Hey Everyone

Sorry its been so long between updates but not much has really happened. The Monday after Nates 26th Birthday was his graduation! So that was exciting! [well the ceremony itself was boring as lol ] and that at the end of the ceremony the audience was asked , and I quote, "to please stand and show your congratulations enthusiastically" LMAO bahaah wow thanks tips. Anyhow pictures are here: http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Nates%20Grad/

So our landlord has decided to re-do her roof. Courtesy of our rent checks I'm sure. Grrrrr so we have to keep all the blinds and windows shut since there are random men around :s

Other then that nothing really been happening. The weathers been really rainy and storm filled over the past week because we are getting the remnants  of Cyclone Laurance. Nothing too horrible just severe thunderstorms lasting for about a half hour then going back to sunny or light rain.

In other news we sent out some xmas cards to all of the awesome ppl. I've already heard from two people that some have been received. So CHECK YOUR MAILBOX!

Xoxoxox

Manda

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE!

Congrats you are now officially old <3

Baby Spiders on the door ?- check

Small spider on the roof ?(size of a toonie) - Check

Massive spider in the bathroom?(size of my palm) - Check

Barking Gecko in the closet - Check (he is now hiding in my pants - Just freakin peachy)

Possums fighting outside the door? - Check

Welcome to my life in Aussie. sigh.

Hey Ppls!

Well had a fannnntastic week of doing stuffs and general relaxing.

Tuesday last week we went to the Australian zoo again. Turns out when we got there that they were celebrating Roberts 6^th birthday so the entire place was decorated with a dino theme for him. – in case you don’t know/remember Robert is Steve Irwin (the Croc Hunter)’s son – Turned out to be a lot of fun and we got to see Terri (steve’s wife) , Bindi (their daughter) as well as Robert at the Croc-osium and we got to sing happy birthday to him. Hes totally adorable and looks so much like Steve. Other then that Im sad to report that im still incredibly nervous to approach the roos I make Nate go and pet them first then I approach slowly. I don’t think ill ever be used to it. Sorry they aren’t in order but here are the Pics: http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/zoo%202/

Unfortunately Beach was a no go on Wednesday  L

Thursday however Terry asked if we wanted to go to the Botanical Gardens since she has the car  and wouldn’t mind dropping us off. WOOT  So we went and spent 3 hours walking around the beautiful gardens. The fav of both nate and myself was the Japanese Gardens. They were so peaceful and so well done! We saw lots of lizards (Water Dragons) that day too. Their latterly everywhere but most run away when u get close to them . Afterwards Nate and  I went to the café to have a milkshake and relax. Which would have happened has a lizard (that Nate named Robert – pronounced Ro-bearrrr ) decided he wanted to get up close and personal with our table. And of course his Ibis friend decided to join him. – sigh-. Pics : http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Botanical%20Gardens/

On sat Nate and myself joined Terry and her daughter Martha went to Carols By Candlelight which was a huuuuge outdoor concert of xmas carols. Unfortunatly we listened to 3 hours of carols in which only 3 songs were upbeat K I didn’t know so many slow xmas songs existed lol. ..The highlight of the show for me was when they had ‘santa’ out singing Jingle Bells and after the first chorus a man runs out in shorts/tshirt/flipflops holding a kangaroo and hes like “WHOA WHOA WHOA Santa! Sleigh Bells and Snow? Do you know what country your in !?” …then he did what ive since learned is a well known chant thing where someone goes “Aussie Aussie Aussie” and the crowd yells “Oy Oy Oy”. LOL . Then he said hed show santa how they do sleigh bells in Aussie and asked everyone to take out their keys and jingle them. Once everyone did at the same time it made an awesome jingle noise which lead this guy in to Jingle Bells – Aussie Style (lyrics and youtube link to someone singing it below)  He then did Deck the Halls or as the Australians sing it Deck the Sheds (lyrics also below). It was certainly fun to experience the different versions of some of the songs, Also head was the 12 days of an Aussie Christmas (lyrics below)  a good night over all.

