Day 11 - 19/06/2013

 OKAY. TUESDAY!

Saw Miss French in the hallways, she asked how I was going, I said I was ok, so all good =)

Year 11 then 10. Nothing too bad there... continued with similarity... seems to be alright. Again, they're always so confused x_X

Year 8 then 7.... so-so. Nothing exciting that I can think of at the moment!

At 3pm, we were paged downstairs because there was food waiting! Yay! Hot pizza! So I ran off to Ramzy's classroom to let him know that there was food in the common room for us to eat...
Ramzy: What food have they got?
Me: Oh, it's pizza! Not sandwiches. Better than what you've got ;P
Ramzy: Ok, good.

So I went downstairs with Lisa, and HAH! Ramzy got there before us!!!

Off to parent-teacher interviews... For some odd reason my ST wouldn't sit at a table, but he just stood at the entrance and talked to his students as they came in... at least he talked to them, right? *thumbs up*

mm... So I ended up hanging around a lot of the math teachers and just talking to them. At around 5ish, Ramzy came over and said his PT interviews were all done and we (Lisa, I and another teacher) got talking about maths and how maths is part of everything and Ramzy noticed I wasn't in his 4u class yesterday xD Like, ngaww xD So sorry about my little Ramzy crush, guys! He's just adorable xD

So George, the deputiy principal was just roaming around the hall, and at one point he asked me how to change the font size on his iphone. I tried to help him, but I couldn't find it =( And he called me useless xD I told him to google it and find out, to which he said "I don't take instructions! Men don't take instructions!". Then I just said "Fine, don't google it then!" He eventually googled it and scoffed and said "Psht, I hate it when women are right" xD I WIN, GEORGE =D

And then when I left, he sort of mock-complained that I was teasing him and that I was too comfortable already, and Miss French made a comment about how everyone does that. And George was like "Is that because she's (French) a lady?" and I said "No way, man. It's because she's the principal! If you were principal and said everyone teased her, I'd tease her too!". Then he told me he knew where I parked! D= and asked if I'd checked my three wheels! Dx

But, it's all good in the hood! Car was still there, windows unbroken, wheels unslashed! Safe and sound =)

Day 10 - 17/06/2013

Monday....... Let's see.

I got to school nice and early today, popped in to see French, and she pulled Lisa (Math head teacher) out, and told me that she (French) hadn't had a chance to talk to my ST yet, but has told Lisa about it, and that Lisa would talk to my ST about it. And off I went to sit in on Lisa's prelim ext 1 class.

Year 12 general had an assessment task in period 3 and 4, which I also did with them as a "competition". It wasn't as piss-easy as I was expecting, but it wasn't difficult, but this is what happened towards the end:
ST: you done?
Me: yeah, but I don't know what z-scores are!
Everyone heard me and laughed at me xD But it was a friendly laugh, so it's all good!

Then year 10... started similarity... wasn't too bad.


I shall update if something comes to mind.

Day 09 - 14/06/2013

Today was... a busy and emotional day. My university liaison had organised to visit us today, and she was going to be coming some time during period 1/2. Well anyway, remember how we had a fundraising bbq yesterday? Well, we had some chicken left over, so we thought we'd have use that and bring it to the staff morning tea during recess. So in period 1, I helped a teacher cut up some lettuce and cook the chicken. That sort of ran into period 2, but the liaison hadn't visited yet. So I went to class (year 8) and did some work with them.

So halfway through period 2, my liaison came. My liaison (Kerry) was a lecturer I was lucky enough to have back in 2nd year for an education elective, and I've always really liked how she taught. Basically, she practiced what she preached. She's also so loving and caring, but in a student-teacher way, not a mother-daughter way. Think Cavanagh =)

Anyway, Kerry came and had a chat with me about lessons, and I talked about how difficult it was to engage with students because of how unmotivated they are when it comes to maths, and just discussed things in general. My ST popped in, gave some very general comments about my teaching, and then left to morning tea (at this stage, the bell for recess had already gone).

