Honey I'm home!!

Well 2 days ago, on April 13th I left. After 3 countries, 4 flights and 4 time zones, I got home! I was really tired when I got off the airplane. Holy man. And I fell asleep early that night. But then I woke up at 9:30 am, a normal U.S. time. I felt okay yesterday but last night I slept 12 hours straight! My body is still a little wacked, I feel.

I thought I'd catch up on Australia since I didn't get to while I was there.
Tuesday-We left our host families and friends at the airport and flew 3 hours to Australia! B/c of the time change, it was late when we got there. So we just had some dinner, unpacked and went to bed. The hostel was a bit alarming to us at first. I've never been in a hostel before! We had WAY more suitcases than everyone else. :)
Wednesday-We woke up and toured around Sydney Harbour and went to the Taronga zoo. Sarah and I were distracted by the aboriginee singers and we lost sight of the other girls!! So we looked around for an hour then caught the next ferry. Sarah kept saying, "I think they left us." I said, "Nah, they wouldn't!" We are at the zoo, and after an hour, we SEE THEM!! they DID leave without us, sarah was right. Man. Then we just went home. On our way home, we stopped by the grocery store. Juliet and I lost sight of the others b/c we didn't know there was an underground grocery! So we left and went to the mall. We saw a huge line with a red carpet! We asked people what it was for. They said that Van Diesel, star of FAst and Furious was coming. So Juliet wanted to stay. Then they were giving out free tickets. I won them by a rock-paper-scissors contest!!!!! It was awesome! So Juliet and I saw the premier of "Fast and Furious." :)
Thursday- We made a friend in the hostel, named Sara, from Denmark. She hung out with us this whole day it was so fuN! We took the ferry to Manly Beach. We went shopping, sat on the beach, eating ice cream. Then we came back, and went to Chinatown. We saw some cool restaurants and we sat down at one. It was fun! Then Sara and I stopped by the grocery store on the way home. I love and miss her!
Friday- Sara, our new friend, went on a tour to the Blue Mountains. We however did not! We decided to go parasailing on Manly Beach!!!!!!! It was so fun!! Then we rented bikes around the beach, I loved it!!! We went on a liesurely ride. Then the others got ice cream. Then we had met a really nice couple on the ferry who were like 90 years old! They invited us to go to dinner! It was so nice of them. We took a taxi there, ate dinner with them, then a taxi back. Such a cool experience! Such kind people. I hope to keep in touch with them.
Saturday- We went to the "Rocks" shopping place in the morning, at a market. A POSH market I might add. Then we walked the Sydney Harbour Bridge, then we went to an Easter orotorio inside the opera house! It was really cool. But I was really tired, I tried not falling asleep! hehe. Then on our way home we went shopping and we got kebabs!! Then we came back to the hostel.
Sunday- We met other LDS tourists and missionaries and went to General Conference at a local LDS meetinghouse. At break for an hour, we sat down with the missionaries and some Korean members and had a big feast. Then, we went back to our hostel and packed and talked to our hostel roommate, Shannon. We gave her a book of Mormon!! I hope she realizes the truth that holds..
Monday- we packed up and went home!!!! We got to see our poly friends at the Auckland airport at our layover. I miss them! They bought us our last NZ ice cream. It was so fun! I am glad we met them.

I am glad to be home! A week until back to Utah. Crazy how time flies eh?

Tying up Loose Ends

I found some pictures that need to be added.
1) As you know, jess and I have taught Primary in church while we've been here. Here's a picture of our class! With the missionaries. They came in as a "guest speaker" the last day. :)
2) Cherish, me and Jess. The young women of the family...
3) We had our last umu, gathering with all the families! The food was cooked in a hongi, an underground oven and it was YUM! I loved the chocolate cake the best.
Should've taken a picture of that.

Well we're leaving tomorrow. Can't spend too much time here have lots of other things to do like try to squeeze everything into my suitcase..:)

Torches..

Tonight, I encountered a cultural barrier. Our host family was sitting around and my host mom said, "Cherish, put that torch away." I thought, THERE'S A TORCH IN THIS ROOM?! I'm imagining huge flames coming from a flask, ready to angrily burn down a house or light a darkened corridor. To my surprise and relief, I see only a flashlight. I stared at it and said, "A torch? That's a flashlight."With a smile, my host dad said, "Amy, you're in New Zealand!" Yes, yes, I am. :)

Northland!!

Our last trip!! Before we left, Dr.J gave us tons of money leftover!!!! We took a picture relishing in the cash we will probably have again.

