So for the last week or so, I've been thinking that I had already posted pictures from swimming sports and athletics day...turns out I didn't! My apologies- I will have pictures up tomorrow sometime.
I went to Wellington over the weekend and had a great time! I decided to take the cheap route and stayed in a shared room at a hostel in the center of town. I spent two nights sleeping in a room with five other girls, three of which were from Germany, one from Holland and one from Japan. It was really incredible to meet so many people, but sharing a room with them was a whole other story. Let's just say we had one girl who snored all night, one who stayed out all night, one who got up long before the sun both mornings, and one who had a nasty habit of turningn on the light when she came in after midnight. To say the least, sleep was not something I experienced in Wellington.
I did experience a whole bunch of other stuff though. I went to Te Papa, which is NZ's most famous museum, and saw the Monet exhibit, along with tons of exhibits on NZ culture. I went to a botanical garden, rode a cable car on a track that has been in use since 1900, visited a wildlife sanctuary (but since there is no native wildlife here other than birds, I pretty much just saw birds and trees), went to a jazz festival, and yes, I visited Starbucks. It was a wonderful weekend! I've been told Wellie (as the locals say) is the most beautiful city in the world, and I believe it! It's at the edge of a hill and right on the water, so it's very compact and accessible. The people are friendly and helpful and it seems that everywhere I went, I heard a different language being spoken. I'm quite disappointed that I won't get to spend more time in Wellie while I'm here because I feel like there was so much more to see! But, I saw the main things, had a great time, and came home with sore feet and completely sleep deprived- and not quite ready for a new week at school!
School has been going really well. I am now teaching four classes full time and am loving it. The students are great and the staff is more supportive than I ever could have hoped for. The work keeps me quite busy, so I find that I have very little time during the week for anything other than lesson planning. This is probably a good thing though, because most everything in Havelock closes around 5...
I hope everyone is doing well and dealing with all the snow! The weather here has made a turn and is getting rather chilly in the evenings. I would guess that it dropped to at least 60 degrees today! I have become so used to the heat that I had to put on long pant, socks and a sweater...
