Planet RAW!!

So one of my apartment mates is a really healthy eater and recently she’s started trying out this latest LA diet called the ‘Raw Food Diet’ where everything you eat is well raw! I like trying out new and very weird things-it’s my idea of fun :P So over my spring break me and my apartment mate dragged the rest of the apartment out to “Planet Raw” in Santa Monica, a raw food restaurant which had been pointed out to me y one of my students who said that his dad frequented the place. The food was surprisingly good! They even had raw cheesecake. It was also guilt free cos it was so healthy J Dunno whether we’ll ever get Tiff back or whether Andrew will ever darken the door :P but it was a very interesting experience :)
















Amanda, Debbie, me, Evelyn, Vivian, Tiff

Elaine in LA

I don't like macs....
















Conferring with my coworker Khendyl (alliteration)
















Dim Sum!!









































Huntington Gardens

Lunch Time Ramblings

On my lunch break in SMMS. I'm feeling a bit bored and tired so I'm going to do a blog entry. Mum was here for 2 weeks and left on Monday. I have some pictures which I hope to upload soon.
This weekend I have to go for a training day on Saturday morning at 8:30am then church is at 8:15, we also have daylight saving on Sunday evening where I hope to lose one hour of precious sleep time...next week's not looking so good...
I'm beginning to miss home a bit more-mainly people, like friends that I've known for a long time and things like that...
My eye is better though :)

Pink Eye

I have conjunctivitis - it's horrible and I feel awful. I went to a clinic yesterday and they prescribed an antibiotic-I still feel horrible, but at least I discovered a doctor I can go to without health insurance who doesn't cost the earth and my antibiotic also cost less that $20. Anyway it's no fun having conjunctivitis and I feel very sorry for myself.
Poor mother is still nursing a bad back. The two of us are like crocks but Andrew's being very patient :P

Snowing in Mammoth!

We had a really lovely weekend out of LA and in the snow. Just 2 hours from the sunny city of LA it snows. We traveled about 5 hours north of LA to Mammoth which is pretty close to Yosemite National Park. There was a fresh fall of 5 feet of snow the day before we arrived and it was like a whole world away from LA.




I snowboarded for the very first time. I tried going down the slope on my own the first time and I met a guy on the way down who was an instructor and he gave me a free lesson :) He told me that I had lots of 'athletic energy' and that it was kind of surprising that I hadn't snowboarded before cos I was already doing S's. I kept thinking he was talking to someone else :P Anyway I loved the snowboarding and I even think I may prefer it to skiing :)



















On our way back from skiing we got to enjoy the amazing scenery of this part of California. We stopped in one town called 'Lone Pine Tree'. It was like a scene out of a wild west movie. It was so nice. I could have spent a lot more time there. As we drove through the countryside I kept thinking what it must have been like for the first Californian settlers as they traveled through this wilderness in their covered wagons to set up homes and and start communities. When you live in the West of America the 'Wild West' takes on a whole new significance.




















It seems like California has everything one could want in the recreational realm-from beaches to ski slopes! Life is tough! :)

Click here for the full album

Mobile Phone

I just want to let people know that I am still using my Irish mobile phone for receiving texts. It was off for a couple of weeks after I got back because my US phone broke but now I have both phones. Please text me on my Irish phone if you want to do any texting :)
Going snow boarding at the weekend and the weather is roasting here at the moment :)

Winter in Los Angeles

Weather for Los Angeles, CA 90024

28°C
Current: Clear
Wind: W at 3 mph
Humidity: 11%

Mon

28°C | Feels like 28°C

Tue

28°C | Feels like 28°C

Wed

28°C | Feels like 28°C

http://weatherbonk.com/weather/camDetail.jsp?id=_wcbl_1122940362690

Back in LA

I got back safe and sound. Been back in work a week now. I've enjoyed it-I really love my job and get great pleasure out of my time there.
My apartment is newly carpeted and our internet is in place. I've unpacked my bags and done two laundry loads but my furniture still needs to be put back in place and my room is still up in a heap. I'm just happy to have dry floors and an absence of fans blowing!
Today Andrew and I went to Border's bookstore in Santa Monica which is closing down and had a 40% sale on everything. I got lots of bargains :) We had a seafood buffet lunch and I bought a new charger for my iPod cos I lost my old one.
We have ALMS again tomorrow so it'll be another long Sunday.
Goodnight!

