something funny

me: hahaha

  oh gina

  one night I couldn't sleep

  and I was listening to classical music on itunes

5:27 PM Gina: yeah?

 me: and out of no where after a song ended this voice says "good night hallie, sweet dreams"

 Gina: haha

 me: I seriously jumped off the couch

  it was YOUR voice from grandma's house

 Gina: how was it on iTunes?

 me: I emailed the text to myself

  and it downloaded the sound as well

  FREAKED me out

 Gina: i'm laughing

  so hard

5:28 PM hallie, you gotta write that one down

  that's really funny

  and freaky

5:29 PM i bet you totally fell asleep after that

 me: rigghhhht

  k I'll really let you go now

5:30 PM but I love you and you creep up on me even when you are half way across the globe!

 Gina: ok, well thanks for sharing that

  love you lots!



Funny huh.

Choice week

Last week my teacher was sick so I visited the other byu girl's classrooms. And I hit every grade cool huh. And I decided that I really like the older kids as well as the younger - it's just the in-betweens that I've never enjoyed watching or teaching because it was the most awkward time of my life and I don't like to be reminded.

But yeah so the 5th grade teacher totally took advantage of my art skills and I made tsunami waves on one wall and a soccer goal on another. I taught the kids about goals and they wrote their goals on soccer balls then kicked an actual ball on the wall where the goal was and I put their goal ball where their ball hit. A lot of people missed but hopefully it won't be like that for their real goals.

And I had a really amazing weekend guys. I went to this cool music festival and it was outside and there was an orchestra and opera singers and normal singers and one guy sang bohemian rhapsody and it changed my life. And there was a laser show and fireworks at the end and I loved that as well.

Wish me luck!

Carol McCormack

This is the teacher of the class I will be in for the next six weeks. I found this picture of her on the school's website. I'll meet her tomorrow. Here is what else the website says:

In Room 11 we are a "Family' and as a family we nurture one another and learn with and from each other.

Our aim is to produce "Quality Work'. This is the best I can do and it takes time and effort.

Rotorua

Rotorua is a place in the middle of the north island where there are lots of geysers, like at yellowstone. there are also caves and lakes and mountains. I love Rotorua because it has a lot of stuff going down.

I slept over at my friend's house because it was her burday and we got picked up at 5 am. Luckily the back seat folded down flat so we slept the whole way on what was just like a BED!

We arrived at the blackwater rafting co where they do guided cave tours on tubes. We got in these wet suits. They were already wet. Then we put on a jacket. then shorts over that (why shorts?) then a helmet with a light on it. I think I sprained my finger just getting those things on me.


Then we walked to this hole in the mountain and it was actually the entrance of these amazing caves. With special creatures inside. GLOW WORMS!

I found out at these caves that I am claustraphobic. It was so dark and some of the tunnels we crawled through were really small. with water. There was no way out other than getting through. It was kind of hard on me but only half of the time it was confined.

So yeah the other half of the time was fun though because we jumped off cliffs into the water below and stuff. And when we turned off our headlights and put our feet in the pits of the person in front of us that was comforting. The glow worms were really awesome. It felt like we were up in space looking at the stars. so cool.

After the caves guess who showed up. The prime minister of New Zealand. And i am not joking I promise! John Key shook our hands and took pictures with us. He was so nice. I met the prime minister guys. Crazy.



Then we went ZORBING! It's where there is this 10 foot ball with a ball inside of it. And you crawl with up to two others inside the ball inside. And there is water in the inside ball. And then you ROLL down a hill! It is soo so sos sooo fun. I am totally going to start a zorbing business in Utah.
I fell on my face coming out.

Then we went to a dinner/theater. It was really good food with mussels and lamb, chicken, pork, pasta, salad, rolls, potatoes, squash, etc.
the 12 girls all slept in one room of a member's house. It was so fun! We watched A Goofy Movie.

The next morning I saw real kiwi birds, like the picture on my title. They are nocturnal so we walked into a dark room and could barely make them out. But one came right up to the window where I was and was clicking his beak on the window. Haha they are so cute. We also watched a Haka, like the team does before the BYU football games. That is a maori NZ dance. I loved watching that, it's kind of scary.


Half of the group, including me, decided to go to the single's valentine's dance at the stake center. It was really fun. After the dance we went to denny's and we didn't get home till 4am. funny huh.

My vids

Click here to see me bungy jumping

Christchurch

The first day in Christchurch we went to the markets all day. There were some really cool things there! But it was mostly a city. With lots of dodgy areas. I decided while I was on the South Island that I am not a city girl. At least not inner city. It makes me anxious. Anyway here are the other things we did.



The Gondola (I guess the correct term where it's in a river is punting? that's dumb.)


The Botanical Gardens were so lovely. There was like a square mile of all these beautiful flowers - I have a vid of it that I'll put on youtube or something.

I cooked fish. Then I read that sign behind me. It specifically said to not cook fish. whoops!

Last night in Queenstown

I lost all my pictures from Queenstown. It really hurts. The other girls got some pictures of me but it's just not the same. The video of when the sheep came running right up to me, the video of me feeding the wild green parrot, the video of me going recklessly down the luge! Man hopefully I'll get those back in heaven.

The last night we were in queenstown was when I deleted my entire memory card, but that was right before minus 5.

It's a bar that is always kept at minus 5 degrees Celsius. We got virgin dranks and they were really good. And the cups were made of straight ice. so was everything else.