The kids make it all worth it :)

My experience in the schools so far has been quite different than I thought it would be. My mentor teacher is almost the complete opposite of me, and it's been kind of rough because I don't always agree with how she handles things. Today, however, I was pretty much in charge of "teaching" the whole day. I didn't know this until I got to school, but her class runs on very little planning, so it wasn't too hard to take it over. Even though she was still in the room, I loved being able to try things out "my way." Granted, it didn't always work as it should (these kids are used to very different management techniques), but, hey, you live and you learn.

Even though my expectations for my mentor teacher will most likely never be met, my students continue to exceed my expectations every day. They truly make it all worth it! And they make me laugh all the time. One girl was having a hard time remembering words correctly: When talking about the Christchurch earthquake, she said a lot of people had to "activate" their homes instead of "evacuate." Then a little later, she asked if she could go get a "book-tionary" to look up a word instead of a "dictionary." Oh, and they always ask me if I'm married. I've told them many times before, but every time I remind them that I'm not, they get a real kick out of deciding which one of the students I should marry. Apparently, in their little 6 year old minds, age doesn't matter. haha!

This little boy in front is one of my little Samoan boys. Unfortunately he is one of the worst behaved, but he is just so stinkin' cute. This isn't even a very good picture of him, but he was moving and unrecognizable in every other one I had!

These girls (yes, they're both girls) were so excited to tell me they were playing teacher. It was so cute to see them write the schedule up on the board and give points to students who were doing well. As a side note, I had a really embarrassing moment with the girl on the left because on the first day there were some students trying to convince me she was a boy and some trying to convince me she was a girl. I really had no idea, guessed that she was a boy, told Mrs. Eka, and all the teachers laughed as they told me that Laine and her sister just got big haircuts. Whoops! Too bad the uniform couldn't give me a hint!

This was the first picture I took of them eating lunch when only a few of them realized I had a camera in my hands...

...and this is the second picture when everyone realized I had a camera in my hands and everyone wanted to be front and center :)

Little Bit of Catch Up

Today was a great day to relax after a busy week. After church, I talked to Kerry and Sheryl for a while and I think I finally understand how the internet works now. It's not unlimited like we're used to; they are charged for however much data they use (how much they download). Before we came they were using 2-3 Gigabits of their 5 G plan per month...after we came, however, we used 9 G in January! Whoops! Luckily, they only have to pay $1 for every extra G, but still it was surprising to see how much internet we use.

Since it was a low-key day, I'll play a little catch up. Last night, we had a big celebration for the three girls who turned 21. Only Nicole, Nancy, and Anna have birthdays during the trip, and they all had them within a couple weeks in February. Nicole's host mom wanted to throw a surprise party for Nicole, and then expanded it to a party for all three. Anna and Nancy knew about it, but it was a big surprise for Nicole; she had no idea!

Turning 21 is apparently a big deal here in New Zealand. Everyone gets a key to the house because they are now old enough to come and go as they please. Well, people usually get keys much earlier than 21 these days, but it's still very symbolic to get a key. So, Nicole's host mom made frames with big paper keys in them for the three birthday girls. She was so thoughtful and showed us a traditional birthday party, including presents for the girls, party bags with candy and NZ keychains for the rest of us, and a mini speech about how wonderful each of the girls is. Then she whipped out this gigantic cake! maybe the biggest I've ever seen. They blew out the candles, and then we sang a big Happy Birthday. It was fun to celebrate the New Zealand way :)

Earlier this week, when we spent the evening with the Olson's, their four-year-old son, Vanz, did the haka for us. He did it with such intensity and power. Enjoy the video of it :) So cute!

Paradise in Piha

Where was I today? Paradise :) New Zealand is known for some incredible black sand beaches, and we finally got to experience them today! We were a little nervous going to Piha Beach, because everyone has reminded us a million times to "only swim between the flags!" Apparently, there is an unusually and extremely strong current and undertow at the west coast beaches. So much so that each of these beaches have lifeguards on duty all day every day to keep everyone safe in between the flags. Also so much so that they have a TV show every Monday night called, "Piha Rescue" with all the crazy rescues made by the lifeguards (successful and unsuccessful). Most of the rescues and most of the deaths have been tourist because they aren't used to the strong current/undertow and don't know what to do. We were trained on what to do if we got swept away, (don't fight it, just go along with it and put your hand up as high as you can so the lifeguards will come save you) but luckily we were all very safe and didn't need any rescues. Phew!

