New Teacher Orientation

I was invited to the city of Armidale, which is where the Catholic School's Office is located.  They had a day for new teachers to the division and it happens to be located right beside this amazing church.  The city has a population of about 30,000 and host a university and a boarding school for boys and one for girls.  The gal I when to Armidale with, has a son who attends the local boarding school.  While we waited for him, she showed me the dining hall that they boys eat in.  I thought it reminded me a lot of the Hogwarts dining hall from Harry Potter! "The Armidale School", TAS as it is known, was built in 1898 and has beautiful grounds.  When you walk in the entryway it has all the honor roll painted on the walls from all the years past.  The boarding school concept is not a common one in Alberta so it was interesting to see the buildings and hear all about the long standing traditions that take place in that little city.  An amazing opportunity for students who get that chance. 

Yamba - A coastal town

Here is how I spent yesterday afternoon and most of today!  Sitting on the beach!  Yes, I did a little homework, lots of reading and watching the surfers.  Because we had the Swim Carnival until 9 pm on Thursday, we received a day in lieu on Friday.  Apparently the only 3 day long weekend ... I took advantage and booked myself a little road trip to a town called Yamba.  It's about 3.5 hours from where I live and easy to get too ... thank you GPS!  I arrived about 2 pm on Friday and headed straight to the beach.  The weather is still around +35 and I put on my sunscreen and parked myself in the sand.  I thought of all my friends and family back home fighting the wind chills and thanked my lucky stars for the sand and surf I was experiencing.  I think I found my home away from home:)

My Classroom and Swim Carnival

 Here is a shot of my classroom from the outside and inside.  Lots of light and air conditioning that work!  This is where the learning happens!

This shot was taken at dusk on the evening of our Swim Carnival.  Swim Carnival you ask?  Yes, all students were given the opportunity to swim in the various swimming races to earn points for the 'house'.  We arrived at the pool straight from school at 3pm and stayed until 8:45 when the relays wrapped up the evening.  It was well run and lots of families came to cheer on their children in the many races.  Many teachers asked what our swim carnival was like ...

Steve Irwin Zoo north of Brisbane

We went to the amazing Steve Irwin Zoo north of Brisbane.  We missed Steve's daughter Bindi by a couple of days.  We had a full day of fun getting up close to many of the animals.  My highlight, of course, was getting to cuddle with a koala bear!  He was soft and fury, but really heavy!   Their facilities were world class and a must see if you ever make it to this end of the planet.

When I got home to my house tonight there was poo in my front yard.  I asked my neighbor about it and he said a kangaroo was paying me a visit and leave his calling card!  Sure enough I looked out past my back fence and there was the culprit grazing in the back field.  I have some yard clean up to do ... 

Sapphire Fossicking

Today we went to the Billabong Blue Fossicking Park to fossick for sapphires.  Yes, fossicking is what you do in the Inverell area.  It is known as a leading provider of the worlds sapphires and other gems.  The owner gave us a personal tour of their big wash plant, an operation similar to that on the TV program Gold Rush. You can see in the top photo the pile of raw dirt that you sift through.  You then wash the rocks in the pool of muddy water and dump them onto a burlap covered barrel.  You start combing through the stones looking for blue coloured rocks.  With a keen eye, we picked out about 20 little stones that could be turned into sapphires.  A great way to spend the day in +30 degree weather.  Thanks to Deb Czainski for my Australian hat, it came in handy today:)

Coffs Harbour

On our way to Coffs Harbour we came across our first 'koala bear' road sign.  We didn't see any koala's on the road, but did see, on separate occasions, two kangaroos who were resting permanently on the side of the road ... yep, we hit deer and here they hit kangaroo.  We went for a run yesterday morning around the town dam and a kangaroo went bouncing on by ... so cool to see in the wild, but not so cool when the 4 foot long snake went slithering across our running path. 
Barnaby had his picture taken in front of the Big Banana!  Coffs harbour has groves and groves of banana trees ... hence the really big banana as a town attraction.

Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge

Like all tourists do, we went down to the Sydney Opera House and took our pictures at this famous landmark.  Didn't have time for a boat cruise around the harbour, maybe next time I'm in Sydney, I'll squeeze it in.