Recapping my last day in Auckland (and New Zealand!!)

Well folks, it's my last night in New Zealand! I spent yesterday just chilling out with Jude, then stayed at Aidyn's place last night. Aidyn and I spent the day together today - it was SO good to see him again after 3 years apart! It was totally like nothing had changed.

While we were out on Queen Street getting my last-minute souvenirs and gifts, Aidyn made some comment in passing about how there was some huge high school choir thing going on here this week. I was like, "Wait a second, there IS a huge choir thing here this week... it's The Big Sing! STEPHEN IS HERE TODAY!!!!!" So I texted Stephen right away, he called me, and we made plans to meet for literally a 10-15 minute visit at the town hall before his choir went in to listen to some other choirs perform. What an awesome little reunion!!!!

After our Queen Street adventures, Aidyn and I went to the Auckland War Memorial Museum where, strangely enough, we ran into one of the girls I had met on the Kiwi bus in Kaikoura. The three of us checked out the museum together for a couple hours; the most amazing thing for me was to see all of the incredible ornate Maori carvings. The highlight was definitely the Marae in the Maori court area of the museum (I took my shoes off and went in for a few pictures):

I also got a ton of pictures of the various tiki statues around the museum. It was really cool to see the full-sized ones, as their eyes are made of full paua shells (as opposed to the tiny paua shell pieces that the eyes in the souvenir-sized statues are made of):

So now I'm at Jude's place again, where I will spend the night before starting my journey back across the Pacific at 7am. We're going to aim for 4am as a drop-off time so I can get comfortably checked in before my flight to Sydney. In my journey home, I first fly to Sydney (3 1/2 hours), then to Vancouver (14 hours, 5 minutes), then to Calgary (1 hour, 18 minutes), and finally Saskatoon (1 hour, 4 minutes). Total estimated flying time = 19 hours, 57 minutes. Total estimated layover time = 5 hours, 32 minutes. Total time between take-off in Auckland and landing in Saskatoon = 25 hours, 29 minutes. 28 1/2 hours if you count the 3 hours I'll be spending at the Auckland airport before take-off. So, long story short, it's a long journey home but it will be well worth it.

In no particular order, here are some of the things I'm excited for about coming home:

- Jeff

- mom and dad

- Karyn's belly and the musical beans

- summer weather

- my room

- no backpack!!!!

- different clothes (living in the same ones for 5 weeks gets old)

- giving Jeff, his parents, Karyn and Nook, and mom and dad their NZ presents :o)

- taking my braids out and getting a proper haircut

- going to Waskesiu with Jeff

- the chair and a half!!!!

- ketchup that tastes normal

- my bed

- a quiet sleep that's not on a bunk bed with strangers as roommates (and no drunk people making lots of noise in the hallways after the bars close at 3am)

- my sewing machine

- a proper shower (no more hostels!)

- not having to carry my groceries around in a bag from city to city

- my car!!!

- payday (soon!)

- scheduling viewings for some of the cute starter homes I've been checking out online

- going to the gym

- taking a trip to Winnipeg to see the family at Scott and Jenn's wedding social

- unpacking and doing laundry without having to pay $8 per wash and dry cycle

- cooking proper food in my own kitchen, and eating with dishes that haven't been shared by backpackers around the world

- hearing the Canadian accent again :o)

I could go on... but that's it for now. It's 9pm, so I'll be heading to the airport in less than 7 hours. It has been an amazing month, but I'm very ready to come home. :o) See you soon, everyone!

Picniking just for fun

Yes, I'm still here, I'm still alive, and life is still grand. I have become an incredible blog slacker, but at least I keep up on Facebook (to say the least!)!

Work is fabulous again this year, and my newest project is acting as the Musical Director for our school's production of "Alice in Wonderland" - the cast list was posted yesterday and I'm excited about a lot of the roles we cast! It will be an awesome challenge with what I predict to be just as awesome rewards at the end. :o)

Thanksgiving weekend is coming up (but never soon enough! Hurry, Friday!), and so in the spirit of the holiday, I will list a few things that I am thankful for today:

1. My parents and my sister. They are amazing.

2. My health. It's here, it's strong, and it's allowing me to continue my fitness regime that I had started in the spring (but abandoned over the summer due to being out of town for nearly 2 months and allowing my gym membership to expire).

