Waiting for our ride to the launch that had been arranged for us, we simply sat in the staff room at the school. Eventually one of the teachers came in and asked who the LIMO was for! We insisted that it couldn't be for us because we were getting a van or something, but when we told her that Jodie had lined it up for us, she was positive it was for us! We were in DISBELIEF! I've only ridden in a limo once in my life during a 13th birthday party! That was 8 years ago! What a GREAT way to start a great weekend!

At the launch, we got our tickets, boarded the boat and enjoyed the trip over. I even got some correcting done on the way... a true teacher. :)

Upon arrival and finding Jodie's apartment, we were once again in complete shock. It was MASSIVE. Two king size bedrooms, a kid's bedroom with 2 beds, a master bathroom with a jacuzzi, as well as yet another bathroom, a spacious kitchen, flat screen TV complete with Wii! But most amazing of all was the balcony that overlooked the jetty and the beautiful Pacific Ocean! How did we ever get so LUCKY! Thus far, our trip had been completely FREE!

After grabbing a quick bite at a Beachside Cafe and splashing in the ocean a bit, we all pretty much went to bed. It had been a long day at school and quite an exciting evening.

Like usual, my body clock woke me up at 6am the next day! Thankfully, several other people were up too... We've all seemed to have this silly body clock issue since being here. After we all were showered and ready to go, we headed down to the tours desk to schedule a Desert Safari Tour for all 8 of us... complete with sand tobagganing. Our group was definitely much more energetic than most others on this tour, and the bus driver found it quite funny. The 4 wheel-drive bus ride out there was much more exciting than we had expected. We were going near very sharp enbankments, climbing hills I didn't think would be possible, and getting thrown around within our seats several times. It was an amazing change to go from a very vegitated scenery to what seems like the Sahara.... a desolate sand-filled area in only a matter of minutes. Actually, it's quite remarkable to see the vegitation on the island because of the fact that the island is entirely made of sand! Regardless... our 4 wheel-drive bus kept on trucking towards the biggest sand dune I've ever seen. Once we arrived, we were prepped on how to sand tobaggan correctly, without eating a lot of sand (literally). We then began our climb up the dune. It didn't take long, but I was definitely winded from the climb. And tobagganing was amazing!! I was able to do it THREE times! It was seriously awesome. I could've done it all day! Once we were all finished, the Tangalooma people asked to take pictures of the 8 of us in our group.. and we ended up with some pretty fantastic pictures! I ended up buying a picture of me sand tobagging, as well as a group picture that I haven't put up on here. You'll all have to see them when I get home! :) This was by far the best part of my weekend!

When we returned, the group all grabbed a quick snack then headed down to the beach to catch some rays. Unbelieveably we were the ONLY people doing this! We later had an Australian tell us that only Americans and Victorians (Southern Australia) would be laying out during this time of the year! Unfortunately, the beach was NOT the place to catch some good rays. The sand is so fine and the wind was so strong that we were constantly getting whipped and stung. 6 of the people in our group went and sat around our apartment pool (something I didn't even know it had), while Sara Sickels and I went and enjoyed great privacy at one of Tangalooma's pools. I read nearly 100 pages, and enjoyed the Australian sun! It truly was the most relaxing part of my trip thus far.

After relaxing for a while, we all decided it was about time we rid ourselves of some sand. While some of the other girls were showering and getting ready to go out for the night, I needed to stretch my legs. Dave offered to go on a walk with me to the wrecks. The wrecks are a series of "wrecked" ships along the coast that Tangalooma planted there as an attraction. They are quite interesting however and attract a quite a few fish for people to see when snorkeling. It was a nice walk during a perfect time of the day.

When we returned Dave and I got our showers in and ready for the night. Kelly, Kari, Dave and I all ended up going to the Steakhouse (Beachhouse Rotunda) for supper. Although we paid an arm and a leg, our meal made it WELL worth it! Dave, Kari and I all had steaks while Kelly had chicken. Our meal was TRULY complete with the bottle of wine that Dave had bought for us three girls. We constantly joked about how Dave probably felt like he was on The Bachelor... on an island with 7 girls. During supper we were teasing him telling him that this was a 3 on 1 date and that he'd have to give a rose by the end of the night. I told him that I already forfeited my rose because I had a ring. :)

After supper, we ROLLED out of the rotunda and straight into our sweats! We then went and sat on the jetty and happened to spot a few dolphins right below us. The ocean truly is an amazing place!

