Taking a day off

Sometimes God grants women with lovely pain so that they get to miss school for a day. And in that day, they have an excuse to watch movies, cry hysterically, take pills like it's no one's business, do laundry, and EVEN get other things done that they've been meaning to get done for hmmm... 2 months! Today was one of those lovely days.

Last night I followed the NZ soccer game online and fell asleep right before they scored a goal to tie up the game. I heard that it was an awful game to watch, but then an incredible game to watch because of that goal. Whoohoo. I rolled out of bed around 930 and got some laundry done (since I only have one outfit to work out it and I've worked out so far every day this week and last week, my workout clothes were getting ripe. I've now figured out why no one would work out on a machine next to me at the gym. TMI?) I went and hung it up outside. I still can't get over how much I feel like my Gramma when I do that, and I LOVE it. It's like we're connected in some silly way. Except I don't let my skiddies hang out for all the neighbors to see like Gramma.

Then I watched a movie called Dorian Gray. It was one of the first novels that I remember reading and I saw it at the movie shop yesterday and just had to have it. I definitely wasn't disappointed. It even had Colin Firth in it with lots of facial hair... mmmm.

My new favorite lunch food is toast with avocado on top. MMMMmmmm. Luckily I could eat it. My host parents are getting their kitchen redone and we won't have gas back in the house until Saturday (and they disconnected it last Friday), so our meals are all microwaveable. Feels like my childhood, haha (love you, Mom!)

Then I proceeded to finally write to people that were due letters, gather together presents to send home (since there won't be room for them in my suitcases), and write checks that were WAY overdue (sorry Pilgrim Center!). I showered around 4 PM and carried it all down to the post shop. On my way, I picked up a Father's Day card for my dad. I had two choices in a tiny area labeled "UK Father's Day". One choice was a card that I suppose is supposed to be from a 5 year old that had all kinds of bright colors and huge writing and opened up into a huge poster thing. I figured it would probably give my dad a heart attack, so I settled for the "Miss you. A hug just isn't the same over the phone" or something equally cheesy. Ah, well. I still cried in the middle of the post shop when I personalized it. Go figure.

I returned home to an empty house, but a lot of work to get done for tomorrow. My maths group is now working on a mini business that they're going to put into action next week. This is what I LOVE about academia here... we do what we want and what we think is best for the kids at the level they're at! So, for these kids, who scored lowest on the pretest, we decided that real-life situations would be the best for them. SO, we thought the best idea would be to give them a real-life task: to throw a bake sale. BUT, we pulled in a lot of academia into it that for us seem so easy, but for them could be really complicated. The students are in groups of three where they have to choose a recipe, look up the cost of the ingredients at a supermarket in town, have to calculate how much they'll charge per bar depending on how much profit they want, including the fact (possibly) that part of the profit needs to go to Pip (since she's taking all of the money out of her pocket). The kids are all selling on the same day as well, so that'll be interesting. So I've spent the evening planning for tomorrow morning (I'm teaching the whole morning) getting ready to throw all KINDS of math at these kids (the biggest issue is that on the supermarket website, it gives all the measurements in grams whereas most recipes are in cups/tsp/tbsp etc).

Well, more planning needs to be done and then it'll be time for bed!

Funny how I write more about what I did on a day off than I do about things that are actually Kiwi. So I guess I'll include something more "Kiwi" like.

So yesterday I went to work out. I got to the train station about 20 minutes before a train was going to come. I was sitting there, too lazy and tired to take out my ipod or my book. I was piled in bags (workout bag, takeout bag, grocery bag, bookbag) and was taking up a decent amount of space on a bench. A guy came up, looking like he really wanted a place to sit. I squished all my stuff close to me and he said, "Cheers" (love it!) and sat down. I said to him, "Jeez.. with all this stuff, you'd think I'm moving or something." His response: "Are you American or Canadian?" So I guess I can't really hide it, can I? haha. We proceeded to talk and I think my favorite quote that he said was, "Yeah... I like America. I like the people there--all of the people I've interacted with have been incredibly nice." GO AMERICA!!! That was the first time I've EVER been abroad and heard someone say that. We chatted the whole way til my stop. I popped off the train and went to the video store to get some movies. The guy working there asked me if I was from America and I said I was and he said, "Oh, cool! My uncle lives in Connecticut and I've gone to see him a few times. It's nice." Two awesome interactions with Kiwis within half an hour of each other. THEN I stopped at the local dairy (what they call pretty much our equivalent to a gas station without the gas) to get some chocolate because, let's face it, who can watch a movie without some chocolate? The guy there and I had a nice chat about the miserable weather. It made me smile because everywhere I went, people were just so chipper and eager to chat. I LOVE that! :) Thanks, New Zealand, for making me feel SO at home!!