I guess it would be time to start teaching seeing as we’ve been here for two weeks and while we’ve seen and done many things, we’re starting to feel as though we’re slacking off in the teaching department. We can’t be entertainers forever, we’ll just have to put that into the classes now.
Holly has taken over the year 10 English class and helps a few of them in their science class and I teach the year 9 English class and help them in their science class. Right now I’m just trying to stay one step ahead of the science and it’s difficult. My class has a whole 4 students in it and as the other teachers say, they’re “choice.” This means they’re awesome or great. When they talk about the year 10’s however, they more just give a pained look on their face. They’re a bigger class with a few trouble makers but overall they’re still good kids. They’re all highly interested in Canada and will randomly ask questions like “Do you have lolly’s (candy) in Canada?” or “Do you own snowmobiles?” Considering we didn’t start teaching until Thursday, it made for a pretty short starting week, especially for Holly who’s class was taken over on Friday and replaced with a Powhiri for the South Thames school who came to visit. It was really neat to be on the other side of it this time. It was a rainy day so it all happened inside a classroom which got a little cramped but that goes to show you how small the two schools are if we can fit everyone including teachers into one classroom. The Haka was especially loud in the classroom but still as choice as ever.
Friday was a fantastic day, the whole afternoon was dedicated to music and entertaining. The older boys played the instruments and the rest of the people sang. They started getting some of the teachers up to sing and Holly started having a panic attack that we would be next. I was worried about the fact that it was in Maori and we wouldn’t know the words but Holly was just freaked out by the singing in general. Thankfully we were in the back and weren’t really seen therefore we were spared in singing otherwise we’d have to put in a little of Lester the Lobster. The years 12-13 still talk about our lovely rendition we did for them one day and are quite intrigued that we have a song about a potato, we’re saving that for the right moment. What are they seriously going to do when we leave? We’re thinking of them when we say we want to stay...
After the warm up fun singing, they went into Kapa Haka practice as a whole school. This is something to see, these kids are so incredibly talented we can’t help but get giddy every time we see it, which we make sure is every time they do it. Holly has decided to put her singing/dancing phobia away to have the students teach us at least one of their songs. I took no less then 30 videos that day alone so if anyone wants to see what all this is about, I’ve got lots.
After this wonderful day, we got on the school bus with the kids for our ride back into town and to pack for Auckland. To our delight, it was Schnitz driving the bus. Apparently the mental breakdown wasn’t as bad as originally thought. While waiting for the other students to get on the bus, he gives us fantastic advice about life and love. Seriously, who needs Dr. Phil when Schnitz is around? Between his random comments while driving “Oh, no Michael on the bus today, we keep going,” getting off the bus “Oh, have a smart day,” commentary about what is going on around us “Oh, apple coming (as an apple falls out the door of the bus)” and the advice he is always passing out “Oh, every second is a moment lived,” we have enough memories to keep us happy for a lifetime. He’s as quote worthy as Vladimir, that guy was awesome. The ferry was canceled because of the wind and rain but they replaced it with a bus for us. We get back, pack and leave for the walk back in town, obviously forgetting important things but there was nothing we could do about it then. We get to the bus stop in the rain. We’re early and there is no shelter. Holly has an umbrella and when it wasn’t getting caught in my hair or threatening to poke my eye out, it was being turned inside out from the wind. Holly decides to keep it closed and just sets it around her head instead... Whatever works. So being early, cold and bored we do what we normally do, impromptu dance party. Now we can say we also danced in the rain, just not in Africa. A few of our students live around that area and we’re sure they were probably watching but at this point if it’s not normal for them to see us busting a move randomly for no reason then they really haven’t been paying attention.
