The way I see it

Guest writer for the month is Abby and this is what she has to say....

Hi family and friends.  I'm having a good time in New Zealand.  Let me tell you what is happening with me so far. 

If you ever attend Putaruru Primary School beware, the pool is C-O-L-D!  I do like swimming every day but it's still cold.

I have met some great friends that I really like and are nice to me.  One of them lives right around the corner and we play a few times a week after school together.  Her name is Lucy.



Lucy and me in my backyard

I am in grade 5 here and in our math work they moved me up to 3 levels to the highest level of math before the kids to go jr. high.  That made me feel pretty happy.  I am still trying to keep up with my math work from California so maybe that helped.

I am learning the language pretty quickly.  Such as togs are swim suits, rubbish is trash, nappies are diapers, and felts are markers and others that I have to pick up on when I don't know what they mean.

New Zealand is very pretty especially our back yard.  I have liked seeing all the places we visit on the weekends.  We are having a lot of fun here.  I do miss my friends and my bed at home but I'll be back some day.

Until then I get to continue to enjoy the fun things at school such as a week at camp.  I'm sure my mom will wright about it again.  They take the classes to a camp where we swim, take walks in the bush; oh that's another new word.  Bush means forest.  We canoe, see glowworms, and learn more about the Maori culture and much more.  I'm a little scared but it will be fun to be with my friends.

I want to share one of my favorite days that I have had here and at school so far.

One day at school my teacher left the room and some kids started fighting.  Then we went to another teacher's room and she read us a Maori legend.  Everyone was talking during the story.  So when the story was over she made us all write an essay of what the story was about. We all wrote our stories and I was the first one done writing.  I showed it to my teacher who had come back into the room and she read it.  Then she said "come with me."  She went to find the teacher who had read us the story and told us to write the story.  She read my story too and after she finished she gave me a big hug.  Then she took my story to her room and said "this American girl got this Maori legend right and it was her first time hearing it."  Then she read it again to the entire class.

It made me feel like I could understand things even if I was different than others.  I also felt happy and proud to do a great thing on that day. 

It was hard at first being here but I am getting used to it.  As Annie says "I think I'm gonna like it here!"

xoxo,

Abby