I think everyone should watch it over and over until they find themselves saying these things with confidence, too.

Teaching high school students has proven to be one of the most rewarding and exciting experiences in my life thus far. I learn something new every day and there is never a dull moment both in and out of the classroom. What has surprisingly proven to be one of the most difficult things for me in my teaching experience so far is how my students have this incredible talent to somehow get me completely off topic. One second I’m talking about algebra and the next minute I’m talking about how New Zealanders call all candy lollies which I find confusing because whenever someone says lolly I think of a lolly pop but a lolly is really any kind of candy over here besides chocolate. I think? See – I don’t even know. Wait, was I talking about triangles? Where am I? You darn kids!

Today, I was teaching a Trigonometry lesson and hilarity ensued.

A plane takes off at an angle of 41° with the ground. It travels through the air until it is 8m high. How far has the plane traveled through the air?

Don’t worry. We don’t actually have to do math. I will show you my beautiful picture that I drew on the whiteboard, though. I demonstrated how our diagram should be drawn (with some feedback from my students, of course), and then I drew in a plane because you’ve got to illustrate your triangle pictures!

The problem is… I can’t draw. That is my plane. (If you play me in Draw Something then you will understand.)

A couple students started laughing.

One student said, “Miss! Haven’t you ever been on a plane before?”

Laughter followed. Because, of course, here I am – a foreign teacher standing in front of the class. This New Yorker teaching a class of New Zealanders while in New Zealand. Have I ever been on a plane? Gee, I wonder. (Maybe I should have taken it as a compliment that they think I fit in so well that I belong here.)

I looked at the student quite seriously and replied, “No. I actually swam here.”

More laughter.

Then I continued with my board work.

The best thing about writing on the board is that you can turn around and smile and smirk while you’re writing but the students can’t see. Then you can turn around all calm and composed and make a perfect, premeditated remark at just the right time to make them not know what to think. Turn around and write again. Throw in some math. Catch them off guard. Rinse and repeat.

I love teaching high school.

I spent the entire day outside in the sun with our whole school for Athletics Day. I covered myself from head to toe with sunblock. I put it all over my arms, legs, face, neck, hands, and even my ears! I even wore a huge sun hat! I bet my dad would have laughed at me since it’s the same kind of hat that he tries to get my mother to wear all the time but she won’t since they look ridiculous. Since everyone wears them over here, I guess they are a bit less ridiculous.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t thorough enough with my sunscreen in all the excitement and I missed just the bit of space above my socks.

And oh, did I pay for it. You can even see the spaces right around the burn where the sunscreen made it onto my skin. I have certainly learned my lesson for next time.

It could have been way worse.

Last week, someone asked me if I liked rum. I responded, perhaps too quickly, with a very excited YES. I was relieved to finally be asked by someone if I liked something other than wine. Apparently if you’re a woman in New Zealand, it’s generally assumed that you love wine and want to drink it all day. However, I am not really a fan of wine. I actually have never had a wine that I really liked despite my best efforts to try multiple different kinds of wine on various occasions.

So, Josh and I were gifted some homemade rum. Wait, WHAT? MOONSHINE? Isn’t that ILLEGAL? Well, it’s not illegal in New Zealand. It’s one of the few western societies where home distillation is legal and stills and instructions are sold openly. So it’s not really moonshine since it’s not illegal but I’m calling it moonshine anyway because it sounds more awesome that way.

It was really good, too. Sure, it probably would have been better if we could have resisted it for a few months and then tried it but we only lasted a week. It was just sitting there on the counter staring at us! What were we supposed to do?

One thing I’ve noticed lately is that many of the things that people are pinning for these things they want to do or accomplish in their lifetimes are things I’ve already done. I don’t know if this means I’ve led a particularly exciting life or if I’ve just done the standard exciting things that people generally put on their bucket lists. I have been trying to figure this out lately.

