email number 8 from oz

The final email of my 2003 exchange in Australia.

Well, here I am again.

Before I get into it all - it just wouldn't seem right if this one, the last one, wasn't extremely long. There is so much to say - I won't even bother apologizing for the length. I know you like it.

Hope everyone is doing well. As you are all in the midst of winter, here I am sitting in the beautifully air-conditioned staffroom of my school (I can't imagine what it used to be like inside on 35 degree days before air-con was invented). And, as of this writing, I only have a few days of work left, and then some parties, some cleaning (actually a lot of cleaning) and then I drop my car off, and then up to the airport and I'll be off and up out. But, I am getting ahead of myself  - there are a lot of stories and opinions to share from the past months.

Before I talk about recent stuff, there is one funny story that I forgot about from a long time ago. During the April holidays, I went to Canberra and visited the Parliament. What a spectacular building with a huge grass lawn on the roof and awesome views of the city. I had a small picnic lunch and then packed up my stuff into my knapsack and went in. They checked my bag and the horn thing went off and it sort of freaked me out. It turns out that I had forgotten a butter knife in my lunch stuff. I had to check this item and then get it back in the end. I mean, what harm would I do with a butter knife? I didn't even have any butter with me.

Driving for the year has been easy. Aside from the first few weeks when I had to re-orientate myself to the opposite side of the road and car, it has been a breeze. I am so used to it all, that when I see a TV show or a movie from North America - it looks so weird seeing people on the right side of the road. The one great thing about driving down in the countryside, is it is like a real life video game - especially at night. So, I am driving back from a student's place where I was kindly invited for tea (dinner) at about midnight. And country highways are already a bit narrow and can be windy. You are there, driving along, all relaxed and stuff and then you round a bend and there is a koala sitting in your lane (happens all of the time), you swerve around it and then a kangaroo bounces in front of you. And then there are a few wombats and possibly some rabbits. Then the stupid magpies (birds) swoop out of nowhere in front of you (I’ve had three fly into my car this year). It is a bit scary. Everyone has hit a kangaroo here, and I see at least two dead animals on the side of the road everyday. This morning there was a huge kangaroo on one side and another on the other side, killed overnight as they weren't there last night when I drove home. Very sad, and it makes me wonder how animals can evolve and all of that survival of the fittest stuff and that these species haven't evolved into ones that don't walk in front of these huge shiny things that kill your friends? “Hey remember when Joe got smushed over there last week? Yeah, let’s go this other way instead” Possibly kangaroos are a bit egotistical thinking they are all fast and stuff, and most likely the koalas are ripped on the gum tree leaves, which leaves wombats, foxes and rabbits  -man, they are stupid! Ha ha ha. Just today there was a family of ducks crossing the highway. Ahhh. I stopped. My killing days are over. I joked with the school at the final awards ceremony that they can all come and visit me and we can drive around and kill some Canadian animals like raccoons, skunks, squirrels and moose – it got a big laugh. I’ve killed lots of animals this year, and for that I ask for your forgiveness.

So, as I have already pointed out, I am living in a very small remote area this year, which while being beautiful and peaceful has its drawbacks. It was, and has been, quite a tough acclimation for a city guy like me to get used to. I’m used to the hard streets of Vancouver. Honestly, as much fun as it has been being in Australia (and it has been lots of fun, as you can tell by all of my stories), I am very excited about returning to city life. I have enjoyed the more relaxed nature of the lifestyle and the people down here, but there is very little to do, especially on weekends (that is why I go up to the big city almost every weekend). So, one night in my small country home, I was starting to make dinner. I cut up my veggies, got out my fish, and was already to start cooking, but I had to no gas. The gas cylinders on the outside of the house seemed full-ish, but I couldn't tell and I didn't want to fiddle around with all of the valves as I might explode everything if I did the wrong thing. And, everything that serves prepared food (like take away stands  -they call it "take away" instead of "take out" here) closed at 6pm and it was 7pm. It would take 50 minutes of roundtrip driving to get to the nearest store in the next town over, so I was stuck with no gas and I was starving. I ended up having peanut butter sandwiches for dinner, something similar for brekkie the next morning and then finally, my exchange partner's sister called me back and explained what to do with the dials and it was very easy and I felt stupid and then the gas worked. Every once and a while I have an experience like this that reminds me how different life has been this year (like if my water tanks ran out of water, no water would come out of the taps). Makes it fun. Really makes me impressed with the Aboriginees who lived outside year round and had no appliances.

Now, on the subject of the car, selling the car was quite the experience. My car, first off, is an old car. And a classic car – a Holden Commodore, which is the quintessential Aussie car. Now, to sell a used car in the state of Victoria you need to get your car to pass the “Roadworthy” test. This is one tough test to pass – they are extremely picky and you could have a huge bill to pay before selling it, and consequently no one will buy a car that hasn’t passed the test. If it passes then you know you are buying a good car. I originally advertised a price of $1500 in the local paper and said that I had passed the test, although I hadn’t got it done yet, and because the car is very popular I got lots of calls. But, I had my local mechanic look at it for me, and he said that he thought the test would cost at least $600 dollars. Luckily one person said they would give me $1000 for it and get the test done themselves. I drop it off for them on my way to the airport. I got a good deal with that.

Back on the subject of wildlife – I want to really make it clear to people how cool it is to have so much wildlife just around the place. Aside from the dead stuff, I have had koalas in my trees, ‘roos hopping around and even echidnas on the side of the road (ant-eater-ish creatures). The only thing I haven’t seen in the wild are platypus. And the birds are awesome too. Dingos are only up north, as are crocs and I saw some Tasmanian Devils in, of all places, Tasmania. I heard about the famous, almost revered, Tasmanian Tiger which has been extinct for 100 years now. Lots of great birdcalls first thing in the morning used to wake me up, but I am more than used to it now. Actually, a family of birds has made my roof in the back their home. I little cheeps and lots of noise from the porch all of the time.

“What is up with cork hats?” I asked last weekend when I saw a few people walking around with these wide-brim hats with dangling corks hanging from it. I found out that the corks are for keeping flies away from your face. Obviously an advanced technological improvement to the regular hat, which have next to no fly defenses. My next question was let’s say the fly evolves into some sort of super fly and they learn how to avoid the swinging cork  -what will you do next? This question was appropriately ignored. Pretty funny looking hats though.

Some people asked me after the last big email why I hadn’t mentioned the Rugby world cup. Just forgot I guess. It was a very big event. Canada played, as I’m sure some of you know, and they did win a game. I was cheering for New Zealand to win, but it was exciting that the Aussies did so well and that the final was very exciting. I was up in Queensland for a long weekend and since that is a huge rugby state I had no problem finding an awesome pub to watch the game in. The pub was full of British fans and there was lots of playful heckling amongst the patrons of the pub. It was a fun time. I still don’t love the game of rugby, but the final was awesome. Another huge sporting event was the Davis Cup final that was in Melbourne. I listened to it driving up to the city on the radio. Tennis on the radio is not so great. But, it was very exciting watching the final match on TV. The Aussies love their sport and they love winners. Philippoussis is not everyone’s favourite, but after winning the final match he, and the others, were treated like returning war heroes.

Tasmania was beautiful. I took a few days off at the end of October and hired a car and drove around Tassie. You could easily spend two weeks doing the same trip that I did in 4 ½ days. Tasmania was very different from the rest of Oz. Lots of rolling hills with sheep grazing. A few snow peaked mountains, and much colder weather. I landed in Launceston (in the north) and drove to the very picturesque Cradle Mountain national park. There was this big lake and a snowy mountain in the background (sort of an Aussie Lake Louise). And it was freezing! I went from home, where it wasn’t hot, but I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, to this, where it was like Canadian wintertime. Then, the next day I drove down the east coast and stopped in some quaint seaside towns and then got into Hobart that evening. Hobart was a really nice city with an excellent harbour. I had the best fish and chips that I’ve had this year down there. We don’t get Barramundi (I don’t think) in Vancouver, but it is sooooo good (and so is Gummy Flake). The next morning I drove up to Mount Wellington and it was this really hot 26-degree morning and I was driving up this winding road and I thought I saw a flake of snow, but that would be impossible as it was really hot out. And I kept driving up and up and up and I got to the top and not only was it snowing, but it was amazingly cold and windy. I was in my car in shorts and a t-shirt and I saw people scampering back to their cars bundled up beyond belief and all of my warm stuff was in the trunk. I parked the car, burst out and threw on a millions layers (or 3) and went off to see the view. Wow. This was an incredible panoramic view of the city and the harbour and the national parks. We were really high up and it was cool seeing the snow and then the bright sunny skies below. The weather systems were moving through there very quickly. And the clouds were enveloping the top of the mountain, and then moved through and you saw the view again. I then drove to a national park in a place called Huonville and did an amazing treetop walk. Very awesome trees, including the appropriately named “Big Tree” – it didn’t disappoint. But, snow, it was really snow. I just can’t believe that it was snow.

