Saturday in Brissy!

Saturday morning we got up and got some brekky at our hostel – we then headed back to see if we could book the Brewery tour – we were all excited about – it was $22 for the tour and you get 4 pints out of it – sounds pretty good – until the girl goes you need closed in shoes! Crap – all we brought were ‘thongs’ (flip flops) because we couldn’t pack too much for the boat – so we decided to reschedule that for another day trip to Brisbane. So instead we were tourists and toured around. We walked through the botanical gardens, over to South Bank, just spent the day wandering around the city. We visited all of the free museums and gallery’s which was cool – it was like all of the museums in Ottawa smushed into one – but even better because it was free! There was a dinosaur exhibit and a walking T-Rex. He was pretty cool he walked around and growled and everything – I stayed back because me and mascot things don’t get along on good days. Another cool exhibit was the white Lego exhibit; people were creating these huge buildings with Lego – it was pretty neat! Creative Lise created ‘Canada’ out of the Lego and stuck it to an already made building and made it look like the CN Tower.

After that we headed back to the hostel pub where we stayed the rest of the night. We got dinner for $10 with a pint – which was actually a pretty good meal with a lot of food. As the night progressed we had 2 Aussie friends that joined our table. Oh my goodness were they ever funny! We eventually found out that they were brother and sister, and Amanda (the sister) goes to USC for Nutrition and Dietetics. We were comparing temperatures and Brendan (the brother) said he had been working in Melbourne and the temperature had dropped to -2 and there was frost on his window and he had NO idea what to do. Amanda said she would have called in sick for a week and cried! Brendan said that he filled a water bottle with boiling water and poured it on the windshield…. Hahah!! The conversation then progressed into ‘cantaloupe’. Well here in Aus – they call cantaloupe ‘Rock Melon’ and it causes quite the commotion here. So here they are watching an American cooking show where the chef is making a fruit salad. He said go ahead and cut up your cantaloupe and throw it in. Instantly our Aussie friends think “Why in the world did they just throw meat into the fruit salad?!?!” They continue to think – there is no way I’m going to Africa and hunting an animal just to put in the fruit salad – that doesn’t even sound appetizing! He was thinking of Antelope…. I guess it wasn’t until much later and a little bit of googling that he learnt ‘Cantaloupe’ actually meant ‘rock melon’ – this was honestly the funniest story of the night!  We were all laughing sooo hard! After finishing up our current pitcher we packed up and called it a night – it was however an awesome night!

Holidays have Begun!!

So this is going to be a HUGE blog update because I have been on holidays for a week and just returned from the most amazing adventure!  In the past 7 days I have done the most amazing things – things I have never done in my life – things I probably could say I never expected I would ever do. It was an amazing holiday with great stories! So jump in for a long read!!

The vacation started on Friday April 15^th at about 10am when I handed in my last assignment that was due that week…. After 8 very stressful weeks at school, the time has come to have a little break and a quick vacay! Lise, Lindsey and I were headed to Brisbane for the weekend, Friday night we were heading to the Keith Urban and Lady Antebellum concert, and then being a tourist in Brisbane until Monday. So Friday we jumped on the bus to the plaza picked up our ISIC cards (aka student discount cards) and then headed to the train station – we had to take a subway type thing for an hour and a bit to Brisbane. We got there and ‘rocked-up’ to our hostel – which was right across the street. We checked in and got some info at the counter, regarding how to get to the concert that night, and possible a brewery tour for the next day. So on the subway to the concert, it seems the entire train of people was heading to the concert, we sat with one group of ladies from Townsville (so ~14 hours north of Brisbane) and one group of women from Melbourne (~22 hours south of Brisbane), so hard core Keith Urban fans. The Melbounites had been to 5 other Keith shows – on this tour alone! So they have been travelling all over the country just to see the same concert over and over again. They were a little nuts! Anyway we finally got there and got to our seats – we were in row ‘ZZ’ – yep it’s as bad as it sounds – the VERY last row you could not get any higher than we were! But hey – good news is we were there! It was the most plaid, hats and boots I have seen in almost 3 months – I was in Heaven!

