Another Week in Paradise

Ok, so let me start by sharing some pictures from my fish and chips adventure from last week with you.

Me posing with the greasiest meal of my life

Whitney with the so-called hot dog

Me with the amazing view of Auckland City in the Background

One day, we came home from school to find Beau and his babysitter Emily. But Beau had the most hilarious facial hair. It was quite a sight. And Beau kept reassuring us that it was him under all that hair. "Hey guys, it's really just me." He's great.

Emily and Beau

Ok. Now to tell you about my week. On Monday, we started our Math Methods class. We had that class all day every day until Thursday, and I loved it! I know what you're thinking...who could love 8 hours of math for 4 days straight? Well, I could. And so could you if you had the math class we had. Haha. It was basically 4 days of art projects and playing games. It was legit. But the most awesome thing we did was make tapa cloths (a traditional Maori cloth used for quilts or mats). It was really cool! First, we made our tapa design on grid paper. Then, we transferred that design onto a big sheet of brown butcher paper. Then, we went over everything in permanent black marker and colored in all the spots we wanted to be black. After that, we crinkled the paper up into a little ball to give it an old wrinkled look. We ironed the back of it so it would be flat, but it still had that old look to it. Then we took brown dye and dyed the entire sheet of paper (and also our hands in the process). After the dye was done drying, we took a q-tip and some bleach and bleached out all the spots we wanted to be white. They looked so awesome at the end! Here's my finished product:

Pretty impressive, huh? Don't worry though, this all related to math. It wasn't just for kicks and giggles. After we did this project, we had a discussion of how it related to math and other subjects. It was pretty awesome how we could take such a fun and awesome project, and relate it to math (because of the geometry, measuring, reflection, rotation, and symmetry involved), science (because of the chemical reaction of the bleach to dye the white spots), and social studies (because of the relation to traditional Maori culture). Definitely something I'd like to do in my own class one day. And this is just one of the many many ideas she gave us for math lessons. She loaded all of us up with a flash drive full of folders and documents of math lesson resources. It was awesome!
On Monday night it rained, so our group FHE BBQ with all the girls and their host families had to be canceled. Luckily, Julie's family was having a potluck too, so we still had a fun night. We got to go over to Julie's sister's house (which is really close here in Waitakere) and meet a bunch of her family. It was a lot of fun, and we had pavlova again for dessert (but it was store-bought and didn't taste half as good as Julie's homemade pavlova).
Tuesday evening we got to go to a fireside at the Sunset chapel (only like 20 minutes or so from here--but it kinda looks like a bomb shelter. haha). It was so awesome! Elder Andersen was the main speaker, but we got to hear from Elder and Sister Costa, and Elder Andersen's wife too. It was an amazing fireside. Elder Andersen talked about the importance of trusting in the Lord and remembering that although things don't always go the way we want them too, the Lord knows what's best for us. It was a great night! When we got home, Julie had made us banana pancakes with ice cream and maple syrup on top for dessert! Whitney and I felt like we were in that scene in Elf when Will Ferrell puts syrup on everything. But it was pretty delicious.
Wednesday after school, Nicole, Neeley, Whitney, and I decided we needed to take a little trip to the mall to check it out. So we looked up the bus schedule and found out how to get there and made our way over to the bus stop. We were just around the corner from the bus stop when we saw the bus we needed pass by us. We tried to wave it down, but that didn't happen. So we sat at the bus stop for another half hour waiting for the next bus to come. It wasn't bad though, gave us some bonding time. First kiss stories always make for good bonding time. Haha. Once the bus finally came, we hopped on and headed to the mall. Here are a few discoveries I made at the mall:
Discovery 1: they don't have regular escalators--they have escalator ramps. And they are a little hard to keep your balance on. haha.
Discovery 2: they have suuuper cute clothes and they are fairly inexpensive. I came pretty close to buying a pair of $15 shoes that I'd been wanting, but I bought 2 dresses instead (pictures to come...when I wear them sometime).
Discovery 3: a tube of mascara that would cost $6 at home costs $22 here (granted that's only $17.08 when you factor in the exchange rate. but it's still ridiculous)
Discovery 4: the ENTIRE mall closes at 6pm! except on Thurs. and Fri. when it's open til 9pm. That was a pretty depressing discovery because we didn't even get there until like 5:20ish so we didn't get much time to shop. We're definitely going to have to go back another day. And that day will definitely be a Thursday or Friday. Haha.
Thursday was pretty uneventful. We just went to classes and then came home and went to the grocery store with Julie. Actually, now that I think about it, our trip to the grocery store was very eventful. We brought Beau and Minnie (Julie's 6 year old granddaughter) with us as well, and it was pretty insane. I want to take a moment to apologize to my mom for my behavior at the grocery store as a child. If I was anything like those 2 were, I don't know how you did it mom. Props to you. Haha.
Friday evening we got to go to a "Milo-side" with the YSA in the area. Milo is a drink they have here (it's pretty similar to hot chocolate). But the funny thing was, they didn't even have any milo at the so-called milo-side. haha. It was still fun though. We danced for a while in the beginning and got to "mingle-jingle with the singles." Haha. Cheesy, I know. But we met some cool people and had a good time making fools of ourselves on the dance floor (as always). But they played a surprising amount of Justin Bieber. I was pleased. Haha. After the dance portion of the evening, there was a variety show. And let me just tell you, the YSA here have more talent in their little finger than I do in my whole body. These big huge gangster-looking guys got up to sing, and they didn't look like much, but when they sang, it was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. Every single song was incredible! It was a blessing just sitting there listening. I wish I had video so I could show you the amazing talent they all had, but you'll just have to take my word for it. It was incredible.
On Saturday, Whitney and I went with Jessica and Christine (and their host-mom Phyllis) to the Puhoi River for another kayaking excursion. We had a great time! It was rainy in the morning, so we dressed warm and brought a change of clothes. But the rain stopped just in time for us to get on the water. We started at the canoe hire, and went up the river about 1 km through the Puhoi Village. It was way cute! And the weather was perfect for us. It was cloudy, so we didn't get too hot, but it wasn't too cold. And the rain had stopped so we didn't even get wet. After going through the Puhoi Village, we came back down to the canoe hire, and went another 8 km down the river to the mouth where it meets up with the ocean. It was a beautiful ride, and I got a lot of great pictures. It was so peaceful though, just going along and looking at all the amazing nature there is here. It's so gorgeous! The whole time I was wishing that my mom was there, she would have loved it!

