Last week in the classroom!

This last week in the classroom went by SO quickly, it was unreal! I was so sad to have to say good-bye to all of my students, and colleagues, but it was a really fun last week, and I got to see my first Chinese New Year celebration!!

Monday: Monday was my last day with the 3G students, we did a diffusion/osmosis lab practical, which was really fun and I was able to take lots of pictures!!!

In 1D, the students wrote presentation speeches for their Design lab we did last week, and would be presenting on Tuesday! I also asked them to write letters to me, or one of my teacher-colleagues back home, their letters were priceless! (I can't wait to share with everyone back home!)

Monday night we took it easy, did some work and lesson planning - I tried banana chocolate prata which was to DIE for... so delicious, we couldn't believe that we just now discovered it!

Tuesday: Tuesday was my last day teaching!! It was so sad to say goodbye to my lovely, adorable 1D students - but their speeches were so great! We did speeches, and then had a Q&A time where they could ask me anything about California, etc. I gave them a few minutes to edit and turn in their letters, reading them was so sad - I'm going to miss these kids so much!!

Tuesday night Katherine and I went to Clarke Quay for dinner, I had falafel again (so delicious) and we celebrated her last night in Singapore!

Wednesday: Wednesday was an easy day at school - did a few observations and watched the briefing on the House System here ... like straight up Harry Potter.  :) There are 5 Houses at Westwood: Cedar, Ebony, Meranti, Willow and Cactus (see any pattern;)?)

I also had to say goodbye to my CT and Supervisor because they were headed out of town for the Chine New Year... it was such a hard goodbye!

The teddy bear's shirt says, "Forever a Westwoodian!" :,)

The girls were all leaving at some point Wednesday night (or early Thursday morning) so we all hung out, Katherine and I had dinner together, she went to the airport at 10pm.  Elise, Rae and Katie were going to be taking a cab at 4am, so I stayed up as late as I could with them, but didn't make it the whole time. I miss you already ladies!! (it's so weird to be in the hostel alone! a lot of the students are gone for the holiday too!)

Thursday: Today was the Chinese New Year Celebration at Westwood! (and me saying goodbye to all the students!) It was a fun, but sad morning...

After school, I went to pass off the phones Katie and I had been borrowing from him during our stay here - another sad goodbye; Sunny has been nothing but helpful, welcoming and kind to us during our time here! I miss him already! (We're trying to convince him to take his family to Cali)

For lunch, I met up with Naeem and Sharon at this DELICIOUS buffet-style BBQ place where you pick whatever you want and grill it at your table.  We ate SO much but it was SO worth it.  

Afterwards, we walked around to a few touristy sites, Raffles Hotel, the War Memorial, and Arab Street. 

My four FAVORITE things!! 

The Guard at Raffles Hotel

Naeem and I, getting ready for chili crab!

Raffles Hotel with Sharon!

Singapore's War Memorial Park - World War II

We had chili crab for dinner (finally!) and it was beyond delicious... it was a great day with friends and food! 

"I'm goin' goin' back back to Bali BALI!"

This weekend was such an amazing, beautiful, inspiring, eventful last weekend abroad. We finally made it to Bali! 

Friday 24/01 - Friday couldn't have come any sooner - we were so excited for Bali it hurt! I went to the last day of Sec 1 a Level Camp on Friday morning and watched the students play push ball, eat breakfast, clean their classrooms, and wrap up the camp with awards/prizes, etc.  It was a fun morning, but I was quite distracted - I got Bali on my mind!! 

After school I went to Fair Price market to get some travel sized shampoo and conditioner, bug spray, and snacks.  I made it home, was able to Face Time Cory, Skype Mike (and Hunter), and pack all within a few hours :) At 3pm, the 5 of us made our way to Jurong Point to get on the MRT and head to Changi Airport! Our flight wasn't departing until 6:25, but we had about an hour and a half train ride to get there.  