We left on Monday and when we got there, we saw the treaty grounds where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. This treaty has made New Zealand the bicultural place it is and played a major rule in preserving Maori culture! This sounds like an essay but I've seen the effects of this treaty!!, and we saw Cape Reinga and we saw the light house. It was a gorgeous day! And a long drive. Cape Reinga is where the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea meet! Then we got the best Fish n' Chips place. Yummy!! Then we came back and a had a fun girl bonding night watching High School Musical 3..

went on a speedboat to see the Hole in the Rock! it was raining hard and I was soaked!! I spent the rest of the day with the heater on, curled in a blanket, eating noodles. Then we went shopping then came back and played cards with James.

Then on April Fool's we pranked the other girls! We stole their keys and at 2 a.m. turned all their furniture upside down! Then throughout the day we did pranks on Sarah, putting her stuff in another room and stuff. That night she retaliated! She stole our toothbrushes and we had to hold witnesses hostage to find out where they were!! She also toiled papered our hotel room...it was funny!! We then signed peace treaties. What a great April's Fools. I'm still in the prank mood...

Then on the last day of our trip we saw dolphins!! I loved it!! We also got to stop by this BEAUTIFUL island and have a free cup of hot chocolate.A fulfilling day. We drove back, surprising our families by being a day early and I crashed!!

4 more days til Australia. I love you all.

more pics!

This week we had to say goodbye to all our students at Ranui and such! It was hard! But they were so good to me. They all gave me a fairy costume to parade around the school with, with 2 fairy helpers. It was so cute! Then people signed a card, and Pani and I provided the morning tea food. We got NZ chocolate from our teacher friend, Chris! The kids all sang a Maori song to me and the school song. Margot read a book to me and gave me the book! I read the whole class a book I bought them. I will miss those kids so much! I loved working there. I can't wait to be a teacher even though somedays I came home discouraged and with a headache.

This weekend we went to Coromandel! It was fun! Beach, sun, glowworms, hikes, Cathedral Cove (where Prince Caspian was filmed)! Man I am sure going to miss NZ beaches. I got sunburned as usual. Hey, its a souvenir right? We stayed in a cabin that smelled like grandparents and had a huge scary deer head. haha it was a fun experience though!!

Today we had a friend from our neighborhood come with us to church. He asked us if he could come. He came to church then to the baptism. He is a druggie, does meth and drinks and all those things! He's trying to clean up. He's going to rehab soon. The missionaries are gonna visit him on Tuesday! They gave him a Book of Mormon. I love missionary work. And the missionaries here are really good missionaries. I feel like they've become our friends. They're way cool! We stole their cameras for a bit and took pictures of ourselves so they'll never forget us! haha! Then we came back and went over a neighbor's house with 2 cute Samoan girls that we're getting really attached to! But we came back and our host mom was upset a little I feel. She said we had stuff to do and we shouldn't favor some neighbors over the others and we shouldn't get too attached. I told her I don't mind getting attached. If it hurts when you leave somewhere, it means you left a bit of your heart. I'd rather leave bits of my heart everywhere then keep it all to myself...cheesy but hey its me!!

Teaching...is hard-as sometimes!

Teaching is great! I taught like almost all day today. Most of it was good stuff. But reading centers turned crazy somehow. I have been spending a lot of time thinking about and researching different teacher's suggestions on how to handle that kind of situation. But also today, a kid said, "I don't feel like playing." (we were playing a reading, word game). I said okay, your choice and walked off. I came back and he was CRYING! Now they cry a lot in 1st grade. So it's usually not that huge of a deal. I just say ok Wesley, I would love ot hear about it when you're ready, and continued doing other things. Usually after a couple minutes, they're done. No, Wesley cried for like 15 minutes straight, curled up in a ball, heavily breathing. I was getting worried. He has a medical condition, which name I don't remember, but I was wondering if this emotional outburst had something to do with it. He was really upset. I tried having him look at me, he didn't. I tried moving him, he wouldn't. Finally, the game ended, I sent the other kids away. I got him to get up, and the first idea that popped into my head was get him outside, take him on a walk. Luckily there was another teacher there. I took him on a walk, holding his hand. It forced him to get up, remove his hands from his mouth, clear his eyes, and we practiced breathing the whole walk as I tried to distract him. It totally worked! We got back I said, Wesley are you ready to go back to class? He said yes. I said what was wrong? He said, "I miss my mom." I said it's ok you'll see her later, let's go play. What do you want to do?" Anyway teaching is crazy. Don't you ever make fun of teachers again!!!