Andrew's 35th Birthday

A couple weeks ago Andrew celebrated his 35th birthday... fun times! It was a Wed morning so we had to go to work, but we started the day with a few presents and cards.

I did a travel theme and got him a carry-on suitcase, and filled it with little things he'll need for our upcoming trip to Thailand. I had a lot of fun planning it and putting it together, and he had a good time opening it and unwrapping all the little things inside.



On the Friday night we had a party at our place... it ended up being pretty tame as a lot of people couldn't make it due to leaving on holidays that night (it was the first night of our school holidays and I figured people wouldn't be leaving town till Sat or Sun, but I was wrong). Anyways, we still had about 10 people over for pizza and dessert.



The pic above is of our friends Sarah and Julian who are expecting their first baby in January. Julian was trying to feel the baby kick for the first time, but he kept missing it, so Sarah was trying really hard to get his hand in the right place... exciting times for them!

ps- if you sent a card, see if you can spot it in the pic above (on the windowsill in the background)... they're all there! Thanks so much to those of you who made Andrew's birthday special by calling and/or sending a card... he felt very loved and remembered!

Year 7 Camp, 2011

Andrew and I just got back from our camps yesterday... it was a super full-on week, but the kids had a great time. Andrew went on the Year 10 camp to the Sunshine Coast where they did raft-building, zip-lining, and surfing... a very outdoorsy focus.

I went on the Year 7 camp to Brisbane where we did heaps of different activities. Andrew didn't take any pics this year, so all the pics on this post are from my camp. To start out with, one of our two buses broke down an hour out of Rocky (see above).

When it became evident that it couldn't be fixed on the spot, the other bus kept going with most of the kids, and a few of us stayed behind with the broken down one, waiting for a replacement bus to come pick us up. The only problem was that it was quite hot out (and the air conditioning wasn't working anymore), so they opened the luggage compartment underneath the bus for whoever wanted to sit in there to wait it out (see above).

One kid started having diarrhea around this time, so he's the one in the pic lying in the background, moaning and wanting to go home... I told him to suck it up, and he ended up having a great week!

Eventually we got a new bus and caught up to the first group. Altogether we spent about 9 hours on the bus that day.

Our first night was spent at "Underwater World" on the Sunshine Coast where we all got to sleep on the floor amongst the fish tanks, which was a cool experience for the kids (not so much for us teachers who are a bit past our sleeping-on-the-floor-is-fun days!).

They took us on a big tour of their facility, including a cool underwater tunnel (see above) that has a moving sidewalk. So you stand there, being moved throughout the tunnel, and watching all the fish, sharks, and stingrays swimming above and beside you. Most of the lights are turned off, so it's kind of dark, with a real blue, underwater feel. The kids also got to feed chunks of meat to the sharks from above the tunnel, which was really neat/freaky!


The next day we got on the bus again and went to the Abbey museum where there is a bunch of ancient stuff. I still think museums are boring, but I faked it for the kids since they were supposed to be interested in all that old stuff.

Outside the museum they gave us all archery lessons, which was fun. Us teachers also got to have a go for a while... we tried to see who could get the arrows the furthest. Thankfully all the arrows had rubber stoppers on the end (instead of the pointy tips)... always good when you're around 60 kids with bows and arrows!

From the museum we drove to our accommodation for the next 3 nights, which was a Baptist camp/conference center. After having dinner there, we got back on the bus and went ice skating. It's funny because ice skating is a normal thing for me, but for most of the kids it was their very first time, and they were pretty enamored by it. They all did well and there were thankfully no injuries. Didn't get any pics of it, unfortunately. I was too busy doing my triple axles. :)

The next morning we got back on that wretched bus and drove to CSIRO, which is a big science centre in Brisbane. They have a fantastic kids program where they have all these experiments set up for the kids to do. It is really well prepared, the kids have a great time, and the teachers get to sit back and watch for a little while. Good times.

Later that day we went for a tour of the Parliament House in Brisbane, which was very interesting. Similar system to ours in Canada. The kids had to wear their formal school uniform on this day of camp only, as parliament is a formal place.

They even got to go sit in the actual room where parliament is held (it wasn't in session that day). The kids all chose a seat to sit in, and then tour guide told them who usually sits in that seat. They all thought it was pretty funny when it was a man who usually sits in that seat, but a Year 7 girl was sitting in it right then (and vice versa). (See below)

That afternoon we also took the kids shopping to Indooroopilly, a huge shopping mall in Brisbane... the kids loved it and bought lots of presents for their families. In the evening we took the City Cat (like the SeaBus) up the Brisbane river so they could see all the city's sights lit up at night.

