With the Sangria flowing, the students were able to relax ready for their salsa session with Swiss student Sandro.

. 

Some of the students and myself had two left feet, while others picked up the moves very easily. With the sangria and some great salsa music everyone had a fun time showing off their dance moves!

Thanks to teacher Fiona who turned up to show us some of her amazing salsa dance moves with Sandro!

What a perfect way to kick off a weekend with some cheese wine and funky jazz music. That is what the lucky students in Noosa had to look forward to for their Friday afternoon activity!!

With some lovely wines provided by Dan from Single Vineyards, the students were able to taste the quality reds that Australia has to offer. The Students all received scoring sheets and had to guess the region, year and grape variety. 

Well done to the two Swiss boys for having the most sophisticated palate, getting the highest score and winning a 6 pack of Coronas!!

This evening our wonderful Italian Pizza chef Carmine Torpedo and friend Luca are busy preparing Pizza bases.

Tomorrow’s activity will be Pizza making with Shades wine bar kindly letting us use their ovens. Can’t wait.

Meanwhile, the boys are busy in the student kitchen hand mixing the dough and drinking some Australian Pinot as they work. Thank you Carmine and Luca.

As the Irish tradition has it, the students who wore green received a Guinness on arrival and those who didn’t received a cup of nothing

 The afternoon began with some green food and drinks and some lovely Irish music playing in the background. The afternoon kicked off with the traditional Irish game ‘throw a potato in the Irish hat’. The winner went to Carlos with his accurate and steady throws!

Next up was the traditional Irish dancing, which was judged by one of the teachers. The rules were if you’re tapped on the shoulder, it meant you have been dismissed from the competition and your moves just weren’t good enough. The finals came down to Davide and Carlos with Davide using some moves he had saved up to win the final.

The last game was the ‘find the grape in the jelly’ where students could only use their mouths to grab the grape from the jelly followed by finding the green m&m in the flour. I think Alicia has played this game before, within 10 seconds she had found both and was the overall winner.

Thank you to everyone who came and celebrated St Patrick’s Day, it was a fantastic afternoon!

The students had an opportunity today to show off their tennis skills and among them were a few Federers and Sharapovas. With a doubles competition round robin, we had five full courts with continuous games from the Chiyoda students and the General English students. The finals came down to Luca and Dennis VS Mami and Leo. With Mami being a tennis coach in Japan, there were a lot of points gained from her aces. In the end it was a close match but Mami and Leo were the winners of a gift voucher from Pardons fruit shop. Well done!!!

With a few students nursing a sore head today, yoga this afternoon wasn’t every bodies cup of tea. The fluid power routine was a great way to get the blood flow and feeling great for the weekend. I think the students enjoyed Savasana (relaxation pose) the most!

Today, Lexis Noosa students were able to try some of Australia’s finest and worst wines available. The blind tasting allowed the students to sample some of the wine and score their favourite by appearance, aroma and taste. The wines ranged from $5 – $20 and the students had to guess the year and location in order to win their favourite wine.

These students have quite a palate with most guessing the worst and the best from the selection.  A cheese plate was also provided as an accompaniment to the wine. In the end, there were five students who achieved the highest score and were placed into the draw to win their favourite wine. The most favoured wine chosen by almost all the students was the Dandelion Shiraz from the Barossa. Congratulations to Andrea whose name was pulled out of the draw winning this spectacular wine!

This afternoon the students took part in a surf/body boarding session at Noosa Main Beach. The conditions were prefect, with a light off-shore wind blowing and surf around 1-2ft. Some students brought their own board while others hired them at the beach. The theory session was quick, demonstrating the three step phase of surfing. Once the students practiced that a few times they where eager to get out and get some waves. Most of the students were soon standing up and having a great time. I hope you all enjoyed this afternoon. I am looking forward to Surf Sports 3 next month

We set off today in search of a rare sighting of a Koala in the wild. With a koala spotted on the previous day we thought our stakes were high to see one today. Unfortunately we were out of luck today, but still enjoyed a lovely walk to Tea Tree and Granite Bay.

On a Friday afternoon, there is no better way to spend it than a BBQ on the river. With beautiful surrounds the students enjoyed a sausage sizzle, cricket and soccer. What a great start to the weekend.

It was a typical summer’s day here today in Noosa and the students was looking forward to a game of beach cricket and a refreshing swim in the ocean. We battled the school holiday crowds to find a small corner of the beach unoccupied by beach goers. With a quick explanation of the rules of cricket the game was underway.  The Kindai boys didn’t mind giving the ball a good wack into the crowd for a six. There were plenty of classic catches and good laughs to be had before the heat took control and everyone needed a swim. Down between the flags the student enjoyed cooling off in the beautiful clear waters of Noosa.

