I haven't been eaten by a kangaroo

Sorry that it has been so long since I have made my last post, but the Internet has been so weird here and only lets me check my e-mail and occasionally facebook.

Friday was a pretty chill day at school because Adam got back. We did some of the basic Friday morning routine and then the kids worked more on their United States project. We ended up the day with Adam showing some of his pictures and videos from his vacation to America. The kids loved seeing pictures of DisneyWorld, although many of them have already been before. Adam got pencils for all of the kids and I even got one too. I picked a Disney Princess pencil! None of the kids wanted any of the other princess pencils. I was so disappointed in them! I got home from work and just relaxed for a bit after work. We all met up around 8:30 and had dinner out on the patio. Soon all of our visitors came over. It was so great to see all of the other AustraLearn girls from other cities. We were planning on going out, but it started raining pretty hard so we all decided that it wasn't worth it and ended up going to bed around 1am.

I spend most of Saturday morning sleeping and then met up with Blair, Tori, and Dorothy for lunch before doing some shopping at Glebe Markets and Paddys, where I picked up some last minute gifts for myself and friends. Blair and I made it back around 4 and I took a much needed nap before Saturday night. We all got dressed and headed out to the patio for dinner. After dinner we hung out at the apartment for a bit before meeting up with all the girls at a bar downtown. We were there until they closed at about 2. Some people kept going, but I was so tired that I had to head back and get some sleep.

Sunday was spent enjoying the nice warmth of my bed. I watched some movies and just spent the day relaxing. Blair and I finally wandered to the grocery store around 5 and then came home to cook some Tacos. We started watching the Debate when Carl and Travis showed up, the debate was a bit boring so we all ended up talking over top of it. Soon more people ended up joining us and the season finale of MasterChef was on! We all just hung out and watched Adam kick ass and win this season of MasterChef. Next season, MasterChef is doing a junior competition for kids ages 3-12 and from the preview, some of those kids can cook!

Monday wasn't a bad day at work. I didn't teach too much, and spent the whole morning in planning. The kids did some work with the United States and I kind of sat back and relaxed.

Only three more days then off to Melbourne! One weekend in Melbourne and then my final weekend in Sydney. It is so weird that I am almost going home. Sorry this is so short, but I have to go to work. I probably should be on the way to the bus stop, but I decided since the internet was working, I would do this instead. Off to work now, I will hopefully find some time to be back on later this week before I head off to Melbourne.

TGIF

Ok well it's not Friday today, but it is Friday tomorrow! The past two days have been busy busy busy. Wednesday went pretty well, lots of time working on my Great American Road Trip. The kids are doing a great job working through all of the state information. I also made sure to add an activity to the back of every sheet. This way they are still learning and still applying what they have learned, but it is a bit more fun.

I got to work at about 7:15 this morning to get some work done because the internet was not working at all last night. I spent about an hour or more working on my planning for today and the United States unit. Today we practiced the high jump for sport. Some kids got it much better than others, but some were just funny to watch. There is one little boy, Owen, who is in another class, and maybe 3 feet tall. He is so tiny and about a head taller than how high the mat was. He tried to run up and jump and practically had to climb up onto the mat. It was so cute! We also did a lot more with the United States unit today too. The kids were really good today and even earned two top fifty points.

Tonight we are hopefully going to buy our tickets for the Wallabies Vs. All Blacks Rugby game in Melbourne. Hopefully they still have tickets left and we can all sit together. We are also going to dinner with some of the girls from Cairns that got in this afternoon. It seems like it is going to be a busy weekend, but it should be good because the internet has been a bit picky lately so it will give me something to do. I can't believe I only have three more weekends!

Is it bed time yet?

Well ladies and gentlemen I am officially fried. I spent all of this weekend attempting to be productive. I went grocery shopping, did some laundry (not that much because I still have a lot on my floor right now), and working on my portfolio and lesson plans. I attempted to get a lot of my portfolio done, but lets be honest I kept getting distracted and did not want to work on it for that long. I did get a fair amount done and I still have some more time to work on it. I spent most of Saturday working on that and then finally decided to start planning on Sunday. I had some basic things to work on, like figuring out the spelling lessons and the basic stuff, but I had no idea what to do for my unit on America. The kids are doing the United States for Multicultural Week so I am attempting to teach them about it. I had no idea what I wanted to do, but after having a conversation with my mom (I think) I got some kind of an idea. I spend some of Sunday night working on it and then I assumed that I would have time to work on it during Staff Development Day on Monday, but I was definitely wrong about that.

