Happy 2006!
Can you even believe that it is 2006? Where on earth did 2005 go?
At least it was an interesting way to ring in the new year: New Zealand, one friend, strange bar, strange people and yet a fun, fun night!
Hope everyone out there had a good party and someone close to them to wish them a happy new year, at least know that I was thinking of you.
Here's hoping this year will be full of adventures and new discoveries
Smooooootch
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Monday, December 26, 2005
Photos and Holidovers
Is that it? Are the holidays finally over? Well good, now that thats settled we can move on. (grin)
Time to get life moving...enough of this sitting around waiting for things to happen.
Speaking of, or well nothing close to it but, the photos from my trip are up on my web page. Hit the link on the side bar
http://sarahscene.myphotoalbum.com/
Enjoy- they are totally out of order and all over the place...but they're there!
Time to get life moving...enough of this sitting around waiting for things to happen.
Speaking of, or well nothing close to it but, the photos from my trip are up on my web page. Hit the link on the side bar
http://sarahscene.myphotoalbum.com/
Enjoy- they are totally out of order and all over the place...but they're there!
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Kiwi Christmas
So its Christmas you say? Well the hot weather, sun, and lack of friends and family are making it seem like just another day. I knew it would feel like this, but i must admit the turkey dinner Im cooking, the desserts, and all the wine, just doesnt feel like anything special. Its strange, its the first time Ive actually been without, at least, a group of friends around. The three of us are doing our best but for what its worth i think its all going to end up being a turkey dinner and a ton of wine...just like any normal Saturday night!!!
Merry Christmas everyone...Im missing you all a lot!
Love Sarah xoxo
Merry Christmas everyone...Im missing you all a lot!
Love Sarah xoxo
Friday, December 23, 2005
Almost Famous, my new moto...
You know those days when you are so hungover from a night that wasn't intended or planned?
That was today.
Ordered in Pizza, slept till noon, watched movies until i was too tired to stay awake.
All in all a perfect day off.
We watched the movie Almost Famous, don't you just love that movie? I love it. For some reason it leaves a warm spot in my heart, it makes me feel empty, lonely, happy, adventures and so many other adjectives that i could continue for hours, but i wont as my brain is in sleep mode.
The story, the adventure of the band and friends and just plain growing up is sort of like visiting something you've personally done in the past, almost as if i too was on their trip. Maybe the vodka has finally oozed into my grey matter or maybe I'm just feeling a little far away from the familiar. Whichever the case i recommend re-watching the movie.
That was today.
Ordered in Pizza, slept till noon, watched movies until i was too tired to stay awake.
All in all a perfect day off.
We watched the movie Almost Famous, don't you just love that movie? I love it. For some reason it leaves a warm spot in my heart, it makes me feel empty, lonely, happy, adventures and so many other adjectives that i could continue for hours, but i wont as my brain is in sleep mode.
The story, the adventure of the band and friends and just plain growing up is sort of like visiting something you've personally done in the past, almost as if i too was on their trip. Maybe the vodka has finally oozed into my grey matter or maybe I'm just feeling a little far away from the familiar. Whichever the case i recommend re-watching the movie.
Monday, December 19, 2005
Contact
To help you get in contact with me again, as I have the home and phone set up and waiting, I've added two new links.
The current time in Christchurch and the international county code web site...USE THEM!!!! Hint hint I want some phone calls!
Hope to chat to you soon,
BTW- internet should be set up by the end of the week so I hope to be on line by then.
The current time in Christchurch and the international county code web site...USE THEM!!!! Hint hint I want some phone calls!
Hope to chat to you soon,
BTW- internet should be set up by the end of the week so I hope to be on line by then.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Wheels and Beds!
Well Ive done it!
I have a new house and a new car and I got them all in the same day! Imagine that all these shitty days of looking for houses, living in a hostel and walking in the rain and now this!
Happy Days!
So we are moving in today, but we have to go shopping and get some sheets for our beds and dishes and stuff. But hey, that's easy cause i have a car!
The house is a nice cottage like bungalow which is close to our school. Well as close as you could get, we are a good 10-15 minute drive, Thank god for that car!
Because i own the car, i get the big room too, which is a nice perk. The master room with my own sliding door to the back yard and a little porch i can sit on. Lots of windows and great closet space.
Now i know your all wondering so I'll tell you, yes the car is a piece of shit, but hey when you talk a guy down to half of his asking price then you know you've done good. That's the great thing about backpackers, they HAVE to sell their car because their leaving. So I have a 1990 Toyota Mark that's worth more than the $800 I paid for it. yea me!
So the car's name is Mark for obvious reasons, Katie would be so proud of me for naming it this soon.
so its time to run as the Internet is about to cut out...
Ill write soon and maybe get some pictures up!
I have a new house and a new car and I got them all in the same day! Imagine that all these shitty days of looking for houses, living in a hostel and walking in the rain and now this!
Happy Days!
So we are moving in today, but we have to go shopping and get some sheets for our beds and dishes and stuff. But hey, that's easy cause i have a car!
The house is a nice cottage like bungalow which is close to our school. Well as close as you could get, we are a good 10-15 minute drive, Thank god for that car!
Because i own the car, i get the big room too, which is a nice perk. The master room with my own sliding door to the back yard and a little porch i can sit on. Lots of windows and great closet space.
Now i know your all wondering so I'll tell you, yes the car is a piece of shit, but hey when you talk a guy down to half of his asking price then you know you've done good. That's the great thing about backpackers, they HAVE to sell their car because their leaving. So I have a 1990 Toyota Mark that's worth more than the $800 I paid for it. yea me!
So the car's name is Mark for obvious reasons, Katie would be so proud of me for naming it this soon.
so its time to run as the Internet is about to cut out...
Ill write soon and maybe get some pictures up!
Friday, December 09, 2005
Phew!
Phew!
So we have made it, no more long drives in the car. I don't think i want to be travelling in a car for a really long time. I'm so tired of it.
We are in Christchurch and I'm so happy to finally be where i'll call home.
hopefully I'll find a place soon to live. I don't think I'll last much longer in the hostel life. I'm just too old for it!
Anyway the city is great, small feeling but really its large and its old so there are great places to go. Old re-done movie theaters, restaurants in old style buildings, art galleries and well basically everything a real city has to offer, no more tourist trap town for me that's for sure! And thank god for that!
For a while ill be using Internet cafe's so i wont be writing too much. Cant wait to get a place and be back on line.
for now...wish me luck on the house hunt
So we have made it, no more long drives in the car. I don't think i want to be travelling in a car for a really long time. I'm so tired of it.
We are in Christchurch and I'm so happy to finally be where i'll call home.
hopefully I'll find a place soon to live. I don't think I'll last much longer in the hostel life. I'm just too old for it!
Anyway the city is great, small feeling but really its large and its old so there are great places to go. Old re-done movie theaters, restaurants in old style buildings, art galleries and well basically everything a real city has to offer, no more tourist trap town for me that's for sure! And thank god for that!
For a while ill be using Internet cafe's so i wont be writing too much. Cant wait to get a place and be back on line.
for now...wish me luck on the house hunt
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Erin and Tim and Jane
Erin and Tim had thier baby!!!!
Jane Elizabeth Burnie
born Tuesday, November 29th at 1:38am. 7 lbs. 9 oz.
I cant wait to meet her!
Jane Elizabeth Burnie
born Tuesday, November 29th at 1:38am. 7 lbs. 9 oz.
I cant wait to meet her!
Monday, November 28, 2005
So where was I?
So where was I? Oh right, New Zealand.
Okay, so we are now in the middle of the north island, in a nice little smelly town called Rotorua (its famous for hot springs and the sulfur smell that goes along with it)
Lets see what have the four of us been up to… Well after picking up Ian (a friend from the program, as many of you where wondering. Who is very brave to be traveling with 3 girls. He is with us for a week and we drop him off again on Wed so he can head back to Auckland to catch his plane home)
Next, we headed north to the bay of Islands and we went swimming with the dolphins, which was amazing, but god was it freezing. We were on a nice boat and we followed a pod of them around for a bit, then we were given the go ahead to jump in the water with them. So we all geared up in snorkels and masks and gave it our all in the water to try and keep up with the dolphins. Man, they can swim fast. We couldn’t keep up at all; as soon as we were in the water they were gone. But personally I was okay with it because I was freezing!!!! Then we caught up with them again, so we again tried to get into the water with them and this time I was near the front so I actually got to swim with them. It was so cool. Afterwards we found another pod and there were about 60 in this group. But because there were babies with them we couldn’t swim, so instead we got to sit on top of the boat lean over and they swam right with us. I swear they were looking at me right in the eye. It was so amazing; I’ve never done anything like that ever, anywhere in the world.
The next day we drove, which felt like forever, to the other side of the island. We took this crazy road that wasn’t even on the map! It was pure gravel, up and over the mountain range. Thank god Ian was driving because we would have made it there by Tuesday if I was, I would have been taking every turn so slowly. As we were on the devil death road the funniest thing happened. This family of ducks, mom, dad and 6 fuzzy babies, were waddling along the road. We slowed down to let them fly away, and they didn’t! Mom and dad took flight and left their babies there, we managed to squeeze by them but stupid mom and dad kept flying right in front of the car! Finally mom took off and circled back to what we hope were her abandoned chicks. But stupid dad must have flown with us for 15 minutes until he finally made a right turn and landed in the field right beside the road. I was freaking out, as you know my love for ducks!
Finally we made it to hot water beach, a place where you dig a hole in the sand and the thermal sands heat the water and presto, you have a hot spa. However on the day we went, it was cold as ice and the tide was coming in so strong that the sands were unreachable so we dug our feet in as deep as we could it was warm…but nothing like we were promised, damn tourist traps. So today we were determined to make it up. Today we went to Waitomo Caves and we went tubing down throughout the caves. It was dark and wet and so cold, but we were able to see glowworms on the roof of the cave and it was so amazing to swim through the cave system. We had to jump off this waterfall that was 3 meters high, I was scared of course, as me and heights are not the best of friends, but man was it fun. I would do it again if it wasn’t so cold!
Tonight we hit the up the hot springs, which was an amazing change from the cold cold water we had been swimming in for our whole trip! As you know hot springs get your body VERY hot so you have to cool off in either a cool pool or a shower. Ian, Katie and I went exploring to find the cold shower and we found it right beside the 42-degree pool. So Ian pushed the button for the shower and it was so powerful and cold I screamed! Yep the whole pool of the hot bath laughed out loud at me, I was so embarrassed but I was laughing so hard I didn’t really care!
Typical Sarah move, you would have all loved it!
