Happy Mummy's Day

My mummy is really quite an amazing mummy, which is saying something because many mummys are quite incompetent.  I know this because I spent my Pesach running a children's program at a Passover Getaway for the Chabad, elderly and rich communities.
I guess I'll start my story at the beginning - a nice place to start.  Naomi and I were hired by a chabad rabbi to run... - well i told you that already.  He asked us what we planned on doing. We asked him how many children, what ages, what sexes, how much money do we have to spend on activities, how long are the programs, how many times a day, can we take them on trips during chol?  He didnt see the correlation between our questions and his.  Naomi and I knew this was gonna be an experience and it was.  Finally he answered our questions and told us a few expectations.  They were only guidelines that changed when the program began - but useful nonetheless.
Months have gone by since I arrived in Australia (crazy, eh?) and soon enough it was passover.  Naomi and I had to take the bus.  We were to make sure everyone was there and the suitcases were loaded on.  We had to do a bit more tho - cuz the bus was full of senior citizens - only old ppl.  They could hardly walk, hardly see, and and hear.  And most of them couldn't even seatbelt themselves in.  An hour and a half after settling all the elderly into seats and getting on our way we arrived in Ballarat - a historical mining town.  (There was only one hiccup along the way when one old lady couldnt remember is she had turned off her stove or something important like that and needed help calling her daughter - after a few misdials - she couldnt remember the number - she got thru and couldnt remember english - a problem because her daughter didnt speak yiddish - thankfully another old lady translated for her)
The hotel he stayed at was more like a resort and very nice.  The grounds were big and you had to walk outside to get from place to place which was a pleasant surprise because I was nervous I wouldnt see sunlight for 8 days.
After settling in Naomi and I got to meet the children - about 30 of them ranging in age from 4 to 12 and one of special needs (he was a sweet kid - and some of the others - with no good excuse were way worse).  Some of the children were very cute and pretty good, some were dirty and wild (chabad) and some were spoiled and disruptive (rich) either way their mums clearly didnt know what they were doing.
We were to look after the kids for an hour and a half each afternoon and help out at kids meals every day plus during chol we were to run a program every morning too.  That was the plan since naomi made it clear she didnt wanna miss shul.  The plan didnt last - on the first day a mum said why no morning program on chag - and so the rabbi said why not - and so every day and hour and half in the morning and and hour and a half in the afternoon and kids dinner - it was full on - as they say is australia.  We played games with the kids, told stories, directed a play (seriously), did a scavenger hunt, made puppets, took a hike, dipped marshmellows and strawberries in chocolate, and more.  Hardly any of the parents said thank you and none of them gave tips.  But pesach was nice.  The food - way to rich and never diary (mummy's food is way better) - was always followed by a awesome dessert.  There were a few other ppl our age there and it was nice to hang out with them every so often.  I was also reading the god delusion while i was there (a book I dont recommend) and it caused a very interesting late night discussion in the resort lounge.  Overall Im glad I went to ballarat - even tho I didnt get to visit the gold mines (i did walk by the entrance tho) - cuz I got paid, didnt have to pay rent, was fed, and busy during an otherwise homesick causing family holiday.
Well I miss you.  I hope to write about life since passover soon.  And mummy I was wondering what did I get you for mothers day?  (Siblings I was also wondering how much money I owe you?)
Before I end I just wanted to give an example of a dirty, wild chabad child - one of them was seen multiple times just pulling down his pants and peeing anywhere - even when a toilet was only a few meters away (for those of you that still work in feet - thats really nearby).

