Celebs are just like YOU

I thought I would take a small break from my crazy and wild life to show you that I am just a normal person underneath it all. I sometimes wear clothes more than once, if evian is not available I drink water from the tap, and i even do my own grocery shopping. 

Who would have thought celebs are normal too...

Thrift Store Shopping Day with Laurelee!    

She is just the greatest and showed me all the hot spots around town!! 

Too bad these sequin numbers were out of my budget!

Need a vacation from vacation? After traveling so much and filling every waking moment with adventure, it was nice to take a day off for relaxation and pedis :)

Just a reminder for all those who think gas is expensive in the states! Think again....check out this tiny car filling up on 75 dollars at the cheapest gas station in town! Also take this opportunity to take note of where the steering wheel is positioned. 

So we did not realize this until after about a month of living together, but Emily (my roommate) and I were in the same bowling class my first semester at BYU....now that is a small world! Thanks to that bowling class we could show off our skills at 10-pin bowling for some of the boys!!

So I found out I am about as good at golfing as Rebecca Black is at singing. 

It only took 100 balls to figure that one out!

Let's just say New Zealand really knows how to party! I will leave it at that....

Hamilton Temple

This is the first temple that was built outside of the United States!

It was a beautiful day

One of the temple workers came up to me and told me he had an assignment for me before I leave New Zealand. I was thinking wow this is serious revelation! He then followed with, "You must go to the super market and buy all the bars of Whittaker chocolate you can find." 

This little cart sits on the side of a road in a neighborhood right by the temple. It was a little taste of heaven! The blueberry custard and the apple cinnamon fresh baked doughnuts were to die for! I could have spent the whole day at this place!

I just love School!

Well seeing as my trip is quickly coming to an end I better hurry and blog my little heart out! I will catch you up as quickly as possible on the many adventures of my life. I just love it here and am sad to be leaving in a few short weeks!

It just so happened to be pouring rain to start out our last week of school. I did not realize how much I hated the rain until I spent miles walking to and from the bus stops. I learned that umbrellas are good for nothing! Other than keeping my hair dry, my umbrella just dripped all on my pants and shoes, leaving me more soaked than walking in the rain alone. Blasted weather, I wont let it get me down! 

Good old Colwill!

This may as well just be the fastest 6 weeks of my life! I have seriously grown to love all these kids so much! If they offered me a position to teach here I would not be coming home. I am sure mom is happy to hear that did not happen!

This week I got to begin working with one of the groups building their waka (boat). Our supplies were Styrofoam and wood. I was given some random building materials and was told to begin. As I tried to figure out how to even work the power drill I was handed, I also had the task of divvying up work and involving the children in the project. Quite challenging, but by day 2 it was finally piecing together. 

Here is the FINISHED Waka! We named it the black pearl! They did not get to test it out in the pool until Friday, but my teacher emailed me and said it floated like a dream! Should have know...

 My class is just the cutest! They all brought in something to share and we had a delicious shared lunch for me. The table was filled mostly with sweet things and some things I had yet to try! The day was basically one big party!

Gotta love this rattail!

After lunch the class went swimming for PE. The class had a ball once they learned I could put my camera under the water. If it wasn’t so darn cold I would have joined them, but with the rain and wind I sat this one out. 

Thursday rolled around so quickly. I was barely able to get the tons of snickerdoodles I made for the class done the night before! Emily and I made 5 times the batch and they turned out good! The last day was surreal. All the 6,7,8 girls are so sweet! Many came in to hang out with me for the last day and they carried around my camera photographing me every second or two! That is what I need while in New Zealand, some personal photographers. They did a pretty good job if I do say so myself! I got some of the cutest cards from the students and amazing gifts from my teacher and aid! I am stopping back by after my travels in order to pick up my book they made all about Miss Whittaker! 