And then I decided to tell her about how my ST sort of pokes fun at my name. And for some stupid reason (ok, not so stupid), I got quite upset and my eyes were tearing up. I also explained to her that he had (at least twice) referred to me as ChauMinh and not seen a problem with it (one instance he did in front of some students), and that he'd also referred to me to some classes as Miss Le(ding). And Kerry thought that was terrible, and so disrespectful. She said she'd talk to the prac coordinator at Casula and see what they could do.

We went down for morning tea, then Kerry met and talked with another prac teacher's ST. The other prac teacher saw my nice red eyes, asked me what was ok, and then I exploded into tears again == But she was really nice and told me to call her faculty if I ever wanted to talk =) Kerry and I were then going to leave, but the principal (Jennifer French) saw me crying and then asked what was wrong, and then brought us into her office.

We told her what was going on, and she said she'd talk to my ST and the maths head teacher about my ST and try and figure something out, and that I should take the rest of the day off to chill and come back on Monday super pro =)

The really nice thing was that the whole time, Kerry told me that she would call the coordinator and talk about it, and that she didn't want to make things worse for me and my ST, and that if it did get worse, they might have to take me out =/ But yeah, she was just really sweet about it =)

So we went back up to the staffroom, and I brought out my hedgehog slice (that was in the freezer), and offered some to the teachers that were there. Ramzy was like "only one for me, maybe half" and I said "Nah, take two! Take two!" and he was like "You trying to kill me?! Haha I am diabetic!" xD

Anyway, packed up and went home while Miss French told my ST that I was feeling unwell and was going to leave. At least when she told him, he came out of the classroom and asked if everything was ok.

So. Monday I shall come in and check in with Miss French and see if she has anything to say about my ST and whether or not he's been informed, and yeah! They (Miss French and Kerry) were just really nice and supportive the whole way and said they backed me 100% =)

I'll come back on Monday night and let you guys know how it goes!

Enjoy your weekend and good luck with finals!! =)

Edit: I am just going to clarify that I am not by any means turned off from being a maths teacher whatsoever!

Day 07/08 - 12-13/06/2013

So Wednesday/Thursday..

Nothing special, which is why I haven't blogged (aside from being busy AND lazy xD). Let's see..

Wednesday... Gave the year 10 students the test and marked it... they didn't so so well. Highest was 30/35, lowest was 5/35. Average was 15. YAY STATISTICS! XD Then year 12 and 11... nothing big. Then..... sport, which was cancelled, but I was helping my ST organise stuff for his BBQ for Thursday.

OK. THURSDAY!
First of all, athletics carnival was cancelled. That meant:
1. That sucks for all students, because it's a proper school day... for about 1/2 of the school that showed up, that is!
2. That sucked for the bbq my ST was organising! Because students wouldn't be running around getting hot and sweaty, so cold drinks wouldn't have been as great =(

I had year 10 first period. Gave them back their test... they were pretty much expecting the marks they got, gave them some feedback, some thought they'd have a little tantrum about how they deserved more, etc. Also, did I mention my ST only popped his head in ONCE that period? We're actually meant to be supervised at all times... and I wasn't... but more on that soon. ALSO A GIRL SAID MY DRESS WAS CUTE =D =D (it was ;D)

Then year 12 for p2. They did some past papers and I helped them out a bit. ST didn't come back at all. I went out to the bbq at recess to ask my ST why he come in at all, and he said "oh, year 12 can look after themselves". Hrm. How responsible of him...

Then double year 11. Got them on the next few exercises in their textbook, and they were quite chilled. The girls in that class also commented on my awesome dress xD

Lunch...Then year 7. Oh dear lord my gosh, omfg. They were terrible! They were having a tug-of-war with tables, and wouldn't sit down, they were just... ERGH! *tears hair out* Then Miss Yee (?) the teacher's aid came and helped me out a bit. My ST popped his head in for a bit and then left. We did some length conversion, and played a game.

