Jump!

I got to skype with Mackenzie this morning to make sure she had everything I needed and if she had any questions about what she needed to bring. It seems like she has everything ready to go and is not nearly having as much trouble packing as I am. We have officially booked our scuba diving trip, our hostel is confirmed, our flight is ready to go, and this morning I took the leap and booked our sky diving trip. I honestly cannot believe I committed to that. They are really just going to have to push me out of the plane. I want to go really bad and what a better place than to skydive over the rainforest and Great Barrier Reef in Australia. We will be skydiving on July 13th at 9:00am so please be thinking about us and I will make sure to let you all know that we survived the 11,000 feet fall.

While waiting for the bus this morning I passed by this lady I see almost every morning. She is a bit large and sounds Eastern European/Crazy. She is always wearing the same outfit and running for the bus. Carl and I have determined that she is a cheap prostitute. Well, I passed her today talking to an asian couple and a man writing everything down. I was trying to figure it out and then I saw him help her put a bandaid on her head and the asian couple run to their car still parked in the middle of the road. Suddenly it all made sense, she got hit! I couldn't help but chuckle a little. She was fine, but I could just picture it in my head. When I got on the bus with her she proceeded to tell everyone around her that she got hit and showed them her head and a scratch on her shirt. She also kept repeating that she was going to sue them but it was her fault and there were cameras there and what not. It was a bit entertaining though :)

I was going to walk to work this morning, but I was trying to finish things up with Mackenzie so I just took the bus instead. We had to do the discus and shot put for the athletic carnival so we walked all the stage 2 kids down to King George Oval and I helped record shot put distances. It took the whole morning and we made it back just in time for lunch, which is perfect. We had a goodbye lunch for Vanessa, a visiting teacher from France, and there was so much good food! Our kids did handwriting after and then math groups for the last time this term. We worked on Roman Numerals and I didn't realize that Australians used the Hindu-Arabic system which is a bit different than the Roman Numeral System. During afternoon tea I had a nice little conversation with Francine about how she was living with this 38 year old a while back. She continues to crack me up everyday and I will definitely miss her next term. The end of the day was really easy, we finished reading Prince Caspian and the kids got to work on their superhero pictures.

I missed the 3:11 bus by like a minute this afternoon and had to wait for the 3:30 bus which was 10 minutes late. I did some laundry this afternoon and even a short little workout since I didn't walk to work (but the walk with this kids probably made up for that). I just have to figure out what spelling game I am going to do tomorrow and then I will be done for the evening.

P.S. Today was the coldest day in Sydney in nearly 60 years! Seriously why does the cold follow me everywhere?!

K-Fab?

It has been a bit chilly in Australia lately and in some areas it has been the coldest it has been in about 30 years. I do believe the cold follows me wherever I go, this happened to me during training trip in Florida and now in Australia. Just my luck I suppose. Even though it was a bit cold, I decided to walk half way to work again because I am trying to stop being so lazy all the time. On my way to work this morning I saw a one legged pigeon attempt to hop around and search for food. I actually felt really bad for it and wanted to pick it up and help it out, but it would have flown away and pigeons are dirty. I also was turning around the corner from Central Station and almost ran into two men having a conversation, one who looked exactly like K-Fab with brown hair, just as cute AND had an Australian accent. For those of you that do not attend Sweet Briar, this will make no sense to you, but for those of you who understand I hope you fully appreciate it.

Work today was pretty good, I was a bit late to work because the bus driver had to stop the bus and attempt to get someones pass out of the machine it was stuck in. We had a staff meeting today and then Mr. Banks introduced myself and the other intern, Kelsey, at morning lines to the kids. My class was so cute and so proud that they had me all to themselves and the other Kelsey had to go to a bunch of different classes. I was in charge this morning and we played Spelling baseball. It was a lot of fun and the kids actually did a really good job listening. If we do it again I will definitely make some changes to the way we play, but even Adam said he liked it enough to use it again after I leave, which I thought was really cool. I did the usual leading of reading groups and then gave the kids a writing assignment to work on a story using spelling words and words related to Native Americans. We had a big discussion about next term and expectations for next term with the kids after lunch. Adam will not be coming back from his vacation until the Friday after break so I will be in charge of the class and planning for Monday-Thursday. There will be a casual in the class because of requirements and what not, but I will pretty much being doing everything else and basically being the teacher for a week. I am really excited to do a lot more, but it is a little crazy. I was thinking about everyone else today and I feel like a lot of the other girls just helped out and only taught the 3 required lessons, but I have been designing and implementing lessons almost daily. I have already designed a unit too. I definitely have a lot to write about for my portfolio. The kids had a math assessment today to determine their math groups for next semester and at the end of the day we did a really fun video/game. The kids did great and were all really involved. We didn't quite get to finish, but it was not because they were talking, which is a wonderful change!

I walked back today and saw something really funny on my way home, but I just can't remember what it is! I almost pulled my phone out to text someone, but obviously I can't do that. I relaxed for a bit when I got back from work and then did a little planning for when Mackenzie is here. I will be able to sign as her guardian for both scuba diving and skydiving. I have also booked our scuba diving adventure on for Monday, July 12th! We will have a busy few days in Cairns, with the zoo the day before and sky diving the next day. We had mexican night last night for Emily's birthday so I didn't have to cook which is nice. I think tonight I may just take it a bit easy and cook up some pizza. I might make it a little healthier and add some fruits or veggies with it.

P.S. There was just a commercial about cankles on TV.

Everyone who interns at Rozelle must be named Kelsey

I was so tired last night and I tried so hard to fall asleep early, but it just wasn't happening. After laying in bed for a while and not falling asleep I decided to get up and pick up my room. I ended up finally falling asleep around 12:30, which made the 6am alarm that much worse.

I got ready for work this morning and then got to skype with Mackenzie and Mom for a bit to talk about what she needs to bring and what I need her to bring for me. I also got to skype with Tal for just a bit before I decided to leave a little early and walk to my first bus stop. It was a bit cold today and very windy, so my walk was not extremely enjoyable, but I didn't feel quite as lazy as most mornings when I take the bus all the way. I got to school this morning and met up with the new intern who is here with the same program, ironically also named Kelsey. I also had a bit of time to get my spelling lesson ready for this morning as well.

This morning I gave the spelling pre-test, per usual, and then did a spelling activity. They had a bunch of different options to practice writing their words, such as in cursive, in capital letters, in bubble letters, with their opposite hand, etc. I also helped with Reading Groups today and we had a new book to read which the kids really enjoyed. Adam sat and watched some of it, which made me a bit nervous (I always get nervous with someone else there), but it was fine because the kids and I know the routine. We almost finished reading Prince Caspian today, since we didn't have any planning time because we have half a day to plan on Friday for next term. I spent lunch chatting with Kelsey about how she likes Sydney so far and where she is living. I love my accommodations compared to hers. She was saying they have about two burners and no oven. They also never see anyone else they live with. I love cooking dinner with everyone and then eating and hanging out with everyone I live with, including all the people from other countries. We had math groups today and worked on calendar information. Tomorrow they have a big assessment so we can reorganize the math groups for next term. I spend most of afternoon tea working on my lesson for the afternoon. We went over the three Indian tribes that we had discussed last week and then started talking about the Powhatan Indians. They were really chatty so we didn't get to finish, so hopefully they are much better tomorrow.

I decided to bus it all the way back today and luckily I did because I had my package from my mom waiting and had to go pick it up in Surry Hills. Of course I got the wrong version of what I needed (not that my mom knew or that I even thought to mention). So I have Microsoft Word if I need to type anything but I cannot open anything that I had saved because it was in the newest version. I will have to have Mackenzie bring me my other version. It really isn't a big deal for right now, but it will be a little easier when I have that back.

Mackenzie is getting a bit nervous about flying out, but I know she will be fine. I am pretty sure I was more nervous than she was and I did fine. I was so tired by the time I hit the plane leaving from LA that I wasn't even thinking about flying. The 14 hours goes by much quicker than expected. Coming back she will have to worry about getting bored, but going there she will not have any problems sleeping. Sleeping on a plane is hard, but when it is really overnight it is much easier. I am going to spend tomorrow afternoon getting things ready for her, such as cleaning the bathroom, washing her sheets, making sure everything is organized, and making sure we have everything planned out. 4 more days of work (1 is almost entirely a planning day) and then Mackenzie gets here! I am so excited to show her my temporary home!

