OH!!!!
and I should mention...

I carved a pumpkin with my students for Halloween and they were all totally mind blown by this act!
They were like...what is that thing?!?!
And you're going to carve into it, what?!

They were fascinated, and some disgusted, by the inards of the pumpkin! It was great.

I had a contest for the face. Two days before I carved it, I had them design a face (that wasn't too complicated because I am not that awesome at carving) and also a name to go with it, that was appropriate of course!

Then, instead of picking one winner, I combined many aspects of all the contestants into one face. However, I did pick two people's names and combined them into one. I will put photos up of this soon!
The pumpkin's name ended up being Sir Pumpkula. Thanks to Jess--Pumpkula, and Lewis with Sir Scares Alot (kind of like Sir Cuts Alot, huh dad?!)

I also had the opportunity to go into the Beautiful Swan Valley on a Bread, cheese, and wine tour. What a beautiful day I had and great tasting wine and food. I took photos as well and they are coming soon.

Ok I THINK that's it...but ya never know! You have a lot of reading to do now...

off you go!

A long overdue post!!!

Craikey!

It's been nearly two months since I have blogged. I apologise to you, my wonderful followers! You guys are awse! Ok...so let me slow down a little for you. I just spelled apologize without the z up there! I am so used to Aussie spellings now because my students would drill me for my American spellings since day 1! So I had to change my ways while I was here, so hence the s instead of the z (pronounced Zed here! so strange, silly Aussies!) They also say awse instead of awesome. They shorten everything! They claim it's because they're lazy...I am understanding this now!!
Anywho, as you can tell from my lack of posts, I am having an absolutely wonderful time and I am super busy!
I have taken over the classroom almost completely now mwhahaha! Those kids don't know what they're in for :-) I am at about 90% teaching load, and next week is week 6 where I will be at 95% and then 100% for weeks 7, 8, 9, and half of 10 before I make my long journey home. I am getting very sad about leaving. I love it here!! I wouldn't mind staying a couple extra months...bet you never thought you'd hear me say that, hey?!
To be 100% honest with you all...I have gotten involved with a church here and I love it! We had a camp this past weekend and I saw the biggest kangaroo EVER and it stared at me with it's yellow green eyes in the night sky...we were in the hills...the middle of no where...so relaxing!! I also shot some arrows with my bow at an archery competition!
Also...I have a few other exciting things to share but I will save that for when I talk to most of you individually!!!
My trip around Australia was AWESOME...oh my goodness the things I saw in 11 days!! GOODNESS ME... they really love that phrase here.
Snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef can compare to NOTHING I have ever done in my life before. The other girl from America that I was traveling with ran into the reef and tore up her leg!
I took a pic of course...be sure to check out my photos on facebook. IF you are not on facebook, good on ya'...I will send you the pics via email if you leave your addy at the end of this blog for me!!! OR...you could keep the suspense and wait until I get home in 5 weeks to see them!!! Up to you matey!
Let's see what else...OHHH! Ayers Rock was amazing! Breathtaking! Mystical. It's definitely more than just a rock...wow...whoa...I was in the outback! The middle of no where! The stars were seriously stunning and so cool because I saw the Southern Cross since I am on the Southern Hemisphere instead of the Northern Hemisphere! So amazing. I just marveled at God's awesome creation in the peace and quiet for two days.
I met some really cool people along my travels. I met a girl named Rachael. She is from Wales. She has been traveling around Australia for 7 months now on a work-travel visa. So awesome!! It was such a blessing to talk to her--so refreshing! I also met two young men from France who made some awesome curry and spoke very little English, but they were so goofy to cook in the kitchen with at our hostel and they always gave us their leftover food! They were amazing chefs! I also met a couple from Japan--they made some awesome Japanese cuisine that I got to try as well---so much great food on this trip!
Sydney was an amazing city--very fast-paced...much different than Perth! Perth is more my kind of style but those of you that like the hustle and bustle of a crazy big city, then Sydney is for you!!!
Again I'll say, check out my photos or ask me to send you some :-)
Well for now I must go because I am preparing to make Advent Calendars with my students tomorrow and I want to make sure I have all my cool crafts and tricks ready!
I miss ya'll mates! Hope you're all getting on okay and I'll be seeing you at Christmas before you know it. Take care, lots of love!!!

Caitrin

It's been far too long!

Hello lovely readers of mine,

Golly Gee (people honestly say that here!)...it's been a while since I've written to you! As you can imagine, and as I predicted, things have gotten quite busy here. I am wrapping up my 6th week at the school, and we are bring term 3 to a close. Now, you know what that means??! SCHOOL HOLIDAY!! But, we'll get to that in a minute or so, because I have heaps (another common word here) to catch you up on!

