Hunting bears?

Hello friends!!!

I must say that 1) I am super bad about updating my blog as I don't know who actually reads it and 2) this update comes with an alternative motive: I want to win a handmade dress made from vintage fabric from this awesome Aussie lady that my roomie Lyndz introduced me to: http://naughtyshorts.blogspot.com.au/

Not only are the sundresses fun and beautiful, but modest as well, which is something that is rare these days! Don't you think that would just make the perfect graduation dress?


Wait - graduation!? Didn't you already graduate? Is that what you are thinking? You are correct. I finished my Bachelor's a year+ ago but now I am working on my Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education and I am loving every minute of it. I have been blessed with a wonderful group of friends, students, and a mentor teacher who is there when I need her and 'disappears' sometimes to let me work things out for myself when it comes to classroom management. I am learning to use my 'teacher face' and my tone of voice to show those year 7s whose boss. Oh, and the year 8s who believe that Indigenous people hunted bears in Australia. Yes, you read correct - bears. Didn't know there were bears here? Me neither. I guess they hunted all the drop bears away and that's why you never see them until you're out in the bush camping. Don't know what a drop bear is? YouTube it! You won't regret it.

So, yes, in 10 weeks time, I will be DONE. As in finished. As in no more school for...ever!? 4 weeks of prac (student teaching) to go, lots of job applications to be filled in, and an Aussie summer and Christmas to look forward to.

And who knows, maybe I'll have a made-for-me summer dress to wear every week!

Now - it's bed time. Prac is lots of fun, but exhausting. It's hard work being in the spotlight all the time. I can't wait for my own classroom!

Xoxo, Megaroo

P.S. My recent trip to the US was a much needed refresher to see my brother, sister-in-law, mom and best friend, Samantha.

And the Man Upstairs (aka God) has been holding me in His arms since I've returned with support coming from everyone for prac, food, work, friends, etc. I can't wait to see where He puts me next year!

Auntie K, if you're reading this, life is good!

OK, now really, it's snooze time. 

"...wrote a note, said 'be back in a minute...'

...bought a boat and I sailed off in it, don't think anybody's going to miss me anyway!"

Just joking - I was listening to that song by Zac Brown, that's all. But, I have "sailed away" as some may say...

A lot has happened since I last updated y'all way back a long time ago in March! I feel as though I have been on a near-permanent vacation since exams ended in late June, as my Mom flew out from the States for my graduation. We spent one lovely (if not very cold and windy) week in Tasmania soaking up the sights and the rain. A highlight of that trip was Freycinet National Park, where we had beautiful weather for our hike! We also enjoyed lots of scrumptious food while we were there, including some mulled wine.


After Tasmania, we embarked on a long road trip up to Exmouth, WA from Fremantle. After having some minor (major) car troubles only 5 hours into our trip (lucky for us we were close to our first night's accommodation), everything went smoothly and all kangaroos and emus on the road were avoided (the locusts, however, were not - they were MASSIVE). On our road trip we hit all the major spots - saw dolphins at Monkey Mia, floated with the current and swam in Ningaloo Reef in Coral Bay, and finally made it to Exmouth to swim with the whale sharks. The whale sharks decided not to swim with us that day, though, so it looks like we'll be making another trip up to Exmouth next June...we did see heaps of humpback whales putting on a show for us, which was awesome!

On our way back we stopped in Kalbarri National Park for a few days to do some hiking. We took an adventurous day trip with a guide who led us down the canyon to go canoeing in the river. To get back to the top we had to hike up a waterfall, which I found exciting, while Mom found it scary, perhaps (but she did awesome!)






We got back just in time for my graduation ceremony, which my Dad and Jackie flew out for. There was a lovely Mass in the morning and then the ceremony at noon which I am so thankful for the support of all who were there: Paul and Cheryl, my adopted Aussie parents; my Mom, Dad and Jackie; and of course my boyfriend Ollie. It was a perfect day and I can't believe that I've now graduated from university!

