Sydney Harbour

Last week I did my first supply work. I really enjoyed the staff and students at Monte. The grade 9 science curriculum seemed similar to ours in Canada. It had a unit on elements and the periodic table, reproduction and astronomy. However, there are some differences in the educational system here though ... maybe because they start secondary school in grade 7? … Avery is learning how to use the Bunsen burner in grade 7? and I was teaching the distributive property to a grade 8 math class… not something I would have taught until later in Canada. I find all of this interesting. The science department has lent me some resources … I can’t wait to learn more.

Avery had his school swim carnival. He faired well against the Aussie boys and came in 6th in his division for the breast stroke. Shown in the picture is him after the big race with his mate Craig. He needs to work on his freestyle though…?

On Saturday we were up at the crack of dawn to get on the subway into the big city of Sydney. Traveling on the subway in the city is the way to go. We did not even see any car parks (as they call it here) so I am glad we did not drive in. We headed for Circular Quay, (which I called qway all week and was corrected as que several times…Canadians?) where the famous Sydney harbour bridge and the Sydney opera house is. There are actually some crazy people in the photograph climbing on top of the bridge. I can see it in a my larger photo. For only about $190, … with a lot of guts … you can climb this too… if you come to visit. It only takes 3 hours… humm? What is the point anyway? You cannot take pictures as they won’t let you take anything up with you and you are wearing a coverall suit. I think I’ll pass on that one.

We went to Sydney for a boat ride cruising around the harbour. The ETL organized it for us. I seems like something every tourist seems to do here. We toured the Parrametta river and saw lots sail boats, interesting… and very expensive homes, and they pointed out museums and parks that we might want to come back to later on our stay.

There probably won’t be much interesting to write about next week. We do not have too much planned. Avery has some birthday parties. He has the social life here.

We will update you when we have some more pictures.

Ciao,
The Andress’

Weekend at Port Macquarie

G’day Mates,

This past weekend we went to Port Macquarie (pronounced Mackquarry) for our first Exchange Teachers League (ETL) weekend. On Friday night we arrived at our billet’s home, Dawn and Mark’s, sometime around 9:30. They live across the river at Point settlement. We had to take a small ferry across to get there… only about 300 m across. Dawn and Mark met us at the other side of the river with beer and wine and took us to a lookout point with a wonderful view of the stars and ocean. We could see the milky way quite clearly. They opened their home to us and went out of their way to make us feel comfortable and homey. Dawn is a social worker, but is also a qualified teacher. You need to be both in Australia to work in schools. Her partner Mark, works with special needs kids. Because they live on an island without town water or a well, they collect rain water in these huge drums (the picture shows the next door neighbours) to use throughout the house. You do not let the water run in this house, but to them it is worth living in this quaint little area away from the hustle and bustle. Dawn is looking for an exchange to Canada, but they have also done a lot of other travelling. In the fall they travelled 70 days throughout Europe using house swap programs www.homelink and www.homexchange.com. They gave us lots of travelling hints as well as other useful tidbits.

On Saturday morning we had a town tour by local teachers. We followed a caravan of teachers to some interesting places. First, we went to the harbour site where they talked about it being built by convict labour. Then we went to Shelly beach and learned about a hobo who lived and maintained the area and then became famous. It is now named ‘Harry’s Outlook’ after him. We then went to the light tower beach area. Most of our group went on a boat trip for lunch, while we decided to eat lunch in town and then spend the afternoon at the beach and explore the light tower area in more detail.

In the evening, went to Timbertown for some food, music, dance, games and fun! We met several exchange families, one from London Ontario, Oakville, UK, Guelph and Washington as well as several others. We learned how to Bush dance (while I tripped on everyone), played Aussie trivia games (Jocelyn and Avery did better than me at that too!) and exchanged stories about our travels and travel plans.

On Sunday morning we met at Billabong wild-life park. We got to pet Koalas and Kangaroos and saw some birds, monkeys and very venomous snakes. I am trying to figure out how to show you a video of a koala ... hopefully I can figure that out soon. I was really surprised at how they look when they walk... not like a bear.