The last time I posted was August 23rd, which was almost a month ago! Since then I have wrestled a crocodile with my bare hands, gotten my hair cut (about 4 inches off!), rode a kangaroo to school, and had a birthday!!! I've been SO busy! Ok, so I was kidding about a few of those...can you guess which ones??

Give up?

It's tricky to know what I'm really up to, so I'll just tell you! I did indeed get my hair cut. I mean if you're going to get your hair cut in another country, and you have a $25 off coupon for a really awesome salon, so it will only cost you $15, I say why not!! It's hair...it always grows back!

Secondly, I did have a birthday nearly three days ago now. I turned 24 in Australia...what a birthday to remember!!! I have taken loads of pictures since I've posted last, so I will put some new pics on this blog, as well as my facebook page--so check there too!!

Now onto the crocs and roos. I did NOT wrestle a crocodile with my bare hands...YET or get the kangaroo ride. But, I am planning a trip throughout the country for the school holiday so I do believe Iget my opportunity then!!

I have been showered with beautiful birthday cards filled with very nice messages, so I feel very loved!! I have THE BEST support group back at home...my family and friends rock!!

I also received a massive and gorgeous bouquet of red roses while I was at school from my family for my birthday! What a surprise that was! All my students thought I had a secret admirer!

I spent my birthday dinner at Wendy's parents house. We had a delicious roast with potatoes and roasted pumpkin...they seriously eat so much pumpkin as a savory dish!! It's really starting to grow on me, but I can't wait to make a pumpkin pie for them!!

I have also made a lot of friends through the church I've been going to so I celebrated with them throughout the weekend too, which you'll see pictures of as well, woohoo!

Now, not only did I celebrate a birthday recently, but Bella the dog did as well! Wendy's dog Bella turned 1 years old on September 14th, so on the weekend of 9-11 we had a birthday party for her! We had lollie bags (treat bags), chocolate crackles (basically the same as rice krispie treats, but they have cocoa and cocunut in them...mmm! Mom you'd love them), and Honey Joys! Honey Joys are awesome--I am definitely making a batch for you all when I return! They are cornflakes, butter, and honey melted together to make a toffee type hard crunchy blob of goodness...they are delicious! Bella's party was a huge success--see my pics on facebook!

Now I know you're all on the edge of your seats, wondering what my plans are for the school holiday. I leave this Sunday, the 26th, for Sydney Australia! I will get to see the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, beaches, and much more!! Then from Sydney, we'll fly to Cairns, which is where the Great Barrier Reef and the Dain Tree Rainforest are--we will spend a day or two at each! Then from Cairns we'll fly to Uluru to see Ayers Rock, right in the heart of the Outback, mates! Now whe I say we, I am traveling with a girl named Brittany who is teaching here in Perth as well, and she's from Atlanta Georgia...should be a fun trip!

Well, I am whacked (term for tired here!) so I'd better hit the hay...school tomorrow, 2 days til the holiday! OH, and the AFL footy final is this weekend...good stuff!! I'll let you know who wins!

I miss you all and I hope you're all doing fantastic. Feel free to leave comments, questions, etc, and I'll get back at ya as soon as I can. The weather is amazing here--spring is in full bloom. The wildflowers are out and the temp. is reaching 80 most days!

Talk to you all soon...take care!!

Caitrin

Takin' a sicky today

Hey mates,

How are all of my lovely readers today? Well, it's official. I am sick in Australia. I walked to the doctor this morning (a 7 minute walk, not bad huh?) It turns out my ears are pretty bad off from the plane ride almost 2 weeks ago, and my sinuses are acting up!! So, I got some nasal spray and anti-biotics and I should be on the mend shortly, I hope! So, as you can see, I am taking a sicky today, as they say here.



But, enough of that...I know you are all dying to hear about my intense weekend!!


We started off at Wendy's parents house with pizza and wine. Oh the wine was lovely...from Margaret River, a lovely winery about 2 hours outside of Perth that we'll go to on school holiday! We chatted with her parents and then her brother Stephen came over. That's when the talks about the current elections in Australia started up. As some of you may know, Julia Gillard is the current prime minister of Australia. Tony Abbott is up against her, and then election took place this Saturday. It was SUPPOSED to end by Sunday, but each candidate has an equal amount in the Senate, or something along those terms (I'm not very political, can you tell?) Anyways, as it turns out, it's a hung election. This hasn't happened since the 1940s here in Australia and the people of WA (Western Australia) have gone mad!! They may not have a new prime minister for another 10 days. AND...they may have to do the election over again! What a disaster.