3. My friends who treat me wonderfully and make me feel special and important.

4. My dog who keeps me feeling like a 10-year-old inside.

5. My students who make me laugh every day.

6. My comfy bed (although I think I need to spend more time sleeping in it... I'm exhausted today!).

7. Music in every sense of the word. Being able to create is one of the most important things in my life.

8. Meeting new people to spend time with.

9. Technology, which allows me to do cool things like create and burn DVDs of my students' computer assignments so that we can have a "movie night" (during class time), complete with popcorn, to watch everyone's presentations.

10. The gorgeous fall colours in Saskatchewan, and the great friends who will explore it with you, camera in hand.

Life is good.

Have some Picniked photos (www.picnik.com). :o) Happy Tuesday!

Photos that I haven't thought of in a while...

Here, for absolutely no reason at all (and in no particular order), is a random post of a few pictures that make me laugh, smile, reflect, and remember how cheery and wonderful a life I have.  :o) (More to come when my computer wants to cooperate and upload faster!):

50 Things I Have Learned in New Zealand

I was compiling a list of things I had learned in New Zealand (I started this list while I was still there), and I was at Thing #41 when I decided to go for it and make a list of 50. You've gotta keep with tradition, you know. So here is another list of 50 things. This time instead of being "about the author," these are things that kiwi land and the people therein have taught me over the past 4 months:

