Monday was Zoe's first day of 'primary' at Witherlea School (http://www.witherlea.school.
Our normally late riser bounded out of bed at 7:30am, threw on her school uniform with nary a tantrum, and gulped down a banana and bowl of 'Rice Bubbles' (snap, crackle, pop!) in an instant. Donning her backpack, complete with kiwi composition books, required school hat, new lunchbox and pencil case full of sharpened #2 s and sparkly clean eraser, she skipped out the door without hesitation.
By 8:30am Ethan and I were seated at a table in the principal, Murray's (holla' all you Flight of the Conchords groupies) office, the girls playing contentedly beneath it.
At 9am we headed to Room 7 to meet Mrs. D'Auvergne (Da-vern in Kiwi-speak), Zoe's new teacher.
Upon arrival, Zoe squealed immediately, throwing her arms around her 'best friend' Pene (daughter of one of Ethan's colleagues whom she had met the day before) and ran off hand in hand to check out the classroom.Like Ethan and I, Zoe took note right away of all the barefoot children. Many even arrived from home that way! When in Rome...
A few minutes later the children from all the classrooms filed quietly out into the courtyard for the Monday morning 'Flag Raise'.
A sea of red shirted Kiwi children, aged 5 to 10 years, proceeded to obediently emit the New Zealand National Anthem (God Defend New Zealand http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Not so, different, I thought (minus the Maori), from the daily Pledge of Allegiance of my youth. That is, until a posse of boys of all ages burst into a well synchronized Haka! Yup, that's right. Grunting, thigh slapping, tongue protruding and all. Slightly less fierce than this version manifested by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team against some quaking Japanese guys.
Just another regular Monday morning in New Zealand, I guess. But, quite a spectacular entry into primary school for Zoe in my book.
Wait, the girls don't get to do the Haka? And do they bust those moves every morning, or was this a special occasion?
ReplyDeleteI guess it's summer down there. Must be nice to skip a winter! Love that Zoe is wearing a uniform! Who would have ever, ever guessed that she would accept that. And it's great that she's making friends. Is this kindergarten?
Anyway, this is awesome!! Great story.