NEW ZEALAND!!!

Hello from the South Island of New Zealand!!!

John and I are having a blast. Won't be a long one because we're off to dinner shortly.

AMAZING time here so far and we've only had three days!

Arrived late tuesday night, picked up our camper van (a "spaceship" named R2D2 - coincidence, I think not!!), drove out to Lake Tekapo had an afternoon hike around Mount John (another coincidence!), made dinner in our campavan, chucked out and drove further south. Woke up in Queenstown where we roamed around in the morning and went horse back riding through a place called paradise where they filmed a load of Lord of the Rings scenes. It was absolutely break taking. Today we strolled through town and then went White water rafting in the afternoon - VERY COOL, and cold! Tonight dinner and a pub. Tomorrow we paraglide at 9am through the mountains of NZ (HOLY CRAP!!!), tomorrow afternoon a hike, and then we will head out of town and make our way further south toward Te Anu to get to Milford Sound. Rock up there on Sunday spend the day and then head out towards the glaciers north of here to have an afternoon glacier hike and then hit some hot springs.

How are we affording all this you ask?? Thank you mom and steph for the visa money card, and thanks muchly dad and doc for the cash in hand before leaving!! Also thanks to Nulsen Primary School for employing me in Esperance!!

We're having an amazing time! This may be the place for a future exchange!!!

Lots of love,

cristen :o) and John!

And we're off!!

Hey all!!!

So a term is over, wow that went quickly. Lots and lots has happened and we're having too much fun and too busy to write. So sorry. I will over the holidays at some point.

Breifly, we had some awesome Canadians here, invading Esperance during March, i FINALLY finished all my course work for Reading Part I (GOD LOVE your patience with me Kathleen!! I swear I'll be a better student for Part II!), and we've been planning our own adventures and my family (YEAH!!) have all booked tickets to get over here as well, so there have been lots of date sorting out phone calls the last little while.

My mom and sister arrive in early May! Very exciting and then my dad arrive mid-May for three weeks!! It will be a MONTH full of family!! Awesome.

John and I are off to Melbourne tomorrow for three nights, footy game, comedy show, shopping, tours of the city, easter lunch with Charby's family and loads more in Melbourne. Then we fly to Christchurch where we have rented a camper van for 12 nights and we are touring and tramping through the South Island!! SOO SO SO EXCITED. We're hopefully going whitewater rafting, hot air ballooning, hiking, swimming, hot springing, and we're going to hike the Fox Glacier, see penguins and whales and a whole lot more!!!

We'll keep you posted!

Love you all, and we'll send more from Melbourne and New Zealand! WOO HOO!!

Lots of love, cristen :o)

Oh Esperance, we love you!

As much as this place does look incredibly like paradise, and in some ways, it very much is, one thing lacks: warm water!! The ocean water down here is freezing, I honestly mean May / June lake water back home freezing. And so, on a hot sunny day, we throw the boogie boards in the back of the car, change into swim suits, drive on out to the beach, run towards the water, only to wince on our way in and cry out when the waves knock us over because it is so very cold! Once you get in, yes, you get use to it, but honestly, I want out within 10 minutes. So we bought wet suits!! We hear that the weather will inevitably get a little colder down here, ya know, say 15celcius or so in winter (God, how will we survive???) and therefore, the water will as well. We're hoping to learn how to surf soon too, and with that, we need wetsuits.

It was quite entertaining a few weeks ago when we made our way down to the water after work, got all the gear ready, and threw on out wet suits in the parking lot. A few "tourists" gazed on with surprised looks, probably thinking, why are these wimps putting wet suits on, it's 25celcius outside! But alas, as they ran down into the water, and put their toes in the icy blue water, their facial expressions quickly changed for eek, to, oh, now I know why. It felt kind of ironic that we felt like the local know-it-alls at that moment! Lovely.

We're loving the beaches here. The pictures speak for themselves.

Miss you all.....

cristen :o)

It's been a while!!

Hey everyone,

So it’s been a while, I know! A testament to how much fun we are having and how busy we are.

Where did we leave off??

Hmm….well, after my last blog, John and I spent February 12-15^th in Perth for a teaching exchange orientation weekend. We flew to Perth on Thursday the 12^th and spent the night at Leigh and Lindsay Richardson’s (our Australian parents). It was bitter sweet because we were both exhausted, but wanted to share some time with them. Fortunately we’ll have a few days in the next little bit as we are off to Perth and Fremantle for a few days and hope to spend some time with them….more on that in a bit.

