My week in a nutshell

My week in a nutshell...

Look at me posting twice in one day...phew...I really had some time on my hands! WARNING....this is a VERY long post....after reading this, you will completely understand why I had no time to post until today!

Here is the run down of my past week...

Sunday ~ we spent the day with Bonnie, Diane and Jill from Hutt Sister Cities. They took us to lunch and the Te Papa museum in Wellington. It was a great day....great company, great city, great museum! The museum was celebrating Matraiki which is the Maori new year. There were Kapahaka groups performing, and they were incredible. The more time I spend here, the more similarities I see between the Maori culture and the Hawaiian culture. Which makes perfect sense, but I didn't really put that together before I got here. The museum showed the history of the Maori people and culture, which I loved learning about.

(pictures of this fun day are lost.... )

Monday ~ we went to Hutt Intermediate School. I have found so many similarities and differences in each school I have been in with our schools. This school did a wonderful job of bringing real world experiences to their students. I think they will be very prepared for life after high school! That night we had a very special celebration with the Mayor of Hutt city as well as the US Ambassador to NZ. We had to get up and speak, which you know I hate! I don't understand why I can speak in front of hundreds of kids, but the second you add adults in the mix and I just melt. But I don't think I made a fool of myself...

Janice and I with the Mayor and US Ambassador

Anne-Marie and I

Janic and I with the Hutt sister cities coordinators

The Tempe Sister Cities high school delegates

Tuesday ~ we went to Muritai School which is year 1 through year 8. We are constantly flabbergasted by the freedoms that the children here have. The "senior" campus is down the street and the students freely walk back and forth...by themselves...with NO adults...crossing a street! Can you imagine that happening by us??? The students are so respectful and they have such a high trust system, which is phenomenal. We were interviewed by their school tv program (which I linked on FB)...again put me in front of a crowd and I freeze. Janice and I walked to have lunch along the bay and happened to come across a sea lion... Picture opportunity of course! That night, Anne-Marie and I met up with a group of wonderful ladies and went to dinner and the cinema...basically it is a fancy movie theatre....it had couches instead of chairs and no popcorn...you could actually have wine, ice cream, coffee, etc. It was so fun and comfy!

Wednesday ~ Amazing! I don't even know where to begin... We met up with the 4 students that are here on the student exchange and the Mayoress of Hutt city. We headed off to the US Embassy in Wellington, and spent about an hour talking to the Ambassador. What an experience! I don't know in what other capacity I would have been able to spend an hour chatting with an ambassador! After chatting, we went on a tour of the embassy and then headed off to have lunch and do a little shopping. Then we took a cable car to the top of a hill and went to the botanical gardens and the Carter Observatory. As if that wasn't a busy enough day, then we had dinner with Anne-Marie and Kerry and went to see Five Year Engagement at the cinema. Yes, we went to the cinema two nights in a row.....and I loved it!

Thursday ~ we went to Little Earth Montessori preschool. This school was like nothing I had ever seen. It is a green school through and through. The owner, Anja, actually went on the exchange last year. When she described the school to us, it didn't even do it justice. She designed the school and it is incredible. The walls are made of soil and mortar, you can see from the picture that I was quite amazed. The students were 3-6 years old and were so independent. Everything they did was very purposeful and real. It was a beautiful environment and the teachers were so inviting and nurturing. Anja took us for a walk on the beach and for some ice cream...yes ice cream in the cold weather...it was great! That evening, we went to Kathy's school production. It was a whole school production that the students and teachers created. I can't imagine doing something like that! It was phenomenal and precious! The pics don't do it justice, but I tried :)

Amazed at the dirt walls

Kids washing the guinea pigs

I did actually fall asleep for a few minutes surrounded by 3 year olds!

Glow worms

Gum boots!

The kiwis. These are the youngest of the school...adorable!

Today (Friday) ~ we went to another primary school. It is the last day of their term and they have a 2 week vacation....so as you can imagine it was a fun day. They had crazy hair day, which it our crazy hair days to shame! There were so many crazy things. That kids did to their hair...just a few...a lampshade, a nest, a Christmas tree, a spider web...all made out of hair...it was awesome! There were 5 classrooms that were taught in dual language (Maori and English) which was fascinating. It was great to see the children embracing the culture of their country and learning in both languages. The Maori language is absolutely beautiful and again reminds me so much of Hawaii.

