...and, away we go again!

In the next week and a half we'll be off travelling with Michael's parents. Before he meets up with us, Michael will be playing at ultimate frisbee nationals in Perth. You can follow his team on twitter, but it might not make sense if you're not in the ultimate scene. Also, they need to update their picture. 

Familiar Face in a New Place

I got a call this morning to sub at a school nearby. The first questions was, "Are you available today?", yes. The second question was, "Have you ever taught Dance before?", to which my reply was nervous laughter. Flash forward to halfway through an unsuccessful game of Freeze Dance with kindergartners, trying to play music on my phone. My class became more like Drama combined with indoor recess. I'm not sure how I was supposed to teach Dance without any way to play music other than my phone. Anyway, I kept all the classes occupied, which is what matters on day three of the worst storm in recent years (as an aside, if cyclone-grade wins are recorded fairly consistently during a storm, doesn't that make that storm a cyclone?!). Then, halfway through the day I ended up being asked to float around and cover a 6th grade class here and a 1st grade class there. At one point I had a class but then the Italian teacher walked in and declared it was time for the children to learn Italian even though everyone was confused, including me. It was was certainly the most disjointed day of teaching I've had yet, which is not necessarily bad, but it's not ideal.

I saw a familiar face in one of my classes: Will. He had been a regular at the daycare center I worked at for a few months last year, and had since moved up to kindergarten. He is one of those kids that has a great attitude and is helpful and friendly to everyone. He's one of those kids that is mature beyond his years and creates order in the other kids around him. He is the kind of kid you want to see when you're substitute. So, as he does, he helped me organize that class, which that made my day.

What will term two bring?

The last few days have been cold, rainy, and very windy. This is as bad as the weather gets in Sydney - it's bad enough that I had to bring our clothes rack in to dry our clothes because they were getting wet even under the covered balcony. I had to venture out in the thick of it yesterday to go to a goodbye happy hour for a Canadian couple, Graeme and Rebekah, we've played frisbee with for the last few months. Graeme was also a teacher back in Canada and shared my difficulties finding work in Education here. It wasn't the first goodbye and won't be the last in this transient group in this transient city.

Term two is starting up and hopefully - fingers crossed - teaching and after care work will also start right back up too. Michael has been busy with a work project lately, so it would be nice if we could both be busy with work at the same time.

Butternut Beach Bums

It was another low-key weekend here. Saturday we went to the first practice with the team we are going with to the first ever beach ultimate nationals tournament in Australia at the Gold Coast next month. When we signed on for the tournament, we thought it was going to be a kind of silly tournament, like Wildwood in the US, but then we found out it's nationals. It's probably still going to silly, but with more honor on the line. 

After our beach practice at Bondi and having a team lunch, one of our teammates said he lived just up the street and was going to go surfing. He also happens to own extra surfboards (I guess maybe that's sort of normal when you live at the beach?), so Michael decided to join him while I relaxed on the beach. It turned into a nice little impromptu beach day.

Today Michael and I went climbing at the gym, played some boardgames, and watched some more of The Almighty Johnsons. Now I'm cooking butternut squash risotto (using barley) for the first time because what else do you do when a butternut squash gets delivered to your house? I forgot how much I love Real Simple magazine since I don't get it here, but they still have recipes online.

In other news, Michael has begun to train our cats tricks because he doesn't have enough hobbies as it is. Here is Eve doing a high-5 and "meerkat". Ninja can do them too, but I got better videos of Eve. 

The Parents Come to Visit

Michael's parents were here this week. I took them around to see some of the typical tourist stuff, as well as some local favorite spots of ours. I think they got a good feel for our daily life and enjoyed exploring the city, coastline, and Blue Mountains. 

We will see them again in about a week, and we'll travel to some new Australian spots where we haven't been yet.

Old, New, and In-Between

First and foremost, Happy International TableTop Day (a day late)!

It's been a low-key weekend with some of our typical hobbies. We found a new place to get pretty good American food, mainly just burgers, thin-cut fries, and fried chicken: Mary's in Newtown. It's dimly lit and from the outside you can't even tell it's a restaurant. 

Tomorrow the Michael's parents arrive for almost a month-long trip down under. I haven't seen them in about nine months and Michael hasn't seen them in about six. It's strange to realize that, since it doesn't feel like it has been that long since we saw people at home.

The parents will be staying with us for a week, then travelling on to more exotic locales where we will meet up with them again later. It will be fun to be tourists in our own country again and explore some new places.