Meet Kokiri. The little boy on Sonny's back with his adorable smile! It is pronounced Cokerey, but you roll the r. I am not sure if that is the best description, but close enough. He is the cutest boy with a little rat-tail haircut. He is a little bit spunky, but as soon as he gets told to quiet down, or gets pointed out for bad behavior he immediately makes the cutest face squinting his eyes and grinning so huge he follows instruction. He does not need to be told more that once and that face is just priceless. It is as if he gets all embarrassed he forgot! Today while sitting on the mat I spotted Kokiri massaging Junior U’s back. Junior U is the biggest boy in the class from Samoa and Kokiri is just about the smallest, next to Hilton. It was so cute to watch him massage Junior’s back and as he would get lower he would tickle his sides and make that same squinting smiling face he does so often! 

Our modeling shots 

This game knucklebones is played by throwing these five pieces in the air, then catching them on the back of your hand. You then have to throw one up in the air and grab one off the ground before catching the one in the air again. If you make it through the first round you must then do it grabbing two off the ground at a time. Just about every kid in the class was able to show me up, but by the last day of school I was doing pretty good!

That there on my back is Hilton. He is just the tiniest little boy with the raspiest voice. He resembles a gremlin mixed with a monkey. He is quite the character. He is always running from thing to thing as if he were performing parkour, and it does not matter if we are in the classroom or on the playground. He is the brownest little boy in class. His nose is like a leaky faucet that never stops running and he is the smallest kid in the class. Although he has very poor listening skills there is something about him that is so sweet. He puts on this tough guy act, but is the sweetest thing ever. Hilton helped me working with our deaf student Trisha last week and he did an excellent job teaching her math and playing ring around the rosies with her. At the library I was reading a book to him and he moved from standing next to me to slowly inching his way up to my lap. My heart just melts for this crazy kid!

My class’s favorite game I taught them is partner tag. We play it for fitness at least 3 times a week. They can now organize themselves into a circle and have gotten good at playing the game. They are finally getting over the linking elbows with people they don’t like problem. Today Hilton (year 3) ran straight to the tallest in our class Patsy (year 5) and I see him try to reach up tall and hook her elbow. It was like Tom and Jerry and I could not help laughing! One of the little boys from my class Tee had been chasing for a while so Hilton yelled for him to come switch out with his partner so he would not have to run. He then takes in Tee, who is larger than him, and puts his arm around him while he catches his breath. He sounds so pleasant, but don’t be deceived he is one of the kids who struggles most to listen. It is almost pointless to tell him something because he will more likely do the opposite, but I learned to work well with that!

The end of the day came and went and our usual crew accompanied us home! We stopped at the park for a quick play before saying our goodbyes. Emily and I hurried to the bus in order to get home in time for…..the HUNGER GAMES! Yes, we got to see it not only 1 day, but 2 days before the states. I had been waiting for this day since coming to NZ. The movie was amazing, I just cannot wait to see it again!

Land, Ho!

I had the opportunity to go on a sailing trip with the year 6, 7, and 8s today at Colwill Primary School. A few of the kids pay to learn to sail and Emily and I got to go and help out. Basically we got to go and learn as well, for free. Not only was it for free, but we got to enjoy a day out of our classrooms and taking off from teaching as well. The wind was just perfect today to learn to sail and the sun was shining brightly. We went with a group of 12 kids and had one instructor named Paul. It was fun to be with older kids to change things up a bit. The girls are just the sweetest and just love everything about Emily and I. The kids all loaded up 2 to each little sailboat, leaving us with one slightly different than all the rest. The sail was quite a bit larger and there was no back to the boat like the others; it was almost like a flat boat. We geared up into our rash guards, pullovers, and life vests. As we listened to the instructions we realized that although the kids boats were just about tip proof, ours was not and neither of us had sailed before. We pulled the trailer down to the water after the kids and loaded our sailboat in.