The next day I woke up and went to the botanical gardens, yes they were “Royal”, and then off to the Cadbury factory. Yes! Lots of free chocolate and Cadbury makes some good stuff. Cadbury is an Australia company – I was wrong earlier in the year when I mocked some students for saying that it was, as I reckoned that everything is American. Cadbury/Schewppes is originally British, but now mostly Australian and the Hobart factory was huge and the tour was informative and yummy. And for those who sort of reckon that Hersheys, Nestle and Cadbury are all very similar, we are wrong – Cadbury kicks ass. Hersheys is not so great. My final day in Tasmania I drove down to Port Arthur and got exposed to convict history. Let me just summarize for you – if you were a petty thief in England in the late 1800s/early 1900s, the threat of being sent to Australia and the horrible life of the convicts there, should have been enough to make you stop your thieving ways. The cells were silly small and it would have been a really bad existence. No loaf of bread would have been worth that. And then back to work…

The bass player from Men At Work teaches bass guitar at my school every Tuesday. That’s cool.

Immunization shots suck. Any type of shots, or anything to do with needles, suck. Then, what sucks even more is being afraid of needles. Really afraid. So, choosing to travel to an area of the world where you need to get shots done to go there, is almost, in my way of thinking, almost a good reason to not go to those areas. But, that would be silly. So to the doctor I went and two things (1) shots are damn expensive - $120!, and (2) I don’t know if it is psychosomatic or what, but those shots REALLY hurt (I didn’t faint like I did at school once) and I couldn’t lift my arms above shoulder height for two days. I didn’t cry, but I was crying inside and my shoulders were crying. That is the most pain I had felt in Australia, but that pain was soon to be beaten by…

So, I took a few days off of work (I work hard, and I might not be in Australia again for a long time) and flew up to the Sunshine Coast (just a few hours north of Brisbane in Queensland). The flights were free as Virgin Blue (the domestic Aussie airline) messed up on some flights early in the school year and gave me two free flights. It was awesome. Great beaches, once again and lots of great walks. I took it pretty easy and just lay around and read and swam and ate good food and got the worst sunburn on my back. I am very careful about that sort of thing and use a lot of sunscreen, and had, in 10+ months not got a real burn. Then, one morning I woke up in Noosa Heads, got a boogie board and down to the beach. Lathered up with sunscreen, lay around, read and then went swimming on the boogie board. Came out and then repeated. It was so much fun. Except, that I forgot one thing – when you are on the boogie board, your back is face-up out of the water, almost the entire time and wholly Christ, my back got burnt. I couldn't lie on, or twist, or even put by backpack on. It really sucked. I took a day off of the beach and then went swimming with a shirt on the day after. I also ran into a particularly unfriendly Aussie!?!?!?  So, not every Aussie is friendly. I was on the beach and wanted a photo with me in it and I asked this lady walking on the beach if she would take the photo and she looked at me and kept on walking. And she had her teenage daughter with her. And they were speaking English. How rude! And what sort of message is that for how to treat people to your daughter (unless they were practicing not talking to strangers). It was beautiful up there, but I sort of felt all travelled out. I just sort of feel like I've seen enough beaches, and that in the end a museum is a museum and a walk is a walk – regardless of how nice they are. And I know that once home I will miss all of this stuff, but at some point it is hard to get totally thrilled by another great view (sorry if there are people reading this who feel jealous of me and are hating my blasé-ness). I do love it all and have loved all of the amazing traveling, but at some point you just get a bit tired. The final note on Northern Australia - bug bites, bug bites, bug bites. Damn bugs. I hate them so much. Great weather the whole time though. “Sick” from school for two days and then back on a Monday with coloured skin (no I didn’t show anyone my back) – a bit suspicious…

Now, I understand the whole post 9-11 security thing as much as the next average person. But, why can’t I store my bags at the airport!?!?! Now I understand that they would want to search them and look for anything bad, but then after only finding non-sharp and non-explosive stuff, then what is the problem, especially if they are locked up and I’m the only one to have a key? What’s the problem? I do understand, really, but all I’m saying is that my life would be easier if I could have done that on the way home. 

Played in a few big and fun Frisbee things and they were great. Melbourne hosted the Mixed National Championships and the Melbourne Hat tournament. For those who don’t know, a hat tournament is where they literally make random teams by drawing names out of a hat. Both weekends were full of lots of games, great parties and a chance to hang out with Frisbee people from around the country. I am impressed that in less than a year, I’ve already met so many cool people, and feel like I have started to make some good friends – considering that I only came up to the city once every two weeks and that there were only 6 tournaments in a year. Our team had a disappointing (to say the least) Mixed Nationals – we didn’t win much, but still had a great time. I played awesome the first day (including dominating a game against that weirdo captain guy from earlier in the year who didn’t respect my game – that felt good), and then as the team’s fortunes vanishes, so did my great play. We ended up losing three games by 1 point. Ouch!

But, after leaving the Frisbee fields for the last time on Sunday, it just made me think about how great the ulti community really is. It is such a great sport, in many ways, but mostly the generosity and warmth of the people. It is also just fun and relaxed and there are so many people with wacko senses of humor. And since it is a uni game by origin, it ends up being a pretty intelligent group as well. I didn’t know anyone really when I got here and now, at the end of the year, I know so many people and when the Aussie national team visits Vancouver on their way to Finland next summer, I should have a bunch of friends coming to stay. I’m having two final parties this weekend before I fly away.

Today was the big end of year finale for school – the end of year mass. Now, as I described earlier in the year, mass is long (and I mean lllloooonnnggggg  -even for the true Catholics.) There is lots of standing and saying “and God be with you” and then sitting and listening to long passages, then standing and hearing the choir sing, and then sitting and then standing and so on. And to top it off (this makes NO sense) the students and teachers have to wear full uniform and it was 34 degrees today and the students were NOT allowed to have a drink bottle!?!??! What!?!?!?! Hey, I’ve got a great idea – how about we make them eat salt the whole time too. Or maybe, we should use heaters, instead of fans, maybe light a big fire, possibly throw water on hot coals the whole time? No water?!?!? And the mass and awards made the whole thing 3 hours! Yeah! But, it was an awesome day still. As the days have been drawing to an end, more and more students have been showing their appreciation for me and the excitement of the end of the year and my leaving made for a fast and fun last few weeks. Today, at the awards thing they said all of this great stuff about my contribution to the school and then I went up and made them all laugh with my quick run down of the year. Not only were all of the students there, but lots of parents too. They gave me some awesome framed photos and a nice book. I got lots of great photos too. Then, to wrap it up, I performed “Fight For Your Right To Party” by the Beastie Boys with the school rock band and we were awesome. People were standing and clapping at the end. Then, just before all of the students went home – I had a whole bunch thanking me for an excellent year. It all makes you feel pretty damn special.

