school...again

This past Friday, I worked my first day of teaching ever. I signed up with this teaching agency that sets up schools with teachers and I was placed in a secondary school for a day of PE.

In the morning, I drove by the school and parked on a little side street beside it. I walked in past some crazy decorations and students all dressed up in costumes. I thought it was Halloween (a week early) and I picked a great day to start! I asked some students where the office was and they pointed me in the right direction. I walk closer and realize that I'm a the wrong school, I walked up to an all girls private school. I just walked back out and walked to the next school which was my correct school.

I met the school organiser and he gave me my schedule and I met some of the other teachers. It was really good that there was another phys. ed. teacher there and he helped me out in terms of where to go and where the equipment was. The kids are pretty much the same as Canadian kids. Some were a little rowdier though, probably because I was a substitute. It was a pretty good day. Next week I'll be working at another secondary school for four days. We'll see how that goes.

In other news, I got up on my first waves yesterday! I can't wait to go surfing again, woo hoo!!

shoes

One of the funny things about Australia is that people wear there shoes inside their house! Just walk in without taking your shoes off. I'm used to taking off my shoes and even movers in Edmonton would put on little booties before stepping inside your house. The other thing is that I have seen many people walking on the street without shoes on! It's almost the opposite here. Strange, but true.

PI!!!! (Phillip Island)

The weekend of October 3-5 was MotoGP Phillip Island. To those who aren't into the motorbike racing, Phillip Island is probably best known for the Penguin Parade. Every night, the penguins come in from the ocean and go to sleep in their little burrows. We saw the penguins and they were so funny walking up the beach to get home. There were heaps of Asian tourists there! I didn't take pictures of the penguins though because the lights scare them (nobody could take pictures). I have them in my memory though! We saw one poop and one run and fall into a hole. It was great.

We stayed at an awesome farm/house that was one of Cyn's family friends. It was an awesome property with a close by beach! I took my first dip in the ocean there and it was cooooooolllld! We saw some beached jellyfish too.

Now for what we've all been waiting for, the bikes! We went on all three days. Friday was their first practice day and there were about 24 000 people there. Pretty busy, but not too bad at all. If you don't know, there are three classes that race during a MotoGP weekend. The 125cc 2-strokes, 250cc 2-strokes, and 800cc 4-strokes. The MotoGP guys were going 330 km/h on the straight while the 125s were getting up to 245 km/h (not slow at all!). the first thing you'll notice is the sounds of the bikes! I took videos, so I won't describe them, but you feel the noise. I was overloaded with everything to see! I took 300 pictures over weekend!!!! Seeing these guys fly around the track made me want to ride so much! A track day might be in order here. Phillip Island is the fastest track on the MotoGP calendar!

During the race, we were sitting by turn 7 and 8 right by the fence. The bikes were so close and we heard every ear splitting decibal the bikes put out! I have to say that of all the GP bikes, I like the sound of the Honda thee most. The Ducati was very recognizable, as was the Kawasaki, but the Honda just sounded so mean!

I've been a Rossi fan from when I first started watching and I still am, but I found a new hero in Nicky Hayden! He is just so friendly to the crowd and so good to watch. Pulling wheelies for the crowd during the cool down lap, how can you not like him!!!!!! He had a fantastic race too, except for near the end where you can tell his tires were wearing while Rossi chased him down and passed him on the last lap. Rossi finished 2nd from a 12th starting position. How good is that!?!?

This was a fantastic weekend that I'll remember for a long time. I have pictures to put up as well (I'll put an update once I get it).

What's next!?

FYI

Did you know that drink cans here are 375mL? They are slightly taller.

Indi! (the farm, not Harrison Ford)

Hello everybody, I have found it hard to get internet access for my computer, so the pictures that I have taken are not uploaded yet. When I finally find a place to hook up, I'll upload and explode your senses with the awesomeness that is Australia.

After the short exploration of Geelong, I was off to Cynthia's parent's farm. It's about a 3 hour drive from Geelong and we made it quick. Being a city boy, I didn't know exactly what to expect, but I knew there was lots of land, animals, and a scooter to ride around on!

During the trip to the farm, I also had my first chance to do some driving. It takes some time getting used to driving on the opposite side of the road! Cyn's car is also a manual and I don't get to practice that much on one of those. After driving on the wrong side of the road for a bit, I got the hang of it and driving was good. I also turned on the windshield wipers instead of the turn signals more than once. Cyn took over again once we got really rural. One other thing is that I noticed is that there are way more hills on than in Edmonton. When you add in hills to single lane roads for both directions of traffic, it gets freaky!

During the drive, there were fields and fields just like the prairies, but add in the hills and also huge trees in the middle of crop fields. It was cool to see! Lots of sheep too.

When we got to the farm, it was getting a little dark, but we rolled into the drive and saw her parents. Then we took a quick spin on the Honda C90 before dinner! At dinner, Cyn's dad showed me to a variet of Aussie beers. I tried lots of types over that weekend! Let's see, I've had Victoria Bitter (VB) and Pure Blonde before, then I tried: Coopers, Melbourne Bitter, Blue Tongue, Beez Neez, and probably some other ones I haven't remembered!Anyways, lots of beer, good times. On the farm, we also saw lots of kangaroos hanging out. It was super fun. We were on the back of the ute and Cyn's dad was driving super fast through the trees to chase the 'roos! Lots of pictures, but once again they aren't uploaded yet. It was just amazing seeing these huge gum trees and all the land. The farm was absolutely fantastic! I could spend more time there for sure.

The way back was a little hair raising again because it was during the night. As of now, I have driving in Geelong and am getting used to the different traffic behaviours! Next up, Phillip Island!