A bit of business, plus updates from the Hutt!

Hey guys at home. I need a bit of help. I keep trying to pay my Sasktel cell phone bill but every time I try to load the e-bill page it times out (this has happened from a few different cities in NZ now). Is there any way that one of you (mom, dad, Karyn, etc?) could sign in to my account for me and pay my bill with my credit card? I can call you and give you the card info. But yeah, I'm still not home for another 3 weeks and I want to get that sorted before I get home.

Also, if you happened to do the calculations on what I just said there ("I'm still not home for another 3 weeks"), you would notice that I changed my flights coming home to August 10th instead of the 16th. Basically I am having an insane fun time here, but I already did the Kiwi Experience tour of the south island 3 years ago so I'm cutting that part short (just flying to Q-town, bussing to Christchurch, Kaikoura, and back up to Wellington rather than doing the whole west coast again), still doing everything else that I had planned, but coming home nearly a week early. Call me crazy for leaving NZ early, but I just really, really miss Jeff. Also, I definitely like the fact that now I will have almost a week extra of ACTUAL summer holidays with (YAY!) warm weather!!!! Anyway, I changed my flights yesterday and am quite happy about the new plan. I also booked a flight to Queenstown so I will still get the ol' bungy and Canyon Swing adventures in.

Yesterday I took the bus to HVHS to pop a surprise visit on the teachers I worked with 3 years ago. It was so fantastic to see them! I had a good catch up with Katriona and said a quick hello to Gary, but tomorrow I'm going back in in the afternoon to say hi to the Year 12 music class, who were my students when they were in Year 9 (grade 8). I saw a couple of them yesterday, and one of them walked in the room and was like, "Miss Campbell?!" Definitely not expecting to see me, that's for sure. It was great to see her, although the students that I saw yesterday looked so grown up - when I had them they were about 13, and now they're 16, so they've definitely changed. It's so neat to see them again, and I'm really looking forward to the visit to the whole class tomorrow!

Last night we had Fish, Sam, Charlotte, and Richard over for pizza and a movie night of "The Muppet Show" (just like the "good old days"). It was SO good to have everyone together again. We Skyped Jeff (it was his birthday yesterday!) and Charlotte was very enthralled with the computer screen and seeing Jeff there. She kept pointing to it saying "What's that?" and at one point she got really excited when she noticed Sam's face in the little video window. She kept pointing at it and saying "DAD!" when Sam was trying to have a conversation about rugby with Jeff. Pretty funny actually. She's so cute!

Anyway, it's 4:46am here and I technically was just getting up from the couch, where I had fallen asleep hours earlier, and was just heading off to bed. So this has been your middle-of-the-night update from NZ. It's quarter to 11am back home, so if you're reading this, good morning! Hope you had a good sleep. :o)

Picture updates to come. :o)

Finished.

Well that's it, folks. I'm done my internship at Hutt Valley High School. I'm still not quite sure where the time went, but alas it is gone, and now I have the weekend to pack up before moving on to Australia, and finally Vancouver before heading home to Saskatoon in just over 2 weeks. In the meantime, here's a photo recap of some of the week - farewell parties, organizing the office, packing up, and just generally having fun and enjoying my last bit of time at HVHS.

Roger stopped in to our Year 11 farewell party on Wednesday

Stephen looking jaunty in his modest party hat, supplied thoughtfully by the 11MU students

Megan made us a cake on behalf of the Year 11 Music class

Year 11 Music party

My last HVHS orchestra rehearsal this morning



A short video clip of this morning's orchestra rehearsal

After my last Year 13 lesson today we went outside to take pictures - here we are spelling "MUSIC" (hopefully you can see what we were going for!)

A true "action shot" of some of my Year 13s! :o)

My Year 13 girls skipped Spell 3 and part of Spell 4 to shop for farewell presents for me. They then presented me with a huge array of gifts during my Spell 4 Year 9 class. Here they're sitting on the stairs up to the recording studio, watching me open my presents.

The assortment of gifts I received from my students (the jar of Marmite and the card on the right are courtesy of the Year 11 class, while the barette directly in front of the Marmite and the flower card came from a student that I worked with in the Barbershop group. Everything else is from my Year 13 girls - kiwi lollies including Jaffas, Pineapple Lumps, and kiwifruit chocolate, a paua shell bracelet, a magnet, 4 buttons, a NZ identity bag, a hilarious card, and a bottle of Lemon and Paeroa.... I am spoiled!)

A before shot of my desk (complete with my own beautiful gold party hat from the Year 11 Music farewell)

After shot - now that's organization!