Emily climbed on first and assumed position in the front of the boat. She was wedged just low enough so she could hold the ropes controlling the sail, and the “boom” bar could swing just over her head without hitting her. I climbed in next assuming the position of steerer. I chose this position because I thought it would not be as hard as the sail. I guess I was unaware that steering the boat meant I had a lot of control and I was also responsible for shifting my body weight from side to side to keep us from tipping, while holding the pole that steers to move it from turning to straighten out, and ducking down so the “boom” bar would not wack my head. We struggled a bit to begin with, but finally began to get it. After capsizing we managed to get the hang of it just before lunchtime. All the children had a good laugh at our expense. We struggled to get our boat ride side up because we could not stop from laughing. It was always a huge build up when our sailboat began to tip and we frantically try just about everything with the sail, the steerer, and our weights, and then the boat just topples over anyway. So much fun! The water under the boat was pretty shallow in spots and you could feel the mud under your feet. It was not any sort of mud; this mud was like soggy bread mixed with pudding and quick sand kind of mud. My feet instantly sunk and I had never felt anything so gross in my life. Our boat moved pretty quickly, well in comparison to the kids’ boats. Just before lunch we managed to get ourselves stuck in the bushes in the water, where we were unable to catch any sort of wind or move in any direction. After struggling for a good 15 minutes and no help from the others, we decided to take matters into our own hands. Paul was out in a raft boat and was pulling the kids in for lunch. I stood on the yacht to try to wave him down, but he just ignored us. I guess he wanted all the kids out first then would come get us. I jumped off our small boat and into the ice cold, muggy brown water. It would not have been more than 3 feet deep before you began to hit the mud. I grabbed the rope, screaming my lungs out, while I half swam half run on the mud while trying to pull our boat out. By the time we got out of it I heaved myself back into the boat and we began to sail in. Not more than minutes later was Paul there, to our rescue, just a little too late. 

As soon as we were finished eating we loaded back into the water. This time we were mentally prepared and we knew what was coming. We managed to make it the rest the day without capsizing. We did laps around the kids and sailed all over.

As we saw Paul handing out the super soakers we decided to steer clear of the kids. We stayed far, far away from the water fights, lame I know but we finally warmed up from our swims earlier in the day. We watched at the boat that Kurt was driving both the sail and steering because his partner was Dave, the student who recently moved from Korea and does not speak much English was just enjoying the ride. I saw it moving towards us in the distance, but now that we had control we could keep a safe distance from them at all times and move much quicker than them. After watching them miss out on the big water fight and fail at every attempt to get near us for about 20 minutes I gave in. How could I do this to Dave? Why could I not just let him squirt me? We decided we might as well maneuver close to them and as soon as the squirt we will quickly get away. The first time Dave had some trouble working the super soaker so sad to say we did not get wet. The second time he got close to our boat, but not close enough. The third time we went in for the kill and got directly next to their boat. Meanwhile, a wind was coming in and while moving around my weight to protect from the spray we began to loose balance. Our boat went completely sideways, the sail whipped from one side quickly to the other hitting my large bun on the top of my head. Phew, that was a very close one, but we managed to keep our boat afloat, assume positions and take off out of the wet zone. We managed to park bring our boat all the way back to the ramp and load it up onto it’s trailer. I have become a master sailor! 

We go to ride in Paul's the last ride in Paul's boat. He took Renee and I on a little adventure to see how far back the water goes under the bridge. It went on for a while and was super fun to do some spins on the bought. As we came back in I got a sailing certificate written to Miss Whittaker! The day was a blast!! I somehow scored a seat on the ride home between two of the year 7 boys in the back seat of a mini van! I sure hope schools in the states have trips like this! 

Jumping the High Dive

 This just about makes one of the best days of all 21.8 years of my life! 

I cannot believe it has come and gone. I woke up anxious and got ready for bungy jumping. I could not believe it was already time. Although we live far from everyone else and far from downtown, we are lucky to live right by the ferry harbor. Instead of taking a bus at 7:20 am and continuing to catch 2 other buses along the way, we caught an 8:10 ferry getting us into town just before 8:40. All of the 18 girls made it out front of the Maritime Museum before 8:50 and the two AJ Hackett vans pulled up right after. We loaded in and could not hold in our excitement! The poor driver had to deal with a van full of 20 year old girls screaming like thirteen year olds going to a Justin Beiber concert.I think Bungy jumping is like a haunted house. You know how you almost go out of your way to make yourself scared, so you don’t regret paying and getting nothing out of it? Well I was a little nervous, but I was making myself a lot nervous so that I could build up adrenaline. The swing went by too fast and I did not want the same to happen with the bungy so I tried to build it up. Little did I know I could not stop that from happening...

