Always an Adventure: Zumba at the Disco

I can’t believe it’s already Monday evening here! I don’t know where the week went, but I can recollect what happened:

On Tuesday I went to my first Kiwi Zumba class. Now, I was corrected countless times because here it is pronounced z-UM-buh, whereas the US says it zoom-buh. Big difference! I had a lovely time dancing with these exuberant ladies- including my CT and a couple moms. The instructor is my CT’s sister-in-law and a mom of one of our little boys. She was a marvelous instructor and man was I sore the next day. I will certainly be back next week!

The rest of the week was full of teaching and beautiful little children! Chris and I are both delving into the thick of teaching. It is such a wonderful (and slightly terrifying) feeling to have so much control in the classroom. We are that much closer to being done with college and onto careers! Our plan, as of now, is to apply for a visa that will grant us a longer stay and the ability to work part-time. Once (if) we find full time jobs, we will apply for a different visa. If none of that works out, we’ll head back stateside and look for work (probably in Oregon). We are very flexible though and really just want to be in the classroom!!

We finished off the week with a Halloween themed disco (just a dance) at the school. Normally, the disco wouldn’t be Halloween themed- it just so happened to fall close to the holiday. In NZ, no one really cares about Halloween- only two students in the entire school come to school dressed up. It is a relatively new concept and hardly commercial. Kids in the States were telling me what there costumes were before I left whereas students here didn’t even remember it was this week! A very interesting thing to witness. The girls we live with went trick-or-treating for the first time this year and were only out for half an hour. It was actually quite refreshing to see that it wasn’t so commercialized. The kiddos did have fun at the disco though! The juniors (Years 1-3) had their dance first and I had a blast dancing with my little ones. Life is good when hopping around in a circle while holding hands is the greatest dance move.

Ah! And those little smiles that lit up when the smoke machine came on- just fantastic! The seniors (Years 4-6) had the later slot and were not as fun to dance with- apparently you stop being cool as a teacher by that point. It was still a lovely time and a blast to see all of the costumes. As for our costumes, we didn't have much to work with... so I am a cat (with giraffe ears) and Chris is a goblin construction worker who was bit by a vampire... naturally.

This Sunday morning I went with my CT to the Hastings farmer’s market(just south of Napier).It is always exciting to get to explore a new place and fresh produce makes it even better! It was a nice little trip and I will certainly be getting some garden-fresh fruits and veggies next time we go!

We are already off to another busy week with athletics day (similar to field day with things like high jump, long jump…) just ahead and lessons piling up!