Yum Yum Yum Yum Yum!!!!!! On Friday we had the most amazing Spanish food cooked for us by Global Village Spaniards Sancho and Antonio. Spanish omelette and a garlic dip were on the menu. If anybody would like the recipes you will have to ask the boys directly. Apparently they are secret family treasures!
Yesterday we were blessed with the most beautiful weather for a lighthouse tour. We saw dolphins, turtles and rays from the top of the stunning Byron Bay Lighthouse. Our next tour is on Thursday 13th January 2011. Come to the office and book with Kate for some fantastic photo opportunities.
Aron very kindly made us all Bulgogi. This a traditional Korean dish. Normally this is cooked on a convex metal pan with a whole in the top so that the juices can flow down into a small tray and soak the meat. Usually the whole family sits around a low table and enjoy the great food, with, if they are lucky some wonderful Ginseng whiskey.!
This morning the Intermediate and Pre-Intermediate class went down to the market to practice their English in a real world environment. As you can see it was lots of fun and was a great way to get our morning coffee!
We have a very special treat for the students on Monday Night. Phil, our beloved bicycle man, is coming to the school at 8pm. Phil is an avid star watcher and has a huge telescope which he is going to bring so that everyone can see the night sky in great detail.
He has very kindly offered to teach everyone about the southern night sky. This will be a beautiful evening and it is amazing to be able to see the stars and planets so clearly through the telescope! An event not to be missed.
It looks like the weather is going to be perfect this weekend!
Have a look at the list below to see what fun things you can do in Byron for the weekend!
Some great things happening tonight. Don’t forget that you can all get free entry into Cheeky Monkeys with your GV Byron Bay green wristbands, cheap beer and $5 meals. Only available for GV Byron Bay students.
Friday Night:
More great live local music this Friday. This time we have Engine 37 at the Hotel Great Northern. They put on one hell of a good show so come check it out!
Beach Hotel – Redback City and Zahlu and The Alchemists.
Treehouse – Robert Owen Campell- Very nice tunes
and don’t to get out and about to try and spot the Oprah Winfrey Crew!
Saturday:
Beach Hotel – The Vauderville Smash
The Rails – Byron
Cheeky Monkeys, Ladies night.
Enjoy folks!!
Our volleyball net is getting quite a work out at the moment. Students are playing games everyday now that Summer is nearly here. Take a look at these photos from last week’s competition.
On Tuesday we had a beautiful Japanese dish cooked for us by our chef extraodrinaire Mori! Check out the recipe below for all of those that may like to try to cook it at home. As you can see by Mickey’s huge smile it was delicious!
TORI UDON
Chop chicken, carrots, shallots, white radish and shitake.
In a pot of boiling water add carrots and white radish and add Tsuyu Kombu (Japanese sauce)
Boil Udon noodles seperatly, rinse with cool water and stand
Fry chicken with salt and pepper and once golden add to soup.
Bring to boil again and add shitake mushrooms, shallots, a slash of Mirin and Tsuyu Kombu.
Place udon in bowl and then spoon chicken soup on the top! Oishi!!!
On Friday Global Village had the very special pleasure of having Lucus Proudfoot in our school. A man of many talents, not only quite a comedian, Lucus actually went to high school with Kate from GV and was once a world champion longboarder! He has now decided to go back to his passion of music and teach people from around the world his culture by incorporating a mix of traditional and contempory music along with a cultural background talk. We also all learnt some new vocabulary from his tribe’s native language!
Lucus brought a beautiful cultural musical feel to out school and we just can’t wait to have him back again in Febuary 2011.
STAY TUNED FOR VIDEOS!!!
We had a very special treat on Saturday with over 50 students from Taiwan coming down to visit us and have a BBQ at the beach with GV Byron students.
It was a beautiful day, and lots of fun was had. Frisbee, volleyball, sausages, salad, sun and a wonderfully warm ocean all contributed to making it a brilliant day. With over 100 students there, the Chefs were very busy. Thanks to all for making it such a nice time, and to our Taiwanese friends, check us out on facebook and keep in touch!
