Really, it's just another day in paradise

Where to begin? First off, I’m finished with classes! Done! Just the practicum left! (and my online CPSE class). Can I just say that this is the best feeling ever? I have to admit, I do feel a little bit guilty. You know, kind of like I don’t deserve a break yet. But I’m not going to let that stop me. Having school for eight hours everyday is hard! I don’t know how I used to do it. We finished both social studies and science this week. I can’t say that I liked them better than math but they were still a lot of fun.

We did an experiment in science to see how many of us could be supported on a table with only balloons beneath it. We started out small...

And eventually our entire class of 10 girls fit onto a table with roughly ten balloons beneath it!

We were given Thursday for science to teach a scientific principle to our groups through exploration. My group based our theme on physical and chemical changes. And what demonstrates physical and chemical change better than food? I taught my lesson on physical change and the different states of matter using popsicles. Brooke taught chemical change using pizza. Amanda taught physical change by bringing in cream and having us shake it up into homemade butter. (Which we salted and put on French bread and it was delicious. I’m thinking I should make all my butter that way.) Kirsten taught chemical change by making cookies. The best part was that the oven in the church building didn’t work so we ended up “exploring transfer of heat” (as Prof. Milne says) instead. We used tinfoil and the oven racks to build our own oven on top of a burner. We also discovered that cookie dough tastes pretty good when cooked in the microwave for 45 seconds.

We left to go camping on Friday afternoon. It was a three hour drive to the Coromandel Peninsula where we camped on the beach. It was the same beach where they filmed the second Narnia movie. It was beautiful! It makes me wonder if the people living here ever get used to seeing such breathtaking views. I don’t know if it’s something I could ever get over. Half the trip included us driving up a tall mountain on a very windy road. A lot of us got car sick. It didn’t ruin the scenery though.

For breakfast on Saturday Joseph and his family (the family that took us camping) decided to cook up some sea urchins. Who knew you could even eat those things? Apparently they are very good for you too. Some of the girls woke up at the crack of dawn to go diving for fish and sea urchins. They were kind enough to share their lovely finds with the rest of us. I almost didn't do it...but you just have to do these things when you're in a foreign country. I ate a sea urchin tongue. It was disgusting. It felt like slimy chalk coated in layers of salt. I have way too good of a gag reflex. I almost lost everything else I'd eaten that morning. Haha. It was quite the experience.

When we went to the beach on Saturday I felt like I’d stepped into a postcard. I had trouble remembering that it was January and there I was lying on a beach. It was gorgeous! We spent the majority of the day swimming, kayaking and learning to surf. I didn’t get a chance to try the surfboards but I will eventually. Kayaking was so fun! It really worked my arms. Not just from paddling, but also from carrying those things from the car to the beach. I’m feeling it. I might even be able to do three pull-ups when I get home this time.

Unfortunately for me the sun got the better of me. No matter where I am now I constantly hear Sarah’s voice in my head telling me to put on more sunscreen and to do it at least an hour before I actually get in the water. She’ll be happy to know that even though she’s in Argentina her consistent nagging will always be with me. Haha. I put sunscreen on before the beach and reapplied five different times throughout the day and STILL got burned! Apparently I’d forgotten to spread it over the entire back of my leg…I don’t know how that happened. Hopefully it’ll fade in the next couple of days but for now I’m walking with a little bit of a waddle.

We’re heading off to the South Island in about six and a half hours. A taxi comes to pick us up at 5 am so we can make our flight! The first thing we’re doing after we get to our hotel is to ride in something called “The Shotover Jet”. If you want to know what that looks like you can click this little link here.

I am so excited…I can’t wait! Unfortunately, I won’t be bringing my computer along with me to the South Island so I’ll have to make mental notes of everything that I do. I don’t want to forget anything.