So, I keep getting asked how it feels to leave, whether I’ll come back and what I like better Australia or Canada. And these are difficult questions to answer. Plain and simple – home is home. I am very excited to come home. But, I really feel like I’ve lived so much in this one-year and it is sad to leave it behind. People keep asking me if I am sad to leave, and I wasn't really until today when I said goodbye to many people (mostly students) who I may never see again, then I felt sad. Now, I know they are just students  - but my style of teaching has always been a friendly style and even though they are young, they are “friends” at work. Many say they will stay in touch – we’ll have to see  -I hope so, and I’m sure that a small group will. I promised that I would come back and visit – maybe in 2006 when Perth is hosting the World Club Ultimate Frisbee Championships. It is very odd saying goodbye to people you have spent a lot of time with, both at school and in Melbourne and at squash. Unlike leaving Vancouver, when I knew I would see most people again  -and there are a lot of people I really hope to continue to know. In the end – I miss home, I will miss here – which is, I think, the way you’d want it to be. If I didn’t miss home, then that would be depressing as hell to have to go back and if I didn’t miss here, then it would have been a horrible year. Life is about experience and I have experienced so much this year – I would do it again and I hope to a few more years down the road. I am so proud of myself for having finally done this and done it to the fullest. It wasn’t an easy thing to do – going away for a year, to a remote country town where I didn’t know anyone, and leaving everything and everyone I know behind – but not that I have, I have developed a large amount of self-confidence (yes, even more of that), and I have come to even more appreciate things at home. I will 100% come back here someday – and I’ll have a lot of people to visit.

What I won’t miss is the isolation of where I am living (although it is very peaceful and quiet) and I like city life better (although I have come to really appreciate country life this year). I won’t miss the math teaching – that is better at home (I have to yell for quiet at least 5 times a class with my year 7s and 8s – and less than ½ finish their homework and maybe 1/3 study for tests ever). I will miss the fun-ness of the students – great sense of humour, I will miss being the “oddity” for the year, I will miss the laid back nature of everything – it just isn’t that intense here. I miss Vancouver’s restaurants and other options of things to do in the evenings. I will miss the wildlife (seeing kangaroos and koalas on a regular basis still is very exciting), the awesome beaches and the great parks. In a short time, I’ve met so many great people – which will “force” me to stay in touch and “force” me to come back at some point. I would love to do another exchange someday (or find some good reason to be in the Melbourne area for a good period of time again – I have a whole bunch of people who I can stay with now). And I know that there are small nuances and stuff that I won’t notice missing until I’ve been home for a while. I’m sure that I will be thinking about this year and stuff that happened it for the rest of my life. 2003 will always stand out as one incredible year.

I look forward to seeing everyone again in just a few more weeks. I hope that a whole bunch of grads will pop by and say hi in January, if they get a chance. It has been a pleasure writing emails for all of you this year. It has been a great year away. Thanks for all of the excellent emails from all of you. I get home on December 29^th and I hope to see or hear from all of you in the early part of the New Year. It will be nice to be home

Cheers

Tommy

email number 1 from oz

Jan 7, 2003

This is the first in a series of unedited emails that I wrote in 2003 when I was on a teacher exchange in Australia



Well, as my Killarney friends finish their first day back at school and my squash team plays their first game without me, here I sit in a backpackers' hostel in a small surf town named Warrnambool about 5 hours west of Melbourne. I arrived last Wednesday night after an insane amount of flying and a little bit of sleep in Singapore. Had fun meeting up with the ultimate crowd and have been to a few practice  -seems like a great group of people (already been to a few dinners), a bit on the intense side once on the field. Had fun going around downtown Melbourne, checking out the stores and the beautiful parks. Very similar to Vancouver in many ways, but also quite different - the whole driving on the wrong side of the car and road just makes everything look a bit odd. They have some cool new buildings downtown, that my guide (my exchange partner's sister) told me weren't that popular with the masses (stands out sort of like our library). I bought some tickets for the Australian Open for the third round  -which should be awesome. I also plan to go watch some cricket at the huge Melbourne Cricket Grounds (capacity 110 000)  -I wouldn't say that I'm a fan, but my friend here is REALLY into it (and that seems to reflect everyone's opinion) and I've been explained all of the rules and have watched a bit on TV. Aussie Rules Football (or footy) seems much more interesting and I've been told that I can even play with a local, informal team - which I don't think I'll be doing (I guess I'm a bit of a wuss).

After a few days in Melbourne, I got driven down to the countryside by my exchangee's parents. I live about 1 hour and 45 minutes from Melbourne if someone else is driving, or about 2 hours and 45 minutes on my first, slow attempt on the left side of the road and right side of the car ("look right, stay left" I keep repeating to myself outloud as I drive). The countryside is amazing (that is after you drive past an hour's worth of dairy farms - at least the cheese is plentiful). One thing that surprised me is how different the plant life is here. Everywhere I look I see new plants, bushes and trees (even the seaweed is different)  - I even saw my first palm tree in the area of Melbourne where I stay on weekends (St. Kilda), which is full of them. I hung out at my new house for less than a day, unpacked a bit, checked out the place, watched a little aussie tv in the evening and went to her parent's beautiful place in Venus Bay (sort of a summer surfing getaway place) for my first aussie bbq. Lots of fun!

Drove into Melbourne the next day (after finally getting insurance for my car  -by the way, the hood is called a "bonnet" and the trunk is a "boot") - going about 15 km under the speed limit (I only passed one car - they were a learner). After a fun, and exhausting (can you fall totally out of shape after 5 days of inactivity?) ultimate practice I took off on a road trip. I drove west along the absolutely amazing Great Ocean Road which winds along the southern coast of the country. Amazing! I swam and hung out on two different white sand surf beaches (will get around to taking some lessons once I get back to my place), walked through two big national parks (one of the trails took me through an actual rainforest), and stayed in two hostels - the first was the coolest - I had dinner with a lady from Richmond, two guys from Bombay, some Kiwis, a German and a couple from Brisbane. Tomorrow, I take off for the national park called The Grampions, the next day the colonial town of Ballarat and then back to Melbourne on Friday, only to jump in a new buddy's van to take off for an ulti tournament in Canberra. School starts on the 27th.

So far, I've seen no Koalas (but I've been promised that I will see a bunch tomorrow, as well as some in my front yard during the year), only one Kangaroo (which unfortunately was no longer breathing), a few geckos (one freaked me out as it was on a trail I was walking on and it was the thickness of my wrist and about 30cm long) and a snake that was sleeping in front of yesterday's hostel (curled up, the size of a bike tire).

Anyway, my minutes are up - hope everyone is doing well! I will write again soon.

Tommy

email number 7 from oz

Getting near the end- email #7 of my teacher exchange in Australia in 2003.

Hey Everyone, it's me again!

 

Just sitting back and relaxing at my sweet ol' country home, and I thought it was just about time to catch up with everyone. I'm sure everyone is getting right into fall at home - sounds like the weather was absolutely great even into October and then the rains have come. Nice to see the my frisbee teams and squash team have gotten off to good starts in their new seasons and that life at Killarney sounds pretty much the same. I've really enjoyed the updates that people have written me.

 

The second school was over on September 18th, I had to race up to the airport (a nearly 3 hour drive) to hit the beaches of sunny Queensland. Queenslanders are made fun of by everyone. People say that they speak slow and that they say "eh" at the ends of sentences. I'm not sure about those two things, but Queensland is in perpetual summer. The average temperature per month only has a range of 6 degrees all year - the overall average is about 29 degrees. The major change is that the summer (Dec-Feb) is VERY humid and northern Queensland gets a wet season just like the Darwin area. On the subject of areas that people make fun of, my next destination is Tasmania (Tassie - EVERYTHING is abbreviated) and everyone says that you are supposed to ask people there about their scar on their neck (the less-than-totally-obvious reference, is that they are all in-bred and that they had to lop off their second head - I don't think I'll be saying that).

 

The last week of the term was full of heaps of rain and heavy winds. I flew out of Melbourne and the flight was delayed because of the winds and the temperature was about 5 degrees. Landed in Cairns at midnight and stepped out into 25 degrees. Feels like holidays. Cairns is less than a totally exciting place on its own - just really touristic (is that a word?). But, instead of a destination in and of itself, it is more a launching pad for the rainforest and the reef. First stop - the rainforest. I took a bus up to Cape Tribulation (more about the history of the area in a bit) which is where two world heritage sites meet  -you go out to the Cape Trib beach and in front of you is the Great Barrier Reef and behind you is the oldest rainforest in the world. Wow! The beach is kick-ass! I spent an extra day just hanging out on the beach and it is this amazing view and I was totally alone - what a peaceful, fun day. The rainforest is also just plain amazing. The density of growth and the size of the trees and the incredible variety of plant life is awe inspiring. One tour guide said that botanists are constantly discovering things in the rainforest that either everyone thought had gone extinct or no one has ever seen before. The Daintree Rainforest has so many plants that only exist there and no where else. I even got to see a castuary (sp?) in the wild - it is a big, relatively rare relative of the emu - pretty cool.

