First the window, then it's to the wall. Lil' Jon, he always tells the truth.

The last day of school before holidays made me beyond happy. We had casual dress day and it also served as a spirit/fundraising day for children with diabetes. Everyone was supposed to wear all one colour and bring in a gold coin (either aus$1 or aus$2) donation. This little boy was wearing a Georgia Bulldogs t-shirt! He didn't have any real bulldog spirit or have any idea where he got the shirt, but, my goodness, he was wearing the shirt and that was all I needed from him.

Gooooo Dawgs! Sic' em! Woof woof woof!

The first few days of holiday have been very relaxing. I have had the house to myself for a lot of the weekend, so I have been working really hard on my portfolio, watching movies, and trying to walk down to the shops at least once a day. I cooked a recipe my mom gave me for dinner for everyone and it was a success! Everyone seemed to like it and complimented me on the meal. Phew...sort of a relief since I'm so used to cooking for one, I wasn't even sure if the dish was going to be decent!

Even though I am enjoying my downtime, I am very much excited to get to South Korea with Chloe! She has been telling me all of the things that we are going to do and prepping me for any culture shock that I might have. Bring. it. on.

1 Confirmed Case!

Yes, of swine flu at Bellaire. But it's not me! One of the poor little preps was diagnosed as having swine flu, but the newsletter that was sent out said they were recovering quickly.

Today was the first day that I really felt comfortable in the classroom and had full reign with what I was doing. I know that it's sad but I think the only reason I felt this way was because Brie wasn't there. I didn't have to worry about if I was taking too long with the lesson or if the kids were talking about something irrelevant. My classroom would not function the way that Brie's does, and it is way frustrating trying to work underneath someone who insists on sticking to their rules. Especially with such young children I think they deserve to stretch their minds in the creative aspect of their work. So many of the students have problems coming up with their own idea and I think it is because they have been prompted with everything that they have worked on.

I love working with this grade though because they are so easy to work with. They believe almost everything you say, but there are the rare moments when some of them will pick up on your sarcasm. Today Lily asked the question that everyone but my students seemed to be asking: "Ms. T, do you have a boyfriend back in America?". I could tell she was disappointed by my response so I told her that Nick Jonas had asked me out on a date, but I turned him down. "Why did you say no?" she asked. "Well he's not really my type. He was too short." I replied. Lily told me that was alright and that I should go on a date with Mr. Whiteside (one of the Middle teachers) because he is really tall, which he is. I love the logic of a 7 year old...why didn't I think of that? Declan was sitting at the same table and had a little smirk on his face throughout the entire conversation. He gave me a look afterwards that told me he knew what I was up to...smart boy.

Well, I'm off to the premiere of The Hannah Montana movie with Johanna! (Yeah, they're a bit behind here...)

That dream I'm dreaming.

So, I started writing this post almost a month after my last and realized that I had way too many Australian adventures to tell y'all about. I particularly don't want to go back and describe everything that I have done, so instead of boring you with that I will include the link to all of my pictures at the end of this post.

This post will dedicated to what I have been doing in the past month in more of a daily life context as opposed to the flashy traveling and sightseeing context. During the week I really don't have much going on besides writing lesson plans every now and then, so I was trying to figure out why I hadn't been updating the blog and found 3 things that have distracted me:
1. "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold
2. "Open House" by Elizabeth Berg
3. "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
If you know me and books, you would actually be quite proud of me for finishing one! Considering the last book that I finished was the second Twilight book (I stopped midway of the third...oops) back in November, I found myself completely caught up in the recount of Susie's life and afterlife in "The Lovely Bones". It was a pretty easy read and sort of the perfect book for wintertime while curled up in bed because of the graphic descriptions and insights into people's minds. I was less than impressed with "Open House," and I really don't know why I read it besides that it was in Oprah's Book Club. Nothing inspirational, thought-provoking, or stimulating for the mind. I am beyond excited to be currently reading "The Kite Runner" because it has been on my list for quite awhile. I am proud to say that I am making decent progress on it, and with the holidays right around the corner, I hope to finish it next week.

Ahh, the holidays. This is truly a well-needed holiday, and while I will only have about 5 days off starting this Saturday for myself before I start traveling, I must say that it will be nice to relax. I plan on getting my hair cut, working on my portfolio (gross), watching movies, and staying warm wrapped up in my red blanket. Don't worry though, I'm not going to be completely boring though! I have booked a flight to South Korea for a week and a half! I will be going with Chloe to visit her family who lives there. I am obviously excited to visit South Korea but equally excited to see Chloe and catch up with her! Tiffany and I get plenty of time together but we miss our far away friend! I'll also get a day in Sydney to explore one of Australia's most well-known cities and reunite with a friend from Singapore.

2 weeks ago, my family went through a trying time as most of them sat in a Florida courthouse during a 3 day trial to sentence the murderer of my cousin, Andrew, to life in prison. My parents had gone down to support my aunt and speak at the trial and had left Skype behind them in Peachtree City, so I was desperately looking online for any updates that were coming through on the news. After the third day of the trial, I broke down and used my international minutes on my cell phone (which I found out are not expensive at all) to call my parents to find out the good news. During those three days I found myself teetering on the edge of extreme homesickness and flashbacks of Andrew's death from 2 years ago making me a little unstable. Even as my parents described the horrific events of the trial and I was relieved to be hearing the details, I had to swallow hard and fight back the tears. These are the things in life that you are not supposed to miss. This is just one of the things (probably the most important) that I am missing this summer. And this is one of the most valuable lessons that I have learned throughout my time here so far: it's not where you are but who you are with that matters. I remember writing in my Alternative Spring Break biography that I was slowly starting to learn this lesson and that was a year ago. Now I wonder why it has taken a relocation across the world for me to truly understand what I wrote. I am too stubborn for my own good.

