Works of Art

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post! The past two weeks have absolutely flown by. Yesterday was the one month mark - I fly back to the US on December 14, and I can't believe that's now less than a month away. I still feel like there are so many things I want to do before I leave - go to Luna Park, go back to Olympic Park and really check it out, walk around Bondi Junction, go to Manly beach, go to Paddington Market... and the list goes on. But I still have four weeks, so if I manage my time wisely, that's all still possible. Teaching is still going well. I feel most confident with my year 8 class - they're a good group of boys, and I feel like they are actually learning something from me, which is a great feeling. My year 11 class, on the other hand, are giving me a bit more trouble. But it's certainly developing my classroom management skills, which were nonexistent when I first started teaching, so I guess that's a good thing. But with only three more weeks in the classroom, the end is in sight, which is a very strange feeling, because I still kind of feel like I just started.

Last weekend, my roommates and I went out to Bondi to see Sculpture by the Sea, an annual exhibit of public art that is displayed along the cliff walk between Bondi and Tamarama Beaches. It was awesome. We went on a beautiful day, which made it that much better. The art itself was really cool, but the most amazing part was seeing it with the ocean and beaches as a backdrop. There were also so many sculptures! We walked around them for about an hour or so, and then laid out on the beach for awhile. The next day Maria and I went to the Newtown festival (Newtown is the neighborhood next to ours) for a little while, which was also really cool. The only bummer was the weather - though Saturday had been gorgeous, Sunday was misty and rainy - not the best weather for walking around an outdoor festival. There were SO many booths with crafts and clothes and hats and art and food... it was very cool. On the way there, Maria got me thinking about cutting my hair: you're abroad, you're returning to Boston in the spring for your last semester, you're starting new... don't you want a new look? But I loved my long hair, it was one of my favorite things about myself, and I tried every excuse in the book - even that I couldn't just cut my hair because I'm a teacher and I have students. Maria of course countered that by telling me that was the lamest argument she'd ever heard (which I knew, it was lame). But I couldn't wrap my mind around cutting off all my hair. Until I thought about donating it to Locks of Love. And then I started actually thinking about it. I had had my hair long for such a long time. And it had been so long since I'd gotten it cut that the split ends were everywhere. So I decided to do it. All of this past week I tried to picture myself without my long hair, enjoying the last of its beauty. And Friday, when I got home from school, I did it. I spent a bit of time looking online for cheap places to get my haircut - if I haven't blogged enough about this, everything is SO expensive here! The cheapest haircut at a good salon was $60! We finally found the Australian equivalent of SuperCuts - Just Cuts, and it was in the mall across the street from our apartment to boot! So my roommate and I headed over, me with ziplock bag in tow, to get our haircuts. The girl who cut my hair didn't seem very nice, at first, which made me nervous. She actually kind of looked like the girl in Love Actually who is the secretary to Alan Rickman... but she turned out to be fine. She gathered my hair into a ponytail, and used a razor to make the first cut - my roommate Alli who was getting her haircut a couple of seats over waited to start her cut until she'd seen me through that first step. But it actually wasn't that bad. It was as if I was expecting it to hurt or something. But then it was gone, and that was that. I put the ponytail into the ziplock bag and let her cut the rest of it. It ended up being a good deal shorter than I thought it was going to be, but she did a great job. It was exactly what I wanted (the style, if not the length), and I love it. My head feels so much lighter (and I'm definitely going to save a lot of money on conditioner!) It's like the inverse of the Samson and Delilah story - cutting off my hair, though it was long and beautiful and I loved it - was something I needed to do, to boost my confidence and to teach myself that change is good. My roommates love it - they say they like it better than my long hair. I'm not ready to say that yet, though I do like it, and I know that it will grow on me as time goes on. I washed it this morning, and it dries beautifully all by itself, which is great, because i was nervous that I would have to blowdry it with a round brush to get it to look the way it did when I first got it cut. And I'm excited to figure out things I can do with it - since I can't really get it into a ponytail. As Jane said, I can make a punytail. I have a feeling that bobby pins are going to become my new best friends - not that they weren't already, but even more so. Though I'm starting to get used to it, I still freak out a tiny bit when I see myself in a mirror - but in a good way. I'm nervous about going to school - I wonder if my students will even notice? I mean, they are boys... But so far, everyone has proclaimed to love it, which is good, because I do too :)

Yesterday a group of us went to see an all female cast put on The Taming of the Shrew at the Opera House Playhouse, which was great. And today was the Glebe Street Fair, another festival similar to the Newtown festival we went to last weekend. There was all sorts of cool stuff, and we spent a couple of hours this morning walking around and checking stuff out. And we just had our whole apartment complex over for a potluck barbeque - we went all out and got steaks and everything. It was really nice! We sat outside on our porch, and even though it almost started to rain, it was a great time. Now for the penultimate episode of Australian Idol...