Me, Jess, Whit, Christine, and Phyllis--Gettin ready to head out!

Whitney, Christine, Jessica, and Me in our kayaks!

Me and Christine coming in at the end of the trip

After we got done kayaking, Phyllis took us to this cute little cafe in Puhoi Village called "The Art of Cheese Cafe." It was really small and cute, and they had a million different kinds of cheeses (I didn't try any of them. Surprised?) But lunch was delicious. Whitney and I couldn't decide on just one thing, so we each got something and split them. I got the chicken and mushroom pastie (pretty much a calzone stuffed with chicken, mushrooms, and spinach) and Whitney got a roast beef panini. They were both delicious. And we had vanilla chocolate cheesecake for dessert. That was also delicious, but it's different from the cheesecake I'm used to in America. It was a lot fluffier, but still good. I thoroughly enjoyed the meal. On the way home, Phyllis decided to take the scenic coastal route. I was pretty excited about that. We stopped off at Long Bay on the way home to see if we could find the YSA (because there was a YSA activity there today that we didn't go to) but we wandered around in the rain for like 20 minutes and didn't find them. But it was ok, because it was gorgeous there.

Beautiful view on the drive home

View of Orewa from a lookout point on the drive home

Some pretty shells on the beach at Long Bay

Long Bay--reminds me a little of PV cliffs

After a great day, we finally came home, and Julie had dinner just about ready for us. Mashed potatoes and gravy with beef, peas, and carrots. It was delicious. And after dinner, we made some really yummy lemon guacamole salsa for her to try (because their attempt at mexican food here is pathetic). Then we sat and chatted and watched youtube videos all evening. It was a ton of fun!
It has been another amazing week, and I've learned a lot. I learned from Elder Andersen's fireside that no life turns out exactly as we planned it to, but that we should "be not afraid, only believe" (Mark 5:36). I learned from Sister Andersen's talk that we are so blessed to have to the words of our prophets at our fingertips and I made the goal to read the entire Ensign every month. I learned from my kayaking trip that I'm so grateful to have my eternal family because no matter how amazing my experiences here in New Zealand are, I'm always wishing that I could share them with my family and friends.
I'm missing you all lots and hope you're all doing well. If I haven't skyped with you yet, we should set up a skype date, because I love skyping with people from home. Love you HEAPS! -Em