Last Day of School!

This past week was a whirlwind of events. It started though, with the last day of school at Colwill Primary. I miss them so much already!

It was just a regular day and we did our regular routine, but I’ve never felt like such a celebrity before in my life. Ok, maybe during prom pictures, but I’ve never been mobbed by such a large group of people before. All my students knew it was my last day and they went all out just for me. During social sciences in the morning they spent the time passing around a giant card for me and then ones for Miss Whittaker, Miss Swenson, and Miss Taylor (aka Kirsten, Emily, and Brooke). When my card looked like it had too many names and messages they started another one, just to make sure I’d be able to read it all.

I got a number of cards from my students and a variety of different gifts! One girl gave me two rings and a list of New Zealand restaurants and lollies. They were all so sweet. My favorite part of the day was when I went into the staff room for morning tea. I promised my class that I’d come out as soon as I’d finished eating so I shoveled my food down as fast as I could. As soon as I stepped out the door I was mobbed by a crowd of students all wanting hugs and pictures and piggy back rides! It was so funny! The same thing happened when the other girls came out as well. We spent all of morning tea taking pictures and striking different poses. Like I said, I’ve never been so popular in my life. 

After morning tea we went back to our regular routine, but Mrs. Chase had set time aside for me to take a few class pictures with our students. 

When we’d all come back inside I thought it might be a good time to give them my gifts from the States. I’d brought them some LaffyTaffy’s and some Fireballs. I’d also brought over a kids book on the United States and some pencil grippers. They were really excited about them…even though they weren’t all sure what they were. I had to explain to a few of them what to do with the pencil gripper. Then a couple of the girls in my class asked if the Fireballs were sour. I told them no…they weren’t sour. Ever since I’d come up with the idea of bringing Fireballs for my students I’d been really excited to see their reactions to tasting them. Those candies used to make me cry when I was little. My class did not disappoint! It was so funny to see their eyes start watering and them holding the half eaten candy in their hands! Then I felt really awesome because I was able to keep mine in my mouth the entire time. (A feat that was very difficult for me when I was little.)

Later that day I was given more gifts, chocolate bars, notes, and even earrings and a necklace! Not only that but my class put together, all by themselves, a shared lunch for all of us! They brought in cakes and cookies and chips for everyone to share on my last day.

At the very end of the day I had a couple fo students walk home with us to the park near our house. We took even more pictures at the park and some of my students tried to teach us how to dougie. I’m hopeless. They’re awesome though!

Right when I was about to go inside and start getting ready for the movie that night Denise and Paora asked if I could wait another ten seconds. They ran behind a bush and came back with a half eaten candy bar. They said “This is for you miss. Sorry some it’s gone…we’d gotten a little hungry.” It was so funny! I loved it! I couldn’t have asked for anything more suiting.

I’m going to miss them so much! They were the best class I could have asked for! I can’t help but feel like they were the best simply because they were mine. It’s crazy how fast those six weeks with them flew by. It’s weird to think that they’re still going to be going to school when I’m gone and that next year they might even get another BYU teacher in my place. I hope they don’t forget about me now that I’m gone. A lot of them ask me about the BYU girls from last year and I’m always so jealous that they still love and remember them! I can only hope that they’ll still remember me that same way when this time of year rolls around again. 

Kiwi Kids are Rockin It

Today we had a whole school assembly. I was so excited because I thought I had missed the last one when I'd gone sailing last week and I was really happy to discover that I was wrong! I would have missed my last opportunity to hear our students sing their national anthem. It is so pretty. We have school assemblies every other week where we talk about new school issues, give out awards, and sing songs. I love it and I'm so glad I was able to go to one more!  This is my school singing the New Zealand national anthem.

They called the American teachers up today to help hand out the awards and when I sat back down my students told me that all four of us looked like teenagers. They also wanted to know why we all had our toenails painted and why I wore skirts everyday. Good to know that they notice all these little things, right? At least they pay attention to what I wear if not what I say. Haha.

