"“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." - J.R.R Tolkien
Kia Ora! Hello again everyone! It's official...I have completed my first week in New Zealand! This week has been a flurry of activities, emotions, and learning curves. I cannot even begin to express how beautiful this country is, and I must admit that my pictures and blog posts do not come close to giving it the justice it deserves. I have done so many different activities in my first week here, as well as learned so much in such a short time. I am very excited to share some of these adventures with you.
To begin, I'll take us back to the beginning of the week. When I touched down in Auckland, I easily made it through customs and biosecurity and my host dad was waiting to pick me up. We drove to the house and I met my host mom and their grandkids. I have been welcomed with open arms into the house and for that I am extremely grateful. I unpacked a bit and then we went adventuring as a family. Our first stop was the grocery store and our second was Bethells beach. The beach is beautiful and everyone was in good spirits. The weather was warm and sunny, so the beach was pretty packed. It made my heart swell to see so many families laughing, playing in the sand, playing with their dogs, and to watch the horseback riders trot around the water and the sand (apparently you can just bring your horse to the beach...#goals). My host family's grandkids played in the stream leading into the ocean and even though they didn't wear their togs (swimsuit) they splashed and swam in the water. While the girls played, my host dad took me to another beach that was just a short walk away and I learned firsthand how extremely hot the black sand beaches can be after baking in the sun. I definitely need to purchase some better jandals (flip-flops/sandals).
The second day, we were up early and we went to Muriwai beach which is another absolutely stunning black sand beach. This time we wore our togs and were able to play in the water a bit, since it was a very calm day. My host dad went surfing, and my host mom, the girls, and I played in the waves and the sand. Once we were tired from swimming, we took a short walk up the rocks to see the gannet colony. Gannets are sea-birds that look slightly like seagulls but larger, and with an orangeish/tan head. There were TONS of birds nesting on the rocks and up close, they are quite beautiful and majestic looking birds. We watched them for a bit and then headed home to relax and get some lunch.
It was a long weekend so I had Monday off from school and my host parents had off of work as well, but my host mom was away working with her daughter, so my host dad took me to the Arataki Visitor Center where I was able to learn a little about the history of the Waitakere Ranges and the Maori culture. Then we drove down to Piha beach which again, is absolutely beautiful. The tide was out and it was a cooler day so we walked along the beach and then explored a walkway that appears during low tide that even my host dad had never been to. It was a beautiful walk that led to some rocks that we were able to climb up and watch the waves crash below us. I also explored some little tide pools while we were up there. Afterwards, we came home for lunch and had the rest of the day to relax and prepare for school the next day!
Tuesday. School. The very reason I am in New Zealand. Let me just say, I experienced quite a steep learning curve and slight culture shock while observing the classroom this week. My classroom is SO different than typical American classrooms. It looks more like a woodworking shop than a classroom and everything is as student centered as possible. My cooperating teacher is great and I can't wait to learn more from him. He plans all his lessons around what the students would like to learn about and explore, and then gives them a challenge in the afternoon in which they decide the specific questions they have about a certain topic (this week is volcanoes) and then they are let loose to research and create some sort of final product. It is a very interesting style of learning but I absolutely love the opportunities for authentic learning that it gives the students. When the students get a bit squirrely, we go outside to play a game, but even then learning occurs because we play most of our games in Maori. My cooperating teacher is one of the Maori education teachers at the school, so all directions he gives for the games are in Te Reo (the Maori language). I am currently trying to pick up on Maori words but it is fairly difficult since it is unlike any language I've ever heard. I am beginning to learn some phrases, so hopefully I will come back with at least an idea of how to say some things in te reo. I am just starting to take over little tasks in the classroom and will be teaching some subjects by next week Wednesday. I cannot wait to learn more about and from New Zealand classrooms.
Finally, the weekend came and my, oh my, was it jam-packed. On Friday, I had my first experience riding the train into the city and I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it and clean the trains are here! All of the student teachers met up for dinner in Auckland and we had a wonderful time catching up. Then on Saturday, we all were up early and went to Waiheke Island for some wine tastings and to explore the beauty of the island. We had to take the ferry to the island, but even that process was fairly simple. What were not simple though, were the buses on Waiheke. Perhaps they are easy to figure out...but for us...we just could not figure out how to get from one place to another easily. Each time we thought we had the correct bus, we were proven wrong and ended up looking like the most cliche tourists ever. But, it made for some extremely hard laughing and some great memories. After we spent over an hour trying to make it to the wineries for tastings, we finally gave up on the bus stops and decided to walk between the different vineyards since they are quite close together. We went to three different wineries and tasted around 8-10 wines each. I really enjoy the Waiheke wines! We would have tried more but at the second winery we were at, we ended up crashing a private event without knowing it. We walked in while they were still open, but were still around after they had closed since we did not see them put the sign up. The only reason we figured it out was because a helicopter landed at the winery and dropped off some guests for the private party! On the ferry back, we ended up next to a very fun bachelorette party that bought us some more wine to keep the fun going, which was very entertaining!
That's all for now! All in all, this week has been so busy but so wonderful. I truly cannot wait to see what else New Zealand has in store for me and I am so happy to have been swept away on this adventure!
Hei konā mai (goodbye for now),
Jessica
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