Remember...We drive on the left!

Instead of being productive and doing some planning and work for school, I decided to join some of the girls and take the ferry over to Manly Beach for a bike ride. We met around lunch time and caught the bus to Circular Quay. We got there right on time and caught the next ferry over to Manly. It was about a 30 minute Ferry ride in the wind, but totally worth the amazing views. We had some great views of the Opera House, The Harbor Bridge, and all of the surrounding city. It was very windy and looked a little like rain, but we all just kept our fingers crossed that we would be ok.

We got to Manly and found the bike rental place. We had no idea where we wanted to go, but the guy who worked there was extremely helpful. He set up all of our bikes and then reminded us more than once that Australian drive on the left and we have to follow traffic. We all just looked at each other and kind of laughed. Our main goal was to make sure that no one got hit by a car. The start to our journey was an interesting one considering we were with quite a bit of traffic, but we figured out where to go and after having to walk up two really really big hills made it to the last road that we had to simply follow all the way down. It was a little weird being on the left side and having really easy left hand turns to make, but we all got the hang of it pretty quickly. We made our way up to the top of North Head. There were amazing cliffs and gorgeous views of Sydney. We found a really nice family that was whale watching and they helped us look for some whales, but unfortunately we did not see any. Our ride back from North Head was sooo much easier and all downhill. Although some of the downhill parts were really steep and a little scary. We had a really good time and rode about 14 miles total, so it was a nice little workout for the day.

We were going to do the walk down on Manly Beach, but at this point we were tired and cold from the wind. We got on the next ferry and headed back to Circular Quay. A few of us stopped at the grocery store on the way home, which was desperately needed, and then came back to cook dinner. Tonight I had chicken, mashed potatoes, peas, and corn on the cob. Everyone was so impressed again (as was I with myself) and said that I always had very well balanced meals. I guess I am not as bad of a cook after all. I mean obviously this isn't anything super fancy and it is all very basic, but it is much better then mac-and-cheese every night, which was what my first week was like. Mackenzie will be so surprised when I cook dinner when she is here. Speaking of Mackenzie she will be here in almost exactly 5 days and 10 hours from right now!

Uhhh, that guy is walking a goat

Friday night was staff night out after work and it was a lot of fun. It was nice to get to hang out with everyone outside of work and be a little more relaxed. We went to dinner at this bar and then stayed for some drinks before heading to a couple other bars. I only made it to 3 bars before I had to go back and get some sleep. A lot of them kept going, but I was dying and needed to go to bed! I felt like such an old person, it was only 12:30 and I could have passed out standing up at the bar. Luckily we weren't too far away from where I lived so I could just walk home.

I slept in until about 10 Saturday morning which was soooo nice. I kind of relaxed a bit and did some stuff I needed to get done, like laundry, cleaning, and planning (not much of it as I should have done, but a little). I was going to hang out with a couple of girls and go to the Powerhouse Museum, but it turned out to be such a nice day that I just wanted to be outside. Tori and I decided to go explore some of the neighborhoods that we haven't been to yet. We started at the markets at Glebe. They were similar to the Paddington Markets, but much much cheaper. There wasn't quite as much there and some of it was total junk, but there was some really cute things. We ended up wandering through Newtown after and it was a very eccentric area, but really cool. There were lots of great shops and cute places to eat. We also saw a man walking two goats on a leash. This city never fails to amaze me. We ended up in the "Little Italy" area for dinner and had some really amazing Italian food! Of course we had to stop for some Gelato! It was amazing and way better than any other Gelato that I have had in the States. We got a little lost trying to find a bus to get home, but managed to figure it out and ended up safe and sound in our apartment by 9pm.

I was planning on spending today working on some lesson plans and getting some stuff ready for when Mackenzie gets here; however, some of the girls are heading over to Manly and I think I may join them. I will get it all done at some point, but I am only here to experience Australia once.

The 8th Wonder of the World

Friday, Friday, Friday. Thank goodness it is the end of the week because I am exhausted. This weekend is supposed to be kind of gloomy and cloudy and I am almost thankful for that because I just need some time to relax. I also have a lot of work to do for my internship paperwork and documentation. I just need some sleep and relaxation, especially since I have one week left and then a super busy two weeks when Mackenzie gets here.

Today was a pretty nice day. I was up a little early and decided to walk to my second bus stop instead of taking my first bus there. It took me about 30 minutes, but it was nice to not be sitting on my butt the whole morning. I feel like I have been super lazy and I need to start doing more (other then just on weekends). I got to my second bus stop just on time, which means that if I want to walk again next week I need to leave just a bit earlier. School was good today and for being Friday the kids weren't too rowdy. We had our spelling test and then library with Francine. Francine went on and on about god knows what today and I just wanted to get out of there so bad because it was ridiculous. The kids came back and did a reading comprehension test before lunch. I remembered my lunch today so I did not have to go out and pay $10 for a sandwich, thank goodness! I helped out with reading groups after lunch and then we got to watch a clip from glee on youtube. However, it was a clip from the season finale, which has no aired here yet. Australians need to catch up with the air times of shows. It was just a song so it wasn't too bad. The clip was Somewhere Over The Rainbow and now I have an urge to watch the Wizard of Oz! The kids had recess and then we had a big Stage 2 party to celebrate the end of the term and say goodbye to one of the girls moving to Melbourne. The kids were actually very well behaved and there was SOOOO much food. I probably had too much of it though. After the party we had to go outside for the official grand opening of the new sandpit, which the principal likes to refer to as the 8th Wonder of the World. It is a very large sandpit that can pretty much fit 3 entire Kindergarden classes in it. I think it is great, but at the same time the sand gets all over the basketball court and then in all the classrooms when the kids come back in. Don't get me wrong, I love sandpits, but in an elementary school, it might be a bit of a crazy idea.

Tonight is staff night out and as soon as I force myself to get up and clean my room (which may help me not fall asleep) I will head out after. It is pretty close which is nice, but too close that I can't take a bus. I probably won't stay out long because I am absolutely exhausted.

Infinity and Beyond!

Well for those of you that have not been keeping up with Australian current events, the current Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was forced to step down by his party and is now replaced by Julia Gillard, the first female Prime Minister. Kevin Rudd was forced to step down last night and this morning at 9:00am the party chose to swear in Julia Gillard as the new Prime Minister. Apparently this has not happened but once or twice before and it is very rare that this happens like this so quickly. Usually they wait to change the leader of the party when it comes to election time. I can't tell how people feel about this just yet. Some of the teachers were talking about it today in the staff room and some were very upset about it. Some were happy that Kevin Rudd was no longer Prime Minister, but some were a little concerned because he had kept Australia financially stable while the rest of the world is in crazy economic turmoil. It was interesting to see what happened when Adam told the class about what had happened this morning. Some kids were obviously clueless or didn't care at all, some were extremely happy, and some were very upset. Obviously you can see how much parents influence children. These kids have no idea what is going on or what everyone stands for, but you could definitely see the opinions of parents coming out in their children.

Also, unfortunately even though Australia beat Serbia, they are now out of the World Cup! Hopefully USA can hold out a bit longer and give me someone to cheer for down at FIFA FanFest!

Today was a pretty typical day at school. Nothing really special. I didn't teach much, just some reading groups and a little help during math. I had to go buy my lunch today because I was running late and didn't have time to get something together. Let me tell you, that will not happen again. Subway does not have a $5 footlong deal here. My sandwich and a pack of apple slices cost me almost $11! I was so upset and disappointed in Australian Subway! We had Sport this afternoon and played more Netball, I still think it is a very weird sport and I do not understand it at all, but most of the kids seem to like it. Tomorrow will round out my 3rd week of work since I have been here. We are doing some work and then having a Stage 2 party. I can't complain about that. We have also had 4 birthdays this week, which means cupcakes! The wonderful perks of teaching.