Aussie Jingle Bells

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH0vMpp3ma4&feature=related

Mood:  energetic

Hey Hey!

Nothing too interesting happened over the weekend so nothing really new to report.

On an upside Nate and I both got our school marks back and we both did kick ass!! WOO GO US!

As for the rest of the week, we are heading to the zoo tomorrow and the beach the next day so stay tuned for photos! In prep for the zoo i was trying to find a place in the freezer for our water bottles to go and the only way i could fit them in was to take out the ice cream. So i took one for the team and ate the worlds biggest bowl of ice cream at midnight LOL.... and now im WIRED!

la la la la la do do do do do ...hahaha dodo...hehehe

Hey Ppls!

Not very much happening here ..booo! Last Friday Nate and I went shopping and i got an awesome new pair of sunglasses (or sunnies s the aussies call them). Yay for not looking like a bug LOL. Then on saturday Nate and I went down to southbank and spent the day walking round the beach and down the board walk just exploring. We stoped in the jungle area and took a bunch of photos of us being random LOL enjoy ! : http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Sunglasses/ btw if ur wondering about the alien guy he was super freakin creepy! ..not cool. lol

After the day at southbank we headed back across the bridge to KGS where some popular country star was signing autographs so we got a picture of him to in the album above. We then decided to go see New Moon which turned out to be pretty awesome. Its 100 times better then the first one and actually sticks pretty close to the book with the exception of one or two scenes. There def were some awkward moments when u have to question the writers/talent ofthe actors lol, and some just plain horrible parts that u just laugh out loud at. Over all i really liked it :)

...We interrupt this blog for Nates Notes...

So, on Tuesday I had my Education Queensland interview!!!  Honestly, I was SO nerve wracked but it turned out to be a solid interview.  Luckily, I had memorized the Queensland College of Teachers Standards (super nerd) and made this huge teaching portfolio scrapbook, which worked in my favour.  Then, BAZINGA, there I was, dressed to nines, professional scrapbook in my hand, and last nights dinner stuck in my teeth.

My interview panel turned out to be my principal, deputy principal and a teacher that I had gotten to know over the year, which was fantastic.  I had just walked in like I was Bruce Lee in Fists of Fury too (Awesome Entrance WASTED!!).  Anywho, it was super awkward at first cause the first question was “describe yourself”.  Describe myself?  What the hell was I going to talk about?  Before I could go into my shpeil on why I thought Spiderman could kick the crap out of Batman, I quickly diverted into talking about my experience with cadets and with ONeill CVI, which was an awesome segway into other stuff.  Then one thing led into another, started right away with catering for diversity and every other crazy thing that teachers needed to know (which was all outlined in the scrapbook btw).  Afterwards, I had ended with if there was anything that they wanted to know about me, and they said I answered all their questions already.  Surprised as I was (cause I had just blabbed on for about 20 minutes), they seemed really impressed with my interview and it turned out to be more of a conversation between professionals than an actual job interview. 

Anywho, so I thought the interview went fairly well and they are going to send my suitability ranking (which was what this interview was for, I think its about pay and areas I can teach) to Ed Queensland.  So here’s hoping all the beaurocratic paperwork nonsense pulls through without a hitch.  However, I think from here on in, I can call myself a career man WOOOOO!!!  Time to celebrate with some long awaited cartoon watching and video gaming (yes, I AM going to teach your children MWA HA!!!).  Don’t let the man get you down and keep on trucking in the free world!! Cheers!

And now back to your regular scheduled blogging....

Christmas is usually my fav part of the year but i just cant seem to get excited about it without the cold. weird eh? i see santas villiage and all the decorations and they just seem silly when ur walking around in shorts and a tshirt. Even the xmas music seems out of place. sad days. ps. i am dissapointed with the lack of effort that goes into santas castle at the mall.The one at the PTC is a million times better . Altho the mall windows have put up a giant display of the book Olivas Christmas (now for those of you who dont know, Olivia is a pig and a very popular childrens book character). Here are some pics of xmas decorations around the city : http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/xmas%20decorations/

Anyhow thats all for now. Love and Miss you All!!!!