 

The wildlife was fairly non-existent in the wild, but I went to a wildlife habitat and got to see an amazing number of crazy colourful birds, got to feed some kangaroos and check out all varieties of animals that exist in Queensland. Crocodiles are around, and that means that many beaches are unsafe  - we went on a riverboat "cruise" and saw a bunch of crocs (not as good as Kakudu, except we got to see two male salties fighting over a woman. I mean a female crocodile).

 

The famous deadily jellyfish  -here is how it all works. They are bred in the rivers and when the wet season comes the water in the rivers rise and flood into the ocean carrying the jellyfish out to sea. There are a number of varieties, with the box jellyfish being the worst (I think). If you get stung - it is pretty bad news. At every beach they have a container of vinegar (which they have to really label its use as for jellyfish stings only, as there was a major problem with people using it on their fish and chips!?!?!?) which you are supposed to pour on the sting and then wait on the doctors. If you have no vinegar (this is great) you are supposed to pee on the sting, and since most of us can't pee too accurately on ourselves, that is what friends are for. Hee hee hee.

 

It is pretty rough going in Northern Queensland, another day, another fantastic beach with perfect weather. Don't find yourself missing the Vancouver rain much at that point. It is funny - I'd say the two most common discussions/arguments I hear where I am are (1) which is the best footy team and (2) which is the best beach. Newsflash - all of the beaches are great. Yes, some have better surf, and yes, some are longer or more secluded, but all have the softest sand and the most beautiful coloured and temperatured water (in summer we are talking about of course). But, I will say that the ones in Cape Trib. are the palm tree lined ones you see when you see images of the "perfect" holiday.

 

Here is the brief history lesson that was promised above. Once upon a time there was a massive southern continent entitled Gondwana. Then a whole bunch of stuff happened and all of a sudden there was Australia, and supposedly no one lived there (but the world's oldest algae or something were discovered on the West coast of Australia). They guess that some Indonesians came by boat and somewhere on the journey they became Aboriginees. I'm sure I left out a few things. Then one day, after the Dutch and French (and others perhaps) had passed the place by, Captain Cook, who was actually not yet a captain, landed on the North Eastern coast (current day Queensland). The boat crashed into the reef and Cookie and his botantist George Bankes and their men came ashore and they landed at Cape Tribulation (makes sense). While the boat was being fixed they came upon some of the native peoples and named a bunch of stuff. The best naming story that I've been told is where they drew a picture of this big hopping animal that they saw, and showed the picture to an aboriginee and asked what it was and the reply was "gangaroo", which, of course, became kangaroo. Current day researchers have found the word "gangaroo" to most likely mean "I don't know". I like that story. Cook got the boat fixed and eventually made his way back to England, became a captain and then came on over to North America and got more places named after him. He got around. So if he hadn't accidently crashed into the reef, and became a captain, I might not have been a substitute teacher at a Vancouver elementary school called Captain Cook for one day 8 years ago. It makes you think...

 

Back to the present - there are both cool things and not-so-cool biting things about staying in backpacker's hostels. First the cool things - you get to meet travellers from around the world and it is really interesting to talk to, discuss issues and compare and contrast your view of the country with the real thing. You come to really realize how much living in a country where most of our media is American-based effects of our knowledge of the world - many of us fight through those biases, but it is tough. It is also funny how true some stereotypes are - I hung out with a group of Germans, shared a room with a bunch of Japanese guys and saw more than my fair share of American students (I apologize to the American readers of this email - but a large group of rich, American students is possibly the most annoying thing to run into - so loud, walking around like they own the place - now, individual Americans that I've met are great, it is just the groups that really get a bit too much to bare). I've met some Canadians, but not that many - it is funny how when you've been away from home for a while, how much fun it is to hangout with a couple from Calgary and a girl from Winnipeg.

 

"Don't let the bed bugs bite"  -never had really given that expression a second thought, and then I stayed in a hostel in Cairns and I woke up one morning and had a shower and sort of was scratching my arm a bit and then I went up to the mirror to check myself out and holy freaking God my arm was COVERED in bites. Like 30 of them all in one spot on my left arm. I thought I could use some cortizone cream that I already had and it might go away on it's own, but 4 days later in the Gold Coast, it was still there and I went to a doctor and I had scabies! How exciting! Never had those before. So, for those who don't know, scabies are body lice that burrow into your arm and go to the washroom and that process is what causes the itchy bump-like bites. Gross and itchy - never two good things to say together. They are gone now - but I've come to realize that the north part of Australia has too many things that want to bite me a lot (remember my sand flies in Darwin?).

 

On the subject of insects, when I was up in Kakudu and then again in Cape Trib, our tour guides showed us these cool cocoon like things with leaves that these green ants make. Pretty neat, but the cool part is that they got us to...lick the green ants' bums. Yes, you read that correctly. And it tastes like a slightly bittersweet lime. Not a great flavour, but not so bad either. I think I'll draw the line quite sharply at green ants when it comes to licking that area.

 

So, I came back from Cape Trib and stopped in Port Douglas for a day - another beautiful beach resort sort of place and then back to Cairns (bed bug central) and off to the reef. Of all of the plans that I made this year, these were the ones that I was most excited about. There are so many companies to choose from that go to the reef, and I decided to once again go with a smaller sized group that gave me more activity time for more money. Most tour groups take high speed catamarangs (I have no idea how to spell that word), but I went on a sail boat. So it took longer to get there, but it was sweet as. A fun crew, excellent food all day as part of the cost, and a great group of excited travellers - spirits are infinitely high on this trips. A full day on the boat under Queensland's sun - it didn't matter how much sunscreen I used - I got a bit red. And you have free snorkling and they offer dives for certified people and also introductory ones for those who want to give it a go. I know Maja will be surprised that I went for it, and I was surprised too. I thought about it, and the cost wasn't really an issue - I was quite nervous about being under water for 30 minutes, but then I decided that I might only come here once and I already got this far and that I should just do it. And I did. And it was easily the coolest experience this year. It was soooooooo awesome. Heaps of colourful fish, amazing coral and it was just breathtaking (not literally, because you need to breath the whole time when you are underwater). I was so impressed and proud of myself that I did it - there were 6 others like me out of the 30 who tried it and we were all like little kids afterwards - giddy and silly and it was just amazing!  Finding Nemo my ass! It is cool how right on that movie was - the reef looks like the movie. We had wine and cheese on the ride back and it was just so great.

 

I know that I've said this before, but so many travellers smoke. I just don't get it and I hate that my clothes stink so much. It was funny, in the Gold Coast I shared a room for three nights with a bunch of Japanese guys. These guys, and their buddies next door were hilarious, they slept in until 10, went to the beach all day (they all had these brand new surf boards, but had never really surfed before - ahhh, to be young and rich), got back in and lay around reading Japanese porn magazines (I walked in the first day and saw this innocent-enough looking magazine on the floor and I opened it up and...let's just say that innocent was the wrong word to use) listening to Japanese punk music, then they stayed up all night drinking and smoking and gambling. Full on, to say the least.

 

The Gold Coast is tourism to the extreme. Theme parks, shops, Surfer's Paradise etc. It is buzzing all day and all night. I went to the waterslide park, but enjoyed the beach more. Enough said. Fun, but too much after a short while.

 

Then I was off to Newcastle for the Australian Uni Games. Newcastle is 2 hours north of Sydney (I was there when I went to the Hunter Valley back in April). Newcastle is a place that used to be a big industry area and then about 10 years ago a few industries closed down and there are now some pretty bad areas, and a well known rule to not walk around alone at night, and also a scary train stop - where the travel guides warn you to sit near the security guy. Fun. The Uni games were great. The whole team stayed in these apartments together and it was a great time - cards games, team meals, spa baths and fun times. The team was seeded 7th, finished 7th last year and finished 7th this year, so I'm not to sure how much I accomplised as a coach. The team really liked my coaching and the organization that having a coach brings to a squad. I had fun, but I was itching to get out and play myself. This AUG is great - all uni sports are there and it is like a mini-Olympics. We went and watched soccer and squash as their venues were near by. It was great.

