Home Time

Well folks, I am sad to report I am back in the good ol' United States of America. I didn't think the day would really come that I would have to leave New Zealand. I was having so much and wasn't ready to leave the people I'd met or the warm, summer weather!

I got home yesterday (Wednesday) around 5:30 and was sad to see it was already super dark out! I think this will be the hardest thing for me to adjust to. I am so used to it still being light till 10:00, so a five hour difference is HUGE! The weather wasn't bad yesterday, but today is was freezing and windy! I also arrived yesterday to find out my luggage did not make it as far as I had. Most flights from Dallas had been canceled due to fog, so my luggage got pushed back to make room for luggage from earlier flights. It wasn't the most fun way to end my 27 hours of flying with many turbulent flights, but hey that's life! I was still very excited to see my family last night!

So far getting used to the time difference isn't bad. I should be sleeping now since I leave for Ames to graduate pretty early tomorrow, but I'm still on New Zealand time. Today the only hard part with getting used to my new time zone was waking up! I got up at 7:30 which was like waking up at 2:30 in the morning in New Zealand. I wasn't too keen on that, but I made it through the day without any naps.. yay! It was definitely helpful keeping busy. I have my work schedule all set up to start the day I get back from Vegas. I am more than ready to get back into the swing of working again! I also got to spend a few hours with Emma, Nora, and baby Will. I was SO excited to see them. I surprised the girls at dance and they were shocked! They didn't realize I was back. Their reactions were so cute, it just about brought me to tears! And Will has gotten so cute! He is constantly smiling and laughing. I don't think I realized just how much I missed them until seeing them tonight! The best part was Nora sitting in my lap and falling asleep on the counter while I ate supper. It was a typical Nora move, but so cute and funny!

Tomorrow is graduation and it still doesn't seem real. I feel like I started school yesterday. I never thought it would end and yet tomorrow is the end. I can't think of a better way to go out than spending my last eight weeks in New Zealand. I am excited to be done and move onto a real teaching job. I am also excited to look at my international options and find somewhere to start a new adventure! But, until then I am stoked to see Michelle and Emily tomorrow! I can't believe I haven't seen them for two months, I don't think I've ever gone more than two weeks without seeing them before! I know we will have a great time celebrating and catching up.

So in the end this blog is filled with mixed emotions! I think once my busy weekend is over I will be really sad to not be in New Zealand anymore, but as for now I am happy and staying busy. It's great catching up again! So be expecting a sad/I-miss-New-Zealand blog in the near future because this Iowa weather plus the lack of having awesome roommates to keep my entertained will be getting to me soon I am sure!

As always,

Michelle

Forgive my Laziness!

Well hello again,

First off, I must say I am sorry for not keeping you up to date. I realize I haven't blogged in two weeks now, I feel so lazy! So here is what you missed...

Two weekends ago the crew and I went camping up in Wanaka. It is a small town on a gorgeous lake surrounded by heaps of hills. It was absolutely gorgeous! We set up our tent Friday night and then headed out on the town for a wee bit. Cramming all four of us in the tent made for an interesting night's sleep. It was very crowded and I was so glad to know we were only staying in the tent one night! Saturday morning we went to puzzle world. It was a really neat little place that had an outdoor maze and a cool 'illusion' section inside. The maze proved to be quite difficult and about made me mad, but it was fun nonetheless. Inside the illusion rooms were great! There were far too many to try and explain on my blog while still making sense, but there was one room that really was super cool. When you stood in the room you were side ways. But it wasn't how the room was built, I don't know how it worked! I have been to a few similar places in the states like the Mystery Place in the Black Hills, but this one was super neat. They had a few objects to show you the difference between that room and the real world. They had water that ran upstream, a swing that was always on an angle and a chair you could sit on that would roll up a ramp all on it's own. We had a lot of fun 'playing' in the room, but it got to be very dizzy and it became hard to keep our balance. After our fun at puzzle world we grabbed lunch at a little cafe and decided to do a bit of shopping and took a short walk before heading to Queenstown again.

I have fallen in love with Queenstown! It's such a gorgeous place. I love the town centre. It is lined with shops, cafes, and pubs... what more could a girl ask for?! It is also a town filled with lots of young people so it's easy to feel right at home. When we got into town we checked into our hostel and headed over to the AJ Hackett office and signed our lives away to bungy jump off a bridge on Sunday! With our nerves at high levels, we decided it would be a good idea to do a little bit of retail therapy. So we did just that! We did a wee bit of shopping right before the stores closed and then headed to our hostel to get ready for the night. Our hostel was on top of a bar so when we were done dolling up, we headed downstairs to eat and get some drinks. We had a great night, but it was an early one for me knowing that in not so many hours I would be bungy jumping for the first time!

