Week 6

So much stuff has been going on and I have realized how slack I have been about blogging.  Lets see last weekend I went to Brisbane and absolutely fell in love! I love having so much available at my finger tips and it was just so busy and alive.  It wasn't like being in L.A., Phoenix, or other large U.S. cities.  It felt almost like being back in San Luis.  It was as claustrophobic and people were very friendly.  Granted I wasn't there very long so this could all just be a temporary illusion of someone enamored with the lifestyle.  I went shopping and compared to the weekend before (which was a $500 day) I hardly made a dent in my bank account.  I amassed 3 new pairs of shoes and a dress for the formal (which here is basically a combination of prom and graduation, so parents and teachers all come).
On Sunday I was back in Oakey packing my stuff to move into Toowoomba.  I moved in with a young teacher aide and her husband but this living situation was short lived.  They have 2 very long haired indoor cats and this was just way too much for my allergies. So I am now living with another teacher and her flat-mate (roomie).  It has been great and I am right around the corner from the gym, so hot Australian body here I come haha.  It also helps to be living with someone who has the same students as I do so I can went and bounce teaching strategies off her.
Lets see what else is new? The last day for year 12 is on Friday and the last day for year 11 is the 30th  I believe.  So for the last 3 weeks (only 2 actual weeks of teaching) I will only have the year 8's and 9's.  This will be such a nice break!
Another huge change is that I will be back in Montana for Christmas.  I am excited to be back but at the same time I am bummed about all the travel that I am going to be missing out on.  I am determined to try and get some good weekend trips in over the next 3 weekends or so.  I also need to start shipping my stuff back so that I am not having to pack so many bags back.
Well I will try to stay on top of this better but it's a challenge with the stress of wrapping up the last couple of weeks.  So be patient!  

3 weeks down!

It feels odd that I am counting down my time here already and while it seems to be flying by, I can't wait to be done teaching.  While I am finally getting the hang of teaching here, everyday seems to be such a challenge.  I just wish I was having more days like I did in Montana, where I felt successful and loved teaching everyday.  I just hate being the strict teacher that I need to be.

On a happier note tomorrow is my birthday and I cannot wait to see what 24 has in store for me.  It is weird to be having my birthday in summer! I am so used to the cold and snow on my birthday.  It also seems so unreal because of the lack of Halloween Mania! I just love Halloween and am making a huge deal out of it in my classes.  I am bringing candy and (here is a huge nerdy teacher moment) creating a Halloween chemical reaction!!! It will change from orange to black! So cool! I am so excited! Haha.  We carved our pumpkin last week and sadly it will not make it to the day.  The heat here is just too much for the poor pumpkin.

I got to have a bit of home this weekend when we went to the rodeo.  It is so nice that even though I am a world away rodeo is still rodeo.  There was even some female steer riding!

I am attaching some pictures of our lovely pumpkin and one of Skippy as well.  Skippy is the kangaroo that I get to see on a daily basis.  One of the teachers is taking care of him since he is an orphan.  He is cute and I love watching him hope around.  I find him so fascinating and I think that if I ever ended up in Australia I could see myself doing wildlife rehabilitation.

Alright not much else in my life.  I will try to do a better job at this an post more often.  I am finding that if I plan for a week at a time with my lesson plans, I do not feel as exhausted all week so that is my new goal.

Happy Halloween all! 

Work Work!

So I know I haven't posted in a while but I really haven't been doing much besides teaching and trying to get a hold on the content.  I have been teaching year 8 for the past 4 lessons and thankfully I have improved since the first epic lesson bomb! Today was really fun because I was so excited about teaching them about animal cells (body cells) and this in turn got them excited and interested! It was fun to have some good discussions with them because some of their questions are sooooo off base.  Today's lesson I also had to wing because last night I went to "To Glee or Not to Glee" which was this Glee show put on by 6 local school glee programs.  Our kids were in it, which is why I went, and it was fun to see them out of school mode.

This weekend I am going with my host mum to the Gold Coast and going to Indy.  Which I believe has something to do with race cars and Good Charlotte is playing (right? I didn't even know they were still doing shows).  I think it will be a good time and will be so nice getting away from Oakey for a weekend.  There is not much to do here and to make it worse I am car-less so I can't even escape into Toowoomba to go shopping.  I hate being at the mercy of everyone else.

It is hard to believe that I have been here for 2 weeks already and even harder to believe that it is almost the end of the month/my birthday! The girls and I are carving their first ever Halloween pumpkin so that will be a lot of fun.  I just hope that they are as excited as I am but some how I don't think that they are.

Alright well I have lessons to plan and papers to write so I should hurry off to that.

Science is universal....Right?