So, we spent the day on the 13^th at the Western Australian Education building learning about curriculum, aboriginal education, frameworks and goals for education within the system. Quite an interesting day. The curriculum here is very similar to ours, however, teachers seems to be freer to decide how to teach to the curriculum. For example, you don’t have to complete a Space unit in Year 6 – there are specific science expectations that could accommodate a space unit, but it’s ultimately the teacher’s decision. I’ve heard different view points on this. Some teachers love the freedom, while others complain that a subject area they may consider covering in their classroom, other students have been exposed to in previous classes. However, they are HUGE into First Steps here, and First Steps Maths too. Kit, eat your heart out. A Maths framework similar to the Reading Development Continuum or the Writing Development Continuum, you get the idea. Very cool. I’d like to learn more personally, but being a “supply” I don’t plan or implement any long term curriculum goals (boo hoo, Cristen, I know) and therefore feel a little babysitter ish, and also don’t feel that I am using my skills or learning enough. I’ll figure it out – I’m just being a complainer.

We also were taught about the aboriginal population here in Australia. They recently had a “Sorry Day”, similar to the one in Canada where the conservatives apologized to the lost generation. The federal government has also said “sorry” here, and the 2^nd anniversary of the day was Friday, February 13^th, 2009 (a little unfavorable a day if you ask me?). There seems to be several parallels between the Canadian Aboriginal History and Australia’s history with its aboriginal people, needless to say, that doesn’t at all ensure we are experts on the subject, daily struggles are a part of the 8:30 to 3pm at Nulsen. John has more experience than I, but we’re learning.

We were exposed to a behaviour management strategy that was developed by an Australian; however, he highlighted the York region District School Board several times for their implementation of successful behaviour management programs. I was thrilled by that – not that I have any connections to that board, but the fact that certain success stories in Canada have reached this world over here – God we are SO global.

So enough on the bureaucratic. We shared the day with all the other exchange participants who have made their way to Western Australia. A few Canadians, couple Brits, and one American. Quite the crew. I won’t expand too much on the weekend as a whole. It was quite strange. The organizers are lovely and spent their own personal time organizing these trips for us, the exchange participants. They themselves have previously been on exchange to somewhere in the world and are now part of the Education Exchange Federal in Western Australia, so they have been our side of the fence. John and I intend on joining the Canadian Exchange Federation upon our return to Canada, we’ll be able to share insights into going on exchange, how to handle all the documentation, etc. for upcoming Canadian participants. It will also allow us to go on the planned trips within Ontario developed specifically for the people coming over from wherever for the year to Ontario. Anyhow, they plan these weekends away. So very kind of them. I found though, that there was a lot of hurry up and get there, and then sit and wait and chill when we do actually get there. I won’t expand, unfortunately we were disappointed though.

We spent a day in Fremantle, went on a tour of the town and took a tour boat along the swan river from Perth to Freo and back again, saw dolphins and purchased John a wet suit. All very exciting and spending the days with the other exchange participants was great – we’re all trying to visit one another over the course of the year, and some are planning on visiting us here in Esperance. Most of the exchangees are based in Perth, while we and one other couple are a minimum of 8 hours away from Perth. So, for us to make the journey for weekend trips is less likely than those living in Perth. That said, we were hoping for more of a go-go-go, get stuff accomplished weekend because we also spent a pretty penny to fly there. Ah well.

On Sunday we visited a conservation park and had a lecture from a lady who cares for native Australian animals. Roos who have lost their moms, wallabies and other creatures. You should check out the pics online. SO CUTE!!!

We made our way back to Leigh and Lindsay Richardson’s where we had lunch and another quick visit before flying back to Esperance. Upon our arrival back home, we noticed “Scout”, our car, had been broken into. Fortunately we didn’t have anything in the car for “them” to steal. They got away with Jennie’s iPod dock, no iPod in there though, thank god, and all her CDs, and that’s it. We aren’t sure how they got into the vehicle, but in many ways we were glad they accessed it without damage, as several other cars in the area had their windows smashed. So, while it sucked, we were glad Scout was so easy to get into! We hated sharing that news with Jennie but she took it well.