This is a great way to get some vouchers and rewards...

Apartment Update

So my apartment is now like a building site. All the carpets have been ripped out and most of the skirting boards. I think they'll also be taking up all of the tiles as well. Parts of some of the partition walls have been taken down as well so I have a big hole in my bathroom wall. We have moved out of the apartment for now but most of my stuff is still in there. I just hope I don't forget anything I may need for when I'm heading home on Saturday. My laptop charger is broken and I'm trying to find a way to get it charged so that I can print out my tickets! I may have problems getting home on Saturday otherwise...
Two more days of work then time to pack....

Flooded Apartment

I woke up this morning to the sound of my apartment mates sloshing through my apartment. I crawled to the bottom of my bed to see what was going on and I saw a stream of water coming in from under the door-this was deceptive however, when I got out of bed and stepped on my carpet I discovered a pool of freezing cold water underneath. My whole bedroom was under about 2 inches of water! My Christmas presents were all on the ground! The charger for my lap top was sitting on the ground and is now broken. I can't believe that I had to come to LA to experience a flood!


My Knight in Shining Armour came down and helped out with getting things up off the ground at 6:30 in the morning! These are our wet socks and his tired face after it all:
CLICK ON PICTURES FOR LARGER IMAGES

Grotto Creek-The Rocky Mountains

We spent the day in a beautiful creek in the Rocky mountains. It was completely frozen over and we edged our way up the ice to see a frozen waterfall. It was really gorgeous and the weather was perfect for a hike!

I got my hair wet!!

It lashed rain last night and it's been raining on and off all day today. It was so strange to get my hair wet involentarily-this hasn't happened for a while...The rain here is so disgusting that it's really not nice to get wet in it. My car is filthy now!
We had a huge Thanksgiving meal in school today. Parents brought in dishes and we stuffed ourselves. I even have leftovers for dinner tonight!! :)
That's good seeing as I need to get packed for Calgary...

Cold in LA and other ramblings...

Today it is cold in LA/Santa Monica...I had to turn the heating on in my classroom. I have the AC on now though, cos it got too warm. It's a quiet week this week because it a three day week and on Wednesday we're having a big Thanksgiving feast in the school, which I'm really looking forward to. Then it's off to Calgary on Thursday morning, which apparantly is the right time to go because traffic on the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving is always the busiest in the year...I dread trying to just get home from work...
I don't know if I have enough warm clothes for Calgary. We may go ice skating or skiing!! I have a big bruise on my knee from ice skating on Saturday which I'm rather proud of, but I should probably try to not bang my knees on the ice too much... I may need to borrow some warm clothes from my Canadian friend. We Irish people aren't too into our warm clothes despite the weather we usually have :)

Christmas Shopping in California

My Apartment

From left, clockwise: Me, Debbie, Tiff, Sarah, Yoonah, Becky

Introduction to the girls in my apartment:

Becky:
Becky is Andrew's former apartment mate, Pete's, girlfriend. Pete's in dental school now in New York so our roles have reversed from me and Andrew being long distance and she and Pete living in the same building to she and Pete being long distance to me and Andrew living in the same building-it's strange :) Becky is a part time student/part time dental assistant and is applying for dental school next year. Becky has a crazy streak and is a lot of fun :)

Debbie:
Debbie moved into the apartment just after me. She's studying linguistics in UCLA, it's her final year. Debbie is our resident chef and can be found most days in the kitchen cooking up a storm. Debbie usually has to put up with me barging into her room to talk most evenings :)

Sarah:
Sarah was the one who had to let me into the apartment regularly before I officially moved in. Sarah is a part time student while applying for nursing school. Sarah is my shopping buddy. She loves getting second hand dresses for really cheap and doing stuff to them to make them look really nice. She's a very brave shopper :)