Okay, so we are now in the middle of the north island, in a nice little smelly town called Rotorua (its famous for hot springs and the sulfur smell that goes along with it)
Lets see what have the four of us been up to… Well after picking up Ian (a friend from the program, as many of you where wondering. Who is very brave to be traveling with 3 girls. He is with us for a week and we drop him off again on Wed so he can head back to Auckland to catch his plane home)
Next, we headed north to the bay of Islands and we went swimming with the dolphins, which was amazing, but god was it freezing. We were on a nice boat and we followed a pod of them around for a bit, then we were given the go ahead to jump in the water with them. So we all geared up in snorkels and masks and gave it our all in the water to try and keep up with the dolphins. Man, they can swim fast. We couldn’t keep up at all; as soon as we were in the water they were gone. But personally I was okay with it because I was freezing!!!! Then we caught up with them again, so we again tried to get into the water with them and this time I was near the front so I actually got to swim with them. It was so cool. Afterwards we found another pod and there were about 60 in this group. But because there were babies with them we couldn’t swim, so instead we got to sit on top of the boat lean over and they swam right with us. I swear they were looking at me right in the eye. It was so amazing; I’ve never done anything like that ever, anywhere in the world.
The next day we drove, which felt like forever, to the other side of the island. We took this crazy road that wasn’t even on the map! It was pure gravel, up and over the mountain range. Thank god Ian was driving because we would have made it there by Tuesday if I was, I would have been taking every turn so slowly. As we were on the devil death road the funniest thing happened. This family of ducks, mom, dad and 6 fuzzy babies, were waddling along the road. We slowed down to let them fly away, and they didn’t! Mom and dad took flight and left their babies there, we managed to squeeze by them but stupid mom and dad kept flying right in front of the car! Finally mom took off and circled back to what we hope were her abandoned chicks. But stupid dad must have flown with us for 15 minutes until he finally made a right turn and landed in the field right beside the road. I was freaking out, as you know my love for ducks!
Finally we made it to hot water beach, a place where you dig a hole in the sand and the thermal sands heat the water and presto, you have a hot spa. However on the day we went, it was cold as ice and the tide was coming in so strong that the sands were unreachable so we dug our feet in as deep as we could it was warm…but nothing like we were promised, damn tourist traps. So today we were determined to make it up. Today we went to Waitomo Caves and we went tubing down throughout the caves. It was dark and wet and so cold, but we were able to see glowworms on the roof of the cave and it was so amazing to swim through the cave system. We had to jump off this waterfall that was 3 meters high, I was scared of course, as me and heights are not the best of friends, but man was it fun. I would do it again if it wasn’t so cold!
Tonight we hit the up the hot springs, which was an amazing change from the cold cold water we had been swimming in for our whole trip! As you know hot springs get your body VERY hot so you have to cool off in either a cool pool or a shower. Ian, Katie and I went exploring to find the cold shower and we found it right beside the 42-degree pool. So Ian pushed the button for the shower and it was so powerful and cold I screamed! Yep the whole pool of the hot bath laughed out loud at me, I was so embarrassed but I was laughing so hard I didn’t really care!
Typical Sarah move, you would have all loved it!
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Moving on up!
Alright so the traveling has started! We have been in Auckland for 3 days now. I met up with Jarrod and he showed us around, well he showed us a couple of different places to go drinking! It was so nice to have a beer and catch up with him, and what a strange feeling to hang out with someone in a different country than where you know them from. Just strange...
So Ian is landing any minute and we are picking him up at the airport to make it a nice even 4, and we are booking it up north. Of course at this point I'm not sure how or where he is going to fit into the car...haha, its a bit of a tight squeeze with all of our stuff, all over the place. You would think by now I knew how to pack and live out of a backpack, hahaha yah right! Not when I'm moving everything I own and my whole life to another city. I must have brought every bottle of shampoo I've ever used with me! Ah well. I'm sure we will be able to squeeze him in somewhere.
So we are heading up to the northern part of the north island. We are booked in for swimming with dolphins tomorrow which I am really looking forward to! Swimming with them in the wild, you are just in the ocean and they will swim right up to you.
So far we have huge plans of what we can do in this country, I cant wait to see what kind of trouble we get into!
Ill write again soon
So Ian is landing any minute and we are picking him up at the airport to make it a nice even 4, and we are booking it up north. Of course at this point I'm not sure how or where he is going to fit into the car...haha, its a bit of a tight squeeze with all of our stuff, all over the place. You would think by now I knew how to pack and live out of a backpack, hahaha yah right! Not when I'm moving everything I own and my whole life to another city. I must have brought every bottle of shampoo I've ever used with me! Ah well. I'm sure we will be able to squeeze him in somewhere.
So we are heading up to the northern part of the north island. We are booked in for swimming with dolphins tomorrow which I am really looking forward to! Swimming with them in the wild, you are just in the ocean and they will swim right up to you.
So far we have huge plans of what we can do in this country, I cant wait to see what kind of trouble we get into!
Ill write again soon
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Going, going....gone!
I can’t believe it...but its over!
I’m leaving for NZ and I couldn’t be more excited about it.
We land in Auckland on Tuesday, chill around the city for a bit and try to hook up with a crazy bloke I know from Taiwan....Jarrod I hope we can find each other!
From there we are renting a car and heading north to the Bay of Islands and the Bay of Plenty where I plan on swimming in the ocean with wild dolphins!!!!
Making our way slowly back we will cruise our way down to the south Island.
Checking out everything we can there, spend some time in Queenstown - where the worlds largest bungee jump is- and then head home to Christchurch.
I’m in for such an adventure I can’t wait!
This week has been pretty hectic with lots of sad goodbyes and a ton of parties to go to. It’s a strange thing to leave people you have counted on for a year of your life. They might not be the best of friends with you, but being all that you have you create such a bond with people. I’m not sure what Ill do in Christchurch with only 3 of us. It will be strange not to speak to the people I have been around this whole year.
However even with the sad goodbyes I think this is my favourite part of life...the brink. Right before everything changes and it’s all hopeful and exciting, even if it’s sad to leave, I mean I’ve done my fair share of sad goodbyes which I’m not a fan of, but this, this wonderful, hurtful, exciting, thrilling feeling of not knowing what’s going to happen next. This is one of life’s great moments....the possibility of something better.
Ill keep updating as I go, so keep reading.
Wish me luck in this new segment of the biggest adventure of all....my life!
I’m leaving for NZ and I couldn’t be more excited about it.
We land in Auckland on Tuesday, chill around the city for a bit and try to hook up with a crazy bloke I know from Taiwan....Jarrod I hope we can find each other!
From there we are renting a car and heading north to the Bay of Islands and the Bay of Plenty where I plan on swimming in the ocean with wild dolphins!!!!
Making our way slowly back we will cruise our way down to the south Island.
Checking out everything we can there, spend some time in Queenstown - where the worlds largest bungee jump is- and then head home to Christchurch.
I’m in for such an adventure I can’t wait!
This week has been pretty hectic with lots of sad goodbyes and a ton of parties to go to. It’s a strange thing to leave people you have counted on for a year of your life. They might not be the best of friends with you, but being all that you have you create such a bond with people. I’m not sure what Ill do in Christchurch with only 3 of us. It will be strange not to speak to the people I have been around this whole year.
However even with the sad goodbyes I think this is my favourite part of life...the brink. Right before everything changes and it’s all hopeful and exciting, even if it’s sad to leave, I mean I’ve done my fair share of sad goodbyes which I’m not a fan of, but this, this wonderful, hurtful, exciting, thrilling feeling of not knowing what’s going to happen next. This is one of life’s great moments....the possibility of something better.
Ill keep updating as I go, so keep reading.
Wish me luck in this new segment of the biggest adventure of all....my life!
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Final Finals!!!
Its exam time again and I am a mad study woman!
2 final exams and I haven't been in a lecture in over a month...Does that make sense to anyone out there?
You would think a post grad course would be wiser about things like this, however us students are again shafted with the whole deal and we need to remember everything our profs ever told us and be tested on it a month after we have been in class. At least its my last ones. No more finals ever again.....For now.
So I've been cut off-line as our phone is being shut off and we are moving in about a week.
I cant believe my time here is almost over. I'll be moving to New Zealand for my last big trip/move/I don't want to go home, effort. But man I must say I am soooo looking forward to it!
Ill be updating here for now on, so no big group emails. Check here for all stories, adventures, and screw ups to give you insight or giggles at my life!
smack!
2 final exams and I haven't been in a lecture in over a month...Does that make sense to anyone out there?
You would think a post grad course would be wiser about things like this, however us students are again shafted with the whole deal and we need to remember everything our profs ever told us and be tested on it a month after we have been in class. At least its my last ones. No more finals ever again.....For now.
So I've been cut off-line as our phone is being shut off and we are moving in about a week.
I cant believe my time here is almost over. I'll be moving to New Zealand for my last big trip/move/I don't want to go home, effort. But man I must say I am soooo looking forward to it!
Ill be updating here for now on, so no big group emails. Check here for all stories, adventures, and screw ups to give you insight or giggles at my life!
smack!
Sunday, November 06, 2005
The Zoo
We finally made it to the Australian Zoo. 10 months later we drove the 2 hours to see if we could find Steve Irwin the famous Crockodile Hunter. But he didnt do the crock show, so instead we got our picutre taken with him :)
all in all a super fun day which was hot and sunny, i walked around with a hat and sunny's on, I looked like a movie star trying to hide from the press. Damn photographers follow me everywhere!
all in all a super fun day which was hot and sunny, i walked around with a hat and sunny's on, I looked like a movie star trying to hide from the press. Damn photographers follow me everywhere!
Friday, November 04, 2005
Surfing Babe
I am a Surf Babe!
Today we did it and I actually wasn’t that bad. I got up on my feet a couple of times and ended up on my ass at the bottom of the ocean. It was great!
We all got rocked but we had such a good time laughing at each other that it was well worth it. I cant believe that I waited this long to try surfing when I would have really liked it and done it a couple of times. Ha ha.
Oh well live and learn, I don’t think I would have ever become pro, but I might have enjoyed catching a full wave at least once.
So, my knees are scratched up from dragging in the sand, and I’ve swallowed enough salt water to fill a pool, but seriously, what a great day!
Today we did it and I actually wasn’t that bad. I got up on my feet a couple of times and ended up on my ass at the bottom of the ocean. It was great!
We all got rocked but we had such a good time laughing at each other that it was well worth it. I cant believe that I waited this long to try surfing when I would have really liked it and done it a couple of times. Ha ha.
Oh well live and learn, I don’t think I would have ever become pro, but I might have enjoyed catching a full wave at least once.
So, my knees are scratched up from dragging in the sand, and I’ve swallowed enough salt water to fill a pool, but seriously, what a great day!
Monday, October 31, 2005
Happy Halloween!
Happy Birthday Colleen!
I hope you have a GREAT day, next year Ill actually be there to celebrate with you!
I hope you have a GREAT day, next year Ill actually be there to celebrate with you!
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Schools out for summer!
I’ve finally finished my month of practicum in my grade 4 class. My teacher, in the end, became really nice and actually did me a huge favour. Throughout the whole prac I was left to do everything. I taught full days without help for the last 3 weeks and man was I tired, and angry at my teacher for using me not helping me. But of course she knew what she was doing and in the end she gave me a card that said “Congratulations I have no doubt that you will make an amazing teacher” What a vote of confidence that was. After working so hard and feeling like I wasn’t being acknowledged for it, I was more than happy to hear that from her.