Mom and I embarked on one more short road trip to make the most of her time in Australia. We headed down south to see sights including the tree top walk and the windy Leeuwin Lighthouse, where we were nearly blown into the ocean!

After mom left I had about a month to sort things out before I headed off to Singapore until the New Year. I worked a bit, rock climbed a lot, and enjoyed my time with Ollie. And so, I packed up my belongings once more and headed off to Singapore with just a backpack (and a small duffel bag). Ollie joined me a week later and we headed off on our next adventure: rock climbing in Krabi, Thailand! We spent two weeks climbing the cliffs of Railay, Tonsai, and Phi Phi and enjoying our Pad Thais and coconut curries. Despite a lot of rain and some upset stomachs, we still managed to have a great time and see some stunning views from the top of the cliffs!
I came back from Thailand to head off immediately to Malaysia volunteering with the international school I was at last January. My role this time was to be a female assistant on the 5th grade class trips to Taman Negara National park. There are three weeks of trips, and that brings me to today! I have done two weeks, with my last trip leaving this Sunday. The trips have been great experience for my upcoming teaching degree (keep reading...) even though the kids are younger than I will teach. The trips have been a total blast! Activities for the kids include an overnight train ride, a 3 hour boat ride in small wooden boats, floating down the river, doing a canopy walk made of ropes, hiking up a hill, and doing cultural activities such as blowing darts and weaving palms. It has been lots of fun to help out and I hope that more opportunities present themselves while I am in Singapore!

For the next few months I will be chilling here in Singapore and in January it is back to the land down under and Notre Dame University for my Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education. It's a year long course, and after that I hope to teach for a few years in Australia and then see where my career goes from there. It's all very exciting stuff and I am so blessed that I am able to do all this traveling and "work" experience on my 6 months off with the ones I love. I can't wait to see what's in store while I am here in Singapore, but am mostly looking forward to being back in Aus in January!

I miss everyone heaps in the States and in Australia, so if you have some free time, you should come visit me ;) That's just a quick update of the past 6 months - perhaps it won't be so long until my next update...keep tuned for my next adventure (unless I get eaten by a panther in Malaysia first - no joking, they're out there where we are staying)!

Summer's ending

Oh hey again.
Long time no action here on this blog of mine, but thanks to my friend Kelly, I have decided to update y'all on my life...
I don't even know where to start. Today? Yesterday? January?
I'll just go with what's been on my mind a lot lately...what's going down 6 months from now.
But to do that we have to take a few steps back:
This summer I had the amazing opportunity to work at an international school in Singapore for 5 weeks. I was an intern in the middle school Humanities department and spent my days at school going to 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Humanities, Geography, and History classes. I spent the majority of my time with the 6th graders, and though I thought they would be "too young" for me when I started, they quickly became my favorite class to be a part of! Many of the teachers I worked with threw me right into the teaching mix, and I ending up student teaching quite a fair bit!
The school I was at was absolutely amazing. The teachers and students come from all over the world and bring such a curiosity to learn. The challenge then comes not it disciplining students or motivating them to do their work (more often than not you have to tell them to NOT work so hard) but the challenge is how to inspire them to change the world.
Take the example of my 6th grade class. They were working on a unit on poverty and development while I was there and for me it was so real, as I had just come from my trip to Tanzania. For them, however, it appeared as though it was just a story. Some students got it, while others struggled to make the connection.
My 8th grade class was in a similar scenario, with climate change and global warming. It's hard to make the connection that your actions have any consequence on the earth when you've never experienced the other side of the picture.
These kids are excellent students, and they go on to make real changes - you just have to inspire them in a way they can relate to!

Now how does this relate to what I am thinking about today, and have been thinking about for awhile now? Well, my goal is to be a teacher. And that's what I am going to school for - in August I will start a year long course to get my teaching certificate. But where that course will be I have yet to decide. I have applied to both the University of Colorado Boulder and here at Notre Dame where I currently am.

