Setting up a classroom

So any teacher reading this will understand this title.

R. and I have re-arranged furniture, put a pile of stuff aside for a run to the Tip (dump). I've worked my way through the writing materials, resorted them from the early chaos of last year and thought about a few things i'm going to need to get that area up to snuff.

I'll need to tackle the bookshelf next week and i need to find cushions...yes cushions, big ones for the floor. The reading area is seldom used but the corner didn't have much there to get interest so i've been updating, reno-ing, and trying to figure out how to draw them over there.

a nice thing about Montessori, they have a budget, so i'm told i can buy stuff...huzzah!!!

R. and I are trying to figure out our first 11 days of school, we need to do what is called the Great Key Lessons which talk about universe formation and humans. 11 days only you say? yes because the whole class is going on a camping trip Feb 18-19th. this job keeps getting better.

still need a key and alarm code...keep you all posted.

Carly's Kiwi Job

Well good news everyone! i got a job as a teacher here in New Zealand.
I was offered the 0.5 (1/2) time position at the Montessori school that i posted about early in the blog. This job for 6 weeks during June/July will become 1.0 (full time) while the teacher, R., goes off for training in the US. Also the principal of the school offered me first pick of any and all release/training/relief days for the rest of the school's teachers.

so R. and I worked out that i'll work in his classroom all day Monday and Thursday and from 9:00-noon-ish on Tuesday. Its kind of neat as well because my family and friends know how obsessively i love books. Well R. offered me the entire Language Arts (reading,writing,oral) program to do what i wish but he wanted to use Balanced Literacy. Funny enough i was trained in ... balanced literacy. R. will take all Maths but we'll keep each other in the loop so that i don't lose all my math skills. The other subjects we can do what each of us wants because in the Montessori class you don't do whole class instruction but do small group seminars on a particular topic. "today we're going to look at chemical reaction of baking soda in a variety of liquids" or "i'm going to give a french lesson at 10:30". all in all i'm very excited.

The Long Flight Here.

So Wes (my best friend and evil henchman. The man responsible for Carly and I meeting) is officially in the air, flying across the pacific as we speak to come join us in this wonderful land. Maybe I should change the name of the blog to Three Canadians Escape to Kiwiland?

Wes, like Carly, is a teacher though high school (Secondary for the Kiwi readers). Like Carly, he was having difficulty finding a full time gig in Ottawa. Wes also has the same sense of adventure we do, so when we decided to move, his plans weren't far behind.

What's interesting is he's taking a completely different route to get here. Rather than bet the farm and get his Permanent Residency, he's coming over on a 3-month work visa. The assumption being that he'll find someone to sponsor him for an extension within the first 3 months. He, however, is already fully qualified to teach here and is arriving at the beginning of the school year, so he can hit the ground running as it were.

I'm ridiculously excited, but also a little nervous about his arrival. For one, this is a VERY small apartment we live in. Carly and I have been bumping into the limited space constraints fairly regularly of late so having another person living here will be a challenge. We've (all 3 of us) already agreed that he's staying for a maximum of 3 weeks; I've been picking up furniture and the like for him when he moves to his own place.

Carly and I have developed a good network of friends here. I've got to be careful not to ignore them now that I have Wes here. It's easy to fall into old patterns... not that our patterns were bad, but I'm quite happy with how life is going here these days.

I think it'll be really cool to be the people showing him around. I think we've got a fair handle on Wellington now. We're certainly not experts, but we know some good restaurants, a few "local" spots that tourists don't typically go to and a few cool spots to hang out.

Wow. exactly 24 hours to go.

Foreign languages on food products

After completing the standard grocery run at Pak'n'Save Blaise and I finally decided to visit the Asian Super Market just across the street.

We had always put it off but today being Blaise's Sunday and not having plans we wandered over to see if we could find frozen edamame and bulldog Tonkatsu sauce. There are small asian markets everywhere but we keep finding rice at one, korean at another, japanese at another, etc.