The bus arrives and gladly scramble on to regain some kind of warmth. He was a cool driver who took us up the mountain to wait for the other bus who would take us right into Auckland. We spent most of our wait time laughing at the videos I had taken of the afternoon. The bus was really late making its way to Auckland and we were scared that we might be locked out of our hostel. We had sent a message earlier in the afternoon to tell them we would be late but never heard anything from them and they lock their doors and people go off duty at 11pm. We finally get into Auckland about 11:30ish pm. Then we had to find the place. We knew we were at the top of Queen St. and we were looking to get to the middle of it so we figured we could just walk. One person had warned us about the hills in Auckland but we didn’t think much of it. This place is mainly hills anyway. Turns out our hostel was at the top of the steepest hill ever. We were also clearly way underdressed, or overdressed depending on how you look at it. Thankfully someone had gotten the message that we would be late and people were at our hostel waiting for us to arrive. It was a pretty neat place, very well located if you wanted to see all that Auckland at night has to offer, some of which is people flashing others and dressing in chicken suits. To see this all we had to do was look outside our window.
We were up early the next day and decided to dedicate the morning to shopping. We don’t really get to shop where we’re staying, it’s mainly a beach type of tourist town that is fantastic in every way except shopping. We check out Dress Smart an outlet mall just outside of the city center of Auckland. This meant we would have to get a bus there, which also meant needing to find the bus place. Everything seemed easy enough and as it turns out there was a bus heading there in 10 minutes. We were given directions to the bus stop and made our way there. We thought we were doing good until we realized we were on the wrong side of the street. Then the bus we are looking for pulls up. We’re taking an attack on the opposite side of the street, practically willing the walk sign to show up when it finally does and we hop on the bus just as it’s about to pull away. Holly had some luck getting the stuff she wanted and then we figured we should head back in town as we were meeting up with a couple of former Islanders and graduates of the BEd program at UPEI. We get to our bus stop thinking we were cutting it close but should be able to get there in time. We wait for the bus, and we wait, and wait, and wait some more. Buses would drive by and all we do was say, “Oh, no bus” in our makeshift German accents and then crack up while the other people waiting for the bus just looked at us funny. The bus ends up being ridiculously late and we end up being almost half an hour late meeting these people at Starbucks. Thankfully they were still there and we were both wearing our UPEI jackets so they were able to recognize us. We apologized profusely and we ended up spending most of the afternoon talking about the program, teaching in New Zealand and best of all, how to get a job here. Maybe we don’t have to “lose” our passports after all...
Living in New Zealand turns you into an old person, we’re in bed everyday sometime between 10-11pm and sometimes even earlier. Our weekend out in Auckland was no different. We get up early the next day and make our way to Kelly Tarltons. This was recommended by our students, even the older ones so we had to check it out. Kelly Tarltons is an aquarium like place that you can see penguins, sharks, stingrays and other kinds of fish. Holly and I had a lot of fun in the activity center dressing up like penguins and pretending to be eaten by sharks. We went on the penguin ride and got to see some of them up close and watched people feed the stingrays. Turns out they’re not really all that mean, you just don’t want to scare one into thinking you’re attacking them because that’s when they’ll come at you. This is why we had sent the student ahead of us during Waka Ama, if anyone was going to find a stingray, we’d prefer it not to be one of us.
After Kelly Tarltons we make our way back up the hill for what feels like the thousandth time but thankfully the last to collect our stuff, head to Starbucks one last time and make our way to the bus station to go back to Coromandel. In classic Holly/Janna fashion we find the bus station but of course we’re on the wrong side of the street. It was another scramble to get to the other side only to find out we couldn’t take our Starbucks on the bus. I give myself brain freeze trying to finish my berry frappuccino and Holly burns herself with her chai tea and we hop on the bus only to find out it was packed and the air conditioner was broken. Yay. We make it to Thames, get off the bus finally breath again and unstick our clothes from our bodies. We decide to search for McDonalds since we don’t actually have one where we live and everyone talking about it on the blog made us thought we’d get some. We only have half an hour before our next bus leaves so we race down the street because Holly thinks she knows where it is. We don’t find McDonalds but we do find Subway which is probably the healthier choice anyway. We don’t have time to eat it then so we save it for later and run back so we don’t miss our bus. Once we get on the bus and it travels down the road we find out we were actually one block over from McDonalds, oh well, guess it wasn’t meant to be.
We get back to Coromandel, make the long trek back to the cottage and practically crash the second we get in the door. We can’t believe we only have an evening before we’re back to class. Oh well, at least we love going to school even if we only have 3 weeks left. I guess that means we have to find a job soon...
To Be Continued...
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