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!