My hostfamily

Sunday, 31st July 2011

Kia Ora :)

Wednesday we went to the Auckland Museum to watch a 'Maori Performance Show'.
They demonstrated the dances and customs in Maori culture... in the end they did a haka :) That is the wardance from the Maoris, it is performed by the national Rugby team of New Zealand before each game as well. The frighten the other team and get rid of their nervousness... ;)

On Thursday we went to the hot pools in Waiwera, it was actually just a swimming pool with water between 31°C and 48°C. So not everyone was that excited.. but I I enjoyed it... really relaxing :D
The best thing that day was, the way to the hot pools: we stopped at Orewa Beach *__* The beach close to the place where I'm gonna live soon ;) It was sooo beautiful (two pictures in the previous post).

In the evening, my friend and I wanted to go to the beach, but we couldn't find it :D haha we went wrong somewhere and were totally lost - my orientation isn't good at all :P
It was still fun and after dinner my hostmum went with us to the mall.

Friday was our last day in Auckland, so we wanted to go to Devenport to eat Fish n' Chips, but something went wrong with the order.. so we had none...
Therefore we just went shopping another day :D

Yesterday (30th July) we went from the Auckland Museum to Orewa College (my school from tomorrow on) and got picked up there from our hostfamilies.

Like I said before we have two dogs and a cat in the family and I just loove them *__*
Tigger (the cat) slept on my lap, while we were watching Rugby - All Blacks (New Zealand) against Sprinbocks (Australia).
I think the game is quite violent, but it's really popular in New Zealand. My hostbrothers are both playing.

My hostdad is from Holland and can speak a little bit German, but of course we speak English. That works quiet good, but I still have problems with answering...
My room is small, but nice and my hostfamily is great :)
My hostbrother always tells me lots of things I don't know about :D
The food is really nice and way more German then I thought... we had chocolatepudding with ice-cream for dessert ;)

Today we went for a walk with the dogs... and now I have a sore back from that -.-
We went through the par to my school, so that I would know the way.
My hostbrother had to climb on a tree and over a fence to get the ball for the dogs back.. I wasn't that happy about it I guess :D

Walk to school

School starts tomorrow.. for the Kiwis :D We start school on Wednesday and we start at 8.40am (40min later than in Germany ;)). Yaaay I can sleep longer then usually :P
I'm gonna pick up a friend and then we'll walk to school together. On the first day we'll get ti know the school and on Tuesday we're going on a bustrip to see a bit of the area around Orewa ;)

I still can't believe that I'm already here since more than a week... the month will pass by quickly and the following 12 as well ;)

See ya :)
Lea ♥

Finally here!

Tuesday, 26th July 2011

Kia Ora, how the Maoris say :)

I already landed on the 23rd July at 10 am (local time) in Auckland, New Zealand, but I haven't had time then to post something - sorry :(

New Zealand is sooooo beautiful....
One time you have the feeling you're in Ireland, because the grass is so green. Then you see palm trees everywhere and you're in Spain. The other time you see conifers (hope that's the right english word :D) and think of Germany, as well as the houses are really american.
The shopping streets are one store or restaurant after the other - Hongkong.
So everything at once :D

The 22 hour flight was really exhausting, because I haven't been sleeping that much... We had around 3 hours stopover in Singapore and wasted our time and/ or had a shower.
Sfter that we continued the journey to NZ... :)
When we arrived at the airport we had to go through the passport check and the immigration, to wait for our hostparents afterwards.

My hostparent (for this week) are really nice :)
Furthermore I'm here with two other girls, from who one is staying in the family. The other girls is going to Orewa College with me and is living in Red Beach. That made me really happy, because before that I didn't know anyone from my school.

The first day we went shopping and just wanted to go to bed as soon as possible -.-

We managed to keep up until night so that we wouldn't have that much of a jetlag :D
After that I slept as good as I haven't been in a while (especially not on the plane ;))

In our preparation week they divided us (around 96 germans) into groups and each got an English speaking teacher. On monday we 'should' have learned something about school and the schoolsystem.... 'should'... I haven't actually learned something about it.. but nevermind :D
After that we went to the Sky Tower (328 meter high) and had a great view over Auckland on 220m.

We went home later on and spent the whole day in the living room, because there is the only heater. It was 6-9°C and it was raining -.- Winter in the north of New Zealand ;)

Today we were learning about food in NZ and we tried some as well, like L&P, coco-cookies, ice cream and other things. Our teacher brought his drums and was playing something for us until we could have a try :D yeah that's all about food :P

We went to the harbour later on to catch the ferry. Along the Skyline of Auckland we went to Rangitoto, a volcanic island (which volcano errupted the last time 400 years ago, if I was listening properly :D)

So that we can skype in the morning my roommate and I get up at 5am and go to bed at 8pm. After a exhausting long day pretty reasonable ;)

I miss you all sooo much and I was soo happy about the book my friends and family wrote for me and I already had to cry on the plane :'( But I get used to be with all of you guys even if it's pretty hard...