Let me say we have wasted a lot of shopping time; if we had just gone in here we would never had so many shopping issues. This place was packed with everything we needed and more. We kept pointing out stuff and grinning like mad.

Grabbing a basket we proceeded to charge up and down the aisles; "honey i'm getting some rice seasoning for the onigiri" i cried, he shouts back "hey i remember my dad buying this".
"Hey look cheap sushi rice!!!"
"Wasabi powder like back home"
they even had little rice ball shapers which made me happy, i bought a set btw.

but after doing the aisles we still hadn't found our Tonkatsu sauce. Its brown, made with pear (so they claim) and is excellent on breaded pork cutlets over white rice with some eggplant pickles. We walked up to a young asian stock person and Blaise asked for it, he looked confused and then walked over to his boss. The boss, who is the owner, showed us first one sauce and then after a quick explanation by Blaise and a mention of the brand bulldog showed us the sauce on the aisle near the sushi tools.

the young stocker meanwhile was following us to see where it was. Blaise and the owner walked off and i spotted the rice ball shapers at the bottom shelf so i was on the floor rooting through the options. I glanced up to see him holding the sauce bottle with a look of intense concentration on his face. Finally he shouts to the owner "there is no english on this thing at all!" and then he walked away quietly saying "Tonkatsu, Tonkatsu", perhaps a mnemonic device so he would know where to find it next time.

$54 later and very happy with our find and with warm thank yous and "come again" from the owner we went home. Glad i'm not the only one who can't read the labels.

Bug to scream ratio

In most relationships you have one partner who is the killer of the bugs. In our relationship that roll has been delegated to me. Please don't assume Blaise is a screamer, he just doesn't want to go near it in case it jumps at him. So when a big bug is found I get called, and the bug meets the hereafter (or depending on my mood released unharmed into the wild).

In all these years i haven't yet done the "scream"...until today.

I was taking down my laundry from my drying rack off the balcony. The same balcony where my tomato plants are incidentally (which are huge and covered in little green tomatoes) but this has not resulted in an increase in bug levels. I had just finished folding a t-shirt was turning to put it on the back of the couch when i looked down...and proceeded to do a high-pitched scream/gasp. Blaise jumped on the couch "what, what", he shouted.

"huge bug, freaking huge, it got a big ass stinger on its butt (i'm looking at it seriously now), holy smokes i think its a Weta get the freaking camera!!!"



For those of you who aren't sure what i'm talking about a Weta is an extremely large grasshopper. This thing isn't just taking protein supplements its taking form of super grasshopper steroids and shouting stuff like "feel the burn" while bench pressing a possum.

Blaise ran for the camera while i continued to laugh semi-hysterically. "its not moving at least" i said as Blaise frantically snapped photos, "do you think it stings?"
Note: the stinger is actually a sign that it was a lady weta, the female weta's egg laying probe looks like a stinger.

I could tolerate no more "get it off! get a tupperware", there was no way i mushing something that big. Plus it was starting to look pretty cute, yeah it was big and insect-y but it wasn't vicious or moving.

So we grabbed a tupperware with lid and gently placed it over the weta and slipped the lid under it.
Did i mention it was cute...scratch that. Turns out it didn't like its new situation, it threw its back legs up, which had spiky bits, and began to hiss and snap. Intrigued by this new show we decided to keep it a big longer for some new photos.

The weta obligingly kept her legs up and hissing for the next photo session and then i finally took the girl outside to the grassy embankment near the apartment.

Our friends R & A confirmed our photos were indeed of a Wellington tree weta. Turns out we got a very lucky set of photos, the things are: 1)rare now in Welly, 2)usually near old houses and wet forests (how she got up to my apartment is beyond me, 3) nocturnal so finding one in the day is really awesome.

So to get back to the ratio; how big does a bug have to be to make me scream? that big.

Pauanui.

For more photos check out the Gallery!

