Amazing April ..........

Hello all! The month of April is only half over but I have been enjoying myself so much I wanted to share with you all what I have been up to. The weather has finally turned and is mostly warm and sunny now, instead of freezing and sunny (most days are sunny here - except today as I write this it is has been overcast and raining all day!). Someone once told me as I was heading over here that people hibernate during winter and I would not see many people around until it was warmer. I actually didn't think she would be as right as she was - I have seen neighbours and kids in my street that I did not see for the first two months!! Its like they just appeared one day and moved in!! Very strange :-)

Due to the warm weather, hiking has started happening more and more. I headed off on April Fool's Day with Kristi, a recently retired teacher and ex-exchangee, and a couple of her friends to hike to the Mica Mines on the edge of Colorado Monument. It is a fairly easy hike - 2.6 miles round trip and fairly flat, although the ground is mostly uneven with rocks and stones and such. You walk through a canyon and the rock formations above you and around you are fascinating to look at as you go through. I enjoyed the hike enormously! Unfortunately I left my camera at home, but hopefully I will return and take photos for you all to see next time! :-)


Drive of the Season

The following Friday I finished school at 4pm and headed east out of GJ towards Denver. The Aussie exchangees had a Denver Nuggets basketball game on Saturday night to attend thanks to CITEL group and I was hoping to spend the Saturday exploring Denver city and surrounds as I had not had the opportunity as yet. So I headed off Friday after school and got a good start on the trip. I hit some heavy wind about 45 minutes out but that cleared up further along and I made good time to Vail, where I pulled off the Interstate for a dinner break. Now, I pulled off at 7pm - it was cold but clear skies. A half hour later when I emerged from dinner - overcast and constant, steady rain like we get all the time in Gippsland! What!! The weather turns very fast that high up! However, it was just rain and I was just over an hour and a half from my destination - I decided to load up and continue. Note to self - next time, CHECK COTRIP.ORG ANYWAY!!! :-)

The reason for my "loud" typing above follows........ as I drove back onto the I-70 and started heading east, the large raindrops began to look icy as they hit my windshield. As I passed the last exit to Vail, the icy raindrops began to be accompanied on their descent by white flakes. And another 10 minutes along the road, the rain stopped completely and was replaced by large white snow flakes that were sticking to everything! 15-20 minutes after I had gotten into my car, I was in the middle of a snowstorm on the I-70 with no way of exiting for another 30 kms. Alright, I thought, I can handle this. And I could - for the next 10 minutes. After that, my nerves started to become frayed as the snow began piling up on my windscreen and my back window was covered and I could not see the road for the flurries of snow or the side of the road either!! I managed to catch up to a large truck and sat about 3m behind it going about 30-40 km/h. I locked my eyes onto the taillights and did not look up basically! I lost that truck as it sped u pat one point and I was on my own - that was interesting, slipping and sliding in the snow. I think I almost got the median rail in the middle of the road too at one stage! Got very close anyway I think :-/ I caught up to three cars travelling in a line though and again sat behind them and just followed them wherever they went on the 'road' - very glad they were able to find the road myself! Through this I managed to click my iPad on, drop a pin on the next town and begin the countdown until I could turn off......20 km......15 km........10 km.......8 km.......6 km.......5 km........4 km.......3 km........1km..........Yes!!! Hello Frisco :-) I turned off into the lovely town of Frisco with about a 45 square centimetre cleared space on my windscreen (in front of me thankfully) and a pile of snow on the side where the wipers had cleared it to sitting 15 cm high. Hotel Frisco was kind enough to have a room for me and I crashed out on adrenaline overload at 8:30pm. Eeeck! An adventure I do not want to repeat any time soon - and this was a fairly tame one to what it could have been!!!