My day as a cowgirl

Oh man, what a week. I am now officially done with three of my BYU classes. We finished maths on Thursday and started Science and Social Studies on Friday. The last day of maths was by far my favorite. The purpose of the class was to design a Pasifika quilt square using translation, reflection and rotation.

We started by gridding a piece of paper and drawing out a rough sketch. After establishing our initial design we moved onto brown paper where we redrew our grid more accurately and measured out the shapes.

We went over the parts we wanted to be black in a permanent marker and colored them in. (You can imagine the smell!)

After we’d colored in all we wanted we crumpled it up into a small tight ball. We then smoothed it out again and ironed it.

Once it was flat again we dyed it with some sort of brown dye that made it look a lot older and helped the wrinkles pop out a little more.

After it dried we used bleached Q-tips to paint in the parts we wanted to be white. It turned out so cool! I am quite proud of myself.

When we put everyone’s creations together it looked like a giant paper quilt! I loved this idea. I’d like to do it in my own class someday.

In spite of how often Brooke and I ride the bus we still haven’t quite worked out everything that could go wrong. Everyday we push it a little more, getting to the bus stop just a little later each time. Unfortunately for us we waited a little too long one day and watched as the bus drove by at the top of the road! Luckily we live in a giant loop so if we make it to the last stop in the loop before the bus does we can still make it. This required running up a long hill. Am I a runner? No. I wish. Running to the top of our street with my giant backpack nearly killed me. Then we had to run to the top of the hill. We were so panicked because we know how fast the buses drive around that loop! It’s kind of like being on a roller coaster. Only you’re not strapped in. Well, the good news is that we made it. The bad news is that I messed up my hair and I couldn’t breathe by the time we did. Some guys were sitting in their car as we ran passed and they shouted some insincere sounding encouragement at us as we ran huffing and puffing by. It was so embarrassing. Our bus driver, who has gotten pretty used to seeing us in the mornings, started laughing when he saw us standing at the stop on top of the hill. I’m sure he knew exactly what had happened. I feel like the entertainment for everyone around here…haha.

I also found out that we have the opportunity to go camping with some of the YSA’s where part of Narnia was filmed. We’re going to leave next Friday after our last class and stay til around lunchtime on Sunday. Sadly, this means that we won’t get to teach our Sunday school class next Sunday.

On Friday night Phyllis took us to a little theater she knew about to see a movie she thought that Brooke and I might like. It was called The First Grader and turned out to be a really good movie! It got a little intense at some parts but overall I really liked it. It was about a Kenyan man who fought in their revolution for freedom, lost his family and never learned to read. When the new Kenyan government was established they promised free education to all. The man took this promise to heart and went to a primary school to learn how to read with the children. The movie is about the different struggles he faced and how he ended up succeeding. The theater we went to was so cute! Our theater room fit about fifteen people and we all sat in very comfy armchairs. Phyllis even bought us some ice cream!

Yesterday we took our time getting ready and actually slept in! You forget how much you love sleeping in when you wake up early every day to catch the bus at the crack of dawn. Luckily it’s already light over here when we wake up. Unfortunately I am incapable of sleeping in past 8am. It’s like I’ve somehow trained myself to wake up when light enters the room. Still, 8 beats 6!

All whole group of twenty minus three girls caught the bus and rode down to a horse ranch to go horseback riding! The only time I’d ridden a horse before had been for fifteen minutes on a beach and it had scared me then, too. We were taking the horses for a full hour through the hills and valleys of this ranch. You never really think about how big horses are until someone asks you to get on one. They are quite large. How people just hop onto them without a little stool I’m not sure. The horse that they gave me to ride was named Pippin (like from Lord of the Rings). When I mentioned that to the girl working there she said that this horse had actually been in Narnia! Apparently he’s played a horse that died sometime in the movie because he knew how to play dead. I asked if he’d try to do that while I was riding him because the thought of it made me a little nervous. That made her laugh.