I am about to head down to the Harbor to meet up with some friends. We are going to see Toy Story 3 in 3D at the worlds largest IMAX! There is a good chance we will be surrounded by 5 year olds, but I could care less. The original came out when I was a kid, which means this is technically more my movie than it is theirs.

Mackenzie leaves in a week and will be here next Saturday! I can't wait. I looked at my schedule today and almost all of my weekends are completely booked up. It is crazy. I know as soon as Mackenzie leaves the last 4 weeks are going to fly by! I absolutely love this city and I am definitely going to miss it, but I still have 7 weeks to soak up as much of it as possible!

Brain Buttons

I miss my rain boots! Today was a very gloomy, cold, and rainy day. A perfect day to curl up in bed with a sweatshirt and a good book, but duty called and I had to go to work. Today wasn't too bad, I did some prep work this morning and then we had handwriting, then reading groups, then we read a bit from Prince Caspian. Luckily, it was not raining during lunch so the kids could go outside. I did some final prep work and ended up adding more to what I already did.

After lunch I did more with my mini-unit of Native Americans. I had two worksheets for the kids, one was on dream catchers and the other was on totem poles. They both had stories on the front about the legend of how it came to be and then on the back they had to design and explain their own dream catcher or totem pole. The kids did a pretty good job and really enjoyed decorating and designing their own. I should have done something a bit different to make sure they read the front. Some of the kids did a really good job reading the front, but a lot of them didn't even read it. Maybe I could have had them highlight or underline certain things. I wanted to do something with the spelling words, but there really weren't a lot in the story this week. They still need to finish up some more tomorrow, but overall most almost finished.

After my lesson we had math groups and the kids worked on a big area problem. Some did a really good job, but some still had some problems with area. I think with area they needed more direct instruction in the beginning. They have an assessment tomorrow and I am curious to see how they do. It was raining during afternoon tea so we had to stay inside and watch a movie. The kids had electives but Adam and I have planning. I hung out in the teachers lounge for about an hour getting some things organized and printed off from my lessons as well as planning for tomorrow.

We had a training session after work today. Today we talked about brain gym, which is like stretching and activities that help stimulate brain activity. It was interesting, but at the same time kind of hokey and I am curious how much it really works and serious you could get kids to take some of it. The whole staff was trying some of the movements and we all looked like a bunch of idiots. It was really funny and some people were taking it so seriously, but I couldn't help but laugh about it. We had to find our brain buttons, follow our finger around in circles, and do hook up breathing (which I just felt awkward saying). It was raining cats and dogs after work today and I had to walk the long away around the back of the school because they locked the front gates already. Let me tell you tights and flats are not made for rain. I wish so badly that I had my rain boots to wear, but unfortunately I just had to suck it up. Hopefully Sydney is getting all the rain out of its system so that it is beautiful when Mackenzie gets here!

You not supposed to protect criminal passengers!

Well ladies and gentleman, today has proved that I do not completely fail as a teacher. Today went much better then yesterday (thank goodness, because I would not be able to handle another bad day). I was up pretty late again last night trying to get it all ready (I really need to start doing this all earlier!). My goal is to be in bed by 8:30 tonight! It was kind of an over-cast yucky day today, but not bad. We had our typical staff meeting this morning, nothing exciting. Today we also had spelling, I had put all the spelling words on the board and asked the kids to put them into 4 groups. They could group them any way they want, but they had to be able to explain why they put them together. They were pretty quite and did a fairly good job. Some were a bit more confused in the beginning since they have not done anything like that before. I would have liked to give an example set with different words before, possibly, this may have helped explain what they were doing. I allowed 2 students to move the words on the SmartBoard and show the class what groups they had. I also helped lead the Guided Reading group today and other then some not following along that went pretty well. I was supposed to plan something for writing, but at 10:30 last night when I had nothing, I gave up. So Adam decided to just let them free write for 30 minutes. They actually did a really good job for about 25 minutes. Some of the kids that usually don't pay attention or write much got really into the projects they were working on.

Today we also had circle/philosophy time. They are supposed to have it every week, but we only do it sometimes. Today we sat in a circle and talked about different issues and the kids gave a thumbs up, thumbs down opinion. We talked about eating junk food and school uniforms. We then started talking about letting people come to Australia who aren't from Australia. Some kids said they shouldn't because they could be bad and some said they should because of multiculturalism. It was interesting to see the kids opinions, and some more the parents opinions. Some kids had really good points and some just didn't think before they spoke. It was interesting that they are allowed to talk about stuff like that in school, if we ever tried to have a conversation like that back home, I feel like parents would get really upset. Adam said that they didn't do it at any other school he had been too either.

I spent most of lunch getting everything ready for my lesson that I was teaching this afternoon. I was going to do it in the morning, but we had our staff meeting so I couldn't get anything ready except for spelling. I wrote up some information sheets (of which I would have liked to add to the WebQuest yesterday. I gave the kids about 5 minutes to read and finish answering their questions and then 5 minutes to share with their table. We then went over all of the groups and made a comparison chart. They did a really good job helping fill out the chart, minus some not paying attention. I had to stop quite a few times to make sure they were not talking. We looked at some pictures of the Native American tribes and used a map to find where they were located. Some actually knew where a couple states were, which was great. We had just enough time and went right to the end of the day, I was really worried that I was going to end super early.

After work, I caught the 501 back home and let me tell you the 501 was quite a site today. A few stops after I got on there was this lady that gets on and starts to get mad at another passenger. There is one seat by itself near the front and then 6 seats that run on the side of the front of the bus designated for disabled for elderly passengers. Well this lady told the one sitting in the seat to move and she refused. So she started yelling at her and saying some very inappropriate words. The bus driver had to get out of his seat and ask her to sit down and explain that she had just as much as right to sit there (she was kind of old too). The lady got really upset and was ranting about complaining to the bus company and the stupid lady. She got up and started copying down the bus drivers information and he let out a bit of a chuckle and then she just went off about how he is supposed to be protecting good passengers and he is not supposed to be protecting criminal passengers. It was very entertaining and took about 5 minutes of the bus ride, but absolutely worth the experience. I couldn't help but laugh during some of it.

I stopped to pick up stamps today and let me tell you they are not cheap! Some of you that I said would get postcards, may get them shipped from the Los Angeles Airport haha. I also learned that the post office does not have sticky stamps. I was given stamps that I have to lick! I haven't licked a stamp in YEARS! I probably won't end up licking them anyway, but still. Australia needs to catch up and stick it!

Number one down the drain

Oh where to start with a day like today. I stayed up late last night trying to plan the lessons for this week that I should have planned over the weekend, but decided to go out instead. I know this is for the work experience, but it is also for the Australian experience. So I stayed up trying to decide what I wanted to do, I knew that I had to teach spelling and whatever I wanted to do with my unit for this week. The spelling wasn't too hard, but I had a bit of a hard time with the unit. I decided to do something with the United States, but I had no idea what to do. I knew that today we we had computers so I had to think of something to do with that. I decided to do a WebQuest and just looked online to find something simple enough for the kids who didn't know much about it. I found one about the flag that was designed for K-2 students in the states and decided on that. Finally, around 11pm I got to get some sleep.

This morning I woke up and got myself a little more organized and tried to leave for work early, although I realized unless I leave at 7, I have to wait for the 7:55 501 bus anyway. Now I know, that I never have to leave before 7:30 or maybe even 7:40. It started to rain when I first got to school, which the weather report said was not supposed to happen today. I did a little bit more work on the computers when I got to school just to finalize things. I set everything up for spelling to use on the SmartBoard which didn't take too long and then I started looking for different things for my unit. I found a pretty simple WebQuest on Native Americans and decided to use that. Unfortunately I didn't time it very well so I didn't have time to edit the WebQuest. I would have changed some of the links to more simpler sites or maybe even wrote my own stories and had a link to a word document. But I only had so much time, so I just decided to go with it.