My beloved whiteboard in M2, full of scrawled guitar exercises, lesson outlines, chord charts, and assessment criteria from my Year 9 Guitar classes

This is my classroom. Goodbye M2. I'll miss you.

The view of M2 from the students' perspective

Empty hallways outside the Music office. These green doors are practice rooms, and are almost always bursting with sound from classical clarinet to rock bands.

So there you have it. What an experience all of this has been. I will miss this place probably more than I know at this point... it likely won't sink in until I leave New Zealand, or even until I'm comfortably back in Canada. It has been incredible. My colleagues have been fantastic. My students have been amazing. I have been so fortunate in my internship experience, and all I can think about as I look back is how much I have grown. It has been life changing, to say the least.

I can't even think of a way to adequately wrap up this blog post, other than to say once again that I have been so lucky to have such an incredible experience in New Zealand. So thank you to everyone who played a part in it. To Stephen: Thank you for being so supportive, encouraging, and inspiring. Thank you for pushing me to challenge myself. You have helped to make my internship experience more meaningful than I could have ever thought possible. To my students: keep learning, keep challenging yourselves, and keep seeing the beauty in music and the joy that creating and performing can bring to you and to your audience. Remember to avoid comma splices in your formal writing, and for goodness sakes, don't capitalize the word "Trumpet." It's not a proper noun. Keep asking questions, challenging your assumptions, and expanding your horizons. And most of all, keep living and loving music. You have discovered one of the most beautiful aspects of life so hang onto it no matter what, because even if you have nothing else in life, you can still have music.

Cheers to everyone at HVHS for an incredible 4 months. I'll miss you.

Let the farewells begin....

The fact that I have only 2 days of internship left has finally started to sink in. Last night we had our Year 13 performance evening, which was very entertaining and a wee bit sentimental. Almost everyone in the class performed, including myself (singing jazz with Andrew on piano) and Stephen (who played a piano/clarinet duet with Hannah that he composed in his 7th form year, when he was the same age as our students are now). Then, for the grand finale, the whole class got together to sing one of Andrew's original compositions, aptly entitled "Leaving Song." Andrew sang a few verses solo, I wrote my own verse to sing solo, and then the whole class sang the chorus in harmony:

This year has been a journey across the ocean wide.
There was so much for me to learn but you stood there by my side.
And now that I am leaving too, it's time that we must part.
You've been an inspiration and you're always in my heart.

It's sad to see you're leaving as we see you on your way.
For the years you have been teaching, we wish that you could stay.
And for all we've learned together we thank you in every way.
As we move into the future, we hope you'll come back someday.

Then this morning at staff briefing, Steve Chapman (HVHS Principal) thanked me publicly for my contributions to the Music Dept., gave a nice speech about me and my time here, and wished me well for the future. The speech was met with applause from the entire staff - it was such a nice tribute.

In the middle of the day there was a knock on our office door. It was Helen, a student in Katriona's music class, with a card and a gift for me. The card said something like, "I heard that you are leaving this Friday. I want you to know that even though you didn't teach our music class, it was really good to have you help with the Barbershop Chorus. You have an amazing voice! It has been so great to get to know you. Now that you are leaving, we are all crying... like this!" (followed by an adorable anime sketch of somebody on their knees, wailing away, crying streaming fountains of tears). She gave me a silver hair barette speckled with lime green gemstones... my favourite colour! It was such a surprising and thoughtful gift... it really made my day.

Then in Spell 5 (last period of the day) Stephen and I were deliberately kept out of the classroom for the first couple minutes of our Year 11 class, and when we were called in we were met with all of our students cheering, and a room full of streamers, balloons, noise-makers, and 2 ridiculously giant gold party hats. The students gave us gifts, baked a cake, brought food and drinks, and scrawled out "Goodbye Mr. Lange and Miss Campbell!" across the whiteboard. We had tons of fun, ate lots of food, took some pictures, and then spent the last half of the spell composing and recording an original piece for balloons, party favours, Pringles cans, and a guitar and a Coke bottle (because we had to do something musically enriching with the lesson, right?). We notated our composition with a graphic score on the whiteboard, and then recorded it on Stephen's laptop using the program Audacity. I also recorded it on my video camera, so I'm sure you'll all be keen to listen to it when I get back to Canada, right? ;o)

After school I said farewell at Volante rehearsal. Leaving Roger was particularly difficult, as he has been so good to me during my time in NZ, both at HVHS with Volante and in Wellington Youth Choir. WYC has been such a huge part of my growth here in New Zealand, and that opportunity would not have been possible without Roger's thoughtful offer for me to sing with the choir for the remainder of the season. I got choked up as I hugged him, and the choir applauded as I left the room. What a great group of people.

