Last Weekend in Sydney

Friday, June 22, 2012

                Today was a fun day considering we had a casual teacher. We only had four students which makes the world of a difference.  Our sub teacher wanted to have a very interactive day.  For the first bit I took two of the kids out into the playground to get some extra exercise.  We jumped on the trampoline for most of it.  I was getting a sweat myself, it was a humid. When we came back in the teacher was working with one of the students doing an art project.  It was actually a great idea.  We used black posters and then we had three different kinds of textured balls. Kind of like dog toys.  But we put them in colored paint and rolled them along the poster paper.  They ended up looking great.  A lot of the paint got everywhere but I think some of the kinds enjoyed it.  it is also a very sensory activity and so many of the kids are sensory dependent. The rest of the day at school was just normal.  Trying to keep the kids safe, not running around, sitting down in their seats, and lunch. 

                After work I didn’t do much until the evening. I went out with Purdue and CAPA people and went to the argyle. I was happy I got the chance to go strictly because of the name.  It was a very large and expensive bar. I stole some coasters. 

On the Trampoline

Saturday, June 23, 2012

                Today was a good day.  I woke up early and got out of the apartment early to start the day.  I went out to the markets at the rocks again. It was going to be my last time to be able to go.  After my time in the rocks I got on a ferry and took it out to manly.  I absolutely love manly. It’s so nice, not to so much city life, but still densely populated and still just a ferry ride away from Sydney.  So once I got to manly I did this hike to spit bridge.  It was an amazing hike.  It was about 11k, so around 7 miles.  By the evening I was very stiff.  It was just a beautiful scenic hike.  I don’t know which hike I like better this one, or the coogee to bondi.   The manly to spit hike was nice, we walked through many small bays with sailboats all over.  Part of the walk was through Sydney national park.   I went out to a lookout point that had a small white lighthouse.  There were plenty of moments where we could venture off the path out into the rocks or walk in some sand along the ocean.  The last bit of the walk was along a beach in a small town within the city of manly.  There was a large park where lots of families were out with their children grilling and socializing.  We were walking past one house towards the end and this house had four singles for rowing besides his house. I want so badly to go up to him and ask him about them but I didn’t give into my urge.  Once we hit spit bridge we went and found a bus stop that would take us back to the manly ferry. 

Sailboats

this is where the harbour empties out into the ocean

lighthouse lookout

I got dinner in manly.  I went to mexico via manly.  I have been craving Mexican ever since I got here.  It is very expensive anywhere in Sydney so the prices weren’t surprising but comparing the price and this size of this burrito to what I can get at home from chipotle is just insane.  Not that I need a bigger burrito but they were definitely on the smaller size.  Also they tried to present the burrito in fancy way on the plate when all I could think is I’m just gonna pick this up and make a mess of it anyway.  Even after all that I still very much did enjoy my burrito and I left full.  Something else that was different is in Australia in general you don’t get sides with any meals you ordered.  A girl I was with ordered enchiladas and usually anywhere you go you would get rice and beans.  She just got a plate with the enchiladas and that’s it.  Most places when you order a burger you have to separately order fries to eat with it.  its annoying in my mind   because I already think everything is so expensive and then I’m forced to add on to the bill when buying sides.  On the way home I was exhausted. I spent my night in because I was so tired.

downtown Manly

Sunday, June 24, 2012

                Today was the day I was determined to do everything left I wanted to do in Sydney considering it’s my last weekend in the city.  When I climbed the harbour bridge I got a free voucher to go in the pylon museum on the bridge.  I got up early and headed out to the bridge.  It was a very nice, small museum.  It gave a lot of information of the bridge and the making of it.  I watched an eight minutes film of old pictures while it was being built.  I saw a model of the same size of the pin that attached the two halves of the bridge at the middle together.  I walked the 200 steps to the stop of the pylon and got a great 360 degree view.  It gave me a good view of the bridge and the city and the opera house. 

one of the four pylons

                After I was finished at the pylon museum I decided to take a stroll across the bridge to say I walked across it.  it was a nice walk.  So many people run along it and there was even a sign telling joggers to slow down.  But I enjoyed it, I don’t know how long it took but it wasn’t long.  It gave me a different view of the opera house. Usually all I ever see if the side view, which in my mind is prettier anyway.  But at the north end of the bridge you can’t see straight forward at the front of the opera house.  Once I got to the north end I just made the walk back.  Once I was there I decided to take a ferry to milson’s point.  Here there is this park called luna park.  It is an amusement park.  The city voted of what they wanted to put in the land there and the people voted to have a coney island, so that’s what they built.  I walked around and it was just full of kids running around.  It was also very expensive.  To ride one ride was 10 dollars and then I didn’t even look at how much it cost to have unlimited rides.  They have a nice small ferries wheel though.

 

                I didn’t spend too much time there before catching a ferry back to circular quay.  When I got back I decided to go to the powerhouse museum.  It is a very science industraial trype museum, similar to the field museum in my mind.  It has a Narnia exhibition, but I didn’t pay the extra 6 dollars to go into it.  Now if it was harry potter, that would be a different story.  Luckily right next to the powerhouse museum was the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Center.  I didn’t get to go inside, but it is a very nice looking pool.  One whole side of it was glass allowing anyone to look in.  Right by the powerhouse museum just don’t the street is Paddy’s market.  I went in and got some small trinket tourist type things. 

                The whole morning and beginning of my afternoon was packed with things.  So by the time I was at paddy’s market my feet were killing me and I just wanted to head back to my apartment.  When I got back I laid down and took a thirty minute nap.  After I got up I got an invitation to dinner and a movie with some other people.  The place was out in darlinghurst.  It was an Indian buffet and the movie was the woman in black.  The food was interesting.  I don’t think I have had real Indian food that’s not bought from a store and made on the stove.  I found some things I did like, my favorite was fried cauliflower.  I loved it.  It was all vegetarian too.  The movie, well it was definitely scary.  I spent a lot of the movie with the pillow over my eyes.  I like the story of the movie and everything behind it, but I was scared for most of the movie.  Also while watching it I never thought oh there’s harry potter playing the main man.  He does a good job leaving harry potter behind and taking on the new role in this movie.  It was finished around 9pm and I came home and went to bed to get ready for my day at the hunter valley. 

