Duty

My last "duty" of the year. Say that over and over again duty, duty duty...

A little gift from the slurpee duty teacher with a Christmas themed drink to cool off at 35+. 

Experience shared with special friends

Something amazing happened after our orientation way back at the beginning of our exchange experience. A wonderful teacher from Canada decided to form a Sydney Teachers Dinner group on Facebook and invited teachers from Canada to come together to share our stories and have a great time.  Over the next 10 months we have all gotten together to share the experience of a lifetime we all have been on. We were able to laugh and vent about everything that was going on. From the frustrations of different expectations, to the struggles with the language of photocopying on different paper and different paper sizes. We compared the students and schools to those that we left back home. Each of us has had struggles that we have been able to support each other through. Some have had the dream exchange and other not so much. But, we have all come from all over Canada, the west right through to the east and we all shared the love for teaching and courage to take a leap and say yes to a teacher exchange. 

Our first dinner get together

Dinner and hike number 2

Two more join the group after arriving from Alberta in July.

This amazing group of friends grew as the year went on. From trips to the zoo, hikes and dinners hosted by each other, we are now linked forever by this exchange.

Matt and I are lucky in that one of the other exhangees also comes from Beaumont, Alberta. We will be lucky to now know one more person when we return home.

Matt and I were happy to host one last Sydney dinner group get together this Friday. We enjoyed sharing our stories. We all have agreed we have done so much while in Australia, but still have only seen so little of this wonderful country. Most are leaving with so many stories to take home and the lessons we have learned from our teaching experiences down under.  I am confident to say that we all will be bringing something back to our school in Canada.


Some pictures of our "Canadian" feast.
Smoked meat on rye bread and of course a few celebratory drinks! We were supposed to have a swim in the pool, but the weather once again didn't cooperate.

Burnside School Family Fun Night

Friday night, Maëlle's school held its Family Fun Night. Lots of fun was had by all. Rides, blowup castles, firestrucks, face painting and treats all on her school grounds. Was a nice night out with the family.  She is really going to miss her school. It has been a very amazing experience for her this year. She has really enjoyed every day at Burnside School.

Some photos from the grocery store

Just some items in the grocery stores.

Tick Tock

Out on a regular outing with m I realized that there are only 9 weeks of school and 13 weeks of our Aussie adventure left and I 'caught' myself thinking how fast time has gone and how much faster our time is going to go.

I am so glad that I 'caught' myself.  No one on a holiday says oh no only 13 weeks left.  Kids don't start counting down the days of school with 45 days still left to go with any kind of urgency so why should I?  I shouldn't.  Yes there are great things to look forward to but if you get caught looking forward you might miss something perfect happening right in front of you.  You never truly know what the future will bring but you can control what you are doing now.

As many of you know I've lived the simple life here, no phone, no watch and no car which has truly allowed me to live in the present.  This has been great, liberating even and I challenge all of you to see if you can live in the present as much as possible but even living this simple life I still have to catch myself every know and then and bring myself back to the present.

I understand that what you choose to do in the present will affect what you can do in the future and I am not saying you shouldn't consider that; on the contrary you should know exactly how your current actions will shape your future and then enjoy the feeling of knowing that when you are in full control of your present that the future will bring good things.

Where am I? Here! What time is it? Now! So what should I do? ..... (go get Maëlle from school so no time to proofread) but then anything :)

Thanks for reading :)

Forward thinking

It is two more sleeps before the last Term of teaching here in Australia.

I have been thinking a lot about how lucky we have been to get a match (thanks Maxine, Ian and Todd) for this exchange. The last 9 months have been full of many ups and downs, but so many life changing adventures for all four of us. We have just returned from the Great Barrier Reef and a chance to see the GBR before climate change changes it all forever. We have had some good talks about what we see life like once we are back in Canada. Funny enough, both Matt and I have no idea. Beaumont is home but the new view we have of the opportunities that are open to us as a family leave the future as open as can be. It could be up to 9 more months before we are back in Beaumont (11 before I am back teaching) and I know the time is going to fly by just like the last 9 months has.

The next 10 weeks of teaching are going to be great! I am excited to get back to teaching about Canada and having the best time with my class. I am looking forward to teaching swim lessons.  We will be sad to leave Australia and have been so lucky to meet all the people we have met and to have family that has supported and visited us.

We are then starting the 6 months of unknown in Cambodia and then the world is open to us.  We have so many decisions to make but a lot of time to figure it out (We are open to help in this area). This part of the world is unknown to both of us but at this point the girls are excited to try more good food and see more beaches they say.


Late spring, early summer (Canada seasons) will see us return to Canada. Our hearts will be full of travel and fun. We will be so happy to see all the friends and family that we have missed already more than we ever knew possible.

Really a big thank you to everyone who has made this possible.

In the paper again!