All Settled In!

Well, on January 29^th we will have been gone from home for a month! Time has flown by and so far we have been loving every minute of it. We have settled really nicely into our cozy “little flat” and I have completed my first week of school.

Yesterday was Australia day (the 26^th of January) and so I had the day off from school along with my usual Monday’s off- seems easy right? I’m taking every advantage of having a light schedule right now and heading to the beach almost every day after school. This first four weeks of classes is an ‘intensive focus on literacy and numeracy’. I have 2 classes 4 days a week for four weeks and then they add in 7 more classes, all in 4 days a week. I have a 2500 word essay on the Australian Curriculum and Literacy due in 4 weeks and in 2.5 weeks I have a math exam…yippee! Teacher’s college, or DipEd as they call it here, is much different than I expected. I suppose my expectations were based on what I’ve heard from the Ontario Teacher’s Colleges but I almost feel as though I am back in my undergrad. I never anticipated having to write an essay (only one for now) in my graduate program hence me celebrating like an idiot when I finished my degree almost a year ago thinking I would never have to write an essay ever again! Well, was I ever wrong- not only am I writing an essay but I am writing an essay on the Australian curriculum…something which I know nothing about. It should be interesting to say the least- I suppose I’ll have to fit it in between beach visits! Other than the few projects I have going on, school is good. My numeracy teacher actually reminds me a lot of a teacher at home that I had in grade four, Deb Halbot. Mrs. Halbot was the reason I decided to become a teacher because she had a way of ensuring that lessons were interesting, applicable and…fun! Who would’ve thought school could be fun! Anyways, having Katie Waters (my numeracy teacher) teaching this class has been a wonderful experience so far and I am thoroughly enjoying math (shocker!)…for the moment!

The University of Wollongong itself is actually beautiful. It is located right at the bottom of a huge mountain and is located essentially right in the middle of a jungle. The campus is surrounded by beautiful trees and has numerous streams running through it. The above pictures were all taken at the university- I wasn't exaggerating when I said it was in the middle of a jungle right? All of the wildlife pictures were taken on campus as well- the Owl was spotted by Jordan-sharp eyes on his part, this little guy was very camouflaged!
I think that if I did my undergrad here, I would have spent a lot more time actually on the campus than at home. There is a free “Gong” bus that stops just across the street and takes me up to the campus in 20 minutes. The one thing I noticed though is that the campus is very spread out. The joke about Brock University is that you can go from one end of campus to the other without ever having to step outside- this is not the case at UOW. This morning it was POURING rain out and despite the fact that I had my umbrella with me, I got soaked as it took me a good 5 minutes to get from the bus to my classroom. 

For the past few days it has been rainy quite a bit which has caused a lot of floods in the northern part of New South Wales and in Queensland. We have just normal rain (so nothing to worry about) but it really has limited us to what we can do when I'm not in school. Speaking of rain, apparently anything other than sun means that you have little to no internet. Internet here is unbearably slow and extremely pricy. You pay per gigabyte you use which ends up being quite pricy- especially watching shows or using Skype. In between waiting for shows to download (I can’t miss out on Grey’s Anatomy or the Bachelor!) Jordan and I have been playing hours and hours of cards. More specifically, we have been playing Crazy 8 Countdown and Shanghai (a favourite card came that we learned from Sarah and Roberto)!

Last night, after flicking through the 4 channels on TV that we have, attempting to use the internet (fail) and playing hours of card games, I decided that it was time to go for a walk in the rain. Jordan wasn't all to pleased with this but after sitting around for hours and hours, we needed a change of scenery! We put on the closest thing we had to rain coats (my fall/winter coat and Jordan's red "Salvos" jacket), grabbed two flimsy umbrella's and headed to the beach to check out the waves. Although we were completely soaked by the time we got back, it was a fun little adventure and I'm sure we'll end up doing it again!

In other news, I have taken out my Monroe piercing! I have had it in for 2.5 years and I really loved it but I have grown out of it. I am entering a new (more mature) stage of my life and having a facial piercing is probably not the best way to start that stage- I’m sure my family (Grampy, Dad, Mom…etc) will be thrilled! I have had it out for 4 days and already it has closed up greatly and really just looks like a small freckle. I am sure with time, it will be gone (however if it stays as is, I would be fine with that).

Jordan and I have always been thrifty shoppers. However, this has become even more evident throughout that past couple of weeks. As I said before, prices in Australia are really expensive and since Jordan and I want to travel as much as we can while we are here, we want to try and save every penny we can. We have really scouted out the bargain spots including getting our veggies and meat at the local market and going to Aldi’s (the Food Basics equivalent) to buy dairy and miscellaneous products. It takes longer to go to two (sometimes 3 different spots) but it helps us to pinch our pennies! Speaking of pinching our pennies, I left my straightener at home because I was told it wouldn’t work here with the power differences. So, I have been checking out prices at local hair places and have held off until now. The other day I got the brilliant idea to see if the local Salvation Army (Salvos, as they call it here) had any hairdryers and hair straighteners. Luckily, I got both from Salvos for the bargin price of $6!! Oh, did I mention that this price also includes a 21-day warranty on both electronic products? BONUS! Never thought I would buy a hair straightener from Salvation Army but hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do! Even more of a surprise is that they both actually work really well- a $6 well spent I would say. Mommabear and Ger are probably grinning ear to ear knowing that their ‘thriftiness’ has rubbed off on me!

While we are thrifty and are saving our money, we do splurge on the occasional $10 box of wine (equivalent of 6 bottles- lushes, I know) or $4 bottle of wine (cheaper than juice!). Surprisingly, it’s actually not bad! Apparently we need to only be shopping at Salvos and the Bottlemart and we will save all sorts of money!
As I mentioned earlier, yesterday was Australia Day! The Wollongong Harbour (a few km from our flat) was were the festivities were being held. Tonnes of vendors, rides, concession stands and bands filled the streets and parks. It was just a huge celebration and we had a great day. By the end of the day we were absolutely pooped having walked over 10km in the sticky, humid heat. We finished off the day watching the fireworks from 'our beach' right across the road from our flat. All in all, it was a great day!

               A wee free 'train' ride that Jordan & I took- hey, we need to pinch our pennies! :)

 We had to join in on the Australia festivities- that includes having a pint you know! :)

 On our walk around town we saw this- never actually seen it in person before- beyond hilarious!

That’s all for now folks (as Bugs Bunny would say). Hope everyone back at home is enjoying the snow (or rain as I am hearing)!

All our love,

Kirsten & Jordan