictures here shortly! Talk to you all soon!

Pictures!

This is the international Rules Football game I went to my first Friday here.

Atop Mount Arapiles while in Natimuk my first weekend here

Paddle Steamer in Echuca with 3/4 camp

My first Koala! (at Kyagra Animal sanctuary)

Mr Photogenic Wallaby (I think I ahve like 8 more pictures of him...i think its a him!) from Healsville

Miss Wombat (her name is Maggie). I got to pet her!

Careful...Kangaroos a'coming!

Hopefully you enjoyed these few snapshots, but of course more to come!

p.s. Happy Remembrance day! They have poppies here too!

More animals...and downtime

After a week of camping I really needed some downtime to catch up on sleep, however when I returned Friday I got a phone call from Amanda inviting me with her host family to healsville sanctuary on Saturday, and I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to see more koalas!

At the sanctuary I got to see all the native animals of Australia, including ones I missed in Kyagra. I got to pet a wombat, and I found some super photogenic Wallabies so I have tons of pictures of them. They are so cute and look like miniature kangaroos. I also got to of course see more koalas (though they were sleeping), dingos, snakes, lizards, tons of birds, an albino kookabura (makes me miss our albino squirrel), and more kangaroos. We ate lunch at the park and got to see a show on birds of prey and how to throw boomerangs. They make it look so easy, but I'm guessing I still couldn't make it return to me. That night I returned to my family to get dressed up for a Halloween Barbie (BBQ). Halloween is not really celebrated here so it was great to attend some sort of Halloween function. They people there were super nice, delicious food, and I even ran into some students there.

Sunday was fantastic because I finally got to go to church! I found a church in walking distance from my house. So I walked there and was so amazed to find that it was was almost exactly like church back home, except of course for the funny accents :) It was great to finally meet new people and share in this celebration with others! It seems much of this community is atheist or agnostic, but I found two teachers at my school who are Catholic, and one has volunteered to take me on a tour of Catholic churches around Melbourne. I cannot wait to go to mass at the Cathedral! How cool! After church I walked around the Eltham Market, did some grocery shopping, headed to Mcdonald's for writing some postcards, did laundry and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Monday started another week at school. I am still observing, but am meeting with my co-op today to see when and in what subjects I can take over. I really love the school here. Everything is so activity based, whereas the teacher often steps back and lets the kids do projects, or little activities on their own. I just watched some fantastic presentations on the Australian gold rush. I didn't realize this, but after the 1849 gold rush in the U.S., there was an 1854 gold rush in Australian. Tomorrow I am actually headed to an old gold rush village with student from Green Hills Primary. I heard a lot about it and it sounds like tons of fun and a great experience.

Also, maybe many of you have heard about the terrorist raid in Melbourne. Everything is ok here. Most people don't even talk about it, and it really hasn't been too high in the news here, surprisingly. I will keep you updated, but I am perfectly safe here.

This weekend I am headed to Phillip Island (yey for the ocean!) to see penguins! I cannot wait. I still cannot believe that three weeks are just above over. The time is really flying! Feel free to leave comments or shoot me an e-mail! Talk to you soon!

Echuca! 3/4 camp

I just got back from “camping” with the 3rd and 4th graders and I had an blast! We left on Wednesday to head towards Echuca, but ending up stopping at a science museum on the way. This museum was great as every exhibit was hands on. It also had a planetarium. I absolutely love the stars here, and for the first time ever I got to see the Southern Cross (I actually hadn’t realized it but these are also the stars on the Australian flag). We learned about the constellations (and how they all seem to appear upsides down because they were all named in the Northern hemisphere). Continuing our journey we stopped for lunch and ran into a group of the Australian Army. They were all super nice and even posed for a picture (unfortuanly I didn’t have my camera at that point) Then we stopped at a dairy farm (as if I hadn’t seen enough of those in Wisconsin J ) But I still had fun and enjoyed my strawberry milk! Yum! Once in Echuca we settled in for the night, had some dinner, went on a night walk in the forest, and then eventually settled into bed. It was a long day!

The next morning we headed into Echuca early to visit the historical town. The town is located on the border of Victoria and New South Wales, divided my the Murry River. This river is known for its paddlesteamers, so of course we had a ride on one! Then we had a little break for morning tea and headed into a puppet shop to watch some dancing emus. It was the funniest show I have ever seen. I mean have you seriously ever seen an emu that could shimmy and moonwalk? I did some shopping around town and then we had some pizza for lunch…and yey they have Hawaiian pizza here! After that we headed to “Oz Maze” which is an outdoor maze in the shape of Australia. Some of the kids had a hard time finding their way out, but eventually we got them all! We headed back to camp for some dinner and then a night of fun by the music teacher. Right after that we all headed to sleep.

Friday we headed out early on our way home but stopped at Kyagra at a Fauna Park. Finally I got to see koalas up close! I also came within 10 feet of kangaroos…and they weren’t even behind fences! I think I took at least 50 pictures here…with koalas, dingos, kangaroos, wombats, owls, flying foxes, and of course more koalas! Then we drove the rest of the way home.