 

So, back in Victoria for school and the winter is slowly ending -we had beautiful sunny days last week followed by a hail storm yesterday, but the tide is turning. I am mailing home a lot of warm clothes (which hopefully is alright). It is cool how this feels like deja vu - reminding me of the beginning of the school year and how far I've come and how different I feel now to when I first arrived. And that the year is long - it is great, but I do miss home and I am getting excited about coming back (as well as feeling sad about saying goodbye to all of the people and things I've gotten into this year).

 

Hope everyone is well!

 

Cheers

 

Tommy

email number 6 from oz

This is email number 6 of 8 in my exchange year of 2003 in Australia.

G'day mates!

Just reaching the 3/4 mark of the year and nearing the last week of term 3 too - which mean, yes you guessed it, more holidays. A few of you have pointed out that it seems like all I'm doing is vacationing, and some have wondered if I'm doing any real work. The answers are yes, I am working a lot, I just choose to focus on the "fun" stuff in these emails. Having said that, I can't complain about the holiday time - it is pretty awesome. Others complained about the length of the last email - part of me wanted to make the next one even longer out of spite, but that would sort of defeat the purpose of writing them in the first place, so I've decided to write one before and one after the holidays. Next Friday afterschool I fly up to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef and I plan to explore the Daintree Rainforest and then travel down to Brisbane and do some stuff around there and then head down to coach at the Australia University Games where my ultimate team I'm coaching is competing.

I am pretty exhausted as I write this email, we just finished two long nights of parent-teacher interviews and the school play that I directed had its performances the two weeks prior to that. The weekends have also been packed full of practices and rehearsals and there haven't been too many sit back and relax evenings. I think 4th term will be more relaxed, but I already have big plans for all but 2 weekends of my remaining time away. It will all go quite quickly - which is both okay in that I do miss home and look forward to all of the people and new things I have planned for when I return, and not okay, because I have made a number of friends and gotten close to many students and their families (one student gave me a dozen eggs as a gift - I've never been given eggs before). Through the play and all of the frisbee stuff and the teaching I've made a name for myself at the school and in the community and I'll be missed and I will miss many people too. So, sort of mixed emotions at this point about the year being slowly nearing the end. A great experience so far, that's for sure. 

I hate to admit this, but...I'm a kangaroo killer. And not just any kangaroo, a baby kangaroo. I know much of what I write is meant to make people smile, but this ain't one of them. It was both sad and scary. I was driving home from squash and in a blink of an eye this kangaroo hopped right in front of my car and bounced off my fender hard - thank god it was a small one. My heart was beating SO fast. On this note, there is a new dead animal on the side of the road every few days - usually bunny rabbits or wombats (neither are considered a great loss), and occasionally koalas (which is very sad  -they are just SO CUTE). Every adult I've talked to in the countryside has hit at least one animal somewhat recently. Too bad I'm a vegetarian.

Over the course of the year, I've grown accustomed to some of the bizarre Aussie ways of doing things. Some of these still make me shake my head and still others I just can't even get used to. One of these is that in Leongatha (and all country towns) pedestrians yield to cars. In Canada, it is the opposite, and this seems to make sense as cars can cause us much more damage then the other way around. So, you'll be standing at a "crosswalk" (I don't think they call them that, since you aren't supposed to cross or walk most of the time) near one of the many busy traffic circles and you'll wait and wait and wait - it has taken me over 5 minutes to even get a chance to cross sometimes. NO ONE slows down, and they shouldn't because I am supposed to yield for them. When I'm driving, and I see a woman pushing a baby in a stroller and I stop to let them cross - they give me a strange look, and I've even had someone honk at me from behind for stopping to let some teenagers cross.

We watch some bad TV in North America, but they watch some really bad TV here too, and it seems worse for some reason. Australian soap operas are HORRIBLE and so many students, and adults are addicted to them. The two most popular are "Home And Away and "Neighbours", and they are like the American ones but to the nth degree - so bad that "Australian Soap Opera" is a TV genre on "Whose Line Is It Anyways?". There are also Aussie versions of so many TV shows - from Millionare to The Price is Right to Big Brother. Now, I never watched the crap that was Big Brother when I lived in Canada, but I did know that outside of my family, most people didn't watch it. But in OZ, it was so popular. In the staffroom, on the radio, in class everyone was talking about who said what to who and who was being voted out etc. It seems the same to me except that they show much more of the "bedroom antics". Aussie TV, on the whole, show stuff that we'd never be allowed to show during prime time. And no one is complaining, not even me...

The Australian film industry is strong. I watch a lot of movies and this year I've tried to see a number of Aussie ones. I have 3 categories that I put them in (1) ones that become huge at home (Muriel's Wedding, Priscilla, Rabbit Proof Fence, Ned Kelly), (2) the really odd and funny - these are MUST sees (The Castle, Snapper, Bad Eggs, The Dish) and (3) the down-right weird (Chopper, Mullet, Bad Boy Bubby). Special mention needs to go to my friend Colin, who had the foresight to watch Bad Boy Bubby and fully recommend it. I watched it this year and it is the most bizarre film I've ever watched. I couldn't use the word "enjoyed" to describe how I felt while watching it, but it was...yeah, I don't know how to put it.

Student: "Hey, Mr. Paley, what do you think of Australian chocolate? Pretty good, hey?"

Paley: "Um, what chocolate is that?"

Student: "Cadbury"

Paley: sigh..."no, it's not"

Student: "But it says 'made in Australia'"

Paley: SIGH

Kids think lots of things are Australian that aren't. From food to magazines to tv shows. My favourite things are ones that ARE truly Australian. I was, and continue to be, disappointed over how many American things there are here. I thought with the distance, it wouldn't be like that, but it is. Whenever I see a young Aussie with a Snoop Dogg shirt on I feel like smacking myself. Having said that, there are a lot of very popular Aussie music groups, some are way too "pop" for my taste. Have Delta Goodrum and Holly Valance become popular in Canada?

I continue to have great success in sport for the year. I continue to train hard and am really fit. I won my event in the Melbourne Open squash tournament. I didn't just win, I dominated. It was really cool and I got a really nice trophy. Then this past weekend, I won my third ultimate frisbee tournament of the year. I will say that the tourneys have been smaller than home, but a win is a win, and it is lots of fun. All I had to do was leave Canada. I plan to play in a few more ulti tourneys, including the co-ed nationals which are in Melbourne in late October. My team WON'T be winning that one.

For those that weren't sure, Australians don't all sound like the Crocodile Hunter. The accents are there, but not nearly as strong as I thought before I got here. And on the topic of the Croc Hunter, Aussies laugh at him as much as we do, if not more. But, they also respect him and he is one of the more popular "stars" here. I'd say that the kids love football players the most, Ian Thorpe is up there, Cathy Freeman and Jana Pittman, and some of the cricket players (they are hugely popular). Everyone loves Nicole Kidman, most hate Russell Crowe (who was born in NZ, but calls himself Australian), and they all like Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce. Kylie Minogue was not popular for years, but is really big the past 3 or 4 years.

Just one new expression for you, that I love saying a lot. Whenever people, in my case students, aren't behaving or are doing something that I just don't want them to do, I say "that is just not on". Pretty self-explanatory and pretty fun to say. If it starts to rain, someone will say (to God, maybe) "Oh, that is not on." I love it!

My school has livestock. When you drive in, there are cows and pigs walking around their fenced area. Not much more to say about that, except that you never forget for a second that you are teaching in the country.

I am a "man about town". I have been in the local newspapers 6 times in the past 8 months - this includes squash stuff, stuff about my play and about the frisbee clinic I was running. It is cool. Everyone seems to know that I'm the exchange teacher (the accent gives it away - yes, I still sound "Canadian"). I even had my picture in the Catholic Life newsletter, and there was mention of my play on the local tv and radio news. If you reduce the population from a few million to 5000, you increase your chances of being noticed.