Monday, June 25, 2012

                Today was the day I went to the Hunter Valley with my wine professor and the rest of my class.  We left around 745 to make the long drive out there.  About an hour in we stopped and picked up our professor in some time.  It is over a two hour drive and it felt like forever.  I was sitting on an end seat so I was uncomfortable and never had the chance to fall asleep.  Once we got there we went to Drayton’s winery.  I loved this one the most probably. It felt very family and warm environment.  We tried about 12 different wines.  Besides the ports I liked a lot of the wines.  The man who was giving us the tasting was nice and made it fun.  The second winery we went to I wasn’t a fan of.  They mass produce their wine, plus they don’t even have any vines in the hunter valley.  They take the grapes from somewhere else and then make the wine there.  That kind of turned me off.  The man giving the tasting was nice but I felt like he was trying to impress us all by giving us nice expensive wines.  When to tell you the truth I didn’t even like them.  After that we went down to the village where we ate lunch.  I got a turkey avocado and cranberry sandwich.  I enjoyed it very much.  The third winery was across the road at tempus two.  This place was extremely modern and all their labels are copper plates.  They made it seem like they put so much money into the building and the sushi shop in it and the other cafes.  There wasn’t much either that impressed me too much at this winery.  The last winery came around and I was just exhausted.  I had to stand during the tasting when all I wanted to do was sit.  During part of this I joined a 4 year old boy at the kids table and played with the toys with him.  I was just too exhausted to stand and drink these different wines.  Plus more than half the wines are red and I have yet to find a red wine I really like.  That might changed after Wednesday’s wine class where we are trying 15 different red wines.  I liked this last one though because we were given a tour of where they make the wine.  We saw all the wine barrels which each one costs two thousand dollars.  Can you believe that? Plus after about five years they don’t use them again.  It is outrageous.  I have plenty of pictures of all the wineries.  The drive home I was exhausted and somewhat managed to get some sleep.  Once I got home and made dinner I was out and asleep shortly after 10.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

                 My second to last day at Wairoa School.  im really sad actually I don’t want to say goodbye to my boys.  I have been making sure to take videos and pictures of them so I can remember.  Today we had another casual because our teacher was gone.  We didn’t really do much at all. Just more of tried to pass the time by playing music on youtube for the kids to watch.  I was on duty during morning tea.  Thursday they are having a farewell breakfast for Dorte and I.  I’m really looking forward to that because the last time there was a farewell breakfast it was like a buffet of all different kinds of foods.  I can’t imagine not seeing these boys again.  I would love to be here longer just so I could be around them more. 

                I spent most of my night studying for wine test tomorrow. I made hamburgers and set off the fire alarm in my apartment.  Which my burgers weren’t even burnt.  But we have been specifically told that if the fire alarms go off that we open the balcony doors and to not open your door that leads to the hallway.  If we do that and the fire alarm goes off in the hallway then we are fined.  That is if it was a legit fire that needed everyone to evacuate the building.  I was fairly annoyed that they were going off, it was loud and I didn’t want my apartment to be any colder that it already was.

Sorry about the failing in updating.  

Horses and Bubbly

Tuesday June 19, 2012

                Today was planned to go to the mounted police with some of the kids.  We didn’t leave until 11am so I was with my primary class for a good hour in the morning.  The boys were just so cranky this morning.  One boy started crying and next thing you know they all are for no real reason to be upset.  It’s like they hear on child cry so they have to.  A little before 11 I went and got the girl I was going to be with all day.  She is in her teens and is very nice, she never tried to run away from me so I thank her for that.  The mounted police station is actually in Surry Hills right by me.  I’ve walked past it many times and never noticed it or thought what was in there.  When we got there we were given a bag of carrots to feed the horses.  We strolled through the stable where they had 15 horses.  I tried to put a carrot in her hand for her to give to the horse but she was too scared and back away quickly when I tried guiding her hand in the direction of the mouth.  She sometimes would cooperate and let me take her hand to pet the horse but if the horse made any movement she jerked away.  This is fine I wasn’t mad, I was expecting those behaviors.  I enjoyed walking through the stable a lot.  The horses are all dark brown and so incredibly large and tall.  We walked around the grounds, it’s a very small area.  As we were heading out to leave two horses with police on top came in.  it was nice for the kids to see people on top of the horses and we stood and took pictures.

                We weren’t there too long because afterwards we went to Centennial park.  The park is massive.  It takes a while to drive around the perimeter of it, think central park size.  We parked and got out and enjoyed our lunch in the sun on some picnic benches.  It was such a nice day with the sun, a little breezy.  After we ate we were by a small playground area that the kids jumped around on.  It was a good time and I was happy to be asked to go.  We got back to school at 2pm so I spent the last hour in my primary class. 

                After school, Jordan and I were driven by a teacher to Eastern Respite Offices.  There I filled out paper work and forms in order to volunteer over the holiday.  Next week is the last week for the kids before their term is up and they start a two week holiday.  So during that holiday, this nonprofit organization plans fun activities for every day of the holiday.  I am really excited for this actually.  I am only able to help with two days before I leave.  One of the days I go with 8 teenage boys who are fairly high functioning to cronulla beach which is south of here.  Since the kids are high functioning we get to take a train down and then grab fish and chips for lunch.  The second day I can work I know we do crafts because it’s a week to remember the aboriginals or something.  I’ll also get to know other kids who don’t go to Wairoa. 