Monday was Staff Development Day at work. We had a quick staff meeting then Phonics training. It was really really long, but interesting I guess. Some of the stuff I feel like I have already gone over and some of it was just pointless information that really didn't need to be discussed. Some of the staff thought it was just as long and sometimes unnecessary as I did so it was ok. I got home a little later than usual on Monday and spent all of the evening working on my lesson. Lets just say I only got about 5 hours of sleep last night.

Today was a long day! I got to work really early because we had a staff meeting and I wanted to try and finish some things up before the kids got there. I got some of it done but with everyone trying to use the computers and printers I did not have enough time to finish. This morning we had Yoga first thing. Yoga is new for the term and of course we had to be the first class going. It was really difficult because we did not have time to got to the classroom after morning lines so I didn't really get a chance to talk to them. They were very loud and no matter what I did I could not get them to quiet down. It was just so difficult and I felt awful, but there was nothing I could do. These kids are very talkative in the first place, let alone the first thing, first day back from a two week break. We went back to the classroom and had a little talk about how they did not have a good start to the week and were very disrespectful to the yoga teachers. We spent time sharing what we did over the holiday and then had time to write about it in their journals. We were supposed to have maths groups, but those ended up being cancelled. We spent some time doing our spelling pretest and then got an opportunity for the casual to show some sites on the internet about some of the places in America we would be studying about. I of course spent more of my afternoon tea break working on my lesson and finishing some printing and copying. For the last hour of class we got started with our American road trip. The kids were broken into 5 groups and had some questions to answer, stories to read, and activities to do. I thought we could get done with one state in 15 minutes, but I was definitely wrong. It took us about 45 minutes and we were lucky if the kids actually finished two states.

I love teaching, but it wears me out. I am so exhausted and all I want to do is take a nap. Of course a nap or early bed time really won't happen. I have more planning to do, most of my portfolio to work on, and laundry to do.

Alone again

I just dropped Mackenzie off at the airport. We got her all packed successfully and were under the weight limit!! I even had room to put all of my souvenirs and some of the clothes I haven't worn much. Hopefully that will help when I pack and my suitcases will not be overweight by much. We got Mackenzie all ready last night and some last minute things this morning. Our taxi was right on time and we had plenty of time to check in. We had about an extra hour so we walked around the stores a bit, got some subway for lunch, and picked up some water for Mackenzie. One o'clock rolled around very quickly and it was time to hand Mackenzie over to the attendant. I tried really hard not to cry, but I did, which of course made Mackenzie cry a bit. It has been a while since I have been home and it was nice to have a piece of home here with me. Only 4 more weeks and I know that it will fly by just as quickly as the past 6 weeks have. I love Sydney, but I can't wait to be home with my family again. But, as I have said, I would have no objection to them moving out here with me :)

Cuddling, Diving, Jumping!

Oh my goodness it has been an eventful couple days with Mackenzie!

Let me see, where did I last leave off? Mackenzie and I had a very successful Taco night after we went to Luna Park. We had a mini fiesta of tacos and chips and salsa for dinner. The next day we decided to head to the botanical gardens. It was really pretty, even though there were not a lot of flowers, considering it is winter. We walked around the water to get a different view of the Opera House and Bridge and of course ran into a bunch of asian tourists. We got back to Circular Quay right before the rain started to pour. We had lunch and then decided to check out the Museum of Contemporary Art since it was raining and we didn't have anything else to do. It was....interesting to say the least, luckily it was free. We were planning on going to the rugby match that night, but it kept raining and the stadium doesn't have much of a roof, so we decided that it wasn't the best idea. It ended up working out because we had a big dinner to celebrate Carl and Stephen's birthdays. We had tacos, chili, and nachos for everyone. After dinner we all hung out for a while before finally getting some sleep.

The next day we decided to go Whale Watching, since it was our last day in Sydney before going to Cairns. I was really worried that we weren't going to see anything, but we actually saw two sets of two whales. It was really cool and they seemed really close. There were a couple times with the first set that we could see their tail fins come up. We got to see a second set of whales come all the way out of the water twice! Of course, I couldn't manage to capture a good picture of it though. Mackenzie started to feel a bit sea sick from being out on the boat for so long so we spend most of the ride home inside.

