Home for a While

Monday 19 July 2010

As soon as I stepped into work, I heard cheers and three people come up to me with open arms asking how my trip was. What a welcome back! A couple kids (particularly one) showed that they knew I was gone. One girl came through the door and just shouted excitedly "MANDY!" It really made me feel special and loved.

Tuesday 20 July 2010

Today, I have officially been in New Zealand for 1/2 year! I can't believe it! It's really strange to think about. So much has happened in these 6 months! I missed the 8:00 bus, so I was late to work, but not by a whole lot. I went to the STA office today to pick up my ticket to fly home. I went in, and they said I needed to have a passport sized photo of myself to validate the ticket. I was really upset. It is so stupid to have a passport sized photo of myself to validate the ticket. Now I have to get my picture taken and spend money so I can receive the ticket I already paid for! Then I met Alison. We were going to walk home, but it was raining. So we took the bus. This day did not turn out like I hoped.

Wednesday 21 July 2010

I received a package from a good friend, Jim. It was so sweet! He packed it with all kinds of goodies and strong umbrellas (which was really good as it has been raining quite a bit here). It was so exciting to get his parcel. THANKS JIM! Then I finished my taxes. It is actually quite frustrating. I have to do taxes in this country twice, because their pay period ends March 31. Since I worked in March, I have to pay for that year. Since I work after March, I have to pay for this year. Yuck!

Thursday, Friday 22, 23 July 2010

Today, I got an early text from the preschool director asking if I could work. Work was fine, but it was raining. It is always hard to deal with rainy days with all the children desperately needing to get out. I was also asked to work Friday. So four out of five days! Not bad!

Saturday 24 July 2010

Today was a more relaxed day. I was able to sleep in a bit. Alison and I discovered Anne and Alister's game storage. We played a game called 20 Questions. It was interesting. We weren't exactly sure how to play and there were no instructions. We made up part of it. Alison slaughtered me.

Sunday 25 July 2010

The service today was about community and trust with each other. It was really good. I find that it is really hard for me to readily trust people. Not that I don't trust people, but to share my innermost thoughts, struggles, desires...it is hard for me to share with people. Anyway, it spoke to me. It also made me think more about being involved. It is hard for me to just really become involved with this Church, as we will be leaving in a few months. It is hard to give more of myself to this Church and then leave. The problem is, the more I stay here, the more I want to be involved. It is kind of tricky.

Anyway, after Church, Alison and I went to the library to check out books for Australia. Now that the trip is getting closer, we really need to get down to business and start booking and really planning out what we need to do. We worked a bit on the trip, then we made banana bread and lemon squares. We wanted to contribute to baking for Anne and Alister. We know they love the lemon squares!

Monday, Tuesday 26, 27 July 2010

Work was fine, as usual. Two children had birthdays and it was my duty to make morning tea. For birthdays, children get to choose something they would like for morning tea. They chose donuts, so I tried to follow the recipe. The problem was, the preschool didn't have any labels on their teaspoons or tablespoons. The preschool director said to eyeball it. Well, it is not that easy for me. I am a terrible guesser when it comes to estimation. I tried, and they seemed okay, but I am not completely sure.

On my walk home, I heard my name and saw Alison get off the bus and walk the rest of the way home with me. That was quite nice. At dinner, two people from the Church came over. We had lamb. The lamb was actually from Alister's sister. They have lambs, so they slaughtered it and gave it to us. It was disturbing to realise.

After dinner, we all watched pictures from Anne and Alister's holiday part of the trip. It was nice to see all the other places they went. Before, we mainly saw the Bible Study part of the trip. Then we had an amazing dessert. Anne put Moro bars (which are like Mars bars) inside a flaky pastry thing and cooked it. We had whipped cream on top of it. Yum!

Wednesday 28 July 2010

Today was a busy day. I got up, did laundry, fixed lunch, and went into town. I went to the library and returned a book and then mailed my taxes. Then I went looking for a place to get my passport picture taken. It took a long time to find a place. It cost almost $20 and I only needed one photo, but they gave me eight. The man told me to stand in front of the wall with my head to the back of it. I did it and the man said to put my hair back. I pushed it back, but he wasn't satisfied with it. So I twisted my hair and put it back and smiled. He said, "This is a document picture, so don't smile." So I had a red nose from walking in the cold, frizzy hair on top from walking home to the city, plus my hair isn't seen that much. I have a mug shot photo. I look terrible. I just took it, went into STA and gave them a photo. I found out the photo was for a youth card. So unnecessary.

Thursday 29 July 2010

Today, Alison and I got up and worked on Australia. The cleaner came in and worked for a couple hours. We just looked up hostels for two places and had such a hard time deciding what to do! We booked the Sydney hostel, but that is about it. Well, tomorrow I will take my first trip alone. I am going to Wanaka and Queenstown. Let's see how I like it.