                Overall I was exhausted after this day.  On the way home Jordan and I were on a bus home with only one other man.  We were talking when the man recognized our accent and told us he loved it.  He came back and sat down next to us and talked to us about what we were doing here.   He explained that he is working for this organization that works with stem cells.  He was so open to talk about it considering how much of a controversy it is at home.  But what he does it take the placenta after birth and then freeze it to use for stem cells.  He was nice, he daughter just graduated from Georgetown.  I believe he said she was American and he I don’t even think had an Australian accent.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

                Another morning of the dreadful commute out to north Sydney.  Almost every bus I need to get on is full and the train I take I either just barely miss or is full.  Everyone just wants to go north into Sydney or north Sydney.  During my internship focus class we talked about negotiations.  It was pretty boring, but she did bring a box of Tim Tams.  Which is possibly the best thing Australia has to offer.  I have told myself I cannot buy a box simply because I will eat them all right away. 

                So wine class this week.  It was interesting, I just was really tired for some reason.  During the morning session we talked about wine and health.  A lot of information about how drinking red wine every night in moderation has proven to be a benefit to one’s health.  It got into all the deep detail about what is in the wine and sorts.  Studying for this quiz next week won’t be fun.  In the afternoon session we tried dessert wines and sparkling wines.  Hmm dessert wines aren’t my favorite just tastes too concentrated and sparkling wines were good just after the first bottle I thought my stomach was full of fizz.  The dessert wines we tried were Late Harvest Riesling, Botrytised Semillon, Orange Muscat and Flora, and Brown Muscat.  The sparkling wines included Diamond Nights Spumante, Passion Pop Sparkling Pink, Sparkling White Wine, Grandin Methode Traditionelle Champagne, and Sparkling Shiraz.  We had two other bottles to that two students brought in.  They were just okay.  Nothing I liked enough to take notice to write down to buy in a store. 

                After class I went out to the Bondi Junction to hopefully buy tickets for this Friday’s footy match.  I was disappointed, they were all sold out to where we couldn’t get six tickets sitting together anywhere in the stadium.  Oh well, we tried at least. 

i didn't like it, but it's PINK

Thursday, June 21, 2012

                This was my last day with my primary class.  Since next week is my last week I asked to spend it with my secondary class.  Plus next week I can only go to school twice because on Monday I am going to the Hunter Valley Vineyards for wine class and then Friday I am leaving for Cairns.  In the morning we didn’t do anything too specific, but after lunch I got to go swimming! I was really looking forward to this to be in the water with the kids.  We got them all changed and put a flotation thing that wraps around their waist with the flotation on their back.  Only one kid was a little slow to getting into the water.  all the others got right in when I asked them too.  For the first half the kids got to do whatever they wanted.  The pool is fairly big, about the size of one that is in a hotel, possibly on the smaller size.  They keep it very chlorinated and the temperature very high.  Most of the kids can swim, just not on their own without the flotation.  So the second half we took off the flotation and had the kids swim from me to the teacher, just a short distance.  Some will put their head in the water for you when you ask.  I didn’t like being so cold after getting out though and for the rest of the day I was cold.  It was actually very cold here today all day long.  The sun never shined long enough to warm up the day.  We then dried off and changed and headed back to class to have lunch.  After lunch we spent the rest of the day in the multisensory room.  I enjoy being in that room.  We turned on a bubble machine and one of the kids spent his whole time in the bubbles and his hair was soaked with soap by the time we left. 

                After class I came home and went straight to Coles to do my weekly grocery shopping.  I was excited to come home because for dinner I planned to make Mongolian beef over noodles.  I loved it and it was really easy to make.  Later my roommate gave me some of her Chinese porridge.  It tastes like honey and oats.  She put purple sweet potato in it.  It was interesting. 

                Nothing too big is going on in the next days.  I need to get better. I’ve been sick all week.  Not a horrible cold but one that lingers enough to frustrate and annoy me.  Also today the kids sent home a note saying next Wednesday parents need to find other plans for their kids to go somewhere else because all the schools in the district are going on strike so only one teacher will be at school on Wednesday.  

Another Monday

Monday, June 18, 2012

                Today at school was good.  I was so happy to finally be back in my secondary class.  It had been a week and half since I have been in the class.  I definitely miss them.  I do like my primary class a lot, little kids are adorable and can make you smile so easily.  However my teenage boys, just them being my first class I think is where my bias comes from.  They are a more violent bunch, but it’s not just toys that make them happy it’s something you usually do.  Well I should mention food makes them happy too.  But the whole day went with barely any violence or anything. 

                I was on duty during morning tea watching one of my boys because he needs someone on him at all times.  He had a seizure in my arms today.  He likes to stand up on part of the playground and sway side to side and then he makes himself hyperventilate.  If he’s not doing that, he’s pouring sand on himself or sitting in the grass in this one area.  I was sitting in front of him making sure he was behaving and not taking of his padded helmet.  When all of a sudden he just went stiff and fell completely over.  Im supposed to time it and I remembered to look and it lasted him a good 2 minutes.    This is better than the 9 minute one he had last week.   He didn’t start having seizures until he hit adolescence.  Today his mom happened to stop by and was able to see him shortly after so it was good timing. 

                After morning session we did cooking.  We made meat patties with potato wedges.   Everyone here just loves chips so much, they would have them any time during the day if possible.  I did most of the cutting and cleaning but I enjoy it because it gets the kids out of the classroom.  I was very full from all the food which was great since lunch was right after.  After lunch I took one of the students out had him get some more exercise.  We jumped on the trampoline, and worked our way across most of the playgrounds.  We did that for a good forty five minutes.   After that the day was pretty much over.

                I came home and went out to go for a run.  Today I finally decided to run the hill that is at one end of the park.  At the base of it is a practice rugby field where a younger boys team was practicing and dogs are running around all over.  Come the second time running up it I felt it ha. It took me just 15 minutes to run there and then to run up the hill 5 times took me 15 minutes.  Soon after I made eggplant parmesan.  Hmmm, it was good I just used too much oil so the eggplant was more soggy but I still ate it.  I made some garlic bread to go along with it.  I finished my evening with making toffee.  It is starting to frustrate me because for some reason the chocolate doesn’t stick to the toffee when I break it into pieces.  I do not know what it is and I want to make it to give it to my teachers as a thank you gift but no I can’t manage to do it right here.  I had no problem whenever I made it at home.  I’m determined it’s something with the chocolate.   Grrr, I guess I’ll just make no bake cookies for them, I don’t manage to ruin those. 

