"The world was young, the mountains green..."

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say. 

Starting a New Zealand post with a LOTR quote seemed like good idea. So this is going to be my last blog post from the North Island of New Zealand… I have a week left in Auckland, and in this time I will take one more exam, attend a farewell dinner with all our kiwi professors, celebrate Thanksgiving with my abroad group, hit up the nightlife a few more times, and just generally spend as much time as I can outdoors enjoying the city/marvelously warm weather. Yeah, basically it’s a week to say ‘E noho ra’/goodbye to Auckland, goodbye to Blockhouse Bay and my host family, goodbye to the University and my favorite study space in the library, goodbye to hot kebabs on Queen Street, to fish and chips on the harbor, to the trusty 258 and 249 bus lines, and to the volcano hills around the city that I’ve had so much fun exploring.  

           A week left right? Why am I starting to think about all this now? Well I had to say goodbye to Rob, the students, and my Lynfield College placement already. After we sat in on his class, he took Laura and I back to Mangere Mountain, to the pillow lava formations in the bay, and to a kauri forest that was mummified and preserved in volcanic ash from the eruption. If you’ll remember from an older post, this is the same area Rob took me on my first day working with him and, in his words, it was good to “end as we began.” The only difference is that we also got to share this place with Laura and that I refused to let him buy the coffees this time; after all the awesome things he’s taught me this semester the least I could do is treat him to a “cuppa”. In the spirit of working with kids, I also gave him a friendship bracelet I made and explained that when I work at the American camps, the staff and kids usually make these for friends who have significantly impacted their experience/life… and yeah all that was my first tough goodbye of the trip.

gannet colony at Muriwai

            I was outdoors for the entirety of my final Sunday in Auckland. Melissa’s British host parents took us for a picnic on Muriwai Beach, which is one of the black beaches on the west coast. Within walking distance from the beach is a massive gannet colony, there were thousands of seabirds nesting there and most of them had tiny fluffy newly hatched chicks which looked like the fuzzy baby penguins from Happy Feet. The host-family has two adorable white terriers that played with us on the beach and stole cheese during lunch; seriously made me miss Beauregard because I know he would love Muriwai beach. As we ate lunch, all these horseback riders kept cantering their big bay horses along the beach and, although it was gorgeous to watch, I was very very very jealous and wanted to steal a pony. We stopped at a strawberry farm on the way back to Auckland and Sarah, the host mom, treated us to some FANTASTIC fresh strawberry ice cream. Normally I don’t trust any non-chocolate ice cream flavour, but the deliciousness of that strawberry ice cream was off the charts. I spent the rest of the day hiking an awesome trail I found in Blockhouse Bay that follows the coast and weaves in an out of the bush. Basically that was my last day to hang out with the bay and the beach and the neighborhood.

UM in other world news, I also got a new host sister last week from Brazil named Veri. She’s awesome; her English is still in the works so we communicate largely by charades and misunderstandings but it’s actually very funny and fun. Because my workload hasn’t been bad lately, I have been spending a few hours each evening helping her with her English homework. At the end of every study sesh she always says, “thanks for helping…. I’m soooo sorry it took so long” to which I always remind her that I am a teacher!! I love helping students with material and somehow never get tired of it. In regular conversation, Lorna (who’s British) and I compete with eachother in convincing Veri to pronounce words the “right” way… so far we have had major debates on the ‘proper’ pronunciation of garage (brits call it GAR-idge), advertisement (ad-VER-tis-MENT), Adidas (aah-dee-daas), and glacier (glass-ee-er). Haa silly British. Veri came out Salsa dancing and partying with me and the other Americans this weekend, which was awesome…