Let's get physical - physical!

One thing I haven't mentioned that much on the blog that is actually quite a regular part of our lives is Fitness First, gym to which Michael and I both belong. The reason I don't talk about it all that much is that it's not particularly interesting. I don't really like gyms in general, as some are set up kind of like cults the way they do their memberships. I suppose that's saying something that I actually like this gym, then, even though you still have to go through all the membership mumbo jumbo. I suppose I just decided to talk about it today since I've been there more this week than I have in the last few weeks, since it's school holidays.

Anyway, Michael and I are both "platinum members" which means we can go to any of the Fitness First gyms in the Sydney area. Michael usually just goes to the one in the CBD (central business district), and I either go to that one, or one of the other two closer to us, depending on the classes offered at the time I want to go). The different gyms cater to the different neighborhoods they're in. For example, the CBD one has lots of classes before work, during lunchtime, and right after work, and it's closed on weekends. The ones closer to us have more classes later in the morning and less in the middle of the day, are open on weekends, and to cater to a lot of work/stay at home types. 

Almost all the classes at the CBD gym are a half hour, so they're easy to fit in to a busy schedule. It's very easy for Michael to hop over on his lunch break and do a class. People that have more time generally just take classes in a row. The classes are anything from boxing, to kettlebells, to targeting core strength, to resistance training, etc. The locations closer to us have more yoga and cardio classes. Since I generally hate working out just to workout, it's good the classes are short. The trainers do very quick explanations and demonstrations of whatever the exercises are, and then they time you doing them. It's great because any "dummy" can get a decent workout and get more toned. You don't have to necessarily keep count of your reps, or know the perfect form ahead of time because they tell you, and that kind of thing. Over time you get to know some of the trainers too, which is nice because they are just normal people. Normal people with big muscles and unfailing energy.

My favorite thing about the CBD gym is the aromatherapy room. I think I am the only person that actually spends any time in this room, since it's more of a room to go through to get to the sauna and steamroom areas, where most people prefer to go. It just always smells overpoweringly of eucalyptus oil, which is very relaxing if you have never been inundated with it before. So I just sit there, and it's wonderful.

So yeah, the gym. I don't know if there are any gyms set up like this in the DC area, since I didn't really care when I was there. The ones I did know about you usually had a membership to, but then they charged extra for classes, which is lame since that's almost all I would go for anyway. The climbing gym was great, but obviously different than a normal gym franchise, and I would go just irregularly enough that a membership wasn't worth it for me. If anyone from Fitness First is reading, you should expand out in the US so that you can be there when I eventually move back. 

Throwback Thursday and Friday

I recently rewatched 9 to 5 (the last time I saw it was maybe 10 years ago?). It is stranger than I remember, since I apparently didn't remember the whole last half of the movie at all. Anyway, Dolly Parton was pretty great before she went way overboard on the plastic surgery, and Lily Tomlin is still as awesome as she was back then. She has aged quite gracefully and is still funny. 

I also watched Elsa and Fred with Shirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer, which was cuter in idea than in the actual execution. I like the idea of a love story between older people. There were just some strange parts that weren't entirely believable, like when they would get into arguments and make up really quickly even though the problem wasn't resolved, or how they were just supposedly so enamoured with each other all of a sudden even though they didn't look like they had the chemistry yet. It had a kind of cute ending, though. Spoiler alert: there's a part where they're in Rome, which was a nice reminder of Michael's and my honeymoon. It was nice to see the Trevi Fountain again. Now I just need some gelato.

Vacation Flashback

These pics are from Michael's bungee jump in Queenstown, NZ last month. 

Not the Entertainer

Since it's school holiday time, I did some babysitting this week. Before I was left alone with the boy, the mother was telling me some of the different things I could do with him to "entertain him". I'm sure she didn't mean anything by this comment, but it made me wonder when the switch happened from people looking at babysitters as caregivers to people who entertain their kids for a set amount of time. 

I have been babysitting on and off for the past 15 years of my life, and I have never thought of myself as an entertainer to children. When I was young, I had adults who were around that kept an eye on me when my parents could not, but for the most part it was up to me to entertain myself or be bored. That's probably why I am still good at coming up with ideas for kid activities. 

