Back at 'er!

After a wonderful holiday it was back to the bump and grind of reality - however it was a relatively easy week with only 3 classes (one being cancelled when we got there) and one full day of placement! Can I just say - HOLY CRAP - I can't believe it's already that time where we are to go into our placement schools for Orienation Day!

So here we are 7 of us all dressed up and ready for our 'first day of school' waiting for the school bus to pick us up and bring us to our placements. Our schools are out in the boony's and it isn't possible for us to take public transportation to them - so the Uni has provided the 7 of us with private transportation! Don't we feel special... Anyway I would say it was a pretty anxious bus ride - not just speaking for myself - but I think everybody had similar feelings... Speaking for myself I was very very nervous!

Once we got to the school we were introduced to the head of staff for the secondary side ("the campus" - as they are commonly referred to here - is a kindergarten to grade 12 campus - which is also common here) - anyway he gave us the speech on the school and what we should be expecting - and dropped us off at our respective classroom. My stop was first where Terry Clark was standing (no not the country singer - my prac teacher). I soon learnt that I had nothing to worry about - HE gave me a break down on what I should expect for the day - it was a wacky day because they were having their Anzac celebrations (which is the equivalent to Rememberance Day) and instead of being on a Friday schedule they were on a Tuesday schedule... but he assured me we would get through ok.... From the second I shook his hand - my nervous feeling went away - he is amazing. He also introduced me to the other grade 5 teacher - who is also amazing - they are in and out of each other's classrooms and essentially the two classes are one big class... It is going to be a great first prac! Both teachers are incredibly laid back and whenever I'm ready I can go ahead and teach parts of lessons, full lessons or whatever I feel comfortable doing. I feel very fortunate to be placed at this school - with these teachers. I am definitly now looking forward to my time there - still a little bit nervous - but reassured. We start May 9th - I'm looking forward to that for two reasons - one because that means we'll finally be done with class and all the theory that has been stuffed into our brains for this semester, and two we actually get to see this stuff in practice in a real classroom with real children! I'll keep ya's updated!

On Monday I'm heading back to Brisbane for the day - for a visit with my cousin Farzan! Can't wait!!

Some pictures!

For the last blog post of the trip I decided to post some pretty stellar pics of the trip that didn't make it onto the rest of the blog update... there still are way more that have been posted on facebook so I do still recommend getting someone to show you facebook so you can see al the pics!

The hallway of all the rooms

Oh so tiny Bathroom

Shower and Toilet in one - no I didn't style my hair like this - this is about day 3 with no shower, no brush and been in a bun and in the ocean multiple times... :S

Oh I love being a kid sometimes

Lise's creation - through Lise's camera

These are the stunning views we were viewing all week

Sitting up on the top deck

The sails up

There are (supposed) to be 10 sails on this particular boat... I think it only has 8

This was the weather for the entire week!

Just stunning

playing with the camera settings and the sunset

Pink at night Sailor's delight!

Solway Lass in the sunset

There she be!

Crazy monkey crew - Tommy with the shirt, Timmy without the shirt...

Destination straight ahead - Arlie beach

Friday April 22nd - Last day as a pirate!

Our last day – so sad! We all got up Friday morning for brekky and our last day on the boat. We were heading out for our last snorkel where we spent the entire morning. This snorkel had amazing coral reef! So each snorkel had something different – the first had tons of stunning fish – including Nemo, the second had turtles, and the third had the prettiest coral! A few of us decided to head back to the boat a little bit earlier so we could get some last Tarzan roping in! So we did that for about an hour and then it was time for lunch. After lunch it was time to pack our bags, start cleaning up and throw up the sails for our final sail back into Arlie beach. The wind had switched direction so we could only have half of the sailed up and we half motored but it was still good. As we were docking into the Marina we were checking out the absolutely massive boats – one was from Texas. I’ll put a picture up on here – notice the “dingy” on the back of the boat?!?

It's no dingy - but a "small" motorized boat! What the...

 We docked and said our farewells to our new friends and the crew and headed to the hostel. We checked in and got ready for dinner. Normally after the boat – the passengers and the crew head to a bar called beaches for some grub (20% off) and free beer! But because it was good Friday they had a limited menu, and the crew didn’t show up and we could only stay for 2 hours, they were pretty strict, but it was an alright time. Overall, the trip was amazing – it was awesome seeing everything we did, the crew was fantastic and we met a lot of really cool people! I would definitely do it again, and I 100% recommend it to people interested! It was a perfect week – and just what I needed! I’m really sad that it’s over L - now we are on the train heading back to reality – the sunshine coast – hehe… I am hoping that the gorgeous weather we had on the boat follows us ‘home’! Well that’s it for now – thanks for reading. I hope everyone has a very Hoppy Easter! J

Thursday - I found Nemo!