Melbourne cup madness! We had an excellent day for the Melbourne Cup! Each class started the day with presenting us with a poster with a crab from every country on it and its “form”, which was hilarious. Crab racing then ensued! The winning crab was from Switzerland!
After crab racing we then had a lovely relaxing BBQ until the main event which was of course the race. One of our students was very lucky and won over $400. Well done Damian.
Everyone really got into the spirit of things and looked fantastic as you can see from the photos. We had two particular “best dressed” winners on the day, Mori, in a beautiful three piece suit and Yuka. It was a really fun day! Thanks to you all!
I caught up with Damian today. Damian was really lucky yesterday and bet on the winning horse, and made over $400!! Go Damian!
Being the incredibly nice person that he is, he shared his winnings and bought everyone in the school a beer. (I think he is now the most popular student in GV)
I spoke to him about his experience here and this is what he had to say.
Hi I’m Damian…
I came to Australia too have fun and learn English. I really wanted to have some time off from my busy life at home, and to explore a new place and meet new friends in a different culture.
I have been here for two months and I study in the FCE class with teacher Andrew. He’s a great teacher because he teaches us with a lot of humour and makes the class interesting and dynamic. My class is small, (8 of us) nice and very lively and I think I have improved my English a lot.
I like GV Byron very much as there are a good number of people in the school which makes it very friendly. The students are generally very nice, the teachers are fun, Kate is awesome. We do a lot of activities that I have really liked such as beach soccer, Melbourne cup, the lighthouse tour and so on. They are well organized and lots of fun!
Thanks Damian, it’s a real pleasure to have you in the school. From all of us a heartfelt thanks!
Crazy GV students went flying last week at Byron’s circus skills workshop. Trapeze was definitely the highlight of the day! We are all still feeling quite ‘high’ from it!! 
Fantastic fun! See you all there again next month.
Finally the pics have arrived! See you in the waves next month!! 
Hi Everyone,
Have a look at this weeks Cheeky Monkeys entertainment guide. Don’t forget Friday nights is the GV student night, Free entry before 8pm and $5 meals for all GV Byron students.
Don’t forget the Global Village VIP night on Friday. Special deals on for all GV students!
This weekend Byron Bay’s Homestay and Student Services Coordinator, Kate, went to Stradbroke Island with her family to watch her husband compete in a surfing competition
Global Village students Gabrielle and Matthias came along for the trip. The first night was so windy and wet that their tent blew away so they had to sleep in the camping kitchen!!However, being the tough GV students that they are, lots of laughs were had. Luckily, the weather passed and blue skys and sunny days followed. Fresh prawns, great surf and a fantastic party was a great treat for us all.
Today we spent the afternoon out in the sunshine. Relaxing students watched on as the rest of the school played vollball and outdoor ping pong!
To celebrate the start of October we had a fantastic day of Bavarian music, BBQ’s and Beer! The three perfect B’s!! The photos speak for themselves. As always it was a lot of fun.. thanks for sharing guys…
Look at what’s on the calander for October! Don’t forget to join the circus group!
Our athletic students have been working up quite a sweat over the last few days. Beach soccer and backyard cricket have become favourites at Byron Bay Global Village. Come and join us again next month for another few games! Maybe we’ll throw a teachers vs students game??
We had a wonderful surprise this morning. Juan (our very infamous Spanish fire fighter!) came back to say hello with wine and flowers!
Juan studied with us almost ten months ago in the CAE class and was an absolutely brilliant student who used to make us all laugh. Not only did we get to have the pleasure of his company, but he tells me that his sister will come and join us in December! We all look forward to that!
Thanks for coming back and saying hello Juan. You really made our day…
Today we all got standing and rode the waves with Gaz’s surf lesson once again. He has to be the best surf instructor ever! He always gets us to our feet and we ALWAYS have a good giggle at his jokes. If you can’t get enough and want another surf with Gaz, let Kate know at the office. Thanks Gaz! See you again next month.
Mori our resident Sushi Guru made us all some incredibly tasty Sushi. Mori’s sushi is now world-famous and people are talking about it from Colombia to Zürich to Taipei! Thanks for all your hard work Mori!