We left for Cairns bright and early on Sunday morning. We got there and the weather was great! I could be outside without a jacket and it was soooooo nice! We got to our hostel, checked in, and headed into town to go to the zoo. The zoo was ok, nothing too special, but we got to hold a Koala! The Koala was so cute, her name was Gina and she was just about to turn two years old. I got to hold her first and then Mackenzie. Of course we had to get a picture of the two of us together. Once we got our picture with the Koala we were pretty content with the day so we just wandered around the zoo. We saw the Kangaroos when they were all sleeping and then went back after they started to wake up. We found the cutest Joey too! After making sure we saw everything we caught the bus back to town. We were going to walk around the mall a bit, but everything began to close at 4pm, so that didn't really happen. We went to Coles to get some stuff for breakfast for the next few days and then got McDonalds for dinner. We tried so hard to find something to keep us up for a while after dinner, but ended up falling asleep around 7:30.

Monday morning, we had a 7:30 pick up to head down to the reef for scuba diving. We made sure to take some sea sick tablets this time to ensure no problems on the boat ride. We headed out to the reef and stayed inside most of the time just because we didn't want to be in the sun all day. There were about 5 people who started to get sick within 30 minutes of leaving the harbor. I was really worried that was going to be one of us on the way home, but we did ok and took our medicine regularly throughout the day and ended up with no problems at all. We were lucky enough to be in the first scuba group so we got ready before we got to our first stop. After getting all suited up, we jumped on into the water and got ready to head out into the reef. I was a little worried that Mackenzie wasn't going to be comfortable with the scuba diving because she kept bringing her head out of the water, but everything was ok, and we were on our way with the instructor and one other person in our group. We stayed attached for a while, but shortly after she let us go by ourselves. We saw a couple stingrays laying in the sand, a few families of Nemos, and 3 sea turtles. It was so cool to swim right by the turtles. I didn't see any turtles when I went scuba diving during my orientation, so this was even cooler. They were so close and we just swam right next to them for a while. We were down for about 30 minutes before heading to the boat to get ready for snorkeling. We went on our snorkeling adventure more just to take pictures and goof off since we had already seen a better view of the reef. After snorkeling it was time for lunch! We had lunch and then layed out on the front of the boat. We didn't have too much time before we had to get ready for our next scuba dive. We decided to pay extra to go on the second dive because it was so cool the first time. We got to go for about 45 minutes the second time and go even deeper. We didn't see any turtles this time, but we did see a lot more coral and fish. Our guide even brought some left over lunch with her to feed to the fish. They would come and eat right in front of us. One even tried to nibble at my fingers when she was feeding them haha. We made it back and shortly began our venture back to the harbor. The boat ride back wasn't too bad and we got to talk to some of the scuba instructors and take a bit of a nap. After scuba diving we came back and took a much needed shower, I was so happy that my hair did not feel like a gross mat of salt water. We went to dinner at Cactus Jacks and then headed back a little later than the night before.