Stephen, Gary, Katriona and I went for afternoon tea at the New Dowse, and I was presented with a gift on behalf of the 3 of them - a card with endearing personal messages from each of them, a set of beautiful NZ greeting cards and envelopes, and a blown glass koru necklace. We visited over tea, smoothies, hot chocolate, etc. and then disbanded for the evening.

So, my day was full of farewells, parties, gifts, feel-good moments, and a few tears mixed in there too. And don't forget those ridiculous gold party hats. Now I'm gearing up for my last 2 days at HVHS and a farewell party at our place on Saturday night before flying away from the Wellington airport on Monday. I will be crying my eyes out when I leave here.... but what a beautiful 4 months it has been.

I am the luckiest.

Sending me a letter?

If so, please do it today! Including today, I have only 12.5 days left in New Zealand! To avoid causing Fiona and Sam to forward my mail back to Canada, please make sure you get to the post office asap. If you are not planning to send me a letter, then fine. Be that way. I will remember it, and hold a grudge against you for years to come.

Just kidding. Thanks to everyone who has sent letters and packages - it has been fun getting mail here over the past 3.5 months! I can't believe it's almost time to go home... as they say, time flies when you're having fun!

Speaking of having fun, this Labour Day long weekend was a good one, as we rounded up the group (Fi, Sam, Richard, Kirsten, and me) for 2 days in Wanganui and Waitomo. We saw the Waitomo glowworm caves, and Fish and I sang "Pie Jesu" in the cathedral room, which was pretty neat.... we also went jet boating on the Whanganui River, and visited the Bridge to Nowhere - see Fi's and Sam's blogs for pictures and other highlights of the trip. :o)

Now I'm at Upper Hutt College, where I will be observing music classes for the day (and in the music teacher's non-contact spell I will be sitting in on one of Fiona's maths classes!). I have only 6.5 days of teaching at HVHS left... CRAZY. We're having a few farewell-type things at the school over the next week or so. My Year 13s are having a performance night, and Andrew and I will be performing 2 jazz pieces (vocal/piano), which should be a blast, if we can ever figure out which tunes to do! :o) Then next Saturday (Nov. 3rd) we're having a farewell theme party at our house - you must come dressed as very obviously kiwi, Canadian, or some other nationality. I've got enough Canadian garb to outfit half of the Hutt Valley, so come one, come all!

Must run. Looking forward to camping with Tommy this weekend in Palmi, then enjoying my last week at HVHS before heading off to Brisbane to visit Emma! Yay!

Until next time, cheers!

Random photo post!

Things are insane at HVHS. It's awesome, but exhausting! Stephen and I had another silly moment after school today where we got the giggles whilst writing Year 9 reports (it's at this point that we start thinking that "Ummm... Todd? Todd Todd. Todd is... Todd" counts as a constructive report comment).... everyone's brain is in utter chaos, but we're sticking together and getting through the insane week little by little.

I thought I would take this opportunity to throw a random picture post your way. Some of these pics go back almost 2 months, while others are obviously more recent. These are just a few of the snaps I felt the need to post today, another rainy spring day in the Hutt Valley.

HVHS from across Woburn Road (August)

Katriona, Tessa, Stephen, and Gary practicing "I've Got Rhythm" for the HVHS Music Festival

Poppy likes to crawl up sleeves. This one caught me off-guard, as the sleeves in my Lululemon hoodie are quite fitted.... she really had to work her way up there!

This was the first real-life koru I saw in NZ (Rotorua).

Jude and Julia visiting just outside the hot pools in Taupo

Stephen's birthday celebration at the New Dowse cafe

Jude, Julia and I got dressed up and went out for a nice dinner before I took off on the south island trip.

Fish took a picture of the dolphins in Kaikoura - so cool!

A sign at the Irish pub in Picton

Tommy playing a gig on the ferry to Wellington

It was a bit windy on the ride home!

That's all for now... supper's ready!

