Good Bye Colwill! :(

Six weeks at Colwill Primary School has come and gone. I cannot believe how fast those six weeks flew by! I cannot believe how fast this semester has flown by! One week from today I will be up north at Cape Raigna/Bay of Islands. Two weeks from today I will be in Sydney, Australia. Three weeks from today I will be back in America! Whoa.

Back to today. I just feel so loved! Not only were my students clinging on to me and telling me to stay in NZ forever, but random kids I don't even really know came up to me all day to give me a great big hug and tell me how much they were going to miss me. One of the most common mistakes made by kids around us recently was that they were getting Australia and America mixed up. Many would ask, "When do you have to go back to Australia?" One of Anna's students, Levi, would ask us about Australia all the time, but when we asked him where we were from, he would correctly say America. Maybe he thought America was in Australia? I guess the whole America thing was just too much for their narrow views of the world.

This morning was funny because after swimming I wasn't allowed to go into our classroom. It was a few of the students job to make sure I didn't go in during morning tea or even lunch! The kids were so funny because they would come up to me and say, "Miss we have a surprise for you in the room, but we're not allowed to tell you about it." Occasionally one of the older students would shh them and remind them that since it was supposed to be a surprise, they weren't supposed to say anything about it. Even though it wasn't really a surprise, I still loved it:

They made me a giant card! It had a huge "Thank You!!" on the front, and then a little card from each of the students on the inside. They were all pretty similar, all different variations of: "Dear Miss Burnett. Thank you. We will miss you. Good luck. I love you!" etc. So cute, and they were all SO excited for it. They were even more excited when I gave them a little thank you/goodbye treat: lollipops! They are all such sweet, special children, and I have learned so much from them over the past six weeks. My practicum experience here in New Zealand was completely different than anything I would have experienced back in Provo, and even though it was probably a bit more difficult at times here than it would have been there, I wouldn't trade it for anything :)

Here's my class, Room 14! And this was before I gave them all the lollies!

I kept saying, "Ok, everyone give me a big smile!" but Mrs. Eka was taking the pictures and kept telling them to say things like, "Miss Burnett is awesome!" or "We love Miss Burnett!" It was a sweet gesture, but none of the kids are smiling in any of the pictures because they're still repeating Mrs. Eka. Haha. Oh well, at least I can look at their wide open mouths and imagine them telling me how much they love me :)

They really were great at these silly faces!

Here are some of the older girls at Colwill. The two girls on either side of me, Rosealee on my right and Riana on my left, were always so much fun to talk to. They always had lots of questions for us, and made me feel like a superstar when they found out I had met Taylor Swift. We are now officially facebook friends and they have promised that they would keep in touch with us every day.

Riana already has a head start because she emailed us yesterday:

"Hi Awesome American Teachers,

Its Riana,

Im really going to miss you when you leave to go to Rotorua.

I hope you will never foget about me because il never forget yous.

You never growl and are so kind and pretty.

When you leave il have noone to have as much fun with you guys.

My expeience with you people was so amazing your funny nice & taleneted.

Highlights.

Miss Bringhurst: Tech was so cool how Mr Parker had the hots for you, your answer (HE WAS SO OLD !)xxx gonna miss you Heaps ! xxx :)

Miss Wirthlin:Our funny times were so cool your so awesome and fun hope you've had fun with us gonna be sad to see you leave! xxxx :(

Miss Goode:You were cool at the NorthWest swimming thanks for the awesome compliment btw about my swimming skills ! xxxx :L you are so fun to hang out with

Miss Burnett:OMG what to say about you WOW ! you standout I thourght you were a NZ teacher for a second you stand out in the Colwill Crowd !xoxoxoxoxoxoxox :P

WOW this is making me wanna cry typing this hahahaha but it was so cool to meet you im really gonna miss you out of the whole entire school you were my favourite student teachers still are but i dont know what to say i guess.Maybe just Bye and Il miss yous heaps .

Beyond the past few weeks ive learnt alot about you American people there are alot on different things about us but the same thing that we have in common is the passion and friendshop we have and I hope it will never end between us ! Thanx for being great friends with me! IM GONNA MISS YOU HEAPS ANDI LOVE YOU LIKE BIG SISTERS ! btw Miss Burnett i love the Taylor Swift shirt i wish i could have it your so lucky and i wish you the best for the future ! xxxx ! PLZ never forget about ME !!!!!! xxxxxx xx xxx xx xxx xx xxx xxx ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Ever lasting kisses and hugs !"'

