Fish and Chips Don't Go Well With Merry Go Rounds

Kia Ora!
So I decided that I'm probably just going to have time to blog about once a week so it's gonna be a looong post, but hopefully not boring. haha.
So on Monday we had quite an interesting day. First, we had the loongest day of school EVER! It seriously felt like it went on for days. But once we FINALLY finished our 8 hours of class, Whitney and I headed home. Julie and Beau were out of town for the day (they went to the Bay of Plenty to help her dad out) so Whit and I had the place to ourselves. We had some girls from our group over to eat our leftover Pavlova and we hung out with them for a little bit. After they left, we started working on our homework (somewhat reluctantly). Then, Natalia (from next door) came over to see if we wanted to go to dinner with her and the kids. So we quickly finished our homework and went with Natalia and the kids to Point Chev and we got fish and chips for the first time. Let me tell you, it was quite an experience. Natalia also insisted that we try the fried Mars bar, so she got us each one of those. I may not be the healthiest eater, but I don't think I have ever had a meal that unhealthy in my life. There was sooo much grease! It tasted good, but I don't think I will ever eat that again. After we ate, Bella wanted us to play on the playground with her. And in case you were ever planning on it... NEVER GO ON A MERRY GO ROUND AFTER EATING FISH AND CHIPS. It is the worst possible combination. Obvious, I know. But we made the mistake anyways. Haha. Whitney and I walked around the park a little bit, and you could see the skytower from there so we took some pictures too. It was really cool! It was nice getting to know Natalia and the kids a little better. They are so awesome! And I'm glad Bella isn't scared of us anymore. She's too cute.

Bella, Whitney and I all got matching pedicures!

Bella and Whitney!

Me and Bella. I LOVE this girl :)

Yesterday we had class, as usual, but it didn't drag quite as much as Monday's class did. It was a lot better. Probably because we got to do a reader's theater in our literacy class so we weren't just sitting in our chairs the whole time.

This is our lovely classroom...aka the cultural hall at the Universal Drive chapel

After we got home from school, Whitney and I worked on our copious amounts of homework and then went upstairs around 6 for tea (that's what we call dinner). Julie made 2 delicious pizzas--one mushroom and tomato and one pineapple. Whitney and I were so hungry, we both ate like 6 pieces. They were so good! Then we sat and chatted with Julie for a little while, which was a lot of fun. She is great.

Julie!!

Wednesday we just had class all day again. The weather was beautiful and I definitely got a little color at lunch. After school, Whitney and I did a Jillian Michaels DVD and I kind of died. Haha. I guess I'm more out of shape than I thought!
Thursday was a great day. First, let me tell you about one of the things we did in my literacy class that I thought was really cool. Our teacher was talking about how kids produce better writing when they have to write within boundaries because it gets them to think about different ways to say things. To demonstrate this, she gave us a little writing assignment. We had like 5 or 10 minutes to write about Antarctica without using the letter "A". At first, I was super frustrated with the assignment, but then once I got started it was actually pretty fun. Here's what I came up with:
It is very cold here on this snowy continent. The penguins love to slip, even slide down the long white hills. The sun glistens on the fresh snow-covered ground. I squint my eyes so I don't go blind. The white ground goes on forever. I don't see green, yellow, red, or blue--just lots of white. It's difficult to remember the colors I'm used to when I'm home. I miss the flower, I miss the trees, I miss home.
Pretty good, huh? Haha. It was a way cool activity. At least, I liked it. Definitely got me using my brain.
Anyways, after classes, we came home and had a super awesome party at our house! We invited all the girls and their host families over for a pizza/pasta party (and no, pizza/pasta wasn't my idea--although it sounds like something I'd suggest, doesn't it?) It was so much fun though, getting to meet everyone's host families and getting to hang out with the girls outside of school. We all are getting along so well so far (which is a miracle being that we are 16 girls--I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can stay relatively drama-free). But it was a really great party and we had some really delicious food. Although I did find out that the pepperoni here doesn't taste quite like the pepperoni at home which is a real shame. Haha. I do love pepperoni.