So, Sunday we woke up and decided to spend just a bit more time shopping and then laying on the beech. Alex went off on his own and let us girls do the shopping. But it was fun to lay out on the beech as we waited for everyone to finish up! The weather was beautiful and so was the scenery! None of us wanted to leave, but it was time to eat and drive out of Queenstown to the Kawarau bridge. I was breathless when we got to the bridge. I don't think I've ever been so nervous in my life! Ellen and I did a tandem jump, so that helped my nerves a bit, but as we were getting strapped up, I was shaking like CRAZY! I shaking so much, it even gave Ellen a bit of a fright. When it was our turn to go, I realized I had to jump or I would simply be pulled off by Ellen, so I jumped right away and LOVED it! It was so fun! I didn't even have time to scream before we hit the water. We were dunked to our waist, but we feel so quikly I hardly even noticed until after we came out of the water.

It was a great way to end our weekend. I loved it so much, that I promised Ellen I would jump with here again. The Kawarau bridge is about 40 metres, but I told Ellen I would jump at the Nevis. The Nevis bungy is a high wire cable cart that is 134 metres above a tiny creek. I was terrified, but I loved the first one and I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it all alone, without someone pushing me off of pulling me down.  So on Tuesday, Ellen and I got to ditch school at midday and drove back to Queenstown for our second bungy! When we got there I couldn't believe I had signed up and paid to jump from such a ridiculous height! (I should mention 134 metres is around 400 feet!) But I was excited and determined to do it right away! I was also determined not to cry... this may sound ridiculous BUT on the website there are countless videos of girls crying because it is so high. Knowing this would be recorded and I would more than likely be getting it, I wanted a video I wouldn't be embarrassed to show! This jump was even better than the bridge! Since it was so much higher the fall was a lot longer. It really gave you a change to take it in and see what you were doing. It was gorgeous! I somehow wasn't at all scared as I watched the ground get closer and closer, it was just peaceful. So here it is, the video I am so proud of! I don't cry OR cuss!

Last week was not so good after our Tuesday adventure. I ended up getting sick and had to stay home from school on Thursday and Friday. I was super bummed to be sitting at home doing nothing. If  you know me, you know that I do not do well being told I can't go anywhere! So I was pretty upset about being home, but even more since I was missing two of my last four days. But the good news was, I was fine by the weekend. So Friday night we relaxed together at home, Saturday we laid out in the sun and finished up our assignments, and Saturday night we out together in Alexandra for the last time.

Now I am half way through packing and devastated about it. I feel like I have only just gotten here. I can't believe it is already time to say 'see you later!' I won't be saying goodbye because I know I will be back. This has truly been the best experience I could have even asked for. It was so much more than what I anticipated!

So before I get all sappy, I am signing off! Though this won't be my last post, it will probably be the last written in Alexandra. So, thank you for keeping up with my adventures. It has been so fun to share everything with the people I love back home. It only would have been that much better if you were all here with me!

Lots of love,

Michelle

Glaciers, Icebergs and Horses... Oh My!!

Kia Ora!

It's hard  to believe I am saying this, but last weekend was our sixth weekend here in New Zealand! Each weekend seems to get better and better, it's crazy! We started this past weekend by driving to Aoraki, the village in New Zealand that is home to Mount Cook, on Friday night. A former teacher from the Terrace school now lives there and was able to hook us up with some great deals including our hostel for the night. It was a great little set up. It had two bunk beds and we had our own bathroom and mirrors (impressive compared to some of the hostels we have stayed in) for only $30.. not too shabby! There was also a little pub attached so we were able to have a couple of drinks and eat when we got there.


In the morning we were up bright and early for a glacier cruise. Once again we snagged a great deal because we are 'teachers!' Our tour group met at a hotel where we took a fifteen minute bus ride and then walked twenty minutes before getting onto a small speed boat. We spent about an hour on the lake and got to see New Zealand's largest glacier, the Tasman, and many of the icebergs that have broken off of it. It was so amazing! I have always pictured icebergs as just looking like big pyramids sticking out of the water but each one was a different shape and different colours. They all looked like huge masses built out of crystals, they were absolutely breathtaking! It was really interesting to learn that every few weeks the glaciers rotate or flip over. You can tell how long it's been since the last time it flipped by the color. If it is really blue it has just flipped and the dirty brown ones haven't flipped for a few weeks and will probably flip soon. So not only was our little adventure tons of fun, but also educational! :)

After our glacier cruise we decided to go for a 'wee' hike to Hooker Valley to see another one of New Zealand's fine glaciers! The trail we took had been closed lately and had just opened up on Saturday. It was the most beautiful trail I have ever walked! There were two swing bridges, a board walk, and tons of rocks to climb! Since we were only anticipating an hour walk (we were told the trail was still closed past the first swing bridge) we weren't ready with enough water. Luckily for us, in New Zealand it is kosher to to drink from most streams. So about an hour in we found a good place to fill up! We kept trekking on and finally made it to a beautiful lake that ended with another glacier. I should also mention how gorgeous the lakes are because of their colour. They are the most gorgeous pale blue colour due to glacier flour. It mixes with water from the streams where the heavier particles sink to the bottom of the lake. Then all the colours of the rainbow are absorbed except blue which then reflects off which makes for a beautiful blue lake! After spending some time admiring the lake we made our way back to the car, about an hour and a half walk, and headed back to Alexandra.