So due to my adrenaline crash after finding a room to allow me to stay off the I-70 and not stay in my car that night, I did not get photos of my snow covered car. Sorry. However, as I was driving I actually was doing a mental run through of the clothes I had in my car in case I did have to park at a gas station all night! Anyway, the next morning it was a beautiful clear blue sky and Frisco was a gorgeous place to wander and have breakfast. Here are some photos of my saviour town:



Hotel Frisco

 

 

I made it to Denver at noon - 15 hours after I had planned on! Despite this, we still had the afternoon to explore, so Leanne and I headed to Red Rock Amphitheatre and the tiny town of Golden - just west 10 minutes of Denver. The amphitheatre sits at the meeting point of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains. There is 868 acres of awesome history and geological wonders there, all surrounded by magical scenic vistas. Red Rocks is the only naturally occurring, acoustically perfect amphitheatre in the world. Every year during the summer, it has phenomenal musical acts performing - Sting, The Beatles, U2, The Fray........the list goes on!! Check it out at the website http://www.redrocksonline.com/. Unfortunately, I am not in the area this summer much or I would have snapped up some of the concert tickets - Zac Brown Band, BareNaked Ladies, Josh Groben, John Mayer, Bruno Mars, Keith Urban.........

Following this scenic visit, Leanne and I headed for Golden for lunch. Golden is a cute little cowboy town about 10 minutes from Denver that is a bit tricky to find sometimes on the freeway - may have also just been my driving too!

The town of Golden - Main Street

Every little town here has a river or creek to walk along :-)

Cute cowboy and cowgirl statue!!

That night the Nuggets won like their 20th straight game and shot over 115 points - too busy catching up with our Aussie contingent to take photos sorry, but I am back at the Pepsi Centre in June and October to see Taylor Swift and Pink respectively - I'll post PC pics then :-)

By the way - on the trip back home Sunday morning, perfect weather!! See -

Palisade Wine Tasting Tour

A group of friends and I headed out to explore some of Palisade's amazing wineries. We even did it responsibly (as we always do and should - in case there is any students reading this blog still)! We all met at my place and then walked about a block to the first two wineries which were the Meadery of the Rockies (favourite!!) and Plum Creek Cellars. We then walked towards the I-70 and tasted at St Kathryn Cellars (another favourite), Grande River Vineyards and even another one we found as we were walking through town to the Brewery and Distillery! (forgot the name of that one). It was a really fun and great way to spend a Sunday afternoon with mates. We will be doing that again hopefully!!

My friends and I at Grande River Vineyards

Rodeo Uni style!

They have high school and college rodeo teams here! Interesting right? I went to Friday night here in GJ with a friend from school, Sara, and watched the local college host the first rodeo of the season. Students from different colleges competed in rodeo activities - barrel racing, roping, horse and bull riding. The best event though - sheep riding! Why? It is participated in by toddlers and kids!!!!! Kids as young as probably 3 and no older than 5 years were given a helmet and a mini flak jacket, sat on top of a sheep, had their arms wrapped around the neck of the animal and then told to hold on. The sheep takes off and the kids hold on as long as they can. Some come up happy, some not so!! But as I was watching it I was actually thinking that I know some little tackers who who absolutely LOVE that!! :-D

Honeybee Festival

Palisade held its first festival on the weekend - the Honeybee festival which was, perhaps obviously, themed around bees!! Some interesting activities, a lot of handmade honey and soaps and even a talk by a bee keeper! A good way to check out downtown and get to know what was there as well.

Palisade Rim Hike

I have posted pictures on a separate page (see right) because this was a magical hike. My friend Andy and I headed off to do the Palisade Rim Hike yesterday (Sunday) afternoon. It was gorgeous weather - I am very glad I wore sunscreen too!! We walked about 4 -5 miles and were out hiking about 3 hours. The start was a bit strenuous at times but once we got up high it was gorgeous views and flat walking. We even went off the beaten track and did some walkabout tripping over some hills behind the main track. That made for an interesting rejoining of the main trail when we were faced with a big drop and climb! Easy managed though in the end :-) This is a definite favourite so far of the hikes I have done and I will be doing this again throughout the season for sure! Every visitor will also join me :-D

Enjoy heading back into Term 2 fellow teacher friends, students and family. Everyone else - hope this finds you all well! Keep smiling and stay safe wherever this year takes you.