Lady A did a good job – as per usual! Keith – well that’s the third time I’ve seen him and it was amazing like the previous two times – he always puts on a great show! For his encore he played this song that we had no clue what it was – the three of us kept looking at each other like what is going on? Apparently we were the ONLY ones who thought that because it seemed like EVERY other person in the stadium knew every word of the song! We assumed it was an Aussie thing – we found out later that he was singing a song by a band called ‘Cold Chisel’ which is apparently the equivalent to the Beetles for ‘North’ Americans. We were a little concerned with the company we had sitting beside us she was wearing tights, knee-high leather boots, a black top with cheetah print on it and had bleach blonde curly 80’s hair – epic example of a modern day cougar – rarrrrrr!!!

After the concert we headed to the hotel for a much needed rest and good night sleep!

It's time for a holiday!!

Well folks - I'm officially on holidays for a week and a half!! On our way to Brisbane tonight for some Keith Urban and Lady A, staying in "Brissy" for 4 days and then we are flying to the Whitsunday's for a 4 day and night "cruise" on a sailboat.. The Whitsunday's is north of us aka... hot... aka great barrier reef... aka amazing! Won't be on this thing until I get back - so expect amazing updates in about 2 weeks time!!

Also I hope everyone enjoys their easter holidays - and that the Easter bunny spoils everyone!!

Talk Soon :D

April's Fools, Pinch Punch and Relay for Life!!

Pinch Punch for the first of the month!

Lise decided to put a team in for ‘Relay for Life’ – I wasn’t going to participate but a week before the relay I changed my mind and decided to join. I’m happy I did. Basically the relay involved at least one person from your team to be walking around a 400m track from 7pm until 7am. It seems easy enough…

We ended up having about 11 people on our team and we joined teams with another because a lot of their participants ending up dropping out or not staying for the whole night. So we were the ‘Cancer Crushers’ and ‘Fight Like a Girl’. So 7pm roles around and everyone gets started the Cancer survivors start off the night with doing a lap around the track and then we all follow – at this point in time everyone is pumped and ready to walk! This was the first time the University of the Sunshine Coast decided to put the relay on and the first University in the Country to do the relay. So it was cool to be a part of, so there were a decent amount of teams with ok kind of unorganized games. The next stop was 12am – at this point people are getting a little bit sore but everyone seems to still be truckin… At 12am everyone had a break from walking and took part in the candle lighting ceremony – where everyone got a bag wrote a little note on it, and as a group we lit a candle for those people we wanted to think of or remember.   Always a touching ceremony. So after the ceremony everyone got back to walking….. or running in some people’s cases. At this point in time a few of us have noticed that there are two guys in particular, that haven’t stopped running yet – we are in hour 5 and these guys have not stopped running yet… ummm are ya crazy??

Anyway we keep doing our thing – walking walking walking, hours are going by 12, 1, 2, 3 and so on… By this time in the morning we are getting tired and sore but we keep on going! By 3 O’clock I’d say we are all wiped and at this point some of the team have fallen asleep and I guess have given up on walking – great - more walking for the rest of us… don’t you just love team work… and we still have 4 hours to go! Anyway finally 6 rolled around and we knew there was an end in sight – at this point in time most of us were just walking because if we stopped our legs wouldn’t allow us to continue because we were all sooo soreeee – so we just kept walking, just kept walking, just kept walking…. And by the way our favourite runners still have NOT stopped! Finally 6:30 comes around and we are doing our last couple of laps.. at this point in time we’ve learnt that buddy # 1 who hasn’t stopped running is a prof at the University and he is doing an experiment on what that kind of exercise does to your body – so he literally ran for 12 hours and then after the relay he was heading to get blood drawn and do 30 minutes on a bike – again NUTS! The second guy we have learnt that his goal is to run 100km.. So the track is 400m, therefore 2.5 laps would equal a km, therefore he ran probably about 250 laps – why?? Why would you want to do that to yourself!! NUTS!! But it was pretty cool having everyone in the relay line up around the track and cheer him on for his last lap. I think his company was donating $2 for every km he ran – but I could be wrong about that one! Anyway I still think they were nuts – but ‘good on them mate!’