 We haven't planked for a while, so we planked the second swing bridge.. SCARY! 

 How amazing is this??

Sunday morning we woke up early and got all dolled up for the Cromwell horse races. We went with a couple of guys from Alex that we know. We took a bus over and set up a little camp and just sat and watched the races all day. Ellen and Alex bet through out the day and had a few small wins but I was too chicken, so I just sat and enjoyed the day in the sun. It was so much fun, until I woke up Monday morning with sun-burnt lips and a sun-burnt forehead!

Over all it was another truly amazing, fabulous weekend! I feel like I am just babbling as I try to type in all the details of my weekend.  My trip has honestly been something that I can't describe with words. Everything about it has been amazing and so hard to type into a blog! Coming home will be great in the sense that I get to see so many people I miss, but it will be truly be a sad day leaving such an amazing country!


Until my next adventure, take care!

Michelle

Week One... again!

Hi friends!

Look at me go, blogging twice in one week, I can feel how impressed you are... Well be prepared to be even more amazed.... I have compiled a little video of our first week in New Zealand. It is made up of my favorite videos and pictures from our first week together. Hope you enjoy it!! (And just a forewarning, it is 14.5 minutes long, but hey that sums up a WHOLE WEEK!)

Much love,

Michelle

Thanksgiving in Alexandra

Well here I am at school, about to start making plans for my writing lessons this week, when I thought blogging sounded more fun! (And I don't need my lesson until tomorrow anyways ;))

This was our first weekend not traveling and it turned out to be a lot of fun! We decided that since we weren't going to be home for Thanksgiving this year, we would have it here and invite people from school that we work with. We cooked a big turkey (and by we I mean Ellen) and all made our favorite dishes from home. Everyone had a good time and really seemed to enjoy the food. They were excited to celebrate with us, none of them had been invited to previous Thanksgivings held by ISU students before. I think it earned us some brownie points! I'm excited to graze on left over turkey and other left overs all week. This morning I am eating left over strawberry fluff for breakfast, what could be better??

 The roomies with our feast!

The fooooood! :)

Now that our Thanksgiving weekend is over I am slightly depressed starting another week. The weeks here seem to fly by so fast and we only have three weeks left! It is such a sad thing to think of how much time I have left. There is still so much I want to see and do. Not to mention going home to cold weather doesn't seem like any fun at all! It will be good seeing everyone for Christmas. I have been getting lots of emails from Emma and she has sent me a couple of hugs, so it will be fun to see the kids again and get some real hugs! Until then, I am excited to squeeze in as much as possible in these last three and a half weeks!

Until next time,

Michelle

Weekend Update!

Greetings Mates!

It's about six on Tuesday evening and I thought, "Hey, why not update my blog?!" Last week was super busy but lots of fun!

As you may have read in my last post the roommates and I had quite a few dinner dates last week which was awesome. Our supervisor from Iowa State, Ann, was here. It was really nice having her. We spent a lot of time with her eating and at school. It was fun to have her come watch us and to just chat about how things are going. Friday night Krystal and I went walking with her along the river before she took us all out to dinner.

After din din we headed to Queenstown for the weekend. We didn't have many plans when we left, just knew we wanted to shop and go out for some drinks! We had a lot of fun the first night and met some fun people. Then on Saturday we spent our day shopping which was super fun and then decided to take the gondola ride that everyone was telling us about. The gondola ride was gorgeous!! On the way up we saw the most amazing rainbow! It had been spitting earlier, so it was perfect timing! At the top of the gondola there is a really cool luge course. We spent a couple of hours there and had a blast! It was so funny looking back at pictures and videos (mostly from Ellen).  After the luge course and gondola ride back down we went to Fergburger to eat. It's a really popular burger place with HUGE burgers. However, I was a little let down until my second trip there later in the evening.

After a nice nap we started getting ready to go out for the night. The hostel we stayed at had no mirrors in the room, so the girls were getting ready in the bathroom when we met another guy staying at our hostel. He invited us to hang out with his friends so of course we did. Three of them were from Christchurch and two of them were from San Diego. We had a really good time with them, they were fun guys to just find in the bathroom! We went to a few bars in Queenstown and went back to Fergburger (which was much better the second time around).

