Coromandel, New Zealand.

January 29, 2012 

What a wonderful week. Probably the best week so far here in New Zealand (I think my  mind will change about this soon.) This was the last week of classes! That means I am completely done with classes as an undergrad. All that is left is my 6 week practicum here in New Zealand and then an internship (hopefully) or student teaching. CRAZY! 

We finished off the week with more science and social studies. It was a lot of fun. In science on the last day we made rockets out of film canisters and alka seltzer. Who knew you could do that. It was so fun to watch all of us girls laugh and chase them around. 

We were a little nervous on Friday because we were headed off to go camping, but it was raining. It rained all day long. As soon as class was over we packed up and headed out. We must be quite the sight. 20 American girls packed into 2 vans. We have lots of fun together. We were going camping with the Joseph family up at Coromandel. It is usually at 3.5 to 4 hour drive, but we hit some nasty traffic and it took us a lot longer. I am glad that it did though, because by the time we got out of the city the sun was shining. We drove for awhile and finally saw the water and the sunset. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. IT WAS AMAZING. 

Camping was a lot of fun. I shared a tent with 6 other girls. It was fun to talk and get to know them a little better. It was so cold the first night, but luckily our host family let us borrow some very nice sleeping bags. We woke up and got ready and headed to the beach. Oh man was it great. The weather was finally warm (a little cool but just about perfect). The water was beautiful. It was just a great day. We stayed there all day and just played and laid around. I got sunburned in a few places, my back, shoulders, back of my knees and half of my face. Yep that’s right I have a nice line down the middle of my forehead. Oops. 

This morning we packed up camp and headed back to Auckland. I was sad to leave, but ready to start the next adventure. Basically our trip is divided into 4 parts. The first part was school: check!, the next part is the South Island, then practicum, then Northland. We are done with school and we head to the South Island for 10 days tomorrow at 5 am! I am so excited. The first thing we are doing is the shotover jet and then a whole bunch of other adventures. It will be great. 

Because we only get to take our backpacks (full of stuff for 10 days) I will not have my laptop so there won’t be any updates until February 8. 

Major life decisions!

January 24, 2012 

What an absolutely beautiful day here in New Zealand. I love this whole idea of summer in January! It is wonderful. The wind is always blowing a little bit here (reminds me slightly of Wyoming) so it never feels too incredibly hot. Whenever we have a break we make sure that we go outside and enjoy and soak up some of the sun. I love being outside, especially when the weather is nice. It just makes me happy! 

Today we had science and social studies again. Only 3 more days of classes! How crazy is that! I am not ready to be an adult. Can I go back and start over? Haha just kidding. I guess it is getting to the point to end this chapter of my life and start a new one. This new chapter involves getting a big girl job. For those of you that don’t know, I applied to do an internship next fall. If I am selected (the selection process is in March), I will be a full time teacher for an entire year. This is so great and scary in so many different aspects. It is great because as an intern you get half salary (okay, I know teachers don’t make much to begin with, but considering that I have graduated yet this is amazing!), you also get full benefits through the school. Okay, now on to the scary part, as an intern you have your own classroom for an academic year. That means that I will be a teacher, by myself (yes there will be support, but not directly in the classroom with me). I don’t know if I can teach by myself. Yes, this is what I have been training for for the last few years. Yes, this is what I want to do, but YIKES! It will be good. If I get the internship, it counts as your first year of teaching which is wonderful, because I want to go to grad school (I don’t know in what yet). If I decide to go to BYU for grad school, which I probably will, you have to have a year of teaching under your belt and that would count. Being an intern never was really an option for me because of the track I am on, but because of New Zealand I now have the opportunity. I interviewed for it in December (I had to reschedule my interview because I didn’t hear about the group interview until after the fact it was over). They will show my video to my first choice school district (Nebo) in March and if they want me and have a place for me, they will hire me. If not, then I move on to second round interviews, if I choose. If I don’t get an internship then I will just student teach and that is okay too. Crazy to think about. I think it will be good though. I have been debating like crazy if I really wanted to do this, but I think I do. I am ready to get out there and be a teacher. I am ready to think of my own activities and to decorate my class all cute. I AM READY TO BE A TEACHER. I have been debating for quite some time if this is something that I wanted to do, and I think I made my decision. I am definitely putting my name in for the internship and if I get then I will accept in a heart beat. If not, there is another plan for me! 

Today in science we did a bunch of experiments. It was a lot of fun. We did one that I did in physics in high school so I was a pro at it. He gave us a box with salt, sand, and rice in it and it was our job to separate the three things. It was a lot of fun to get everything into their own separate piles. We also played with vinegar, baking soda, and balloons. And the best part was putting gingerbread cookies in water and watching what happened and putting m&ms in water and seeing what happened. I really like science when we are doing these little experiments! 

gingerbread cookie in water. 

m&m. The color is starting to separate from the candy. 

All separated. All that is left is the actual chocolate. 

except this one tiny spot on the bottom. 

Our spread of experiments. 

Can you tell how excited I am. Oh, by the way, pink is not my color. 

Working hard on our experiments. 

After school we went to the mall and walked around for a little bit. I didn’t buy anything, but don’t worry that will start to change soon! 

I can’t get over how beautiful everything here in New Zealand is. I wish that I could pick New Zealand up and move it a little bit closer to Utah and Wyoming. I also wish that I could have nice weather like this all the time. 

Balloons!

January 23, 2012

Last Monday of classes! How crazy is that?! I can’t believe that I am almost done with my BYU classes (well all but CPSE (my online class) and my practicum assignments). In 4 more days I will officially be done with BYU classes, until I go to grad school that is. Today we had Science and Social studies, and will for the rest of the week. Unfortunately these classes are slightly more boring than our maths class. I honestly wish that we still had maths (are you surprised). Don’t get me wrong I am learning a ton in these classes, but they are mostly lecture based. 

In science today we did this experiment with balloons. Okay, those of you that don’t know, I am terrified of popping balloons. I have been since one popped on my face in elementary school. Well today our experiment had something to do with balloons. Ahh man! This is what we had to do. We were in groups of 4 and each group had a small table and 4 balloons. Our job was to figure out how much to inflate the balloons, put them under the table (the table was tipped upside down so the legs were in the air), and then we had to get all 4 of us on the table without popping the balloons. My group did it, but it took a great deal of convincing to get me on that table. I just knew that the balloons were going to pop, but they didn’t. Then we were give 4 bigger balloons and were told to get 8 people on the table. We got about 7 I think by the time they popped. The last task was to take one of the big church tables, put 8 balloons under it and try to get the entire class on it. WE did, with only a few balloons popping. Every time the balloons popped I would jump and cringe. I know this is something that I need to get over, but I just hate that sound so much. I guess that is something I need to work on! 

Do you see the look of terror on my face?! Haha

I was shortly on this table, but it is difficult to get a picture when everyone is busy!  

the entire class minus me. I got on at the very end but I didn't get pics of it! 

Today I decided to make a to do list of things I NEEDED to get done. My list is massive and there is no way it will all get done, but at least it will keep me on track. For dinner tonight we had macaroni and cheese and salad. It was ‘Yum As’. 

Well I guess I better get cracking on all of my homework and stuff I need to get done!