What's a TimTam Slam, you ask? First you make a nice steaming cup of Milo (like hot chocolate but made from barley and cocoa - an Australian staple drink). Then you take the TimTam (see picture) and nibble off both of the ends. Then you stick the TimTam in your Milo and start sucking like so: 
When the TimTam fills with hot chocolaty goodness then you pop it in your mouth and wait for the chocolate explosion. It's delicious! (and makes you sick if you eat too many). Life has been good here - my students invited me to some of their weekend barbecues and it was fun to be with them as friends and not just as their teacher. I didn't feel any obligation to make them speak only English with each other and it was nice to see their personalities come out a bit more.
A few weeks later my Canadian roommate, Jenna, and I got to go to a Rugby League game. A girl in our ward got us tickets and I really wanted to go even though I don't normally like sports events. 
However, I found rugby a lot more fun to watch and we had Aussie friends there to explain the rules.
The tackling is also much more fun to watch since they don't have all the armour that American football players wear.
A few weeks after that it was our roommate Katherine's birthday and we decided to do a surprise Phantom of the Opera Masquerade party. She was shocked when she walked in the door to a bunch of people wearing masks and we blasted the Phantom of the Opera theme song.
All the roommates - one of our few pictures together. Me, the other Alana, Rebekah, Khat, and Jenna (and Daniel in the background).
My time is now winding down in Australia. I had just made the decision to move on to New Zealand in a few weeks when my boss had a meeting and said the school wasn't seeing the same number of students coming in and they would need to let some teachers go. I went to him afterwards and volunteered to be the first since I would be going soon anyway. The other teachers appreciated me taking a dive first. Here's my desk just before I cleaned it out.
It was bittersweet finishing my teaching because I really like teaching and the students were sad to see me go but it's also nice not having the constant stress of lesson planning for a while. My roommate Jenna and I will be leaving around the same time so we are going to do a bit of traveling together next week. We decided to have one last roommate dinner at a fun, trendy, pay-a-lot-of-money-to-sit-on-the-floor restaurant.
In my free time I've been doing some souvenir shopping and one day I was looking at the didgeridoos in the shop when the guy who worked there asked if I wanted to try it out. I had heard it wasn't something women were supposed to do in Aboriginal culture so I had resisted up until that moment. I just couldn't fight it anymore, though. After a few moments of huffing and puffing I finally made the deep rumbling sound that is supposed to come out of it. Once that happened I was hooked so I bought my own (not the one in the picture).
So that's been life for now. My next post should come a bit sooner once I start traveling again. I don't know how long I'll be in New Zealand since I'm getting really tired of living out of a backpack. But we'll just have to wait and see what happens . . . . .
A few weeks later my Canadian roommate, Jenna, and I got to go to a Rugby League game. A girl in our ward got us tickets and I really wanted to go even though I don't normally like sports events. 
However, I found rugby a lot more fun to watch and we had Aussie friends there to explain the rules.
The tackling is also much more fun to watch since they don't have all the armour that American football players wear. 
A few weeks after that it was our roommate Katherine's birthday and we decided to do a surprise Phantom of the Opera Masquerade party. She was shocked when she walked in the door to a bunch of people wearing masks and we blasted the Phantom of the Opera theme song. 
All the roommates - one of our few pictures together. Me, the other Alana, Rebekah, Khat, and Jenna (and Daniel in the background).
My time is now winding down in Australia. I had just made the decision to move on to New Zealand in a few weeks when my boss had a meeting and said the school wasn't seeing the same number of students coming in and they would need to let some teachers go. I went to him afterwards and volunteered to be the first since I would be going soon anyway. The other teachers appreciated me taking a dive first. Here's my desk just before I cleaned it out.
It was bittersweet finishing my teaching because I really like teaching and the students were sad to see me go but it's also nice not having the constant stress of lesson planning for a while. My roommate Jenna and I will be leaving around the same time so we are going to do a bit of traveling together next week. We decided to have one last roommate dinner at a fun, trendy, pay-a-lot-of-money-to-sit-on-the-floor restaurant.
In my free time I've been doing some souvenir shopping and one day I was looking at the didgeridoos in the shop when the guy who worked there asked if I wanted to try it out. I had heard it wasn't something women were supposed to do in Aboriginal culture so I had resisted up until that moment. I just couldn't fight it anymore, though. After a few moments of huffing and puffing I finally made the deep rumbling sound that is supposed to come out of it. Once that happened I was hooked so I bought my own (not the one in the picture).
So that's been life for now. My next post should come a bit sooner once I start traveling again. I don't know how long I'll be in New Zealand since I'm getting really tired of living out of a backpack. But we'll just have to wait and see what happens . . . . . 