Back soon with more adventures!

Candice xx

Spring Break...........

NEW ORLEANS, LOUSIANA!!

Spring Break gave me a week off from school and I headed out of Colorado with another Victorian exchangee from Pakenham to New Orleans. Leanne is in Denver this year so we planned to fly out the Monday morning for Louisiana.

The Friday school broke there was a massive storm system that moved across the mountains and Denver. It did not hit GJ, however I had planned to drive across the mountains to Denver on Sunday morning. I had not done this trip yet and was hesitant to attempt my first time with the storm. So on Saturday night I decided to book a ticket on the train. I was dropped off Sunday morning all ready to head to Denver. However as I was buying a bottle of water, I realised I had not only left my license in the car due to Friday social night after school but I had also left my passport on the counter at home! As we were flying to NO, I kinda needed the identification! So my train travel was no longer possible - by the time I had gone home 20 minutes and come back I would miss the departure :-( So I ended up putting my bags into my car and heading off to Denver via the snow packed, wet and icy roads!

Despite my nerves, it was not as bad as I expected. About an hour in I started to get some snow flurries on and off, but they never lasted more than 10 minutes and were not very heavy - I still had visibility. About 2 hours in the roads started to stay covered with snow, but there was a drive line that I followed. The trip took me 4 1/2 hours to get to Leanne's place in Denver (with a 20 min food stop), which is a good time considering I was able to go the speed limit most of the time. Thanks must also go to my Dad who taught me to be a careful and confident driver in all conditions!

Despite the slightly disrupted beginning, I found myself in New Orleans on Monday afternoon. The city is an easy city to get around and has an interesting history I loved learning about. We did a few different tours and spent a lot of time wandering around the river area, main city centre and the French Quarter district.

We spent one morning walking around the oldest cemetery in the city. It was great as we heard a lot about the history and why they have tombs from our guide. The people can't bury in the ground as the water table is so high and the caskets would just float to the top again. So they built tombs where the bodies were laid to rest.

 

 

 

 

Another interesting tour we went on was a plantation tour. We visited the Laura Plantation, which is an old Creole plantation. I learnt a lot about the history of the area here and about the Creole people. We followed this up by going five minutes down the road to Oak Alley Plantation, which has a gorgeous oak lined alley leading to the main house. The oaks are over 300 years old - there was a second alley leading from the back of the house. This second alley is the 'baby' alley with oaks of approximately 150 years old!

I have always wondered about what it would be like to see the swamp bayou area of America. With this in mind, I took a ride on an airboat - yes, those ones with the fan engine on the back! It was very loud but extremely cool. This was one of my favourite times of the week - the scenery was so different to what I have seen anywhere else. The photos don't really capture the light but they give a good idea of the weird and wonderful environment!

 

 
Bourban Street was an entertaining experience! We were there early on our first night looking for dinner. The street is all blocked off so it becomes kind of a mall type area apart from the cross streets. After dinner we walked most of the way along the street and back. As the night got later the more interesting it became! One different aspect of New Orleans is that you can buy a drink in one bar and take it outside with you as you  move to the next bar. Or, even more incredibly, there are drive through daquari stores!! Yes, drive throughs! Seriously!

Overall, New Orleans was a wonderfully relaxing four days. It was fantastic to wander around a new city and take in a different history. The buildings were exactly as I expected - particularly in the French Quarter! I had a great time and would love to visit again in the future. I have included a lot more pictures with captions on a seperate page on this blog. Check out the pages links on the top right.

