Culmination

DONE!

Yes it's been a week and a half since I last wrote a blog. I've been busy!

Last week was my last week of my major professional experience. It flew by faster than any before it. I'm going to miss those little kids and I'd love to see how some of them turn out by year 6! I will send the class a postcard from Perth and hopefully keep in touch with Jenni and Tracy. They wrote me an unbelievable prac report and I leave there full of confidence that I've really found my career. I can't wait to get home and start looking for work and getting paid for it and feeling like a bonified teacher!

This past weekend Julia, Jared and I did our normal thing. Training, walking and just chatting and having a good time. Really trying to soak up Wollongong as much as we can because we know it's almost over! Since I sold my trainer last Thursday, I had to ride on the road on the weekend! :( Just not the same workout. I did have some fun though, riding up to a couple lookouts and seeing parts of the area I otherwise wouldn't have. On Monday we had to go into campus and drop off our reports and go to a wrap up meeting. Big ole waste of time.

Also last week I started reading a John Grisham book called The Appeal. I read a bunch during the week, 10 pages here, 10 there... But then on the weekend I read about 300 pages between Sunday evening and Monday morning to finish it off! I haven't read a novel like that in forever! It felt great to have read a book. I figured I want to read some more so Julia and I went to the mission and I got a couple more (A Tom Clancy and a robert Ludlum) and Jared gave me one as well. My goal is to read all three before I get home to Stittsville. Clancy is my biggest challenge at 1270 pages, then the Ludlum is about 500 and the Koontz is about 400. That oughta keep me busy while travelling! I look forward to relaxing on beaches with a good book... hahaha, what a friggin' nerd.

The three of us managed to sell our tickets to the grad ball. Quite frankly we don't like the people there so chances are we wouldn't have a great time anyhow. We spent $65 on each ticket back in like August or September and we sold 'em for 2 x $40 and 1 x $20. A big hit, yes, but at least we don't have to waste a night of our lives on that. The 3 of us are going up to Sydney today and are going to stay over at Michelle's place and just hang out and see the city again.

So we get back tomorrow evening (Thursday) and we spend Friday getting everything finally cleaned up and packed and we leave Saturday. Our flight isn't until 8:40PM but we wanna get the heck outta here without saying bye to these broads we live with so what we're going to do is take everything down to Jared's (whose place is on the way to the train anyhow) and leave it all there for the day and we're going to have a picnic out by the water during the day and then we'll take off on the train around late afternoon. Just a domestic flight so we only have to be there an hour early, but we seem to enjoy hanging around airports. I can't believe it's almost here! Here's to hoping everything goes smoothly with flights and campervans and car rentals and such. Let the party begin!!!

For the time that we're travelling, I will keep a pen and paper blog as I won't have a computer. I will send quick emails as often as possible to those who want to keep tabs on us and will try to put up photos (though unlikely) on facebook whenever possible.

The next six weeks will never be forgotten by either of us. I can't wait to create all these amazing memories with my tiny Tuna.

Gooooooodbyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Wolllllongongggggggg!!!!!!

Quickie

Have to make this quick ;cause we're about to go out to Wooly's to pick up a few things.

SHEESH! won't be able to say that too many more times!

My prac report is written! It's like I'm done! 3 more days to go! WOOOO HOOOO!!!! Unbelievable! I've had a few good lessons this week as well. Today we made Fairy Bread! (Bread with butter and sprinkles, it's an actual thing over here). It was part of a maths lesson on halves and quarters. :) I've also started giving out money this week that they'll use on Friday to purchase some stuff at the Canadian gift shop before we fly home to Australia. I'm also going to have them make some masks as an art lesson and Jared and I will wear a couple of them to the masquerade ball!

OK that's it for now. imust go get this stuff done so I can nap before I skype Ray tonight at 11PM! EEK.

Love to you all!

PS - We'll be travelling in 10 days!!!! AWWWWWWWWESOME!!!! Probably the BIGGEST travelling adventure of our lives! We will return changed people, guaranteed.

KE does the Aquarium, with a Tuna for a tour guide!

Today our class went up to Sydney to go to the aquarium. What a day! We got on the bus just after 8AM and were off! It was a long ride up and I had to continually tell the kids to quit messing around, but can't really blame 'em. They were told to go pee before 'cause we weren't gonna stop! But we did stop once for one kid who ended up peeing behind a tree and then a girl (Miri) came to the back and squatted over an ice cream container. After those mild dramas we made it to Sydney, everyone got the chance to go pee and have a snack and then we headed in! OH! And we met the little Tunes just outside the place. :) She met my teachers and they were very nice to her. :) We walked around and I took extra care of Majed, joseph, Shantae and Jean. We saw TONS fo really cool fish (Sting Rays, sharks, Dugongs, turtles, crocodile etc etc).
After all that fun stuff we took the mini train all around Darling Harbour and then got let off near the park where we were going to have lunch and let the kids play until we caught the bus back. Well Jenni told us to go have lunch on our own and be back in like 30 minutes or so. That was cool by me! So we took off and went and bought a salad and then watched some really cool singing / music by a Bahrainian group, I think it was a promotion for a new airline. After that we headed back over to where the kids were, got all packed up and we started heading over towards where the bus was. We stopped and were just hanging out for a bit in a shady area near where we were to be picked up. There was a massive ferris wheel there and the guy let everyone on for free! How awesome is that!!! Reg $12 each! Cool! So even Tunes got on for free! Cool views on that thing. After our ride we boarded the bus and headed home. end of story.

It's Official

Dear Brian,
I refer to your application for employment as a teacher with the New South Wales Department of Education and Training, and subsequent interview on 17-09-2009.
I am pleased to advise that you have been recommended as suitable for employment as a teacher in NSW public schools and the processing of your application will proceed if all required supporting documentation has been received.
You are invited to apply for an interim casual teaching approval as soon as you have completed your final professional experience. Recall your application here to commence this process.
Make sure you read teach.START for up to date information about the graduate recruitment program.
We will forward your final approval as soon as we receive a final transcript from your university.
Regards,teach.NSW

How good does that feel?! Good enough to make this discomfort of being 2:33:20 into a 4 hour trainer ride disappear! At least momentarily.

It's odd that I get an internet connection down here so that's pretty cool too!

Today I'll finish off 4 hours on the bike (if the tire holds up) and a 30 min run right after and then chill out, get some prac stuff done and start some planning for the end of the year issues. :) Most important training session of the year baby!!!!!!!!! Watching 2004 Tour De France.

It's all sorta coming to an end! Noooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)