So right now I am in the midst of a well-deserved week off before exams start. Our goal is to do all tourist things on the gold coast we can. First up, surfing in Byron Bay. Ill let you know how that goes.
check the link to see my school
So right now I am in the midst of a well-deserved week off before exams start. Our goal is to do all tourist things on the gold coast we can. First up, surfing in Byron Bay. Ill let you know how that goes.
check the link to see my school
Friday, October 14, 2005
Indy Fever!
Indy Fever has hit the gold coast, and because of this we have to move out of our apartment and move into another one in our building. Each apartment is rented for the weekend for $4000 so of course us poor students are kicked to the curb.
However our building manager has had pity on us and we got to keep an apartment that wasn’t sold out, so 8 of us are moving into a 2 bedroom for 10 days. Our rent will be cheap but we will all have everything we own with us! It’s going to be such a tight squeeze! But what a fun experience too.
We get passes for the races because our apt is right in the middle of the track. This is the biggest thing that happens on the gold coast all year. It should be a fun and crazy week.
Ill be back on-line by Tuesday Oct 25.
Talk to you then….
Vroommmmmmm!
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Huge Hailstorm - in the middle of my lesson!
Hailstorm causes 11-car pile-up
(from Australia news.com)
A SEVERE thunderstorm in south-east Queensland left a trail of destruction after hailstones hit the area like "missiles" today.
The hail smashed windows and roofs, while strong winds brought down trees in the Gold Coast's northern suburbs about 2pm (AEST).
Minor flooding was also reported and five houses in the Tallebudgera Valley lost power.
Gold Coast resident Tim Obank said the storm came across the area at tremendous pace.
"All of a sudden this colour came over grey and the next minute I hear this terrible noise," Mr Obank said on Channel 10.
"I didn't know what was happening and then I look out the window and missiles are going into my pool."
The State Emergency Service received more than 360 along the tourist strip after the storm ripped through the suburbs of Helensvale, Oxenford, Coomera, Mt Nathan, Gaven, Arundel and Coombabah.
A Counter Disaster and Rescue Services spokesman said more calls for help were expected throughout the evening as residents returned home from work.
The storm also played havoc on the roads, with hail blamed for a traffic pile-up that blocked parts of the motorway linking the Gold Coast to Brisbane.
Up to 11 cars were involved in the crash on the northbound lanes of the M1, near Coomera, which happened about the same time the storm swept through.
A police spokeswoman said some cars suffered severe hail damage, with windscreens smashed or cracked.
Cars parked outside theme parks in the area were also severely damaged by the hail.
The Bureau of Meteorology has predicted further thunderstorms for the region tomorrow afternoon.
(from Australia news.com)
A SEVERE thunderstorm in south-east Queensland left a trail of destruction after hailstones hit the area like "missiles" today.
The hail smashed windows and roofs, while strong winds brought down trees in the Gold Coast's northern suburbs about 2pm (AEST).
Minor flooding was also reported and five houses in the Tallebudgera Valley lost power.
Gold Coast resident Tim Obank said the storm came across the area at tremendous pace.
"All of a sudden this colour came over grey and the next minute I hear this terrible noise," Mr Obank said on Channel 10.
"I didn't know what was happening and then I look out the window and missiles are going into my pool."
The State Emergency Service received more than 360 along the tourist strip after the storm ripped through the suburbs of Helensvale, Oxenford, Coomera, Mt Nathan, Gaven, Arundel and Coombabah.
A Counter Disaster and Rescue Services spokesman said more calls for help were expected throughout the evening as residents returned home from work.
The storm also played havoc on the roads, with hail blamed for a traffic pile-up that blocked parts of the motorway linking the Gold Coast to Brisbane.
Up to 11 cars were involved in the crash on the northbound lanes of the M1, near Coomera, which happened about the same time the storm swept through.
A police spokeswoman said some cars suffered severe hail damage, with windscreens smashed or cracked.
Cars parked outside theme parks in the area were also severely damaged by the hail.
The Bureau of Meteorology has predicted further thunderstorms for the region tomorrow afternoon.
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Thanksgiving and its 34°C?
Just call me Martha! Thanksgiving in Oz is a new concept here so I thought I should put my expertise to work. Our night consisted of….
*25 Friends from Canada
*2, 10kg-FROZEN Turkey’s
*$200 for the FROZEN Turkeys
*Picking up the FROZEN Turkey’s at 2pm the day of dinner
*Trying to thaw/cook the turkeys in time for the 6:00 dinner party
*Calling and telling everyone to come for 7 dinner will be served at 8
*Making a million other dishes of mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing etc
*People brought amazing food over to include in the dinner (thank god!)
*Actually making it all work, including the 2 perfectly golden brown turkeys
*Having so much turkey I’m having another dinner party tonight for leftovers!
All in all it was a good party, but I don’t think ill ever buy turkey in a foreign country again!!!!
Gobble Gobble!
*25 Friends from Canada
*2, 10kg-FROZEN Turkey’s
*$200 for the FROZEN Turkeys
*Picking up the FROZEN Turkey’s at 2pm the day of dinner
*Trying to thaw/cook the turkeys in time for the 6:00 dinner party
*Calling and telling everyone to come for 7 dinner will be served at 8
*Making a million other dishes of mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing etc
*People brought amazing food over to include in the dinner (thank god!)
*Actually making it all work, including the 2 perfectly golden brown turkeys
*Having so much turkey I’m having another dinner party tonight for leftovers!
All in all it was a good party, but I don’t think ill ever buy turkey in a foreign country again!!!!
Gobble Gobble!
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Do you remember grade 4?
My first week of teaching grade four is almost over. I've been teaching a lot and jumping right in. My class is pretty interesting with a couple of behaviour issues and some teacher aids that come in and out of our class to help with them. Lets just say you never know what kind of day your going to have. So far this week we've had 2 very nice days and 2 not very nice days. Most of the time I come home and flop on the couch and basically I'm lucky if I can stay awake through Oprah...
Oh and to top it off...Get this....It was a high of 31 and SUNNY today which means in the classroom it felt more like 35. It was a sticky one that's for sure. AND its only spring here!!!! What's going to happen in a couple of weeks when it starts getting warmer? I mean seriously, 30 degrees is spring weather? That's nuts!
I better crash as 6 am comes early.
Oh and to top it off...Get this....It was a high of 31 and SUNNY today which means in the classroom it felt more like 35. It was a sticky one that's for sure. AND its only spring here!!!! What's going to happen in a couple of weeks when it starts getting warmer? I mean seriously, 30 degrees is spring weather? That's nuts!
I better crash as 6 am comes early.
Monday, October 03, 2005
Touring Tasmania
So we had a week off for "spring break" and Katie, Julia and I decided to check out another part of Australia. Tasmania.
We arrived in Horbart and hungout there for a day and walked ourselves around seeing all we could. A cute city, but I wouldn't want to stay there too long. We got our rental car and headed up the east coast.
Driving all among cow fields, sheep fields and basically just farm land, we made it all the way to Launceston, which I could never pronounce when we were there (where are we again, Luxenton?) and from there, we drove down the middle of the island back to Hobart, about 1200 km in total.
Oh and I finally got to drive and found the left side issue not so hard to handle. It was a fun little road trip with lots of adventures and too many little stories to share with you all now. Ill give you the highlighted version......
-strange pubs in Hobart with men playing banjo, spoons, fiddles, and washboard, Good beer though!
-driving on the left, sometimes on the shoulder, passing trucks on 2 way country roads
-Going to an historic penal settlement and seeing it for the first time on a late night ghost tour
-actually hearing ghosts and scaring ourselves silly
-laughing so hard at the fact that we were so scared, however continuing to be feaked out about what we saw and heard. I'm not joking it was real!
http://www.portarthur.org.au
-saving some dumb young Americans who drove their rental car into the woods and it got stuck
-seeing fairy penguins in the wild
-staying the night on a farm and feeding a lamb from a bottle
-cheese factory
-Launceston and staying in a dolls house hotel thing...What was that place?
-fruit wine? This tastes like vinegar
-living it up at the casino on singles night and winning my money back at black Jack, 21 is my new favourite number!
-driving up to Mt. Wellington and not killing us on the crazy turns
-seeing snow in Australia
-forgetting to turn the car on before we drive away and not being able to figure out why the car is only coasting
-almost putting diesel in the car on our way to the airport...yep we only had the car for another 30 minutes and we almost killed it
-waiting for our flight FOREVER
-sleeping the whole next day in my own bed.
don't you wish you could have come with us now? Ill post the picutes as soon as I can gather them all up!
We arrived in Horbart and hungout there for a day and walked ourselves around seeing all we could. A cute city, but I wouldn't want to stay there too long. We got our rental car and headed up the east coast.
Driving all among cow fields, sheep fields and basically just farm land, we made it all the way to Launceston, which I could never pronounce when we were there (where are we again, Luxenton?) and from there, we drove down the middle of the island back to Hobart, about 1200 km in total.
Oh and I finally got to drive and found the left side issue not so hard to handle. It was a fun little road trip with lots of adventures and too many little stories to share with you all now. Ill give you the highlighted version......
-strange pubs in Hobart with men playing banjo, spoons, fiddles, and washboard, Good beer though!
-driving on the left, sometimes on the shoulder, passing trucks on 2 way country roads
-Going to an historic penal settlement and seeing it for the first time on a late night ghost tour
-actually hearing ghosts and scaring ourselves silly
-laughing so hard at the fact that we were so scared, however continuing to be feaked out about what we saw and heard. I'm not joking it was real!
http://www.portarthur.org.au
-saving some dumb young Americans who drove their rental car into the woods and it got stuck
-seeing fairy penguins in the wild
-staying the night on a farm and feeding a lamb from a bottle
-cheese factory
-Launceston and staying in a dolls house hotel thing...What was that place?
-fruit wine? This tastes like vinegar
-living it up at the casino on singles night and winning my money back at black Jack, 21 is my new favourite number!
-driving up to Mt. Wellington and not killing us on the crazy turns
-seeing snow in Australia
-forgetting to turn the car on before we drive away and not being able to figure out why the car is only coasting
-almost putting diesel in the car on our way to the airport...yep we only had the car for another 30 minutes and we almost killed it
-waiting for our flight FOREVER
-sleeping the whole next day in my own bed.
don't you wish you could have come with us now? Ill post the picutes as soon as I can gather them all up!
Friday, September 23, 2005
So sad- link to the Toronto Star click here-
A girl in my program has had the worst news I can imagine. If you have been following the news in Toronto at all, you have heard of Alicia Ross.
ALicia was 25 years old, she was missing from her home in Thornhill for the last 35 days and her body was just found yesterday. Trisha, her older sister goes to school with me and is now on her way home. I cant even think about what she is going through right now.
The link to the Toronto star article is in the title above.
ALicia was 25 years old, she was missing from her home in Thornhill for the last 35 days and her body was just found yesterday. Trisha, her older sister goes to school with me and is now on her way home. I cant even think about what she is going through right now.
The link to the Toronto star article is in the title above.