EASTER SUNDAY

The Easter Bunny managed to find me via Australia Post!! I recieved these in my mailbox on Good Friday - what great timing! It was so good to have chocolate from home again! Chocolate here is just not quite the same :-) Easter Sunday I celebrated with a group of new friends at a cafe in Downtown Grand Junction. Following brunch I then enjoyed my awesome Aussie eggs during the afternoon. It was a great way to finish a wonderful Spring Break week!

 

Other March Happenings

I helped celebrate a birthday with another dress up party - 1980s style! The music teacher at school invited me to her party and so I neon-ed it up in an 80s style outfit. :-)

 

 

Aside from the above, March was quiet as I spent two weeks being sick :-( I fought off the yucky American germs as long as I could - but they finally wore me down! Two weeks and three packets of cold and flu later I was on the other side. It took me another week to really recover fully, but thankfully this week was when I was in New Orleans so I was relaxing for a good reason!

 

 

The fun continues........

I can't believe it's April - 7 more weeks until I am on summer break and my sister arrives! Yay! I'll be back keeping you up to date shortly. Stay safe and enjoy life, whatever you are up to! :-D

 

Keep smiling,

Candice

February update ....... (Part 2)

Taking the Amtrak to Denver

I decided to take the Amtrak train from Grand Junction to Denver. It is a long trip - one way takes 8 hours if the train is on time and not stopped due to overheating (in summer) or snow on tracks (in winter). However I had been told it was a great way to see the scenery over the mountains and it was still too dicey weather wise for me to attempt driving over the mountains. If it became winter stormy and icy on the roads I would not have felt comfortable in driving there or home.

So I organised for the Friday off from school and set off at 10am from Grand Junction station. It was truly a magical journey. If anyone has the chance to take the train over these mountains, I must encourage you to do so! The vistas you see are amazing and look just like postcards or paintings. I forgot my camera (!!) but had my iPad mini with me for entertainment. This took some absolutely amazing photos on its camera and I have included a whole page of my photos from the train ride (just look to the right at the top of the page for the link to 'Amtrak Train GJ - Denver' page).

I arrived in Denver at about 6pm and met up with Leanne from Pakenham, who I was staying with for the weekend. We had great fun catching up over dinner and drinks at the restaurant Chilli's, after which we took the bus back to her small flat in the basement of a house-turned-apartments.

Snowshoeing at Estes Park

Saturday February 23rd saw myself and Leanne meeting Fiona, another exchangee from Sydney, at her car for the drive to Rocky Mountain National Park. Fiona lives very close to Leanne so it was an easy walk that morning to meet up and get on the road. It took us about 2 hours to get to Estes Park, which is a small tourist town at the base of the national park, and it was here we met up with the other exchangees - current and past - to organise snowshoes and poles at a hire store.

Getting my snowboots and waterproof pants on ready to go!

From there we formed a caravan of cars and headed into the park to Bear Lake. It was another maybe half hour from the hire shop, into the park and up the mountain. It was a picture perfect day at the bottom and was not in any way forecasting what we were going to be walking into on our hike!!

The day was organised by CITEL for the current exchangees and also included some past exchangees who came along for the day. Most of the Aussies made it for the day and it was great to catch up with them as we walked up the mountain. The photo on left is of our entire group - we had about 25 or so to start with, including four little men! (Our youngest was three!)

We all started together and made the first lake fairly well. After we headed from here, we started getting some wind and interesting weather that reached VERY cold and interesting conditions by the second lake. Due to this, our trek to the third lake was called off and we headed back down the mountain to the start. Despite not making the third lake, I completely enjoyed the walk and will definitely be snowshoeing again - it is so much fun and so easy!

Leanne, me and Fiona at the first lake

Freezing in the windy conditions at the second lake!

The second lake

On the way in and out of the park, I also got an idea why it  may be called Rocky Mountain National Park - the scenery was very rocky with not much vegetation (or even snow!)

