Waitangi

Happy Waitangi Day!!  Celebrating the treaty between the early European settlers and Maori chiefs gets me a day off of school today.  Before you get too jealous, just think of all of the snow delays and days off that I won't be receiving.  Started my morning off with a lovely extra hour of sleep.  I had beautiful intentions of being proactive with writing lesson plans and journal entries after breakfast, but I somehow ended up receiving ukulele lessons from Willa.  I might have already purchased a ukulele (Mrs. Sellar was buying a set in bulk for the whole class to be able to use, so it was considerably cheaper for me to buy one with her) so now I have some needed determination to learn how to play it.

I realized that I haven't talked a lot about my school/class so I am taking my morning tea time now to do so.  Something that has shocked me during my time here is how diverse the students and teacher are.  Just looking at the nationalities in my classroom you will find European, Korean, Chinese, Samoan, Tongan, and Indian.  I have not once noticed students treating each other differently because of skin color, cultural/ethnic background, or nationality.  When you look at the teachers and staff employed by the school you will notice the same thing, great diversity in nationalities and cultural backgrounds.  It has been absolutely beautiful working in an environment where so many cultures are held and respected.

Theo (host brother) recently got a wakeboard for his 12th birthday so it was decided that today would be a wonderful day to go out on the ocean and break it in.  Sarah's (host mum) parents own a home just north of Auckland that is right on the coast so Tobi, Theo, and I headed over to Pop and Gram's after morning tea.  After making a trip out to the farm to meet the last few aunts and uncles and some more cousins we packed up our gear and headed out to put the boat in the Hauraki gulf.  The wakeboard worked extremely well, I enjoyed watching Tobi and Theo master the rocky ocean.  Because it was so windy I decided it wouldn't be the best time to have a beginners lesson in wakeboarding, that will be saved for the lake on the family farm.  I have been failing at remembering to bring my camera with me, so I sadly have no pictures of our outing.  My best effort will be placed in taking many more pictures of my adventures, starting now!

In the meantime an earthquake has struck the Solomon Islands and prompted a tsunami alert for New Zealand and the rest of the South Pacific.  The tsunami alert for New Zealand was very preemptive, but it is best to be prepared especially after seeing the damage that can be done by tsunamis.  I am very grateful that the alert has since been lifted, but my heart aches for all those that were affected by the disaster.