I began my Sunday with an amazing run on the beach. It was something I have always wanted to do, but never really gotten the chance. It was a windy, but refreshing morning and probably the best run of my life. Along the way I spotted a few dead carcasses that had been washed up during the night, a couple starfish, and TONS of jellyfish. I knew to steer clear of them! After my run and another lengthy walk with Kelly and Kari, I showered and got ready for the day. Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side this day and it was a cloudy, dreary day where it eventually started raining. We spent the day relaxing within our apartment.

When it was time to go back, we were quite sad, but knew that we had had a GREAT time at Tangalooma! Our trip back was also a memorable one for the Tangalooma people. Just upon arriving back at the launch (yes, we had a limo there to pick us up too!), one of the engines on the boat we were on got stuck in reverse. Although the captain tried turning it off and restarting it, it simply was stuck in reverse, which made it IMPOSSIBLE to dock it correctly. They had said that it was going to take overnight for it to be fixed. So, instead of docking it correctly, they simply let us float up next to another docked Tangalooma boat and we had to hop from one boat to the next to get off! It was CRAZY, but exciting!

Sara Sickels had read something quite interesting in the "What's On" book and enlightened us with it on our trip back too. She said that the movie, Scooby Doo... the newer one with Freddie Prinze Jr in it, was actually FILMED on Moreton Island, the island that Tangalooma resort is on! The place where WE WERE! So if you've seen that movie and remember the beautiful scenery... that's what we were surrounded with all weekend long! Simply amazing.

The only downfall of the weekend was that 6 of us had planned on going parasailing. Unfortunately both days it got cancelled due to the wind and other weather issues. Kelly and I have decided to do it while we are in Cairns during our last week of traveling> I am EXTREMELY excited! :)

Well, it's 9:20pm here and I still have to come up with lessons for tomorrow! That's what a vacation on my "vacation" does to me!!

While I'm in school tomorrow I'll be thinking of you all relaxing on your Labor Day! You lucky ducks! Oh... and Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad! :)

written by  cowane1 on September 5, 2010 from Tangalooma, Australia
from the travel blog: Australian Adventures!
Send a Compliment

---

1 comment...

Yesterday was a fairly good day. The kids were a little wild but enjoyable. I taught handwriting in the morning, which was even more of a challenge than teaching money! This is because, Queensland (the state in which I am teaching) has its own form of manuscript. And, it's goofy. Google it and you'll see what I mean! My teacher had my try my hand at it and write half of what the kids would be copying off of the board. I was proud because only ONE student had to ask me what one word said because he couldn't read it. I was supposed to teach the students where they needed to pick up their pencil in the middle of certain words... I can't even hardly write it, and they're supposed to believe me?! I was very impressed with the perserverance in the class today, as several of them took their time, truly giving me quality not quantity! :)

Math was successful, but a little wild toward the end. The students pleasantly surprised me with their success in learning group equivalence as well as their ability to help their peers if they didn't understand. One of my FAVORITE things to see is when a student is truly HELPING another student and not just giving him/her the answer. Following that we broke into groups and had them cut out nets of shapes to create 3D shapes. One of the groups was a bit too chatty after I had prompted them several times, and so I stood my ground and made the 6 of them stay in an extra 5 minutes during recess and tell me one thing they plan on doing different to prevent this next time. I love teaching Elementary school because I could do that, and they were still my best friend at the end of the day. I was a super super mean teacher yesterday though because I even gave out two pink tickets (slips that say that students need to stay in during recess in a behavior room). I had warned them repeatedly, but they continued until I had enough and wrote them up!

At the end of the day, we started doing Father's day gifts. Father's day is September 5th here. For one of the gifts, I needed to take a picture of each of the students individually. It was fun to get to do this, because now I will have them all to remind myself of this wonderful class. While I had my camera out I also took a few pictures of the "late slips" in the late book. The reasonings are quite humorous... "traffic", "slept in", "mum slept in", "went to bank", and my personal favorite, "no idea". :)

Last night Tina, Trevor, Shannan, Sara (another Minnesota student) and I all went to "Animal Kingdom", an Australian movie. It was quite disturbing and depressing... but fascinating at the same time. It was a definite change watching a movie where the steering wheel was on the otherside of the car, and they had an Australian accent. I found them at times hard to understand even though I can almost always understand Australians in person!

