Sometimes you just need a taste of home.

So, on my last post I showed the songs we sang at our event last week. Well this was the outfit the women wore! It was a lot of fun to be apart of! Really cool to see the other wards perform as well! 

 

 The other day I finally made it to the American store called "Martha's Backyard." I wanted to see what I had available to me!!

I have discovered since moving to New Zealand that I am definitely "High Maintenance." I don't think I would have considered myself high maintenance according to American standards, but to New Zealand standards I AM HIGH MAINTENANCE! haha My first realization of this was when I realized that hardly anyone has clothes dryers in their homes or screens on their windows/doors (which is probably better for my personal safety as some of you know that screen doors and I are NOT best friends!)

Then I realized that nobody even knows what dryer sheets are......Luckily there are dryers at the Laundromats and for a small fee of $.50/per sheet you can buy dryer sheets. So don't be surprised when I tell you that I went to Martha's backyard and paid $5.50 for a box of 25 Bounce dryer sheets!

I also paid $2 for a single butterfinger, $4.50 for a bag of 15 miniature Reese's peanut butter cups and $8.50 for a bottle of Lawry's seasoning salt!!!

 I drew the line at paying $12 for a box of Cream of Wheat....or $8 for a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch or $8 for a Betty Crocker funfetti cake mix....or my favorite....$30 for a 12 pack of Kraft Mac & Cheese!!!!!

But sometimes the money is worth it for a little taste of home haha. Now if I could just find some Crystal Light Wild Strawberry drink packets and my life would be complete ;0)

Stake Celebration!

The Stake that I am in is celebrating the 20th Anniversary this week. Each ward in the stake is participating with a portion of the program. We learned the following songs: Can't understand those words???? Me either! I will be honest....I butcher the Maori language!  Let's just say that I will hum the melody line!! 

We are learning actions/dance that goes along with this song. It is actually pretty cool to listen to and watch. I can't get the video to load, but just take my word for it. It's awesome!

 The women in the ward are also learning a poi dance. The two ball things on rope below....these are poi. Poi are not my friend. I VERY apparently do not have the coordination abilities required to do the poi dance. It is a very good thing they are soft, otherwise I would likely have a black eye and multiple bruises right now. The back row is calling my name for this number!

This is what the poi dance is supposed to look like....mine didn't just in case you were wondering !!

A bit of randomness!

 This is a super popular drink here in NZ called L&P. It's quite tasty. Kinda like Sprite...but different...BETTER!

 I haven't quite gotten used to the metric system. Luckily my GPS tells me directions in km as well so it is not a big deal, but I can't quite wrap my head around temperature readings in Celcius! Should of paid more attention in all those classes where they tried to teach us the conversions haha!

One night we went to the Pakuranga Night Market. I didn't know what that entailed, but I discovered it is basically food and other vendors all set up as a market....in a parking garage! A little weird, but a cool experience. They had all different types of food. Some looked good others not so much.....Take the Durian....They make smoothies outta that brain looking thing! Let's just say it is NOT on my " TO TRY" list haha! 

Last Thursday we went to a Waitangi Day Festival. It also happened to be Bob Marley's bday...so there was a lot of that type of music. 

According to publicholidays.net.nz, Waitangi Day is a public holiday that celebrates the signing of the Waitangi Treaty in 1840. The treaty was signed by some Maori chiefs and representatives of the British Crown and was three pronged in that it gave the Maori people the same rights as the British; it recognised Maori ownership of their lands and some other properties; and it established a British Governor of New Zealand.

Basically it was a day for us to listen to lots of music and eat food....like the fair, minus all the rodeo/animals/carnival rides. Food and music...and sunshine. we might have got a little too much sun. My poor ear still hurts a bit!

And this is how you should eat ice cream....in a watermelon bowl!!!

And this picture is for my AUD class...haha who needs circus peanuts when you can have BANANAS!!!

Scenes from my neighborhood!

Finally got internet in my apartment! So there will be a couple updates here!!

So, I have been checking out my hood. I went on a drive around my neighborhood and ended up at the end of the little peninsula I live on (Point B). The view was spectacular! There was a lot of grassy area so you can sit and have a picnic and watch the boats sail.

This is a panoramic view of Eastern Beach. This beach is just down the road from my place.

 Definitely can't complain about the sunsets!!!  This is the sunset a couple of different nights over Half Moon Bay.

PS...I don't know how to use filters....so this is what the sunset looked like!!