                Tomorrow I get to go on another excursion with the kids.  We are going to see the mounted police on horses.  I have no clue what all we will do but I know it’s a full day activity. We’ll see how it goes.

 hello winter in ausralia

Sorry Folks

Thursday, June 14, 2012

                First off New South Wales won last night which means there is a third game in Queensland.  As for my Thursday at school it was a good day.  As soon as school started all the kids in my primary class we headed to Waverly Public Library.  I was happy to go because it was an activity I had never done with any of the students from the school.  We headed out there and a woman read us two books, both that talked about rain.  After reading the books and singing the itsy bitsy spider multiple times we watched a short film.  Most of the kids kept quiet, only a few loud noises and standing up, which I thought was well.  After the film we walked out to the kids area where we tried to get the kids to play at the lego table.  It was mostly unsuccessful but I think they had fun.  The teacher then picked out two books for each child and then was asked which one they wanted to bring home.  The one they picked was then checked out and we placed them in the kid’s bag for them to take home and read with their parents. 

                We made the drive back to school and had an early lunch because at 12 a group of people from Japan came and did wheelchair dances in the hall.  It was an interesting performance.  It was nice and fun to watch however to ask all the students to sit down for forty minutes in one place was asking a lot.  I missed half of the performance because I was out in the playground with one child.  He needed to just stand up and run around.  Also most of the time I spent watching the kids in my rows just making sure they were behaving.  After the assembly was lunch time.  I was happy because I missed my morning tea break.  The last session of the day I worked one on one with some of the kids with the ipad again.  One of my kids absolutely loved the camera on it.  He loved being able to see himself and move. 

                The remaining of the day I went and ran after school.  I love their winter.  Being able to run in shorts and a long sleeve is such a treat.  Thursday evening wasn’t too eventful, just my normal routine and getting in bed early for the last day of the week.

Friday, June 15, 2012

                Today was a surprise.  I was happy it was Friday because I was finally going to be back in my secondary class with my original students.  However in the morning at school I was standing outside the school unloading the kids from the taxis when one of the vice principals asked if I wanted  to go to the sports carnival that about ten of the kids were going to today.   I was a little sad that I was going to be missing out on another day with my secondary class but as soon as I got to the carnival I got really excited.  I had no clue what the carnival was going to entail or where it was.  I asked where were going and was told Homebush which I didn’t know where that was but the name sounded familiar.  It was a 40 minute drive and as soon as I pulled up I remembered why it sounded familiar.  The kids had their sports carnival at the Olympic park.  I got so excited for all of them to be able to run on a track where Olympic athletes had run before.  As soon as we were walking up to the track, we were late and hurried in to tag onto the end of the line and participate in the walk in front of the stands.  There were events like 800m, 400m, 100m, long jump, standing jump, shot put, and discus.  For the younger kids there was a 25m walk, 60m dash, and then events like carrying a ball down the track without dropping.  It was such a fun day.  A few of the kids placed and got ribbons.  However I would have liked to see the organization hand out a great job ribbon to all the kids.  But being there and seeing all the other kids it made me realize how low functioning all the kids are at my school.  All to say I thought the kids had a great day and I’m so happy I was asked to go. 

                On the drive home, all I wanted to do was fall asleep and if I had closed my eyes I probably would have.  I had a relaxing evening with little to do.  I went to Coles and rented a movie from redroom, just like a redbox.  However it’s not 1.20 a night for a movie, its 4 dollars. Yet for the first time you rent a movie it’s free.  I rented Crazy, Stupid, Love.  It is a good movie, I hadn’t seen it before. I definitely want to see it again.  But today was the first day we had sunshine all day.  It has been raining non-stop for the past three weeks it seems like.  I was at the event in jeans and a t-shirt. I was definitely soaking up all the sun because I knew it wasn’t going to last.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

                Well I woke up Saturday and of course it was raining again.  Having all this rain ruins a lot of plans.  Its annoying waiting at a bus stop in the pouring rain and it makes it hard to go hiking, go to the beach, or going to the zoo. I had started getting sick again on Friday with a sore throat so I guess I picked a good Saturday to not feel good.  I ended up doing nothing all day, mostly catching up on sleep with a three hour nap in the afternoon. 

                I did buy my first bottle of wine.  My first 21^st alcoholic purchase ha. I bought a bottle of Moscato.  I had a glass during the evening I am very happy with the purchase.  Looking through the wine shop and seeing the prices of everything is just insane. So happy I’m not into all of that, plus my bottle was pretty inexpensive.  But what definitely sold me is what it looks like ha.  It’s a fun bottle with pretty flowers over the label.  I definitely enjoyed looking at all the bottle and recognizing the names of the wines and being able to know whether or not I would or wouldn’t like it.  For as much as I dislike going to class and studying for the quizzes it has shown to be a helpful class. 

                I rented another movie tonight.  I was just gonna watch it in bed on my laptop only to realize that I can’t play Australian dvd on my laptop.  Which isn’t a problem cause we have a dvd player in our apartment however I didn’t realize dvd were different. I watched chronicle. Hmmm I’m not sure if I liked it.  It’s sad and just kind of scary. 

