Last week at the center

This week is NAIDOC week. This means a week that focuses on Aboriginal culture in Australia. In the preschool we are having some people come to cook aboriginal food, play aboriginal games, and we were hoping to have some aboriginal dancers come in, but they weren't able to get them in. This week is my last week in the center and I cannot believe it! I kind of thought I would be able to coast and not have to teach too much. My teacher today however had me do story time and group time. These are the two parts of the day that are direct instruction, so that was interesting... I didn't expect her to have me do that. It was a good day and we had johnny cakes which are an aboriginal food that is kind of like a bread, and then they fry it and slather it with butter and golden syrup. Golden syrup is what they put on their pancakes sometimes and its kind of like a mix between maple syrup and honey. It's good-I'll have to bring some home. Along with Vegemite and TimTams and chocolate caramel Cadbury koala bears. Over the weekend I went right from school on Friday to another American girls' host mum's house. We had a sleepover and it was nice because they had a hot tub and sauna and we had a few drinks. Then I had the worst game of Monopoly in my life. Next day I was hungover and unhappy. Then that night we went to the lantern festival which was cool and included a parade with a ton of lanterns. Very cool, I got a cool cameo ring which I have always wanted. :)

On Sunday we went sea kayaking. This was fun! We saw whales and dolphins, and now I'm sore! But seriously, it was just a lot of fun, and the weather was beautiful. Today after school a teacher from the center took us out to the wall. This is a wall of rocks lining the mouth of the river into Ballina. It was very beautiful and we saw a ton of dolphins. I kept trying to take pictures but I only really got one decent one. :/ It was very cool though! Then Beth and I went for a walk on the beach at sunset. It was very romantic. We have been trying all last week to wake up early to run in the morning, and this morning I finally woke up! I'll try for day #2 tomorrow :)

We have a lot planned this week like going over to our director's house for dinner tomorrow for curry, and afternoon tea on Thursday as a 'goodbye' to us. This week should fly... Then it's up to Cairns and Sydney- and I'll be home before I know it missing the heck out of this place. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone I miss in the states. It seems so much easier when you don't see someone for a month when you live in the same country but a month away from people while I'm here has been a lot harder!

Observations:

Duna=comforter

Someone a size 0 would be a size 10 here. (no I didn't gain that much weight, that's just how the sizes run! I bought a size 14 shirt today)

Estate=neighborhood

year=grade (ex. 1st grade would be year 1)

Today I saw a whale! Beth and I have been trying to exercise on the beach lately and we saw some!! My first real whale sighting. They are migrating so we will probly get to see more! yay My supervisor came for the last time so I think I'm pretty much done teaching.. I mean I have tomorrow and next week I'll be helping but not teaching. YAY.

Observations:

windscreen=windshield

lounge=couch

Teaching-ahoy

This week is my last head week! The time here has FLOWN!! I don't understand what I have done all this time- I feel like all I've done could fit in a couple days time. Anyway- its all turned out to be pretty great anyway. I feel I've conquered the homesickness, the classroom and keeping the children under control and maybe even fitting in a little. I'm pretty ready to go home where it is way warmer than it is here- it's in the 40s at night and 60s during the day. And no one has heating and everyone loves the windows open (weird). Even though I'm ready to be done in the preschool and I'm ready to be home and see my loved ones, I can't wait until our final week of traveling! We are headed to Cairns and then Sydney for some FUN (I hope-if all us girls can get along and decide what we are doing) woop woop!

Observations:

Jumper=sweatshirt/sweater(did I mention this already- i think I did)

cuddles=a hug

They call hearts love hearts

Snapping is clicking

There are no three hole punches here-just two hole punches (binders, paper-all just two punches!)

There are a lot of signs around town saying 'refuge island' I had no idea what this meant until this past week when I asked and she said its where you can stand and cars will stop so they can cross! (like.. isn't this called a crosswalk?)

The speed limit is written on the road and not just on the sign- and in case you didn't know the speed limit is in kilometers. Everything is metric here. Grams, Celsius, liters, etc

They say heaps instead of lots. I love it!

Not sure if I've written this either but they have no 1 cent coins. They used to have 1 cent and 2 cent coins. Things are rounded up or down-kinda weird. There is talk of getting rid of the 5 cent piece.

They don't have dollar or 2 dollar bills but rather coins worth two dollars and 1 dollar.

If a child has to go to the bathroom they say 'i gotta make a wee'. Or can I use the toilet?

They use the words 'nearly, pardon, and fair bit' (pardon is if they don't hear you or if they burp)

Clearance sales are called stock take sales.

Today I had a little adventure with my host mum and my roommate. We went to a town called Nimbin. It was interesting. I guess its a counter culture where people moved to in order to leave the cities. There is a lot of pot smoking there, and they are against government regulations and such. We got offered hash cookies a few times. Today for the first time We visited the college that I am enrolled in (southern cross university). There really is no reason for me to go to it because I'm not taking classes but just student teaching. It was neat to see, and I saw the school my host mum teaches at. Both are in Lismore-on the way to Nimbin. In Nimbin we just walked around a bit and then ate lunch at a cafe. The ride there was so pretty. We were going to go to a waterfall but it was super far away and we had to get back for dinner. We had dinner with two of our American girls at a restaurant in town. Afterward we played the slots. Pretty low-key night.

