Must keep eyes open

Rachel:

So tired...can't write blog....1st day of placement = exhaustion....must sleep now............zzzzzzzzz

Aussie word of the day: "Nana nap" - means a nap in the middle of the day, something I didn't have the luxury of doing today

Misc. Post

Rachel:

I just got a job at Ikea near our house on Friday which I am really excited about.  I work in the ballroom where parents drop their kids off to go shopping.  I get a 15% discount too! I think I work for Ikea for free if I could get a disount. I have an unhealthy love for a furniture store I think.  The hours are great too because I work Thursday nights, Friday mornings and then every other Saturday and Sunday.  AND working in Australia on the weekends = amazing because on Saturdays they pay you time and a half and on Sunday you get double time! HA!

The only problem with the Ikea job was that the training was during our trip to the Sunshine Coast so I had to cancel the trip, but then I booked a new one to Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast earlier.  So we'll be there from April 9-12 and then I start work on the 14.

We also finally got our washing machine working! Happy happy joy joy! It took an hour to lug it home over two blocks, an hour to fit it in the bathroom, two hours to clean the bathroom after lifting it in, two days to unscrew the previous tenents valves that were rusted on the taps and another hour to super glue a crack in our new valves.  Basically it was a nightmare.  And we had stocked up our dirty clothes so I've been doing laundry for the past two days.

I've also figured out that I can post a link to my facebook pictures so people without facebook accounts can access them so here they are:

Melbourne and our house

Phillip Island

San Diego & LA

How can you eat for $100 a week?

Rachel:

Answer: Home Brand.  These two words have saved Kurtis and I at least $200 dollars so far on groceries.  Home Brand makes shopping so easy. You just go to what you want, look for the Home Brand label and know that that is the cheapest option.  Home Brand makes everything: eggs, milk, cookies, tin foil, bleach, bread, cleaners etc.  Our kitchen cabinets are red and white because of all the Home Brand products we have.  

It took Kurtis a little while to warm up to Home Brand, but I think he is a convert as well. The Home Brand pancake mix is the best.  He made me delicious pancakes the other morning with Home Brand mix, Home Brand eggs and Home Brand milk.  Basically Home Brand is the basic of everything, but when your poor, basic is all you need. 

Postscript: Kurtis is certain he has lost weight.  He believes I am starving him.  Look at this space for pictures of our full cabinets and fridge for evidence to the contrary.

Aussie word of the day: "Bathers" or "Cossie" - bathing suit

Internet Revolution Day!

Rachel:

Well it finally happened.... we got INTERNET! Out of the dark ages and into the information age. Funny story about it but I'll let Kurtis tell you. Tomorrow we get a washing machine and our apartment will be complete!

We reconnected with our possum friend Trudeau on Friday. He is too adorable. This isn't a picture of him but he looks like this but cuter. 

I'm currently compiling a comprehensive guide to Australian culture, which I will be posting in segments so stay tuned! 

Lauren and I are going to Chadstone on Thursday. Chadstone is the largest shopping mall in the Southern Hemisphere so it goes without saying that I am very excited!

Aussie word of the day: "avro" Afternoon, again with the shortening!

Apocalypse Now!

Rachel:

In Australia news, there was another earthquake today.  I didn’t write about the last one because it was a small one.  During the last one, I was getting ready to go out and my window starting shaking and I didn’t realize what it was until I saw it on the news the next morning.  This time it was bigger.  I was visiting my mom’s friend and I was sitting in their living room when the whole room started shaking and the walls and ceiling were making creaky sounds.          

            So lets do the figures.  Since we have gotten here we have experienced:

-         the hottest day in Melbourne history (47C)

-         the worst bushfires in Australian history and in the past 200 years anywhere else

-         two earthquakes

We’ve only been here for a month and a half… Before we came, I was reading a blog that called Australia the “Island of Terror.” I would have to agree.  In the month since we have gotten our TV we have watched about 7 news stories about shark attacks (mostly in the Sydney area), another story about a little girl being eaten by a crocodile and during the Queensland floods a boy was eaten by a crocodile that had swam in with the rising waters. Scary.

In school news, I got my first lesson plan back and my teacher liked it. Now I just have to pull myself together to teach in two weeks.  I feel totally unprepared. I’m sure there will be more about that at a later time.

Also I am addicted to “Kath & Kim.”  The show is hilarious. I need to watch every episode before I get home because I don’t know if I can get it at home. I highly recommend you watch them, but the Australian one, not the American version.

 

Aussie word of the day: “Doona” – comforter or quilt

Only 16,263 kms Away

Rachel:

I got quite a shock today when I checked our bank balance! We had about $2000 less than I thought we did.  I did our budget as soon as we got home and it looks like everything is in order, it’s just a shock to have spent so much money setting up a house, rent, utilities, school tuition and then we paid out $2000 for our trip to Uluru (which I am super excited for).