Some interesting animal facts that we have learned:
…the most venomous snake in the world is the Inland Tiapan; the venom from one bite is enough to kill 50-100 people.
… a pack of Kangaroos is called a mob… so Avery kept saying all weekend that there is a “mob of kangsters” over there
… Koalas carry Chlamydia…the University of Sydney is doing a study on it at the Koala hospital we also visited
… the Kookaburra … known from the song “Kookaburra sits in an old gum tree…” are very noisy birds. The first morning we woke up here we thought there were monkeys in our front yard… yeesh!
... there are rabbits in Australia... we saw lots of them

Our plans for next weekend are to meet up with some of the teachers at the Sydney harbour boat tour for another ETL event. We are hoping to get good pictures from that one.

We are really enjoying the people we meet from the ETL as we are helping each other figure out our way around in this country. Many teachers have been on several exchanges and then do house swaps with their exchange families after they return. They share a passion for travel and a love of kids!

Hope you are enjoying the snow!

The Andress’

Happy Valentines Day!

As they say here… How’s it going!


…We are settling in to our new temporary home in here in Australia. Tom’s 43 birthday was certainly different than his typical birthday in Canada in January. We enjoyed a delicious dinner at the Dee Why beach strip. I had a fish indigenous to Australia called barramundi yum! … maybe soon … Kangaroo?

So far we have been to Curl Curl and Dee Why beaches. We enjoy the waves and the view and the kids… the sand… But we think these local surfers are a little crazy going out so late in such cold water…brrrrr!... and they think Canadians are crazy in the winter? This week at Tom’s class will be doing surfing lessons on Manly beach… neat!

Avery is actually taking some other interesting courses other than Japanese at school. He is taking some technical courses that include woodworking, computers, sewing and cooking. He is also enjoying his PE unit in gymnastics… especially when he has double period on Fridays. Secondary school runs on a 10 day schedule here. The students love it because there is lots of variety in a week and they see many different teachers. Tom finds it a little hectic though. His schedule is quite variable, for example; one day he teaches only 2 periods, then another he teaches every period except his morning tea and lunch. So far Avery has not been assigned any text yet either. His text for math is on CD and he works from the computer to do his homework.
Jocelyn had her first swim carnival. They make it sound lots of fun by using the name carnival, but it was just a swim meet. She was a little disappointed that they were just swimming races in lanes. What we did find interesting though, was that all of her school sat in their assigned colour sections and cheered on for their teams. Just like in Harry Potter, they have 4 team colours and you collect points for your team throughout the year. This seems great for motivation and school spirit. We are looking forward to seeing how this will this will work out through the year.

Our home here is different than Canada. We live on a major road and the noise and traffic have been something to get use to. The view is lovely though. In the front of the house we can see the Sydney city skyline and in the backyard we can see an ocean view.
The house also has some other differences… No… I have not shrunk… as you can see the door knobs are quite interesting here… and… last week we saw our first spider in the house… it only took Tom slamming it a few times to drop dead.

The roads are… interesting here too. They seem to follow the lay of the land roaming all over. Then one road just turns into another. Kind of tricky to get around but we seem to be finding our way without too many major blow ups between us. There also have few stop signs from what we have seen. Popular are these ‘round abouts’. The first car in gets the ‘right away’.

I am trying to get around on public transit and on foot. It takes me all day just to get to one school to drop off my resume… but … I am having some interesting chats with the old ladies on the buses and learning some things about Australia in the meantime… and all of these hills should keep my glutes’ in shape. Hopefully, I will get some supply work soon.


We had our first dinner guests over this last weekend… a family from the UK that are on exchange here too. It was nice to share stories and a meal from the barbie.

Next weekend we are heading to Port Macquire-Hastings to see some Koala bears and dingoes with the exchange teachers league. We should get some interesting pictures there. We are billeting at a home there so it should be fun!

Later mates,

The Andress’