Sunday, June 17, 2012

                I was happy to sleep in today.  I woke up at 10am which isn’t too bad, leaving much of the day open. I thought about going back out to Manly beach to try some hiking again but by the time I was going to leave I wouldn’t have gotten there until 1pm and then the hike I want to do takes about 5 hours.  So instead I took a bus out to Coogee where I did the Coogee to Bondi costal walk.  It was great! It is a 6.18k walk, all hills, stairs, and beaches.  It takes you along the coast and takes you up close to the edge of cliffs, along bays, and along the residential roads of the towns.  The three main beaches you walk through include Coogee Beach, Bronte Beach, and Bondi Beach.  There were small bays and smaller beaches along the way.  It was incredibly crowded today because it was finally nice weather again and it being the weekend.  So many people run the course. It must be insane to run it with all the stairs and hills.  It was nice to sit along the coast and watch the waves crash into the rocks.  Bronte beach was one of my favorites.  It is smaller but the waves at that beach were huge.  I loved watching the surfers get eaten up by them all.  Also at each main beach there is a pool that has waves crash into it.  The pool at Bondi is called iceberg.  It wasn’t a windy enough day to have the waves crashing into it but it is right there next to the water and the rocks.  I would love to do the walk again.  I took a ton of pictures. 

                This evening I will relax cause I was definitely tired from the walk.  I plan to make eggplant parmesan for the first time. We’ll see how that goes.

yes i climbed over the danger fence

start of the walk by Coogee 

my favorite picture

Iceberg at Bondi

Half Way Point

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

                I ended up doing nothing the rest of the rest of the day Monday which I’m fine with. I knew that school today I was going to start working in a primary class.  The curriculum for this class is much more structured but by the end of the day I was missing my other class.  This class was a lot of fun though.  I have six boys all around the ages from 2-6. Two of the boys are in a wheelchair. Of those two one has time out of his chair and crawls/rolls around, he is also a pincher and hair puller.  The other four boys look like normal looking boys.  None of them are verbal. But goodness do they run around fast.  In the morning session I worked with one of the boys in the wheelchair.  We went into a quiet room where I presented him two options of songs I would sing to him.  He then reached out to one and I would sing that song.  After I was finished singing the song I would present him with two buttons, a yellow one that when he hit it it did nothing and a red button that when he hit it it said more please.  If he hit the yellow button I gave him two new options of songs and if he hit the red one I sang the song again.  His gross and fine motor skills of reaching out to the pictures of the songs aren’t the greatest. It’s not very smooth but he can grab it and hit the buttons.  I don’t think he realized yet what the buttons meant either.  Either way I think it’s good to try and teach alternate ways to help the boy express emotions.

                During middle session as a class we walked around the Bondi area.  I pushed one of the boys in a wheelchair while having another boy holding on to one of the handles next to me.  The boys had to have gotten a workout in because at that moment it was really sunny and so much of Sydney is hills especially Bondi.  I have always enjoyed when I’ve gone out with any of the kids in the playground or for walks. In the afternoon session I worked one on one with three different kids with the ipad.  The kids like it, but they more of just slam their hands down on it hope they touch anything that makes it do something.  So it will be interesting to try and help them use the tips of their fingers or just one or two fingers. I’m not exactly sure if I’m teaching them in a good manner or not but I’m trying.

                Of course as soon as the kids left it started pouring again.  The rain here never lets up.  So I end up getting soaked coming home from work.  When I got home I decided I was already wet so I went for a run.  After my run I spent the rest of the night studying for wine.  Great way to spend the night.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

                Catching transportation in Sydney is not fun at all.  I missed the first bus that went past my stop this morning because it got full before I could get on.  I then have to wait another 10 minutes for the next bus. Once the bus gets to central I get off and take a train to north Sydney which is so much faster than taking the bus the whole way.  My internship focus class was boring this morning.  We talked about the media and newspapers.  I then had wine class right after.  We talked about the areas and zones in Australia that produce wines.  It wasn’t all the exciting either, just 70 slides of information about it all.  After lunch is when the good stuff started.  We started heavy bodied white wines today.  Most of which I loved.  We tried a wooded Chardonnay, unwooded Chardonnay, Semillon, Sauvignon blanc, Semilon/Sauvignon blanc, Fruitwood, and Moscato.  I liked most of them with Chardonnay being my least favorite. 

                Tonight is the State of the Origin.   I’m really excited for it.  The game is in Sydney tonight so the city was insane coming home which is why it took me so long.  The game is in the Olympic Park stadium and at central station I could barely move through the seas of people taking a train out there.  The first State of the Origin game was held in Melbourne.  It is Queensland vs New South Wales, they play three games and for the past seven years Queensland has won.  We lost three weeks ago when they played in Melbourne so I’m really excited to cheer for NSW when they play tonight.  Go Blues. Plus not to mention the NSW team has been staying in my apartment the past week.  Also not only are the Blues staying in my apartment but the singers on the Australian Voice also stay in my apartment.  I walked in with one of the finalist yesterday when I was coming in from my run.  For some reason she didn’t have a key to swipe into the building so I had to let her in. 

A Much Needed Update

Friday, June 8, 2012

                Friday at school went well.  Since we had a casual on Thursday we couldn’t go to Coles to go shopping.  Yet as soon as the bell rang on Friday and all the kids were in the class we were going to go.  Only three of my boys were there at the beginning of the day, which actually made it easier to go to Coles, fewer kids to key one’s eyes on.  As we were walking to the front of the school to get in the van one more boy showed up to school, but he’s helpful and always helps out when going places.  We head out to the store.  Its always a lot of fun in the van playing music and singing.  When we were in the store everything went fine, it was at check out that one boy started ripping flowers and wanted to pull hair.  On the way to the store I asked them if I could leave school a little early because my climb at the bridge started at 4:15 and usually I get home around  4 so I didn’t know if I was gonna get there in time.  They both just told me to leave at lunch if I wasn’t on duty.  So that’s what I did, it was fine I got to go home before the climb and get in the clothes.