It truly was paradise :) This massive rock right on the shore is called Lion's Rock.

James took us all to a beautiful secluded cove at Piha Beach. It was absolutely beautiful. On the way there we found this hole in the rock. The tide was starting to come in, and huge waves started crashing right through this hole. It was sweet as!

To get to the cove we had to climb over all these huge rocks. Many of them were covered in these black things. When we took a closer look, we discovered that they were all tiny black clams! There were SO many!

This was on our way to the cove. The rocks on the left were the ones covered in the black clam shells. This was also the area where James scared us all a bit by telling us the tide was coming in and if we didn't hurry, this area would be covered in water and we wouldn't make it to the cove. Luckily, we made it there, and then there was a different hike back over the mountain on the left.

At the cove, the waves were crashing in and putting on a spectacular show for us! None of the pictures we got do it justice, but it was so beautiful.

The waves were bigger and more often than I have ever seen before!

We also climbed up as high as we could and found some incredible lookouts to experience tons of waves crashing up against these rocky mountains every few seconds. Amazing.

It was really cool because there was a kids surfing competition going on today! It took lots of time waiting to get the good waves, but we all loved it when they finally got some good ones to ride. I think it would be terrifying to let my children out there when so many people have died, but they said that they're locals and they've grown up in this water. I guess they know what they're doing!

Before leaving Piha, we hiked up Lion's Rock. It's not safe to go to the top, but there was a path to take us halfway and it was beautiful!

After Piha we went to Karekare Beach and actually swam this time. It was exhilerating to get in because the waves were HUGE! We really could feel the strong current...much stronger than I've ever felt it. Just before we left, James started picking up the dead jellyfish that were all over the beach. I've always thought they were poisonous or something, even if they're dead on the beach, but apparently not these ones. We had fun picking them and taking some cool jellyfish pictures (unfortunately they're on someone else's camera!)

Next we hiked to a beautiful waterfall in the middle of a jungle on one of the mountains right by the beach. It was incredible to see such a contrast in scenery. JJ told us a quote from some guy (I remember he was important, but I can't remember his name right now...) who said that we often get tired of seeing manmade creations over and over, but we never tire of seeing God's creations--they are always so magnificent. It is so true. The whole day was breathtaking, taking in so many of God's creations. I feel so blessed to be here in this beautiful country of New Zealand :)

Auckland: Coast to Coast

Today was a big day—Anna and I walked all the way from one coast to the other coast of Auckland! The city of Auckland stretches over an isthmus between the Waitemata Harbour of the Pacific Ocean and the Manukau Harbour of the Tasman Sea. We made our way from the east coast to the west coast in about 5 hours, with a lunch break at the top of Mount Eden, and a few other stops here and there. They suggest 4-6 hours, so we felt good about our leisurely 5.

Here I am at the very beginning: Waitemata Harbour. Coast #1.

This is the first big intersection we crossed, and we were surprised to see the pedestrians get their very own time to cross...any direction! You could go across the street on any side or just straight through the middle. Quite convenient, and quite a mad house when there are a lot of people crossing!

After walking through the city center, we made our way through the University of Auckland campus. It was fun walking through the campus because I think the semester was just starting up again and there were tons of students. After being around Primary School children, it was nice to be surrounded by students our own age!

The next stop was the Auckland Domain (domain=park). It was beautiful. So peaceful, and full of unique statues, trees, flowers, ponds, etc.

I realize this is probably not the best picture to put up because there's a blade of grass going through the middle of it, but the funny thing about this picture is my pose. I don't have a clue why I posed like this, but right after we left this pond, we saw a statue of a man doing this exact same pose. Very strange!

The next stop on our lovely walking tour was Mount Eden. We just went to the top of Mount Eden on Wednesday night for Anna's birthday, but it was neat to be able to walk up it instead of drive, and even nicer to see it in the daylight. The 360 degree view at the top is breathtaking. Auckland is a huge city, and you can see it expanding in all directions from the top. It was here at this dormant volcano, also known as Maungawhau, that we met our first friend of the day: Leon. Leon is from London, but travels all around the world. Not on business; all for pleasure. He works during the summer, and travels the rest of the year. Quite the life, eh?

