Tena Koe, Ata Marie - Hello Good morning

Hello to anyone starting to read my blog and hello to past readers!

It is week 1 in magical New Zealand and it off to an amazing start!

This week was all about getting to know one another and learning about our campus and its own history of sacred lands. We also learned the beginning of the history of how New Zealand became what it is today and the background of this country, like their language, culture, and music and obviously much more.

The first day we arrived we all met past customs with Shelly, Ramon, and Our IT guy (Can't remember his name right now we have not seen him as much)

they drove us an hour and we stopped to see our first sight off of the east coast of New Zealand.

It was a cloudy first visit but it was worth the first stop!

Then we arrived to the gorgeous Ecoquest campus with such a warm welcome from neighboring people and our professors. We also all had to make up a song in each van for example we did build me up buttercup but we ended up changing the lyrics a bit to fit into ecoquest so that it could show maybe what we would get out of it. Another group did a version of black socks and I can't remember what song the last group did to be honest I wasn't familiar with the song but it was just as amazing. Lastly of course all our professors, field leaders and people from our office also came together to greet us with a beautiful song I absolutely adore. Then we had breakfast which was so tasty and fresh from local foods and from our vegetable garden and fruit trees on campus so basically farm to table for Americans minus the horrible pesticides. They introduced us to where we are staying and what cabin and we all did drum rolls for each cabin to make it goofy and laugh. We also got to see the beautiful ocean since our campus is next to a mouth of a river into the ocean which is perfect to kayak and go swimming on hot days.

Then we had lunch and another gathering and then dinner not so long after. Afterwards obviously we all needed to catch up on needed sleep.

Day 2

It was all a blur because its just so nice to live in the moment to be honest but we just got introduced to the slacklines, rockwall, and all safety stuff we needed to know if we wanted to go on a bike ride, a walk, kayak, how kitchen duty and garden duty works and how to fill out forms when we leave for a weekend or when we leave for our weeks off. Or how to clean our clothes and use bathrooms, compost and what to throw what into a rubbish bin or paper towel bin etc.. This is due to it being summer and a dry one at that so we only have so much fresh water for showers and brushing teeth.

We also had our first class with Shelly

We made a whatsapp with everyone in Ecoquest in it so we can communicate easily through wifi and get everyone involved since we are considered literally a village because this is such a rural area with very little people living in this town.

During the night time all 26 of us met at grannies (our hangout building/study/libraryish building) and played a game like we start a letter to whoever and then every 10 seconds we switch the paper and write as much as we can to make a story until you get your paper back and then everyone reads off what we all wrote, it was a great activity to do to hang out and have fun at night.

ALSO I got elected to be the student representative so I represent everyone if anything goes wrong between people or if anyone has problems in general and want to be anonymous, and wants me to tell anyone of the professors of a situation I represent them as well as our friend Alex. There was one boy and one girl nominated.

Day 3 - Friday

We had break fast per usual before 8 because that's when kitchen crew starts clean up for a half hour before Connie, and Joy come in to prepare our food for the rest of the day. We started class with Shelly and did some safety orientation of emergencies and health emergencies and who has epipens/asthma etc.

After we went to a local pool to swim 8 laps in the pool to test us for snorkeling and then we went into thames which is a local city, where the british established when coming into New Zealand to grab snacks and some beer for weekend since we are dry during the week and wet on weekends (or our days off).

Then we learned some Maori language and a song because next Wednesday is Waitangi Day which is basically when they signed their version of the declaration of independence from the British. So we have to perform two songs in Maori language one is "Waiata" and another called "IO" (eeoo) pronunciation is kind of like Hawaiian/spanishishhh more so when it comes to pronouncing vowels. Not only that we have to do another american song for them because this is "respectful" when meeting the Maori in their culture.

Throughout this night after dinner I had to get ready to be one of the two ungraded presentations so i read for a bit and then I sat with some people and shared stories for about a couple hours because we tend to loose track of time here as its easy without having your phone on you all day checking social media which is a blessing to take a step away from it all and embrace this world and the energy it gives off to us that we don't realize.

Day 5 - Saturday

We started with a vocal quiz about safety procedures and then we had a 3 hour lecture with 3 breaks (Tea breaks) about the history of New Zealand and important words we need to know. Then we left for Waharau which is a park and we had our first time hiking in a forested area. But first we met a informational person about the Kauri Dieback Disease in the forests here in New Zealand and why we scrub, spray and stay our boots when coming in and out of hiking in the forests. Then we came back some people went for a swim and I decided to stay back and update my blog so I don't have to do it on my full day off tomorrow minus kitchen duty BUT I GET TO MAKE PIZZA WITH SOME DOPE CHICKS!!! HAHA! lmao but overall this experience has been amazing so far and I can't wait for it to kick off further because these 26 people are immensely beautiful people and I can't wait to cry with them in the end.

Its time to get darty tonight at the local pub with our hybrids (we have neon vests we have to wear to ride bikes, run or walk outside of campus on the narrow roads so no one hits us) because the speed limit on most roads is like 60 mph

Love you all be safe in America I am safe here in New Zealand nothing can really kill me here asides people in cars!