Year 8 came, and that's when my ST finally showed up.... About time!!! He later said that I survived, so I'd passed... like, wth. He wasn't even doing his job properly! *ergh* I was unsupervised for the whole day! From period 1-5, I'd seen him for less than 10 minutes!! The kids played silent ball in the last period, and then HOME TIME! =D

Edit:
 Since athletics carnival was supposed to be on, the school had already ordered lunches for staff, and since it was cancelled, the food happened anyway. So we got paged from the office that lunch was available in the common room. This is what happened (another Ramzy story):
Ramzy: What they got?
Everyone: No idea
Ramzy: I'm going to check it out. If it's better than this *holds up his little bun*, I'll eat it because I can save this. If not, I'll eat my own lunch.

So he went downstairs, came back up with sandwiches, and... unfortunately they were not better than his lunch! =( But he ate them anyway... but not the crust xD

Day 06 - 11/06/2013

OK, SO. TODAY WAS SOOO COLD!!!! I was freezing! But thank goodness I started in Ramzy's room, so the heater was on =D

Then year 8 in period 1... I think Cass and her friends still dislike me, but whatever. Not my problem! Then year 7. So this was the first time I'd taken year 7. Today I taught them how to convert km > m > cm > mm and vice versa. Didn't go so well. But I think they got the general gist! =) It didn't go too badly, but they are the bottom year 7 class, working at year 4/5 level and probably have some learning/behavioural issues. Regardless, they were reasonably polite and did their work.

Then assembly, free period, year 12... Not bad. Right, so you guys remember the girls who I told about the condom on freeway thing? (Day 04 post). Well, she came into the year 12 class today and said to me "Have you been playing with condoms recently, Miss?" ahahahha clearly I'd made an impression on someone!!! ;D
End of period 4 (year 12 class), my ST is writing a list for the athletics carnival and who is doing what for the fundraising lunch. So, for people who are serving, I offered to help, and wrote ChauMinh, and when I pointed it out, he said that usually people write the first name first... and I said "but it's one word" Friggen hell ==

Then a free period again, "faculty" meeting after that, and day was over. Or so I thought! My ST was given bus duty, which involves him standing at the front of the school, and supervising the students who were waiting for the bus. Bear in mind school finished at 2.20pm today and bus duty started at 3. Anyway, we waited and waited, and one bus just wouldn't come!! We waited til 3.30... still no bus. We went back to the office, called the bus company, and they said the bus wasn't going to come for 15 minutes! IE, AT 4PM!!! So the kids would've been waiting for over 90minutes! LIKE, WHAT?!

Then I went home xD

Year 10 Stats topic test tmr! Hopefully that goes ok =)

Day 05 - 07/06/2013

*MAJOR EXHALATION*

Wow. Today was... different.. Let's see.

Year 10 first period.. taught them the last section of the chapter... I thought it wasn't that bad, but in retrospect, that was terrible. My diagrams were sloppy, kids weren't paying attention, I forgot to mark the roll, I didn't check homework... I just *sigh*. No idea what happened today. I don't even think saying that I hate statistics is a good enough excuse. It doesn't even count as an excuse. Overall, I was very under-prepared and I am fairly disappointed with myself... which leads to recess.

Staff morning tea in the common room. Food on the table, teachers picking up food, chatting with each other. My ST is with another maths teacher as I had arrived after him. Stood there by myself, felt like an idiot. Sat down, felt like even more of an idiot. Oh shit. Feel like crap. Decide to go back to staffroom and get some work done... but how does this reflect on my school participation? Walk upstairs to staffroom. Oh, that's right! They locked the doors. DANGIT.

Went back to common room, a maths teacher told me to get some food. I smiled, said I wasn't hungry, and decided to go to the acting Dep principal (maths HT) and have a little cry... oh, she's not there... TEARS WELLING! ALERT! TEARS WELLING. Off to bathroom, sit down, cry. Cried a little, then I thought I was ok to leave.

So I walked back to the common room. Sat down by myself in the back... again, felt like a loser. Tears started streaming down again... GODDAMMIT SOME PRAC TEACHER JUST HAD TO START TALKING TO ME, DIDNT THEY?! >< Start talking, then I'm ok again. Off to class with a little red nose and red eyes x_X

Talked to some year 12 students about uni and the expectations.. that seemed ok. I had an alright time. Then year 7, who managed to get themselves a detention by misbehaving (surprise surprise).

