A Week In NZ

This week I mainly just went to school and hung out with my host family. I haven't done a whole yet because of school, but soon I'll be traveling to the South Island which will be awesome! Here are just some random pics from the week (Jan 9-13).

Love my bed

We came home from school to find our clothes drying outside. No shame here

A park by our house

Can you believe ham is this much!?

Some flower thing my teacher brought in, It made me sneeze

exactly how I feel when I get home from school

Josiah with his T-Rex

Working in our mini class

Ok, so this taste like Sprite on Steroids

So far the way I have made this it tastes like chocolate milk

trying to get some sleep here

Mandy is too (She's usually the one that throws things at Margo when she snores too loud)

We went on a walk to found ice cream and passed this shop

This is where our host dad Phil works (College is high school here)

found the place finally

Here we made dinner for the family, not sure what to call it but it was really good

Josiah really liked the meal

They come to say hi to us everyday when we get home from school 

I'm wearing Cameron's shirt because it doesn't fit him anymore

playing on the trampoline

We had a "ladies night" going to the local Denny's for dessert

So Bangers & Mash is sausage and mashed potatoes and expensive!

I think this is a shank of lamb, maybe?

All restaurants should have this sign!

Go to Church and "Bring A Plate"

They awesome thing is that church is still church even in a foreign place! Church is at 10 here which is the perfect time. We get to sleep in :) Our first Sunday was a fast Sunday and we got to hear all the testimonies. It was mainly guys that spoke and then one lady got up at the end. It was a little difficult understanding them because of their accents, but a pretty normal meeting.

Ok, so the "Bring a Plate" part. So during Sunday School they announced that there would be a discussion thing that night and to bring a plate. We were getting ready to go and we  figured that we could just share a plate between the four of us because we wouldn't eat that many cookies or whatever. We get to the house for the discussion after getting lost with our host mom lol We get there and sit down and kind of notice that no one else has a plate but we don't think anything of it. The discussion was really good. Afterwards, they put out the refreshments. There were some cookies, chips, (which chicken flavored is really popular here) and some cake. We had our empty plate on the table because we didn't want to keep holding it. Margo was eating a piece of cake and getting crumbs everywhere so I told her she might as well use our plate. We stayed for awhile and hung out. Then our host dad picked us up. We get in the car and he has the serious tone with us and is telling us how he meant to ask us if there was something that we needed to bring to the discussion. Brooke told him that we just brought one of our plates from downstairs (she thought we were in trouble for bringing one of their plates out of the house). Then he told us that in New Zealand when they say to "bring a plate" they mean to bring a plate of cookies or something. He was laughing at us so hard. He thought we would have realized that when we got there and then said something to him. We had no idea. I then told him that when we have break the fast on Sunday's the food is provided and you bring an empty plate to eat once you get there. That made us not seem so dumb lol but he still laughed at us the whole ride home. Our host mom posted the story on her facebook page too. "Some people brought cookies, some brought cake, and BYU girls brought a plate." Awesome. So far that has been our biggest misunderstanding. haha.

Got our plate!

That's the cake that I had Margo use the plate to eat

Beach Day!

The first Saturday here was our beach day with the whole group. And of course it was rainy and cold. The weather has been cold and rainy so much here! good thing I brought at least one hoodie, I'm freezing out here on this island! The beach we went to was Orewa. It was a pretty beach, but just not a very good day. I was super brave and actually got in the water. At first I wasn't sure why I did, but then I got to boogie board and it was a lot of fun. I got the hang of it and could ride the waves to shore :) I want to learn how to surf if I can get over the whole being deathly afraid off sharks thing.. Well it kept getting colder and didn't stop raining at the beach so we went to this water park that uses natural spring water so it's warm. That was like my heaven to be in warm water. They had water slides but it meant waiting in line in the freezing cold, so I only went down the slides once and then got back in the warm water. It was a long day. We came home and all four of us showered (I was smart enough to dibbs the shower first) and we accidentally used up all of their hot water. Now we have a shower schedule. It makes getting up in the morning a little easier when you know it's your day to shower. Oh, and my first time showering here there was a spider in the shower. First I squealed a bit, and then splashed it with water. Made it out alive.

the pink little car that I rode to the beach in

just a bit chilly!

This is the director of the program, Dr. Cutri.. haha

So, we didn't quite make it off the ground for the jumping picture

well, this was a little better

this is the natural spring water place

you could watch a movie! I think it was Hoodwinked 2

this slide was like metal and you went super fast, I liked turned sideways when I landed

School Continues

Luckily the first day of school was a Thursday (Jan 5) and so we just had Friday and then the weekend! The thing that's interesting with school is that there are 4 of us (me and my roommates) that haven't had a management class when all the other girls have. So we work on this packet thing in the other room while they have an assessment class which, technically we have already had. It's kind of weird and we feel like the loners of the group but it works. I play music during class and then after lunch we are all back together for literacy.

Our little fake class :)

After school we walked to the Pak n Save grocery store to get a few things.

ok we didn't need diapers lol just thought it was funny that they are called nappies

Can you believe they allow you to have squid out in the open? Disgusting.

We walked around a few different shops and then went home to find a surprise waiting for us on our door.

it's a weta bug. apparently it's harmless, just creepy

We haven't really seen that many bugs. But there was a huge spider under Margo's bed. I was standing on my bed waiting for her to kill it but she left the room to find a tissue to try and set the spider free. Crazy. We had Brooke kill the spider dead.

This picture is amazing. It makes me laugh. This is Margo sleeping/snoring!