* If you click on a picture, it appears larger and you can scroll through using the arrow keys on your keyboard.
Teaching:
Teaching:
We are now at the tail
end of term 4, week 8. Week 9 is my last week, and the children only have three
more days of school after that before they are out for the summer! My time here
is nearing an end and I am so sad to know I will be saying goodbye to all of
the wonderful new people I have met and to this amazing country!
Lead teaching has
gone fabulously and I really love it! At the beginning of the semester I was
dreading doing my “two weeks.” Just the sound of that was so intimidating to
me. By far the most difficult part was doing planning when I spend the entire
weekend doing fun things and going on trips. After doing some lead teaching
though, I am feeling pretty confident about this whole “teaching” thing. Of
course I know I still have a lot to learn –and always will- bit I feel more
like a teacher now than I ever have. It really is a fabulous feeling.
In class we made a
fun diorama showing the Sunlit Zone, Twilight Zone, and Midnight Zone in the
ocean, and some of the creatures that live in each zone. I haven’t taken a
picture of it to share on my blog, but I will shortly! It turned out looking
great. The children here know so much about the ocean. I am sure a large part
of that is because they ocean is so relevant to them.
Adventuring:
The weekend before
last, Heather and I did one last big trip together. We got a bus up to the Bay
of Islands, which is one of the northernmost points in New Zealand. That is especially
exciting because we will each, separately, be going to one of the southernmost
points in the South Island as well. We keep lucking out with hostels because we stayed in another one and it was so nice! There were four other girls staying in the same room with us, one who was Brazillain, two who were french, and we didn't really get to talk with the third.
We stayed in the Bay of Islands from Saturday morning until Monday afternoon. While we were there we saw a pod of baby dolphins! We also hiked around on a very beautiful part of the island, which sounds funny because really every part is beautiful!
Baby dolphins! A bunch of them!
I sure do miss her already!
A free piece of sushi! One was given to each of us by the
owner. Though I still don't know how I feel about him
deep-frying my sushi...
A double rainbow over the "Wee Toilet"
We also went on a tour where we were able to go the the northern tip of the North Island. It was fun because the bus we were in actually drove on the beach. One of the places where we stopped was the sand dunes. We used boogie boards to go down them. It was so exciting! Falling off was painful though (I would know. I did it!). The morning of the tour, we nearly missed our bus because there were two at two different spots. As we waited in line for the one we would have missed ours, but lucky for us there was a girl in front of us who mentioned that the other bus had been looking for two girls. She got to "one named Susa..." and Heather and I took off running, hot coffee in hand! I'm so happy we didn't miss our bus because our guide had to have been the best there is. He even sang us the New Zealand National Anthem. If you have never heard it, it is the most beautiful National Anthem I have ever heard.
Look at those bare feet!
The sand dunes! See those tiny specks... I mean people... at the top?
It took so much energy to climb up there! By the time I had gone
down three times, I was done. Falling also resulted in sore ribs
and shins for about a week after.
A new friend! She made the long trek up the sand dunes with
us as well! I'm proud because not many people actually
came to the top and tried it out!
Ice cream is always a must. Especially in a store that you
walk barefoot into! We are definitely not in America!
We spent out last morning there on the beach, kayaking, and exploring a small island that we got to by kayak. We had hoped to paddle board, but the man in charge had lost the keys. We were disappointed, but still had fun. I was even brave enough to bring my big camera in the kayak with me.
Quiet time is always a good thing, but even more so when
there is sand under your feet and the Pacific ocean in
front of your eyes.
I'm getting used to this whole "flat white" thing.
Who would have guessed that a cloudy morning would
make for such a perfect and beautiful time for kayaking.
All you had to do was reach down into the
ocean and you came up with a handful
of beautiful, tiny, intact shells!
I feel like I have two lives here; one is my Monday-Friday life as a
student teacher, and the other is my life from Friday night - Sunday where I
explore and adventure. And those two lives, while seemingly so separate from
one another, are even more separate from my life at home. It's incredibly fun
to have such amazing experiences as a traveler, as well as experiences as a
teacher.
I have noticed that by using some of the terms they use here, such as
jandles (flip flops), jumper, and togs, I have begun to recognize those as the
actual terms for the items. I went from thinking “Kiwis call flip flops
jandles, so call them jandles when you speak in NZ” to looking at the
jandles/flip flops and thinking “those are jandles.”
As much as I hate to admit it, there are a few things about home that have
been sounding quite good to me:
- Gherkin pickles (my favorite kind from Mark's)
- Mid's meat sauce
- Anne's white cheddar mac & cheese
- 8 O'Clock (original) coffee made in the Keurig in one of my big mugs with half & half
- my bed
- And of course I will be more than happy to be home and see my "baby" sister and the rest of my family (on December 30 or 31st... I forget).
Also, here is the like to the video Heather and I made for class, as well as one heather made when we went to Rotorua!
P.S.
I hope everyone enjoyed plenty of pumpkin pie, because boy did I miss it! Most people I have spoke to over here say that they don't like!
-
No comments:
Post a Comment