The day got started and I went through the spelling pre-test and then we did a word search. That went pretty well and they weren't too talkative during the activity. After spelling we had reading groups and I got to work with the kids and do guided reading. It was a really good group today and we did a good job working on expression while we read a story about Aborigines. After that Adam and I had planning time and I finalized some things for my WebQuest and did a little research on some math activities in case I need them this week. After lunch the kids had silent reading and I kind of planned out the rest of the week. Then we switched for math groups and went over finding area of irregular shapes and then the kids did a worksheet. They did a pretty good job and none of them really had any big problems with it. After math the kids from our class had to come back in because they got in trouble for talking during the day. We all had a really big discussion about being respectful and not talking while the teacher or someone else is talking. Then they went out to recess and we had my lesson right after recess, let me tell you in that last hour after recess you can't get those kids to do anything. I brought up the WebQuest and we talked a little about what Native Americans were and what the WebQuest expected and then went to the computer lab. It is hard to keep the kids in control when their are no inside hallways and they don't get in trouble for running to the next place or talking on the way there. I miss quite lines in school hallways! We got up to the computer lab and of course I had all my links saved in a Notebook file (for the SmartBoard) and the computers didn't have that so Adam had to run downstairs and save it on a Word Document for me. I was trying to organize the kids and get them ready but they just don't listen. It's not just me, they don't listen to Adam either. We finally got the web page up and got started. Unfortunately none of them listened when I said that they could go to the easier sites on the board and went straight to the sites attached to the site, which is too hard for their age group and especially kids who do not know anything about Native Americans. Some groups did a really good job and worked through all of the questions, but there were many groups that barely even made it through the first question (there was only 4-asking about where they live, what they eat, what their house was like, and something interesting). They started to get loud at the end and just didn't focus any more.

Overall I wish I would have taken the time (if I found this site earlier) to change the links of information for them, hoping that if it was easier they would not give up or get distracted so easily. I also wish I could change the behavior, but they have such a set and strict policy for behavior that I can't do that. If they don't listen to Adam, how the hell am I going to get them to listen to me? I can't change the school behavior policy! I just don't know what to do. I have good lessons and good ideas, but the behavior is the trickiest thing. I am working on it a bit tomorrow and I am hoping that maybe we can catch up (unfortunately we can't use the computers any more) tomorrow and do a chart with all the groups. I also have to plan spelling and writing tomorrow! Ughhhh! I love teaching, but I hate planning. Hopefully I can focus for about an hour, get some work done, and then pass out. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

I got a lot done when I got home from work though. I stopped at the Bargain Buster on the way home and got a folder that is made for A4 paper (which is a little bigger than letter size paper and commonly used in Australia). I gave myself 30 minutes to relax when I got home and then had to get to work. I put a load of laundry in and then it was my day to clean the kitchen. I came back and cleaned my room, organized all my notes from school into my new folder and then made dinner. Tonight I made fish, sweet potato fries, and corn. Another very impressive dinner for me. My roommates are starting to get impressed, but I know I won't be able to continue this for very long haha. Now it is time to get back to work and finish up planning for tomorrow. I really should get everything planned for the whole week, but I would rather sleep right now haha. I will let you know how tomorrow goes.

A true Sydney experience

This has been an absolutely gorgeous weekend in Sydney! This is exactly what I expected when thinking about Sydney in the winter. I was not necessarily expecting pea coats and scarfs, but more sweaters and jeans. Friday night a bunch of us had dinner at the hotel together and then went out to Bar Century downtown on George Street. There was about 8 of us that went and we had a really good time. The first floor was full so we had to go upstairs which had a bar, dance floor area, and pool tables. It was an interesting set up. The music was quite entertaining though. It was a lot of older songs and a lot of song edited to have a very strong techno beat with it. People were also very interested dancers, so we decided to join in the fun and probably made big fools of ourselves, but it was fun. The USA soccer match was on so we saw them score and had a mini celebration in the bar. We stayed until about 2am and then decided to head back to the hotel. I was so tired and it was so nice to be back in my nice warm bed.

I slept until about 11 the next day and finally decided to mosey my way out of bed. I had a pretty chill morning just relaxing and skyping and planning. Mackenzie and I booked our trip to Cairns! I am so excited to go back. It is an absolutely gorgeous city and it will be so nice to go back and get some nice warm weather. We are going for 4 days and have a lot planned. We are going to go to the Cairns Zoo (which two of the AustraLearn interns work at) where we can hold a Koala and feed Kangaroos, Scuba Diving, and maybe even Sky Diving. I know it sounds totally crazy and everyone knows I hate small planes so how the heck am I going to get myself up in the air in a small plane and jump out of it?!?! I guess I conquered my fear of flying over water a bit by getting here, so why not work on the fear of small planes. I'm only young once and only in Australia once. I could get up the guts to go skydiving anywhere, but when will I get the chance to do it above the Great Barrier Reef and Australian Rainforest. After planning that trip with Mackenzie I met up with Blair and we planned our trip to Melbourne. We are going for the weekend (well Thursday night through Monday Morning) just to explore and have a fun weekend outside of Sydney. We also found out the the Sydney Wallabies and the All Blacks are playing in Melbourne that weekend!! Check out this video and you will see why we want to go to this game so bad...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdMCAV6Yd0Y. We also planned out some other fun things to do and when we wanted to do them. We are going to see the Twilight premiere next week too!! After our afternoon of planning and got ready and four of us went to a really nice dinner at Circular Quay and to the see the Vivid Festival. We went to the Harbour View Restaurant in The Rocks, which is right by the Harbor Bridge. We had great food that wasn't too expensive and sat outside. We then walked down to Circular Quay and saw the Opera House all lit up for the Vivid Festival. It was amazing! I have some pictures, but nothing turned out great. Blair got some really good pictures and I will steal some from her soon. I finally felt like I was in Sydney when I saw the Opera House. I see the Harbor Bridge on my way to work, but this was the first time seeing the Opera House. It is absolutely gorgeous in pictures, but so much more in person. It is just an incredible structure and so amazing. Sydney is almost defined by the Opera House and it was great to finally see it. I can't wait to go back and see it during the day and get some better pictures.

This morning we kept it pretty relaxed and met around lunch time to do some shopping and go up in the Sydney Tower. We walked down to Georget Street and decided to do the Tower first. It was really cool. It has some gorgeous views of Sydney! It was really cool to just see a 360 degree view of everything. We saw the harbor, the ocean, parks, our house (well close by), and just about everything else. The only bad thing about it was that there was not a great view of the bridge and Opera House, but it was still really pretty. We also did the OzTrek which is like a 4D simulator thing through Australia. It was super cheesy but still fun. After the tower we wandered around the shops on George Street. We found many that none of us could afford, but we also found some really cute cheap shops. I bought a new sweater and a really cute red trench coat. We headed back after shopping and hit up the grocery store. I found BAGELS!!!! You have no idea how excited I was, well you could probably guess. I cannot wait to have breakfast tomorrow...a bagel and skippy peanut butter! I cooked dinner tonight and it was my first real meal since I have been here. I had ham and cheese tortellini, mashed potatoes, and peas. I was very impressed with my dinner!

Tonight I have to clean my room (it has gotten a bit messy this weekend) and plan my lessons for the week. I should probably go get started on that.

Back In Action

Sorry it has been a while since I have last posted anything. I finally got my computer back! My hard drive is gone, go figure, but at least I got the newest version since they no longer make my old stuff. The past couple days have been pretty good. Wednesday was easy at work and I got to leave early since Adam has RFF (which is like break time) during the kids electives. I got off work around 2 and got a call from Apple right before I got on the bus. I went to pick up my computer and then stopped at the store to pick up some postcards. The first batch of postcards will be heading out soon, if you don't get one, no worries there will definitely be more to come soon.

Thursday was a pretty good day too. I got to read some Prince Caspian to the class and they were actually very attentive. We finally had math groups again and worked on Area of triangles. We went outside to draw triangles and find the area. The kids seemed to like that pretty much. After that we stayed outside for sport and played Netball with another class. Let me just say that Netball is a weird and strange sport. It is like a version of want-to-be basketball with no dribbling. After work I went out with some of my co-workers for drinks. One of the teachers is going to Denmark for a month. It was fun to go out with everyone and still a little weird that I can go out for drinks after work. It was fun though and I got a better opportunity to get to know everyone. By the time I got home all I wanted to do was go to bed! I actually ended up going to bed around 8:30/9.