Observations:

Zebra crossing- where you cross the road (crosswalks)

Things are two hole punched instead of three hole punched.

gas=petrol. And its measured in liters Also, the signs say 148 instead of 1.48. That's what price gas is right now- $1.48 for a liter of unleaded gas.

There a lot of mixed drinks in cans/bottles unlike in America (like captain and coke or vodka drinks)

Tafe= technical college (stands for: technical and further education)

Finally posting about the weekend!??

This weekend was a long one. We had off on Monday because of the Queen's birthday. So me and 5 other girls went to the gold coast. There are normally only 5 of us, but on Wednesday Lauryn's host mum took in another girl from Ohio. She is checking out the program in Australia to see if students from Xavier are going to come study abroad here. I think that would be a cool job! Her name is Katie. So out party has grown from 5 to 6 American girls. This makes decision making and doing things together SO much harder. On Saturday all of us girls went to the Currumbin wildlife sanctuary. This was basically a zoo, except maybe a little less enclosed and less cages. Here I got to hold a Koala named Ruby, and see a lot of interesting Australian animals. We got to go in an enclosure with Kangaroos (pictured above) and Emus. This was neat because I was SO CLOSE to all the kangaroos. I saw a little kangaroo and its joey, and saw them hop- I took videos- check out my youtube. (http://www.youtube.com/user/anna14b?feature=mhee#p/u) It was a great day and we went to a club for lunch which was right on/over the beach. We finished off the day by watching an aboriginal dance. I wish I could have taken video of that, but it wasn't allowed. We did nothing at night and I was quite pissed because there was a good special at the hostel we were staying at for dinner, transportation and free drinks all night for $25. Instead we went out for dinner and a beer for $25. On Sunday we went to a place called Infinity which was a maze-like thing. Two of the girls went to the rainforest for a high ropes course. The rest of us were going to go to an amusement park but it was rainy so we decided not to. Infinity was dark inside and all mirrors and lasers and it was fun but kinda short. After this we went to lunch and went shopping. I bought so much cool stuff and it was all pretty cheap! It is winter here so a lot of sale stuff was summer stuff which was perfect because when I get back to the states it will be summer. I also bought an awesome bag to take back all the extra crap I've bought/acquired here. On Sunday evening we made dinner at the hostel and watched a movie (little fockers) It was on at the hostel with cheap drink specials. On Monday we went shopping again, and I bought some but not a lot. By the end of the weekend I was getting annoyed and ready to return to my host home. I wish I could have gone out one night to experience the night life and let loose and dance. I feel my mind was dwelling too much on what was going on at home and missing home too much.

Monday was the first day of my head week. My teacher wasn't there and things were kinda tricky. The sub kept butting in and running the class and it was frustrating!! I also couldn't get the children's attention for story time, so that was frustrating.

Today was much better. My teacher let me 'own' the classroom and she was the actual teacher in the classroom. Meeting/story time went a lot better because the children are older and I think they can listen better. Even my teacher agreed today went better! Yay. Only 7 more head days! Then my last ween in the preschool. Then comes the fun traveling part!!

Notes on Australia:

serviette=napkin

Australians hate kiwis (new zealanders)

toilets dont flush and have two buttons (one for number 1 and one for number 2)

Monday morning you sure look fine

Today was a good day. :) I managed to forget about the shit that's happening in my personal life and really set in with the kids. The day went fast-I had fun and was engaged! The teachers noticed a change too. I think last week the personal things happening hurt my professional performance. I wish this break up had not happened when it did since it's becoming apparent it had to happen at some point. Well if I'm wishing for things I wish it didn't have to happen at all. Anywho... I had a great day. Dinner was good with my host mom- I think things are really getting more comfortable. We finally gave her the gifts we were told to bring from home to thank her for letting us stay with her. Beth and I thought we were going to give them at the end of our stay but we gave them today- she liked them YAY. Today also, I got the child im supposed to be observing. My adviser said I am to pick one child, observe them and then make the lessons based off them. Ideally, I would like to observe more children but one is turning out to be a lot anyway!! I need to go write up my obsevations as i simply took notes at work today.

Aussie things:

sick=awesome, sweet

fully sick=very cool/sweet

(I learned those two from my surf teacher- he was SO cool and very funny.)

Bundjalung is the native spoken language of the aboriginals.

First weekend here

This weekend the 5 girls from Stout went to Byron Bay for the weekend. It was super fun! We went out to eat on Friday, and went to a couple bars after. It was very expensive to get drinks! On Saturday we walked around a little after going to breakfast and we went to the beach to lay out. It didn't seem like we got tan though... I have to get tan before Margie's wedding! So when we were on the beach a lady came around to give us wristbands and tell us how we get free champagne and 3 dollar meals at a place called cheeky monkey! We left and got ready for dinner and spent all night there. It was super fun and they have contests and dancing on tables. We then went to a surfing lesson on Sunday- It was heaps of fun!! (they say heaps here instead of lots) It was very tiring but I really was awesome at it -HAHa. I think I found my sport!