Here are a few more of the older girls. The one hugging me is Szahn. She was always so sweet and helpful to me.

Here are some more of my Room 14 students! Sonya and Zia being cool as!

Santos and Joel having so much fun playing on the Senior Playground. (They are usually only allowed to play on the junior playground, but Mrs. Eka gave them an extra five minutes on the senior playground today. They LOVED it!)

Laine looked more like a girl today than ever before...she wore a skirt for the first time! :)

I know I'm not supposed to have favorites, but Lavenda is definitely one of my favorites. She actually reminded me of lot of myself :) (Before I saw her name on the roll, I thought her name was "Lavender" pronounced "Lavenda" with the NZ accent. Good thing I hadn't actually called her "LavenDER" before I realized this!)

Oh Hilton. He is another one of my favorites. One of the other students told me today, "Miss, Hilton is going to really miss you when you're gone, eh. You're his best friend, eh. He's your little buddy, eh." Couldn't have said it better myself. Here is a little play-by-play of one of my most recent favorite moments with Hilton:

Hilton: Do you know me in 100 days? (figured out that he meant, "will you remember me in 100 days?")

Me: Of course!

Hilton: Knock, knock!

Me: Who's there?

Hilton: Oh! You don't even know me, Miss!

Me: Ok, now it's my turn. Will you remember me in a week?

Hilton: Yes.

Me: Will you remember me in a month?

Hilton: Yes.

Me: Will you remember me in 100 days?

Hilton: Yes!

Me: Knock, knock!

Hilton: *big dramatic pause* Come in Miss Burnett!! (in his cute little Samoan accent and big gestures welcoming me towards him)

This video is a little re-enactment. It's not as good as the actual event, but you get the idea :)

Life is wonderful :) We leave tomorrow morning to go to the temple in Hamilton and then Rotorua until Tuesday. We're staying in a house in Rotorua, but I don't know if I'll have internet, so as of now, farewell until Tuesday!

Magic Trees

My second to last day at Colwill Primary was filled with fun. Here are some highlights:

• My class spent pretty much the entire day on one project. They read a book about a magic tree that grew whatever you wanted on it. So, the kids brainstormed ideas of what their magic trees would grow if they had one. Then, they wrote about it: 1) what grew on the tree, and 2) who could eat/play/use it. After revising it over and over with their peers and me, we typed it up for publishing. Next they created the magic trees with 3-D objects for whatever grew on the trees. It was so fun when they included me in their list of people who could eat/play/use it. Many of them were pretty detailed, but one of my favorites was: "I have a chocolate tree. It is for Miss Burnett." How did he know I love chocolate so much? ;)

More pictures of the magic trees tomorrow :)

• Sonya and I both wore our hair in braids (or plaits as they call them here). She was SO excited that we were twinners and could not focus on anything until we finally took a picture of our matching hair.

• Filoi wrote me a cute little goodbye card today because she isn't going to be at school tomorrow. It said: "Dear Miss Burnett. I am really sorry for been rood and been cheeky to you when you said to me to do what you said. I am sorry. I am going to Miss you forever and ever and ever. Say Hi to Everyone at America and my Friend cool Johnny. From filoi in room 14. Burnett love you Miss." Pretty impressive for a girl who didn't speak any English a year ago, eh?

• When the other students saw Filoi give me a letter and picture, I was soon bombarded with the cutest drawings and notes from the rest of the class. One little boy, Lyric, had folded his paper and cut out hearts all over it. He gave it to and said, "Here Miss. These are my love hearts for you." Another girl, Laine, wrote, "I love you because you make me happy and you are cool because you are so cool." I'm excited because I know they're giving me "real" goodbye letters tomorrow. Life is so good :)

• My good day continued on after school, too. We had told the Lords about s'mores and they wanted to try it out. Sheryl's brilliant idea, however, was to stick M&M's inside of the marshmallows to get melt the chocolate, but not get it everywhere. Kerry built us a little fire before dinner and by the time we were ready to roast our mallows the embers were perfect! They don't have graham crackers over here either, so we tried it with malt biscuits instead. They definitely weren't the s'mores we're used to, but they were still yum as and we had so much fun making them :)

Out in the Lord's backyard enjoying our NZ s'mores.

