Mood:  cheeky

Me: I love you

Nate: How Much?

Me: all the words in all the books in the world.

Nate: well  I love you all the letters that make up the words in all the books.

Me: so like 26? ..sad days... :(

LOL

This one's for you Mr. Nathan :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npE8QdDtN4I

I watched this video and it made me cry and miss my daddy even more then usual.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzmgAM8rIgo

I LOVE YOU DADDY!

Mood:  happy

Heya!

Not too much exciting happening round here. The sandstorm (thank god) never got as bad as Sydney had it. Made all of Brisbane yellow but other then that was fairly ok. I took a bunch of pics from our house so you can check out things from our perspective (Note there is two photos at the end that show what it should look like sans dust.) http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Dust%20Storm/ 

As for today, Nate and I decieded to head down to Southbank and check out the Great Brisbane duck Race where they race rubber duckys down the river. When we got down there we noticed that there was a really odd circus  (and by odd i mean "Check out the man that breathes thru his eyes!" kinda odd- yes that was an actual tent). So we checked out the duck race and it was kinda lame so we walked the boardwalk for a bit. They had giant boads with childrens interpretations of the city along to boardwalk. It was so awesome. If you knocked on the board it played the childrens voices explaining their board. Very cool. and i guess it was the school too that covered all the trees in empty water bottles. Anyhow it was CRAZY hot out today and i started feeling really sick and gross so nate and i went into the movie place to get some a/c for a bit and decided to treat ourselves to a movie. We went to see fame and i have to say i wasnt that impressed with the lack of any realy plot. oh well. After that we just headed home. All in all a good day date :)

Pics from the day: http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Duck%20Race%20Day/ 

As for this coming week i have one more assessment to finish and then perhaps Zoo on thursday?

Mood:  down

Hey All!

Nothing all that exciting to update ppls on, hence the lack of updating. Both Nate and I have an insane amount of assessments due in the next two weeks so we havnt done anything exciting at all.

 Well that pretty much sums it up. How sad is that ... le sigh. lol

On an up note Terry (our landlord) made us some banana bread cake as a thank you for not killing Fred # 2. .. she didnt know about the attempted vaccuum incident. the bread was delicious tho once i picked the gross stuff out of it  :)

On another note: I miss home. terribly.

Hello Everyone!

This week overall has been fairly good. Tuesday at prac I worked with mostly with Ned (a austistic boy) in my class so that i can put into practise the techniques my teacher told me to teach him. It actually went really well overall. For my craft club the kids worked really well and ended up making so amazing masks! They also loved the examples Nate and i made for them, i made the blue and the green ones, Nate made the spiderman one. The school then asked us grad students to come back on thursday for the Mystery Festival. Every year the school (mainly the parents)puts on this day of experiments and general mystery for all the students. They start the day with the entire student body watching a play that the parents wrote. This year the play was about a bunch of people flying around in a spaceship looking to buy property on one of six planets: Bubblurn (planet covered in bubbles), Lodestond (planet full of floating rocks), Nomoon (planet covered in aluminium), Geiser (planet covered in geisers), Burnus (planet on fire) or White planet (covered in white chalky discs). After they take off back to earth after visiting the planets they realize that Mr. E (the gr 7 teacher) isnt on the ship, which means hes on one of the planets. They do howvere have his backpack and know that he collects a sample from every plane hes been on. Then the play ends and all the students return to class and the first grade level comes down to do the experiments. They were broken into groups of about 4 kids and each sent to a station (i was station one!!!) to do thier experiments. For each experiment they had to compare the sample given from each planet to the sample in the backpack. If it was the same then Mr E had both been and returned from that planet. They LOVED the experiments, they made lava lamps, became a human battery, made rocks float, and played with dry ice (if you ever get a chance pour water with dish soap in it over some dry ice). Then they got to watch the last two experiments. By the end of their time they had figured out that three of them he has been to and back from, and three thats uncertain. This continues with all of the grades throughout the day then at the end the teachers in their class play the powerpoint which contains 6 huge collages of every student in the school and they had to look in the three planets for Mr Es picture. All in all a fantastic way to encourage science in the school. Here are some pics of me doing the experiments with the grade 6s : http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Working%20with%20the%20kids/

Then improving my week even more was i got my first mark back (their grading scalle goes from 1-7) which was a 5 - (somewhere between a 66-72%) !! I was really excited by this! YAY!