Then year 8 after lunch... By the way, Cass now hates me. The kids don't like me as much (it seems). I don't know... maybe I just think that they don't like me anymore =/ Maybe I'm misinterpreting. Maybe I'm just desperate to be liked by the students. I don't know. Who does?

Day 04 - 06/06/2013

Taught my first class today! It sucked because:
- statistics. YUCK.
- standard deviation... HELLO. MORE YUCK.
- I couldn't use their calculators =(

Otherwise, they picked up on the material quite well, and I expressed to them that there was nothing either of us could do about it, and they'd have to bear with it =(

Oh yeah, my ST was away today. I followed Miss Su (casual) around today instead =)

Period 2... had year 8. So. Within the first five minutes, a girl (let's call her Cass) had asked to go to the toilet. Miss Su said no. Cass was being rude in general. She asked to go to the toilet again, saying that she should be allowed to go because she asked politely. Miss Su said no. Anyway.. this kept going on and on, and Miss Su kept saying no (Cass didn't even need to go to the toilet, she just wanted to get out of class).

It got to a point where Cass just got up and left. When she came back, Miss Su didn't let her back in, told her off, and then Cass got her stuff, stormed out, yelling "I'M GOING TO THE DEPUTY'S OFFICE AND REPORT YOU. IF YOU THINK YOU CAN TALK ABOUT STUDENTS BEHIND THEIR BACK, YOU'RE WRONG!!!" and just kept yelling. Anyway, Miss Su wasn't talking about her, she was talking about the work to me. So apparently Cass's always like this anyway, so that was supposedly "normal" O_O Also she was found having a little sob in the deputy principal's office anyway...*look at me, pity me*

Then I had the stats lesson which was ok. That's about it, I think! Nothing else too exciting =)

EDIT:
I can't believe I didn't talk about this earlier! So I sat in Raff's year 12 class in 5th period. So.. general is the lowest maths course, right? WRONG! It's applied maths, and I suppose it doesn't really count as a course because it's non-ATAR. So what they learn in this course is literally maths you apply in real life. Raff was doing a recap and said that last week, they'd learnt how much it'd cost to run an AC or how much paint they'd need, etc etc.

Anyway. I was sitting behind these two girls, and at one stage, when I walked past them, I saw a condom wrapper sitting on one of their desks. I smiled and kept walking.
Girl 1: MISS, I'M NOT SEXUALLY ACTIVE!
Me: Well, that's none of my business.
I stood around the front for a bit, then walked over to the girls, and said
Me: Do you girls drive?
*confused faces on the girls*
Me: You know, can you guys drive? Are you on your P's?
Girl 1 and 2: Nup
Me: Well.. what you can do is... when you can drive, go out on a freeway and hold the condom facing the wind, and what should happen is that it'll blow up like a huge balloon *gestures with hands*
Girls: O_O Seriously, Miss?
Me: Yeah!
Girls: Have you ever done it?
Me: Nah, but I want to!
Girl 2: You're a sick bitch, Miss!
Me: Thanks...?

EDIT: OMG, HOW DID I FORGET?
So, in Raff's class, he was teaching them pythatgoras, and he says "Ok, did I get this right? *points at board* Nekminnit, *points at board* Yeah?" I face-palmed =D
And then he pointed at some terms and said "these guys are bffs" Man... he's not even that old and he sounds so daggy!!

Day 03 - 05/06/2013

WOOH. Crazy day!

Let's see.. I barely remember!

So here are some things that happened-

When I was left alone in the staffroom (without my ST), all the remaining teachers told me "this is where you learn; not with him" I mean... funny that even they think he's a slacker! xD But seriously, I might not be learning how to teach content, but I'd definitely be learning how to manage the classroom (he's different in every class)

I am also what seems to be a helper monkey in the staffroom... And what I mean is they never turn the lights off when the timer goes off! I always get off my chair and turn it on - they'll all just sit and do their work in the dark xD Lazy bums!

