I actually wrote most of this two nights ago (Friday) but am only publishing it now. So I may be talking in the future for some of it, but it's not the past. I'm not going to go through and change it though. So ignore it if I sound ignorant.
Like Brentwood, the weeks here seem to pass at the speed of light. You start off Monday morning and next thing you know, it's Friday night (tonight). And then you work on Saturday... and Sunday...
This weekend is a bit busier than the normal weekend for me and very special here at school. Tomorrow I will have breakfast with the rowers at 7am and head to the Barwon River - our home course - for our first regatta of the season. This is a pretty big deal for the Year 10 girls, as for many it's their first regatta ever! I'm pretty pumped and I think they are as well. I will get more pictures of my crew soon, but I'm phone-less on a daily basis at practice for now. I must admit, I'm starting to love coaching my novices and having just a small crew of the same girls I take care of every day. I think they are going to be pretty darned good too. I must admit, it is incredible how fast they learn to row when they have to get up to racing speed in just a few weeks. Interestingly as well, I finally met a rowing coach from the University of Syracuse (New York) last week after helping him set up a visit with GGS. I've emailed back and forth with this coach for 4 years during his tenures as recruiting coordinator at Duke and now Syracuse, but the first time I've met him in person is in Australia. Globalization at its best.
This Sunday is GGS Family Day, when many of the students families spend the day on campus getting to know staff and students, and more than anything, each other. It is a big tradition around here and I'm excited to see it all go down. Especially the duathlon of run, swim, run that many students and parents take part in.
It has now been 2.5 weeks of classes and I am feeling like I am starting to settle in. I am still truly in awe of Shem jumping in mid-year. He's obviously an incredible teacher. My students are an interesting and eclectic bunch, just like at Brentwood, but at the same time very different. One thing that has stuck out to me here is that the boys and the girls often sit in packs in the classroom. All girls in one area, all boys in another. I thought maybe it was just in my classes, but it I've checked with a couple of other teachers as well. Though it isn't a hard and fast rule, it does seem to happen quite often.
Shem talked about the boarding house being different - switching from a middle school house here to senior school house at Brentwood. I totally understand what he's talking about. My first night in Barwon was shocking. I don't know how else to describe it. Week two went a bit better during prep, but bedtime is a crap shoot to say the least. The boys are released from prep, eat a snack and then are supposed to get ready for bed which usually turns into a session of herding cats. Then they are supposed to read "silently" for 30 minutes until 9pm lights out. The boys of Barwon are growing on me. despite the fact that they are a handful. Just don't tell them that.
On a side note, (back to globalization again) it is interesting how small a world it is, a boy in the boarding house I do duty in has a good friend from Hong Kong (though he has lived in Los Angeles for about 6 years now) that goes to Brentwood.
Last Friday night, Ulrika and I ended up having dinner with another new teacher, Andrew Borthwick. Andrew, his wife Anna and their two beautiful daughters live just a couple houses down from Cormac's kinder on Bond Street. Andrew is an English teacher and just a great guy - and interestingly a very good friend of an English teacher at Brentwood (shout out to Rachel S-M) who lived and worked in Melbourne for many a year (globalization - part III). Ulrika and Anna plan to do coffee on a regular basis and Anna mentioned a 1/2 marathon on the Great Ocean Road that Ulrika and I are thinking of doing. We'll just leave Andrew with the 5 kids for 2 hrs. No big deal, right? We found a used double running stroller on Gumtree (Aussie version of Craigslist) so Ulrika can run with the kids in Geelong while Cormac is at school. We have also started working on Andrew to do an exchange to Brentwood in a few years time once he's settled into GGS.
I'm beginning to really love my office mates Anna, Nick and Lyn. Anna is actually from Bellingham, WA (I think I've mentioned her in a previous post) and Nick is a young Aussie bloke with a sweet hipster beard and an incredible sense of humour. He often serenades us with incomprehensible Aussie slang (purposefully) and we share many laughs. Lyn (who is the most incredibly kind lady - been mentioned several times in previous posts) get's in on it in the few moments she has to spare. I am blessed with such a wonderful office to fall into.
Cormac is loving Bond Street now that things are starting to pick up. He's got two new friends there, and two boys just down the street who he loves playing with. He is outside nearly every afternoon for a couple of hours - lately he and the two boys (Max and Teddy) down the street have been catching snails, racing snails and colouring snails as part of their afternoon routines. They are even good enough to let Stella take part in the fun (sometimes).
Footy season is almost upon us and the Cricket World Cup is on in Australia right now. Australia trounced England last weekend (New Zealand hammered England today) and faces Bangladesh tomorrow. It's limited overs (50) cricket so it is a much quicker game than the test matches. Fun to watch!
Niall now seems pretty close to crawling, despite the fact he can't sit up. He can quickly spin in circles and move across rooms in a matter of seconds when motivated by the right toy. Kid is an animal. He also couldn't wait to eat real food (despite the fact he has no teeth yet) so we've started feeding him.
Stella is getting funnier by the day. She loves both her brothers an incredible amount, but certainly won't back down when Cormac tries to push her around. He receives nearly as good as he gives at this point.
That's all for now. Off to fold some beautifully smelling naturally dried clothes from the line before bed...