                Three other girls and I made the hike out to the bridge.  We weren’t exactly sure where we were going, but mostly just walked in the direction towards the bridge.  We got there around 4 and its their 80^th anniversary so we actually got a baseball cap for free.  At 4:15 we got going.  We had to fill out paperwork, complete a breath analyzer, get our suits, and gear.  We wore a harness that has this ball that is what gets hooked up when youre climbing up to the top.  We did a simulator flight of stairs of what it was going to be like.  The coolest part was we got to be a part of vivid lights and wear a vest with flashing lights.  We started the hike up.  We are hooked up to the tour guide’s microphone so we can all hear what he is saying.  The four pylons on the bridge do nothing for support; they are just there to make it look pretty.  The total thing was 1400 steps.  We actually didn’t walk up to the top and then go down.  You first walk out above the cars and pedestrian walk way to the top and then cross over and walk back down over the side of the train tracks.  Along the way we took breaks and got pictures taken.  The actual climb isn’t hard. They are like half steps, more of like walking up an incline.  There is the New South Wales flag and the Australia flag at the top of the bridge.  Those are replaced every two months.  Our tour guide was funny and made lots of jokes, he definitely added to it being a good experience.  On the way back down going over the trains was exciting.  The city was great to look at since vivid is still going on, so the city is lit up with colors.  

                After the climb we were starving so we were just gonna start walking until we found a place to eat.  This was a lot harder than it should have been.  Where the bridge climb is in the area called the rocks. The actual area is so pretty, but everything there on a Friday night had a long wait. We ended up walking for 30 minutes and finally gave up and took a train back to Surry Hills and ate at the Strawberry Hills Hotel.  I had my first fish and chips, they were pretty good I must say.  After that I was exhausted so as soon as I got home I went to bed.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

                I woke up at 8 in the morning determined to do a day full of activities to see Sydney.  At around 1030 me and a couple other people headed out into the city to try and do anything basically.  Our first stop was the Museum of Contemporary Art.  It was interesting to say the least.   I’m happy I went, it was actually very small but it did have some interesting things.  On the top floor was a café with a great view of the harbour and the Opera House.  After that we went into the area of the rocks.  They have markets every Saturday starting at 8 and it was nice to just walk around and see whats there.  I found and fell in love with this bar, it’s called the argyle.  I think a couple of us are going to meet there Thursday after work and I’m really excited.  If any of you don’t know, argyle is my favorite word so that’s mainly why I fell in love with it.  The area in the rocks is just a warm family friendly area with a lot to offer and choose from.  We got lunch at pancakes on the rocks.  This place is to die for.  The wait was about 15 minutes, but the line on Friday night was over 2 hours long.  I ordered the vanilla and chocolate surprise.  It was on chocolate pancake with vanilla ice cream on top and one buttermilk pancake with chocolate ice cream on top.  It was delish, I would definitely go back and try something else on their menu.  Only bad part is they don’t split their checks.

After getting lunch we took a ferry out to Cockatoo Island.  It is the largest island in the harbour and it is where they held convicts.  Families come and camp out on the island for weekends.  The one thing I didn’t like about the island is that it seemed like they were trying to repaint things and not just restore.  Some of the buildings did look jail like but others you could tell they basically redid everything in it.  It did hold a lot of convicts and they put them to work, making the buildings on the island and assembling ships and other things.  It had kind of a creepy feeling on the island, not many people were there so we were just walking around by ourselves on the island for most of the time.  Once we were done we took a ferry back to Sydney and decided we should eat dinner at home.  I made a pizza again and I wish I would have taken a short nap because by the end of the day I was really tired.  Our original plan was to get back into the city because in darling harbour there is a jazz festival and every Saturday night there are fireworks.  Well we saw the fireworks from the bus stop because we waited for almost 30 minutes for any bus to pass us to take us anywhere close into the city.  We ended up just walking around darling harbour before heading back to Surry Hills where we stopped at Strawberry Hills for drinks and just talk.  One beer was 6.50, it is just insane how much is costs.  Once we all finally wanted to leave we got some greasy food from across the street.  I got a kebab, which is like a gyro.  It was good but just incredibly greasy.  Once I got home I just went straight to bed. 

Sunday, May 10, 2012

                Let’s see, I woke up at the same time around 8am. Had some difficulties with getting my internet, but got it straightened up luckily.  The same group of people I had been with all day we decided to go out to Manly beach.   It’s about a 40 minute ferry ride north of Sydney.  The area there is gorgeous. A lot of people live out there, just not as crammed as the city. Along the area and tons and tons of hikes you can take along the coast that take you into national parks and along different harbours.  Well as soon as our ferry was pulling up it started pouring and the rain didn’t let up at all.  We had come in manly in mind with getting kangaroo burgers so we headed there thinking the rain might stop in a while.  After getting soaked we found the place called Moo Burgers.  All of us ordered a kangaroo burger.  On it was sage and garlic, caramelized onions, tomato, rocket, home-made mayonnaise, and beetroot relish.  We all got it to say we tried kangaroo, and it was pretty good. I don’t know if I went back there that I would order another one, a lot of their other burgers sounded really good.  It was definitely worth trying though. 

Once we finished eating the rain had not let up.  We walked to the beach in the rain and stood around for a while and watching the people out surfing.  The coolest thing then happened.  As we were standing there we saw about 40 dolphins swim across the beach.  Everyone on their surf boards sat and watched them swim by them.  All the dolphins were so close to them, it must have been insane to watch them.  Just watching them come up and then dive back in was so cool. After that, we just walked back in the pouring rain looking through the town.  We rain and caught a ferry back into the city.  After that we were all tired and just headed back to the apartments.  Everyone from purdue ended up staying in the night and we all chilled in one room and socialized.  It had been a while since we all were together again. 

Monday, June 11, 2012

                It’s the Queen’s birthday which means no school! But of course it’s been pouring all day so I don’t want to do anything.  I made sure to catch up on sleep and basically have sat in the room, watched AFL, which I like more than rugby I’ve found out.  And mostly have tried to catch up on writing this.  I get so lazy on the weekends when it comes to writing this.  Which is odd cause I have more time on the weekends to actual put the time into writing it.  There is a hotel in Surry Hills that has a Mexican Mondays kind of deal.  It’s depressing how much I miss Mexican food, there is such a small Hispanic population here so it’s almost impossible to find Mexican food.  I might go do that, if its pouring I probably won’t because it’s too close to take a bus, which makes somewhat of a walk to make.  All to say the Queen’s birthday has been uneventful, which I’m okay with. 