Overall, it was a very successful night – My goal was $100 – I ended up with $125 (thank you very much to everyone that donating to me – I greatly appreciate it!!), Our team’s goal was $1000 – we ended up with over $1700, and the school’s goal was $20,000-$25,000 and we ended up raising over $28,000 as a massive group which was amazing!! Good work group!

So at 7am we somehow made the massive walk back to our residences and came out alive went to bed at 7:30 and I slept until about 12, and pretty much had a lazy day napping here and there and updating my blog, and that is pretty much it – and now it’s time to indulge in movies for the rest of the night – woop woop!

Hope everyone is well and talk soon!!

Underwater World!!

So we had been given coupons to this place called ‘Underwater World’ during orientation week – For students only buy one get one free but only until March 31^st. So Lise and I decided to go check this place out before the coupons expired.

Just look at the world around you, Right here on the Ocean floor, Such wonderful things surround you, What more is you lookin' for? Under the sea, Under the Sea, Darling it's better, Down where it's wetter, Take it from me

There was also a massive well known triathlon taking place at the beach that day so we had to get off at a different bus stop and walk up to the place – which was actually pretty cool because we had to walk right through the triathlon – it was just the kids tri that was taking place – but there were tons of people there, it was kind of neat to see. Shannen (my roommate) her boss’ from home and their kids were down for the weekend because the oldest daughter and her boss were competing in the tri’s so she was able to catch up with them and watch them race, so we waited around until she found them in the mass of people and then we headed to ‘Underwater World’.

This place is yet another tourist attraction, kind of like the zoo for the sea, so there were all sorts of fish, big ones, small ones, there were sting rays, star fish, seals, and of course sharks. So the first exhibit you kind of just walk around and look at all of the different fishies and stuff, there was even a little Nemo – he was my favourite! There were cute little sea horses that swam up to this big bubble window and would look right back at you, a whole pile of stuff – you know how touristy things go… It’s kind of funny walking around these places with ‘heaps’ of little children and their parents, and then there’s us – who are obviously just as excited as the three year olds. We checked out the seal exhibit and managed to catch a seal show – which I thought they did a pretty good job on. This time we didn’t have any lizards trying to jump in our bags, like we did at the zoo – which I was ok with! The coolest part was the moving sidewalk that took you around in a circle where the fish, manta rays, and sharks swim over top of you – it’s like Sea World in Florida – or whatever it’s called. I had no problem with the sea creatures that were swimming overtop of me – it was a little awkward when two people were swimming over top of me in their scuba gear – I guess someone’s gotta clean the tank so we can see through it…. If you ask me it’s a real ‘fishy’ job… yeahhh I know lame joke – but I just had to…

We then kept walking into a creepy crawly section – yeah good name for that – I definitely got the creepy crawlies. Some of these so called creatures were nasty…. I picked out a special fish just for Uncle Baldy. You see – he oh so kindly picked out two of the Fugliest chickens I think I have ever seen in my life for my father’s house so I just had to take a picture of this in honour of him. He named the chickens Rickie and Jamie, so I named this little guy Baldy. (Oh on a side note – completely irrelevant – but I keep forgetting to mention it – on the way to the mall there is a car garage called Baldy’s repairs… I laughed…) anyway moving on…. The fish is actually referred to as a ‘Frankenstein Freak’ so I thought it was actually perfect! And right now Uncle Baldy is saying ‘Alyssa Rae Toast…… after all the nice things I’ve said about you…’

After we decided we had enough fish adventures for one day, we moved on and decided to go out for lunch at a place called ‘Hogs Breath Café’ – which apparently is very popular here. Anyway it was right next to this massive marina with tons of beautiful boats, mostly sail boats, but there were also some other boats as well. It reminded me of Uncle Percy and Aunt Debbie – they would have loved it! So we sat down at our table with the view of the marina and this gorgeous breeze coming in through the non- existent window and enjoyed our lunch.