Fe who studied with us here at GV Byron Bay for six months and lived in the student house for all of that time left us with an amazing present on the student house wall. It’s such a special thing and we all thank you for the time and care that you put into that Fe. I hope life back in Rio is fine and you aren’t missing us too much!
This is what Fe had to say about her gift “
Today we took all of our new students kayaking on the bay with another beautiful afternoon. Fresh sea air and sunshine is always a treat to hard working Global Village students. The chocolate biscuits after were also yummy! Can’t wait until next month!
Yesterday was a beautiful day and to celebrate the arrival of our new Cambridge and General English course students we had a lovely BBQ.
After a hard day of language testing a snag and a beer were well deserved! It’s great to meet you all. If there is any way that we can help you whilst you are here please drop into the office anytime!
Spring in all its joys is here. Rothy, our beloved teacher Andrew’s mother, took our students down to the beach to build a labyrinth. (Another new word for the vocabulary book!) I’m told that this is an ancient ritual originating from ancient Crete taking the form of an elaborate structure designed somewhat like a maze, but with a clear pathway.
These days. labyrinths can be thought of as symbolic forms of pilgrimage; people can walk the path, ascending toward salvation or enlightenment! So.. (after that explanation I hope you are still all with me!) we went down to the beach to make a labyrinth, which was lots of fun, and appreciated not only by the students but also by walkers by. Thanks very much Rothy, we hope the path to enlightenment is now more clear!
What a great way to end a fantastic week! The usual perfect conditions of Byron Bay offered all of us keen surfers another chance to have surfing lessons with Gaz on Friday. We cheered when we stood up and laughed when we fell down! So much fun! Can’t wait for the next lesson on the 22nd September!
Spring seems to be here with some wonderfully warm and beautiful days. To celebrate this (and of course to try to see any Whales that might be lurking) we went up to the lighthouse.
The lighthouse tour is always really fun. We get to go inside the actual lighthouse and the tour guides are typically funny Aussies. And.. we saw Whales! Yay!
After lasts week very succesful hip hop training the students requested that we do some Zumba! Not only are we getting great at English, but our dance moves are amazing!
Today we got to have GV’s very own student Ellen teach us all a fantastic Hip Hop routine.
Lots and lots of laughs! Thanks Ellen!
The wonderful Saleta delighted and tantalised our taste buds by creating a fantastic Spanish Tortilla.
She tells me that the Northern Spanish Octopus meal is far better, but sadly we couldn’t find the right sized octopus!! Thanks for cooking for us.. as you can see we loved it!
The weather has been wonderful recently, beautiful days, crystal blue skies and gorgeous sunsets…
all of which means… it’s BEACH SOCCER time again. We had a lot of fun on the beach and Kate proved to us for once and all that she is the soccer queen, much to Eduardo’s surprise!! Zac, as always, was a wonderful addition to the team (although no one is quite sure which team he was playing for!) and made us all laugh with his ball skills.
Good on you guys.. see you next week for round two!
There are many many wonderful things about living in Byron… and of course one of those is all of the colourful people who live here.
This afternoon we spent some time trying to look like a “local” by making Tye Dye shirts… very successfully it would seem!
The results speak for themselves..
We very sadly had to say goodbye to our first Junior Study tour on Friday.
This was a really succesful tour and we all really had a lot of fun getting to know them. We did various things from Kayaking, to surfing, to going to the circus, to dancing to … well anything you can imagine! And.. of course.. we learnt lots of ENGLISH!!
Thanks guys for being such a wonderful and positive part of the school.
We wish you all the best and look forward to seeing you again..
On a beautiful Friday afternoon for the last day of our junior Japanese school group tour the ice cream truck dropped round!
Wonderful!!
To brighten up everyone’s day last week we had a mid-winter Xmas. It was pretty wild weather outside and so the treasure hunt was a unique experience!
The chocolate game was a real winner with Marie and Ellen partaking with full gusto! Merry mid-winter Xmas everyone!!
The week has kicked off with a real bang! We welcomed new students, had lunch and then got right into Zumba hip hop style.
