Giving

On Friday a lovely lady left us at Nova after 2 fabulous weeks. We hope she had fun because we know we did. Before her farewell BBQ she gifted us teachers with a photo card with some photos of our time together. It was absolutely lovely.

Unfortunately I didn't get to spend a lot of time with her during her second week, just a few hours on Thursday and all of Friday due to other lessons happening at the same time but I enjoyed that short time all the same. We organised a super special tour of a local primary school for her during the second week which she loved. It was one thing she really wanted to see as she is an Elementary Teacher in Japan. I think that may have become the highlight of her stay here in Cairns.

 

She was part of a larger group that came over from Japan, all from different locations, some of who knew each other from past Nova summer schools. We had a great first week together learning about this that and everything from how to ask for and give directions to Australian animals to cooking an Australian BBQ which is a lot different to a Japanese one.



On the Monday after the larger part of the group (who were so much fun) left I was gifted with a cute little wiggly animal decoration for my house that was left at the office for me. It is so sweet and thoughtful.



Also that Monday a new group arrived and with them a teacher who bought us a tasty gift to try. I loved it. It is Imagawayaki (or Darayaki which is similar but two seperate pancakes) and looks like a pikelet. It has an azuki bean paste filling made by boiling and mashing azuki beans (red bean) which is then sweetened. The azuki bean filling was in a way similar (especially texture) to cooked dried dates. I wish I could get more of these as it was so tasty.
 

Nova Cairns has also blogged about the group before this, Mums and kids, here.
 

Way back at Monday

 Monday, Monday, Monday how long ago you seem.
This Monday saw us welcome two families to Nova. Two mums and their kids.
The week started off with Teacher P teaching the three children and myself taking the adults. We then alternated because both of us wanted to have the kids (sorry mums).
The morning lesson time was shorter than usual and the mums were very quiet but later said they felt comfortable and that came through as the week progressed.
The children were very quiet, our three little mice, giggly mice as it turns out.
Offers of drawing on the white board were somehow communicated during lunch time and then we were off to a flying start for the afternoon with sharing of pictures and a sign being made to decorate our main room for the week.

Teacher P headed home at about 12pm every day which left me as chief tour lady with M2 as side kick. We headed off on our usual Monday excursion, the walk around Cairns tour including Woolies and the Court House Hotel (was a Court House now a bar). The students got sidetracked by shopping in the first souvenir shop they found, home to the interesting shirts back here.

I may or may not have purchased this tea towel with Nova in mind.



Next stop was Devine Gelato, yep it is devine,a bit further down the Esplanade.

Last time I had Mango Sorbet made with local mangos. This time I tried Passionfruit Sorbet, again local fruit. Hmm next time I think I will give in and try the Bailey's one. 

We checked out the Esplanade for a bit even getting to see some pelicans cruising around.

 

We then got back on track and wandered south to an Aboriginal Art Gallery.

It is filled with paintings, didgeridoos, boomerangs, and other bits painted by localish artists.
The store is a photography free zone unfortunately because some of the artwork is pretty cool. The price however is not so I guess I'll never own any.

It was a beautiful Cairns winter afternoon, perfect for wandering.



Also pretty good for great views from the Nova windows ... ahhh I don't think I'll ever get sick of that view. It is always changing. Oh and there are boats. Small boats, big boats, I like watching boats.

U.S. Navy

Aus Navy

Good Morning Cocky

Good morning mountains ...

Good morning moon ...

Good morning Cockies.

It will be a good day ... I know it will especially with a start like this and that is despite the fact that I didn't want to leave my bed. 

I am glad I didn't snuggle back into sleep though ... it was worth it.

I've been at work the last two days and I love my job!

One of the new words the Japanese lady Mrs A learnt yesterday was Cockatoo so how fitting are these fellows. I'll have to share them with her when I see her on Friday.

She also learnt Platypus, Rosella, Frilled Neck Lizard, Rainbow Lorikeet and Echidna. The Echidna came with a lesson in Echidna mating rituals which she was interested in due to the spikes ... I think the question was "How do they mate, how do they do it with the spikes?" or something along those lines. I am just glad she felt she could ask.

Did you know they have a 'love parade' where the female starts walking and males line up behind her along the way (up to around 11 in some cases). The female then chooses a male after up to 6weeks of walking. And as to the mating, the female and male dig a shallow hole and mate tummy to tummy to avoid those spikes. As I read ever adaptable to their conditions Echidnas will also mate underground. I hope you enjoyed your lesson.

Lastly my particular favourite word that she learnt was 'weird' and when we went on our afternoon excursion she took great pride in using weird to describe an animal puppet of a Bilby.

She also enjoyed trying out the parrot names, matching them to puppets and to the real thing when we visited the Cairns Wildlife Dome ... more on that later.

So now I am completely off topic about Cockatoos but the pictures are pretty. I could have sat for hours watching their antics in a tree not far from our home.

Even now I can still hear the occasional squawk above my washing machine that sounds like it is taking off.

I will leave you with the rest of my morning photo shoot while I head off to catch up on housework that has been neglected since last Wednesday, organise catalogues to deliver and more than likely get sidetracked by more blogs, blog reading, facebook, email reading or anything else that seems like more fun.