This is taken from the very top of Mount Eden, looking down into the HUGE crater. At the bottom of the crater there are rocks forming either a 56 or a 95, depending on which side you look at it. I wonder what it stands for/who did it/how long has it been there, but unfortunately I think it's one of those mysteries I'll never find out. At the top of the photo, you can see the city center of Auckland. That tallest building is the Sky Tower.

Something about Mount Eden must have confused our map reading abilities, because we got a little lost both on the way to Mount Eden and our route away from Mount Eden. But actually, our confusion was probably more likely due to the fact that there are hardly any street signs! It is truly a struggle to figure out what street you're on or find the next street to turn onto. It has really made me grateful for the posting of street signs at every corner in the states. I wonder if the kiwis ever get confused because of their lack of street signs.

Once we found the right streets again, we made our way through Cornwall Park and One Tree Hill. Cornwall Park was picturesque. My favorite part was a pathway lined with these cool looking trees on either side.

This picture only shows the cool looking trees on one side, but aren't they cool? They are the perfect climbing trees because it's so easy to get started, and there's so many options of where to climb up!

On the way up and around One Tree Hill, there were sheep everywhere. Some were behind fences or stone walls, but lots were just all along the pathway. They were so close that Anna had the fabulous opportunity to graze with them :) They were also so close that from the pathway I casually reached out and touched one! I stretched out my hand, and my fingers grazed his wooly back as he "ran" away. My trip is complete: I touched a real New Zealand sheep :)

There actually aren't any trees at the top of One Tree Hill...something about a dispute between the Maoris and the Kiwis. Instead, there is a single pointed monument. It reminded us of the Washington Monument.

After One Tree Hill, we made it through the final stretch to Onehunga Lagoon. (It's pronounce Oh-neh-hoonga, not One-hunga as I first pronounced it when I saw it!) It was quite a journey, and my feet are pretty sore and exhausted, but I loved it!

This was about the time we saw our first glimpse of the end of our coast-to-coast walk. It was always kind of exciting when we saw one of these yellow signs indicating "Coast-to-Coast Walkway" because then we knew we were going the right way. Unfortunately they were not always where we needed them...much like the street signs!

And here I am at the very end: Manukau Harbour. Coast #2 :)

After making it to our destination, we then made our way to a bus stop to get back to West Auckland. However, we had some problems with the busses—again—and it took us almost three hours to make it from Onehunga Lagoon back home on Colwill Road. Almost as long as walking back to the other coast! One positive thing from this bus "adventure": making another friend. This man sat next to us at the bus stop and on the bus, and we learned a lot about his interesting life. He is 78! So, he had a lot to talk about, to say the least. He's from Liverpool, but has been living in Auckland since 1962. He has 3 sons, but his wife passed away. He is a jack of all trades and has even been a conductor of the double decker in England. Like Leon, he is a world traveler. Even now at almost 80 years old--he backpacked through Queenstown only a few months ago, and was supposed to be in Christchurch now, but the earthquake happened! I tried asking his name, but he was hard of hearing, and would always just keep talking about something else. He did inform us of his address, however, so we'll just refer to him as Flagstaff #10. haha What a funny old man.

Christchurch Earthquake

I first heard about the most recent Christchurch earthquake at the end of school on Tuesday. One of the parents told us he heard about it on the radio on his way over. Then I saw a bunch of teachers in the library watching the news with live coverage from Christchurch. Fortunately, I am in the north island and was not at all affected by the earthquake. I guess that Auckland never has to worry about earthquakes because they’re not on a faultline like Christchurch is. Even though we are far away from it, it still has had a big impact on everyone here. For such a small country, the current death toll of 98, with 226 people still missing is massive. It is devastating. It is also crazy to me because we were in Christchurch only 2 weeks ago! If our trip had been this week for some reason, we would have been there. I feel so blessed that that was not the case. One of the most shocking things has been to see pictures and video of the buildings and streets that I just barely saw—especially the cathedral. You can see from the before and after pictures how the tower is just completely gone. It will be interesting to see what happens to Christchurch after all the destruction. Will they rebuild the entire city? How long will it take? Where will everyone go in the meantime? I guess only time will tell.

