KiaOra

Despite the years I have spent trying to pay as little attention as possible during Maori classes you will be surprised to hear I actually miss it. Suddenly I've opened my eyes and realised that in Australia the Maori culture is an element of my culture, and enjoying that does not mean being PC (since this is written for kiwi's I suddenly feel very PC) . This week we have been learning about rainbows with the children, this involves many songs about colours however I realised very quickly one song was missing. "Ma is white, whero is red, kakariki green..." I have since rectified the situation, making a point of randomly singing the song to the children in the hope they will actually join in one day. However since I opened the door to Maori songs I have discovered myself wandering around the house singing Oma Rappati, AEIOU, Piko and the NZ Anthem in Maori. In all my longing for NZ cultural songs only one English one has actually come to mind...Fish N Chips (of course pronounced Fush n Chups).

The weather is making a point of reminding me I'm not a Melbournite also. In Chch, on a sunny hot day it would be safe to say you could go for a half hour walk without getting wet, provided you don't walk through a river, this means you can safely wear a nice wee white summer dress. Of course in Melbourne you are an idiot if you assume it will not rain within the next five minutes, no matter what the weather looks like when you look out your window. You have now realised this lesson in Melbourne weather is really for my benefit, as I ended up walking for 20 minutes in what would be termed torrential rain by NZ standards, in a very light dress. I was dripping after about 5 minutes and by the time I got home every single layer of clothing was sopping wet. The weather here is pretty awesome at the moment, the children are learning that rain while it is hot is something to celebrate and we have begun a ritual of dancing around outside while the Melbournites wonder what an earth is so special about rain and warmth. We have also had some big thunder and lightening clouds, which is very exciting for me although the children are more scared than excited by it and would far rather hide inside than dance outside with me (which means watching storms can't really be classified as work).

While I am a kiwi, unfortunately I just discovered Kiwi's are treated as inter-staters when it comes to our licenses. This means I have to get my NZ license transferred to an Aussie one, and probably that means P plates (everyone my age has P's here anyway so it's not so bad). This will mean in the last few years I have managed to have 6 licenses issued to me. Considering I haven't lost a license I think this is a pretty good number. I'm interested to see what my motorbike license transfers over to, my friend has a 250 I can ride if it actually transfers over, so fingers crossed.

I've just realised I've managed to include work pretty much everywhere. I do actually have a life, I'm out most of the time. However, I've fallen in love with our children. I miss the children on the weekend and look forward to work on Monday morning. I really don't want to say goodbye to them all at the end of the year. I'm trying very hard to convince the parents that their children don't actually need to grow up and they can stay at Gilly's for the rest of their lives (or until I go to Israel) but they're just not buying it. We only have 2 months left with the children, so each day is becoming precious. Apart from saying goodbye to the children I think Early Childhood is pretty much the coolest job. Seriously, primary school teachers don't get to take their shoes off and build sand castles for an hour. They also don't get to ride motorbikes, go down slides, climb forts, build towers, read stories or do any of the other cool stuff we get to do. Nor do they get all the cuddles we get. Another benefit is when your skirt falls down at work the only people who see it are 2!!! (trying to take tights off in public isn't the wisest idea). Also you can talk about anything you want, you just spell certain words, although it is always a crack up to hear what the children tell the parents. Basically I love children!!!!!!!