So far, I have shared some specific activity experiences. Overall, it has been very nice for the almost-month that we've been here. The people are very warm and friendly and we've gotten to try lots of new things. Some favorites are different ice cream flavors, different cookies (called biscuits) and new words in English. Like how cookies are "biscuits" here, dinner is "tea" and parking lots are "car parks." Napkins are servillets (I don't even know if that's how it's spelt, but it sounds like Spanish and that's how I'd spell it in Spanish.)
A view of Auckland
Rosie, our host mum, is very cool and also knows everyone in the ward because she is the RS president. As a result, we get to know everyone in the ward quickly and she buys us new food every week to try so we can get a varied experience. She has 2 dogs, Toby and Sophie, who, despite their small size, bark loud enough to scare anyone away. We have one last puppy left from the litter, Cloe Rose, who will be given to her new owner at the end of this week. They are great pups.
A cool freshwater lake we went to after the beach one afternoon
Sam is my roommate and adventure partner here in New Zealand. We met back in our 1st semester in the ElEd program where we suffered through drama and art together. She is from California and just a bundle of sunshine. Don't let her small size fool you, either; she'll beat you up for me any day. We've been figuring out the bus system here, which is a bit confusing but we live on a main line, so it's not so bad. People are also really good about giving us rides and stuff, so it's been fine. The only thing is the whole driving on the left side of the road thing. That's still strange.
Sam and I catching the bus for the 1st time
So far we've just been in class all day. We go to classes in the chapel where we go to church, so I guess it IS like BYU. We get there at 7:45 and leave at about 3:45. We sit in the cultural hall all day unless we are having lunch, then we sit in the hallway outside the chapel. We live about 15-20 minutes walking distance from the chapel so we enjoy those morning and afternoon walks, unless we catch a ride with Joy, our professor, which is always nice. Joy lives in the house in front of us, so not only do we bum rides off of her, we also bum internet off of her. We made an excellent house choice!
After 8 hours of math, this was all I had to show for the day's work.
This week we will finish up classes with Science and Social Studies. Next Monday we celebrate Auckland Anniversary, where the ward is haivng a BBQ at the beach. Tuesday is a free day and then we leave to the South Island for some sightseeing there!
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