We had a big day on Tuesday as we got up around 8 to get ready for our adventure. We had a pick up at 9am and had to stop by the office to fill out some paperwork before heading to the airport. Because there were a lot of people that wanted to get videos and pictures we had to wait a little longer before we could leave. We walked around Cairns a little, but didn't really have anything to do so we went back and took a tiny nap at the office. Finally around 11, the group before us came back! They were a bit wet from the rain and I was really worried that the rain wouldn't stop for our dive. We got all suited up and met the tandem masters we were going with, but then we got a call that the airplane wasn't back yet, so we had to wait. At some point during our wait, it started raining again so we had to wait even more. It was even harder waiting around while you were all strapped into the equipment. Finally we got the go ahead to leave. We all hopped into the van and we were on our way to the airport. You could see a bit of sun in the sky and we were keeping our fingers crossed that it stayed that way. When we got to the airport we all headed out and wait for the plane. Let me tell you, that was one tiny plane! Mackenzie and I both started to get a bit more nervous. Finally the plane pulled in front of the gate and we got the go ahead to get on. Two of the guys jumping got on first and then Mackenzie. Of course I was the last one to get on, what does that mean...I was the first to jump!!! We started to move down the runway and the huge door was still open! Finally they shut it, but it was a clear sliding door that didn't do much. For being such a small plane I actually did ok on take off and flying. We kept going up and up and up and up. I never thought we were going to hit 11,000 ft. Next thing I knew, I was being strapped to my instructor and he was tightening everything up for the last check. As soon as that was done the door was being opened and that was when it really hit me that I was about to jump out of this plane! Before I had any time to think, my feet were being swung over the edge and were hanging outside of the plane! One....Two...Three and were were gone! The first jump right out of the plane happened so fast and was such a crazy feeling. There really are no words to explain how crazy it felt! I just remember seeing blue, clouds, and a bit of grass here and there. Finally we I was going straight and was free falling! I had to remember to keep smiling for the camera guy and even gave him a couple thumbs ups! I was surprisingly really enjoying the free fall!!! It is such an amazing feeling and it happens so fast. Next thing I know, we were pulling the cord and up went the parachute. The guy I went with kept asking me how I liked it and I didn't even have words. It was a great ride down and so cool to see the beach and the mountains of Cairns. I did get to see Mackenzie's parachute open and that made me feel much better!! We had a bit of a rough landing, it is much harder to get your legs up when you are heading toward the ground than you think it would be. Mackenzie landed shortly after me and I still couldn't believe that we just jumped out of an airplane. It happened soooooo fast and it was absolutely amazing. We headed back to the office and waited about an hour to get our pictures and videos. We watched the videos and both just freaked out when we saw ourselves jump, well more like be pushed, out of the plane. I am pretty sure that it still hasn't really hit both of us that we really did jump! We went to dinner in Cairns for our last night and splurged on some drinks and desserts to celebrate a good end to a wonderful trip.

We got picked up at 4:30 the next morning and headed to the airport. We were there pretty early, as usual, but still had a bit of a line to get through security. I was randomly chosen to have my bag and clothes swabbed to make sure their was nothing associated with explosives on my stuff. It was quite entertaining to talk to the guy while I was going through it. We had hungry jacks for breakfast and then boarded our plane. Our plane was actually much smaller than what I am typically comfortable with, but considering the fact that I jumped out of a really really really small plane, I figured I would be ok with this one. We had about 25 rows of 2 by 2. It was a bit rocky on the landing, but not to bad other than that. As soon as Mackenzie and I got back we started downloading all of our pictures and videos from our trip to Cairns. Mackenzie is working on video stuff so I am sure both of them will be online somewhere soon! We spent most of the day relaxing and working on that. We are going to have dinner soon and then start to get Mackenzie packed a bit. Hopefully it shouldn't be too hard and we don't run into any problems. Mackenzie takes off around 2:30 tomorrow afternoon so we will spend the morning just relaxing and doing any last minute packing before I ship her off to the airport. No, no, I am not really shipping her off the airport. I have to stay with her the whole time and I will (stop freaking out mom, I will stay until she takes off and then I will call you). I can't believe that Mackenzie leaves tomorrow and I only have 4 weeks left of my internship before making my way back to the states!

In honor of MK&A

Yesterday was a bit of a blah day. It was rainy and dark almost all day so we decided to do some shopping. We went to George Street, Pitt Street, and Market Street. There were a lot of expensive stores that Mackenzie and I can definitely not afford, but there was also some cheaper stores. I got a really cute new outfit that I may wear to my first day back to work or on a night out with the girls. Mackenzie and I also got really really cute rugby polos for the Sydney Wallabies. That was the one purchase that I wanted to make and I was so excited that I found one. It was a bit expensive, but absolutely worth it. We also went to Paddy's Markets, which is a bit like China Town shopping in a giant warehouse. It is a great place to get cheap souvenirs and we made out pretty well for everyone back home. We went back home and made pasta and watched Big Mommas House before planning our day for today.