Lots and lots of fun… thanks for participating so willingly everyone! You all looked brilliant!
Fe, who has been with us for four months, dazzled us all with her amazing skills in the kitchen. She cooked us a beautiful meal…called Moqueca with Farofa! (I’m told that Moqueca is the fish part and Farofa is the side dish..)
Fe very kindly has given me the recipe to this delicious and wonderful meal. It was so good that lots of the students have asked me for the recipe so that they can cook this at home!!
For the Moquecca:
4 Onions, 4 Tomatoes, 4 Green, red yellow capsicum,
1.5 kilos of fish (We used Salmon)
Olive oil
Paprika, dash of salt
One bunch of spring onions and a sprig of parsley
2 cans of coconut milk.
Cut all of the vegetables up and deseed. Marinate the fish in lemon juice with salt for at least an hour. Place oil in the base of a pan. Layer the onion capsicum and tomato and parsley and then lie the fish on top. Mix herbs and garlic and put a liberal dash of olive oil on top. Repeat this. Leave to steam until almost cooked, then place coconut cream into the pan. Heat until almost boiled. (Season to taste)
Farofa:
4 packets of cream crackers, onion, garlic, 200 grams of olives and butter.
break the crackers into crumbs. Place butter, onion and garlic into pan until lightly browned. Add crumbs and mix place olives into mixture.
ENJOY!!!
As tensions have been running high around the ping pong table over the last few weeks, we took the school down to the local tennis club to see who the real “Tennis” champion is..
Although everyone participated and had lots of fun, Marcelo, Hideki and Keisuke showed us all how the game should really be played! Good on you guys!!
We look forward to round two….
I’m forever surprised and delighted to see all of the great and creative moments that happen around the school.
Our very sweet Hatsushiba Hashimoto highschool students very kindly put on a wonderful traditional Japanese afternoon for us, entertaining us with a traditional fisherman dance as well as helping us write our names in Kanji.
We all had a lot of fun watching them get into their traditional dance, and the more brave amongst us were able to be convinced to give the dance a go, much to all of our heartfelt amusement! Thanks
As always the circus was a huge amount of fun… the pictures below tell the tale!
It’s so nice to see everyone being so supportive and encouraging of each other as well as fun to see everyone learn to fly! Thanks!
We have been most fortunate over the last week to have some great new personalities around the school.
To celebrate this we have been doing some fun activities (as well as some serious studying of course!!)
A very special hello and warm welcome to our Hatsushiba Hashimoto High school students. It’s great to have you here and we wish you all the best for your upcoming study and life in Byron Bay.
We have been enormously lucky these days in Byron with a fantastically mild winter, days of beautiful sunshine and whales swimming in the sea!
To celebrate these lovely days we had another fun BBQ. Thanks to everyone for making it another fun day!
Very sadly we had to say goodbye to our dear and very special Bec’s today.
She has been an absolute integral part of the school and we have all grown to love her with her multitude of talents! It was very sad to say goodbye but we struggled through by eating lots of cakes !!
Thanks a million for all your help as well as for all the joy, enthusiasm and humour that you brought to GV Byron Bay. We’ll miss you!!
The pressure has been building and the newly rectified table tennis table has been seeing a flurry of recent activity.
After many requests we had to have a competition to see who really is the TRUE GV Byron Bay table tennis champion! And the winners were …
1st place) Eduardo
2nd place) Fe
3rd) Eduardo Lage!
Well done guys. What a marathon!! They played for three and a half hours!! Fantastic! Hope you enjoyed the chocolate!
To warm us all up on these colder winter days, our Italian students kindly offered to make us all Italian cabonara! It was absolutely delicious and a real treat for us all.
Thank you Riccardo and Nicolo for all your help!
This afternoon we went up the lighthouse to do the tour.This is always an interesting experience as the tour guides are both informed about Byron’s history and also very funny!
The afternoon shaped up into a lovely day after we got there. Incredibly enough there were quite a few whales, which you can see the very top of in one of the photos!
Good fun was had by all… Don’t forget guys.. surfing today!