Now, back to these pizzas. We used flatbread and then spread some sauce on. Each pizza was different. You name the topping, we had it. I ate pizza with olives, green peppers, mushrooms, artichokes, ham, etc etc! We ate pizza after pizza...just massive amounts! (massive is another big word here with the Aussies). The last pizza was Nutella with banana....absolutely delicious!! After dinner, Wendy's dad, Paul showed us some of his old Aussie rock records. What a trip that was!!




Saturday we got to the marina near downtown Perth for our boat ride around 9:30am. I met Wendy's friend David, and his family and friends. Before we got on the boat, we saw flocks and flocks of pelicans, it was amazing! (see picture above) The boat was a pontoon boat that David's father had made...very impressive! We had sausages on the boat, and everyone made fun of me for eating "hotdogs" and home with "ketchup" They just called it "tomato sauce" with a short a, not a long a in "tomato"...try saying it out loud for the full effect!



Then, we got to the yacht club. It was soo swanky, and I felt like I didn't quite fit in, but it was still fun! It was here at this yacht club that I saw my first footy game (Australian Footy League) on the big screen! The game was awesome...very rough and physical but so fun to watch! It is like a mix of soccer and rugby and with NO padding! These guys are so muscular and so tough. I was able to pick up on the game relatively quickly and learn some of the rules. After the yacht club we got back on the boat and David's family showed me some of the biggest houses in Australia....they were MASSIVE!!! I was exhausted by 8:00 so I went to bed as soon as we got home on Saturday.



On Sunday morning I went to Craigie Baptist Church. Everyone was so nice there and the music was wonderful. We learned about the armour of God (the breastplate of righteousness) It was nice to learn that we worship the same and one God all over the world. I can't wait to go back next week and hopefully make some friends there!!



After church Wendy, her friend David, and I took to the train into Subiaco (a town near Perth), to get to the Football stadium. It was here that I witnessed my very first footy game right in front of me! We got tickets from a teacher at work who is a season ticket holder. Sunday's game was the West Coast Eagles vs. The North Melbourne Kangaroos! It was awesome to see the pushing and shoving of the guys up close and personal! I got some great pics, and I will attach a few below! I am also attaching a picture of the eagle that they release in the grounds before the match starts since the Eagles were the home team. The eagle flew around, left the grounds, and we were afraid he wouldn't come back...but he did no worries mate!

























There's a good fight that's about to start there!!

Well, that's all for now mates...I gotta get some rest so I can get back to school and teach those kids!!

Don't forget your jumper!

Hey Mates!

How are ya'll getting on, then? (How are you?)

Well it's Thursday night at about 7:00pm as I write this. I have almost finished my first week of teaching at Springfield! I must say, the kids are so well behaved here. They are super polite; they greet me in unison every morning with their aussie accents: "Good morning Miss Scott!" and then as they leave each day, "Good afternoon Miss Scott!" It is absolutely adorable. A great group of 9 and 10-year-olds.

Everytime the kids go outside they wear their hats and jumpers. The hats are pretty funny! They look like those floppy fisherman hats, if you can picture that at all. I'll try to attach a picture to show you all! And by jumpers, they mean sweaters or sweatshirts here.

The kids had a lap-a-thon today. They had to get people (family, friends, or some cases, pets! haha) to sponser them and then at 2:15 this afternoon it took place. They had a half hour to run around the circuit in the big courtyard outside as many times at they could. Each class (or areas as they call them here) had a table station to stamp each child's card when they ran past to indicate how many laps they ran at the end of the day. One boy, Ralph, who is in my class, ran 27 laps! He was a running machine today. The rest of my class averaged about 13-17 laps in a half hour....very impressive! Each time the kids would run by for a stamp, we'd encourage them to keep running. "Good on ya then!" is one way Wendy and the other teachers would encourage the kids.

I went walking with Wendy (my mentor teacher and roommate for those of you that don't know) and another teacher and her daughter this afternoon. Kiki is the teacher's name and her daughter's name is Meeka (they moved here from South Africa) One of the first things Meeka asked me was "Have you met Zac Efron?" I told her no I had never met him, but I'd seen him in his new movie and he's just so cute! Haha, so glad to know I'm in good company with my Zac Efron fans here.

Alright, what else? So many differences here. They don't use pumpkin as a dessert treat (like pies) here. They cook with it in sooo many things; it's actually really good! They call granola bars Muesli bars, and oatmeal/porridge is muesli as well.

