To staff and children at Christ Church

I hope you are all well and enjoyed the summer holidays and now ready for the new school year! I was thinking of you all on the day you went back to school. As many of you already know from reading my blog over the summer I had a fantastic time in Thailand and am now in Northern Australia in a city called Cairns. I am working at an Italian restaurant called La Pizza, which is on the beach. It took me a long time to get used to carrying all the trays and pizzas and one day I nearly dropped a pizza on a lady’s lap! I will keep practising. I am going to work in Cairns until the end of October and then I will start travelling down the East coast. First in a camper van from Cairns to Brisbane and then I will meet my friend in November and stay at her Aunties and Uncles house in Sydney. I will also plan to celebrate Christmas and New Year in Sydney.

When I first arrived in Australia I was homesick and really missed my family and friends but I am getting used to being away from home and I talk to my mum and friends on the phone each week. I have also been very lucky to meet Matthew Jensen’s Grandma and Grandad who live in a suburb just outside of Cairns. They very kindly let me stay with them for a week whilst I got used to the new city and now that I have a job I live in a hostel in the city and then visit the Jensen’s on my days off.

I visited the local Primary school in Edmonton and taught a year 3 class. The children were very nice and I told them all about Christ Church school and we discussed the similarities and differences of Australian and English schools. The children thought my accent was funny and one little girl kept trying to talk like me. Next week the Australian schools break up for two weeks but after the holidays I am going back to the school and hopefully the children will write a letter to you or email you, so think of some questions you would like to know about living in Australia and they will be able to answer them for you.

Today I am going to book a trip to Ayers rock, which is a very large sandstone rock. It is a long way from Cairns so I will have to fly and travel on a coach. I will camp near the rock and I am really looking forward to seeing the sunset because apparently it looks beautiful and glows red. I will make sure I take lots of photographs and post them on my blog.

It is my day off from the restaurant today but tomorrow I will be learning how to make ice- cream in the gelati, which I am very excited about.

Keep working hard.

Love from Miss Balchin

PS I have heard that Green class is tidier than last year so hopefully you will be able to teach me to keep the classroom tidy when I come back.

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