Random things

Due my lack of motivation and time I missed a few things to tell you guys so I’ll try to make them short:

TAURANGA CONFERENCE 26/27/28 April:
So every year there is a district conference. It’s an event for all the Rotarians to give speeches and talks etc. and for the exchange students to give a little performance. We drove off to Tauranga that Friday and spent the day in one of the Rotarians houses to practise our conference. After a lot of singing and acting we went to our little motel where we were staying that weekend. They were little houses with a few rooms and a kitchen and bathroom. The day after some of us had to go really early to the conference to fix the audio and music but the rest of us could have a little sleep in. We then started to get ready for the conference. We put on some nice clothes and our blazer. Some were completely packed with pins and others were blanc. The conference was at a really flash school with a big auditorium. We practised one more time with the piano and then it was our time to shine! We all lined up from the top of the auditorium and one by one walked down the stairs holding our flag. Meanwhile a power presentation was being played on the screens with photos of our exchange and some sentences that represented our year. We started with a few songs and then had a drama. We didn’t speak in our drama but they were just short scenes of things exchange students experience. Like; wearing a uniform, gaining weight, having different habits etc. Really funny  I got it on video so we can watch it if you want waaw. After the conference we went to a park and it was sooooo hot. We walked through the park and finished that afternoon going to the hot pools at The Mount. I remember going there in my first months and it was the first time I had ever been in a hot pool! After the hot pools we went to get some ice cream and then the fun began. All the girls were getting ready because that night we would have a party with rotary! The theme was ‘A Night At The Oscars’ so everybody was dresses in nice dresses. We got to the venue and had dinner and after that the band started playing some cool songs. I started dancing and together with my Swedish friend Linni we danced the whole night! All on those bloody heels! Our chairman Ross was happy because we got the whole room to dance with us and it was just a great atmosphere! The toilets were really cool too with nice wallpaper and a nice couch so we couldn’t help but take some pics haha. After we got home we decided to stay up really late and we signed each others flags. Something all exchange students do when they leave. (Can you believe that even though I lived with maria for 6 months she forgot to write on my flag?! Unbelievable). The next morning we had to go to the conference again but we ended up being really sad and started to eat and sit in the sun when we all had to say goodbye. It was going to be the last time we would see each other and it was the weirdest and worst feeling ever! After sharing so many memories with them you just can’t say goodbye to your family not knowing when you’ll see them again. We all ended up in tears and decided to make it worse by playing some good old John Lennon on the piano. Luckily I got to see one part of my family for a few more days. Linni, Popo and Louise joined me back to my house here in Rotorua and they stayed for 5 more days! And they were honestly the best days! Every night we would have a spa in the early night looking over the lake and then we would spend a whole night laughing till our stomachs hurt. We did some sightseeing around Rotorua and went to the night market on Thursday. Of course we did some baking aswell and just being lazy together!

GEO TRIP 6/7/8/9 MAY:
So with my Geography trip we went a few days up to a place called Muriwai, close to Auckland. We first stopped at the Auckland Museum where we pretended to do some assignments.After that we went to the place we were all going to stay. We thought it was going to be a shitty backpackers but wow not at all! We got to this recently new build surf club next to the beach and it was just this big lounge with so many rooms and we even got free wifi haha. In the kitchen/eating/lounge area there was a big tv hanging as well. One weird thing was that in the bathroom we had two showers facing each other and they were transparent???? What was that about haha, pretty awkward…. We didn’t do too much that evening. Next day we went for a walk around the beach with a very passionate geographer who told us about the beaches etc. We then had to do some research on the beach when it just started to rain cats and dogs! Like insane! We had written the data down on our little paper but with the rain it just vanished. Then it started hailing and we just ran off back to the bus but by the time we got there I was soaked from head to toes. Luckily we had another adventure ready for us; horseriding! We drove to the horses and luckily it stopped raining but the horses were soaking haha. We got on our horses and it had been a while since I rode a horse but it was allgood. We walked through the forest down to the beach and through puddles and even lakes! We then got to this magical hidden piece of open forest and it’s exactly the scenery you always see in fairytales. Grass so green and shiny and a dark blue shiny river going through it with lots of flowers around it. We then entered a forest with lots of crooked trees and the lady told us that a piece of Narnia was filmed close to there! After horse riding we went back to our surf club to have a shower and start dinner. The next day we were supposed to do a 5 hour tramp but because of the rain it was too dangerous. We still decided to do a small part of it and wow im so glad I did that because it was one of the most stunning views I have ever seen! It was quite a hike down and very slippery and hot but totally worth it! One part was just the ocean with all the foam and mountains and the other part was something that looked like the grand canyon, just amazing! On the way back we had to climb so many stairs I thought I was going to die haha. We then went for another walk and we got to the weirdest scenery ever. Left there were green hills with dark green trees and then on the right side there were big dark brown sand hills. And I have no idea how all of that sand got there. In the middle there was a little river going through both hills. It looked really cool! You could either walk around it, follow the river, or walk up the hills and continue. I walked up the hills with some others and at the end we got to a big lake. There were even some clean toilets on the side! So nice how every toilet in NZ is free and they’re so clean aswell!!

JPC DAY 21st OF MAY
So JPC stands for John Paul College, the name of my school. This years theme was ‘superheroes and villains’. So yes, you had to dress up, the whole school. I went for the easy catwoman and it was so cool to see the whole school dressed up! There were different activites for the whole school, on the field outside there were some sport things and inside they changed the classrooms in a haunted house. As year 13’s we had to guide everybody. You had to help out in the haunted house, the sportsfield or selling food. I was smart and grabbed my camera and said that I was the photographer so I ended up walking around the whole day taking photos haha all good. At the end of the day there was a big talent show with students performing and yeah was a really cool day, best JPC day the school has had. They said!