A Story

Background information:  I have yet to work out the best route from the nanny home to uni.  I have tried taking the 3/16 to the balaclava station getting off flinders and then catching tram from there to uni.  I have tried taking the 3 the whole way.  I have tried taking the 3 to caulfield station getting off at melbourne central and taking a tram from there to uni.  And I have tried taking the 16 to caulfield station getting off at melbourne central and taking a tram to uni.
No matter what something goes wrong tho and i end up late.
For example yesterday I got on a 16 got off at balaclava station and was told no trains were running - the 16 has a longer route than the 3 to uni - but a 3 wasnt coming for 10 minute - result: i was late.
Another time: I got on the 3 going for caulfield station - it turns - i ask about the station - driver says oh you need the 16 - oops - i finally catch a 16 - i get to the train station - the trains are very delayed - result: im late
I figure you get the pattern
Today: I have an exam for my 9am class - im ready to leave at 5 to 8.  Dion (nanny dad) isnt awake - he usually drives me to caulfield station on my 9am days - and then im usually early - today i need to take the tram/train.  but i have time - its not even 8! so i leave - i decide to go with caulfield station.  I know from past experience not to take the 3 but the 16.  I get to the stop - just then a 3 going toward balaclava goes by.  I check the time table - a 16 isnt coming for 15 minutes - i should have taken the 3 toward balaclava - but its ok cuz im early.  I 3 comes going in the direction i need - i dont get on - learned my lesson - take a 16. finally a 16 comes - i get on .  it goes - and it turns.  So i ask someone - why is it turning - i want caulfield station - they say - the 3 goes there! what the heck - the trams are switching on me - cuz im sure i took the 3 last time! so i ask where the 16 is going - the lady says melvern station - its on the same track as caulfield anyway.  so i get on that instead.  but it doesnt matter cuz in the end: I'm late!
the test was really short tho - ten questions - i got one wrong for sure - but it wasnt a good question cuz it said reptile phylogeny - and birds arent reptiles but the answer was birds - hopefully i didnt get anything else wrong.
btw this is what happens when i finally catch my blog up with my life - a ton of random insignificant stories.
Suckers!
Enjoy!

facebook: what I do when I dont wanna do my hw

(Blog post: another thing I do when I dont wanna do my hw.)
so i was just on fb.  and I commented on a million ppls things that came up on my screen - which i never do.
I also got back to ppl - finally.  But the reason I feel compelled to write about fb on my blog is...
because that kid, who i told you about, from uni orientation - the one who wrote his name on the tram sheet - but there were a million of him - well he friended me.  which i find so random and unexpected. 
now that I m actually writing a post I might as well give ya'll a few more details of my life.  (just a warning - the friend request has been the most exciting event recently)
Its raining like mad here - and i didnt bring a raincoat or rainboots - i wore my most waterproof shoes today - and within 5 minutes my feet were soaking.
I have an exam i really need to study for - but the information is so tedious - i really dont want to.
Im sure I had something better to say but i cant remember what
i might have a cavity - is that how you spell cavity? - it looks funny
man - im sure i had one interesting thing to say - what the heck was it?
ive been snacking on rice cakes with chumus - its yummy
my room is a wreck - and i really need to do a laundry
whenever words are spelled aith an au - like laundry (not australia tho - cuz that word starts with the au) - i always type in ua, realize it looks funny and then erase it and type in au - every time.
if youre wondering the answer is yes - im stalling as i try to remember what the interesting tidbit is that i want to share.
ratites are birds that can't fly - like the emu in australia.
today im wearing a lot of black and about five different shades of blue - in other words - i dont match.
ok, i give up - i cant remember what i wanted to say - it probably wouldnt have been so awesome - it probably would have been like the stories i tell - a fail.
well this is it