Also, it was sport, and what happens is, it's period 1-4, then sport. So I asked my ST what he did after period 4, and he said "as little as possible" *facepalm* Then the head teacher shook her head and said "No we don't" But yeah, year 7 and 8 don't have sport with the rest of the school, they've got sport in their own time.


Let's see...

He signed a kids hw and used the pen I got from the Australian Federal Police booth at the careers expo, and somehow convinced the kid I was an undercover cop... I don't know how, but he believed it

We also had play ground duty... We were walking up and down the teachers' carpark, and suddenly my ST stops and I turn around to see him scribbling "WASH ME" on the back of a dirty car. Then he said "That's the principal's car" OH DEAR LORD. He's such a child sometimes!!

That's all I can remember for now, shall edit if anything else pops up!

Day 02 - 04/06/2013

TODAY WAS... Better! A little.

Started with year 11, where one of the girls had a derp moment when my ST decided to scroll past the question on the smartboard...
girl: Sir sir! Stop scrolling! I'm not up to that part yet!
ST: Why don't you just look on your textbook?
girl: oh yeah...

That class went by alright, I just did some quiet observing =)

Then year 10. I like that class =) They're quiet and nice =) They're polite and ask for help when they need it

Year 8... hrm... what did they do today? Oh. Yep. Nope. Still don't remember... substitution! That was ridiculously difficult for them! =/ But they got through it, so I suppose that's alright... but the sad thing about this year 8 class is that they're working from a year 7 textbook, and a lot of what they do in class is year 6/7/8, and they just struggle so much with it! I mean, they have trouble telling me what 10-4 is =/

AND LAST CLASS. YEAR 7. Oh me oh my. So... everywhere! There's always one out of their seat, or one yelling out and omg, so much noise!

So. Miss Yee is with this year 7 class as well, and... my ST somehow convinced the class (despite our two different last names) that she was my mother... one of the boys was like "SEE! I TOLD YOU SIR, THAT'S HER MUM! I WAS RIGHT!! IT'S THE NOSE!"

They were studying number planes, and....... they have no idea (despite 3 lessons on this already) where to put the numbers.. like, you start with 0 in the centre of your axes, then count outwards, right? But some kids have 5 closest to the centre, and 1 out on the edge... or they forget negative numbers.. or.. they just can't count.

And then staff meeting about something called Momentum, which is a thing teachers use to make reports on students and what-not.

I miss Hurlstone =( And I am so glad I went to HAHS!

Edit:
my ST also cleaned his desk for the first time since the beginning of the year, and he was like "LOOK! You can see some desk!!"

Edit 2:
OMG GUYS. There's this teacher there, and I think he's Indian or something, and he's got the coolest name! It's RAMZY! And he's this little old man who is always so happy! I sat in on his 4u class and he's just so gentle and sweet! He was starting on a new topic in 4u and he explained to his FIVE (soon to be 3) students what the topic encompassed, and what subtopics they would be covering, what those questions were like, and what sort of prior knowledge they'd need. 0
It was really nice to see him go through that, because I don't think I've ever experienced a teacher say something like "Ok, today we're going to learn Mechanics, and in this topic, you'll do x *draws diagrams*, y *brings out props*, z *etc*. If you can do integration, you'll be ok here"

Anyway. What I wanted to say was that he's balding on the top of his head, and we also don't use tissues in the staffrom - we use those paper hand-towels you get in the toilet. But thats not the point of my story xD

So Ramzy is eating his lunch (some little bread bun) and he ripped off some paper towel and folded to the size of his palm (ish). I looked up and saw him dabbing at his sweaty little head! Like, NGAWWWWWW XD I got back to my work, looked up a short while later, and now he's got his blue hanky, and he's dabbing at his head again! He's just adorable! He's always smiling and cracking jokes, and he's just the type of person that'll really make you smile =)

Day 01 - 03/06/2013

PRAC! WOOH!

So... let's see...