Pauanui is quite an odd place. Situated on the eastern side of the Coromandel Peninsula its one of a handful of towns that are a popular summer destination for Aucklanders (primarily) and Kiwis in general. Its not the biggest town that we saw, but its definitely the wealthiest. I'm not sure if there's any others that would match the overall opulence. The houses for the most part are large, modern and well maintained. There's a neighborhood called the Canals where each house has its own dock through an engineered waterway. Most of the houses on this section are architect designed summer homes suitable for magazines.


There's a small airfield that's often used by private pilots to fly in their Cessnas and other small airplanes, though it's also a popular hang out for several WWII fighters that have been converted to acrobatic duties. Impromptu shows of their flying prowess were common most nights, though we sometimes wondered about their sobriety.


In among all the impressive houses are quite a few sections of land that had caravan villages spring up on them. The assumption being that they were people who had bought land to build houses but hadn't got to it yet. There were also some very modest smaller houses that had been built back when the place wasn't the hotspot it now is.


It's obvious what the attraction is though. The beaches are stunning, the water warm (by Canadian standards at least) the waves are strong (The Coromandel is known as a good surfing spot) and the fish bites often. It's got everything a beach town should have, minus a lot fo the tourist industry. That's mostly spread to the other towns we saw (Thames and especially Whangamata seemed to be real partytowns). Pauanui seemed like the type of place you'd buy in if you had a family or were looking for something quiet. The demographic was mostly older couples / families and their children.







Even on a rainy day the place is beautiful. These two photos were taken while driving back from Thames towards Pauanui, about 10 minutes outside of town. Being tucked between the ocean on one side and mountains (likely volcanoes) on the other, it gets the full variety of scenery.

Culinary Discoveries.

Canada, despite being part of the commonwealth, didn't get nearly the British influence that New Zealand seems to have. Whether it be because of the American influence overriding the UK one; or maybe it's the distance and relative speed at which it became autonomous, but Canada's definitely missed out on a few delicious perks from the British lifestyle:

Savory Pies: Beef and mushroom, Beef and cheese, Mince, Curried Chicken... If you can make a stew out of it, you can bet someone's put it in some pastry. And damned if I won't eventually try each and every flavor. On top of being ridiculously easy to find and relatively inexpensive, they are tasty, filling and probably a billion calories per pie. What's not to love?

Fish and Chips: I think I can honestly say I've never experienced fish and chips anything like what I've had here. Granted, my few ventures into the world of deep fried fish in Canada weren't anything to write home about (in this case quite literally) but here... WOW! We had our first fush 'n' chups in Island Bay. It was piping hot, super fresh whitefish in a light, flaky batter, with more chips then we could possibly have eaten had we had 3 meals to do it in. Spray on the vinegar, Tomato Sauce (Ketsup being a completely unknown term here) and a little vinegar and bam. Greasy, deep fried goodness.

Not really of British origin, this one's pretty much uniquely New Zealand:

L&P: Good god this is good soda. "World Famous in New Zealand" is their slogan and they pretty much ham up the Kiwiana content to the max. Sweet As... (an expression quite common here) is the name of their Diet drink. L&P Stands for Lemon and Paeora which is kind of like calling a beer Barley and Moosejaw from where it might have been made. It's a weird carbonated lemonade like taste. hard to describe, but very very tasty.

Getting to Pauanui.

Note: for those of you reading this from Email, I strongly recommend opening this up in your browser because there's tons of interesting links in it :)


As many of you know, we're currently spending our New Years on the Coromandel Peninsula. Specifically, we're in Pauanui (see map) staying with Rachel Alan and their friends S and F.


View Larger Map

We arrived late on the 28th after getting ... misdirected. We knew where we were, we just weren't quite where we wanted to be. New Zealand lacks signage in some places though in this particular place I'm pretty sure it was a case of being distracted by the incredible scenery. We ended up going around the west side of Lake Taupo and found a small lookout that gave the incredible views you can see on the gallery. If you look at the map, you'll see the slight detour we ended up taking: you can see on the west side of the island the rather square path we took around the Lake. That was a mistake :)

As always, there's a gallery of our photos. Here's most of my favorites. Click through to the gallery for bigger versions of the pictures!