White Waikato cliffs

What else what else…. Oh right I had THE MOST AMAZING WEEKEND OF MY TRIP THUS FAR NO BIGGIE. But seriously, everything about last weekend’s trip to Lake Taupo was brilliant. We pulled in at 2 am Friday night, stumbled through the town until we found our hostel and beds, and then woke up the next morning to a surprising but gorgeous view of the lake and snow capped mountains. First stop: Bungy jumping off the steep white cliffs of the Waikato River. This site is regarded as the most beautiful location to jump on the North Island, and not to be too cheesy, but it seemed much more spiritual plunging head first into the turquoise waters of the Waikato rather than diving from the steel-and-concrete bungy pads in downtown Auckland. I love adrenaline, but I would be a liar if I said I wasn’t nervous about the jump. It was the head-first-tied-by-your-ankles thing that got to me; no amusement park ride comes close to this unsupported head-first free fall. Before I went, I watched a few of the jumps; you would see the person jump and scream… and then five minutes later you would see
 a limp empty harness being reeled back into the launch pad. 
It reminded me of the scene in Jurassic Park, 

T-rex bait

where the cow in its harness is lowered into the T-Rex cage… and then after some unpleasant noises the harness is lifted back out of the pen, eerily empty. I teamed up with my friend Lauren, who was admittedly very nervous about the whole ordeal but totally committed. I didn’t know at the time, but the bungee company filmed us waiting on the launch pad before we jumped and showed us this video after we survived. In the video I’m making a bunch of jokes and smiling at Lauren, acting totally pumped and reassuring her that it is just like a seabird diving down to catch some fish (I know, weird way to comfort somebody)… but every time she looked away I closed my eyes and did ten or so rounds of deep breathing to keep myself calm haha because I was totally freaking out on the inside. The nerves hit when they shackled my ankles together… and then led me to the edge of the platform, staring down at the 47-meter drop. As soon as the staff said “go!”, there was no hesitation from either of us and we just made the leap. Thrilling, beautiful, terrifying: I absolutely loved the jump. And then after the forces of physics had their way with us, we hung upside-down by our ankles waiting for the little boat to come get us down… that part sucked.

Hiking along the Waikato River

Craters of the Moon geothermal park

I spent the rest of the day hiking around the Taupo region with three of my friends. Taupo is a giant volcanic zone… the lake itself is the crater from a massive eruption, there are chains of volcanic mountains in every direction, and large sections of the river and land is “steaming” from geothermal intrusion. First we went to the Craters of the Moon geothermal park that is full of wide red craters that emit steam and boiling mud… these craters formed because steam built up underground and eventually all that pressure was released in a mini explosion. Then we walked east to Huka Falls; this is a river canyon made of hard granite which qualifies as a 

band photo in front of the hot waterfall

class 6 rapid. Then we followed a gorgeous trail along the Waikato river, where we encountered wildflowers, native birds, rainbows, campsites, and fisherman. Eventually we arrived at a little wooden bridge, and underneath it ran a very clear stream with steaming waterfalls and pools of hot water. This was one of Taupo’s “hot streams” that is heated geothermally and then runs into the ice cold Waikato river. We got free back massages by sitting underneath the hot waterfalls and then walked downstream to feel the ‘layers’ of water, that is, hot water floating on the surface by our waists and freezing cold water sinking to the bottom by our ankles. Yay for particle density and science.

Reminds me of Geneva NY this time of year

The next day we woke up at 5:30 am to catch a shuttle to the Tongariro National Park to attempt the very challenging Tongariro Alpine Crossing that is renown as New Zealand’s best day hike. The hike is through an active volcanic field, climbing up the steep “aa” lava flows to the snow covered summits, along a massive steaming blood-red crater, down a steep ashy slope comprised of loosely packed footing that crumbled away with every step, along the electric blue Emerald Lakes with the smell of sulfur in the air, through fields of sloshy wet snow where vicious snowball fights broke out, and finally a loooooooong decent down grassy Lord-of-the-Rings style paths that endlessly winded back and forth and up and down. The whole ordeal took about 6 rigorous hours and 3 delicious granola bars, but we survived and, as a group, felt like we had just conquered the world. For me, it was a stunning and powerful experience that I can’t entirely share with photos and words. That evening was spent treating our muscles to the hot stream and soaking up guitar music and cider at our hostel.