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Last Day!
I am about to leave for my last lecture and hand in my last paper, well at least until my thesis is due in the spring! I can barely believe that this part of my masters is almost over, its gone by so fast.
I fly to Tasmania tomorrow for a week holiday, driving around and just chillin. I cant wait to get out of surfers and go see yet another part of Oz that I haven't been to.
Ill post the pics when I get back.
I fly to Tasmania tomorrow for a week holiday, driving around and just chillin. I cant wait to get out of surfers and go see yet another part of Oz that I haven't been to.
Ill post the pics when I get back.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Email from my uni
This is not a joke, this was actually sent to my student email account from the university.
And the best part is...its true!
Hello everyone,
The weather is warming up and there already have been reports of snakes around campus and snakes will become even more active in the coming warmer months.
Students and staff are advised not attempt to handle or capture any snakes that they may see around campus, the best procedure is as follows;
* leave the snake alone and move away slowly while facing the snake at all times. Snakes are attracted to movement so do not panic and do not make any sudden moves, move slowly and back away.
* secure the area as best as possible by staying close by (not too close) and warn people away from the area.
* arrange for Security to be contacted, they will then contact a wildlife expert for the removal of the snake.
If possible, and only if it is safe, please try to remember the head shape of the snake [round or pointy] and its colour, this information often helps experts to determine if the snake is venomous or not (this helps but is not always the case however).
And the best part is...its true!
Hello everyone,
The weather is warming up and there already have been reports of snakes around campus and snakes will become even more active in the coming warmer months.
Students and staff are advised not attempt to handle or capture any snakes that they may see around campus, the best procedure is as follows;
* leave the snake alone and move away slowly while facing the snake at all times. Snakes are attracted to movement so do not panic and do not make any sudden moves, move slowly and back away.
* secure the area as best as possible by staying close by (not too close) and warn people away from the area.
* arrange for Security to be contacted, they will then contact a wildlife expert for the removal of the snake.
If possible, and only if it is safe, please try to remember the head shape of the snake [round or pointy] and its colour, this information often helps experts to determine if the snake is venomous or not (this helps but is not always the case however).
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
blah essays
I can’t wait until this useless work is done. Why is it that professors think that their essay is so valuable that they make it worth most of your grade? I mean so many of them have been pointless, and most of the time they aren’t even marked fairly. The profs barley have the time to give it a good once over. So I’ve stayed up late working on this for what? Some prof to spend, if I’m lucky, 10 minutes reading it. Grrr!
Did I tell you I got the famous English exam mark? I got 83% on it so I was pretty happy with myself.
Other than that I am so beyond happy to have a week and a half of this uni shit left. Then I can start on my research paper, which will prove to be much more worth while to write. This time I will get to actually make a statement, do some research, write something worth reading. I mean finally in my masters program I’ll get to write a masters level paper. Finally!
Okay yes, I have lost it. I’m complaining that there isn’t enough work or that it isn’t hard enough or worth the effort I put into it. Time to go to bed before I start writing papers for 'extra' marks.
I'm such a geek.
Did I tell you I got the famous English exam mark? I got 83% on it so I was pretty happy with myself.
Other than that I am so beyond happy to have a week and a half of this uni shit left. Then I can start on my research paper, which will prove to be much more worth while to write. This time I will get to actually make a statement, do some research, write something worth reading. I mean finally in my masters program I’ll get to write a masters level paper. Finally!
Okay yes, I have lost it. I’m complaining that there isn’t enough work or that it isn’t hard enough or worth the effort I put into it. Time to go to bed before I start writing papers for 'extra' marks.
I'm such a geek.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
True Love
Memories, may be beautiful and yet;
what’s too painful to remember we simply choose to forget;
So it’s the laughter we will remember;
Whenever we remember the way we were.
what’s too painful to remember we simply choose to forget;
So it’s the laughter we will remember;
Whenever we remember the way we were.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Aches, and pains, and sneezes oh my!
Yes I'm sick. The whole program has come down with the flu/worst cold of your life. And lucky me got it Monday morning. I woke up from a nice weekend of sunshine and hanging out to the most horrible cold I've had, not including the flu fever thing I had on vacation with mom and dad. I actually spent all day in bed sleeping, not watching TV and hanging out, actually sleeping in my dark dark room (bright lights kill my eyes) I think ill have to take another day off so I can at least go to prac on Thursday to sit at the back of the room and pretend to be there.
oh this sucks. I hate feeling this bad!
I better get back to bed. I pretty much will only be 'with it' for another 5 minutes till my meds kick in and my head turns into a balloon again.
Ah-Choo!
oh this sucks. I hate feeling this bad!
I better get back to bed. I pretty much will only be 'with it' for another 5 minutes till my meds kick in and my head turns into a balloon again.
Ah-Choo!
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Happy Hour
Just thought I would share my little happy hour with you. I just got home from a hard day of grade four, poured myself a stiff vodka and am sitting on my balcony staring at the sunny beach. What a great way to start a long weekend, and trust me this is well deserved!!!!
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Amazing!
Cairns was amazing! I had such a good time. The weather was beautiful and the diving was beyond anything I've done before. There was so much life to the reef I could'nt believe it. We were also lucky enough to see 3 adult Humpback whales and a baby. They were so close to the boat I could actually see the smile of the mama whale. I was screaming and jumping up and down on the boat, I could barley beleilve what I was seeing. It was so exciting!
We rented a car the next day and drove to Port Douglas. There is a beautiful beach called 4 mile beach, we went swimming and sun tanned, but you know me, I can only lie in the sun for so long and... yup, I was off exploring the beach. But guess what I found...Starfish. There must have been 50 I found. They were moving among the rocks at the end of the beach so I was playing with them for a good hour. It was so cool.
The next day we did a rainforest/crock tour at Cape Tribulation. What an amazing place. This is one of the only places in the world where two world heritage sites meet. The great barrier reef and the rainforest. It was gorgeous. THEN we went on the crock boat cruise. We saw 6 crocks in the wild. You had to look for them on the banks of the river, but they were there, and there was one we found that was almost 5 meters big!!!! They are so scary looking and so prehistoric its hard to believe they're even real!
It was a jammed packed weekend but so amazing I want to do it all again, anyone want to go?
We rented a car the next day and drove to Port Douglas. There is a beautiful beach called 4 mile beach, we went swimming and sun tanned, but you know me, I can only lie in the sun for so long and... yup, I was off exploring the beach. But guess what I found...Starfish. There must have been 50 I found. They were moving among the rocks at the end of the beach so I was playing with them for a good hour. It was so cool.
The next day we did a rainforest/crock tour at Cape Tribulation. What an amazing place. This is one of the only places in the world where two world heritage sites meet. The great barrier reef and the rainforest. It was gorgeous. THEN we went on the crock boat cruise. We saw 6 crocks in the wild. You had to look for them on the banks of the river, but they were there, and there was one we found that was almost 5 meters big!!!! They are so scary looking and so prehistoric its hard to believe they're even real!
It was a jammed packed weekend but so amazing I want to do it all again, anyone want to go?
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Off to Carins!!!!!
I'm headed north to do a bit of scuba diving! i cant wait. Im checking off one of my life checklist points!
Ill let you know all about my adventure when i come back from it!!!!
Hoping to see humpbacks up close as they are breeding up there right now!
Ill let you know all about my adventure when i come back from it!!!!
Hoping to see humpbacks up close as they are breeding up there right now!
Everyone's back at school!
Not only me, but Colleen has gone back to school as well. She is going to CDI College. CDI is a business/tech. college on
Burnhamthorpe and Creditview in Mississauga and Toronto. The program is 33 weeks s and she is taking Medical Office Administration.
"This Medical Office Admin program is designed to provide students with
the business, technology and comminications skills needed to work in
aprovate physician's office, single of multi-specialty clinic or
hosiptal stetting. Emphasis is placed on medical terminology, body
systems, medical transcriptions and medical office procedures. In
addition, the program forsters the development of interpersonal skills,
organizational effectiveness and comminication skills necessary to
fuction in a medical enviroment."
Meaning that she can get a job in a doctors office, hosiptal in a ward, chiro.
or dental office, physio or massage office, vets office or old folks
home. Whooo, she is going to be a busy girl when she's done with this course!
Good Luck Coll, enjoy studdying!
Burnhamthorpe and Creditview in Mississauga and Toronto. The program is 33 weeks s and she is taking Medical Office Administration.
"This Medical Office Admin program is designed to provide students with
the business, technology and comminications skills needed to work in
aprovate physician's office, single of multi-specialty clinic or
hosiptal stetting. Emphasis is placed on medical terminology, body
systems, medical transcriptions and medical office procedures. In
addition, the program forsters the development of interpersonal skills,
organizational effectiveness and comminication skills necessary to
fuction in a medical enviroment."
Meaning that she can get a job in a doctors office, hosiptal in a ward, chiro.
or dental office, physio or massage office, vets office or old folks
home. Whooo, she is going to be a busy girl when she's done with this course!
Good Luck Coll, enjoy studdying!
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Back to School
I'm back at school and working hard already! Classes such as Health and Physical Education, Arts, Social Studies & English. It shouldnt be too hard of a semester, but yet you never know what can happen. I start teaching next week and will know the school Ill be at early next week. Ive been hearing tidbits about my move to NZ through the grape vine, but i should be able to know something more in the next few weeks, ill keep you posted!
Monday, August 01, 2005
The photo album
Check out the pictures in my photo album from my trip with the 'rents, Enjoy!
http://sarahscene.myphotoalbum.com/
http://sarahscene.myphotoalbum.com/
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Sunshine Sala
School has started again and so far we have dove right in. This semester should be more fun with our courses, Health and Physical Education, Arts, English focusing on reading and writing, and Social Studies. Although I’m mostly just looking forward to getting back into the classroom. Hopefully Ill find out about my placement in New Zealand soon too, then I can start making plans and actually know what city I will be living in.
So life is good, back in a routine and the weather is getting warmer everyday, you can actually sit in your bathers on the beach again.
Enjoy the sunshine; I know I will be taking full advantage of it.
So life is good, back in a routine and the weather is getting warmer everyday, you can actually sit in your bathers on the beach again.
Enjoy the sunshine; I know I will be taking full advantage of it.
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Part 3
In the car again, but this time its for a week of travel.
Our first night we stayed in a small town called Albury. We went to the local ‘club’ for dinner and afterwards we hit the slot machines, and guess what…yep I was a winner. I walked out of that place the biggest winner of us, with whopping $7.00 barley enough for a coffee in this country, but still a winner and man was I proud of it, I just love slot machines!
After a bad nights sleep because of a local dog greeting everything in sight from 3 am-8am, we headed to the capital, Canberra. We walked a bit around town, had dinner at a pub and slept off the good draft beer ready for our exciting morning of the parliament house. Pretty much the only thing to do in Canberra is see all the parliament things. The city reminded me a lot of Ottawa, a very nice boring city where the government is the only draw for tourists.
Anyway after that morning we were all pretty happy to make our way through the thick fog and finally get to Sydney, I mean we were only 250 Km away.
