one month down!

It's already been just over a month...say what?! it's flown by, but at the same time I do feel like I've been here forever. It hit me how long I was here for a couple of days ago, but at the same time last year went way too quickly, so this one will too! We've all settled into the routine really well. I was really homesick on sunday, and cried down the phone to mum. It wasn't a 'get-me-home-NOW' homesick, more a 'I-love-it-here-but-I-miss-my-family-and-friends' homesick. I know that as soon as I get back home I'll want to be back here, typical me. But it's LOVELY talking to all of you, hearing your voices is the best. Also, having a sneaky LOL at you Melb Uni kids bitching about timetables/portals etc...whaddup, monash deferral.

Set up my bank account, and Em and I were convinced that we were the victims of some bank scam from Lloyds Bank...turns out Lloyds are just really keen with their text updates about your account. I went down to town to suss it out and everything. Awkward.
I went for a huge walk the other day, found a little wood and tramped around with mud on my shoes and in my hair. Felt like I was about 40, I was wearing a polar fleece and trackie daks with runners, and my short hair was back in a headband while my Ipod played crappy music, but it was such good exercise. But it's so cold that when you breathe in after exercising it hurts so much! It's just horrible. Hence my lack of proper intense exercise since. The stairs at school count...don't they?

There isn't really much to say, so I thought I'd do my day today. Which is quite typical..

7.15 - wake up with intention of going to breakfast at 7.30.....groan, hit snooze and sleep until 7.45 instead.
7.45-8.15 - get dressed, have some tea and toast, watch lockie leonard (it's on cbbc and we're addicted. Today lockie's girlfriend moved to boarding school, HUGE drama).
8.15 - run down to main school. swear at how cold it is outside.
8.15 - 9.15 - Form 1. Get them ready for the day, so make sure their homework is handed in, their reading books changed over, that kind of thing. I listen to all their stories, sort out fights over glitter pens etc. until the form teacher comes in and we either a)go to assembly (they have TWO a week here, and I thought Mac.Rob was a bit intense..) or b) go straight into reading and literacy.
9.15-10ish - Games/Gym with the Lodge (3-7 yr old) kids. Games is PE and I help out the PE teacher with the kids' ball skills, agility, stuff like that. Gym is inside (YES!) and I walk around saying 'point your toes! Great balance!'
10ish - break duty, either outside or inside. Outside involves standing outside in the cold playing tiggy with the lower divisions, inside is literally stand in the dining hall and make sure each girl only takes one piece of snack. Then I get to have the leftovers. tough job! Sometimes I don't have it, so I'm usually found in the resource room feeding paper through a laminator.
11ish- EAL. Like ESL, I have no idea what the A stands for. I help the Spanish girls with English and the upcoming EAL exams. This is my favourite part of the day, they are hilarious but at the same time work really hard. Today I had A. and we got bored with doing vocab exercises, so she became the 'teacher' and 'taught' me the vocab she was meant to be learning. She was flouncing around at the board and drawing diagrams, too cute. It was a much better way for her to learn it as well, because she had to explain it all in her own words, not just read out of a textbook.
12- LUNCH! YAY!
12.30 - 1.10 - Duty again. It was lovely today, really sunny (still freezing). I stand there and make sure no-one injures themselves, and try and sort out fights between them. The big drama today was that O. tore the toggle bit off E's cloak, and now no-one was talking to her and wouldn't including her in the 'wedding' they were having near the fort. Brings back memories...
1.10-2.30 - photocopying/laminating/general admin - depending on what mood I'm in, this can be quite theraputic and calming, or I want to stab myself in the eye. Today was the latter. The photocopier shat itself and refused to copy a maths exam paper. Then it decided to read my '44' and '444' and started to spit out about a million copies a second. and the stop button didn't work until I turned off the power. Not a good day.
2.30-3.15 - EAL again. Talked about 'deposits' and 'cheques' today, felt sorry for the girl wilting acorss from me. There are only so many ways you can make studying banking and money 'fun'.
3.15-3.45 - Nice, strong cup of tea (much needed after fight with photocopier) and a biscuit. Chill out for 20 minutes, check emails, talk to whatever teacher is in the staffroom or organise tomorrows work.
3.45 - 5.30 - aftercare. I find aftercare here so funny. The very few times I went to aftercare when I was little in Australia I remember us running around outside being feral and grabbing an apple or vegemite sandwhich whenever we could spare a moment from 40-40. Here, they all silently sit down in a circle, munch their perfect white sandwhiches (jam, butter or marmite), then they walk outside and play 'nicely', or stay inside and listen to a story or play with lego/something similar. Very, very different.
--> Aftercare is once a week, every other night I tutor I or N, or do reception for a bit. Thursday is my early finish. Oh Thursday, how I love you. And I usually spend that time watching the netball match at the main school hahaha
6.30 - DINNER!
7.00 onwards - chill at the flat. Spend an hour or two on the computer, read...we're making our way through the videos here, rom-coms are usally the go! British TV is crap as far as I have seen - all the good British shows seem to be on the channels we don't have?! At the moment we're watching 'Take Me Out' - a trashy dating show. We're constantly yelling at the TV - 'ARGH he's so fuggers! She could do so much better!' I can feel my brain turnign to mush. Then bed, at whatever time we feel like. Aisling and I are developing a horrible habitof going to bed at a reasonable hour then talking until midnight anyway.

That's it. February tomorrow, month #2!