Summary

Wednesday-Saturday 15-25 September 2010

I know I am skipping a lot, but I haven't written in my journal for a long time. So I am just going to summarise. So I am actually working full time now. It wasn't originally planned that way, but people got sick and things happened. So, I am a full time employee from now until I leave for Australia. When I come back, I will be a full time employee and paid as a registered teacher. Yeah!

I have been mostly walking to and from work. I can use the bus now, but weather has mostly been fine. Work is very busy. Kids are still doing fine, but you can definitely see the affects they of the earthquake. We have had several "bathroom" incidents. Many of them, I had to deal with. One girl decided to use the adult toilet. There were disastrous results. Just when I cleaned that up, another girl went wees. So I had to clean that up. Several children who don't have accidents, had accidents. A couple children are kind of acting out. Nothing unusual, but it is noticeable.

As for the quakes, well...They were slowing down quite a bit. We were up to 800 and something yesterday. Today...it went up to 1056. Just a few minutes ago, we felt 4 back to back. They were quite significant. So we are definitely not out of the woods yet. Roads are terrible. People are still using Porto Loos (Porto Potty). In fact, a suburb really close to us has just heard they may not get the sewage for a year. They will have to use the pit toilets for that long! It seems ridiculous.

On 17 September. it was Alison's birthday. On her actual birthday, we both worked. The next day, we went to the Botanical Gardens. We heard that the daffodils are amazing. It is true. There were thousands of daffodils. It was beautiful. We just frolicked in the daffodils and then walked around town. Then we went to the gondolas and read for a while.

We had several people staying over. Anne wanted to make little gifts to say thank you to the people who helped out in the civil defense centres as well as other things for the quake. So Alison and I helped out. We made around 200 gift bags.

Also, Alison and I have really been working hard on our Australia trip. It is only 2 1/2 weeks away, and we really haven't been that serious about it. We have our essentials, but it is the little details we need to work out. We are getting there.

I know I am jumping around, and I apologise for that, but today, Alison and I had a walk. We went to a walking track Alister talked about. It would have been okay, had the Avon River not been contaminated. There is raw sewage running through the river, and the river flowed onto the track. Because of this, we did everything we could to avoid the water. So, we stepped on shaky logs and forced a track that did not exist. It was not easy. It probably should only take 1/2 hour, but it took us an hour to complete it. It was not easy. I will have to give pictures later.

I'm sure there is more that went on, but I don't remember. Finally up to date again. Yippee!