Saturday at Torquay

Last Wednesday I started my placement at Bellaire Primary School. The first three days consisted of professional development, unit planning, and time for teachers to get their classrooms ready. I have been placed in a class of 1st and 2nd grade students. I'm really excited about this age group and my cooperating teacher. Mrs. Barry has taught for several years and all of the teachers at the school say she has a great way with the kids and they all love her. Tomorrow will be the very first day of school for students, so wish me luck!

On Saturday, I got the chance to go to Torquay. This is a little beach town that's known as the gateway to the Great Ocean Road. A student teacher from Auburn University has also been placed at Bellaire Primary. She is staying with a family that has a son our age, so we joined him and his friends at the beach.

Torquay Beach

This is another shot of the beach. If you look closely, there are people cliff diving from the huge rock. We were told they were mostly locals...but they're definitely braver than me.

I took this pic mostly for my brother because he was obsessed with John Deere when he was little. I never thought I would see a John Deere tractor on the beach in AUSTRALIA...

A cliff next to the beach

I actually got in the water this time! It was really cold, but the waves were great!

This is Charlotte (the student teacher from Auburn) and Chris (her host mum's son) and his friends.

More ocean pics:

Now that I have officially started student teaching, it will be harder to post new pics. But, I will try to add as much as I can. Hope these pics have warmed you up a bit!

Geelong West and fireworks on the Waterfront

Yesterday Peter had to go into West Geelong and do some work at his optometry practice. So, I went along to see this end of town. This is the older part of Geelong and it's filled with little boutiques and coffee shops. These shops are typically small businesses owned by local members of the community. I really liked a lot of the shops and there were great sales on for Australia Day and kids going back to school.

Below is a picture of part of the main strip of West Geelong.

The Town Hall is right in the middle of all the shops and cafes.

Later in the day Peter and Helen took me to the Waterfront. Geelong had a firework show to celebrate Australia Day, which is similar to our 4th of July. Helen is the vice principal at the school I will be at and she and her family offered to act as an interim host family for me until a permanent placement could be found. However, last night they invited me to stay with them for the entirety of my trip. They are a great family, so I was very excited about this. Here is a picture of Peter and Helen at the Waterfront.

Here are some boats in the bay before the firework display.

Below is a video of part of the firework display for Australia Day.

Happy Australia Day!

The Great Ocean Road: Lorne

Today my host family took me to a beach in Lorne, which is found along the Great Ocean Road. The Great Ocean Road is a road that was built by soldiers returning from World War I. The soldiers needed jobs when they returned from the war and the road was actually built as a memorial to the Australian soldiers that died in the war. The road is very curvy as it follows the coastline and extends about 150 miles.

This is me at the entrance to the road.

It took about an hour to travel from Waurn Ponds (the suburb I'm staying in that's outside of Geelong) to Lorne. Here are some waves on the beach at Lorne.

This is a view of the coast and water at Lorne. As you can see, it is mountainous behind the coast.
Here is another view of the water. This picture doesn't do it justice.


Lorne is a popular spot and was heavily populated today. Below is a portion of the Great Ocean Road that didn't have near as many visitors. Much of the coastline is very rocky like this.


This is another spot along the road that is very rocky and didn't have many visitors.

Australia doesn't consist of only coastlines and kangaroos. Believe it or not, parts of Australia look very similar to Kentucky. Once we were finished at the beach, we drove back to Waurn Ponds. There were several farms. I saw cattle, horses, and sheep. There were also huge bales of hay--just like you would find in Kentucky. Below are some cattle---the picture isn't great, but Peter was driving around 100 km/hr, so it was kind of hard to get a good one.

Exploring Geelong

I survived my first full day in Australia! Yesterday Helen, my host mum, picked me up from the airport in Melbourne and brought me home to Geelong. She and her husband, Peter, are very nice and fun to be around. I was on my own for a little while today while Peter and Helen had work and lunches to attend. So, I took a bus into Geelong (I'm staying in a suburb that is just outside of the city) to see what I could find.

This is a view of the bay---sail boats are apparently very popular here. It was a little cloudy at times today, but the sun came out not long after I got to the water.

These tents were being set up all along the water for Australia Day.

I'll leave you with these painted bollards. They are found all around the waterfront. They tell the history of this area in their own little way. I thought they were pretty cool. These are some of my favorites:

Tomorrow I will meet Peter's kids and my host family is planning to get some time on the water. I'm pretty excited and I'll post new pics when I can!