In lighter news, Tiffany and I took a surfing lesson this past weekend. My host family took us down to Anglesea for the weekend, so we thought this would be the perfect time to test the water (ha) with surfing. I quickly fell in love with Dom, our surfing instructor, who was the epitome of Australian surfer. He was 21, blonde, and simply living (or living simply) as a surf instructor. Too bad things will never work out between us because I was useless on a surf board :( I gave my best effort with every wave but only managed to stand up twice (ok, fine, just 1 1/2 times). Tiffany should probably enter the next surf competition down at Bells Beach because that girl could ride a wave like no one's business! The video is pretty much how the entire 2 hours went, but can I just say that I loved every minute that I was out there? Definitely one of my favorite experiences here so far!

Anyway, just in case you want to know about the real reason I am even over here, teaching is going well! My adviser from my university over here came and observed me today for a lesson and gave me really great feedback. He loved my lesson and told me that the only thing I need to work on is my inflection and variation while speaking to the students. Surprise, surprise, I am too calm and quiet. Some of the lessons I have done have included toilet paper squirrels, "The Cat in the Hat" hats, and cootie catchers. They loved all of them, and currently I am racking my brain for equally exciting craft projects. Never should have set my own bar so high!

As promised, here are 2 albums full of pictures of sightseeing that I have done in the month of June!

Middle excursion to the Marine Discovery Centre and Queenscliff, Bollard Walk with Tiffany

Bush Bashing, Melbourne, Bells Beach/Torquay, Anglesea, Great Ocean Road, Surfing

That's alright, love!

I should probably be posting on here more often because my list of things to write about on here has become kilometers long! But as I've found myself saying quite often, "That's alright, love!"

Last Tuesday evening was Bellaire's Bush Dance and it was adorable! All of the units had been learning and practicing a dance, so we all gathered Deakin Uni's gym so that the parents could watch their children boogie. The parents were invited up to learn the dance after the students performed, and that was almost more entertaining than the children! All of the teachers from Bellaire attend and during each unit's dance there are mini dances that we all learn the choreography to. This included the Mexican Hat Dance, the Macarena, and other Australian line dances. I was absolutely useless learning the choreography (surprise!), and I swear I was shunned the next day at school for my sweet sweet moves.

The French teacher at school came and asked me a few weeks ago if I would help her out for 2 hours every Thursday with the seniors in their Fast Track to French class. Of course I said yes, but it really made me realize how much I have missed French in the past year! We spent the first session working on using French-English dictionaries and started conjugating verbs. Oh, how I have missed spouting off
j'aime nous aimons
tu aimes vous aimez
il/elle aime ils/elles aiment

Friday I went to the excursion with the preps (finally! - bad weather had postponed us 2 weeks) to Eastern Beach and the Geelong Botanical Gardens. The preps are ages five to six and quite a handful. I loved tagging along with them though because I was able to check another sight off my list of things to see. We made it back to school in time for the weekly Friday assembly where I feel as if I stick out like a sore thumb because I don't know the Australian national anthem. It was a great way to end the week though, and I wish schools in America would think about partaking in a tradition like it.

After school, I went with Becky (the girl at Bellaire from Wisconsin) and Sally (her host mom) to a sample sale where I accidentally bought a few clothes. I couldn't help myself because a. I have been missing a good shopping spree and b. everything was marked down so much! I showed my purchases to Erin when I got home, and she said they were all really good brands. Erin invited Becky and I to a dip night at her friends house. Everyone brought a dip and drink to share (such a cute idea!), and then we went to town either after we had eaten enough dip or before we were too drunk to go out. We spent the entire night at Lamby's where we danced to a band who played quite a few American songs. Becky and I had a sleepover, and after coming back around 3:30am we were tres tired.

Saturday, we woke up to pancakes made by Samuel. Danny offered to take us to the You Yangs for a hike. We stopped for lunch along the way, and I drove the rest of the 10 minutes to the area. It was my first time driving over here, and it really wasn't that bad. Although there were not that many cars on the road, I found myself having to concentrate to stay on the left side while turning. We drove up to Big Rock, which reminded me of Stone Mountain a bit but with a much better view. After Big Rock, we moved on to Flinders Hill where we did a 40 minute hike up to the top. The view was even more amazing from up there, but the wind was insane.

On Sunday, Becky and I had planned on going to Ballarat to see Sovereign Hill with Meg (Becky's neighbor) and her boyfriend, Matt. Sovereign Hill is a mock town set in the late 1800's dedicated to exploring the Gold Rush that occurred in Victoria. Quite the tourist trap. It reminded me of Dahlonega but tack on a $30 fee, characters dressed up in clothes from the period, horse drawn carriages, and a vintage bowling alley and you've actually got yourself a perfect hybrid of Dahlonega and Crossroads at Stone Mountain. After 4 hours, we went to a wonderful cafe called Racer's in Ballarat. Matt knew the owner, and if we had met him I probably would have had to tell him how beautiful his chicken foccaccia with fresh pesto was.

I came home to write lesson plans and get ready for my first official day of full teaching. Things went very well on Monday, but then Tuesday the kids just were not grasping anything I was trying to teach them. It was frustrating because I even showed them "Conjunction Junction" in hopes to start the day off right! But as I've learned to live by down under, that's alright, love!