Pre-Holiday Adventures

So I know it's been forever since I've last written in my blog, but I've just been on a wonderful adventure down to the South Island, and it was extremely hard finding good/consistent WiFi. Before I discuss my trip, however, there were a couple things we did before going on our trip.

One small event we went to was our school play at Thames. Thames High performed Shakespeare's 'Much Ado About Nothing'. I have never read the play before, and I think I went to the same play in Prior Lake, but I didn't remember it at all. Because it's such a small town, they only were showing it one night and they were performing outside. It ended up being kind of drizzly when we got there, but they had covers for people to sit under. About five minutes into the play it started raining which was unfortunate. It wasn't too bad, but some people had to move because they were getting soaked. The play ended up being really good. It is fascinating watching some of my students perform because they were really good. You can tell it's something they really enjoy doing. What they did for the play was have different people play the same characters, so it was kind of hard to keep some of the characters straight. Plus, it's a Shakespeare play so I really had no clue what was going on anyways.

We ended up having to move inside for the second half because it was really starting to pour and the stage didn't have any cover. It wasn't that big of a deal since we just moved to the main hall, but unfortunately they weren't able to move much of the set in, only the backdrop. The rest of the play went pretty well, but they had rehearsed it outside, so some of their movements were a little off. Some of the characters ended up missing their cue and then they all kind of did some improv which was pretty funny. Overall it was a pretty good play. It was interesting seeing my students perform because it's a different scene than seeing them in math. Even with the little mess up, it was fun watching the students think on their feet!

The end of our term occurred on Wednesday and our flight down south wasn't until Saturday, so we had Thursday and Friday off. On Thursday we met up with one of the workers at the school and she went through our itinerary with us. She had lived in the South Island, so she was helping us map out our route and giving us ideas of things to do. Then we went to a certain bakery that sells cro-nuts. It's basically a croissant donut. It was really good! Super buttery and sweet tasting and obviously terrible for you. It had been on our list of things to try, so we were glad we got it finally. Then we kind of hung out for the rest of the day until dinner time.

For dinner, Petro and Gary's son Craig was home (for break from working in Idaho), so he decided to take us to the Miranda Springs Hot Pools to have a "barbie". Now, our barbie didn't actually consist of grilling since we already had everything made. We basically just packed it and brought it with to put it together.

Here's the ultimate selfie on the way to the pools. They were probably about twenty minutes away only.

It was really interesting because it looked just like a water park would at home, but all of the pools have hot water. It ended up being the perfect day for it because it had been raining earlier, so it was nice and cool outside. I don't really know who would want to go and sit in hot pools in the summer, but apparently they are still open. It's neat because the water is from a natural hot spring like the one we sat in in Rotorua.

This is the main pool. It's not unbearably hot or anything. It basically feels like you are just sitting in a warm bath that never cools down. It is awesome.

Here is the "spa pool" which is basically a big hot tub that has jets. That one is hard to stay in for a long time because you get really hot pretty fast.

Here I am eating raw salmon. Craig and Gary caught them when they went down to the south island. It kind of freaks me out eating raw fish, but it tasted pretty good with cream cheese and crackers. I guess it's a big thing on the East Coast because it is like one of Shaina's favorite things to eat.

We basically just swam around in the pools, ate some chicken sandwiches, and relaxed. It was a nice way to begin our school holiday, and it was very relaxing not having to worry about anything going on the next day. I'm really digging the whole hot pools idea, so it'd be awesome if we had them back home. 

Friday was my super intense job applying day. I had applied for some jobs, but Friday is when I really sat down and looked at all of the ones I wanted to apply for. It's kind of a pain in the butt going through the same process over and over again, but I know it has to be done. Shaina and Courtney had both already applied for some a while back, so it was nice getting on the same page with them. We did play Settlers of Catan at night again (no victory this time) and then headed to bed to get ready for our trip the next day!

We've done a lot these past couple weeks, so I hope everyone is ready to do some reading in my next few posts!!