and ppl please comment - reading isnt enough

School and Other Stuff

Sorry its been so long.  I'm sure you all really missed reading my blogs: poring over the poor grammar and spelling trying to decipher what Im saying. 
Im gonna try to catch you up on everything so that my blogs can finally be up to date.  Maybe then I'll write entries more often.
Uni has been busy.  I switched my urban ecology class to a Darwinism class.  It's really interesting.  I just submitted my first paper on the subject - it was really poorly done - but I tried.  I also handed it in 2 days late - but the teacher gave me an extension since I missed the first 2 weeks of school.  (I think my GPA is gonna be hurt by this semester - I keep telling myself I don't care - but I kinda do.  Too bad!)
I also have a paper coming up for my aussie now class - Im gonna write about 2 childrens songs that are on the CD I bought my niece.  Hopefully itll be good - but than again - Im writing this blog instead of the paper.
In my Aus Wildlife class I have an exam and paper to do - but Im really uninterested in both. Go figure the one class relating to my major and nature and animals is the one I care the least about.
Thats school - now work (remember I would hand out fliers? well I did) Then some lady told me it was against school rules.  So I stopped - there went my money! (But I made a few bucks.)
Next I guess is Purim: I was sick - I think the only mitzahs I did was hearing meggilah and giving 1 shaluch manot.  I didnt give to the poor or eat a meal - oops. I did dress up like a Beth Rivka High School student - in other words I wore the most hidious and unflattering outfit.  I look fat!  Poor girls who have to wear it for 4 years of their lives.
I also went to Tasmania (the real reason I handed in my paper late).  The misadventure began the sat. night; the night before our flight.  My friend and I went to the market, bought food, and then walked up to the train station together.  The problem is we were both following each other so unwittingly we got on a train going the wrong way.  By the time I realized and switched sides there were no more trains going into the city.  Thank God some men were in the same situation.  We all got a taxi together - we had to bribe the taxi driver to take all 5 of us cuz they can only take 4 passengers at a time.  Thank God the guys didnt rip us off - they paid for the first half of the trip and we paid for the second.  Then my friend and I discovered that the tram we needed to get to the bus that would take us to the airport dont start running until after we needed it.  We had to order another taxi!  Anway tasmania was amazing! I drove on the left side of the road.  My friend and I went to Cradle Mountain - a beautiful national park.  We did hikes and saw a few padimelons (like a small wallaby which is like a small kangaroo), skinks, a wombat, and a echinda (similar to a hedgehog) in the evening (cuz the animals are nocturnal). Then (cuz I wanted) we stayed at the park and did I nighttime tour - then we saw a lot more wildlife - we saw more padimelons, a bunch of wombats (and one mom and baby), we saw many wallibies, we saw a bushy tailed pussam too.  And (again cuz I really wanted to) we went to a sanctuary for Tasmanian devils to see the night feed.  I got to pet a tasmanian devil.  Then I saw them eat.  I also got to see to species of qualls - a cute little endangered mammal.  By then it was 10pm and my friend and I still had 2 hours to drive to our hotel on the west coast of the island.  Since my friend was scared of nighttime driving - on the wrond side of the road, with no lights, wildlife running all over the road, and insane curves - I drove.  I got really good at honking at potential roadkill - the first time I was a bit timid so the pussum didnt know if it shoud run off the road or wander further onto it.  I am proud to say I caused no premature deaths of any cute (or not so cute) wildlife.  We made it to Strahan - pronounced Strawn - after midnight and the hotel was really nice.  The next day we did a pretty hike to a waterfall in the towns park and hung out by the bay watching so geese take a very long bath.  We then got in the car to head back toward the town with the airport for the next morning.  On the way we stopped by Lake St Claire (it was different routes - the way there and back - cuz the way there we drove toward the north of the island and the way back we drove toward the middle).  We did some stunning hikes around the lake and then got in the car to head to the hostel.  On the way we stopped by some conservation place we had google mapped - it was non-exisitant.  Then we stopped by another waterfallwe found in this map of tasmania we rented from the car rental place for 2 bucks - money well spent cuz google maps failed us right away on day 1.  As it got dark I took over driving.  The driving was really insane this night - for about 50km I drove on unpaved gravel road - there were potholes everywhere.  And at some points the curves in the road were so intense they were practically u-turns.  You couldnt see where the road went cuz the brights only point forward! Somehow I didnt hit any wildlife again - but when I finally made it to civilization and actual highway - I think a bird flew into my side window - not my fault though!  We slept at the hostel (altho we were nearly locked out cuz we arrived 10 minutes after it closed - we sunk in was some guy who knew the door code and dound a note for us with our room key).  The next morning we went to a nearby gorge (i think?) it had recently rained so it had overflowed and some of the trails were underwater.  Then we flew back to melb - I made it just in time for Darwinism tutorial (they are mandatory).
After Tasmania I moved my belongings back from the rosensweigs back to the epsteins.  It was really awkward leaving and the worst part is I forgot to empty out a drawer so I still need to go back to get my stuff.
Hope this makes a bit of sense.  Now you are caught up with my life. yay.

