Monday, October 31, 2005

Happy Halloween!


happy halloween
Originally uploaded by Sala.
Happy Birthday Colleen!
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

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.

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!

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.

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!