And that brings us up to date.... Are you as exhausted as I am????? We are leaving in a few hours for our week long road trip which I am so excited about. We will be going to Martinborough which apparently has great wine...if I haven't mentioned the NZ wine yet, it is delicious!!! I mean really, really delicious!!! Then we are heading up north to Rotorua and Taupo. A few of the things that we have planned are zip lining, white water rafting, thermal pools and a spa day....needless to say I am beyond excited! I am not sure what the Internet situation will be over the next week, but I will try my hardest to keep you updated.

See you soon!

 

What a week!

What a week!

I know...I know...I have been very bad at this blogging thing. It has been such a busy week that I have had no energy to blog late at night. But I have been taking pics and trying to remember everything that we have been done. So now that I have some free time, here we go!

George is still here....I know that you were dying to know that!

I am so sad that I had a camera SD card mishap...I took the card to a camera shop and they were not able to recover the pics...so for now they are gone and I will try to see if anyone in the states can figure it out...now I am even more thankful for my dad buying me extra cards to make sure I had plenty of backups! Trust me there were some great pics that are lost :(

This experience continues to be amazing. I just keep thinking that I need to wake up from a dream. This country is beautiful and the people are so wonderful. I have met so many amazing people that have made me feel so welcome. I think that the best part about this trip is that I am staying with a host family. You would think that it would be hard to move in with people that you don't know, but it has been quite the opposite for me. Anne-Marie and Kerry have truly made me feel like I am part of their family, and I am so comfortable with them. I have been fully immersed in their culture and country, which would never have happened as a traditional "tourist". They have been able to ensure we have a very rounded experience and many different aspects of their country.

I think that our two biggest topics that we keep coming back to are food and language...

As we all know, I am not much of a cook! So Anne-Marie has been amazing me with her talent to just "whip" things up. She has had several laughs at me when I was amazed that she made pumpkin soup from fresh pumpkins instead of canned pumpkin (which she didn't even know existed). Everything we have eaten has been so delicious and FRESH! I love the food here! I Know I have said it before, but I am obsessed with the different types of KUMURA (sweet potatoes). I made a promise to myself at the start of this that I would try everything and have no regrets. I think that has made me realize how many things I have been missing out on. I am DETERMINED to be a better cook when I get home! I want to eat fresh food, and cut back on the preservatives and prepackaging that I am definitely known for by my family. I have 6 months to learn how to cook before Anne-Marie gets to Arizona. I don't want to give her a bad impression of Americans with my horrible kitchen skills :)

Beautiful...Amazing...Breath Taking....

I HAVE HAD A CAMERA MESS UP.....for some reason no computer or iPad is reading my SD card and all my other pics are not coming up :( So I am posting this, but more pics will be coming as soon as we figure out the problem!

Sorry I haven't been blogging as much as my family would like, but it has been very busy. Our hosts are doing a fantastic job of squeezing as much into a day as possible that when I get to bed I just pass out!

It has only been a week, and this has been an experience of a lifetime! I have made so many wonderful memories that will stay with me forever. I am so thankful to Sister Cities for this opportunity. I am also so thankful for my family, for supporting me....turns out 3 weeks is not a short amount of time! My poor hubby is abandoned and home alone, since the kids are with my parents in San Diego. I miss all three of them so much and wish they could experience this with me....but that just means we will have to come back someday!

So here is what we have been up to...

Thursday ,we went to Anne-Marie's school, Normandale, which is a small school with year 1 through 6 (kinder-5). We went on a school trip to parliament with the year 4,5 & 6 students. It was so interesting to see how a different government worked and to watch the students on this experience. I had so many questions....and felt a little uneducated about the British government...but not any more!

