On The Rocks

August 2nd

Today was much more exciting than the previous day. Later this week, the student’s parents are going to have the opportunity to come in during school in order to see what their kids have been working on. Some of the students participate in extra-curricular activities such as band, guitar, violin, choir, and dance. These students will be performing during Education day and in order to practice their performance, we had an assembly to come and watch them! First up was the junior band, and I must admit it you could definitely tell that these student had barely picked up their instruments, however as the various performances went on, they definitely got better. The dancers ended the assembly and they were by far my favorite. I was impressed to see how many options these students had when it came to these extra clubs and activities, we didn’t have any of these options till middle or even high school.

Later, we had plans to save Stephanie from her host family and meet one of Jill’s friends for dinner. Before picking up Stephanie we had heard a little bit of her host situation, however once we had her in the car she really started to let loose and tell us what all of the things that had happened. Apparently, her host mom/teacher told her that she wished she could have picked how she would have hosted because she would have chosen someone else, she bashed the way she taught and wrote her letters in front of the students and told her that she was going to mess them up, and told her that she couldn’t wait to cash the check she got for having her so that she could pay her mortgage. On top of all of this her host didn’t take Stephanie to do anything the previous weekend, and one of the first nights being there she woke up with a bug in her ear and had to take a trip to the doctors! In other words, things were getting to be quite ridiculous, and Jill felt so bad that she asked for Laura’s number (our professor) to call and let her know that she would be more than willing to take on another student to host if it could be arranged.

Eventually, we ended up making our way down to the Rocks to a pub called the “Observer” get some more cider, and of course wedges! We waited their till Jill’s friend Amanda met us there, and then it was time to try out this place called “Pancakes on the Rocks”. I must admit I am not much of a pancake fan; however, these were by far the best pancakes that I have ever eaten! I ordered “Blueberry Heaven” and it consisted of 2 pancakes with blueberry topping, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.! On top of all that, before we had eaten the pancakes Jill and I had split some chicken and mushroom crepes that were also quite delectable. I don’t know if I have ever been so full in my life!!...Ihop has some serious catching up to do!

On the way home we had to take Stephanie back to the dragon women that she was staying with, and I felt really bad having to leave her there, but at least we had plans to pick her up the following night as well. During the car ride, Jill introduced us to “Love Song Dedications” with David Mercer haha. The host has the deepest voice ever and is definitely a perfect fit for the saps that call in to dedicate songs to their “lovers”! Some of the stories that people call in with are ridiculously entertaining. Jill and I ended up rockin’ out to some Usher and Bet Midler “Wind Beneath My Wings” haha it was great.

Monday, Monday, Mondayyy

August 1st

Not a whole lot happened today, though after a long weekend I must admit I could tell it was Monday. I spent a lot of time helping the students finish up their fish projects by putting glitter glue on the lips, fins, and tail; the finished product turned out so cute! After school we had another professional development meeting which was once again quite boring. there was a group of the “American’s” seated at the back of the meeting and they did decide to pick on us a bit and ask us a question about our discipline procedures that are in place in the States, but none of us really knew the answer to that one, oops.

When we got back to the house Katie and I decided that we really needed to work on the homework we had due for that week since we had plans for the rest of the week. Our homework place lately seems to be down in the basement next to the fireplace, it’s so much warmer down there!! Even though we spent a lot of time down there I really didn’t get anything done, I was really struggling to focus on what I needed to.

Tugboats and Harbors

July 31st
Got to sleep in a little more today which is always nice! At around 1 o'clock we were meeting up with the rest of the students and their hosts that are at Rouse Hill Public School. One of the teacher's boyfriend has a tugboat and he offered to take us all out for a ride through the harbor. Though I have been able to see the harbor, Opera House and bridge from land, I must say it is just as breathtaking from a boat, and it couldn't have been nicer weather! The sun was shining and all in good company. Once we anchored the boat at a little beach area, we had a little buffet of various foods known in Australia. We were in charge of the candy (Jaffers, Fantails, Minties) or "Lollies" as they would call them, and others brought Lamingtons, TimTams, homemade desserts and other finger foods. So we all grazed about the food and read the trivia that was on the wrappers of the Fantails. Eventually, it was time to pull in the anchor and head back to the dock, but overall I am glad that Neil was generous enough to offer to take all of us on his boat/home.

Katie, Jillian (host teacher) and I :)

While we were on the boat we had been talking about what we did over the weekend and about our hosts, and I'm pretty sure that there are some that could be jealous of how lucky Katie and I got :)






Not much happened once we got home. We ate some pasta with mushrooms, spinach, and tomatos in it and then Katie and I headed down to the basement to do some hw by the fire. I really didn't get anything done but the fire was nice! haha Plus once Katie went to bed Wilson decided he wanted to join me on the couch :)

Blue Mountains!