Today was a really fun day, but super hard to get out of bed. I set my alarm for 6 and ended up re-setting it for 6:45. It was pajama and crazy hair day for the kids and let me tell you, almost every single kid was dressed up AND had crazy hair. I was very impressed. Today also meant that I got to wear yoga pants and a t-shirt to work. I didn't really bring any of my cute pajamas with my to Australia. I was definitely not expecting to need them at work. We did our spelling test this morning and then went to library. Unfortunately Francine was not wearing her pajamas today, but she was wearing a purple sweater dress with red leggings and tan thigh high boots. After her knit-picking at every little thing the kids did, she read a book about penguins that included her holding a penguin puppet on her lap the whole time. After library we did our reading comprehension and then had lunch. After lunch we had ceramics. The kids have ceramics once a term for the rest of the year. This year they are working on a big project for the new building. They are making buildings out of clay that will all be put together to form a large city skyline of Sydney. There is the harbor area with the bridge and Opera House and also Darling Street and the school. The kids actually did a pretty good job with their pieces. Some buildings were a little more "creative" than others, but they all did a good job. The class has been working toward earing 50 good behavior points and finally earned number 50 today. The kids earned a treat when they got back from ceramics. Adam brought in lollies for the kids and we got to watch Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs. It was actually a cute movie and the kids really liked it.

Adam and I also went over what I am going to do next week and I am actually going to do a lot. I am doing some spelling, writing, and math. Since we are pretty much done with plants and the term isn't over yet, I am also going to be designing a unit to teach on whatever I want. I may do something to do with the United States. i thought Native Americans might be cool, then they could compare them to Aborigines and there would be a lot of fun activities we could do with it. I am looking forward to it, but I am going to have to do a lot of planning on Sunday. If anyone has any ideas on what else might be a fun unit about the United States or anything else let me know.

I am getting ready to head out to the Harbor for the night with some of the girls. We are hoping to see the Opera House lit up and we may even hit up the ice bar (yes it is literally a bar made of ice and requires big jackets and gloves). Tomorrow we are thinking about going to see the Sydney Wallabies play rugby against England. Should be a fun weekend!

Goodbye Hard Drive

Well, today has been an interesting day. Currently I am sitting at the genius bar at the apple store in Sydney using one of their computers. Why, you ask? Well technology hates me. It is a very simple answer. As you all know my iphoto was not working and I deleted my system preferences so I decided to make an appointment at apple to see what we could do to get it fixed. I got here early (even after I got a little lost) and waited for about 5 minutes. I then got the privilege of meeting Ronald. Ronald is the very nice guy attempting to help my computer that is full of hatred towards me. I explained to Ronald my problem and he told me that it was simple and we just needed to rebuild my iphoto. I thought all my prayers were answered, but I was wrong. It still did the exact same thing that it had been doing. Ronald was a bit perplexed and was a little surprised at the issue. That was not a good first sign. We looked at it a bit more, ran some tests, and about 30 minutes later came to the conclusion that we need to try and look at the hard drive. Well, I have heard that story more than once before and I know that it never ends well. Well surprise surprise, Ronald decided that there probably was something wrong and it would be easier to simply rebuild the hard drive. Currently I am sitting here on the genius floater computer because we are re-installing my hard drive. Ronald is currently working with a lovely young couple who is complaining non-stop about her not getting phone calls. I want to turn around and slap them. Poor Ronald is trying to be so nice and they just aren't having any of it. I just looked over at my computer and there is a little thing that says Restore Failure that just popped up. Again, probably not a good sign. I have the worst luck with technology! It hates me and personally, I hate it right now as well. I will try and save Ronald from this atrocious couple soon and send him back to my worthless computer. I swear technology knows about me and knows not to work for me. I will let you all know what happens soon, maybe I will even get my computer back to tell you about my first teaching experience at Rozelle today.

I'm back! Ronald is currently with a new customer, much nicer than the last two. We are trying to do it again or something else. To be completely honest with you I am not sure at all. I told Ronald that my computer hated me and he agreed. For those of you who ever have any technology problems please know never to come to me.

Today was a pretty good day at school. We had a staff meeting today, nothing special. We started our day with our spelling pre-test because we had yesterday off for public holiday. It was my job to give the spelling pre-test, which was not too bad. The kids get a list of 20 words every Monday for their homework and we give ten as a pre-test with an activity. We had some simple words like soccer and because but we also had some harder celebration and inflammation. The kids did a pretty good job listening during the pre-test and when we went over the words on the SmartBoard. After the pre-test we played a game, where the kids receive a word and then have to go around the room spelling it letter by letter. If they miss a letter or get it wrong then they have to sit down. They did a pretty good job and were not too loud. A couple of times they got a little loud and Adam had to get them back into shape. It was a good first start because it was not something too hard for my first lesson with the class. Obviously it is not enough, but for now it will do. We also did some reading work, and plant review today. Today was the first time I got to experience Caspians Council. Caspians Council is where all the kids get together and can talk about somethings that are bothering them in the class and then decide what to do about it. It usually turns into people complaining about stupid little things, and mostly the girls being a bit bitchy. It was an interesting experience to say the least.

My computer is still sitting here in pain and I am starring at it with big puppy dog eyes just hoping that it gets better soon! Let us all keep our fingers crossed that it gets better soon. It is hard enough being here and not being able to call or text people anytime I want to, let alone if you take my computer away from me. Plus I have some internship stuff due soon and obviously I cannot work on that if my computer is being killed.

Aussi Aussi Aussi Oi Oi Oi

Last night was so much fun! I took a nap when we got back from the harbor for about 2 hours and woke up at 10. A bunch of us decided to hang out in the common area and watch the game that was on at 12. There was about 8 of us hanging out and trying to stay up for the 4:00 Australian game. We finally left around 2 and headed down toward the harbor. The buses are running, but not very consistently so we walked. We got there and the main stage was full so we had to go to a side stage. As soon as we got there people wanted something to drink and the bars right there were closed so they all wanted to leave and find a bar. The guy Travis that we met was with friends so we went to meet up with him. The first bar let us in with our state id's but the guy at the bar wouldn't give us anything to drink without a passport. So we left and found another bar down the road and watched some of the game from there. By this point it was already 2-0 Germany. We met some really funny guys who were at the bar and watching the game. Denning and Blair were tired and decided to go back, but Carl, Tori, Travis and I decided to make our way to the main stage on Darling Harbor and see if we could get in. At the front they weren't letting anyone in, even though we were loosing 3-0 at this point and people were leaving. So we went around to see if we could see the screen from the side. When we were over there one of the security guys asked if we wanted to get in. Of course we said yes and the guy opened the side gate and told us to come in individually. So we all got in and went up to the big screen. We watched the last 20 minutes of the game at the harbor and even though Australia didn't score at all and we got beat by Germany 4-0, it was a lot of fun to be down there. There were people dressed up in green and yellow all over the place. We finally left around 6 and made our way to the train station and then walked home. We got back around 7:30 this morning when the sun was out. It was so weird. It was totally worth staying up for the match and a lot of fun. Hopefully they do better next weekend!

Do you want an apple?

This has been a really fun weekend so far. Yesterday we attempted to find the Farmers Market in the morning, but after walking aimlessly around Moore Park for 30 minutes we gave up and decided to go to Paddington Markets. Paddington is an absolutely adorable town with lots of great shopping. There was a lot of really cute jewelry and clothes. I will definitely be making some purchases when I go back with Mackenzie. After Paddington Markets we came back to the hotel and had some lunch and just relaxed for a while before heading down to Bondi Beach. We met up with Carl (another intern from a different program living with us) and his friend Megan at the beach. It was pretty cold and windy, but absolutely gorgeous. Make sure you check out pictures at www.kelseysmithdownunder.blogspot.com. We walked along the cliffs down to Bronte Beach. It was really pretty and a lot of fun. There was a really cool pool that was right along the coast and the waves splashed up into it. It would be amazing to practice in. There were also some crazy cliffs that we could go out onto, but it was very creepy looking over and just seeing the water crashing onto the rocks below. Blair and I got brave and climbed down a little, but the view looking down was so scary! It started to get dark and we finally made it down to Bronte Beach. We all took some pictures with our feet in the water. Even though it was cold, I couldn't go to the beach and not put my feet in the water. We caught the bus back to our area and attempted to find dinner. Every dinner place was closed, which was so weird for me, considering it was a Saturday night. Places just don't stay open around here late. We finally found some place to grab dinner and then we headed back for the night.

