Friday was a good day of school. I administered a Maths test that I had created, and from what I've corected so far, it seems as though the students have done particularly well! Which hopefully means I've done particularly well at teaching all week too. Friday was also fun because we finished the day with an aboriginal art project - painting, as well as library.

After school, my host mum and I rode the train into Brisbane again but this time went to Wesleys. Tina was planning and staying there to watch Zander as Trevor and Wesley went to a soccer game, and Shannan and I went out to supper and bowling with a few of her co-workers. After Shannan said her hellos to Zander, we hit the road for Toscani's, the restaurant we were meeting at. There was a group of 9 of us, and sadly the service was EXTREMELY poor.... for the other 8 in the group. We all ordered a drink, and then put in our meal order. About 20 minutes later MY meal came out, but no one elses. The restaraunt informed us that there had been a mistake and for some reason the computer glitched and sent my meal in as a separate order (I was the 4th one to order! weird!). They assured our table that their meals would be out in about 20 more minutes, whereas, they asked me what I was drinking so they could give me a free drink because of the way I had been inconvenienced. The table was pretty steamed throughout the entire meal, but several of them got rather upset when they found out that the restaraunt also paid for my MEAL! So, for my two drinks and 15 dollar plate of pasta, I paid $7.20... which is even cheaper in US dollars! :) SCORE! After eating we went to bowl a few games. My first game I bowled a decent (FOR ME!) 84. But I blew myself away with bowling a 105 in my second game! Everyone kept saying, "Gosh, look at that yank bowl!". For some reason the people here call Americans, Yanks, and the English, Pommies. In the end, it was an extremely fun, but late night.

Saturday I was able to sleep in, thankfully, until 9:30. I then got up, showered, and got ready for the day. I also took about an hour to talk to my mom, dad, Jessica, and Daniel on the phone. It was nice to reconnect, but I felt bad because that meant my host family and I didn't get out of the house until around 11:30. We then drove to the beautiful Bribie Island. Bribie Island is just as its name says, an island. However, unlike several of the other "resort-type" islands, Bribie is connected by a bridge to the mainland and therefore has a decent size population. While there Tina Trevor and I ate a splendid lunch. I had a BBLAT (Bread, Bacon, Lettuce, Avacado & Tomato, minus the tomato). It was the first time I'd ever had avacado though. I don't much care for it, but ate it regardless. We then drove to the other side of the island, the "surf" side and walked along the super soft, super WHITE sand beach! It was magnificent. After that we drove around a bit and eventually stopped for a coffee (I had a milkshake :D). From where we were sitting we could see a wedding happen. It definitely made me start thinking about mine, and getting me super excited for it!

When we returned we jumped in the car again and took off for the city once again - this time for Shannans. When we got there Tina and Trevor picked up Shannan, drove the two of us to her friend Jemma's house, and then went to lunch. Shannan, Jemma, Eliza (another friend) and I walked a bit to the bus station and caught a bus to the city. The girl who had aligned this had it planned that we were going to a restaraunt called Wagamama's... a Japanese restaraunt, and a first for me! When I told mom I was going to be having Japanese in the evening she told me, "Good luck with that". But, luckily, with some coaching from Tina and Trevor earlier in the day, I decided on the Negami Yakatori... can you get anything more Japanese sounding than that?! Basically it was chicken and onions cooked on skewers with a yakatori (don't ask me...) sauce over it. It was delicious! After Wagamama's we booked it across the city to a comedy club at which Shannan had won tickets. There were six of us and Shannan only had 4 tickets, so we split the cost of the other two and ended up only paying 8 dollars to see 6 great comedians live, again another first for me! I was able to catch most of the jokes, and if someone used an Australian name or reference Shannan's friend Tamara would lean forward and explain it to me so I could get the joke. After that we walked all the way back across town to the Treasury Casino. I was dressed quite nicely this time and the guards actually let me in. It was definitely the most GRAND casino I've ever been in! The 6 of us pushed our way to the front of the dancefloor and pretty much danced the night away! It was a BLAST! :) After that we caught the train back and needless to say, I didn't get back to Burpengary until about 1:30 in the morning. This was unfortunate because Jodie and her family would be picking me up at 8 am the next day!

Jodie, the media specialist at Morayfield East State School had invited the 8 Minnesota students to go and see a few historical monuments of the area for the better part of Sunday. We started at The Big Pineapple. It is just as it sounds, a great big pineapple. Surrounded by working pineapple and macademia nut farms, the Big Pineapple recounts the history of pineapple and macademia nut farming in this part of Queensland. We got to go and see several of the animals native to Australia (again...) but really enjoyed hearing the Cockatoos repeat when you said "Hey Cocky!" and the baby joeys coming in and out of their mother's pouch. It was quite amazing! We took a train ride around the plantation, and then another in the shape of a macademia nut to where the macademia nuts are grown and harvested. I've picked up a few to bring home... don't worry, it's legal. After that we headed to the Ginger Factory where we rode on a boat ride to "find the gingerbread man" around the world. After that we shopped a bit at a few shops along the way. We also went on a walking tour through the actual Ginger Factory to see how the ginger we eat is harvested and processed. We then took another train ride around the premises and watched an informational bee demonstration teaching us about how honey is harvested. After the ginger factory we made a quick stop off at a strawberry farm where we each picked almost a kilogram (approx. 2 lbs) of strawberries to bring home to our hosts. It was an extremely fun and informational day... and we were definitely in good compay with Jodie's family!

The "blues" part of my title is in regards to the fact that I have found myself SICK. On Thursday night I felt a little tickle, but nothing major. Unfortunately that tickle has steadily progressed to me completely losing my voice, having difficulty swallowing, blowing my nose constantly and feeling a bit feverish. Jodie instructed me to STAY HOME if I feel like this in the morning, and I told her I would. Unfortunately it just feels like one of those colds/sinus things that needs to be slept off and cured with water! I'm planning on having a shower tonight to hopefully get some relief from the steam as well as get my body back to a normal temperature.

Think of me as I go into my second week of teaching... :)

written by  cowane1 on August 29, 2010 from Burpengary, Australia
from the travel blog: Australian Adventures!
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A beach wedding or a Australian wedding ???

written by  James Cowan on August 29, 2010

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