Holidays At Last!

Hey everyone!!

We're officially on holidays! That three week break we've been dreaming of for the last while has finally arrived, but that's not to say we haven't enjoyed the ride.

We went to another Sydney Swans AFL game on the 20th against Collingwood, which is a suburb just north of Melbourne. Until there were about 10 minutes left, the game was really close and exciting. Sydney had a one point lead going into the 4th quarter, but Collingwood came on strong and ended up winning by about 24 points; not so close after all! Still, Luke, Tamara, Leah and I enjoyed a night out focusing on something other than school even for just one night. To continue a relaxing weekend, we headed to the movies to see The Hangover at the Geroge St. cinemas. It was hilarious!! Definitely recommended to all of our friends back home who have not yet seen it.

Leah wrote her last of 4 exams on the 23rd, all of which she feels confident went well and will no doubt provide a passing grade in each course. She was a little too exhausted to really let loose and celebrate Tuesday night, but the girls met for drinks later in the week to let the feeling of a semester completed sink in.

I had my last day of placement at Gymea Bay on Friday the 26th. While it does feel great to be on a break, I am going to miss those kids and that school! The kids gave me a few cards to remember them by, pieces of chocolate, all of which was capped off by a surprise party just after recess on my last day. The kids brought in chips and chocolate, and wrote all kinds of messages on the board for me to read. It was really speecial, and it felt great knowing that in 6 weeks with them, I was able to make that sort of an impact on them.

Yesterday (the 28th) Leah and I went to Tamara and Luke's for a bbq!! Something we haven't had the luxury of doing on our own since we don't have access to a balcony. Sausages and kebabs never tasted so good! Mixed in with some drinks and a chocolate cake, I would say we celebrated in style.

For the rest of the break, we have plans to tour around a bit, buy a few things for our apartment or things we may need for school or work in the near future, but mostly just realxing and waiting for Brent and Wanda to arrive and head up north to check out the Great Barrier Reef and plenty of other fantastic sights while we bask in the 28 degree heat and sunshine!

Trusting that everything is going well at home with you all,

Take care,

Jeff and Leah!

The Countdown Begins!

Hi Everybody,

Here we are in the middle of June and the countdown to the end of school work is officially on! I got through all of the assignments for uni just fine; haven't got any marks back yet, but I'm confident I'll be successful. I've already had my first week of placement back at Gymea Bay Public School with my 4/5 students. The first week back was pretty easy going; Tuesday the room was getting new carpet so I had a day off from teaching, then Wednesday I volunteered to manage a team at an Aussie Rules Football event for some of the students at the school, so again, another day off from teaching! Thursday and Friday though, I taught multiple lessons both days and enjoyed it and am getting ready for a week that should be full of teaching.

Leah had a study week last week, so she spent her days with her friends studying and getting ready for her exams which start this week. She's also got an assignment due, but is putting the finishing touches on it as I write.

Last night, we took a break from it all and headed down to Wollongong dressed to the 9's for the Uni Rugby Ball. Everyone had their black and white on and sat down for a very tasty dinner and dessert, and of course the best part... all you can drink! lol. When the forks were put down, the dancing started and everybody appeared to be having great time... our first of hopefully many parties to come down in the 'Gong.

The weather here is making us miss the Canadian summer. The so called "winter" down here has been a chilly 10-14 degrees most days. The temperature isn't bad, but the wind chill makes it seem colder than it actually is. The good news is, this weather is only around for a few more weeks, and then come August it will start to warm up again... so our little space heater will do the job for now.

We trust everybody back home is enjoying the heat! We miss you all and think about you all every day!

Thinking especially of Lindsay and Ben who tied the knot yesterday! Congratulations you guys! Wish we could've been there to celebrate!

Take care and keeping checking in to our blog for more updates!

Cheers!

Trying to Stay Current...

Already it has been several weeks since our last post and I don't know where the time has gone. We are going to try to keep the updates much more frequent, so here is our first attempt! 