Mount Ngauruhoe/"Mt Doom" on the left,
active stratovolcano

LOTR landscape, Lake Taupo in the distance

Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli looking
 longfully at the Emerald Lakes

on top of the steamy red crater

Jumping into a very cold lake

On our final day in Taupo, three people from our group went skydiving, three went off exploring, and so Kat and I decided we needed to board a sailboat and enjoy the lake a bit. The sun was out, the weather was magnificent, and all morning we laid on the deck of a sailboat-yacht (whatever is in between those two types of boats, I don’t really know anything about the nautical world) called the Fearless. Eventually we arrived at the site of the beautiful Maori rock/cliff carvings; these carvings were done in the 1970’s to spiritually protect Lake Taupo from future volcanic eruptions and my favorites were a celtic mermaid, a guardian lizard, and the 10 meter tall depiction of 
the Maori navigator, Ngatoroiangi.

Sailing up to the Maori carvings

On my busride home, I sat next to a guy from Chicago who kept asking me geology questions about New Zealand so, whether or not he knew the full extent of what he was getting into, I properly talked his ear off for five hours. Look, If your gonna ask I’m gonna answer… I like to talk rocks.

The weekend before that we went to Coromandel Peninsula, which was also awesome. Just like at the end of every post, I’m getting burned out from all this writing so I will link my friend Kat’s blog post called “Cathedral Cove looks like a church” which has more about the weekend. The highlights of this trip were an afternoon of sea kayaking in kayaks that were not made for the sea (serious flippage), hiking to the beautiful Cathedral Cove which was carved out by sea erosion, celebrating Guy Fawkes day with massive fireworks and a giant bonfire on the beach, taking a mini-train ride up into the Coromandel Mountain Ranges, and laying on the “Hot Beach” where you can dig a hole in the sand and let the geothermally warmed waters seep through and fill your “bath”.

Cathedral cove

very unpredictable kayaks

hotties on the hot beach 

And with that, I have successfully updated my blog! I know this post has some formatting issues, but I really can't be bothered to fight with this website because I always lose and it always wins. I have the day off, so my plans are firstly to go snarf the carrot cake that Lorna left me and then I’ll grab my guitar, head to Mt. Hobson, and meet up with Laura who plans to do some artsy sketching of the city. After months of deliberation, I have finally named my travel guitar “Whittaker” (Wit-ta-ker) after an amazing New Zealand chocolate brand. I think Whittaker and I could use some exercise and sunshine so I’m off. Hopefully I’ll be good and get another post up after my travels in the South Island and Sydney, but hey, I’m pretty proud I kept up with this all semester so it’s whatever. Okay America, see you soon but not too soon!

packing the bags, can't wait to be on the road again

The trails we trek, the roads we roam

I don't want to do this, but I have to comment on how amazing the weather is here now that Spring has settled in. I heard word from my extensive sources in Oregon, Missouri, New York, Massachusetts, and Washington DC (woo shout outs!) that the States are now blanketed in snow and general coldness. So imagine the exact opposite of that and that is life in the Southern Hemisphere right now. Birds, flowers, swimming, all that jazz. Thank god the weekend is here, because I spent the entirety of this week being taunted by the nice weather while I was tied to my desk, writing comprehensive essays on uninspiring topics that have no relation to my major or interests. Oops, a little rant there, whatever I'M FREE (until Monday) and headed up to the beachy Coromandel Peninsula to celebrate the sun.
      It was two weeks ago that this happened but, in case you hadn't heard, THE ALL BLACKS WON THE 2011 RUGBY WORLD CUP!!!!!!!