Okay so we didn’t make it, we made it as far as Mollymook.
It was a nice little town with a beach, Mom and Dad were happy to see the beach and walk along it, while Julia and I were happy to see the local pub.
After a bottle of wine we met mom and dad for dinner and I again played the slots, no winnings tonight but im sure ill have lots of chances to make it up.
Okay so today we are going to make it to Sydney…I hope.
Pulling into the city the only hotel we could find is a 5 star…oh poor us! We were right down town so it was great for us to get around and see it all. We did the bus tour the next day and saw all the sites. But all our stories came from our nights out.
My friend Rachel who I met traveling in Laos now lives in Sydney so we went out for dinner and drinks in Bondi Beach. It was great to see her again. We went back to the hotel, late and a bit tipsy when as soon as we got to the hotel fire alarms went off. We had to wait 20 minutes to even get up to our room. When we finally made it, and sneaked into the room so not to wake mom and dad. Wait a minute WAKE mom and dad, wasn’t there just a long fire alarm going off all over the hotel? Well sleeping beauties slept right through it! Jules and I got all ready for bed in pj’s and all when we closed the bathroom door to find out that it had locked itself! It was in the middle of the night, the second of 4 fire alarms to go off that night was in full swing, mom and dad were snoring and we had just locked ourselves out of the bathroom. A typical night for us I would say!
Julia being the kind person she is, went down to the front desk in her jogging pants... I was wearing sparkly pink pants or I would have gone, she managed to get someone’s attention over all the guest screaming thinking they were burning to death to listen to her story of sleeping parents and a locked bathroom.
The hotel staff guy ushered her through the swarm of fire fighters and came up to our room with some kind of tool to open the door for us. We managed to get him in and out of our room, mostly due to his amazing ‘James bond backward shuffle’, open the bathroom door and leave all without waking mom and dad. Only to find out in the morning they had woken up to Julia and I giggling. They made fun of us coming in so late giggling all night…ummm you would have cracked up too if all this had happened under the noses of two snoring parents.
The next night we went for dinner at some strange German restaurant and I had a huge beer that I couldn’t even finish, Julia and I again left the snorers to do their thing while we went looking for an adventure…needless to say we found one. The Navy aboard the USS Kitty Hawk were in town and they just happened to be at the corner pub. But that’s a story for another time.
Our first night we stayed in a small town called Albury. We went to the local ‘club’ for dinner and afterwards we hit the slot machines, and guess what…yep I was a winner. I walked out of that place the biggest winner of us, with whopping $7.00 barley enough for a coffee in this country, but still a winner and man was I proud of it, I just love slot machines!
After a bad nights sleep because of a local dog greeting everything in sight from 3 am-8am, we headed to the capital, Canberra. We walked a bit around town, had dinner at a pub and slept off the good draft beer ready for our exciting morning of the parliament house. Pretty much the only thing to do in Canberra is see all the parliament things. The city reminded me a lot of Ottawa, a very nice boring city where the government is the only draw for tourists.
Anyway after that morning we were all pretty happy to make our way through the thick fog and finally get to Sydney, I mean we were only 250 Km away.
Okay so we didn’t make it, we made it as far as Mollymook.
It was a nice little town with a beach, Mom and Dad were happy to see the beach and walk along it, while Julia and I were happy to see the local pub.
After a bottle of wine we met mom and dad for dinner and I again played the slots, no winnings tonight but im sure ill have lots of chances to make it up.
Okay so today we are going to make it to Sydney…I hope.
Pulling into the city the only hotel we could find is a 5 star…oh poor us! We were right down town so it was great for us to get around and see it all. We did the bus tour the next day and saw all the sites. But all our stories came from our nights out.
My friend Rachel who I met traveling in Laos now lives in Sydney so we went out for dinner and drinks in Bondi Beach. It was great to see her again. We went back to the hotel, late and a bit tipsy when as soon as we got to the hotel fire alarms went off. We had to wait 20 minutes to even get up to our room. When we finally made it, and sneaked into the room so not to wake mom and dad. Wait a minute WAKE mom and dad, wasn’t there just a long fire alarm going off all over the hotel? Well sleeping beauties slept right through it! Jules and I got all ready for bed in pj’s and all when we closed the bathroom door to find out that it had locked itself! It was in the middle of the night, the second of 4 fire alarms to go off that night was in full swing, mom and dad were snoring and we had just locked ourselves out of the bathroom. A typical night for us I would say!
Julia being the kind person she is, went down to the front desk in her jogging pants... I was wearing sparkly pink pants or I would have gone, she managed to get someone’s attention over all the guest screaming thinking they were burning to death to listen to her story of sleeping parents and a locked bathroom.
The hotel staff guy ushered her through the swarm of fire fighters and came up to our room with some kind of tool to open the door for us. We managed to get him in and out of our room, mostly due to his amazing ‘James bond backward shuffle’, open the bathroom door and leave all without waking mom and dad. Only to find out in the morning they had woken up to Julia and I giggling. They made fun of us coming in so late giggling all night…ummm you would have cracked up too if all this had happened under the noses of two snoring parents.
The next night we went for dinner at some strange German restaurant and I had a huge beer that I couldn’t even finish, Julia and I again left the snorers to do their thing while we went looking for an adventure…needless to say we found one. The Navy aboard the USS Kitty Hawk were in town and they just happened to be at the corner pub. But that’s a story for another time.
Friday, July 15, 2005
Part 2
Packed up and ready to go we headed out to make our way to the mountains…BUT FIRST.
We stopped at a wildlife preserve and we got to feed the animals breakfast. I finally got to meet my new best friends the kangaroos. Let me tell you, Skippy almost made it to the car but Dad caught me trying to buckle him in…I was in love, they let you scratch their ears, feed them and they gave you kisses. I just wanted to take one home, I don’t know what the big deal was. There was also a huge Emu that wouldn’t leave us alone, I just didn’t trust him and his long neck, everywhere you turned he was there trying to eat the food for the kangaroos, bugger.
After an hour or so we were off on our long ride to Mansfield in the Victorian Alps. We got there and got our cottage…yep cottage, we were pretty much camping with a house. This was not the country club Mom and Dad usually stay at. But hey it suited us fine, minus the lack of heat in the back bedroom where I slept!
So guess what…yep-typical vacation move, I got sick. But this was not a normal cold, I was rocked! I had the flu pretty bad, with fever and runny nose to boot.
But I wasn’t going to let that stop me; we did some tours around in the car to lookouts and mountains and bridges and dams and whatever else Dad could find. Then my day came…horseback riding in the mountains. It was beautiful, sunny and I was feeling like total shit but went anyway cause I was not about to sit this out. However in true fashion, I had a problem with my horse. We were doing fine at first and I finally got my trot down pat when we stopped, ready to go up a big hill and my horse freaked out, danced around, kicked soooo the leader lady had to calm him down while I quickly was told to get down. So after a few rounds of horse shuffling I got a new horse named Babe, which I thought was appropriate. After that we made it all the way up and down the mountain with everyone gripping on tightly. Dad did a great job, didn’t love it and doesn’t think he’ll do it again and Mom, mom has found a new love. She thought it was great! Julia had a great time and never thought she would like it as much as she did and I could barely walk after getting off because my knees were so stiff!
Of course throughout the week we stopped at every winery and brewery we could find and had some great afternoons of chatting with strangers drinking up local wine.
Next week we are heading east to Sydney and then back to the coast. Its going by so quickly already!
We stopped at a wildlife preserve and we got to feed the animals breakfast. I finally got to meet my new best friends the kangaroos. Let me tell you, Skippy almost made it to the car but Dad caught me trying to buckle him in…I was in love, they let you scratch their ears, feed them and they gave you kisses. I just wanted to take one home, I don’t know what the big deal was. There was also a huge Emu that wouldn’t leave us alone, I just didn’t trust him and his long neck, everywhere you turned he was there trying to eat the food for the kangaroos, bugger.
After an hour or so we were off on our long ride to Mansfield in the Victorian Alps. We got there and got our cottage…yep cottage, we were pretty much camping with a house. This was not the country club Mom and Dad usually stay at. But hey it suited us fine, minus the lack of heat in the back bedroom where I slept!
So guess what…yep-typical vacation move, I got sick. But this was not a normal cold, I was rocked! I had the flu pretty bad, with fever and runny nose to boot.
But I wasn’t going to let that stop me; we did some tours around in the car to lookouts and mountains and bridges and dams and whatever else Dad could find. Then my day came…horseback riding in the mountains. It was beautiful, sunny and I was feeling like total shit but went anyway cause I was not about to sit this out. However in true fashion, I had a problem with my horse. We were doing fine at first and I finally got my trot down pat when we stopped, ready to go up a big hill and my horse freaked out, danced around, kicked soooo the leader lady had to calm him down while I quickly was told to get down. So after a few rounds of horse shuffling I got a new horse named Babe, which I thought was appropriate. After that we made it all the way up and down the mountain with everyone gripping on tightly. Dad did a great job, didn’t love it and doesn’t think he’ll do it again and Mom, mom has found a new love. She thought it was great! Julia had a great time and never thought she would like it as much as she did and I could barely walk after getting off because my knees were so stiff!
Of course throughout the week we stopped at every winery and brewery we could find and had some great afternoons of chatting with strangers drinking up local wine.
Next week we are heading east to Sydney and then back to the coast. Its going by so quickly already!
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Winter Trip Part 1
Leaving the apartment at 4 am to catch our flight with only a couple of hours of sleep put a dark cloud over the beginning of our travels but once we were at the airport and a bit of coffee was in us we were ready to go. When we got to Melbourne and checked into our hotel we headed right out into the city. What a great place. Melbourne is one of those cities that has everything you could want. Especially shopping! Our days were packed with shopping and sightseeing and our nights were full of restaurants and wine. Basically we shopped and ate our way around all corners of Melbourne. It really is the “most livable city” as the saying goes. I would go back there in a second.
After a couple of days we took the train out of the city to meet with Mom and Dad in the south of Victoria. We got back to the country club and headed right out for a little hike. We went to a field just outside of town and went kangaroo hunting. It was just at dusk so they were all coming down the hills to the valley. There must have been 100 in the area. It was amazing.
The next day we got in the car and drove to the Great Ocean Road. Everyone said we couldn’t do it, but we did. We drove all the way in 12 hours. It was a huge drive but it was worth it. We went to the 12 Apostles and Julia and I took a helicopter ride to see them all. A couple of days later one of the apostles fell and now there are officially only 8 left. We also went to the rainforest and did a canopy walk. 45 meters in the air and all the rainforest around us. Mom and Dad even climbed to the highest point, but you know me and staircases…. I stayed at the base safe and sound. It was still a great experience.
Our next move is to the Victorian Alps, Im guessing its going to be much colder!!!!
After a couple of days we took the train out of the city to meet with Mom and Dad in the south of Victoria. We got back to the country club and headed right out for a little hike. We went to a field just outside of town and went kangaroo hunting. It was just at dusk so they were all coming down the hills to the valley. There must have been 100 in the area. It was amazing.