Here's Bee all packed up and ready to go.



Mount Ruapehu seen from where the grass is still green. the middle of the North Island is actually as close to a desert as New Zealand comes, it's incredibly desolate. There's about a 75km stretch with absolutely no civilization, no real water, barely any plants and Mount Ruapehu watching over it.




Mount Ruapehu seen from the previously mentioned Desert Road.



Lake Taupo is one of New Zealand's favorite fresh water vacation destinations. It's a huge (by NZ standards) lake which is actually in a giant volcano crater. It's known to be rather cold because of it's depth but otherwise stunning.



Random photo we took from the Lookout that eventually got us lost. It was worth the view.

A Quick Note: We're in Coromandel Peninsula...

Not a whole lot of bandwidth here so I haven't had a whole lot of time to blog. We have been taking photos a plenty however. Short form: It's beautiful here, it reminds me a lot of Cape Cod (both in affluence and in overall beauty) and so far we've been having a good time on the beach.

I'll send some photos up either when we get back or if I find some fast connections.

The Obligatory Christmas Post.

No other holiday is quite so linked to being with friends and family as Christmas. Obviously, its considered to be one of the first big challenges of recent immigrants, being away from family and friends during this holiday.

Carly and I have very different feelings when it comes to Christmas. For my part, I definitely felt a little blue at not having dinner with my 'rents, seeing my friends, vegg'ing out, playing games and generally being social with those I love. Being that my family is all over the world, You'd think it would be easier, but the fact is we typically made sure we all saw each other during the extended holiday season if not on Christmas proper.

Technology definitely makes up for some of it. Skype has been a godsend throughout our immigration and being able to talk to anyone we want without having to worry about blocked international lines, long distance fees etc. is definitely making it easier. Seeing people over the video is an even better treat.

That all being said, we've been having an excellent Christmas thanks in no small part to our new friends in New Zealand. This weekend, we got to visit with our friends J and B in Christchurch. We met them through a board gaming website of all places. J's been incredibly helpful for finding all sorts of Kiwi information that many of the locals took for granted before arriving and I think we all hit it off quite well when we went to Picton together earlier in the year. They took us out to great restaurants, threw a BBQ with their friends while we were there (and much boardgaming was done!) and generally were fantastic hosts.

R and A, another couple we've befriended, came over on Christmas day so that I could make them a nice big breakfast. Carly made scones from the cook book she bought me for christmas (Edmund's Cookery Book) I made eggs bacon and coffee / tea.

We followed that up by bringing a Tourtiere (my mom's recipe of course!) to the BBQ they were having at their place over lunch / dinner to share some of the Canadian festivities that would normally take place. It was very well received.

And now, on boxing day, having made all our family phone calls, we're off to explore the Boxing Day sales (Kiwis definitely take their sales a lot more seriously then Canadians do :P ) and go to the beach.

Here are some photos of the traditional New Zealand Christmas Tree, the Pōhutukawa Tree

What a Weekend!

Where to start!

This weekend was pretty phenomenal. We got out and did stuff :)

Saturday we went to the Knack. It's a small craft fair that was held at the Berhampore Elementary School (where Carly's been teaching the Montessori class). It was a very friendly affair. Most of the displays were from parents or local crafters, everyone seemed to know each other and there were quite a few very cool booths. In particular, Carly's coffee slinging students were there as well as few local seamstresses who make great clothing out of recycled materials.
Once we were done there, we decided to go on a bit of a driving adventure to find a new place to fly the kite. We started by driving down to Island Bay, exploring that neighborhood (quickly turning into a favorite with us) then we ended up in a nature preserve, where we got a chance to test out the All Wheel drive for the first time by driving through an old quarry access pass. Too rocky and narrow to fly a kite but a very nice drive overall.