Outside of Parliament

 

Friday, we were back at Normandale for the morning. We were able to watch a reading intervention program, which was phenomenal and I can't wait to use pieces of it in my own room. We were also able to sit in on a first year (kinder) class. I posted a pic on FB of the view, because it was just UNBELIEVABLE!!! I don't know that I would ever get any work done if I had a view like that. Every room had a beautiful view and the campus was just breath taking. The students were the most well behaved students I have ever met. The school really seems to focus on real life experiences and the students seem to thrive from this. They are really allowed to just be kids....I know it's a novel idea!!! It was fun to see them playing and climbing trees and not worrying about standardized testing. It is a very different environment than we are used to. Anne-Marie is doing an amazing job with the school.

The view from the Kinder classroom!

 

 

 

Making origami boats with the first years.

 

In the afternoon, we went on a 4 hour Lord of the Rings tour. Here's the catch.....I had never seen the movie....but I watched it last night. The tour was absolutely beautiful! I know I keep saying that about everything here, but really there are no other words. We were able to visit many different sites where the movies were filmed and had some fun reenacting some of the scenes...of course I loved that part! My favorite part was the KaiToke rainforest. Not only was it beautiful, but Janice and I had so much fun taking pictures and being silly, which I am quite good at. Janice especially had a good time terrifying me while we walked on a suspended bridge. She was jumping and swinging it, as I gripped on for my life....I have no idea how I am going to do the zip lining.

Afternoon tea on the LOTR tour

 

Saturday, we went horseback riding along the countryside. It was very windy and muddy, but it didn't seem to bother the horses. My pictures don't even begin to capture the view that we had. My bottom is not liking me much today for the riding...apparently it has been quite a few years since I have been on a horse. We also went to Makara beach, which was so windy you would never even believe it. The wind pretty much held us up if we leaned into it and spread out our arms. We couldn't stop laughing at the ridiculousness of worrying to walk and move in the wind. I tried to throw a golf ball to see if it would blow right back....but it didn't.

Getting ready for our ride.

That is me in the purple jacket...

Beautiful!

 

I have continued to try lots of new foods while here and have not said no to anything....yet. I am obsessed with the different types of Kumura (sweet pototoes) and can't seem to get enough of it. I ate Turkish food last night for the first time and it was very similar to Greek food and delicious. Turns out that New Zealand has amazing wines as well....I have definitely been enjoying those.

I have really discovered how "lazy" I am with my cooking....if you even call what I do cooking! Everything is so fresh here and very little is cooked with prepackaged foods or processed foods, which makes it absolutely delicious. Anne-Marie got a good laugh when I was amazed she squeezed fresh lemons to make lemon muffins instead of using lemon juice...we all know that I am a source of entertainment when it comes to kitchen skills. Taylor asked what I am going to do when Anne-Marie is in Arizona, and I told her I have 5 months to learn how to cook....I'll let you know how that goes!

Well that was the rest of my week in a nutshell. I know it's lots....but oh well...

I got to FaceTime with my girls and parents this morning, which was so fun...but heartbreaking at the same time. My parents are really amazing and I am so lucky that the girls are having a blast and getting spoiled rotten. But, I miss them so much and can't wait to squeeze them and cuddle when I get home. I also got to FaceTime with Mike tonight and it was great to see his smiling face. I miss him like crazy....absence makes the heart grow fonder...right?!?!?

Oh...and just in case you're wondering...which I know you are...George is still here! We are going on 9 days here...I mean come on!!!!! He better leave soon, or start paying rent...RIDICULOUS!!!

 

What a whirl wind the past 5 days have been. I could really blog for hours about all the amazing things that we have done...but I don't have hours and I need to get this all down before I forget, so here we go...


Here is a little information on my new friends....  I am staying with Anne-Marie and Kerry.  They have been married for 26 years and have 2 children, Laura and Alex. Anne-Marie is a principal at Normandale School, which I will be going to today for the first time.  I was able to meet Laura in Tempe several weeks back and she was absolutely wonderful, she is North Carolina working at a summer camp right now.  Alex is married to Bethany and they have an absolutely adorable little girl, Audrey, who I just want to squeeze!  

 

My Host Family

I have been traveling with Janice, who is a reading coach at Hudson.  She is staying with Kathy and Tony. 

