Hurray!!! Four children started school today!! Brylie and Will were sooo cute in their uniforms. Will was particularly nervous. As I drove I asked Brylie if she remembered which street I was to turn on. Will responded before Brylie saying, “Elliot. This is the right way, Mom.” Lol! My own personal navigator. Good on ya, Will. (Kiwi for “Good job!) I delivered them to school then returned home to walk Nani and Graham to their school. The walk down the hill to West End was nice, with a view of the ocean. Both Nani and Graham remembered which were their classrooms and basically headed to their classes without looking back. I did manage to snap a pic of them each, including Nani with her surfer dude, barefoot teacher.
Both the primary and intermediate schools are laid out similarly in that the schools consist of several buildings containing 3-4 classrooms, all which open to the outside. No A/C. Doors and windows open. Backpacks and shoes in areas just outside each classroom door.
Mikaylie and I then headed to New Plymouth Girls’ High School, meet up with Billy, turned in the required paperwork and took a short, self-guided tour with a map of campus. Now we wait for them to call with an appointment. Mikaylie is very ready to start school, which thrills me. She is particularly eager to start art class and the soccer team. Soccer tryouts have happened already, however, the school is confident the coach will at least give her a chance, if not just put her on the team.
We then went to Mega Center which consists of a variety of stores in several strip malls, all in one giant area. I’ve been on a frustrating search for dishes. I didn’t ship any and it would be very helpful to have some now, but I just can’t find any that grab me. I’m determined to make a decision on some tomorrow.
We picked up the few stationary needs we couldn’t find yesterday, purchased a stockpot and an appropriate sunhat for Graham. (He wore a baseball cap today but it is preferred they wear a bucket hat for more coverage.) I also searched for storage shelves for our bathroom but haven’t secured any as yet.
I dropped Mikaylie at home so that she could retrieve Graham and Nani from school and I headed back to pick up Will and Brylie. All of the kids seemed to have had a great day. W & B have been placed as year 7 which is the equivalent of 6th grade. The school will reassess their progress shortly and adjust as needed. Will may have the hardest time of it as he has jumped up a grade. There is no option to put him back a year because he is too old to go to primary school. The school seems extremely accommodating, however. Perhaps being with kids his own age and older will help him to mature a little bit… or a lot… Brylie may be bumped up to year 8, which I think she could handle fine. She is currently restarting the school year she had completed half of in the States. She prefers to stay in the same year as Will (they are on the same team, different classrooms) but the high schools are single-sex so it won’t matter in another year or two.
Graham, too, has been bumped up a year. Nani probably would have been better suited to bump up but the years are determined primarily by age not ability and, hopefully they just adjust in the classroom. I’m not real sure how I feel about this yet. Will comment more as I see how it goes.
After collecting B & W we went to buy groceries. Um… YIKES!!!! Food is REALLY expensive!!! It’s difficult to even figure just how expensive things are with the metric system used here. Maybe I don’t really want to know. I mean, what’s the point? There is very little we can do about it besides try to shop sales and choose wisely. Shopping for convenience is not going to be an option. Prepackaged items, like snacks and such will be avoided. Yesterday I purchased reusable containers for lunch and I portion out servings into them for the kids’ lunches. We are taking recycling and conservation to a new level than we did in the States. It’s not really bothering me, the extra effort that is. I came totally expecting a new, different lifestyle. Actually, a lot of things are not bothering me that did in the States. The barefoot thing, for one. I’ve always been somewhat of a germ freak but I’ve just had to get over it here. I also don’t feel the need to have the children within arms reach here in public places. The tiniest of children can be found lagging behind parents here with no worries of kidnapping. We’ve been strongly cautioned to lock vehicles and even the house but theft is generally the worst crime that goes on here. And the thieves aren’t armed. It just doesn’t happen.
Mikaylie has been an absolute dream around the house and with the younger kids. She helps with meals, including packing lunches. Her tone with them has been particularly sweet and she is, as I type, both coloring with Nani and playing Lego’s with Graham. She seems truly interested in their day at school. Wow, I sure hope this lasts. Though when she starts school, she may not have the time to be so helpful. Oh well, I’ll enjoy while I can.
Guess you may be wondering if Billy is here with us… He has been pretty consumed with getting ready to start working. On Sunday, he and Kaigan drove to Wellington (about 5 hours away) for a 20 minute meeting on Monday just to show his credentials and show he is he. Monday, they also looked at a vehicle and put a deposit on it. The Toyota Highlander may be our most frugal purchase thus far. We are buying used and it seems to be priced well below comparable vehicles. Hopefully we don’t later find some dreadful reason for it’s reasonable price.
Billy is also frantically trying to get all paperwork done to begin working ASAP. Evidently, there are things he could have had done by now had he only known. Now his start date is delayed even further which adds to his stress level as we really could use an income… and SOON!
You’ve probably heard or seen footage of the horrible earthquake in Christchurch which is on the south island. The earthquake in September there was stronger but this one has caused more damage and fatalities. We did not feel it here in New Plymouth, however, but it is all that is on the TV.
Speaking of TV, we have only 6 channels right now from an aerial on our roof, yet we get lots of American programs. We’ve seen Friends reruns, Two and a Half Men (trash I refuse to watch!), American Idol, America’s Funniest Home Videos, Criminal Minds and many others. There are also New Zealand as well as Aussie programs and some that seem to be either American or Canadian made but not aired in the US.
We just had visitors at our door bearing gifts! Five neighborhood boys, ranging in age from 11-16 came to the door with three New Zealand originals: a two litres bottle of Lemon & Paeroa, a Kiwi fizzy drink (soda), 2 bags of Pineapple Lumps which are chocolate covered, pineapple flavored taffy… sort of… SUPER YUMMY!!! and finally, a 2 Litres tub of Hokey Pokey ice cream, a vanilla ice cream that has a whip cream flavor with bits of honey toffee in it… again SUPER YUMMY!!!!
Kaigan and Mikaylie went with the boys to kick around a soccer ball. Finally someone for Kaigan to interact with, though they are quite younger and probably more interested in Mikaylie which is all the more reason for Kaigan to join them. This could be interesting… As always, more posts to follow…
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