I got to the staffroom, met some teachers... There's this guy, and his name is sooo cool! It's Raff Fantasia! Like, HOW FRIGGEN AWESOME IS HIS NAME?? Anyway, he's pretty cool - hipster looking (little ponytail, hipster glasses, in a band, busking in Newtown some time soon), and yeah! He was nice =) Actually.. they're all nice.. except John, who is oddly insensitive and racist xD

So I haven't started teaching yet.. just observing for now. The first class wasn't too bad - I met them the last time I was there on the pre-visit. The year 8 class have a teacher's aid and her name is Miss Yee (I think that's how you'd spell it, anyway), and she's pretty cool. This year 8 class are quite.. special. They've all got learning/behaviour problems of some sort, which is why Miss Yee is there. They're all working on a year 7 textbook, and it's actually really sad to see that they're struggling with such basic concepts. I mean, they were learning algebraic expressions, and they had to use pronumerals to write expressions such as "a number is increased by 5".. they just couldn't grasp it =( Or even "twice a number" it was just so difficult for them =/

OMG. And then a double period of year 12... the whole time, they didn't do any work!! A few of the boys were openly swearing at each other, John doesn't respond... one boy was playing games on his laptop, another boy sitting in front of me had his phone out, headphones in, and well.. John didn't really care. To put it in his words, they were "hopeless".

What was funny though, was that about halfway through the lesson, this happened:
girl sitting across the room leans towards John and whispers something (I'm pretty sure she said "Sir! Who is she?!"
John looks at me and says: she's from the derpartment - she comes to all the year 12 classes and writes a report on me and sends it back
*everyone looks around, mouths wide open*
boy: Miss, what's your name?
I look blankly at him
boy: Miss, waht's your name?
I stare back at him

Another girl and her friend stared at me, all quiet and whispers "she's writing a report on us!" and starts pretending to do her work

boy: Sir, does she speak English?
me: of course I do!
boy: but you didn't answer me when I asked!!

MAN. A surprisingly tiring day!!!

That's all I remember for now, but I shall add more if I remember!

Pre-visit to Casula High School 21/05/2013

I apologise in advance about my future posts regarding prac because they're all going to be all over the place, but they're just bits and pieces of stuff that are somewhat worth remembering...

So... I had a pre-visit to Casula where I'm meant to meet my supervising teacher (ST) and pretty much get a chance to familiarise myself with the school before my Professional Experience (PE) started.

Before I get into the nitty-gritty, I've got a year 7 and 10 class and my ST's name is John. Ok.

John is white, in his 40s somewhere, greying hair, beer belly. He is also rather racist, sexist and sometimes a bit insensitive... Also the students there are unfortunately not very bright or motivated =(

Thing's he did/said on that day..
Whilst introducing me, he said "This is.... ... *pause*.... MinhChau Le, or Chau Minh for short, which is what I'm going to call you". HRM. WHAT? He also expressed how glad he was that I could speak English well, because otherwise he'd have to fail me...

A student of his told him that she came 2nd in a test, he said "What have I said - 2nd is 1st loser... I'm only here to encourage you" LIKE WHAT?! CMON MAN. Also I found that when his kids openly swear in his class, he just... doesn't say anything! Either he didn't hear it, or he chose to ignore it =S

Otherwise, the pre-visit was fine - the kids were nice to me, and I knew what I had to prepare for when I started prac

I'm back!

Wooh! I haven't blogged in so long!

Anyway, I'm back for the next four weeks where I will be blogging about my prac experience! I'm off to Casula High School for my first prac for my degree - Science (Mathematics)/Education (Secondary).

Just some basics about my prac so far -

1. We have what's called method classes where you learn stuff related to your method (for me it's maths)... anyway, I haven't learnt ANYTHING! I was expecting to learn the 7-12 syllabus again (or at least a quick run down of formulas, or how to approach difficult/challenging questions), but... I haven't learnt shit all! (Other math method students will back me up on this)
2. I didn't get any choice on where I was sent... except for where I'm not sent. That is, there are three criteria (where I went, any schools that I work at, or have any friends/family working at), and for the schools that meet those criteria, I'm definitely not sent there.
3. 3 days of observation, followed by 17 of teaching, where I teach 1/3 of the supervising teacher's load (about 2 periods a day)

Oh... did I mention that I also have no finals? =D

Prac starts in... 36 hours! BRING IT ON!

