Monthly Archives: August 2009

Meet one of our Dedicated GV Byron Bay Teachers

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Lynne Holian has been teaching at GV Byron Bay for a year. All of the students know her as a happy and dedicated teacher. This week we caught up with her and asked her a few questions.

So Lynne, tell us a bit about yourself.

Okay, well I arrived in Byron Bay from Switzerland about 18 months ago. My husband is Swiss and we had been living in Switzerland. We bought the “Byron Local” opposite the surf club which sells great food, coffee and juices. We have two children, Anouk who is 2 years old and Chiara who is 4. I have lived overseas and taught English in many places around the world including Africa, Alaska, England, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.

Do you speak any other languages?

Yes I speak fluent German.

Do you have any other hidden talents ?

Well I am a published author – I have written a series of children’s books which have been published.

That is impressive! Now about GV, what class are you teaching at the moment?

I am teaching the Pre-Intermediate class. They are a really good group of students and because the class size is fairly small I can give each student a lot of personal attention and really get to know them.

Is there any student you have taught at GV Byron Bay who has specially impressed you?

There is a quite a few actually but one student who stood out was Jema. She had very little English but she worked hard and it improved rapidly. She also took to the Byron lifestyle. She has left GV now and works in Byron for a Sky Diving School. She went sky-diving while she was at GV and loved it and she now works for them.

So tell us what is your favourite place to eat in Byron Bay?

Lynne and her family in front of their Cafe, "The Byron Local"

Lynne and her family in front of their Cafe, "The Byron Local"

The Byron Local of course! We have the biggest and best hamburgers in town and Michael prides himself on serving up fresh, healthy and yummy food.  I also love going to The Balcony around sunset and having a cocktail or two!

Angelique’s and Maeva’s Great Barrier Reef Weekend

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Two of our French students made a weekend trip to the Great Barrier Reef during their time at GV Byron Bay. They arrived back at GV Byron Bay on the Monday very excited and happy with the trip.

Here is Maeva’s story:

“We left Byron Bay on Thursday by bus and then took a plane trip to Proserpine. From there it was a short bus trip to Airlie Beach. We stayed in a backpackers at Airlie. We were 8 people sleeping in the same “flat”. This backpackers was very beautiful. There was lots of tropical vegetation. We were up at 6am and got ready to take the boat to the Great Barrier Reef. On the way we saw lots of whales. Some of them were jumping. We met a French girl and a Kiwi boy who worked on the boat. On the pontoon we did scuba diving. For Angelique it was the first time and she loved it. It was really beautiful- we met a big fish called “Napoleon” (very French name!) that was 2 metres. We saw lots of fish and coral – AWESOME. We ate on the pontton in the sun. Lots of foods…..MMMMM. We also did snorkelling and took lots of underwater photos with GV’s underwater camera. On the return we took photos with the Kiwi boy. In the evening we met the French girl and we had dinner and a drink together. On Saturday we went by boat to Whitehaven Island. It is a beautiful island with white, white sand. We went snorkelling and saw turtles. A Barbeque with meat and seafood was waiting for us when we returned to the boat. That night we had pizza at Magnums and then went to Mama Africa, a nightclub. On our return trip we met again the Kiwi boy who was on the same bus and flight back. It was a beautiful weekend”.

Jobs of the Week

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Barista/Bar Busy cafe/restaurant seeking high quality fast paced passionate

and customer service focused staff. Permanent part-time for the right applicant.

Award wages and good working environment.

Email CV to The Manager enquiries@byronbeachcafe.com.au

Cleaners wanted Plenty of long term consistent work. Work in your own area: Byron, Bangalow and surrounding areas. Cleaning, ironing, housework in private homes. Earn from $18 to $40 per hour. No equipment necessary ,choose own hours. Phone 029294 5539.

Your Gourmet Catering Chefs and wait staff wanted for part time weekend work. To join our professional and friendly team call 0439656063.

