Our Beginnings at Colwill

We're back in primary school! The beginning of the year is always so exciting, and a little chaotic, so we're loving it!

But before we started school and after our trip...

Kerry took us fishing! Alexis and I often sat at the end of the boat to fish which was probably not my best idea and here's why: Within 5 minutes of getting situated up there, I broke the boat! Kerry told me to scoot back, so I did, but I scooted onto the window of the hatch which is apparently plastic and I BROKE IT. How awkward... "Did I do that?" Erkel style. Kerry was cool with it (don't worry mom, told him I'd pay for it...still waiting for my total to come in though) and we continued to fish. Then Alexis and I were having a little competition that involved dangling our feet in the water, but when I went to stand up, my slippery, wet foot slipped and I rammed my shin into the safety bar and I could have sworn I broke my leg. Fo rills. (I didn't cry though, cause I know you were thinking that.) When the throbbing stopped approximately 3 minutes later and discovered I could walk (it's a miracle!) I felt a little stupid for assuming the worst (although I told no one I got hurt) and figured I'd at least have a sweet bruise to show for it. That night I told Sheryl about my misfortune and she gave me Arnica cream (that might be way off) that was supposed to reduce the bruising (I wasn't buying into it) but I put it on cause she was standing there watching me and I couldn't just say "No thanks, that's balogna" and guess what: NO BRUISE. I was disappointed, not gonna lie.

We caught a total of 13 snapper that day, this being the one HUGE one Jessica caught (the rest were all the size of the pictured above) so we brought him home after Kerry so gruesomly destroyed his brain while on the boat so cook him up. I was scared but he was delicious! (Alexis named him Chompers which made the execution and cooking/eating that much harder for us all) When we were taking these pictures Kerry gave us a tip to hold it as far away from you as possible to make it look huge, but he really was this big, I promise! While we were fishing Kerry kept saying there was no use for fish finders that day because the other boats could just listen for all the squealing we made each time someone caught a fish... it's probably true, we were pathetic, very obviously newbs.

I started my practicum on the following Monday in Ms. Khan/ Ms. Whitehouse's Year 1 and 2 class. Year 1 is like our kindergarten and 2 like first grade, so 5 and 6 year olds! The past two weeks have been good, but a little bit of an adjustment from American schools. We came here to learn about their teaching methods and were told to not take anything away from their discipline and it has been surprising to see why. Their system is basically yell until you've scared them. I simply can't do that, and my teachers have said things like "Your voice doesn't really carry" or "You have to have different tones: one for when you are nice and one so they know when they have crossed the line" or "Did they meet your expectation? No? Now blast at them" but from my experience in the American schools, a teacher can be even more effective when they use a soft, quiet voice, and it is possible to have a quiet, peaceful classroom. I'm still figuring out what to do, but I figure if I can keep them quiet enough to teach them something while keeping their dignity in tack, then I can do my own thing with discipline once I'm back home.

I was excited to get the youngest because the younger they are usually means the funnier they are. I've been writing down the funny things I hear, and realize that most of them are from the same couple people. I guess the others just need to share their insight with me more (maybe the others just aren't quite as creative with their thinking yet...) Here are some of my favorite things:

Sam starts playing with my arm hair and says: You don't have black feathers! (Unfortunately he was disrupting so I had to cut him off and didn't get to hear him elaborate)

Ms. W got something wrong when she was teaching and says: Well teachers don't know everything, ya know?
Selwyn: YES THE DO! (very emotionally)
Ms. W: No, they really don't.
Selwyn: YES. THEY. DO!

Levi: I had electric shock one day. On my foot.
Benjamin: Did you die?
Levi: No, it just hurt.

Levi: Did you know there are real baby dragonflies? There are. They breathe just a little bit of fire. I saw a real dragonfly that breathed heaps of fire at my friend's house. That's why I came to New Zealand. My friend's was in Australia.

Ms. W: Why is spider scared of bird?
Levi: Because he might eat his brains up!
moments later... Levi: Birds eat cats. (Very matter-of-fact-ly and kind of to himself.)

I read a book called When Henry had Imaginitis and I asked if anyone knew what "imagination" meant, Levi raised his hand, took a deep breath and said: Katie Perry once said, "If you live within your imagination, you will get everything you want."

Ms. W: So tonight when you're having a shower, think about if you gave this notice to mum and dad.
Selwyn: So do we have to have a shower?

We were discussing the Christchurch earthquake and Levi brought up the Australia floods: My cousin Jessie was on a plan to Australia when it was flooding.
Ms. K: Is she alright?
Levi: Yes, she's still on the plane.

