Well, here I am again - taking a few moments out of a busy schedule to write a few things down and keep all of you up-to-date with what is going on in Oz. I'd write more often, but you'd be amazed how little time (or how much effort) it takes to actually sit down and write a long email -there just aren't enough hours in the day. A number of people have written me, and I know that I haven't replied to a number of you - I enjoyed getting your messages, I did read them, but I just didn't have a chance to reply. Not that I'd hold my breath if I were you, but a reply may still come (it has to get cold outside eventually).
First things first - aside from a couple of days of rain, it has been consistantly hot. And I mean hot - last night the LOWEST overnight temperature was 25 degrees Celsius. If you open the window little bity bugs get in through the screen, and if you don't - sweat-o-rama. I need to buy a fan. A really big fan. One that blows cool air on me (but I guess that is the idea behind all fans). It is a sweltering heat - you walk out of the school or a building, and it just hits you like a wall. A hot type of wall, that makes you sweat. Cold drinks are sooooo good. And, I'm not complaining about the heat - it is awesome, it just takes some getting used to. I went for a run the other day in 36 degree temperature and I started seeing stuff like talking animated kangaroos, and then I drank a ridiculous amount of water. I can now understand how people start seeing things in the desert. One other odd thing about the weather is how much the temperature changes when the sun goes down - it drops 20 degrees somedays. I was told in the Northern Territory, where I plan to go on vacation later this year, it can be 40 degrees at mid-day, and in the evening it can drop to zero. Wow! I'm sure that your skin loves that sort of treatment.
A few more new words in my vocabulary (or, old words, that have new, wider definitions). When I first got here "heaps" became my favorite new word. Everyone was saying "We've got heaps of homework". I hear the work heaps at least once in every conversation. I love saying it to. I told my students today that I got heaps of sun, and that I took heaps of showers and that I need to use heaps of sunscreen (I think you get the idea). My second new expression that I like a lot is "no worries". People say this all the time. If you thank someone for something, or apologize, the common reply is "No worries mate." Then came the expression when you show concern with how something is going to work out or whether you will succeed at something, and people say "You'll be right" - meaning that you'll be all right. I ask my students when they are working in class "Are you right?", which doesn't mean are they correct in their work, but if they need any help. My car had some troubles the other day, and I actually said outloud "I think I'll be right." (hee hee - the Aussie expressions are becoming second nature - and yes, I talked to my self in Canada too). Next is saying that you stuffed something, which means that you've screwed it up. 'I stuffed that question" is a common statement in maths (why they shorten mathematics to maths and not math, I don't know - find me one more word in the English language that gets abbreviated and is made plural) class. Or someone might say "I'm stuffed", which doesn't mean they've eaten too much (although it could), but that they are wrong. So, you could say (although no one would, unless they were me, and were trying to be stupid) "I stuffed that, and now I've got to get stuffed." "Fair dinkum" means "no way", or "you've got to be kidding". "This avo" means this afternoon. Everyone says "I reckon" - constantly, instead of "I think" or "I guess". But, much more often then we say those things. I'll ask someone a question and they'll reply "You're right, I reckon." And my final new word for now, and my favorite of all is "dodgy". Lots of stuff is dodgy. Bad restaurants, a certain way of getting somewhere, a person, an idea etc. For example, I was asked today if a certain way of doing this algebra question was correct, and I said "Well, it may work sometimes, but that is pretty dodgy" - and the class gave me a round of applause. I'd keep going, but that would be fairly dodgy.
School is interesting. Much is different, some stuff is similar. Some of the new different stuff I am slowly getting used to, some makes me smile, and some I scratch my head about and will never get used to. In the end, it has already given me a fresh perspective on my school at home, and really makes me appreciate how it is organized. One huge difference is with the students - they are really friendly (almost everyone is so nice), but they just aren't that motivated when it comes to doing school work. Most live on farms in small towns and don't come from highly educated households. That is not to say that they aren't smart - there are many very intelligent students, many of who will go on to university, but the overall school culture is a lot less mark driven (which is a bit of a good thing too). For example, when I assign work to my classes, if three quarters have finished it, I am surprised. Also, and some of my students from home might like the sound of this, no one fails classes here. If you show up, and do even the littlest bit of work each day, you pass. No one repeats a class here, because you can't just fail one class, you'd have to fail the whole grade. There is no fear of failing, which means that some students just don't care too much about work or marks at all (which of course is killing any chance of post-secondary school). I've talked to teachers here and they all wish that it was not like this, but it is because it is a small school and you take all of your classes with your homeroom (you could be in the same classes with a number of students from year 7 to year 12) and because it is a Catholic school. This means that in my year 10 maths class, I have students who never quite got a lot of stuff they did starting way back in year 7, and honestly, I'm not sure if they care. But, not to paint the school in a bad light, most students care, many work hard, just that it is noticeably different from home. There is a strong care-free sort of attitude here, which is really cool. Everyone seems to be in a positive mood, and even when someone fails a test, they just don't let it bring them down much. People are constantly asking me "how I'm going" (they say going instead of doing here), and there is a strong school spirit here - which is an improvement from home. I think that is a result of the school being smaller and because it is in the countryside, and the school becomes a meeting point for all of these kids who live far away from each other - it is a social hub.
