"Still round the corner there may wait A new road or a secret gate And though I oft have passed them by A day will come at last when I Shall take the hidden paths that run West of the Moon, East of the Sun."- J.R.R Tolkien
Kia Ora everyone! Again, I apologize for the delay on my blogs. The last couple weeks have been very busy so I have been playing catch up. This blog is centered around 2 weeks ago and 2 weekends ago. I apologize for any confusion there has been.
The weeks seem to just be growing busier and busier. Every time I feel as though I can get caught up on things, another event or meeting is added to my plate. By the time I get home, I am so tired that it has been very hard to keep up with blogs. As you saw in my last blog, my family was visiting a few weeks ago which also made it hard to spend my time writing as I wanted to spend my time savoring the fleeting moments I had with them.
On Monday, I went into the city to meet with them for one last dinner out together. We went to Dr. Rudy's Rooftop Bar and had some pizza, fried pickles, and I had the ribs. I'm definitely at the point where I am really missing American food. I'll be happy to return to my dill pickles and ketchup. I will admit though, my ribs at Dr. Rudy's were very good. It was nice to spend some more time with my family, but I think we were all a little sad that their time in New Zealand was coming to an end in two days.
On Tuesday, my family came to visit me at school and see what my classroom was like. I think they were all pretty surprised and to be honest, a little overwhelmed. My classroom here is a bit wild, loud, and chaotic but all for a good cause. The students are in charge of their learning and we work on challenges throughout the week where they get decide what they'd like to learn about and how they will present their findings to the class. It makes for a messy classroom throughout the day and some loudness, but the presentations at the end make it all worth it. It definitely is exhausting when you first experience it though. After morning tea, my grandma and Pam went back to Auckland but my parents stuck out the day with me and I've extremely happy they did. It was so nice to show them what I do every day and it meant a lot that they gave up their time to sit in a classroom with me. After school, we headed over to my host family's house to relax before our potluck dinner. My host family was extremely gracious and everyone cooked food for my parents and I to share with them. It was an awesome meal and everyone had a good time. I was overjoyed that my biological family was able to meet my host family here and that everyone got along so well. It was a very fun night! I will admit though, it was definitely bittersweet as I had to say goodbye to my parents at the end of the night. I knew I was going to see them in a few weeks, but it was definitely hard to say goodbye. Homesickness is a funny thing. I was fine the whole time my parents were here and before that, but the second the realization hit that it was the last time I was going to hug them for a few weeks, I felt more homesickness than I had felt the whole trip. While I was so happy they were here, it definitely made it more difficult to head back to my host family knowing I wasn't going to be on the plane with them the next day.
I did find some comfort though in knowing that my boyfriend Adam was arriving on Sunday and that I wasn't going to be with familiar faces from home for long. By far the hardest day I've had here though was that Thursday, as it was Thanksgiving at home. My parents arrived home on Wednesday night and so I spent Thanksgiving here, without my family. I Facetimed my whole family and it was the first time the tears finally came. I saw my family together, laughing and sharing pumpkin pie and my heart certainly ached to be home with them; especially since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here. After we hung up, it was hard to stand up and face the rest of the day, as I just wanted to be in the comfort of my home and in the presence of my loved ones. But, as per usual, I had to compose myself and complete the task I had at hand. My kids made it a bit easier as they are a good distraction and very eager to learn about Thanksgiving. I took the homesickness and channeled into a lesson teaching the kids all about the history of Thanksgiving and then we ended our day by making hand turkeys out of construction paper and eating pumpkin pie bars that I had made for everyone.
On Friday, I finally had a night where I could take a quick breath and just relax. Since we've got here in October, I have yet to slow down. Every single weekend has been spent traveling around and being super busy and I could definitely feel it catching up to me. My energy level this week seemed so much lower than usual and I was so ready to relax. I went out for a couple drinks with the teachers and then went back home and relished in my opportunity to lay in bed and watch movies all night.
