Jan 10, 2011

Kia ora! I am feeling so good about life in New Zealand right now even with hours of homework. Things are going so well with my host family. Cooper and his friend Jason played monopoly deal with Nancy and I today and it was really fun. We got KFC for dinner and it was cool to see how excited Cooper got because it is a treat to get fast food. I had a really hard time staying awake in class and almost nodded off many times. In classes today, we discussed guided reading in the upper grades which I am a little nervous about teaching. We discussed paradoxes during assessment. I find it funny how there is a paradox to everything in life. Knowing that makes life interesting though especially when two people get think oppositely about the same thing. I really enjoyed one of our homework assignments for assessments. It focused on teaching and perspectives. Teachers need to recognize that each person/ student has a different perspective and different experiences. Knowing this and knowing that you increase your knowledge and who you are by taking risks and making impossibilities possible really makes you reflect on learning and life. It reminds me so much of my multicultural class from last semester. The most important thing in the reading though that I feel all people should realize and think about is that the most important things in life cannot be taught. They need to be personally discovered and experienced. My shoes broke today during class, so I walked to the Pack’n save thinking I was going to buy new shoes and to get some snack foods. I am really missing my American candy and gum. Dr. Jacobs ended up offering to take me home so I didn’t have to walk home barefoot. I ended up not buying new flip flops partly because he offered me a ride home and also because it was eight dollars for flip flops that were worth maybe a dollar in the states. Everything is so much more expensive here. I worked on homework most of the night. It is actually pretty intense trying to do a whole semester course in a week. I like how I can get them done in a week though and how I get a New Zealand perspective even with reading and their words centre, programme, and learnt being different. It just widens my learning horizons even more. 

January 9, 2011

Today was Nancy and my first experience at church in New Zealand. We are in the Henderson Valley Ward. I really like the ward. The people are so nice and welcoming and all of the adults greeted us with a kiss on the cheek. There were more YSA in the ward today than there in my family’s ward back home. All of the YSA members were really nice. Nancy and I got to know Leonie and Taylor pretty well. Taylor said he would take us bowling and to the beach sometime. I do hope he does because that would be fun. I am so glad that Nancy and I are making friends in the ward and meeting people that live in New Zealand. It is funny when you think about some things here like how we won’t get to see the CES fireside until a week after it happens in the states, how the relief society is 6 months behinds in their lessons compared to the states, and how TV shows are a few seasons behind. I really don’t know why that is. I am excited to go the fireside though and meet more YSAs. There are at least 2 other big YSA activity this month that I am hoping to go to. Some of the youth and YSA in the ward were at EFY today so they weren’t there this week. It is weird how their summer is in January and that is when they have EFY. It would be cool to see through or hear some of their experiences with it and compare it to EFY in the states.  After church Nancy and I helped make lunch and did the dishes after lunch. Sister Jones, one of Paea’s friends from the ward joined us for lunch. After lunch, Nancy and I went with Paea to ward choir practice. I really liked going to church in New Zealand today and am so excited to meet more people in the ward and make friends. Later in the afternoon, Nancy and I went for a walk in the park and took a bunch of pictures.  I think we were both kinda homesick today since we haven’t had the opportunity to talk to our families yet. We wondered through the entire park taking pictures of the bush (rainforest) and finding even more shortcuts. It was such a gorgeous Sunday. Nancy and I decided we want to do this every Sunday we can. It is so relaxing to just go on a walk , I think that is why I love doing it so much and why I even do it most Sundays back home. While walking down one path a little island boy started following us. He was about two and as cute as can be. We had to take his hands and walk him back to his mom. There was a group of boys playing soccer in the park and I wanted to go over and join them so bad. Nancy and I walked up by the primary (elementary) school we will be teaching at Henderson South that we can also get through from our park. I love have this huge park with the bush in my backyard.  

It is a dream come true, just like being here is a dream come true. Whoever said you can’t make your dreams come true is so wrong because mine are coming truer and truer each day I wake up in the paradise of New Zealand. While walking in the park Nancy and I kept thinking of things here that remind us of our homes. For me the green trees, humidity, gorgeous summer weather, and hospitality of the people all remind me so much of home and the South.

  

Orewa Beach

January 8, 2011 


Kia ora from New Zealand. I hope everything is great back in the states. I am loving being in New Zealand. It is like living in paradise because it is so gorgeous. This morning I left with the other girls in the group and Dr. Jacobs to go to Orewa Beach. I love the beach and am so glad we have been here less than week and already get to enjoy the beach. The beach was more gorgeous than any of the beaches I have been to before and the sand was black and much smoother. The water was cool but felt so good. I learned how to boogie board and body surf. It was so much fun. I want to teach my brother how to do it when I get home. Myself and some of the other girls also had a mud/sand fight and took lots of fun pictures together. I put so much sunscreen on, I think maybe too much, but I am so glad I did not get sun burned like most of the other girls. Nancy, Neeley, Kara, Allie, James who was one of the guys who drove us to the beach, Dr. Jacobs and I went to get ice cream while we were there. I got passion flavored which was way good. I also tried ginger beer, which is like our ginger ale, but way better. I loved spending the whole day at the beach James said he would take all of us girls on his boat to Watakee Island sometime if we want, which I think would be so much fun. On the way home the car I was riding in drove through Auckland and we got to go over Harbor Bridge, see the harbor and the sky tower. I t was really pretty. I am so glad I got to see it. I am so blessed to be in New Zealand right now and I am trying to make the most of each day I have here. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here. After the beach a bunch of us girls got together at Neeley and Nicole’s host home and played card games and social games. It was really fun and good to just chill with the girls. Their family gave Nancy and I got a ride home so we didn’t have to walk back in the dark, which was really nice of them.