The travel time actually went by surprisingly fast, we even all got to sit in a row together on the plane ride there! We made it to Denpasar airport at 9:30pm, and waiting for us was a friend of Rae's CT, who happens to be a (the best, by the way) taxi driver in Bali! He was so nice, packed up the "Taksi" and took us to our hotel, Sandat Mas Cottages in Uluwatu, Bali. 

Gede, our new best friend for the weekend, told us all about the history of Bali, Balinese people and their culture, and pointed out "Bali-dogs" that roam the streets (looking so cute!) 

We arrived at our hotel after about an hour long drive, and again, they were so nice, so accommodating, not to mention there was about a month old kitten in the lobby who became myy new best friend for the weekend (and who we.... Okay I, named Mufasa). 

Mufasa :)

We went to bed at about 11:30, our plan to spend the entire next day doing as MUCH as we possibly could... And we weren't too far off, Saturday was an absolutely wonderful day! 

Saturday 25/01 - The day began at 6:15am, when we woke up to see the sunrise. We couldn't quite see it from our room, but the view was absolutely amazing nonetheless.

Katie, Rae and I walked down to the beach (about 5 minutes from the hotel) to check it out before breakfast, and it was absolutely amazing - we couldn't wait to start the day. We saw a monkey on our walk home (so cute) and we hopped in the pool when we got back, did a few laps - it was so nice and refreshing!

Breakfast was delicious, banana pancakes and fresh pineapple juice.  We ate around 8:30, as Gede would be picking us up at 9! When he arrived, we loading into the car for the day, and had quite an adventure ahead of us.

We stopped for a photo op in from of the beautiful Padang Padang beach, our first captured moment of an amazing day: 

Our first stop was a beach "for the water sports," where we had to option to choose between tubing, snorkeling, and many other amazing activities. We decided to get the package deal - snorkeling, glass bottom boat, and Turtle Island for only 700,000 Rupiah!! (The Indonesian currency... We felt like millionaires all weekend - 10,000 Rupiah = $1SPD) 

We swam/ snorkeled for about an hour but unfortunately none of us have water proof cameras, soooooo we'll remember out mental pictures from it forever! 

Turtle Island - an island dedicated to the conservation of sea turtles - was so fun, and had not only turtles, but bats, snakes, iguanas, owls, toucans, and monkeys! I got to hold the snake, AH, and touch/hold a few sea turtles.  We had a great time, and when people realized we were from America, they started calling at us "U.S.O.!!" - "United States of Obama," I loved it. 

One of our tour guides on Turtle Island!

We did get quite a few pictures taken of or with us, both intended and unintended, both with and without permission... It was quite a site to see 5 American girls I guess, so we had to deal with that for most of the day. It was flattering for a second, but started to feel a little creepy after a while.  We had some people sit in on our pictures too ;) 

After we returned on the glass bottom boat, we met back up with Gede and headed to our 2nd destination Tanarah Beach.  We had lunch, and then swam in the amazingly clear, blue, warm ocean.  It was incredible. 

Postcard worthy... 

 Amazing hot sauce! 

Chickens on the beach!

At around 4 pm, we left the beach with Gede and made our way towards the Temple by the Sea.   We shopped at a few little stalls for some souvenirs, and then walked around the beautiful temple - and it was so crowded!! 

Katherine, Rae, me, Katie and Elise!

Our last stop of the day was at a DELICIOUS seafood restaurant, right on the sand, in which we ate SO much, and enjoyed the end of our long, amazing day! We were even serenaded by a little band in matching shirts that sang us, "Brown Eyed Girl." 

After dinner Katherine and I drank a Bintang (Bali) beer in the lobby and cuddled with Mufasa, and then went to sleep.  It was a long wonderful day.  In the morning we woke up bright and early, again - had breakfast, and made our way to the beach to enjoy our last few hours there!

The beach was a 5 min walk from our hotel - Sandat Mas Cottages

Sadly, at noon, after swimming allllll morning, we made our way to the airport (with Gede, our amazing tour guide for the weekend!)  We were able to stop for this beautiful photo though along the way! 