The play is over! Four months of rehearsals and 5 tremendous performances! It was a lot of hard work and more stress then I'm used to - the actors were lazy and quite inexperienced, but very enthusiastic. Over the last month of rehearsals they worked really hard and the play really came together. We transformed part of the school into a studio with a great stage and set. The teachers really helped me put in all together and the school really got excited about the play. We had over 500 audience members over our 5 shows, which is a lot of you consider that the school only has 370 students. And it was the first play that they've had in years. It went really well. It wasn't the best play that I've done, but considering where the actors were when we started and how troubled it all seemed halfway through, this was quite an accomplishment. The parents and teachers and students just loved it - I get told so many times a day how great it was and the praise after the shows was incredible! What an amazing feeling to be told continually what a great job you have done. It is sort of overwhelming, but it just makes me feel quite proud of myself and my ability to organize and direct a huge school production and very proud of the actors. I didn't become as close to them as my actors at home, but then again I've only known them for 8 months, compared to 3-5 years for the students at Killarney. It gives me a great group to remember and hopefully stay in tough with (a few are definites). It wasn't all great along the way, and I'm so exhausted still, but it was a great way to make a name for myself in my one year at the school. If my goal was to not be forgotten and to make an impact, which it was by the way, then I absolutely accomplished that. It was great bringing fun drama to a school that had none. They loved the play.

Well, I'm off on holidays to Queensland and to Newcastle. It should be great! I'm taking lots of photos, but the scanner is too damn slow, so people will have to wait to see photos until I get home.

Take care and I hope to hear from you soon.

Ta,

Tommy

email number 5 from oz

Email number 5 of my updates from my teacher exchange in 2003 to Australia.

Before we start today's email session, please stand behind your desk quietly....Thanks, let's pray

In the name of Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.

Our Father,

Who art in Heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come....(that's good enough - wow - it's become second nature for me - Yeah, that's right, I have 3 Catholic prayers memorized! I was planning on leading prayer with Samuel L. Jackson's thingy from Pulp Fiction, which I have memorized for some reason, but didn't think that that was appropriate))

Yep, I'm back after a long break in the emails - life is happening and it is good! I'm actually starting this email while on holidays up in the heat of the Darwin winter. I need to take breaks out of the sun, and the email centre has great air conditioning. It is hotter here in the middle of winter, than it is in Vancouver in the middle of summer!

Well, I just passed the halfway mark of this exchange year. It is amazing that it has been 6 months already. It both seems like it has gone fast, and also that it has been a long time away from home. It has been a great experience so far, a lot of learning and adapting on my part, and I would definitely do another one in the future. I'm sure the second half of the year will fly by, especially when you stay as busy as I do. Highlights of the second half will be trip to the Great Barrier Reef, Tasmania and a small bit of South-East Asia; presenting the school play; hopefully acting in a play outside of school; playing in co-ed nationals for ultimate, plus numerous other exciting adventures that will unfold.

As many of you can tell, I'm loving the "new" vocabulary. And the great thing about it is, every time I think that is it, I learn a whole bunch of new ones. It will take me years to fully integrate them all, but I'm trying. I now say "heaps", "dodgy", and "I reckon" all of the time without thinking about it, but those are so old school.

The first group of new ones that are cool are words they use when someone is good at something. A girl in my class was referring to a teacher she had last year as a "gun". Another teacher always refers to friends, athletes etc. as "little rippers" (that teacher is really annoying by the way), and all Aussies call people "champs". I like the gun one, but I can't make myself use it yet. If you are going somewhere but aren't sure if you are going to enjoy it, you are going to "suss it out" (I hear this all of the time). If someone is a bit of a loser or what we might call a poser (does anyone still say that?), they call them a "bogan". When I said to one student who was at serious risk of failing that they might study on the weekend - he said "Do you think I'm a bogan?". I wasn't sure what the appropriate reply was, so I just silently backed away...Another great one, that we use a close version of, is when I say something that they don't believe, and they could say "fair dinkum", but kids say "are you shitting me?". When I first heard it, I misheard it, and thought they had said something else, which was really gross. I'm glad they didn't say that. Everything that is not amazing or horrible is "pretty ordinary". If you lose at tennis, you were pretty ordinary; if you did nothing on Friday night, it was pretty ordinary; if you went on vacation but it rained a lot, that also would be pretty ordinary. Things that are ordinary toe a fine line with being dodgy, but fall a bit short. People are also always saying "too easy", in the same was we would, but just saying it much more often. Like if I say, "don't we have to make some plans for the weekend" - others reply "too easy".

Aussies have tons of words for when they don't feel quite right (and since they are big drinkers and play high collision sports with no padding, that makes a lot of sense). If you are tired, you are "knackered". I use this on Tuesday mornings after a late night at squash league, where I often don't get home until 12:30. And, if you happened to get a bit banged up during your sport, then you'd be a bit "crooked". One could be crooked and knackered at the same time, but they'd probably play anyway. If someone says they are sick or injured, but aren't, they are said to be "wagging". If someone is always complaining about being hurt, or just complaining that everything is happening to them, they are "whinging" (I know I am spelling that wrong). People use that all of the time. Students whinge about tests, people whinge about being crooked, I whinge that my house is too cold. The final one in this group is for people who say they are going to do something and then don't, or for people who say they will go out and then don't - they are pikers, or are said to be piking.

Finally, I've saved my favourites for last. These ones are awesome, and I try to use them as often as I can. Whenever you are really busy, something is really hard, takes a lot of work or thought, it is said to be "full on". I had a busy day - "man, that was full on". I ask someone about their test  - "it was really full on". The principal had a serious talk with you - "that was full on". I love saying it. This email, being as long as it is, is pretty full on. Next, is the expression "rock up". This is like when I ask if I should call somewhere for reservations and people say "no, just rock up". Or, after a really tiring squash game, people will ask the next morning "how did you rock up today". Instead of making plans first, just "rock up".

If the weather looks bad first thing in the morning, don't worry 'cause "she'll be right". This can also apply to a car that is making lots of noise, the economy etc. etc.

And finally, the best, and most versatile - take almost any describing word like sweet, poor, hot, scary, or Aussie (somehow that becomes a describing word down here) and put the word "as" at the end of it. So, if something is REALLY awesome, it is "sweet as". If something is stereotypically Australian - it is "Aussie as". If I saw a kangaroo on the road in the middle of a stormy night - that situation was "scary as". Darwin in the summer is "hot as". Some of you Frisbee players may recall that in Hawaii last year there was a NZ co-ed team called Sweet As (and I thought they had left an 's' of their name by accident). And I think you get the idea, I hope (if not, you are dumb as)

I know that people are expecting me to have mastered an Aussie accent by the end of this year, and those people will be sadly disappointed. The students this year ask me once a day to try one, but I refuse - it is pathetic. I've been told that at the year end assembly, I'll be expected to do it, but instead I plan to prepare a speech using every single expression I've learned. And maybe my friend Danny's band will perform Fight For Your Right, and I'll sing - man that would be cool. One neat thing about the whole accent thing, is I can now "hear" my own accent, because I am surrounded by, and really accustomed to, theirs. One more really strange thing is, whenever people meet me they want to guess where I am from - my favourite, fairly common, comment I get is "no offence, but it is so annoying when people from the States do..." and I cut them off, of course "actually, I am Canadian". I've been told, not asked, but told by at least 4 different travellers that the two places were basically one - the continent is called "America" I guess, as one of the year 7 socials teachers told his class. And, it had been guessed a lot of times that I was Irish!?!??! I mean I may have the colouring of some Irish people, but do I sound Irish? Are these people insane?

On a serious note for a moment, I'd like to make a couple of political/social observations. First off, politics is as boring as home. The fact that the Aussie were very gung ho about the war and sent troops in really early was cause for lots of debate. The Prime Minister (John Howard) has come out of the war with a much higher approval rating. He seems like an okay guy, who is just really bland, no one I talk to claims to like him, or admits to voting for him (indirectly, of course, as they have the same system of electing leaders as Canadians do). News about the next election is slowly starting to heat up, but no one really seems to care. The most interesting thing about election here is voting is MANDATORY, and you get fined if you don't vote! So, they get a very high voter turnout. Even people living way out in the outback will get fined.