K so the storm last night just turned out to be a really bad thunderstorm - 1300 lightning strikes in 5 hrs and what the news called 'gun-shot" thunder- so nothing too too severe - thank goodness :)

On another note check out this song, its by Carrie Underwood. It kinda reminds me of my life right now. Especially the second verse (i wrote it out below and changed the lyracs a tad)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpFxcI9ynvI&feature=related

altered Lyrics :

This downtown apartment sure makes me miss home
And those bills there on the counter
Keep telling me I'm on my own
And just like every [Saturday] I called momma up last night
And even when it's not, I tell her everything's alright
Before we hung up I said
'Hey momma, don't forget to tell my baby [brother] I'll see [him] in the [summer]
And tell [Grandma / Nona] that I miss her
Yeah, I should give her a call
And make sure you tell Daddy that I'm still his little girl
Yeah, I still feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be
Don't forget to remember me'

Mood:  happy

Hey everyone!

Okay so I realize I haven’t updated the blog in ..well a very long time so here’s what’s been happening as of late:

I'm FINALLY done my prac! Wooot! Four long long weeks of hard work. I ended up doing some really awesome stuff with them including making healthy food superheros We discussed aspects that make a superhero and started with an apple and then added things with their suggestions. We did this again with the evil Chocolate Chump as one of the kids named him . I then showed them the examples Nate drew for my class. They loved them. (Pics:   http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Classroom/ ) My final report was really good too so it all worked out for the best. The kids were sad to see me go but I've made them a promise to come back once a week to visit and teach. Plus its good practise for me without the pressure of being marked.  On my final day  (oct 30) I did a big presentation for the kids on Halloween. If your wondering why its because they don’t celebrate it here. I didn’t dress up but Nate decided to for his prac – he went as Canadian Man LOL it looked awesome actually. Speaking of Halloween, Nate and I decided to go out with some of his Canadian friends which turned out to be a bust so we ended up bailing early and heading home but not before taking some random photos at KGS. J Pics of Halloween : http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Halloween/

A few weeks ago nate and I heard about the new opening of King George square so we went to check it out. Not gunna lie we went cuz they were giving free food LOL what can I say we’re starving students :P it ended up being really awesome! Their were some drummers and circus ppls. We watched the drummers for a bit and I got a few videos of them – they don’t really do them justice but still pretty cool. Also pretty sweet was when they did the hour long show where every native tribe from Australia came out and preformed their tribal dances while they sang / played the Didgeridoo. It was awesome to see them all dressed in their tribal outfits. It was also neat to see the differences among the outfits and dances.  Wat was not cool was the sunburn I received while watching the natives. Not impressed face. Pics and Videos:  http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/KGS%20opening/

On an exciting note – if you havnt already heard – I got a new haircut! Its much cooler considering the crazy hot weather were having here. Haircut pics: http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/haircut/

Speaking of, the weather here has been really crazy. We’ve hit the highest temps in Brisbane in 9 yrs for the month of Nov. Just today it was 38 and extremely humid. My friend described it perfectly when she said its like someone blowing a blow-dryer in your face. Add that to the fact that the sun is much stronger here then what I'm used to and it gets pretty crazy.  As I'm writing this I can currently hear thunder so I'm assuming the heat and humidity are causing a storm that should be hitting fairly soon. – Gah news just said theirs a storm warning in effect – big storm with strong winds and large hail. How you  can have hail when its this hot I do not know.... if it does hail ill be sure to take pics.

