My last day in OZ

Yep, my path continues to come full circle. I spent my last day in OZ in Ruth's grade 3 classroom, doing an engineering design challenge with her kids. It was lots of fun! I did a simplified version of the tower challenge that I do every year with my grade 7's. In the morning I had the kids build triangles and squares out of straws and we investigated the properties of these shapes, and decided that triangles were stronger for building with. Then we all tromped over to the hall (the school's indoor assembly area) to build the towers. Some of the designs the kids came up with were pretty innovative! After lunch I pulled out a fan and we tried blowing the towers over to see what would happen. All in all it was great fun and I know the students had a good day.

Tonight I have a big job to do - repacking my bags... again! Seems to matter how I try, everything kinda explodes out of my bags whenever I have to actually LIVE out of them for more than a day. I'm blaming the current clothing explosion on yesterday's regatta - I had to dig all the way to the bottom of my big suitcase to find my bathing suit. So I'll be spending the next hour or so cursing all the crap I've accumulated these past eight months as I try to get everything to fit back in my bags.

It's so strange that I'm leaving tomorrow! I'm going to be a complete wreck in the morning when I have to say goodbye to Bill and Ruth. Then, hopefully my luck with standby flights will continue and I will be winging my way towards BC. I'll be spending the next week with my brother Dave and his family. I'm looking forward to FINALLY meeting my newest niece, Rowyn, who was born last September just before I flew away! So while the end of this OZ trip is sad in its own way, I have much happiness to look forward to, and for that I am thankful.

Hopefully the next time you hear from me I will be back in the Great White North again!