Homeward Bound :(

Finally left Brigantine at noon today.  Very mixed emotions to be honest as this has been an amazing trip for me.  I now have the long journey of heading home.

I leave Brigantine at 1.30 and catch a train to New York which will arrive around 4.30.  After this, I need to stay in New York for the night and then go to JFK airport tomorrow morning for my flight to Hawaii which leaves at 10am. This is approximately a 13hr flight.  When I arrive in Hawaii, it will be 10am (local time).  I have one night here and then fly out the following day at 3pm to Auckland.  This is an 8.5hr journey and when I arrive in Auckland, it will be 10pm (local time). Finally, I get a plane from Auckland on Sunday morning at 8am and arrive in Nelson at 10am just in time for Mothers Day :).

I am so looking forward to seeing you all on Monday - I may have matchsticks holding my eyelids open but I have so much to tell you all :)))))

Below are some photos of Philadelphia train station, its pretty impressive inside

Final Day :(

This morning was my chance to walk around the school and speak to teachers about how they teach their curriculum.  Did you know that twice a year, all pupils have 4 days of solid testing to do ?!  This is taking place this week for some classes in the school.  They are called State Tests and every child in the state completes the same test.  These are for children of all ages......how would you feel about completing 2 long tests each day for 4 days??????

One thing that I have found interesting about Teri's school is that everything is indoors.  There is artificial lighting throughout the school and the pupils only go outside for their breaks - and these aren't as long as yours!!  I have found the kids to be so courteous here, they are so open to me coming in and talking with them.  The teachers are really special also.

As a rule, most classes above 8yrs of age line their pupils up in desks rather than grouping them.  In the classes that I have been in, the children are listening intently to their teacher.  It really is lovely to watch.

I have passed your letters onto 3 groups of pupils ranging in age from 8 to 16.  They are all really keen to write back so hopefully we'll get a response.

Brigantine Elementary School

For the last 3 days, I've been in Teri's school.  This has been an AMAZING experience for me.  Due to the fact that I've been skyping Teri for 4 years now, there is a very large population of students in the school that know me.  

On day 1, I spent the whole day giving a presentation to a variety of classes ranging from 5yr olds to 8yr olds.  I showed them a movie which my  Room 5 pupils made and also a movie that I created about our school.  Everyone was very excited about our climbing wall:)

On the 2nd day, I had the opportunity to visit the classrooms of other teachers in the school.  It was really interesting - there are many things that are the same as us but there are also a lot of things that are different too.  In each class that I visited, the children were really curious to find even more information about NZ.  Popular questions were:

What time is it right now?

What is your weather like?

What time does your school day start/finish?

Do you have any dangerous animals?

Finally on the 3rd day, I presented a powerpoint to the teachers informing them about life in NZ and in particular our NZ Curriulum.  I think we may be getting an influx of American teachers in the future.....

Look who we found!

Yet another highlight of this trip - look who we found today - SANTA!!!!!

He told us that he has LOTS of brothers, thats why you may see a few variations of the big fella.  He said that he likes people to guess who is the 'real' one.  There were 3 there today - can you guess which one is the 'real

Santa'?

Williamsburg

After leaving Washington, we were supposed to travel 2.5hrs South to Williamsburg.  Unfortunately, the traffic on the motorway was very bad and the journey took us a over 4hrs.  Tired, but happy to be there, we checked into our hotel.

Williamsburg is an extraordinary town.  It is a real life town and people live there as normal but the exception is that a large chunk of the town itself has been designed as a historic village and is set in the late 1700's the same time as the revolution and declaration of Independence.

We were taken back in time to see how people lived, tasted the foods they ate and viewed the clothes they wore.  We went into many houses and were told stories of events that happened during the uprising of the revolution.

Transport during this time was by way of horse and cart/carriage.  We had such an amazing time  during our trip to Williamsburg, we have had so much fun on our road trip and I think our ribs have been exercised well with all the laughing that we have done:)

Presently, it is 8.30 on Sunday morning.  We left our hotel this morning at 5am for a long car ride to Philadelphia.  Teri's daughters, Maddy and Abby are rowers and they have a very important competition at lunchtime today.  It is going to take us approximately 6hrs to get there but it should be a very exciting race.  When the race is over, we will be driving back to Brigantine which will be approx 1.5hrs away.  This is the same time as when we are planning to Skype you all, so if we looked pretty jaded, you'll know why.  I'm so looking forward to catching up with you all this morning.  See you soon xxx

Washinton D.C.

'Thelma and Louise' are now on 'the road'!!!!! - You may need to ask your parents about that one:)

We have 2 days in Washington and Teri is determined to show me as much as she possibly can.  Washington is the capital city of America so it's a pretty important place.  Washington is 3.5 hrs drive from Brigantine.

Today, we bought tickets for a hop on hop off open air trolley (bus) which took us past the main points of interest in this fabulous city.  We 'hopped off' to see the Capitol building and the Washington monument.  The Capitol building is were the government was formed. We stopped at the White House, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, Fords Theatre and National Cathedral.  Fords Theatre is a prominent place as this is where President Lincoln was assinated.  We also drove past the National Archives, Smithsonian Postal Museum, Supreme Court, Botanical Gardens, Holocaust Memorial Museum, Martin Luther King Memorial and beautiful Georgetown.

Tomorrow, we will be going to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and the Museum of the American Indian. I will definitely upload some pictures when I get a chance.

Week 2 - back to New York

It took 7 hrs to fly back from Belfast to New York - why do you think it took longer on the way back???   I encountered my first problem on this leg of the trip.  While sitting in Belfast, waiting for the plane to take off, the Captain realised that paper work for the plane to enter the States had not been filled out and we were not permitted to leave.  After a 2hr wait sitting on the runway, we were finally able to fly. The problem with this delay was that my connecting train to see Teri in new Jersey had already left upon my arrival.

Teri was panicking as she couldn't get in touch with me.  after asking someone on the train if I could borrow their phone, I finally made contact with her. We quickly worked out that I was able to get to her home town although it would be at least 10pm before I got there.   I didn't mind to be honest, I was just so excited about meeting her.  when my train pulled up in Philadelphia, I hopped off expecting to find my next connection and who was there? Teri and her husband Doug. I can now relate to how my Mum was a feeling when she saw me standing in her hallway!  The feeling of actually being able to hug her after 4 years of talking to each on Skype was great.  I just knew that we were going to get on great.

Ireland here I come!

After having a great 3 days in New York, it was now time for me to enjoy some 'personal time' while on this trip - in Ireland with my family. I haven't been home to Ireland for 3years now and no members of my family have been able to come out to NZ so it was pretty special having the opportunity to see everyone again.  The flight from New York to Belfast, Northern Ireland felt relatively short - just 6hrs.  Maybe it was the excitement of seeing everyone again that made it go so fast?

It was  a complete surprise for my Mum and niece as everyone had kept my arrival a secret from them.  My mum was so utterly shocked when she saw me standing in her hallway that at first, she had no idea who I was!

While in Ireland, we went to a new museum in Belfast that is dedicated to the making of the Titanic.  Did you know that this magnificence ship was made in Belfast, Northern Ireland? It was an amazing museum - I will upload some pictures shortly.

After an amazing 4 days at 'home' it was time to leave.  It was a really sad morning as I don't know when I will get to see any of my family again :(

Below is my Mum, Dad, Sister and Brother :)