Alright, well here are the two residences where I will be spending the majority of my time: One of the classrooms at Paparoa Street School and Urban Sunshine, my new home.
This past Thursday and Friday, I went to two teacher only days at the school and met a lot of the staff and tried to familiarize myself with all of the buildings and all that fun stuff. I found out that the school has about 600 students and the school is rated a 10 out of 10 for affluence within the community. Depending on how much income most families make in the surrounding community, will determine how much money then government gives the school. If parents can afford to pay for most things, then the government gives them less money. That is how I understood it anyway. It is funny too, because the school is separated into little corridors or buildings, having to run from one building to another to get pages from the printer, go to bathrooms, and make a phonecall. Its very different from schools at home but I like it. I also found out that instead of 'recess,' the school has morning tea for twenty minutes which I thought was really cute too!
My TA is Tanya and we are in Room 24. There are 29 kids in the class with 20 boys and 9 girls I believe. I am really looking forward to seeing a new way of teaching, as I've heard that New Zealand is at the top in terms of classroom strategies and assessment. It has been a little different trying to get all of the new terminology and al that though. So far I have learned that jandals are flip flops, jovies are pencil crayons, and Twink is white-out. Who knew! But everyone is very friendly and now I am just looking forward to meeting the kids and maybe learning how to play cricket!
Now, to update on Urban Sunshine. I am living in a 4 bedrrom house, with two additional people who live in "The Nook" attached to the house. So there are 7 people sharing one bathroom, kitchen, and washing machine. So far so good though, no complaints. So I live with three Americans, a guy from Chile, a girl from Australia, and soon, a girl from France. Our house backs into two other urban rooms houses so there are also people from Germany, Holland, Ireland, Taiwan, and of course, the other three Canadians from Lethbridge. It has been so great to get to know different people from around the world! I am truly so lucky to be here!
Last night was our first night out together on the town and we all had a lot of fun together! We went to Shooters and danced the night away!
Life on my new bicycle has also been interesting. My legs hurt all the time now and getting groceries is the most interesting thing yet! I love hanging out in the square downtown, it is so busy and there are always people around. I still hope to try surfing this weekend.
Here are a list of things that screw me up in New Zealand: Driving on the wrong side of the road, cheddar cheese tastes like parmesan cheese, no central heating in any of the houses, no dryers so you can only hang your clothes to dry, meat is ordered in kilo's so when I saw that ham was $22.95 per kilo, I thought would be paying $30 for sadwich meat. But luckily, I figured it out sooner than later and my ham was only $1.50. Apparently, there is no ozone layer here. What's up with that? But I must give them props for their milk and yogurt! Completetly and utterly delectable. A lot of the food is different yet the same but there is a lot of stuff from home that you can't find here (ichiban). Its all good though.
So....As I go through this unbelievable experience, I try to constantly reflect on how it is changing me and I have realized, that if anything, it has made me appreciate home, friends, and family much more. I realize I eat too much when I am bored, and that i am so hooked on country music that I can't dance ot anything at the pub because I don't know any of it! I also realize that 4 months seems like a long time to be away but that it is not nearly enough time to learn all of the NZ vocabulary I want to learn! I am a little proud of myself for getting a bike and transitioning relativley smoothly into NZ culture :) Now all I have to do is start eating a lot of lamb.
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