Thoughts, Feelings, and More Trips Planned!!

This past weekend I decided to lay low since I've been running and traveling pretty much since I left Canada back on Dec 23rd.  It gave me some time to reflect  on how I've been feeling.

To be perfectly honest Friday night and Saturday morning were tough days for me.  Going to work for three day (without kids just professional development activities) was very overwhelming.   The school system in Australia is years ahead of where we are in Canada.  Having said that it isn't anything new to me, it's just set up in a way that's very new to me.  I was frustrated by many things although it certainly didn't include the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff at North Footscray Primary.  Everyone has been great, but even with that it's had me feeling very overwhelmed.   I didn't get much time to set up my classroom and so I don't feel settled.  There are many things that must be done in the first few weeks of school (assessment and data collection for literacy and numeracy concepts) and it will take a lot of time.  For someone who has never administered these assessments it will be a slow process.  I will be given some release time to get it done but most will be done during my teaching hours.

Anyhow, no specific details but it can be said that I was very sad on Friday night and Saturday morning.  Some time has passed since then (it's Sunday afternoon here now) and thankfully I'm feeling better.  I know that this teaching year will be a challenge for me to begin with but I do believe that I have the tools to be a great teacher - even in this new system.  That's the attitude I'm going to go in with on my first day of school with the children tomorrow.  Even though my room isn't ready for them, I have very limited resources (although everyone is willing to share what they have to make it easier for me),  and I must get started on the assessment right away it will be okay.

On the bright side my sister Debbie is coming to visit me in July (the dead of winter here)  and we've booked a two week vacation that will include Cains, Brisbane, Gold Coast (Surfer's Paradise) , and Airlie Beach (Whitsunday Islands).  We may squeeze in the Gold Coast Marathon or Half Marathon on July 5.  Debbie will then be flying back with me to Melbourne to do some touring on her own.  It should be a good holiday and hopefully it we'll get some warmer weather on the vacation.  Melbourne will be COLD for certain.

I'm still working out the final details for my trip to New Zealand in April but hopefully that will all be booked later today.  In addition my dad is coming at the end of my New Zealand trip so we'll have some time together in Melbourne.  I'm then flying to Sydney at the end of his Australian adventure and spending a weekend with him there.

Oh, and I have two weekend trips already planned in Victoria too.  I'm heading to South Gippsland with the exchange people in February, and to Ballarat with the exchange people in March.  So needless to say there is a lot going on for me here in Australia.  I did hope to run four marathons while I'm here but  I think I'll be lucky if I get one or two.  I'm not running much these days and with all the time traveling I don't know how much time I'll have to get any training in.  So it may be half marathons instead or perhaps even no marathons.  We'll see.  Travel is the priority for me this year.  I paid an arm and a leg to get to Melbourne so I'm going to take FULL advantage of it.

Back at Work but .... Children Free for Three Days

Today was my first day of work in Australia.  Mary from the school offered to go out of her way to pick me up in the morning.  It was very nice to go for my first day with some one. 

The day went quite well but it has left me feeling very overwhelmed.  That's not a bad thing, it's just how I'm feeling.  The staff seems very nice and there have been some very helpful people too.  It was the first of three children free days.

Today we had meetings in the morning then met in our teams (all k - 2 teachers and the specialists that work with them).  I had some time in my room (which all I did was move furniture around).  I learned about the literacy assessment they (including me) do right at the beginning of the year for the grade one students.  It looks great, time consuming, but very valuable data.  As a staff we went for lunch which was nice.   I then had a few more minutes working in the room before we ended the day with another staff meeting.  After the staff meeting I worked in my room again before Mary drove me home.  I've loaded my backpack with a lot of heavy materials that I'm going to try to get through this evening.

Tomorrow we have a day of first aid training and Friday is also planned for us.  My first official day with children is Monday.  It's going to be very interesting but hopefully by the end of this week I will feel ready to take on the new class.  Right now I feel so NOT ready!

New Zealand Bound!!

