School in Australia

School in Australia is both the same as Canada and completely different. Let me explain... Everything I've ever done is still me teaching the way I've always taught, and I have a lot of freedom in Australia to do that. However, I am doing so in a completely different culture. I would compare the difference to when I started teaching in Morley, Alberta on a First Nations reserve. There are little things all day long that everyone takes for granted that I had no idea to expect until they happen.

For example, This is not the entrance to my school, this is the entrance to my classroom.

When I open the door in the morning the kids all come in (just like Canada) as well as all of their parents (not like Canada). In fact for Canadians this is very weird. Students are often dropped off or the bus drops them off and very rarely do parents come join their kids in the classroom for the first 5-15 minutes of the day. I figured that maybe it was just because it was the first day of school and I was a new Canadian teacher, but it continued to happen everyday. I'm guessing the influence of school shootings in the US has led to more of a lock down approach to schools in Canada that hasn't happened in Australia. I'm not saying it is a bad thing, I'm just saying it is different and took a bit to get used to.

Other smaller issues are words like "recess" meaning different things in Canada and Australia. In Canada, recess means we send kids outside to play and get some exercise. In Australia it means a hearty snack and maybe some playtime after that.

It took me until Wednesday to figure this out. I kept sending the kids out at recess and they would come back in saying they didn't have recess. I would be confused by this because they just came in the door. They would say, "but we didn't eat," but I countered that we had snack right before recess. Well the snack before recess is apparently "Brain Break" and they are supposed to only eat fruit during this time. "Recess" is for eating something more substantial. Now I do it the right way!

Acquaintance night happened on Tuesday which was day 7 of school in week 2 as they like to call it. I had all of the parents join me for a PowerPoint presentation at 6pm on who I was and how I would be teaching. I also provided sign ups for classroom volunteering. I think it went well and I had many parents join me to talk afterwards and ask questions well after the time limit of half an hour.

I'm about to start Week 3 of term 1 tomorrow. I hopefully get most of it right and don't make the lunch lady mad that I forgot to send in the lunch order in again.

Second Summer

We're enjoying our second summer this January in Adelaide. The temperatures have ranged from downright cool at 10 degrees in the Hills at night and 41 degree "catastrophic fire risk" days.

Took the family to Rundle Mall in the CBD (Central Business district). The Adelaide Arcade is a cool indoor mall with an old school train station vibe.

    

On the recommendation of one of the teachers from Stradbroke School we went to the Gorge Wildlife Park. We got to hold the Koalas for free with admission and they had open pens for the kangaroos and wallabies where you could go right up to them. The kangaroos are from kangaroo island and are smaller and tamer than the ones from the mainland.

 

 We went and visited the principal at Crafers Primary where Henry would be attending Year 2. It is over 150 years old and is surrounded by forest and wildlife. Should be great for nature learning.

We went to Hahndorf next which is a small town in the Hills that is an old German town. It had an interesting mix of German and Australian cultures. Afterwards we went to Hahndorf Hill winery for our first wine tasting in the region.

            
 One of our trips took us to Port Adelaide. We wanted to see some dolphins and went on a river cruise. We saw some dolphins as soon as we finished the cruise and got off the boat. Oh well!

 



Afterwards we went to a great park at an old mill and found an interesting cafe right on the water that we will have to come back to another day as it was closed.

I went to Stradbroke school for the first time today to see my classroom. I've started setting up, but I have a lot of work to do. So far all the staff I've met have been really amazing and helpful. Here's to a great year!

First week in Australia

We've finally arrived in Adelaide, Australia and are having a great time getting to know the ins and outs of how to live here for a year. The flight was really long. We got a cheap flight using Australia's discount airline Jetstar, and I would highly recommend getting both meals and the inflight entertainment especially to occupy any kids. Henry and Miles were good for the most part, but extremely cranky by the end of our 20+ hour day.

We woke up to the sounds of birds. A LOT of birds! It sounded like we were in the rainforest, and that's not too far away from the truth. We saw rainbow lorikeets, laughing kookaburras, sulphur crested cockatoos, Australian magpies and galahs. We are staying up in the Adelaide Hills which is actually a  few minutes outside of the main suburbs of the city. We are in a more remote area than I am used to so it is very quiet otherwise.

