wow i can't believe it has already been over a month! 2 weeks and we'll be off to berlin and then to turkey in april!
this first month has gone incredibly quickly, but we seem to have all hit the wall now. time to settle down to routine; go to bed at a proper hour, eat more healthily and hope for the best.
all our flights and accomodation for both germany and turkey are now booked.
for berlin, we depart on the 19th of february ( i think) and come back on the 26th. we're hoping to do a lot of museums, history tours, galleries and of course exploring the nightlife.
when we go to turkey, we leave on april 17th ( i think) and come home on april 27th. the 10 days will be spent on a topdeck tour through istanbul, "old" istanbul, a ton of other places whose names mean very little/nothing to me, and ultimately reaching gallipoli in time for the dawn service on ANZAC day. i'm really excited for the history and culture of turkey - as well as meeting some other aussies and kiwis in europe.
last wednesday was australia day, after a pretty normal day at school (except for when i explained australia day, complete with flag demonstrations, to the "kindergarten" kids who are about 6 years old), we went down to dinner and saw the whole dining room was decked out in australian flags and a "typical" aussie meal of barbecued chicken and corn on the cob with lamingtons for dessert was served. the australian gaps even got to say grace, which is an honour of the highest order. after dinner we went out to shepherd's bush, giving the walkabout australian themed bar a wide girth after we saw the length of the queue. instead we ended up at o'neills irish pub, a little further down the block and stayed there for a couple of hours before deciding to brave the australian bar. the queue had subsided by this time so we got in with minimum hassle.
after not too long though rose wanted to go home. as she had braved accompanying us even though she wasn't in the mood for partying; i decided to go home with her. we caught the last train and got a cab up the hill before tumbling in to bed all before 1am.
i felt fine all day thursday and friday, but friday evening i started feeling a bit unwell and i was in bed sick by 7pm. all weekend was spent in front of the tv watching movies; and skyping with my family in australia feeling quite homesick. it really took me until today to be eating properly, and i still didn't have dinner tonight. hmmm...i suppose as mum keeps telling me (and has now said a good...what, 5 times in the past week?), i need to go to bed earlier and start looking after myself or i 1) will continue getting sick and 2) will continue feeling homesick.
georgie and i have had a couple of good cries over the past couple of days; but in at least my case, i'm enjoying my job so much that i really feel ok during the day. getting up in the morning and last thing before going to bed in the evening is difficult but being 18, almost anything could make me upset so i'm not too worried.
this weekend i'm meeting my cousins grace and louise on saturday and spending saturday night in london, then meeting my aunt deirdre on sunday! i'm really looking forward to it.
because i love writing really long posts (and copying georgie), i thought i would run you through a typical day in the life:
7.15am georgie's alarm goes off
7.35am get up, get dressed, make breakfast in time for...
8.55am LOCKIE LEONARD BREAKFAST TV TIME OH YEAH
8.15am do a frantic shoe-finding-makeup-applying-teeth-brushing session before running to work (down 1 flight of stairs hehehe...)
8.15-10.20am help out usually doing readers for one of the 3 classes i'm assigned to, mounting artwork, circulating through the class as they do activities or worksheets. this also includes walking any class who has a scheduled class in main school down to the main building.
10.20-10.40am my breaktime. this means grab a cup of tea, some fruit or a biscuit and sit in the staffroom listening to them all gossip and bitch about other teachers, students and students parents(ohhh yeah there's a lot of that going on), past students, ex-staff and particularly complaining about main school.
10.40-11am i have playground duty, so standing around in the cold, telling children to keep off the mud/swings/seats/out of the school and being hugged by 6 year olds. its a tough job...
11am-12pm again i'm in classroom support mode, doing whatever photocopying/laminating/cropping/printing/mounting/colouring needs doing and being as useful as possible.
12-12.45pm i have lunch. as previously mentioned the food at Godstowe is good, hot school lunches served every day with delicious desserts. sadly, or luckily depending on how you look at it; pudding is served separately at Lodge, which would require an extra trip to the kitchen that i'm just not capable of so i'm not eating pudding every day now. only when it's really good, i hear its apple pie and custard tomorrow - well worth the walk.
12.45-1.30pm i help bring the nursery children back over to nursery where they have a 10 minute lie down which often becomes a 40 minute "we're not getting up until everybody is lying still like big boys and girls" and praying the kids will drift off to sleep. the kids vary from almost 5 years old to some who have just turned 3 over christmas and its heartbreaking when some of them are at school from 7.30 for breakfast club, to 5.25 when aftercare finishes.
1.30-1.45 i do the postal run down to main school, with any internal mail that needs collecting and i often do a sweep of the gaps post pigeon holes too to see what post we have today.
1.45-3.30 is the same as the morning, helping out wherever i can and walking the children to their various clubs and activities. if its tuesday or friday i get to go home at this point but if it is monday, wednesday or thursday
3.30-5.25 is aftercare time. its so different to aftercare in australia, the children have to sit quietly with their legs crossed, wait to be offered a drink or a sandwich and they have to all have finished before anyone is allowed to play. any kids not collected by 5.25pm (and it does happen) have to be taken to reception and left there to be picked up.
5.30 FREEDOM! back up to the flat for a n evening of internet surfing, movie watching, potentially cleaning and deciding whether to go to dinner or not as it IS all the way over in main school and by 5.30 we're almost too tired to function. if i finish early its off down to high wycombe to pick up anything that we need or want, or a sneaky nap before dinner.
anyway consider yourselves up to date. i've just spoken to my family - rebecca is off to her first day of high school looking so grown up i can hardly believe it. i'm following my mother's advice and going to read before falling asleep - and it's only 9.15 mum!
