Culture Shock

There really hasn't been that much different so far. The biggest things are less variety in most stores and the way everything slows down during the summer. Since school finished and the holidays, it feels really relaxed. I think that's just the way things are here. It's fun being able to get out and enjoy the, but I feel like I'm not doing enough because there's not as many people around. A lot of folks go on extended holidays. I'm still busy, but it still feels like I should be doing more.
Anyway, everything is actually going well. I've been doing a lot the the kids from the church and their friends. they say a picture is worth thousand words, so I'll let a few of them do the talking, and save you and me the time of reading and writing.

A couple of weeks ago I took some of the youth from Greerton and Otumoetai out to some of the waterfalls I had gone to before.

For my birthday, I gave myself a present and rented a sea kayak for the day and paddled all around Tauranga harbor.Some of the girls at a service project at a local primary school last week. The flower beds had gotten pretty over grown, so we cleared them out.

It's a new year

So yesterday was New Years. We get it first here in Aotearoa. Gisbourne, a city east of here is the first city in the world to ring in the 1st of January. This holiday season has been kinda strange. In a way it doesn't feel right. It's just now supposed to be summer and Christmas at the same time. It's helped sometimes so that I don't feel like I'm missing anything with my family, but it also makes me think about it more and that makes me a bit homesick. I'm not complaining, I mean; I'm completely happy with what Im doing and where I'm at, it's just the remembering what I don't have that makes it hard.

Oh well, moving on. The holidays really have been good. Christmas was spent in Hamilton with the Chivers (my landlords) and for New Years, the Steels invited me to spend the day with them at the beach in Waihi. Not my typical experiences, but a lot of fun. I got to go boogies boarding for the first time, and I think I have a new hobby.

Somewhere right down there, the hobbits are partying.

Can't beat spending all afternoon playing in a surf like this on a New Years day.

"Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday, and celebrate just living!"~Amanda Bradley