Things have really settled down lately, but the weekend of this game and the week following we're full of huge celebrations, happy kiwis, and parades in all the major cities. Even though we arrived plenty early, all the pubs and wharfs were jam-packed, so we watched the entire game from the street, standing up, packed in huge crowed, hoping that nobody tall stood in front of us (non-issue for me) so that we could see the big screens located an overpacked bar on Queens Wharf (which is considered "Party Central" for the games). Yeah, it was the BEST way to watch that game, especially because this is where the craziest crowds were (excluding Eden Park where the game was played). We had a loud Samoan group behind us, Spanish guys to our left, a French group to our right (who would obnoxiously wave their flags in our faces every time the French scored), and some Kiwi girls who 

Victory Parade! Weepu lookin good on the right

pushed their way into our area and then every five minutes asked me what the score was or to say something in my American accent... The last twenty minutes of the game were unbearable... watching all the close calls as the All Blacks led by a mere point. And, as you can imagine, the streets absolutely erupted when the clock ran out. I would compare the synchronized chaos to an explosion or something of greater magnitude. I don't really know how my group all didn't get separated, but for a good twenty minutes were ran through the streets, high-fiving and hugging and cheering with random people, everyone consumed with weirdly powerful joy. I'll just say that sun was rising by the time I got home from the celebrations.

Parading kiwi birds and kiwi fruit!

And the next day was a massive victory parade downtown, where the All Blacks Players themselves were driven on floats through the streets, surrounded by performers and dancers and musicians. I was about fifteen feet away from Piri Weepu, my absolute favorite player even though he didn't play too well in the finals (one newspaper said he was sick, I'll buy it). Yeah, and that concludes me ranting on and on about Rugby in these posts! But seriously, I will miss the atmosphere of the games and am so glad to have shared this enormous experience with Auckland.

Archery in the vineyards? Sure why not

      Just before the final, I went wine touring on Waiheke Island which is about a 35 minutes ferry ride from downtown Auckland. The island and the vineyard estates were stunning; the tourist in me would compare it to Lord-of-the-Rings landscape with a lot more grapes. I know we visited Peacock Sky, Wild on Waiheke, and Goldwater Estates, all of which also had really good food to "sample" (aka secretly take a ton of) and big porches with beautiful views to enjoy. Wild on Waiheke also had an archery and riflery ranges, which seemed like a creative but bad idea. 
     

Steamy Rotorua 

The past weekend my entire abroad program group traveled to Rotorua, paid for (mostly) by HWS. The city is located next to a giant lake, which is the a water filled crater formed by a past eruption. The city is located along the fault line and it's a big tourist destination because of its geothemeral features (geysers, hot springs). As we pulled into the city, there were random stream clouds emitting from patches of ground and fields, and there was a strong smell of sulphur in the air (not a good smell, just fyi). Pretty cool, it was like no place I'd ever been.

Cave entrance to Black Water Rafting

• Before we arrived in Roturua, we went to Waitomo Caves to see the famous glow worms (they are only found in NZ and Australia). Floating on an underground river in a boat, with all of us maintaining the dead silence, and the starry effect of the glow worms on the cave roof... yeah that was a powerful moment. After this tour, we proceeded to go "Black Water Rafting" through the cave systems. This sort of adventure is the sort of stuff I love and we spent the afternoon tubing through a dark cave river, jumping backwards off waterfalls, and crashing into limestone formations that we didn't see coming. 

Holding our very
 photoshopped Kiwi birds

• Toured Rainbow Springs Wildlife Park, a conservation and education center for native animals and plants - I absolutely loved it. We even got to see the kiwi chick hatchery where we learned how they incubate the eggs and release the adult kiwi's back into the wild. Let it be known that Kiwi birds are very strange, but absolutely adorable. 
• Visited Te Puia, home of the Pohutu Geyser which erupts 20 times a day, 100 feet into the air; best place ever for the geo-nerd in me! This land was formally occupied by the Maori tribe Te Arawa, who cook in the hot springs and have a spiritual connection with this land. So in addition to the geothermal wonders, this park includes a Marae, a Maori carving school, and a Maori weaving school. The whole time I was there I kept thinking about how much my dad would love                      this place, and how I wish I could have shared this experience with him.

Pohutu Geyser

Sulfur deposits around the park

getting ready to go!