UNI thats short for... Uh, No Idea!

Uh, Now I know my post title is quite lame - but deal with it - cuz I had fun coming up with it.  It took a good 5 minutes to think of - which is exactly the amount of time I needed to waste.  Now I've got to go hand out fliers to random ppl that don't want to take the scrap of paper but feel bad cuz I smile, say hi and shove it in their face.  I'll continue this entry in an hour or two.
Ok a lied.  An hour or two turned into a few days but watevs (they do that down under - randomly shorten words).
Anyway
Orientation was about 3 weeks ago.  But the day before orientation I went into the city to make sure I wouldnt get lost the day of.  I made it there - no problem.  Took some photos of a butterfly:

and discovered that the health insurance card I printed out from Rutgers wasnt recognized here.  On the way back I got on the 6 tram instead of the 16 (I knew it said 6 - but I thought the numbers were similar enough - they arent) it took a few hours to find my way back... not so bad.
At orientation I met a few German kids - they were all really nice - but I havent spoken to them since.  (I sat next to this one guy and then I was on the same tram as him so we traded names - his name is Jan Van Den Broeck:

We're not facebook friends tho.  Seriously type his name into the friend searcher thingy and you'll see why.  There are hundreds of him - and yeah right if I remembered what he looked like once a said goodbye.  (now if youre wondering why he didnt friend me - cuz you just read that we traded names - I like to tell myself its cuz my name was blocked on facebook search unless we have a friend in common (that was true at the time) - but it may also have to do with a. being smelly (unlikely cuz I showered just for orientation) b. my extreme awkwardness (a real possibility) c. he forgot about me or d. all of the above.  hmmm, now I'm considering blocking my name again so that the next time someone doesnt wanna friend me I can still rely on my excuse rather than admit they don't wanna.  moving on from how pathetic I am - I also got my ID card (I look ugly but not fat which is an improvement), I signed up for three classes - was told I need 4 or I'll get deported - was told 3 is fine - was told 4 -3 - 4 -3 until finally I introduced the arguing parties to each other and they decided 3 is fine (There were some more issues with my classes but I'll hopefully write about them soon - cliffhanger!!! - tangent: last night i was texting with this kid - he says st I ask a question and he doesnt respond literally 25 minutes later (Im not exagerating cuz I checked) I text him again saying yo (nope I didnt say yo but I should have) i texted 10 minutes ago (i hadnt checked the time and didnt realize it had actually been longer) and I hate cliffhangers.  I dont know what he thinks of me - but it worked - he responded - yay for being desperate!) continuing with what I was saying  -, I found out I might be eligable for a concession card - which makes the trams half price - story with that too, I received a chocalate koala -

 I dont think its kosher tho.

And I met a few jewish girls from the tri-state area that I now spend most of my free time with - altho they live in the city and Im an hour away.

Now for the stories I left you curious about:

Class: one class I was put on a waiting list for and I had a clash (2 classes at the same time) on fridays.  So I write to the profs to see what can be done.  They write back - prof (pertaining to waiting list) I dont know why youre on a waiting list the class isnt full.  Prof (pertaining to clash) theres no lecture on fridays.  So Im like go figure - but no it gets better - I write back to clash prof - thats good to know but kind of odd since my schedule says otherwise - prof responds - my bad there is class on fridays - yea, we'll have to figure st out - now its go figure!

Concession card:

So I was told repeatedly - I'm not eligable for a concession card - aussies like to milk forigners for their cash.  You have to be an exchange student.  But when I got my ID i find out i was exchange so I asked about concession - cuz Im jewish and i dont understand word pertaining to no.  The ID guy doesnt know what im talking about.  I leave and see a gray-haired lady - I look at her and she notices that I look confused so I ask her about concession.  she looks up my name and it says exchange (yay!) so she takes me to some other person behind a desk and tells them I should get concession - they print out some form saying im eligable and give it to me to bring to the train station to get a card.  I go to the train station - the guy looks at the form and says no you need a seperate letter from your uni and the form - but on the form my uni wrote a letter and stamped it - he doesnt care.  So I go back to the uni - they say the form is all I need - no seperate letter needed - I go back to the station - they dont care.  I go back to the uni - no letter needed - go to a different train staion and try that - I go to a different train station - finally its my turn - look at form - oh you only get a card for half the year - yeah, thats fine - we ran out of those go to _ station (names the station I went to twice and was rejected form - uh, no. they turn me away every time I go there - oh, um go wait on another line downstairs - I do - and some how get a concession card.  btw this whole ordeal took days.  But now my tram rides are cheaper - so worth it!

