Pushing through school and rain

It has almost been another full week of classes and boy can I not wait until school is OVER! My daily schedule has consisted of waking up at 7, getting to devotional by 8, starting class at 8:15 until 11:30, taking a nice little lunch break until 12:15, going to class again until 3:30, walking home to be greeted by Siah saying "the 'gurls' are here" (in his adorable little accent), starting up on homework the second we walk in the door, eating dinner with the Skeens, reading scriptures as a family (once the kids are in bed), finishing my homework, trying to workout with Brooke whose usually the only one still up with me, getting to bed if I'm lucky by midnight, and getting up to start it all over again. 

It still has been raining almost every day, with a cold little breeze, and has been pretty overcast. For now it is actually ok because we have to be in school all day long, so we don't feel like we are missing out as much because we couldn't be on the beach or anything anyways with the cold weather. But I still would like to see and feel the warm SUN.

Tomorrow will be the last day of our Management class (that us four Spring Start girls have been doing on our own) and also our Literacy class. I have really enjoyed learning all of the Literacy material that our NZ teacher has been teaching us. She has a lot of good information that I feel like I could use in my future classroom. It also has been so fun to be taught by someone from NZ with the accent and lingo. She is always teaching and saying stuff like "alrighty just 'have a go' with it" (meaning: try it out) or "good on ya" (meaning: good job) or "kapai" (mauri for 'well done') or "do this for a bit". It is interesting to hear the differences in hers and phil's speech from our own (and yet it is SO natural to them). I LOVE IT!!

Other than school and cold weather life has been great! I love getting to know my host family better every day and am starting to become REALLY attached to these sweet kids. Siah is so cute because he always remembers my name and wants to play with me, tickle me, show me his toys, or have me pick him up. Dia is a little "cheeky" (meaning: sassy) one who loves pretties, dresses, smiling, kisses, hugs, and most of all being HELD! She will just come up to me and hold her hands up to be lifted up and then she will lay her head on my shoulder and give me the biggest snugly hug. I love it :). Richi is also so funny with how he is always trying to tickle me and everyone else. I don't think I have mentioned this before but Richi has high functioning autism. I love it when he always says "excuse me" to get every ones attention, especially when he says it like five times in a row. He is such a little sweetheart! But don't get me wrong, these three kids are all wild little things! But I have fun chasing them around and tickling them as they all try to pile up on me at one time haha. "Good Times" as Nisha would say.

Oh I forgot to mention that SHOWERS and E-MAILS (because we don't have cell phones) are like opening presents on Christmas day here haha. We have to switch off every other day with showering because we use up the hot water way too fast with the four of us. And you wouldn't think that every other day would be that bad, but it is here. This is because it is so humid we get sticky and oily within like 30 mins of taking a shower. So by the second day it feels like we haven't showered in a week. It is the BEST feeling when I can walk out of the shower all nice and clean. The only other problem though is that I don't have a blow dryer, or straightener, and I don't want to buy a blow dryer because they are expensive and no one will go in on one with me. So my hair just dries INSANELY!!!! Like literally it has a mind of it's own. I can't EVER get my bangs to work because they do this flip curl that just looks hilarious. Oh well, I will just keep pulling my bangs back and live with Afro frizzy hair! Gotta love it!

Our sweet little bathroom. It is so tiny tiny and the door doesn't lock so
we just slide it close and hope that no one opens it! Oh how I love the
shower though. I've never before felt so oily and sticky than I do here!

In NZ there are two options for flushing the toilet. You do the right one
if you just go pee because it uses less power and water. But if you do
anything more than that you push the left button because it gives off
MORE POWER (see it has three lines for more power haha). 

You also eat interesting goodies here as well. This is a cake I think?

Oh how we love to dry our clothes on the line! It is like a sin to even
think of drying your clothes in a dryer. New Zealanders are very GREEN
and Eco-friendly people so they try to save as much as possible (hence
the drying outside on the lines and the options for flushing the toilet).

We came home from school one day to find our clothes and underwear
out drying. Nisha later apologized and said, "I'm sorry for leaving
your "draws" out front for everyone to see." haha. We did not care AT
ALL, just thought it was funny to see them all out there drying!

Homework, homework, and MORE homework. 

The end of the day when class is FINALLY out and we
can pack up to go home :)

And when we get home, sweet Siah is there to greet us!

Our fun little Management class together. We have had a lot of fun working
together and completing our assignments on our own. 

Yeah that's right, we get to work!

HAHA!! Me and Brooke woke up, got showered, got
dressed, and said HEY we're matching haha. We
didn't even plan it or anything. It was funny!

Yes we are just matchy matchy. Even our watches and
purses are the same, just different colors. 

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Here's some pictures I got from our "water park" adventure and entering the NZ airport!

This was the black slide that went SOOOO STINKIN
FAST it gave me whiplash! 

Nice and WARM

We've landed in New Zealand, the land of the Kiwis! We are sticking
out our tongues because that's a tradition the Maori's do. 

I love this picture because it has ALL 20 of us girls at the beginning
of our fun adventure in NZ!!