Yes, while I've only just returned from the airport and I start work in less than 12 hours  I have already booked my travel plans for my first two week holiday in April.  I'm off to the North Island of NEW ZEALAND!!  I still need to do a lot of planning - ie how am I going to get from the top of the island to the bottom of the island but I have plane tickets so I'm pretty excited!!  (I'd also love to find a place to have a Passover Seder at as it will be passover while I'm in New Zealand).

Please send any New Zealand tips my way.

If you're thinking of coming to visit me in Melbourne please don't let the weather (winter in July and Aug) stop you from visiting.  Really!  It's a great place and you can always travel from Melbourne  to Northern Australia for some warmth.  

Orientation

Last Thursday and Friday I took part in a two day orientation for International Teaching Fellows (it's not called an exchange here in Victoria).  It allowed me to meet other people here for a year.  We had many different people talk with us both at the district/ministry level, as well as teachers who have perviously spent a year abroad.  I met many new people  We are all living some where in the state of Victoria but no one lives all that close to me.  That's okay though.  We also got to find out about some mini trips and activities that have been planned for us.  I've signed up for two trips already one taking place over a weekend in February and another a weekend in March.  The February trip will include a surf lesson.  It was nice to have the orientation but it wasn't so nice to lose two days of my summer vacation.  I'm about to embark on a long teaching period.  I will have three two week vacations to enjoy (and my two weeks at Christmas when I return to Canada) but my next long block of time off will be the summer of 2010!  And people wonder why I've done so much traveling these past few weeks.  I start real work tomorrow, and my first day with the children is on Monday.  YIKES!!!  Bye bye is my life of spending and traveling.  Now I need to add working to the mix.

Back from the Outback....

Friday night I was home playing around on line wondering where I could go since I had four days off in a row - my last four days off in a row.  Tiger airways had a cheap flight to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory and so off I went.  For those that don't know Alice Springs is the "closest" "city" to the famous Uluru (Ayer's Rock).  While they say it's the closest city, it is actually over 400 kms away and barely registers as a city.  

My flight arrived safely and I checked my self into a local hostel.  Not really  my thing but it was cheap and they helped me book my one day tour to Uluru.  Since the tour wasn't until the following day I decided to walk the city.  I met a girl from Germany in the hostel and together we walked "downtown".  Alice Springs is in the middle of Australia surrounded by pretty much nothing.  The main streets are quiet and there really isn't a lot to do there.  It has a couple of rivers near by but as you can see by the picture below, the water is extremely clear - so clear you can see right to the bottom!

Yes, it's in the desert and the local rivers haven't had any water in them for years.  (The funny thing is I took this picture from the bridge that crosses the river).

While walking in town I discovered that there was another one day tour to Kings Canyon that I could do as well.  Had I known this information before I left Melbourne I could have booked a one night tour that took me one day to Kings Canyon, and the next day to Uluru. But I didn't and since my room was already paid for for three nights I signed up for two tours - one each day.  Now, as I mentioned above, Uluru isn't all that close to Alice Springs, and neither was Kings Canyon.  Both trips involved being picked up at 6 am in the morning and returning at 1 am the following morning.  Yes, two very long days.  But... they were worth it.

Both trips involved a lot of road time through the outback.  As you can see from the photo below there is pretty much nothing in the outback.  Things were greener than I had expected but apparently there was rain in December.  I also learned that while it's a desert, it is actually situated on top of a very large under ground lake.  So while most of Australia is in a drought the desert has more water than it needs!  

On the first day I went to Kings Canyon.  It was really hot that day (high 30s low 40s) but it was a great day.  I met a couple from Germany (there are Germans every where in Australia), a couple from Holland, and a young man from Germany.  The two couples were wise enough to do the tour with a hotel stop two hours away from Alice Springs (so they didn't have to go back all the way) while the young german and I had to go back to our respective hotels in Alice Springs. He and I had the late night followed by the early  morning.  But, it was just fine as we had a lot of time on the bus to catch up with sleep.  Anyhow,  the six of us travelled together  both days and we were disappointed when other people joined us the second day.  Our little group was quite nice.

