Life Down Under: Wine and Wairoa: 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.