The Amazing Race....

Last weekend was another great weekend! I was able to see another part of Auckland because of the "amazing race." Every year the teachers from Gladstone that want to participate get sent out into the city dressed as crazy people to be the first ones to the final destination. What is the prize that all of the teachers crave? Drum roll please....the honor of planning it for the following year!) So only the teams that are oober competitive actually try and win because honestly who wants to plan the thing. (Too much work) Well my team had the best intentions of coming in second but we were just too talented and came in first. At least I don't have to worry about planning next year ;) On Sunday Dave, myself and the girls all went to M.O.T.A.T (museum of technology and transportation) it was really cool. I learned a lot of New Zealand history, went on an old school trolley and rode to Saturn (via motion simulator). We ended the day with a delicious dinner made by Dave's stepmom and dad and sadly watched on as the lady ferns were defeated by Australia (netball).

I started teaching math this week and it went so much better than expected. The kids are working on fractions and that is not the easiest thing to teach. So I was thrilled that by the end of my lesson the kids were asking for extra problems! That was a confidence booster!
There is one kid in my class that is continuously cracking me up. The class was just about to finish writing when he asked me to read over his paper. While reading I noticed he was mixing up “to” and “too” I pointed this out to him and his response, “O, well I just can’t be bothered with that it’s just too confusing.” I tried my best to stay “professional” but I couldn’t hold back. I died laughing and told him that he would just have to be “bothered” and learn the difference before he could publish.

I will end this post with new kiwi words and phrases: (Without thinking I now use most of these words, if not the kids at school laugh at me :)

Sweet ‘as’ or funny ‘as'
Crikey, just like the crocodile hunter use to say it!
Mate/ friend
Plaster/ band-aid
Biscuit/ cookie
Chips/ fries or regular “chips”
Torch/ flashlight
Runners/ tennis shoes
Jandals/ flip flops (in my first post I accidently said jangal)
Full stop/ period at the end of a sentence
Jumper/ jacket or sweater
rubbish/ trash

Rebekah

p.s. keep Christchurch (south island) and the surrounding towns in your prayers they were hit with a 7.1 earthquake last Saturday, thankfully no deaths but a lot of damage was done!