The next day we got in the car and drove to the Great Ocean Road. Everyone said we couldn’t do it, but we did. We drove all the way in 12 hours. It was a huge drive but it was worth it. We went to the 12 Apostles and Julia and I took a helicopter ride to see them all. A couple of days later one of the apostles fell and now there are officially only 8 left. We also went to the rainforest and did a canopy walk. 45 meters in the air and all the rainforest around us. Mom and Dad even climbed to the highest point, but you know me and staircases…. I stayed at the base safe and sound. It was still a great experience.
Our next move is to the Victorian Alps, Im guessing its going to be much colder!!!!
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Im off!
Alright I’m off; the apartment is clean, I’m packed and the car is picking us up at 4 am! Of course after our last night out, which consisted of 2 house parties, a strip club, the bar, and another after party house party, I haven’t gotten much done today. The couch is being too good to me.
I cant wait to get out of Surfers and get to the city to see some of real Australia!
Have a great summer, winter in my case, and Ill email again when I get back in a couple of weeks.
Happy Adventures!
I cant wait to get out of Surfers and get to the city to see some of real Australia!
Have a great summer, winter in my case, and Ill email again when I get back in a couple of weeks.
Happy Adventures!
Friday, June 17, 2005
Mercy
My sister got a new puppy this week. Her name is Mercy and she is a German Shorthaired Pointer. I’m sure Colleen is doing all the right things and spoiling this little cutie well.
You can click on her link to check out more photos of her if you wish. Is there anything cuter than a puppy, I mean besides me?
http://mercyme.myphotoalbum.com/
You can click on her link to check out more photos of her if you wish. Is there anything cuter than a puppy, I mean besides me?
http://mercyme.myphotoalbum.com/
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
3 R's
We are told to follow the 3 R's for many things.
Reduce, reuse, recycle etc...Why doesn't anyone teach the 3 R's for life?
Respect for self
Respect for others
Responsibility for your actions
Reduce, reuse, recycle etc...Why doesn't anyone teach the 3 R's for life?
Respect for self
Respect for others
Responsibility for your actions
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Smootch!
My baby is back! My little iBook came home safe and sound and as good as new. It couldn’t have come sooner. I have 3 days left of school, 2 exams to study for and write, PLUS my portfolio to write for my teaching practicum. God help me, I feel like a truck has hit me.
Monday, June 13, 2005
Here we go loopy loo, here we go loopy lie…
5 days to go and I’m done semester one!
First exam is tomorrow, English. 12 hours of studying today has made me a bit loopy.
Then there’s only 2 left, Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.
I’m still waiting for my computer to come back to me so I can finish my portfolio for my teaching project…my poor little Mac, I miss her so much!
I fly to Melbourne on Monday and meet up with Mom and Dad on Wed. I can’t wait to see them, but selfishly I really cant wait to be on vacation. This semester has taken a lot out of me, I don’t remember Uni being so time consuming and tough. I guess that’s why it’s a masters program.
Alright, there’s only one more thing to say, and that’s
BRING IT ON!
First exam is tomorrow, English. 12 hours of studying today has made me a bit loopy.
Then there’s only 2 left, Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.
I’m still waiting for my computer to come back to me so I can finish my portfolio for my teaching project…my poor little Mac, I miss her so much!
I fly to Melbourne on Monday and meet up with Mom and Dad on Wed. I can’t wait to see them, but selfishly I really cant wait to be on vacation. This semester has taken a lot out of me, I don’t remember Uni being so time consuming and tough. I guess that’s why it’s a masters program.
Alright, there’s only one more thing to say, and that’s
BRING IT ON!
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Im so sad I could cry.
My baby has died...my ibook, the screen went all fuzzy and weird yesterday and then it went blank, and now nothing. The stench of death is in the air. And my credit card is feeling heavy with the decision of patching it or buying a new one. The only big problem is I NEED the computer this week! Its exam study week and I have one of my biggest projects due...which EVERYTHING is on my computer. Hopefully they can salvage the hard drive. But I have a feeling ill be spending 1500 on a new one in the next few days.
So if you don’t see me on line, its because I'm morning the loss of my other half.
Send your contributions to my "I’m a poor grad student and now I have to buy a new computer" fund. Tell all your friends about it.
So if you don’t see me on line, its because I'm morning the loss of my other half.
Send your contributions to my "I’m a poor grad student and now I have to buy a new computer" fund. Tell all your friends about it.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Here's a thought...
Karla Homolka, who was convicted in 1993 in the sex slayings of two Ontario schoolgirls has served her full 12-year manslaughter sentence (yes I said 12 year FULL sentence for manslaughter of 2, count them, 2 girls) and she is due to be released from prison sometime in the next few weeks.
And yet Chapelle Corby got 20 years in a Bali prison for 4 kg of weed!
This is messed up...come on Canada! Step up, show some guts and punish the people that deserve it. I think Karla should switch places with Chapelle, really see what jail is like.
What kind of warped system do we have?
How can Canadians not be disturbed by this? There should be a countrywide uproar, I know I am, uproared. Grrr.
And yet Chapelle Corby got 20 years in a Bali prison for 4 kg of weed!
This is messed up...come on Canada! Step up, show some guts and punish the people that deserve it. I think Karla should switch places with Chapelle, really see what jail is like.
What kind of warped system do we have?
How can Canadians not be disturbed by this? There should be a countrywide uproar, I know I am, uproared. Grrr.
Great news for education...and me!!!
From the Toronto Star Tuesday May 31:
Schools get more cash to reduce class sizes
The province is spending $126 million to reduce class sizes in early grades, Premier Dalton McGuinty announced yesterday.
By September, 70 per cent of Ontario's junior kindergarten to Grade 3 students — 381,000 children — will be in smaller classes.
"Smaller class sizes ensure our children can get the individual attention they need to succeed," McGuinty told media reporters at Toronto's Holy Rosary School.
"We know that children who start their education in small classes are more likely to stay in school, graduate on time and take on challenging courses later in their education."
By 2007-'08 the government hopes to cap elementary school classes at 20 students.
Yesterday's announcement includes $90 million to hire 1,275 more teachers and $36 million to create more classroom space to support the smaller class size initiative.
The announcement builds on a $90-million investment last year to hire 1,100 teachers to begin reducing class size.
McGuinty also announced a $30.4-million funding package for other elementary school improvements, including:
$18 million for 160 special projects to improve students' reading, writing and math.
$7 million for specialized summer teacher training in writing, reading, math and geometry.
$5.4 million for teams of "turnaround" experts to help in schools where students are having the most problems with reading.
Schools get more cash to reduce class sizes
The province is spending $126 million to reduce class sizes in early grades, Premier Dalton McGuinty announced yesterday.
By September, 70 per cent of Ontario's junior kindergarten to Grade 3 students — 381,000 children — will be in smaller classes.
"Smaller class sizes ensure our children can get the individual attention they need to succeed," McGuinty told media reporters at Toronto's Holy Rosary School.
"We know that children who start their education in small classes are more likely to stay in school, graduate on time and take on challenging courses later in their education."
By 2007-'08 the government hopes to cap elementary school classes at 20 students.
Yesterday's announcement includes $90 million to hire 1,275 more teachers and $36 million to create more classroom space to support the smaller class size initiative.
The announcement builds on a $90-million investment last year to hire 1,100 teachers to begin reducing class size.
McGuinty also announced a $30.4-million funding package for other elementary school improvements, including:
$18 million for 160 special projects to improve students' reading, writing and math.
$7 million for specialized summer teacher training in writing, reading, math and geometry.
$5.4 million for teams of "turnaround" experts to help in schools where students are having the most problems with reading.
Monday, May 30, 2005
News today from grade one
Heather, a quite cute little girl with long brown hair brought in her news today (at home we call this show and tell) Proudly she stood in front of the class and said...
"Good morning everyone, on the weekend my mom cut my hair for me, she cut off 22 cm and here it is!"
Out of a plastic bag she pulled a pony tail of her use to be hair...
A nice little morning wake up for Miss Downes to say the least!
"Good morning everyone, on the weekend my mom cut my hair for me, she cut off 22 cm and here it is!"
Out of a plastic bag she pulled a pony tail of her use to be hair...
A nice little morning wake up for Miss Downes to say the least!
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Schapelle Corby
Here on the Gold Coast there is a lot of talk about Schapelle Corby and the drug case of the century. In case you don’t know much about it:
Schapelle Leigh Corby (born July 10, 1977 SAME BIRTHDAY AS ME!!!!) is a former beauty student from Australia convicted by an Indonesian court of attempting to smuggle 4.1 kg of cannabis into Indonesia.
In October 2004 she was stopped by customs agents at Ngurah Rai Airport, Bali, and found to have a large package of drugs in her boogie board bag, 4.1 kilos of marijuana valued at $80,000.
Despite protesting her innocence, on May 27, 2005, she was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years jail. She was also fined AUD $13,875, with an additional six months if unpaid.
The verdict in the Corby trial was broadcast live on television in Australia, and the Nine Network television coverage was also broadcast live in New Zealand. The coverage included the trial outline, of some 80 pages, the verdict and sentencing.
The defence and prosecution now have seven days to appeal, after which the case could proceed to the High Court, which would then have 150 days to make a decision. If a further appeal were to occur, the case could ascend to the Supreme Court, which would then have 170 days to reach their decision. Both sides have indicated they will appeal the verdict.
The Corby case has generated intense controversy in Australia, where the prevailing public opinion in support of Corby has confronted the Commonwealth Government and caused tension in the relationship with Indonesia.
The Australians are all up in arms about it all and there is a huge ban on traveling to Bali. Many Aussies are protesting the ruling by trying to hurt Indonesia through tourism. For Australians Bali is a number one holiday place and now with all of this going on no one feels safe going there.
Schapelle’s lawyers have put in an Appeal already so hopefully we will find out more and this case will come to a true end, soon.
Saturday, May 28, 2005
beauty waterfall
Walking along the trail we came across this waterfall that we walked behind. The rainforest here is just amazing, what a great hike! And only about an hour from my house!
Mt. Warning lookout
Hiking up to a lookout point was well worth it. Mt Warning is in the background. Bryon Bay, the most easternly point in Oz, can be seen on the coast line.
Kangaroos and Wallabies oh my
We kept a keen eye on the side of the road and just as we were giving up hope we pulled into this parking area and on the grass we saw like 10 wallabies. (Wallabies are just small kangaroos, they weigh something like 20 lbs when a full size kangaroo weighs the same as a person) They are super cute, they look like rat/dog/rabbit/kangaroos.
Drive on the left Stupid!
We took off one Saturday and went for a drive in the mountains, oh yes, they have signs like this all over the coast because of all the tourists driving around...and driving on the wrong side of the road!
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Still here...
Only a week left of teaching and I'm still standing. My class is good, fun, busy, loud, cute, bad, horrible, devils, angels, funny, and most of all tiring.
Today we had the 'stranger danger' talk with the policeman and an old video from the 70's. Too funny for us teachers who are cracking up while the kids are amazed with it.