Along with this heat come of course the crazy amount of weird bugs and animals that seem to be everywhere here. Such as when I went to do the dishes just to see a large spider there (I named him 6 legged Mel since hes missing 2 legs..), a large lizard that I was told is a water monitor, barking geckos everywhere outside, and an insane amount of houseflies. I've never seen so many houseflies in one spot before but they’re everywhere.  Here are some pics of the different animals I've encountered lately (including a beautiful white horse we saw out one day and I thought of Jen and took pics so she could see lol) : http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Animals%20and%20Such/

Lastly the other night Nate and I decided to have a date night and go out to dinner and then to see the new 2012 movie. Had a blast that night, movie turned out to be really good. It had alot of potential  to be better but I cant complain. Coolest part of the night  had to be that the theatre has a liquor license and therefore a full bar along with the popcorn at the concession stand. Pretty sweet actually.  Heres some pics: http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Movie%20Night/

Well I think thats it for now. I promise to update more often now that things have settled down. And ill write tomorrow and give an update on the storm that is now shaking the house.....

Mood:  hungry

Alright I’m going to start off by saying that i had over  1500 words typed out for one hell of an update and then my internet crashed without warning and i lost it all. - So not impressed right now.

First of all let me apologize for the lack of updating the past few weeks have been really really hectic for both of us.

 Week one of prac:

Week one, although busy turned out to be alright. I had a full week with a supply teacher since my teacher decided to extend her vacation by a week lol. I was nervous at first seeing as the last supply this class had hated me but I lucked out and got the nicest one ever. Her name is Brenda and she pretty much told me I could take on whatever I wanted to and could teach whatever I wanted to during the week. She also consulted with me and everything. I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better supply teacher. During this week I got to teach a bunch of lessons, my fav. being the maths-space lesson on compasses. I channeled my inner Chris LOL and taught them all how to hold/use a compass to find north. After I taught them that we did an enhancing activity where I had 15 shapes laid out on the floor in a grid shape and the kids had to stand on one of them. I then gave them an instruction for them to move – ex: move one spot to the south-west and they had to use the compass to find out first where north was in the classroom and then where south-west was. They loved it. I also got to teach and help them make a weather mobile which was pretty fun.  Another highlight of the week was that the Channel 9 weather guy came to the school and did a big presentation with the four 2/3 classes. They were all  really excited to be on tv that night. At the end of the week I asked Brenda if shed mind giving Penny (my classroom teacher) a review of my teaching over the week. Luckily she sent it to me too. So here is the review Brenda gave me:

It has been a total pleasure working with Amanda for the week. Lucky you, having such a talented pre-service teacher for the next few weeks!

Amanda has a lovely manner with the students and they respond well to her. Her planning is good; her provision of teaching materials is imaginative, educationally sound and fun. Amanda is organised and, probably most important of all, not at all fazed by sudden changes to the timetable. Which was just as well at the beginning of the week!

I might just add one thing. Not long ago I talked to another pre-service teacher (at another school) who declared she hated poetry and would never teach it. Hmmm... Amanda, on the other hand, appreciates poetry in her personal life, and was a marvellous person to have with the class when we were crafting poetic metaphors. We need more teachers who are passionate about poetry!

Pretty Sweet Eh?? I was still nervous about having Penny come back and mark me but this review was a real confidence booster.

Week Two of Prac:

This week started out the best possible way – with a phone call home on Monday morning (Sunday night – Thanksgiving) to chat with everyone. It was FANTASTIC to hear everyone’s voice although it made me miss the craziness that is our family get-togethers.  I miss hanging out with Jess and Maddie before dinner just catching up on life and dancing all crazy with Jess, Maddie, Mom, Aunt Kat and Aunt Jen  after dinner. Oh and of course the never ending “turn it down” … “turn it up” battle that always ensues. Aw how I miss you guys <3

