Zoe's first day of school

Dorothy, we're not in Kansas anymore.

Monday was Zoe's first day of 'primary' at Witherlea School (http://www.witherlea.school.nz/)

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?v=_dPcj_aC8fk) first in Maori, then in English.

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. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0jRw44kZ6c

Just another regular Monday morning in New Zealand, I guess. But, quite a spectacular entry into primary school for Zoe in my book.

first impressions

bank account?  check.  cell phone? check.  car? check. rental house? check.

                               it's official.                          

                               we're legit. 

so, i sound funny?

i dont know where to find anything in the supermarket?

i drive up on the curb when parallel parking on the left side of the street and constantly flick on my windshield wipers instead of turn signal?

i request a "to go box" and draw blank looks (take away containers only, please)?

i've never heard of 'tasty' cheese (cheddar), 'a cuppa' (tea), a 'flat white' (think latte), 'a long black' (americano),  an 'eftpos' (atm card) or 'fly buys' (frequent shopper card)?

    


        guess what?  here's my street cred:          
                  my very own eftpos


                   yup, i'm a native.





phew, now that we've gotten all of that out of the way, let's get down to business...

don't be fooled by this:

 
it only lasted for a minute. 

mostly, we had this.  

accompanied by movie, after seat-back movie, after seat-back movie. 
ok, zoe did lie down and snooze for a bit cradled in our fancy air new zealand sky couch.

anyway, after 24 hours or so, we arrived in wellington happy and tired, and no worse for the wear.  napped and showered, we headed out for a delicious pan-asian feast at chow's.  ginger leek gyoza, sesame soba noodles, yellow curry, and asian greens slurped up by one and all.

check out this dexterity:

stay tuned for wellington and nelson adventures....