All 16 of us girls and Dr. Jacobs

Dr. Jacobs and his wife, Linda

Friday was our last day of our literacy and assessment classes! I almost feel guilty being done with them in just a week, but not that guilty. It's a great feeling. Haha. And next week we have math for 8 hours 4 days in a row so that's definitely going to be...interesting. Hahah. No, I love math so I'm actually kind of excited for that class. In assessment, Dr. J gave us all Magnum bars (they're kind of like the Dove ice cream bars that are just ice cream dipped in dark chocolate, but the ice cream is much better--and I don't even really like ice cream!) to illustrate a point about how you can describe what it's like to teach, but you never really know what it's like until you experience it. They were a pretty delicious experience though.
After class, we came home and hung out for a little while with Bella and Beau. Julie packed us a picnic tea and we invited some of the other girls to go with us and Natalia and the kids to have it up in the Waitakere Ranges. It was so beautiful! I can't even tell you how gorgeous it was, and the pictures don't do it justice, so you'll just have to take my word for it. It was amazing. I wish I could bring all of you here to experience it for yourselves, but that's not really an option so the pictures will have to do. Haha.
Julie also took us over to this hotel in the Waitakere Ranges that's way nice and way pretty. I decided that I'm going on my honeymoon there, so whoever I marry better be able to afford that. Haha. It's a prerequisite now.

The view from our picnic tea

SO BEAUTIFUL!

Jealous yet?

Bella!

The girls at the picnic. From the left: Janet, Whitney, Nicole, Diana, Me, and Neeley

me posing on a post!

Me and Nicole :)

Aren't I adorable?

Pretty flowers!

Me and Bella again. she is a doll

Saturday was an AWESOME day. We got up around 8 and had breakfast and packed our lunches. Then we headed down to the bus stop and 14 of us (everyone but Anna and Heidi because they had a prior engagement with their host family) took the bus into Auckland. From there, we took another bus that took us to Mission Bay. It was a little cloudier than expected at Mission Bay, so we walked one bay over--to Okahu Bay and it was much nicer there. At Okahu Bay, there was a place where we could rent kayaks and paddle boards so a bunch of us got those and took them out for a spin in the harbor for about an hour. It was so much fun! The water was perfect, and we had a lot of fun trading off between the kayaks and paddle boards. It was way cool. Mom--you have to try paddle boarding sometime. It's the best. And you would be great at it.
After we finished kayaking, we went to the beach and laid out for about an hour. It felt so wonderful, and we saw some...interesting people. I swear, the old men here are all super fit. Haha. We saw this guy that was definitely at least in his 70's and he was in a speedo, but he had a total 6 pack! It was hilarious. Once we felt we had enough sun, we caught the bus back into Auckland and walked up Queen St. to look at souvenirs. There were some way awesome souvenirs--you're all in for a treat when I get back. I didn't buy anything today, but I have some way good ideas of what to buy. I'm excited. Haha. After we walked around for a bit, we got back on the bus and came home. It was a wonderful day. And when we got home, Julie had left us a note telling us that our dinner was in the fridge and ready for us. She made her "kiwi-fied attempt at spaghetti and meatballs" (before we made it the other day, she had never had it!) and it was pretty dang good! Whitney and I ate waaay more than we should have, but it was good. Haha. Then we did some laundry (hanging it up outside makes me feel like pioneer. haha), did the dishes, and just relaxed the rest of the evening.

Nicole, Neeley, Diana, and Me on the bus

Allison, Nicole, Christine, and Me at Mission Bay

The view of some island from Mission Bay

The view of Auckland City from Okahu Bay

That's ME!

Look at me! I'm a winner

Nicole and Me jumping for joy at Okahu Bay

Nicole and Me and a lovely fat woman

Scandalous!

A way pretty fountain at Mission Bay

Me, Neeley, and Janet (how uncharacteristic of me to make this face...)

