down on grandpa's farm...

Hello Kids! Please enjoy this lovely rendition of Down on Grandpa's farm brought to you by the class I just finished up in. I have a cold, but it certainly does not excuse my singing.

We've learned about farm animals these past 2 weeks, and we made sheep, chickens and cows. The cows were my favourite- hence why we used these for the video. They were a really great group- I had a lot of fun. As a reward today- I let them watch a video "Racing Stripes" and eat popcorn and juice. THEN- the other prep teacher who just returned asked if her kids could come. So, I felt mean when only my kids had snacks. Then the other teacher bailed and it was just me and 40 six year olds. Of course, the day didn't end on a high note for everyone. One of my student's bit another and actually drew blood at recess. When I tried to talk to Dad about Dracula- he just walked out the building. Thanks.

I've been told that the suburb I am teaching in was created for Melbourne to send all drug addicts and low socio-economic families to as to keep the other areas clean. Whether or not this is true, there were about 10 kids in the class who were extremely independent and then 4...not so much, at all. The rest fell somewhere in between. I am back to that same school on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week in Year 1/2. The teacher told me today that her student teacher would be teaching those days and I'll be really bored so bring paper and start writing my wedding reception guest list. She also asked me to write comments about the student teacher which I really don't want to. I hated when supply's did it for me because I always thought they don't have their own class so why should they mark me. I've already decided this girl only gets positive feedback- and me, an easy $700.

Last night (Thursday) I went for a massage. I am still in pain. The lady was 40 minutes behind schedule, so when I finally got out I had to race around the city to find a movie store (no one rents unless you have something with your address, which I don't- they wouldn't even let me buy it outright... I wanted the movie Babe for goodness sakes). So I ended up buying Racing Stripes for 7 dolla. Babe would have been better. Anyhow, all of that curfuffle had me missing drinks with the girls. So, until next week. Three of them are really nice and we have more in common than being Canadian teacher's living overseas. One of the girls and I both had prep classes for the past week, so we travelled together and got to know each other pretty well.

Nic is liking his job... I think. It's a much much slower pace. He's actually working on a 2. 3 million dollar job and it's taking a long time. He only hanged (spelling- not hung right?) 3 doors today and his boss has been impressed with him. In Nic's words- Murray Armstrong wouldn't be happy with that. Also, he was called lazy by a fellow employee. They were moving bags of concrete mix and the man carried 2 at a time, Nic put 6 in a wheelbarrel. His co-worker said "You Canadians, all lazy.." Nic's retort- In Canada this is called smart. However, he's making good money and they all packed up at 2 today to go for beers, so it sounds like he likes it.

I got paid today. They automatically add a certain amount to your pension here. So, pretend I made 1000... they would add 150 to my pension that I never actually earned. Essentially on this paycheque I saved 400 dollars because we get everything we put into our pensions back when we leave PLUS all of our tax. It will be a nice little parting gift. Back to my story, so tomorrow we're heading out on a day tour. It's on Phillip's Island. It's well known for the Penguin Parade. At dusk, apparent you see them all come in and eat. Everyone says its really good. We plan on upgrading to tour to see the Koala Conservation and also hit up a winery and chocolatery?? I don't know what the word is, but we stop and go to the winery followed by chocolate. I am not complaining. We've been told to dress like Winter in Canada. Tonight we're being low-key. I have dinner on and didn't fall asleep until 2 last night and we need to be up early tomorrow.

The battle of Nic. vs. The Washing Machine has been gruesome. Washing machine is winning. However, he was successful in the battle against the dishwasher, so that's a plus!

Other than that, we're a boring pair. We're meeting interesting people and my vocab is growing every day. Today I learned a duny (doonie) is a duvet. It rained all week (yea, a week of indoor recesses) so hopefully the sun comes out this weekend.

We're a month in -working, have made friends and have nice little routine for ourselves. In the words of an odd kid I went to highschool with, everything is just "Top Drawer". 10 points if you can name him.