Because the earthquake has greatly affected New Zealand, we spent most of our literacy time talking about the earthquake, discussing what we can do to help, and then writing about it. It was so neat to hear all of the students thoughts about the earthquake and then their ideas about what they could do to help the people in Christchurch. They decided they wanted to raise money, and when asked how they could raise the money, one boy said, “We could sell coins!” The funniest idea, however, went a little like this: Mrs. Eka had an idea of how they could raise money and was trying to get the students to guess her idea. She asked Sefa and me to stand up.

Mrs. Eka: Look at what Sefa is wearing, compared to what Miss Burnett is wearing. Does that give you a clue about how we could raise money?

Sonya: Oh I know…we could sell the kids!

We all started laughing, and then Mrs. Eka started auctioning off Sefa. “Who will give me $5 for Sefa? $10? $20?” Sefa seemed super bashful during this whole thing, and when Mrs. Eka asked him if it was ok to sell him, he responded, “Yeah! Because then my dad would be rich!” haha Gotta love these kids! (Mrs. Eka was trying to get them to notice that Sefa was wearing a uniform, but I was wearing “Mufti” or civilian/non-uniform clothes. Her idea was to have a Mufti Day at Colwill where students could pay a couple bucks to wear mufti instead of uniforms. Nice try on getting them to guess that one, Mrs. Eka!)

I truly just love the kids here! I finally got a few pictures of them…hopefully more to come soon.

Don't you love these uniforms? ;) Especially with those they are required to wear whenever they are outside to protect them from the sun!

Happy Birthday Spencer and Anna!

Happy 16^th Birthday to my brother Spencer!! It was great to talk to him today, and wish him a happy New Zealand birthday, even though it wasn’t even his birthday in America yet!

Also, happy 21^st birthday to Anna today! We celebrated all day long. First, I made us pancakes for breakfast—we’ve been talking about making them for a long time, so I thought today would be a great day to actually do it. Then she got two cakes from her teacher and teacher’s aide at school that we all enjoyed at morning tea. For dinner, Kerry and Sheryl took everyone out to Bollywood, a delicious Indian restaurant. The Lords have made Anna and I LOVE Indian food. Tonight we tried lots of different curries—butter chicken, mango chicken, beef saagwala, something with goat, and a few others. Delicious. The best part when they brought out her cake. Sheryl wanted to have a special cake made for her, and we’ve been keeping it a secret for a few weeks now—she had no idea! Everyone has been sending Anna packages with Reese’s in them, so Sheryl went into our room one day, borrowed a Reese’s, and had a cake made to look just like it. They did a great job, even with all the tiny details of the packaging. It was hilarious, and Anna loved it!

Amazing Reese's cake! If you noticed the smudge, we think the waiters accidently did that, because it didn't look like that when we gave it to them at the beginning of the meal! Also, they boxed it back up for us, and we noticed a piece missing when we got back home...guess the waiters wanted to try it, too!

They made a big deal about Kodie cutting the first piece of his cake at his party last week, but it was just as big of a deal for Anna to cut the first piece of her cake!

We tried sooo many times to get a good picture with Kodie, but he just never looks at the camera! We were pretending to blow out the candles, which he still didn't do, but at least he's laughing in this one. We sure love Kodie and our little Princess Alexis!

After dinner, Sheryl and Raewyn (Sheryl’s mom) took Anna and I to the top of Mount Eden. It was be-a-u-ti-ful! From the top of the mount, you could see the entire city of Auckland whichever way you looked. We’ve been wanting to go up there, and it was great to check that off our list. It was so fun going with Sheryl and Raewyn because they had us laughing the whole time. Whether it was Raewyn saying funny little things like, “Where’s my pod?” when she was looking for her iPod, or Sheryl driving away from the gas station as Raewyn paid inside or Raewyn telling us a story about how she intended to visit a friend today, but ended up accidentally walking into the wrong house and walking in on huge Samoan lady sleeping (she was quite embarrassed about this, especially because she had said, “What are you doing in there you lazy cow?” thinking she was joking with her friend…whoops!), we were very much so entertained. It turned out to be a lovely 23^rd of February.

This marks the highest point in Auckland for surveyors. This is were we stood on top of Mount Eden to take in the 360-degree view.