Week 10 moments

Time for an HVHS teaching update! Things have been going extremely well at school, and although this week is utter insanity (last week of term, my sole charge week, writing Year 9 reports, Year 11 and Year 13 performances and assessment reports, Year 9 guitar assessments, etc.), it has actually been a very positive experience. I had my Global Student Teaching supervisor Jill observe my final Year 13 Jazz History lesson today, and it went really well. It was a successful lesson, although I didn't feel it was my best (mainly because of a couple pacing issues due to the fact that my Year 13s haven't had a Jazz History lesson in 3 weeks, so all of their answers and discussions took longer as they had to recall all of the information). Nonetheless, Jill's comments on my teaching were extremely positive. A few quotes for the interested:

"I can tell already that you are a very proficient teacher..... and I don't say that often."

*jokingly* "It was almost a waste of time for me to come here and observe you doing exactly what I knew you could do!"

"You will have absolutely no problem finding a job.... and if you do, I want to know why!"

So, needless to say, I was very happy with how the day went in that regard. I also had my Year 9D guitar assessments today, and at the end of the spell when I was supervising the students putting their guitars back in the storage room, one boy stayed behind after putting his guitar away, looking like he had something to say. He sheepishly said to me, "It's been good, Miss, being in your guitar class. And I'm sorry about a couple things right at the beginning...." (we'd had a little "chat" in the first 2 lessons about some disruptive behaviour, i.e. horsing around with his friend in the classroom while I was distributing guitars to the rest of the class) ".... but it's really been good. Thank you." So that was a completely unexpected and really nice moment today. Then when I went back into the classroom I had a couple more boys waiting around to say thank you, to wish me a good term break, and to ask me if I was going to travel New Zealand on my 2 weeks off, so all in all it was definitely a nice way to end the day. I also got another very complimentary interim report from Stephen, so to make a long story short, today was fabulous! Definitely a lot of feel-good moments today (including at lunch time when Salma, one of my students from the last line of Year 9 guitar, stopped to have a visit with me outside the hall and asked me worriedly if I would be back in Term 4. When I said that I would be back for 4 weeks, she grinned and said, relieved, "Oh ok, good!"). I love HVHS!

Despite the fact that I still have copious amounts of work to do tonight (Year 11 performance assessment reports, Year 9 general music assessment marking, Year 9 general music reports.... oy vey....), I feel very content. I have another Orchestra performance tomorrow at assembly in Spell 1 so I'll have to get everything for tomorrow prepared for tonight, as performing in Spell 1 means that I lose my non-contact (prep) period. Life around here, as I said before, is utter insanity. But, it's all good. :o) And besides, you know me.... I've never been one to sit around idly anyway..... bring on the next challenge!

(I maybe shouldn't say that and tempt fate, as Gary, Katriona, Stephen and I are planning on having all of the Year 9s gather together in one room tomorrow and watch the DVD "High School Musical" in the last spell of the day. I can sense the impending chaos!)

So with that, I leave you with another video. This one isn't super recent, as I've only just figured out how to compress videos for the blog. I actually took this video of Grace a few weeks ago when we were hanging out on Courtenay Place in Wellington, likely during one of our traditional Tuesday get-togethers. So here you are - meet Grace in 3D! (Oh, and for the record, the shout-out to Auntie Diane is really to Auntie Diane and Uncle Ron.... didn't mean to leave anyone out! Haha. And if somehow you missed the in-joke about double chins, you must go back a few posts to find the infamous double chin pictures.... they're really too attractive to pass up)!

Tattoo design idea

I'm playing with tattoo design ideas. I think I'll get my new tattoo on my 2-week break, so that I can give it a bit of time to start healing before I go back to school. I sketched a few ideas the other day, and I think this is starting to look a bit more like what I want... a koru in blues and greens, with a black outline.... and it looked enough like a bass clef that I decided to draw 2 dots beside it to give it double meaning (personal growth, and music). What do you think?:


And here's a shot of my desk in the HVHS Music Department (that's my new IBook, Verdi):

I can't believe Week 6 is over already! 4 more weeks to go in Term 3, then a 2-week break, then 4 weeks of Term 4 and I'll be done! It's amazing how time flies!

This week went extremely well. I had 2 lessons that were less-than-adequate in terms of student focus and classroom management (both Year 9 classes, go figure... the equivalent of grade 8), and as a result I switched my focus to being more firm and/or stern when the situations warranted such a response. It worked wonders... my students were much better for the following lessons. They were more focused, more involved in the lessons, more concerned with putting their hands up to answer questions instead of calling out of turn, etc. (I even gave 2 detentions for girls who came late to class 3 times in a row... for the next class, they showed up early! Yay!). So while this week had its ups and downs, it certainly went well overall. I had another fun lesson with the Year 13s on Jazz History, where I had them listen to recordings that we hadn't studied in class, and they had to tell me which style they thought it was and why (i.e. "This is be-bop because it's a really upbeat tempo, the harmonic rhythm is fast, the solos are virtuosic and technically difficult," or "this is swing because there are full sections of saxophones and horns, the music sounds very arranged, and there is more of an emphasis on ensemble playing instead of improvised solos," etc.), and then they had to pin the title of the tune and the performers on the Jazz History timeline that we created at the back of the room. I'm really pleased with their understanding of the topic, and they seem quite interested as well, so consider this unit a SUCCESS! We only have a few more lessons in Jazz History left... I have to admit that I will be slightly sad to see this unit go. It's been fun!

