Yikes! Long Time, No Posting

I haven't forgotten about my tiny space over here on the internet.  Every now and then I even start writing a post.  And then before I finish I get distracted and by the time I come back to it three weeks have passed.  Suppose graduate school/student teaching/working/all the other things will do that to a person.  I even still have pictures from New Zealand to share.

Now I am reduced to only two of those things: working and all the other things.  However, all the other things has become a VERY long list due to neglect during the graduate school/student teaching phase.  But I did manage to graduate, all while wearing clean clothes and without withering away due to forgetting to eat.  Somehow.

Which means I am a real teacher now!  I even have my very own class.  Sort of.  I started teaching at Waialua Elementary school up on the North Shore.  The class was already in existence with a teacher and two EAs, but they were going up from 9 kids to 11 and needed another teacher.  I was offered the job at my interview and took it.  The first week I fit in here and there, while I saw what the class had already been doing.  Then the other teacher took the kids who'll be going into kindergarten next year and they started using another classroom for their morning activities.  I stayed in the original classroom with 5 kids who will still be in preschool next year.  At lunch the two groups come together, and then we all stay in the same classroom for naptime.  Not much else happens after lunch.

It has been odd, these last few weeks, to not have homework that needs to be submitted before I go to bed on Sunday.  That first weekend after school started back up I kept feeling like I was forgetting something.  Even so, the weekends still feel too short.  Not because I dread going back to work on Monday, but because on Friday afternoon I have an idea of all stuff I'll be getting done and come Monday morning I realize how little of it actually go done.

This weekend was plenty busy.  I was feeling sick on Saturday and went to the clinic to make sure it wasn't serious.  The doc said while I was contagious, it was a virus so I'd just have to wait it out.  Apparently there has been something going around among small people, and since I spend most of the day with them I probably have the same thing.  She told me I can expect to get worse before I get better and that I should expect it to last about two weeks.  Um, thanks for your help?  Sunday I got up and did a 5k.  I wasn't feeling too bad when I woke up so I decided it would be fine for me to go out.  And the event was good.  It was a fundraiser for epilepsy.  They also had a 100k bike ride that Doug did, and by the time we got home I was exhausted.  I woke up after a long nap feeling even worse than I had on Saturday so maybe the doc was right.

Well, kind of a quick update.  Got more events coming up, so there should be more frequent posts.  Next weekend I am doing a women's 5k, which is part of a longer women's series.  There will also be a 10k in March and a half marathon in April.  Doug and I are also planning a half marathon in March.  And before you go thinking that I must have changed a whole lot since my last post, I haven't.  Sure, these are all advertised as running events, but I am not running.  Instead I am walking.  It doesn't suck.  It might take longer, but so far I have been doing pretty good of maintaining a 15 minute mile, and since I finish before some of the runners I'm probably doing alright.

New Zealand in Pictures - Days 10 & 11

Day 10 - 12/28
Kaikoura
No driving today (well, not far anyway) but still lots of scenery.

Bacon according to the package. More like ham according to American standards. Still tasty.

Yes, one piece takes up the entire pan. Also important to note: the pan was very small. And it was the only pan I had. That plus 2 pots was all the cooking vessels.

Doug getting artsy with his water.

Looking out the back.

Above the town of Kaikoura.

Back down on the peninsula, looking for the seals.

Looks like we parked right on the water. Actually, the tide was up when we parked, so it did come up to the parking lot.

Hello Seal.

This sign recommends staying away from them. I followed its directions.

Hiking to the top for a better view.

A pretend hike at first, really just a sidewalk on a hill. Doug decided he wanted to go barefoot, as we had seen many Kiwis doing all around New Zealand.

Once we were up on the bluff, the view was incredible.

Cows!

A way down to the water. Since we had started hiking along the bluff, I noticed a path down at the water. Then I started seeing people. I wanted to go down there too.

Doug in need of climbing a small hill.

Doug catching back up to me. This is also when we noticed that some ugly weather was heading our way.

Umm, a goose? Guess who's out of place?

Bare feet don't do so well on rocks.

Pretty dirty.

Ooooh, look! A human colony! (this was covered in water at the start of our hike, and one seal was basking in the sun. Now that the tide has gone out, the humans have moved in.)

They look so...uninteresting. Get out of the way people, I want the seals to come back.

Right. Next time sunscreen goes on the feet too.

The wine I picked up at Framingham cellars. A Montupulciano. They are only one of two wineries that grow this grape in the Marlborough region. It had a taste unlike any others. It was really good.

And it went great with lamb sausage.


Day 11 - 12/29
Kaikoura to Hamner Springs

First, the sign out of the campground.

Back on the road, scenery again!

One lane bridge. For a two lane road. These turned out to be quite common.

Doug was sad again about not being on a motorcycle. And knowing that it can be hard to see around a campervan, even one as small as ours, he waved them around when the coast was clear.

Doug is looking for a certain type of tree....

He cannot see where it fell from....

Apple! You have fallen far from your tree!
(this apple was found along side the road. It looked to be a perfectly good apple. We left it there just in case it wasn't)

This was a hedgehog.

And we begin to learn why people were shoes.

So they don't step in tar that then gets gravel stuck to it.

He did say the tar was squishy.

Fish n Chips in news paper. Pretty yummy snack.

It really was an ice cream truck. It just has better advertising.

What do you do when you find a yarn store before you begin your hike? Hike with yarn.

Warding off the biting flies. I don't think Doug believed me when I first started complaining of the the biting flies. They are tiny after all. But they HURT. And after a while he noticed he was getting bit too. Only they didn't hurt him, they made him bleed. So one of us was yelping after every bite, the other bleeding. Oddly enough, they don't leave the scratchy bug bites like mosquitoes.

This is what it looks like when you want something from the front seat but don't want to open two doors to get it.

Lamb sausage from last night with casing removed and cooked into spaghetti sauce.

Plenty cold in Hamner Springs.  Good thing we brought warm pajamas.