 

Kathy, Janice, Me and Anne-Marie

On Monday, we went to Boulcott School where Kathy (Janice's host) is the principal.  It is a Year 1 through Year 6 school in Lower Hutt.  We were welcomed by the Kapahaka group of students.  They had a Powhiri, which is a Maori welcoming ceremony.  I have never seen anything so amazing, the students were amazing and you could just feel their excitement for their culture.

I was able to go into a "year 1" classroom, which is equivalent to our kindergarten.  It was great to be around kids, it made me miss my class.  I was working with a little guy helping him sound out words. He was trying to sound out the word "yes" and I was stretching it out for him. He wrote the "y" and then he was looking at me like I was crazy when I was saying the sound for "e". Well finally, he was very blunt and told me that I was saying my sound wrong.  He just could not figure out what I was saying because of my weird accent!  It was great to see that teachers and kids are the same everywhere.... The teachers always apologize for whatever is going on at the time, including their difficult little ones, and the kids....well they are definitely the same :)

On Tuesday, we were back at Boulcott School for the day visiting many different classrooms.  After only 2 days in New Zealand schools, Janice and I discovered one of our favorite things was morning tea.  All the staff go into a staff lounge and have tea (and snacks) together while the kids go out for a recess for a half hour.  This was so fun and what a great break for the teachers.  AND.....they do this for their hour lunch as well.... Yes, I did say an hour lunch!!  They do not shovel their food like we have to.

Wednesday, Janice and I went to Samuel Marsden all girls private school with Jennifer who was an exchange teacher from last year.  This brought back memories of my private school days....we sat in on year 10 French, year 7 theology, year 10 mathematics, and year 10 PE.  The Theology teacher was amazing.  I went to a catholic school all my life and learned more in this one class than I did the whole time....well maybe it was his delivery.  I couldnt believe how engaged his 11 year olds were learning about Christian symbols.  We also toured their primary school which was fantastic.

Janice and I went in to Wellington to explore on our own today, and only got lost once...well only really lost once!  We lunch by the water and did a little shopping and sight seeing.  Then we braved a train back to Lower Hutt...which mostly worked out.  We saw a Starbucks and decided to have a little piece of home.

Last night, we had a dinner with the sister cities members and the Student delegates.  The Tempe students from Corona High School are here for 5 weeks and overlap with us.  We will be going to the embassy with them next week as well.

That explains all the "teacher " stuff, but I can't even do justice to the rest of it.  I have had a blast getting to know Anne-Marie, Kathy and Janice along with the rest of the family.  There has been lots of laughter....and I am sure there will be more.  These ladies are wonderful, I am so lucky to now have all of them in my life and share this experience with them.

Update on new words:
Chilly bin = cooler
Ice Block = popsicle
Tiki Tour = mini tour (quick tour)
Lollies = candies (any type)


One side note...as Taylor pointed out on video chat this morning, I have an extremely LARGE zit right in the middle of my forehead...not kidding...this thing is a monster.... I have never seen anything like it!  Today, Janice and I decided that this thing has been on this trip for 5 days and doesn't seem to be going anywhere, so he needed a proper name.  His name is "George". I mean he is stealing the spotlight in every picture... Just thought I would put that out there, so you don't think I didn't see him :). It will kind of be like an I-spy game for the rest of the trip....

"George" went to Starbucks to have a cup of coffee with us :)

Photo Dump..... Here are a bunch of random but amazing pictures of my trip so far!

Happy Fathers Day

Not really a "New Zealand" post, but it's definitely an important one!

I am one lucky girl!!! When God matched me up with my parents, he knew what he was doing! My Dad set the bar pretty high. He is AMAZING! Needless to say, I never thought I would meet a man that even came close in the daddy department.... But I did!

Mike~ thanks for being such a wonderful Dad and role model for our girls. My heart absolutely melts watching you with them. My favorite time of the day is bedtime. I love listening to you lay with them and laugh hysterically. You are simply the best!

Daddy~ there are no words to thank you for everything you have done in my life. You are the most generous, kind, patient and loving person. Thanks for always being there for me, even when I was a snotty teenager!

