Cross Country Season!

It's officially cross country season and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. I am most definitely not very thrilled to say the least but I don't have a choice, so I have to endure it whether I like it or not. 

I'm not sure why but after I finish running my legs always feel like jelly, like it could collapse any moment. It's not a great feeling but on the bright side I'm increasing my stamina, I'm getting fitter and that's always a good thing!

Orienteering

I've been anticipating this day since last week. The week before we just went over the basics of orienteering. This time we actually had to use a map and navigate ourselves to the attachments. 

At first I was panicking, discouraging thoughts filled my head like 'What if I don't finish?', 'What if I read the map wrong', 'What if I come back last'. I told myself to stop worrying and just think positive.

Coincidentally me and Katrina had the same courses at the same time. We ended up being rebels and worked together even though we weren't supposed to. Oops!

Special Assembly

Today was the day we finally sing 'How Far I'll Go' in front of everyone. I was actually quite nervous. I felt my legs tremble a bit when I was on stage. Whenever there's hundreds of eyes on me I experience stage fright. I also tried to make eye contact with the crowd but I just couldn't bring myself to, so most of the time I looked at the floor. I need to improve on that.

It felt delightful to watch everyone participating even if they weren't from the Pacific Islands.

I'm Ready For Term 3

Our two weeks holiday has sadly ended and we're back at the place we call school. I sometimes wish that our holidays were a tad bit longer. I'm no longer used to waking up at 8 am and arriving at school by 8:30 am. Sleeping early is another challenge for me, I just can't fall asleep. 

Nothing changed on the first day back, our routine was the same except we went over our expectations, duties, and rules just to remind us in case it slipped from our minds. 

This term I'm going to strive for my best, I'm going to challenge myself and be better than before. 

Hawaiian Dancing

A couple of weeks ago ten students from Room 12 were chosen to go to Te Oro to learn dancing. Our dance instructors were from Honolulu, Hawaii and they were all Year 13s. 

They started by splitting us up into four groups, I was divided into the same group as Mary. We then started learning a Hawaiian 'thank you' chant. They were using Hawaiian language which was hard to remember and pronounce so therefore I had a really difficult time learning it. 

I thought the chant was challenging but the dance must have been at least 5 times more complicated. Most of the time I didn't even know what I was doing. I was probably making up my own dance moves, Meana and Lupe even told me that I looked totally lost. When the hour was finally up I noticed that I improved and wasn't as bad as I first started. 

Graphics Class

Every Wednesday we go to Tamaki College to attend cooking class or graphics class. The Year 7s are currently doing cooking- the Year 8s graphics. 

Our current task right now is to learn how to make juice boxes. We first have to create and design our boxes on a piece of paper and to help us we use our Chromebooks. I still haven't started on this since I've been focusing on other things.

Mr Pineda also has this system. If you get your work completed on time you get a couple of points. Once we have finished our work he checks it and either gives us a merit, achieved or excellence grading. At the moment I have around 30-40 points, I can't remember who but I'm pretty sure the person with the most points has at least 70.

I enjoy graphics but the cooking even more. My enjoyment comes from the preparation of the food and definitely consuming it. Learning cooking will definitely help me in the future especially when I'm living on my own and won't have my parents to monitor me.

I'm Back!

After two months in Myanmar and Thailand I'm back at school! I left New Zealand on April 5th and arrived in Thailand on the 6th. I landed back in New Zealand on June the 5th but took a week off because I was very jet lagged. I couldn't sleep at night instead I slept all day, just like a possum! Now that my sleeping schedule is back on track I no longer sleep like a nocturnal animal.

Something that I will miss is probably the fruits back in Thailand. There were many types of fruits there that we don't have here like lychee, mangosteen, rambutan and jackfruit. 

             

I am happy to be back at school because I missed my friends and teachers dearly.