Changing families and my first week

So last Sunday I got back from Napier. I arrived home to pack all my stuff, I was changing host families after 7 months. I packed all my stuff which was A LOT. 1 suitcase, 3 bags filled with random stuff, a handbag, a camera bag, a plastic bag and a big grey back filled with 65451 kg’s of clothes. Woops. Then I had my last dinner with my host family. Homemade hamburgers and for dessert my new fave thing: ambrosia. It’s basically just berry yoghurt, whipped cream, chocolate chips, marshmallows and strawberries and other berries all mixed together. Soooo good! After that my new hostdad came to my house. He brought a big van just in case I had too much stuff, he was right. Well after saying goodbye and leaving a little present from Napier behind I hopped in the car. It was soooo weird! I missed them already... I was so used to my daily routine, the house, the cars, the food. I knew the neighbourhood by heart and where everything was in the house. The routine of the family and just the little things like what brands we had for everything. I was moving to the other side of the lake. So I lived in Owhata but now I was moving to Hamurana. Honestly middle of nowhere on the other side of the lake. No public transport or anything and it’s like 30 minutes from town instead of the normal 10/15. On our way to my new home I was on the other side of the lake. The road was close to the lake and you could see the beautiful sunset with the city lights around it. Black swans swimming in the water and the Island in the middle of the lake. The road was dark and full of corners. Then out of nowhere there was a mailbox on the side where we drove to and there was a driveway down. And there it was, my new house. Very different to my other house. It’s more like a holiday batch. Made of wood and full of lake flies. My host mum came walking out and greeted me with a hug, I had already met her in my first month in NZ on the Dutch market. Then my host sister, Emma, who is 23 and sometimes sleeps in the sleep out (an extra room next to the garage). I went inside were immediately 2 dogs came running towards me, one barking and the other one licking my feet. I brought all my stuff to my room and went to watch the finals of the Olympics. That night I went to sleep in my new huuuge bed 

Next morning I woke up all confused and had to think where I was. Then I opened my door and again the dogs came running to me, they do that every time I open a door and enter a room. I had to make my lunch which was weird because I didn’t have my normal ingredients for my sandwiches and other Wbrands and wow I need to get used to it again. Weird how you get so attached to those things. But that’s quite cool because you get to know other things. Well anyway around 08.15 we left home. I was wearing my PE clothes because I thought I had another day out learning about rockclimbing. My host mum, Nicky, drove me to school. It took like 20 minutes. Not too bad. Well at school I walked to the carpark and waited ages for the other ABL students to arrive. Well that never happened so I walked to the front of the school looking if I could see anybody. I just saw a white van leaving and I thought ‘shit was I supposed to be on that’ and kept starring at it. Then a teacher asked if I was lost and I said that I thought that I had to be on that bus. She ran to her office to call my ABL teacher. In her office I saw another girl from my ABL class in her normal clothes. She said we didn’t have ABL that day. Worst thing that could happen my god. I got a uniform pass and it said: Things wrong with uniform: everything. Well then. I got some paper and then I had to walk around school the whole day in my green vans, blue shorts and big exchange hoodie. I felt so foreign honestly ahahah. Glad that day was over. Enough people asked me why I was dressed like that so yeah. I got picked up on a street close to the school and then we drove home. Although on the way we stopped by the ‘Hamurana Springs’ 3 minutes driving from home. This is the second clearest spring in the world! And it’s absolutely amazing! The ducks swimming in this crystal clear blue water with green plants on the bottom. There’s a bush walk way around the springs and it’s just beautiful. I walked around it with my host dad, Henry, which is by the way a Dutch man who speaks Dutch and knows all the places I come from in Holland. So well we came across his uncle in the woods and he’s from Nijkerk??!!! My god the tiny city that my school is in. Couldn’t believe it. Well as we walked further we came to a really deep point of the springs. It was just like a little hole in the spring. Dark blue of colour but still so clear. You could see some coins floating down in the water. Glittering in the sun light, thrown by some earlier tourists. Some people dive in this little hole and dive up all the coins. Gets to $50 sometimes. Quite scary because it’s like 15 meters deep and it’s only a meter wide. We walked further and came to a sign that said ‘dancing sand’. There was some shallow water with indeed dancing sand bubbles on the bottom. The water was being pushed up from the ground and being purified by the sand, isn’t nature amazing. On another part of the spring you could see some bubbling water. Not because it’s hot, it’s freezing, but because that’s another spot where a lot of water was being pumped out of the ground into the spring. It fills 2 Olympic swimming pools an hours! We use this water at home, at another spot you could see the hoses connected to our houses. After the springs we went home because I had rotary like every Monday night.

Tuesday I went to school again, this time in my uniform. But of course it turned out that it was athletics day so half of the school joined in and was wearing their sport gear. And then there was me, in my uniform. Can you believe it? It was too hot to be in class so I spent the day on the field ‘helping’ while I actually was just sunbathing and enjoying the sun. Watching all the people suffer in the heat. Good days. For atlethics there were just loads of different activities. They made these running circles with paint on the ground and there were races. Quite cool like in movies haha. After school Henry took me to the Okere Falls. A waterfall close to home. We took the dogs and went for a walk. It was a very wild river and people go rafting in it. It has the highest and most dangerous waterfall for commercial rafting! I saw it and its scary! People sometimes just fall vertically in the water, the raft goes underwater and seconds later all these heads pop up in random parts of the river haha! A bit further there is a popular jumping spot for teenagers. The climb up all these rocks and then climb on tree roots and even to the tip of the branches of the trees and then jump. My god so scary and soooo high! The current is really strong as well, people drown there annually..