Following the snowshoeing, we all met up again at Kim and Vern's house. They are a couple who exchanged to Australia a few years ago - and they also are very good friends with people I know from Gippsland! It is a very small world!! We had chilli lunch and dessert and chatted about our exchanges so far. It was great to talk to the exchangees again - a few of them have caught up since Australia Day but since I'm on the other side of the state (and mountain range) I hadn't and it was great to say hello again.

That evening once we had gotten back to Denver Fiona, Leanne and I had dinner at a pizza place not far from their apartments and then Leanne and I headed back to her place. I had to get up at 6am the next morning to head to Amtrak to catch my train back to GJ so it was an early night.


*******

And that brings about the February catchup posts! Apologies for the time between part 1 and 2, I have been sick for over a week and have not been able to do much aside from wake up, go to school, come home and sleep! Hopefully I am getting better as in a week I am on Spring Break - and off to New Orleans with Leanne! Holidays here I come!!

Next post: New Orleans (and other March tidbits)

Keep smiling everyone!!
Candice


February Update ........ (Part 1)

Okay - so I know I haven't posted for a while. I apologise - it has been a huge month of events and happenings both at school and at home. So grab a snack and a drink, sit down and get comfortable - here is the update for the entire month of February!

Partying like it's the 1970s

My friend Janel is what we would call the teacher-librarian at Nisley and I have had some great times with her since we met on my first day in Grand Junction. In February she turned 40 and celebrated with a 70s themed party. It was awesome! A small group of teachers from school were invited as well as some of her other friends and family. It was a lovely party with great 70s themed drinks and dancing - I had a great time and I was glad to hear later that Janel did as well!

Me and Janel - the birthday girl!

Sara and I in our 70s gear! - Sara teaches with me in 2nd grade
(I have embroidered flowers on the hips and butt of my jeans!)

Kim, Me and Cinnamon - they teach 5th grade

Tanya (computer teacher), me, Janel and Cinnamon

 

A Sad Call from Home

One of the hardest moments last month was receiving a call from my parents to say we had lost my Pop. It was tremendously hard not being there in Australia to help support my Nan, Dad and Mum as well as my sister and all my Aunts, Uncles and cousins as they struggled through the loss that first week. Pop's passing was sudden and not what we were expecting to have happen but I was so thankful for the support of my friends - both at home in Australia and here in Grand Junction. Quick responses from friends at home via messages were so welcomed and made the week pass more easily than it could have. I did not feel like I was overseas alone - so thanks again to my friends and family and the wonders of technology.



Valentine's Day


I knew Valentine's Day was big. I've seen the movies, read the books and heard the stories. However, I never really expected it to be this big - particularly in school! Before I go there, I have to let you know that the shops were crazy with Valentine's Day merchandise. Lollies, cards, toys, animals, books, calendars, magnets, badges, chocolate ...... whatever you can imagine, it was packaged for Valentine's Day. And through this comes the expectation of celebrating this 'holiday' with students at school. I admit, I felt a bit weird - in Australia this day is reserved for couples. Here, it is for anyone. Couples celebrate each other, students and teachers at school celebrate their friendships, parents celebrate their children - we had more than one Dad come into school with flowers for his daughter! I was not expecting the degree to which this day was shared with the students at school - at 3pm all classes stopped for their Valentine's Day parties. I was lucky and Tracy, who I teach 4th grade with, shared with me her idea (and note) for an ice cream party she had planned. A few other teachers also gave me helpful 'hints' regarding how to handle the 'madness' that would ensue and Janel gave me a heads up the night before about having something for the kids to put their Valentine's they receive into during the party. Ahhh! So a quick trip to Walmart netted me some paper envelopes that I imagined the kids could decorate at the start of the party and that night I printed some little "You're Awesome" cards for each of my homeroom students. I believed I was prepared.......