• Went Zorbing, a sport that originated in Auckland itself! Well not really a sport, you get put in a giant clear rubber balls and pushed down a hill, completely out of control. There is "dry" zorbing, where you are strapped into a harness inside the ball (aka connected to the wall), and this feels like being on a very unpredictable roller-coaster (this is the one I did!). Or there is wet zorbing, where you are not strapped into a harness, but instead the ball is filled with water and you slide around in all directions as the ball rolls - kind of like a waterslide. 

• Spent an evening at the "Polynesian Spa" which is a collection of hot pools of varying temperatures overlooking Lake Rotorua. It's out of control how relaxing that water was, and I might have fallen asleep and boiled to death if it wasn't for Laura watching my back.

View of Rotorua from the mountain

a butterfly and a cat on a chairlift,
no biggie

• The big finale for the trip was riding the Skyline gondola up Mt. Ngongotaga and going on the luge! This luge has nothing to do with ice, but is more like gravity operated go carts that you can race down hill on beginner, intermediate, or advanced tracks (well you're not really supposed to race, but if that's true then they shouldn't have built a passing lane on the tracks... it's too tempting). We tried all the tracks, and a chairlift would transport you and your cart back to the top of the mountain when you finished the ride. The best part was that we were all dressed up in our makeshift halloween costumes and looked absolutely insane, especially me with my face covered in butterfly tattoos. Hey, it's better than blue hair. The day ended with a big buffet feast in a restaurant located on the top of the mountain, overlooking sunny Rotorua. 

I have one more story to share from last week. My class attended a ceremony at Owairaka Primary school to celebrate the construction of a new Fale at the school. A Fale is an oval shaped traditional Samoan building, made of timber. Owairaka is a low socio-economic, very culturally diverse community, so building this Fale to embrace Samoan ethnicity was an important event. The primary school students and teachers made speeches and delivered cultural performances, including Samoan, Niuean, and Tongan dances. I have uploaded a few videos and photos below with the hopes that they capture how special and fantastic this ceremony was. 

Sonny Bill Williams, one of the All Blacks, was in attendance, surrounded by very excited kids 

The new Fale

Tongan performance

      

After the celebration, we took a tour of the school and I soon realized that the Fale was not the first attempt by this school to create a united multicultural environment. The school had already constructed an Asian Zen/Rock garden, an Indian garden, and a Maori medicinal garden. They also had vegetable gardens, chickens, and composting facilities that the children were responsible for maintaining; a very cool way to teach community and responsibility to these young kids.

Less than one month before I start traveling... well I already am traveling but I'm about to become even more traveley as I head down to the sparsely populated South Island for two weeks, and then to the over populated Sydney Australia for another week. Time's ticking away, better make the most of it! I always get a little cheesy/sentimental at the end of these posts because I'm basically compressing all my favorite moments into a small space. Maybe it seems silly, but below i've attached a video in which I attempted to capture what I love about Auckland. Just a simple sunny day behind Vulcan Street, hanging out with Melissa and a guy on guitar:

THIS IS FRODO MY NEW SHEEP

more sun, less city

 So as I write this I’m listening to some reggae island music I picked up at the Avondale Markets this weekend. That’s something that I really didn’t realize about New Zealand before I came here; this a Pacifica island as much as it is a British colony. There’s huge Polynesian influence, Pacific tradition, and the whole country runs on “island time” (ie everyone is mad laid back and its no biggie when I roll into class ten minutes late). You really have to get out of Auckland to get a good sense of it and that’s exactly what I did for my recent Bay of Islands excursion.