Before this summer I had never even thought about international schools. I always thought my place was in a public school, as I was a public school girl for my education and I believe that public schools need good teachers too (which I hope I am). However, after working at UWCSEA this summer, I fell in love with the international school. Because I have grown up traveling and here I am in Australia, I felt I had a connection with the teachers and students there.

Weighing out the pros and cons of both schools (CU and ND) is a tough decision. ND gives me the chance to get my accreditation to teach in a Catholic school, though I am not sure that is what I am called to do. It does give me that choice though. Colorado gives me the mountains and a school system I know I love. We'll see...the decision is coming soon.

Other than that, my life has been great. We have been back in action for three weeks now and I can feel the assignment piling up. Somehow it seems though that I have managed to not have too heavy a load in my last semester as an undergrad!
I've moved out of the dorms and into an apartment and in a sense I feel like I've grown up a bit. I get along really well with my roommates, which is something I was scared about before I moved in as I had only met them once and life seems to be shaping up all right between work (sort of...more hours would be GREAT), homework, and my social life.

I spent the day at the beach today and will spend tomorrow working on papers.
I think that's about it...
Any questions!?! I know I've skipped nearly three months without any updates...

Later, gator!
Megs

It's Kili time - make the most of it

As some of you may know, and others may just be finding out about now, I recently got back from the most amazing trip of my life. I got the opportunity to spend 2 weeks in Tanzania (in east Africa) with 6 other students from Notre Dame and two teachers - Dylan and Janeen. This wasn't a holiday I was on. I went in conjunction with Notre Dame and Caritas Australia, which is a Catholic aid agency. Janeen was our representative from Caritas Australia, and Dylan was our instructor. Once a week all semester we attended a meeting together to learn about development in countries, and how to develop from the ground up, meaning starting with the people themselves, not starting with the government. All the studying and preparing we did over the duration of the past 4 months never could have fully prepared us for what I learned while actually in Tanzania.

The people we met in the villages have the most beautiful souls of anyone I've ever met. They are so joyous, thankful, and welcoming. Here we are, a group of "mzungus" (white people) coming to their village look at the way they live. But the way we were welcomed with dancing, and singing, and bottles of soda was so humbling. "Asante, asante, asante" (thank you, thank you, thank you) was a constant choir among the village. But what were they thanking us for? For the money we've donated to Caritas Australia which went to Caritas Tanzania and to this village? I haven't donated anything (yet!). For coming to visit them? Yes, but I mean, I was in Africa! What they were so thankful for was that we were going to go back to Australia and tell THEIR story. The story of the single mom who was given a cow, which she now gets milk from. She can use it's fertilizer for her banana plantation to make the bananas sweeter, so they sell at a more competitive price. The story of the husband and wife who now know how to keep records of all they buy and sell and who have been able to send their six children to private school for education, a huge accomplishment. But that's just the surface of their stories. Another village up north thought it no big deal they used to have to walk 5-6 kilometers to get water, only to carry a 20 litre bucket back on their heads. Now they have a water tap 400 metres from their homes. When asked how we get water, how do you explain that we have several faucets IN our homes, and showers too. It's so humbling.

Peter Mduki was our Caritas Tanzania representative that came along on our long bus rides to bring us to the villages. Not only did he translate everything for us, but he kept up entertained on our several 400-910km bus treks across Tanzania with stories of the country. The dating world and how it works, the Masai people (who are the traditional herders who still practice female circumcision), the history of Tanzania and how it got its name (Tanganyika and Zanzibar squished into one), and who put up with our constant comparisons to The Lion King, our singing along to Jambo, Jambo (Hello, hello), and our ongoing questions about what Caritas Tanzania does and how it works. Tanzania wouldn't have been the same without him.