Our action shot! Too bad I had already finished my s'more at this point.

Alexis LOVED roasting the marshmallows. I think she roasted and ate more marshmallows than all of us combined!

With today being so good, I'm excited to see what tomorrow has in store. I know it'll be so sad to goodbye, but I know it will also be filled with lots of little moments of joy :)

America, What's Your Favourite Colour?

The days are flying by. There was an all-school assembly at Colwill today. In these assemblies, the teachers hand out one or two awards of merit to students in their classes who they think deserve them. This week, our mentor teachers surprised us by giving each one of us awards for all we've done these past six weeks. The deputy principal (assistant principal) gave a little thank you speech, emphasizing how much they'll miss us because we have become such an integral part of Colwill. It was difficult to keep it together and not tear in front of all these kids I have come to love so much. Goodbyes on Thursday are going to be tough!

Here we are with our Colwill awards of merit :)

After the assembly, I really just tried to enjoy all my time with the students. Even though I've had my challenges with some of them, I can't imagine not seeing them every day. I want to be able to see them grow up. I want to see what they do with their lives, all their accomplishments. But I guess this is something teachers struggle with every year. You usually have your class only for one year, and then you say goodbye, wishing them the best as they continue growing up and living their lives. It's interesting to be on the teacher side of things rather than the student side!

Crazy boys! You can almost tell from this picture what I deal with on daily basis. Haha.

Filoi amazes me. She came to NZ from Samoa one year ago speaking NO English. She is already speaking English fluently, has the best handwriting in the class, and progresses leaps and bounds every day. She really is amazing.

Aren't they just so cute?!

I'm hoping to continue adding to this video as I get more and more clips. While I was taking pictures with them, I thought it might be fun to get a few clips to hear what they have to say. They didn't know what to say at first, so I started asking them, "What would you like to say to America?" You can tell that they had a hard time coming up with their own ideas because there is a common theme of asking America, "What's your favourite colour?" Regardless of the repetition, they are still adorable :)

Oh Happy Day

It is a wonderful thing that every night as I sit and reflect on the day, I always think, "Today was a great day." There were two great parts to my day:

Part I: Tech Class with Year 7/8

Every Monday morning, the year 7/8 classes get on a bus and go to Bruce McLaren Intermediate School for what they call "tech." There are five classes they will take throughout the year: 1) Clay Craft, 2) Woodworks, 3) Metal Shop/Electronics, 4) Sewing, and 5) Cooking. It was so neat to go with them this morning and sit in on a bit of each of these classes. They were making jewelry in Clay Craft, Maori weapons (paddles) or flying mobiles in Woodworks, keychains in Metal, bags in sewing, and rolled oat squares (that tasted like Nature Valley granola bars) and butterscotch rolls in cooking. Since the year 7/8 classes (which is like America's 6th and 7th grades) are still in the Primary school, they don't get the opportunity at Colwill to take these fun classes. I know they were some of my favorite classes in middle school, so I'm so glad they still get to take them, even if it is only once a week.

It was neat to see how much these kids could do on the sewing machines. There were wayy more designs and cool stitches than I remember our sewing machines having!

This was the metals class. It was loud with all the students banging their hammers to imprint the letters of their names on their metal keychains.

It was cool to see all the machines they were learning to use. This one was a huge drill to make a hole in the metal for the keychain ring. Min Gneong was entertaining to watch as she tried to figure everything out :)

Here is part of the cooking class. They were so nice and let me try their creations. The rolled oat squares were delicious! (the butterscotch rolls weren't my fav...) It reminded me of all my fun times cooking at Holmes Middle School in Home Economics. I will never forget my excitement when we first made Orange Julius's. haha

Part II: Family Night with the Olsen Family

I love this family. They are all so sweet to us, and it is such a joy to just be in their home with them. I love how it feels so similar to my own family. Tonight we enjoyed dinner prepared by Dallas' father. He was a little hard to understand sometimes with his thick accent, but it was fun to listen to him because he was FULL of stories from his life, especially experiences he's had in America. We did some role play with a couple scripture stories, played Duck Duck Goose, ate some No Bake Cookies and ice cream, and, of course, took lots of pictures :)

