Practicum

Quick update on Australia: I've been working for 5 weeks 2.5 days a week in a Year 1/2 classroom at a nearby school. It involves a 2.5 km bike ride both ways which will become longer tomorrow as they close the entrance to college. My class has about 24 students with 20 there on a given day. The school is one of the best in the country technology-wise and I love working with both the students and my Mentor Teacher. Next week is my last week of it, making up about 19 days of it, but I will be there all four days that week (Wednesday is a holiday). I've been teaching a lesson every day recently and working on my flexibility skills as many things change with a short amount of notice. Tomorrow is Under 8's day so about 150 students will attend for two hours to do activities. The other 1st year Prac students and I are doing two booths which will be exciting. Although I have lots of information on the daily visits because I have to keep a working portfolio with reflections, the long days limit my time to update people. Also, on Thursdays my Arts class is presenting a program (currently dance) for Year 4 and 5 students focused around Beef. Rockhampton is the Beef Capital of Australia and had an international Beef Expo a few weeks ago that happens every three years. That's all for know but I'll hopefully eventually get a chance to update more.

Mt. Tamborine: Connexions Weekend

I wrote this on April 5th about the March 27-29th. It follows the camping post pretty well.

I arrived at the service station just before our scheduled 8:00 departure. I knew that Connexions (an Expedition like camp except the whole state of Queensland was there) started at 7 so I wondered how long the trip would be. The six of us left at 8:20 after our second car arrived and headed south. One problem: Just outside of Rocky is a roundabout with two paths going south. One is a coastal route while the other is inland. Wes (my car's driver) took the coastal route while Rudgy took the inland. Wes ended up cutting through to the inland path adding another hour to our trip. However we got to see lots of beautiful scenery driving through the mountains past all of the small towns. Our entertainment was switching cds constantly, chatting, and taking pictures. Finally, we arrived in Toowoomba where we met friends of our leaders who had met at the past conferences. After eating at Maccas, losing another car as we followed the USQ girls (who knew the way to the camp), we arrived at the camp about 8:30. In case you weren't paying attention that means it was a 12 hour trip... a long time for a weekend. We joined in at the bible teaching and worship, registered, then the girls moved into Thailand, our room for the weekend.
The evening was spent meeting new people and playing cards. After a late night and a shower sleep was very welcomed for the few hours before breakfast. Most of CQU (4 of the 6 of us) were assigned breakfast clean-up. This ran smoothly until we got some trays stuck in the dishwasher. In the end, we were late to worship again. Following worship we slip into our different tracks.
I was able to skip the first few tracks and take Personal Disciplemaking 1. The twelve of us were led by two full time Student Life missionaries, one from Asheville, NC, the other from South Dakota. We learned the power and importance of follow-up of new believers as well as continuing to disciple mature Christians. Lunch followed then free time to explore the view at the look at and to lay in the grass praising God as the clouds moved above. Dinner led into an adventure game of reaching different campuses through completing challenges and teamwork. We were split by our majors for these and I believe Education Team 2 did very well. More worship then free time to eat fudge and hang out. The fudge was from one of the three fudge hops on the mountain and Pauline (from UQ) invited me to join her and a few others for cards and fudge. Note: Most of the campuses have a U and a Q in them : QUT, UQ, CQU, USQ.... Something about living in Queensland. Pauline and I ended up sitting outside talking for another hour or so post lights out. Since UQ is in Brisbane and I had a plane ticket booked for the following Saturday (but nothing else set) she invited me to stay with her. At home this would be unusual but in Australia it is common. I agreed to stay with her for a few reasons. 1. An apartment with three Christians is safer than a hostel alone. 2. She was willing to show me around the city and travel with me. 3. She is friends of Owen's family and shares a flat with one of Owen's brothers. Very good reasons in my mind and they worked out very well.
Sunday was similar to Saturday except no free time. After eating lunch, cleaning, and saying good bye or see you at Easterfest, we headed back to onto the road for another 11 hours of driving (coastal route this time). The first few hours I took picture after picture of the beautiful sunset. Since we drove north the sun set for a long time. By dinner, my 2G memory card was full from the weekend. I borrowed Dan's card and continued the journey in the dark: talking to Wes, singing to the music, and snapping pictures of Meagan as she slept in the back. Arrival back to college at one meant bedtime after a long and God filled weekend.