Over all it was a really great weekend. I was happy to come back to Alexandra and get to skype with my good friend Michelle. It's always good seeing my friends, especially since I haven't seen most of them in person or on skype in over a month! When Monday rolled around I had an easy school day luckily. I spent most of Sunday watching movies, so no lesson planning got done! After school we had Ann over for tea. It was her last night in town and it was really fun. We played dominoes and drank wine and chatted. She also brought us some groceries which was both funny and nice.. she said she was impressed with how well we were feeding ourselves!

This week is a crazy one! We are doing lots of arts in our rooms so my lesson planning has gone down quite a bit. I call Tuesday my 'P.E.' day. I start with teaching swimming in the morning, then dance after lunch, and ending the day with coaching year 3/4 t-ball. So Tuesday's also involve a little less planning, but take a lot more energy! This Tuesday ended up being terrific because I got to skype with Taylor and plan a skype date with Emily, these two things made me more than elated! If I weren't so lazy I would add in some pictures, but you can always see them on facebook!

Take care and be safe!

Michelle

Full Belly!

Hello mates!

I can't believe tomorrow is Thursday already! I have had a great week, so I thought it would be a good time to share (as well as put off lesson planning!)

To start this blog, I must tell you about all the yummy food I have been/will be eating this week! (Hence the title Full Belly!) On Tuesday the roommates and I were invited to one of the associate teacher's homes for dinner. She made us a delicious roasted lamb with potato wedges and lots of veggies. It was so nice to have a home cooked meal again! It was fun getting to know her and her family. Definitely made for a better Tuesday night then sitting around watching TV! Tonight our ISU supervisor arrived and she took up to eat at a little restaurant in Clyde called The Post Office. Once again, the food was amazing. Krystal and I split a chicken and honey mustard cheese burger and chicken lip (fingers). I think the best part was the aoli is came with! It is a dipping sauce that is used quite a bit here. It has sour cream and garlic in it, very good and unhealthy :). We finished dinner with dessert and tea, which I have grown to love! I can't remember the name of my dessert, but it was so good, I wish it was a never ending plate! It was fun to sit down and chat with Ann and tell her all about school. It was fun to see someone from home too! Tomorrow night Ann is taking all of the associate teachers out to dinner. I am sure it will be a great time. We all have really great teachers we work with so it will be fun to have a social night to get to everyone better!

School has also been really great this week. My students have been so focused! Every year at the Terrace School the Life Education bus comes for a couple of weeks. It is a bus that travels around NZ to school and teaches the kids various things with the help of Harold the giraffe. This year our kids will be learning about friendship, so Maria had asked me to do a friendship unit to go along with what they will be learning. Today I taught my second lesson. In my plans I have left a lot of time for discussion in small groups and then sharing time in large group. Each and every one of my student's has participated and it's been wonderful! There are a handful of kids who I have never seen raise their hands, so seeing them so involved has been a good boost this week!

Our classroom has also been filled with creative kids! We have been focusing on narrative writing this term. I have been trying to help the kids be more imaginative and creative in their writing. We have been talking about ways to expand stories and the importance of using lots of verbs and adjectives. On Tuesday I was giving a lesson on using more verbs and some how we began talking about how 'said' is a boring word. On my white board I wrote "New words for said." I told all the students by the end of the day they should write a word on the board. It was great! We banned the word 'said' from our writing and now have a list of 30 alternative words. Today we came up with new words for 'happy' and tomorrow we will think of new ideas for 'walk.' It has been soooo awesome to see the things my students have come up with! It has made for a euphoric teacher!

I hope you are all having wonderful weeks back home! I have heard it's snowing in Iowa.. I'd like to say I'm bummed to be missing it, but I'm not. Sadly it was raining here today, hoping for better weather tomorrow.

In a while crocodiles,

Michelle

There's no doubt, Doubtful Sound was Amazing!

Hello all! It has been a while since I have taken the time to blog and to be honest there wasn't much to blog about. Everyday it feels more like home here, so with that there are fewer exciting things happening.

However, I don't want you to think I am leading a boring life by any means! In fact, this weekend my roommates and I traveled to Doubtful Sound in the southwestern corner of New Zealand. While it is called a sound it is really a fjord. A fjord (pronounced fee-or-d) is a long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs typically formed by the submergence of a glaciated valley- to be exact. In more simple terms it is an amazing place carved out by glaciers a really, really long time ago. You may be wondering why it is called Doubtful Sound if it is really a fjord, that I can not tell you. What I can tell you is a sound is very similar and that when it was first discovered they named it wrong, same as Milford Sound.

Now that you know what Doubtful is I can tell you all about our journey getting there. Towards the end of last week our spring weather vanished and it seemed like the Iowans had brought along our yucky weather. It was rainy and cold outside. When we woke up Thursday morning the hills were COVERED in snow (luckily none down by us!) and the weather went down hill from there. Friday morning we awoke to the a rainy day and to make matters worse, we had hung clothes to dry the night before. None the less shortly after the school day was over we hit the road and started our trek to Manapouri.