When I babysit, I do engage with the kids and try to come up with interesting ideas for things we could do. Unfortunately, I think the more good ideas I come up with, the less the children become adept at coming up with their own ideas. I do always try to help them come up with their own ideas and roll with them, but some kids have a harder time than others. I figure I'm getting paid to make sure not only do the kids stay alive and eat reasonably healthy food, I'm there to make sure that they have a well-rounded time and use different parts of their brain, don't remain too sedentary, maybe even have them learn or practice a life skill, and clean up after themselves. All this being said, I'm not there to perform a slapstick comedy routine or magic tricks. I'm not there to distract your kids from the fact that you're not there. I'm not a gameshow host. I'm not there to serve and wait on your children either; your kids are old enough to know how to put away their plate away after they eat and spoiling them isn't going to help them any in life. 

The family I was babysitting for recently was perfectly fine and I had no problem with them, just like most of the families I've babysat for. The "entertain" comment simply highlighted an idea that seems to be becoming more the norm for parents of young kids. 

This is going to sound bad at first, but hear me out. I kind of want to encourage parents and babysitters to ignore the kids some. I don't mean all the time or even most of the time, but for at least a small amount of time every day. Kids of any age should be able to occupy themselves for a short amount of time, and if they can't, they're not going to develop that skill if you keep entertaining them at all hours of the day. You should be able to go in the other room to make a sandwich without having to give them an app to play with or finding them a show to watch. They're not going to learn how to come up with their own ideas and think outside the box if you just hand them pre-packaged and organized activities all the time. 

I could go off on so many more tangents from this, but I won't. Although my attitude may appear otherwise because of my mini rant, it was actually nice to babysit again. One kid is so much easier to take care of than 25.

Slow and Happy

We celebrated Easter by having a dinner picnic on Bondi Beach. I had been cooking dinner and we decided last minute to take it with us, rather than eating and then going out. Chicken adobo is not the ideal picnic food, but we made it work.

What a pleasant surprise it is when you find a gift card that still has money on it! We found a movie gift card we forgot we had, so we went to see Fast and Furious 7. Michael enjoys the movies on a basic level - they're far-fetched, but entertaining all the same. I enjoy them less, finding it incredibly hard to relate to anything about street racing/fancy car culture. So these people spend all their time and money on cars? Why is that fun? I like Jason Stratham, but why does he keep showing up in every different country these people go to? Anyway, one thing I did appreciate was how they dealt with Paul Walker's death during the production of the film. We looked online afterwards and found that he had only shot half of the movie. For some scenes they had to completely create/splice new footage by using old footage of him and some of his brothers. Spoiler alert, there is also a heartwarming moment at the end where they do a short montage and dedicate the movie to him, which is touching even if you don't like car movies.


I'm glad we went the cheap Easter entertainment route rather than paying $40 a piece to go to the Royal Sydney Easter Show again. 

Happy Easter!

Rainy Days

First and foremost, I would like to give a shout out to my readers in Switzerland and the Ukraine. Hello/bonjour/guten tag/buongiorno (sorry I don't know how to say "hi" in Ukranian)! According to the stats I can look up through google, I've had 21 views in Switzerland and 21 in the Ukraine. Who knew? I don't know who you are or why you have stumbled upon my blog, but I am happy that you have. 

Anyway, down here in the Southern Hemisphere we are halfway into a four day weekend. Not only is it Easter weekend, but it is also daylight savings, aka "fall back" time, This means that we will be an hour closer in time to our family back in the US. It might not seem like a significant change from 16 or 15 hours to 14 hours difference, but it does somehow make planning phone calls/video chats a tiny bit easier. 

It has pretty much been raining since Thursday night, when Michael and I went for a late night dinner (for him) and dessert (for me) at Micky's. I have watched Wild and American Sniper. I liked some aspects of Wild - I always like Reese Witherspoon - but it was kind of slow at times. I used to live not too far from the Bridge of the Gods and have traveled over it a few times, so (spoiler alert) it was nice to see it in the movie. As for American Sniper, I was kind of indifferent to it. I guess the point of it other than being a biopic was that snipers and soldiers have to make really tough decisions and it messes up their heads. Yes, that is true, but there are lots of war movies that get the same point across, so I did not particularly find it unique or thought-provoking. 

Yesterday we dusted off our shoes and harnesses and went climbing for the first time in a year. It was fun and I wasn't as out of climbing shape as I thought I would be. Since the last time we were there, the gym had opened an expansion. Included in the expansion was a little section called "The Caves" where you can climb around in tight spaces behind the climbing wall in the pitch black (although you can bring a light with you if you have one). The Caves are not for the faint of heart; they are quite claustrophobia-inducing. They are narrow enough in parts that Michael was worried about getting physically stuck. The first one is mostly a straight tunnel, but two and three involve moving vertically too. Michael hated them and never wants to do them again, but oddly enough I enjoyed them and would go again and try to do them without any light. Usually things would be the other way around. 

