Busy Bee

Things have been busy, so I'll try to give a quick update on the past few days.  We went to a Vietnamese & Thai restaurant that is run by Koreans, so Emma & I tried the Bulgogi and we both really enjoyed it.  Bulgogi is a Korean dish with grilled steak and noodles in some broth.  It's a bit hard to describe, but it tastes delicious.  Pukari's friend Simon (who I'd met briefly the night before) came too, so they all decided to play some pool after dinner.  I warned them that I was terrible, and let's just say that they now know I wasn't being modest.  Poor Simon got stuck with me as a partner so we lost; although part of the losing was simply because Pukari is really good at pool.  They have a free Zumba class at the park on Friday nights so we all agreed that we'd go try it the next night.

So, on Friday morning I had training at Nova again and after it finished up Shoko (the boss here in Cairns) talked to Vaughn (the gentleman training me) and when she came back out she said I got the job!  *Insert excited fist-pump here*  I still don't know how many hours I'll get, or how much I'll get paid, but I do know that my first day will be on Sept. 3rd (one of the other teachers can't work Wednesday's because of another job, so I'll be filling in for her).  Friday afternoon's activity was a BBQ down by the water, so I got to go with the afternoon group.  Some of the students even gave a hand with the cooking.  They all got to try some kangaroo as well, and it received mixed reviews from the students.  Most of them didn't seem to like the smell of it, but they said it tasted pretty good.

So after getting back from the school I had about 45 minutes until I had to go meet Emma and go to the park for Zumba.  We were a bit late, but Simon & Pukari were in the back and easy to spot.  I don't think Zumba is my style of workout, but we just laughed at how ridiculous we must have looked and had fun anyway.  After Zumba we decided to head down the esplanade to volleyball, but Emma got called into work so she couldn't join us.  Simon doesn't really like volleyball, but he was a good sport and joined in on a game anyway.  Sadly, when I returned to my room I had another run-in with those cockroach things.  Since he was inside my bag I nearly touched him before I realized he was there!  Luckily, my bag is clear so I was able to trap him inside and still get a nice close-up photo.  So, can anyone confirm the species of the little guy from my excellent photographs?

 After snapping a few shots I put the bag on my windowsill and unzipped it.  I kept poking and trying to move things around inside the bag to encourage him to climb out.  I didn't want him smashed inside my toiletries bag and he seemed to dislike the idea as well because he crawled out and away rather quickly.  I wasn't able to squish him (he's a quick little bugger), but I'm pretty sure I heard him fall off the ledge (and hopefully to his death) down to the parking lot below.  But, that could just be wishful thinking on my part.

Saturday morning was my first official teaching experience at Nova, but Anne (the other teacher) did most of the work because we kept the students in one big group instead of the usual 4 groups (2 have lessons, 2 have and activity and then they swap).  We were teaching them how to order in a restaurant, so we took a field trip to the local market for some practice.  After the little field trip we had each team come up with their own restaurant menu and then the students had to move around the room and order from all 4 cafes.  The morning flew by, and soon it was "graduation" time.  Anne and Shoko gave them all certificates and a little bag of snacks. we all got photos together and then we headed to the lagoon.  God saw fit to bless me with two brothers and a lake while growing up and it paid off.  Alex decided everyone needed to go swimming and was throwing kids into the pool (swimsuit or not).  He attempted to get me, but I was able to fight him off long enough that he gave up on me.  He did go in himself (in his clothes) so at least he wasn't doing something he wasn't willing to do himself. The kids had a lot of fun and some of the girls were cracking me up because they swam over to me to ask how they should properly request (in English) to take a photo with someone.  I told them how and they promptly started asking attractive men for photos.  At the beginning of the week they would just stare and giggle, now they'd progressed to asking for photos with boys, so I guess their parent's money sending them here wasn't a total waste.

Well, I guess that's all for now.  Tomorrow I'm supposed to go with my boss at Bohemia (Agatha) to pass out flyers for the hostel at some of the farms in the area.  Not exactly sure what we'll be doing or why she wants me to go along, but I guess it's a chance to see some of the country-side.