Random things I’ve done

So some other fun things I’ve done are for instance ‘The Zorbe’. With my host mum Jill and my host brother’s host family from Germany we went to The Zorbe, 15 minutes from our home. So we got changed into our togs and sat in a van with this huge plastic ball behind it. We drove up a big hill and got out. This big ball like 3 meters high was there ready in position waiting for us to get in. They filled it with some warm water and opened a little round ‘door’. The man said to run and dive head first in. So I did. I ran and hoped for myself to run in the hole and not against the plastic. It all went good and I fell with my face in the water. Next was Jill. Then they gave us a GoPro camera that we had to hold. It would record us while going down the hill. We were sitting in the ball and we got a big push and woooohhh there we went! Down the Hill! Trying to stand up wasn’t an option haha so we remained seated and slipping through the water. I slipped on the water and fell on my back and turned around. We ended up backwards and it was so trippy! It went too fast it was so much fun! You’d think that you’d feel sick but nahh. I felt a bit claustrophobic at the end but that wasn’t too bad. We rolled to the end and stopped and we just couldn’t stop laughing! They opened the door and told us to go out feet first. Not very charming. Then they took a few photos and we could jump in the hot spa! I actually have the video and photos so if you’re lucky you can see them when I go back!

Also at school I had swimming sports. It’s an event for the whole school where you earn points for your housegroup. On the Friday morning I left in my pineapple shorts and yellow t-shirt to a nearby pool. There was one big outdoor pool surrounded by the different housegroups. Everybody had to sit in their housegroups so the whole field was divided by the colours yellow, red, blue, green and purple. There were some competitive races and some social races. Also a few activities with your whole housegroup. For instance: your whole house (60 people or more) had to jump in the pool and run/swim as fast as you could to the other side, like a race. The weather was bad because it was cloudy and rainy but still lots of people ended up as red tomatoes being burned!

This week at school we had the crowning of the(deputy) head boy/girl and all the prefects and leaders. The whole school came together again in the gym. We all had to take our shoes off and get rid of our red jumpers. I must say it looked really ordered. Everybody in a white t-shirt and black/red skirt with their hair tied up. I didn’t know what to expect so it was cool to see it for once but it took ages. There was a stage with the priest and he did all the prayers etc. The school has like an anthem so we had to sing that as well, standing up. Then all the leaders were called to the front and their badges were blessed by the priest. Also there were a group of kids from the Pacific Island who did a sort of dance and crowned the leaders with these flower necklaces. They were holding these sort of sticks and singing and dancing, really cool to see! When the crowning was over a group of kiwi kids stood up to do the ‘Haka’ to show respect and good luck. This time I wasn’t too scared I actually enjoyed it a lot! At the end of the ceremony everybody received ‘the Bread’. If you had done your first communion you’d hold your hands open on top of each other. If you hadn’t you had to put your right hand on your left shoulder. After this we had morning tea up stairs with a huge amount of food! Only for year 13’s, aren’t I lucky ;)

Friday it was valentine’s day and people could buy roses and chocolates that’d be delivered to your class. I’ve had the same thing in Holland but people here are so outgoing. I saw a girl walking around with a teddy bear bigger than herself! And she wasn’t the only one! Lots of bouquets of flowers were delivered really crazy haha! Later that day I celebrated with Hannah and Ella a friend. We made our own dinner (we actually made a decent quiche not even pizza) and dressed up and put some balloons around. My host parents and oldest sister and brother are in Dunedin for a few days because they’re going to start university soon. Me and my two host sisters have just been hanging around.

I wrote a bucketlist for my last few months in New Zealand and one of them was ‘eat a pie.’ Some girls of my school saw that I t was on my list and just couldn’t believe I had never had a ‘pie’ before. It’s really a kiwi thing. It’s a salty pie with pastry on the outside and most of the time mince and cheese on the inside. I remember seeing someone eating one of those in my first weeks at school and I just thought it looked yuck haha. I said that we didn’t have those pies in Holland or anywhere else I’ve been. They were so shocked that they bought me a pie at lunchtime. Everybody was starring as I took a bite. ‘And???’ they asked. ‘Not bad’ I said. They told me I had to try pies from a special brand because these weren’t so good. Haha I’ll see but at least I can tick something off my bucketlist!