On Sat Nate and I went to the convention center on Southbank for the Education Fair. They had a ton of free stuff however wouldnt give us any cuz we are just pre-service teachers. Once i realized this we spent the rest of the day telling ppl we were actual teachers! lol it was actually alot of fun, cant wait for the real thing! After we finished there we had about 4 hours before the fireworks started at 7pm (even thought there was people claiming their spot at 11 am..)so we went to the mall and grabbed a dice game called Greed$ (which is exactly like Farkle lol) then headed back to the beach. Oh while at the mall we found a lego darth vader (sp?) and a a random hidden pagoda at the beach so we took pics of that too. We wernt really sure where to grab a seat but the guy informed us anywhere we would be able to see so we grabed a spot next to the boom camera from channel 7 figuring they would grab a good spot. About 530 to entertain everyone they had planes come in for an air show right above us. It was pretty sweet! After that Nate decided to go get us some fries at about 6. At 7pm he still wasnt back - thats how many ppl were there. There wasnt a spot to be had (sitting or standing) anywhere along the boardwalk. while he was gone i was actually on tv as they had the camera scanning the crowds while they did the live broadcasts. At 7 he finally got back just in time to watch the begining of the show. And what better way to start it then by two jets flying directly above us breaking the sound barrier! The fireworks were amazing! Not only because they were all put to music but also because they were everywhere! and i do mean everywhere, from the tops of the city buildings, to the bridge to the bardge in the middle of the river! You didnt really notice the coreographing of the music until Halo by Beyonce came on, then whenever she said halo a circle firework would go off and look exactly like said halo! Then a slow song came on and everyone was like wtf? rainbows?wat? LOL but then some went "look over there" so we look to the bridge and the fireworks were coming off the bridge like a waterfall! it was so pretty! then the song mentioned somthing about skies of blue and the whole sky lit up with blue fireworks. it was awesome. After about a half hour or so the show was over and the jets flew over again to end it all. (when you look at the pics the gets just look like balls of fire) It then took us ever to get home. Over all a very very good day! http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Fireworks%20at%20southbank/

As for the close future: i have 2 assignments due, and two next week then a week off then 4 weeks of prac teaching. sigh..

Status of assignments: 1 down - 3 to go....

Mood:  not sure

Hello Ppls!

Unfortunatly i wasn't able to sleep last night - booo!!!! stupid nerves lol. I ended up falling asleep around 330ish and was able to sleep right until 9am. I then got up and called home to chat with everyone there :). After checking that i had everything (twice) for my presentation i left for class arriving there 45 mins early in order to set up the classroom for our micro teaching. However as luck will have it this week a class was in there (the only time a class has ever been in the room before us and its when i present --le sigh). So John and I didnt get to set up until everyone was there watching which was awkward lol. But overall the presentation went really well. We got alot of compliments and only a few suggestions. After the class though i went to walk to the bus station only to find out that it was pouring rain outside. i got soaked getting home. As for now im making masquerade masks for an example for my craft club. They'll be making them tomorrow when im at prac. while watching "Beyond the Darklands" which is a documentry type show of different Australian serial killers. This week is Katherine Knight. --Horrific serial killer lady ... seiriously the things she did was beyond sickning.

 Hope everyone back at home is having a fantastic long weekend!

Mood:  bright

Hello Everyone!

Havnt really done all that much since ive last updated. Had the week to pretty much relax after a wonderful Satuday spent at Surfers Paradise. It was B-E-A-Utiful at the beach. White fine sand and clear blue waters. The only issues was that it was crazy windy and the wind was blowing the sand right into our faces the entire day :( it also made for a really really strong current. Altho there was swimming allowed in between the flags, for the most part of the beach it was only surfers that were allowed swimming in the water. I went to put my feet in the edges of the water and even i could feel the current so out in the deep water must have been crazy! I didnt get to see any Blue-Bottles (Jelly Fish) when we went but i do know that they are there so ill check next time. After hanging out on the beach Nate and I decided to walk up the boardwalk to all the shops and get some ice cream and a souvenir or two. I ended up getting a surfboard bracelet and a wood ring and Nate got a leather bracelet and a green and black necklace. All in all def worth the hour and a half trip down.

Pics from Surfers Paradise (the order got all mixed up..sorry!) http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Surfers%20Paradise/

On Tuesday, Mike from CanTeach (the program i went though to get down here) came to visit us and teach us how to fill out our QCT and OCT forms. He also brought us all Reeses Peices from Canada; he then ended up being dissapointed to find out that we have resses here too lol. However it was kinda cool to see the french on the packaging along with the english again. Over all the night went well and alot was learned.

