For The Love of You: 09/07/11

This past weekend Victoria experienced some beautiful weather and it was also Mark’s weekend off from the farm—even better! We have both been very busy with work lately! I have recently gotten a little busier because I lucked out on getting another teaching contract which now has me teaching every day.

On Wednesday, Thursday’s and Friday’s I work at Bundalaguah Primary School just outside Maffra. Wednesday’s I teach Prep/1/2 spelling, prep/1/2 ICT(computers/building), prep/1/2 Art, and ICT and Art for the 3/4 class. On Thursdays I teach grade 3/ 4 spelling and maths. Do cooking with the prep/1’s and 2’s and then go back to the 3/4 class for the afternoon. On Fridays I teach the 5/6 class all day. It can seem kind of confusing at first-knowing where to be, keeping track of yard duty- but moving into my third week I now have become more organized.

On Tuesdays I am at Araluen Primary School in Sale, where I teach Prep P.E (Gym), and then do P.E for two 1/ 2 classes. In the afternoon I am in a 1/2 class where I take part in Discovery Time which is integrated learning /activity time.

On Mondays I am split between Araluen and Bundalaguah (The principals of the two schools are married so I am shared on Mondays-funny , I know!)

Now back to my point about the nice weather and having the weekend off...with no plan in mind we began driving East, we knew the beach was in same direction so in a way we at least knew checking out the beach would be a good idea. We arrived at Lakes Entrance beach after an hour of driving and walked along the boardwalk. It was a very nice town! We ate at a seafood restaurant on the water, which overlooked the many boats, the food was very good, I also tried fish I never had before and loved it!

We had spotted a flyer on Buchan Caves and thought it might be a cool trip so we headed there-it was still a little too cool for the beach. Buchan caves are located in one of Victoria’s National Parks(Buchan Reserve). The park also has really good camping that we hope to come back to.

The caves themselves were formed by underground rivers cutting through limestone rock. The formations were then created by rain water seeping through cracks and dissolving some of the limestone. As each droplet comes through the roof it deposits calcite which crystallizes in a small ring. In time, stalactites are formed on the roof of the cave, and stalagmites build up from droplets which fall to the floor. We were only about 50-60 m below the ground, and it was roughly 20 degrees in the caves. It was a very good tour and it was very neat to see all of the formations. Some of the stalactites were HUGE! There were also some very tiny spaces to squeeze through.

After our cave tour we headed to Melbourne to visit Rianna and Kendra. We arrived at about 9pm and then headed out to the bars. Rianna had previously returned from her field hockey party where she won the international recruit award! The next day Mark and I headed to the 4x4 exhibition at the Melbourne Convention centre, more of a man’s thing but it was neat to see some of the huge campers/trailers! We finished the day off with some retail therapy at the DFO- which is a shopping centre filled with outlet stores- very good shopping!

It was a jam packed weekend, but very successful! Enjoy the pictures!