ONE WEEK TO AUCKLAND!!!!!! :oD I'm so excited to spend the weekend making great music with great new friends! It will be really nice to get to know the people from Wellington Youth Choir a bit better - I have a few acquaintances in the choir, and I know lots of names and faces, but I haven't made all the connections quite yet. It will be a fun weekend for sure. :o)

I should run.... the comfy lounge, TV, and heater are beckoning me!

Happy Saturday!

It's a semi-windy, on-the-verge-of-raining-all-day Saturday here in Lower Hutt, and I'm quite enjoying it. I'm about to head off to Fi's parents' place for supper, as Fi's sister Carol is in town from the south island with her adorable daughter Megan (and possibly husband Murray?). Sam is letting me drive his red Miata convertable there.... eeeep! He's going to back it out of the driveway for me, and I'm going to drive it there. Crazy stuff! I'd better be good with it! Hahaha.

I can't believe I'm half way through Term 3 at school now. Isn't it crazy how time flies?! Mom, dad, Karyn, does it feel like I've been gone for over a month already? I don't know about you, but I feel like I just got here. I'm going to have to start planning what I'm doing on my term break, coming up in 5 weeks here... I might even choose to go to Australia during that time and then travel part of the north island (Waitomo, Rotorua, etc.) before going back to school, then take some time at the end of my stay to check out the south island. I'm not sure what my plans are yet though - I might travel the south island on my break and do Australia in November, as originally planned. Whatever I do, it will be fun! I just need to start planning.

I had a good week at school again. Gary had the most unexpected compliment for me on Friday - he said to me "One of my students, whom you've only met once, came up to me today and said 'That Miss Campbell is so nice! And she's SO pretty!'" I know the girl who he was talking about, and although I've only met her once, she says hi to me every time I see her... and she uses my full name too ("Miss Campbell") as opposed to just "Miss," which a lot of the students get into the habit of saying. I've been consistent with my students in that when they ask me a question or say hi to me using just "Miss" I'll pretend like I don't hear them and I'll say "Miss what?" And they reply with "Oh right, Miss Campbell." It's been working well so far - a lot of them will correct themselves automatically now. One of my Year 11 boys had the funniest way of addressing me though... when I was walking around helping my students with their theory work, he called me over and said "Miss," and when I corrected him he said "I mean, I have a question, madame, m'lady." I laughed out loud and said "Miss Campbell will do just fine." It was pretty funny though. That kid has a sense of humour, and what he lacks in focus and work ethic, he makes up for in sincerity.

Our HVHS Music Festival is coming up on Monday night! We have extra rehearsals for Orchestra and Wind Ensemble tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully every last-minute thing will come together then. The orchestra is sounding heaps better than they had been over the past few weeks, so that's promising. I'm conducting "Summertime in Venice" - my debut as a "real" band director! Almost. Haha. The school hall is all set up now, and hopefully we'll be able to fill it with family, friends, and the general public. The hall is usually full for Music Festival - we've got a REALLY good show lined up too, so I wouldn't be surprised if it sells out. It's a jazz theme this year, because there are tons of very talented jazz musicians in our student body, especially in Years 11 and 13. There are a few jazz combos, jazz bands, and even a solo (Mayer, one of my Year 13 students, is playing "Blues for Alice" - I'm excited to hear it! He's a fantastic guitarist). It should be a blast! I'll be sure to have my camera/video camera there so I can have a nice keepsake for when I'm back in Canada. :o)

I'd better get ready for supper now - we're leaving in about 10 minutes. I hope everything is awesome at home! Thanks for the comments everyone... it's so nice to hear from you!!!!!

What do you think of my new template?