I'll write the next time when I'm with my actual hostfamily and will upload some pictures later :)

See ya and good night (it's already late here)
greetings from New Zealand
yours Lea ♥

Sky Tower

View of Auckland from the Sky Tower

Auckland Museum - Marae

Orewa Beach

My beach for the next year :) yipppie!!

The departure is nearby

Thursday, 21st July 2011

Hey guys :)

The big day is finally here: tomorrow the long flight to the Kiwis begings :)
(To the birds, the fruit and to the residents, who call themself Kiwis)
My suitcase are already packed after they were packed and upacked a thousand times until everything fits :D
Unfortunately we're allowed to only take 30kg, therefore some things have to stay home or my parents will send them to me later.
We are leaving early tomorrow morning to Frankfurt, because I have to be there 2,5 hours before the flight to check in and there could always be a traffic jam or something else...

I actually qiuet excited now, even if I just realise that physical, my stomach feels funny, I'm anxious and I couldn't sleep that well in the last days -.-
On one hand I'm looking forward to go to New Zealand and to get to know my hostfamily, on the other hand it makes me sad to finally say goodbye to my family and my friends....

Sure we'll see each other again in a year, but a year can be soo long... hmm... around 52 weeks or 365days doesn't sound that much anymore :

I won't get in touch with you in the neyxt few days, because I'm going to be o the plane until the 23rd July and I have to get used to my new home first ;)

Don't worry I'm actally not flying for three days :D we're flying from Germany late at night, we're arriving the next afternoon in Singapore and at night we're flying to Auckland.
In addition we have + 10 hours time difference and a few hour stay in Singapore ;)

See ya ... until then I'll probably have some photos ;)

Yours Lea

5 days left and I'm excited

Hey guys :)
I started my blog in July before I left Germany, but it's in German. I've decided now to write it in English as well... in a different Blog, but I'll write nearly the same as in the other one. I'm sorry that my English is not that perfect and I'll make mistakes for sure, but I hope it gets better.... and if it's a major mistake just tell me ;)

I hope a few people will read the blog because I'm only writing in English for all my English speaking friends and now I have to write two blogs, cause my mum (and some others, reading my German blog) doesn't understand English that well :D
Just to show my friends, who wnet back home what happens in their sencond home ;)
Zuzka, Erika, Konomi, Risa, Haruka, Hiroko, Naomi... and lot's more... I miss u here ♥

Until I can catch up with the date I'll just copy what I wrote in my German blog, from the beginning ;)
Have fun reading (I hope) :D

Sunday, 17th July 2011

That's my firt post, a little bit late if I consider that I'm already leaving in 5 days, to the other side of the world, but it's a beginning :D

Leat's start from the beginning.... I'm going to live abroad, in New Zeland. I'm going to live with a hostfamily around 17950km away from home, for a whole year.
My hostfamily , with who I already stay in contact for a while, ios living in Red Beach and concists out of 3 kids, my hostparent, the grandpa, two dogs and a cat.

I will visit Orewa College, which is located in Orewa.
Orewa is a town with around 7.300 residents and is located on the Hibiscus Coast and about 30km away from Auckland.

Orewa Beach is considered as one of the longest and safest beaches in Auckland.

The school offers lots of different subjects, that we don't have in Germany and therefore it would be worthwhile to try them. I'll tell you later what different subjects you can choose.
The sport- and after-school-offers are huge as well, but that's no wonder with a number of 1,850 puplis and a good location (5 minutes walking to the beach). ;)

Because we are accomodated on the north island of New Zealand, have a 'praparation week' in Auckland and my hostfamily is living far away, therefore I got another hostfamily.
They consist of three hostsiblings as well, my hostparent and two cats and they're living near Auckland (Te Atatu Peninsula).
In the preparation week are we going to work on the history, the language, the schoolsystem and tje Maori (the original inhabitants of New Zealand) etc.

I'm going to fly over Singapore to Auckland like most of us, namely on the 21st July until the 23rd July. A pretty long time that we spent on the plane and in the airport in Singapore. -.-

Until then are still 5 days left, that I will use to pack and unpack my suitcase :D Because I few things will stay home, because it isn't that cold in New Zealand.
Furthermore were arriving in Winter, because Nz is in the Southern hemisphere and the seasons are the other way around. When we have summer in Germany, it's Winter in New Zealand and when we are cold in Winter here, they celebrate Christmas on the beach :D Therefore I need less summercloths :D

I do this blog as well, for all the other who I won't write email with, because I won't have enough time. Since I will be busy in my free time in New Zealand as well.

So please don't be sad or angry because I don't keep in contact with each of you and that I don't congratulate you on your birthday on time ;D yeah something like that bothers me :P

So that was it for today, that were some things to start with :D
I hope you will read frequently, that it is worth writing.

Kind regards
Lea