I went to Whitford's shopping center yesterday, and wow, it was huge!!! Australians are so smart. They have placed just about every place you'll need to go to while out running errands, into ONE huge building! This place had the post office, grocery store, clothing stores, shoe stores, restaurants, icecream shops, smoothie bars, etc, etc! It is brilliant (they say that so much here). There is a store there called Smiggle and all the kids are obsessed with their products. They sell stationary, pens, folders, notebooks, and all that good stuff. Go to http://www.smiggle.com/ if you want to see it; they have some really fun stuff!! (I may have gotten a membership card...hehe) Their Target store is enormous there. They have no small, medium, large for sizes. Just number sizes!! Very different.

This weekend should be fun. We are going to Wendy's parents for pizzas and wine Friday night and Saturday we are going for a boat ride with Wendy's friend Dave and his family and then headed to a yacht club to watch a AFL game (Australia Footy League--google it!) Wendy roots for the Fremantle Dockers but their is another team here, which is The West Coast Eagles. While at Whitford's shopping plaza I bought a West Coast Eagles bathrobe because 1)I needed one 2) it was the cheapest one I could find 3) it's warm and cozy to wear and it's freezing here right now!!! Wendy called me a traitor though for wearing it, haha!

Well...I suppose that is it for now. I definitely miss home and everyone that comes with it, but I know this is where God wants me to be. He is fufilling a purpose here that I can't see yet; I have to put my hope in only Him. I'll be blogging on here every couple of days or so. I'll post some pics of my school/class next week hopefully! I hope this blog finds you all well, and feel free to leave comments whenever!!

Good on ya mates, see ya!

The fog from my brain has subsided, let the blogging begin

Greetings mates!!

Well, I am here in Australia, and yes, they do call just about everyone mates here! It's a not a joke, so let me bust that myth for you right off the bat. I have only been here three full days now and I have managed to see kangaroos by the packs (?) and the beautiful roaring Indian Ocean.

Even though Australians speak English and look enough like me, it is VERY different here! Everything from what they call breakfast to the style of their plugs and light switches, Australia truly is a whole different world down here.

Because I didn't blog my first three days here due to extreme jet lag and being at school all day, I will just lump everything I've seen, heard, learned, and what not into one post.

They call breakfast Brekky here, which is pretty wonderful. My mentor teacher/roommate, Wendy made pancakes for brekky my first morning. They make their pancakes much thinner here, and think Americans have just gone bonkers for putting chocolate chips and blueberries in their pancakes. They cut up lemons, squeeze them onto their pancakes, and then sprinkle sugar on top...an absolute delight!!! They got that idea from the French, or so I heard.

They drive on the other side of the road and the driver's seat is on the right side of the car, not the left. When we walked to Wendy's car at the Perth airport, she walked to what would be the driver's side of the car in the U.S., so i thought she wanted me to drive home from the airport! I'm so glad that wasn't the case! (and now I'll pause for a funny moment: I'm sitting here with Wendy, and we're both on our laptops. She just asked me "what's Kool-Aid?" I was happy to tell her that it's only the greatest drink I had growing up, EVER!) They also call their gas petrol.

The time difference has been just crazy, but I guess I'm adjusting. I have been invited to a church by the chaplain at the school I am teaching at, so that's evidence of God answering my prayers. God is here too, but I wasn't seeing that at first. God didn't just create North America; you can see his beauty and amazing handiwork here in Australia too! What a beautiful land.

It IS cold here right now though! Well cold only because I came from the sweltering humidity of Cleveland to the non-humid crisp 18 degrees celsius (55-60 degrees farenheit) of Perth, Australia. But, when I throw on a jumper (sweater/sweatshirt) I am just fine!

The kids at my school are beautiful! They are very sweet and were excited to meet me as I was excited to meet them. A few of them had heard of the Cleveland Cavs (thanks to he who shall not be named) and also the Lakers (Kobe!). The teachers at the school are very friendly. Such a laid-back culture and people. They have "morning tea" in the staff lounge at school and they have a "cupper" or in the states we would just say a cup of coffee or tea (how boring of us!) The children call their lockers/cubbies, "pigeon holes" which I think is awesome and their candies are lollies. Also something I noticed while looking at a map today, their map of the world is a mirror image of the one we have in our textbooks here in the states. It is this way so that Australia is more central, making North America be in the upper right hand corner (northeast of Australia) I just thought that perspective was so interesting.
My students are also planning a "journey" across Australia from Perth to Sydney. They get to pick their own route, plan places to stop, tell what you can do there, and chart how many kilometers they travel altogether. It's such a fun project!

well, that is all for now because jet-lag stinks and I'm exhausted. Time for bed! I am still overwhelmed and truly miss home, but I trust God will hold onto me and sustain me and continue to provide comfort and wisdom. Lots of love to you all, and goodnight mates!

Caitrin