Today we went to Darling Harbor with the same group. We went to Wildlife World and the Aquarium. Wildlife World was pretty cool, minus the fact that it started with all of the bugs and reptiles. There are some crazy creatures that live in Australia and half of them were all the world's most dangerous. Some of them even venture around the Sydney area! If I saw anything that I saw there I would freak out!!! There was a crazy big crocodile too!!! He was like over 800 pounds and 5 meters long. It was pretty much a dinosaur. We were there for the crocodile talk and got all excited because we thought they were going to do something or feed it, but it was literally just a talk :(. We then went up to see the koalas! They were so cute and by far my absolute favorite animal there. They sleep practically the whole day, but there was one that was roaming around and eating a lot. We took our pictures by it, but we were not allowed to hold it there. We think there are some other places that we can do that and are determined to find one! We also found the Kangaroos and there was one sunbathing just like Louie does. They weren't quite as cute as I thought they were and I couldn't pet one. The wallabies were so much cuter! We ran into this kid Travis, who is also from America while we were watching the wallabies. He is from the same program as Carl and Megan, but lives over in Bondi. We ended with the butterfly garden area where they can come and land on you. It was really cool. There was a little boy that was rubbing apples all over our hands because it was supposed to help the butterflies land on you. He was super cute.

The Aquarium was pretty cool too. When you first walk in there is the platypus exhibit, but I could not find him!!! I was so upset. There were some pretty cool fish and sea creatures though. There were some great underwater tunnels that were really cool to see all the animals. They had some HUGE stingrays, that were seriously the size of 10 normal stingrays. They also had Dugongs that were cute looking manatee type things. After that there was an underwater tunnel for sharks. That was cool and there were a lot of sharks.

We came back to the hotel and had a little something to eat. Most of us then went to take a nap (which was much needed) and now we are getting ready to head down to Darling Harbor for the FIFA FanFest. Australia and Germany play tonight, well this morning I guess, at 4:30am. It should be a lot of fun, hopefully I can stay up though haha.

Leather and Studs

I have officially made it through one day of work! It has been a really good week and I am very excited for 7 more weeks of it. Today was a pretty relaxed day. We had some dictation and reading comprehension work along with bus safety. In bus safety today we learned to wait for the bus to stop before you get on and off the bus. We also got to do Music and Art. Music and Art today consisted of the kids working on their superhero pictures and listening to glee songs on youtube! How amazing is that?!!?

We also had library today, which let me tell you was an experience! Hence the reason that I made this its own section. Well, let me just say that for any of you have had to wonderful opportunity to meet my grandmother, Tutu, you will fully understand the experience of the librarian more. The librarian, Francine, is an older woman, probably in her late 70's, with very long white hair. She has very eccentric outfits and never wears the same thing twice. Today, Francine was wearing my favorite outfit so far. Let me explain to you (there would definitely be a picture if I had a camera on my phone). Let's start from the bottom and work our way up. To start, she was wearing black ankle boots...not too bad. Then....there was leather pants, not just regular leather pants, but very tight, skinny, leather pants. There are no words. Then there was a lovely military cut (aka strong shoulders) velvet jacket with silver studs throughout. Underneath that lovely studded jacket there was a very tight black turtleneck. And to top off the outfit, and the icing on the cake, she was wearing a lovely black pillbox....also with silver studs around the entire thing! Ohhhh was entertaining. Something that allowed me to compare her quite well with my own grandmother. Those of you that know Tutu have to admit it is something you could see her wearing. Along with Francine's amazing outfits, she says some of the craziest things. Today, we were talking about some of the new books the library has and there was one about Australian soldiers...Francine then proceeded to ask the children, "Does Australia every start any wars? No, but we help out in many other wars because we are such nice people. Once you get older and start traveling, you will see how wonderful Australia really is" Ohhh Francince. This was also after she asked me if I knew some Author and said she assumed I would because he was an American. Yes, I have a database of every single American in brain. Finally we also got new Mary-Kate and Ashley books....well they are the It Takes Two series, so they are really 10 years old, but new to the library apparently. Danelle, you will be very disappointed in Francine when I tell you this, but she referred to them as Mary-Jane and Kate. I know....I wanted to correct her so bad!

I talked to Adam today, and I am going to be teaching the spelling lesson on Tuesday. I have to give the words for the pre-test and then do some kind of activity with it afterwards. I am a little nervous, but I think it will be ok. I think I am just going to keep it simple for right now. I did have some time to think about other things though. We have multi-cultural week coming up and we are trying really hard for our class to get the United States. I came up with a lot of ideas for that week. Tonight is our big cookout with all of the people staying here. It should be a lot of fun. I think tomorrow we are either going to go to Bondi Beach or to the harbor area....maybe even both. It should be a fun, three day weekend. Happy Birthday to the Queen and thanks for Monday off!

Maths

If I have to hear someone say Maths groups one more time, I am pretty sure I am going to go postal. I don't know who thought it would be a good idea to add an s to the end of math. Today we had a student with behavior problems who only comes on Thursdays in the class so we had to stick to a pretty strict routine. We had spelling and went over the onset and rhyme for a couple of their spelling words. We then did reading groups and I helped out a little with guided reading. After that we worked on some syllables work and then went outside for a 5 minute game on the jungle gym before lunch. Lunch was good, I am starting to get to know the teachers a lot better so it is not just me sitting there awkwardly. After lunch the kids had silent reading because it is one of the activities that the student with behavior problems can do well without getting upset. Then it was time for Maths groups. We have the highest group and we were working on fractions and decimals and adding decimals today. I was trying to help out as much as I could for the kids that were confused, but I feel like there wasn't a lot of explaining how to do things before so it was a little harder. After afternoon tea, we went over our celery experiment, which turned out really well. We used edible powder food dye and the celery stalks were very vibrant. Then it was time for Sport....aka PE taught by the teacher. Personally I don't think that is a bad idea. These kids get almost an hour total of recess and then 30-45 minutes of Sport once a week. There is no need to pay someone extra to tell them to run around. We went to the blacktop and played some tag games. After work I got to hang out with some of the teachers for a while and then drove with Adam and Ryan to a training (just an fyi, sitting in the front seat on the left was WEIRD, i felt like I needed to be doing something). We stopped at the house he is staying at to let the dog out, which is an UGLY dog. It was right across the street from Sydney University, which from the back side of what I saw is a pretty university.

We went to a training for new teachers and I got to see all the differences between becoming a teacher in the States and in Australia. They have a new program where you graduate from university, but have never really been in the classroom for a pro-longed consistent basis so you have to wait and get accredited after you get a job. A lot of people do not get permanent jobs right away and become temps or casuals (substitutes). I think that is weird. If I graduate and don't get a job, I am not going to substitute, I am going to find a different job. It also seems that a lot of people take pro-longed time off and still keep their jobs. There are so many people that are temps for the term or semester. If anyone in the states tried to take that time off they wouldn't have a job. After the training we went to dinner at a really nice pub nearby. Dinner and drinks were all paid for by the teachers federation. It is still weird to go out and order a drink, not used to it yet. After dinner Adam and I talked a little about the program and I talked with the people in charge about the differences and everything. They were very surprised that you have to apply at every individual school. They simply apply for a job in a certain area and then they are placed. I also learned that at Rozelle, homework is not mandatory! How weird is that?!?! The kids get one homework sheet a week that has spelling and math on it and they can do it or not do it. Most kids do apparently, but it is not mandatory and not graded. I can't imagine. I think it would be nice, but I have never heard of any school in the States doing that.

