An incredible weekend in NZ...

This past week has just been a whirlwind of emotions. Things have been a little tough at my school because my teacher has been sick, so I pretty much taught most of last week on my own. It was good, it was bad, it was ugly, but all in all, I learned a lot from it. Most of all I learned:

• I have to be clearer with my instructions
• I can have fun and still be strict
• I have a long way to go, and that's the "beautiful" thing about teaching
• I won't be perfect right away (which is frustrating.... but I have to accept that)
• Kids are incredibly forgiving
• When I want to get mad at the kids for a good day, most of the time I realize that they were bad because of something that I did (or didn't) do.
• My supervisor is incredible because she has all kinds of good things to say!!

My supervisor came in on Thursday afternoon and everything went BEAUTIFULLY. I felt so comfortable and confident and had really planned a great afternoon. Friday didn't go as well, but all of the kids are working on computers and there just weren't enough computers to go around. It was stressful.

This past week I've been working on applying for my teaching

license. It's been a real pain in the butt because I have to get it notarized and then sent back to the UW. It wouldn't be a problem, but the US doesn't recognize notarization without authentication from the US Embassy. Which ALSO wouldn't be a problem, but the Wellington embassy (Wellington IS the capital by the way...) doesn't have the service I need... so I have to send it to the Auckland Embassy. What a pain in the butt!!!! So now it's going to cost a lot of money and unneeded hassle, but at least it's all figured out now.

Friday was Quiz Night at my school. Laura and Chelsea came, but it turns out that 6 people that had signed up didn't end up coming... so there was a small crowd of us.. maybe about 15? It was still TONS of fun and I had a blast. And it was all at the school (which, by the way, has a beer fridge that they use on Friday afternoons after school is over... LOVE it!) That evening, I was finally able to pinpoint why I was so sad here, even though I should be happy every moment of every day... and it's because there are so many BIG things happening back home (aka graduation, emails from my students back home, my sister's and cousin's graduations, my parents' new house getting built, etc...) that I had to miss and it was making me feel really lonely! I decided I needed to start filling the time with adventures, so that's what I did!!!

Saturday, I went for my 7.5 mile run. I thou

ght it was going to be super cold, so I took a hat and layered up (it was also supposed to rain). Turns out it was one of the nicest days we've had here, so I was sweating, dehydrated, and my muscles all tensed up big time. I was pretty miserable. So I took two days off (whoops!!) Ah, well.... my body isn't used to all this stress on it!!!! From here on in, everything but the BIG runs (still have 8, 9, and 10 mile runs left on my training schedule) should be a breeze because I'm FINALLY in shape. Let this be a lesson to me: DON'T STOP RUNNING. IT'S TOO HARD TO GET BACK INTO IT!!!

After the run I spent most of the day laying around doing nothing. I was in SUCH pain, lol. But later that night, our friend Nisha bought us tickets to SAVAGE (let me see your hips SWING!! yeah... he's a Kiwi!!!) vs. Scribe (also Kiwi) concert. It wasn't really my type of music, but beforehand, we went to Annabel's friend's house. I am such a dork and probably sounded like a complete idiot, but the second we walked into the house, from what I saw (and smelled), I felt like I was a character on That 70's Show (which was right at home since it took place in WI!) There was this huge circle of chairs, couches, and love seats in this huge open room with a table in the middle with people dressed like Eric from the show. haha. It was TOOOOO funny and we spent the night laughing at the things these guys said. They're good people, but I don't think I could ever live life day to day like t

hey do. Luckily, I have the choice not to live that way and, Lord willing, I won't have to be in a crunch for money or food in my life. Of course, they CHOSE to live that way, so it brought a little bit of comic relief to the situation, but now that I think about it, it was quite humbling. I'm really lucky...

The concert was LOUD and I was exhausted still, so I went home early (after some lovely BK, of course). I woke up Sunday morning and went to the Food Show 2010 at the stadium. It was incredible and

BEST of all, I got a picture with MasterChef New Zealand (he's a school teacher in the South Island at an Intermediate school who went on the show just to see how far he'd get and he won!!!) I was so star-struck and felt like such a dork, but HAD to get my picture with him and the runner up. It was UNREAL!!!

So I ate my face off for a good hour and a half and walked away spending way more money than I thought I would on stupid things like MAGICAL SHAMMYS (ooooooooo), but that's alright! I took the train to Johnsonville to meet up with Chels, Laura, and Annabel, and then we hopped in Annabel's car and drove up the west coast!

The weather yesterday wasn't so great, but we listened to some tunes and took some fabulous pictures of the Tasman Sea and the mountains on the west side of the country. I FINALLY saw sheep (I know.. how did I last this long without seeing any!?). We went to a beach for a bit, but it wasn't what I think a beach is... so it was a cool experience for me to have. It was covered in twigs, branches, black sand, bricks, tires, all KINDS of stuff. It was just really interesting. It almost made it feel more real.... there's some kind of beauty of a beach just being what it is... without any changes from us. (Well... I guess maybe the bricks and tires were from us...) We found a hostel and took a pretty long nap and then headed off to some delicious dinner (Just talking about all this food is making me feel sick! haha).

This morning we woke up, ate (surprise surprise!), went to a beach for a bit for some pics, then drove to an "outlet mall" (so... just a bunch of stores on the same strip of a street that all just happened to be outlet stores) where I got some running clothes and a headband... whoohoo!! I'm getting awfully excited for my next weekend adventure. The people we met this weekend were incredibly friendly and all wanted to hear our story and how we ended up here, which is so sweet. I feel so loved and important here and it makes me want to be a friendlier person back home! (However, I guess back home it's hard to tell who's vacationing and who's living.. here, our accent pretty much gives away that we're 'vacationers').

Today when I got home, I had so many awesome emails from an ex-boyfriend, some wonderful friends, and my cooperating teacher from the States (thank you, Susan!) and it just put me in the BEST mood. It's always nice to know that even though I've far away, I haven't been forgotten :)

Tomorrow starts my last week in this classroom. My teacher will be gone until Friday so I'll be taking "sole charge" most of the week. However, sole charge includes the cross country run tomorrow (which will most likely take all morning) and then the kids have technology in the afternoon, so I won't see them most of the day. Then Wednesday morning, they do Enrichment, so I'm going to go see Laura and Chelsea's classrooms, which will be fun! So I'll really only have Wednesday afternoon (where they're going to be doing artwork) and Thursday with my kids... but we'll figure out something for them to do! Then next week, it's on to a whole new teacher, a whole new group of kids, and a whole new experience.