Today was a particularly easy day at school. The 3rd years were pleased to watch an Aboriginal man share his artifacts, paintings, skills and stories with them. He explained to us all of the different tools the aboriginee people used, as well as the interpretations of a few paintings. He played the didgerdoo, and sang a wonderful song. But the part the kids thought was the total coolest was when he showed them how the aboriginals threw a spear as well as a returning boomerang. This guy was a pro, so don't expect me to be coming home capable of doing it! It's quite a science of wind, speed, and angle! It was fascinating and I think it made his day to have 80 3rd years clapping and cheering for him too! It was wonderful to have the students enjoy and be presented such an intregal part of their culture!

I ate my short lunch with some of the grade 4 and 5 teachers where they introduced me to the wonderful Australian book "Possum Magic"... a book I plan on buying! In this book it lists a variety of different Australian delicacy foods. To top off their introduction to the book, they fed us these delicacies! I absolutely LOVE pavlova! Look it up! I'm going to try to make it for everyone as an Australian treat at holidays. It's fantastic, but very sweet. I also am madly in love with Lamingtons (white cake, dipped in chocolate coated in coconut), and enjoy the white Tim-Tams better than the chocolate ones.

I finished my day by eating a place called Louise's...aka the KCP Cafe in Naragba. Tina and Trevor have boasted that they have the BEST burgers... and they were VERY delicious!

I have best be off, but want you to know that I will likely have some wonderful pictures to put up when I write next. The 8 Minnesota students and I are leaving tomorrow for Tangalooma on Moreton Island for the weekend! One of the teachers has arranged transportation for us to and from the launch, over and back from the island, as well as letting us stay at her apartment there for 2 nights for free! Boy we are spoiled! :) I need to get packing, as well as preparing for next weeks lessons because I won't be back from Tangalooma until late Sunday!

Hope you all have JUST as fun of a Labor weekend! I'll be thinking of you as I am sand tobagganing, snorkeling, and attempting to windsurf... maybe. :)

written by  cowane1 on September 2, 2010 from Morayfield, Australia
from the travel blog: Australian Adventures!
Send a Compliment

---

2 comments...

My teacher, Kyryn, was also happy to see that I was back. Upon arrival she told me that she had switched the planning up a little bit though. I was entirely fine with that because that's just what happens as a teacher. She needed to make SURE she got the students assessed in each subject before the end of the term (which is also my last week). And, starting next week, for the last two weeks of my time here, the students will be swimming from 10 am to 1pm everyday! That definitely cuts out of classroom time that should be used for end of the term assessments. Nearly all morning I was placed with 3 students and asked to help them write a draft of their final information report. These 3 students worked fervently, but I found myself having difficulty explaining to them EXACTLY what a sentence is. They were given bulleted notes like - a red dome of rock, and they had to put that into a competent and interesting sentence. The students I was working with, lower level, could not understand why that wasn't a sentence. So I would try to work with them by asking them, "if you had to describe Ayer's Rock to me, what would you say?" in hopes that they would respond with, "It looks like a red dome of rock"... instead I incessantly got "a red dome of rock". It was a long, but productive morning nonetheless. We'll likely be doing the same thing tomorrow to finish it.

I also taught the whole group maths today. Before maths, I introduced the new behavior system, which I still hadn't had time to fully get ready. The students appeared excited at the new opportunity to win something, but didn't prove to me that they were giving extra effort. I awarded those I thought deserved being awarded, but was still very stingy about giving awards to those who did not prove excellence to me. I taught for a complete hour and a half, but it proved very very successful! The students displayed good behavior, appeared to finally ALMOST completely grasp subtraction with regrouping, and are rockstars at creating equivalent equations. My vocal cords were SCREAMING at the end of this time, but I didn't have to talk for the rest of the day, so I didn't mind.