The next morning we got back on the bus (you guessed it!), and drove nearly 2 hours to Sea World on the Gold Coast. Here we got to watch the Sea Lion show, followed by the Dolphin Show, both of which were great. Then the kids had the rest of the afternoon to ride the roller coasters, see the displays, and eat cotton candy, etc.

At Sea World they have lots of different displays, but the new one this year was the Penguin Encounter... I'd never seen penguins so up close before... very neat. They have the prettiest color of yellow on their chests.

On Friday morning we got on the bus very early and headed back to Rocky. It was a 10.5 hour trip, and as soon as we got back I had to rush off to my soccer game. It was the semi-finals game, and we won 2-1, so now we are in the preliminaries game next Friday. If we lose we come 3rd overall. If we win, we play again the following week for 1st or 2nd place out of the 14 teams. Then it's all over after that. It's been a great season and I've learned a lot about soccer. Such a great game!

Regarding our job-search, it's in full swing. We've both applied for a number of positions, and hope to be interviewing during our school holidays in a couple weeks. That means another drive to the Brisbane area, but at least this time it'll be in our little blue hot-rod, not on that bus!

That's all for now... back in a week or two with another post hopefully.

~Corinna for Team AC

August in Oz

Hi Everyone,

Just a few photos of our August here so far. It's been a lovely month, full of sunshine and blue skies. The picture above is a little gross, sorry, but at the start of the soccer season a few months ago, a couple fat chicks stepped on my feet as they were marking me. My big toenails have been getting darker and darker ever since... not so pretty, but playing is so much fun that I don't care that much.

A couple weekends ago our soccer team had a fundraiser called a "sausage sizzle," which is basically the same thing as a hot dog stand, except they serve them on slices of bread instead of buns... I guess it's the cheaper way of doing things, and a big Aussie tradition. We made lots of money for our team, so that was good.

And then last weekend our friend Chris from church had a "Where's Waldo?" themed birthday party. We all had to come dressed up like Waldo, and had a big scavenger hunt around town in teams of 4. It was all on foot, and we had to do things like count fence posts, find road-kill, bring home the largest branch, calculate random admission prices at the pool, buy the largest item we could find for under $2, etc.

Our team had a couple really fast running guys on it, so they ran ahead for lots of the answers, which helped us as there was a time limit of two hours to complete all 4 sheets. In the end our team won and got a couple boxes of chocolates as a prize... fun times!

That's all for now. This week will be a normal teaching week for us, and then next week we'll both be away on camps with our kids for the week. I'm going to Brisbane, and Andrew is going to the Sunshine Coast.

Talk soon,

~Corinna

Brissy Weekend

Last weekend Andrew and I flew down to Brisbane to hang out with our good friends Erica & Alan for the weekend... these are some friends we met in China. She's Australian, and he's American, and they're trying to get citizenship in each others' countries, and therefore flying back and forth a lot. This has got them an over-abundance of frequent flyer points, which they are very generous with: they flew us down from Rocky on their points... all we had to pay for was the flight taxes not covered by the points... a very good price for us!

Our trip began with us driving to the Rocky airport where parking is $20 a day... so we conveniently parked our little car in a field near the airport... only in Rocky! (see pic above)

Once we arrived in Brisbane, we were supposed to drive up to a little seaside town called Noosa , but our accommodation there fell through (long story), so we just stayed with A&E at her uncle's big house in Brisbane. From there we drove down to the Gold Coast and hung out at the beach, ate ice cream, etc... good times! You can see from the picture that it's beautiful weather, but not quite real hot beach weather, especially as it was a bit breezy by the ocean.

The highlight of the trip was connecting A&E with our other good friends in Brisbane, Dave & Niki. Have you ever experienced that where you have some great friends who've never met each other, but you just know they'd get along so well? Well, this was the case for these 4 friends of ours, and it finally worked out to connect them all.

We all went out for dinner together to a restaurant called "Hog's Breath," (appetizing name, I know!), and everyone had a great time, just as we predicted. We hope to make this more of a usual event in the future... it is so nice to be around like-minded people where everyone has a great time together.


After dinner we went to "Cold Rock Ice Creamery"... this place where they make whatever flavor ice cream you want... delish!!

Here is Erica's uncle's house in Brisbane... it looks like a normal sized house from the front, but it goes WAY back from here. It has 8 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a huge kitchen and family room.