If it was possible, Australians treatment of their native aboriginals is even worse than North Americans. I've gone to a number of museums and learned a lot, and on top of the massacring, forced movement, lose of land, and only being treated as citizens in the last 30 years, the worst was this project "stolen children". This occurred, I believe, over much of the first half of the 20th century, where the government walked into reservations and just took all of the children and many of them have never seen their parents again .The whole idea was to send them to "white" schools ("boot camps") so they could better integrate into society. This is often referred to as the "lost generation". My first real encounter with aboriginals has been up here in the Northern Territory. You see them sleeping in parks and hanging out in the downtown. They are not allowed to purchase alcohol, as they have a low tolerance for it, as they do for sweets. Not that I am scared, but a number of times I've walked past a bunch of them with either a bag of food, or something, and they've either tried to stop me, or will follow me, or just yell after me - it is odd - I don't feel threatened, but it just doesn't make you feel all to good. There seems to be a MUCH bigger divide here between aboriginals and "white" society. There is also a big push to eliminate that, but there is more racism here than at home - but this could also be that I have been sheltered from it by living in a nice area of a big city - it would probably be different if I lived up in Northern BC.

I've been harassed by many of you for complaining that my house is cold. And I put a note in the school newsletter asking for more heaters - and everyone was laughing at me. "You're Canadian." they would all say, meaning that this should be nothing for me. But, here is the big difference - in Canada, we build houses in anticipation of the really cold, while in Australia, if they did that, the houses would be ridiculously hot in the summers. So most people here have fireplaces, or lots of floor heaters and use them all day long in the winter. No one seems to have "invented" central heating, or double-glazed windows. My house is a summer shack, and the walls are paper thin, and it is freakin' cold. I think I am setting some world speed records with my dash from bed to the shower in the morning. Also there is a much bigger range in temperatures here - at home it might be 8 degrees in the morning and then 3 in the evening during winter, while here it goes from 20 to 2, and up in Alice Springs it went from 25 degrees to zero. The body, or at least my body, is having to adapt. I've ridiculed friends, or past girlfriends who come to my apartment and curl up on the couch with a million blankets on pleading with me to turn the heat on (which I never need to do at home in Vancouver), and now, I've become that person - I even wore my fleece to bed one night. I am a wuss. And yes, this is considered whinging. For those who somehow missed the main point, my house is cold as. (I love that expression, because you don't need to finish the sentence, it is just cold as anything that is really cold - use your imagination!)

In Australia, especially in the countryside where I'm living, much seems a little backwards or behind what I'm used to - BUT, they have adopted something which I've been complaining about for years. They have NO PENNIES! Is that brilliant or what? Everything gets automatically rounded up and down to the nearest 5 cents. Way to go! On another coin related topic - I made up a probability worksheet for my year 9s and no one could do question 1, and I got a bit frustrated because we had been working on questions like it for 2 classes - and then I realized what their problem was - they don't have quarters in Australia. Oops. (5, 10, 20, 50 cent pieces for those wondering).

"Do you want to go rogaining?" I was asked one day about a month ago. And I answered, fluffing my ever expanding mop of hair "Do what now?" I wasn't aware that I needed that sort of help - I haven't had a hair cut in 9 months. I quickly learned that rogaining is an awesome sport that combined cross-country running with orienteering. You and your team get a contour map and a compass and 6 hours to find as many check points as possible. Your map has roads and check points mapped, but you need to run through the bush to find them and this requires taking bearings, and being able to read hills and valleys. My team did well - it was fun and tiring, and I'll definitely do that again. This was part of my full on weekend, where I drove up to Melbourne after school (2 hours + in rush hour), coached ultimate Saturday morning, drove back to school on Saturday to rehearse, went to sleep woke up at 5am, went back to school and then went up to the rogaining thing which was a 3 1/2 hour drive each way! Got home at 10pm. That was FULL-ON! And fun. And they have rogaines that are 12h and 24h as well. The world championships were actually near Calgary last year. Rogaine is actually formed from the three first names of the inventors  (I think they were Rowan, Gail, and Neil).

Students here claim that my accent has changed. But I think it is more that they have just gotten used to it. As I have with theirs. I don't even notice the accent anymore, and when I hear someone speak who is from North America, it takes me a few moments to "hear" where they are from. It is odd being surrounded with an accent all day long. I thought that I might grow tired of the Aussie accent, but it has been quite the opposite - I love it. As they love mine. They are always getting me to say words that I "mispronounce". They love when I say "bananas in pyjamas", for example. There are also a lot of word changes in teaching math (or maths) that I have had to get used to. Exponents are indices, variables are pronumerals, factoring is factorising, and the best one is, that roots are surds. I found this out the funny way in my first lesson of the year with my year 9s, when I was asking them to "find the root" in a Pythagorus type question, and most of the class laughed (they are a pretty immature group at the best of times, I must add). I was pretty confused - the question wasn't supposed to be that funny. I then had it explained to me what the slang word "root" means. "Root", for those who haven't figured it out, is another word for having sex or the male sexual organ. The weekend after the Matrix came out I heard a student saying to another that they were shocked that they showed Keanu "rooting" that girl in the movie. Ahhhh another great slang word! I no longer "root" for my favourite sports teams (at least until I get back to Canada - and by the way, no one older than 15 would even find that slightly funny).

Something really odd about travellers (I stay in a lot of backpackers places on my short holidays) is that a really high percentage smoke. I mean over 50%. That blows me away! Travellers are usually young, and doing heaps of active things, and are always looking for anyway to save money. You always here someone brag about a hostel they stayed in that was $18 instead of $20, or a tour that they saved $20 on and they smoke all day long (the excuse that they only smoke when they drink is as ridiculous as me saving I only snore when I sleep). I want to turn to these people when they claim some trivial amount of money they saved, and say that I saved $50 this week by not smoking, and the upside is also that I won't get lung cancer, but hey, I hope your cheap room was nice. Things you never say... And another funny thing amongst backpackers is there seems to be some sort of competition going - who can stay away from home the longest without missing it, who can "do" the most number of places, who can have the most number of hangovers on consecutive nights, who can name the most number of backpacker/tour company employees by name, etc etc...I am not winning this competition, however, I am winning the "who can eat the most number of peanut butter and jam sandwiches" - which is a combination that Aussie kids find repulsive?!?! And they like Vegemite - for those who haven't tried this - it is a really strong yeast extract. It is powerful and absolutely a taste you have to grow up eating. It is gross, for me, but, I'm told, very good for you. Well, that is just great.

I spent a long weekend in Adelaide about a month ago. Adelaide itself was nice, but not tremendously exciting. The highlight of the trip was a tour to the nearby Kangaroo Island. We went on beautiful bush walks, saw these awesome eroded rock formations and heaps of cool wildlife: seals, sea otters, wallabies, koalas and a few possums, but...NO KANGAROOS!!!!! What is up with that!?!?! A very beautiful island, and a nice small your group. These groups are excellent ways to meet people - I travelled that day with two girls from Japan, a guy from Germany and a girl from France.

Report cards at my school are SO much work! I mean I do a thorough responsible job at home, but this was a whole other ball game. First off, each student gets 11 marks in math, instead of the two we give at home (a letter grade and a work habit), and on top of that each student gets a 5-7 sentence long personalized comment. This took 10-12 hours to do for my five classes. But, we are just getting started with the process. Then all of the teachers met after school with printouts of their comments in the library and we proofread and edited each others comments, looking for grammatical errors (some people are VERY picky), spelling mistakes etc. And you'd think that would be enough, but after people make those corrections, the department heads then read them again, finding more mistakes and errors (I personally found it funny that a teacher who isn't an english teacher was critiquing my grammar - "you shouldn't use semicolons, because no one knows how to use them" - "um, I do"). Finally, after those corrections are made, everything is printed out and then we have to fill them ourselves in each student's file folder (this took me 45 minutes), and then staple and then put in sealed envelope. Wow!

