Tuesday, March 9, 2010

What is gravity?

How high can you jump?
It is required, as a part of this course that we work in partners to create and teach four sequential science lessons. Since Alicia and I live together and have our working placement at the same Primary school we decided it would be best if you teamed together.


Since my class was already learning about Space, we decided to take a group of four boys and have them feel special by being part of our ‘special science club.’ They are amazing children and really benefit from the special treatment. They ask me everyday “do we have Science with you and Miss Sousa today?”

We’ve been ‘probing’ their knowledge of gravity and it’s amazing how much they already know!

They were all too smart for our lessons really! Alicia and I went home after being thrown through such a learning curve and decided our lessons should be a little more challenging in the future.

I loved the boys explanation about gravity after we asked them “Why can’t you jump up to the roof of the school? Why did you come back down to the ground?”

The boys: “it’s a gigantic magnet in the earth and we’re all like metal and it doesn’t want to let us go and it wants to pull us back down!”

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Afternoon Indian feast

Home cooked Indian Food!



When my friend Sharmeen discovered my love for Indian food, she offered to cook me a delicious meal! I was so excited to try everything on the table and I did, two or three times! Erini and her wonderful mom joined for the lunch as well and we all devoured the delicious Indian cuisine. Sharmeen surprised me with my absolutely favourite desert, Gulab Jamuns.


Gulab Jamuns bring back memories of traveling with Alyssa in India. We ran around the crowded and often scary streets, in search of those little deep fried sweets.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Gastronomically Delightful!

Mama Wilson, I love my apron! thank you thank you!
...After a week of placement at a Primary school down the street from my humble abode, I spent two full days staring at my computer making lessons plans for this upcoming week.

...Tired from working two brutal weddings (yes the song “Sex is on fire” played at both!) and cranky from lack of sleep and fun, I decided to blow my money on a shopping trip.

....Shopping trip to the Fruit Shack and beyond with one AA backpack and two green (eco friendly) bags to walk all my purchases home, while speaking Korean aloud all the way through lessons 14 and 15.


I really don’t enjoy these two lessons (which I have to repeat every week) they’re on money and converting Korean Won into Dollars. The next lesson is on telling the time, it's awful that all three sets of these numbers are different! It’s annoying when the Pimsleurs guy goes half way through a lesson testing your knowledge of how to say an amount in dollars and then switches over to Won, then the time. It’s especially difficult when your lugging the amount of food I was up a steep hill!


Anyway, I warned my room mates that my plan for the gloomy Sunday was to spend the day cooking and baking in the kitchen.
I went overboard and actually spent 5 hours in there!

Here’s what I made:

Yummy Ummmmmy bran muffins packed with flak seeds, every fruit I could get my hands on, ground nutmeg (took forever to grind it into powder!) bran buds and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

I finally got to use the present my boyfriend sent me to check if the baked goods are cooked all the way through:)

Pesto and Hummus combined!
I am currently teaching in the same class of a lovely girl whose mommy is my friend and fellow student! We passed notes back and forth all week via her daughter and one of my requests was for her homemade Pesto recipe I spotted in her daughters sandwich during lunch. I was so impressed by her sandwich, the homemade pumpkin bread had been made by her dad, along with some homemade hummus her family had made for me to enjoy with some vegetables^^ The next day I had the note with both the recipes delivered to me.




My goal was to make both the Pesto and the Hummus (separately) but after being in the kitchen for so long, I decided I was too tired to crush that many nuts, garlic and basil. I threw them all in together and have made a delicious and very healthy dip! Pestummus?!

Finally, I touched up on my supply of Indian secrete sauce my lovely friend Manjul created.
It’s really just half ginger, half garlic, oil and a pinch of salt, sauté and add to veggies and rice. Mine is not as magical as hers, but it will do the job^^


Indian Masla Movie Popcorn
As a house, we all put on our Fall clothes and left the house for the movies to see “The Blind Side.” I think the movie came out in Canada months ago, but it takes a while for it to arrive to Oz. It was one of the best “based on a true story” movies I’ve seen in a really long time. It was also very ‘future teachers’ appropriate.’

Instead of microwaving buttered chemical popcorn, I bought the kernels and attempted for a second time to pop them carefully over the stove.

My first try was a few night previous to this when a friend came over for some wine, snacks and sex and the city viewing. I tired to pop the corn on the stove and ended up burning and smoking the house out.

This time was successful! And I added a sprinkle of my favourite Indian Masala spice on top to make it an Indian movie treat!

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Beauty Sleep

I was tierd of looking at this sad little sleeping mask from my last flight from Bangkok back to Australia.
(When I got bumped up to buisness class!!!)

I needed some kind of creative 'me' time, away from assignments and lesson plans. I decided to compliment the vintage slip I bought for my sister with a decorated mask.

Thanks mom and dad for the lovely Ralph Lauren sheets that you let me bring to Oz and cut up to make dresses and sleeping masks:)

Brittney, sorry for ruining the surprise! xx 

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Recycled wedding wrapping

Every wedding dinner I serve every weekend at work reinforces my feelings that weddings are just an insane waste of money for one evening. Often half of the people attending the dinner are looking at their watches or drinking themselves into oblivion, thrilled that there is an open bar. It's roughly $100 ( at the lower end) that you pay for one dinner guest. Almost every time at least one person just "doesn't show up!" and another dinner is wasted!
I have gotten a lot of ideas about "what not to do" for a wedding and have come to the important decision that Cupcakes are way better than cake! (homemade ones in my future case)

While cleaning up after serving a fairytale wedding last weekend, I collected these scraps in the hopes of creating something cute out of them. I couldn’t let them go into the trash after looking so elegant wrapped around the heart chocolates handed out to the dinner guests.

I ended up using about five pieces of the decor to make a flamboyant head piece.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Ocean Grove

The day before starting our teaching rounds we decided to go to the beach^^
I agreed only if someone would bring a sun umbrella! thank you Nick and Nancy!! hehe

Monday, February 22, 2010

End of Lectures!

It's really hard to believe that we're finished the in class lectures for the seven month Primary teaching course!
To celebrate, the girls and I had our fellow students over for a bbq and much needed drinky poos!
The weather was good and we were all just so happy to be done sitting in a classroom and start working in one (which we have all begun this week).

Asia seems to follow me everywhere (which I'm more than welcoming about). Our friend Melissa brought her karaoke machine over and it ended up being quite the highlight of the ridiculous events of the evening^^
Me and some of the veggie girls grilled Portobello mushrooms that I had soaked in red wine vinegar, with crushed garlic, butter and cilantro. On top of that we had grilled tofu with Indian Masala spice, zucchini  and onions. I made some Spanish tomato gespacho soup too! yum yum!

I'm having trouble eating poultry, seafood or meat at the moment. I don't know if I will come to a decision about eating them again until I finish the book "Th ethics of what we eat." Brilliant book but don't read it if you love fish, chicken or cow meat^^