1. The longest place name in the world (40 syllables, 85 letters) can be memorized in approximately 2 hours of study in the car while on a road trip (Try this at home: Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu).
2. Fish and chips are a way of life.
3. The All Blacks are fabulous, even if they didn’t win the Rugby World Cup.
4. Sheep can be cuter than most people give them credit for.
5. Rainforests and glaciers can exist in the same place (I mean literally within the same view. Look left and see a glacier, look right and see a waterfall).
6. Ski hills can and do erupt, so plan your vacations wisely.
7. Music connects people of all ages and cultures.
8. Humanity is universal. People from all over are kind and good and loving and welcoming and encouraging.
9. Living near the ocean provides a kind of beauty that one can never fully experience living in the Canadian prairies.
10. Living in the Canadian prairies provides a kind of beauty that one can never fully experience living in New Zealand.
11. Canada is HUGE.
12. Sometimes we take life too seriously. The kiwis are refreshing in that they don’t always worry about being politically correct. They are human, and usually pretty darn funny about it too.
13. Electric blankets and space heaters are amazing, but central heating is underrated.
14. I should travel my own country more.
15. I love my family more than ever (if this is even possible).
16. My relationships with my friends at home are even deeper than I thought before I left.
17. Paua shell is amazing to look at. It’s so natural, yet so complex and unique in its colours and patterns.
18. A tattoo on the rib cage hurts more than I could have ever anticipated.
19. Teaching can be tiring, but also so rewarding. It is especially amazing when your students go out of their way to tell you that you’ve made a difference.
20. Time flies when you’re having fun.
21. Getting mail is still one of the most exciting small things in life.
22. Technology is incredible in that an e-mail or a text message sent around the world can be met with a response within seconds.
23. The kiwi accent is difficult to imitate without sounding Australian.
24. Falling in love with an impossible situation can be painful, but it is better to love and get hurt than to shy away from it altogether for fear of experiencing pain, as experiencing a range of emotions, good and bad, is part of what makes us human.
25. Treat every experience as an opportunity to learn about yourself and the world around you.
26. Fruit Bursts, jet planes, and a healthy supply of V energy drinks are a staple for any kiwi road trip. Driving in a red convertible with the top down is a bonus.
27. Driving on the “wrong” side of the road and the car isn’t as hard to adjust to as one might imagine. Be prepared, though, to reach for air when you try to buckle your seatbelt (it’s to your right, not your left), and to slam your hand into the window at least once when trying to change gears (if driving standard). Also, don’t be discouraged if you turn on the windshield wipers the first time you try to signal. You might look silly, but I promise it’s perfectly natural.
28. New World is the best grocery store (and sometimes if you’re lucky, they’ll have posters of All Black super hottie Dan Carter hanging on the walls).
29. Spending your money on experiences is never wasted. Sometimes you just have to forget about the budget and go live life.
30. The southern sky on a clear night is beautiful and awe-inspiring. The Southern Cross, Scorpius, and Jupiter are usually the most visible.
31. Glowworms in large groups look like icicle lights.
32. Glowworms have no mouth in their adult phase, so once they mature they just sit there looking pretty until they die of starvation. That’s pretty darn interesting.
33. A white Christmas is a part of my life that I didn’t realize how much I appreciated until I moved halfway around the world, to a country whose people celebrate Christmas with outdoor swimming and barbeques.
34. The flat prairie landscape of Saskatchewan is comforting and familiar (and requires no Gravol or Dramamine like some of the winding roads in New Zealand).
35. Toilet paper is always more fun with pictures and patterns on it, particularly if those pictures are of cartoon sheep or other endearing designs.
36. Setting your watch to the local time at your destination as soon as you get on the plane is a good way to avoid jet lag.
37. You don’t realize how little you know about your own country until you leave it and are faced with tons of people asking you questions to which you have no answers.
38. We have the tendency to be wasteful at home, often because we have no choice. In New Zealand they have the option of full flush or half flush on their toilets, and they have switches on their electrical outlets so that they don’t have to use energy when not necessary.
39. A hearty kiwi meal isn’t complete without the famous trio of potato, pumpkin, and kumara.
40. Travelling is worth every single penny. I hope to spend millions more pennies on overseas experiences.
41. I have an accent.
42. Choirs from different countries can sound surprisingly similar, even though the differences in the inflections and vowel sounds are so obvious when speaking. Somehow singing erases any noticeable accents.
43. If you believe in something, believe in it with your whole heart. The rewards are often great for those who dive in 100%.
44. Making calls to mobile phones in New Zealand, regardless of whether you’re calling from a land line or not, is ridiculously expensive as you are charged mobile rates. This means that a 45-minute conversation to Canada costs approximately $5, while that same conversation to a mobile in Hawke’s Bay or Wellington or anywhere costs about $25. Oops! (But it was worth it!)
45. You can never take too many pictures.
46. Digital cameras are awesome, as they allow you to be an insane photo-snapping tourist without worrying about making every picture turn out just so. You can always go back and delete the ones that didn’t work.
47. Netball is more fun to play than to watch. It is enough like basketball that catching onto the rules can be difficult initially (I apologize to everyone for constantly getting within 3 feet of the opposition with the ball… I caught on eventually!).
48. Canada and New Zealand are more alike than you might think. Australia is more like the States.
49. Hot pink tote bags from Supre are pretty much the utmost in fashion.
50. Growing up happens so fast, but being able to watch oneself in the process and to be able to appreciate the beauty in the transformation through all of the beautiful, challenging, awe-inspiring, life-changing, memorable experiences is really an amazing thing. Life is so full and rich. Live it. Love it. Learn from it.

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.

Trust me

Trust me mama
The wolf in sheep’s clothing looks less fluffy with age
And I promise I’ll look both ways because you taught me to.
But birds can’t fly with tied wings, so
Trust me mama, trust me
Enough to let me go
It’s a great big world out there but you have prepared me for it well
So rest your mind and let me fly
Trust me mama

Trust me mama
Enough to let me get hurt and to learn
That loving with a whole heart that may be broken
Is better than never loving enough to feel pain
Trust that I will be ok
And that I will never be too far from you
Trust me mama

Trust me mama
Enough to let me fall and scrape my knees on the pavement
And please, have faith in my strength to rise again, stronger
Trust me to love and be loved
Because nobody ever learned from not trying

But birds can’t fly with tied wings, so
Trust me mama, trust me
Enough to let me go
It’s a great big world out there but you have prepared me for it well
So rest your mind and let me fly
Trust me mama

Growing up

I am finding more and more these days that life is a constantly-evolving thing. We come across people in our lives that have a tremendous impact on us, whether they know it or not. There are the obvious people like my parents, my sister, my family and close friends, etc. whom we all know play a huge role in shaping who I am and how I see the world.... then there are some not-so-obvious people, like this beautiful soul who I have had the pleasure of getting to know here in New Zealand.