Today I overheard a conversation between Levi, Kyara, and Ana at lunch about the Easter Bunny and God, but I could mostly just hear Levi's side of it...
Ana: You can't ever see the Easter Bunny, eh?
Levi: No, you can't. You have to stay asleep or God will come down and growl at you. You can't see God cause he's in the sky...(they must have carried on about God)... I saw a picture of God once, so that means he's real.

Imagine all of those in a New Zealand accent, with many more "eh?" added in. So great. Pictures of cute children to come soon.

I like this whole teacher thing, kids hand you stuff all day (and you take away distractions) and its sometimes fun to look down into your hands and realize what you've been holding for the past hour. At one point today it was a price tag, a huge pencil case covered in blue dragons, two broken pencils, a stack of papers, and a Barbie microphone.

Something I learned this week: kids will do ANYTHING for stickers. The shinier the better.

This age is also entertaining because they are so often in their own world, and hear what they want to hear. For example, we played heads down thumbs up yesterday and only two people had their thumbs squeezed each round, but without fail we had at least 5-7 kids stand up each round when we asked who's thumbs were squeezed.

I haven't stopped singing this song since I first heard it 11 days ago.

Last weekend we went to Point Chev beach on Friday (we get Fridays off, excellent set up) and just bummed on the beach literally all day. No pictures, so sorry.

On Saturday we spent the morning at Kodie's 2nd birthday party at a huge play place. That night we went into Auckland and went around the Chinese Lantern Festival (they've been celebrating the Chinese new year for like a month, it's not exactly NEW anymore, is it people?) There were lanterns galore (would have been cooler at night) and a whole street lined with food vendors. This was one of the best moments of my weekend:

Me: Are those oysters?
Heidi: No, I think muscles.
Together: So many muscles!

We thought it was funny :)

That night we went to our first rugby game. It was so much more exciting than anticipated! I expected it to be a lot like football, but it was so much more entertaining to watch because it's fast-paced, plays are much longer/ the clock doesn't stop, they have big fire shooters for when the home team scores, everyone is super into it, rugby players are FINE (dibs on the blues' kicker #10)
(or the entire cantebury crusaiders team), plus we were watching guys that play for the All Blacks! I decided that its a perfect mix of wrestling, soccer, and cheerleading because they do essentially wrestle, the movement around the field is more like a soccer-type of sport, and they throw one guy up in the air like a cheerleading stunt everytime a ball is thrown in bounds. I'd like to apologize for those sitting close to us for the group of loud and stupid American girls sitting by them who asked a question every time someone else touched the ball, or didn't touch the ball.

This is the first (and quite possibly only) time in my life that I would have a summer birthday! So my day started out great when I got to school and both my teacher and my teacher aid had brought me chocolate cakes, as well as a boquet of flowers! They are too sweet. I let the whole staff have at one of the cakes in the staff room during morning tea, so the entire thing was gone by the end which was good news for my hips. That night I went to dinner in another part of the city to an Indian resturant (I have had SO much Indian food since being here, it is fantastic!) and it was, of course, so good. At the end of the dinner they brought out a cake that Sheryl had made at her favorite little cake joint and they decorated it like a Reese's heart! So funny because Sheryl always makes it sound like I rave on and on about Reese's, so she stole one of mine and the guy did a SOLID job making it look exactly the same. She makes so much fun of us "American girls and their peanut butter" because I have gotten Reese's holiday shapes (one of the best candies known to man, duh. Second only to Reese's crispy crunchy bar.) in 3 out of 4 packages I have recieved here. Plus peanut butter m&m's. They don't have any Reese's here so I am so grateful to the love I have been shown through these packages.

Afterwards, Kerry took the kids home to bed and Sheryl and Raewyn (Sheryl's mom who lives here too) took Heidi and I to Mt. Eden which is the highest point in the city and you can see the whole city in every direction. It's best to go at night so you can see the lights. It is actually a volcano and it has a huge crater at the top, looks like an excellent sledding hill. The best part of this experience was listening to Sheryl and Raewyn carry on. They tease each other so much and they make each other laugh SO HARD that they're both crying and we can no longer understand a word they are saying. Sheryl (who I'd say is in her late 30's) even started driving away from the gas station as Raewyn came out from paying and was beside herself when we heard Raewyn yelling from outside. This picture is funky, but you get the idea :)

My birthday was made complete with a phone call to my mom and a surprise boquet of my favorite- sunflowers! From a secret admirer? Thanks to you, mystery man!