Back in the States

Woohoo I'm back on American soil! 24 hours of travelling is exhausting and the time change is freaking me out, but I'm excited to be home. My mom, brother, aunt and 2 cousins met me at the airport which was such a treat! Mom made me chimichangas for dinner since I've been craving Mexican food. I'm going up to Logan tonight since I have so much to do before graduation. My parents got me an apartment for the next year and Morgan will be living with me this summer-YAY! But that means moving again...not so much fun. But this apartment has 2 bedrooms and apparently it's super cute and I can't wait to see it! Oh, and my phone now works-I just got off the phone with Janalyn and it was so wonderful to hear her voice! It's amazing how hard it is to live without a cell. :)

Pics of my last few weeks...

I went to Darnie's parents' farm and adopted this lamb. I named her Lola.

Darnie and I shaped USU out of volcanic rock in a volcanic crater in Auckland! Cool huh?

The view from the boat when we went fishing in the ocean. BEAUTIFUL!

Darnie and I met some tourists that we took to the beach for us to dig for pipis. Ian is from the States and Darren is from the UK. It was a fun night. :)

One More Week

I'm coming home in one more week and I'm having mixed feelings about it. I'm sad that I'm leaving this beautiful country and I'm really going to miss Darnie and everyone I've met, but I'm super excited to see my family. I miss them so much! But I've had an awesome holiday. Right now I'm actually watching some sheep brawl at the farm. It's pretty entertaining. I've gone boogie boarding down some sand dunes. Milked a cow, fed pigs, herded cattle, drank cows milk, dug for pippies, went fishing in the ocean, met some fellow tourists shopped and had a NZ style Easter egg hunt. Oh, and I met an Elder at Stake COnference from Tooele! He comes home in 2 weeks, so I'm going to look him up when he gets back. And I've adopted a lamb named Lola. It's been a crazy week and I'll write more later, but now I have to chase some sheep back into the paddock.

My last day of school...

It was my last day at school yesterday and I was so sad! The kids and I wore our pajamas to celebrate and had a shared lunch. We cleaned out the kids trays, did an Easter activity and finished up a bunch of work. The school had an assembly for the American teachers and they gave me a Chiefs Hat from the local rugby team. They are so kind. My cooperating teacher gave me a Green-Stone Ring and some Kiwi stickers. One of my students gave me a stuffed Kiwi bird that makes chirping noises and another gave me a chocolate Easter bunny. It was a really good day. :)

Last week Darnie and I went to Whangamata and went surfing! We stayed in a super flash beach house and had so much fun!

On Tuesday night Darnie, Jalayne and I went to Raglan for fish & chips on the beach. It was so beautiful I almost cried. Wednesday night was the school disco where we all dressed up in "B" costumes. Darnie was a butterfly and I was a bandit. It was great to see the kids all dressed up and having fun together. Today Darnie and I are heading up North for holiday. We are going to stay with her parents for a few days, go fishing and celebrate Easter, and then we are going to head up to the cape via 90 mile beach. I'm excited to go to the very tip of NZ!

I cannot believe I come home in a couple weeks--but it is exciting that I already have a job and everything is working out. My parents are going to the Robins Award Ceremony for me and are going to start looking for an apartment for me. It's so great to have parents like mine that are so helpful.

Six Days Left

I cannot believe that I only have six days left in the classroom. Time has flown by so quickly! I have learned heaps and I can't wait to apply it to my own classroom. This last week has been crazy with everything including a job interview over the phone and me getting the job. YAY! I am going to be the resource teacher at Park Elementary in Richmond for the 09-10 school year...and hopefully longer than that. :) It is such a blessing to know that I have a job--now I can relax.

Last weekend Darnie, Jalayne and I went to Mount Manganui for shopping and some time at the beach. We had a blast laying on the sand and splashing in the water. We also got some amazing shopping deals. New Zealand fashion isn't much different from that in the States, so I am excited to get things here that I can use at home.

I went to the Hamilton Temple last night and it was so amazing. Darnie arranged for Jalayne and I to join a youth group for baptisms and they were so accommodating. I love that the Church is the same all around the world. After baptisms we went to the visitor's centre (fancy my NZ spelling) and we made lots of connections with the missionaries there. The Church opens up so many connections. Our USU supervisor has brought this up, and I fell so special being a member of the LDS church.

This weekend, Darnie and I are going with the librarian at Vardon to Whangamata. This is apparently the BEST beach in the entire world and Janet, the librarian, has a five-star hotel style house right on the beach. We are so excited to go, especially because Janet has surf boards at the house. We are going to ask some local boys to teach us how to surf because we couldn't surf at the Mount (the waves weren't the best). The only trouble we are having is finding a car--Nga had to take the car to a funeral up north so we are stranded. We have been trying to rent a car--but it is so expensive because Darnie and I are both under 25. Hopefully it will all work out. If not, we're hitch-hiking because we are not missing out on Whangamata.