As per usual, Jeff and I are keeping extremely busy with our school work, and trying to take a little bit of time here and there to enjoy the city. Last weekend, we went to our first Aussie Rules Footy match! It was a great time. The game was between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles, and was held at ANZ Stadium at Olympic Park (the same stadium that held the opening ceremonies of the 2000 Olympics). Most of the seating in the stadium is covered, but the field isn't so we got to enjoy the night air - thankfully it wasn't too cold that night! It was quite an exciting game. The rules are quite different to what we all know as football, so as you might expect it took me the better part of the game to ask Jeff all my questions, get all the rules down pat and figure out exactly what was going on! But we are going to two more matches during the season so now I'm all set! Sydney was winning for the majority of the game. A late rally posted by West Coast saw them take the lead with minutes to go, but a last minute goal by Sydney sealed the win! And let me tell you, the crowd went wild! The stadium was not even close to full (only 33,000 fans present) but the volume was incredible! The Aussies sure do love their footy! 

This week was light on classes for me as many of my lecturers were at the Speech Pathology Australia conference, which allowed us to use the extra time to work on several of the big assignments that are due in the next couple of weeks. Hard to believe there are only 2 more weeks of classes left and then I have exams and Jeff has his second placement and then we're done semester 1! This weekend has been quiet. It has been rainy the last couple of days so its been nice to just stay in comfy clothes and putter around cleaning and getting some school work out of the way. 

It has been just like Christmas for Jeff around here since yesterday. In Australia there are several channels that are free to air, but the newest one, a channel dedicated to sports 24/7, is only broadcast digitally, not on analog. Eventually all analog signals will be eliminated, so yesterday we got a 'set top box' which will allow us to see this new magical sports channel! Jeff isn't sure he will be able to watch any hockey games, but he will be able to catch several Blue Jays games and NFL games (once the season starts), which he is quite excited about! 

Nothing big planned for this week other than school work and a little bit of planning for Mom and Dad's visit in July! Can't wait! 

Update Time

G'day!

It’s been a while since we last sent an update so we figured it was about time! Just an indication of how busy we’ve been! We’re already in week 10 of the semester (which is actually week 16 for Jeff since he started in January) and we wish we could say that things are starting to wind down but unfortunately that’s not the case! The end is in sight, but there is still a lot of work to be done before we get there. School has kept us incredibly busy with multiple assignments/exams each week, but it hasn’t kept us from getting out once in a while.

Since our last email, Jeff had his first professional experience placement in a grade 4/5 split class at Gymea Bay Public School. It was a three week placement, but only the first day was spent observing, and on the second day he taught his first lesson! By the middle of the second week he was teaching full days. Although it was a lot of planning work, he really enjoyed the experience and looks forward to going back to the same class in a few weeks for his next placement.

On Easter weekend, we visited the Sydney Royal Easter Show, held at Olympic Park. It reminded us a lot of the CNE, as there were lots of carnival type activities as well as agricultural shows and displays. We took in some of the shows including a story of rural Australia which included live animals (cows, wild horses, sheep, sheep dogs, etc), and a motocross stunt display capped off with some fireworks! On the Monday of the Easter weekend, we got up at 4am to skype with family and then headed off to catch our flight to Melbourne! We spent 4 days touring around, shopping and seeing the sights. It was a fantastic getaway, and the perfect mix of tourism and relaxing! One of the days we were there we went to Philip Island to see the Little Penguins. Each day at sunset they swim in to the shore and waddle their way across the beach and up the hill to their little sand dune homes for the night! The Little Penguins are only about 40cm tall and weigh only 1kg, but they sure do move quickly!

As far as the last few weeks, there hasn’t been a whole lot going on other than school work. We have both had big workloads, but thankfully we have this week free from assignments and exams so we are enjoying our first weekend homework-free in a long time! Only 3 more weeks left in this semester and then its only one more placement for Jeff and then he is half way there, and a couple of exams for Leah and then we’ll have some time off and a visit from Brent and Wanda!  Can’t wait!

We’ve posted some new pictures on Leah’s Facebook profile so if you get a chance have a look! 

Hoping all is well at home!

Welcome!

Hey Everyone! 

Welcome to our blog! Hopefully this will allow us to keep in touch more frequently so keep checking in for updates and pictures! 

Jeff & Leah