Anyhow back to the adventure.  Because I was doing two tours the days were switch around and I went to Watarrka National Park (Kings Canyon) the first day.  We did a three hour hike along the peak of the canyon. The views were incredible and the canyon itself was beautiful.  We even stopped at a swimming hole called the Garden of Eve.  I swam in all my clothing and it was so hot everything was dry by the time I returned to the bus.  Below is a picture of the canyon.
While driving back we were able to stop and take photos of the George Gill Mountain range.  While they certainly wouldn't be considered mountains where I come from they were impressive to look at all the same.

The second day I was picked up again at 6 am.  It was another long day on the road (but it allowed for catching up with sleep too). Our first stop was Uluru-Kata Tjuta National stop.  We stopped at Kata Tjuta first (also  know as the Olga's) and did a short canyon walk.  Below is a picture of Kata Tjuta.

Our second stop was at the Uluru-Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre.  It was interesting, but we didn't really enough time to read the information.  Next we moved on to Uluru (Ayer's Rock).  We did two short walks there both times learning about the rock, some of the stories surrounding the rock, and seeing sacred places on the rock.  Both were interesting.  There is a climb on the rock but visitors are asked not to climb it because it is a scared spot for the local aboriginal people.  The climb was closed when I was there because the weather was too hot.  There is also a walk around the rock, but we weren't there long enough to walk around it.  We did drive around it though and heard many stories about it.

As sunset was approaching we stopped the bus.  They set up a champagne bar b que for us as we watched how the sun set changed the colour of the rock.  The human eye doesn't really notice the colour changes that the rock goes through but we were encouraged to take photos every five minutes.  Looking at my photos now I can see that the rock did change colours.  Below is my favourite photo because the rock looks like it's glowing.

That pretty much sums up my trip to Alice Springs.  As it turned out I was joined on my return flight by the three Germans.  The two men are working in Melbourne until the end of February and hopefully we'll all get together before they leave.  It was nice to have a group of friends to spend the weekend with.  I know with work starting tomorrow I'll have my own set of friends soon.  I also still need to connect with the local tri group.  I have contact information I've just had too much going on since I've arrived here.  I think I'm going to get through a bit of school first and then I'll jump in with both feet (at least the swimming part).

My Bike Commute

Today I rode my bike to work again, but this time I found a shorter route.  It was a much more pleasant experience as I'm sure I took at least 6 km off of Tuesday's adventure.  In addition, while it was warm today (high 20's I'd think) it wasn't nearly as warm as it was on Tuesday.  In addition, the winds were still blowing, but much more gently.  While at my new school I  met four staff members, all of which were very friendly and kind. 

Here are some photos from my commute  home from work.

The "HILL" I was warned about.  

I'm not even sure if you can tell from this picture or not but there is a snake path that takes me up this hill.  While it's certainly not flat, it is far from the hills I have ridden on the Ironman Canada bike course.

The awful scenory.  Yes, I have to ride on a car free path beside the Maribyrnong River.  It's tough seeing the palm trees blowing in the wind and the rowers paddling on the river.

The car free bridge that I must cross.

The crowded road with the poorly marked bike path on it.

One of many quiet tree lined paths I need to follow.

As you can see from the photos above I have a very challenging ride to work.  I hope I will be able to avoid all these terrible dangers.

Karen ;-)

Oh, I still need to write about my two days of orientation (related to my international teaching fellowship - I'm not supposed to call it an exchange here - NOT linked to my school) but I've just booked a flight to Alice Springs, and a tour to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) so it will have to wait.  I'll be back the afternoon before school starts.  Happy Australia Day everyone - it's Jan 26 in case you didn't know.

Yes, It's that BAD!

I went for my first run in over a month (and probably over five or even six weeks since I don't know when I last ran) and it was that bad.  I ran for 12.5 minutes (minutes not miles or kilometres) and it nearly killed me.  I knew it was bad, but I didn't think it was this bad.

Well, at least I have some base line data.  Today 12.5 minutes is painful.  Tomorrow I'm going to try for 15 minutes.  I do have a marathon on the Great Ocean Road that I'd like to do May 16-17 weekend.  I guess I'd better get running.