I learned today that Prep (equivalent to our Kindergarten) is NOT mandatory here in Australia. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that Kindergarten is mandatory in the US and I was quite surprised by this! Imagine a kid walking into 1st grade not having all of the skills he/she would've learned in Kindergarten (or Prep)! The teachers assured me that the great majority of kids do attend Prep though because it is practically free childcare if nothing else. I thought that was a rather sad way to think of it, but also quite true.

I also recalled a couple Australian words/phrases you may find interesting. Several of these come from what we would think of as an Old British type of wording:
dearer: more expensive
fortsnight: 2 weeks.... this word is used ALL THE TIME, and they are amazed that we do not use it in America
fringes: bangs (like in your hair)
pardon: what did you say?... I know we've all heard this before, but it's SO adorable to have the kids say to you, "pardon", instead of the "WHAT?" that we'd get in America.
docket: receipt
I reckon: I think... again I know you've all heard this, but it is used CONSTANTLY down here... as well as the word MATE. You'd be amazed at how many times I've actually heard or been spoken to with the phrase "G'day mate!" They truly truly use it!
How's you going?: How are you?... My host family asks me this often, and I've heard it from grocery store cashiers among other people.

Okay, I'm going to guides again tonight. They are making Father's Day presents because the Australian Father's Day is coming up this weekend on September 5th... Definitely different than ours. The strange thing is that their Mother's Day is always the same as ours! :) Oh well!

I'd best be off! - G'day Mates! :)

written by  cowane1 on August 30, 2010 from Morayfield, Australia
from the travel blog: Australian Adventures!
Send a Compliment

---

1 comment...

Friday was a good day of school. I administered a Maths test that I had created, and from what I've corected so far, it seems as though the students have done particularly well! Which hopefully means I've done particularly well at teaching all week too. Friday was also fun because we finished the day with an aboriginal art project - painting, as well as library.

After school, my host mum and I rode the train into Brisbane again but this time went to Wesleys. Tina was planning and staying there to watch Zander as Trevor and Wesley went to a soccer game, and Shannan and I went out to supper and bowling with a few of her co-workers. After Shannan said her hellos to Zander, we hit the road for Toscani's, the restaurant we were meeting at. There was a group of 9 of us, and sadly the service was EXTREMELY poor.... for the other 8 in the group. We all ordered a drink, and then put in our meal order. About 20 minutes later MY meal came out, but no one elses. The restaraunt informed us that there had been a mistake and for some reason the computer glitched and sent my meal in as a separate order (I was the 4th one to order! weird!). They assured our table that their meals would be out in about 20 more minutes, whereas, they asked me what I was drinking so they could give me a free drink because of the way I had been inconvenienced. The table was pretty steamed throughout the entire meal, but several of them got rather upset when they found out that the restaraunt also paid for my MEAL! So, for my two drinks and 15 dollar plate of pasta, I paid $7.20... which is even cheaper in US dollars! :) SCORE! After eating we went to bowl a few games. My first game I bowled a decent (FOR ME!) 84. But I blew myself away with bowling a 105 in my second game! Everyone kept saying, "Gosh, look at that yank bowl!". For some reason the people here call Americans, Yanks, and the English, Pommies. In the end, it was an extremely fun, but late night.

Saturday I was able to sleep in, thankfully, until 9:30. I then got up, showered, and got ready for the day. I also took about an hour to talk to my mom, dad, Jessica, and Daniel on the phone. It was nice to reconnect, but I felt bad because that meant my host family and I didn't get out of the house until around 11:30. We then drove to the beautiful Bribie Island. Bribie Island is just as its name says, an island. However, unlike several of the other "resort-type" islands, Bribie is connected by a bridge to the mainland and therefore has a decent size population. While there Tina Trevor and I ate a splendid lunch. I had a BBLAT (Bread, Bacon, Lettuce, Avacado & Tomato, minus the tomato). It was the first time I'd ever had avacado though. I don't much care for it, but ate it regardless. We then drove to the other side of the island, the "surf" side and walked along the super soft, super WHITE sand beach! It was magnificent. After that we drove around a bit and eventually stopped for a coffee (I had a milkshake :D). From where we were sitting we could see a wedding happen. It definitely made me start thinking about mine, and getting me super excited for it!

