Sunday, March 28, 2010

AFS Camp

Before I start with afs camp I can talk about what I have done since the Motatapu.

I made the first 11 soccer team which was pretty cool and I did another thing that was definitely less exciting. Over the weekend I needed a ride home after a water polo game and my ride asked me if I wanted to help him and a few other people make cheese rolls for a fundraiser. Cheese rolls are a south NZ treat that is similar to a grilled to cheese but you make them before hand, sell them, and then the owner cooks them. Pretty much just bread with a soupy cheese mixture on top then rolled into a little log. So anyways, I assume I am going to someone's house to make about 60 to 100 rolls and then all of a sudden we pull up in my school's parking lot. I ask what are we doing here to a response that we are making cheese rolls. We walk into the catering room and.... I see crate upon crate upon crate of bread stacked high and wide along all the walls. Turns out we had to make 48,000 CHEESE ROLLS! No joke! It was to help raise money for their history class to go to Vietnam. I am not even going to Vietnam! We arrived at nine and the first few hours were kinda fun because it was so random and we were just listening to music but when the clock hit one o'clock I hit the cheese roll making wall. I became a zombie making roll after cheese roll. We ended up making them until 3 in the morning! what a great friday night! I cant even look at another cheese roll.

Week of school went well and then on Thursday after school I got picked up by my afs support coordinator to stay the night in Edendale before our very long drive up to Christchurch on Friday morning. T-vo (Paraguay) lives in my city and came up with us and Mia (Norway) lives at my support coordinator's house. So USA, Paraguay, Norway, and NZ all got in a truck Friday morning and set out on a freakin long journey to afs gateway camp. We left at around ten and got to Chtch (Christchurch) at eight. We took around turn close to camp and ended up taking the craziest road to get there with many cliffs, sharp turns, and bikers all the way up. Upon arriving I found a lot of my friends that I had made in Auckland when I first got here. The majority was South American kids which is fine with me because I love to practice my Spanish and they are the most out going people of all the international kids.m The camp was at Living Springs, a camp site on a bay outside of the city. It was very beautiful. First night all the kids just got re-acquainted with each other and talked unitl late at night when every one was just so tired they had to go to bed. The next day we did a lot of pointless classes that we had already done in our home country, when we first arrived in Auckland, and now were doing yet again. So that was pretty lame but after the classes were over we had our free time. We jumped on trampolines, took pictures, swam in the indoor pool, and talked about our lives in NZ. Everyone is loving this country and no one seemed to have any major problems and if not then no problems at all. Already the semester students are complaining that they do not want to go home and the six months is not long enough. I felt a little inferior to all the other kids because they all had improved their english to much and were becoming fluent AND also had their first language. So I tried as best I could to mix with the hispanic students so that I may improve my spanish. I think I did pretty well and had major crack ups along the whole way with my mispronunciations. We also had a "party" that lasted until 3 in the morning with pretty much every one just sitting down on the floor and talking to each other. I find it very interesting how easy it is to make friends with people that you barely even know just because we all share the commonality of being in a different country. Hopefully with these new friends I made I can make use of it in the future and go and stay with them so I can see the rest of NZ. I might be able to go to the north island and stay with my Bolivian friend Manuela over the holidays and just go around and explore the island I do not live on.

The camp was definitely a great experience for me minus the 18 hours worth of driving I had in 3 days. This holiday coming up is also going to be such an experience. I am going to the Bay of Islands to go scuba diving, Stewart Island for a 3 day hike( nz's third island), Routeburn track for another 3 day hike, and possibly many other little trips on the north island. We have holidays in school after every quater or term and they are all pretty long. Should be a nice break from the routine of school and my best chance to experience everything NZ has to offer.

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