He has taught me more even in the last week than I could have possibly fathomed. His passion for music is nothing short of inspiring. Yesterday we took his guitar and plenty of warm clothes down to Oriental Bay in Wellington, where we sat on rocks by the harbour and played music together, harmonizing, laughing, taking pictures of each other, freezing our butts off, and just taking in the beauty of the situation. This has been a brief and bitter-sweet companionship for me, as the circumstances dictate that we must make the most of our time together here and now, as we live half a world apart and are at different places in our lives. I realize that for many of you back home, this is the first you may have heard of all of this; I didn't want to speak too soon about anything because there was never any guarantee that it would go anywhere. As it turns out, while we admire each other immensely on a variety of levels, we realize that logically we can't continue anything past November. Yet, I am choosing to take all of this for the blessing that it has been and continues to be in my life. It's amazing how much of an impact someone who has only known you a short time can have on how you view your world.

I guess this is all just part of growing up..... and for that, it is beautiful. Life never ceases to amaze me. Thank you Tommy.

Reflections, and looking forward to change....

I went for a really nice run/walk tonight. I brought my Ipod full of Jack Johnson, Joss Stone, and Jason Mraz, and I stopped by a playground at Columbia school on the way, just to swing on the swings and be alone with my thoughts. It was a very reflective experience. I thought about life, love, friends, relationships, and childhood. Being at the school made me think about Bev, the music teacher who I student taught under in my 2nd year at Columbia, who was killed in a car accident this past December. I looked around at the playground equipment and thought back to the summer of grade 5, when I spent literally every day at St. John's park, playing with Nathan Heroux and sometimes the Abramyk kids. That was the summer that Nathan and I "fell in love," as much as two 11-year-old kids know how to do. I remember that Nathan was one of my first kisses, albeit a "dare" kiss. I remember coming home from a long day at the beach, the one day that I didn't spend at St. John's with him, and rushing to the phone to see that I had missed a phone call from him. I remember the feeling of excitement that came along with all of that. I remember what it was like to be young and carefree. It was a beautiful time of my life.

Now, as I reflect on my childhood, and my life up to this point, I realize that every stage of life is beautiful in its own way. Each stage is meaningful and worthwhile, just different from the last. Now, at 22 years old, life is still a fantastic adventure, although I feel like I have much more responsibility than I did when I was 11. Now I'm responsible for taking care of myself, for getting good grades in university, for preparing myself for a career as a music educator. I'm responsible for my own well-being to a much higher degree than I ever was before.

So, all that being said, I've made my decision to take better care of my physical self. I've had trouble with this recently due to recurring knee injuries, but I'm determined to get back into shape. I plan to do this by engaging in enjoyable outdoor activities, even if that means just walking with my Ipod and playing on playgrounds, reflecting on life and childhood. I came to the realization that New Zealand would be a gorgeous place to spend time walking around in. If I can make a habit of walking and/or running for 30-60 minutes a day when I'm living in Lower Hutt (and before then too, of course), I could really surprise myself after 4 months. I just need to get a new knee brace - my old one is too tight, as I got it when I was 14.... looooong time ago now. I don't need any knee injuries holding me back this time.

So all in all, tonight was a great night. I had some nice quality Lauren time, alone with my thoughts, my running shoes, my Ipod, and a playground swing. Life really is beautiful, and tonight was just another one of those nights where I thought to acknowledge it, and not to take it for granted.

In fact, today has just been one of those generally feel-good days. I woke up to a text from Hannah saying "You're the best! I'm so grateful to have you in my life!" - I LOVE that girl. Then I scrolled to the next text I had, and it was one from Quenton that read "When I think of you my smile lasts forever! Hope your day is good, I'll call you later." What a sweet heart. I really am so lucky to have such amazing people in my life.

Enough reflecting for now. More thoughts will come later, if I feel so inclined. Much love.

- Lauren :o)