When we returned we jumped in the car again and took off for the city once again - this time for Shannans. When we got there Tina and Trevor picked up Shannan, drove the two of us to her friend Jemma's house, and then went to lunch. Shannan, Jemma, Eliza (another friend) and I walked a bit to the bus station and caught a bus to the city. The girl who had aligned this had it planned that we were going to a restaraunt called Wagamama's... a Japanese restaraunt, and a first for me! When I told mom I was going to be having Japanese in the evening she told me, "Good luck with that". But, luckily, with some coaching from Tina and Trevor earlier in the day, I decided on the Negami Yakatori... can you get anything more Japanese sounding than that?! Basically it was chicken and onions cooked on skewers with a yakatori (don't ask me...) sauce over it. It was delicious! After Wagamama's we booked it across the city to a comedy club at which Shannan had won tickets. There were six of us and Shannan only had 4 tickets, so we split the cost of the other two and ended up only paying 8 dollars to see 6 great comedians live, again another first for me! I was able to catch most of the jokes, and if someone used an Australian name or reference Shannan's friend Tamara would lean forward and explain it to me so I could get the joke. After that we walked all the way back across town to the Treasury Casino. I was dressed quite nicely this time and the guards actually let me in. It was definitely the most GRAND casino I've ever been in! The 6 of us pushed our way to the front of the dancefloor and pretty much danced the night away! It was a BLAST! :) After that we caught the train back and needless to say, I didn't get back to Burpengary until about 1:30 in the morning. This was unfortunate because Jodie and her family would be picking me up at 8 am the next day!

Jodie, the media specialist at Morayfield East State School had invited the 8 Minnesota students to go and see a few historical monuments of the area for the better part of Sunday. We started at The Big Pineapple. It is just as it sounds, a great big pineapple. Surrounded by working pineapple and macademia nut farms, the Big Pineapple recounts the history of pineapple and macademia nut farming in this part of Queensland. We got to go and see several of the animals native to Australia (again...) but really enjoyed hearing the Cockatoos repeat when you said "Hey Cocky!" and the baby joeys coming in and out of their mother's pouch. It was quite amazing! We took a train ride around the plantation, and then another in the shape of a macademia nut to where the macademia nuts are grown and harvested. I've picked up a few to bring home... don't worry, it's legal. After that we headed to the Ginger Factory where we rode on a boat ride to "find the gingerbread man" around the world. After that we shopped a bit at a few shops along the way. We also went on a walking tour through the actual Ginger Factory to see how the ginger we eat is harvested and processed. We then took another train ride around the premises and watched an informational bee demonstration teaching us about how honey is harvested. After the ginger factory we made a quick stop off at a strawberry farm where we each picked almost a kilogram (approx. 2 lbs) of strawberries to bring home to our hosts. It was an extremely fun and informational day... and we were definitely in good compay with Jodie's family!

The "blues" part of my title is in regards to the fact that I have found myself SICK. On Thursday night I felt a little tickle, but nothing major. Unfortunately that tickle has steadily progressed to me completely losing my voice, having difficulty swallowing, blowing my nose constantly and feeling a bit feverish. Jodie instructed me to STAY HOME if I feel like this in the morning, and I told her I would. Unfortunately it just feels like one of those colds/sinus things that needs to be slept off and cured with water! I'm planning on having a shower tonight to hopefully get some relief from the steam as well as get my body back to a normal temperature.

Think of me as I go into my second week of teaching... :)

written by  cowane1 on August 29, 2010 from Burpengary, Australia
from the travel blog: Australian Adventures!
Send a Compliment

---

1 comment...

Oh well. Hopefully I'll feel well enough to return tomorrow. I only have 13 days left with those little guys and want to maket he most of it! Even if my teaching consists of me writing everything I want to say on the board. :)

Think of me... because I'm often thinking of you all :)

written by  cowane1 on August 29, 2010 from Burpengary, Australia
from the travel blog: Australian Adventures!
Send a Compliment

---

3 comments...

Last night Tina and I again took the train into Brisbane to Shannan's house for supper (I ate my very first mango!) and then we all went to an entertainment center for the weekly free movie. This week it was the Lovely Bones... I didn't quite know what to think about it. I found it slightly disturbing and quite depressing, but fascinating nonetheless!