On Saturday, I slept in (for once) and then got up and made myself a nice breakfast. I cannot begin to describe how wonderful it was to sleep in, take a shower, and not be rushed to make breakfast before running out the door to school. Once I had eaten a bit, I packed my bag as I was staying in the city that night so I could go meet Adam in the morning (you can imagine how excited I was to have my reunion with Adam so close). While I was packing, my host brother and his wife came and collected me in order to take me and their host student to the museum. We had a wonderful time at the museum and I was very glad to learn about some of the history of New Zealand. It's so interesting to go to museums in different countries because you get such a different perspective and experience. All the museum in the states are centered around the United States, whereas here of course, it was centered around New Zealand. We went to the war museum and it was humbling and interesting to see about New Zealand's perspective on the world wars and how they remember those they lost.
After the museum, we went out to lunch at a chinese restaurant where I got enough food to feed me for days for only $13! We also went to a store called Martha's Backyard, which is the American store in town. It was so funny to see what they see as typical American food and it was so fun to browse through familiar brands and foods. I wanted to buy so many things but I saved myself to buying a bit of Thanksgiving food to make for my host family and then splurged on one box of Lucky Charms for myself. I know its so unhealthy but I really do miss my morning sugary cereals!
Once we had finished shopping we went to a park called Western Springs. I absolutely love the park and want to go back. There were SO many different birds there and they all had their babies! We saw chickens, ducks, swans, geese, and pukekos. When we walked, they would follow us around and I was absolutely in love. There is a lake there, so we walked around the lake and then went on a bridge over the lake to watch the birds in the water and to see the eels. I am COMPLETELY freaked out by eels apparently and couldn't take my eyes off of them. I'm not used to eels being in lakes (or at least don't see them) and these things were creepily huge. It was still fun to watch them swim around and interact with the birds. One eel went right up to a ducks foot and nibbled on it! All in all, it was a fantastic experience even if it gave me a case of the heebie jeebies. After we finished at the park, my host family dropped me off at the airbnb I was staying at and I tried to make myself fall asleep so I could be on the bus at 6:30 in order to meet Adam at the airport.
Sunday finally came and it was the day that I was reunited with Adam! After a bit of a nerve racking experience trying to get on the right bus since many of the bus lines were closed for the Santa parade, I finally was on my way to meet him. I had hoped to be waiting for him when he walked out of the terminal...but unfortunately my bus was late...and his wait was very short, so it actually ended up that he was waiting on me. Regardless, I was SO excited when I saw him. I ran into the airport and up to him and gave him the biggest hug I could. I think we were both definitely missing each other. After I picked him up, we made it back to the airbnb, ate some breakfast at a local cafe and took a quick snooze since Adam had been traveling for so long. Once we were awake, we saw that it wasn't raining anymore so we went on a walk down to the marina. It was a beautiful walk down and next to the harbor and we were able to walk under the Harbor Bridge and continued on next to the harbor. All in all, we walked about 5k and managed to not get rained on or lost! We did time it perfectly, though, as literally 5 minutes after we got back, the skies opened up and it poured down rain.
We were able to watch a movie and catch up while we waited out the rain and then came time for me to leave. It was definitely hard to leave since we had just been reunited, but I had to get up for school the next day, and he wanted to explore the city. So he stayed in the airbnb, and I went back to my host family. It was hard, but we also knew we would get to see each other every day for the next 3 weeks!
All in all, it was a wonderful weekend close to home. As the quote suggests, I have passed by some of these hidden gems in Auckland many times, and am so happy that I finally had the opportunity to stop and enjoy them. While I miss my family as well, I am also overjoyed that Adam is here and able to experience this wonderful country with me. I am so blessed to have the support I do from my loved ones.
Keep your eyes peeled for my next blog coming very soon! I am almost caught up and that one will be about last week and this last weekend! Thanks for reading!