Having reached the end of that drive, we decided to drive in the opposite direction out to the Kapiti Coast (western coast of North Island). We came across Queen Elizabeth National Park, with it's very inviting beach and got a nice flight in there. Sand and water aren't particularly friendly to my kite though... Heading home, we felt we'd made the right choice in buying a car.






We started Sunday by hoping a bus down to Thorndon (Ha! you thought we'd drive didn't you!) for the annual Fair. Not entirely sure of the details, but it sounds like it was started as a fundraiser for their elementary school (a decile 10 school... odd that they'd need to raise funds) but grew into a whole neighborhood engulfing street sale of sorts. There was probably 150 booths? They were expecting 25000 people and I'd believe it from the crowds we saw there. We went with our lovely Kiwi friends R&A and new friends C&R. Not much I'd actually buy (most was expensive kitschy stuff).
Thorndon is a gorgeous neighborhood (and priced accordingly) It backs the Parliament buildings, is delimited on one side by the mountains and on another the Botanical Gardens. Very quaint, turn of the century to about 1950s buildings.



Having done the stalls there, we headed up to the Botanical Gardens to see the roses. When last we'd gone, they were just at the bud stage. Not very exciting. This time it was incredible.




Came home thoroughly tired (we'd been out walking for 6+ hours by that point) and a little sunburnt. This is precisely why we moved out here :)

Here are a couple of links to the galleries if you want to see more photos.

• Adventures Up the Kapiti Coast
• Botanical Gardens
• Wellington (New photos added!)

Alternate schooling methods

So as you are aware i'm relief teaching here in Welly. and there is a lot of variation. there is basically a scale system called a Decile rating of 1 to 10. a 10 school is the best, the cream of the crop, they have a devoted art week, multiple computers in each room, a laptop cart and usually mostly white anglo-saxon pupils. The opposite end of the scale is the 1 and 2 where the students are usually more ethnic, lower socio-economic status, more behavioural and less supplied in terms of school equipment (in Ottawa we call those Beacon schools). So i've worked the range of decile 4 through 10; yes there is a difference.

At one of those 4s though there is a Montessori school. the staff jokes that the Montessori is how they stay open because of the funding it gets. so i've relieved a few times in there...its different. i'm not going to bore you with details but the basics boil down to this:

1) students choose what to learn, then do it
2) teachers teach them how to use the development math tool for say counting, just enough of an explanation to peak interest then stand back and let them use it for days and observe.
3) it encourages and has a practical hands on living aspect, there is a mini-kitchen so they can learn to cook, clean, etc.
4) oh and they encourage them to go outside a lot to exercise and plan small group trips off of school property without adults.

suffice it to say that i'm impressed, Blaise is impressed and though children are not yet on our list of "to do" things yet we both see Montessori as an option.

ok back to the point i was trying to make. a few years back some of the kids asked for (in a business proposal btw) an expresso/barrista machine like every coffee shop has. they got it too, its considered practical and hands on. these kids then proceeded to start a coffee delivery business to all the teachers in the school. so mrs. A wants a flat white at 10:20, mrs. B wants an expresso at 11:30, the kids in room 4 order four hot chocolates at lunch, etc. Because the Montessori kids are allowed to move freely in and out of their class as part of their education, they can do this delivery service. its $2 for anything and let me tell you they make a good Mochachino. then they keep banking/accounting records of all their sales and they use the proceeds to fund camp trips or charitable donations (the class agreed to use the funds to buy a goat last year for a village in Africa). There is currently a science project going on growing cultures because one of the boys who does this had concerns about the cleanliness of his coffee machine so the teacher brought in culture mediums in petri dishes and he's started a 2 week project testing his machine and other areas of the class for cleanliness by doing mold cultures. Oh i suppose i should add these particular coffee kids are boys between the ages of 10 and 11; and one of the guys has been doing this since he was nine. did i not say Montessori was neat!