The red lights in the back are the Sky Tower!

Powhiri

Powhiri (pronounced po-fuh-ri because wh makes the f sound): Maori welcoming ceremony involving speeches, dancing, singing, and finally the hongi.

Today we experienced a Powhiri at Henderson South Primary School (one of the schools where 4 BYU girls teach). It was such a neat experience to see such a unique cultural ceremony put on by such young children. We walked into the big hall (gym) as all the students welcomed us with a song/chant/dance. We were invited to sit in front of the whole school as a man gave an introductory speech in Maori. We had no idea what he was saying—and as I looked around, most of the kids didn’t either—but fortunately he summed it up for us in English, too. Dr. Jacobs presented them with a gift (a beautiful Navajo sand painting) and then gave a speech in Maori and a speech in English. We then participated by singing a song we had learned in our classes at the beginning of January—Te Aroha. It is a beautiful Maori song about love, and I think we actually sounded pretty good. Hopefully our Maori pronunciations weren’t too off!

Te aroha

Te whakapono

Me te rangimarie

Tatou, tatou e

The principal of Henderson South gave a speech—Maori and English—and then the students sang and danced a little more. They were so cute and so fun to watch! The ceremony ended with the hongi, which is a Maori greeting where you press noses and foreheads with another person in order to "mix breath" to make friends. Yes, quite interesting. We were all a little nervous about this because we were told we were going to have to greet a whole line of staff members in this way. For them, it is natural, but for us American girls, it is a little uncomfortable. We were prepared to do it anyway, but then the principal started it off by just greeting us with a handshake and kiss on the cheek (another common greeting) and everyone just followed his lead. Guess we'll have our traditional hongi experience at another Maori ceremony!

We concluded the Powhiri by having morning tea with the Henderson South staff. They really outdid themselves with the morning tea. They had lots of different bread, scones, cookies, quiche, meat pies, pizza bread, brownies, etc. I think all 16 of us left absolutely stuffed with all the delicious food. I love the rich Maori culture that is so present in our schools. When I look back to my elementary school days, if we had done a welcome ceremony, the only thing we could have done was sing our school song, which one of the teachers had made up one day while she was stuck in traffic! And we sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle. Such a “rich cultural experience” that would have been. Ha!

These are the adorable students at Henderson South!

The man on the very right gave the introductory speech, all in Maori. The man in the suit next to him is the principal of Henderson South, Trevor Diamond.

And here's all 16 of us just outside Henderson South Primary School.

Family Night with the Olson Family

Two big things today:

1. I taught my first “official” lesson today! It was just a guided reading lesson with six students, and I didn’t do much planning for it (Mrs. Eka asked me to do it when I arrived this morning), but it was a lesson nonetheless and I loved it! The students read a book about how magnets are used, and then they used magnetic letters to spell out words they found in the book. We then took pictures of their words and tomorrow we’ll glue them into their literacy books. It was a fun lesson, but reminded me of the various levels of the class. I took the highest reading group for this, but even in this group there is variance in their levels. Two of the six easily read through the book, two did ok, and then two struggled with a lot of it. It sure will be interesting to figure out how to best help each of these students progress in their reading and comprehension skills!
2. I am just so happy right now, because we spent the evening with the Olson family from church. Dallas and Angela have six kids: Faust (15), Aiden (13), Kayla (11), Zion (6), Vanz (4), and Izrael (3), and every single one of them is wonderful. From the second we walked into their house, I felt at home. Each of the children were so friendly and loved asking us lots and lots of questions. It was fun because they actually went to the States in 2008, so they had quite strong opinions about lots of foods and different American things. For example, Aiden thinks American Doritos are wayyyy better than New Zealand Doritos, but New Zealand’s ginger beer is wayyy better than American’s root beer. They all were a hoot! We had a delicious dinner and dessert, and then the kids were in charge of Family Home Evening—so cute. One of the best parts of the night was when Vanz did the haka for us. I was not expecting the intensity he did it with—he got so into it and it made it even more entertaining. We also played Boggle, to which I am proud to say, Faust and I beat everyone by a long shot. We ended up with 72 points (after 3 rounds), while the closest team only have 37 points! We definitely were the Boggle champions, and we loved it! It was so wonderful to be in a home with a family so similar to mine. They said they’ll have us over again soon, and we are already looking forward to it!

