Eighth week

Monday: I came home early after school today and had a lot of time to do my homework and went over some new vocabulary.
Tuesday: Today I phoned the Emirates Airlines for the second time. They hadn’t heard back yet from Zurich, whether I’m able to change my ticket to a higher class, which would be required to fly back to Switzerland later than I had intended originally. Once again they promised to call me back as soon as they have a reply from Zurich.
Wednesday: Yoga class this afternoon was a bit easier than the week before. This week I didn’t feel terrible afterwards, actually I felt even a little better than before. Arriving at my home-stay I found a parcel from Switzerland waiting for me. Mum had sent it for my birthday and it seems that it had been faster than she expected, though my birthday was ten days away. I sent her an E-mail to ask if I could open it now to store the cheese in the fridge. I had asked her for cheese and I was sure there was some of it inside because of the letter from customs. After tea Ingrid form the church’s youth group picked me up and I joined the party to discuss a section of the Bible. In the car I had a heartfelt discussion with Ingrid about our different beliefs. Not only good practice for my English, but also an interesting exchange of points of views.
Thursday: I went home straight after school, without even going to salsa class. I cooked myself some pasta and was ready to leave for Blenheim at quarter past four. As things turned out, I needn’t have rushed, because Adrian, a friend from the Brass Band, was late. He had to wait for Nathan, another member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force Band. Right, I forgot to tell you: The reason I was heading to Blenheim was the RNZAF-Band rehearsal. If you are a frequent reader of my blog you probably know that I was invited to the Band by Hannah at the brass band competition weekend. Because Adrian was in the Band as well, it wasn’t hard to get there, since he could give me a lift. It was a long way for what was not even two hours of practice all the same. Back home at nine o’clock I still had to do my homework!
Friday: This afternoon I had to be at the Visitors Centre, a five minute walk from school, at three o’clock. Jude was going to pick me up and we went to Ashley’s school, where the midwinter Christmas dinner took place this evening. Jude was kind of organiser of the event and I was helping her together with Ashley prepare for the event. We arranged about 50 chairs for the number of people anticipated and decked the hall with garlands and a Christmas tree. But because it’s a school there were also a lot of pictures of New Zealand and other information for me to look at. During dinner I had several interesting conversations and thanks to the fact that everybody prepared and brought something, an incredible variety of food. I was so full that I had to wait a bit before dessert. Naturally there was the same big choice and I had to try a bit of everything. When we finally came home, I found another letter waiting for me. It was from my godfather Christoph Baur who enclosed a bar of chocolate and all the best wishes for my birthday.
Saturday: In the morning I went to town to take a DVD back to where I had rented it. After that I went exploring the city a bit more. I went to the Saturday Market which is held in a car park and visited the Anglican Church, the town’s landmark. Close to the church I found the Jens Hansen gold and silversmith, where the original “Lord Of The Rings” ring had been made. Now I almost had to hurry to get home, because I was going to a paintball match in the afternoon. Once again Ingrid picked me up and finally there were about 40 people from Nelson, divided into two teams enjoying the fight with colour bullets in the Happy Valley. Unfortunately the games, which were “capture the flag” and “blow up the opponent’s base”, took longer than expected and in the end it was too late to go with my home-stay family to Ralph’s daughter’s place for dinner. So I just had a barbeque with some of the people from church. Home alone, I enjoyed watching a movie and having my peace and quiet.
Sunday: It was the first really bad day in terms of weather since I had arrived in New Zealand. A storm had been blowing all night and the severe rain went on all morning. But that didn’t matter, because I was learning and watching movies and because of the weather I had no reason to do anything else.