Raglan and the Fat Cat

This week Megs and I headed off ot Raglan. It's about an hour and 45 minutes to the East of Waihi. We pulled into town and were amazed by the amount of people that were there. There was some reggae festival going on that weekend and there were tons of people hanging out in the streets. We went outside of town to hit the beach. There are supposed to be amazing surfer beaches in Raglan and we found one called Whale Bay. The beach was really rocky and not the kind of beach you would swim at, but there were quite a few surfers there. It was so cool to watch them. Then we went to the swimming beach and hung out there all day. It felt wonderful. It was gorgeous weather! That night Megan and I had fish-n'-chips for dinner and watched the sunset in a park looking over the Tasman Sea. There was also a juggling contest going on as well as a lot of random unicyclists! We then hopped in our trusty van and headed toward the beach to camp there for the night. The next day we did some shopping around Raglan and headed to Bridal Veil Falls. The falls were amazing! Check out the pics of it on my picture website. After that we headed through Hamilton (one of the bigger cities), did some shopping and went back to Waihi.
That night, Megan came flying over to Carolyn's house (my cooperating teacher). She found me there and said, "thank God your here!" I asked what was up and she told me that she had left her house doors open to air it out and a HUGE cat had wondered in. She tried scaring it out, but instead it hissed at her, ran all over the countertops and into her bedroom where it was now stuck under her bed! She said she had been poking at it for 2 hours! It was now like 9:30 p.m. I went over there and sure enough there was 2 huge green eyes under the bed. This cat was big and mean and did not want to move. Finally Kristy, my flatmate, and her brother Matt came to our rescue. The three of us girls lifted the bed up and Matt pushed it out with a mop. It ran out and finally outside. What an ending to a busy weekend!

Earthquake!

I experienced earthquake number 2 last night. Wasn't very big though. That's 2 in the one month I have been here! I can't believe it has already been a month!

Movie set

I forgot to mention this in the last blog. When Megan and I were in Coromandel this weekend we had really wanted to go to Cathedral Cove. When we were camping on Friday night, there was a sign at the campground that said Catherdral Cove closed Thurs. and Fri. for the fliming of Naria: Prince of Caspian! That is the sequel to Narnia: The lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. We got to go to the cove the day after filming, so that was cool. But it will be awesome to see the movie and say I was there the day after they filmed it!

Pictures

I switched my picture website so that it is the same as Megan's. We have the same pictures, so now we only have to download them once. Check em out!

This weekend Megan and I headed off to explore the Coromandel Penninsula. It was amazing. We left around 5ish on Friday and stopped at a campground on the beach for the weekend. We used trusty old Gerdie (we named our van) to sleep in. Megan's host family lets us use the van to travel and camp in on the weekends. It was great! Saturday we hit Cathedral Cove which is amazing! It is so weird to see so many postcards and pictures of a place and then to actually go there! Then we went to Hot Water Beach. You just dig a hole in the sand and there is hot, really hot, water under it. It was like a mini hot tub right on the ocean. After that we went to a bone carving shop. We carved our own bone necklaces. Then we hit the town of Coromandel to camp in Gerdie again for the night. Today we shopped around Coromandel, checked out a cool waterfall, went to an amazing butterfly garden and headed back! It was a great weekend! Well, it's back to school tomorrow for the first full week of real classes. The kids are back in uniforms and the actual class work begins!

Happy Lovers Day

It is weird to be experiencing Valentine's Day in the summer's heat! Today we took the years 7 & 8 to Anzac Bay, a beach just off of Waihi. It was gorgeous. The teachers had planned to the coast guard, ambulance team, and fire dept. to be at the bay. The kids rotated through each station to learn about what each team does. Then they had a fake "emergency" situation set up. There was supposed to be a boat "stuck out at sea" that needed rescuing and the people then needed medical attention. I was asked to be one of the three actors that would do this. So the three of us headed out to see in the boat. We were there quite awhile when we noticed no one was coming to our rescue. Well, apparently, there was a real emergency situation so they had to leave! We were out there for an hour before someone finally came to "rescue" us so the kids to see the rescue demonstration! Bet nobody else was rescued at sea on their Valentine's Day! But everything is going great at school. I teach tomorrow for the first time on my own! My teacher will be gone for an hour, so it is just me!! Wish me luck!

School Starts

The kids came back to school today! It is the first day of the new year. Today just the Year 7's came. They were all dressed in their little uniforms! They are the youngest of the school (like 6th grade). The had a little orientation. Tomorrow everyone comes back. It should be awesome. I will be teaching years 7,8, and 9 with three different teachers. I will be teaching mostly English classes but also one Social Studies, which should be interesting! I am so excited to start and too meet all the kids.

Week 1

Well hey there everyone! I am sorry I have not put much on here yet. I am normally without a phone or internet, but I am able to use a friends for awhile. So, here is the scoop so far. Everything is amazing. I absolutely love it here. The weather has been great and the people are wonderful. The girl I am living with, Kristy is my age. She has lived here her whole life and now is a dairy farmer as well as a teacher's assistant at the school. It is great to have a friend here and someone to show me around. Plus, I love living on the farm. If you didn't know, cows are my favorite animal, so being around them all the time is awesome!! I haven't been out of Waihi much yet to explore, but that will come soon. The other day, Kristy's boss, the other farmer, took us for sack rides around the paddock. Basically he tied a thick bag to the back of his four wheeler and pulled us behind it through one of the cow pastures. It was sooo fun, although I now have grass burn on my butt! haha. Friday I had my first meeting at the school (school hasn't started here for the year yet) with all the new teachers. I have meetings all this coming week and then the kids come back on Friday. I will be working with two or three teachers, not sure yet. I will be teaching middle school English as well as a social studies class, which will be interesting!
Yesterday, Kristy, her three younger brothers, megan (my friend from UMD who will be here with my for the four months) and I went to walk the Karangahake Gorge. It was beautiful. I took lots of pics and hopefully I will be able to put them up soon. Then we went to the beach. Waihi beach is gorgeous. It is the safest surfing beach in all of New Zealand, because the waves aren't very big. But it is great! I went body boarding! I am gradually getting better at it after Kristy's 13 year old brothers taught me! But now I have body board burn all over my stomach. It was well worth it. This Tues. is Waitangi Day, which is a national holiday, so I hope to hit the beach again before school kicks in.
As for the pics, I am unable to download them right now, something is funky with the internet here. So hopefully I will be able to do that soon. I have taken tons, so I hope to put them on soon!! Take care.