MULU!

I love Sundays. I think of my family often, but I think of them most often on Sundays. It is great because usually I am able to skype them and still "see" them, even though I am halfway around the world. Technology sure is amazing! This isn't the best picture of us, but for some reason it was the only one I could find on my computer today. So, today on this Sunday, I just wanted Mom, Dad, Daniel, Spencer, and Anna to know how much I miss and love them. MULU! (this is my new phrase I made up to mean Miss U Love U!)

Anna and I were asked to speak in church today. I know that some people dread it, but for some reason I really don't mind it. I especially enjoyed it because it gave me the opportunity to talk to and get to know more people afterward. One family even invited us over for dinner and family night tomorrow night!

One of the best things about today: We made a new friend! It's been hard getting to know people because 1) a lot of people look at us as "just some more BYU girls that will be gone in a couple months" and 2) we lack adequate means of communication and transportation. Today, however, some of the YSA at church set up a ride for us to go to a Musical Fireside tonight. Doron came and picked the four of us up and we ended up having quite an entertaining drive to and from the fireside with him. He is an interesting guy--spray painted car, works as a manager of a store called "Just Jeans," wears snakeskin cowboy boots--but he was so friendly, absolutely hilarious, and is going to make a great friend for us four Colwill girls. woot woot!

This picture has nothing to do with today, except that I found it as I was looking through some of my pictures and I think it is beautiful. I wish I could take credit for it, but Anna was the one who took it in Queenstown. Props to Anna! I love it.

RUGBY!!

My new favorite thing? Rugby! Yes, hands underground, rugby is my new favorite thing. We went to the Auckland Blues vs. Canterbury Crusaders rugby game tonight and it was a-mazing. In-credible. I love going to football games, but I now love going to rugby games even more. Here are a few reasons, along with some interesting facts about rugby:

• The clock is always running. You know a game will always be 90 minutes: two 40-minute halves with a 10 minute “halftime”
• A tackle does not mean the end of a play. The ball just gets thrown again.
• The ball can bounce, but the play still continues.
• They “scram” a lot. And I think it looks cool.

This is a scram. It's almost like a team huddle. Almost.

• A goal is called a “try.”
• The ball must always be thrown backwards, never to a player in front of you.
• Running a try is worth 5 points. Kicking a try is worth 3 points.
• They don’t wear any padding—they are so tough! They play rough, kicking and punching and pushing all the time. One guy had to get his head bandaged up, but he still played the rest of the game. Another guy had blood all over one side of his head, but he also still played the rest of the game.
• Whenever the Auckland Blues scored, they celebrated with these huge torches.

• There’s one guy on the team that they lift up to get the ball when it’s thrown in.

This is a blurry picture of it, but it's kind of cool because you can see the white ball going right into his hands.

It was such a fun game! There is another one March 16 and we are all planning on going again :) Oh, one more cool thing about the game was that we got to see the world's best rugby player: #10 on the Crusaders team. Woot woot!

Earlier today, we celebrated Kodie’s birthday. He turned 2 yesterday and they had a big birthday party for him at Lollipop’s, a giant playplace for kids. He was so cute, and loved his “digger” cake.

Part of the kid food included “fairy bread”—slices of bread with butter and covered in sprinkles. It looked fun and party-y, but wasn’t really all that tasty haha

You can kind of see the fairy bread behind the chips on the right. Sheryl said it would have been better if they used Nutella instead of butter. I think I would have liked that much more!

Before the rugby game, we rode the bus into town and went to the Chinese Lantern Festival. (by the way, we had very positive bus experiences today—what a relief! We even got to take a train part of the way home from the game!) The lantern festival was in a beautiful park near the middle of downtown Auckland. They had unique lanterns set up all over the park. Some were pretty cool, especially the dragons and pretty lanterns that hung from the trees, but some were quite strange.

They had a bunch of vendors with food and Chinese trinkets. Anna and I tried a fun new treat: rock melon and ice cream. It was half of a cantaloupe with ice cream filling the hole where they scooped out the seeds. So YUM!

One of my favorite moments at the Chinese festival:

Anna: What is he cooking? Oysters?

Me: No, mussels.

Together: So many mussels/muscles…

hahaha