Today (Sunday), we went to church and I had my first week teaching singing time! It was actually a lot of fun! The primary is a lot bigger than it was last week, I guess most of the kids were on holiday last week but there were a lot of kids there today. They are super cute, and they were pretty well behaved. But it wasn't as scary as I thought! Haha. After church, we came home and had pasta for afternoon tea that Julie had made for us. It was pretty delicious. Then right as we were finishing, Sylvana Talamaivo (Neeley and Nicole's Mum), called us and asked if we were coming over for lunch too. I guess Julie had forgotten that we were going to go over there, so she came and picked us up and we had another lunch with them. It was pretty good. We had some way good chicken, hash browns, chop suey on white rice, and salad. And then for dessert she gave us Hokey Pokey ice cream and then these coconut sweet rolls that her son-in-law's mum made for us. They were pretty dang good. Tasted kinda like a Hawaiian sweet roll with coconut frosting. I enjoyed it. Then we sat and played go-fish with the bishop's son Lucas who is 6 and three quarters. He's way cute.
While we were sitting there, one of the YSA guys in our ward called and talked to Sylvana and invited us all to a stake-wide YSA FHE at the stake YSA parent's house in Hobsonville (about 10 min away from Henderson). So Natalia dropped us off there, and we got to meet a bunch of the YSA from our stake. They are super nice, and there are a lot of activities coming up so we'll probably get to know them pretty well! Daniel (the guy from our ward) gave us a ride home, and he is way cool. He's from Zimbabwe and his family moved here about 8 or 9 years ago. He's studying law at the University of Auckland. It was fun getting to know some people our age and playing games and everything. And the area authority whose house we were at knew where Torrance was! I was pretty impressed. Haha.
So that was my week, hope you enjoyed reading this super long blog post. Look forward to hearing from you guys! Love and miss you all!

Delicious Pavlova and My First Day of Church

Last night Julie made us a really yummy dessert called Pavlova. It's super popular here in New Zealand and it was waaay good. After we ate, Whitney and I went over to the Talamaivo's house (where Neeley and Nicole are staying) and met up with them and some of the other girls to play games for a little bit. That was a lot of fun! We got a little crazy and bonded a lot. Haha. The Talamaivo's daughter Natalia is our next door neighbor and she and her family were over there too so they gave us a ride home (which was great because that way we didn't have to walk home and get eaten alive by bugs).

a close-up of our delicious pavlova!

YUM!

Today we went to our ward for the first time. It was so awesome! It's such a great feeling being at church, because even though so much is different being in a totally different country, being at church feels like being home. There was such a wonderful spirit in our ward and such a strong sense of family between the members. Everyone was really welcoming, and the bishop met with all of us (there are 6 of us BYU girls in the ward) after sacrament meeting to get to know us a little better. He is super nice and friendly. And also WAY young! He's got to be in his early 30s. And he has 3 adorable little kids, Lucas (6), Taatiana (4), and Allison is the baby. He wasted no time putting us to work. Haha. We all got callings and Whitney and Diana were assigned to speak next week. I'm going to be the primary chorister so I get to plan singing time for the whole primary every week! It is going to be a lot of work, but I'm really excited about it. And Natalia, my neighbor, is the primary president. It will be great working with her.
I'm really excited to get involved with the ward and the YSA activities in the area. It is going to be so awesome getting this experience!

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!

Kia Ora!

I MADE IT!
I can't even tell you how excited I am to be updating my blog right now. Haha.
So I'll tell you about my last couple days.
My flight was ridiculously long. But not as uncomfortable as I expected. I had an aisle seat and there was no one in the seat next to me and then my friend Anna was in the seat next to the empty one so we had a lot of space. That was nice. Air New Zealand is awesome, and their safety instruction video is pretty much hilarious. I never watch those things, but theirs was so awesome. It had all these famous rugby players and stuff and we were all laughing the whole time. The plane was ginormous and they gave us lots of food and kept coming by to ask if we wanted wine or coffee or tea. It was pretty awesome. And we had our own personal tv screens with like 70 movies to choose from and a bunch of tv shows and stuff. But I didn't really want to watch anything. I was so tired. So I attempted to get some sleep (and I got a few minutes here and there) and then ended up just doing ken kens the rest of the time.

NZ Money. Sorry I forgot to rotate it. I'm too lazy to re-upload it after it's uploaded.

We FINALLY got into Auckland around 9am their time (12 noon LA time) and were met at the airport by Dr. Jacobs and all the families we are staying with. Whitney and I met up with Julie and Beau and packed our luggage into her car and drove home (on the LEFT side of the road). The whole road situation is still kind of freaking me out. I have a little bit of a hard time crossing the street, but that's ok. I'll learn. And then when I get home in April I'll have to relearn how to cross the street. haha. But it's so awesome here.
Once we got to the house Whitney and I unpacked everything, got settled in our rooms, and took some much needed showers. Then we went for a walk to see where the chapel is that we have class at.