Wednesday it was mufti day at school. So you pay $2 and then you can wear your normal clothes to school. I thought I’d be cool and fun but I hated it! I was really not used to it anymore and you just feel so judged bleh! I appreciate my uniform now. Everybody the same and in the morning you just spend 5 minutes in the morning which means more sleep ha! It’s a win win 

Thursday after school I went for a run! I decided to run to the Hamurana Springs which took me 15 minutes, then I ran around the Hamurana Springs which I didn’t enjoy as much as before because I was dying, and then I ran to the lake. There were some birds on this pond and I just ran towards them and they all flew away. I then sat down on the edge with my feet almost touching the water just enjoying the beautiful landscape. I was just thinking how lucky I am and that I will never be tired of this view and that I just love my life. That was until I started running again. Home I was so hot and red and then I met my host brother, he’s 26 and lives in town somewhere. I said hi but then ran to the lake I front of our house. Changed into my dogs I walked into the lake. The dogs following me. It was really shallow and the bottom was feeling all slimy and yuck because of the seaweed uuuhhh  I just wanted to swim but it was like 40 cm deep. Screaming I took a few big steps and just threw myself in the water and floated. Paranoid because I didn’t want to touch the bottom which was difficult if the water was only 50 cm deep. I faced the other side of the lake. Just this view man so amazing! I then turned around to look at my new house and the screaming dogs. I then heard some flapping noise. I looked back and saw a group of like 20 black swans 4 meters away from me! And then in front of me I saw a fish jumping out of the water. Long story short I screamed, freaked out and ran out. Then on the shore I was drying myself and I heard a loud banging noise. A possum had fallen out of the tree ahahahahha. Stupid possums. Although I was gutted I didn’t see it. I haven’t seen a possum since ive been here! Everybody hates possums here because theyre a pest and eat everything and kill kiwis but I want to see them, they look quite cute. People shoot them meanwhile in Australia they’re protected animals. Funny aye?

Friday I went to the hospital. My old host mum Jill took me there in the morning. My doctor was sorta happy. My screw in my plat had moved 90 degrees. He said it wasn’t that much of a problem but it could be if it gets loose because then… well you know we’ll be going to my 5th surgery. Wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear so I was quite annoyed with it. He said: ‘Honestly Ana this is one of the worst fractures anybody could do to themselves and I really don’t want to go back in that theatre again..’ He’s nice, I like my surgeon Angus. I’ll see him back in May but If I feel any changes in my jaw and it gets swollen or even more sore then well I have to go back.. My jaw is average. Its still quite painful and exercising it is literally a pain. He said my mouth will always be a bit crooked to the left but he and everybody thinks that my scars are healing amazingly well. I keep lots of special band aids on them, on my chin/elbow/ear/jaw to reduce scarring so it better be worth it. After the hospital we went out for lunch at this Mexican restaurant in Hamilton called ‘The flying burrito brothers’. Love the names ahhha. I ordered a chicken quesadilla and some guacamole. Amazing!!! Then we went comfort shopping and I bought a 90 dollar dress at Wildpair, woops! But I also donated some money to a charity in Uganda by buying a cute bracelet ;) Later that night I went back to the Gimbletts home. It just feels like my home now. I had dinner there and then I had my first waterpolo game! I was late…. But quickly joined. I had to wear this funny cap on my head and I was waiting until I could enter. ‘Somebody go in now’ I heard. Everybody looked at me and I was like HELP OK. I swam into the pool and I had NO idea what I was doing. People were pulling my feet as I was swimming and everytime I tried to catch the ball, I did it with 2 hands which is not allowed argh! This sport is so exhausting wow! But so much fun! I’ll be doing this every Friday night from 19.00 – 19.30 with people from school. It’s fun! We didn’t win but that’s alright. That night I had a party. It was a big bonfire and I saw lots of people. Im glad I didn’t wear any of my new clothes because my shoes came back brown of dirt and my jeans were full of dirty spots because somebody decided to throw a bottle in the fire and it then exploded  Bye bye jeans that were the only ones that fitted me. It was fun though.

Saturday I had a lazy day in and watched movies with Emma and her boyfriend. TopRod, Captain something and Carrie. Had some butter chicken for tea which was amazing as usual and Sunday I went for a run again in the morning and after we took the boat out to lake Rotoiti. We spend some hours fishing and listening to chill music. We passed a house were the queen Beatrix used to stay! So spoiled. And well the view was amazing as usual. I was so happy with my feet in the water holding a fishing line and listening to music (red red wine ahaha). I didn’t catch anything but my Hbrother Scott caught 2 fish. We went to some hidden hot pools and stayed there for 1,5 hours. I came out looking like a wrinkled grandma hahaha. And well that was my Sunday. Today I had ABL but that was boring and we went out for dinner at an Italian restaurant, Nivulari or something, I had pizza! And now its 22.38 and I should probably go to sleep. So good night people who are reading this terribly long blog (again!).