My fellow students I went with were amazing, too. Every one of us is studying something different, from politics to nursing, from teaching to environmental science. Each of us had something to contribute. We all joked with each other and shared our hand sanitizer and toilet paper for our many bush stops.
I don't quite know how to sum up Tanzania in a blog post. We had so much fun that not even 48 hours after we returned (5 of us had continued on exploring in Dubai for a week), we had a reunion dinner, and I know there will be more to come, with tea African style (filled to the brim) and khangas wrapped around us (the traditional cloth women wear over their dresses to keep them fresh) and stories filled with laughter.

To end our trip in Tanzania, Peter had surprised us with a safari in Ngorongoro Crater. Seeing lions, zebras, buffaloes, hippos, in their natural environment is surreal. Ah-mazing. Incredible. It topped off the trip in the perfect way. (Yes, we did see giraffes as well, in a different area).
Tanzania would not have been possible without the help of my mom or my dad. I had to get travel insurance, which I didn't know a thing about, a bazillion questions about what vaccinations I had or had to get, "I need some more money," and last but not least - here's my contact details while away, but know that "no news is good news." I'm sure it's great when your daughter is in Africa and you haven't heard a word from her.

This short blog doesn't nearly explain the time of my life that I had. I learned so much and I'm sure stories will be forever coming. I just can't help it!
Asante sana (thank you very much)!


Oh - and for your ever curious minds:
Hakuna Matata really DOES mean "no worries" and they DO use it in daily conversation.
Simba means "lion". How creative Disney, how creative.
Rafiki means "friend." He sings Asante Sana squash banana. "Thank you very much squash banana"!?! sure....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBwp9k0i-3I - we listened to this on repeat for 12 hours. no joke. you learn to love it!
Take the Serengeti - have a beer
It's Kili time, make the most of it - Kilimanjaro beer slogan, a drink often consumed at night, as it was 500 shillings, or 50 cents, and cheaper than water. Besides, we're in AFRICA, baby! Let's make the most of it!!!!


aaaannnnddd, after Tanzania, five of us girls headed to Dubai for four days worth of adventures there. From shopping to camel riding, water sliding to Lebanese food eating, we did it all. Dubai was so very different from Tanzania, yet I think coming from there made us appreciate it even more. It's quite shocking when you have come from one of the world's poorest countries to being in what must be one of the richest cities. Though by no means did we live roughly in Africa, we were spoiled in Dubai. The people there are so kind as well, walking us personally to the mall when we were lost, explaining to us that it doesn't matter if we pay for dinner or not (which of course we did, they treated us like princesses) and meeting a Kenyan lifeguard by merely shouting "Jambo" and getting a "Mambo! You speak Swahili!?" in response. Camel riding in the desert was a fave, as well as the combination of British and American stores in the malls.


I cannot wait to go back to Africa, climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, and laugh with the "happy days" people.

Kwaheri (goodbye) for now!
Megs

I can ride my bike with no handlebars

"Look at me, look at me, hands in the air like it's good to be alive!" These lyrics pretty much sum up my life for the past month. Sorry I have be soooo bad at updating my blog recently - I guess time flies when you're writing papers (or studying).
So I guess I'll just start with our first study break, seeing as we are coming up on our second one right now (or ending it, since it's taken me a week to write this blog. Man, I put the pro in procrastinate). My first study break was consumed with a class field trip for Australian Ecology leaving Thursday and coming back Sunday evening. I left Thursday in a panic - my Australian history paper was unfinished, I threw some random clothes in my bag and I was sleep deprived. I was in no state to go away for three nights, yet excited at the same time. Luckily, my teacher allowed me to use his computer and e-mail my paper out that night, so I woke up the next morning refreshed and ready to learn about Australian environments. We spent our trip traveling from the coast moving inland and learning about the relationships of plants, animals, and people to the environment. We got to go on a nice hike, see some kangaroos outside my window, get COVERED in red dust from the world's largest aluminum bauxite mine, and experience the country (as in not a city) Australia. Because I have so much to update y'all on, I better keep my experience short. The rest of the week I spent babysitting Nicole's kids - taking them to the park, doing arts and crafts, and calming the crying Zoe.
And now in the interest of getting a lot of weeks in in a short amount of time and space, I'll summarize in bullet points...you might be able to tell I'm done writing in 'essay' format.
Things I have done recently:

• Visited the Western Australian Maritime museum and spent too much time there - on a submarine, using the rowing machine (Katherine and I are "not too bad"), and just being kids. It was a blast and very informative.
  
