We arrived in New Zealand at 530 in the morning after traveling for 30 hours straight. I have been so busy in the States before I left that I hadn't really had time to process everything that I was about to do. I was given the opportunity to student teach in New Zealand for ten weeks as I finish up my degree in Education. I am fully immersed in the culture, staying with a host family, and living out day to day life as a typical Kiwi (what New Zealand people are called). I am living with Ash and Josh as my homestay parents and they have a two year old Dylan that has quickly became my new partner in crime here in West Auckland.
This weekend was labour day weekend, so right away we had a long weekend and lots of festivals going on around the city. I went to Piha beach where Dylan clutched onto my arm as we run and caught waves in the ocean. On Sunday we went to a festival to celebrate the holiday, Diwali, from the Indian Culture. All of central Auckland was shut down and there was dancing in the streets as well as market venders and food trucks full of traditional food. We also walked around the wharf and I tried Oysters for the first time. For those of you that know me well, trying a new food, especially this early in the game was quite adventurous for me. On Monday, the labour day holiday, Ash took me to an overlook up a steep hill that overlooked all of Auckland. For a country that only has four million people, 1.6 million of them live in Auckland. We then went to Mission Bay beach and there was a festival celebrating the workers holiday. We walked around the market and along the port and people watched as massive amounts of people crowded the streets. We kayaked around the bay and for someone who is used to fresh water beaches, the amount of salt that I felt burning my skin and on my lips as I fell into the water was almost exhausting.
The diversity in New Zealand is unlike anything Ive seen. There are people from all around the world that have chosen to call New Zealand home and the way people accept and love on one another is something that I have not experienced in the US. I often dont feel like a tourist, except when I open to what I expect to be the passenger side of the car door and am shocked to see that their driver's seat is the passenger seat in America, wild! For all of you friends that have had the pleasure of driving with me in a car, dont worry I have already been trusted with driving, even if Kiwi's do drive on the left side of the road. Watch out New Zealand, Jess's adventures in a car has only just begun!
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