 It was a nice day and I think I even found my soul mate - but I have to get the 'Seal of Approval' first....

What do you guys think?? Haha….

Learning Difficulties conference

Ok so Friday March 25^th, all of us “Grad Dip Educationers” had to go to a conference, the conference went towards our Wider Field Experience hours (those wonderful volunteer hours) so I guess you didn’t really have to go but it was for your own benefit. Well at least so we thought – the conference was regarding learning difficulties and disabilities and autism and the like. We thought we would get a lot out of it – unfortunately we were mistaken. The conference wasn’t great, some of the speakers were, well let’s just say less than what we were expecting, and I feel like I just didn’t get much out of it.. But hey at least I’m 5 hours closer to those mandatory 65 hours. We had to choose workshops that we wanted to go to; the first workshop was regarding ‘Sensory Dysfunction’ which I thought would have been very informative and helpful. Instead the speaker was too worried about time, decided not to do a workshop on Sensory Dysfunction because the chances of getting a child with a sensory dysfunction was slim, in her opinion. So instead she crammed a whole broad pile of stuff into one hour, stuff we have already been through in our lectures. It was disappointing. The next workshop was on Autism, she didn’t really tell me anything I didn’t already know, but compared to the last workshop this one was really well done. You could tell she was passionate about what she was speaking about, and really wanted to make us aware. I think the best saying she said was “Breathe in the flowers, and blow out the candles” which I really liked – and it can work for everybody really. On top of that we spent the rest of the conference talking about ‘Indigenous Peoples’ and how important they are in the Australian Culture, and how important it is to adjust lessons to suit them, fair enough – but I’d say 5 hours was too long to cover all that stuff… All in all I just feel like I wasted $60 – oh yeahhh I forgot I had to pay for this conference… We have another one coming up in August – hopefully it isn’t as brutal.

So after the conference we were all feeling a little deflated – it was a long week followed by an especially long Friday – so a bunch of us went to the tavern down the road. It was an awesome night and the perfect way to wrap up the week. The next day Lise and I were heading to ‘Underwater World’ to learn about things that lived in the sea….

School Update!

Epic fail on the smaller more frequent blog updates…. So yeahh sorry again for the long updates!

I’m not really sure where to start on this one because I’ve left it for so long I guess I’ll do the boring stuff and start with a school update. So school is practically all I have been doing the past little while – the end of the semester is near (we only have 4 weeks left – before we start practicum) sooo all of the end of term assignments are beginning to creep up on all of us… We have reflections, presentations, essays, policies, lesson plans, unit plans, sounds fun eh… yeah not so much – but you gotta do whatcha gotta do! Good news is – I was talking to a Canadian who is a semester ahead of us, so she started in July, and she says semester 2 is way tougher! Yay – sooooo looking forward to it!! :D

I have also started my Wider Field Experience – which is my volunteer hours – we have to satisfy 65 hours before the end of the year – in order to graduate. I am at a primary school about 20 minutes away and I do guided reading with a grade 4/5 class and help out in a grade 3 literacy class. So far it’s alright – there are a lot of us from the University in one class so we don’t get a lot of hands on experience – but it’s interesting to see how the different teachers are teaching their lessons. Right now the class’ are practising for their NAPLAN testing which is the equivalent to our EQAO, it’s the main focus it seems right now. For now, it is all good I’m happy to be in the school, even if it for only 2 hours a week…