Tomorrow it looks like I’m in for more animals at a nearby sanctuary, so hopefully there will be more pictures! Yey! Until then…

Holiday in Natimuk

First of all sorry it has been so long since the last update. I just got back this evening from a four day camping trip, but I have many (hopefully exciting) adventrues to write about!
Friday of last week was a round robin day for all the boys in the 5th and 6th grade classes. This meant we were out of school all day to have them compete against other schools in Netball (kind of like basketball except you cannot move when you have the possession of the ball), softball, and lacrosse. I was the timer for the netball games. What I discovered was that the sun in Australia is extremely intense, and even though I put n sunscreen three times, I still came home burnt. What I was told is that being in the sun for 10 minutes here is like being in the sun for an hour at the most intense time in America. Yikes!

That evening I was honored to be invited to a footy game. This game was actually quite unique as it was international rules football (which is a combination of American football and soccer), and it was the final game of a series between Ireland and Australia. Despite my heritage I cheered for Australia and they won! The game is much more vicious than American football whereas players here can take out, kick, punch, do practically anything to other players and time does not stop and there are seemingly no penalties. But all in all I had a blast! After the game we roamed around Melbourne (which actually reminds me a lot of Chicago) and we went to 7-11 to get some slurpees! I was surprised to find that there was a 7-11 on nearly every block in the city. There were also McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks, and Hungry Jacks (which is the same as Burger King…but they didn’t like the use of the word king)

Saturday morning we left for Natimuk (a tiny town in the middle of nowhere Australia). It is actually about 3 hours north west of Melbourne. There We camped in a ladies backyard who lives off of rain water. An amazing feat if you ask me. Anyway, we headed this way to go to a Frinj festival (which is kind of like a gathering of up and coming artists in various mediums). Most of this day it rained, so we settled into camp, did a little drive and hike up Mount Arapiles (the best climbing rock in Australia), and then headed to a show “Cirque de Silo”. With this they took a triple Silo and projected a shadow circus show upon it. I don’t really know how else to describe it, but I have pictures for you all to see eventually. It poured and I didn’t ring rain gear, so I stood soaking wet in the rain, and that night my tent leaked…sad.

The next day (Sunday) we fixed my tent so that I could sleep in it dryly. Then I headed into town. Since it was Sunday and there were a lot of people in town, they had a combined Christian Worship service. It was nice to finally get some church in here. Basically we sang song, prayers and read some scripture, but it was nice to gather with people and share in our faith. Walking back to the house I found a pay phone and called home. Had some lunch and then ventured back to the rock for some climbing (I have tons of amazing pictures from this adventure) and then found a watering hole for the kids to swim in. The one thing I have come to learn to not take advantage of in the U.S. is the clarity of our lakes and waters. The water here you can barely see an inch into the water, and yet the kids know no difference and swim away. That night I got to enjoy a campfire (as every other night) hang with some of the Aussies and play a board game called Blokus. Absolutely loved it and hope to find it to bring home with me.

Monday we started the day by climbing the whole way up the rock. This took a little over an hour, but was a great way to start the day. However it was very sunny and eventually this took a toll on me. We then headed back to camp (which they let me drive, which I thought was going to feel weirder than it did) to get ready for some actual climbing with ropes and such, however the sun was too much so I decided to stay back in town. I did a little shopping, found some postcards (and a post office!) and some all Australian made gummi bears! Yum! I read in the shade most of the afternoon and roamed around town to meet and talk to people. The people here are so nice and welcoming. It was Halloween, however this tradition has not yet caught in Australia, although it might soon. We dressed up all the kids and had them trick-or-treat tent to tent and they had a blast! After that I was exhausted and headed to bed.

Today we packed up to head home. On the way we stopped at a state park to eat some lunch and I got to see some amazing wildlife (lizards, skinks, birds, frogs) and then we took a little break to walk around the reservoir. It was beautiful.
Now I am home and packing for leaving for camping tomorrow.
Just some thoughts of my stay here so far: One thing I have come to notice is that most Australians are very educated on what is going on in America right now. I almost feel at times they know more than I do. They often ask my opinions on things and sometimes I am ignorant on the subject and do not even know how to respond. At times I find many people ready to attack what is going on in America, but they also feel that Australia is beginning to model its culture after that of the American culture. I try to not let my views be known on many of the political issues just because I do not know these people very well yet. However, having these people know so much about America makes me feel a little guilty that I did not know anything of what was going on in their country. Another thing I have noticed is that religion seems to have taken a back seat in the lives of the people here. No one talks about their religion, or about church, or people don’t even know the religions of their closest friends. I find this interesting, maybe just because I am so caught up in religion but I also feel that this is different to how religion is perceived in America.

Well, sorry this was so long, but I hope you made it all the way through the entry. Look for more this Friday after my camping trip with the grade 3 and 4s to Echuca!
p.s. GO WHITE SOX…your 2005 WORLD SERIES CHAMPS!! Oh wait…and the Bears…still number one?!?! How awesome

One more thing, can't belive I didn't mention this before...I got to see kangaroos in the wild last week!