        

           This trip was paid for by HWS (yayyy!) and I think I speak for my whole group when I say that it was an amazing outing that produced some awesome memories. I could ramble on about the trip for hours, but I doubt I can truly capture with words and stories why the experience meant so much to us.

whale vertebrae leading to the Omaha Marae

• The trip started off with cultural workshops at the Omaha Marae including mau rakau (traditional martial arts) on the beach, ‘E Papa Waiari’ (traditional song and game, so fun/hard), learning how to play traditional instruments including the conch shell "putatara", wooden trumpet "pukaea", flutes made of bone "koauau", whirling blade "purerehua", and waking up at 5 am to watch the sunrise over the ocean (NZ being one of the first places in the world to witness the rising sun, after Japan). We were also lucky enough to engage in powerful discussions with one of our hosts, “Bianca”, about Maori perspectives and about current environmental problems such as offshore drilling. We all slept in the Marae (a meeting house and sacred space full of carvings and color to represent the history of this tribe). I could see the Southern Cross constellation and a few shooting stars just outside the window as I lay in bed. The experience was not flashy or touristy and, because of that, I learned so much from my short time there.

•   If you have not heard, there is currently a massive oil spill off the coast of NZ as a result of offshore drilling. Although it is on a much smaller scale, the situation is a stark reminder of our own mess on the Gulf Coast. You can read more about it here

 

Cape Reinga

 

wild kiwi horses

• Walked the path at Cape Reinga to the lighthouse located at the northern most tip of New Zealand. Maori believe when people die, their spirits travel north along a path until they reach a tree at this point and ‘jump off’. This is also where the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean currents collide, making a line of breaking waves perpendicular to the land.
• SANDBOARDING!!!! Such an awesome/mildly terrifying sport where you use a boogie-board type of thing to eliminate even the idea of friction as you slide head first down a massive sand dune. I screamed very loud, wiping out half way down the slope was my specialty (although I did have two good runs!). A solid face plant left me sporting an endearing-yet-repulsive sand beard and everyone was super jealous of it.
• Visited the ancient Kauri forests and gumdigger settlements. home of the oldest tree on earth (preserved by a peat bog).
•  Played around at Ninety-Mile Beach and the tour-truck drove us down along the beach for 70km. During this time we SAW A WILD HORSE HERD complete with a few foals AHH seriously such good luck! It was by far my favorite moment of the trip.

• Visited the Treaty of Waitangi site where the pact between the Maori and the Crown was produced and signed. This document is very controversial because the Maori and English translations are very different and, due to the word use, the Maori did not realize that by signing it they were surrendering their rights to the land.

touching the world's oldest tree

band practice

Another big thing I checked off the must-see list is that huge island volcano that lurks in the background of most of my photos. Rangitoto (Maori translation means 'Bloody Sky'). This is the youngest and largest volcano in the Auckland volcanic field and is only accessible by boat. It erupted several times between 600 and 500 years ago but is not expected to erupt again. The rocks here were a midnight black basalt, and there were huge ‘Aa’ lava flows that were still bare of vegetation even after all this time. Our tour guide was an American volcanologist and she gave the group a little geology lesson as we hiked through the bush to the summit, getting a view of the crater along the way. There are also lava caves and tubes that we didn’t have time to do on this day, but I know I’ll come back and explore later in the semester.

This past weekend a group of us went to the zoo, and the whole park was way better that I expected. In addition to the usual monkeys-lions-tigers-etc exhibits, the Auckland Zoo has very thoughtful exhibits specific to New Zealand and Australian 
wildlife. I was really enchanted by the NZ exhibits which included

being magically enchanted by the zoo

• a nocturnal forest (which housed bats, owls, and kiwi birds). The kiwi birds waddled about and used their long skinny snouts to hunt for grubs.
• several outdoor, walk-though aviaries full of native birds. This literally just felt like being back in the bush at Karekare
• an “island” section with seals, little blue penguins, and island reptiles
• a wetlands section with freshwater eel and waterfowl

Also this weekend I went salsa dancing for the first time! Ahh so fun, and I’m absolutely going again this Friday. My friend Melissa taught me some basics before we went out, and I had a few more good tutors throughout the night; by the end I was actually keeping up and acting like a coordinated person as I was tossed into countless spins and dips. I have got to get some salsa music on my itunes so I can use ‘dance practice’ as an excuse to procrastinate my homework.

