REAL Ketchup

Once again, this will probably be a long one!

i'm honestly trying to remember last Thursday and nothing is sticking out to me? Anyhow, Friday Jodi and Megean from school came over for a couple drinks to just chill and socialize. We just hung out and watched a movie, very relaxing J Then Saturday was such a fun day! I finally met up with Alix, Lauren and Carolyn (“the other Americans”) and had an awesome wknd!

I met Alix and Lauren at the Half Moon Ferry where we were to catch the 9:45 ferry into Auckland. Unfortunately Alix forgot her wallet at home so as soon as she got there and realized her host dad whipped the card around and was off to go get it! Haha we sweetly convinced the captain of the ferry to hold the boat just a couple of minutes so he could get back with her wallet. Just as they were telling us they had to go and couldn’t wait any longer, he arrived!! We then ran onto the ferry and were pulling out 2 seconds later. The ride was beautiful, but cold. We arrived at a beautiful harbor in Auckland city and were off to check into our hotel we booked for that night. We only booked for 2 ppl to cut the price and had to be a little sketchy with going in separately and asking for a cot when it was just the 2 of us? We then realized about 20 minutes later that a “cot” to them is a baby bed haha. What we think of as a “cot” they would call a “pull away bed”. So after we had to convince them multiple times we in fact did not have any babies on board and would only be needing a second bed, we were happy to see our room actually came with 2 small beds- problem solved.

Once Carolyn met us at the hotel, we were ready to explore. We tried to go to this Mexican place for lunch but it only serves dinner, so we were off to find something else. We stumbled upon this amazing burger place where we all got burgers roughly the side of our faces. After we were stuffed to the gills we decided with the wet and cold weather we would go see a movie. They all wanted to see Hangover II, and since it was so good the first time, I agreed. After we bought our tickets (For the AMAZING student price of $14.50 I might add :/ ) we headed off for some ice cream before our movie started. It was some sort of fat free ice cream (the froyo craze hasn’t hit here yet) but it was incredible. Then off to the movies, which was incredible even the second time around.

After that we wandered around a bit and then back to the hotel to shower and get ready for the night! We met Jodi and Amy at the Mexican place and were ready for a night out! The “Mexican” was alright, but lets put it this way- their “queso dip” was melted cheddar cheese with sour cream in it haha. We had a good time though, then were off to the casino in the famous Sky Tower where I won $7 on a $2 slot machine! Haha we didn’t stay there long, just wanted to see it. Then off to the Viaduct area where we hit up a couple bars, and met up with Amy’s friends Ashley and Julie! They are always a lot of fun. We spent the remainder of the night in this bar with a revolving bookcase which leads to a private party room, and I was dared to go around 3 times, which I did, and then got told “it was not a merry-go-round and I needed to stop” haha it was pretty funny.

Sunday we woke up, go Duncan Donuts for breakfast (good, but more funnel-cake-tasting than donut). And then packed up slowly, wandered around the city a little more for lunch. We ended up eating at this awesome restaurant right on the water where this insanely loud canon decided to blast off right underneath us at noon. Luckily our waiter warned us and we were able to cover our ears. The food was incredible! And the best part- we had REAL Heinz Tomato Ketchup. It was unreal. I had forgotten how much I missed it on my fries! I got a BLT (same in any country I suppose) with Avocado on the side to add to it. WOW. Best meal I have had here! We took the ferry back home that afternoon and I spent the rest of the day being lazy and watching movies.

Monday was a great day at school! We had our year 6 assembly where 8 girls in my class put on this play about a field trip they went on last term. It was really cute J Im still helping other classes with their dances and having a blast doing it! Yesterday I finished Leslie’s class’s dance and they are SO good at it! They were so impressive, I would show them what to do once and they would nail it. And this is a coed group of about 27 nine and ten year olds. I had SO much fun working with them!

I am slowly picking up more and more teaching. I taught a math lesson last week and I think it went pretty well! Yesterday I did a little brain teaser exercise with them, which they LOVED and I started reading Frindle to them this week. So far so good, I think they are really enjoying the book. Today I am taking on a few reading groups and a math lesson on 3D shapes, and tomorrow I am teaching most of the day! Katie has been so great with letting me take on more and more and plan my own things.

This week is book week and we each have our own Rugby World Cup team- we are South Africa! Today we have a bunch of games we will be playing all afternoon. The kids got to bring “mufti” which is what they call every-day clothes (they wear uniforms) to change into for the games to represent their countries. Its to funny to see them in every day clothes as opposed to their school uniforms.

Well, lunch hour is almost over so Ill stop here for today. Michael comes to NZ in 6 days! I can’t wait to have him here and show him around!