After working up our appetite we had lunch at Thai Pothong, where I hadn't been in several months. It was just as good as I remembered it - definitely the best Thai food I've had in Sydney. 

To follow up the best Thai food, today we tried the best pies in the Sydney area at Oatley Village Pie Shop. They have traditional flavors like steak and mushroom, as well as rarer ones like chick pea or chicken with mango and walnut. The crust is perfectly flakey. Their little apple pies are the best store bought ones I've ever had - almost as good as homemade. Almost. 

I've been quite happy for the rainy days since it's an excuse to do more low-key stuff. I do miss hiding the Easter eggs for the little ones in my family, but I suppose there's always next year. 

Mrs.

Just call me Mrs. (that's what everyone else does when they can't remember my name).

A day off is so much more enjoyable when it feels earned. Now that I've had regular work but it's slowed down for school holidays, it's nice to have an extra day off that I didn't plan on. I've really enjoyed being a substitute more than I thought I would so far (as opposed to having the same regular group of kids to work with).

Four big benefits of being a casual: 1) Low expectations. It doesn't take that much to stand out as a good sub, in my opinion. Yesterday I had a janitor tell me I was the best teacher he's ever seen and, "I hope you come back!", specifically because I had a few kids help me stack some chairs that were in the lunch area when they were done eating. He said he's never seen anyone do that. Really, that's all it takes to be the best? Okay, I can do that. 2) Tomorrow doesn't exist (probably). I do what I can to teach the kids on the fly, but if one of the kids in the class doesn't learn to read or add properly in one day, it won't affect how much I get paid in the future. Obviously I want to be asked back and I do want the kids to learn, but there's not so much pressure. 3) Having to deal very little with parents. Many teachers will tell you one of the hardest parts of teaching has nothing to do with kids, it's dealing with the parents - their expectations and special requests, their complaints, their requests for you to bend the rules for only their kid, their uncooperativeness, etc. I might have to talk to the occasional parent about a question or issue, but I can generally refer them to the office or tell them they need to talk to the regular teacher when he/she returns. Some parents are very lovely, so the downside is I don't get the benefit of getting to know those ones. 4) Variety. I'm always with different kids, although I already have a favorite class that I've had three times. Because of this variety, there are no one or two same kids that test my nerves day in and day out. I get kids like that in each different class that have some similarities, but since it's not the same kid every time I have more patience somehow. Subbing can be many things, but monotonous is almost never one of those things.

Although there are some benefits to being a casual, it's definitely a challenge because you can be handed a class of any age last minute with absolutely no lesson plans or even understanding of the normal functions of the school, and have to wing it without the kids knowing. It's hard to try to learn new names all day every day. Not to mention, there are always little surprises throughout the day, like the specialist reading teacher that shows up to take a small group of them away, and you have to act like you were told they were coming all along. 

I have only been in three different schools so far, but they are all vastly different in their layouts and how they operate. One school is tiny and practically sitting on a highway. Another has pet chickens and bunnies for the kids to learn about. Another is for behaviorally challenged children, only has classes of six, has a swimming pool, and the kids arrive and go home in taxis. It's interesting to see how the differences create a unique atmosphere.

I finally feel like I am doing what I came here to do. It is also nice to be finally getting paid a more appropriate wage for my qualifications. 

Happy Easter holiday break, New South Wales!

Cutting Out the Middlemen

After a previous negative experience with Orbitz and our more recent one with Expedia, I am officially declaring that I am never going to use a third party website to book a flight again. They make booking really easy, but then if you ever have an issue where you need to make a change to your booking or need to talk to a customer service representative, it's nearly impossible to get it done correctly and without waiting on hold for literally hours. Never again. Lesson learned. Consider this a commercial for not using their services.

April Fools

Just a "nothing much to report" report. I have been busing subbing in a few different schools and Michael has been doing his work thing too. 

A special birthday shoutout goes to Michael's dad (partially because we are delinquent in sending his card on-time, but also because we do wish him a happy celebration)! I suppose we can celebrate with him during a belated meal because he will be visiting here in a few weeks. The card will probably arrive in Maryland while he's over here.

We aren't sure what we're doing for the upcoming 4-day Easter weekend, but I'm sure we'll think of something.