The following weekend was the Western Australian Labour day weekend, so we had Monday off. John and I packed the car Friday morning, went to school and then flew out of the school parking lot at 3:02pm to venture off towards Albany. We met a lady named Enid at the previous exchange weekend in Perth who lives in Albany and had just come back from an exchange to Alberta. She was gracious enough to offer us a bed in her house in Albany any time (one of the few pluses of the Exchange weekend in Perth). So we warned her that we surely intended on taking her up on the offer and we did. We arrive at her place at 9pm…..so it took us about 6 hours to get there. We stopped too many times, but we made it safe and sound.

We spent the evening chatting away with Enid about her exchange to Alberta. She LOVED Canada, and hopes to journey over again sometime. All in all she had an amazing exchange experience. We shared some of our adventures with her and also planned out our days in Albany.

On Saturday morning we woke up to beautiful views from her porch, check out the pics, AMAZING views! John and I headed to Emu point where we ate breakfast and mapped out our day. We walked through downtown Albany a bit in the morning and then jumped in the car and ventured out towards Denmark and Walpole, around 45-60 mins from Albany. We went straight to the Valley of the Giants and went on a tree-top walk among the Giants. Very spectacular. The drive itself was also mesmerizing because trees lined the road, and ocean views shone from around corners. It was a great drive. We stopped along the way back from the Valley towards Denmark to check out some of the coastal scenery. Not as spectacular as Esperance, but beautiful regardless. We flew back to Enid’s to freshen up and we drove out to have dinner with she and her parents at their farm. A fantastic lamb dinner and some wine later and we were exhausted. We had a lovely visit with them, and really enjoyed their company. Her parents are both originally from Britain and they shared stories of how they made it over here and never left, and they have been farmers all their lives, so John swapped stories about life on farms in Canada, based on some of the work he did as a kid growing up in Dalston.

Sunday all three of us, Enid included, drove out to the Porongurup range (hillish mountains) and had a misty morning hike to Castle Rock. Unfortunately there were no views to be seen at the top of the rock because it was quite misty from some morning rain. Afterwards, we drove out to Duke’s, a vineyard, where the Porongurup Wine Festival was being held. The weather didn’t cooperate and it poured rain while we were there, however we sampled several varieties of wine from local vineyards, participated in a grape stomping competition (we lost big time), drank too much wine, enjoyed some lunch and local musical talent before calling it in and driving back to Albany. Once we arrived back at Enid’s the skies cleared and John and I decided to drive out to the coast for the tourist highway trek. We stopped at Natural Bridge Rock, “The Gap” and several other costal points along the 35km road, taking in all the glory of nature and the powerful nature of water. A very beautiful drive. Several pictures are posted on the picassa site.

That evening we indulged in a lovely Italian dinner at Nonna’s on Albany’s downtown strip, outfitted with a lovely bottle of local red, a 2005 Cab Sav. YUM!!

On Monday, the weather was playing tricks again, so we started the day late by relaxing on Enid’s porch and organizing ourselves before we headed off back to Esperance. The drive home was quicker because we weren’t driving into the sun like we were on the trek out. We had a lovely weekend, enjoyed Albany thoroughly, and Enid’s company and hospitality was so appreciated and enjoyed. We hope to head out that way again, even during a regular weekend to catch the Stirling Mountain Range for some hiking and more vineyard tours!!

I’ll leave this for now, and add more shortly. I hope everyone back home is fantastic and has enjoyed their March Break. We’ll cross our fingers for Spring to arrive sooner rather than later. Hope you all are wonderful!!

Love and hugs,

cristen and John :o)

Here is a link to some pics....

http://picasaweb.google.com/cristencarson11/TeachingExchangeWeekendInPerth?feat=directlink

and then just click on Cristen's Albums and you can check out some of the others as well!!

cheers!

Weekends in Esperance

Hello all,

I hope all is well in Canada with each and everyone one of you. I hear the ground hog added six more weeks - yikes! On with the skiing and snowboarding then!

John finished his first week at Nulsen Primary on Friday, and I was relief teaching in a year 2/3 class - my first assignment in Australia. It's quite an interesting school - it's small, however it has a large staff, with several educational assistants and differing specialist teachers. Those that are specialists assist with accomodations and assist classroom teachers with programing and curriculum sorting. 30-40% of the student population is made up of Aboriginal Students, and therefore you also have staff that are dedicated to working with those students and their families to promote schooling, behaviour and other social factors.