There are also no afterschool sports, performing arts or clubs, because all students need to jump on big school buses to be brought home. For sports, there are teams, and then a few times a year, the sports teams jump on buses and get driven off to a central school and play sports for one day. I coached the 9/10 girls basketball team, which meant that we had 4 30 minute practices, got driven 50 minutes each way, to play two 40 minute games and then the season was over. A two week season. If we had won both games, we would have had one more day of games, but we won one and lost one (by 35 points). I have been going outside and throwing frisbees with students at lunch, and they are really getting into it! I usually have between 10 and 20 kids out there - which is pretty good considering that they are really into footy (Aussie Rules Football) and cricket and because the school only has 370 students.
I am planning on directing a school play later this year. The school is really excited about that, because they haven't had one in a number of years. I got to get up and speak about it at a school assembly and that was tons of fun. Every time I talk anywhere at school people smile (but that is wearing off as time goes on) - they love my accent. At the assembly they asked me lots of questions about home - what the students are like, is my school like the one in Clueless or Boston Public, what they serve in the cafeteria and they get me to pronounce certain words that we pronounce very differently (Adidas and aluminum are two). I have two Bucket O' Chicken pins on my bag, and I've been asked about them heaps. The play should be great -but rehearsals can only be at lunch, and the school has no place for them to be performed, but it will be good regardless. Some of you may have seen Figments (a play we did a few years ago in the spring) - I plan to do that play again. When I first mentioned the play, I had a number of students ask me if I needed help with the dancing - which drew a very confused look from me. "Dancing?" I thought. And that is because the plays they have done here in the past have either been simple musicals (Snow White, the musical) or more like variety shows. When I explained my idea of doing a scripted comedy, that was welcomed as a new idea.
Squash is going well - the club is very small and different compared to home. The courts are fast, dusty and have a shiny finish on them -all of this, and the fact that I'm only playing once a week have made my game pretty unpredictable. But, it is getting better and I'm nice and competitive with the club's top players. And everyone, once again, is really great. The club championships are coming up and I should, if I play well, make the semis of the A level at a minimum. This club, being in the countryside, is a lower level then the state as a whole. The top player at our club, who beats me 9-4 in each game on average, would play in the third level in state tournaments. Squash is quite good at the state level, and I plan to play a few tournaments as the year goes on. Also, for league dinners there is never anything even remotely vegetarian for dinner - the first week was little hot dogs with dip, baked sausage rolls, meat pizza and I was even starting to suspect that the beer I was drinking had some sort of meat in it too. They eat heaps of meat in this country, and when I tell people I am a vegetarian, they just don't get it.
Ultimate has been both fun and frustrating. I still go up to Melbourne on weekends to train and the captain of the team I play on just won't "see" that I'm a good player, so I rarely get to do stuff that I'm used to. It is still awesome running around and playing, and when I get a chance, I usually do some good stuff, but the captain just won't change the role that he's put me into (I never get to handle). We went up to a place called Albury this weekend (on the border of Victoria and New South Wales) and we played in the final warm up tournament before nationals and we won! It was awesome! We knocked off a team that made up most of last year's national champions and then we beat the team from Canberra in the finals. The quarters, semis and finals were all very close games - and we played really well. Becuase of all of my extra fitness training, I was flying around in the semis and finals and played really well. However, they still plan to reshuffle the two top teams in Melbourne in the next few weeks before Nationals in late April, and I am pretty sure I'll be on the B team. They don't seem to be a really open group to new players, and no matter how much good stuff I do, I can't seem to impress the selectors (this applies to two other new guys as well). There are a bunch of guys who have been around forever, who play okay and they have tons of experience, but they will get chosen based on their history. Which sort of makes sense. If I was younger or taller, that would make a big difference. I don't actually care too much, as I'd rather get tons of playing time on the B team and be a key player, then a low player on the A team who only gets a few points per game. The B team will still finish between 5th and 8th, which is quite good. And the same jerky captain of my current team will be the captain of the A team too - I can't away from him fast enough. There are lots of great guys and we had a fun time partying together on the weekend, especially after winning the tourney.
My good buddy Colin is here. He got in last week and played with me in that Ultimate tourney. We did a fun clinic for teachers at school too and got them running around throwing the disc. It is awesome having a friend from home come to visit. It does get a bit lonely being far away from home and the people and things you are used to. Colin has been great to hang out with and it is awesome talking to someone who really knows you. It is much easier to complain about stuff, or joke about things, or just compare things to home when someone is from where you are from. There ends up being lots of stuff on my mind when I am away from home, and it is just great to really talk about stuff. We did a full day of hiking in the amazing national park Wilson's Promatory yesterday and he is going to be around until early next week when he will leave and do more travelling. We plan to meet up again in Canberra for nationals. He'll also be here for my birthday this Friday, which is really cool timing. Today we are running an ultimate clinic for students at the school at lunch, and we should get 15-20 students.
Finally, and this is probably quite a long email, things are going great. I love the school and the people I work with ( there are some really nice teachers that I'm becoming good friends with) and the whole Australian culture is really cool. I do miss home, but I'm just loving what I'm doing this year. It is giving me a whole new perspective on life. When the year is up, I will definitly be looking forward to coming back to Vancouver - being away is fun, but I do miss my home.
I hope everyone is doing really well! Write back if you have time, and I will try to reply to as many as I can.
I'm especially interested in updates about school, plays on going, ultimate teams, squash league etc. Send them when you get a chance.
Good on ya!
Tommy
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