One of Those Days

Thursday, June 07, 2012

                Today was one for the books.  I get up get to school, the normal.  It was a little cold this morning, but I don’t understand those who have on winter hats, pea coats, and gloves. It’s not that cold people.  It ended up warming up with the sun coming out and there being no clouds.  I was in my normal class of boys, they were being themselves.  One boy would probably sleep the whole day if it wasn’t for us making him get up to walk around and take his medications.  We were trying to get him off the couch and to his table to eat.  He is on a diet restriction cause his mother has said if he doesn’t eat certain foods it helps with his seizures.  We have some reinforcement food though to give him to get him up and going.  I was holding the bag in front of him to show him and then he grabs the whole bad crushing all the chips in it.  I’m trying to uncurl his fingers but he has the strongest grip ever.  But since I had positioned myself really close to him to get the chips away once I do, he goes straight for my hair.  What a lovely boy. So then I go and squat close by him really closely since I don’t want him to pull and my jeans rip.  I ripped my blue jeans on Tuesday and today my black jeans ripped.  I now have no more jeans left.   Plus it all happened early in the morning.  I felt bad, but I wasn’t as cheerful around the kids the rest of the day.  To add to it, one of my teachers was gone, and it’s like the kids know so they just go crazy.  We just had so many problems throughout the whole day.  Kids running away, pinching, kicking, just anything they felt like doing.  The rest of the day was just all over.  I constantly worried about the rip in the back of my jeans. 

                So on the way home I had to stop at the junction and do some shopping.  How I wish I was in the states to buy jeans cause everything here is just so expensive, I can’t get over it.  At home you can buy really cheap jeans for about 20 dollars, but they’re really think material.  Here those kinds of jeans are 40 dollars.  I thought I found a pair for 39 dollars but after putting them on I realized how thin they were.  I went through so many stores I was so exhausted and my back hurt from standing the majority of the day and then from walking around the mall.  I finally found a pair at target for a considerable price. 

                I got home around 6pm, which was too late for my liking. I had to go to coles and get some food.  I bought a quarter of a watermelon for 99 cents, which I was happy about.  I mostly stocked up on my vegetables and cheese.  People here are obsessed with avocados so I bought two and am gonna try them out.  I love them in anything when I got out to eat, but I’ve never just bought one and ate it myself. 

                Tomorrow I am doing the bridge climb across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  I am excited. You climb up the arch of the bridge and see Sydney and basically everything around you.  My climb starts at 4pm and it is about a 4 hour climb.  Ill get to see the city in the light and then see the sunset and then see the vivid lights as well.  I shouldn’t have a problem with the height of the bridge but we’ll see, the stairs you walk up are only one person wide.  Unfortunately no belongings are allowed up.  

Coke in Coles

White Wines and Lots of Rain

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

                Today was nothing special. This rain is not stopping, it just keeps coming down. I stand at bus stops and had to stay as far away from the curb just to make sure I don’t get splashed as the cars drive through the large puddles accumulating.  I’ve realized I’d much rather go to school five days a week instead of taking this class.  The class isn’t bad, it’s just that it just such a large amount of time to sit in a classroom and pay attention.  Good thing I’ve never done a maymester, I would never last.  I got to class on time, most people arrive late.  The transportation is just so hard in the morning, half the time the buses or trains you need to get on are full and it’s at least another ten minutes for the next one to come.   The first half of wine class was horrible.  It was 42 slides of graphs all talking about consumption, types of wines Australia makes, just any possible kind of data one can gather about wine in Australia.  I don’t know how I sat through it.  Next weeks test will be hard cause I hope I don’t need to know too many values on those charts.  We got our lunch break and I headed out to greenwood plaza and as I was walking in I was handed a 2 dollars off at three different restaurants in the plaza.  I went to one of them and got a chicken and avocado crepe. It was pretty good, the 2 dollars off made it taste even better, making it more reasonably priced.  I would have preferred the crepe to be a little more crispy but it was still satisfying. 

                Back to the second half of class we went on to try 9 wines today.  The first two were two types of Rieslings. The first one was a German Riesling Traminer and the second one was a French Riesling.  They were both good, I enjoyed them.  Then we tried a Pinot Grigio, Pinot Gris, Chenin Blan, Gewurztraminer, Verdelho, and Viognier.  The last wine we tried a girl in my class spent a considerable amount of money and bought a nice white wine.  I didn’t prefer it but my professor said it was good, I trust him I’m sure it’s just an acquired taste. People were getting so loud and talkative by the end of class and we ran late.  Of course once we finally were allowed to leave it was still raining and it continued to rain until I went to bed. 

17 bottles of wine, 17 students in the class

A Long Tuesday

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

                I get up, get to school, the usual.  I’m enjoying tea more and more and have it in the morning before the bell rings, at morning tea, and sometimes at lunch.  I used to never drink tea before I came here.  All the boys came to school today which is great.  We spent the morning in the multi sensory room.  The room has all sorts of things.  All the lights are off in the room and there is a disco ball, lava lamps, fiber optic lights, random touch and feel things, a pen with balls that kids can sit in, and bean bags.  The kids actually stayed quiet and watched the movie on polar bears that we had playing.  Such cute animals they are.

After morning tea, three of the kids went down to Bondi pavilion to eat their lunch.  One teacher stayed back with the two boys and then the other teacher and than a man who comes in and volunteers an hour in my class every Tuesday and Wednesday.  We had a lot of fun outside and then we ordered hot chips.  Now no one can make fun of me but I had a light bulb go off today.  We ate by a restaurant that advertising their fish and chips.  I realized the whole chips part of it and why we call it that back home.  I thought it just always had that name, not that French fries are called chips somewhere else.  I felt pretty silly but it made me laugh that it just now came to me.  I walked there and back with one of the boys, he’s about 6 foot and I’ve realized how sensory he is.  He held my hand almost the whole time and he absolutely loved to run his fingers over the calluses on the inside of my hand, plus my hands feel pretty dry because of them.  He’s a smart boy because he hates loud noises and when we are walking he recognizes that a motorcycle and buses make loud noises so he quickly goes to cover his ears when he sees one.  He also makes all kinds of noises with his mouth, I like to repeat the sounds he makes and then it makes him laugh and smile all the time.