• Had the aim of making nachos to watch during round two of the footy final, but took too long planning them out at the grocery store. And then proceeded to eat nachos and cookies for our next five meals. Or something like that.
  
• BIKING in the swan valley. Stop #1) iced chai. Aka - chai with ice cream in it. Stop #2) the chocolate factory. A great day with Katherine and Krystal, even though I slipped off my bike in the rain.
  
• BIKING in Rottnest. BEST WEEKEND EVER. Yes, that did need caps lock on. A group of 7 of us from Port Lodge, plus one girl's friend visiting from home, spent a Saturday night camping out on Rotto, which is a 30 minute ferry ride from Freo. We rented bikes for the day, swam, biked to the lighthouse, biked to the far side of the island to see the "humpback highway" (yes, we did see a whale in the distance), had a broken pedal on a bike and walked the 10kms or so to the campsite, ordered pizza for dinner, enjoyed the company of quokkas, ran a 10k road race the next day, and collapsed on the beach to nap. Cleo's (another dorm full of Portland kids) was on the island camping by us as well, which made our trip extra fun. I can't even describe how great this "family vacation" was. Mini golf? check. Strongbow cider? check. R&R? check and check! It was perfect and just what I needed (since I was done with all my assignments by then).
  
• Study retreat. 5 girls. Chili for dinner, breakfast, and breakfast again. Mmmm. Thanks giving, loving, sharing, movie watching, $37 pumpkin carving, carnival ride spinning. An awesome weekend away to reflect and clear the head for exams
  
• Walked from Cottesloe beach to North Fremantle, after a failed attempt to see Heath Ledger's grave. But we still had fun.
• Dinner in the city with the girls I am traveling to the land of The Lion King (aka Tanzania) and Dubai with in two weeks. So good to have their company outside of the classroom setting.
  
• Studied for finals? I'd like to say that happened, but let's be honest here. A whole week of to study? Nah. A whole week off to de-stress, and re-stress myself.
• Worked - or 'volunteered' my time as a swim instructor, taking both the AUSTSWIM and CPR class here in Australia because they don't recognize my American certification.
  
• Got lost on my way to my other job with the Department of Sport and Recreation.
  

Soooo, that's been my time in September/October/November thus far. It's HOT now. We have two weeks left, then I'm off to "experience the world" with my Caritas (a Catholic aid agency) trip, and then my internship in Singapore for the summer. Time has flown and I am not looking forward to packing up all my stuff, though I am stoked for the SUMMER!

Catch y'alls later! Please, I'd love, love, love to tell you more about my time here in Australia, just don't know what you want to hear...so ask away!

Love, Megaroo

Standing Up

This semester I have gotten much more involved in UNDA campus life, and I love being busy with different events that are taking place. These past two Wednesdays have been particularly eventful. Wednesdays are normally my day off, so I go to the city to get lunch with Cheryl, but last Wednesday we celebrated Multicultural Day here at Notre Dame. This year's theme was "The Americas," and my role was to organize 5 students including myself who had volunteered to have a stand about their country. I got the opportunity to meet some really awesome international students from Columbia, El Salvador, Ecuador, and Canada, as well as my friend Bruno from Brazil who kept me company at the USA stand all day. Each of us had a bulletin board filled with facts about our countries of birth and samples of food ranging from PB&Js (which are uncommon here) to maple syrup candies from Canada to bananas with sweetened condensed milk from Ecuador and guacamole from Columbia. Mmmm! I got lots of curious looks for my PB&J, some disgusted faces, and many compliments and "Ooooh! This is better than it sounds!" That's right - Americans know whats up! I wrapped up the day with some tossing of the American football around the common room - always a blast!