It was supposed to be a nice day today, but ended up being a bit overcast and rainy. We decided to go along with our plans anyway and go to Luna Park. Danelle may be the only person who appreciates this part of my blog, but for those of you who need more information to my references please go watch the Mary Kate and Ashley movie, Our Lips Are Sealed. I am pretty sure out of everything I have done so far, I was most excited about finally getting to Luna Park. I took my picture under the big clown and was so excited to get started and live in the moment of MK&A. We payed for the over-priced ticket just so that we could make sure we could ride whatever we wanted to ride. We did a bunch of the cheesy carnival type rides and did the fun house too. Of course we had to ride the ferris wheel, which was really cool because you had a great view of the Opera House and Bridge. My one disappointment, I am pretty sure that the roller coaster they rode in the movie does not really exist at Luna Park. I may have to go back and watch the movie again, but I did not see anything similar to what I remembered. Even with the rain and the little disappointment of the roller coaster, it was still a fun morning and worth going to. It made me one step closer to Mary Kate and Ashley.

Mackenzie got hungry and we didn't feel like paying $15 for a hotdog and drink so we went to Hungry Jacks at Circular Quay. Hungry Jacks is Australia's version of Burger King. I don't eat at Burger King very often, but Mackenzie said it just wasn't the same. We both really wanted milkshakes, but they didn't have any so we went to the McDonalds across the street. Of course they do not have milkshakes either, but they do have McFlurrys so we went with that option instead. Mackenzie was a bit disappointed in the size of the McFlurry though, it is definitely not an American size.

We caught the train back to Central and then the bus to Coles. We did a little bit of grocery shopping to get some food for dinner tonight. We decided to have a fiesta night, so we got stuff to make tacos and chips and salsa.

Busy Busy Busy

Sorry everyone, it has been a few days since my last blog post. Mackenzie and I have been very busy since she has arrived. The weather has been iffy lately and I want to make sure we get in everything we can when the sun is actually out.

Sunday we went down to Bondi and walked along the beach and then all the way to Bronte. I wanted to write something in the sand so I could take a picture of it and I told Mackenzie to be on the lookout for water. It was a simple job, just look at the waves and tell me if they are coming up high. Well someone needs to find a new job because next thing I know the wave came up and completely covered my shoes and soaked my pants all the way up to the middle of my calves. Luckily I only had my sperrys on they would dry eventually. We walked down to Bronte and took a little detour to check out MacKenzie's Bay. It was a great day and actually got a bit warmer than I expected. We got fish and chips to go and ate them at the park by the beach. There were a lot seagulls and all Mackenzie wanted to do was feed them. I let her give them some french fries when we completely done eating. She was done feeding them as soon as they started to swarm her and get too close. We caught the bus down to Circular Quay to take a look at the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge. It was a great day to be down there and take pictures. We ran into some very interesting people down there, we always seemed to ask the weird ones to take our picture for us.

On Monday we got up bright and early, and I mean bright and early, to catch our tour for the Blue Mountains. We went with a small company, but had a great time. We were the first pick up and spent about an hour picking other people up. Finally we hit the road and made our first stop at Featherdale Wildlife Park. We got to pet the Koalas and feed the Kangaroos. It was a pretty small park, but there were a lot of cute animals. After Featherdale we drove for a while and went to a lookout over the Blue Mountains and finally ended up at the local country club for a delicious lunch! Then we got to go learn how to throw boomerangs. We weren't awful, but it never really made it back to me. We went deeper into the Blue Mountains and rode the Cable Way down into the valley. We walked through the temperate rain forest and then took the worlds steepest railway back up. It went up to 52 degrees, but felt like almost 90 degrees straight up. We stopped at Leura on the way back and got to shop around and eat some really good snacks. The ride home was long and almost everyone feel asleep. We drove through Olympic Park on the way back and then took a ferry back to Circular Quay.

Today we went to the Aquarium, Wildlife World, and the Sydney Tower. We always seemed to get stuck behind the awkward couples or the Indian family taking a picture of EVERYTHING. It was fun to do again and Mackenzie seemed to enjoy it. We got a bit tired so we decided to come back early, however not before doing a bit of shopping before we left.

Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy so what a better way to spend a rainy day then to just go shopping!!!!

