I'm Dreaming of a Kiwi Christmas...

Ok now that you are over the shock of seeing another blog posted within a couple of days of each other – time to do some reading.

When my adventure of teaching in the US began I was given 2 weeks to pack up my life in NZ and head off to the big unknown.  This gave me little time to pack up school stuff, go to the bank and sort out money and payments, get my car squared away and generally sort my life out.  So part of me felt like I still had unfinished business back home to take care of and it needed to be resolved.

This is where my little idea began to formulate. 

In mid November I decided I would come home at Christmas time to surprise my Mum and to sort out some still outstanding stuff I never got to do before I left to teach in the US.  Part of my plan was not to tell anyone in NZ that I was coming home. 

This meant a couple of things – first was I needed to let at least one person know just in case something went wrong, excitedly I told my friend I was on my way home and couldn’t wait to catch up her.  Then I found out that she was going to be out of town the whole time I was back in NZ.  This couldn’t be helped but that is what you get when you decide to surprise people and not give them much or any notice at all. 

The next thing was people asking me what I was doing for Christmas – I meant I couldn’t exactly say, “I am planning on coming home to surprise you” – ha, ha, ha!  So an elaborate story was concocted in order to make my surprise more effective.  My story started out simple but soon my awesome ability not to keep my mouth shut kicked in and the story became huge – I was sure people were on to me.  I also didn’t like the fact that I was lying to my mother, my family and my friends.  According to my story I was going to New York with a Kiwi teacher friend and her parents and spending some time in Raleigh (the capital of NC and the closest big city to Fayetteville).  It was great because bought into it.  My plan was in motion!

The last day of school was fast approaching and I knew I was about to leave – as usual I left my packing to the last minute so it was a late night followed by an early morning.  On Saturday I headed to Raleigh with a friend, who was going to Cancun to spend a week with her family, ready to fly back home for Christmas.  In typical Suzanne fashion things didn’t go as smoothly as they could have.  First I couldn’t find the long term parking place, after an hour of driving around, I finally figured it out.  I then rushed to check in and then to the gate only to find that the flight had been delayed – so I was in for a long wait.  At this point I would like to share an important piece of information with you – never sit in a airport lounge and read a book (a must read is the book – Little Bee – finished it on the flight over the Pacific), the day after you finish school or you could end up waking up in time for the last call for all passengers on your flight!  Yes I nearly missed it.

At his point I need to let you into my thinking (yes a scary thought), so when I plan my flights I don’t like to have a lot of time in transit because I get bored and end up spending money on things I don’t really need, but it also means that if the plane is delayed then the time between getting off the plane and getting to the next gate to board your next flight is reduced.  Yes again, this happened to me, my first flight touched down in Chicago (where it was snowing – hence the delays) and I had 25mins to get off the plane and to the next gate before it took off.  I happened to sit next to a very nice soldier who was on his way home to see his family for Christmas, he was on the same flight to LA so we decided to work to get to the plane together – he said if he got there first he would ask them to hold the plane for me.  After a semi panic walk off the plane I found the departure monitors, looked for the flight only to discover that is had been delayed 2 hours so the panic subsided and I walked calmly to the gate ready to hit the warmer city of Los Angeles.  Eventually I made it to LA and on the plane for a 12-hour ride to Auckland.  Still with no one aware I was on my way home.

It is so nice to go from freezing, cold and snowy weather to the awesome blue skyed, warm weather in NZ (especially after a week of rain in NZ) – this was one of my first thoughts as I walked through the arrival gate at Auckland Airport.  My next job was to get home and I had a plan for this – my friend who is using my car while I am away, was also the friend that was heading out of town for a couple of weeks.  She dropped my car off at a parking place and all I had to do was take the shuttle to my car and I could get home.  Job done!  

The next important piece of information I am going to share is about driving – NZ and the US drive on different sides of the road, so I have just spent 4 months driving on the right hand side of the road, where the rules are different, they have stop signs all over the place and the mirrors in different place on the car.  I have lost count of the times I have walked to the passenger side of the car to get in and drive!  So coming home meant having to remember all the things I had told myself to forget – drove down the middle of the road back in NZ before my brain kicked in and I moved to the left – ha, ha, ha.

After a long drive home, with a big smile on my face, I finally reached my mothers house.  I had decided to park my car on the road so she couldn’t hear me coming.  I also decided to call her, as a distraction.  So I am walking up the driveway and talking to her on the phone.  When Mum answers the phone she asks me why I am calling when I am supposed to be in Raleigh.  I told her I just wanted to see what she was up to, so she launched into sharing all the news of what was happening at home.  I knocked on the door – she said hold on someone is at the door.  That is when she stopped in the doorway and yelled, “What are you doing here?”  She looked at the phone and then back at me and kept saying what are you doing here – needless to say she was surprised, shocked and happy all rolled into one.  She spent the next half hour looking at me and shaking her head. 

That was the first of many surprises that followed over the next couple of days – the fun comes when you are seeing peoples faces as they look at you and say Hi like it was any other day and then watch as the figure out in their head that you are not supposed to be here, this is followed closely by the smiles and excitement as they realise you are actually here in front of them.  I never knew surprising people would be so fun!  I high recommend it, try it at least once in you life.

So I came home for Christmas (oh and to sort out all the things I didn’t get to before I left – this also meant that I had to get it done before everything shut down for Christmas) – I spent Christmas day with my brother and his wife in their new house, followed by our traditional family lunch with the extended family, then to end an awesome food filled day me and mum headed out to Piha beach for a walk in the late afternoon sun (and to walk off all the food that was consumed in a relatively short amount of time). 