Izrael, 3, was my other half tonight. She always wanted to sit by me or jump on me or be held by me. She is FULL of energy and giggles, and absolutely adorable :)

This is Aiden, 13 (almost 14), and such a sweetheart. She kept reminding us how excited she is to come visit us in America. She wrote us the sweetest letter about how she wants to be just like us when she grows up :)

Faust, 15, is so great. He is a little more quiet than the other kids, but I think we helped him get a little more crazy tonight :)

Vanz just turned 5 yesterday, and he got these sweet nerf guns. He thought they were the coolest things ever, and this was the one picture he really wanted taken tonight. "Heidi! Heidi! Take a picture of me like this!" So cute.

We were so hard core with our nerf guns. Well, at least Vanz was :)

Cute little Zion, 6. :) She looked like she had just gotten back from ballet, but when I asked she said, "No, I just love to dress up."

They all loved making funny faces!

We didn't get as many pictures of Izrael because she was fascinated by the cameras. This was one picture in a series of about ten. Instead of moving the camera up to get my face, she kept wanting me to bend down lower and lower to be at her level.

This was the first picture Izrael tried to take of us...she hadn't quite figured out that she was supposed to point the camera the other way :)

Kayla was MIA for our photo shoot, but when she reappeared she said she was doing something "much better." As we were leaving, she whipped out the cutest cards with the sweetest individualized notes to each of us--so thoughtful. Between Kayla's cards, Aiden's letter, and the rest of the kids fun and spunky personalities, we left all smiles and so happy. We hope the Olsen's will make another trip to the states so we can see them again soon!

Yum Cha

My last Sunday in Auckland. Wow. I'm having a hard time believing it is all dwindling down to the end. We went to church for the last time in the West Harbour ward today. Everyone was so kind and appreciative to us. Many people expressed their gratitude and spoke many kind and encouraging words to us. We felt very loved. :) We'll definitely miss these wonderful people!

Here is the primary class we've been teaching. Kayla, Adeeva, and Braun. Yes, we realize this picture is quite obviously self-timed, but we really wanted to get a picture of all us. :) They are just so great!

Adeeva and Braun were quite a comical pair in class, always giggling and trying to impress each other. Too bad we won't be here to see what happens when Braun has a growth spurt ;)

Sweet, sweet Kayla was always so willing to participate and tell fun stories and ideas. I was glad we didn't have to say goodbye to her today because we get to have dinner with her family (the Olson's) again tomorrow night!

Ever since we first got here, the Lords have wanted to take us to Yum Cha. Whenever they talked about it I thought they were saying Yum Chow, but today I realized it is actually Yum Cha. Funny how accents can make words sound so different than what I'm used to. Anyway, it is one of their favorites and one of those things we just HAD to experience. When we realized our time in Auckland was quickly coming to an end, we figured out that today was the only day the whole family would be able to go. I'm so glad we figured it out, because it was such a fun experience! We sat down at the table, and lots of Asian waiters and waitresses constantly walked by with trays and trolleys of new foods: pork or prawn or cabbage or spinach dumplings, pork buns, duck, chicken, pork, veggies, sesame balls, etc. Whenever we saw something we wanted we pointed and they put it on our table for everyone to enjoy. Even though I've never been, I would compare it to those Brazilian steakhouses like Tucanos or Rodizio Grill. It was fast paced with little time for talking. My favorite part was the ice cream balls that we ended with. They were literally balls of ice cream wrapped in a semi-sweet rice dough or something like that--kind of hard to explain, but absolutely delicious. My least favorite part (really the only thing I didn't like) were the chicken feet. Bleh. Yes, I tried chicken feet. They were cold and slimy and boney--SO gross. Kerry said they are much nicer hot, but I'm not too convinced...

Yuck. It looks like we're eating fingers.

My face may be a little deceiving, but I had not yet fully tasted it. Even though it was not necessarily enjoyable, at least I tried it and can say I've eaten chicken feet, right?

After such a lovely meal, we finally got a picture of the whole family! From the left: Raewyn, me, Anna, Sheryl, Alexis, Kodie, and Kerry. They are just some of the kindest people, and I feel so blessed to have gotten to know them!

Last Saturday in Auckland...

