Yesterday, Peter Harvey (he's the rotarian in charge of all the inbounds) took me and Emiline, the French girl, tramping (aka hiking). We started at 9 am and got back at 3 pm. It was a long day. We stopped for 10 minutes for lunch, but other than that we took 2 minute breaks maybe every hour. So basically it was like walking up mountains for 6 hours straight. But it was way worth it; the sights were incredible. These are just a few random pictures from our hike...

School the past couple of days has not been so fun, mostly cause I actually have to start working now. At the end of the year (November) I have to take these NCEA tests, which test you on the whole year. I'm starting mid-year so I have to get the notes from all my teachers on what they learned the first half of the year, and if I don't pass with 80 credits by the end, then I can't move on to year 13...
I've been having fun after school though. Both today and yesterday I walked to the mall after school with like 15 other exchange students, mostly Germans. My closest friends here are probably Christoph and Lucas, both German. I have other friends that I talk to and hang out with...but I don't remember any of thier names! haha there's too many to keep straight. And lots of them I cant even pronounce.

July 21

Today I was at the bus stop and the neighbor girl and her friends were asking me about America, mostly about Twinkies. Apparently they've only seen people eating them in movies and they were realy interested to know what they taste like. And they were also very curious about the cheese that you spray out of a can...it was really funny.
In the school week, everyone has 6 subjects but theres only 5 spells per day, so you have each class 4 times a week...which leaves 1 extra hour on friday, therefore school starts at 9:45 on Fridays. It also starts at 9:45 on Wednesdays because the teachers have meetings in the morning. But school always ends at 3:15, no matter when it starts. We also get half an hour for tea time and an hour for lunch, so the day goes by very fast.
At 7pm, Kendyl and her host parents picked me up and brought me to see My Life in Ruins in the theater. Kendyl is from Buffalo, New York. Her rotary group reserved the whole theater for 105 rotarians and their friends to see this movie. It was alot of fun; Kendyl and I talked the entire time. There wasn't a moment of silence. It's starting to get annoying trying to have conversations with the other exchange students at my school that basically only speak german or french, so this was a very nice change. Her host parents are awesome too, they invited me to go to their farm next time they go and said I could come over whenever I want and they'll get me junk food:) (Ann doesn't have any)

July 20

Today was my first day of school. It was really fun actually, I met lots of other kids and they were all really happy to help me get around. Also, didnt have to go to the bus stop until 8:00. The bus costs 80 cents per trip I think. When I got to school I went into the library with about 30 other international student, about 28 Germans and 2 French. They were nice though..when they actually spoke English. My timetable wasn't set up right away so I had to shadow a year 13 girl (im year 12) into her calculus class then everybody had 30 min for morning tea. I went into D1, the international students room and ate there. Finally my timetable was ready and I went to chemistry. We were doing a lab in class and I was with 2 other German students so we had no idea what to do. Fortunately, the kids really all friendly and they helped us alot. Then I went to history with Svenja, the 1 German girl. This was 4th spell, so after that I went back to D1 for lunch. Some girls invited me and Lucas, another German boy, to have lunch with them upstairs with all their kiwi friends. They were all nice and it was alot of fun. Pretty sure I'm the only American in the building, some kids said they never get Americans here. Finally it was 4th spell, the last hour of the day, and I went to maths. The math curriculum is different here; in one year they cover a little bit of geometry, algebra, functions and trig, and either calculus or statistics.

July 15

I woke up today and made everyone pancakes again. Then Ann, Alex(3), Max(6), and I took a bus and went to this little kid magic show. After that, I took a bus by myself to Queensgate, the mall. No big deal. The exchange rate is about us$.63 to nz$1, so everything looked so much more expensive than it really was. Every girl here (and I mean like every girl from age 5 to 35) wears skinny jeans and boots and really cute tops with belts and hats, and all the outfits look like they were professionally put together. I feel like a sloppy American. Now I'm thankful for the school uniform. The boys also wear skinny jeans and some of them are really well dressed also. They all have their hair spiked up, not straight up, like spiked all over the place.

Anyways, later on that night the boys' parents came over for dinner. For dessert, they brought 2 different kinds of ice cream. One was Gummy gummy gum drops and it was lime ice cream with lollies in it (lollies are chewy candy) and Hokey Pokey. Apparently New Zealand is known for hokey pokey ice cream. It was vanilla but it had caramel and something crunchy in it, it was soooo good though.

After the family left, Ann and I went over to the next door neighbors house so I could meet the 5 daughters. The 13 year old and her friend were so amazed that I was from the US. They couldn't believe that I live on a lake and that it freezes and we can drive on it! They also asked if I've met any celebrities. I've been asked that question alot just because I live in America. We sat there for over an hour talking. They wanted to know if my school looked like the one in High School Musical, with long corridors and lockers on either side, and if I've been to times square. I ended up going to bed at 9:30, which is the latest since I've arrived.

these are pictures of ann's house.

this right picture is my bedroom. it is very small...but i have my own bathroom:)

July 13

Today was a pretty busy day for me. When I woke up I made my self toast and sprinkled cinamon sugar on it. Ann had no idea what on earth I was making. Then she asked me what kind of food she should buy from the grocery store. I started listing off some things and after peanut butter I asked if she had jelly. She asked me what in god's name that was. I said it was like jam and she goes, "Oh thats right, you Americans actually like that rubbish, peanut butter and jam."
Then Ann and I went off into town to set up my bank account. The girl that helped us happened to be an exchange student in Duluth a few years ago, so she was fun to talk to. I also got a cell phone. I tried to find the cheapest one, but it was still nz$130.
At about 2, I went to the airport with the man that's in charge of one of my rotary clubs to meet 2 more exchange students. The first girl that arrived was from France and she could barely speak english, so I didn't really get to talk to her. The next girl was from Buffalo, New York. She was so sweet and nice! Our host parents gave each other thier phone numbers so me and Kendyl can hang out some time.
Later that night, I went with Ann to the Rotary meeting. Everyone knew who I was and greeted me. I had to introduce myself but my real speech will be August 17.

arriving in new zealand

That 27 hour period was probably the lonliest I've ever been! It was exciting when I got a chance to talk to someone next to me. At 10 am I arrived at the Wellington airport and was met by like 6 rotarians including Ann. They were all excited to meet me and helped me get my bags. Then Ann drove me to her house. All around Wellington are mountians with houses that look like they were just dropped on top.

I took these pictures out of the windows in ann's house and ill put more of her house on later.

Ann's driving was insane. She sped as fast as possible around the narrow, winding roads up the mountain. The whole time I was thinking how angry dad would be if I ever drove like that.

Later on that night, Ann's whole family came over. They were all friendly and nice but I was so tired I went to bed at 7:30.