School Holidays Begin!

Hey! How yous goin'? Check out this video of our weekend!

The weekend was a kick start to our two week holiday. Although the weekend was pretty laid back for me, we had some adventure on Monday. Looking at the forecast, we saw that Monday was to be 27°C out and we wanted to do something different. I remembered one of the teachers telling me we should visit Mornington Peninsula because it was a beautiful place and there was lots to do. So, we headed out there early Monday morning. It was about an hour train ride and then another forty-five minutes on the bus. We found a nice beach where we relaxed for a bit. We could see the city skyline so far away in the distance and the crazy thing is that we were still in Melbourne. This city is so massive!

We went up to the main street where there was an information center to figure out what we wanted to do. The lady there recommended that we have a go at Tree Surfing, so we called the place and that's what we were set to do. We stopped for lunch at a burger joint and then hopped on the bus for another forty five minute ride where we had to get off and wait for a taxi to take us up the long winding road to get to the Enchanted Forest. The turns on this road were so sharp and went straight up hill. I'm pretty sure the taxi driver was accelerating on the turns and it smelt like burning rubber. He was kind and stopped the cab where we could get a good view.

The Enchanted Forest was beautiful and there were lots of activities to do. Tree Surfing was heaps of fun! You'll have to watch my video to see more about that. We were also so lucky to be tree surfing with these kids who had an awesome mom who offered us a ride back to the Frankston train station! We would have had to get on a bus for about two hours to get back there. There are some truly kind people here and they were no exception! They even drove us around to show us where Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman lived when they were married and they took us to a pier to see the most beautiful sunset! They also told us all the great places we will need to visit while we are here too! Just amazing people! And, check out this sunset (not that I got a good picture, or that a picture would do much justice anyway). She told us it would be nice out today because of the sunset - "Red sky at night, shepherds delight!" And is it ever nice out today! 

We will be out doing more exciting things this week! Hope you enjoyed this post and my video! 

Don't forget to be awesome!

Kaits :)

Teach, Run, Listen, Explore

Long time no blog. Lets catch up. 

It's now spring here in Melbourne. It tricked us by being 25°C on the very first and second day of spring. However, we haven't seen the sun much since. The weather is very indecisive here at the moment. It can be sunny and warm one minute and the minute you blink it's cold and pouring rain. This cycle repeats itself over and over again. I'm finding it quite challenging to dress myself each morning. 

Work has been very busy these past few weeks as I have work nearly every day. It's fun being a CRT because I get to do different things each day. So far I've taught all grades from prep (kindergarten) to grade six, I've taught phys ed, I've taught at a special school and in a P-12 school. At each school, I learn more about myself and who I hope to become as an educator. It's so awesome to have the opportunity to dabble in each grade level, in different subjects and different types of schools. 

Today I was teaching the little preppies at a school I go to often. One child wanted to take a picture of me and my peg board work (but really, just the board). I'm wearing my coat because it was really cold and rainy out today and also because the schools here don't have heat, just small heaters in each classroom, so it's pretty cold in the mornings.

Other than working at schools, I've been trying to explore Melbourne and I've found some of my favourite places to be so far. I went down to the coast on a day off for a run and I found a terrific footpath that goes all along the ocean for five miles (well it goes much further, but that is the distance between the two trains I use to get back to the city). I found Brighton Beach which is where these beautifully coloured beach houses are, maybe you've seen them in pictures before? I go all the way to St. Kilda Pier and at the end of the day, that's a nice place to sit on the sand and watch the sun go down. It'll be flippin' cold at that time, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. I do that about three times a week!

And here's what a run looks like at sunset time.

Now, I'm not sure if this trumps the beach running or not but my other favourite thing to do is to walk down Bourke St on a Friday, Saturday and/or Sunday afternoons. It is so amazing and packed with talent! All the buskars come out and show everyone what they got. I especially get excited when I find out my new favourite bands will be playing. I can just sit and watch them perform! If you're looking for some new music to check out take a look at Woodlock and Amistat. By the way, the guys of Woodlock are super cool and I had a chat with them after one of their performances when I bought their CD! Bourke Street has it all and I love it!

This is the last week of school before we break for term four, which means we have two weeks of holidays! I'm not sure yet what we are doing, but one thing is for sure, we are going to explore in and around the city. I'd like to do day trips to surf or go out into the country on a train because that isn't too expensive. Oh, and I met another CRT at school today. Where is she from? Saskatchewan. So we are going to meet up over the holidays as well and go on an excursion of some sort!! 

Here we are a few weekends ago hanging out at Docklands by the Yacht club - hoping to score some friends with a massive yacht. No luck yet. We will keep trying. Ha Ha!

Hope you all have a great week!