The Runaway Bunny: No Bad Days - Everything is Kapai

What a great week it has been here in Aotearoa. The other day, I was talking with Nicole and we realized that neither of us can think of a single bad day we've had since coming to New Zealand. We were joking about how bad days must not exist in this country, but then I was really thinking about it later in the week. I realized that there have definitely been days where I could have had a bad day. However, the attitude I've had while I've been here has made every day a good one, even when not-so-great things happen. I've been using the work "kapai" to describe my attitude - it's Maori for good and my associate teacher at Ranui uses it all the time when kids are doing well. I really like it. I've also decided that I want to learn to speak Maori. I don't know when I'd ever be able to use it once I'm home, but I love learning the Maori words and I'm actually getting really good at pronouncing them.

Maori word for Love
Note: I wrote this with my toe. Don't act like you're not impressed.

Tuesday was exactly 1 week after the earthquake hit Christchurch, and Prime Minister John Key asked that the entire country wear Canterbury colors (red and black) and have a moment of silence in honor of those who were affected by that quake. So at lunchtime, our entire school gathered in front of the classrooms and we all took off our hats. One of the teachers who speaks Maori said a prayer in Maori and then we all joined together in a Maori song. At 12:51 pm, the time the earthquake hit last week, we all had a moment of silence together. I was so impressed by the respect shown by these young children. They were so well behaved and you could tell they were really feeling for those who were affected. They truly understood the impact this earthquake was having on their country and they showed so much respect for them. It was truly touching, and I'm not gonna lie--I definitely teared up quite a bit. It was incredible.

Tuesday night I attempted Mom's toffee cheesecake (I was pretty nervous about it, because there were SO many ingredients that I had to use NZ replacements for because they were impossible to find here). But it ended up being a lot easier than expected, and it turned out to be YUM AS. Whitney told me she was dreaming about it because it was so good. When Emi had some we were asking her what her favorite dessert is and she said "I like cheesecake now!" Haha. And I brought a piece to school on Wednesday to share with some of the other teachers. They were super impressed. They liked it much better than NZ cheesecake (with good reason...NZ cheesecake is very different). But all in all, it was definitely a success. I promised all the girls that I would make it for them sometime because they were all drooling when I told them about it.

(I would put a picture of the cheesecake here, but I was too busy eating it to take a picture...)

Wednesday I had my first observation in my practicum and it went super well! I really like Dr. Jacobs and I got some good suggestions from him on how to improve my teaching. I'm really loving my class so much. They are just the greatest! Here are some pictures I took during an art activity we did on Wednesday afternoon.

Alex, Gardenia, and Remedy putting together
fruit buckets for all the classes

Bill and Blessing

Alex and Kairyn being silly (as always)

Ronnie and Malachi

Remedy and Kaya

Victoria and Eliezer (with Malachi lurking in the background)

Thursday was a fantastic day. I spent the entire day at West Wave pool at our swim competition against 8 other schools in the West Auckland area. Before I tell you about the day, let me give you a little background... In New Zealand, schools are ranked from Decile 1-10 based on the socio-economic status of the students. Ranui (the school I work at) is a Decile 2 school (aka, it is super ghetto). Every other school that competes in this competition is of a higher decile (ranging between 3 and 9). Most of those schools that are of higher deciles have swim teams made up of kids that swim on club swim teams and have done so for years. So the last few years, we have not placed very well. Last year we came in 7th out of 9 schools in the competition. But on Thursday, our kids were doing really well all day. I was very impressed with how they were swimming, and a lot of them were placing in events I didn't think they would be placing in. It was exciting! Finally, at the end of the day, they announced the points of each school...and our school came in second! How amazing is that?? The only school that beat us--Oratia Primary School--is a decile 9 school that has never been beat. I think their kids are on steroids. But it was such a great day. I was so excited to see these kids' faces light up when they realized how well they'd done. They definitely deserved it. They've been working hard. I was so proud of them!

After school, we got picked up by James and we met up with the rest of the group and drove out to Hot Water Beach. On the way there, we stopped in Pokeno at this ice cream place that has 42 flavours (including pineapple chocolate chip, which was delicious). But the real kicker was that you can get 11 scoops! They had pictures of the ice cream stacked up so high. I don't know how you could ever eat 11 scoops of ice cream. That is seriously ridiculous.

When we got to Hot Water Beach it was about 10pm and it was super dark outside so we couldn't really see what the area looked like. But we got settled into the 2 houses we had rented out for the weekend and my house decided to play some games. It was pretty fun, until we realized that our house was under attack. There were literally thousands of crickets surrounding our house and getting in through one door that we didn't know was open like a half inch. It was crazy! I have never seen so many bugs in my life. It was disgusting. When we were finally ready to go to bed, Nicole and I went into our room to get ready and when we pulled back the sheets, there were crickets in our bed!!! We stayed up for about an hour and half killing bugs and trying to spray our room so no more would come in. It was terrifying and needless to say...we didn't sleep very well that night.

(I would put a picture of the cricket plague here, but I was too busy killing them to take a picture)

Friday morning we woke up and got our togs (swimsuits) on. We had breakfast and then we walked outside. When we got there, we realized that our house was literally a 1 minute walk away from the beach! It was just across the street! It was absolutely gorgeous and the waves were really good. Then, I noticed there was little surf shop that hired surfboards and I decided I had to go out and catch some waves for a little bit. Unfortunately, the surf shop wasn't open yet. So I went into the dairy next door and asked them if they knew when the shop would open. They told me they didn't know, but that if I needed to hire a board, they had one I could use for as long as I wanted for $20. Best deal ever! So we paid the $20 and got this 9 foot blue surfboard. It was a lot of fun taking it out in the water! I used it for a little bit, and then I helped Nancy and Nicole catch their first waves ever, which was quite an experience for all of us. Haha. But it was a ton of fun! The water felt fantastic and the waves were beautiful.

Becca, Katie, Neeley, Nicole, Me, and Nancy!

After we returned the board, we went back to the beach and helped the other girls dig a hot tub in the sand! There are natural hot springs under the sand at Hot Water Beach (hence the name) and if you dig in the sand, you can create your own hot tub right there in the sand! It is awesome! So we sat in the hot tub for a little while before walking back to the house for lunch. The rest of the day, we just relaxed and walked around the beach and laid out in the sun. It was a lovely, relaxing day. Just what I needed.

Digging the hole and building the wall
for our hot tub

Jess, Me, and Nicole

Just relaxing after a rough day at the beach :P

That evening, we played some more games, watched 500 Days of Summer on tv, and then had a little adventure down at the beach in the dark. It was seriously the darkest night ever--no stars, no moon, just pitch blackness. It was really cool though!

Just us girls on our little adventure...

Saturday morning we checked out of our lovely beach houses and drove out to Cathedral Cove. It was super rainy and when we got there, we found out that because of some recent rock slides they've been having, the cove was closed. We were a little disappointed, but we still got to hike down the mud to some pretty bays that lead up to Cathedral Cove. It was beautiful!

All the girls in the rain at the top of the trail to Cathedral Cove

Nicole and Me trying to keep dry (and failing miserably)

this was the little cove we went to

On our way home, we stopped at James' house in South Auckland where his friend came to show us his greenstone and bone carvings that he could get us a really good deal on. So I ordered myself a really pretty greenstone necklace. I can't wait to get it!

Monday evening we had a picnic at Bethells Beach! It was seriously gorgeous! I loved every minute of it :)