Anyhow back to my week. Monday I got to start teaching my new unit on healthy eating/foods with the kids. I started by having them write down everything they know about healthy foods. Lets just say that only 5 of them could name at least one food group the other twenty didn’t have a clue. It kinda worked out better for me anyways since I had made a GIANT food pyramid for them (Pics: http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Classroom/ ). Unfortunately my teacher isn’t the kind that gives you both good and bad feedback – she just gives the bad. And while I’m glad that she’s being honest with the things I need to work on I still wish she could throw in a “good job” in there. So add the constant criticism to two weeks of exhaustion and then a meeting with the vice principle in which we (the other pre-service teachers and myself) found out that the teachers have been saying some brutal stuff about us – the biggest problem is we aren’t sure what is directed at whom. Both guys also found out they are in danger of failing. So this built up and lead to a mini breakdown on Wednesday night. Fortunately I have the best boyfriend ever and he was able to make me feel better and then on top of everything  he made me my fav cheesy dinner. Whenever im feeling like this my fave thing to listen to is “Life Aint Always Beautiful” by Gary Allen some of the lyrics just fit so well:

Life ain't always beautiful
Sometimes it's just plain hard
Life can knock you down, it can break your heart

Life ain't always beautiful
You think you're on your way
And it's just a dead end road at the end of the day

But the struggle makes you stronger
And the changes make you wise
And happiness has it's own way of takin' it sweet time

No, life aint always beautiful
Tears will fall sometimes
Life aint always beautiful
But it's a beautiful ride

Nice eh? … anyhow Thursday I unfortunately woke up with the beginnings of a cold and by Friday my voice was disappearing. I made a judgment call and decided to stay home Friday and try to get better. Sadly its now Sunday and I still have it. Oh well life must go on.

Bugs, Birds and Geckos..oh my!

Bugs: so some of you may have heard that the other day we had the BIGGEST flying beetle thing I’ve ever seen. Pics on the link below

Birds: I was walking home from prac one day after a huge thunderstorm and looked at the tree across the street and saw 7 or so parrots sitting in a tree. Kinda cool.  Pic below also.

Geckos:  Nate was cooking dinner one night and told me to grab my camera. Turns out the light from to kitchen was attracting the moths and bugs outside and so the geckos were climbing all over our windows catching and eating all the bugs. The prob is that they are fast skittish buggers lol so we got a pic of ones belly but that’s the best we could do. Its also below.

Pics: http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu81/mcawesome-in-aussie/Bugs%20Birds%20and%20Geckos%20Oh%20My/

On another note I uploaded the mothers day videos to youtube as well as papas video . Unfortunatly they blocked the sound on papas video (boo) but the other ones are ok. Links below:

Little Guy : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdb1Nzjq_hI

My little girl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaLSJfm7Ktc

Papas Video (without the sound) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp1a7FD0iBk

And Finally a song to make every country girl feel good about themselves:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ-Xl7ykddk

Countdown to the end of my prac: 2 weeks and 1 day

Countdown to the end of Nates prac: 4 weeks

As for right now, im not so patiently awaiting Nates home made lasagna....

Mood:  happy

Hello

Not very much happening here. Saturday I woke up and called home but unfortunatly that got cut short - boo! After that Nate and I went shopping at the craft store where i got my next activity for the kids (Puzzles - the get to make their own :D ) Then we came home and cooked some dinner and watched some movies. OH! we also saw a few geckos!! due to the warm weather they are out again and decided that our kitchen window was the best spot to catch moths. Very cute bellys they have :). As for today, i had a meeting with my classroom teacher really early so Nate had to go to the farmers market alone. The meeting went well. Since shes not going to be there for my first week she made huge lists of stuff ill be taking on this first week, Then once she comes back ill be teaching the healthy food pyramid, how to make a healthy food poster, and comic book language. should be fun. then for their assessment ill be marking their healthy food posters advertising healthy food for the Tuck shop. After that i went and got some groceries. Then we both met up back at home and have been preping ourselves for prac tomorrow. Wish me luck. Ill update again Wed (hopefully) to let you all know how im holding up.

Sidenote: What kinda country doesnt have Garlic salad dressing?! - Not Cool.

Countdown to the end of my prac: 4 weeks
Countdown to the end of Nates prac: 6 weeks