Well I have survived the first 3 days of teaching and what a change.  I am finding that the Australian schools run a bit more like college classes than our high schools.  They don't have daily work that they are assessed on but rather they have an assessment piece, like a project, essay or exam, per unit.  They also all seem to be very rowdy.  I guess I had just expected to walk in and it would be as perfect as my Chinook classes and    I am quickly finding out that even my worst class in Chinook is no where near as horrid as the worst class here.  I am teaching my first solo lesson tomorrow, which means I have to create a power point from scratch and guided notes all tonight.  My cooperating teacher told me not to focus so much on content this class period but rather focus on the behavior.  Did I mention that I am getting so homesick for my class in Chinook? I just missing have complete control of the classroom and knowing how the system works.  I love being in Australia, don't get me wrong, but perhaps trying to teach here was not the best idea.  I know I was this nervous to teach my first lesson there so it will only be a matter of time before I am just as comfortable here.

On a happier note I finally got to see a live Kangaroo! Actually I get to see it everyday because a teacher in my staff room does wildlife rescues and she has a little male kangaroo.  He is adorable! Also last night I taught the 9 year old girl that I am staying with the dance to Gangnam Style....yea my house mum hates me for it I'm sure haha.  Today we had to go to the store to find some  tator-tots (which the girl's had  no idea what I was talking about!) and I managed to find a pumpkin for carving, score! So the girls and I will be doing that in then next couple weeks, pictures to follow.  I am hoping that this will alleviate some home sickness and the lack of Halloween that is here! On Friday I will be going out with a couple of the younger teachers and the next person that I will be living with.  this will be a nice way to take a break from school and the classroom.  And maybe even check out some Aussie hotties haha.

Alright well I have a PowerPoint and guided notes to create so I had better get working on that.

Heat Wave

Well I have been in Australia for 4 whole days and I am dying from the heat!!! Holy cow does it get hot here and it is hot from early in the morning until very late at night.  It hardly cools down ever which is why I think it is so much worse that Montana heat!  Other than the heat though things have been great.  I have been with my host family for 3 days and they are better than I could have dreamed of.  The youngest girl is 9 and full of attitude.  She is always making me laugh and is great entertainment.  The older daughter is 17 and seems so much different that 17 year olds in the states.  For one thing she only recently got her driver's license and it is so much more of a process here.  They these 3 different stages that they have to go through before they can have a free license or adult license.  It is weird to think how easy it was to get my license at 15.

Another large adjustment other than the time has been the grocery stores.  I didn't think that food would be much different over here but it is.  They have many of the same things but even then things taste different.  And simple things like graham crackers and many spices/seasonings are rare to non-existent.  This has really put a damper on my cooking since not only do I have to convert everything to metric but I also have to find substitutes for some basic ingredients! Speaking of damper, today we went to the Camp Oven Festival which is basically like a pioneer days sort of things and I got my first taste of damper which is like a dense bread.  It was neat to see everyone cooking with the camp ovens and there were booths set up which showed how all these people would survive in the outback.  The camp oven is basically a dutch oven and they use it to cook everything over the coals.  I bought a cook book for my dad, so we will see how all this works out, I bet it takes some getting used to.

A camp oven setup 

Herding dog demonstration 

Alrighty well school starts tomorrow and even though it is only 9 pm, I am exhausted! It will be weird walking into a classroom and not seeing all the familiar faces of my Chinook students.  I have to say I really do miss them and can only hope that the Oakey students are as amazing as they were.  I'm sure they will be!

Home down under

So after a good 16 hours on a plane I got to Brisbane at 1 in the afternoon.  I stayed with my supervisor the first night and today I will be going to meet my host family.  I have left my computer on Montana time and it is so weird to go to bed at 3 in the morning there but have it be 11 pm here.  Also it is 4 pm there now but I just woke up and it is 8 am here.  This will really take some getting used to!

Toowoomba really reminds me of Pismo Beach California.  There are the same sorts of trees and landscapes.  But that the constant reminder of the accent lets me know that I am world's away.  It will be an adventure that is for sure! I am looking forward to meeting my host family but there is also some nervousness mixed in.  After all I am spending 5 weeks there so I really want everyone to hit it off.

The day before departure

The past week has been crazy to say the least! I finished up in Chinook on the 21st and it was very bittersweet.  I had such a great group of students and they all made it so hard to leave.  At the same time Australia is an adventure and opportunity that I just can't pass up.  I am glad that I got to be in Chinook for all the homecoming activities!

Between Chinook and Australia I have had about two weeks off but those two weeks have been far from relaxing.  I have been working on (more like freaking out about) my teacher work sample and packing.  Holy packing! I have packed and repacked numerous times and still have two very overweight suitcases.  What can I say....I am such a girl.  I went from Havre to Bozeman to Helena and the finally to California and I fly out tomorrow! We drove all night on Saturday and got to Pismo Beach at 11 am on Sunday.  While here I decided to sneak in one more adventure and I went Rockfishing with my dad today.  We were up at 4 am and at the docks by 5.  We spent 6 hours on the ocean and I caught the first and largest fish between the two of us.  But my luck ran out early and all I snagged were 3 fish and a nasty sunburn on my face which looks a lot like my Ray Bans.  So I am headed to Australia looking like a dork, with a Ray Ban suntan line.

Well final packing to do and the next post that I will be doing will be in Australia!