The downstairs bathroom is rather small though... check out the toilet: when you push the flusher, the sink automatically turns on (which is part of the top of the toilet... as you can see). Good idea, but kind of awkward to use, especially when you're trying to brush your teeth and have to lean over the toilet... hope you don't drop your toothbrush! :)

On our flight back to Rocky, we thought it was interesting how you check in at the airport. You know how when you fly, you can use the self check-in at computers in the terminal? Well, they used to just have one or two self check-in computers and heaps of real check-in staff at the counters, but now Qantas has the reverse: only two real check-in staff, and mostly self check-in computers. I guess they're trying to give you very little options but to use the automated systems. Bye bye jobs.

On another note, this past week I organized a huge field trip for all the Year 7s at our school. We are learning about the Great Barrier Reef, so our field trip went to a lot of related sites near the beach, which was cool...

...until one of our kids went wacko out-of-control and ran down the mountain we'd just hiked up. A slip and a collision with a tree caused him to cut his cheek open. Ron, (a teacher I work with), and I gave him a quick first-aid clean-up, but the cut looked rather deep and wouldn't stop bleeding, so it was off to the ER... me and the kid (while all the other kids went off to the next site).

The hospital I took him to near the beach had a quick look at him and confirmed that he needed stitches, but couldn't get to him for 1-2 hours they said, so we ended up taking him back to Rocky on the school bus with the rest of the kids... his mom picked him up from there and has hopefully got him all stitched up by now! I wouldn't know as he didn't appear at school the next day (Friday)... hope he's alright!

(Check out his sweet bandage-job I gave him on his right check... I almost taped his nostrils shut by accident, but adjusted the tape so he could actually breathe!):

Well, that's all our news for now... stay tuned for the next installment in a week or two.

~Corinna (for the Team)

A Birthday Party for Karen

A few weeks ago we had our friends Karen and Paula (from work) over for dinner. It turned out to be Karen's birthday that day (we didn't know this when we invited her), so I decided we should do it up a little. A made a quick trip to the dollar store for some crazy streamers, balloons, hats, etc.

Karen and Paula are both originally from South Africa, so Andrew and I feel like we have a bit in common with them, being foreigners here. They have given us so many tips and bits of advice over the months... it's great.

After dinner, I had set up a treasure hunt for Karen to find her present from us. I wrote clues on sticky notes, and one clue led to the next. For example, one clue was "This sucks," so to find her next clue, she had to go the vacuum cleaner (but she had to figure out what I meant by the clue and where to look). Another clue was "Never mix your darks and lights," and she had to look in the washing machine for it. In the picture you can see her looking right past the clue, into the machine! ha ha!

I think there were about 6 or 7 clues in total around the house. In the end, the present was hidden in the shower... it was a few boxes of a soap that she really likes. All in all it was a really fun time.


Last night we went to our friend Hannah's birthday party... it was an outdoor party, which is funny b/c it's freezing at night right now. Thankfully, she had big outdoor heaters in the backyard which we all gathered around to keep warm. I'll try to post some pics of it next time.

Bye for now!

~Corinna

Lately...

Check out the size bugs we get around our place! Wowzers! This one was outside our screen door, luckily, but just hung out there for a couple of days until Andrew flicked him away from the inside of the screen. (If you can't tell from the picture, he's almost as long as your hand...crazy!)

Thankfully we haven't seen any snakes around our place, but our neighbor said he saw a big black one a couple months ago outside his front door, so now I'm a bit paranoid about coming in/out our front door at night... I always keep the light on out there so I can see them.

In other news, this weekend has been pretty calm, apart from getting all our usual chores, groceries, etc done, which always seems to take a while. Next weekend we're both playing on worship team at church, and going to our friend Hannah's birthday party.

The weekend after that we're flying down to Brisbane to spend some time with our friends Erica & Alan (who we met in China). We'll be driving to Noosa with them and spending the night there at a hotel... fun times! Noosa is one of the BEST tourist spots in Queensland... it has beautiful beaches, good shopping, restaurants, etc. Think Robson St. beside a gorgeous beach!

That's about all for now. Hope you're doing well!

~Corinna

Our Cairns Trip

We've just come back from a really nice trip to Cairns... it's the biggest city in northern Australia, and being closer to the equator, it's warm year-round. Actually, in the summer months (Nov-March) it's REALLY humid up there, so we thought we'd be timing it right by going in the cooler "dry season" (which is now). Our plan backfired on us a bit as we happened to have the ONE wet/windy/cooler week of the entire dry season, but we tried to make the best of it anyways.

Here are loads of pictures to show what we did (in random order)... I'll explain underneath each one.

We rented a car and drove up to Port Douglas one day (about 75 minutes north of Cairns)... it's a small town that kinda has a West Van feel to it... very nice. Here we are overlooking "4 Mile Beach." There are crocodile signs everywhere though, so we didn't swim here (plus the weather was cool and windy.) The next day we took the car up to a small mountain town called Kuranda, which is a little hippie place. They have a few little markets and restaurants, but it was pouring rain, so we didn't stay for long.