Today was the easiest day thus far - I didn't have to teach at all! PE and Drama class had taken all of the Maths time available. I did however have the opportunity to sit with and work individually with 3 of the most severe (academically) students in the class. While the rest of the class was working on breaking their spelling words into phonemes and putting them into sentences, we were writing their spelling words (significantly easier words) rainbow style! This simply means to write one each letter in a different color repeatedly. After that we play a good game of hangman. I gave them each a turn to pick a word and we would try and guess it. One of the students had hardly written down the lines for the letters when another student asked if the first letter was an "S". When he said that it was, both of the boys said they knew what it was... the boy's NAME! He got quite upset and I told him that he deserved another chance. He then began searching the room for another word, found one, stared at it, and marked down the spaces. The other boys obviously saw this and guessed that one right away. By then he got quite upset, so again I told him that he could have yet another turn. This time I helped him by writing the word he wanted down on a piece of paper so he had something he could reference that the boys couldn't see. It's interesting to see the different and simple things that make moods change. I truly enjoyed working with these students and several of the activities they do/ manipulatives they use are ones I would consider for my classroom of almost any age!

After school Tina and I went on a nice long bike ride into an area of Burpengary that she has never seen before. It was good excerise that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise, but I have no doubt my butt will hurt in the morn! :) Then after planning a few of next weeks lessons, I ate my first passionfruit. It was a bit sour, but I could definitely see how it would be AMAZING on vanilla ice cream... and I'm not even that big of an ice cream fan!

A major difference I have noticed between Morayfield E.S.S. and the MN schools was the amount of absence and truancy (tardiness) is MUCH higher here than back in the states. It has not been uncommon to have 4 or 5 students walk in late (anywhere between 10 minutes to an hour an a half) each morning. Another 3 or 4 are usually absent. Usually the tardiness notes read, "Slept In" or "Was shopping in the AM". I have heard several parents come up to Miss Wright explaining that their son/daughter will be missing tomorrow because he/she will be going to Dreamworld (an amusement park in Brisbane) or absent for the next two weeks because his/her family is having a holiday (vacation) along the coast. Unbelievable!! When I asked Miss Wright about it, she said that it is solely the parents' fault and that they obviously do not have as strict of policies for absence and truancy as we do in the US.

written by  cowane1 on August 26, 2010 from Morayfield, Australia
from the travel blog: Australian Adventures!
Send a Compliment

---

2 comments...

My lesson was on something that I had said I was hoping I didn't have to teach - how to count money. If I was in the US, I wouldn't mind teaching this at all, but because Australia has a different currency, it made this a bit more difficult! It felt good to begin teaching again, and the students appeared to not only be enjoying having me teach, but learning something as well! For part of my lesson I broke the students up into groups and had them count money as a group. Miss Wright prepared me that because of space limitations as well as the character of the class she has that she does not work in groups much at all, but encouraged me to try it! With some mental preparation, the students were quite successful not only with the group structure but also with counting money! It was wonderful to see third grade students leaning over, helping their partners, and encouraging their group members in a positive manner. Very encouraging to me as a teacher. After my lesson, I asked Miss Wright what she thought I could improve on, and she said that she simply wants me to slow down. She said that several of the above average and average students were right on pace with me, but her lower level students tended to struggle. I'll have to work on that in future lessons.

As I was working with several students, I got the feeling of just how far behind some of the students were. Several of the students had trouble simply copying information off of the board. I attempted to help speed one of the students up by spelling the words for him; sadly he looked at me and asked "What's a 'd' look like again?". He didn't know what more than half of the alphabet looked like! It was even more heartbreaking because he was working his very hardest to keep up the pace, but not knowing your letters is a big crutch to try to overcome. Apparently several of the children in my class come from a rough and tough background, providing them with very little background knowledge for us to build on. I'm sure I'll have more on that in another day.

written by  cowane1 on August 23, 2010 from Morayfield, Australia
from the travel blog: Australian Adventures!
Send a Compliment

---

comment on this...

I've noticed that a common phrase here starts with, "I reckon". It's funny to me, but sounds so natural to them because that is genuinely how they talk! Another good vocabulary word is yonks, which simpy means a LONG time. Used in a sentece you could say, "I haven't had these chilps in yonks!".

written by  cowane1 on August 21, 2010 from Brisbane, Australia
from the travel blog: Australian Adventures!
Send a Compliment

---

comment on this...