The chapel where we have classes

A cute little house we saw in the distance on our walk

Whitney and Me on our walk through the jungle

Whitney and My swollen white feet/ankles. Give it a week and I'll be dark again!

We called Neeley and Nicole (2 other girls from our program) and went on a walk with them and I bought some toothpaste for 5 dollars. Haha.
We basically just hung out the rest of the day, getting settled in, getting to know Julie and Beau and trying to stay awake until 9pm so we wouldn't throw off our sleep schedule. Then we finally got to go to sleep at 9 and it felt AMAZING to sleep in a bed and not on a plane. And Whitney and I decided to start a tradition while we're here and every night we're each going to say one thing we're thankful for and why. We're cute, I know.

Whitney and my room :)

Our back deck

The lounge/kitchenette

 This morning we woke up at about 630 and showered, had some delicious NZ cereal and headed off to class. Classes today were good. We just had an intro to NZ and the NZ school system. It was really interesting, and Carol (our teacher) gave us a lot of food to try. We tried golden kiwis, meat pies (with tomato sauce--which is their equivalent of ketchup), kumara (which is similar to a sweet potato, but way better), milo (which is like hot chocolate), and this lemon soda called L&P. Those were all pretty good, but then we also tried marmite, which is waaay weird. It's really similar to vegemite apparently, but I'm definitely not a fan. Haha.
At class today, we also learned a couple Maori songs, the New Zealand National Anthem, and some dance moves for one of the songs. Haha. We looked pretty awesome, I'm sure. I've been trying to learn the accent, but it hasn't been working very well. I sound kinda dumb. Haha. We also learned how to hongi (which is the Maori greeting where you touch your noses together. It's really...interesting...to say the least. But apparently it's something we'll have to do in the schools and possibly at church too. So better get used to it. Haha.
After school, Neeley, Nicole, Nancy, Hannah, Whitney, and I went back to our house and then walked down to the park on our street. It was less of a park, and more of a just a field behind a high school (or college as they call it here). There were a bunch of Samoan guys there sitting and talking and we went and talked to them to see if they knew any cool things for us to do while we're here. It was really funny though because they freaked out when they heard us talk and they were like "hey, are you from america???" and they told us we had sexy accents which I thought was funny because, clearly we don't have accents...THEY DO! haha. But they taught us how to throw a rugby ball which was pretty fun and exciting. They were super awkward though because they were like 18 and when they found out we were 20-22 they were super surprised. 

Most of our group after classes today. From the left--Anna, Me, Heidi, Whitney, Janet, Diana, Katie, Rebecca, Nancy, Hannah, Neeley, Nicole, Christine, and Jessica

Nancy, Hannah, Nicole, and Me on this weird 4 person see-saw at the park

Sorry this was the longest blog post in the history of the world, but I had a lot to say. I promise I won't be so obnoxiously wordy in the future.

More About My Homestay!

So I heard back from Jules and she is awesome! I'm already so in love with her and her family. She has 8 kids, but because most of them are older, there will only be 1 living at home while I am there. It will just be Jules, Beau (her 9-year-old son), Whitney, and me. I'm so excited! It's going to be so much fun. Jules' home is about a 30 minute walk from the school we'll be at and according to googlemaps, it's not too far from the beach either! She was excited to hear that I love the beach and play guitar because those are two of her favorite things too. It looks like I'm in for quite an amazing experience, and I get to start in less than three weeks now! I'm getting more excited every day!

Here's a map to give you an idea of where the house is.

 

View Larger Map

Homestay Assignments

So I got my homestay assignment from the program today. I'll be living with a woman named Julie Ngawaka and teaching at Ranui Primary School in Auckland. I emailed her so as soon as I get more information, I'll be sure to post it here. But I did google the school, and although they have no website, I did find out that it's like 3 miles from the beach. I'll embed the map here so you can get a feel for where it is and stuff. Less than a month now until I get to New Zealand! I am BEYOND excited.

View Larger Map

Shotover Jet

This is one of the activities we're going to do as a group when we're in Queenstown in February. SO AWESOME!!!