Tiff:
Tiff is our resident Electrical Engineer (I have to have one of them nearby at all times :) ) She's doing her final few classes in UCLA this year. Tiff is great, she's always ready to help, however don't try to get her to do anything that even resembles girlyness-she'll run a mile! :) She can make a great gift tag though :P

Yoonah:
Yoonah and I have lots in common :D Well Debbie has a lot in common with us also :P Yoonah is working in a lab in UCLA and she's also applying for graduate school, she wants to be a physician's aid. Yoonah's great fun, she and Becky have the funniest interactions :)

We really get on well in our apartment. I'm really thankful for a nice bunch of girls to live with. They really make our apartment feel like home and I feel like I can talk to any of them about anything. I think this a pretty rare thing for a house of six girls :)

I was too vain to pull a funny face :)

Election Day

So today is election day. It began with rain this morning, and by this morning I mean 3am which means that when I left home at 7:30 the ground was wet from rain instead of sprinklers and the sun was out again and most of the roads were already dry and there had been road accidents already.... The queues at election points here in LA are stretching 2 hours already-there are too many people here! It's really strange for me not to be able to vote here cos I love voting usually and am usually caught up in the excitement of being able to vote and then watch the polls come in. Everyone here is shouting for Obama and 'No' on Prop 8. I dread to see reactions should either of those things go against them...
I'm looking forward to an interesting couple of days.....

Dim Sum

Andrew and I went for MSG free dimsum on Saturday with one of my colleagues and her boyfriend. The boys had great fun listening to our work talk :D

Visit to San Francisco

We visited San Francisco a couple of weekends ago to see Andrew's two sisters, brother-in-law and nephew. We really enjoyed our time. His nephew, Matthew, is really cute and really sweet and the weather was lovely-which is not always the case in San Francisco!

International Fair

We had our international fair today in school. Each of the children in my classroom had to research a country and set up a display board with artifacts. Today the parents and grandparents came around and looked at the displays and tasted the food that the children brought in. My room was very interesting. I had projects on Egypt, Denmark, France and Switzerland, Iran, Australia, Spain, Mexico, Russia and Japan. The child who was studying Iran (Persia) had his grandmother make some Persian food and also brought some delicious Persian pastries to his display. They let me take the leftovers home :) The privileges of being the class teacher :) Andrew came to have a look around the classrooms too and try out some of the food. It was really good fun, but also really exhausting!
I'm ready for bed!

St. John's Hospital

I spent the afternoon in the "ER" in St. John's Hospital Santa Monica today with one of my colleagues who fractured and dislocated his elbow. The hospital was like a hotel with Valet parking and everything. I was wondering if I'd need to pay an entrance fee :P

Wildfires in North LA

I don't know if people have been seeing news reports about this but yesterday most of my colleagues were glued to the television watching the fires in Porter Ranch which is just north of LA. The strange thing for me is that I've been in this area several times. I bought my car up there, in fact the road we took to the guy's house is the very road that was blocked off for emergency vehicles yesterday. Also, Andrew and I were in Porter Ranch on Saturday for a picnic. It seems strange to me to be so close to the wildfires that I usually hear about from thousands of miles away.
Yesterday two of my colleagues had to leave work early because they were being evacuated because of the fires. I hope their properties aren't damaged and that this evacuation will only be temporary!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-me-wildfire14-2008oct14,0,2457219.story

Tickets Home!

I booked tickets home for Christmas!! I hope to arrive home on Sunday December 21st and leave again January 3rd. I hope to get to see lots of you when I'm around!

I did it!!

I passed my driving test!!
Matthew McBride is so so cute!!!

Weekend

I'm off for the weekend to San Francisco. Andrew's sister Michelle and her husband and little boy will be there. Andrew's other sister Amy lives in San Fran as well so it will be a little sibling get together that I'll be tagging along with :) Andrew's very excited to be seeing his nephew again. I'm looking forward to sizing up Naomi's future husband-they've been matched since birth :P

Hot!