  

             

January 7, 2011

This morning Nancy and I tried to catch a bus to class, but the bus never came so our host mom was kind enough to drive us. Class was long, but good. It is hard to sit in the same place from 8-3:30 and stay focused, but I can do anything for 17 days. I only have to take classes for 17 days including finals. It is so fantastic. I had literature and assessment classes today. The literature class was basically a review from what we learned last semester and then I was also taught about the New Zealand approaches to literacy, which I like more because there is more of a balance between whole language and phonics. Our professor also taught us that our brain is always looking for patterns and connections to make, which makes so much sense. I do it all the time, but usually don’t think about it that way. She also taught us that text is never neutral, which is so true all text is written by someone so no matter how they try to make it neutral, it will always have perspective in it. I really like the way Dr. Jacobs is teaching our assessments class. He really makes you think and is trying to help us grasp the bigger picture of teaching. We discussed the meanings of education, assessment, and motivation during class. I really enjoyed the homework assignment we were given to read about faith and fear. I did not know it then, but this assignment was exactly what I needed to read. I need to live more by faith than fear than I have been lately and it was a really good article. This article was exactly what I needed to make my experience in New Zealand more worthwhile than it already is. After class Nancy and I went to the mall and got our first ice cream in New Zealand. It was really good and way creamy. I still think the ice cream in London is better though.

We walked home from the mall using a short cut through the park which took just over half an hour. It has been so hard since I got here to live without internet and we will not get it until the earliest Tuesday. I hate not having a way to talk to people, especially my family. 

January 6, 2011

Today was our first day of BYU classes, which we have at one of the churches near all of us. One of our professors from New Zealand taught us all about New Zealand and let us try some New Zealand food. We tried kumera, which is their sweet potato. It is much sweeter than ours in the states. We also tried L&P soda, golden kiwis, marmite which is like peanut butter but it tastes nothing like our peanut butter and meat pie.

 It was all really good. We also learned some Maori songs and traditions. It was so fun to learn some of the songs and dances. Their music is just so pretty.  Each time they start to sing a song they start with toru wha which means 3, 4. I like it much more than in the states, the Maori language is just so fascinating to me and I hope to learn more. During class we also played a Maori stick game called te rakau, which was really fun. It uses rhythms and song. I really want to teach to others when I come home. For the traditions we learned about how we will be welcomed into the schools through a Powhiri where the will be a welcome, speeches, songs, a hongi, and refreshments. A hongi is the way Maori people greet each other by toughing each other’s noses. We practiced this which was a first hard to do without giggling, but I really like it.

Today we also learned about the curriculum in New Zealand schools and how they are divided up into primary and secondary schools. It was so fun to learn so much about New Zealand and to be with the other girls. After class we went to a park with some of the other girls. We played on a small four person teeter totter and then met some boys who started to teach us how to play rugby. The people here are just so nice and welcoming even more so than hospitality in the South. Nancy and I then walked home though the park near our house. Shortly after getting home, we got ready to go to Zumba with our host mom. It was way fun and the first time I had ever been to a zumba class. Right before the zumba class Nancy and I met and sang for some kids from the ward that stooped by. They were so cute and sweet and said they would teach us to play netball sometime. After zumba we came back and had dinner. The people here eat so much more than I am used to and so much more meat, but it is all good food. After dinner our host mom taught Nancy and I how to twirl poi balls. It was a little tricky, but cool to learn. I want to learn to make them so I can take some back home and continue to practice.

January 5, 2011

I arrived in New Zealand today after two long plane rides. The plane from ATL to LA was five hours and I spent a good bit of it talking to a guy who went to BYU and had been to New Zealand years ago, writing missionary latters, and sleeping. Once I got to the LA airport I had to take a train to Air New Zealand check-in and wait two hours to check in. I met up with the 15 other girls in the group in the LA airport and we were all so excited to see each other and go to New Zealand. The plane ride to New Zealand was 14 hours long and even though we got free movies, most of us slept the most of the way.

We were fed dinner and breakfast on the plane that was really good and the fruit was some of the freshest I have ever tasted. I was so excited when we landed in New Zealand, but it was a weird feeling at the same time. Going through customs was easier than I expected. My host family met Nancy and I at the airport to take us home. Nancy and I are staying with Paea and her son Cooper in Waitakere just west of Auckland.

 

Once Nancy and I arrived at the house, we unpacked and then Paea dropped us at the mall gave us directions and told us to find our way home. It caught both Nancy and I by surprise. We do not know our way New Zealand. We just got here, crazy . We didn’t even have a way to contact someone if we got lost, so Nancy and I were pretty nervous to say the least. We walked around the mall some and then went looking for the library. We found the library without too much trouble and emailed our families since our host home did not have internet yet. After that Nancy and I tried to find our way home. It took us about an hour to walk home and we never went off the beaten path to get back to the house, so that was good. Once Nancy and I got home, we went outside to read our scriptures and journal since it was such a gorgeous day. The weather is so gorgeous here, it is like nowhere else in the world, but all the green trees and landscapes remind me of Savannah, GA but with some mountains too. It is absolutely breathtaking.  I loved going to the park near our house and walking around too. The park is huge and gorgeous with lots of soccer fields, volleyball nets, a stream, walking paths, the bush ( a temperate rainforest), etc. It can get us just about everywhere and has several shortcuts.  Paea showed us some of the shortcuts and places around where we live. We live in such a gorgeous area and I love having a huge park right by the house.

  

January 3rd

Today is the day!! So long GA and USA. New Zealand hear I come. I hope nothing too exciting happens back home tomorrow. I don't get a January 4th this year since I am crossing the International date line. so weird.