Our drive was snow covered, but luckily we had a good driver, Alex, who always seems to get stuck driving at the worst times! We made pretty good timing and arrived in Manapouri around 8:30. We stayed at a little holiday park/campground in a tiny, and very cheap, cabin. Though it wasn't the nicest of accommodations, we had a lot of fun there and only 200m away from our cabin there was a bar. Since it happened to be the fifth of November the whole town (of 300 people) was outside the bar around a huge bonfire celebrating Gui Fawkes day. It was so much fun. Along with the fire there was fireworks, an island dancer and a fire thrower. 

 Our scary drive! Ekk!

 Our quaint and cold cabin.

The girls at the bonfire. 

The next morning we woke up and got ready to catch our bus to Doubtful Sound. When we got outside we sadly noticed the ground was covered in snow. It definitely felt more like we were at home and not in New Zealand. I was beginning to wonder if this trip would be worth my money. On top of the snow is was freezing and foggy. Nonetheless was I still excited to see what the day had to bring. Our first bus took us to a boat which took us across Lake Manapouri. It was about an hour ride and because of the fog it was hard to see the beautiful scenery surrounding us. When we got off the boat we got onto our second bus which proceeded to take us underground to the Manapouri Power Station. Along the way our driver informed us that in the winter it is unusal to see as much snow as they had and it is less then a month till summer. At point we almost got stuck and he had to go out and put chains on our tires. It was a scary moment as we were on the pass of the mountain with no where to go but down! Finally we made it to the Manapouri Power Station.  It is an underground power station and probably New Zealand's biggest engineering accomplishment built back in the 60's. Sounds a wee big dorky, but was a very cool thing to see. 

 The winder wonderland we awoke too.

 Our Scary drive up the mountain!

 Finally in the fjord! (Out of order, sorry!)

 The power station

 Our group on the second boat (Also in the wrong order)

After the power station we got onto our second boat which took us into Doubtful. It was beautiful, freezing cold and raining, but still amazing! Being there was very comparable to Jurassic Park. Everything was untouched. It rains about 200 days a year there which makes for 100's of gorgeous waterfalls. The mountains were covered in trees. Every once in a while you would see a bare spot or a spot only covered in moss. The mountains have no top soil so the trees are simply held in place by each other, like they are 'holding hands.' If there is an earthquake or something else to disrupt them, they all come down. Like an avalanche of trees! Eventually they grow back, but it takes about 150 years to reach full size again. 

The whole cruise was amazing, but my two favorite parts were the waterfalls and seeing penguins. For those of you who don't know, I am in love with penguins. I think they are the cutest little animals. Lucky me, I got to see four Fiordland's Crusted Penguins! Needless to say I was excited as a kid on Christmas morning! I also loved seeing and standing under one of the waterfalls! It was beautiful and a really fun experience, even in the cold weather. Our tour guide kept talking about how clean the water was, so Ellen and I also decided to fill our glasses up and take a drink!

 Excited to be on the boat!

 Drenched after filling up our glasses!

 Cute little penguins!

 Happy as can be!

 Before we got soaked (not sure why they are out of order...)

 My reaction to seeing penguins outside of a zoo!

After a few hours in the fjord we began our journey back home. This included going back down the snow covered mountain which was surprisingly less scary, we even got to play in the snow! After getting back to our cabin we went back to the bar for a yummy kiwi dinner and headed home in the morning. The weather on the way home was much nicer and we realized how much beautiful scenery we missed on the way there!

 I felt right at home!

 Krystal made a snowman!

 The view across from our cabin Sunday morning.

Our drive home along the coast. 

One of my favorite things about New Zealand is how it keeps changing. Usually it is the scenery you drive by, but this weekend is was the weather. Hard to believe all of these pictures were taken with 72 hours of each other! If you are still reading, many thanks! This was a long blog, but what can I say, I had an amazing weekend and felt the need to share it all!

Peace and blessings!

Michelle

The Terrace School

Hello friends!

I thought I would take the time to 'show you around' my new school tonight. I absolutely love the layout of the Terrace School. Everything is very open and you are constantly outside. The classrooms are all separate buildings, it is so different, but I love it! The openness of the school is also nice because it allows all the kids to be outside at once. All 360 kids eat outside at the same time and have playtime, or recess, together.

 A couple pictures of my beautiful and colorful classroom!

 One the 'hallways'

The two main playgrounds.

As you can see, I have a pretty nice set up here! I will for sure be sad to leave. It's just such a happy and easy going atmosphere. I feel like it fits me perfectly!

Until next time,

Michelle

Thursday Night Hike!

Kia Ora!

I am glad to report that I have finally climbed up to the clock in our sweet little town of Alexandra! When we first arrived our vice dean, Mick, pointed it out to us. It is a huge white clock that sits on one of the many hills (more like a mini mountain) in Alex. I like it best to help me with directions when I am driving. I always follow the clock to get home and so far it hasn't done me wrong!