Updates from the newest HVHS music intern

Hey everyone! Things are still awesome in New Zealand. I started my internship at Hutt Valley High School yesterday, and as it turns out I have 3 co-op teachers. The HOD (head of department) Stephen Lange just welcomed a new baby boy to the world, so he's off all week. Things are a bit disorganized at the moment, but it's ok - I'm still settling in just fine. I'm adjusting to the weather now... it's winter here of course, being in the southern hemisphere and all, and the houses and other buildings are not equipped with central heating, so often it's colder inside than it is outside. Fortunately I have a heater and electric blanket in my bedroom at Fiona and Sam's house, so I'm sleeping well. Nice and toasty!

I got to New Zealand on Friday morning (which was Thursday afternoon back home in Saskatchewan), and I wasted no time before socializing with the kiwis. I went out on Friday night to 3 parties, which was totally a blast - Fi and Sam and I went to 2 going-away parties, one in Wellington and one in Lower Hutt, then Fi and I went to Upper Hutt to a house party with staff from her school. It was a party in a garage, which was all heated up nice and toasty, and there was lots of karaoke and drunk, happy kiwis and Maori people. The Maori men were especially friendly, kissing all the ladies on the cheek. It was fun though, because it wasn't creepy - it was just a cultural custom. One of them was eating a sandwich as Fiona and I left, and he kissed me on the cheek with a mouthful of food. GROSS. Hahaha. It was funny though. The people here are so friendly. :o)

On Saturday morning I went to a netball game (a sport kind of like basketball, but you can't dribble the ball and the nets have no backboards) to watch Fiona play. It was fun, but SO cold - they play outdoors, and Saturday am was one of the coldest mornings of the winter. I was all bundled up in a t-shirt, hoodie, fleece, winter jacket, 2 hoods, mitts, another jacket over my legs, and 2 blankets. I looked ridiculous, especially next to the netball players who were playing outside in skirts and t-shirts. People were looking at me like I was insane. I was like, "Oh come on, July is supposed to be summer!!!"

Fiona took me shopping for warm clothes (or "warmies") on Sunday, which I found rather funny. It's not as though I don't have an entire closet full of warm clothes at home... I just neglected to bring most of them. See, mom, I told you I should bring another bunnyhug! Haha. Fi and Sam and I went out for supper with their friends Kirsten and Richard on Sunday (or was it Saturday?), which was really nice - they're very friendly, and very easy to talk to. Kirsten is the niece of my GST supervisor Jill. It's been really nice to meet all these new people - everyone here is awesome so far.

My first day at HVHS was a good one, albeit an overwhelming one. I can't quite describe to you with any accuracy what it feels like to be on the other side of the world, by yourself in a new country, and every single face you see in a day is new to you. It's pretty overwhelming. Everyone has been so friendly though, so I am having very little problem adjusting and settling in. There are a few things to get used to though, like driving on the other side of the road and the car (although Fi and Sam are driving me everywhere, thankfully), the kiwi vocabulary and accent, new brand names for practically everything at the grocery store, the weather, school in July, etc. But, like I said, so far so good!

Funny random story from yesterday: So all the Hutt Valley High School students wear all-black as part of their uniform. I happened to be wearing black pants and shoes yesterday, and I was cold so I kept my black jacket on most of the time. I went to buy a banana during my morning break, since lunch doesn't start until 1:30. So I went to the counter and paid for a banana, then the lady came back and leaned over to me and said "We don't always sell fruit to all the students. Some of the younger ones just throw it around. I trust that you'll be eating this banana." I just about laughed out loud. It was hilarious! I suppose being 5'2 (and a half!) and wearing all black kind of invites comments like that. I got a kick out of it anyway.

And now I shall leave you with a funny random story from today: So this morning I get to school around 8:20am - not too early on the scale of things. I go to the music building and it's locked. That's ok, I've got a key! So I open the door, walk through the corridor, and head into the music office to drop my stuff off at my desk. I unlock the music office, head inside, shut the door, and drop my stuff off. Then comes the absolutely piercing sirens from the corridor. Fabulous! I've set off the alarm. So I locked up and then walked back to the main office, making sure to avoid eye contact with anyone as I snicker to myself all the way back to the admin building. "Hello," I say to the secretary. "I think I just set off the alarm in the music building." What a way to start my 2nd day at HVHS! Hahaha.

I hope everything is going well for you, my family back home in SK and MB, and my friends at IMC, in Saskatoon, and elsewhere. Feel free to write me anytime, or comment on this blog - I've allowed anonymous commenting, so please just leave your name so I know who it came from. :o) My mailing address, in case you're interested, is:

140 Major Drive
Kelson 5010
Lower Hutt, New Zealand

Until next time, cheers!

(PS - I promise to post pictures soon!)