My goodness! What's going on in this city? It's the 2nd of October and the temperature is 36C! This kind of heat should not be allowed, and we're right by the sea-so it should be cooler like! Today's a beach day but not for me...
I thought I'd give an outline of my day-it might be interesting for teachers at home to see.
I get into school at 7:30 ish! I have an hour of prep before the children come in. I get so much done in that hour it's great cos a lot of staff are not in yet and I think your brain works better first thing in the morning. Classes start at 8:30. We have class straight from 8:30 to 12 without a break. The children can take a snack if they wish, but usually we have a lot of work to get through so we just keep working. At 12 I have a 30 minute break-and that's 30 minutes exactly cos I have to relieve another teacher from yard duty at 12:30. I'm on yard duty from 12:30 to 1:00 then it's inside for afternoon enrichment classes.
Some days I teach history to the younger children and World Literature to the older children, on Thursdays I teach art appreciation to all the students. 2 days I don't take any afternoon enrichment classes so I am free to get planning and administration done.
On Mondays I usually stay in work until 6 getting all my planning done for the week, every other day I stay until 3:30 or 4:00.
On my way home I often have to do some shopping (I love Trader Joe's). Or else Andrew's dragging me out for a run-he won't manage today though-it's ridiculously hot! I make dinner (this is when I miss my mother the most :P ) and then I clean up and maybe relax for a little while and try to get to bed by 10-this doesn't happen much...
On Thursdays Andrew and I have our bible study with a group of people who live in South West LA and then on Fridays we have another bible study/service with another group of people in Westwood.
That's my day, and here's a photo of our first bible study meeting:

Ice Skating

Naomi may be learning to walk at last, but I feel like I'm learning all over again - on ice. Andrew gave me my first lesson today:

Andrew's Birthday

For Andrew's birthday we went whale watching on Newport Beach. Newport Beach is like the Kinsale of the Los Angeles area, really beautiful. We got to see a fin whale, which is one size smaller than a blue whale. It was amazing to see the whale turning in the water and spotting the spurt of water through its blow hole from afar. Seeing such a magnificent creature makes you marvel again at God's wonderful creation. We want to go whale watching again in March when there is an influx of grey whales to Newport Beach area. To see all of the photos we took that day click here.

Santa Monica Montessori School

Here's some photos of the things we staff get up to in Santa Monica Montessori school such as getting a heavily pregnant staff member to demonstrate an earthquake drill and taking random photocopies while posing for photographs in the staffroom....

Stuff

Hi, I know I haven't updated this in a while. Today I've been here 2 months exactly. I'm really tired, long weekend I think. I'm very excited to hear that Naomi's walking, I want to see a video of her!! This weekend is Andrew's birthday so I might have some photos of his birthday celebrations.
For now, here's some photos of my classroom













Language Corner



My messy desk and shelves....



















Culture Materials









My classroom with the Math(s) wall behind

Andrew and Sharla Fanous Wedding

Andrew and I were at a wedding in Ottawa. Here are some photos:

Chinese Food! Good Fo You!

Andrew decided to buy some live crayfish today and cook it for us...

Day 2 on the Job

Getting settled into my new job. Making some friends there too makes the day a little more enjoyable. Getting my head around daily plans these days which means I've been working 7:30 to 6:00 the past two days. I hope I can make my planning time more efficient soon. I took the freeway to work this morning which cut my travel time in half - yay! Andrew's coming back from Canada tomorrow-even more yay!! Time for beddie byes soon. Goodnight!

First Day Back

So today I started the new school term here in LA. It's strange to still be here at this stage of the year. Usually I've returned back to Ireland by now and am starting work there...
Anyway, I think I have a nice class this year. No one was reluctant to stay and a few of them even said that 'Grade 1 is a lot of fun' which was nice to hear because I honestly winged it through a lot of my day because I arrived back late from Canada last night and I didn't do a huge amount to try and make it fun. I must just be a naturally fun person! :)
Anyway I did more planning after school this evening so there should be less winging tomorrow :)