Yesterday we had the most beautiful weather so we decided to take a family hike and it was so much fun! It took us about 45 minutes to get to the top, but when we got there to view was breathtaking. You could see all of Alex sitting right in front of a landscape of mountains with the sun shinning so brightly over it all. We stayed at the top forever soaking up the view and taking TONS of pictures (something we are quite good at).  Over all it was a great way to have fun on a boring Thursday night and a good way to get in a wee bit of a workout. Here are just a few of the many pictures taken!

 The clock in the distance, looks so small!

 Krystal and I glad to have made it to the top!

 Ahhhh! We almost fell off!

 Jumping for joy.. a common theme I have in NZ! I love how gorgeous the background is!

Spelling our emotions for this place with our shadows.. so deep ;)

New School Excitment!

Hello friends! Today completes my second day at the Terrace School and I am quite fond of it here! I was a wee bit nervous coming into this experience, especially the last few days leading up to Tuesday (no thanks to Krystal!), but I really love it here! I am in a year five and six room with 25 students. The kids are all so, so sweet and so is my teacher! I love their accents, it makes the kids even more adorable.

A lot of the things are very similar to classrooms in the States, however there are many differences as well! The most noticeable difference is that all of the classrooms are in separate buildings and it is so odd! I have always been in schools where all of the classrooms are connected and in one building.  There are around 360 students in our school and all of the students go out to 'playtime' at once. That means there are kids ages 5-13 running around while the teacher sit in the lounge and enjoy tea time! It is a nice morning break and there is always yummy food to snack on. The learning style is different as well. There are various learning groups for each subject and they change as needed. Small groups are also used in the States, but definitely not to the same degree. I am rather interested to see how it affects student's learning. It has been interesting to get used to the spelling differences. For example they spell realize as 'realise' and when there is an 'or' in a word like color, they use 'our.' I think I will begin to catch on eventually, but right now it's a bit confusing.

Right now the kids are my favorite part of being here! They all want to be at school and I have never seen a classroom with absolutely no behavior issues. I have only been here two days, but it is quite obvious that I am really blessed with a great group of kids. Our seasons are oppisite here, so the kids only have about seven weeks of school left and they will be on summer vacation. I got pretty lucky as to see the begging on the school year at Monore and the end of the school year at Terrace.

I am sure I will have a wonderful experience here! I am sure I will have many stories and fun things to share as my time here progresses.

Until then,

Michelle

End of Vacation!

I am finally back in Alex after an awesome road-trip!! I saw so many awesome parts on New Zealand this week and had a great time!

Last night was one of the most fun experiences I’ve had! The NZ All Blacks won the rugby world cup against France. It was a really fun game to watch, even though I didn’t understand all of what was going on. We watched the game at a local bar in Dunedin called the Baaa (like what sheep say) and it was so amazing when they won. The whole crowd went crazy! Rugby is a huge deal in New Zealand. This year they moved holidays, school schedules and even daylights savings because of the world cup. This is the first time NZ has won in over 20 years so I was very lucky to get to experience it!

After the game we went down to the Octagon, it is the main bar area of town, a lot like Welch Ave in Ames, but much larger! There were so many people out celebrating, it was super fun. We stayed in the Octagon for a while and then went to a smaller bar called Fever. It was an actual discoteka and it was hilarious! They had a floor that lit up and played all sorts of music from the 70’s.

We met a ton of cool people last night. One of Ellen’s friends from ISU, Bret, is studying abroad in Dunedin and had an empty room in his flat for us to stay in. It was fun hanging out with other college kids from all over the place! Dunedin was definitely a great town to spend a couple of nights in!

On our little road trip I learned some fun Kiwi phrases. It is hard to get used to them, but they are super fun. Here are some of the terms I have learned…

Sheans: Wearing tennis shoes and jeans together.

Jandals: Flip-flops

Sweet As: A short saying for sweet as all hell

Rubbish: Garbage, they never say garbage

Wee: A little, “A wee town”

Cheers: Thank you. I love this one, they always say it!

It is nice to be home and relaxing a big. Tomorrow is our first day at school and I am pretty excited to meet the kids and all the staff. I am nervous, but I think it will be lots of fun!

I’ll be sure to update about school, soon! Cheers!

Michelle

On The Road Again!

Yesterday we made it Christchurch. I was really sure what to expect when we got there with all of the damage from the Earthquakes, but it was pretty devastating. The whole town centre is shut down and it really feels like you are walking through a ghost town. It was a very eye-opening and sad thing to see.

