Today is my last day at Wakaaranga Primary! Gosh 12 weeks really went by fast. My students are working on language right now, Katie is on release so there is a substitute in the classroom so I am taking a break to update before cross country and morning tea :)
This weekend was amazing! Friday night I just hung out with Jodi, went on a nice walk and watched a bunch of friends. It was nice to have a chill night after such an active day at school! I observed Ludwigs class and we played dodgeball, the girls begged me to be on their team so I played! haha then I grabbed my class for the last 15 minutes of the school day and took them outside to teach them red rover! They had never heard of it and had a BLAST playing! Of course I played with them and had more fun with them than I ever had. It was cool to just see the smiles on their face, laugh with them and just relax for the end of the day.
Saturday Jodi, Amy and I took a little adventure to the hot water beaches! I tried to go with the girls a while back when we visited the Coramandel Penensula but we missed low tide and were incredibly unsuccessful haha come to find out we were also in the wrong location. So this time there were tons of people there and we wiggled our feet in the sand to find the warm water and stake out our claim of beach. As the tide went down we battled the waves to dig a nice big hole we could all 3 lay in. It took us about an hour of digging with a "spade" (shovel) and our hands and we finally had a nice big hole- but the water was luke-warm haha. The people next to us had water so hot it was nearly boiling so we combined pools to equalize the two. This was pretty successful and we layed in teh 4 inch deep water and sand for a good bit. Our pool neighbors were a couple, one from Ireland and one from Scotland! They were really awesome. We gave them advice on where to go the rest of their time in NZ, I felt like such a Kiwi! After we were content with our hot water beach experience and were plenty warm, we headed out just as the sun was setting. It was absolutely incredible- so beautiful. OH! I nearly forgot! When we arrived at the beaches earlier in the day we were still a bit early for low tide so we went to this art gallery and Amy got me a Greenstone! I just got the straight one called a "drop" that represents strength, unity, independence and pride. I am beyond excited, it is really cool! :) Then we stopped at a little cafe for some lunch and coffee, which was so yummy.
I ended up driving home because Amy drove there and they were surprised with how well I could drive here! And I was thinking that I myself am surprised at how easily I crossed over to the left side of the road :) haha I've gotten so used to it actually, that it might take a bit of adjustment to get back to the right side when I get home!
I got all packed up yesterday! It went a lot quicker than I thought it would but I still have WAY too much stuff. Either Amy is getting some new clothes or I will see how much it is to ship some of it back home. Amy and I finally got to do the Jungle Walk- it was SO beautiful!
Dinner tonight with all the Waka teachers! I am so excited to get a chance to hang out with all of them one last time and say goodbye :( Then tomorrow I am staying home to finish packing, Im going to go on a nice long run/walk to say goodbye to NZ and then after dinner tomorrow Amy will take me to the airport for my 9:30pm flight back to the US of A!
Friends and Family back home- I will see you soon! This has been an incredible experience I will remember forever.
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