This Wednesday I was a part of another group putting on an event at campus - this time Stand Up Against Poverty! I am a part of a group of 7 students from UNDA who are going to Tanzania in November as a part of a Caritas Australia immersion trip. As a part of our class we have been learning about poverty and development and what we can do to help. As a part of our commitment, we decided to hold and event with this year's Stand Up theme: MAKE NOISE!!! The seven of us got a drumming and dance group to come in and make some noise for us as we read out the Stand Up pledge in front of the crowd in the courtyard and counted all those who stood up against poverty. This is a worldwide event happening over the next two days, so maybe there's an event near you! You can check it out at http://standagainstpoverty.org/suap/.

Both events were a great success and it was a fun way to spend my day off.
You can check out an article about multicultural day here (where I am mentioned):
http://www.nd.edu.au/news/media-releases/2010/media_release_9_9_2010_multiCultural.shtml

and another article about Stand Up here, with 4 of us pictured:
http://epaper.communitynews.com.au/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=RkcvMjAxMC8wOS8wNyNBcjAwMzAy&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Next on my agenda? Papers, papers, papers! I cannot believe we are coming up to our mid-semester break! Yikes! Time has flown by and before I know it I'll be on a plane to Tanzania. Can't wait!

Make sure you get your voices heard today - stand up against poverty and MAKE SOME NOISE!!!

~Megan

a week in the life...

Seriously - I have been slacking this semester on updating everybody. Sorry!
It's been really good to be back this semester - my classes are more fun, I actually know people (not the Americans I live with) in class, and I have Wednesdays and Fridays off. I have also taken up quite a lot of extracurricular activities, which has been good to keep me busy and meet new people.
Mondays I go to class for 6 hours and then play a soccer game for the uni soccer league. It's indoor and it's a blast!I bumped into my friend Kalon on the street a few weeks ago - he's an Aussie who lived in the other dorm last semester and we had GIS together and he wanted another girl on the team - so despite my slight fear of soccer balls and lack of foot-eye coordination, I said I would play. We're really just there to have fun, and fun it is! (plus, I can then count it as my workout for the day)!
Tuesdays I go swimming in the morning and then learn about Australian history (so far all I've gathered is that Australia was colonized because Britain lost the war with America and could no longer send their convicts there...) Community dinners are also Tuesdays nights. Mmmm...
Wednesdays I have off - and I either head into the city and get coffee with Cheryl (my "mom" here, or go to her house for lunch and play with Zoe. Then Wednesday nights, Lyndsay (my RS) and I take a jazz dance class!!! It's fun being able to be "friends" with Lyndz this semester and not just a student, if that makes any sense.
Thursdays I have Theology - and I love it! And then community dinner...
And Fridays - oh boy - I wake up at 4:30 for work at 5am! I work at the Fremantle Markets - at a fruit and veggie stand. My friend Maurice from Switzerland works there and got me the job (thanks!) and this other guy, Brink, works there as well. It's the three of us, plus Jamie the boss, and between the four of us, we come from four different continents, as Brink is from South Africa! How cool is that? All of us are international students at Notre Dame.
I work between 8-17 hours on the weekend, depending on the need for me and my plans, and between that I do homework, enjoy the beach (it's starting to warm up here) or hang out with my friends here.
Last weekend a group of us ran the 12km City to Surf in the city (I'm still really sore). Today, the crew from the dorm headed up to Singapore for their business class, so there's three of us left to enjoy the quietness.
Other than that, it's been really good to be back here. I definitely miss Colorado, but this is my home for now, and we'll see where I end up after I graduate in July 2011!

Cheers,
Megs