We had a large show of students to the start of the season soccer training session. There was some great talent and some surprising skills from the Kindai students. We have selected Francesco (aka Totti/Del Piero) as our captain. Field positions will be released on the activity board next week. Look forward to another session next Thursday @ 3pm to get us ready for the game against the Sunshine Coast on the 31st January.

Noosa National Park is one of Australia’s favourite and is the easiest to access by foot from local areas including the Lexis English college. It is loved by locals and tourists alike with a possibility of spotting a Koala in the wild. It is also a habitat for Kookaburras, Goannas and had a range of vegetation that stimulates the senses including the Pandanus and Banksia plants.

There were a large group of students that left for the National Park walk yesterday, some with Swiss alps experience in walking, others with the wrong footwear including heels. The pace was set and the eyes of each individual were on lookout for some wildlife. We did spot some kookaburras laughing on the old gum trees but unfortunately were not lucky enough to spot a Koala. We did however arrive at some beautiful bays where the view is to die for including Granite and Tea Tree Bay. Although a long walk was endured with students asking “are we there yet, are we there yet” every five minutes, you can not get a better scenic walk with Australia bush and wildlife then the one here in Noosa.

It was a large turn out to activities today with the new Kindai students coming to learn English all the way from Japan. It was nice to see everyone mingling and having a great time.

What a great competition of Volleyball! With 4 teams of 10 there was a mix of all cultures in each team. First off we had Team 1 (Team Swasia) who defeated Team 4 (Team Totti). It was a very close match with the scores neck to neck throughout the match. Then Team 2 (The Defenders) easily defended team 3 (The Begginers) in straight points. Team Totti played the beginners for 3rd place and won, while Team Swasia met The Defenders in the final. Even when the rain began to drop there was nothing stopping these teams for playing it out for the win! It was a great challenge from both sides with some strong defence and solid spikes, but Team Swasia was just too good and took out the win. Well done to all that participated, it was nice to see such a great team effort!

“Yoga began with the first person wanting to be healthy and happy all the time”-Sri Swami Satchidananda

Yoga today at Lexis allowed the students to bring calmness and easy to the body and mind, and practice their Surya Namaskara (Sun Salutation). With a lovely ambiance the students worked well in moving through the poses with one student even demonstrating that it wasnt his first time doing yoga with his impressive head stands.  What a wonderful way to end the week and I look forward to our next session!

Its 35 degrees outside and i couldn’t think of a better way to cool down then in the lovely ocean at Noosa Main beach. Surf sports is all about teaching the students surf awareness and making them feel more confident in the ocean. We started with learning about how to identify rips, currents, ocean stingers, and what to do if you find yourself in trouble in the water. We then jumped in the water and did some body boarding and body surfing.

Kenji was the standout with his professional body surfing style, although afterwards i did find out he is actually a lifesaver back in Japan! Some of the girls were also starting to get a hang of the body surfing and body boarding. Keep practicing and you can only get better.

I hope you all enjoyed yourselves, and look forward to session two of surf sports next month with hopefully a little less people in the water!!!!

See you all in the ocean:)

Today’s activity had students participating in a intense and passionate game of beach soccer on Noosa’s Main Beach. Considering the heat wave we experienced, there was a good turn out of players and spectators for today’s match, with the classic “Shirts” verse “No shirts” team mentality going on. While  the students showed Matt just how seriously they take their football (soccer), Ange was busy organizing and preparing the celebratory BBQ for the students, which included bulk sausages and bread with beer and of course some sneaky cask wine! All in all, it was a fantastic way to end the activities for the year, but don’t forget to be at school on Friday for the end of year Christmas party in the Common Room! 

This afternoon we held our monthly table tennis competition. The competition was elite.  Both Hoon and Joseph dropped out in the early stages after seeing the high calibre of players having some great rallies and spin shots. Matt once again was all talk and was eliminated after the second round. Ange was knocked out earlier by the new up and coming pro, Nath. There was a strong performance early on by Chris who made it through to the finals unbeaten to met Nath. It was back to back in the finals, both players making superb shots and long rallies but in the end Chris was the higher performer. Congrats Chris on the win, and enjoy the wine!!

It was great to see a large turn our for Phil’s amazing water colours class today. He is a fantastic artist and used his skills to create a classroom full of potential Picasso’s, who all seemed eager to give water colouring a crack.