The Eagle Has Landed

Yesterday was the last day of school for two weeks!! I spent most of the day "planning" with the other stage 2 teachers. I actually got to spend some time working on my portfolio for Sweet Briar which was nice. After planning we went to lunch across the street. It was such a fun lunch and delicious too. The teachers I work with are hilarious. After work we went out for drinks to celebrate the end of term. It was a lot of fun and a lot of the staff was there so it was nice to talk with everyone. I got home just in time to meet up with the girls to go get dinner and see Twilight. We ate at a really good Italian restaurant that was above a casino haha. The theater that we went to see Twilight in was sooo cool. They had gelato and self serve popcorn, as well as beer and hard alcohol you could buy for during the movie. The seats were huge and had big armrests for every chair so you didn't have to share an armrest with anyone. Twilight was also amazing and actually really funny! Probably one of my favorite movies of the Twilight series so far. We finally made it back to the apartment around 12:30 and I got to get about 4 hours of sleep before getting up to go and get Mackenzie.

My alarm went off at 4:45 this morning and I am pretty sure I unconsciously hit the snooze button once because I didn't actually get up until 4:48. I got ready and walked to Central Station, after a chilly 15 minute walk, I caught the train to the International Terminal. I was there around 6:00am and the information board said Mackenzie would be in at 6:06 and then about 5 minutes later it got moved to 6:25. I stood with everyone else waiting for her to come out of customs. Finally after standing there for an hour she made it through customs and we caught a taxi back to the apartment. It was so great to see her!!! She looked a bit tired, but seemed to be doing alright after the really long flight. I can't believe that this means my internship is almost half way done and that I have two weeks off to enjoy Australia with her.

We got her settled in a bit and then decided to go to some of the markets. What a better way to spend your first day in Sydney than to go shopping! We walked down to the shopping center to get her a bus pass and of course stopped at the bakery to get some delicious doughnuts. We went to both Glebe Markets and Paddington Markets. got a really cute new dress and I bought some earrings, a painting, and a gift for Tal's mom. We had sausages for lunch at Paddington Markets, which were delicious.

Right now we are back at the apartment just relaxing for a bit. We may go to the grocery store later to get some food and hopefully plan out what we are doing this week and take a look at the weather predictions. We have a lot to make sure we squeeze in. Let's just hope we don't go broke trying to do everything haha.

$250 a day....maybe I will stay here

Well folks, it was a long day. I got up early enough to walk half way to work this morning and talked to my mom a bit about Mackenzie and making sure we both had everything ready. All looks good and the little one takes off for the beginning of her journey in just over 12 hours! It is so weird to think that she will be spending all day/night flying while I am at work, going out with the roommates, and sleeping. I know it is the same length of time that I traveled for, but it is weird when you are not the one traveling.

Work was pretty chill, we read a book about Australian history this morning and then played Invisible Man spelling. It is kind of like hangman but the opposite. The kids had to spell a word and if they got it right they erased part of their person and the first team to make their person invisible won. The kids did a good job and really didn't get to rowdy. They had a lot of fun laughing when their person lost body parts and thought it was hilarious when there were only heads and necks left and the game was "neck and neck". After lunch we did reading groups and then I talked with Adam about what I am going to do while he is gone during the first three days after the holiday. There will be a casual there, but I will be doing most of the work. Adam and I were talking and I learned that casual teachers make $250 a day! I thought I was lucky to make $77 a day in Prince William County as a sub! Adam also said in his second year teaching he is making a little over $60,000. Which made me a little shocked at first and all day, but honestly I just converted it and its only about $51,000 in American dollars. I guess I will be making about the same. I did however, contemplate coming back here to casual and explore Australia for a while after graduation. I am still working on convincing Tal, Mom, and Mackenzie to come move out here with me. After reading groups, I finished my Captain John Smith activity with the kids. Adam had to go to a meeting with the speech teacher and I pretty much just took over the class and we left the door open between the classrooms. The kids did great and really liked the video and games that we got to play. We had a big clean up after afternoon tea and got the classroom ready to be cleaned over the break.

Tomorrow is planning day for stage 2. I will be spending all morning/afternoon with the other stage 2 teachers planning for next term. Well, I won't be doing much planning, but just listening and observing what goes into planning and what they are getting ready to do next term. We are also all having lunch at one of the really good restaurants down the road during planning. After work everyone is going out to celebrate Mike being done as acting principal and of course after that it is time for Twilight!! i will attempt to give Mackenzie a call throughout the day while she is waiting at the airport and then get ready to go pick her up at the airport on Saturday night. I will make sure to let you all know when the eagle has landed.

P.S. Minimum wage in Australia is $570 a week, which works out to be about $12 an hour (in American dollars) for a 40 hour work week.