The day started by being presented with a vase with beautiful daisies and an armful of gifts - teddies, chocolates and stickers - from students. This 'pile' of gifts continued to grow throughout the day as I watched in amazement. I was told partway through the day that Valentine's is often celebrated more that Christmas is here - and I can relate to that. Teachers, imagine what you get for Christmas / End of Year from your students? That is what I was receiving for Valentine's Day from them. And at the end of the day during our party? Mayhem!! It all started out well; we were decorating our envelopes, we went to get our ice cream sundaes from the other 4th grade room and were eating them nicely at our tables quietly.......and then someone asked if we could hand out Valentine's and Miss H said "Of course you can." Note to self - next time, think about instigating some type of order to this system! For the next 15 minutes kids were roaming the room with bags of lollies and stickers and lollipops, handing them out to all or a few of their classmates. I even received more items! I did feel okay by then about only giving the students a message - they did not need any more sugar at all! I was very thankful for the end of the day, let me tell you! :-)

Overall however I was incredibly thankful for the kind gifts and words the students gave me on this day - not only from my homeroom but students from the other two homerooms who I also take for writing sessions. Below is a picture of my amazing gifts from these students:

I was so spoilt!

 

I had to share this one in particular - the
student was so happy she found a koala Valentine
for her Australian teacher!


Arches National Park - Utah

My first interstate 'jaunt' took me 2 hours west from Grand Junction across state lines into Utah. I travelled with Linda, a CITEL buddy and friend, to a little town called Moab. This weekend, at the end of winter, it was not too busy at all. However, from around the end of March (Spring Break time) the crowds arrive and it is bursting at the seams to accommodate everyone. There is a huge pull for mountain biking, hiking, climbing, off road adventures in jeeps (and other vehicles), skydiving, base jumping and river rafting enthusiasts.

Linda and I were in Moab to see Arches National Park, which is about 5 miles north of the town. Arches NP has over 2,000 natural stone arches, in addition to hundreds of soaring pinnacles, massive fins and giant balanced rocks. It is a "red rock wonderland" for sure! We spent a good 4-5 hours or so in the park and there is still heaps to go back and see. On this day there was a lot of amazing photo opportunities and red rock scenery - below I have included a few I had on my iPad. Check out the Pages section to the right to see more (I will also hopefully post ones I receive from Linda).

A balancing rock - the number of these blew my mind!
I kept expecting them to fall right in front of my eyes!

Flat land leads to huge red rock formations!

On our way out of Arches, we drove on the scenic route - Highway 128 along the Colorado River. I have also put more of these photos from the drive home on the Pages section with the Arches photos.

Girls On The Run



The last few weeks I have been introduced to a program run here in the area called 'Girls On the Run' (or GOTR). This program is for girls in 3rd-8th grade and it teaches self esteem and life skills through dynamic, conversation-based lessons and running games. The program culminates with the girls being physically and emotionally prepared to complete a celebratory 5k running event. The goal of the program is to unleash confidence through accomplishment while establishing a lifetime appreciation of health and fitness. (http://www.girlsontherun.org/)

I am helping with the program this season and have been loving the messages these girls have been getting about body image, self esteem and being true to who they are - realising that they are an amazing girl and they are truly great! Each session starts with a lesson that gets the girls thinking about themselves and others. For example, our lesson last week was around turning our negative thoughts or sayings into positive ones and how this is a much happier and positive way to look at ourselves. We end the sessions with running laps of the track - as incentive, when each girl completes a mile she gets a little token so she can keep track of how many she runs over the program. At the start of May there is a 5km run where all the schools participating in the program compete in the spirit of fun and girl power! It is a great self esteem program and one that sounds similar to a few I have heard of back home in Australia - although none I know of also link in fitness......... I'd love to look at a program like this at home with our Aussie girls!! Something to think about on the flight home in January :-)


Kids Voting

I was lucky to be invited to attend the banquet for Kids Voting this year. Kids Voting USA (KVUSA) gets students involved and ready to be educated, engaged citizens. Students learn about democracy through a combination of classroom activities, family dialogue and an authentic voting experience. (http://kidsvotingusa.org/) Students participate in school based activities based around learning about voting and democracy, which even include actual candidates being involved! At the end of the election period, the students also get to actually participate in an Election Day with voting ballots, booths and the whole she-bang! It sounds like a great program and one I would like to learn more about.