Behavioural issues within the school are largely apparent, however, they are dealt with promptly it seems, and there are consequences for various actions - haven't dealt with it personally yet though, which is always good. One issue John is slowly working through is the incredible need to differentiate, and we're not just talking between your multiple intelligences here, we're talking grade 2's in a grade 6/7 class, and several of them. I know this is present in our system back home, however, it seems that those classes where students are all over the map is more apparent and most classes deal with this issue than I believe we experience back home. Maybe it's just because we are at the initial stages of the year, and this is the time you use to complete various diagnostics, and maybe the retention levels over the summer are low; it just seems the spread is vast. Anyhow, we'll see what the year brings.

I have begun relief teaching here, and wow, do I have a new found respect for supply teachers. I've never supplied, I've always had my own class, so to jump into this role now is strange, great that I don't have all the ownership, but that is one small aspect of teaching that I do so thoroughly enjoy, even when it sucks the life out of you. I have several upcoming days and a two-week gig shortly, so all is good. I'm glad to have the work coming in. I wondering how much longer I could work on my tan for, really - yes, I know....screw off Cristen, but I love being busy. I think tend to work better when I am busier. Anyhow, this isn't suppose to be a journal entry!

So this past weekend, John and I spent Saturday morning strolling downtown, grabbing a few essentials and then just browsing around. We grabbed a latte from "Koffee Kat", our new favourite spot off the jetty (pier) and then I was got to chat with Heather on Skype for about an hour. LOVE SKYPE!!!! What a great program. If anyone else has it, let's chat. It's so cool chatting with someone and seeing them at the same time when you are on the other side of the world. Loved it! I use my yahoo account to access it: cristencarson@yahoo.ca if you want to add Johnny and I.

Saturday evening, John and I ventured out to the artistic side of Esperance. We found ourselves at the Bijou theatre, the oldest in the Southern Hemisphere, and we watched a play called "Seven Deadly Scenes". Hopefully no one from the Esperance Dramatic community is reading this, but John and I thought the play was abismal! We were wondering if, at any point, the intention from a scene was for audience members to die from sheer confusion and boredom. Oh Jenny, if you are reading this, we are terribly sorry for our honesty!! Don't let any of your Esperance drama buddies know please!!! We had a good laugh and a perplexed few looks to share when it was all said and done.

One Sunday, Narelle and Mark stole us away to the sand dunes close by where we drove "Scout", our car - well, Jennie's - through parts of the dunes, and then went sandboarding. It was great fun! Similar to snow boarding for sure, but the fact that we could be in our bathing suits was a highlight. That afternoon we swam at 11 mile beach and then had a Barbie at Observatory point. It was a great weekend!

We're off to Perth this coming weekend for a teacher's exchange meeting. I think we are heading to Fremantle for part of the weekend, and sightseeing in Perth a bit too.

Here is a link to some pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.ca/cristencarson11/FebruaryWeekendInEsperance?feat=directlink

We hope you all are well and we look forward to hearing from you about your lives in Canada! Take care, miss you all.....

cristen and John :o)

Update from Australia!

Hello all!!

It's been a while, I know. However, John and I are now settled in our house in Esperance, Australia. John has begun school in his year 6/7 class and I start relief teaching tomorrow and am pretty full-up until mid-March! I probably won't have my own classroom (shame, I love the ownership of it!) but I will be in the classroom which is incredibly important to me!

John and I are loving life here. Our town is very quaint, has several beaches that we are anxious to explore and enjoy. We spent some time at Lucky Bay over the weekend and saw some Kangaroos, went swimming and played some frisbee on the beach. We're having an incredibly enjoyable time already.

I've been working on getting more pics online. Sorry it's taken a while. Seems that the stories from these experiences have already come and gone, however I hope that you'll still be willing to check them out.

Hong Kong we loved immensely. I'm not sure what else to say about it, the city is incredible.

Anyhow, we look forward to our life here. Thanks Jennie for letting us borrow it for the year! And thank you to everyone back home that has made her feel very welcome and a part to the family! I miss you guys!

You can visit our pictures - they are posted on picasa. Here is a link, and from there you can hit some of the other albums as well.

http://picasaweb.google.com/cristencarson11/HongKong?feat=directlink#

Love you all lots and looking forward to hearing from you all.

cristen :o)

PHONE NUMBER CORRECTION

Correction on the phone number. Here is the mobile:

043 997 4604

And yes ... drop the zero when you dial this number internationally

Here is the home number too - the reception is much better and we think that we will keep it for the year, so use THIS ONE.

The number is 011 61 89072 0508

Love,

cristen :o)