This is the third email in my series of updates I sent in 2003 while on exchange in Australia.
Well, the summer is long gone, and it is getting pretty chilly in the mornings and evenings now. The house where I'm living has very little in the way of insulation and I'M freezing. For those who know me well, I wear shorts year round in Vancouver, but here, in the evenings, I have to put on pants and I went and bought some big slippers too! The other morning I could literally see my breath. And I'm in Australia!?!?! What is up with that?!?!? But, once the sun hits its' peak, it still gets to 21 degrees and I got a bit of a sun burn. Frost bite and sun burns....hmmmm. And to cap it off, it is only the middle of fall right now and the winter looms ahead. And yeah, I still wear shorts out of the house everyday - don't want any one to see me crack under the pressure.
Life is going on. I am used to all of the routines in life and at school and there are no huge surprises or head scratchers these days. I feel so much more relaxed at school then I did when the year started, and the students are more relaxed around me and less testing of me to see how I'll respond. This makes the classes more fun to teach and the students seem more comfortable with my whole teaching style. I have to say again, how amazingly friendly every student is and they ask really personal questions - which I don't mind, as long as they are appropriate for school. They also like my joking sort of style, which I can use once and a while (still not as often as home) when they are quiet and actually working. The classes just don't work as hard and aren't as dilligent or caring about accuracy as at home - which isn't to say they don't care at all - they definitely care, but only as long as the work isn't too hard and if they can finish it quickly. I've already thought about how hard it is going to be to eventually say goodbye to many of these students - you develop cool relationships much faster here - but probably a lot of that is different for me then another teacher here because I am the odd guy with the accent. I won't miss the noisiness of the classes and how hard it is to get them settled and down to work and to stay working - that is why it is hard to be sort of funny and relaxed. I have more headaches from teaching here then at home. It is really just a few students per class that make the whole group noisy, but once again, no one is bad (the worst they do is slightly swear, be out of uniform, or just never do work), just not as academically minded and not as well prepared to sit through a lesson as what I'm used to.
Since I last left you, I played in the club squash tournament and lost to the number one seed in the semis - I am the only person in the past 12 months to win a game off him at this club. I also finished casting my play at school. I ended up having 45 audition for the 14 parts and I kept three understudies and chose two stage managers. They are so excited about doing a play - like you wouldn't believe. They haven't had a real school play in 5 years. This school doesn't offer drama classes, so they are all pretty much newbies when it comes to being on stage, so I'll have to spend more time on the basics, but their enthusiasm more then makes up for their lack of experience and I'm sure it will be an awesome experience. The play probably won't be as polished as home for that reason, and cause we can't really rehearse after school much as they all have to jump on buses the second school ends. We've arranged with parents to work Monday until 6:00 and to rehearse every second Sunday starting in June. Also, the school doesn't have an auditorium or drama studio, so we have to perform it at a primary school near by. There is so much to do that I take for granted at home -like renting a lighting board and all of the lights, making and buying costumes and finding props etc. Luckily lots of staff want to help.
On the school holidays (we had two weeks off between terms 1 and 2 that coincide with Easter and Anzac Day - a commemorative day honoring the Australians and New Zealands who died in Gallipoli during the world war) I flew up to the Gold Coast (just south of Brisbane on the east coast), rented a car and took 10 days driving down the coast, staying in youth hostels, hiking and surfing etc. It was awesome. I went on a few rainforest walks which were spectacular. I took my first surfing lesson and I was very ordinary (my new favorite Australian saying). I made it look very hard. Very hard. Met some cool people travelling and had a chance to make a few friends for short periods of time. Most travellers had started in Sydney and were working their way north to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef. I'm saving that stuff till September. I did get to Sydney and stayed with some frisbee friends. I explored the harbour, went to a bunch of musuems (the aquarium was awesome - they millions of tropical fish, huge sharks, sting rays etc.) and went out in the evening. I also went on a tour of the Hunter Valley wine region which was lots of fun - I did one of the organized bus tours so that I could sample the wines and sample I did. I then headed down to Canberra for the ultimate frisbee nationals. I got to Canberra a day early and checked out the parliament - which is an incredible building and saw the excellent national museum which had lots of history in it. Australia's handling of their aboriginal peoples is sadly the same as North America's. Even worse in some ways - in the 20th century (and this only ended 30 years ago)the government forcibly removed aborginal children from their families and put them in boarding schools that were aimed to teach them to be "white". Many of the kids never saw their parents again.
Nationals was so much fun! And I was worried it was going to suck. I ended up giving up on the top team a long time ago as I got tired of the politics and the 4 hours plus round trip driving to practice. I ended up spending weekends going hiking and to the beach. I've also started running once a week on Saturday mornings. So, I was on the second team which had a number of disgruntled guys who felt they belonged on the top team (who, by the way, was favoured to win the tournament) - I too was disgruntled for a while, but I got over it quickly once we started playing. It was a fun team and we played hard, but our lack of practice time together hurt in a few close games. We ended up winning our last 5 games to finish 13th out of 20 teams. The top team was upset in the semis, but we cheered them on -my buddy Colin played for the top team and did really well. Incidently we saw a movie there called Nowhere In Africa, which I totally recommend to everyone -it won the Oscar for best foreign film this past year too.
Nationals ended, Colin went off to Sydney before heading home to Canada and I flew back to Melbourne and drove down home. It can get a bit lonely in Tarwin, being a small place and being on my own. I'm involved in lots of stuff in Leongatha were the school is and am making some good friends, but everyone is quite busy. One teacher, Danny, who did an exchange to Canada two years ago to Cambridge, Ontario is easily my best friend here. We hang out and do stuff and I love his three young sons and his awesome wife Lisa. I stay over at their house once every few weeks to cut down on the driving. Danny is in a rock band that plays cover versions of current rock (Green Day, Jimmy Eat World, Good Charlotte etc.) and I went and played roadie for them at their recent gig on Philip Island. It was lots of fun and they rocked! It was really good -they even did a version of the Beastie Boys "Fight For Your Right To Party" -which was cool and very different. The guys they hired to do lighting and sound for them asked me if I wanted to do a few gigs with them and I probably will. I also signed up for the Melbourne Open squash tournament. So, life continues to be busy, school is good and tiring and I continue to train twice a week with the Tarwin Aussie Rules Football team. The training is fun and tough, and my skills are shocking (another Aussie-ism) and the guys are great and it is keeping me fit and getting me some social time with some locals. I've learned two things - I don't drink nearly enough beer to fit in and Aussie Rules is ridiculously rough (bordering on silly). I love watching and I might change my mind about playing - I'm a bit small and not THAT much of a risk taker.
ESPN Australia shows hockey and basketball playoffs so I'm up to date and get to watch a few games here and there. They don't show Canadian teams unless they have to (meaning all American teams are not playing that day) - -luckily all of the other series are over, so today I get to got home and watch game 6 for the Canucks - VERY exciting. Go Canucks Go!!!!
Hope all is well with everyone - thanks for all of your messages - I know I'm lazy about responding, but I love getting them and reading them - it makes me happy and I will respond some time.
Talk to you all again soon
Tommy
No comments:
Post a Comment