Not only was the banquet night to celebrate the end of the year and all those students and schools who had participated in the Kids Voting during the last election, I was astounded at the young people from elementary school through high school who were recognised for selfless achievements in their school and community. They celebrated students who raise funds or look out for those less fortunate than themselves as well as those who work with (or create) non-profit organisations supporting the community. It was inspiring to hear and amazing stories for me to bring back to our students.


Other goings-on......

I have begun regularly hiking on Mondays with Kristi, a CITEL member and new friend. She is introducing me to different trails every week. So far we have been on two trails but I look forward to what is to come! I even went and bought actual hiking shoes - don't I feel special!! :-)

I also have joined a book club that meets once a month. This is an activity that Kristi introduced me to and my first gathering was a great event with dinner, chat and only a little discussion about the book. :-) It will get me into some different types of books throughout the year as everyone chooses a book each month. I have even made a book selection for May - A Rose For The Anzacs by Jackie French! (My book discussion girls from last year, if you have any notes just let me know!) Although there is enough books in the house here to keep me going for months! Theresa has so many books I don't know where to start reading - I go back and forth and have about four on the go at once at the moment! :-)

 This week I was lucky to get tickets to see the US Navy Band perform in Grand Junction. It was a great performance with amazing talented singers and musicians - I was in awe of all of them! A magical night of music :-)

Oh - and I am very excited as I received in the mail the tickets to Taylor Swift for May! My sister and I are going to be singing along to Taylor and Ed Sheeran in Denver. Big concert, big US arena = big amounts of fun!! (KPS girls, please do not throw your netbooks - it is not good for them. Just be jealous of your teacher instead!!)

To Be Continued.........

There is one more event I need to share with you from February and that is my trip to Denver across the mountains via the Amtrak train for the CITEL Snowshoeing day at Rocky Mountain NP. However I will have to post this particular event tomorrow as this post has taken two hours so far and I feel I will not do justice to the awesome scenery and adventure I had at the moment.

So be warned (or not) my friends - there is another (shorter) post to follow to finish up that which was the month of February...................... hopefully those groans are not coming from my former students!! :-P


Hope you enjoyed my February adventures so far - I'll be back shortly to wrap it all up.

Keep smiling :-D

Getting through January........

Hi everyone! The final few weeks of January have been full of activities ......... here are the details of my adventures over the last week!

AUSTRALIA DAY

I headed to Denver on January 26 with three past exchangees - Linda, Carolyn and her husband Geary - to attend the Colorado International Teaching Exchangee League (CITEL) orientation meeting and Australia Day party. It was a magical drive through the mountains from Palisade to Denver - we drove past ski fields and small little towns that were huddled against the sides of the mountains. There is a long tunnel - over 1 mile - which is tiled with white tiles and as such has to be cleaned regularly due to the car exhaust and snow-cleaning chemicals that get sprayed from the cars as they drive through. Glenwood Canyon is a majestic part of this drive - the freeway was specifically built to curve and snake through the canyon and not take away from the beauty of these canyon views. I was so taken by the views (and the conversations we were having in the car!) I did not have my camera handy. However I have grabbed two pictures from the Internet to give you an idea (source listed at bottom of post):

The orientation was fantastic. All the Aussie exchangees who are here in Colorado (and even one who is in Oregon!) were there and we had a good debrief about our first few weeks and what we had found regarding banks, cars and car insurance - the big three!! After an hour or so we headed to the main event of the day which was the Australia Day party being held at the home of one of the past exchangee's houses. Not only were all us Aussies there but also about 40 or so past exchangees who had been to Australia. Everyone was warm and welcoming and very interested in how we were faring during the first few weeks of our exchange. A lot of people I met offered beds if needed when travelling over to the Denver area or advice on where to go and what to see while I was here in Colorado. I had a great night and met some wonderful people!

