Beautiful drive

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Taking the Princes Highway with lots of great scenery and cute little towns.

Amy

Lunch in Rosedale

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Stopped for lunch in a small town called rosedale, in a nice little park.

Jesse

Strong cross winds

Our drive to Sydney has begun.

Churchill island

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This ones not real

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The march of the penguins

Well they call it the penguin parade. The little penguins or fairy penguins come back from a day out fishing, come in with the tide (get tossed around by the wake, they're a foot tall and weigh one kilo.) and go home to their borrows.

We got there an hour before they'd started coming up the beach. Waited out in the rain and nasty wind all bundled up and eventually when dusk came a whole bunch of them started to come up. It was really cute. They would come in groups and if one of the penguins got swept away by the waves, te group would wait for the other little penguin. Unfortunately I don't have a good picture of them. They don't allow any photography when the penguins come up so I was only able to take a couple out of focus and low light pictures which don't look good right now, hopefully I can edit them on the computer and post them later.

Jesse

first hostel

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It's a caravan park/ hostel place and they're not very busy so they upgraded us to a cabin which is fantastic. We paid for a shared dorm style and got a cabin with a full kithchen bathroom bedroom tv, etc. Very nice diggs for the first night of our trip. Hope it doesn't spoil us.

Jesse

We're off

Our place has been inspected and the keys handed in, our adventure has now begun! First stop Phillip Island to see the little penguins.

X

All packed up and nowhere to go

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Everything is packed and we're almost off. We leave tomorrow. Nowhere to go yet and not much to do, but our friends were kind enough to invite us over for dinner which is good since we don't have a functioning kitchen anymore. ( it still works, but it's been cleaned and we don't want to mess it up. Next stop Phillip island. I will blog from there so you can see where we are.

Jesse

All packed up and nowhere to go

Follow us wherever we go

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I'm just testing this but if it works, everytine I post a picture it will be "geotagged". That means that you'll e able to know exactly where it was taken. It will come with geodata that will give our GPS coordinates. You cab then put this in to google earth and zoom to where we are. Hope this works and have fun following us.

Jesse

Onward!!!

Well we are almost done here in the small city of Geelong. Two more nights at our apartment and it’s off to make friends with the penguins. That will be our first stop. Phillip Island.

Had a garage sale and set up a stand at a market to try to get rid of all of our stuff before we take “the Hulk”(That’s our big loud angry car) up the coast. We got rid of a lot of stuff and we’re going to have to give away the rest, but we got some money for it so it was alright.

For those of you who have enjoyed the new format of this blog, it is alas at an end, temporarily. Since internet connections may be few and far between on our trip (I really have no idea) and I can’t blog to this page from anywhere else but my computer, we will be reverting back to solely the original blog at www.ehmeetsgdaymate.blogspot.com. When we get back to Canada, I will probably update this blog with a heap of pictures, but until them, follow us on the other blog. (We can blog from our phones to that one).

Well That’s it for now. We’ll try to update frequently as we travel up the coast. Oh and for those of you who smash at the volume controls when you open this page because you’ve heard that song too much, you also get a break from reverting to the old blog.

Jesse

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I'm a TEACHER

                    (my fellow Grad. Dip. Ed. (Primary) Graduates) 

So I've done it...I've finished my Grad. Dip Ed. course which means I'm a qualified TEACHER!! 

Alright so I suppose I should fill you in on what I've been up to in the past few weeks: 

Well first of all was Jenni's wedding, which was AMAZING. Jenni looked gorgeous and it was great seeing everyone.  The flight back was actually fairly decent as well, I had a couple seats all to myself, so it was pretty easy to sleep.  I have never had an easier time getting through the airport, although we were all screened for swine flu which was a little crazy but everything worked out. Jesse ever surprised me and picked me up at the airport it was a great surprise! 

That brings up to my teaching placement...well the Friday after I got back I went right back into the thick of it.  During my final placement I was able to teach in a 3/4 classroom but also the art room.  The art room gave me the opportunity to teach grades Prep-6 (Prep here in Australia is what we'd consider kindergarten), also to explore my own artistic abilities.  My 3/4 students were great, they were such a lovely grade.  It was a little crazy at times being in two classrooms, and a little frustrating as well but I did really get a lot out of it.  My supervising teachers were wonderful as well, always making sure I was doing alright and supporting me in my teaching. For the last 2 weeks of my placement I was in the classroom a lot more which allowed me to connect with the students; it was a little difficult to leave them in the end, but we did have a little party my last day which was great. It all still seems a little unreal at the moment, I can't believe I am now a teacher.  

As a requirement for our course as well as part of applying for jobs we had to make professional portfolios with evidence of our teaching practicums.  This portfolio had to sum-up everything we had learned in our course, and was massive.  So my weekend after all classes had finished was spent preparing my portfolio.  Our living room was a huge mess, it looked a little like an art cupboard had exploded.  However I did get it finished and I think it looks great, and seeing as I put so much work into it I've decided that if there was ever a fire in our place it would be the first thing I grab.  I can't imagine ever doing it all over again.  To sum-up the end of the course we were taking we had mock interviews which were a little stressful but in the end it was pretty easy.  So all courses have been completed and assignments handed in, which brings us to my 'graduation' ceremony.  

As a part of our course we had a mock 'graduation' ceremony, so the international students could participate.  It was just a simple ceremony with a few refreshments afterwards.  The most important part was the celebration that occurred later in the afternoon.  Since we'd all been so close during our course we all decided to get together and celebrate our achievements.  Drinks were had, some karaoke was sung and a hangovers occurred the next day, but it was all worth it! I have made some amazing friends during my time in this course, and I really don't know what I would have done without them.  Jesse has also been amazing during this course, helping wherever he could.  He was really my rock during this course, keeping me calm when I wasn't sure I could finish the course.  I sure do owe him for all of his help and support, I know that I have been a little...well lets say bitchy at times, what can I say the stress got to me a lot.  He is amazing. 

Now we've got a long weekend to relax, and then it's job hunting time for the both of us.  

Well I think that brings you up to speed on everything I've been doing.  

X