Wait staff and Bar staff  needed for Saturday night functions near Bangalow. Must have RSA. Function waitering or bar experience an advantage. Phone 66872527 and leave a message.

 

 

 

 

Say Cheese!

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Thanks Monica!  She prepared some Swiss delicacies for her fellow students this afternoon.

 

 

It was really delicious!!! Remember if you want to cook some recipes from your home country for your fellow students GV Byron Bay will be happy to help out by paying for some or all of the ingredients.

Up, Up and Away

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Joanne, one of our students from Taiwan, took to the skies today in a tandem hang-glider!

What a great way to spend your Friday afternoon. Joanne said that it was an amazing experience and reports that it “wasn’t scary” and that  “it was really quite peaceful” gliding above the ocean. Maybe she is just really brave! If you are as brave as Joanne and want to try hang-gliding just see Damian at the front office and he will contact Neil at the hang-gliding school.  It’s a once in a lifetime experience and well worth the price!

IELTS Class Underway!!

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The IELTS class is underway, and curious to find out how it was going I talked to Yuna about her experience of the class so far.

Justin and Yuna

Justin and Yuna

“I really have liked this class so far and am beginning to see my English skills really being used. In this class we are learning a lot of skills that I didn’t know before, such as how to skim, scan, to take effective notes while listening, write an academic essay and be able to analyze graphical information. We are studying interesting and specialized topics which the GE classes don’t usually practice.

For me one of the important things about taking this course is that I have to make  a written report or essay every week. I find writing academically really hard, as it requires lots of time and effort and so on. It is never easy to get it perfect!!. I mean, time management is great essential to me as well as everyone. So at the start of this course, I did make a plan in advance, and I did make the best use of after school and weekend  studying hard. As a consequence, I am likely to finish with pride and improve my English skills.

I will tell you how to improve reading and vocabulary and listening skills. Good vocabulary skills will be useful in sentence completion, antonyms, analogies, and reading comprehension. If you know the meaning of all the words in the answer choices, it makes the question easier.  When you come across an unfamiliar word, look it up and write down its definition. You’ll be amazed at how much better your vocabulary is after reading on a regular basis for just a month.

Next, explore different forms of reading material. I mean, check out works in both their book forms and books on tape, CD, or digital recording forms. Because if do that you can read a book while listening to the same book on tape. Listening is very important in our daily life it is a real time skill. So we need to understand what we hear on the spot and often you have to respond immediately. You can practice listening at home, through the Internet, on the bus … wherever you are. I recommend the learning center absolutely. In my case, I love watching movie. So when I go to there I used to watch DVDs so practice listening with joy and fun. Also if you are watching TV or listening to the radio, record it then you can listen again. And you can listen to your classbook cassette and workbook cassette at school. Use as many kinds of material as much as possible.

In general, I have really enjoyed this class. It really is a different experience for me, and I find it exciting to be part of a class that is focused on academic English.

What are those Unusual Creatures in the Student Lounge??

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No one can say that GV Byron Bay does not have some highly unusual (but very entertaining) activities included in their afternoon activity program.

Yesterday, while most of our students went off to the beach, a select few stayed behind to create some unsual balloon creatures in the afternoon activity. We are not sure what these creatures are…a dog, a cat, something else?? Who knows but anyway the students seemed to enjoy creating them.

Music Guide

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There is a lot of great live music to be enjoyed in Byron Bay this week. The bext news is that most of it is FREE!!!