The rest of the week was really uneventful. Last night there was a major thunderstorm that lasted until this morning. Other then that it has been sunny and high 20s all week. Oh and a big spider (smaller then Fred # 2 but bigger then anything id consider normal) almost ran over my foot as i was walking around the bedroom. Not cool. he was black and furry and suffered the same fate Fred would have if he didnt escape LOL. As for Today, Nate and I went in search of a dollar store called Crazy Clarks and ended up finding a fairly huge mall. Its only about a half hour (2 buses) away from our house which is really awesome and it has a TON of different stores in it including Kmart, Target and a bunch of craft stores. So awe spent 2 or three hours there exploring before heading home for some dinner.

As for the week ahead, tomorrow (Sept 6th) is Fathers Day here so

HAPPY FATHERS DAY DADDY!

As for monday, my group member John and I  have to present our microteaching lesson to the rest of our class. That means that we have 40 mins to teach the lesson we handed in 3 weeks ago. We are as prepared as possible so wish me luck! The rest of the week will most likely be spent doing schoolwork as round two of assignments approaches.

I hope you all have a fantastic week!!

PS. We just found out that to kick off the 150th year celebration of Brisbane there will be a HUGE fireworks display over the river on southbank! Nate and I have decided to head down early since it starts at 7 and have a picnic dinner first! Eeeeeexcited!!

P.P.S. I realized i never posted the pics from the sunday nate and i went to hang out on southbank. so here they are -> http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Southbank%20Trip/

Mood:  chillin'

Hello Peoples!

Im sorry i havnt been able to update lately but things have been really hectic and schoolwork has been consuming my time. sigh.  

Last week I had two assessments due. One in Engaging Diverse Learnes where me and john had to create a unit plan, a microteaching lesson plan and two more individual lesson plans. We then have to present our microteaching in two weeks. The second assessment was for Early Years:Literacies where we has to write a 2000 word essay on Literacy in the 21st century. As for this week i only have one due and thats a proposal for Early Years:Maths. And then to celebrate finishing those assignments Nate and I will be heading to the beach! YAY! I have yet to go to a beach here so im excited t check out Surfers paradise.

As for Prac its going really well. I start my Craft Club this Tuesday which im pretty excited about. We are going t make Zebras with cups and spoons and paint. Should be good, hopefuly at least lol. This week coming is Book Week at the school as well and all the grad students were tasked with decorating the entrance way to reflect the theme "Book safari". I think we did a damn good job lol. Check out the pics below.

Bookweek Pics: http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Bookweek/

Its technically spring here now, well that inbetween winter and spring time which means all the bugs are emerging. The hosue flies here are the size of bumblebees - not cool. Nate named one fred # 1 :) ..and then we killed him cuz he was making too much noise when we were trying to sleep. Other then the flies we've found some weird /huge flying insects and some just generally weird bugs that i usually just try and keep my distance from. However thats not always possible, like when a week or two ago we noticed a fairly big spider in the bathroom. I made nathan kill it and all was forgotten. Then the next morning or the one after I had to get up super early in order to shower before prac. Which was fine till i got in the shower and looked behind me to find a giant spider. In actuality it wasnt all that big - maybe twice the size of a toonie (including legs) but still . so i jumped out of the shower and tried to shake it off the curtain and into the water. When i finally knocked it into the water and got all excited .. it just stood up and walked out of the water! gah! so plan b was squishing it with a container and then pushing it down the drain. Mwaha Spiders = 0 Amanda and Nathan = 2 ... and we must pissed off the spider gods or the mom of those two babies cuz well.. maybe you should just watch this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmnQVHwWJS8

As for the weather, we are in a "Winter Heat Wave" wich means 30ish temperature weather at 9am lol . not horrible but it makes me scared for summer. :S

Anywho thats all thats really new and exiciting here. I miss my friends terribly but am glad i can still somewhat be there for them when they need me. Much love guys!

Miss my family tons too, altho ive been able to call home and talk to mom and dad at least once a week so it def makes it easier..calling them also gives me something to do when im up at 5am avoiding spider rooms lol Even if they both did laugh at us lol. Love you mom and dad <3

Ps. I saw these knife holders in the store and thought it was halarious. I like the person one but the hearts cute too. At the very least i thought chris would find them amusing.

http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/?action=view&current=DSCN0778.jpg

 Until the next time i can update: I love and miss you all!! ..ou and Timmies bagels ...

Mood:  don't ask

School assignments are owning my life right now. I promise a huge update this weekend! ...and maybe some pics too!