At a couple of the past school assemblies the students all stand and dance to a song that the teachers blast on the stereo. My favorite song is Kiwi Kids. I spent a lot of time practicing so that I could sing it at the next assembly and guess what we did NOT sing this time! It's alright though, I think that I'm going to bring this song back to the States. Even though we're not Kiwi's. (Which by the way! The other day a couple of my students told me that I dress like an American, but that I don't have much of an American accent. I asked if that meant I sounded like a Kiwi and they flat out said "no" without even the slightest bit of hesitation. I wonder what exactly that makes me then? ha.)

I can't believe that I've only got 2 days left in the schools. Time goes by so fast! I am going to miss them all so much. I feel like I've just barely started to get to know them all! It's not fair that I haven to leave them right when I'm finally finding out who they are.

What makes me so sad is that I was hoping to make a real difference to some of them and I feel like I haven't done very much. I don't know what to do or if I stayed longer if it would change anything. It's just a bittersweet feeling knowing that it will all end soon. Tomorrow is officially my last day and I've gotten a few things for the kids, but I wish I could give them more. I should've brought more stuff from the States! Haha, if I had any idea how cool a simple composition notebook is to them I would've done something about it and brought some more along. I guess I'll have to make do with what I did bring. I'll let you all know later how tomorrow goes!

I visited another classroom and we worked together to make wakas.

Our wakas!

Here's my class painting their volcanoes they've been working on!

And as a little side note...THE HUNGER GAMES IS TOMORROW NIGHT!!! Brooke and I finally finished our shirts! Now we just have to wait til tomorrow night to wear them :) :)

Trampolines, Painted Shirts and Dancing in the Rain

This past weekend was our last free weekend to do whatever we so desired. Once again, it’s weird to say “last” because it doesn't feel like I should be going home in three weeks. In spite of how sad I am to even really start thinking about leaving, I do miss my family. And I know that my mom loves to shop. So in honor of my mom I went shopping all day Friday!

Originally all Brooke really wanted was a bathing suit and I wanted a clock. But we just got sucked in, you know? We walked past a store at the mall that we’d seen some things that we’d liked a couple weeks before and, miracle of miracles, this time they were on sale! So one thing leads to another and next thing you know we’re stopping in every store we see. We even took the bus back to another shopping center with this really cool store of homemade New Zealand crafts. At the end of the day Brooke never found her bathing suit. She did find a very cute skirt though. And I know you were all wondering. Yes, I found my clock.

We arrived home just in time to fix dinner, but were surprised to hear a phone message letting us know about a YSA dance that night. So after dinner Phyllis graciously drove us over to the Pilling’s home where the dance was to take place. Sister Pilling had asked in her message if we could arrive a little early to help set everything up. Perhaps they gave up on us coming because everything was set up by the time we arrived and we were there close to 45 minutes early. It was alright though because Brooke and I arrived just as the sun was setting and it was an incredible view from their back porch. They live in a beautiful area and have a huge yard! And you’re not going to believe this, but they have…not 2, not 3…but 4 trampolines! How cool is that?

We sat on their couch and chatted with the DJ as he set up all his equipment. After an hour or so we began to get worried that no one was going to show up. But around 9 (about an hour after the dance was to start) people slowly started to trickle in. It was so fun once everyone showed up! Apparently it’s coolest to arrive two hours late for events like this. Too bad Brooke and I completely missed that memo.

Once a large group had arrived we walked around and talked with everyone. We jumped on the trampoline a few times and talked some more. After a little while of standing around Brooke, Kirsten, Emily and I thought that maybe we should dance since the DJ was playing music and all. It was only us for a while. I started to think that maybe it wasn’t typical of people to actually dance at dance parties in New Zealand. Maybe that is something they only do in the States. It did take a while but eventually people started joining our circle and pretty soon there was a giant circle. (It’s good to know that the traditional Mormon-dance-circle is also universal…haha.) It was a lot of fun! It even started to rain and people just kept dancing. I guess it had completely poured at the last dance party and people were hoping that it just might happen again. It didn’t end up pouring, but it was just enough to get us a little wet.

 

After a while it got a little cold and the party started to die down. Most everyone stood around and mingled and it was fun getting to know everyone. Bronson was kind enough to drive all four of us home. Brooke and I laughed because it was probably the latest we’ve stayed out in a while! We were so tired.

