Shopping - Open Air Night Market

Hey Hey

Time if flying past in hours and in days, only one more week before we head home.  Far out time has speed by!

Yesterday we taught in the morning and worked with our groups on the content of the proposal which was due later that day.  Before we knew it we had been told that Tony Gray the CEO of NMIT was arriving at 11am and our class was to head to the meeting hall at 10.30 for his arrival. We knew that Tony was going to be at the College but we didn’t know what was planned. 

At 10.30am we walked into this hall with our class to find a big banner that said something like… Welcome to President Tony Gray from NMIT.  There was also another banner at the front of the school that said Welcome to Tony Gray and the NMIT Delegation.  Ash and I decided that ‘and delegation’ must be for us!

Tony arrived and gave the students the chance to ask questions about life in New Zealand and student life at NMIT.  Then they decided it would be a good idea to get Ashleigh and I up from the front row to answer questions.  Well this was a good idea and I didn’t have a problem with it however the questions we got asked were very hard to answer. The first was… how much does it cost to get laser eye surgery in New Zealand?  The second was along the lines of how do international students meet kiwi students. Aside from interaction with the students in our classes I do not know the procedures or systems that are in place to care for this student. I know they exist and we have them but I don’t know what they are.

After this the Tony and the party accompanying him left to go to lunch while Ashleigh, Steve and I were hosted by Lisa and Nissy members of the student communist party.  I think they are involved in a student council as such but heck they know what is happening more than we do sometimes!

We ate locus which was yum, prawns, we left the duck and of course  ate rice.  We also had this dessert thing that was made of egg, milk, wine and it also had some coloured sprinkles in it... kinda freaky lol. But I made a promise to myself that I would try everything at least once.

Follow this we came home and worked on our research before heading to the mall.  I brought a long sleeve top / dress thing, a singlet and a pair of long tights for $20NZD.  We then got the reports printed, ate dinner and then sat down in our apartment to start marking them.  There were 10 proposals all about 10 pages long. John marked and Ashleigh and I went through and wrote feedback sheets for each team. We finished about 11.30pm and jumped into bed for a much needed sleep.

Today was similar in that we headed to class and worked with the groups for the first two hours. Returning proposals, discussing feedback and overseeing team meetings. All those that handed in their proposals past!  After lunch we returned to class to answer any questions for one hour before heading back to the apartments for nana naps J

At 5.30pm we headed into the city on the B1 bus – it cost 60c NZ for a 45min bus ride into town. We then sussed out the sports bar in which we are going to watch the All Blacks winning game on Sunday before heading to the open air Night Market. 

The night market was full of people but awesome!  I brought a bag, wallet, three perfumes, three pairs of socks, a key ring for my dear friend Michelle, a gift for Sarah and a birthday present for my beautiful friend Renee Christieson.  All l for about $80NZD.  I now have lots of bags and lots of clothes and presents to bring home!  Just as well I didn’t bring lots of clothes over!

That’s all for now folks, love to you all

Lucy xx

HIGHLIGHTS:

Shopping in the night markets

Seeing the faces of students when they understand a concept and when they get good marks

Subway for dinner! Ye-ah!

LOWLIGHTS:

We are all feeling a bit sick; I have ordered Ashleigh to stay home tomorrow as she has a cold. John and I will teach instead. No problem we just don’t want her to get so sick she doesn’t enjoy the rest of the trip.  I think the shopping tonight helped.

I am also being bitten by mosquitoes... I think when I am sleeping at night. So tonight I am wearing tights to bed and have sprayed my room with fly spray... if its not cockroaches it’s something else!  Thankfully we haven’t found any more!

INTERESTING:

John was wiping down the chalkboard after he had written on it (at the end of class).  A student that was still in the class room came up to John and insisted that he stop cleaning the board as its wasn’t his job and that there was stuff to do that.  Each time we return to the class after lunch the classroom has been cleaned and the board is clear.

Quiet often we will either Ashleigh or I will here ‘Dam it’ coming from the bathroom.  We keep forgetting that you cant clean your teeth with the water from the tap.