Beautiful New Zealand

Today was another sunny day in NZ. Yesterday it finally warmed up and we were able to sit outside in the sun during lunch! Today was a little colder because there was a breeze, so we didn't end up going to the beach after school, but it was still nice to not have rain! We finished our math class today and will start tomorrow with social studies and science. I can't believe that it is moving along so quickly. Just one more week and we will finally get to travel to the south island. Oh and a fun treat is that this Saturday we get to ride horses as a group and then go to the beach. I hope the weather will be good so that we can have a fun, warm, and sunny day!!

Here's a few more pictures that I am catching up on. I am sorry that I write so much and post so much stuff, but I am doing this as a little journal that I can make into a book once I get home. So when I write all of this stuff, do not feel like you have to read any of it haha. You can just look at the pictures or whatever, I just want to write down everything as I go for myself :)!!!

Theses pictures are of our "cottage evening" we had last Sunday. Cottage evening is pretty much the same thing as YSA FHE on Sunday nights back home. We had a little spiritual lesson, played games, and then ate some treats. Don't worry, we brought cookies this time instead of an empty plate. :) See we are learning!

Playing Ninja

It was so much fun getting to know the YSA girls in our ward here. They
are hilarious! We talked to them for over an hour about our culture and
their culture, laughed a lot, tried to imitate each others accents, planned
beach days with each other, and went home to add each other on facebook.
It is so fascinating learning about this different culture and seeing how they
are as equally interested in our American culture as we are theirs. Good times!

Victoria is in the black shirt and blue lava-lava, she is hilarious. 

Playing the cup game. It got pretty intense as we kept
making the beat go faster and faster. 

This was a pretty nice house. The dad is a doctor.....they had like a big screen
t.v. and tons of DVDs. I was like woah, am I back in the states!?

The beautiful land of New Zealand. I can't get enough of how green everything is.

I love this picture. Isn't it beautiful?!!!

In NZ they have these buttons next to the outlets that
turn on and off the power source. So if we have something
plugged in we can flip that little switch next to the plug
and it turns off. This is another eco-friendly way of
saving power, and is nice so we don't have to keep
unplugging our cords!

I love all the colorful houses! Most of the houses are light and bright colors.
We saw a man painting his fence this bright green color the other day
on our way home from school. I thought of my mom and Rick saying
to themselves, "what color should we paint the fence....humm bright green
would be perfect!" :) haha

Of course I had to get a picture of my FAVORITE color house :) (AH I am
in love with that baby yellow.)

ALL over the place

Fun trees

And here it is....lamb shank. Phil says that this is what a lot of NZ people
LOVE to eat. He would eat A LOT more of it if Nisha wasn't from the
states and actually liked lamb haha. I am so grateful that Nisha is
from America, because that means we get to eat American types of
meals almost every night. 

One of my biggest fears coming here was that I would have to eat foods like
this and would just starve. A lot of the girls have had to eat more authentic
NZ foods with their families, but luckily Nisha likes American type foods!

Sausages ALL over the place

Upside down map....NZ right in the middle!

This is the crossing the street thing I talked about earlier. To cross the
street we have to run to that little barrier in between the blue arrows
and wait there until the zooming cars are gone so we can cross
to the other side!

Please don't eat me once I can actually go to the beach in the sun.