tweaks in the fabric

so we are getting into the life is normal here in new zealand phase...where our rhythm of life here resembles that of what we had in maine-school and the daily uniform are routine, kids have some activities like trombone and piano lessons for kogen, alex is on a hiking trip, and mia has spelling tests on fridays and made a friend.   paul's work is interesting to him, and flexible in scheduling to give him time to run (he is doing a 14k in march and a marathon in june) and i have blessedly found a wonderful yoga studio for practice.   still, there are little tweaks in the fabric of the daily flow that stand up to say "hey you are in NZ folks!"  like the 'mates' alex has made at school asking him to say fish and chips and also if he is a redskin-really??  kogen gets asked if we see famous people all the time-well, i think of many of my south berwickers as famous, there are lots of singers, writers, chefs, artists, comedians, cartoonists, movie makers who i see on a regular basis at home but i don't think that is what the kiwi kids mean!

 i attended an assembly at the kids' school last week, something i love to do at home to see the whole school community share what makes them special.  as the students filed in i saw so many nationalities even though everyone wore the same uniform, so much diversity!  the principal welcomed us all in maori and the kids answered back then stood to sing the NZ national anthem, which is one verse in maori and then in english.  unlike our US version it is actually easy to sing-even in another language!  two girls up on the stage introduced themselves as the heads of their houses (like hogwarts!) and the principal announced the house points!  i do have to tangent here and say thank goodness for all of us reading harry potter: so many words that could have been foreign (torch=flashlight, prefect=rule enforcer, boot=trunk,trainers=sneakers) to us were already second nature to us!  the whole school also sang lion sleeps tonight and some pop song i recognized but could not tell you now what it was...it will haunt me tonight at 3AM.  we learned the maori name for the school 'Te Kori Hereora' is a nod to the early settlers looking to a sacred stand of tall cabbage trees "kouka" that they used as a compass on the flat plains.   activities at the school border on the familiar: chorus, band, PE, library and the new:cricket played at recess, touch rugby, surfing lessons at the beach!  the first days of school brought familiar jitters of excitement and the onslaught of papers to be filled by me!  all three kids walk to school; alex 2k one way down the road, kogen and mia 1k the other.  we have all discovered that cars rule the road here, walkers have absolutely no rights, even in a crosswalk.  bikers have slightly more visibility with lanes on most roads.  to tell the truth it is a relief as a new driver to the left side to not have to worry about the peripheral walker, the cars, arrows, roundabouts and stripes on the road are enough for me.

i joined in a rehearsal/new member night of a chorus here.  it is another one of the constants in my world, singing with joanne connolly for the past 15 years, and interestingly enough, she did not make the trip to NZ to direct me here.  this chorus has directors for all the different aspects of its scope: one for leading warmup dances that felt like my old zumba class, a director who tests everyones voice twice a year, a choreographer, a singing warmups director, and then finally, larger than life a lovely woman virginia who commands a room like no other-i learned so much about diction,breath, movement...my mind was full and this chorus means business!  their main goal each year is to compete on local  and international levels and they sweep the awards.  did i mention it was a barbershop chorus, and little did i know the extent of the sweet adelades!!  i left at the end of the night having experienced my strongest earthquake yet, learned 2 songs i would have to audition with and gotten hugs and such extreme warmth from every single person i met, but my heart just did not think it was the right fit for me, the commitment they were looking for a bit out of my reach.

folks here think six months such a small period of time for us to be here, but we will continue to live each day fully and embrace this experience, noticing the familiar and the extraordinary with eyes open.  thanks for reading!