Linda, Carolyn, Geary and I stayed overnight at the house and then headed back to Palisade / Grand Junction mid morning Sunday. We stopped for a few rest stops on the way and had a look at a few of the tiny, beautiful towns. At one town we stopped and spent a few minutes watching cars drive around a race track on an iced over lake. We also saw a group of deer just meandering through the houses!
 

Ice driving!

Meandering deer

The drive to Denver takes about 4 hours, depending on the conditions of the road. Last weekend it was fairly clear and dry but it can get very snow and ice covered if they have a weather system move through the mountains.

 

Celebrating Australia Day at Nisley

 

The Friday before Australia Day I took some little pieces of Australia into school to share with the fourth graders. We celebrated Australia Day at the end of each writing session with cold Milo, Vegemite on crackers and Caramello Koalas. I expected the kids to absolutely hate Vegemite - this is what has happened every time I have seen or heard Americans trying it. However, most of the kids declared they quite liked the salty taste! I was blown away - not quite so surprised when a few teachers who tried it declared it was horrible :-)

 

The following Wednesday I took in morning tea treats for the staff, having cooked for the prior three nights straight. Nisley staff were treated to two Pavlovas, homemade Lamingtons, Scones with jam and cream, and the big one - different flavoured TimTams!! All went over a treat once I cleared up the names (scones are very close to what they call biscuits over here, and they call biscuits cookies).

 

I was very proud of my cooking ability by the way - I have NEVER cooked a Pavlova before OR Lamingtons from scratch. Everything worked awesomely and even my sconces were the best I have made. I am wondering if this had anything to do with the high altitude here? Anyway, I am glad it all worked out and the staff enjoyed their taste of Australia!

 

Side note - finding ingredients to use when cooking these recipes took me an hour and a half solid in City Market! I did have to order coconut from home as I could not find dessicated here in the store - and I admit I used one Pav egg :-)

 

Glenwood Hot Springs

 

Saturday I headed out on my first day trip in the area - a teacher at Nisley, Sara, invited me to go with her to the Glenwood Hot Springs. We headed off at 8:30am and were in the pools by 10am. There are two pools at Glenwood - the main pool is 405 feet long x 100 feet wide and is kept at around 32 degrees celcius. The second pool is 100 feet long and is kept at a temperature of about 40 degrees celcius. The water comes from a spring which delivers around 3 1/2 million gallons of water every day at about 51 degrees celcius!

 

 

 

 

Sara and I spent about 4 hours at the pools and then headed to lunch at RibCity. We then stopped for a quick look at the memorial to 14 firejumpers who died in the South Canyon Fire on Storm King Mountain in 1994. It was a great day and I enjoyed getting to know Sara more as well!

 

Before we headed home, I had to take my picture near Sara's big truck - just for those of you at home who have been wanting me to buy one of these!!

 

Upcoming plans:

* Hanging out with new friends
* Planning some day trips around the local area
* February 23 - CITEL Snowshoeing in Rocky Mountain National Park


Hope all teachers and students started back at school well last week - I was thinking of you all! Have a great start to Term 1! It has started to get warmer here lately.....I am crossing my fingers it will get back to what I am told is 'normal' winter weather - around zero and above! I will keep updating the blog with my travels and adventures every two weeks or so - feel free to leave comments and I will do my best to reply to all!

Keep smiling,
Candice :-D

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Photo credits:

http://joyce4books.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/glenwood-canyon-1.jpg

http://photosourcewest.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/glenwood-canyon.jpg

http://static2.merinet.com/image_uploader/photos_11/large/australia-day.jpg