After that I taught gymnastics...jumping on the trampoline, summersaults, balance beam and jumping through hoops. Needless to say it was a fun day.
But again, I'm zonked...its 9pm and I'm going to bed. I don’t know how my mom has done it for so long, or how I'm going to do it for so long....
Give me strength!
Today we had the 'stranger danger' talk with the policeman and an old video from the 70's. Too funny for us teachers who are cracking up while the kids are amazed with it.
After that I taught gymnastics...jumping on the trampoline, summersaults, balance beam and jumping through hoops. Needless to say it was a fun day.
But again, I'm zonked...its 9pm and I'm going to bed. I don’t know how my mom has done it for so long, or how I'm going to do it for so long....
Give me strength!
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Day 2 and still kicking
Day 2 in the classroom and I think I have perfected the balance of coffee and red bull to keep my eyes open during the day. Yep its very smart of the University to burn us out completely then, throw us into the classroom for a month straight without a break.
I'm teaching my first lesson officially tomorrow and guess what subject it is...yep, Math!
Good thing I'm all brushed up on my primary math skills now.
I’m teaching the concept of volume. It should be interesting. But here’s the big kicker of the day:
In the afternoon I'm teaching gym class... GYMNASTICS!
Who knew I would be so multi-talented! Ha ha, poor kids I'm going to have them doing summersaults and jumping jacks all afternoon.
By the way, I'm now a huge fan of Ritalin. I mean when it works for a child, it really works! Thank god or I would have one less kid in my class by now! Grin!
I'm teaching my first lesson officially tomorrow and guess what subject it is...yep, Math!
Good thing I'm all brushed up on my primary math skills now.
I’m teaching the concept of volume. It should be interesting. But here’s the big kicker of the day:
In the afternoon I'm teaching gym class... GYMNASTICS!
Who knew I would be so multi-talented! Ha ha, poor kids I'm going to have them doing summersaults and jumping jacks all afternoon.
By the way, I'm now a huge fan of Ritalin. I mean when it works for a child, it really works! Thank god or I would have one less kid in my class by now! Grin!
Saturday, May 07, 2005
The Job
So it's midnight and I’ve just gotten home from my first shift with the catering job.
I was working in Brisbane at the footy game. Picture the box seats at a hockey game, or at Sky Dome, 10 people per room, a kitchen and bar area in each of them and a server (that’s me), My first time and I had two boxes to take care of in the corporate sector. I was looking after Optus, which is a major cell phone company here, and BMW. Yep, I served wine, beer food and cleaned up after them for 6 hours. It was interesting but man am I tired now! 6 hours on my feet, smiling and running for more beer and I couldn’t even have one!
Anyway it was well worth the $130 I made.
Anyway I'm dying now and am going to sleep. So much for my party weekend off.
Did I tell you? Friday night after all the projects were handed in Julia and I had dinner and both of us passed out by 8:30 PM!!!! I had an amazing 11 hour sleep last night and am hoping to do it again tonight....
Goodnight.
I was working in Brisbane at the footy game. Picture the box seats at a hockey game, or at Sky Dome, 10 people per room, a kitchen and bar area in each of them and a server (that’s me), My first time and I had two boxes to take care of in the corporate sector. I was looking after Optus, which is a major cell phone company here, and BMW. Yep, I served wine, beer food and cleaned up after them for 6 hours. It was interesting but man am I tired now! 6 hours on my feet, smiling and running for more beer and I couldn’t even have one!
Anyway it was well worth the $130 I made.
Anyway I'm dying now and am going to sleep. So much for my party weekend off.
Did I tell you? Friday night after all the projects were handed in Julia and I had dinner and both of us passed out by 8:30 PM!!!! I had an amazing 11 hour sleep last night and am hoping to do it again tonight....
Goodnight.
Friday, May 06, 2005
Thank God that's over with!
3 weeks of hell.... done
Classes.... done
Group work.... done
3 major projects.... done
Lack of sleep.... done
In the last 2 days I've put together 2 amazing projects with a grand total of 130 pages!
One project was 9731 words; I can’t believe that it’s all over.
I start in the classroom on Monday for a month straight, and I cant wait! No more homework, no more lectures, no more essays YEAH!
So if you don’t see me on line for a while you know why.... I think I've burnt my retinas from working on the computer for so long.
I start work tomorrow. Serving at an Ozzie Rules Footy game in Brisbane. I know, I know I never stop!
Wish me luck.
Classes.... done
Group work.... done
3 major projects.... done
Lack of sleep.... done
In the last 2 days I've put together 2 amazing projects with a grand total of 130 pages!
One project was 9731 words; I can’t believe that it’s all over.
I start in the classroom on Monday for a month straight, and I cant wait! No more homework, no more lectures, no more essays YEAH!
So if you don’t see me on line for a while you know why.... I think I've burnt my retinas from working on the computer for so long.
I start work tomorrow. Serving at an Ozzie Rules Footy game in Brisbane. I know, I know I never stop!
Wish me luck.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Another Math Exam
Grr, another one is here. Why is it always math. I feel like I've had 2 exams for this already and its only the midterm...Oh wait that's because I have! What kind of math class is this?
Wish me luck...Who would have thought in Grad school my biggest problem would be primary math - you just have to laugh at yourself sometimes, and hit the books.
blah.
Wish me luck...Who would have thought in Grad school my biggest problem would be primary math - you just have to laugh at yourself sometimes, and hit the books.
blah.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
C is for crock of...
The cookie monster is obese? Okay we get the point: eat your fruits and vegetables but come on! Does cookie monster really have to go extreme? I mean couldn’t Sesame Street have just played Cookie monster a little less, or introduced a new character? “A cookie is a sometimes food” That doesn’t even have a good ring to it. You’re messing with my childhood memories here people!
Since when is it TV’s job to teach our children about how to be healthy. Man, parents are becoming so lazy. Poor Cookie Monster, I hope they let you eat big cookies with lots of chocolate, but only sometimes!
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Sunny side up, over hard or Benedict?
So Pope Benedict eh? Another traditional conservative on issues that I find important; sexuality, women’s rights/roles, and homosexuals. At 78 maybe the point of voting him Pope is to ease the transition of Catholicism into the 21st century as painlessly as possible for the diehards; but most likely that’s just wishful thinking on my part.
I mean the one religion with the most power and influence on people, with the largest amount of followers, the ones who can make some serious change in this world and they don’t have the guts to own up, take notice of the times that are at hand. I mean one small word can change so many lives, save so many lives, and educate people on how to survive…..condoms.
Don’t get me wrong, Catholicism has made a lot of good changes in the recent past, I mean they are even recognizing that there are different religions out there and not everyone follows the words of the bible. But you would think with a population of one billion followers they would try to help solve some of the world’s problems instead of ignoring them. But maybe its just me.
I mean the one religion with the most power and influence on people, with the largest amount of followers, the ones who can make some serious change in this world and they don’t have the guts to own up, take notice of the times that are at hand. I mean one small word can change so many lives, save so many lives, and educate people on how to survive…..condoms.
Don’t get me wrong, Catholicism has made a lot of good changes in the recent past, I mean they are even recognizing that there are different religions out there and not everyone follows the words of the bible. But you would think with a population of one billion followers they would try to help solve some of the world’s problems instead of ignoring them. But maybe its just me.
Monday, April 18, 2005
Very quick, but funny.
Today at 6:30 am the report on the radio was..."There is a snake loose just outside downtown this morning on the beach. Be aware, a snake loose on the beach, its a cute one but its there." This is about 6 blocks from my apartment.
No joke...This is truly being announced on the radio. All they’ve confirmed is that its not a brown snake and that its about 1 meter in length. I will not be walking on the beach this morning that’s for sure!
ha ha, where do I live?
No joke...This is truly being announced on the radio. All they’ve confirmed is that its not a brown snake and that its about 1 meter in length. I will not be walking on the beach this morning that’s for sure!
ha ha, where do I live?
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Ibis
Okay so on my run today I found the coolest little park. There is a nice path that goes all around these different ponds and all over the place there are DUCKS, swans, peacocks and Ibis (the white bird in the picture). You could imagine that I was freaking out loving it. I could barley keep my feet moving in the right direction. It was so cool. Right in the middle of the city this great hidden place, I was loving it. Ill be hitting it up everyday im sure.
Friday, April 15, 2005
Math Wiz
85% Baby!
I got my math test back…. Yep I’m a super star. For a girl who is bad at math im pretty proud of myself.
School is just sooo busy with projects right now, I cant wait to just get into the classroom for a month and not have to worry about projects and whatever.
I have a meeting next week to talk to the man in charge, to see if I can go to New Zealand for my final internship. I’m excited about that opportunity.
Okay well back at it, I’ve got a 1200 word paper to write for math and another project due later in the week. Another fun weekend is ahead for me!
I got my math test back…. Yep I’m a super star. For a girl who is bad at math im pretty proud of myself.
School is just sooo busy with projects right now, I cant wait to just get into the classroom for a month and not have to worry about projects and whatever.
I have a meeting next week to talk to the man in charge, to see if I can go to New Zealand for my final internship. I’m excited about that opportunity.
Okay well back at it, I’ve got a 1200 word paper to write for math and another project due later in the week. Another fun weekend is ahead for me!
Sunday, April 03, 2005
Whit Sunday Islands
Back from our trip, and I think everyone was happy to be back in their own beds.
We started our week getting off the plane to weather that was back in the summer temperatures. It’s been getting cooler in Surfers so we were all happy about that change. Our flight was only an hour and a half and we were there. We got into the taxi on our way to town and saw our first Kangaroo. Unfortunately it was dead on the side of the road; they're just like deer back home. At dusk and dawn they come out to the road to eat and they get smacked by trucks or cars. A sad sighting to say the least but the cabbie got a good laugh out of us.
When we got to our palace it was a little more rustic than some people were use to, I mean the bathrooms weren’t even in our rooms! It was a good little hostel but even I was happy to get out of that room the next day. We had a day about town checking out the sights before our boat trip, so four of us booked another boat trip out to the reef for some diving and snorkeling.
It was a great day and I was beside myself with excitement about being on the Great Barrier Reef. However with all the tourism there wasn’t too much to see. The dive was good, although our whole group seemed to want Brooke and I as their partners and we were crowed together on the whole dive. However I had a good time checking everything out and the Batfish are amazingly huge and friendly. We snorkeled for the rest of the afternoon and had a blast with Julia and Lisa screaming at every fish they came across, but they loved it and Brooke and I got them hooked on underwater life. Julia is convinced that she is going to become a professional snorkeler!
The next day we found Captain Ron and he showed us to our boat that we would call home for the next few days. New Horizon, it was a good sailboat, nothing fancy and our room was in the stern of the boat just under the Captains chair. I wasn’t thrilled about the stairs going up and down form our room but I actually got good at them, even when the boat was rocking.
