Tuesday, April 5, 2011

New Home!


 SUNDAY, OCTOBER 31: Today was moving day! We are now living with a host FAMILY! They live in a really nice area and they have a large house, across the street from the park…there is a beautiful view overlooking the pond! The house also has a security alarm system so we don’t have bars over all of the windows, which is REALLY nice! And the house has a small pool, bar/game room, and a home theatre. We are also a few minutes walk from the beach and closer to our schools…so I should be able to bike to school no problem! We each get our own room and we get to share a bathroom in the house between just the two of us. The couple is from the UK so we are getting used to some new accents : ) They have 3 daughters…2 still live at home and are our same age! Most importantly we feel VERY welcomed here and are soo much happier! The youngest girl, Ashley, invited Amanda and I to come along to the beach with a few of her friends right after we moved our bags in so we quickly changed and went to hang out on the beach! It was a beautiful day for it too! We then came back and had a sausage sizzle in the early afternoon with the girls! Then Amanda and I worked on lesson plans until dinner. Lynne (the mom, Dave is the dad, their last name is Fisher) makes a traditional English roast on Sunday evenings and we got to try Yorkshire Pudding-a traditional English food. Tonight was Halloween so we got to see some trick-or-treaters and their cute or scary little costumes when we handed out candy! I love this neighborhood because people are actually out and about! The family also has two small dogs…named Rosie and Snoop (as in Snoop-Dog J)-apparently they got the dog when the girls were going through a rapper stage J.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1: I woke up this morning and walked into the kitchen and Dave asked if I wanted some brekee (breakfast in UK lingo J). I also noticed that a lot of people here say “far out” to mean like “crazy” or “odd.” The bush flies are getting much worse and will only get worse, but I am getting used to flailing my arms about J I biked to school today and it only took 15 minutes, so I am thinking this will be my regular routine. After school we went on a run and could see the ocean after a 1 minute walk and the shops are only a 6-7 minute run down the main road! Dinner was delicious and really fun…I laughed so hard! Dave loves electronics so he pulled out his ipad and we google-earthed where Amanda and I live and the area to give them an idea of where we come from and then he showed us this app he has called laughing cat-you would have to have been there to know how funny it is, but basically it repeats everything you say and it sounds hilarious! This family is so nice and it really does show that the people in a house can make a house a home!
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2: Cannot believe it is already November! Things at school are starting to run more smoothly now that this is into my second week of teaching full time and I feel that I am getting into the swing of things and am getting ahead in planning and can chillax a little bit! We went for a run after school and thought we would run to the beach (because we heard it was fairly close). We did not realize HOW close though! It took LITERALLY 2 minutes of running to be on the edge of the ocean water!!! So we ran on the sand along the water and then went for a walk on the beach!
Lynn made jelly for dessert…which is what we call jello J
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3: I got evaluated today…all positive comments! Ashleigh and Amanda went out to the bars tonight, but I didn’t want to go since it was a school night so I hung out with Lynn and Dave at home. They know I like dancing so they showed me the show that they like to watch called Strictly Come Dancing, which is the UK’s version of Dancing With the Stars. They download it every week so they can watch it…now they wait to watch it until I can watch it with them : ) I also went with them to walk the dogs in the park across the street. It was a really pretty evening and you can see the stars really well and the pond is a lot bigger than I thought! The two of them (Lynn and Dave) are just so wonderful! They are hilarious and it is also really obvious that they are still so in love and have a lot of fun together-I love seeing older couples like that!! They met when they were 15 and have been together ever since! Cute huh?!
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4: One of the boys in my class today came over and looked at me real quizzically and said, “Ms. Dallas, do you have boys in America?” J I told him that yes there were boys in America just like there are boys here.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5: Went to Outback Jack’s for dinner and tried some kangaroo and crocodile…I felt really bad eating the kangaroo so it wasn’t a great experience, but I had to try it while I was here!! We also tried a dessert called pavlova because we had never heard of it before, apparently it is really popular here.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6: I went for a run in the park across the street this morning and saw two cockatoos (some really pretty white birds)! Then Amanda, Ashleigh, and I walked to Hillary’s Boat Harbour and ate a delicious lunch at Dôme and did some window shopping. On our walk back home I saw my first blue-tongued lizard!!! He was crawling across the pathway and I started jumping up and down and clapping…I get really excited to see the new animals and I had not seen this one yet J ….although he (or she) would not show me their blue tongue : ( But I did not want to get too close because they pack a painful bite. Then I went with Amanda to Whitfords shopping centre, which is a 4 minute bike ride away, and Amanda found a few dresses and a necklace. We then rushed home for tea (dinner…it’s and English thing…Lynn always says, “Time for tea” or “Tea’s Ready”).


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