WEDNESDAY

Bill Jacobi Beach Hotel 8.30pm

Andy Bourke The Rails, 6.30pm

Snob Scrilla Hotel Great Northern, late

Micks Sashimi Band Orient Express, 7pm

Cockatoo Paul Buddha Bar, 7.30pm

THURSDAY

Dubbly Beach Hotel, 9pm

Bassix The Rails, 6.30pm

Decoder Ring Great Northern Hotel, late

Inanna’s Wish The Chameleon Global Cafe Jonson Street 7pm

FRIDAY

Austin Busch & The Good Beach Hotel, 9.30pm

Golden Glade, The Rails, 7 pm

Da Karpo, The Great Northern Hotel, late

SATURDAY

The Red Eyes Beach Hotel, 9.30pm

Paul Hasselgrove and Rusty Steel, The Rails, 6.30pm

Solid Gold, The Great Northern Hotel, late

Salsa with Chuckale, The Buddha Bar, till late

Livewire, La La Land, late

Free to three students. Damian has three free tickets to The Time of Your Life Musical, Theatre and Dance Spectacular which is on this Saturday at the Byron Bay Community and Cultural Centre in Jonson Street. The tickets will be given to the first three students to come and ask for them!

Jobs for the Week

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With the weather warming up and more tourists arriving in the town there has been a significant increase in the number of jobs on offer in Byron Bay and surrounding towns.

Cleaners Byron Bay Apartments small complex, suit a couple, must have own ABN. Phone 0409802102.

Relief Postal Delivery Relief work only, part time casual, North Byron Shire. Motor cycle licence essential. Contact 66801116 or 0421159109.

Casual Position Available Manual work, full time, in local timber yard. Please phone 6684 1300.

Nanny/housekeeper caring for 10 year old boy, 2 afternoons/evenings per week and occasional weekend work. Must be flexible, energetic, kind hearted person & love dogs. Suffolk Park $15per hour. Please phone 0409361801 after 5.30pm.

Front of House Busy Byron eatery seeks mature , reliable & smiley person for front of house and food prep, cafe/sandwich making exp ideal. Day/night hours available. Phone 0448902363.

Kitchen Hand must have previous experience. Drop resume into Byron Fresh, 7 Jonson Street Byron Bay.

Dishwasher required for busy Byron bistro (at The Railway Hotel) Jonson Street Byron Bay. 0423454773.

Also Sunnybrand Chickens are also seeking process workers for its plant at Byron Bay. See Damian at the GV officelogo[1] for a copy of the application form. We have had many students work at the plant in the past and they are happy to employ our students.

It is hard to believe that this is Winter

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Many of our students have been taking advantage of the sensational weather and using GV Byron Bay’s surfboards which are supplied free of charge!

Violetta borrows a GV Byron Bay surfboard.

Violetta borrows a GV Byron Bay surfboard.

 Why not take advantage of the beautiful weather and go surfing after classes. The school has boards available which you can borrow.  Remember always to surf with another person – never on your own. Also it is a good idea to have some lessons with Style Surf School prior to using the boards.  A surfing lesson will take a lot of the frustration out of learning and get you standing up on the board and enjoying yourself much more quickly than if you try to teach yourself. Also GV Byron Bay students get a great discount from the surf school so the lessons are good value for money.  To arrange a lesson or borrow a board see Damian in the office.

Cariocas at GV Byron Bay

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We have had some really good activities at Gv Byron Bay this week including making and using the  cariocas. This proved a lot of fun for the students who took part in the activity. Remember to check the notices on the notice board in the student lounge and posted in the classrooms for upcoming activities.

As far as we can gather the cariocas is popular in Brazil but it was two Spanish students, Violeta and Yoli, who helped organise the activity. It involves making two decorated weights attached to lengths of cord which are then twirled and spun in time to accompanying music. It’s harder than it looks but everyone seemed to be getting the hang of it toward the end of the activity……just another little experience and skill that the students can take away from GV Byron Bay!!

Jobs of the week in Byron Bay!

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There are some different and unusual jobs on offer in Byron Bay and nearby areas this week.

Artists Wanted Calling all local artists, designers and craftspeople to submit your art and designs to a new local website that showcases and sells Byron Bay art, craft and designs. Forward your interest and samples of your art/designs to info@byroncraftcorner.com

The Happy Dolphin Cafe requires the following staff. Barista full time, Chef/Cook full time, Junior front person. Apply in person at The Happy Dolphin Cafe Brunswick Heads, 6685 1355.

Casual fully qualified surf instructor required, coaching experience, email resume to tamjohno@hotmail.com.

