Orewa Beach

Hello again!
Our classes started yesterday, and they seem like they're going to be pretty good. Our literacy class was in the morning from 8-1130. Carol Anderton is our teacher, and she is great. She is a member of the church and lives here in Waitakere (which is basically just West Auckland. There are suburbs within it--I'm living in Henderson and teaching school in Ranui). Anyways, class was really good. We did a review of what we learned in our literacy class last semester (for the early elementary grades) and talked about why it's important to read to kids. Then we got some practice reading to the group. I read a book to everyone called "The Beastly Feast." It was very cute. Then we had our lunch, and in the 20 minutes we were sitting outside eating I got a tanline on my feet from my Toms! It looks a bit ridiculous. Haha.
After lunch we had our assessment and management class. That class will definitely be interesting. Dr. Jacobs (our director) is teaching the class. But yesterday we basically just talked about the definition of education and the the definition of assessment and it was very philosophical and somewhat frustrating because he made us feel kind of stupid... haha. But it was good and I think that will be a very interesting class.
After school, Whitney, Neeley, Nicole and I walked up to the Pak N Save on the corner. I LOVE PAK N SAVE! It's a lot like Costco. They have everything! It's pretty sweet. But I got some much needed sunscreen, nail polish remover, and a water bottle. Oh and you have to pay for bags at all the stores here, which I found a little weird. But ya, we didn't get bags. We're not high-rollers like that.
When we got home, Whit and I just did some homework and had Cottage Pie for dinner (ground beef and onions with mashed potatoes and cheese on top. it was pretty dang good!) We had a little adventure trying to figure out how to work the oven, but we got it all worked out in the end. Haha.
Then we threw in a load of laundry and had a nice cup of Milo (similar to hot chocolate) with Julie. We also did a Tim Tam Slam with VANILLA tim tams (way good). It was a great evening!

View of the sunset off our upstairs deck

Today we went to Orewa Beach, which is just about 30 minutes from where we're living here in Waitakere. It was beautiful! We had a great time swimming, boogie boarding, body surfing, and getting tan!

Whitney and Me eating kiwis at the beach!

Whitney's Awesome Jumping Picture!

Me and Whit :)

All 16 of us! Aren't we cute??

Nicole, Janet, Whit, and Me doing the Can-Can

We also walked over to a little shop to have some lunch and I had a rice fritatta and chips (which are really fries). The fritatta was interesting. It had a lot of egg in it so I wasn't too crazy about it, but I ate it! And the fries were good, but the ketchup here isn't really ketchup so I just had them plain. And you'll all be very proud of me, because I still have yet to have a Coke here. Can you believe that? I was going to buy one at the shop today, but they were gonna charge me $4 for a little 20 oz bottle! Heck no. Haha. And Linda (Dr. Jacobs wife) said that the coke from the fountains here tastes way different. So I just opted for water.

 

Nicole, Diana, and Me eating our rice fritattas!

I hope you're all doing well! Love and miss you all!