Today is Friday and I cannot believe I have been working for a week. Only 9 to go now. After school I am staying to talk with Adam about what I want to start teaching next week....A little nervous, but excited too. It should be interesting next week. We are also having a big barbecue and drinks get together with all of the tenants tonight, which should be a lot of fun. I have to find the post office today and try and pick up my package that Tal sent me. Apparently they won't leave those if you are not here and seeing as that we do not have a front desk or door bell or anything, it is kind of hard to be here. Hopefully I do not have a hard time picking it up since I don't really have anything proving that I temporarily live here.

Long Jump

Today was the athletics carnival at school and a surprisingly fun, but kind of long, day. Apparently carnivals are a really big deal in Australia. Every school does a swimming carnival, a cross country carnival, and an athletic carnival. At each carnival they race by age group and the winners go to districts for the area and then I suppose it may go on past that. Some of the kids and a lot of the parents take it very seriously. At the athletics carnival the kids run the 100m, 200m, 800m, long jump, and some run a relay just for fun. It takes the whole day and is like a more serious, longer version of a field day.

I got to wear jeans, a sweatshirt, and sneakers to work today, which was nice. We got all the kids lined up outside and headed straight to the oval down by the harbor. Check out pictures at www.kelseysmithdownunder.shutterfly.com (sorry I would put them here, but the internet is not strong enough for them to load on here for some reason). It was really cool to see all of the kids wearing their team colors and ready for the day. It was about a mile walk to the athletic area and a nice place away from the school. I got to help with the long jump today and my job at the beginning was to help rake the sand pit in between each kid. We then started to get bigger groups so I was in charge of helping to get names and measurements of how far they went. As if kids in America do not have hard enough names, Australian kids have even weirder last names. I managed to do okay though. We got a nice little break for lunch and had some sausage sandwiches and a cupcake. Long jump was done before the running races so I was sent to crowd control....what a joy. It wasn't too bad really, just walked around making sure no one was killing each other. I had one little girl come up and ask me where I was from because I talked funny. I also had a boy tell me that I talked like an American. We gave out awards for the top 3 places in each race and announced the winning team. Finally we had a nice long walk back, which was not to bad, I am starting to get some of the kids names so it is easier.

We had some training stuff this afternoon, but I skipped out on it because Adam said it was nothing special and I am going to the training session tomorrow after work. The bus system is getting easier and easier. I even got on a different number bus this morning and made it to work on time. I feel like a pro, but after getting so used to getting in on the left side, I have a feeling I will be thrown off the first time I try and get in a car or anything in the States.

P.S. Mackenzie, I found a Mackenzie Street on the way home from work. We will have to check it out when you get here.

Today, was much better than yesterday (not that yesterday was bad in any way). I got to work early and walked down the street to take a look at the shops, there is a really good looking bakery (that I may stop at tomorrow morning), a great fruit and vegi stand, and a really cute vintage store (Mackenzie we will definitely be going there while you are here). We had a staff meeting this morning and I just sat in and listened and of course got introduced to the whole staff. A couple of things we have coming up--the athletic carnival tomorrow, practicing for a song that every kid in Australia sings together on the same day, and I think that is about it for the upcoming days.

Class today was much quieter than yesterday and the kids were more well behaved. Today I got to help out with reading groups and then we did handwriting. It was interesting to see the differences in cursive. They do not connect any upper case letters to the next letter, the make an "s" like printing and do not connect it to the next letter and on the practice lines, they start at the dotted line and go to the next straight line instead of having two straight lines with the dotted line in between. After that we did some work with descriptive sentences and my favorite sentence of the day was, "The short fat boy waddled to the lolly store to buy a bag full of lollies and chocolate" Personally I just like it because the boy waddled and went to the lolly store. We had lunch and I talked with one of the other teachers who is doing her "student teaching" and we talked about the differences we have in college, or uni as they say here. In math we did fractions today (so thankful it was not mass!), however I did learn that when they write decimals, the decimal goes in the middle of the numbers not at the bottom and if a number is repeating there is a dot on top instead of line. Finally we had began to work on our science unit for the term, which is "Plants in Action". Today we did the experiment with celery and food coloring to learn about transpiration in plants.

Today, my bus ride took me about 20 minutes longer than usual because the 3:11 bus did not come by and then the 3:30 bus was late. So while I was sitting there I got the pleasure of a drunk lady joining me on the bench. At first she just said hello and was talking about how she was glad it was two females on the bench. Then she started asking about one of the hotels and bars near by and obviously I didn't know. This whole time she is continuing to drink. Then she is getting ready to leave and she asks me what nationality I am, I tell her American, and she decides to start asking me all about America and where I am from. It was just very odd. Finally she left and I was able to sit on the bench by myself for the next 15 minutes waiting for the bus.

When I got home from work, Mike (a supervisor from the states) was here checking out the hotel with the AustraLearn rep from Sydney. The Sydney rep said he was going to arrange something for us all to get together and go watch the world cup in Darling Harbor sometime. They have giant tv screens, floating soccer fields, and bars to watch all of the soccer games on.

Tomorrow should be a fun day. We have the athletic carnival, which I am pretty sure is like a giant track meet. We walk the kids over to the park down the road and do it there all day. It should be a lot of fun. Although, apparently the parents take this stuff way to seriously. Adam said that last year some of the parents thought that the 200m race was too short and they measured it and the inside lane was about 10m shorter than the outside lane. So with about 20 minutes left in the day, they made the school re-run the entire race. Tomorrow will be a nice little change. We have a seminar tomorrow after work (I do not know what it is on yet). I also get the opportunity to go to a teachers federation session with dinner with a bunch of the new teachers, which should be pretty cool.

HEAT

Oh my gosh! I finally figured out how to get heat in my room!!!! The little mode button on the remote for the heat/ac machine was hiding and I could not find it for the life of me. Of course it was stuck on the snowflake picture (aka make it cold) and all I could do was get cold air. Well, now I found the sun picture!!! I have never been so happy to have heat in my life.

P.S. Apple support in Australia sucks! I e-mailed a company that does apple repairs in Sydney in hopes that I can take them my computer and get them to fix my iphoto that way I can upload and edit my pictures better. I also accidentally deleted my system preferences so I can't change the time. I also managed to change my background to a really bad picture outside my airplane window and now I can't change it back. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

coldest day in 3 weeks

Today was my first day of work. Overall it was an interesting day. I got up this morning (freezing as usual....I really need to figure out how to get some heat up in this place) and got ready for work. I met Heather and Denning to head off to work. Denning and I caught the first bus and a very nice man realized we were super confused and told us exactly where to go to catch the second bus. We managed to successfully find and get on the second bus, however we also managed to pass our stop and go into a whole different part of Sydney. We had to ask a very nice girl on her way to school and she looked at us like we were crazy because the street we want was back across the bridge we crossed 5 minutes earlier. We caught a different bus and made our way back to Darling Street. We had to split up and I was on my own for finding Rozelle. Rozelle is a very cute school in the city. Luckily the teacher I am working with, Adam, was in the main office when I got there. I was very early so I got the full tour of the school, which is full of outside hallways, different buildings, and a brand new playground. The classroom is very large and very different than classrooms in the States. We got the opportunity to talk about what goes on daily and what to expect before going out to get the kids.