   I was really home sick yesterday.  Its entertaining/distracting for a little while to move to a new country, learn how weird/fun/hot it is, go to Ikea for new furniture and eat Tim Tams. Then reality sets in, school starts, cleaning, grocery shopping etc etc etc and you kind of realize that you are thousands of miles away from home and you aren’t going to see any of your friends or family for like 5 months and Tim Tams cost a lot more when you are trying to fit it in your $100/week shopping budget.  REALITY CHECK!

   We have yet to eat the kangaroo that is in our freezer.  I really think Kurtis is creeped out to the max about it, and since he is the chef, I am going to bet that it stays in the freezer for a lot longer.

   I haven’t seen the possum that comes to our courtyard for a while so I’ve shut off the lights in the apartment to see him better outside tonight.  Alexis and I have decided (via an expensive phone call) that his name is Trudeau.

    Kurtis is out at a concert with his friend Geir so I’m at home watching a whole season of Kath and Kim (which is hilarious by the by) that I rented from a Blockbuster for $3. It’s funny the odd combination of familiar (Blockbuster) and foreign (Kath and Kim) things that I come across everyday.  

                                                     

     Speaking of familiar, I found a Peek-A-Pooh machine downtown yesterday and it was selling the “winter collection” which is hilarious because it’s a bunch of stuff that Aussies have no clue about: ice, igloos, parkas etc. 

    We’re getting internet on the 23^rd. FINALLY! I have never realized how much I rely on it for everything: weather, directions, shopping, socializing, finding work, doing school work, everything! Okay time for another episode of Kath and Kim!

 

Aussie word of the day: Right-O! (Said by Malcolm the bushman nine million times an episode of “Going Bush”)

Bad Teachers

Rachel:

I had a horrible day today. I had two tutorials and one class. I have a really bad teacher who is a total chauvinist (not naming names so I don't get kicked out of the school/sued for defamation). My tutorials are full of people who love to hear themselves talk. And we have to do tons of group work (aka my personal hell). I’m just exhausted from today. I can’t even think about getting a job right now. I have to buy a lot of books for school too, and I can’t find them second hand so it’s been frustrating. I’m sure I’ll have to spend $250-300 on books this term alone, which is frustrating when you try to save little bits here and there, just to lose it on textbooks. AND there is yard duty at high school, which is retarded! I can’t believe it. I just really don’t want to talk about school anymore.

We got a text message from the Victorian Police yesterday, warning us about the severe weather of today (crazy windy, extra extra windy, really hot 32C and weird rain on and off all day). Apparently it only rained 2mm, which is bizarre because I feel like it rained more than that.

I called Barbara, my mom’s friend, today and I’ll go see her next week because I am two overwhelmed to do anything extra. George, my friend from Contiki, called so I’m hoping that we can meet up soon.

Here’s hoping the rest of my school will be better. I just want to teach and not have to sit through this garbage to learn how to do something I already feel like I know how to do. I was thinking today that they probably just have to do this (an education program) to make people believe that competent people are teaching their children. I did learn some things but honestly, you have to go through a lot of garbage first.

Aussie word of the day: Hooner (Speeder)

School Starts...

Rachel:

Today I had my first day of school, which was uneventful.  I have one good teacher and one bad teacher. I was the only person in both classes that had a computer in class, which was bizarre.  I started to think that maybe you aren’t allowed to have laptops in class?!?! Still don’t know why that is.  I told Lauren about that and she seemed surprised that lots of kids have laptops at uni in Toronto. 

I went to the doctor, two STA travel stores and I scoped out Borders, which maybe my new workplace.  The only thing that sucks is that its open until 11pm everyday, which I don’t understand because everything closes here around 5pm, except on Thursdays and Fridays. 

I’ve been planning our Easter Break trip and its hard to find cheap flights anywhere because its pretty late to book and because everyone has that time off.  Kurtis and I have decided that we are going to Queensland this break, Uluru in the summer (or their winter break), Fiji in our semester two break and a big east coast trip at the end of school.  I might also do the South Korea placement.  I think I will go to info sessions to find out about it.

Hmm what did I learn about Aussie culture today? Oh, that you can do just about anything you need at the Post Office: pay bills, pay rent, get your working with children check, mail stuff (whodothunkit), recharge your phone, pay tuition and probably three hundred other things I have yet to discover.

I got a little homesick last night because it was Sunday night and I was bored and I was thinking what I would do if I was home.  I’m really not that homesick, I just had a moment.  I’m actually really happy we’ve come, and I’ve been more upbeat and positive since we got here.  I was really funny when we first landed because Kurtis was being all anxious and naggy about getting an apartment, and I was all, “Chill out man, lets go to the beach.”  Alexis pointed out that we switched brains when we switched hemispheres.  We are still waiting on internet, which is ridiculously expensive. We were supposed to have it today (that’s what they said last Sunday), so I can’t imagine any internet any time soon.

 

Aussie word of the day: “‘ta!” (short form for thank you. Aussie’s have a short for just about every word in the English language)