Day -1 – Wednesday 14th November, 2012

Well, even though the trip starts tomorrow (thus the day -1), we had to send Bambam over to my aunt's house today. My Dad aired out his kennel, and we cleaned all his food/water bowls (3 total, the spoilt dog!), and we've just dropped him off at my aunt's place.

I took his mattresses to the front, and dropped his toy on one of them, and he got so excited, so I played with him for a bit. BUT MANNNNNNNNNNN I felt so bad for the poor thing! He probably knew we were going away, so he wouldn't be at his normal home =( That was probably the only time he looked happy at home today =(

Look how sad he looks!! =(

So, it's a 10-ish minute drive there, and bam was sitting in the car, ON THE HUMAN-SEAT! HE DIDN'T EVEN SIT ON THE FLOOR! HE GOT A HUMAN SEAT! Anyway, the poor thing was shaking and so scared! He was whimpering, and he just looked so sad =( But at least I knew he was going to be okay at my aunt's place =)

When we put his kennel amd mattress down, he got so happy =) I just realised I've started rambling, and posting about something really silly xD

Anyway, we had dinner at their place, and the whole time, Bam kept looking into the back door and scratching at it xD

I'm sure Bam will be happy there because my cousin's family will love him just as much as we do =)

Turkey Whisperer

Queensland trip - Day 05: 19/02/2012

Our last day!! =(

We woke up, cleaned the apartment, and checked out. We had all our luggage with us, and because it was a Sunday, we couldn't leave our luggage at the front desk because they closed at noon, and we didn't have to get to the airport til later.

We tried to figure our where to go, but Ann, Andrea and Ben wanted to explore the GC, go shopping, etc, but I didn't want to carry my luggage around, so those three went to the GC while Michael, Thomas and I headed out to Brisbane!

Hopped on a bus, then a train to Brisbane where we went to Thomas' friend's (I think his name was Ben) apartment. We dropped off our bags there, and Thomas took us around Brisbane =)

He took us to an artificial beach first, which was mega cool! Was sort of like an outdoor pool though, but with sand =D

Then we crossed the river on one a rivercat to get to Thomas' uni =) there was a realy nice breeze going, too! =D

We got to UQ, then walked all around, where I spotted this -

 I thought it was pretty interesting xD

This was outside a museum that was inside UQ. I think the only reason we went to the museum (which was full of weird art) was because it had aircon, and that day was BOILING HOT. SOOOO HOT.

We headed off to some place where they had pizza names from A-Z, which was pretty cool. Pretty yummy, too! We walked towards the pond which had DUCKS AND TURTLES! IT HAD TURTLES! WHY CAN'T UNSW HAVE TURTLES!?!?!?

Then we caught a bus back to Ben's place, then Michael and I headed off to the airport! =D

So... fast forward to landing back in Sydney, and it was absolutely POURING RAIN!!! We were stuck on the plane for 30minutes or so before they let us off (even then, the pilot wasn't even allowed to come in, but he did anyway).

Anyway, while on the plane, waiting to get off, BEN.. he starts talking about stupid things again, and his street name. The lady behind him said that they lived on that street too, but luckily for Ben, they were from a different suburb. Imagine how embarrassing that'd have been if she lived down his road! Ben is so embarrassing on planes! Don't think I'd ever want to fly with him again x_x

So that was the trip! Overall, was very enjoyable, would definitely do it again! =)

Queensland trip - Day 04: 18/02/2012

On our last full-day, we headed to Movie World! Yay =)

 

The day wasn't too eventful, so I'm just gonna spam a tonne-load of pics =) 

So Thomas decided he wanted to have a go at ring-toss... the carny kept telling us bs like "one side of the ring is heavier" and shit like that.

