Schools and New Flatmate

Well I have officially been here for over two weeks, half a month! It is unbelievable to me how the time has flown by. I now have a home, a job, a working Australian phone number, an Australian bank account and a monthly metrocard. I have definitely started becoming acquainted with the city and how to get around even though I’m not the best at it yet.
Monday I worked at apparently one of the toughest schools in Melbourne and survived. I took Tuesday off to finally get a few errands done and had a nice day in the city with Caitlin followed by a nice dinner and wine at home.
Wednesday I worked at a school that was only a 10 minute walk from my house which was fabulous. I got to stop at my favorite coffee shop, Al Luca, on the way. It was a grade 3/4 class and they were wonderful. I felt so at home with this class and the objectives. I even did a literacy group and loved it!!! I got to teach in that class for two days. It was so nice. Friday I was back at the school I went to on Monday. However this time I was in a second grade class and they were fine. Plus it didn’t hurt that the teacher left the last hour of the day to watching Toy Story 2 lol! So overall the workweek was nice.
Schools are definitely different here. All grades have what they call morning tea, which is just an early snack time that the whole school participates in at the same time. Then they all go out for a short recess, which they call yard time. All grades together and certain teachers have yard duty each time but there are usually only about 2 teachers on yard duty for the whole school. Kids are just running around outside. It seems to work though. I haven’t had to deal with too much on duty other than say nice words or looking after scraps from falling down. After yard they have regular teaching and then lunch is done in a similar way. There are no cafeterias here. All children bring their lunches from what I have seen, though I do think the tough school had it where you could sign up for lunch and one student picks it up and brings it back for those who ordered it but that is even like a little sack lunch for them. You eat in the classroom when the bell rings. They only get about ten minutes to eat then the bell rings again and it is yard time again. This time yard time last for 50 minutes. If you don’t have yard time you get the whole 50 minutes to do whatever. Specials are definitely not every day it seems here but there are specials. No PE though I don’t think. I have only seen art and choir/performing arts so far. Once I had to go to choir with the children. The other time that kids went to art and I had to go relieve a teacher and take over her class while she played on her computer in her office right beside the classroom. I thought that was weird. Plus I didn’t like her class they were kinda chaotic and she never came out to get them to get it together. So I wasn’t a fan of this system but at least it was only for 30 minutes. Dismissal is great. The bell rings the kids leave or you wait for about 5 minutes for a few to get picked up from parents. I haven’t really seen buses except at the specialized school. I think mainly it is neighborhood schools here especially for the little ones, so walking is an option.

My new roommate came on Wednesday. His name is Dean and he is really fun.
We all went out for dinner. There was a restaurant with outside seating. The seating was like comfy couch chairs and a nice heat lamp. We had steak and a bottle of wine. It was really nice. We just chatted and got to know Dean, the Italian a little more. It was funny because while walking to the restaurant Caitlin said so you are….and Dean cut her off and said “yes, I am Italian.” She was like that wasn’t what I was going to ask and he got so embarrassed. Since then every day we bust out with ragging on him by saying, “yes, I am Italian.” Hee hee We are having fun all living together and we all get along so well.
Thursday, I the breadwinner of the day because neither one of them work that day came home from a long day at work and cooked for everyone. It was cool though. I made my bowtie festival pasta meal and they loved it. Friday we ate in the city and went to a bar there but we all so tired we were home by 11:30. Dean cooked a delicious meal for us Saturday night and we celebrated a little at home before going out. Then we went to the city again and danced all night long! Tomorrow our last edition to the clan comes and we will begin even more adventures with the four of us.