The next morning started out really slow. It was wonderful. We didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything in particular. Believe it or not we actually went for another run. (I think we’re breaking records here!) We tried out a new route and it was even better than the one we’d tried before! Less uphill and more flat. Once we’d come back and gotten all ready we had to decide where to go. In the end and after a lot of looking online at various places and bus routes, we decided to just go up to Takapuna Beach for the day.

It was a little chillier than we had hoped for a beach day so we spent most of the time walking around the little shops. We had both completely forgotten that it was St. Patrick’s Day and happened to run into a huge party in a small pub that had attracted a big crowd. There was a lot of music and Irish dancers out front! They even had security guards keeping an eye on things. It was so cool to watch! And the music was so pretty. We were about to leave when they started playing Cotton Eyed Joe and we just had to stay to see the Irish version of that.

We eventually found ourselves on the beach. In spite of the cold, windy weather we couldn’t stay away. The tide was so high! We hadn’t ever seen it so close to the wall and the waves were pretty big for a little beach. 

We took a couple pictures and then walked until we ran into the little ice cream stand we’d eaten at on my birthday. We decided to share a double scoop, but didn’t plan it out very well. Our differing tastes got the better of us and we ended up with passion fruit mixed with honeycomb chocolate. I don’t know if I’d recommend that combination to anyone. They were great separate though!

As we were slowly making our way back to the buses we stopped by a playground with the coolest tree I’ve ever seen. Naturally, we had to take some pictures:

We came home to a little surprise. Phyllis had ordered pizza for the night! She ordered three! For just the three of us! It was wonderful. It tasted very American.

After dinner Brooke and I decided it was about time that we painted those steal-of-a-deal shirts we bought last weekend at The Warehouse. They’re still a working progress, but we’ll have perfected them by this Thursday, don’t worry.

That means only 3 more days until the Hunger Games!!!! I am so excited!!!!

A Pirate's Life for Me

This past week at school I had the coolest opportunity to go sailing with a small group of students! It wasn’t at all what I thought it would be. I mean, after growing up in Annapolis I’d say I’m fairly familiar with sailboats. I thought we’d be enjoying a nice leisurely afternoon sitting on the deck of a fancy sail boat while the kids learned the basic mechanics of how it worked.

How wrong I was. 

Yes, all those little boats fit into this truck. The boat I imagined was BIGGER than this truck!

Our little sailors and their instructor

The sailboats that the students learned how to sail were only big enough for about two students to fit inside at one time. They had to learn how to maintain their balance so that the little boats were not tipping too far in one direction.

We learned all about the three different parts to these little boats. There’s the rudder, which is used for steering, the centerboard which keeps it upright and straight in the water and the boom. The boom happens to be my personal favorite. It’s the long horizontal pole that the sail is attached to that shifts whenever the wind blows. Sometimes people aren’t expecting it and then BOOM! They’re hit in the head. That’s why it’s called the boom.

There weren’t enough of the small sailboats for Brooke and I so we got to ride on the raft with the instructor. It was a lot of fun watching as the kids got used to steering and the adjusting of the sails so that they could turn. One of my favorite parts was seeing how excited they were when we rode by in the motorized raft and made waves for them. They loved rocking the boat.

 At the very end of the day our instructor, Paul, brought out the water guns he’d been stashing away in his raft the entire time. He tossed one out to each of the tiny sail boats and we got to weave in and out of them as the kids tried to hit us with water. This was the point at which I decided it might be best if I put my camera away. Some of those kids have pretty good aim. I got a mouthful quite a few times. I would have been soaked if it hadn't been for my awesome sailing jacket. 

We had to reel them all back in at the end of the day!

It was so fun and I loved it! I wish we did more things like that in the states! The funny thing is that it also made me realize how much I’m going to miss my class. I went with a different class because not very many students from my class opted to go. Right before we left I couldn’t believe how much I actually wanted to skip the field trip and stay with my students. I even surprised myself. I think it’s really just getting to me that I’ve only got one more week with them and that’s it. It’s all gone by incredibly fast.