So i've been raving to Blaise about this and today the school had a craft/fund raising sale call Knack. The Montessori kids who do the coffee were invited to set up shop on the stage. They were there last year and they did so well they were invited back this year and got a sponsor who gave them all the coffee for free this time.
So we went in and purchased two drinks, my Mochachino and for Blaise his standard flat white. Blaise had to admit that it was a very nice flat white. The guys let us take a picture for posterity.

Meet the barristas of the Montessori program.

Stung by Bee

now now don't panic, its not what you think. Meet BEE506 the latest addition to the St-Laurent New Zealand adventure.


I'm sure Blaise could do a way better job of describing it but its a car, a dark blue Subaru Legacy. We bought it off a guy who was doing what we did, packing up his life in NZ and going to Australia for a few years.

What prompted this after all our eco-friendly "we'll walk or bus everywhere". its still there, we still walk and bus but there are an increasing large list of things we want to do that really require more freedom than the transit system is allowing.

1)job interviews - i was not applying to schools more than 1 1/2 by transit, by car those same places are about 20 minutes away.
2)kite surfing - the hubby wants to go fly the kites (legally) on beaches, but we also have to find ones that have wind on the right direction, don't have planes going over them and actual ones where its safe for him to be in the water. for those, they exceed that 1 1/2 transit time by bus.
3)camping - with the cargo container due this week (fingers crossed) our camp gear is here. there is a lovely place just on the opposite side of the bay, great for a first camping adventure....no bus/train service at all.
4)groceries - canvas bags or not, the weight (and wait), a car is simpler.
5)adventures - we got invited up to a batch just outside of auckland over christmas by Rachel and Alan. we love them, but they have a teeny little hatchback. our car can hold us and luggage ^^bb
6)renting - while we are not looking till February for a new place we have met enough people and seen enough homes to know that we pay way to much for being in this location. we can get amazing places in any of the outside areas but they lack a feature which we needed when we first moved here....buses.
7)trade me/used furniture - yes we can rent a car and trailer, this however means we can also pop into a Vinnie's (St Vincents) see the table and go, "hey we can buy it and bring it home today"

Meet "Bee"atrice (yes i named the car)

Some Photo Updates

Finally got a little time to sort through the photos I've been racking up on my camera. I've posted a bunch of new ones on my gallery. Here are a few of my favorites (with captions)



Te Papa, the New Zealand national museum.



The harbour walkway.



Tired tourists on a sunny afternoon.



The boatclub and the harbourfront

Also, a while back there was a Brazilian tall ship in Wellington harbor, so we went to check it out:




Click through the links to see all the photos.

Humming and Hawing...

Carly and I have been trying as much as possible to not make any choices that are specifically detrimental to the environment. Not so much trying to be carbon-counting/placard-bearing/pocket-mulching environmentalists, really we've just been trying to choose the environment's side when faced with a choice. This has involved drying most of our clothing outside (which I've grown quite used to, though I thought I wouldn't) recycling, using re-usable containers and most importantly walking or busing everywhere.

However, that last one has been significantly limiting our flexibility here in Wellington. For day to day needs, the bus and train system here is excellent. You can hop a single bus almost anywhere, then walk 5-10 minutes and be at your destination. Parking's also a problem downtown, so you wouldn't want to drive anyway.
Many of our favorite and planned activities (camping, kite surfing, exploring New Zealand in general) require some sort of motorized transport. We're short changing ourselves rather badly if we can't get out of Wellington.

So, I've started looking for a car. The main things it needs:

• carrying capacity: A station wagon, a minivan or maybe a large hatchback
• Good on gas: Smaller engine or diesel would be ideal
• Ability to tow (renting trailers to get stuff you buy is very common here)
  
• Cheap.

That's pretty much it. I don't care about anything else really, which is a huge change from my previous cars. I'm going to be buying my first used car, which is a little scary, but with a good inspection and some "emergency repair" money I think we'll be able to manage.

I'm hoping to find a car with good mechanics that isn't too pretty on the outside (body damage is quite common here because of the tight streets and generally bad drivers :P )

We'll see how it goes.