Got a minute?

Hello faithful blog readers! Do you need some quality reading material, or perhaps some entertaining viewing material? Well, I finally found the time to update on the Auckland weekend, teaching at HVHS, and kiwi life in general… and this perhaps the longest post from me thus far! It has been a busy week, which is strange considering that the senior students (i.e. my Year 11s and Year 13s) are on exams right now, which means that I am only teaching Year 9s. I’m teaching 4 lines of Year 9 students right now - 2 guitar classes of extension students (advanced) and 2 general music classes. It has been interesting! It’s amazing what a broad spectrum of students you get when dealing even within the same grade level – there’s such a difference in terms of motivation, musical talent, behaviour, etc. So, they have been keeping me on my toes, and so far everything has been going really well with that. Stephen even made a comment on my last observation sheet for the Year 9 guitar classes – he wrote down some quotes that he overheard from my D line guitar students at the end of class: “That was the best music lesson I’ve ever had… it wasn’t boring!” and “I reckon she’s the best teacher!” Those comments were totally unexpected but they really made my day! So, needless to say, life at HVHS is truckin’ along as usual, no complaints. It’s amazing to think that I’m at the end of Week 8 though…. I know I seem to always comment on how fast time is flying, but it’s so true… Week 9 starts on Monday (and there are only 10 weeks in the term, so I’m almost on my 2-week break). Then when I get back from break, I have only 4 weeks in Term 4 until I’m done my placement in New Zealand! CRAZY! I’ll be home before I know it, which is exciting and sad at the same time. I LOVE it here, and the people that I’ve met here are truly amazing. Jude and Julia came over last night and we swapped pictures from the WYC Auckland tour, and looking at all the pics made me miss everybody SO much already, and I haven’t even left yet! We’re not even done the season with Wellington Youth Choir! Haha. We only have 2 rehearsals and one concert left though, so I’m starting to feel like it’s nearing its end. But what an incredible experience it has been.

….Which brings me to my next point: AUCKLAND WAS INCREDIBLE! We had SO much fun last weekend – it was so great to get to know everybody a bit better, and it didn’t hurt to see another NZ city while we were at it! We sang 2 really enjoyable concerts with the Auckland Youth Choir, and we delighted in the fact that our uniforms were much less “naff” than their red dresses and sparkly red shrugs and vests. Haha. We performed Schubert’s Mass in C together after each performing our own concert repertoire (see below for the concert advertisement!). I sang my solo for “Let Everything That Hath Breath” and it went well both times, with the exception of a bit of a fumble from the entire choir (and our director!) in the second concert, when we started to hold a note for 8 beats instead of 4 and almost missed the big ending. We laughed about it even then… it wasn’t that bad, really, and it was good for a bit of humour in our day if nothing else. We had a blast.

I was able to do a bit of sightseeing last weekend as well – I went to the Auckland Sky Tower with Jude and Ellie, where we paid the extra $3 on top of the $15 admission price to go up to the Sky Deck (the highest point available for tourists at the Sky Tower). I walked across the incredibly dodgy 38mm thick glass floor and took plenty of pictures to prove it (see below). I took a ton of pictures of the views from all angles at the top of the Sky Tower as well, and will sort through them later to determine which ones are scrapbook-worthy. On our first day in Auckland (Friday) we had about 8 hours to kill before our rehearsal, so Jude, Felicity, Ellie and I went wandering and shopping at the markets at Aotea Center. I bought a beautiful handmade New Zealand photo album that will store only my favourite shots from my entire 4-month kiwi adventure when I get home. I think I will have to declare it at customs though, because it’s made entirely of plant products – leaves, twigs, wood, etc. Anyway, it will be a nice souvenir to look back on in the years to come…. But the process of determining which pictures it should house is an entirely overwhelming thought at this point! I’ve taken hundreds of pictures so far, and I still have another month and a half left here. My adventure has been well-documented thus far, that’s for sure!

And speaking of pictures, what blog post is complete without a whole host of fabulous pictures of my kiwi experience?! Here are a few (ok, a million) of the highlights from the Auckland weekend. Ladies and gentlemen, meet my new kiwi choir friends!:

No Furbies allowed on the plane! Seriously! Ladies, have you turned off your Furbies?! YOUR FURBY MIGHT INTERFERE WITH AIRCRAFT EQUIPMENT!

Mt. Ruapehu from the air

Aotea Square with Ellie, Felicity, and Jude

We went shopping at the “High-Quality $3 Japan” store, and we found these incredible examples of what we like to call “Engrish.” My personal favourite: If I were an angel, could I send my favour to everyone all the world? Umm… yes? (Not pictured: notebook that reads: “What do you use this sensible notebook?”)

Does anybody need a high-quality $3 Japanese rain jucket? (This was Jude’s favourite)

Me and Jude getting ready to go out on Friday night

Emily, Jude, and Felicity

This is one of our favourite pics from the weekend – a Friday night out in Auckland, black and white style (Ellie, me, Felicity, Jude… and Julia’s forehead)

The Sky Tower at night

Playing pool at Shakespeare’s Pub (James, Heath, Evie, and Liz)

Jude and Julia – my 2 best mates here in NZ

Group shot in the Saturday night “party room” (it’s amazing that those beds didn’t break!)

After a late-night Queen Street Burger King run on Saturday. I’m pretty sure Jude and Julia and I peed ourselves laughing at their faces in this picture. They are LOVING their BK. And Malia is looking adoringly at their burgers. Heath is pretty much a stud muffin.

Nathaniel and Simeon playing pool at 3am-ish at the backpackers’

Our feet standing on a 38mm thick glass floor overlooking the city… can we say sketchy? (I remember dad walking across this floor on the NZ video, and now I understand why he was grabbing the railing on his way across!)

38mm thick!

View from the top of the Sky Tower

Aww, friends in a circle! (Jude will kill me for this one, haha)

Meerkats!!!

Star fingers!!!

Me and Imogen. I freaking love this girl.

Julia and Jude watching Dom play piano before our last concert in Auckland on Sunday.

Me and Julia.

Me and Matt in sepia, just before our last concert with AYC.

Concert poster

Auckland Youth Choir (see what I mean about the red sparkles?)

Me, Andrew, and Emily after our last concert on Sunday (Andrew and Emily are brother and sister, and I’m Andrew’s Year 13 Music teacher… nothing like choir to bring people together!)

And there you have it! That was definitely the longest post EVER. Hope you enjoyed it.... it pretty much took forever. Hahaha. Now you can excuse the lapse in blogging, right? :o)

We're off to Castlepoint today (me, Grace, Fiona, Sam, Richard, and Kirsten), and we're leaving right away so I'd better jet. Jude and Julia and Felicity and I went to Liz's place for a hoedown party last night, and we took TONS of pictures and had an absolute blast! A bunch of choir people were there, so that was fun. I'll post those next time. :o) Cheers, mates!