So this is what I learned about horses:

To go forward you: dig in your heels to it’s side

To go left: pull the reigns left

To go right: pull the reigns right

To stop: pull back on the reigns

To keep from falling off when they start trotting: hold on tight

The views were beautiful! It felt unreal being there because it looked like something you’d only see in movies. I realized, looking out at the hills, that I’d never before seen rolling hills like that. They actually looked like waves, smooth and perfectly green. It was incredible to see them contrasted against the blue sky.

It turns out that people were right about the New Zealand sun. It is very intense. I managed to get quite the farmers tan during that one hour. The back of my neck took the very brunt of it because I failed to put sunblock there of all places. Not only did the burn really start this morning but I also woke up with my whole body aching! No wonder cowboys walk so funny. If one hour on a horse makes it so I don’t want to move around, I can only imagine what an entire day would do! It was very worth it though.

Church today was wonderful. I love Sundays! Brooke and I went to the YSA class today and let Kirsten and Emily teach the 12-13 year olds instead. It was a really cool experience. The class was fairly small so it reminded me of home. At the end the teacher asked if anyone would like to give the lesson next week. No one looked too excited…haha. After class Brooke and I told her that we wouldn’t be there for the next three weeks but that we’d love to teach sometime. She seemed so excited that we were up for it! I can’t wait to teach either. I’m not used to teaching anyone older than 5^th grade, but hopefully it won’t be too difficult. Relief Society was again my favorite. Elyse, Kirsten and Emily’s homestay sister, taught the lesson on prayer and why it is such a precious gift in our lives. A lot of the sisters shared stories about how simple, small and seemingly insignificant prayers were answered. It reconfirmed to me even more that the small and simple things realy do matter so much more than we often give them credit for. They reiterated the point that if it’s important to us, it becomes important to our Heavenly Father. Oftentimes the things that are most important can seem so ordinary that I tend to take them for granted.

I’ve been thinking about this video a lot and I really, really love it. I think it sort of ties into today and what not. So if you have time to watch it…

Moments that Matter Most

Well, I think that just about sums everything up. It’s getting a little late and I’m going to go to bed.

Only one more week of school and then we travel to the South Island! I can’t wait!

You make me happy when skies are grey...

I finally got some sun!

After two weeks of being here the sun finally stayed out for a full day! It was beautiful! Of course it just so happened so happened to be the one day I decide to wear longer pants and not sandals…but shoes. I mean, what are the odds? In spite of it my inappropriate attire, we all laid out in the grass during lunch time and turned just a little pink. My first New Zealand sunburn! :)

My maths (yes, it's supposed to be plural) class has been so fun. We started on Monday and to be honest I’m a little sad that tomorrow is our last day. Our teacher, Helen, told us to bring grungy clothes because we’re going to be using paint and dye!

Ok, so kind of funny. We were sitting at the corner bakery Monday morning waiting to head down to the church building and just talking about something over the weekend when this woman sitting at a table near us asks us if we’re BYU girls. I was really surprised as to how she could just pull something like that out of the blue and she starts by explaining that she could tell we were American because of our accents. I’m still trying to figure out how out of all the schools in the United States she could tell we were from BYU. I went over our conversation and thought if we’d mentioned anything about it, I checked my shorts length…maybe that was the give away. Haha, then she asked us our names and said “I’m Helen”. Unfortunately at the time that didn’t mean anything to me so I simply said it was nice to me her. It was only until we were walking away that Brooke explained to me that she was going to be our math teacher! That’s how she guessed so accurately.

She’s been so great! She makes me laugh all the time. We end up doing some of the strangest things in her class. I can’t imagine what anyone would think if they walked by and looked in through the window. In one of our activities Helen came around with a camera and took pictures of us. She was laughing so much…I’m suspecting that she made us crawl around on the floor and blow a rubberband purely for her own amusement.

Some of the other things we’ve done have been:

Tracing our feet six times, cutting them out and seeing if we are perfectly proportional. (If we were the feet should match up with our height.)

