Nicole's Adventures

Joel took off 8 hours after me, but landed 4 hours before me, as I took the cheapest flights I could get my hands on. One way tickets from Australia to Europe are quite expensive and even with the assistance of my friend who works for a travel agency, she couldn't get me much of a deal either.   My flights were fine, nothing too special. I did however get to fly on Cathay Pacific new A350, a plane that Joel has never flown on. For those who don't know, he loves planes and remembers all of the ones he has flown on, and knows all about the engines, etc. I think if something ever goes astray with Bosch, we have to get him into Aerospace engineering instead. :P I had long layers on Beijing where I slept on the airport benches, and Zurich. I fly Melbs to Hong Kong, HK Beijing, Beijing to Zurich, and Zurich to Porto. As usual, I watched lots of movies, eat and slept lots on the flights. When I landed I didn't feel too jet lagged and Joel and his parents were there to greet me ...

The last month in Melbourne was both a blur of busy but sometimes for me felt as we were moving in slow motion. Joel got extremely busy with his colleagues realizing all of a sudden that he was leaving, so he had some last minute business trips of course. They could never let him sit still in Melbs longer than a week or so without a trip somewhere.  Meanwhile I tried to organize all of the elements of the move which became quite time consuming and difficult at times. My last day of work at the school was May 31st. I was not expecting anything from the school because I was only there a few months, but I wanted to bring something to share with them, so brought some Raspberry slices to share with them.. however when I entered the staff room to put it out for morning tea, I saw a massive spread of things on the table... Sooo I added mine. Then, the principal came over to tell me that I didn't have to go out for my morning playground duty.. Then my coworkers brought me to the staff roo...

Oops, it has been ages since I have updated the blog on the day to day things happening. My new job in the school is going really really well. My co teacher is really easy to get along with and we have a great time together laughing at the sometimes craziness of the kids. They are all 6-7 year old's, 5 boys and 1 girl. I believe all have Autism, and others have a second type of Intellectual disability.  I help all around, helping them learn to write, use scissors, make letters with play dough, in art and technology class, etc, etc. The school is really small and close knit which is awesome, and everyone is so friendly and approachable.  Each Monday we also go to a nearby high school with a swimming pool to take the kids swimming. I have been given a school Ipad which I completely struggle to use, but am working on figuring it out.   I am often confused by the students for the Canadian speech pathologist who looks somewhat similar to me. One student mentioned that ...

Our map in Fiji is no where near as complicated as our map in New Zealand. And that was a perfect change, just like the perfect change in weather... We went from 15 degrees to 33 degrees. Anyone who knows me well knows that I have no problem with a few degrees on the thermometer. :) Fiji had your Hawaiian like hospitality and welcome, but dare I say, they were on a higher level than Hawaii. You arrive in the airport and people are playing ukulele and singing to you while you wait in the immigration line. People are extremely friendly. We wanted to take the bus from the airport to the marker B on the map, where the Beachouse was located. We didn't see any signs in the airport but eventually were lead to the right spot. While waiting there a women said she was taking the same bus so we could wait with her and then a guy came around selling food, and she grabbed us and told us to buy it. It was actually my favorite meal the whole time we were in Fiji.. Air New Zealand did not se...