I love you both and miss you very much! Hugs and kisses xoxoxo

I'm Here!

Now that was a long trip! Leaving Mike in Phoenix was so much harder than I expected. Once Janice and I got to the gat I was in full excitement mode! The flight to LA was easy, but I had a little hiccup when we checked in for the NZ flight. Turns out that Air New Zealand is VERY serious aboutt the weight of their carry-ons. I was way under on my big bag, which was my original worry, but way over on my little bag. I couldn't transfer stuff from one to the other because the big one was checked through win AZ..... The guy at the gate was really nice but must have wanted to laugh out loud at me when I kept pulling things out and shoving them in my "purse"... But they ended up checking it in for free and it all arrived safely and gave us a great laugh!

I slept for about 9 of the 13 hour plane ride, which was more than I average in a night. It was perfect because then I was able to stay up all day. Except now I am blogging at 4:45 am.

We had a wonderful day. Anne Marie and Kerry have been absolutely wonderful. I am excited to spend the next 3 weeks with them! I could go on for hours about all the new things I've seen/heard/learned already today... But let me just highlight a few...

* jandals = flip flops, boot = trunk, ute = truck... And lots more.. I love learning the differences in words between out "English" language.
* gas is $7.75 a gallon (yes in U.S. dollars)
. I will never complain again!!! (ok maybe I will, but I'm just sayin')
* The word beautiful does not even begin to justify this island!
* I have tried many new foods already... Yay me!
* It is COLD!!! I mean bone chilling cold. It reminds me of down town Chicago in the dead of winter on a rainy day!
* I used a "hottie" for the first time today... (hot water bottle)

I have met so many wonderful people already. Janice and I are very lucky to have such wonderful hosts. They are already setting the bar pretty high, hopefully they will like AZ as much as we love NZ.

Oh and technology rocks! I have been able to text the hubby and kids, and talk to mike with skype (not video) all for free. Well I am going to try to get some more sleep, so I'm not a zombie tomorrow.

San Diego

The past week has been the most relaxing week that I have had in such a long time.  It was full of family, friends and fun!  We spent a day on the beach with Amy and her beautiful little girls.  Riley had a blast with the little girls.  I am constantly amazed at how great she is with little kids, it really makes me wish we could give her a little sibling.

Of course my Dad had many sand creations and loved having little ones around to keep him on his toes.  Taylor and Rikki were typical 16 year olds....need I say more?  They are so fun to be around, I really lucked out with my girls!

 

On Saturday, we went to the San Diego Zoo, and as usual we loved it.  We are so lucky that my parents live in San Diego and we have free vacations!

Mike flew in on Monday to take us to Sea World.  He was planning on surprising me, but forgot to tell everyone else not to tell me...so not such a surprise :)  But, still fun!  I swear that Mike turns into a 7 year old the second he enters any amusement park.  It was hysterical, he was more excited than the kids.

And now.....I am back in Arizona....for one day.  I leave for New Zealand tomorrow afternoon, and I am definitely NOT ready!  Last minute errands, packing, cleaning, laundry, more laundry....the list goes on! The challenge of the day....to see if I can keep that suitcase under 50 pounds...oh boy!

So here goes blogging

So here goes blogging....  When I found out I was chosen to be a delegate for the Tempe Sister Cities Exchange program back in December, it seemed so far away.  I can't believe that I leave in 8 days!  So much to do and so little time.  If you know me at all you will not be surprised,  I booked myself solid and have no time to breath, but it will all be worth it.

I wasn't originally planning on doing a blog, but it seems like a great way to keep my family close and let everyone know how the trip is going.  I am going to apologize now for all of my spelling and grammar errors, especially to my "teacher" friends who I know it will greatly annoy :)   

I leave for San Diego tomorrow, mainly to bring the kids to my parents house while I am in NZ, but also for an excuse to get to the beach.  I will be back in AZ on Tuesday night and leave for NZ on Thursday.  Thanks to Meg, I have pretty much finished packing for NZ.... That is one thing checked off my list!!!!  So.....Let the fun begin!

These are my reasons for everything...my world...my loves <3