When we arrived back in Singapore, we made it through immigration SO quickly with our student passes (glad they were good for something!) and were picked up by Naeem and her sister.  Naeem just got back from Santa Barbara, and is a teacher candidate, like us, here in Singapore at NIE! We walked around the park by her house (Pasir Ris Beach), and then had the most amazing dinner with her incredible family.  It was such a wonderful night, filled with family and laughter - it really made me miss home, but at the same time be so thankful for the wonderful people I've met during my time here in Singapore.  Sharon, another ITC from this year, and two boys from last years' NIE cohort, Zhi Wen and Roy, all joined us for dinner, and it was so nice to share experiences from both here and Santa Barbara - we were all fast friends, and I hope that we'll stay in contact and visit each other in the near future!!

 Pasir Ris Beach

Roy, Rae, Elise, Katie, Katherine, Naeem, me, Sharon, and Zhi Wen!

Hello, my name is Ms 伟师 :)

Sec 1 Level Camp: Today was an interesting day at Westwood, as the students were all off at their respective Level Camps! The Sec 1's, who I got to spend the morning with, were on campus, the Sec 2's went to Camp Sembawang, Sec 3's to Malaysia, and Sec 4/5's were also on campus, but were gone today touring different Polytechnic Universities!

The Sec 1 Level Camp was so much fun, and I got to see a much different side of some of my students!! When I got there, they were washing up (having slept there the night before) and getting ready for breakfast in the canteen.  After breakfast, they went back to their classrooms to de-brief the objectives of the previous days' activities, and work on their performance for the 'campfire' that night.  I stayed with Sec 1Ds (who I teach!) all morning, and we had a wonderful time - I got to see them choreograph their dance to "Hall of Fame" and then cheer them on as they played dodgeball against the other classes.

I had a great chat with three of my students, who asked me all about California, and my school, and why I want to be a teacher... they even translated my name into Chinese - apparently Welsh can directly translate to "Great Teacher," (伟师) so that basically made my day :)

Teaching of Biology II - Science Practical Assessment Skills: After Level Camps, I made my way to NIE to observe a science class! (Made me miss my SST Science Cohort even more!)  I arrived pretty early, but I was able to see Naeem, one of the student teachers from NIE who just spent 7weeks in Santa Barbara, and have lunch with Sunny, our supervisor - so it was time well spent! I got to the class a little bit early, which was also great because I was able to chat with the tutor, Ms Lim, before the class started.  She was so interested in everything I had to say, the program I was apart of, and my opinions on everything that I've experienced  here so far.  She was the first person I've really talked to the caning about, and I wish we could've talked longer - I could tell she had a lot to say.  (We did exchange emails though, so I'm sure we'll be keeping in touch!)

I recognized a few familiar faces from the class we observed the other night, and everyone was so welcoming and friendly to me. Ms Lim introduced me at the very beginning of the lesson, and I was able to say a few things about where I'm from and my experience so far - everyone seemed really interested, and I got quite a few questions throughout the rest of the class.  We continued in talking about the SPA, or Science Practical Assessment, that takes place for all Secondary 3 and 4 students - it was really interesting to learn about, and I took a lot of notes (for my science crew!)

For the last hour, we did a practice SPA, where one of us was the teacher (marking) and one of us was the student (doing)! I was in a group of three, so me and Audrey assessed Sien Long on his practical skills.  I was a great evening, I learned so much about science education in Singapore, and met some great friends that I'm sure I'll be staying in contact with! (I want to do international Skype-labs with them! - I will make it happen!)

When I got home, I went to have a solo - dinner at Jurong Point, top up my EZ link (bus) card, and head home, to continue getting ready for BALI (and write this blog post!) We leave tomorrow and I am BEYOND excited :) Next post will be when I get back, so bon voyage for now!

_____

Cat of the Day

Today’s cat of the day goes to this new kitty that I saw on my way home from Jurong Point, but who wouldn't let me get close enough for a clear picture!!! (I'll get you!!)