I can honestly say – Thursday was my absolutely favourite day – we did and saw amazing things and this update is probably going to be a long one! We all got up in the morning for some brekky and got ready to go snorkelling/diving – while getting the boat (dingy) ready the dolphins were out to play again! They were further away but I did manage to snap a picture of them! I love seeing animals in their natural habitats!

Look Carefully! They are to the left of the picture

Anyway we all strapped on our stinger suits and masks and snorkels and got ready for our full day of snorkelling. The first stop was pretty much where we were anchored so we didn’t have far to go – we headed out at 8:30am and didn’t get back on the boat until noon – so plenty of time! The snorkelling was amazing – there was pretty coral and tons of fish! At one point – Ash & Tim (part of the crew who were in the dingy) were feeding the fish right in front of us. They were jumping out of the water – they were hitting us in the face – it was pretty funny! We even saw the squid from the previous night! I even found Nemo – and thanks to my underwater camera there are amazing pictures. The sand on this beach – well let’s just say it wasn’t soft! It was coral that had been broken off from waves over the past 100 years and washed ashore. It was so painful to walk on you definitely did need shoes! Lise wrote our names with some of the shells – it was cool…

Looks cool - not so pleasant on the feet!

Thumbs up!

After spending the morning snorkelling we headed back to the boat for some grub and relaxing until we reached our second destination for snorkelling! The second place they referred to as the sand spit! It was literally a sand spit covered in 360 degrees of water! It was a one tiny island of sand, when the tide was out you could walk from one end of it to the other – but when the tide was in half the island would disappear under the water. It was absolutely stunning and we spent the whole afternoon here until sunset (keep in mind we are heading into ‘winter’ here so sunset is pretty early). Anyway the sand at this one was a combination of the pure white silica sand found at Whitehaven and the reef sand found at the first place we went snorkelling this morning. So we went out snorkelling for a few hours and guess what we saw? TURTLES! Tons of turtles were swimming around – there had to have been 5 – it was awesome! I got some pretty cool pictures of the turtles.

The sand spit - 2nd destination for a snorkel!

the sand spit - surrounded by 360 degrees of water

Turtle #1!

Can you see it's head??

Turtle # 2!

 After we snorkelled the length of the island we headed in for a rest. Once on the island a massive stingray swam by the shore I was too far away to run and snap a picture but I did see it in the water! This trip just keeps getting better and better! We spent the rest of the afternoon on the spit, soaking up the sun and playing a wicked game of beach volleyball! After realizing we were all starving from our big snorkel Tommy (our Kiwi bartender) and Knickers (our awesome cook) headed back to the boat to get some crackers and cheese and of course beer to satisfy our appetites! What better way to spend a day? Only it really did get better! After our afternoon tea – the sun began to set over the near my mountains – this country sure does make me look like a good photographer!

After the sunset we headed back for some dinner and our last night on the boat L. Dinner that night was roast beef with potatoes, roasted veggies and salad – so tasty! We definitely didn’t go hungry on the boat. After dinner – Tommy came out donning a pirate costume and he told us we better be ready for some entertaining games! Uh oh…. So we got in 4 teams of 8 – the first game we played involved carrying an orange under your neck and a pole thing in between your legs and running around the entire mid deck like this and then of course passing these two objects onto the next person using no hands. Yep definitely entertaining!

Stupid orange game

Passing of the orange - and stick thing

 The second game Timmy had made up – it was called spider web. Basically it was a net they had tied to the pillar – and the entire team had to get through it. The rules were only one person could go through one of the holes, each player couldn’t touch the rope, and each team was going to be timed, the team who could get through the fastest won. Well the holes were small and it would involve some lifting. We were the third team to go – the other two times were (almost) 9 minutes and 5 minutes. We got out entire team through in just over 3 minutes  - we had beat all of the other teams by a solid two minutes! I say it was due to our teacher planning that did it – we all picked out a hold before we started, and then we just went – we were all-stars! The prize was a ‘Tommy Special’ (which had become famous by this part of the night). They were alcoholic beverages with vodka, solo (aka lemonade) with a dash of orange liqueur and grenadine – every single person on the boat had at least one! That pretty much wrapped up the evening – everyone then just kept drinking and having a really good time!  

The spider web - another team lifting thier teammates through!