The Great Ocean Road

I cannot believe that it is the second week of Advent already! I got to go to church Sunday morning with Peter, the dad here.

After mass we went to the Eltham Market. It was pretty small this morning so it was fast and i didn't buy anything. That afternoon they have a Christening and an engagement party to go to, but I decided to stay here and catch up on lesson plans, so hopefully I won't have any work to do the rest of the weeks here :)

Friday night we left for the Great Ocean road, but really only drove two hours and stayed at Peter's sisters house. Wow...nice house. The next day we left about 9:30 and headed to the Great Ocean Road. I learned that the Great Ocean Road was built during the Great Depression when people were looking for work. It gave many people jobs. Now it makes many people carsick :) but also allows them to view the amazing ocean coast of Victoria, Australia. We stopped at a lighthouse along the way at Otway Bay. We also stopped in another port city just to have a walk around since we would be in the car most of the day. Next stop was the twelve apostles. I got some nice pictures. I also have a picture of the one that fell over. We drove a little further and stopped at "the blowhole". We didn't go see the London Bridge (another ocean rock formation) because it collapsed in 1990 so it wouldnt be much to see. Then we drove the rest of the day until arriving back home at 8pm (a long day in the car!) We stopped for some fish and chips (its really the thing to eat here) but instead I got souvlaki and chips.

Here is a picture from the car of us driving the Great Ocean Road.

Here is the Light House we visited. It was very windy at the top.

These next few are just some select pictures of the Twelve Apostles

These two are the blow hole, one from either side.


Last week was sort of my second week of teaching full time. Really all has been going well. The kids seem to respond to me and still like the activities I have chosen. Really I think this is the perfect position to be in for a student teacher. I get to try all sorts of activities that I may not have had a chance to do in America just because of the stucture of the classes here. This week in literacy we had discussion about tv ads and their affect on children of varying age. I was surprised by some of the points the students had brought up and that debate that came out of it. I also had them read and do a crossword about volcaoes so that this week we can make some in a science experiment. Lucky them! Another group created advertisements to sell a book that they had read so that we can have a contest to see which book would be mostly to be bought based on the ads. In maths they continued with their store projects and still look forward to having time to work on them.

Because it is the end of the year, I also have to continue and finish many projects that were started with the other teacher and need to be put in their portfolios. Now they are working on a project about the Gold Rush in Australia. I only have the kids in class for another week or so, and then they start what is called Activity Week, whereas all the 5/6 graders go on a field trip every day until the end of the school year...how fun!

With the family this week we went to see Harry Potter on opening day (which here was Dec 1). Wednesday night I went into the city with Cara (the girl here) to see the Night Market and have some dinner. They are really keeping me busy here! This week I think we are taking a night and going to China town...yum!

Summer has officially started here...hard to believe. The weather is really all over the place...hot, hotter, sometimes rain, sometimes a little chilly, sometimes all of this in one day. But their seasons go with the months, so Summer started December 1st.

Well I think that is pretty much last week in a nut shell...next weekend its off to Sydney!