Playing a very strategic game of Connect Four. It's really a mix between Connect Four and Bingo that involves a lot of basic math and strategy. Mikaela and I decided to call it Stratingo...haha.

Playing “Name that Card” with face cards

Dinosaur Caves dot game

Apparently if you wrap a string twice around your big thumb it should fit exactly around your wrist. It worked! Mikaela and I tied ourselves together after that.

Measuring out a giant and drawing him/her on the sidewalk, using only his hand length to create proportions

Making “lolly” bundles of ten for Mr. Wonka

Figuring out how many presents you’d get from your true love if you’d really gotten all those things for the Twelve Days of Christmas (See if you can figure that one out...)

Learning to write upside-down

She’s also taught us where in the heck a “foot” came from. And why it’s called a ruler. And where we got the inch. I’m still a little unsure of where they got that name though. It’s a little ironic that I had to learn about that from someone who uses the metric system.

Here's a little picture of our table on a typical day of maths:

Phyllis, Brooke and I have been having a good time together as well. We had our whole FHE group over for dinner on Monday and it was a lot of fun. Phyllis seemed very excited! We prepared the dinner with her and set it up on a round table out on the patio. We had chicken, peas, pumpkin, potatoes, kumara (which is like a sweet potato) and gravy. It was all very good. Although…I’m not actually a huge fan of the kumara. Last night Phyllis mixed all the leftovers together into a very creative dish with apricots and what not. Hot fruit is not my favorite. I’m getting a lot better at eating things that I don’t particularly like. I haven’t yet found anything that I absolutely dislike. FHE turned out to be a good experience. Ramona’s husband gave the spiritual thought and then we all sat around and talked for a long time. We played a little bit of Uno too.

On Sunday we finally got to go to our own ward and it was so good to be able to be in church again. This is my first time going to church in another country and it has really made me realize that we are a part of something so big! The Gospel isn’t just in the United States…it’s worldwide. There are people on the other side of the world that think and feel just the way I do about the church. It’s so nice to see that it’s the same no matter where you go. We were given the opportunity to teach the 12-13 year old Sunday class. It was different that what any of us were used to because we’ve only done practicums with first graders and our minds are so geared towards younger kids. We taught a lesson on Agency and the Power to Choose. I wish that we had been more prepared because the message of that lesson is such a good one. We’re going to be teaching that same class for the next two weeks so hopefully we’ll be able to plan a lesson that they’ll remember. It might be the teacher in me, but after we left I was already planning ways to try and get them to participate a little more the next time. Relief Society was my favorite. A sister that doesn’t normally teach gave the lesson and she did a wonderful job. We learned from the manual about charity and service and about doing small acts of kindness for your neighbor. She gave us a lot of her own real life examples and then handed out pieces of paper to all of us. We were supposed to write our name on the piece of paper, fold it and hand it back. She then redistributed them and we were given a name that was not our own. We were asked to write something we admired about that person, whether we knew them very well or not. It turned out that I actually got the name of one of the mother of our friends’ host family. Afterwards she collected them again. The lesson really left an impact on me. My favorite quote was “You cannot drive people to do things which are right, but you can love them into doing them, if your example is of such a character that they can see you mean what you say.” It’s my new goal. I want to be like that.

I’ve already been here two weeks and it all has seemed so surreal! It’s weird being here after planning for so long. I know it sounds a little cliché but every day really is a new adventure for me. I’ve done so many things I’ve never even had the opportunity to do before and seen so many incredible sights. Seeing how beautiful this place is in the radiant sunshine of today gave me a new perspective. Things look different in the sun. I just can’t believe how lucky I am to be here. As always, I’m excited to see what tomorrow brings.

As a side note…I finished the first book in the Hunger Games series. Sooo good! (I can’t wait until the movie comes out! I’m going to include the trailer that I’ve now watched 323243789498 times.)

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