Actors needed aged 16 – 22 years for SAE student film. Phone 0423955370 or email: berniefilm@hotmail.com

Travellers couples wanted for farm work. Will exchange great accommodation and second year visa for hours, lovely farm, 8km from Byron Bay. Send your details to macayakka2@gmail.com

Cook/Baker Part-time 16 hour week in Industrial Estate kitchen, must be reliable, fast & honest. Ph 0266808929.

Casual Position Available Drivers licence essential, weekend work essential, manual work. Please phone 0414704413.

Casual Cleaner Byron Bay B& B requires room clean/service staff. Phone Mark on 0412053030.

PHP Web Developer Assistant required to develop and test web applications. Basic knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP, MYSQL. Email info@burgundysky.com for details.

Wait Staff and Barista. Required at Ate and Satiate in Bangalow, experience essential, talented and passionate professionals need only apply. Resumes to 33 Byron Street, Bangalow 2479 or eat@ate.net.au

251269115

 

Housekeeping Staff. Restaurant Floor Staff (silver service and RSA  required) Cocktail Bar Staff (RSA required) Hotel Receptionist/Hotel Duties casual positions. Must have minimum two years experience and immaculate presentation. Excellent working conditions. To apply send your CV to five.star.service@me.com Phone 0406704458.

Cambridge Courses coming your way!

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GV Byron Bay is set to kick off our FCE and CAE programmes from September the 14th.

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If you are interested in taking on this challenge please come and see Justin to discuss your suitability and level. To ensure your place in the course you will need to complete a placement test.

FCE and CAE exams are recognized around the world.

Want to do something this weekend?

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Why not go on the Crystal Castle half day tour this saturday?!

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Walk the ancient labyrinth, discover the gardens and rainforest, and wonder the famous Buddha Walk. Lined with rose quartz and hand-carved statues behold the awe inspiring presence of the blessing Buddha. Marvel at the exquisite locally designed jewellery and amazing crystals from all corners of the globe, each a wealth of beauty to surround both yourself and your home.

For $28 you receive bus transfers, Crystal Castle entry and afternoon tea. The bus will leave Global Village on Saturday the 8th of August at 2:00pm. To book your seat, visit the office.

Jobs!

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Looks like a another good week for job hunting in Byron Bay!  Remember to speak to Damian if you need help making appointments or with your resume. 

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Kitchen Hand – Busy Byron eatery requires a reliable and efficient person for cleaning and basic food preparation.  10-16 hours per week.  Call Greg on 0448 902 363

Waiter/Barista – Must have a great personality and be available to work all through the coming summer.  Must have a professional work attitude and excellent work ethic.  Send resume to Jess at levi@fishheadsbyron.com.au

Barista – Poinciana Cafe are looking for a ‘badass Barista who can whip ’em out quickly without compromising taste or quality’!  Sounds like you?  If you have experience in a busy cafe as well, then call or text your details to 0458 985 920.

Retail Assistant – Newsagent in Sunrise.  Experience preferred.  Drop resume to Shop 7, Bayshore Dr, Byron

Waitstaff – Pacific Diningroom is currently looking for waitstaff.  Experience is preferred and enthusiasm is essential!  Part time and casual hours are available, working in a professional environment offering competitive wages.  Email resume to tara at info@pacificdiningroom.com.au, or call 6680 7055 during business hours

Housekeeper – Byron Bay family are looking for a Housekeeper for 2-3 months in exchange for free room and board.  Start immediately.  Call 0402 686 000

Maths Tutor – Required for year 9 Byron student.  Call 0409 062 074

Cleaners – Talented Cleaners needed, flexible hours.  Monday – Friday.  Call Cherry on 0413 190 266

Casual Sales Assistant – 2-3 days per week for a shop in Nimbin.  Clothing and accessories sales.  Must have driver’s licence, overseas travel experience and speak a second language.  0412 691 003

Good luck!    BBELS    Byron English School   English Language School Byron Bay