Thomas kept saying bs like "I'm aiming for that" *points at all of the bottles*, or "I'm gonna aim for the wall, and hopefully it'll rebound and get a bottle"

 

 then he realised he wasn't winning, so he tried something new..

they let him keep the hat that the rings came in :D

 

Queensland trip - Day 03: 17/02/2012

DAY THREEEEEEEEEE…. WE WENT TOOOOOO

YAY FOR DOLPHIN SHOWS AND SEAL SHOWS, AND PENGUINS! YAY PENGUINS!

Instead of taking a bus down to Sea World, we had planned to go jet-boating! We ended up soaking wet! And because it was salt-water, our hair was all tangled and sticky, which made me quite grumpy (sorry Michael!) xD 

 They dropped us off at Sea World, off we went =)

We started off with a dolphin show, which was quite cute =)

 some pre-show photos :D

Then we saw the fairy peng'ins.... 

They're so tiny and cute!

 ... and the polar bear (which was disappointingly brown, and not white)

Watched a seal show (incredibly bad puns involved too, I might add)

THEN WE GOT ON A CAROUSEL!!! =D

 

This was a shark mask I bought for my 4yo cousin xD 

After all that (great recount, I know xD), we went to the beach, and had a little swim =) Thomas and Ben headed back to the apartment, while the rest of us decided to do a little bit of sight seeing! =D There was a market happening, and sand-castle competitions, and here are just a few:

Check out what I got from the market! (Arrived two weeks after I got back)

THEN WE WENT TO CONDOM KINGDOM!!!!

And check out what Andrea found! ;)

We had spaghetti, chips and garlic bread that night =D

Ann: oh my god, guys! This garlic bread is amazing! It’s soooo good!

Me: Ann, it’s just Woolies Homebrand garlic bread… it’s like $1 per loaf!

Ann: BUT IT’S SOOO GOOD! I’ve paid a lot for garlic bread, and it’s never been this good! =O

Queensland Trip - Day 02: 16/02/2012

 DAY TWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO........

 

We went to WET N WILD WORLD!! WOOOOOHHH!!!


Michael and I woke up extra early to go down to the beach to catch the sunset. Was definitely worth it! Was an amazing view!

 We came back, made sandwiches for everyone from last night's left-over burgers, put them back in the sandwich bag (because we'd forgotten to buy sandwich bags) and brought them with us to the park.

So we got on the bus to Wet n Wild, hopped off and had to get our pictures taken for the VIP pass. We got a locker to share, and then headed down to the wave pool for a warm-up! YAY! FUN! The wave pool there was nice =) Maybe about the same size as the one at Jamberoo though, so nothing too special.

I think we went on practically all the rides. Ann was a bit nervous on some of the ones that involved free-falls, so what Thomas did to help her nerves was to scream on all the rides, regardless of how scary it actually was. You could hear Thomas coming down the tube going “AAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!!!!!!!!!”  xD

The really awesome ones were the Kamikaze and the toilet (I think it was actually called the vortex). 

The Kamikaze

The toilet

 We also started this thing where we would just yell out WOOPWOOPWOOPWOOPWOOP!

So. We came back to the Kamikaze a second time (because feeling like you're gonna piss yourself once isn't enough, it seems), and we all went, except Ben and Ann. This is the part that annoys the heeby jeebies out of me! ><

So we left our thongs there, and when we came back

Andrea and Thomas had already returned, and chucked their thongs on

I threw my thongs on, and Michael and I are both looking for his thongs

mc: hey guys, where are Michael's thongs?

ann: I don't know? 

mc: seriously, it's not funny! Give em back!

ann: no, I seriously don't know what happened! Some lady came and asked if these were ours, and I said I wasn't sure, so she said they were hers, put them on, and walked away.

LIKE WTH. MICHAELS THONGS GOT STOLEN UNDERNEATH OUR VERY NOSES!! ><

Oh wells. Michael ended up with a new pair.

On our way home, we popped back in to Centro to grab some more bread (cause we'd finished most of it already), and took some silly photos next to a dog statue =D