So we set sail, had dinner, hung out and crashed. Most of the girls were feeling pretty sick the next day as the swells were big and the boat was rocking a lot. Nothing scary, just a whole lot of rocking back and forth. I was strong though and kept everyone in check! We got to our morning spot and got shuttled into shore on the dingy. We hiked up to the lookout and saw the most beautiful spot. White haven beach. Its voted one of the top five beaches in the world, and oh my god I can see why. Because it’s in a Marine park protected for the reef, there is no tourism on the beach, or the whole island for that matter. It was white, white, white sand, soft as baby powder as far as you could see. I’ve never felt anything like it before. The sand is so soft it can clean your silver jewelry. Our boat hands even told me that this sand is the sand used in the lense of the tubule telescope. Amazing. However there is a chance of stingers in the area. Tiny Jellyfish that can really harm you, so we all had to wear these great black wet suits any time we went in the water. It was quite the look. After a bit of chillin on the beach and swimming in the sandy bottom ocean it was time to head back to the boat.
The Captain decided rather than have everyone throw up on the boat and go back to the swells, we went to the bay where we will spend the night and got off the boat. We headed for the scuba spot and got suited up. There was only Brooke myself and Giean who were certified divers so guess what…we got to go alone. Yep we jumped in the water and dove by ourselves. I mean we couldn’t really get lost but I was still a bit nervous. This reef was amazing; it was alive with fish of all kinds. I was partial to the parrotfish that were the size of dogs. And the huge bat fish that followed us around. 37 minuets later we popped up and found out that we were nowhere near the beach. We had to call captain over to pick us up in the dingy. We passed over our equipment and headed to the beach snorkeling our way over. We spent the night in this bay and had sunset on the beach with drinks. It was a nice break from the boat.
The next morning we took off for one more bay and some more scuba. This was another great part of the reef and it had tons of caves to check out. The visibility under water wasn’t perfect but we had a batfish be-friend us and he followed us our whole dive. Again we got to go alone and check out everything. Then it was back to main land and a bit of shopping. The funny thing was we all had land sickness. When the land feels like it’s moving like a boat. A strange and unpleasant feeling but it went away after a good nights rest.
A couple of drinks at the bar with everyone from our boat, a mechanical bull ride later and I was crashing and out like a light.
So a bit of sun, tan, and burn later I’m back at it with major projects due this week. Man, am I ever glad I went to see all that though.
Check out the pictures at http://sarahscene.myphotoalbum.com/
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Off to the WhitSundays
So I’m heading out on my first real trip here in Oz. We are going to the Whit Sundays and I can’t wait.
Ill be spending the week on a sailboat and scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef.
Ill let you know how it goes, but I’m mostly just excited about getting out of Surfers.
Talk to you in a week!
Ill be spending the week on a sailboat and scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef.
Ill let you know how it goes, but I’m mostly just excited about getting out of Surfers.
Talk to you in a week!
Nick and Julia
Nick came over for dinner with the ladies. We had asian night, Nick also lived in asia for a year teaching. I made sushi and he made an asian salad. What a yummy dinner!
Monday, March 21, 2005
Taipei?
I found this on the internet. Is it me or does that look like Taiwan? Taiwanise cops, scooters, street and...bird?
Seems like a typical day for a cop in Taiwan.
Seems like a typical day for a cop in Taiwan.
Sunday, March 20, 2005
Lifesaving Competitions
Then we hiked down the beach for about 2 hours and checked out the races for the lifesaving competitions. Aussies are famous for thier lifeguards and I saw why today. Man they are hard core!
Katie and Julia in the master bathroom
Yep, im standing in the room taking the picture. The whole apartment is designed so you can see the view from anyroom. The whole place is glass.
Saturday, March 19, 2005
Q1
The world's tallest Residential buliding. Today we went to check out the open house and see the apartments...I think im in love with the 1.2 million dollar one.
Check out the web page for more info
http://www.goldcoastaustralia.com/106236.php
Our new pet
This crow comes to say hello to us everyday. I swear we are going to come home one day and find him IN our apartment hanging out. If you cant tell he's HUGE!
Friday, March 18, 2005
Yep 5 am!
So I started my teaching this week and yep...I got the school where you have to get up at 5 am, to catch the bus at 6 am, to drive an hour to get to school. But at least I get to see some amazing sun rises!
It’s a nice little school in Tweed heads about 45 minutes away over the boarder into New South Wales!
I am teaching in a grade one class, its nice and the kids are fun, but I can tell already I have one little boy that is going to be my buddy the whole time I’m there. Ky. He seems special, like ADD kind of special. A nice little challenge for me I guess!
My teacher is pretty nice, she's been teaching a long time so it will be good to learn from her. The school is really laid back, you should have seen all us city kids coming in on the first day. High heels, skirts, blouses etc, I mean we all looked dressed to the nines, then we met the staff in their surf clothes, shorts, t-shits and runners...I mean this is my kind of teaching gear!
For the next month we go into the school only on Thursdays and then after exams we do 4 weeks straight. That should be interesting. Ill be asleep by 7pm every night!
Lots of homework to get done this weekend, Easter break is coming up and then all our projects are due. And I don’t want to be doing any of the work on our sailing trip around the Whit Sunday Islands.
Thursday, March 10, 2005
School and Sleep
Trying to write a paper and get up for the morning classes is starting to get to me. I’m so tired I'm going to bed at 9 pm tonight. I’m such a party animal.
We have a paper (2500 words and at least 20 references) due on Monday and everyone is freaking out about it. Imp pretty calm about the whole thing because im so tired I don’t really care.
This program has lost its luster and is finally showing itself to be the evil time eater it is.
Although I am having fun on the side planning my trip to the Whitsunday Islands and I joined the scuba diving club where we are going on a dive trip to Vanawatu (Where Survivor was filmed!) Plus we do day dives in the area and there is a trip planned to Brisbane for a couple of days and 8 dives. It’s going to be a crazy diving trip. But right now its amazing animal season and I've been told that Ill see a shark!
Tomorrow I find out where I will be doing my first practical teaching placement. God I just hope its close to here because if its not I have to take a bus at 5 am to make it to school on time...can you imagine?
We have a paper (2500 words and at least 20 references) due on Monday and everyone is freaking out about it. Imp pretty calm about the whole thing because im so tired I don’t really care.
This program has lost its luster and is finally showing itself to be the evil time eater it is.
Although I am having fun on the side planning my trip to the Whitsunday Islands and I joined the scuba diving club where we are going on a dive trip to Vanawatu (Where Survivor was filmed!) Plus we do day dives in the area and there is a trip planned to Brisbane for a couple of days and 8 dives. It’s going to be a crazy diving trip. But right now its amazing animal season and I've been told that Ill see a shark!
Tomorrow I find out where I will be doing my first practical teaching placement. God I just hope its close to here because if its not I have to take a bus at 5 am to make it to school on time...can you imagine?
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Fire Alarm?
Yep a fire alarm went off around 10 pm and we only heard it because our door was open. It was on another floor. So the fire trucks came and we took pictures not knowing if there really was a fire or if it was a false alarm. Although our buliding had fire alarms going off 2 or 3 times that week so we took a good guess that it was a false one.
Friends
Julia my roommate, Liam the Aussie, and Annie the nextdoor neighbour (also in 'the program')
The Sarahs
These are my two good friends, Sarah and Sarah. Then theres me, the original Sarah. I think in total there are 6 Sarah's in my program. Ive never met so many before in my life. Maybe we should start a club!
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Australian slang that Ive actually heard!
Ace! : Excellent! Very good!
Arvo : afternoon
Amber fluid : beer
Aussie : Australian
Beaut, beauty :great, fantastic
Big Mobs : loads, a lot of
Bloody : very
Dodgy :poor quality
Bull dust : rubbish
Cactus : dead, broken
Click :kilometre - "it's 20 clicks away"
Come good :turn out ok
Cost big bikkies :expensive
Cut snake :(mad as a)very angry
Deadset :true / the truth
Docket :a bill, receipt
Doco :documentary
Exy :expensive
Fair go :a chance / break
G'Day :hello!
Give it away :give up
Going off :good fun
Good oil :useful information, a good idea, the truth
Good on ya :well done
Grouse :great, terrific
Heaps :a lot
Have a go : give it a try
Iffy :dodgy
It's gone walkabout :it's lost, can't be found
Kick the bucket :to die
Knock back :refuse
Mate's rate :cheaper than usual for a friend
Mate's discount :cheaper than usual for a friend
No worries! :no problem / its okay
Pig's arse! :I don't agree
Quid, make a :earn a living
Rack off :get lost! get out of here!
Reckon! :for sure
Right :okay
Ripper :Great
Rooted :ruined, broken
She'll be apples :It'll be alright
She'll be right :it'll be okay
Stoked :very pleased
Too right :definitely
Thursday, February 24, 2005
The walk up to Cape Byron
For a mini break we went to Byron bay for 2 nights. We hung out on the beach and enjoyed the small town feeling of the area. (Think Canmore with ocean and sun instead of mountains and snow) After a day on the beach, in the pool, in the sun, and eating at amazing little cafes and restaurants, it was time for an adventure. 3 out of 7 of us hiked up to the lighthouse. Running shoes, beach and an amazingly strong sun started this wonderful hike! Yep, I love sand in my runners. Anyway we found the trailhead and I was happy to be out of the sand and onto the stairs...wait, what? What is this, stairs? Yes its true lighthouses are located on TOP of BIG hills.
So sweating our faces off and sand in our shoes we hiked the million steps to one lookout. The most eastern tip of Australia. Whew! That was worth it. THEN, we hiked higher and into the area with no trees or shade of any kind, and it is now noon so even if there could have been shade it wouldn’t be there at noon with the sun right on top of us. I swear, I thought I was going to pass out. So this beautiful lighthouse, which looked like all other lighthouses I've ever seen, was finally in our sights. I got to the top and found some shade and plopped down.
The 3 of us sat there for about 20 minutes just enjoying the temperature difference. So when we decided to head down to town again, low and behold we found an ice-cream vender! Ice cream to the rescue again! This ice cream is special too, it was voted in the top ten in Australia...well no wonder why, everyone who finds this guy is dying of heat and thinks that an angel has come to deliver them cold, wonderful, sweet ice-cream. I would have voted it the best in the world when I got there.
Okay so back to the hike, we took the easy route down, yes I said easy. We hiked down the coastal rainforest path, which was all downhill, Remember that all lighthouses are located on top of BIG hills, so now we had to go down. Through the woods, I was loving the shade of the trees, but the other two girls freaked themselves out about spiders and snakes and they started to run. Then Julia, my roomie, actually saw a snake and all hell broke loose. Running downhill, tired, laughing at ourselves and Julia actually thinking she could die in this forest. Anyway I kept them in reality check, you know me I had the situation under control (read as too tired to run) Anyway we hit the sand and I was more than happy to leave that hill behind me. We went straight to our rooms for our bathers and jumped into the freezing cold pool...beauty.
So my legs are sore and I can hardly walk and I need to study for my exam, ON SUNDAY! Boo. School starts on Monday so the adventures will be on hold for a bit while I figure out this education gig.
Till the next amusing bit of life...
Monday, February 21, 2005
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