Here are some things that I’ve done which are pretty awesome.
• Moved to another country.
• Lived in another country.
• Worked in another country.
• Be a teacher.
• See a shooting star.
• Go to the top of the empire state building.
• Get married.
• Be on TV.
• Go ice skating.
• Go to a midnight movie premiere.
• Go to Disneyworld.
• Grow my hair to my waist.
• Swim in the ocean.
• Driven a boat.
• Drove on both sides of the road.
• Danced in fountains.
• Gone skinny dipping.
• Been to the World Trade Center. <3
• Met friends from the internet.
• Learned to play instruments.
• Ridden first class in an airplane.
• Donated blood.
• Volunteered.
• Been to a concert.
• Been to Washington D.C.
• Met a celebrity.
• Graduated high school and college.
• Walked underneath a waterfall.

I love adventure and a challenge, though. I’m sure I could add to the list. Here are a couple things off the top of my head I’d like to add to my bucket list and I’d like to accomplish.
• Learn to contact juggle.
• Play the guitar to accompany myself – not just a few chords.
• See more of New Zealand.
• Visit all 50 States.
• Go parasailing or hangliding.
• Ride in a hot air balloon.
• Buy my own house.
• Be a better cook.
• Finally grow a successful garden.
• Get a dog.
• Eat pizza in Italy.
• Learn how to knit.

I’m sure there is more I could add to both lists but we don’t want to be here all day now do we? So what would be on your bucket list? What have you done that is particularly incredible?

Look, I was doing horrible Facebook poses before Facebook even existed! Okay, you caught me… it was horrible MySpace pose. I’m so ashamed.

I was the same cheeky little bugger then, too. I haven’t changed too much except I had highlights in my hair and sometimes I wore a *little* makeup. By that, I mean a bit of lipgloss and some sparkly eyeliner. I still only own those two makeup products although I don’t really wear makeup much at all anymore. Oh, and I don’t have highlights anymore. My parents still beg me to get them back but I never really liked them anyway. The real reason? They’re too much work and I’m too lazy.

While I’m being all melancholy, here is a blog I wrote ten years ago. (Yes, I was blogging back then too. I’ve saved all the posts but I don’t have them here at caity.nu and you’ll see clearly why in a few short moments…)

midterms, anyone? [January 2002]

First of all, let me state that I’m going to kill my sister if she doesn’t turn off the crap SHE is playing on her radio… yep… my own sister is a bubble-gum-pop-freak.

UGH… it will probably change in 5 minutes anyway, why am I so excited?

How embarrassing. But probably hilarious.
How have you changed in the last 10 years?

What do you miss about America?
What do you like about New Zealand?

I have really had to think about these two things. They are actually not as simple as you would think. At first it was actually just silly things but now I actually have compiled quite the list of things from both sides that I love about both places that I’ve had the opportunity to miss because I didn’t have it when I lived overseas. I bet I’ll still leave something out but here goes nothing!

Oh, America… what I miss about you.

I miss my family (here they are just a few weeks ago – my dad has learned to send me pictures from his phone). I also miss my cat who Josh and I thought we’d be able to get over to New Zealand way before now.

I also miss my friends like crazy. I haven’t really made any friends in New Zealand yet.

I miss my gym. Gyms in New Zealand are super expensive probably because it’s so beautiful outside and easy to be active outdoors.

I miss how cheap clothes are in America. I tried to buy some clothes for my new job a few weeks ago and all I wanted was a damn Old Navy or a Kohls so I could raid the clearance rack and walk out with a bag full of clothes – not 2 items.

I miss stores being open all the time. Why does the mall close at 5? Nothing is open on Sunday? What the heck? I actually have to PLAN my trips in to town?

Cheap takeout food and cheap food in general. Hey, I’m being honest. Sometimes I just want to get a cheeseburger or a milkshake from the dollar menu. I’m not proud of it but it’s the truth. There’s no such thing as the dollar menu here.

Four seasons. Trees changing color in the fall. I just am not seeing four distinct seasons here – although I don’t think I’ll really miss not having to shovel snow.