Another really "fun" thing about school this year are "extras". You rock up in the morning, thinking about all of the things you are going to get done (or in my case, all of the emails I plan to respond to) and there is this scary sheet that gets posted outside the staff lunch room every morning about 8:45 which says who is covering extra classes for the day. The school is too cheap to bring in substitute teachers unless many people are away (like at a three day camp), so we cover each others classes. This is a silly system because you aren't supposed to leave a "real" lesson to be taught, as everyone complains if they actually have to do more then babysitting. So, I"ve been asked to show videos a number of times, or just supervise quite study in the library, and I just wonder if this is educationally sound. Shouldn't they have a qualified substitute who can actually teach lessons? And it is so annoying to have to cover a year 8 religious education class, or a year 7 music class, or a year nine french class when you weren't expecting it. I'm getting good at predicting when I'm going to get one - whenever I really have something I have to do during my prep period, I get one (I guess that is Murhpy's Law).

My squash team ended up finishing second in the league and we got nice little trophies. I won 16 of my 20 matches, with three losses being to the same annoying guy. But, I beat him badly in the finals - unfortunately, my team lost the rest of their matches and we lost. The courts, for those who play, are crazy! During the quarters the walls were literally wet with condensation. So wet that any ball that hit the wall did something unpredictable. There were a million strokes and it was just plain silly. Then during the semifinals, the opposite happened - the ball and walls got really tacky and sticky. And when I first got here in January it was like a virtual sauna in there. Fun, but crazy.

I'm staying busy as ever: rehearsing Monday nights, going to Melbourne to coach Frisbee nearly every Saturday, playing squash twice a week, working out at the gym twice a week and trying to write my own play (I have made starts on three separate short ideas). I also have to work hard at keeping up with North American sports. And I try to see as many movies as I can, and I'm also reading heaps (I've finished 8 books since I left - which is very good for me). A couple of recommendations: for books you must read First They Killed My Father (memoirs of a Khmer Rouge survivor), and anything by Bill Bryson; and for movies, I loved Whale Rider and Nowhere in Africa.

Yes, you heard correctly - I was training with the local Aussie Rules football team for about two months. But, in the end it just wasn't for me. Way too rough. I decided that I really didn't want to get injured badly in my year away. It is fun, but with lots of contact. Let me say though, that the game is awesome! I love the professional league here (the AFL), and I will desperately be trying to follow it when I come home again. I truly believe that, if given the chance, it would be more popular than the NFL and CFL, at least to play. And everyone here is crazy about it! Everyone has a team that they barrack for (the same as rooting for a team - but once again, NO ONE would ever say that in Australia). I mean everyone - little kids, old women, everyone. And they really care! I've gone to a few games and it is like a huge party - everyone stands and cheers and yells at players etc. It is awesome. Everyone is a weekly betting pool, everyone owns numerous team apparel items and everyone (especially boys) grows up "having a kick". My kicking was an "absolute shocker". The funny thing is Aussie Rules is really only popular in parts of the country, because the traditional game in other areas is rugby. And there are two types of rugby - league and union. We play union in Canada, and that game is pretty good, but league is boring. But, don't just go to Sydney and yell that out - people are great defenders of "their game", and no one likes the other two (that's not true - many like more then one, but everyone has their game). Footy, or Aussie Rules, is, in my mind, the most dynamic, involving the most number of great athletic plays, and doesn't just rely on brute strength. But, yes, you are allowed to hit each other, and you aren't a good player if you don't. As friends say, a country that loves ice hockey, would love footy. And we would.

Just got back from my holidays to the Northern Territory (yes, I am writing this email over a few different days). It was hot up there, and it is cold down here. I started by flying to Alice Springs (smack in the middle of the country) and went on tours of the local mountains, and then down to Ayer's Rock - the largest monolith (one rock) in the world. It is 350m high and they estimate that it continues for 3km underground. It changes colours during the day - we saw it at sunrise, during the middle of the day, and at sunset - very different. The best was early in the morning - the rock is an awesome red. Not nearly as smooth as it looks in the postcards. A big issue is the climbing of the rock - we visited (actually every does) the cultural centre before going to the rock and the centre focuses on the serious cultural/spiritual significance that the rock has for the local aboriginals and how they REALLY don't want people to climb on it. But, still 100s of people climb it everyday!?!? This is the equivalent to climbing a church or a totem pole (probably much more significant than that). I was shocked that so many people had such a disrespectful attitude about the beliefs and wishes. I wasn't going to climb it in the first place, because I am afraid of heights, but I still wouldn't have.

Next I flew up to Darwin - everyday I woke up at 7am - it is already over 27 degrees at that time and I have a hard time sleeping in a dorm sometimes. I was off and up out exploring the town everyday, but the funny thing is that usually around 2pm, I was so tired that I fell asleep under a tree in a park, or on the beach - people were probably walking past seeing this guy with crazy messed up hair, who was unshaven and passed out, and probably thought I was a wino. I didn't want to fall asleep, but it was beyond my control. Also, I got bitten to death up there - if it wasn't the mozzies (mosquitoes - I'll go into the Aussies love for inane abbreviations in the next instalment), then it was the sand flies, who could penetrate any type of clothes and who weren't affected by insect repellent (at least I was told) - and I got bitten so many times and it was so itchy. I was told that they bite you the most if you lie down near the beach - damn!

Darwin was really relaxed - lots of fun outdoor restaurants, many backpacker places, a beautiful set of unswimmable beaches (they look fine upon first inspection, but they pull 150 of the scary variety of crocs out of those beaches every year), some awesome outdoor markets and the most incredible sunsets. About 85000 - it was a pretty cool place.

The highlight of the whole trip was my full on, 5 day tour of Kakudu Park (plus a few other areas near by). The largest national park in OZ - we went hiking everyday, swimming in safe natural water holes near waterfalls, camping in the bush, 4W driving, canoing and motor boating. It was all cool, but the boating was the best as it took us up close and personal with heaps of birds (pelicans being one) and crocs (2 metres away) - these crocs were freshwater ones, and they are the nice ones, but still far from being petable (they only eat you, if you act aggressively towards it, while the salties just eat you with no provocation - salties eat freshies too - in fact, the saltwater croc has no predator on earth and they have basically gone under no evolutionary changes since the time of the dinosaurs). We also saw some amazing rock art done by aboriginals, much of which has been dated to be 10000-7000 years old! Wow! It was cool. We also learned that only 25% of the aboriginal cultures and languages that once existed still remain (they estimate that pre-Euro there were 300 languages amongst the many groups around OZ, and now there are 60-70). It was a busy 5 days - up at 6:30am and asleep due to exhaustion at 10:30. Awesome meals, great weather, cool new animals and birds, really aggressive flies (they just won't leave you alone - wherever I go in this country, and it is over 30, there are flies there - if I was to sit still, I would always have a minimum of 8 and sometimes many more flies on me) and a nice small group of 8 of us, plus the most gung ho Kiwi guide.

My trip back home was met with a 13 hour delay, a cancelled flight, a forced and unexpected lay-over in Brisbane and missing the first day of school for the term - it is a long boring story, that made me quite frustrated, but on the upside they didn't lose my bags and are giving me a few free flights to make up for it. Could be worse.

Finally - Congratulations to this year's Grade 12s at Killarney! I'll be back at Killarney next January and I hope a number of you will drop by and say hi.

Bye bye for now, and please send some replies when you have time! It is lots of fun to hear what people are up to, or when people ask for more details (yes, I am leaving things out - these emails are abridged)

Tommy

PS I have been taking heaps of photos, and a few people have asked to see some. I plan to scan and email some photos out, but not to everyone. If you are interested in seeing some photos (and of course everyone can see them when I return), email me by August 1st, and I will make a new list and send out photos in the first week of August.

PPS Excellent news about the Olympics!

PPPS I have to include this quote from a book I'm reading where the author is making a point about stupidity and he quotes Miss Alabama's  answer in the Miss Universe competition when she was asked if she would choose to live for ever "I would not live for ever, because we should not live for ever, because if we were supposed to live for ever then we would live for ever, but we cannot live for ever, which is why I would not live for ever." - Amen, sister!