Not all of Christchurch was sad though! We found another nice hotel to stay at. When we got there we started looking at various brochures trying to find something to do. We looked into hot air balloons, but they were a little pricy so we found one for a place called High Adrenaline Forest. At first I thought it would be a zip-lining thing and I was pretty excited. It was super cheap and seemed fun! We all laughed when we read that is was emotionally and physically challenging; we soon realized they weren’t kidding! When we got there we didn’t have to sign anything, we just paid our money and got a super short lesson on what some of the ‘obstacles’ would be. It started out pretty easy. We would climb various things to get higher in trees and we would zip-line. There were six courses. Number one was easy, so we skipped two and moved to three. Three had it’s challenges but wasn’t bad so we moved on to five. Five was pretty challenging. The obstacles were super high up and required a ton of strength. Six was down right HARD! We saw two or three people get stuck after the second and third challenges, but we were not going to leave without doing it! It was scary because there were no safety nets under us, just the forest ground, and we were responsible for hooking our harness to the various safety wires. We were doing pretty well until about the seventh obstacle where you clipped onto a rope and then jumped over NOTHING into a spider web-type net. It was by far the scariest moment of my life. I screamed bloody murder the whole time! We were 60 feet above the ground and the jump was about twenty feet wide. SO scary! After I finished I felt so accomplished! We went to the beach for a little bit after the forest and then headed back to our motel.

We went to the local mall next where we learned that clothes in New Zealand are great, but SUPER pricey! For dinner we went to a pizza place outside the mall. They had amazing pizza! We ordered garlic bread and a Caesar pizza.  Probably some of the best pizza I have ever had! We ate and a few drinks before heading back ‘home.’

Today we drove all the way to Dunedin. We stopped a few times a long the way. We stopped in a super cute town called Timaru. I absolutely loved it!! It was super cute and right on the coast. We also stopped and saw the Moeraki boulders. They are these huge boulders that are perfect circles. The beach that they were on was COVERED in sea shells. I was so beautiful, a really neat thing to see. Tonight we are staying in a hostel and I am pretty excited, as I have never stayed in one before. There is one other person staying in our ‘dorm.’

I am excited to see all that Dunedin has to offer! It is fun being back in a college town, especially one so big. Tomorrow night is the final game in the Rugby World Cup. New Zealand in playing again France, so it is a great time to be here!

As usual,

Michelle

Road Trip, Day One!

Today we began our first New Zealand road trip! Since we don’t start school until Tuesday we have five days of free time. I have always wanted to pack up my car and just drive with no specific plans and that is pretty much what we are doing! We know we are going to Christchurch by driving up through the middle of the island and then we will be driving to Dunedin along the coast, but those are our only plans!

We had a lot of fun today just driving and stopping at random places. We have seen so many gorgeous parts of New Zealand already. It is pretty amazing to just drive. One minute we were in the mountains and the next we were driving through fields of sheep. We stopped at a few places today. First at the Clyde dam, then Lake Pukaki and finally lake Tekapo. The second two lakes we stopped at were so amazing! They were extremely blue due to glacier run off. It was amazing! Lake Pukaki was my favorite. Krystal and I climbed down a ton of rocks to get to the water, but it was totally worth it.

We continued driving until we got to Ashburton. We are about an hour away from Christchurch. Our plan is to go in the morning and find a place to stay. Our hotel tonight is great. Hotels are super cheap and they all have a kitchen. They also give you milk when you get there for the morning, it’s pretty awesome!

Until next time!

Michelle

Goodbye America, Helloooo New Zealand!

Kia ora! I am finally here in Alexandra, New Zealand after more than 36 hours of travel! While we have only been here a few hours I am already in love with this country. Everything about it is beautiful and so far the people have been very nice.

My flights went very well. I started in Cedar Rapids and had four different flights. First to Dallas, then L.A., next to Auckland, and finally in Queenstown. I met up with my roommates (Alex, Ellen, and Krystal) in Dallas. It was so much more fun to travel with others. Our flight from California to Auckland was very long, thirteen and a half hours, however, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I was anticipating! The seats were very comfy and we were supplied with a blanket, a pillow, a sleeping mask, toothbrush and paste and two (very yummy) meals. We had movies, TV, music, and games on demand, which certainly helped the flight go by faster as well. Shortly after getting on the plane we were fed dinner and dessert (around 3a.m. Iowa time) and when were done they brought us a ‘snack bag’ to get us through the night. Then all the lights were shut off and it was finally time for bed! Sleeping was not the best, but I managed to get quite a bit of sleep in! In the morning they brought us a warm breakfast and slowly turned on the lights. They started with an organish light, so it looked like the sun rising! After that we got off our plane in Auckland there was a lot of confusion with my bags and the person checking us in that we got on our plane only 5 minutes before take off. But we made it and the flight was nice and short.

