Last Day of School!!

Yay! School is over!!! We had a half day today - kids went home at 12 noon, so us teachers have the afternoon to ourselves to clean up, pack up ect.. in our classroom! And tomorrow evening I will be flying high - literally - in the sky!! On my way down south... can't wait. Here are some pics I took of my kids today.. We went down to the beach and took some pics - I bought them santa hats for the occasion:) (On the second pic, you can see the school fence behind us.)

A little different than playing in the snow, eh?!!

Langkawi

I am so behind on news, it's scary!! I completely forgot to mention my trip to Langkawi!! We had a long weekend in November and my parents and 2 friends and I went to Langkawi, another island that's about a 3 hour ferry ride from here. Beautiful!!! It was a very relaxing 3 days we spent there.. Wendi and I splurged and split a jetski for 15mins! And my folks and I rented kayaks for an hour - the rest of the time was spent literally lying by the pool or on the beach! The sea was really nice - way nicer than the water in Penang!! Anyway, here are some pics.. The beach, and the little bungalows we stayed in.. This place was right on the water!! Amazing:))

operation:decorate

Two friends and I decided to spread some Christmas cheer...
We decided to decorate another friend's apartment, since he said he wasn't going to do any Christmas decorating.. Sooo, we made a plan and called it "operation:decorate". My job was to ask Steve to borrow his car to run an "errand" on Sunday afternoon... Julia bought the decorations, Wendi made a Christmas mix CD... and at 4pm, we got his car, his keys, (he had NO idea..) and headed to his place to decorate! We left Christmas lights on, Christmas music playing, and hung a blue Christmas star in his car, his front door, and even his mailbox at school (where we left his keys..) as little hints along the way! He didn't get home til about 9:30 that evening, leaving us in painful anticipation... wondering if he was going to freak out and get mad at us for invading his place and stealing his keys.. or pleasantly surprised... Luckily, he loved it and it was a great success... phew!! We had a lot of fun too!

Below is a link to a slideshow of pics we took while working on our operation! (I'm hoping it will work... otherwise you'll have to type it in manually..)
http://feeds.slide.com/p/3/Operation+Decoration+006?view=True

And yes, we emailed him this slide show the next day just as a wind up!!

The Countdown is on...

I know I know, it's been absolute ages since I've blogged! If you knew my schedule at the moment, I'd hope you'd understand!! We're now into the second last week of school and things are busy to say the least!! School plays, musicals, sports day, concerts, ect ect... plus trying to culminate my units before the last week! Plus my parents are here - they have been coming and going the past few weeks... they went up to Thailand last week and had an absolute ball - I'm so jealous! At least they have checked it out for me now:) They are in the Cameron Highlands this week and then picking up Paul (my brother) from the airport in KL, and sightseeing KL for the weekend. THEN... they all arrive back at my place for a few days... fun times... my whole family, together during a very busy week!! Then Thursday Paul leaves for Sydney and mom, dad and I leave on Friday night... the excitement is UNBEARABLE NOW!!! I am counting the sleeps!! I can't believe I'm actually going to Australia!! I've talked with my cousin, and I'm going to be staying with her in Sydney for the first week, then we will all be together at my aunt and uncle's house in Forbes (about a 5 hour drive inland from Sydney) over Christmas! It will be awesome not only to be in Aus, but to re-connect with extended family again after 8 years!! I'll be flying back on the 30th, in time for new years here with some friends, and then I have another 2 weeks holiday here! Unfortunately, I couldn't stay longer in Aus because of the tax laws... I have to be in the country on Jan 1st in order to obtain residency with taxes, ect.. (kinda complicated... but I'll abide by the law instead of getting hit with a fine!!)
So that's pretty much the rundown of the next two weeks!!

Life here is still good, and am still really enjoying it!! Though it doesn't feel like Christmas AT ALL!!! The weather doesn't change much here... it's just gone from hot to hotter... while most of you are all bundled up in warm jackets and scarves..:) I do kinda miss that - just for it to be cold over the Christmas season - would create more of an atmosphere... I've been helping different friends decorate for Christmas, playing lots of Christmas music, doing Christmas shopping, decorating my classroom for Christmas... but it STILL doesn't really feel the same!! Instead, I've been laying out on the beach/pool for an hour after school (first, to feel a little 'sane' from the craziness of school, second, to keep Wendi, my friend company while she tans before going back to the States for Christmas!) Here is a pic of Julia, Wendi and I being festive one Saturday night!!