We got into the shop, filled out our paper, and got into our harnesses. We had about a 10-minute walk up the bridge and we had to wear helmets because construction was going on above us. We all made way up to the top of the bridge and then climbed the last flight of stairs. In we went to this small pod type thing that had two stereotypical bungy workers. The music was already blasting which got my heart pounding if it was not already. I was 3^rd to jump. When my name was called I loaded into the silver chair and put my feet up. I was quickly strapped around my ankles and then hooked into the bungy. I was the first to ask to touch the water, so he gave the rope an extra few feet in hopes I would make it. I was then asked to walk out to the ledge. I could not think of anything else, but to smile for the cameras. I wiggled my way out to the ledge with my ankles connected. As I came to the edge he told me to walk my toes over. I honestly did not think I could do it, but I somehow managed. I knew the longer I waited here the worse it would get so I had to plunge. I tried to keep my swan-dive form as I free fell forward. Thank goodness to all those practice high dives I did at the CSD growing up, I kept pretty good form all the way down. I was able to keep my eyes open as I fell from the platform, watching myself getting closer to the water. As I came to the water I did not have time to think until I was already submerged to my shoulders and thrown back up into the air. The water was cold but that was the last thing I could think about. I tried to count if I had bounced 3 times, so I knew when to pull the red cord in order to sit myself up. I had no idea what number bounce I was on, but it seemed like 3 so I pulled the cord and came to a sitting position. I was pulled back up to the bridge. Still a little out of it and unsure what had just happened I tried to explain how it was the greatest thing I have ever done in my life. All that came out was, "It was GREAT!" and "I am so Cold!"

I waited as the rest of the girls did the jump before moving back down the stairs. My heart had not stopped racing all morning until we were sitting back in the shop signing the back of each other’s free tee shirts. I could not believe that I had done it and that the morning had once again come and gone. This whole trip has just flown by and continues to fly by and I struggle to keep up with it!

Here is a Video for the full affect:

           We got our ride back into town and there we were able to explore around. I had another potato top mince pie for lunch. A group of us planned to make way by ferry to Waiheke Island. I wish I had brought my bathing suit because the weather was just perfect for a beach day. What better way to lay out on the beach than on an island? Brooke, Austyn, and I bought a carton of organic blueberry ice cream, walked down to the beach, and ate it all!! It was a perfect day. 

After such a long day, I do not think my eyes opened once throughout the entire night until I read the clock and it said 9:45am. I was in shock; I have never been able to sleep in this late since being here! I lay in bed for a bit just to take it in. It was nice to have no responsibility, no work to be done, and no one waiting on me to be ready. I looked over at Emily who was still in bed, and I knew it was going to be another good day. Hans was going into his office downtown and was able to give us a ride to the Pasifika Festival. This was nice because it cut our over an hr trip to about 30 minutes and we got dropped right outside the park. Boy oh boy was this festival huge...it seemed to go on for miles! It went all the way around a small lake. Each area of the festival was representing a different Pacific Island. The cultures included: Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Niue, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Kiribati, Tuvala, Cook Islands, Tahiti, Tokelau. It reminded me of a state fair mixed with mexico and islanders. There were plenty of stages with cultural performances going on. The number of food tents was just about equal, if not more than the number of shopping tents. There was a ton of island food that I was not brave enough to try! Samoa sold coconut milks, but by the time we got there they were sold out. Tons of people were carrying around either a pineapple or watermelon filled with ice cream. The shops were fun to browse and I bought a bunch of fun souvenir stuff, such as a new backpack woven out of Flax! I cannot give away other souvenirs I bought for other people, but I will tell you this hat is not one of them...sorry Kendall!

Niue!

Getting a Tat!