July 30th
I finally got to sleep in a little today, even though I still got up a couple hrs before my alarm, which happens almost every morning for some reason. Anyways, today is the day we headed off to the Blue Mountains! We first stopped in this cute little town called Leura that had cute little shops that reminded me a lot of Lexington. We wandered around for a little bit and one of our stops included a little candy shop, which happened to sell some A&W root beer (unfortunately no Vernors). The previous day at the Fiddler we were talking about root beer and Vernors and whether or not they had anything like it here that would compare to it. So, Jillian decided to buy herself a can to see what exactly root beer was. Needless to say, you could tell by the look on her face that she had never had anything like it before, and was not a fan. I remember Helena and Vivian trying it for the first time in the states, and though Vivian loved it, Helena for some reason thought that it tasted like toothpaste haha. Jillian just thought that it tasted like medicine; neither of their comparisons I can relate to. After Jill took a few sips hoping to acquire a taste, she decided to give up and hand off the rest to Katie and I.

After eating lunch in Leura, it was time to make our way to the Three Sisters. The three sisters are three rock formations that stand on the Blue mountains and are part of an Aboriginal legend. The legend says that they caused a battle after trying to marry into a different tribe, they were turned to stone for protection but the elder that did this was killed in battle so they remained this way. Once we saw them from a distance it was time for an up close and personal visit to the three ladies to get some more pictures. As we were waiting to make our way down the side of the mountain (via built in stairs) there were people climbing up them that sounded like they had just run a marathon, and I quickly realized why. I'm not sure how far down they had climbed up from but the stairs were quite steep and uneven!


We finally made it to more of a path that went along the side of the mountains, and this part of the hike took about 1.5hrs or so. Though a lot of it was wooded area, there were lots of points that allowed you to peek through the trees and see more of the mountains. This whole thing was peaceful and very enjoyable to walk through. At one point we heard russling in some leaves and turned to look and find a fat mouse making its way up the hill. I took this opportunity to grab Katie's shoulders and she jumped and screamed so loud I don't think we had to worry about coming across anymore wild life haha. I'm not sure what scared her more though, me or the scenic railway that had to take us back up the mountain. This railway is apparently the steepest in the world and Katie was all sorts of freaking out; Jillian and I found this quite humorous! When we finally got off, the guy that was there to greet us told Katie that they sold drinks upstairs, and that she should celebrate her survival haha.


Once we got back outside, there to meet us were some um, very interesting aboriginal statues there to greet us. We took it upon ourselves to have a photo shoot with them !

The plan from here was to take the last path back across the mountains back to where we started. However, these plans were a bit dampered after we ran across some yellow caution tape and a sign that said that there had been some dibre that had fallen and blocked our path. Therefore we opted to take the road back rather than paying for a bus. We were all quite exhausted when we got back home and I managed to sneak in a bit of a nap before dinner. They call this a "Nana Nap" rather than a "Cat Nap"; I think that I will be using this terminology from this point forward haha. For dinner, we grilled up some of the steaks that Jillian won in her meat tray, and had some amazing cheesy potatos and a salad.

The day wasn't over yet tho! Now it was time to meet up with some of Jillian's friends (Marc, Adam, and Mitch) in Parramatta at a place named PJ's Irish Pub. When we were on our way in they bouncer noticed our ID's were clearly not Australian and said that the "special visitors" could go through a different door and get in free, rather that paying the $10 cover!! Gotta love being the foreign one!lol. Jillian's friends were I believe all from her Uni. and were teachers themselves. They were talking to us about how much they were in debt and were surprised to find that we paid like five times as much for college than we did and decided that they need not complain haha. They then tried to convince that we should just move here and make more money, esp since our dollar is really not helping me out at all here.

Eventually it was time to hit the dance floor, which is always a good time. At least until someone gets kicked out haha. While we were on the dance floor, there was a guy that decided that it was a good idea to turn the speaker into a corner because it was in his ear. Wellll...this made the sound even worse so I reached behind Marc to turn it back around and he helped me a little bit. After we got it turned around a bouncer came over and told Marc not to touch anything, and after denying that he had and that it wasnt his fault the bouncer decided to kick him out. Apparently it was time to go lol. We then decided to make our way back to Marc's house for a little while rather than heading home.

Before we left to go out for the night Jillian had told us that she thought Marc was getting the wrong idea and that he was trying to make moves on her. Well, Katie and I got to wittness this first hand and it was sooo clear that Jill was not interested but he was clearly not getting the hint. Man I hate when guy do that!! lol but I must admit it was a bit entertaining to watch when its not you! Eventually Jill had had enough and it was time to go home and passss outttt!!

M is for Mitten

July 29th

Since Jill's classroom was going to pretty much be doing spelling tests all moring, I decided to go check out one of the special education classrooms. This school has about 5 different classes that are designated special education, which I found to be quite a lot ! The one that I was in had about 8 kids in either kindergarten or 1st grade, all of which were diagnosed with some degree of Autism. I thought they were all great, and it made me wonder if I should have specialized in special education. One of the kids I was told didn't talk unless he thought it suited him, but apparently talking to me suited him just fine. He brought up a puzzle and started to name all of the animals that were on it, then not to much later he brought me a monkey and started to rub it on my face. H ewas too cute, I am hoping to be able to go back to that classroom before I leave.