View from the front window of the Kepa's home

We needed to go shopping and found a Woolworths in nearby Stirling. I got a Uber to pick us up and went shopping. Australians are very proud of items made in Australia and put "Australian Made" or "Australian Grown" on almost everything we saw. Prices were largely less expensive than prices in Safeway in Calgary. Some things like shampoo were way more expensive.

Henry wants to try the prawns

Milk comes non-homogenized with the cream on top

interesting way to make pancakes

Ketchup is tomato sauce

huge produce

I spent the better part of the first few days trying to figure out where things were, going for walks taking the bus and purchasing a car to get around in. I finally got a 2004 Mazda 6 from Sky Motors. It seems to run well, and has good assurances from the RAA (Royal Automobile Associaltion of South Australia) that it has been checked over thoroughly for issues. Let's hope it works for a whole year...

The "malls balls" at Rundle Mall in Adelaide

We found 3 koalas up in the gum trees on one of our walks in the neighbourhood.

koala through binoculars

There is a winery within walking distance and several within driving distance! The Adelaide Hills are famous for their wine. The climate here reminds me of the Okanagan region of BC in the summer.

Our hosts Cathy and Eddie Kepa left us a gift.

We went to Mount Lofty botanical garden as it was nearby and seemed like an easy drive for me. The kids really liked the different ducks here.

We drove up a very sketchy road to the Mount Lofty summit the next day. This took away any fears I had driving because I was more scared of heights. The summit showed off an amazing view of Adelaide and the kids were excited to get new hats and a koala and kangaroo stuffy each.

We finally got to the beach after I became more self-assured driving on the left hand side of the road and driving on the right side of the vehicle. We went to Glenelg beach which was very nice. There was a Greek festival going on and a Greek Orthodox church service going on on the jetty. We didn't spend long, and plan to come back another day when we have more time.

Hawaii

We are on our last night here in Hawaii and it has gone by much too quickly. Our flight in went much better than I expected and Henry and Miles did very well keeping themselves occupied. Of course I was in next row over on the aisle so Jenny has a different story of how it went...

Of course WestJet was amazing as well... (Endorsement Cheque in the mail)

When we woke up the next day, Hawaii was under a flood watch and it was very rainy. Not wanting to waste a day we of course went out anyway and we’re noticeably walking around without an umbrella or poncho because it was warm Hawaiian rain and we just left -30 Calgary weather.

It was at this point that we were walking around the deserted Waikiki beach that we noticed a camera crew, but continued exploring the beach in the rain. The camera crew were from an ABC affiliate KITV which is a local news station in Hawaii. They were interested in why I was out in the rain. I told them it was a lot warmer than where I was from and that the weather was awesome given that it was December.

Here is the news segment that features me: Visitors to Honolulu this Christmas

After that we went raced through a downpour to the Honolulu aquarium which the kids really enjoyed. They especially liked the jellyfish, giant grouper fish and shark.

Both mornings we ate at the Fish Hook Hawaiian breakfast buffet. It was very cheap for the area and our hotel gave us 4, $10 off vouchers so we saved quite a bit by combining them for two mornings. The kids thought the food there was the best. Henry really liked the pastries.

Fort Derussy Park

We took lots of pictures and had a fun day at Waikiki beach and topped it off with a very tasty dinner at Tiki’s Grill and bar. It was amazing food and they had a great kids menu with a free frisbee for each boy. The exchange rate really started to hurt though as we ended up paying a lot for this meal as well as multiple trips to the many, many ABC stores littered around Hawaii. (Think 711 meets hotel gift shop)

 

Postcard perfect

Ahi Poke (very tasty!)

The last day we got McDonalds and spent most of the day at the hotel pool and packed up ready to fly tomorrow. We have an 11 hour flight to Melbourne for a four hour layover, and then a 1hr 50min flight to  Adelaide. Our kids currently will not go to sleep. Should be exciting!