Some photos from the Sculptures by the Sea exhibit, and a couple shots of my new haircut :)

Update

And another week has come and gone! Time goes by so quickly here! This week at school was great; a bit more of a challenge than last week, but I think that's a good thing. I had a few lessons this week that weren't great, but I did also have a couple of gems. But with every lesson that is less than ideal, I learn a lot; unfortunately for my students, it's good for me to make some mistakes. I still need to work on slowing down, of course - that's my main goal for this week. I've been keeping a journal, in which I write after every lesson I teach, reflecting on what went well, what didn't work, what I need to work on in the future, and the pointers my teachers gave me. I was also observed this week, both by Mark, and by Professor White. They both said good things about my lessons (and I do have to admit, they probably saw a couple of the better lessons of the week), and Professor White gave me a lot of great tips that will help me immensely in the future. On Monday, I introduced "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe to my year 8 class, which, in all honesty, is probably a bit above their ability level. But I didn't do the best job of introducing it, and I felt that the lesson fell a bit flat. I was a little disheartened. But for our next lesson, I tried to update it a little bit, and I showed them several YouTube videos of readings by James Earl Jones and Christopher Walken, and the Simpsons episode in which they did "The Raven." That seemed to get them more into it, and I think they really understood, which was great. When we were talking about the themes of the poem, I gave them a couple of minutes to discuss with their neighbors what they thought some of the themes might be, and then I asked for students to raise their hands and tell me what they came up with. Almost every student raised their hand - it felt like a real accomplishment. And they all had great answers. That was definitely a high point in my week. And this was also the lesson that Professor White observed, and he told me that he thought the videos went over really well, and I have to agree. Any time you can get a visual or audio supplement with text, especially with boys, is a huge help. I'm going to be doing some old English poetry with my year 11s this week, and I'm going to show them some YouTube readings of the poems as well. It'll keep them engaged and give them a break from hearing my voice. And I finally figured out which sport I am going to be involved with at school - it's not basketball, like I originally thought, but rather swimming, which is great! It's school swimming, so it's kind of like PE, as opposed to competitive swimming - although Trinity did win the CAS swimming competition this year (that's their conference). But I am glad to be doing something that I'm a bit more familiar with. It'll be a good way to get to know the boys outside of class, as well. And I guess they were kind of short handed during the periods that I'm going to help, so they were very grateful for my participation. And it's always a good thing to feel appreciated.

This weekend was Halloween, of course, although it's not the same here as it is in the US. Kids don't trick or treat, really... at least not most of them. And there's no candy corn or caramel apples or foliage because it's not fall here. Which is a bit weird. But the BU Sydney Program had a Halloween Party for us, which was really fun. There was trivia, and a costume contest, and a few appetizers. My roommates and I dressed up as the Sea Princesses, which is a cartoon we stumbled upon last weekend when we were flipping channels. After doing some research, it turns out it's actually a Brazilian TV show that has been translated into English and airs here in Australia. Most people at the party didn't know who we were, but we still had fun. On the show, there are lots of sea princesses that each identify with a different sea creature, but the three of us were the three main girls - an octopus, a shark, and a starfish. I was the starfish. Our costumes turned out to be great, and though we won neither trivia nor the costume contest, it was still a fun party. We then went out to the Argyle, one of the clubs down in the rocks, where lots of people were dressed up. It was a pretty fun night, although it wasn't much compared to the scale of an American Halloween.

I absolutely cannot believe it's November already. It's crazy. And in Australia, that means its time for Christmas decorations. Which is even more nuts because it's finally starting to get hotter. I think one of the girls in the internship program said we have something like 40 days left, which just seems insane. Though I do feel comfortable here now (I mean, I've been here for two full months), I still kind of feel like I just got here, and I can't believe we only have 6 weeks left. Oh, and they don't call McDonald's Mackers, like I said before, but rather Macca's. That was just my inability to understand their accents. I finally saw it written out in a TV ad and was blown away. Hopefully next weekend we can make it out to the beach - there's a big sculpture festival along the cliff walk between Bondi and Tamarama Beaches until November 15, and I would love to see that. On the docket tonight: making dinner and watching Australian Idol - they're down to the last 5 now! One of the contestants is a teacher, so we're really rooting for him. He's quite good, too. I miss you all very very much!