After recess it was time for me to go back to the class that I have normally been in and do a little mini-lesson on where I am from. I read them the book "M is for Mitten", passed around some postcards, and the petoskey stone that I brought to give to my host teacher. While I was reading the book I stopped to explain the different things that it was talking about and was able to relate some of them back to familiar things that they could relate to here. I also got lots of hands up with different questions, some of which were relevant and many were not, but thats ok, I think they still enjoyed learning a little more about me and where I'm from (plus I sound funny lol).

On the calender in the staff room for today it says "Please Use Bins" which is code for PUB! haha They apparently use this phrase when talking about going out to have a drink after work or what they did on the weekends, just in case there are students around. So, after school today we all met up at a place called The Mean Fiddler to get drinks and of course WEDGES! I think I might have to bring home some sweet chili sauce :) At one point while we were sitting there, there was a man that came over to sell raffle tickets to win a meat tray. Jillian told the man that if she bought tickets she had to win because she NEVER wins thing, and low and behold she had the winning ticket! The man said that there was over $50 worth of meat on the tray, it was quite massive lol.

Once everyone had eaten they all pretty much just left, so I guess it was time for us to head back home as well. The rest of the night was pretty chill and we all sat around watching "The Sweetest Thing" for a while, until we all gradually headed off to bed. I think that I stayed up a while to skype with Madre which is always a nice way to end the night :)

Fish and Prossy Spotting!!

July 28th

Today started out with a boring meeting before school lol. They just took turns talking about whatever anouncemets that they needed to make. As far as what we did in class today we pretty much just worked on an art project all day. I was a little surprised to see that, but I guess next week is "education week" and the parents are allowed to come into the classroom to see what they have been doing in class. They worked on a really cute fish, that had you put scales made out of cupcake papers cut into fours. Once they finished the actual fish, they painted a background for it on a piece of paper. Jill let me make one myself and gave me a copy of the cutout they used, so that I could have the option to use the project myself one day.

After school we went to the shops again to finish getting supplies for some other projects that she has planned for the rest of the week and next week. Then we had plans to go out to dinner with one of Jillian's friends but she decided to go to the movies or something instead; but we went out anyways. We headed into town and went to a nice little bar to get some Wedges, Sour Cream, and Sweet Chili sauce (my new favorite) and had a cider to go along with it. After that we decided to head to get some real food and eat at a Thai restaurant. I naturally ordered Pad Thai with chicken, but even though this was a really nice place I think I still prefer the little hole in the wall Bancok Star in Port Huron.

On the way home Jill pointed out the direction that she said she would normally go to get home but that we were taking a little detour through King's Cross to go "Prossy Spotting!!". Apparently this meant that we were going to look for prostitutes haha. So, as we creeped slowly in her car through King's Cross we managed to spot three "Prossys" ! One of which we were pretty sure was a man lol. After all of this excitement it was time to go home and get some sleep :)

Another School day

July 27th

Before school today all of the stage 1 (1st and 2nd grade) teachers got together to share some ideas, which I thought was great! I think it is important to collaborate and pass on ideas you have to one another rather than just locking yourself up in your own little classroom with your own students.
As the students started to make their way into the classroom one of them presented me with a very colorful  card that they made for me! I love when I get stuff like this :)First thing we did as usual was our reading groups. However, I must admit, I kicked some butt playing a homophone memory game with my reading group today haha. I've still got it! I remember mom use to hate playing that game with me ! After that they moved on to their Phonics routine, which I admit I find a bit odd. The teacher holds flashcards up with various phonemes and they all "chant" together the different sounds that it can make and then sometimes even say the number of letters it is to clarify things such as "f" and "ph". Definitely a new method that I'm not familiar with.

They also have this think called "sip and crunch". It is a designated time in class when the students are go get out fruits and/or veggies with water or juice while they work; in our class they get read to during this time. I guess this is to promote healthy eating? These kids also have scripture inlcuded into their schedule, which I found to be a bit of a surprise since this is a public school. The students get split up into groups based on their religion and those who don't have one or theirs isn't offered go to a room that is for non-scripture where they are just given busy work.

After school we headed to the mall so Jill could find some crafty items for the art projects the kids are working on. While she did that Katie and I headed to the bookstore to see if we could find some books with Australian authors. No such luck there but I did find a really cute book about fall that I'm really excited about for some reason. There falls here aren't the same as ours, even though it's winter a majority of their trees still have their leaves on them.

For dinner, Katie and I got to experience our first meat pie. I must admit I was a little nervous to try something called a meat pie, but it actually wasn't too bad! It seemed to me to basically be a pie filled with sloppy joe stuff. I told Jill this and she looked at me funny wondering what exactly as sloppy joe was. I guess here they call sweatshirts without hoods "sloppy joes" haha. I can see how this might be a little confusing. After dinner Katie and I decided it would be a good idea to go downstairs by the fireplace (its actually warm here!!) and do the hw that we had due that night and Sunday since we probably wouldn't have much time to do it the rest of the week.