The reception area of our "resort."


The night markets in Cairns. Mom, remember the Pearl Market and the Fabric Market in Shanghai? This was kinda like it, but much smaller, cleaner, more civilized, and no bargaining! We got a nice Chinese massage here for $15.


This was a random guy we saw out in the street blowing his didgeridoo. He had all his worldly possessions tied to the roof of his filthy van, and seemed to not own a pair of shoes, but didn't care at all! Very amusing!


This is the esplanade that goes along the waterfront in Cairns... a nice place for a walk/run/rollerblade, etc. When the tide is out it looks like a giant mud flat for about a mile out, due to all the dredging they've done to keep the shipping lines open. Kind of a yucky view. But when the tide comes in, it looks like a normal ocean... you'd never know the water is only about 2 feet deep.


Along the water they have all these free exercise stations... kind of like a mini gym. So you can walk/run along the ocean path, and then stop at all these little stations for some extra exercise. A lot of kids use it for a playground though... guess it's still fun!


As you know, Andrew is guitar-crazy, which means we always seek out all guitar stores in whichever town we visit. This time it worked out perfectly since the weather was so shabby... I packed along a book so I wouldn't get bored. He had a great time and ended up buying a new pedal for his electric guitar (which is something you plug the guitar into to give it more "crunch.")


Here is our hotel room... we spent as little time here as possible since it didn't smell too good. I think it used to be a smoking room since that's what it smelled like. The smoking area was also directly outside our room, so we had some nice whiffs coming through. Luckily it had a TV, so we watched Wimbledon quite a bit at night.


Our hotel was quite a ways away from down town, so we usually rode the city bus ("Sunbus") into town... it was a great way to see more of the town and meet lots of interesting people to have conversations with. The only bad thing about it was that it took 30 minutes each way, when driving directly took about 8 minutes. We decided to skip the bus one day and walk into town, but that took 1.5 hours and took us down a busy highway, thru the industrial area, and also near the dump, so it stank. We stuck to Sunbus after that!


The skate-park along Esplanade... you can go skateboarding with an ocean-view! You can see the hospital right behind the skate-park, which I think is a very logical location. Also, there was this tree (on the left) that was full of old skate shoes and bike tires... kind of nice... new decorating idea!


All over town they were selling these didgeridoos (an Aboriginal instrument that you blow into and it makes this deep, interesting "woofing" sound)... I was gonna try it, but then thought that heaps of other tourists would have already done the same thing before me, so decided to keep my mouth off it and just pretend!


Lots of gelato in Cairns... yum, my fav!! I had it quite a few times since they don't have it in Rocky and I don't know when I'm gonna have it next!


Hands-down the BEST meal we had was at the Bavarian Beerhouse... authentic German food served by waiters in Lederhosen, and the whole place smelled like Oma's house before Sunday lunch! The German Lowenbrau beer was even served in nice Steins and tasted great with the food.


Another view of the Esplanade and mud flats at low tide. The big white building in the distance is the Shangri-La hotel, which is the place we used to relax (in the lobby) when we were tired of walking around in the rain, but didn't want to hop on Sunbus back to our place yet.


We checked out the big marina, full of nice boats. We didn't go on the boats out to the Great Barrier Reef though since the weather wasn't great.


In one of the music stores we met a salesgirl called Tiffany, who we started chatting with, and she ended up inviting us to her church called Freshwater Church. It took some figuring out how to get there on Sunbus (since it was a little ways out of town), but was really good. It reminded us of Hillsongs church in Sydney, but on a smaller scale.


One day we rented these yellow scooters (motorbikes) and toured ourselves around all the rain-forest attractions. One of the places was called "Crystal Cascades," which was a series of little waterfalls and swimming holes (minus the crocs!). If it had been warmer, it would have been a fabulous place for a dip! We settled for a walk along the the path beside the falls.


Here's us on the scooters. Behind us you can see the waterfall at the Barron Gorge. The scooters were SO much fun... I would definitely recommend them if you ever go to Cairns.

All in all it was a great trip. I know the weather wasn't awesome, but it was just so nice to get away together, to be out of Rocky for a bit and see something new. We didn't talk about work at ALL, and ate so much great food (Japanese, Chinese, Turkish, Mexican, Indian, German, Italian, and Thai).

It was also nice that Andrew finished his first masters course just in time for us to go away. While we were up in Cairns, he got an email from his prof saying he got an A on his course, so that was encouraging since he'd put SO much work into it.

Anyways, that's it for now! Hope you enjoyed!