Twelfth Week: The Final Week in Nelson

Monday: This week I’m going to have two days morning-lessons with Eleanor and three days with James because Dillwyn has another class this week. After school I talked a long time with Hanna in a little café in Nelson about our special relationship and I felt that we are very good friends. I really admire her and think she’s a great person, she made me very happy. I arrived at home at half past six, just when Jude was ready with tea. After dinner I felt very tired and decided to go to bed early, even before eight o’clock. Later I woke up and wrote the diary for the last week, which took me hours.
Tuesday: Today I wanted to plan my travelling. But unfortunately the lady who is responsible for itinerary planning wasn’t in the Nelson Tourist Office today and I was told to come back the next day. When I practiced with my instrument, Hanna wrote me a text-message and I decided to call her to answer her question. The call took longer than I thought. Because I told Hanna that I had been practising and she likes music I played some songs on my tenor horn for her while phoning. Then I decided to invite her for dinner for Wednesday to play for her. Jude agreed with that.
Wednesday: After two days with Eleanor my teacher was school-owner James today. He told me details about the flood at school that occurred the last Friday (I didn’t hear anything about it, because I wasn’t there.) Unfortunately he was very busy and I felt that he did two jobs at the same time. I didn’t mind, because it was only for two more days. Eventually I was able to plan my four-week New-Zealand trip in the Nelson Tourist Office. I took me a bit more than one hour to discuss all the options I had for my travelling. After having planned my travelling, I went to the car rental company to book a car, because I now knew when to pick it up and when to drop it off. Because I hire the car for more than ten days, an Inter Islander Ferry ticket is included for free, so I can pick the car up in Nelson and drop it off in Auckland, with no additional costs. (The Inter Islander Ferry would cost about 180 $ for a car!). Today Hanna came to my home-stay for dinner. After dinner I played a pretty long time for her and showed her all my sheet music. She was very interested and I enjoyed being with her for the evening.
Thursday: Katja from the Nelson Tourism Office told me to get my travel itinerary already today, because she finished all the bookings and had another customer tomorrow. That was great: She had booked all the accommodations and tours for me for free, and I didn’t have to do anything. I was only at home for a short time, because Liz had asked me for a last brass lesson. One last time I helped her to improve her skills. She was thankful for that and gave me a present. I was happy, because it was also a good experience for me to give tuition, especially because it was in English. Once again there were only few people in the brass band rehearsal, although it was the last practice before the Blessing of the Fleet on Saturday. After the rehearsal, Christoph and I went to the pub to catch up with other students form the English school. I had a great evening and it was half past two when I finally went to bed.
Friday: For my last day at the language school, James gave me some information about the Maori culture. That was very interesting. In the break time it was time for me to say good bye officially. I got a certificate for twelve weeks of school attendance and had a short speech about my time here. After the break, I watched a movie about Maori culture called Whale Rider. I can recommend this movie for everybody who’s interested in cultural problems showed by this myth about a Maori tribe. Dillwyn helped me to correct my diary at lunchtime, even though he wasn’t my teacher this week. Although we worked on it for about one hour, we didn’t finish it off. Then I had a cooking class with Sarah. She, who has ancestors in the Ukraine, showed us how to prepare a traditional Ukrainian meal called Varenyky. I took a long time to prepare all the little bits, but it smelled very nice. Sarah told us, that Ukrainian people usually prepare this food the day before Christmas, and that they drink Vodka during the long procedure. It was already four o’clock, when we finished the meal. I went to town to buy a little present for today’s Christmas party. After that, school looked very different. There was Christmas décor everywhere and at five o’clock the party begun. The free drinks at the bar, mixed mainly by Sarah, were delicious and the mood great. After some time, Father Christmas came, to give all the nice children a present. That was good fun and already my second Christmas party this year. After the party I went to salsa-teacher Catherine’s house, where she organised another social dance night. I only stayed there a short time, because Hanna and Christoph were in the Royal Hotel and I wanted to catch up with them. Unfortunately Hanna wasn’t in the pub when I got there because she had been too tired, so Christoph and I went home soon. On the way home I passed by Hanna’s home-stay and because I saw light in her room, I called her. She said she was tired, but didn’t want to go to bed yet and invited me for a hot chocolate. I had a long talk with her and it was half past one when I finally came home.
Saturday: Because it was pouring down very heavily, the Blessing of the Fleet was postponed for two weeks. That meant we didn’t have to play with the brass band. Hanna, who wanted to come and listen, was a bit disappointed. That’s why I decided to ask her, if she liked to go out for lunch with me. She agreed, so I went to her house at twelve o’clock. Though or as she said because it was a very wet day, she had knee-long trousers and sandals on, which looked very funny for mid-winter. She wouldn’t get wet like that, was her explanation. I deposed my Tenor horn and my uniform at the band-room and we met Christoph there. Together we were heading to the language school, were we caught up with Dominik, who had lunch with us as well. After a delicious meal in the Indian restaurant Mango, I had to do some shopping. The other three accompanied me and especially Hanna helped me to take decisions. I had to buy some stuff for my three day snow-shoe hiking trip and needed trousers for the upcoming ski-trip with Amanda. After shopping, Christoph and Dominik went home, but Hanna and me went to the band-room again, where we met the conductor Joel. David Todd, the band manager, caught up with us as well, to say goodbye to me and to give me a Nelson City Brass banner as a gift. Then Hanna and I went to Joel’s home. Because he was quite a good painter, I had asked him, if he could show me his pictures and he agreed that Hanna could come as well. We had a quite a good discussion about his pictures and about languages with him, his wife and his daughter. Besides being a professional musician and doing paintings, Joel has a fascination for languages. He speaks about eleven different languages and some of them, like Hungarian, Korean or Chinese, are rated the most difficult ones in the world. Hanna was naturally fascinated by his Korean. After that, it was about quarter past six, Joel drove us into town where Hanna and I decided to go to the cinema. Unfortunately the movie we wanted to watch started at ten past eight only so we looked for a restaurant for dinner first. “Get Smart” is a very funny movie and was exactly the right thing for us, after this dreary day. After the cinema, we went on to the pub, where a live band should play from about 11 o’clock. We were there earlier and played ping pong for about one hour. Then we enjoyed the band, though it was too loud for both of us and we soon decided to go home. Now it was time for me to say good bye to Hanna. This was very emotional and I really hope I can meet her again some day. She said she would come to Switzerland, but only after five or ten years. We both wonder, how the other changes in so many years time.
Sunday: I decided to go to church for the last time here in Nelson to say goodbye and also because I still owed somebody the recipe for my chocolate cake. After the church service, there was lunch at church, which I enjoyed very much. I talked to many people and they all wished me all the best for my travelling. And the lady I handed out the recipe said she will always be reminded of me, when she bakes this cake. Back home I started to sort out all the rubbish from my room, and prepared stuff for my travelling. I had a few things to prepare and was happy to have this day for it. First I wanted to leave on Sunday morning, but now I’m glad I have a bit more time and a last chance to relax before my four busy travelling weeks.