In Queenstown we were greeted by Mick, he is the Assistant Dean at our school. He drove us the hour home and was a super fun, nice guy! On the way home he drove us around Queenstown and we stopped at the AJ Hackette Bridge. This is the place where we will be bungee jumping in the near future. I had seen pictures online, but seeing it in person was so scary! I’m not sure how I will be able to do it!  We then stopped in a small town about 20 minutes outside of Alex for lunch. I ordered a steak sandwich and Krystal ordered a chicken kebab wrap, which we spilt. They were both DELICOUS, but I think the sandwich was one of the best I’ve ever had! Then we finally got to Alex and got to drive around the town and see the Terrace School where we will be teaching.  Then Mick took us to our house and introduced us to our proprietor, Denise.

Our house is really nice and cute. It is more spacious then I was expecting. Alex has his own room and bathroom (the bathroom is actually outside of our house) and Krystal, Ellen, and I are sharing a room and bathroom. We have a large living room and kitchen area as well. When we got to the house we were surprised and excited to see that Denise and some people from our school had left us food, wine and beer. While in NZ we have a van to help us get around. It was so funny driving for the first time when Mick had left us. Krystal got to drive first and it was pretty hilarious trying to remember to stay on the left side of the road! Ellen also took a shot driving on our way to the grocery store. We got a little bit of food for tonight. Everything was VERY expensive! It seemed like everything cost twice as much as it would at home!

Last night we unpacked all of our stuff and got settled in. This morning I got to Skype with mom and dad which was really fun! We don’t begin teaching until Tuesday so with our long break we are planning on traveling. We are not sure where we will begin yet, but our plan is to end up in Dunedin, a college town, to watch the Rugby World Cup. It takes place in Auckland and the New Zealand All Blacks are playing against France.

I can already tell I am going to love it here! It is so beautiful. Every morning when I walk out the door I will be seeing mountains. I am really enjoying my roommates as well. I think we are all going to ‘mesh’ together very nicely. So far I am not feeling too jet lagged. I went to bed around nine o’clock last night, or three in the morning at home, and didn’t find it too hard to stay up.  I am excited for everything that lies ahead! I can’t wait to meet more people and do new things. It will be very fun and interesting getting used to the kiwi lingo, but I think it will be easy to pick up. Stay tuned for what comes next!

Pumpkin Patch Fun!

With only two days left in the good ol' United States I wanted to spend sometime with some of my favorite kids! For the past three years I have gone along with Kayla (my cousin's wife) and her daughters Emma and Nora to our local pumpkin patch. It is so much fun and there is a ton of stuff to do for free, overall the perfect way to spend an afternoon. They have a corn box, basically a sand box, and the kids love it! It was even more fun this year because we had Will too. He wasn't too phased by anything, but still fun. :) The girls also had fun feeding the animals and crawling on hay bails. Emma was a pretty big chicken at first, but she was a pro by the time we left! As they say pictures are worth a thousand words, so here are 5000!

Nora feeding the donkey.

Emma and I lost in corn maze, we never did make it to the end!

In the corn box!

Corn box again!

Nora having fun!

Goodbye Goodies!

Well today was a super sad, yet exciting today! I finished my first student teaching placement! I was so sad to leave all of the students behind, but excited to move on to New Zealand! The kids were so sweet.... they gave me close to a million hugs and kept telling me they were going to miss me. It made me feel so loved and special! Sadly, my cooperating teacher was not at school today and we had a sub, so yesterday the kids gave me the sweetest gift. About a week ago they made a canvas tote for me with all of their names and hand prints on it. Some how NONE of the kids spilled the beans and it was a total surprise. It was filled with all sorts of fun teacher/school supplies. Markers, pens, note pads, stickers and lots of things. It was so sweet, when they gave it to me they had the biggest smiles on their faces. They were so proud!! Here is a picture of the front and back..

And of course I had to make something for my students and Amy (my cooperating teacher)! I made Amy a sign to hang outside her room. I bought a little plaque from Wally World for a buck and some scrap-booking stickers. Then I used some paper I had at home, some paint and mod podge. It turned out so cute and she LOVED it. It said "Mrs. Boyles' Room," sadly I forgot to take a picture before I have it to her! I made the kids each a little goodie bag. It had a poem attached to it that said..

I'm glad I was your teacher

I've come to love you so.

I can't believe the end is here.

I hate to have to go.

Remember all the fun we had

in all the things we did,

But most of all remember...

You're a very special kid!

Inside you will find:

Chocolate hugs and kisses, to remind you that you’re loved..

An eraser, to remind you it’s okay to make mistakes..

Smarties, to remind you exactly how smart you are..

A penny, to remind you to use good sense..

A marker, to remind you to leave a good mark wherever you go..

A Band-Aid, to remind you to heal hurt feelings, either yours or someone else’s.

I found the poem online and had seen a lot of similar goodie bags before so I just did my own little spin on them! The kids were really excited today when I gave them the bags!

The goodies inside...

And the final bags!

Now it's time to move onto packing to head across the pond! I am already thinking of what to give my students there! I think I will do similar bags, I am also bringing them some new books for their class library, hopefully some new books they haven't read yet!