Central heating. Sure, maybe it’s something I don’t really NEED and maybe it’s also because my father ran a central heating business all my life but sometimes a space heater or a fire just doesn’t cut it when I’m REALLY COLD. I’m sure I’ll get used to it but I still don’t have fire building skills yet so it’s a good thing Josh does or I’d freeze to death.

Free Wifi in tons of places. The only place that has free WiFi is McDonalds which to me is kind of weird because they don’t in America.

Having fast internet – and not having a cap on my internet each month.

Thanksgiving.

Squirrels.

Iced Tea.

Pizza.

Oh, New Zealand… what I love about you.

New Zealand is beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous.

There is no pollution that I’ve ever seen here.

People care more about the environment. They recycle. They walk places and use public transport or carpool or hitch.

The food is healthier.

It costs more to purchase takeout food. Yes, I said I missed this from America but it’s also something that I like about New Zealand because it forces me to eat healthier and Josh and I love to cook. I think that overall it is a good thing.

There is no high fructose corn syrup and food, overall, is less processed.

People are generally in less of a hurry and are nicer and more genuine.

There is a more awesome variety of ethnic foods here that wouldn’t be found in America and such foods can be bought in supermarkets.

There are way less people.

Public healthcare. Sure, every system its flaws but I think it’s awesome after not having very good luck with America’s healthcare system.

People are “forced” to recycle because you have to pay to get your garbage picked up but you don’t have to pay for recycling so the less you need to pay to get picked up, the better.

I love that these is less traffic even though I have had to get used to driving on the other side of the road. I also like that people have less road rage – or none at all, really.

Small mom and pop shops around town that aren’t driven out by huge businesses yet. They’re getting rarer and rarer in America these days. All the coffee shops driven out by Starbucks. No more bookshops because there are Barnes and Nobles. The list goes on. Here, there are plenty of little shops all over the place of all different kinds! I love it!

I like hanging up my laundry.

I can actually see the stars.

I love all the awesome birds, especially wekas.

MEAT PIES.

Besides looking like cute little faces and being interesting because they are just a novelty to me, they have one other feature that I really like. Most NZ outlets have a switch right on them to turn the power on or off. It further saves electricity because it directly shuts off the electricity to the outlet entirely. It’s such a genius idea. It’s so simple and yet it’s something I’ve never seen before. You can save so much power by flicking the switch off when you’re not using the outlet so the outlet doesn’t draw any power at all.

I had to admit it took me some getting used to since I just usually plug things in and then pull them out again and that’s that but now it’s always a two step deal – plug it in and flick a switch or unplug and flick a switch.

The other thing that takes getting used to?
Up is off and down is on on all switches here!

I try to think I’m doing my part reducing my usage and recycling (Josh and I set up a recycling system here) and reducing my carbon footprint. Even little things like flicking switches on your outlets can add up if everyone does it.

All day, I tried to think of things I was thankful for. I made a huge list inside my head and every time I got sidetracked feeling sorry for myself being so far away from my family on Thanksgiving, I went back to my list. I didn’t even know I could think of so many things that I was grateful for. It really helped me get through the day. Josh was really good to me too. At first I got all emotional and upset at him because I thought he forgot about Thanksgiving but he went behind my back trying to plan all these big surprises for me. Then I felt pretty awful for just assuming he was ignoring me or being forgetful about Thanksgiving. I guess we’re all human sometimes, aren’t we?

This week I am suffering for it. Even after only one week off my body is having trouble keeping up. Only a few days into the week and I feel like I could sleep for another week straight. I’m going to bed early so I can at least sleep for as many hours straight as I can.

When I start my new job, I’m going to make sure that I stay active. I want to save up and buy myself a bicycle so that I can keep up my love for cycling and spinning. The town also has a gym that has spin classes that I plan to look into. Some of the teachers also play team sports like volleyball. That would be fun, too.

For now, the only thing I want to think about is sleep. I bet I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.

How do you stay active?
How many hours do you sleep each night?