And happy birthday shuie. (Yaffa dont get jealous - we skyped!)

Camera #2. Great Ocean Rd

More pictures! yay.
Day 1 Beach 2.

View of the beach

On the beach

yay beach!

massive seaweed. It felt like shark skin.

And it was heavy

trying to do a handstsnd - I actually did one - but Naomi didnt catch it on film.  It was on softer sand - where I wasnt scared of falling and hurting myself.

DAY 2

We went kayaking - I did most of the rowing - I had muscle - I lefted babies for two months!

After kayaking we got back in the car - and drove and drove and drove until we reached to 12 apostales.  Although there arent 12 anymore cuz some fell down.

The sun was setting - it was pretty.

And it became pretty foggy

DAY 3

Back at beach # 2.  We found sand turds!!! They were everywhere and so cool.

After we finished the egg salad we used the container to create a sand castle - pretty sweet!

Hopefully I'll update you about school soon enough - I hope I remember whats happened.

Hope all is well with ya'll - today some kid I met thought I was Texan!

Horse Poo $2.50/kg

When I finished nannying I went on a roadtrip down the Great Ocean Rd.  It is stunning! I wish I had more time to go all the way down the road.  I didn't.

DAY 1

(This beach was called Bells Beach)

After hanging out at two beaches we went to the cabin  (more photos from the second beach - Day 1 - will be in another post) We passed by this sign selling horse poo for $2.50 a kg - but I couldnt find it on the way back to take a photo.  At the cabin we played tennis - we were pretty descent - and I was really good at hitting flys - the bugs.  They were massive and attracted to me - until they saw the racket coming.  I killed 3 and made one pretty dizzy! The cabin was really nice.

DAY 2

(This is a new beach - not Bells but a light house one - we went to another beach between the two but thos photos were on another camera so Ill post them in a second entry)

(I don't collect seashells (You know who you are!!!) - I leave them on the beach but I had to at least have a copy of these)

Seaweed

There is an Australian TV show about this light house.  Cool, eh.

The road just disappears and becomes dirt on side streets - so awesome!

A pond barely 10 min from the ocean

A hike to a waterfall - right off the great ocean rd.  Only a couple km in.

A lizard! we also saw a huge snake slither by but no photo.

 After the waterfall hike we continued down the road - but then we turned into a camping site looking for a bathroom - there was no bathroom but we met the star a travel show filming at the site.

The famous guy - Naomi's mum likes to watch it.

We drove thru two different forested areas - I only took a photo of the second one.

DAY 3This is at the beach you havent seen photos of yet - but that I went to on day 1 as well.

I wrote about this already

 This is when I went on a walk to the supermarket and got poured on - mope I didnt jump into the pool fully clothed...

I took the twins on many walks around the block and I took some pictures of this dragonfly caught in a spider web - uber cool.  And no I didnt take any pictures of the twins in the pram...

This is when I joined Bnei Akiva on an outing.  We climbed this mountain and stood on the top of the rock you see jutting up...

This is a picture of the view...

 Then the bus broke down (twice).  I didnt take any pictures the first time around though.

As we waited for a new bus to come get us from the middle of nowhere I drew an ant.  I was inspired by the ants crawling on the floor...

 Here are some photos of the kids.  I didnt take them! Yona (the mum) did.  she needed photos of the twins for a thank you card and her camera was dead.
This is Asher (he's the bigger one)

 This is Raf (he's not the bigger one)

 The two of the together

 Caleb (or Buzz Lightyear)

 I dont have photos from his party but Ill try and get some from Yona.

I also have photos from my Great Ocean Rd trip but I'll post them in a seperate entry cuz I havent written about that (mis)adventure yet...