taken from atop lion rock, with the 

classic finger-blocking-lens effect

            Also this weekend (I sound like a stuck record, but I packed a lot into this weekend!), we enjoyed a sunny day on Piha beach and climbed Lion Rock (te piha) for an awesome view of the coastline. That night we went into town for the All Blacks vs Aussie semi-final game WOOOO and the Blacks absolutely destroyed the Wallabies in a great game (great because we won and our defense was more effective than a rock wall). Everyone (well except for the wallabies) was out with their facepaint and flag capes, celebrating in the streets. Some guys on my bus even performed a loud haka (the Maori war dance) which was an awesome sight to cap the night.

            With the weather quickly improving and my commitment to thoroughly tour the North Island, I have the next four weekends absolutely booked with excursions outside Auckland. Here are my upcoming plans:

• Oct 21-23: Waiheke trip (island with great beaches and wine tour) + Rugby World Cup final in the city
• Oct 29-31: Roturua (thermal springs and geologic fields)
• Nov 5-6: Coromandel (beaches)
• Nov 11- 14^:  Taupo (largest lake in Australasia, planning to hike through active volcano fields)

and now for some teaching stuff because i'm not here just for the beaches!

I taught a bunch of classes a few weeks ago (as I mentioned in my last post) which was awesome, I love playing teacher. Right now the high school is on holiday break so instead my time is filled with these 3 hour lectures at Auckland University. The reason that the HWS New Zealand abroad program is advertised for students studying education is because New Zealand is renown for having this really progressive, multicultural, inquiry based model where the teachers have a lot more freedom HOW to teach effectively. While I can tell that the NZ secondary level schools (at least the one i'm placed at) are better organized and more creative than the US schools, I think that this "ideal classroom model" image is a success of primary level schools and early-childhood education programs... it is somewhat lost on upper level schooling. The other American students in my program who are placed in elementary schools confirm that the model does exist in their classrooms and they enjoy seeing it in action. Well whatever, I love teaching at the secondary level even though it is undoubtedly challenging. 

     In one of my uni classes with my American professor, we discussed the history of NZ schools. Historically, secondary level schools were taught and run by men (and almost all students were male because women were encouraged to pursue a domestic role); these schools were conservative, preoccupied with order and with examination results. Women teachers were really only involved in schooling the younger children where they experimented with and implemented new techniques for 'social and personal development'. Pretty cool, way to go ladies. 

    I taught 4 classes to 3 different groups of students. My first group is a year nine chemistry class that I assist with twice a week. These kids are familiar with me and they are super well behaved in general so the two classes I taught went perfect. The only issue is that, being a chem class, they had NO knowledge about any geologic concepts so we had to cover the basics like "why volcanoes exist? why are they found here in Auckland but not found where I live in the US?" before we could move into the lesson I had prepared. This is the class I will continue to teach a few lessons for next semester. 

    The second group I was a bit worried about teaching because everyday, when I observe them, these kids (75% of the class is boys) just ignore their teacher and goof around/talk/ throw stuff at each other and the teacher absolutely cannot get anything done. Somehow I managed to get this group to participate in the lesson, to focus moderately well (wayyy better than I usually observe) so I walked away pretty content with my classroom management skills haha. 

    The third group I taught are usually very laid back and thoughtful, but the teacher warned me that because the semester was almost over they have been becoming increasingly unfocused. They were probably my loudest group, but at the same time they were the most energetic to participate in the lesson so I don't really know how to read that. Lots of postive energy, mostly unproductive... but hey, I know what it's like when you're just counting the seconds until school break so I can't really blame them. It still went well, I was able to refocus them several times and was invited back by the teacher to do another lesson after break- YES!

    

Okay but seriously, everyone out there better be in support of the All Blacks this weekend THIS IS SERIOUS STUFF my city will actually close down and fall into a recession if we don't pull this off. Below is a quick video of the haka that was performed on my bus as well as the haka performed by the All Blacks as we watched the semi-finals in a pub downtown!