October 4-12

Thursday, October 4:

I am so behind on my blogs, so I’m going to keep some of these short and sweet. J I woke up early to skype my parents today, and then I had class until 4:00, which is never fun! My friend Alyssa and I went shopping afterwards and then came home for dinner. A couple girls from CAPA joined me and Morgan for a night out for dessert and coffee at one of our favorite places, Bar Rialto.

Friday, October 5:

This morning, Morgan and I woke up SO early to catch a bus and ferry out to Manly Beach. Our friends Alyssa and Amanda were doing their surf lessons this morning, so we went and took pictures for them! We got to spend the whole day on the beach and the water was FREEZING. It was so fun to watch them surf and it got me so excited for my surfing lessons! We stayed late and kept missing the ferry to come back. When we finally got home we had dinner and had some CAPA people over, along with some Australians we have met.

Saturday, October 6:

We slept in so late today but finally got up for whale watching! Such a cool experience! We met Captain Cook and he took us onto the boat. We went out into the Sydney Harbor and we saw a baby whale within 20 minutes of being out there! He did tricks and flips for so long and he was so close to us! I got a little sea sick near the end, because the waves were so choppy that day. Jessi and I ended up having to go sit downstairs for a while with water and bags.. ew. When we got back home and got over our sea sickness, we had a movie night, as usual.

Sunday, October 7:

Today we slept in and went to the café to work on homework. Then we went to Hillsong for church and it was International Night so they had us sing one song in Spanish and they gave us salsa lessons! It was a really fun night to be there. I feel so blessed to be able to go to Hillsong Church while we are here! Sometimes I get really overwhelmed, it’s crazy!

Monday, October 8:

 Today we got to work and there were barely any students there! I later found out that there was a planned teachers aide strike, so none of the aides were going to be there. The teachers sent a note home asking that if parents could keep their child home that day, it would be helpful, since there would not be as much help to take care of the kids. So we only had about 10 kids in the whole school, normally there are 60! So the teachers put all the students in just two different classrooms, and they had half work days. Morgan and I stayed all day and got to work together, which we never get to do! It was such a fun and relaxing day to work, and a perfect first day for after two weeks off! After work, we took the bus to CAPA to get our grocery cards, then did some grocery shopping, had dinner, and watched New Girl which is my new absolute favorite show! I am completely obsessed with it!

Tuesday, October 9:

Today, I worked in a Secondary class that I have not really worked in a lot. There are five students and they are all so different. There is one student that is constantly coming over to me and has to touch me arm or clap my hands or something. Another student makes really loud noises that sound like a bird whenever he is uncomfortable. It is always a crazy day in this classroom, but I thoroughly enjoy it. I cannot explain how much I am learning through this internship. I have never felt this way about a job before. I look so forward to going every day, and every day I see so much progress in the kids. It is unreal! After work, we had a CAPA dinner at a Thai Place that was like thirty minutes away. I’ve never loved Thai food, but it was paid for, so we obviously went! They gave us a ton of food, but it made us all feel kind of bad, maybe because none of us ever really eat Thai food. After we ate, we came home to work on homework. See, I really am taking classes!

Wednesday, October 10:

I woke up and both me and Morgan did not feel well at all, I think it was because of the Thai food, so we called into work and said we would not be able to make it. Both of us decided we would just work on Friday instead. So all day long, we watched New Girl episodes, napped, ate, and worked on homework. It was wonderful! Jessi came home and we headed to take our Learning Through Internships mid-term and the bus got stuck in traffic. We walked into the exam 30 minutes late. Thankfully, our teacher is nice and he let us stay late to finish. After class, we came home for dinner, movies, and finishing up homework.

Thursday, October 11:

Today, Morgan and I missed our bus so we had to wait a while for the next one. We ended up being 30 minutes late for work. When I got there, I went straight to the playground, and 3 or 4 of the students shouted my name and were so excited to see me. That really made my day, because they don’t always show a lot of affection. I worked in Linda’s class today, which is a primary class with six students. While they transition from morning tea time to circle time, Linda plays the same song every time, “The ants go marching one by one, hoorah, hoorah”. Well today, I heard one of the students sing along for the first time. I have never heard her even say a word before, besides screaming, so I was shocked! And later, she was singing it by herself, and she really has a beautiful voice. It is crazy to be able to see so much progress even in just a few weeks. It was raining outside, so later in the day the students had to have indoor recess. One of the little girls sat in my lap the whole time and played patty cake with our hands. It was so sweet. It’s times like those that I realize how much I really love my job here and how much I am going to hate leaving these precious children. Another boy that has never had much contact with me held my hand throughout one of the whole class periods. I absolutely adore these kids! I had to leave early because of a field trip for one of my classes, so I took the bus and train to meet up with my class and we headed about an hour away to a Turkish mosque. It was interesting to have a tour of it and learn a little bit more about the Muslim religion, but I did already know a lot of it. It was a beautiful mosque though!

Friday, October 12:

Today, I worked in Linda’s class, but she wasn’t there. We had a Casual (which is what substitutes are called) and she did not know a lot about the kids, so I’m glad I was there to assist! It was a great day, despite a few minor breakdowns from the kids. I always have the best time in Linda’s class, which is a primary classroom. The only downfall of the day was that one of the students that can be very violent ran out of the playground, so when I caught him, he grabbed my arm and pinched me so hard I had a huge bruise. He is easy to handle now because he is still small, but when he gets bigger, it is going to be much harder to keep him under control. After school, I came back and we had some people over from movies and games. Then, we packed for our SPRING BREAK TRIP!! We finally went to bed around 1:30 or 2, and we had to get up at 4:00 the next morning for our flight!