Today was a great day. It was one of those days you can't help but smile about. :) It all started with a group luncheon on the top of the Sky Tower. We enjoyed amazing views from the observation deck:

Jess, Christine, me, Nicole, Emily

We had a great view of Rangitoto Island, where we hiked last weekend.

They had these windows in the floor all around the observation deck. It was actually kind of scary standing on top of them because it looked like you weren't standing on anything!

The group decided to dress up for our Sky Tower luncheon. As much as it looks like Anna and I planned this opposite coordination, it actually happened by accident. Apparently, we were just both feeling the black and white stripes when we woke up this morning :)

The Sky Tower is equivalent to the Seattle Space Needle. They even both have the 360-degree rotating restaurants at the top. The biggest difference with that is that I just walked around the rotating restaurant in the Space Needle, but we ate lunch at Orbitz, the rotating restaurant at the Sky Tower. It was one of those fancy five course kind of places and it was SO fun. We were not expecting it to take over 2 hours like it did, but it was YUM AS!

Here was our fabulous Sky Tower table. From left to right: Jess, Me, Janet, and Whitney. It was the perfect set up because we all got to try everyone's different courses. We ate soooo much food...

Funny story: in between taking the picture above, and the picture below, I lost my camera. When I reached for it in my bag, it wasn't there. I looked everywhere and did not understand how I suddenly did not have my camera. Then I realized that I had set my bag close to the separation of the revolving and non-revolving part of the restaurant...my camera had fallen off and stopped moving as we continued to rotate. Luckily one of the waiters had picked it up. Phew.

It all started with pineapple juice and an assortment of pastries and manuka honey to dip them in. It was some delicious flaky goodness! Then came our appetizers. Jess and I split calamari and a fun fruit plate with lime syrup and cream. I also tried Janet's baked goat cheese and Whitney's ciabatta bread. By this point we were already pretty full, but there was still so much more to come! Next we had the main course: Smoked Salmon Florentine, or in other words, eggs benedict. I've always wanted to try eggs benedict, and the waiter said it was his favorite, so I decided today was a great day to give it a try. When it came out, Jess and I were a little hesitant with the look of the poached eggs and smoked salmon, but it ended up being delicious! Along with the main course we also had salad and baby potatoes.

At this point we really were all about to burst, but we couldn't say no to dessert! Jess and I again asked the waiter what his favorites were. #2 was the Peanut and Cherry Parfait. He described it as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but not really, but really. Ha! I'd say it was MUCH better than a PB&J.

#1 ended up being "The Chocolate. A chocolate biscuit base with a chocolate mousse dome filled with chocolate sauce and served with hazelnut ice cream. A lot of the girls didn't like this one because it was more dark and bitter chocolate, but I LOVED it. It was the perfect way to end such a delicious meal.

...and these sheep hat/mitten combos were the perfect way to end our Sky Tower adventure. :) Christine and I were cracking up about these.

After the Sky Tower, Anna and I stayed in the city, and ended up taking a bus to Mission Bay. It was the ideal afternoon at the beach. The sun was out, but it wasn't too hot. The sail boats and cityscape in the distance. And there was no one around us. We had a quiet little section all to ourselves. So quiet that I fell asleep. I wish I could take all my afternoon naps on the beach :)

After the beach, we made our way over to Eden Park for Rugby Game #2. Today the Auckland Blues played the Wellington Hurricanes. It was not as close of a game as the Blues vs. Crusaders game last month, but it was still a high energy, exciting game.

One of the best parts of the game: the sky! I know that this looks fake, but this is what the sky looked like at the beginning of the game. It was sweet as.

I couldn't believe how red the sky was! Especially in contrast to the green field. I know I look photoshopped in, but I promise it's real!

The blues played a great game--all the tries, scrumping, fast pace, everything. I still can't get over how tough these guys are, especially when we're close enough to the plays to see how brutal and rough they treat each other to get that ball. Good thing that when the kids teach us how to play this week it will only be touch rugby! The final score of the game tonight was BLUES 34, HURRICANES 17. Go Blues! Woot woot!

Today was the last Saturday that I'll be in Auckland. Next Saturday I'll be in Rotorua. The next Saturday I'll be up north at Bay of Islands. The next Saturday I'll be in Australia. And then the next Saturday I'll be in AMERICA. It is absolutely crazy how time flies.