It was great to be home with friends and family at this time of the year.  I head back on the 30^th in time to see in the New Year in the US.  Can’t wait to see what adventures the upcoming year holds for me.  Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a fun filled New Year.  Be safe and try to find the fun and adventure in your life, so until then…

Time Flies When You Are Having Fun?

SORRY! SORRY! SORRY!

I know it has been months since I last blogged but life gets in the way and it never seems to be that exciting.  But due to popular demand I will post a blog or 2.

Where to start is what I am struggling with – I had to go back and see what I last blogged about and try and remember what else has happened since then.

So here is my attempt to sum up October, November and part of December in one simple piece of writing. 

I have to start off by saying that before coming over here I didn’t expect this adventure to change my life and everything be smiles and roses, in fact I feel I had a realistic expectations of what it would be like living in the US.  It is the same as living in NZ  - I work, I sleep, I eat and I hang out with friends – the only difference is it is a different culture with different people!

One of the first questions people ask me is “are you enjoying it?” – my answer to this is - YES I am – it is different, challenging and at times very hard but the whole experience is a lot of fun and I am happy to be carried along on this rollercoaster ride!

So here are some of the highlights of the last 2 and half months since we last talked…

-       Discovering the international foods aisle in the local supermarket – while there is no NZ food there it has some English, Asian and Aussie foods that are close enough to home that I am happy – I am really enjoying Rice Crackers, Malt Vinegar, Butter Chicken Sauce, Sweet Thai Chilli Sauce and the odd Nestle and Cadbury product – it is so funny what you miss until you realise you can’t get it – bread that isn’t sweet, cheese that isn’t orange and tomato sauce that isn’t called Ketchup!

-       Meeting 3 other Kiwi teachers living in Fayetteville who are here through VIF – one weekend I went to an International Festival in downtown Fayetteville as part of VIF and was pleased to meet 3 teachers from different parts of NZ – it was such a relief to know that there were other people going through the same experience as me.  Two of the teachers have been here for 5 years and head back home in June, and the other teacher started the same time as me.  We have fast become friends and try to spend time together once a week – usually catching up for a meal.  We even had our own Kiwi version of a Thanksgiving meal – roast chicken, roast potatoes, kumara, pumpkin, mixed veges and gravy – my contribution was strawberries and ice cream to round off our awesome meal.  They have also dragged me along to a number of different restaurants in and around Fayetteville, and we even headed into the Dickens Candlelight Parade in town, just after Thanksgiving.  It has been so great to know that others have been through and are going through the same experience as me – thanks girls!

-       RWC – yes this even hit Fayetteville – I was so proud to be a Kiwi during this time and was saddened to miss out on being in the country at this time.  Thanks also to my mother for texting me from the opening ceremony to say what fantastic seats they had and how much fun they were having – was awake from 4am that morning trying to find it online.  One of the US TV stations showed some of the games and that was great to sit on a Sunday afternoon watching rugby and listening to the Kiwi accent of the commentators.  Managed to watch the semi and the final – imagine if you can 4 kiwi girls all congregating in one apartment at 3.30am, still half asleep, to watch a sports game half a world away – needless to say we were wide awake by the time the first whistle blew – and almost every neighbour in one apartment block was wide awake, thanks to our yelling and screaming, by the time the final whistle blew.  Again so proud to be a kiwi and I wore my AB shirt the next day in honour of the win!

-       Thanksgiving – was so glad that a friend I teach with took pity on me and invited me to share thanksgiving with her and her family – it was my first thanksgiving in the US and I was a little unsure about the whole thing.  The day was fantastic with lots of eating, talking, trivial pursuit and laughing (followed by more eating).  I have come to the conclusion that this time is one of family, friends and amazing amounts of food – who knew you could get a 22lb (10kg) turkey to fit in an oven!  It was leftovers for the following 7 days for my friend’s family.

-       Team Teaching – school is going well and has become more manageable as time has gone by.  Towards the end of October my buddy teacher and I went to the principal and asked if we could give team teaching a try – after putting our ideas forward and giving her an idea of the vision we had, she agreed.  So 2 classes became one, 20 kids became 39 kids, one classroom teacher became 2 and having to repeat all lessons were gone.  Unsure on how the kids would handle the change we proceeded with caution – but within 2 weeks it was second nature for them and they happily accepted that this was the way it was going to be.  It has been really successful with the students becoming one ‘whanau’ (family); lots of students have grown in their learning, attitude and are now excited about coming to school.  I now have a hand in teaching Science and Math instead of just Literacy, Social Studies and Writing.  I have been able to learn from my buddy teacher and hopefully in turn have been able to share what I know and do with her.  Early on in the experiment I came to the conclusion that in order for team teaching to work you have to get on with the person you are teaching with and I am grateful that both of us share the same teaching philosophy, we both have the same realistic expectations for the students and we both know the value of making learning fun and realistic.  I am truly enjoying being able to see the students having fun, learning to use the 6 thinking hats, working in groups, growing in confidence and getting excited when they are able to share their learning with others.
 -    LA Trip - on Veterans Weekend (2nd weekend in November) I flew over to visit a friend in Los Angeles.  I had so much fun catching up and spending time with someone who knew me and knew people I knew.  The weekend was spent shopping, eating, sleeping and lots of talking.  I love LA and in a way it was like coming home - coming back to a familiar place, that I knew.  I knew the shops I liked, the food I could find in the super market and people who knew where NZ was.  I think I will have to make a regular thing - oh I sound like a jet setter - ha, ha, ha

Well that is just a few of the highlights of the last couple of months – I am sure there are many more but these are the things that stand out for me – I hope I will be able to add to these as they come to my mind. 

At this point it would be useless for me to promise to blog more often because it probably won’t happen – ha, ha, ha.  Needless to say I will try very hard to post more blogs on a regular basis.

Hope all is good with you and that life is treating you well.  So until then…