Chapter 6: Discovery

Since my last post, I have encountered three days of discovery. With each of these days, I have reflected and come to recognize three distinct occurrences that have been enlightening to myself as a whole.

Monday was my first day back to school in two weeks. The kids were on holiday and I was working at Zealandia. Some of them stayed at home, others went to Vietnam (yes a six year old went to Vietnam), and others traveled down to the South Island like I will be tomorrow. Despite the fact that they had two weeks to become absorbed by television and their travels, one girl, Sienna, managed to remember that I promised that I would read to her during quiet reading time. When I walked into the classroom after lunch, I saw her, puppy eyes and all, sitting on the floor with a giant book with, ironically enough, a puppy on the cover, flopping around in her small hands. I looked at her and she responded by asking, "Do you remember Rachel?" It wasn't the fact that I had not remembered, but it was that I was so amazed that this little child was able to remember such a silly promise for over two weeks.

Tuesday I gained a lot of self confidence from my discovery. Tuesday was the day, that I finally realized that I am not as artistically challenged as I have thought I was for the past eighteen years. Amanda, the teacher that I work with, asked me to draw and cut out pictures for the new bulletin board. I was hesitant to take the job, but after a bit of manipulation, I felt as if I had no choice. After a lot of sketching and erasing and sketching and erasing, I had finally created a postman that I was actually proud of. After I cut out some letters and wrote some directions, I put everything on the board and was amazed with my work! Amanda was so impressed that she gave me the task of decorating a second board today. It unfortunately didn't come out as good as my first.

On Wednesday, today, I didn't make my discovery until after school (although it was an eventful day, I will explain that later). We were all sitting upstairs watching television when we noticed that we were missing a channel. After nearly two months, and three for Jeni, we finally took the other black remote, and changed the channel. We realized that we weren't using the freaking cable box, but instead the basic cable that was offered from the T.V! Wow!

Other then those three distinct discoveries, I had a very interesting day today. At school, I was asked to go across the street to the Auto Shop and collect 16 tires (tyres as the Kiwis spell it) for the kids to use for their new planting project. It took a few trips, but was not too bad with the help of some of the senior students (our equivalent of eighth grade). In the afternoon, Tess, a teachers aid in my class who is also from America, and more specifically Brooklyn, and I went to Bunnings, the local Home Depot, to buy some seeds. Today in school, I also got to deal with homesickness amongst other six year old problems! Overall, a quality day.

Tonight, I packed and bought groceries for my trip tomorrow! I am very excited and cannot wait for the crazy South Island adventures that are to come! Look for a new post next Wednesday or Thursday your time!