It's been a month now

And two weeks since the last post. So I really should write a bit more. But there's not really much to say. We're plodding along, sorting things out slowly, trying to find jobs and making a new list of things we'll have to do once we've done that (like find a permanent place to live). We've had word that the boat with all our stuff will arrive in NZ on the 3rd of March, not sure how long it will take to get through customs, but at least we have a getting closer date.

So I'm just going to put up some pictures of the Firth of Thames as seen from here for your enjoyment.

Our first day of Tech

Hi this is Kathryn. We've just went to our first tech lesson, I was doing cooking and Matthew was doing Hard materials. We cooked muffins from scratch, and we each made different flavours of muffins. I made first made vanilla and chocolate muffins with dried apricots inside (super yummy!) second we made double chocolate muffins (also super yummy!) third we made cheese and onion muffins (:P) I didn't eat any!

We had to take a bus to get to the other school, so we had to get to school earlier than normal. We almost missed it as we forgot about getting there early until the last minute. It had already picked up kids from the other school that go on the same day we do, and then it picked us up, and then we went to the school where we do the tech classes. Here's a picture of the result after getting them home - they got a bit squashed, especially since I had to take them out of the oven before they were fully cooked.

We rotate subjects every four lessons, so next term we'll be doing something different. Our class has three kids from the other school and three from ours. Matthew's class has eleven kids, but I'm not sure if any more people are coming in their class. We get to go swimming at the other school too, there is a morning tea and a lunch, which both have breaks after which we get to play on their enormous playground. We get to swim just before lunch.

A Small School

Yesterday was the first day of the school year (well, technically Monday was, but this region had a holiday (regional anniversary day) then, so it was Tuesday instead). We started school with a Maori welcome ceremony for the new teachers (2 of), and new students (just us yesterday, with 2 more today). Afterwards we had to shake the hands of everyone in the school - good thing it is only tiny :)

Everyone was back at school after their six weeks off for summer (and Christmas). Our school is very small with only 30-40 students over years 1 through 8 (primary (yr 1-6) plus intermediate (7-8)). Matthew is in year 8, and Kathryn is in year 7. That means high school next year for Matthew (high school is years 9-13).

To get to school we have to walk out the end of our part of the town, and past the cow paddocks, with the beach on the other side of the road, and into school.

Our school has a uniform - school shirts (which we had to buy when we got to school the first morning, and then change in the bathroom), black bottoms, and shoes are optional - except on Tech days. Every second week on a Tuesday a bus comes to the school to pick up all the year 7 and 8 students (or intermediate age) and take them to another school with tech rooms - where they will all do metalwork, woodwork, cooking, and sewing.

Our school pool wasn't quite ready for swimming in on the first day, we have to take our togs (swimsuits) every day for swimming, and the pool should be ready before the end of the week.

We are both in the same classroom - we only have two classes at school - the juniors (yr 1-4) and the seniors (yr 5-8). We start school at 8.50am, and finish at 2.50pm. We have interval/morning tea (recess) for 20 minutes in the morning, and a 40 minute lunch break where we get to eat our home-made lunches outside and then play. There is no school cafeteria.

We can spend our free time playing on the play equipment (mostly for the younger kids, the older ones tend to break it so we aren't really allowed on it). Or playing on the school fields and court (the rugby field seen over the back of the cow paddock, and the netball court in front of the swimming pool).