When my alarm went off on Monday morning at 6:30am, I was hoping that somehow, it was a joke. Still half asleep and 100% in holiday mode, I snoozed the alarm three times before it hit me; Term 4 had begun. I rolled out of bed, made myself look decent and headed to school to fulfil my Mangarri duty. Walking into Luurnpa, I felt like I had walked into a ghost town. Well, the teachers were all there but only one student was; Frena. Feeling kind of chuffed that the only kid in school was in Primary C I enjoyed a lazy pre-bell morning having only one mouth to feed and headed into class expecting an easy day to wean me back into the routine of school. Not to be. Our one student octupled and with most of the students still in holiday mode and Jenny and I being the only ones in the classroom, it was no wonder I went home and fell asleep!
I suppose you could say that by the end of the day we had nine students, but we're not counting creepy crawlies. Confused? I'll explain. Our class topic is insects and no sooner had we done a lesson on them did Quornetta run into class clutching the biggest and freakiest looking grasshopper I have ever seen in my life! Up until the point where I had to transfer it from a bag to a glass jar, I thought I was cool with the subject, maybe even excited. That is of course until the grasshopper escaped from the bag and I spent the next five minutes trying to coax it into a jar, without getting anywhere near it. Sure, it's not dangerous or anything but it certainly looked like it!
Ew!
Yesterday morning Henry and KP found a cockroach and decided to bag that also. However it wasn't any ordinary cockroach; it was an Albino one, completely white and therefore so much cooler and less gross than one would think. It really was quite a hit. The only problem was that by the end of the day it turned brown again. Kind of strange but seriously awful, just like all its disgusting relatives once again. No reason to explain an albino cockroach turning brown again but hey, we’ll go with it! Only in Balgo!
Ewww even more!
Frena was really keen on bringing in a frog she had found in the pool as well and was disappointed to hear frogs aren’t insects. This was during the lesson time that Henry learnt that spiders aren’t insects either, a fact that shattered many of his childhood beliefs and left him seriously pondering many things. Anyway this fortunate frog spent most of the swimming lesson chilling on the top of a kickboard quite happily as Frena swam it around the pool and doing all sorts of crazy tricks along the way. It was quite cool and a sad goodbye for both Frena and Sammy Tammy the Frog when everyone had to go back to class.
Sammy Tammy the Frog
The students made ‘Superbugs’ yesterday, basically just a bug that takes on the persona of Superman. Pretty cool really, and so much less creepy! Check them out for yourself :)
Ok, these I can handle.
The below video is from a few weeks ago when a massive Willy Willy crashed into Boystown and went by our house. It’s pretty cool!
Aaaand just a few photos from my walk this afternoon, because I love showing you the desert :)
Plane jet stream and the setting sun.
Don’t you just dislike immensely that first day of term when you have been so chillaxed nothing has bothered you, you have enjoyed late nights and even later morning’s amongst a fantastic trip away and sleeping under the stars? Every Monday starts like that and it feels like an eternity before the next weekend, but then it is here in a flash and gone in an instant before Monday comes around again.
ReplyDeleteHaving only a small group of students at school would have made the start so much easier for you but I am sure you now have great respect and admiration for all teachers in the metro area who don’t have the luxury of an easy start to the term.
There is no way in the world you have a grasshopper in the glass jar, it is too large. Yuk, I would not be happy for one of them to land on me as I was walking around. I am a bit like Henry where, to me, any creepy crawly is an insect whether it is a grasshopper, ladybird (yes I do call them ladybirds not ladybugs) ant or spider. They are all little creepy things that I wish not to be around. However I did not know a cockroach was also a chameleon. Changing from white to brown would have been a sight for your beautiful eyes to witness.
When I watched your video of the willy willy I had a flashback of when I went to Southern Cross at the end of grade three to stay with Aunty Doris and Uncle Dino, before Nonna and Nonno came up for Christmas. We had spent the whole day cleaning the windows, well that’s what it felt like anyway, and no sooner had we finished, the skies got dark, then orange and red. Darker red it became until we realised in the distance a dust storm was looming. Hoping and praying it would miss us did not work and it hit the verandas, the paths, the house and more to the point our sparkling clean windows that became a blackboard ready for someone to play naughts and crosses on. I was so surprised to watch Aunty Doris stay very calm and laughed as if it was an everyday occurrence for her to work her butt of only to have to do it all over again.
I love to sunset photos. Enjoy walking at sunset every day, I know I would.
ILY