Every morning the kids are dropped off outside on the playground by their parents and when the bell rings they have certain places to line up with their classes. This morning we celebrated World Environment Day (which was really on Friday, but there was too much rain then). Each class made posters and presented them to the whole school this morning. One class even had a rap to go along with their poster, which was extremely cute. After the presentation we went into the classroom and did the basic attendance, introductions, and start to the day. The kids then had spelling this morning and had a pre-test. After their pre-test they had to write a paragraph with their words before it was time for Grammar. A different teacher comes in to teach Grammar on Mondays so Adam and I went to the teacher room to go over the weekly schedule and find SmartBoard activities for Math. When we got back, the kids had 10 minutes to eat lunch in the classroom. Those who order lunch from the school receive it delivered in a brown bag to the classroom. Today was hamburgers. I was surprised that they ate in the classroom and that all they got for lunch was hamburgers, there was nothing on the side or any drinks. After 10 minutes, they all leave and go outside while I got to eat lunch downstairs with the teachers. There are a lot of local restaurants that many teachers run out and grab something to eat, since we have 40 minutes. After lunch we get the kids from outside, where every class is there together at the same time. We then did silent reading and then split up into Math groups. The math groups come from all different classes. Today we were working on Mass....mass in australia means grams and kilograms. Not exactly what I am used to. They were working on a worksheet after some SmartBoard activities and I had the hardest time attempting to help. I need to brush up on some metric system information. The kids then have Afternoon Tea (aka snack and recess), while the teachers have time off. Finally we went to computers where the kids got the opportunity to type their stories about super-heroes they made in art class.

Overall it was a good day. The kids are a little loud and don't listen as well I was expecting. I feel like respect for teachers is not pushed as much as it is in the States. They also have more freedom and simply walk out of the classroom for recess after lunch and afternoon tea. There are not as many lines and definitely not as quite. Adam had told me that a lot of it was because many of the kids are very privileged and their parents do not uphold them to a lot of responsibilities. I am looking forward to getting to know the kids better and starting to work with them more. Adam wants me to start doing at least one thing a day starting next week.....yikes, but something that will definitely help me.

No such thing as bagels

Today was a bit of an adventure. I went out with Denning and Blair (two other interns) in attempts to find bus passes and how to get to work in the morning. We are all working at different places, but Denning is working close by and we will most likely be taking the same buses. We tried some of the newstands, but were only able to get daily and weekly passes. We got a one way pass and finally caught a bus to central station. After asking the very nice man at the ticket counter what on earth we wanted to get for where we were going, we formed a line of about 10 people behind us. That was probably because we took about 5 minutes each to make a decision and figure it out. I ended up buying a quarterly ticket (which is 3 months) for area 1, which should get me to work and downtown as much as I want (at least that is what I think it should do haha). It cost me about $450, which is $450 more then I was hoping to spend while I was here, but I have to get to work and a 2 hour walk is not exactly my top option. We then attempted to find out way back to the hotel and had to ask about 5 people if we were going the right way.

I was able to skype with Mom and Mackenzie today, which was great. Louie was there too, but he was woken up and did not seem to care that I was on the computer. I should be able to skype with people on most weekends. Weekdays are a little harder because people (including myself) are working and then most of the time that I am awake the US is asleep and vice versa. I also got to skype with Tal for about an hour today, which was very nice. It has been almost a month now since I have actually had the chance to see him and not just talk on the phone.

After skyping everyone I decided to brave the grocery store solo. That was an adventure! I tried to just get some basic stuff, but wandered around like a lost puppy. I was going to get some fresh lunch meat for sandwiches, however I have yet to master the differences between pounds and kilograms, which threw me off and made it too difficult to figure out how much to ask for. I got some fruit, bread, yogurt (which they do not sell in packets of 4), mac and cheese (which is only sold in big boxes). I also had to get some english muffins (since they do not sell bagels!!!), they also do not have Skippy or many Kellogg products. I was really hoping for some honey nut cherrios, but unfortunately Australia has not hopped on that train yet. Something else I noticed at the grocery store was that Kraft produces EVERYTHING here...beans, spagetti in cans, pasta, peanut butter. I have never seen so many Kraft products. I ended up spending about $50 at the grocery store and I am hoping that everything I got should last me through the week.

Tomorrow is my first day of work. I am a little nervous, but also very excited to explore a new area of Sydney and get settled into my job. I think I am more nervous about actually getting to work then being at work. I have a general sense and I have bus numbers and now my bus pass, but I still know there is a high chance of me getting lost. I will definitely let you all know how my first day of work goes tomorrow, in hopes that I actually make it there first haha. Tomorrow is the first day of what I really came here for and a rude awakening to my days of relaxation and no responsibilities since getting here.

Welcome to Australia

I have finally arrived in Australia!!! It has been a lot of fun and I am still questioning the fact that I have to go to work on Monday. Here is a little bit of what I have been up to.

Flying--Flying this much was not fun at all!!! The flight over to LA was not to bad, i watched some movies and did a little work. I got the LAX and met up with some of the other interns. The plane to Brisbane was huge, I sat in the aisle which was really nice, especially since it was dark and not much to see out the window. The 14 hours really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I stayed up for dinner (that was served at like 4am on east coast time) and then slept on and off until about there was 4 or 5 hours left on the flight. We then got to Brisbane and had to go through customs, no problems and got all my luggage, only one girl lost one bag. Finally we left for Cairns. The view out the window was absolutely gorgeous, you could see a lot of the great barrier reef. Finally we landed in Cairns after the longest time traveling.

Cairns--We got settled in at the backpackers hotel, had lunch and got our phone. We then went to our first internship session, just to learn about some basic stuff and then off to dinner as a group at a local brewery. I ordered my first legal drink and had a beer with dinner. We all went back to the hotel and passed out. The next morning we were all up bright and early to head out to the reef. We had breakfast beforehand at the hotel and our options included raisin bran, bread (not toast just bread), hard boiled eggs, and spaghetti (which I heard tasted just like spaghetti-o's...weird!) We then headed out to the reef. The boat ride was really cool going out and there was a nice breeze so it was not too hot. We went out about 2 hours from shore. We had the option to go snorkeling or scuba diving. I decided to go scuba diving. It was SO cool. The first place we went, I was in a group and was attached to the instructor the whole time and then the second time I was allowed to go by myself with the instructor. It was absolutely amazing to swim right with all the fish and touch some of the coral and sea anemones. I even saw a couple Nemo's and a small shark. The sites were absolutely amazing and so gorgeous. There are no words to describe absolutely how amazing the sites were. I am so glad I went scuba diving! We took about 2.5 hours to get back and it was a little choppy, which did not settle with me very well. Finally we made it back to shore! We had another short session and then all went out. We went to this bar/club at another backpackers hotel. It was a lot of fun just to hang out with all of the interns and meet some of the locals and people form other countries. I finally went back to the hotel around 1 and had to pack my bags and then get up at 3:00 to catch at 5:15 flight to Sydney.

Sydney--Our flight to Sydney was quick, I fell asleep right away and even missed the breakfast that was served. Qantas serves meals on almost every single flight, which is nice, but at the same time I kind of miss my bag of pretzels I get on southwest. I got lucky and had a really cool view of the Sydney Harbor when we were flying in. After sitting around and waiting to find our ride, we got to our apartment. However, we got there around 9:30 and had no clue how to get in. We sat outside with all of our luggage calling a bunch of different numbers and after about 30-45 minutes we got in. Our rooms are nice, we all have our own room and our own bathroom. The only downfall, my room is FREEZING cold. Apparently heat is too expensive here and not a lot people have it. When I was told to bring warm clothes to sleep in, they weren't kidding. I took a shower this afternoon (my first hot and long shower since the states), but I was still freezing and shivering. I went out and did a little exploring of the area around the hotel and got some little things I needed. Tomorrow we are going grocery shopping and hopefully figuring out the bus situation.

I still cannot believe that I am here in Australia and I am pretty sure it still has not hit me that I am staying here for 10 weeks. It also feels that I am still on a long weekend, I think my first couple days of work will put that back into reality. It is also a little colder than I thought, I knew it would be winter, but it was really warm in Cairns and now I am quite chilly. A couple of other things I have noticed since being here. They don't do ketchup...it has been a hard adjustment. I have to remember to look left first when crossing the street. I keep getting confused when I look into the road and see people on the left side of the car staring at me instead of staring at the road and forgetting they are the passengers. I have barely seen any of the stereotypical really cute, blond hair, surfer, Australian. Heating is a luxury I will be so thankful to have back! Finally, I hate to disappoint, but every toilet I have flushed just goes straight...there is no swirling. I will keep you up to date if I find one that swirls the other way, but as of right now I have yet to find it.

Well, i am off to bed. I will try to upload some pictures soon, but right now it is not working.