In the afternoon session we tried to get the kids to do more academic things.  I worked with the most functional kid in my class during this part.  I got pretty frustrated working with him, and I knew it was my fault but I couldn’t help myself.  He has sheets that spell out his name, address, and phone number with matching Velcro parts.  So we would pull off all the letters and numbers and say them and then find the matching letter or number.  He does those well because he does them so many times.  The only problem he has is he won’t stop repeating.  I will say yes good job, but he just keeps repeating.  However, we moved on to where there was a picture of a fruit and then the name of the fruit that would Velcro on.  I got so frustrated and looking back on it I know I shouldn’t have.  I would ask him what fruit it was and the only two he has memorized are apple or banana so he would just guess that for every picture.  But I tried breaking down the words into syllables and it would upset me cause I would say the first syllable like water and then follow with melon.  But he wouldn’t listen to me complete the word and would start repeating right away and not hear the second half.  So then I would break it up into two separate words but it’s as soon as I start with the first phoneme he jumps right in repeating.  I know it has nothing to do with him, I just would like for him to have some kind of progress.  I know I’m not a teacher either so I don’t have any previous history to know of any ways exactly to teach things like this either or how to handle these situations.  On some words though he did do well repeating the name of the fruit.  He does a good job watching my lips trying to mimic how they move.  He’s such a good kid and is always helpful in the classroom.

The taxis came early because of a big storm coming so we gathered up the kids quickly.  My end of the day didn’t go so well at school.  One of the boys right before he has a seizure he grabs on to anything around him, and that today meant my hair.  His one hand got my pony tail which didn’t hurt, it was his other hand that had hair right at the front of my scalp.  His grip is so strong though, it took 3 people to uncurl his hand around my hair.  I had to write up an accident report after school for it.  Then as I was waiting in a chair next to another kid I was holding onto him because he was being silly and jumpy.  He unfortunately got out of my grasp and I had to sit up and run after him, yet when I was sitting down I had my legs crossed and when I uncrossed them to sit up and run after him the zipper on the back of my boots ripped my jeans in the front.  They were the only jeans I brought to Sydney and were my favorite pair. I was so sad ha.

My evening wasn’t too fun. I spent the majority of it studying for this wine quiz I have tomorrow. My attention span isn’t what it’s normal like when I’m in class every day.  Staring at a computer screen takes much more effort. I’ve had my jack Johnson albums on repeat all evening, I think it complements the rainy weather well. 

The Gap 

Happy Birthday To Me

Monday, June 4, 2012

                It’s my birthday and I’m 21! I stayed up late enough on Sunday night so midnight came around and I could officially say it’s my birthday.  Five minutes later my apartment and the one next to mine came in with a brownie pan and candles singing happy birthday to me.  It was so nice and I never suspected it. Not to mention the brownies were great.  I loved it.  My roommates used the room next to ours to bake it. I didn’t feel as tired as I usually do in the evenings so I ended up going to bed a little before 2am. I got up at 6 like normal and headed out to the bus stop.  I was sitting with Jordan, who also is an intern at Wairoa and goes to KU, and we both forgot to flag down the bus. So many thoughts started to race through my mind.  Luckily the bus was just stopped up a little further up at a light so we ran and the man was nice enough to let us on there.  I think having the weekend and me getting so much sleep I just was out of it. 

                Jordan and I stopped at my regular café and she bought me a drink for my birthday which was very nice.  We ended up being really early to school so I had time to call the whole family in Decatur :] The kids today were great. All of the boys were in class and most of them were cheerful.  We got to make meat patties for the kids’ lunch today.  They were basically hamburgers.  The boys are really good about eating and ate it all so quick, leaving a large mess for me to clean up, but it was worth it.  For tea time I got another hot chocolate from one of the staff members and a blueberry muffin.  I definitely felt spoiled and everyone kept telling each other that it was my birthday.  After lunch I took one of the boys in class out to play to just get more exercise in and we had a lot of fun on the trampoline.  He ended up loving the playground thing where you stand on it and it spins around, I have no clue the name for it.  But once time was up it was a struggle to get him to leave it. 

                All the kids in my class sat while the teachers sang me happy birthday and I got a happy birthday card from my class.  It was all very sweet.  I ended up leaving school a little late, just with some of the kid’s taxis running late.  Jordan and I decided to head out to the post office on the way home to pick up stamps, so I now know where that is in Surry Hills.  Then as soon as I got home I basically left to go get myself my birthday dinner in Darling Harbour.  I have never been out there but was told the area was nice and it definitely is.  I took a bus and then a train out to Town Hall and then had to find my way from there to Darling Harbour.  I got a little turned around not knowing which way I was facing when I came out from the trains but I managed to find my way.  I was craving seafood and I definitely went to the right place.  Everything is so pricey, the man in the lobby said Nick’s was a good place to get seafood but nothing on the menu was under 40 dollars.  I kept walking down along the Harbour looking at a lot of menus and then I stopped and ate dinner at Adria.  I got a cocktail, main course and dessert for 35 dollars.  It’s funny I’m getting used to pricing here cause I think that’s a great deal, but back at home that’s so much money to spend on a meal out.  I ordered a pinapple punch drink, salmon, and banana caramel crème brule.  All of it was amazing and I left feeling so full.  All of the seating is outside right next to the water so I sat and enjoyed the view.  They have nice heating stands so it felt like a fire place.  After dinner I took my time walking around and I thought I might go see a movie but I decided to come back home.  I found my way back home fine, besides getting turned around in central station.  The station is just so large with 25 different platforms I never know which way out sign I should follow. 

                Overall I had a nice day, although my birthday is just starting in the states :]